Flagship (18 page)

"Someone told me you were here, Steerforth," said the little alien, "and that you looked troubled, so I thought I'd come and share my old friend's burdens."

"Hi, David," said Cole. "I was just about to pay you a visit in your room."

"You were?"

Cole nodded. "Yes, I was."

"What about?" asked David.

"How would you like to be the hero who helped win the war?" said Cole.

"You're teasing me, right?" said the alien nervously.

"Not this time, my old school chum."

"I'd hate it!" said David."

"But you'll do it for Crown and country."

"You're making my stomach hurt."

"David, if there was anyone else I could ask …"

"All right," said David unhappily. "But there had better be a knighthood for me in this."

"I'll speak to Queen Victoria," said Cole.

"You damned well better."

Cole sat down on a chair in the Platinum Duke's cabin. The Duke perched on the edge of the bed, and David Copperfield stood by the door, looking very unhappy.

"We'll go over this as often as necessary," Cole was saying, "though there's nothing very complicated about it."

"Hah!"
said David bitterly.

"I have no idea what you have in mind," said the Duke. "All I know is that a few hours ago I was leaving alone and you were both going back into the Republic, and now suddenly I'm part of a mission and David's coming with me."

"All the more reason to listen instead of talk," said Cole.

"Why are we talking in my cabin?" demanded the Duke. "Are you afraid there are saboteurs or turncoats on board?"

"No. I just thought David would be more comfortable if we didn't discuss this where everyone could hear it."

"Why aren't we in
his
cabin, then?"

"You wouldn't like it," said Cole. "All those doilies . . ."

"All right, talk," said the Duke.

"You'll be taking the shuttle down to Ngorongoro. David will come with you. Braxite's coming along too."

"Braxite?" repeated the Duke. "Why?"

"Because as far as the contact is concerned, you and David are going to stay on Singapore Station, and someone has to bring the ship back to Ngorongoro."

"My friend may want one of his own men to pilot it," said David.

"Try to talk him out of it. And if you can't, Braxite goes anyway."

"Again, why?" said the Duke.

"Because if David's contact absolutely insists on his own pilot, someone's going to have to make sure the ship stays at the station until David is done with his job and is ready to return. If Braxite has to incapacitate the pilot so that David can complete his mission, he will—and we'll pay the contact enough money when it's done to make it all right."

"Okay, so David and I are taken to Singapore Station. Now what?"

"Now you go back to running the place, unless you feel the Navy may start using you for target practice. If that's the case, then hide as best you can until David's ready to come back, and come with him."

"I don't even know what David's coming along for!" said the Duke in frustration. "How can I help him if I don't know what he's going to do?"

"He's doing a little infiltration and a little sabotage."

The Duke stared at David.
"Him?"
he said with a laugh.

"Him," said Cole.

"Me," said David, his voice breaking.

"We need something, and I think he has the best chance of getting it without immediate repercussions."

"And what is that?" asked the Duke.

"We need the name and registration number of a Class M Navy ship. We can't make it up. It has to be one that Deluros will recognize and acknowledge."

"You don't need David," said the Duke. "I can get that easy enough. Every ship that's docked has to use its name and registration."

"And you can check it?"

"If I want to," said the Duke. "I almost never do, but the mechanism's there."

"Can anyone on the station access this information?"

"No, only about half a dozen employees—though if you just want the name, go out on the docking arms and look. Navy ships are never shy about displaying their names in big bold letters."

"So only six or seven of you can access it," said Cole. "That implies you each have a code or a password."

"Yes."

"Different ones?"

"Yes, of course."

"That's why
you
can't get the information for us. You plan to stay on the station, and so do your employees. That puts you at risk. Do all the paperwork required to make David one of your employees, and give him his own password. Since he's leaving the station with the name and registration, it doesn't matter if they know
he
took it."

"Seems awfully complicated," muttered the Duke.

