TNE 02 To Dream of Chaos Page 16

Plan br the worst; hope tor the best.

  'Yeah, out that assumes they have logo all the way back to Solee itself, and don't have ships at a base closer by," Gyro cautioned.

  "Right, but we can balance that against additional lime they might need to repair their drives, and the much greater chance that misjumps wit! no! be in their favor *

  "Great," Snapshot said dejectedly, "so all we accomplished was to set a limit on the lime we have for this mission."

  That's right, Coeur thought, we've put ourselves on a clock. And I 've maybe doomed a bunch of people I never met to a fate I wouldn 't wishonanyone. Coodguys, badguys. Imperial, Sotomoni, Coalition, Solee. There but for the grace of Cod go we "That stilf leaves us a lot of time, and we're alive and well. Deep Six, plot us a course back to Armis, ASAP. The clock is running."

  Oh, you poor stupid bastards. Take your time coming back, but please, Cod, let them make it.

  Despite his considerable knowledge of starship drives. Crowbar knew V) ff Armis could not be repaired with parts aboard herself or Hornet. Indeed, it was questionable whether the Jury-rigged thrusters would stand more than a few minutes of hard evasive bums.

  "I think she'll make 1G," Crowbar told Coeur in a relatively quiet conver of his engine room, as Hornet powered toward a rendezvous with WEt Anns in orbit about Opaca IV, "but forget about combat"

  "Actually, that's not necessarily a bad thing, Horn's men are pretty loyal, and if she changes her mind about cooperating, I'd hate to see ihem cruising around in something that can oulmaneuvet us."

  Crowbar snorted involuntarily.

  "Don't worry about that, skipper. As of this date, Armis is no match for a garbage barge, let atone the Hornet."

  "Well, all right, buf what about noncombat travel? Do you think she'll make Mexit?"

  "She should. Vmk says he'll cross his fingers."

  Coeur smiled.

  "What I'm more worried about are those junior technarchs," Crowbar said. "Haveyou had any word if Tom's killed them yet?"

  "Actually," Coeur said, "it's funny you mention that. The impression I get Is that Tom is getting along pretty welt with the technarchs and the Marines."

  'That's odd. Tom doesn't seem like much of a Centrist."

  "She isn't—she hates Centrists. But she hates hivers worse."

  "Hm," Crowbar said, comprehending.

  It was a tacit opinion of many Oriflammen—including Snapshot—that the Hiver Federation had overstayed its welcome In human space. To an extent, this stemmed from the impression that they'd been snubbed in the selection of Aubaine as the site of the Hiver Technical Academy, but in a broader sense, it reflected theOrillammen distrust of all things alien and the sense that Oriflamme was being excluded by the members of the Coalition's "Federalist-Hiver" axis.

  Needless to say, most Federalists had SttJe patience for such pessimistic Hiver bashing, noting the obvious benefits of Hiver tech-nologyfcr everymemberoftheCoalition,butTomwasanexceptkxi.

  "You know," Crowbar said, after a lurthennoment's contemplation, "it's possible that Tom has an ulterior motive in being friendly with the technarchs."

  "I thought about that," Coeur said. "I wouldn't be surprised if Oriflamme gave her amnesty just to spite Aubaine."

  "That would be pretty funny, wouldn't it?"

  "Somehow, I don't think'funn/is the word they'd use for it In the assembly," Coeur replied. "But at least there'd be one good thing about it—we'd have Tom on Onflamme's side instead of Zero."

  Sure enough, when Hornet extended her port docking collar to mate with W E( Armis, Coeur found a spirit of fellowship and goodwill rife among her returning personnel—and not just because of Hornets victory over the Royoi Vengeance " Strictly off the record," Gaffer told Coeur and Drop Kick, stepping out of the way of the heavily armored troopers debarking behind him, "I think Tom'sgot sornegood Ideas Somebody ougnt to find the real Guild headquarters and destroy it once and for all."

  "Or Solee, at least," fted Eye added, coming up alongside Gaffer and saluting Coeur and Drop Kick. "Tom says that colonial cruiser was one of the smaller ships tn their fleet"

  "Before you get too chummy with Tom," Drop Kick enjoined his junior sergeants, "you should remember there's a warrant on her head, and you might have to serve it if she doesn't surrender peacefully."

  "Yeah, if we have to," Gaffer said.

  "Understood," Red Eye added.

  "Very good. Carry on."

