The Sea Without a Shore (17 page)

CHAPTER 14

Brotherhood on Corcyra

Adele and Tovera were walking briskly along Harborside when the roar of a ship running up its thrusters echoed about the pool. That was a common event in any harbor, but this time the sound wasn’t quite right, even to Adele’s ears. Spacers were turning or even coming out of shops to look, so Adele turned also.

The
Kiesche
was skidding across the pool, under full power but holding scarcely above the surface instead of rising at an accelerating pace. The ship seemed headed for the shore—

No. It bumped into the flume which fed water to the pool. Moments later it disappeared around the island.

Spectators babbled in amazement to one another. Most of the opinions appeared to include the words “drunk” or “bloody fool,” but a number of them were complimentary in tone. Adele walked on.

The only thing Adele had known about how Daniel would react to her warning was that he would react in the best available fashion. She didn’t need to concern herself with him or the
Kiesche
generally until she had more data.

“It’s next after the tavern,” Tovera said conversationally as she followed Adele. “Want me to lead?”

Adele sniffed. “No, thank you,” she said. Her left hand was already in her tunic pocket, though neither she nor Tovera had carried a weapon in plain sight after they found the alley behind the Gulkander Palace empty.

They proceeded in single file. The streets of Brotherhood were rarely crowded. Quite a few of them were narrow, however. Adele and her servant had guessed their way along byways instead of proceeding to Central and marching down it. When they had reached Harborside after a few dead ends, they turned to the right and sauntered as though they weren’t in any kind of hurry.

Adele smiled minusculy. They
weren’t
in a hurry. Vesey and Hale were as safe in the outfitters’ as they would be anywhere, and they would wait for Adele to arrive however long it took.

The
Kiesche
’s unusual behavior had drawn everyone—including the apron-wearing bartender, though he had gone inside again—out of the tavern. Half a dozen of them, all well on the way to being drunk, continued to stand in the road. Adele started around them, stepping into the tramway.

A short, stocky man saw the movement and caught her right shoulder. His arms were long, as though to make up for his bandy legs.

“Give us a kiss, sweetheart,” he said, drawing Adele toward him.

There was a
clunk
; the drunk’s eyes rolled upward. Tovera had hit the back of his skull with the corner of her attaché case. Adele skipped out of the way as the fellow toppled forward. His friends didn’t seem to notice.

The front of Beardsley and Owens was windowed, though there was a sturdy steel grating outside the casement and the expanse was glazed with eight-inch by twelve-inch panes instead of two or three rolled plates. The window display was of coiled cable, pipe fittings, and tools—but the items had been dusted recently. It really looked like advertising rather than an assortment of junk.

“Do you want me—” Tovera said.

“No,” said Adele. She pushed the door open with her right hand.

The big store was dimmer than outdoors, but Vesey was directly in front of the door. She stood with her back to a pallet of eight-liter paint cans and her hands crossed in front of her. There were half a dozen other customers in the store and at least two attendants, but Adele didn’t see Hale for a moment.

Motion drew her glance to the right; she saw the muzzle of Hale’s carbine lifting toward the ceiling. The weapon must have been lying across a low counter, covering the doorway by seeming accident.

“Good to see you, Vesey,” Adele said, since the lieutenant hadn’t addressed her until she was sure that Adele wanted to be recognized. “There was some excitement in the harbor. The freighter
Kiesche
proceeded upriver in surface effect.”

“No doubt her captain had his reasons,” Vesey said in a neutral voice. No one in the store was paying obvious attention to the newcomers.

Tovera had paused in the open doorway. She came all the way in and looked around. Hale walked over to join them also.

“Will they hide us here in their warehouse or the like?” Adele said quietly. “There hasn’t been an alarm, but there may be one momentarily.”

She smiled wryly. “Or however long it takes for the Garrison technicians to realize that the jamming is coming from their own equipment, which might be longer than I expect. We’ve given these people a good order, so they should be predisposed to help us.”

Vesey looked about rather nervously. The paint display hid her completely from the back of the store, so her jumpiness wouldn’t be noticed. Tovera stood at a cross aisle, seemingly relaxed, which was sufficient for any concerns Adele had.