"I'm just trying to protect your ass," said Cole. "After what we do to the ship, the Navy's going to be out for blood. Now, if you'd rather it was your blood than David's . . ."

"When you put it that way . . ." said the Duke.

"I thought you might see reason," replied Cole with a smile.

"Why are they going to be out for blood?"

"Because David has volunteered to disable their ship."

The Duke looked at David again. "You?"

The little alien smiled a sickly smile.

"So he's going to blow up a ship right on my dock, and they're not going to blame
me?"

"He's not going to blow it up. That wouldn't serve our purpose."

"How can destroying a Class M ship not help your cause?" asked the Duke.

"If it's destroyed, it will be reported," said Cole, "and we don't want Deluros or anyone else to know that the ship they see isn't what it's supposed to be."

The Duke's eyes widened. "You're going to swipe the name and registration and give it to Lafferty's ship!"

"That's right."

"It may do some damage, but you can't bring the Republic down by attacking it with one misidentified ship, not even a Class M."

"We don't intend do," said Cole.

"Then what
do
you plan to do?"

"You'll stay healthier a lot longer if you don't know," said Cole. "Anyway, David is going to be instructed in the subtle art of sabotage by some of the best—Bujandi, Moyer, and of course Val—and then he's going to find a way to disable the ship, not permanently, but for three or four weeks. And he's going to make it look like some kind of malfunction, nothing to report or get alarmed about."

"And then what?"

"And then he's going to take the ship back to Ngorongoro, and we'll pick him up there in the shuttle and bring him back to the
Teddy R."

"And you really think he'll do it?"

Cole stood up, walked over to David, and placed a hand on the little alien's shoulder. "He risked his life for me once before, in your casino. Now he'll be risking it for a cause that's far more important than any single life."

"Including his own," said the Duke.

"Don't
say
that!" snapped David.

"So when do we go down to Ngorongoro?"

"Tomorrow," answered Cole. "David's still got to be instructed in the art of disabling a ship. And you could save a little time if you decide on a password with him on your way down to Ngorongoro."

"I've got a question," said the Duke.

"What is it?"

"What if there aren't any Class M ships docked at Singapore Station?"

"You're not going to like the answer," said Cole.

"Oh?" said the Duke apprehensively. "What
is
the answer?"

"You do whatever it takes to lure a Class M to the station."

Cole paced the ship like a caged animal. He was in a foul mood. When he spoke, he growled. When he slept, which was rarely, he awoke every hour. When he ate, he left half his food on the plate. He snapped at Jacovic, which he hadn't done since the Teroni had joined his crew. He actually had Christine in tears. Nothing intimidated Val, but she left him completely alone.

When he wasn't stalking through the ship he stayed in his office. Finally, after four days, Sharon went down to the office and entered it.

"Any word?" asked Cole anxiously.

"No, Wilson," she said. "And if there was, it would come to you from the bridge."

"I know," he said.

"How long are you going to be like this?"

"Until I find out what's happening on the station."

"You don't expect to hear for another two days," she said.

"I know."

"Then don't you think it's time you stopped behaving like this?"

"Damn it, Sharon—I shamed him into it! The little bastard's no more fit for sabotage that I'm fit to box or wrestle with Bull or Val. I had no business asking him to do it."

"Why don't you wait and see what happens before you mourn him?"

"There was no one else I could send," said Cole. "He's the only member of his race anyone's ever seen, and if they've been there before they know he spent time at the station. He's not at war with anyone, he's not allied with the Teronis, and if he's with the Duke and we're somewhere else, he's not part of the
Teddy R."

"I know. That's why he was the proper choice."

Cole shook his head. "He was shaking like a leaf when I walked him down to the shuttle."

"But he went," she noted. "And if he hadn't been willing to go to Singapore Station, someone on Ngorongoro would have contacted us and told us to come and get him."

"Do you know how well protected a Class M ship is?" said Cole. "Even Four Eyes would have said to forget it, and he was the best damned saboteur I ever knew."

