Hegemony (57 page)

"Not at all. You didn't cause the mess. And better we deal with a mess in Yuro now than have the system break away with Coalition support in a tenkay or so."

"Do you think this was about grabbing the Yuro system?"

"No," the admiral said. "No, I think it was... well, I doubt they would have turned it down, but I think the Coalition just felt ready to push again."

"So... another war," Freya said.

"It could be. We're reinforcing the frontier systems. If they want a war, they'll get one. And if the situation seems right, they might get one even if they don't want one. That sort of forward deployment tends to have a momentum of its own.

"Their new lance-ships are a complicating factor, but they can't have that many of them yet, and they're quite vulnerable to harassing attacks by swift-ship squadrons," the admiral went on.

"I just wish we hadn't needed to lose an assault-ship to find out about it," Freya said.

"Yes. Captain Ari-Kani will be missed. He was a very good officer. We had big plans for him. Someone will come up to take his place, though, Captain Tralk. The Fleet isn't short of exceptional young officers," the admiral said, looking at Freya.

The ships of the 7th Rapid Reaction Fleet filled the horizon. Staring out of the viewport of the little cutter, Freya could see the myriad ships gleaming like metal spindles, silhouetted against the glowing sky of the world below them.

The huge assault-ships,
Stellar Fortress
and
Battle Lord
, dwarfed the ships around them, but those lesser ships were still staggering in their power and sleek presence. A half dozen lance-ships floated, half-visible in the sharp jet shadows of assault-ships, picked out by their blinking station-keeping lights. Beyond those was a swift-ship tender; assault-ship sized herself, and gleaming with the light of one of the moons reflected against her vast hull. In the foreground were the swift-ships: sharp arrowhead hulls, tiny in comparison to the giants that loomed behind them, but their shape radiating speed and purpose, even drifting in orbit.

Freya's attention was momentarily drawn to the shuttle flying in formation with her cutter, as the bigger craft's plasma drive flared, vectoring for the
Battle Lord
, delivering the Admiral, in his bio-avatar, to his ship.

Her own cutter kept its course, and her attention returned to the swift-ships. They were grouped in their squadrons, surrounded by small craft darting to and fro: their own tiny shuttles, as well as larger shuttles from the orbital anchorage station. Freya's eyes roved across the shapes of the little sleek warships as she waited for the cutter to pivot and boost towards one of them.

But the cutter drifted on, and Freya's lips compressed momentarily in confusion as they passed the last moment where a boost would vector them to last of the swift-ships. She pushed herself back from the viewport and looked up the cramped passage towards the cockpit; had the pilot missed his course? It would be no great problem to correct the little overflight, but Freya hated the thought of her next ship, her new crew, watching with confusion, or maybe even with veiled contempt, as their new captain's cutter failed to manage an elementary orbital maneuver.

But the cutter was still drifting on, well past the swift-ships, and making no move to come about for a corrective burn. They were abreast with the assault-ships now, and Freya could see the docking bay doors of the
Battle Lord
sliding open to receive the Admiral's shuttle. For a moment the sight took her mind back to an image of the
Conquering Sun
, and Captain Ari-Kani.

The cutter was turning now, swinging its nose about to aim its thrusters for a burn. Freya wondered if the pilot had been ordered to give her a good view of the fleet before taking her to her new ship. Perhaps. Then the cutter's plasma drive lit, and Freya saw that the cutter was not thrusting to head back towards the swift-ships. Instead it was heading towards the lance-ships. The little craft was clearly aimed at the one nearest to the vast bulk of the assault-ship
Stellar Fortress
. It was too far to see details with the naked eye, but a reflexive wireless interface command to the little data terminal built into her seat gave her a magnified view. The symbols along the lance-ship's prow, just behind the retracted bow-shields, sprang into clear legibility, proclaiming the ship's name;
Fire Blossom
.

Her hands went to the datachip, tucked into her uniform's sleeve pocket; "to be read upon arriving at your new command" the note had said. She looked at the tiny chip between her fingers, then turned and tapped the panel built into the seat's terminal, opening the data interface slot. As she inserted the chip, she could feel the cutter spinning about, preparing for braking thrust.

"Welcome to your new command." The interface showed her Admiral Narita's face, a wicked smile written on his features. Muir and Zandy stood just behind him, both smiling like little children let in on a juicy prank.

The admiral continued, the smile becoming warmer. "As I said, your new command will make better use of your talents than the swift-ship that we were obliged to send on for repairs... or for that matter, than the guard-ship that you were still listed as being in command of, in the Yuro System Defense Fleet.

"I suppose it must now occur to you that, given what you accomplished, I could hardly send you back to a little swift-ship without an implied rebuke to your performance. Since I intend quite the opposite effect, I've had to send you to a somewhat bigger command." The admiral's voice was calm, matter of fact, but his face was dancing with mirth.

The admiral went on. "Your executive officer is a persistent sort. Between his commendations for valor in the face of overwhelming odds, and his connections, he seems to have managed to evade his duty of taking command of that swift-ship yet again.

"We also have a good officer as an interceptor wave leader for your ship's First Wave," he said, gesturing to Zandy. "She's young, but her combat record is really quite impressive.

"I expect you'll do well with officers like these, Captain Tralk. I'll have my eye on you."

The recording ended.

"Stand by for docking," said the cutter pilot, as the half-megaton mass of the Hegemonic lance-ship
Fire Blossom
loomed ahead.