Текст книги "Midshipman's Hope"

Автор книги: Дэвид Файнток

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“Sir, the passengers are on half-hour tanks. We don’t have long to rescue them.”

“Lord God.” I marshaled my thoughts. “Mr. Vishinsky!”

“Aye aye, sir!”

“Did any boarders from section six get past the barricades in five?”

“No, sir. I wasn’t mere, but the word is they didn’t.”

“Very well. You’re under Mr. Tamarov’s command.

Alexi, you and Mr. Vishinsky go the long way around the corridor, to section ten.” By circling the disk our war party would surround the invaded sections.

“I’ll open the hatches in front of you. There may be hostiles in section nine. As fast as you can, secure and evacuate nine.

We’ll use it as an airlock to section eight; we’ll pump air from nine back into ten and then open from nine to eight. Got that?”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“We know hostiles are in six, seven, and eight. Also our own passengers who are running out of air. As soon as nine is pumped out I’ll open the hatch to section eight. Clear eight and move on to seven, then six. Bring the passengers back to nine and we’ll cycle them back into ten, where they can desuit. Hurry.”

“Aye aye, sir. We’re moving!”

“May I go, sir?” Vax’s muscles rippled.

“No. You have to stay alive.” I wouldn’t repeat Captain Malstrom’s mistake. Vax was ready now, and I had to preserve him. I pressed a handkerchief to my forehead. I ached abominably.

Our fighting party climbed to Level 2 and circled the circumference corridor. Our airtight hatches had divided the disk into wedge-shaped slices, at either end of every section.

In radio contact with the master-at-arms, I opened each hatch as they approached. At last, I opened the hatch from eleven to ten, and the crewmen crowded in.

“Ready, Mr. Vishinsky?”

The speaker crackled. “You there, don’t stand in the middle of the corridor! Edwards, Ogar, Tinnik, you’re on point.

Why don’t you stay behind me, Mr. Tamarov, sir. Captain, we’re ready.”

I opened to section nine. I could hear Vishinsky shout as he pounded on cabin hatches. “Open up! I’m the master-atarms. This section will be decompressed in two minutes! Let’s go! Everybody forward to the ladder! Open your hatch or we’ll burn our way in!”

I thought to help. “Attention, passengers in cabins 208 through 214. This is Captain Seafort. Open your hatches and go into the corridor. You must be evacuated quickly!”

Perhaps the sound of my voice would reassure them. Then again, perhaps not.

A few moments later Vishinsky reported back. “Sir, we’ve made a quick search, no hostiles found. We’ve moved the passengers back into section ten. We’re waiting in nine.”

“Very well.” I closed the hatch between nine and ten. I flipped on the pumps and began decompressing nine. “Mr.

Carr!”

“Yes, sir.” He stood.

“Find the purser. The passengers will need help; some of them may be in shock. Take the section four ladder and go the long way around, to meet them. Bring them to the dining hall. You’re in charge.”

“Aye aye, sir!” Derek saluted. Vax opened the hatch for him and he hurried out.

I waited impatiently for the pumps to empty section nine.

Section eight was already decompressed, its airlock gaping wide. By decompressing nine we’d save the air it held, when the hatch to eight was opened. Finally the pumps completed their work. “Opening to eight, Mr. Vishinsky!”

“Aye aye, sir.” We waited, listening intently.

“Look out!” Vishinsky’s voice, a scream. “Ogar, zap the son of a bitch!” The attackers didn’t have to wield lasers to be dangerous. Any weapon that penetrated a suit was lethal.

The battle was fought in the eerie silence of vacuum, punctuated by grunts and heavy breathing from the suits of our attack party. The snap of the lasers disrupted the suits’ radionics when our men fired; it was audible on the bridge as a momentary whine.

“Everyone here, toward the ladder!” Vishinsky’s breath came in spurts, as if he’d been running. “Captain, we’re herding a group of passengers into nine. Ms. Edwards is with them. All right, they’re clear.”

“Hostiles?”

“We zapped two, sir. Haven’t found any more.”

“Right.” I closed the hatch between eight and nine. As soon as the console light blinked green I began pumping air from ten back into nine.

