Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) (26 page)

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Authors: Mike Resnick

BOOK: Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3)
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“He says he’s staying as long as the
Red Sphinx
isn’t going to be in direct conflict with the
Teddy R
.”
“Okay,” said Cole. “That day is probably coming, but it’s not here yet. Be very careful, Luthor; I don’t think Val will take kindly to your leaving her ship.”
“Log off, Luthor,” said a familiar female voice. He did so, and Val’s image appeared.
“You look a little more sober today,” noted Cole.
“I am. I woke up sick as a dog, but I got rid of my last couple of meals, which were mostly alcohol anyway, and I’m feeling better. Weaker, but better.”
“So what’s the purpose of this conversation?” asked Cole.
“Just to tell you that Chadwick can leave any time he wants,” she said. “The same goes for Bull. They were serving on the
Teddy R
and I appropriated them for the
Red Sphinx
. They’re welcome to go back. But the rest of the crew never served under you. They stay—including Perez.”
“Fair enough.”
“And Bull says that as long as we’re not fighting the
Teddy R
, he’s willing to stay with me.”
“Yeah, Luthor told me.”
“God, I feel awful!”
“You served under me too, Val,” said Cole. “If Luthor and Bull can come back, so can you.”
“I can’t, Wilson,” she said. “I gave my word to Csonti.”
“Let him sue you.”
She smiled at the thought of the warlord suing the pirate. “I’ve got to see it through.”
“That’s up to you,” said Cole. “But don’t go after the ships that are about to leave the hospital. We’re getting the sick and wounded out of the line of fire.”
“I’ll see to it that no one harasses you,” she promised.
“Thanks.”
“Aren’t you going to wish me good luck?”
“Do you even know why you’re attacking Prometheus?” asked Cole.
“No.”
“When you know, and convince me that your actions are justified, then I’ll wish you luck.”
He broke the connection.
Forrice swirled into the mess hall a moment later.
“How’s it going?” asked Cole.
“So smoothly you’d swear they do it every week,” said the Molarian. “I pulled the landing party back. We were just in the way.”
“How are Sokolov and Moyer?”
“Sokolov’s back on board,” said Forrice. “He’s lost about twenty pounds, maybe a little more, but he seems reasonably healthy. No prosthetics that I could see.”
“And Moyer?”
“I don’t know. He’s got a lot of tubes running into and out of him, and he was sedated while they moved him.”
“He’s with one of the medical ships, not with us, right?” said Cole.
“That’s right.”
“Then I guess they can begin the attack in another two hours.”
“We’ll be on our way in ninety standard minutes, maybe a little sooner,” said Forrice. “I take it Val hasn’t changed her mind?”
Cole shook his head. “She didn’t stop Chadwick from leaving, though.”
“But she’s still coming with Csonti?”
“Yeah.”
“You know, Wilson,” said the Molarian, “if she sticks with him, it’s only a matter of time before we find ourselves facing her in battle.”
“The thought hasn’t escaped me,” said Cole grimly.
24
 
