David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"I told you already that you'll need to provide all the information you've got to my colleague," Cazelet said. "Indeed, perhaps you could provide her with access right now while we're all here."

"That won't be necessary," said Adele as she slipped the wands into the case of her data unit. She stood. "I have the data. Master Cazelet, I believe the best use of our time now will be to begin analyzing it back aboard thePrincess Cecile."

Cazelet rose by straightening his legs without touching a hand to the floor. Tovera had remained standing at the side of the doorway, her off-white suit blending with the delicate moldings.

"I assure you that your colleague doesnot have the information, patron," Torregrossa said sharply. "While I have the greatest respect for you and your father, Torregrossa Brothers must respectfully refuse to unlock our files until there's been an agreement on, let us say, the division of the spoils between our companies."

"Thank you for your time, Torregrossa," Cazelet said, turning to follow Adele through the door.

"My files are protected!" Torregrossa said. "Youcan not enter them!"

"If Lady Mundy says she's copied your files, worm," Tovera said, "then it's as true as if I tell you I'll shoot your eyes out if you raise your voice to her again."

She lifted the sub-machine gun from her case, then giggled.

"Iwill shoot your eyes out if you raise your voice to her again," Tovera said. "In fact, maybe I'll shoot them out anyway."

"Put that away, Tovera," Adele snapped as she started back down the stairs. "We have work to do."

"Yes, mistress," Tovera said in a chastened tone. She concealed the gun again but didn't latch the case closed. Over her shoulder she called cheerfully, "But perhaps I'll be seeing you again soon, worm. I'll look forward to that!"

Daniel kept a real-time exterior panorama running at the top of his display as he readied thePrincess Cecile for liftoff. It didn't seem to him that the sky was brighter than it'd been a few minutes before, but now the water of the harbor shimmered in pale reflection.

"Six, this is Three," announced Pasternak on the command channel. "We're ready to light thrusters, over."

Daniel glanced at his holographic display. The Power Room readouts and the PPI shared the body of the tank, with an astrogational screen scrunched up below. He'd expand that last as soon as they made orbit and it had immediate bearing on his actions.

He keyed a two-way link, beyond the ability of anybody else on theSissie to hear, and said, "Adele, when can we lift?"

"In two minutes, fifty… three seconds, Daniel," Adele said calmly. "After that we have a window of ninety-two minutes if you wish to wait."

"Roger," Daniel said, realizing that she wasn't going to close her transmission. "Thank you, Adele. Break, Pasternak? You can start lighting them in thirty seconds, over."

"Roger, Three out," muttered Pasternak as he broke the connection.

On the PPI the destroyersEcho andEncounter patrolled at the edge of the planetary defense array. They couldn't stop a major attack, but they kept the Alliance minesweepers at a distance from the array. The sweepers had the laborious task of slinging metallic junk toward the nuclear mines using electromagnetic charges; generally the projectors'd been modified from automatic impellers. Eventually a pellet would hit and neutralize the target; then the clearance vessel moved on to the next.

It was a dangerous job, too. Mines could be set at greater than the usual sensitivity so that they'd go off when a target was as much as a hundred thousand miles away. Though focused, the jet of X-rays wouldn't be dangerous even to a corvette at that range, but a mine-clearance vessel, basically a lifeboat, would crumple into lifeless, drifting slag.

Thrusters One and Eight lighted, licking glittering plumes of steam from the harbor. The Governor's Residence wasn't directly visible from theSissie 's berth, but Daniel wondered whether Admiral James was watching remote imagery of the liftoff. No reason he should, of course…

Daniel didn't know how Adele'd determined when thePrincess Cecile should lift, but he assumed she'd based the determination on enemy commo traffic. The Alliance patrolled in the vicinity of Diamondia on a regular basis. Usually that involved a squadron of four cruisers and accompanying destroyers passing close to the minefield to chase any RCN ships in orbit back to harbor.

Two and Seven lighted. Though their nozzles were flared, the iridescent blooms beating the harbor set the corvette to rocking.

Occasionally Alliance capital ships would join the sweep in hopes that Admiral James would sally expecting cruisers and face battleships instead. Guphill's forces played it too safe to fool anybody, though. The battleships and battlecruisers doubled the usual hundred and fifty-thousand kilometer safety cordon out from the minefield that their lighter vessels maintained.

Admiral James wasn't likely to come up to fight anyway, however much he and his spacers wished to. The attrition of frequent skirmishes between the screening forces would leave James without the missiles necessary to fight the fleet action that'd certainly come.

Thrusters Three and Four lighted. The Power Room display told Daniel what was happening, but he thought he could tell by the vibration alone. Each of the pumps feeding reaction mass to the thrusters had a slightly different rhythm. ThePrincess Cecile was as much part of Daniel Leary as his liver was.

Daniel expanded the astrogation display briefly. It was only seven days by Navy House charts from Diamondia to Pelosi, the capital of the Independent Republic of Bagaria; he thought that with him conning theSissie they could shave a day off that.

It was only seven days from Diamondia to Pleasaunce as well. The Jewel System was at a node between bubble universes. Voyages staging through it were considerably shorter than other routes between many common destinations-most of which were in Alliance territory. The presence of Diamondia, a world providing a first-class harbor and amenities to travellers, in Cinnabar hands was a both a practical obstacle and a gross insult to Guarantor Porra and his government.

Its main importance to Cinnabar was as a point from which to attack the Alliance. From the RCN's viewpoint that was extremely important, but notso critical that additional resources could be diverted from sectors where the Republic's survival was threatened.

"Six, this is Three," Pasternak reported. "All thrusters are lighted and operating within parameters. Operating at high efficiency if I may say so, out."

"Roger, Three," Daniel said. "Break, Signals, are we cleared for liftoff, over?"

"Princess Cecile, this is Delacroix Control," said the same female voice which'd cleared them in. Had Adele held the transmission or was the timing just fortunate? "You are cleared for liftoff, over."

"Roger, Delacroix Control," said Daniel. "Sissieout. Break, Ship, prepare to lift in thirty, say again three-zero seconds. Six out."

He ran up the throttles, feeding reaction mass to the thrusters. For the moment he didn't sphincter down the nozzle petals for maximum efficiency.

He grinned and continued on the general push, "Ship, this is Six. I don't know what we're going to find in the Bagarian Cluster, but I do know anybody with ideas we don't go along with is going to find a lot more than they expected! Up Cinnabar!"

Responding cheers rang a descant to the roar of theSissie lifting from the surface of another planet.

Above Diamondia

The plasma thrusters shut off and Adele's body lifted against the restraints. The console's upholstery expanded now that acceleration didn't ram her body into it. A moment later the High Drive coughed into life, returning the Sissies to the equivalent of normal gravity.