Long View - Zelde M'Tana Part 34

She made her voice harsh. "Feel like calling me out, do you, Dargan? You three, there-you're witness!"

And the formula, the code, sat them back and out of action. Dargan saw it happen, looked startled, then turned back to Zelde. "I might-I just might. What if I did?"

Close now, she laughed in his face. "When I got done with you, n.o.body else would." Could she back the bluff? Tensed, she breathed up as much oxygen as she could but tried not to show it.

Then he lost his juice-without moving, he seemed to shrink. "I didn't mean-a few drinks, you know-" He spread his hands. "Can't we just forget it-uh, Captain?"

"One more thing, and we can."

"Well, sure-if you want an apology-"

"Don't waste my time with that s.h.i.+t! What I want is, you get the h.e.l.l to work!"

266.

The others left. When Dargan got his tools together, and moved off toward his first check-station, Zelde left, too.

Turk was still working only part-time; Zelde found her in quarters, resting, and told the story. Sipping an odd-smelling tea that Zelde recognized from Terranova, Turk made her guesses. Not another mutiny building, but plain jealousy from ratings Zelde had leapfrogged. "Cargo to Captain-that's what they find hard to swallow. You can't expect-"

"Maybe not." Zelde stood. "But they're stuck with me for now-and sure's h.e.l.l they're going to do their work. Thanks."

"Any old time. I'll help where I can."

"Yeah, I know. I said, thanks."

And later, over dinner, Torra told her much the same, "Though with me, since I moved in here, it's more what they don't say than what they do. You see?"

"Sure." Zelde touched the other's cheek. "Hey-you mind, we just sleep tonight?"

Seeing Terra's look, she added, "It's just-my thinking won't go that good way, right now."

Likely the grapevine helped-after Dargan, n.o.body bothered her any, straight out.

In the next weeks the work improved, and the s.h.i.+p even felt more cheerful to her.

Part of it, she guessed, was the sulkers hanging together to gripe at her-it gave them something to talk on.

h.e.l.l with it-she had her job; they could d.a.m.n well do theirs!

She looked through Parnell's notes on Fair Ball. Not much there-star type, bigger and whiter than Earth's sun. The planet, farther out than Earth, had a longer year.

Tilted orbit-all right, she got that-and more eccentric. Off-center, yeah. Not much axial tilt; moving in and out made the seasons.

Small planet, heavy for its size-gravity about like Earth's. Only one main settlement, far as Terranova knew-and how many years out of date was that report?

At least twenty, Parnell had guessed-by the time the s.h.i.+p could get there.

Which-by s.h.i.+p's clocks-wouldn't be long, now.

267.

The day they spotted Fair Ball's sun-ninety percent definite and two weeks out, was the guess-Zelde called quarters and told Torra. "Ten hours 'til your watch.

Let's celebrate!"

"I'm in favor of that. When will you be down?"

Zelde looked at the main clock. "About an hour. All right?"

"Fine. I have to check some things with Dopples, from my last night's watch. It shouldn't take long."

But Zelde found their quarters empty. Putting a bottle of jash to cool, then having a shower, she didn't notice the time. After that, though, Torra didn't show up for another hour.

She looked fl.u.s.tered, and her hair was mussed. Zelde said, "Anything wrong?"

Torra pushed at the hair, getting it off her forehead. Longer now-uncut since she joined the s.h.i.+p-it tended to flop around. "I-I'm not sure. It depends on you."

Zelde frowned. She'd started to pick up the bottle; now she nestled it back into the ice again. "What does?"

Torra started to smile, but didn't make it stay. "I told you I had things to check with Dopples. I didn't expect to end up in bed with him."

Zelde's thought, then, almost made her laugh. "All of you?"

"What-oh, you mean Hilde and Helga. No-he threw them out. That's what-"

If this was going to take time, Zelde was thirsty. Now she opened the jash, and poured. "Sit down, Torra, and have some. And start from scratch, will you?"

Well. Torra had found Dopples in process of clearing the two blondes out of his quarters. "Clothes all over the place-Dopples pacing back and forth, kicking them across the floor." And the women, half dressed, making little shrieks when Dopples slapped whatever part he could reach. "They each had red marks-but no real bruises, that I saw."

Torra swallowed some jash; Zelde sipped hers. Did this business bother her any?

No-not unless it churned Torra a lot. "Anybody say what started it?"

Dopples hadn't minded the women playing around while he was out of action-he had sense enough to expect that.

268.

"But they were too public about it-they didn't save face for him at all. And since he's back they've kept it up, on the side. Finally he had too much, that's all, and he was giving them the heave-ho."

"You already said that. Where's your part come in?"