Alexi’s voice cut in. “Mr. Vishinsky, get your men ready to attack section seven.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“Be careful, there’s an open airlock in seven,” I reminded them. It was a long way down to Miningcamp.

“Open the hatch, sir!” Alexi’s nerves were frayed. It sounded like an order. I hit the corridor hatch control.

“Oh, God, Tinnik’s hit!”

“Get down, you fool!” A thud. The confused sounds of attack and rescue. Vishinsky ordered passengers out of their cabins to section eight. A maddening delay. Calls of warning, flurries of shots.

The speaker rustled. A distorted voice, from a ship’s caller held against a spacesuit visor in vacuum. “Call them off, Captain!”

“Surrender,” I said. “You won’t be shot.”

“Call them off.” It was a snarl. “We’re in a cabin, and we’ve got five lasers aimed at the rear bulkhead. If we cut through we’ll decompress your whole disk!”

I blanched. “Wait!” Could we have lost, after all? “Now!”

“You’ll have my answer in a moment.”

“We want passage from Miningcamp, mister. You give us that, you get your ship back.”

“Wait,” I said again. I switched off the caller. “God damn them!” For a moment I savored the blasphemy. “Pilot?”

“Work it out with them, sir! Don’t let them cut through the ship, we’ll end up like Celestina!”Vax swore. “Sir, if–”

“Be silent. Chief, did you hear?”

“Yes, sir.” A hesitation, then his reluctant response.

“They can do a lot of damage, Captain.” Aiming inward from section seven, the invaders could cut through to section three on the opposite side of the disk. From there, they could cut into two and four. In addition, they could aim their lasers up and down to Levels 1 and 3. In half an hour they could render my ship uninhabitable. Except for the fortified bridge.

“I know, Chief. Vax?”

“Offer to return them to the station, sir. It’s the best they can get, now. They’ll go for it.”

I thumbed the caller to the dining hall. “Mr. Carr!”

My midshipman answered in a moment. “Yes, sir?”

“Get everybody back onto suit air, flank,” I said. “Break out the oxygen stores. Expect decompression at any moment!”

“Aye aye, sir,” he said. “We’ll handle it. Don’t worry about the passengers.” Though his violation of form was scandalous, I was grateful for the reassurance.

“Vax, get on the other caller. Make sure everyone throughout the ship is suited.” I thumbed the caller so that it could be heard by our attack party as well as the boarders. “Mister, this is the Captain.”

“Yes?” The hint of a sneer.

“No deals. We’re ready for decompression. Surrender now or we’ll kill every one of you. Mr. Tamarov, burn through the cabin hatches one by one until you find them, then kill them!”

“Aye aye, sir!”

“You’ll lose your ship, damn you!”

“You won’t be alive to know.” I clicked off my caller.

The Pilot jumped to his feet. “Don’t! If they cut through to the mess there’ll be a bloodbath. They’ll kill the passengers.”

I said, “The mess is halfway around the disk on the outer side of the circumference corridor. They’ll never reach it. I won’t bargain with mutineers.”

“Captain, I’m warning you! Call them off!” The voice from section seven.

The Pilot was in a frenzy. “Sir, don’t make them decompress the ship, or we’ll relieve you!”

I turned. “We? Vax?”

“We’ll blow your ship!” I ignored the speaker; I had more immediate problems.

Vax fingered his laser. “No, sir. I’m under your orders.

Pilot Haynes, sir, you’re distracting the Captain.” A nice touch, that.

“They won’t do anything we can’t repair, Mr. Haynes.

We’re suited and ready for decompression. As soon as they start cutting we’ll know exactly where they are. We can–”

“What good is that?” The Pilot’s face was purple. “We’ll lose all our air!”

“Not all.” I turned to the caller. “Get on with it, Mr.

Tamarov! Blow any hatches that remain shut!”

“Captain, wait!” The voice on the speaker held a timbre of fear.

“We’re not waiting. Try cabin two eighteen, Mr. Tamarov.”

“All we want is to get off that place! No supplies, no new air, it’s a death trap! Just take us with you!”

I got unsteadily to my feet. “God damn you! Surrender before I count to fifteen, or we’ll shoot you dead the moment we find you, whether you’re trying to surrender or not! One!... Two!”

