Tactical Error (12 page)

“I will never return to the
Thermopylae
now,” Keflyn
reminded him.
So if you want your chance,
she added to herself,
you
will get your business concluded as quickly as you can manage so that I can be
about mine.

“And I do have to get back to my ship,” Addesin mumbled to
himself.

Derrighan just sat there in silence with the most surprised, frightened, and
bewildered expression on his lupine face, knowing that he had won something and
not at all sure what, or if he really wanted it in the first place. Keflyn
hoped that she could take that as a measure of the sincerity of his interests,
that he had been competing for her favor in spite of a logical uncertainty
about whether or not he should.

Now that she had him, she was also facing the question of what to do with
him. She wondered about that as the two of them used the transport to move her
bags to his house near the edge of the settlement. Both Derrighan and Jon
Addesin had stirred her interests, although not to any great extent. Anything
that did happen would be nothing more than play. Jon Addesin looked the most
like one of her own kind. Derrighan was most like her in thought and spirit.
The Feldenneh would spend most of a long night in gentle, affectionate
lovemaking. Humans had sex in a matter of minutes and went to sleep.

She was by no means certain that she wanted things to go that far with
either one of them. Her advantage was that the choice was entirely her own.

The evenings of this world were marked by spectacular displays of light, a
constantly changing display of long streamers and sheets of brilliant colors
filling the western sky. She had been told that the sun of this system was
slightly unstable, fluctuating on a cycle of slight expansion and contraction
every sixteen hours, and pouring out a tremendous blast of charged particles
and strong magnetics as it did. Keflyn wondered that this world had ever been chosen
for major settlement. Unshielded electronic and electrical systems would never
work properly.

They were unpacking her bags from the back of the truck when a vast sheet of
lightning rippled across the sky, moving in a complex pattern of interconnected
arcs like a blinding spider’s web from the western horizon to the east.
Keflyn blinked, waiting for some devastating blast of thunder. Long seconds
passed in silence, followed by a dim, distant rumble.

“Sheet lightning, as we call it,” Derrighan explained before she
could ask. “Stratospheric lightning is the true name. Sometimes the
ionosphere takes a greater charge than it can hold, faster than the charge can
be lost into the lower atmosphere. First one arc jumps the bounds between the
layers, and that sets off the whole thing. Sometimes it will leap all the way
to the ground with the force of a nuclear explosion. But only in the distant
south, where the lands are much warmer, and especially so during the big
circular storms. Never here.”

Keflyn stared at him, suddenly perceiving something. That fitful talent of
hers suddenly gave her the clue to something she was too distracted to have
seen for herself.

“You are no settler,” she said, surprising him by speaking in
his own language. “Neither is Kalmedhae. None of you are. I think that
you are some manner of scientist, or explorer.”

“No, this is a real settlement,” he told her, considering his
answer quickly but carefully. “The Union found this world and considered
it unfit for their own use, and they gave it to the Feldenneh. They did not
look deeply enough to discover its secrets. When the first true settlers
realized what this world was, they sent word secretly. You should understand
that my people see the collapse of the Union, and we know that the time has
come that we must take a stand. We will no longer help them in any way. We knew
that this world would be very important to you. We are holding it for
you.”

“They sent a team of researchers to live with the other colonists, and
other officials such as Kalmedhae to supervise,” she assumed.

“That is so,” he agreed. “The Union watches us from time
to time, and we had to wait until the time was right to tell the Starwolves.
Your sudden arrival surprised us. I was to tell you when we were alone tonight.
That was why Kalmedhae arranged for us to be alone.”

“I thought you were just after my body.”

Derrighan looked uncomfortable. “I had my own interests, and Kalmedhae
saw that and took advantage of it. Jon Addesin must be frustrated for a while
at least. He learned the secret of this world, and he has guarded it well. But
he does not know our secret.”

“What is the secret of this world?” Keflyn asked.