  Following on the heels of the Marines, however, were the junior technarchs, who were even more effusive In their estimation of Tom.

  "Captain D'Esprit, your friend is an impressive woman. It may have been unjust to accuse her as we have."

  Coeur was mildly stunned. It was probably the first kind word she'd ever heard An-Wing say about anyone.

  "I'm inclined to agree with Liu," Masaryk said. "We agree with Tom that the time has come for a full accounting of the Hivers' Intentions to the Coalition."

  "A fine idea," Coeur said. Til be sure to pass It along as soon as the mission's over."

  "Sir," Masaryk went on, "Liu and I would like to make a request. We would like to remain on the W it Armij."

  "I'm afraid I'll have to refuse."

  "But why?" An-Wing exploded- "You were perfectly willing to trust her with us and the Marines just yesterday!"

  "That, Ms. An-Wing, was when Hornet was In imminent danger. Now that Hornet Is cwit of imminent danger, this is the safest p;ace for you to be."

  "Still," Masaryk said, "it could be risky leaving Tom alone. If she gets away somehow, the Coalition won't be very happy."

  "I'll take the risk," Coeursaid. "Right now, it's more important that Tom's people see we aren't treating her like a fugitive, so they'll cooperate with us."

  "Good point," Masaryk admitted.

  "But, Captain," An-Wing fumed, "if Tom really is all the criminal you make her out to be, somebody Ought to keep an eye on her."

  "Don't worry," Coeursaid, "Even tAmvs. tried to slip away, she couldn't outrun Hornet in her present condition. Besides, since my first responsibility is the safety of you civilians, I couldn't leave you alone on that ship."

  "Very well," An-Wing conceded, "but Beta is correct Tom represents an opinion that is not given adequate respect by the Coalition."

  "Point taken. Now, if you'll excuse us. Drop Kick and I need to go talk with Tom ourselves."

  The technarchs nodded, then moved on Into the Interior of Hornet, smoothly carrying on the perpetual argument that seemed to be their standard discourse, "...Bela, I can't believe you actually agreed with Red Sun. Remember, we should show solidarity."

  "Oh, sure, as long as it's solidarity with your opinion-..."

  "Don't they ever shut up?" Drop Kick asked Coeur. after The Orlllammen had passed out of earshot.

  "Probably when they sleep," Coeur suggested.

  "You know, the Secretary General better look out" Drop Kick joked. "As popular as Tom is, she'll probably take up politics after she gets out of prison."

  "I wouldn't say She's popular with everyone," Coeur eoun tered, walking toward the airlockwith Drop Kick, but pausing just outside the hull of W tt Armis.

  "Physic, you mean?"

  "Actually, I was thinking about Newton. They say Hivers don't have emotions, but i could swear he's been lying low as long as Tom's been around."

  "Yeah, I guess he has, now that you mention it."

  "Well, maybe he's just been busy," Coeur said, stepping back from her anthropomorphism. "Come on, let's go find Tom."

  Just a few steps to their right, Coeur and Drop Kick came again to W El Armit bridge, unlocked but now staffed by its full complement of seven spacers. These men and women—mostJy Coalition citizens, sharing Tom’s distaste for the Hivers' influence—recognized Coeur and Drop Kick from their earlier months on the corsair and made friendly greetings, hearing these, Tom separated herself from her pilot's couch and headed aft to meet her visitors at the bridge hatch.

  "Well, congratulations," Tom welcom
ed them, guiding Coeur and Drop Kick back to the relative auiet of the starboard gangway, "it sounds like you taught those Solee a thing or two."

  "Well, I don't know about that," Coeur returned. "The Solee crew might have been green, but they did have the presence of mind to jump away and probably go get reinforcements."

  "Which means," Drop Kick added, "that we don't have much time to find Zero's people and the depot."

  "Yeah, I get the picture," Tom said. "We need to jam."

  "Basically," Coeur agreed, "yes. We've brought Snapshot's drone back aboard and laid in a fairly fast course to Mexit—about four days, assuming you can make 20 C-hours of thrust "

  "Understood. That shouldn't be a problem,"

  "We could take it easier, say 10 G-hours, but then there's another consideration, too. I'd ;tist as soon not leave V-Max and his people alone any longer than necessary."

  "Very Thoughtful," Tom said.

  "More like pragma Ik," Drop Kick corrected. "If anything happens to V-Max, we'll have to start from the ground up."