“Send us back to the station,” he said quickly. “Just let us off!”

“Three!... Four!... Five!”

“We found their cabin, sir! Two twenty!”

“Six!... Seven!... Eight! Kill them on sight, Mr.

Tamarov!”

“Aye aye, sir!”

The Pilot’s voice was urgent. “If they’ve got nothing to lose they’ll try to take us with them! They still have time to cut through the bulkheads!”

“Nine!... Ten!... Eleven!”

“Mister, we don’t have to kill each other! Just let us off!”

“Three seconds left. Mr. Tamarov, blow the hatch on my mark. Twelve!... Thirteen!... Fourteen!”

“ALL RIGHT!”A scream.

I sagged into my chair, limbs trembling. I tried to keep my voice steady. “Mr. Tamarov, hold your fire. You men, put your lasers on the deck and unlock your hatch. Stand in the center of the cabin with your hands raised.”

“All right! You won’t shoot?”

“No, we won’t shoot you. Not now, not ever. You have my word. Mr. Tamarov, weapons ready, but hold fire.”

“Aye aye, sir. The hatch is opening, sir. I’m going to–”

“Let me, sir.” Vishinsky. I smiled; no midshipman would be shot down in Mr. Vishinsky’s care. Alexi was in good hands.

The master’s growl was ominous. “Face the bulkhead, you scum!”

In a moment the attackers were brought under control and hustled to section eight. Vishinsky’s party checked the remaining section seven cabins and found no more invaders.

Alexi and two seamen removed the bars blocking the airlock hatches, while Vishinsky moved on to section six, the only zone still not in our hands.

One miner surrendered immediately as soon as the hatch to six was opened. Two others were found cowering in passenger cabins, using terrified passengers as shields. They surrendered the moment Vishinsky’s men arrived.

When our last hatch indicator flashed to green I breathed a sigh of relief. I lay back, my head throbbing. “Re-air all sections.” Vax hit the switches on my console. No alarms sounded; Hiberniawas again airtight. Reserve oxygen from our recycling chamber brought all sections back to full pressure. I ordered our prisoners hauled to the brig.

“Darla, any damage?”

“Some of my corridor wiring is burnt out, Captain.” She hesitated. “I have backup channels for all circuits. Air reserves diminished by eleven percent. No other functional damage.”

It was over. “Thank God.” I slumped in my chair.

“Do you know how lucky we were?” The Pilot lurched to his feet. “You could have killed every man, woman, and child aboard! If they’d blown our air we’d be dead long before we reached Hope Nation. We didn’t have enough reserves!”

“Is that your opinion, Pilot?” Lethargic, I was sustained only by a cold knot of anger in my stomach.

“You endangered the entire ship! I insist that my protest be entered in the Log! I demand it, Captain!”

I snapped on the Log and spun it to face him. “Request granted. Enter your protest with your accompanying arguments.”

“Aye aye–sir!” He wrote savagely on the holovid screen.

I said nothing until he was finished. In a fury he dropped the holovid into my lap.

I read it through. “Do I understand that you protest my reckless disregard of the risk of losing our air, with the consequence of suffocating everybody aboard?”

“Yes! You could have repaired the holes they made, even to the outer hull. But you can’t manufacture air!”

“I want your protest made clear. Amend it, to say exactly that.”

“Fine with me!” He did so.

“Very well. The time of your protest is entered, along with the date and time of my response.” I began to write. “Cargo area forty-one B, east hold. Contents: 795 oxygen and nitrogen cylinders. Destination: Miningcamp.”

I tossed the holovid to the console. “We had enough oxygen in the holds to re-air the ship seven times over.” Ashen, the Pilot stared at the Log and his damning protest.

“Pilot Haynes, I adjudge you unfit to serve as an officer on Hibernia.I relieve you of all duties until such time as my opinion changes. Your rank is suspended. You now travel as supercargo. Until further notice you are confined to quarters except to use the officers’ head. Dismissed. Vax, escort him off the bridge.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“You can’t!”

“I just did. Out!” I thumbed the caller. “Infirmary, have Dr. Uburu stop at the bridge after she attends to the other wounded.”

