The Bright Black Sea (121 page)

'It said not to worry, it could look after the ship,'
she replied, unperturbed. 'Nothing seems likely to happen out
there, and Botts assured me it could handle anything that might
happen.'

'Botts, yes, of course, but our legal AI Botts
II?'

'We came to an understanding. Seeing that you're
staying on and I'll likely be the
Starry Shore's
next
captain,' she said with a significant look. 'I gather it can
control Botts II from the Pela if necessary.'

'Ah, yes. Well, if Botts said it was safe...'

'I'm sure it is. We probably could've simply
abandoned the ship without Botts. But with Botts in charge, we
certainly didn't need anyone aboard. Plus everyone wanted to come
and have a chance to say goodbye, so I didn't feel like
choosing.'

'Right. I agree. I'm sure Botts would've talked me
into it as well,' I admitted, adding, 'But pass the word for
everyone to keep a low profile. I doubt anyone will notice we're
all here, but I'd rather not have to admit to Min or Vinden that we
left the ship in the charge of a gentleman's bot.'

'Don't worry, Captain, I have enough problem keeping
track of them myself. I think Riv, Sar and a few Cims have built
themselves a still somewhere. They're rarely seen when not on
watch...'

'A still?'

'Well, you know – engineers. The prospect of a new
type of exotic alcoholic beverage made from Pela ingredients is
simply an allure they can't resist, no matter how awful it'll turn
out.'

'All of which is against regulations, I
presume...'

'Not against ours. It's their free time,' she
replied, brightly. 'Of course if you want to report it as a member
of the Cimmadarian navy, that's your choice.'

'I haven't see a thing, Plus, I haven't been sworn in
yet.'

01

Molaye was directing a mixed gang of
Starry
Shore
and Cimmadarians who were carefully guiding the second
container held in a cat's cradle of lines towards the cavern's
mouth, while I stood on the upper hull of the
Raven
, in the
pale light of the Tenth Star, hands in my jacket's pockets, calmly
watching the proceedings – the very apogee of human development – a
tramp spaceship's captain. All I needed to do was stand there, my
magnetic soled boots firmly anchored to the ship and things got
done – under the energetic directions and lash of Molaye's glib
tongue – a shining example of a first mate attending to the first
mate's job, i.e. seeing that the captain's slightest whims are
carried out, promptly.

We'd only one more container to be off-loaded before
the
Starry Shore's
crew could be dispensed with and sent
back to the ship in the longboat they'd brought along, leaving me
alone for the first time in a quarter of a century. I'd no regrets,
largely because I couldn't see any other course that met my
obligations. That doesn't mean I wasn't feeling sad and uncertain.
I liked certainty – I'm pretty Unity Standard – and the future was
every bit as iffy as it had been when we sailed from Calissant
bound for the drifts. Look how that turned out. Plus, there was a
shadow in the back of my awareness telling me that my luck wouldn't
last forever. That, however, may be the suppressed realization that
this venture had several fatal flaws in its planning and was doomed
from the onset.

As the box entered the shadows of the cavern on its
slow, carefully choreographed journey to the interior quay, Molaye,
standing on its top, waved to me before turning to the task of
piloting it through the cavern. I returned her wave and considered
what needed doing next.

We were still anchored across the mouth of the
cavern, held off the rocks of Redoubt Island by two spars, bow and
stern. The
Indomitable
was tied up a bit further down the
island's shore and beyond her, the old
Guardian
rode in a
web of spars and lines, still undergoing its modest modernization.
The auxiliary ships floated in a row beyond the warships. The air
around me was alive with its usual suspects, calling, screeching,
and humming. Turning, I looked outward to the distant green and
hazy blue islands dotting the 360 degree sky. One of the scout
boats, acting as a guard ship, lazily orbited Redoubt island, a
kilometer or two off. It was all very peaceful, and now familiar as
well. But having seen the box offloaded, I was at loose ends, and
restless.

'I'm going over to the
Indomitable
. Shouldn't
take long,' I said to Riv, who had been watching the proceedings
with me with the placid superiority of a chief engineer.