  "Well, V-Max Is pretty sharp," Tom said. "I'm sure he had Cari and Kauel hide the ship's boat before they went scouting."

  "Let's hope," Coeur said. "As for us, we'll keep In touch with a tight-beam maser, just so Mexit doesn't hear us coming."

  "Check. As far as we could tell, Mexit doesn't have any kind Of fleet, so we shouldn't have to worry about that. And her moon is very small, so it probably doesn't support any kind of base "

  "What I'm worried about more are planetary defenses," Coeur said. "PDMs and deep meson sites. That world was pretty big, and it had to have elaborate defenses."

  "No doubt," Tom agreed, "but nothing active ever locked onto us. Not that we could detect anyway."

  "Could be the old systems were forgotten," Deep Kick suggested.

  "Want to trust your drop troops to that intuition/" Coeur asked, "Negative."

  "That's another reason we need to run silent, then. But that"s only one problem we need to deal with. Tom, to be frank, I'm worried about leaving you unsupervised."

  Tom's eyebrows rose.

  "Why? Think I'll misbehave?"

  "You know what I mean, Tom, To be frank, I don't want an armed confrontation between our crews—because Cod knows you've got some pretty heavy weapons of your own on boaro— but eventually I'll have to post some sort of guard to keep an eye on you. The way I see it, that time will be after we sort out the situaUon on Mexit and find a safe place to repair your ship."

  Tom sighed.

  "That's the law, huh?"

  "No, the law is that I put you and your crew under arrest and put a prize crew aboard Annis, but I'm willing to delay that on the basis of your character,"

  "I understand. I'll find a way to break it to the crew that they'll be seeing more of your troops later."

  "Very well," Coeur agreed, shaking hands with Tom. "Good luck with your drives."

  "Thanks."

  "And don't forget," Drop Kick added, "if we get ambushed, let Hornet do the fighting."

  "Don't worry," Tom said. "If we get ambushed by anyone, we'll be sure to hide behind your ship."

  Chapter 10

  As Inhabited worlds went, Mexit was somewhat small—close In diameter and mass to the solar world Mars. This gave It the advantage of fairly iowgravity, about 0.7G —handy for engineers and architects accustomed to heavier worlds—and both surface water and minerals existed in quantities sufficient to sustain an advanced culture. However, Mexit's disadvantages far outweighed its advantages. Like Oriflomme, it orbited close to its sun, completing one orbit In 4IH days and therefore receiving a vicious battering as air currents whipped around the planet, propelled by pressure differences between the rapidly heated and chilled polar regions. With TL15 weather control, the entire planet had once been inhabitable, but it had since regressed to TL6, so that day was long gone. Virus had seen to that.

  "So basically. Deep Six, what you're saying Is Ifs not a fun place to be."

  "That would oe an accurate assessment, Captain Without weather control, the planet has insufficient ozone, and with Insufficient ozone, anyone out in the daylight risks serious UV damage."

  Uttering that statement in Hornets lounge. Deep Six elicited groans from several of the humans arrayed around him. In addition to Coeur, there were Physic, Newton, Gaffer, the cavalry troopers Drop Kick, Whiz Bang and Bonzo, and the pirates Tom and Vink—an eclectic group gathered from Hornet and Vi Et Atmis for a first mission to Mexit, Since the ships were parked side by side on the back side of Elojo—Mexit's little moon with a diameter of 500 km -they were safe from any kind of planetary sensors, but they were not safe from the predatlon of their own imaginations.

  "Well, on the plus side," Tom said, "at least we got back in contact with V-Max. The trouble will be linking up with him."

  "Right," Drop Kick agreed. "If we go down in the daytime, we risk getting baked, but on the other hand, If we go down at night, that's when everybody will be moving around."

  "Ifs a pity he couldn't have stayed with the ship's boat," Bonzo said. 'There's a meson communicator aboard It, right? So we could communicate with him directly from Armls."

  "Unfortunately," Tom said, "no, wecouldn't. A/mif set Is very short range, and the ship's boat set Is a receiver only. We only use the system In dire emergencies."

  Thinking about this, and the conditions on Mexit, Coeur rapped her pen on the lounge table several limes, then dropped It. Almost imperceptibly, Its fall was slower than normal, since ship's gravity was set to 0.7G, acclimating her personnel to the gravity of Mexit.

  "All right," she said, "let's look at a map. Where was V-Max when we contacted him?"