20

Work parties were already measuring burned-out hatches for repair and replacement, while others swept debris flung about the Level 2 circumference corridor. On my growled, “As you were,” they ignored me.

The savagery of the battle and the vacuum in which it was fought had left few injured. Men were either well, or dead.

Bodies lay about, many in the unfamiliar white suits of the U.N.A.F. military. Three of our sailors were among them.

Sandy Wilsky’s charred corpse lay in the corridor near the airlock, mouth stretched wide in the rictus of death. His sightless eyes stared mute reproach. I made a sound. Closing my eyes, I recalled my billet at Academy on Luna, tried to transport myself there.

“Come with me, sir.” Vax Holser, quiet, solicitous. He touched my arm gently, then more firmly, led me away from the body. He put himself between me and the work parties to shield me from their view. “You’re all right, Captain.”

“No.” My eyes burned; my cheeks were wet. “I’m not.

I never will be. If I weren’t so stupid none of this would have happened. I killed him.”

Glancing about, to make sure no one saw, he brushed my forehead lightly with his open palm. “You’re all right, Captain,” he repeated gently.

I shivered. After a moment I drew myself together.

“Come with me.” Unsteadily, I walked to the ladder, then down to the brig on Level 3. Mr. Vishinsky himself stood guard over the several small cells. “How many?” My tone was sharp.

“Seven, sir.”

“Is Mr. Herney in there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Bring him out.” The machinist’s mate darted from his opened cell, hands twisting his shirt in anxiety. He stiffened to attention when he saw me. “Mr. Herney, you don’t belong in a brig with such as these. Your sentence is commuted.

Back to your berth. Behave yourself.”

He searched my face, weak with relief. “Aye aye, sir!”

He scurried off with the miracle of his deliverance.

“Where is the ringleader?” I asked, in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.

Vishinsky gestured. “In cell one, by himself.”

“Unlock it. Both of you, follow me.” I entered the tiny cell. The prisoner sat on the deck, hands locked behind him, legs cuffed together. “Cut his clothes off.”

Vishinsky glanced at me in surprise but recovered quickly.

“Aye aye, sir.” He pulled a folding knife from his pocket.

The prisoner’s eyes widened, but the man said nothing as Vishinsky slashed the seams of his clothing. A moment later the prisoner was hunched naked.

“Stand him up.” Vax and the master-at-arms hauled the unnerved man to his feet.

“Mr. Vishinsky, go to cell two. Prepare the next man in exactly the same way and wait there.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“Vax, take this.” I handed Vax my laser pistol. I stood with my back to the bulkhead, my hand half open in front of my chest. “Mr. Holser, watch my hand. When this man lies, I will move my little finger. Like this. You will immediately shoot him in the face and follow me to the next cell. Say nothing and ask no questions. Simply watch my finger and shoot if it moves. Acknowledge, Mr. Holser.”

Vax swallowed. He was silent a long moment.

“Acknowledge your orders!” My tone was savage.

He hesitated for barely a second. “Orders received and understood, Captain Seafort. I will shoot him in the face when your finger moves, sir.”

I swung to the prisoner. “You’re the one who said he was General Kail?”

“Yes.” The man swallowed, his eyes darting between my hand and Vax’s pistol.

“What’s your real name?”

“Kerwin Jones.”

“Where is General Kail?”

“On the station. Please don’t shoot, I’m telling the truth.

Please.”

“He’s alive?”

“Yes, sir. He’s locked in a suiting room. Some of the joes are holding him with the other officers.”

I twitched my hand the tiniest fraction. The man blanched.

“You rebelled?”

“Yes, sir. It’s the miners, sir. They were going to kill us all. I worked in the comm room, sir. I’m a civilian. When the supply ships didn’t come they got sort of crazy. I had to go along with them, or–”

“How many officers were killed?”

“Just two, sir. It happened so fast. We had to find a way off the station, don’t you see?”

“What’s happened planetside?”

“The miners took over. They’re holding the U.N.A.F. as prisoners, I think. The committee has control of the shuttle, they come up every day or so to keep an eye on things.” I looked at my finger. “It’s the truth, sir,” he blurted. “I swear by Lord God Himself! Please believe me.” He turned to Vax.