“Mistress, you’re in command, of course,” Vesey said. “But I suggest we go immediately to the
Freccia
. I’m sure—well, I
think
—that the navy will be pleased to help us. I’ve been talking with the proprietors here—”

She nodded toward the counter in back, though it and she were mutually out of sight, thanks to the paint.

“—and from what they say, the three militias are just short of being in open warfare. Both the others hate the Garrison, and apparently the civilians in Brotherhood all do also.”

“Yes, we’ll do that,” Adele said, turning. “Thank you, Vesey.”

“We’ll be back with loading instructions,” Vesey called. She waved toward the counter, then followed Adele out of the store.

The destroyer and the buildings which had become the naval barracks weren’t much farther along Harborside. Adele and Vesey walked shoulder to shoulder, ahead of their companions.

Adele smiled without letting her lips move. Vesey had become a very useful naval officer under the tutelage of Captain Leary. And it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to suggest that association with Lady Mundy had demonstrated to Vesey that a woman didn’t have to become a man to function in a man’s world.

As they approached the
Freccia
, an officer whom Adele recognized from imagery as Captain Samona was crossing the boarding ramp. Instead of being aluminum or plastic, the Corcyran navy had built a sturdy wooden ramp. It was braced against the dock on one end and the destroyer’s entry hatch on the other; a double hinge in the middle adjusted for the depth of water in the pool.

“How can they lift off with all that lumber?” said Hale, her first words since Adele met her in Beardsley and Owen. “It’d take hours to disengage it!”

“Well, in an emergency they could just ignore it,” Vesey said. “It doesn’t seem to be attached to the deck of the entry hold, so if they raise the hatch, the bridge would fall away.”

She frowned. “The wood would probably burn in the thruster exhaust,” she added. “But in an emergency …”

“I don’t think Captain Samona wants to lift,” Adele said, considering her data and the assessments she had heard Daniel make. “Any more than Admiral Stazi in Hablinger wants to make orbital patrols; or lift, I suppose. This isn’t the RCN, and the
Freccia
more particularly isn’t a warship under the command of Captain Leary.”

It’s all data
.
Looked at properly, everything in life is a datum
.

Two spacers, a man and a woman, were on guard at the base of the boarding bridge. They were probably more alert than they might have been if their commanding officer hadn’t just passed, but Adele noticed that their uniforms were clean and they handled their submachine guns as though they’d had some training.

Adele strode up to the guards; Vesey halted a step back. The male spacer had two anchors on his sleeve rather than the female’s one, so it was to him that Adele said, “I’m Lady Mundy of Cinnabar. The Garrison has attempted to steal the cargo of arms which the freighter
Kiesche
—”

She pointed across the harbor without breaking eye contact.

“—brought to Brotherhood. I need to speak with Captain Samona at once.”

“Yes,
ma’am
!” the spacer said. “He just got back. I’ll tell him you’re coming!”

He pulled the communicator from his belt sheath and broke squelch as Adele and her companions marched past. The female guard stared in amazement; the male spacer prodded at his communicator. It might be a while before he realized that the Garrison’s powerful transmitter was jamming the airwaves.

“A pity,” said Tovera. “I thought we might have to kill them to gain access.”

“What?” said Hale. “I …
What
did you say?”

Vesey turned her head slightly and said, “Tovera was joking, Hale. She has a dry sense of humor.”

Tovera has no sense of humor at all, nor any emotions. She’s become very good at pretending that she does, however
.

By now, Tovera was often better at pretending to be a normal human being than her mistress was. But then, Adele had never seen the point of the exercise.

The wooden bridge might be impractical, but Adele noted that its solidity underfoot was a pleasant change from the queasy uncertainty of most boarding bridges. She was in a mood to find something positive in any situation which would meet her half way. Her smile was grim, but the thought did make her smile.

There were several spacers in the entry hold, but none of them seemed to be on duty—let alone on guard. Adele picked one at random and said, “I need to speak with Captain Samona at once. I’m an envoy from Cinnabar.”

