"No," Nagamitsu said, "I will not execute you over a personal matter, but I will challenge you. This stain upon my family honor must be wiped out. The spirits of my daughter and my son-in-law must be given rest." He signaled, and K'Stin dropped a long sword at Izquierda's feet. "Wait outside," he told the Vivers.
Izquierda bent and picked up the sword. "I can't say much for your judgment, Admiral," he said. "You should never give a man a bare blade while your own is sheathed." He lunged. Kiril had never seen anything as fast as Nagamitsu's move in unsheathing his sword. She closed her eyes tightly for a second. When she opened them, the admiral was calmly cleaning his blade.
"This sword has been in my family for seven hundred years," he said. "This is foul blood to stain so noble a blade." When it was clean, he sheathed it in one smooth, graceful motion, without looking at the scabbard. He took her hand. "Come along, my dear. Let's go see what we can do about your ship."
Wearily, she let him lead her back outside.
13
Kirii studied Earth through the observation bubble. They were in a low orbit and the view was spectacular. She'd had a chance to go down to the home planet with a landing party, but she had backed out. The others had told her that Earth was no longer beautiful from close up, and in any case she had already half decided never to set foot off Space Angel again.
"Kiril," Nancy called, "come on down. Skipper's called a meeting." Most of the ship's personnel had been on the nearby dock station for a couple of days. They had been under orders to say nothing of what had occurred on and near the Dzuna planet until they received permission. She went through the navigator's room and down the corridor to the mess room.
"Everyone here?" the skipper asked. "Okay, here's the word we got: First of all, nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing happened back there except routine diplomatic negotiations. Apparently they got the Dzuna to agree to keep quiet, too. After all, nothing much happened to them. All records of the events on and near the planet have been put under hundred-year seal.
Any one of us or anybody else who was along on the expedition that talks out of line is guilty of treason."
Everybody began to talk at once. "It figures!" Torwald said. "They aren't going to let a little matter like this embarrass them."
"That's right," the skipper said. "The events out there uncovered widespread corruption in the government and the military. There's a housecleaning going on right now, orchestrated mainly by Nagamitsu and Pierce, but that's going to be kept quiet as well. Mustn't alarm the voters, you know."
"But surely they're going to break up Satsuma!" Michelle protested.
"Why?" asked the skipper. "Nothing happened, remember? In fact, I hear the government's going to pay for the repair of the damages their Supernova sustained in the regrettable accident in which Director Izquierda was so regrettably killed."
"All that good work gone to waste!" K'Stin said bitterly.
Bert turned to Kiril with a tired smile. "You see, Kiril, how wisely you chose in staying with a free freighter working at the fringes of human space?" She nodded.
"On the plus side, they've finally released our funds from the impounded diamond crystal cargo, with accumulated interest." There was prolonged cheering.
"We're rich!" Finn said.
"Not exactly," the skipper said. The cheering died down. "I've already sent Kelly his share, he's still aboard Probert's Black Comet." She turned to Kiril. "Kelly was the ship's boy on that trip." Kiril nodded. She'd heard all about it, over and over.
"The upshot is this: You all know the customs of free freighters. The truth is the Space Angel's a wreck. She needs a new thruster. She has to undergo a complete hull rebuilding to seal all the cracks and leaks. Half our instruments have to be replaced and all the internal bulkheads have been weakened. It means weeks in airdock even after we scrounge all the parts. Just finding that class of thruster and buying it will cost a fortune.
"Anybody who wants to leave the ship can collect his share and go. If you decide to stay, your share goes into the common fund to keep the ship alive. Once we're spaceworthy again, we'll have to refuel and reprovision. With luck we might just break even."
"She has to have the work," Torwald agreed. "If the Dzuna hadn't lifted us from that swamp and we hadn't come back in the hold of the TFCS, we never would've made it back at all. My share stays with the Angel."
"Anybody choose to leave?" She looked around. Nobody wanted to go. "That's it, then. Come on, people, we've got work to do."
Later Kiril found the skipper alone on the bridge. "Come on in," the skipper said. "You been giving it some thought?"
"Yes," Kiril said. "I've been talking with Bert. He's got to retire before long, and he wants me to apprentice with him. It sounds good to me."
The skipper nodded. "It's a good position. But keep in mind what I said about going to school to be a bridge officer. You're good material, kid. Don't let it go to waste."
"I'll think about it," she said. "But things have been coming at me too fast. I want to take it slow for a while."
The skipper grinned around her cigar. "That's smart, Kiril. You've got plenty of time. Maybe we all have." She slapped a bulkhead and it resounded solidly. "This old girl's got a lot of years left in her." She turned back to Kiril. "We've got about a ton of second-hand instruments coming in within the hour, and getting them in and stored is the cargo master's job. Get to work!"
Kiril dashed down the companionway and through the corridor toward the hold. Already she was planning where she would store the instruments.
John Maddox Roberts - Spacer: Window of Mind Page 20