“Don’t shoot, for the love of God!”

“Mr. Vishinsky!” In a moment the master-at-arms came into the cell. “This man may cooperate. Question him. I want to know about the miners’ committee and when they shuttle to the station. Also the station layout. If he lies–if his story is any different from those other three–break off immediately and call me.”

I left. Vax followed.

As we walked back to the bridge Vax asked, “Sir, what would you have done if he’d lied?” I stopped, twitched my finger. He shuddered.

“Take the pistol out of your belt. Aim it at the deck.” Vax complied, troubled. “Burn through the deck plates. That’s an order.”

“Aye aye, sir.” With a dubious glance Vax tightened his finger on the trigger. The pistol beeped, indicating its empty charge. I held out my hand. He placed the pistol in it. I went to the bridge.

Hours passed quickly. Crews were busy tracing and splicing electrical connections where lasers had burned our wiring.

Derek and Alexi soothed frightened passengers and escorted them back to their cabins, helping with the cleanup.

Three of our passengers had been killed by the intruders.

Two more had died from decompression, unable to get into their suits in time. Among them was Sarah Butler, the pleasant young lady who had shared my table.

Three of our enlisted men were dead. And one officer.

All in all, we were lucky it hadn’t been more. Fortunately, the invaders aimed to take over Hibernia,not destroy her.

Sandy had tried to slap shut the airlock control; they’d burned him where he stood. If his clothing hadn’t caught in the lock panel, he’d have been swept out in the decompression when I broke the ship free. The other crewmen who’d died were among our fighting parties.

On the bridge, I sat next to Vax in my soft armchair, trying to come to terms with my folly. It is always too late to do the obvious. Sandy’s accusing, sightless face floated just beyond my reach. I wondered if I would ever be free of it.

I thumbed the caller. “Mr. Carr, Mr. Tamarov. Report to the bridge.”

In a few moments the midshipmen strode in, came to attention. I released them. “Plot our course back to the station. A bow-on approach to their upper airlock from two kilometers out. Check your coordinates against Darla’s solution.” They scrambled to work, while I sat brooding. Vax watched with concern from the first officer’s seat.

A thought surfaced. “Vax, where’s Cadet Fuentes?”

“In the mess helping Mr. Browning.”

“How’d he end up there?”

“He was with me at the forward lock when trouble broke out. I sent him to guard the wardroom.”

“Ah.” The wardroom on Level 1 didn’t need guarding, and the puny cadet was hardly fit to protect it. Vax had sent Ricky out of harm’s way.

Vax reddened. “Yes, sir. After things calmed down I called him to help Mr. Browning.”

“Very well.” I was glad of it. I’d killed enough children this day.

The midshipmen brought me a course plot; I had Vax check it. This time, for once, I would rely on their calculations. My head ached despite Dr. Uburu’s healing salve, or perhaps because of it.

We fired bursts of auxiliary engine power to return us to Miningcamp Station. Lethargic, I let Vax take the conn. After an hour we fired our retro thrusters to avoid overshooting.

It was time. I picked up the caller, feeling foolish. When had the order I was going to give been heard on a U.N. vessel, except in drill? “All hands to Battle Stations!” I hit the klaxon; the horn blared insistently.

Throughout the ship men and women streamed to their duty stations from the crew berths, from the head, from mess hall, from the repair crews. All nonessential systems were abruptly shut down. Hydroponics and recyclers were set to automatic.

Every instrument in the engine room was double staffed, as the engine room crew brought the full potential of our fusion engines on-line to power Hibernia’slasers.

The comm room was crowded with ratings manning their instruments, watching for hostile laser or missile fire. Laser defense crews stood ready. Special ports in Hibernia’snose were opened to deploy the gossamer shields designed to deflect incoming lasers.

I knew our laser shields were an unnecessary precaution, as orbiting stations weren’t fitted with laser cannon. Miningcamp Station, sixty-three light-years from Earth and six from Hope Nation, was visited only by Naval ships; no other vessels sailed interstellar. Who would attack Miningcamp? My caller was set to approach frequency. “Attention Miningcamp Station. This is U.N.S. Hibernia,Captain Nicholas Seafort commanding. Acknowledge!”