From under lowered brows Torra looked at her, then nodded. "When they were out the door. Dopples found a blouse on the deck and went to throw it after them. I saw something else, before he shut the door, and handed it to him. And he threw that, too, and then made the slam. He came back-I had my report in one hand-and he was laughing. Then he was crying, and fell against me, and the report is what hit the deck next."

"And you two, the bed? Just like that?"

Headshake. Maybe in another month or two the hair would be long enough to comb good. "No. He had to talk." Zelde's brows raised. "Oh, about everything, nearly. That Parnell's dead, and Dopples would have died for him. How it still hurts that he'll never see Earth again-he had some family there, the last he knew.

How he regrets being hard on you earlier." Her forehead wrinkled. "Something odd about that-he started to say more, and then didn't. But the last straw, I guess, was those two dumb mattress-bouncers. First, being unable to keep them in line-and then the two of them thinking they were fooling him."

She paused. "Can you understand that?"

Zelde nodded. "Sure. Parnell-" Wait-would this be disloyal? She decided not. "He was a long time getting sicker-and sometimes he could and sometimes he couldn't. It bothered him." She shook her head. "His pride-I sure tried to be easy on it. And I never had somebody else, either." She thought about it. "Parnell would of agreed, if I'd wanted. But there wasn't anybody. Not until you."

For seconds, Terra's lips clamped tight. "It was when Dopples said he felt betrayed-that all he'd needed was a little time and patience, but now it was too late.

I told him it wasn't, either, too late."

Now she raised her head. "And then I showed him."

She waited, and Zelde said, "Have some more jash; let's drink to that. And then, like I said earlier, let's celebrate."

"You mean, you don't mind?"

"Dopples? That man took a knife for me."

269.

So they celebrated. After that, sometimes Torra stayed over with Dopples. She always asked Zelde first, and Zelde always said yes, and that she didn't have to ask.

But she did ask, anyway.

Coming in toward Fair Ball-crawling now, compared to light-Kilimanjaro was hailed. Zelde went to Control. The signal was a loop tape; before answering, Zelde heard it through twice, to make sure she had everything straight. For one thing, the voice said nothing about Fair Ball being a Hidden World. Going by the words, it could have been a colony-except that unless the Uties had found and taken it, it wasn't.

All right-play it straight. She spoke her own tape, heard it once and then sent it out. "Kilimanjaro, calling Fair Ball. Kilimanjaro, Zelde M'tana commanding. We're last from Terranova-where we wore another insigne and their bra.s.s never heard of you." At that point on the tape, a pause, while she'd thought hard. "You want references? We got some. Malloy and Use Krueger, for starters-more, when we have some from you. Anybody groundside now, we might know?"

Another pause, then her voice again. "All for now; we're tuned for you and homing." Oh, yeah-they'd asked for estimated time of landing. "ETL, approx ninety hours. Greetings to you, from Kilimanjaro. M'tana out."

Beside her, in the backup seat, Dopples smiled. "Just right, I'd say." His speech was getting better, fast. "We'll have a wait now. Give me a hand downs.h.i.+p to the galley?"

No canes now-just a little help on ladders. They had coffee and snacks, and were back in Control when Fair Ball answered.

Not a standard tape this time; the woman's voice sounded immediate. "Baseline Port to Kilimanjaro-Fair Ball settlement calling Captain Zelde M'tana. One of your credentials suits us; that's better than some can give, who turn out to be all right.

So welcome here." Somebody coughed; the sound came loud. "Our local admiral wants to ask some questions." And Zelde was sure this wasn't UET.

A different voice said, "You cite Krueger and Malloy. Do the following names mean anything to you?" Another cough. "Sten Norden. Bernardez. Quinlan.

Limmer. Jargy 270.

Hoad. Tregare. Rasmussen." Only a slight pause, then: "And some s.h.i.+ps-Nonstop, Deuces Wild, Inconnu, Car-charodon, Red Dog. And the Hoover. Think back, and let us know. Baseline Port out, and listening."

Dopples touched Zelde's arm. "Now we know- Bernardez is Escaped. But UET doesn't know it yet."

"Right. Dopples-help me figure what's next." And he told her the names he recognized.

Her next tape was short. "M'tana here. We pa.s.sed close-talking distance-with Kickem Bernardez, farside of Terranova. Neither of us admitted we was Escaped. - The rest you said-Tregare and his armed s.h.i.+p Inconnu, yes. And Norden, and Quinlan. Not the others. We're new, is what." No more to say. "M'tana out."