“Well—” said the spacer, glancing toward the hatch forward.

“Is someone calling for me?” Samona said, reentering the compartment suddenly. Adele had assumed he’d gone up the companionway to the bridge. “I heard my name.”

“I’m Lady Mundy,” Adele said. Living as a member of society seemed to require a great deal of repetition, though she supposed she shouldn’t complain so long as saying something once to each individual was sufficient. It wasn’t always enough. “Colonel Mursiello has attempted to seize the Cinnabar vessel
Kiesche
with its cargo of arms. We’ve come here to warn you.”

Living outside human society was cold, damp, and provided less food than satisfied even one of Adele’s limited needs. In other circumstances one might describe it as dangerous, but the slums compared favorably with Adele’s present life in the RCN under Daniel Leary. Danger didn’t concern her one way or the other.

“Come up to the bridge, if you will, your ladyship,” Samona said, bowing Adele toward the up companionway. She couldn’t judge his capacity as a naval officer, but he was certainly a gentleman.

She climbed the steel stairs at the brisk pace which she had learned in the closed stacks of major libraries. It hadn’t occurred to her at the time that it was good training for an RCN career.

“The Garrison is jamming the RF spectrum to prevent you and the Regiment from communicating,” said Vesey, her voice echoing up the armored tube of the companionway. “Captain Leary sent us to warn you in person.”

That’s not right. Vesey’s lying!

Adele forced her lips into a smile as she stepped through the hatch at the top of the companionway and turned right toward the
Freccia
’s bridge. She wasn’t a spacer by any stretch of the imagination, but she had enough experience by now to know that a warship’s bridge would be in the bow, on the top level.

Vesey is intelligently lying, to encourage Captain Samona to believe the truth more quickly than would otherwise have been the case
.

The truth was that the Garrison had resorted to force in a fashion which might lead and perhaps had already led to a full-scale coup attempt. Vesey had seen her duty and had done it, with less hesitation than Signals Officer Mundy might have shown.

A junior officer started out through the bridge hatch, then stopped and backed in again when he saw Samona following Adele. “Sir!” he called. “Something’s going on! One of the freighters seems to have gone crazy, and the Garrison’s started jamming everything!”

“Right!” said Samona, striding past Adele to sit at the command console. “Castiglione, sound General Recall and Action Stations. Engineering, light the thrusters!”

A klaxon in the outer hall began to hoot. It was unpleasantly loud on the bridge because all the ship’s hatches were open. The PA system was squealing in every compartment, adding to the din.

Bending close to Samona’s ear, Adele said, “Captain? The Regiment has a microwave tower on top of its headquarters building on the plaza. You could warn Administrator Tibbs of what’s going on.”

“Right!” Samona shouted back. “Castiglione, connect me to the Regiment by microwave soonest! Over.”

“And if I can borrow a console with a satellite link,” Adele said, “I believe I can warn both Captain Leary and the Transformationists.”

Samona waved generally to the empty consoles on both sides of the bridge, then went back to his microwave conversation. He was showing himself to be thoroughly competent, which was a pleasant surprise to Adele.

The
Freccia
shuddered as her pumps began circulating reaction mass. They were some while short of lighting thrusters, but the Corcyran navy was doing quite well so far. Whether or not it was performing well enough was a matter for a later time.

Adele sat at what was probably the astrogation console and got to work.

Pearl Valley on Corcyra

The
Kiesche
rested on the sports field beyond the Transformationist chapel and the rest of the community. Daniel’s eyes were closed. He had nothing useful to do until the ground cooled enough to open the ship for unloading.

He wasn’t exactly asleep, but he was relaxing. He needed rest more than he’d understood until he handed the conn to Cory and rose from the console.

Three sharp taps snapped Daniel’s eyes open. He hadn’t bothered to draw the curtain of his alcove when he flopped onto the bunk, but Cazelet was standing outside the “hatchway” and knocking on the stanchion with his knuckles.

“Sir?” said Able Spacer—and half-pay RCN lieutenant—Cazelet. “Master Cory says the locals believe the ground is cool enough to begin unloading and ask us to open up. Do you wish to take command?”