“I think that Kalmedhae is right, that you must learn that for
yourself. You must decide what it means for yourself.”

The Alkayja system seemed unusually busy as the Methryn dropped out of
starflight, hurtling in toward her destination at high speed. The Republic had
never really recovered from its early defeats, remaining a relatively small and
inactive group of underpopulated colonies. That had been changing very quickly
in the past few years, due mostly to the sudden expansion of both the size and
fortunes of the Kelvessan race, particularly the High Kelvessan. But the
Starwolves themselves lived most of their lives apart, and they often had no
clear idea what was happening at home. Velmeran had certainly never expected
this.

“Incoming carrier, identify immediately,” the voice of system
control demanded imperiously.

“This is the Methryn,” Valthyrra responded, as surprised as
everyone else on the bridge by that cold welcome. She recovered quickly.
“My crew and I were responding to your most polite request that we pop in
for a visit, as inconvenient as it has been to our busy schedule.”

“Methryn, you are directed to move into an equatorial orbit of fifty
thousand kilometers and await further orders. You are to launch no ships of
your own nor engage in unnecessary communication. Bring your running lights to
full immediately,” system control directed, abruptly cutting the channel.

Valthyrra’s camera pod lifted in surprise. “Well, I like that! I
get a warmer welcome than that at Vinthra, even after what we did there. So
what happened? Did my warranty expire?”

“Something is wrong,” Velmeran commented. “Why are we
being shunted into a holding orbit? Is something happening at the
station?”

“Not that I can tell,” Valthyrra answered. “There are no
explosions or wrecks, although they do seem busier than the last time we were
here.”

Long minutes passed as the Methryn whipped around the curve of the planet
Alkayja at a speed which brought another curt reprimand from system control,
braking hard as she settled into her assigned orbit. Valthyrra inserted herself
at a position in orbit where she had a fairly good view of the station. It was
a mobile station, complete with its own drives, although it had been in orbit
over this world for centuries. Its thick, main body, twenty-five kilometers
across, was a large city in itself. This was surrounded by two rings of docking
bays, the smaller bays for commercial and military ships, and below that the
immense modules that housed the carriers.

“There are two carriers already in port,” Valthyrra reported.
“The Delvon and the Valdayen.”

“What are they doing here?” Velmeran asked. “Can they tell
you what is going on?”

“No, they ward off my attempts to communicate without
explanation.”

“Well, I have had just about enough of this nonsense. Put me through
to system control,” he said, and waited until Valthyrra indicated that
the channel was open. “This is Fleet Commander Velmeran. I ask to speak
with Admiral Laroose, or whoever might now hold his position.”

“That is not currently possible,” the reply came immediately, so
quickly that it was an obvious refusal to forward the request. “You will
be directed to dock shortly.”

“I wish I knew what this delay was about,” Consherra commented,
leaving her place at the helm station to pace the center of the bridge. Like
the rest of the bridge crew, she had been watching the image of the station on
the main viewscreen.

“Yes, I know what this reminds me of,” Velmeran declared
suddenly. “What do you suppose all other ships do when they come into
port, and they have to take their turn to come in to dock?”

That startled the others, even Valthyrra. In all of her long life, no one
had ever told her that she would have to circle while she awaited clearance. No
one, not even their own people, ever asked starwolves to wait.

“Well, how rude!” Valthyrra declared. “The only reason I
took this job was for the perks.”

Velmeran returned to the bridge hours later, responding to Valthyrra’s
summons. The Methryn had finally been committed to her dock, a third of the way
around the ring of carrier ports on the station’s lower ring from the
other two ships, with orders to keep her airlocks sealed with her crew on board
and to deny all attempts at communication except from a special Senate
Committee or one of the Members of the Triumverate. By this time, Velmeran was
very certain that something must be very wrong, and that the Starwolves were
being called home to solve it. He was willing enough to help, but he was
impatient to be started. With both Lenna and Keflyn away on important missions,
the Methryn needed to be free to respond to their calls on a moment’s
notice.

