Battle of the Ring (16 page)

Mayelna glanced up at her impatiently before turning back to the girl.
“Were you not aware that he was a Starwolf?”

“No, not until he killed the assassin. I knew that something was odd
about him from the start, but I was too busy wanting him to be a Trader who would
get me off-world.”

“Velmeran told me – briefly – of his exploits, although I
suspect that he deemphasized certain points where you were concerned. Did you
really believe that he would want you?”

“Oh, no!” Lenna insisted. “I’m not following after
him now. He has been a good friend, but I cannot pretend to love him, and he
has told me often enough that he has a mate of his own. I just wanted to see
this ship.”

“You surely knew that you could not avoid detection for long.”

“I never meant to. I just thought that if I could get on board, you
would have to keep me.”

“Oh?” Mayelna looked mildly surprised. “And do you have
any idea what we should do with you?”

“Well, there seems to be a number of options,” the girl replied.
“At the best, you might let me go along for the ride until you find a
good place to leave me – preferably a Trader. At the worst, you’ll
pitch me out the nearest airlock. But the way you’re building to speed, I
know that you’re not going to take me back where you found me.”

Mayelna actually chuckled. “You think you know us very well.”

“No, Commander,” Lenna said. “I know your reputation, and
I believe it. But I also know that it’s an act. You’re Starwolves
and I’m of Trader stock, and that makes us first cousins at least. But
that’s all that I can say in my defense. I knew that I was asking for
trouble.”

Mayelna regarded her, not unkindly, for a moment, then turned to Velmeran.
“Vel
aveyssa Jvayralkon tras ayressan?”

Velmeran shrugged.
“Val Jvayralkon aveyr. Aveyssa von len tresdon,
schayrkonarran, dverron aveyssa von thryverdaison aval, val laeron, faern
leivayrdhay Ireykon.”

Mayelna considered that a moment before looking at Valthyrra, who
nodded her camera in agreement. Consherra, for once, seemed to have no opinion
to offer. At that moment the Methryn made a smooth transition into starflight.

“Well, it seems that you are going along for the ride,” Mayelna
said at last. “Unfortunately, you picked a very bad time. We are in
something of a hurry and we need to make the best time we possibly can, so you
will have to sit there and take a few very high G’s. Consider that your
punishment. After that, Consherra will show you to your cabin and indicate the
areas of the ship you may visit. The Methryn really is not a warehouse of
secrets, so any place you are told not to go is for your safety. Remember also
that the deck plan of this ship looks like an explosion in a kite-string
factory.”

“Thank you, Commander.” Lenna sighed in relief.

“Just behave yourself, if it is... humanly possible. Velmeran.
Valthyrra. Shall we take a little walk?”

“Walk?” Valthyrra asked. “Walk? Who can walk?”

Mayelna sighed. “Just send one of your evil eyes to my cabin.”

Velmeran and the Commander descended the steps together, leaving Lenna to
stare in helpless astonishment. She felt a disturbing sense of unreality
as she sat pinned in her seat, gasping for breath under the burden of crushing
forces while everyone else walked about in complete ease. The Starwolves had
solved the problem of moving about under acceleration by adjusting the
ship’s artificial gravity one step ahead of the G’s of acceleration,
which would otherwise throw all loose objects toward the back of the ship.

“How did she get on board, anyway?” Velmeran asked as they made
their way from the bridge.

“How else?” Mayelna asked in return. “She presented
herself at a transport and asked to be brought to the ship. She looks enough
like us that she looks remarkably like a Kelvessa pretending to be human. She
told the pilot that she was Consherra – “

“Consherra?” Velmeran interrupted.

“Well, yes. I suspect that was the only name she knew to give. She
probably learned just enough general information from you to give the right
answers to a few questions. And there was a good measure of the old Kelvessan
gullibility. The transport pilot just assumed that no one but a Starwolf would
want aboard a Starwolf ship.”

“Gullibility?” Velmeran asked. “Such as how you not only
pardoned her but gave her the run of the ship?”