After a moment the speaker came to life. “We read you.”

“I will open fire in two minutes unless you surrender unconditionally. Where is General Kail?”

The speaker was silent for several seconds. “Prong yourself, joey!”

“In one and three-quarter minutes I will open fire. I will cut through your hull about twenty meters to either side of the upper airlock. Expect decompression.”

I could hear a muffled commotion behind their caller. A new voice answered. “Go ahead and decompress us! Your General will be in the airlock along with the rest of the officers.”

“I really don’t care. They’ll blame you, not me.”

Vax sucked in his breath. I touched the laser activation release but did not depress it. “Fire control, stand by. Either side of their airlock.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“We’ll kill them all!” The voice rasped in the speaker.

“One minute left. After decompression, I’ll give you another minute before I cut the station into small pieces. I’ll start with your comm room.”

“You wouldn’t dare! The station is worth billions; they’ll hang you!”

My voice was very strange. “I know. It’s what I’m hoping.

Forty-five seconds.” I depressed the laser release.

“You’re crazy!”

“And you’ll be dead. In a moment.”

Darla said urgently, “Incoming laser at low power! Erratic beam.”

“What in hell?” Miningcamp was supposed to be unarmed.

“Shields fully deployed. Beam within shield capacity.”

I looked to Vax. “A cutting tool? Hand lasers strung to fire together?”

Vax shrugged, his mind on more pressing matters. “Captain, please don’t blow the station.”

I thumbed the caller. “Thirty seconds!” To Vax, “Sorry, Mr. Holser.” We drifted toward the station airlock, lasers powered and ready to fire.

“Fifteen seconds!” My voice was tight. “Trusting in the goodness and mercy of Lord God eternal, we commit your bodies to the deep–“

“Oh, my God.” Vax, in a whisper.

“–to await the day of judgment when the souls of man shall be called forth before Almighty Lord God–”

“Wait, don’t shoot!” I could smell their fear.

“Commence firing!”

I watched in the simulscreen. A piece of hull plating near the airlock sagged.

“Hold your fire; we surrender!” A scream.

“Comm room, hold fire!” I deactivated the laser. “Sta-

tion, acknowledge your unconditional surrender!”

A different voice. “Look, mister. We’ve lost, we know that. But if we surrender now you’ll kill us, or they will. We want “amnesty.”

“No.” It was final.

“Our freedom for the station. A trade.”

“No.”

“Our lives, then! No death sentence. Otherwise go ahead and wreck the station; we have nothing to lose!”

He was right. It took only a few seconds to decide. “I agree. As representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations I commute any penalty of death you would be given. No death sentences will be imposed on you. I give my word.”

“For the General too?”

“My guarantee, for all U.N. forces.” Vax put his head in his hands. I had legal authority to make such a pledge but it wouldn’t be well received at Admiralty. Not well at all.

“Give me a minute. Please. I have to talk to the others.”

“Very well.” Vax and the other middies breathed almost imperceptibly while I watched the clock.

Two minutes. “Time’s up. I’ll fire in fifteen seconds.”

“We surrender! We’ll take the deal!”

“Very well. Suit up. Release your officers, then go into your airlock and open the outer hatch. You have three minutes.”

It took them five. I floated Hiberniaas close as I dared.

Then I had a sailor in a thrustersuit take a cable across to their airlock. I made the rebels swing across the line hand over hand to our own lock. One by one we took them in, fifteen of them. Mr. Vishinsky and his waiting crew brandished laser pistols, hoping for an excuse to use them.

Some hours later General Friedreich Kail sat in my cabin, an untouched drink by his arm. He was a heavyset, florid man of sixty. He flatly refused to honor my agreement, and demanded the mutineers’ return. They would be tried and hanged. We glowered at each other.

I shrugged. “You act as if you have a choice.” I thumbed the caller. “Mr. Holser, report to the Captain’s cabin, to escort General Kail off the ship.”

“I’m not subject to your orders!”

“No, but you’re on my ship. As soon as we’re done offloading your supplies I’ll be on my way.”