  After a certain amount of fiddling wllh a recessed control panel, Newton activated the lounge table's holographic display and pulled up a relic survey image of Soledad City, 200 km on a edge. Altered to remove cloud cover, the Image was wall-to-wall metropolis, so thick with urbanization that little contrast of regions coutd be discerned.

  "Just about here," Newton said, pointing a fingertip at the center of the map. "From a church here in AJbegar District,"

  "A church?" Caffer asked.

  "St Elva's Chapel," Tom said- "It belongs to the Church of Grace and Light."

  "Do we know anything about them?" Drop Kick asked.

  "V says It's a local religion," Tom explained.

  "Local as In planetaiy?"

  "It would seem so," Deep Six said. "I've been studying the planefs radio traffic through Snapshot's orbital probe, and the CCL Is mentioned in many broadcasts."

  "Positively mentioned?" Physic asked.

  "Sometimes. Moreoften It is an object of scorn by local tyrants. For instance, the Emperor Brak—Soledad's ruler—has promised to hang the CCL's Cardinal Vazquez if he ever gets his hands on her."

  "Sounds like V-Max picked the wrong place to stay," Whiz Bang quipped.

  "Not necessarily," Coeur corrected. 'This CCL could be a potential ally. But go on, Newton; where's the ship's boat?"

  "It should be here," Newton said, pointing at an area 20 kilometers southwest of the chapel, "in the Lomarica Hills,"

  "Boy, that is one cluttered map," Whiz 8ang observed. "I mean it's all urban—It must be a jungle to pass through."

  "Well, you've got to remember that that's an 80-year-old map," Tom said; "ifs not quite that built-up today."

  "Indeed," Newton said. "Observe."

  Through digital wizardry, Newton altered the old Image of Soledad, replacing it with a scan of the identical area recovered from Snapshot's probe that very day. Even those who'd seen the sensor comparison earlier were stunned—where once a city sprawled, now stood a wasteland of farmland and rubble. Only around the great River Tam, and the old Callldo Highway, was settlement—no more than a tenth of the old city.

  "The 20 kilometers between the Lomarica Hills and the chapel are primarily farmland, and sparsely populated."

  "Newton's right," Tom said. "We could probably put down next to the boat an
d fly in unobserved on broomsticks."

  "Indeed," Newton said. "I would agree with the captain's estimation."

  That excited a smile from Coeur; it was the first time Newton and Tom had actually acknowledged each other.

  "So I guess we go In at night then," Drop Kick said.

  "Affirmative," Coeur said. "Emperor Brak might have some relic equipment and some night vision sensors, but he can't watch every part of that city. Deep Six, notify V-Max we'll be landing at local midnight. Hopefully, he'll be able to meet us at his boat"

  "Understood, sir."

  "Six hours," Drop Kick noted, glancing at his watch.

  "Right, six hours, so you better get your rest We'll assemble at the Corner at 1900 hours planetary. Deep Six, you and Werc/ll take us in."

  "Not Gyro, sir?" the Schalli asked. "She Is the XO."

  "No, Mercy's the better pilot. If combat comes up—heaven forbid—that'll matter."

  Deep Six fluttered his barbels In the Schalli equivalent of a shrug, acknowledging the point. Gyro, at any rate, preferred to command the ship from her laser turret.

  "Anyway," Coeur said, "there's one thing I want us all to remember We'll go in armed, but we're very definitely not going to attract attention to ourselves."

  "Right,'' Physk said, aiming a stare at Tom. "Less killing Is good."

  Tom took the Jibe without response.

  "Oh, there might be killing eventually, "Coeur told her doc tor, rising to signify the end of the meeting. "But If It happens. If IT be on our timetable. Now get your rest, people. You'll need it."

  V > t Although she was just a Marine corporal, Mercy was easily the second-best pilot on Hornet, with an Instinctive knack for atmospheric (light that impressed the best pilot—her skipper. Theonly advice Coeur Imparted to the Marine was to remember that Hornet was not a tank, so if she got shot at, bug out "Don't worry, skipper," Mercy said. "Sixer and I'll get you to the DZ, all right."

  Of course, merely flying Into the atmosphere of Mexit was not the challenge—>t was reacting to any defenses that weren't immediately obvious.

  "So," Mercy said to Deep Six, glancing out the broad bridge canopy at an angry ocean of Storm clouds suffusing the northern hemisphere of Mexit, "you said all that down there's uninhabited, right?"