"I don't know exactly what you have in mind, but I know you need that ID and registration, and I know you feel that the ship has to be incapacitated for a few weeks. This is war, and in war you sometimes have to take chances when all the odds are against it."

"I know all that," said Cole. "It doesn't make me feel any better. I took the most cowardly being I know, stuck him down in the middle of a war he has no part of, and sent him off on an impossible mission."

"He risked his life for you once before, when a would-be warlord had you at his mercy."

"That was different."

"How?"

"That was
his
decision," said Cole. "This was
mine."

Sharon grimaced in frustration. "You're going to be like this until you hear something, aren't you?"

"Probably."

"Then do yourself and your ship a big favor."

"What is it?"

"Stay in this damned office and don't talk to anyone," she said. "That way you won't have to spend all next week apologizing."

He stared at her and made no reply. She waited for a moment, then turned on her heel and left.

Cole took her advice. He no longer paced the ship. He had his meals delivered to his office, primarily so he could toss what he didn't want into the trash atomizer without anyone looking at him reproachfully or telling him to eat more. After two more days he decided that David had failed, the Duke hadn't had the courage to notify him, and he was no closer to carrying off his plan than he'd been a month ago.

He was just about to go down to the shuttle bay and take it to Ngorongoro where he would rent or buy a ship, find some way to disguise himself, and do what he felt he should have done in the first place, when Jacovic's voice broke the silence of his office:

"Captain Cole to the bridge, please."

"What's up?" he asked, leaving the office and heading to the airlift.

Sharon's voice broke in. "We have a hero who would like to report personally to you."

Cole ran the last few steps to the airlift, took it up to the bridge, and a moment later was confronting David Copperfield—who looked incredibly proud of himself and very little the worse for wear—in the flesh.

"I did it!" said the little alien. "Me, Steerforth! I did it!"

"I always knew you could," lied Cole. "Tell me about it."

"I had the name and the registration within three hours of arriving on the station," said David. "It was as easy as the Platinum Duke said it would be."

"And the rest?"

"I couldn't gain access to the ship," answered David. "It was too heavily guarded, so I wasn't able to do any of the things I learned from Mr. Moyer or Bujandi or Val." He paused. "But I'd had a feeling I might not be able to get onto the ship, so before I left the
Teddy R
I had Mr. Briggs prepare an undetectable virus that should eat away the memory of the navigational computer. He showed me how to transmit it in such a way that the Bdxeni pilot wouldn't be aware of it for at least three days. It also destroys just enough of the hardware so that the computer can't receive a transmission of the missing memory. This particular hardware will take at least two weeks to replace, including delivery time, and since it doesn't come from the same source as the computer code and memory, it will have to be installed before the memory can be transmitted."

Cole turned to Briggs. "You never told me about this."

"You never asked, sir," answered Briggs. "Besides, I assumed you had approved it."

"I wish I'd thought of it," admitted Cole.

"What do you want done with the ship's name and registration?" asked David, who clearly enjoyed being the center of admiring attention.

"Give them to Mr. Briggs, who will transmit them to Mr. Lafferty. How's the Duke doing?"

"He announced two full days of free drinks and meals for the Navy, and they're all friends again," answered David.

Cole looked at the little alien with an almost fatherly pride. "You did well, David."

"Thank you, Steerforth."

"Even Mr. Creakle would agree, however reluctantly."

David's chest puffed out.

"Who is Mr. Creakle?" asked Sharon.

"Our old headmaster," said Cole as David grinned happily.

Val came onto the bridge. "I heard you were back," she said to David. "Get the job done?"

"Yes," answered the alien.

"Good," she said, then turned to Cole. "So we're ready for the next phase of the war?"

"Absolutely," said Cole.

"When do we attack?" she asked.

"We don't attack."

She frowned. "What
do
we do?"

"Surrender," answered Cole.