“What about the rebels?”

“They go with me, for protection.”

“They’re under my authority! You can’t!” He flung himself to his feet.

“Watch me.” It was easy, once I no longer cared about consequences. My tone was blunt. “General Kail, you’re an ass. Write your objections into my Log and your own Daybook. Then get off my ship.”

“You’d let mutineers go free, you traitor?” He was out of control.

Vax knocked on my cabin hatch. “Free?” I said as I opened it. “Hardly. They’ll be tried and convicted. They’ll probably wish they were dead before their sentences are up.

But we won’t hang them.”

“How do you expect me to hold my command if you treat them with such leniency?”

“I don’t,” I said evenly. “I expect you to lose it again before we return.”

He crumpled, slumped heavily into the seat. “Do you know what this means on my service record? Losing the station to a bunch of civilians? I’m through.”

I signaled Vax to wait, shut the hatch again. “Not necessarily. You’ve got your station back. You still have problems planetside. Your record will include how you handle them.”

“You think so?” He looked up hopefully. “Bah. They despise weakness.”

“Who? The miners or U.N. Command?”

“Both. And me. I despise weakness too.”

“Accept the deal I gave them, and I’ll stay in the vicinity to back you up. My lasers can target the surface if necessary.

My report will show I watched you reassert control on your own.” I was becoming a dealmaker. If I couldn’t lead, I’d negotiate.

After much argument, he reluctantly went along with me.

I saw him off the ship, transferred the fifteen rebels to his custody, and withdrew the ship a thousand kilometers to a parking orbit.

I had three more chores.

We packed the circumference corridor at the forward airlock, officers, sailors, passengers. The flag-draped alumalloy coffins rested in the lock behind me. I read from the Christian Reunification service for the dead.

In my cabin, donning my dress whites and adjusting the black mourning sash over my shoulder, I’d resolved to complete the ritual. My voice would stay level, I wouldn’t tremble. I had already determined that. Now I only had to carry it out.

I began flatly, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust... “ Sandy sat in his bunk absolutely still, waiting for Vax to allow him to move. “Man that is born of woman... “ Sandy held his orchestron above Ricky’s reaching hand, grinning.

My voice quavered. I bit off my words. I was as much to blame for Sandy’s death as the wretches in our brig.’ Trusting in the goodness and mercy of Lord God eternal, we commit their bodies to the deep... “

A dozen men in spacesuits, and I’d allowed them aboard? Better I had resigned my commission the day Captain Malstrom died. Sandy’s contorted face stared past me. I felt the scorched fabric of his uniform. I touched the blistered hole in his chest. Only a few more words and it would be done.

Sandy was barely sixteen. Yesterday his whole life had been before him. He’d wolfed down his breakfast in the mess.

He’d sat joking with us at lunch. He washed. He smiled. He stood his watch. Now, because of me, his remains were in a cold metal box. “To await the day of judgment when the souls of man shall be called forth before Almighty Lord God... Amen.”

I had managed to finish the service. I glanced at Vax. His shoulders shook silently, his eyes red from weeping. I smiled bitterly. Vax, who had tormented Sandy in the wardroom, was devastated by his death while I, his protector, had no tears to shed.

“Petty Officer Terrill, open the outer lock, please.” I waited.

“Eject the caskets, Mr. Terrill.” Slowly, the coffins receded into the dark.

Two more chores.

As I trudged to the bridge a figure blocked my path. I looked up. Amanda. ‘ “They say your courage saved the ship.

Thank you... Nicky.”

“They were mistaken,” I said, my voice flat. “Excuse me.”Back on the bridge I issued orders. “Derek, Alexi, plot our course to Hope Nation. Vax, have Mr. Vishinsky bring the prisoners to the bridge, securely cuffed.”

“Aye aye, sir.” My heart pounding, I stared at my screen.

I could hear Alexi and Derek tap at their consoles. Soon. It would be over soon enough.

“Message from Miningcamp, sir. All resistance has ceased.”

“Very well.”

The seven men stood in a line along the bulkhead, hands cuffed behind their backs, their feet chained together. Still, Vax and the master-at-arms carried stunners.