Consherra and Valthyrra were both in the center of the main bridge, staring
at the viewscreen. Velmeran wondered about that at first, since the only image
was that of the inner wall of the bay. Valthyrra turned her camera pod to
glance at him, then turned back to the screen as she magnified the image on the
wide bank of windows that formed the bay’s control room and, above that,
the larger observation deck. There were guards, dozens of human guards, at both
sets of windows, watching the Methryn with the same intensity.

“They are not trying to board, are they?” he asked.

“No, not yet,” Valthyrra answered. “All of that milling
about does suggest such an intent, however.”

“Now I wonder why they would be so interested in this ship,”
Velmeran mused. “They might be in our own service in theory, but I will
not have any humans on this ship uninvited. Any attempt to board this ship,
whether by order or by force, is to be denied by any means necessary. I want a
pack in armor standing by at each airlock connected by a docking probe, and
find some way that you can speak privately with those other two ships. This is
now hostile territory until I know what is happening here.”

“Could the Union be in control here, and trying to trap us?”
Consherra asked.

“If they are, then they are even wearing Republic uniforms.”

“That, however, is not actually what I called you to the bridge to
see,” Valthyrra said. “I took the precaution of putting a drone
overboard while we were still in orbit outside, just so I could keep an eye on
things from that angle. That helped me to intercept an achronic message from
Lenna and Bill. She needs for us to come quickly.”

Velmeran frowned. “Very quickly?”

“She says that if we do not get there in a hurry, then it will be the
end of civilization as we know it.”

“That does sound like Lenna Makayen.” He stood for a moment,
considering the problem. “Get me in touch with someone willing to talk to
me. Tell them that the Methryn is pulling out of this bay in ten minutes unless
they can give some very good excuse for remaining.”

“What if they try to stop us?” Consherra asked.

“How? There are no doors on this bay.”

Velmeran’s threat of ten minutes might have seemed a little severe,
but it was met with time to spare. Hardly a minute had passed when Valthyrra
lifted her camera pod in a gesture of extreme surprise and perplexity.
“Commander, I have a call from Central Command. President Alac Delike
wishes to speak with you.”

“I expected no less,” Velmeran said with such indifferent
certainty that they had to wonder if he did. “Put him through.”

“Commander Velmeran?” the warm, friendly voice, more like that
of a used freighter salesman than a leader of worlds, responded a moment later.
“You seem to have some complaint with your orders.”

“I have no orders,” Velmeran corrected him briskly. “As
Commander of the carrier fleet, I am answerable to no orders except my own
unless I receive special instructions from the Senate itself. I have received
no such orders, but I do have people out on two very important missions. I must
respond to a call from one of those missions immediately, or I might lose both
my people and the important information they were sent to collect.”

“I know that it must seem very important to you, but something has
happened here that will make all other concerns inconsequential,” Delike
answered in that same cheerful voice, suggesting good news. “I would like
for you to come over for a private discussion with myself and a couple of
representatives of the Senate. It’s important for you to understand everything.”

Velmeran considered that briefly. “I have no choice, I suppose.”

“You will not be disappointed,” Delike assured him. “If
you would like to come over as soon as you’re ready, I’ll have
someone standing by to guide you at your main airlock.”

Valthyrra moved her camera pod closer, an indication that she had closed the
channel.

Velmeran shook his head slowly. “This is about as strange as it gets,
but Delike does seem agreeable enough, even eager. I will discover what this is
all about, and then we will do something about Lenna even if we have to send
another ship after her.”

“Another ship and crew would not know what to do,” Consherra
reminded him. “Her mission is very important.”

“This had better be even more important, or certain members of the
government of the Republic are going to find out why Donalt Trace fears the
name of Velmeran,” he declared. “All the same, I have a suspicion
that I am going to be very disappointed. It has always been my experience that
they are the most irrational, excitable and socially disagreeable creatures in
known space.”