“Blarney, they used to call it,” Mayelna mused. “There
must have been more Irish settlers on that world than Scottish. Only an
Irishman can use the plain truth like she does the way other men lie. We have a
protective instinct, and she seems to have a talent for making the most of it.
I seem to recall that you threw someone through a wall to protect her.”

“I did it because he was a Union agent sent to harass the Kanians, and
because he pretended to be half Kelvessan,” Vel-meran said defensively.

“And then I should pardon someone who pretends to be a real Starwolf?”
Mayelna asked.

“It is a simple matter of intent. How did she give herself
away?”

“G’s.” She shrugged and turned the corner, only to find
herself face-to-face with one of Valthyrra’s remotes. She drew back.

“Hello,” Valthyrra said. “What is taking you so
long?”

“We were talking,” Mayelna said curtly, and turned back to,
Velmeran. “Where did you get that ridiculous idea of dressing up as a
human, anyway?”

“That was your suggestion,” he reminded her.

“Was it?” She paused a moment to reflect. “Well, even good
ideas can go wrong. As that may be, stowaways are the least of our worries
now.”

Mayelna herded the two ahead of her, down the side corridor and into her own
cabin. The door shut behind them, and it did not open again for several hours.

Lenna sank into the Commander’s seat like melting butter after half an
unrelenting hour of acceleration. Her system was, in fact, designed for this
type of stress, but it had been too long. Flying freight had not been enough to
prepare her for this. Consherra was there immediately with a drink, a
pill, and something to eat.

“Take this,” Consherra insisted, offering the pill and the
drink. “Our medic Dyenlerra wants to find out if it will kill you.”

Lenna paused in the act of taking the pill to look at it closely. “Is
this Starwolf medicine?”

“No, strictly for human consumption,” Consherra assured her.
“You might be our first uninvited guest, but we pluck humans out of
wrecks all the time. I also have bread and cheese.”

Lenna accepted the light meal and leaned back in the seat as she waited for
her strength to return. Consherra had remained at her side nearly the entire
time. Lenna could see now that she had been lucky to get away with pretending
to be this girl for as long as she had.

“If that was holding back, what kind of G’s do you people
normally take?” Lenna asked.

“In normal cruising, about the same,” Consherra explained.
“When we are in a real hurry, we still hold off at about forty-five. That
is about all we can take and still be able to move about easily. Emergency
accelerations are something quite different. The most I have ever known
was about one hundred and forty, and I was flying at the time.”

“Do you fly this ship often?” Lenna asked, rising unsteadily to
peer over the front of the Commander’s console at the helm station on the
middle bridge. “Are those manual controls retracted under the
central monitor?”

“Of course. You can fly this ship like an overgrown fighter. Valthyrra
flies herself for the most part, although I get to set runs from time to time.
But I hardly ever touch the manual controls. I really spend most of my time
assisting Mayelna and Velmeran in running this ship, not flying it.”

Lenna frowned. “I think that I would prefer a Trader, if you’ll
pardon my saying so. I’m more interested in flying than giving
orders.”

“I can understand that. How are you feeling?”

“Fairly good, actually,” she said, rising and stretching her
arms. “I am getting a bit cold, though. I’ve done some serious
sweating this morning, and not all of it from the G’s. You do keep this
place a bit cool.”

“Did you bring a change of clothes?”

“I did come prepared for a wee bit of a stay,” Lenna remarked
guardedly.

Consherra smiled. “If you are able, I will show you to your cabin now.
You can change and rest a bit there. I will come for you again when it is time
for you to eat, and then I will show you about the ship... before you take a
notion to wander off on your own.”

Lenna was shown to a cabin that she considered luxurious by the standards of
space travel. There was carpeting on the floor and real wood paneling on
portions of the wall, with a small kitchen and a regular bathroom. Her first
thought was for a shower, for she was eager for the feel of hot water on sore
joints and muscles as well as to rid herself of the heavy layer of makeup.
Valthyrra had prepared the room for her, turning the thermostat up as high as
it would go. But she had no desire to be wet and naked in an environment that
was now only slightly uncomfortable, and she had some doubts about what the Starwolves
would call hot water. But she did find that she could get water hot enough to
suit her, and letting it run with the door partly open steamed the small
bathroom to a bearable level. She did wonder what a shower was like in high
G’s. Apparently that was taken into consideration; the door shut and
locked so tightly that the shower needed special ventilation.