This time, a shorter wait. Timing it, Dopples told what it meant in terms of s.h.i.+p's speed and distance. "Only approx, Zelde-but it fits our sightings." He called Harger. "Cut decel to point-six of max-so we don't come to dead stop before we get there." Sure-that'd be the leeway he'd mentioned.

They listened. "Baseline to Kilimanjaro." The man's voice again. "You're saying that we're your first Hidden World. Then-no offense, but we'd like more confirmation. Because we have a quite extensive list of s.h.i.+ps' officers- and, M'tana, your name's not on it. If you'd tell us your s.h.i.+p's former name, and those of its officers-alive or dead-for correlation, we'd be rea.s.sured. Thank you-and Baseline out."

Dopples said, "Let me take this one." Zelde nodded. "Cyras Adopolous speaking.

I should be listed for the Great Khan-also Ragir Parnell and Cleotis Terihew, who have not survived. Zelde M'tana was promoted after Escape; she commands now because I've been disabled for a time." He looked at Zelde, and his expression puzzled her. "That tells most of it, I think. Now-Baseline, is there anyone groundside now that we might know? Adopolous out."

He went silent. Something on his mind, for sure-about her? She deared her throat.

"Dopples-what happens, groundside? With me, I mean. Back to Second Hat, I guess?" Shares or no shares, that was fair-she'd feel odd, but she could do it.

Between his brows the wrinkles deepened. "I hope it's 271.

that easy." Then he motioned for someone to help him down to his quarters.

The closer to Fair Ball, the easier things got; even the little ha.s.sles stopped.

Everybody excited, Zelde guessed- waiting to see what it was like, a Hidden World that UET didn't even know about. And except for wondering how she stood, Zelde felt the same way, too.

Two s.h.i.+ps sitting groundside, Baseline had said-Red Dog under Pell Quinlan, and Cut Loose Charlie, no captain named. When Zelde asked, Baseline said, "Cade Moaker brought Charlie in on his drive's last legs; it'll never lift again, not without new components we don't have and can't make, yet. That's ten years ago, and Moaker's been dead for five. The officers incorporated under our rules here, and run it as Board of Directors. But it's a business now, not a s.h.i.+p."

Business? Yes-the Nielson cube was bad, but not the power systems. So Charlie sold power to the Port. Cargo was good for starting up a trading post. The s.h.i.+p's repair shops-machine tools, instruments-did a good business. And more-listening, Zelde realized how complex, compared to most groundside enterprises, a s.h.i.+p really was.

Fair Ball was near enough now-magged-up, it filled the screen-that Zelde could study it on visual. More water than land, she saw-though Tzane told her the proportion of land was higher than Earth's. Two fair-sized continents-one in the "northern" half and the other, the bigger one, almost straight opposite. Connecting those, completing a sort of girdle, were strings of islands-peaks of sunken mountain chains. Scattered islands, too, she saw-but was told that none of those were settled.

All this she saw on frequencies outside visual range-Fair Ball's air lay thick and full of clouds.

In the northern continent sat Baseline Port-about midway east to west, and several hundred kilos from the southern sh.o.r.e. On a big river, Parnell had said, and in the middle of plains. Not far south of it a desert began, and continued to the sea. "And that's why," Dopples said, "the colonists didn't try the usual river-mouth type of settlement. The fertile belt on the coast isn't wide enough to support more than a village culture."

272.

Thirty hours out, Zelde still couldn't spot Baseline Port. She knew where it was, pretty well-but she couldn't see it.

Two watches ahead of ETL, Dopples called a meeting. "Control and Engineering officers, in my quarters. I'm not on active duty, so this is a request, not an order."

But everybody got there on time.

All nine of them had chairs; Dopples had seen to that. Zelde looked around. Of Harger's people she knew only Juvier, the light-skinned black. That group sat facing Dopples. Torra and Zelde were to his right, Gil Charvel and Lera Tzane on the other side. Dopples said, "Let's get to it."

n.o.body answered; he nodded. "Before we land and get busy dealing with groundside, let's settle our command situation." He cleared his throat. "The problem is that I have Slaughterhouse training, and seniority, but Zelde M'tana owns command shares."

"I never asked for those-I didn't know Parnell was going to do what he did. You know-you was there."

"But you own the shares." Dopples smiled. "Zelde, I don't begrudge you. And without formal training you've handled command well, in a very difficult time. I appreciate this and I thank you-but it doesn't change matters."

Zelde leaned forward. "What matters? You want command back? You earned it, you got it-I already said that. I go back to Second. What more you need?"

Plump Harger's smile looked more like a sneer. "There's a joke going around, M'tana-on paper. The idea is, it's your application for the job of Captain on this s.h.i.+p."

He stopped. Zelde said, "Tell it or don't!"