I walked to the
Raven
's stern and down the
hull to the anchor cable running alongside the spar and used it to
reach the island's shore near the end of the cavern's ledge. I
walked along the path using my newly acquired skill with the
toe-claws and up the flag ship's metal planked gangplank to the
gate in the grating of the forward well deck of the
Indomitable
. I found Min, Vinden, and DarQue, attended by
half a dozen officers, gathered around a table set up on the far
side of the deck near the midship housing – making still more
plans, no doubt. It'd be more accurate to say
I found the
Empress, Prince Imvoy, and Admiral DarQue with their aides,
since that would better reflect their current status and attitude.
The equality of the Unity, and the freemasonry of the drifts was
fast fading. We were dealing with royalty now, and the days when I
could've just walked over and joined them had slipped astern.
Sub-captain Tri'n was standing along the railing next to the
gangplank, so I joined her.

'Hello Sub-captian,' I said as I settled against the
railing next to her.

'Greetings, Captain,' Tri'n said with a brief nod of
greetings.

'Here on business?'

'The Admiral has summoned me,' she said grimly.

'No doubt for a promotion. Time to staff the new
fleet.'

'I shall find out, when summoned.'

'I'm in no great hurry, so take the first
opportunity, Tri'n.'

'I'm in no hurry, either,' she replied looking grim
and in no mood to chat, so I let her be. Instead, I turned and
watched the big sentry snake hunt in and out of he vines along the
edge of the island.

'What do you want now, Litang?' Min called out some
time later.

I turned. Min was watching me from the group across
the deck. I took her exasperation to be sarcastic, since I hadn't
done anything.

'Just a quick word with the Admiral or Captain
Lil'dre concerning my Cimmadarian crew,' I replied, crossing the
deck to the gathered dignitaries. 'I was hoping to start training
my new crew.'

'Good timing, Captain,' said DarQue with a nod. 'I've
just summoned sub-captain Tri'n to see if she'd like to volunteer
to serve aboard your ship, if that suits you, of course.'

'I'd be delighted to have sub-captain Tri'n as my
first mate. I've seen her in action, so I know she's a very cool
and competent officer. If she's willing, of course.' I wasn't so
sure about that part.

'Please join us, Sub-captain,' commanded DarQue in a
louder voice. And when she joined us, he added, 'Captain Litang and
I have discussed manning the
Raven
with a detachment of
Cimmadarian sailors and I was wondering if you'd consider serving
aboard the
Raven
– as a volunteer,' this with a nod and a
smile to me. 'If so, could you collect a volunteer crew, of what
was it – four additional members, Captain?'

'Yes sir. Four.'

'Of four reliable sailors, Sub-captain.'

'I'd be honored and happy to serve aboard the
Raven
, sir,' she replied, neither noticeably honored or
happy, but not visibly reluctant. Not that DarQue had given her a
choice. 'Thank you for the opportunity, sir.'

'Right. Attend to selecting your crew, sub-captain,
and report aboard the
Raven
in...?'

'At her convenience, sir.' And turning to her added,
'I am serious, Tri'n, about having a crew who wanted to serve
onboard. I think, however, that acquiring a working knowledge of a
spaceship would be a good career move. I intend to make spaceers of
everyone who is willing to learn.'

'Only the Dar go outside,' said DarQue. 'For obvious
reasons.'

'Ah, yes. Still, there's space inside the shell-reef
as well, and the Pela to explore, so Cim or Dar, I'll make spaceers
out of them all.'

'Right. Cim or Dar, volunteers, Sub-captain,' replied
the Admiral, and dismissed us with a nod.

Tri'n saluted and I managed to snap off an only
sightly ironic one as well – I was going to have to practice that –
and turned for the gangplank.

We'd crossed half the deck when a very eccentrically
dressed character stepped onto the deck from the head of the
gangplank. The sailor was wearing a standard issued Cimmadar Navy
green shirt under a reddish-brown lizard-leather jacket and sported
a brightly colored feather-scarf at the neck, along with black
spaceer trousers tucked into tall spaceer boots, and a spaceer cap
worn low over the eyes and with a long dragon feather stuck in its
side. Cimmadarians wear their uniforms rather casually, a
necessity, given their great variety of work – from hunting
expeditions to working deep in the bowels of the ships – but even
so, this one stood out, not only in dress, but in attitude. And
with that, I realized, in an icy flash of insight, that I was
seeing not a sailor, but a ghost.