“Two more,” announced Forrice as Cole came onto the bridge a day after they had evacuated the hospital station.
“Damn!” said Cole. “What’s the total now?”
“Seven dead so far. The move was hard on the patients. It still is.”
“What about the hospital on Clementis VI?” said Cole. “Any word from it?”
“They’re short of supplies, they’re short of help, and they’re full.”
“Jack-in-the-Box, what are the next three closest colonized worlds?”
Jaxtaboxl studied his computer. “Ramanos, Braechea II, and New Gabon, sir.”
“Rachel?” said Cole. “What kind of hospital facilities have they got?”
“Checking, sir,” replied Rachel Marcos. “Ramanos is a mining world, population two hundred eighty-six, no medical facility. Braechea II was colonized by the Canphor Twins and refuses to treat Men or any of Man’s allies.” She studied the holoscreens that had popped up in front of her. “New Gabon doesn’t claim to specialize, and treats all species . . .”
“Great!” said Cole. “That’s where we’re going.”
“. . . but they’re totally full,” continued Rachel. “There is a minimum of a twelve-day wait for a bed.”
“Goddammit, we can’t wait for twelve days!” growled Cole. “Not at the rate they’re dying.” He lowered his head in thought. “I’ve been looking at this all wrong. They’ve got their entire medical staff on the ships; all we need is a hospital.”
“I have a feeling that’s not going to be enough, Wilson,” said Forrice. “We’ll need a world that can supply the proper medications, and the proper power for the various life-support machines the ships are carrying.”
“How hard can it be?” asked Jaxtaboxl.
“You heard the report from New Gabon,” said the Molarian. “What good is having medics and doctors if we can’t get our people into a hospital?”
“As long as we have the medics and the machines, how about taking over a hotel?” suggested Jaxtaboxl.
“That’s fine if everyone’s stabilized,” said Cole. “But what if we need an operating theater—or three operating theaters at once?” He muttered a curse. “That’s the problem with colony worlds. They just don’t have the populations to support a huge medical industry. They lack beds, they lack hospitals, they import all their drugs from the Republic—”
“Only their legal ones,” put in Jaxtaboxl.
“Sir?” said Rachel, who was operating the communications system. “Another message from the
Portmanteau
.”
“That’s one of the hospital’s ships, right?” said Cole.
She nodded. “They need a sophisticated medical facility in the next thirty hours, or they’re going to lose another five patients, possibly six. They need to perform surgical procedures that require stationary equipment that they left behind . . .” She continued listening. “ . . . And one of them, a Lodinite, seems to be slipping away for no reason that they can determine.”
“Maybe we should ask how many are going to survive,” said Cole. He paused, lost in thought. “You know, if the shooting’s over, maybe we can get permission from whoever won to bring them back to the hospital station.”
“I’ll check, sir,” said Jaxtaboxl. A moment later he looked up. “The battle is over. I have no idea who won, but I know who lost. The station no longer exists.”
“Great!” muttered Cole disgustedly. “Just great!” Another pause. “Jack-in-the-Box, are we close to any of the larger Inner Frontier worlds—Binder X, Roosevelt III, New Kenya, any of them?”
Jaxtaboxl checked his computer, uttered a few orders to it in a language only his machine could comprehend, and surveyed the results.
“Unless Wxakgini knows of some wormholes that aren’t listed here, we’re no closer than four days to any of them.”
Wxakgini confirmed that there were no wormhole shortcuts to the major Frontier planets in their immediate vicinity.
“Damn!” muttered Cole. “I feel responsible for this. I’m the one who told them to evacuate. For all I know, Csonti would have spared the hospital station if he’d known there were patients there.”
“You don’t really think so, do you?” said Forrice.
“No, of course not.”
“Then stop blaming yourself,” said the Molarian. “There’s nothing to be done. They’ll just have to make do until we can get to a major world out here.”
“We’re not going to give up and let them die that easily,” said Cole. “Jack-in-the-Box, what’s the closest Republic world with a major hospital?”
Jaxtaboxl put the question to the ship’s computer. “Meadowbrook, sir.”
“Pilot, how long will it take to get to Meadowbrook?”
“Approximately six hours,” answered Wxakgini. “We can reach the Chabon Wormhole in an hour. It will take two hours to traverse, and it lets us out just under three hours from Meadowbrook.”
“And the hospital can definitely handle us?”
“I can’t see why not. It looks like a small city, all by itself.”
Cole frowned. “Something’s wrong. Why would they build a facility like that on the edge of the Republic, so far from the major population centers?”
“Good question,” said Forrice.
“There’s one person on board who might know the answer,” said Cole. “Patch me through to Jacovic.”
“Yes, Captain?” said Jacovic’s image a moment later.
“What do you know about a Republic planet called Meadowbrook?” asked Cole.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Jack-in-the-Box, transmit a holograph of that sector of the Republic to Jacovic, and highlight Meadowbrook.”
“Done, sir.”
“Ah!” said Jacovic. “I see. Meadowbrook is not only on the edge of the Frontier, but it’s in the sector where your Admiral Kobrinski has recently engaged the Third Teroni Fleet.”
“The Teroni Fleet has moved that far into the Republic?”
“You’ve been away for almost two years, Captain Cole.”
“Thank you, Jacovic. You told me what I need to know.”
He signaled Rachel to break the connection. “Obviously it’s a military hospital,” said Cole. “It’s probably just a year or two old. Rachel, inform the senior officers that I’m holding a meeting in my office in twenty minutes. Attendance is mandatory—and make sure the four other captains and Bertha Salinas tie in holographically.”
“Christine Mboya is sleeping, sir,” said Rachel.
“Then wake her. Also, have Idena Mueller and Braxite take one of the shuttles to the hospital ship that’s carrying Moyer, and bring him back to the infirmary. If Moyer’s tied in to a machine, bring it along. If he’s got to have a medic in constant attendance, bring the medic too. Whatever we do with the other patients, we can’t leave Moyer on a Republic world. Even if they saved him, he’d just be court-martialed and executed.” He raised his voice. “I assume you’re monitoring this, Sharon. I want you there too.”
“You don’t have to yell,” replied Sharon Blacksmith.
“It’s the easiest way to get your attention.”
“All right, I’ll be there.”
“Rachel, have we had any contact with Luthor Chadwick yet?” asked Cole.
“Not since we heard that he was leaving the
Red Sphinx
,” answered Rachel. “Actually, we don’t know for a fact that he’s left it yet. He might very well be waiting for the best opportunity.”
Cole shook his head impatiently. “Val gave Bull Pampas and him permission to leave.”
“Permission is one thing,” noted Forrice. “A ship is another.”
“Okay, you’ve got a point.”
Cole paced around restlessly for a couple of minutes, then went down to his office. Sharon arrived a moment later.
“Message from David Copperfield,” announced Rachel, just before the image of the elegantly clad alien popped into existence.
“Hi, David. How’s it going?”
“Steerforth, how can you possibly consider having a high-level meeting and not include me?”
“It’s a meeting that has nothing to do with selling our services, which is your bailiwick,” answered Cole. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“Everything about this ship is my concern,” answered Copperfield. “Steerforth, you can’t do this to me! You cut me to the quick.”
“Believe me, David, you’ve got nothing to bring to this particular discussion, and once I decide upon a course of action, you’ll be the first to know.”
“All right,” said Copperfield sullenly, his alien face coming as close as it could to a pout. “But I resent it, Steerforth. I resent it deeply.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, David,” said Cole, breaking the connection. “Rachel?”
“Yes, sir.”
“No more transmissions except from Bertha Salinas and the four captains until I say otherwise. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Cole sat down behind his desk and sighed deeply. “Who’d have thought they’d start dying like this?” he said at last. “I mean, hell, they’re surrounded by their own doctors, we moved all the machines to the ships, we brought along their medications . . .”
“
Healthy
people don’t handle stress too well,” replied Sharon, “and we’re stressing gravely ill people. And beings.”
“I know,” said Cole. “But we can’t let them just keep dying three and four a day. Hell, if they’re stressed and having trouble adjusting to the changes, they’re going to start dying in
greater
numbers, not less.”

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