She really did not care to rest afterward, testimony to her ability to
recover quickly from such stresses, not to mention the fact that she was entirely
too excited. It was thrilling to think that she was alone in a ship full of
Starwolves – a community of Starwolves, as it were, and all her very own.
It was as well that she did not need to rest, for Consherra returned for her
soon after she was dressed.

“You do not look quite so Kelvessan as you did before,” she
said, pausing just inside the door to regard the girl closely.

“Makeup,” Lenna explained. “I know how to use it. It might
be that my eyes no longer seem quite as large.”

“That must be it,” Consherra agreed, although she did not sound
entirely certain. “I am glad that you have returned to native costume. It
is something of a treat, having an alien visitor on board. I especially
want to show you to the little ones. They have never seen a human
before.”

“These clothes were made for Kanis, where it’s mostly as cold as
it is here,” Lenna said. She had been looking at the Kelvessa nearly as
intently. Consherra had been in armor before, but now she wore white pants
and tunic that formed the quasi-uniform of a Starwolf officer. In a way she
looked far more alien now, since these clothes did not mask but emphasized
her alien features. More than anything, that second set of arms, which did not
appear so out of place with the heavy armor, now stood out prominently.

The first thing Lenna learned was that there was no division of night and
day on a Starwolf carrier, since Kelvessan did not sleep. As a result the meals
were not divided into breakfast, lunch, and the like, just three dinners a day.
Unfortunately, the dining hall was mostly empty; the last meal was only just
over, having been delayed until the Methryn was in starflight.

After that the tour began in earnest. Lenna saw everything of importance
from the cannons retracted into the shock bumper in the nose of the ship to the
fighter bays in the rear, with everything, including the cavernous holding
bays and the Methryn’s immense generators, in between. Her favorite part,
predictably, were the fighter bays, where every fighter had been brought down
to the decks to final servicing.

Lenna’s tour ended in the Methryn’s school complex. When she was
told that the first level consisted of ages from three months to three years,
she had envisioned infants. That was hardly the case. Young Kelvessan, even at only
three months, were perfect miniatures of the adults, long-limbed, wiry, and
strong, well able to walk, run, and talk. They were also, in Lenna’s
opinion, irresistibly cute.

There were only twenty-one students in this age group, fewer than she had
expected. She calculated that to be about one hundred and thirty children out
of a population of two thousand, a very small percentage, although, because of
their long life expectancy, it did represent a very modest population growth.
In this first level the young were taught reading, writing, and simple
mathematics, and an introduction to Terran, their second language. By the time
they ‘graduated’ at the age of eighteen, every Kelvessan had a
surprisingly broad and extensive education, and they had yet to receive
special training in their chosen fields.

Consherra left Lenna with the students, explaining that she did have duties
of her own to attend to, and departed with the instructions for where she could
be found during the next meal period. She managed to get lost navigating the
corridors on her own. But it was a simple matter to find a lift, and she set
the section and level coordinates that Consherra had given her.

“Late again, I see,” she remarked as she seated herself at the
large table where Consherra and Velmeran were seated with at least a dozen
Kelvessan she did not know.

“Treg, you were going back for more,” Velmeran said. “Will
you take Lenna up and help her find something to eat?”

“Right away, Captain,” Tregloran answered promptly.

“Do you have children’s plates?” Lenna asked as she
hurried after him. “I’ll be getting fat like this.”

Consherra smiled and shook her head slowly. “If she could take a few
more G’s, I would be tempted to keep her. She is entertaining.”

“Sure, and it must be her odd way of speaking,” Velmeran agreed.
“I cannot imagine what the Traders are going to do with her.”