What happened next took no more than two or three
seconds, but those seconds seemed glacial. I'd first seen this
flamboyantly dressed ghost a decade ago, as a slim black silhouette
in the fog of a Calissant night. We both had stopped, and stood
stock still for that second or two, adrift in the rushing jumble of
emotions this particular ghost evoked. She may have smiled when she
recognized me through my sinister whiskers, though I doubt that
smile reached her lips. Strangely enough, I don't remember feeling
fear.

We both reached for our weapons – my left hand
reaching for my sissy in my jacket pocket, rather than the darter
on my right hip, while she drew a darter from the holster under her
jacket with a smooth, seemingly unhurried, action and aimed it with
an outstretched arm for a spot between my eyes. I caught the flash
of its drive beam as it crossed my eyes.

'Look out Min!' I managed to exclaim as I loosened a
desperate volley of darts in the general direction of the
ghost.

Simultaneously, a brilliant flash of blinding blue
light behind me brightly illuminated the deck even in the sunlight.
A blast of heat washed over me as the powerful plasma dart
discharged. I felt pinpoints of pain on the back of my neck and
head as the tiny molten droplets of gold sprayed across the
deck.

I staggered, straightened up, and saw my ghost was
twisting about on the one leg attached to the deck. I fired again,
but this time missed. But it didn't matter. I'd hit her the first
time.

'Are you all right?' I asked Tri'n beside me

She nodded grimly, her side arm in hand. 'I'm
unhurt.'

I glanced back to see Min brushing off DarQue's
attempts to hustle her to safety and a pale Vinden, darter in hand,
stalking angrily towards us, along with all the other officers on
the deck. The smoldering embers of my cap floated in the idle air
currents above us.

'A Neb-blasted traitor!' Vinden roared, his face
twisted in outraged anger. 'Can we trust no one, DarQue?' he
snarled, and added, as he came alongside me, 'Seems you got him,
though,' and returned his darter to his shoulder holster.

'Be careful – she could be feinting being hit,' I
said, knowing she'd been well out of my range so that if I had,
indeed, hit her, it could only have been the result of fantastic
luck.

'You got him. He's let go of his darter,' he said,
pointing to the darter floating in the space between us. He did,
however, pause.

I stepped forward and snatched the darter out of the
air and pocketed it. I turned to the still figure of Naylea Cin,
now floating face down in the shock-silenced well deck with my mind
racing. I absently lifted her upright, planting her free leg so
that she stood upright, swaying slightly, unconscious, or feinting
unconsciousness. I recalled D'Lay mentioning that stealths often
had capacitors implanted in their body to absorb some of the energy
of a plasma dart to nullify its effects – so I put my sissy to her
hand and gave her another dart to be certain. I wasn't going to
take any chances. Still, I looked on her calm face and felt a dart
of my own – mixture of emotions, one of which, strangely enough,
was sadness. She'd failed, yet again. Because of me. Yet again. So
now, that black mark that this mission would've erased, would be
her's forever.

'Good shooting, Litang,' said Min as she walked
towards us, ignoring DarQue's obvious concern, and quiet, urgent
objections. 'You've improved over the years.'

I turned to her. 'You shouldn't be here. This is a St
Bleyth assassin. I don't know how long she'll be out but I'm sure
she'd be deadly even unarmed. Why not return to your quarters while
we deal with this?' Not that I expected her to do anything of the
sort. Simply a matter of form.

She gave me a contemptuous look.

'You're the Empress now,' I replied. 'You need to act
responsibly.'

Vinden stepped between us before Min could reply and
got into my face instead. 'An agent of St Bleyth? How do you know
that? And how did she get here?' He demanded, adding, 'And do you
mean you merely stunned her, Litang?'

'Of course, that's all I can load in my sissy.'

'What a Neb-blasted fool. Well, I'll finish the job,'
he snapped, reaching for the darter he had just holstered.

I reached out and grabbed his wrist. 'She's my
prisoner, Vinden. I'll deal with her.'