David Drake - When the Tide Rises

He turned to Generalissima DeMarce. "Your Excellency?" he said. "I expect to be back in between three days and a week. Can you have a thousand soldiers ready then? Because as soon as I have the ships worked up, I propose to move against Churchyard and take care of the Cluster Command once and for all."

The Generalissima flicked a hand to her head as though patting down an errant curl. "If you think that's wise…," she said without meeting Daniel's eyes. "Yes, all right, when you return."

"We don't have full crews!" Hoppler protested. "We don't even have minimal crews. Leary, you're a bold fellow I'm sure, but we can't go off!"

"Captain Hoppler, I've looked at the crew lists," Daniel said, letting the least touch of steel creep into his tone. "I'll be leaving theSissie in Morning Harbor and splitting her crew among the three vessels of my new command, so we won't be short of skilled personnel. Some of the existing spacers may not be fully experienced yet, but that's what training's for. And as I told you, I believe that once we have a degree of success, the next stages will come easier."

"We won't have a success!" Seward said. "We'll have a mare's nest, that's all!"

"Captain Seward," Daniel said. "The government of Bagaria has seen fit to give me command of her naval forces."

He nodded toward DeMarce and Lampert. They were watching the discussion carefully, but neither tried to intervene.

"The government may remove me at any time, of course," Daniel went on, "but until then I intend to command to the best of my ability. The major elements of the fleetwill lift for orbit at 0600 tomorrow. I very much hope you both will continue in the Bagarian service, but if you choose to resign your commissions instead-so be it. Do you understand me?"

The men scowled, but neither spoke.

"Gentlemen," Daniel said, "I must insist on a reply. Do you choose to continue in command of your present charges?"

"Yes," said Hoppler. "Yes, fine, but you'll see."

Seward didn't speak for a moment. Then he snarled, "You're a cocky bastard, Leary! Yes, all right, I command theDeMarce. That'll give me a good view of you falling on your high-and-mightyface."

"We're all agreed, then," Daniel said cheerfully, sweeping his four companions with another sunny smile. This seemed to be his morning for telling whopping lies. "Then your Excellency, gentlemen-I'll be off. I have a great deal to do before liftoff tomorrow."

The main thing he had to do was to take Vesey and Blantyre into his confidence. He wasn't going to tell all the Sissies what was going to happen for fear one of them would blurt something to the locals on the way.

He wanted the Bagarian officers to be completely surprised when the squadron extracted from the Matrix above Dodd's Throne.

The process of extraction, so unpleasant if Adele had time to think about it, passed her unaware or at least unconcerned when she was busy. TheLadouceur 's extraction above Dodd's Throne made Adelevery busy.

The planet, sunlit from theSissie 's present position, was an unattractive yellow-orange lump. TheSacred Independence was already in normal space, 147,000 miles from thePrincess Cecile and rather closer than that to the planet. Another ship hung in a free-fall orbit some 57,000 miles above the planetary surface. Ordinarily ships held 1 g to simulate gravity, but Rene'd warned Adele that Dodd's Throne might be an exception because it wouldn't be possible to replenish reaction mass upon landing.

Rene was a clever young man, and he learned quickly.

The orbiting ship was… "Daniel, the unfamiliar vessel is the freighterMoore County out of Rodham," Adele said. She'd keyed the command channel manually, which meant she should've called him Captain; or perhaps Admiral? Well, they all knew that she'd meant no disrespect; and she was in a hurry. "It's just lifted with a cargo of holographic entertainment centers from Mine Compound 73, which appears to be the trading rendezvous on Dodd's Throne. It's not a guardship, and there doesn't appear to be a guardship. Over!"

"Acknowledged, Signals," Daniel's voice said coolly. "Over."

She'd put too much emphasis on "over" because she was embarrassed at calling Daniel by his name in public. Will I never get it right?

Another ship appeared, theGeneralissima DeMarce. Blantyre was nearly a minute behind schedule, but she'd brought her charge even closer than the 21,000 miles above the planet where Daniel had extracted theLadouceur.

Adele's wands assembled and analyzed data from Dodd's Throne, then collated the results and transmitted them as a text block to Daniel's display. "Captain," she said, "there are six Bagarian ships on the ground at MC 73, which I've highlighted. They're exchanging cargo with two Pleasaunce-registered ships, theVieux Carree andBabanguida. The Alliance ships each have two single 10-cm guns, but they don't appear to be manned at present, over."

"Roger, Signals," said Daniel. He didn't sound excited, but Adele heard a quiver of hopeful enthusiasm in those few syllables. Perhaps she imagined it. "Connect me with our squadron mates, over."

"You're connected, Captain," Adele said, trying to keep her voice free of the irritation she felt at being asked to do something she'd set up within seconds of extraction. And within seconds of theDeMarce 's extraction, of course, but that delay wasn'ther fault.

She'd chosen the 20-meter short-wave frequency rather than laser or microwave links. SW transmissions were easy to intercept, but Adele didn't trust the personnel or equipment of the converted merchantmen to pick up the tight-beam communications she preferred.

"Squadron, this is Squadron Six," Daniel said. "The pair of 5,000 ton freighters on the planet below-"

He transmitted a map file marked with the location of MC 73. He hadn't bothered to ask Adele to create it for him as some captains might've done.

"-are Alliance-owned and therefore legitimate prizes. I want both of you to take your ships down, secure the enemy vessels, and put prize crews aboard. There shouldn't be any need for violence since we've caught them without hope of escape. Remember, this is about making us all rich, not about killing people. Do you understand, over?"

While she gave Daniel her partial attention, Adele monitored communications among the merchant vessels. None of them-including theMoore County -seemed to have the slightest awareness, let alone concern, regarding the warships' arrival.

"I bloody wellwon'tbe doing that, Leary!" Seward snapped back immediately. "There's no proper harbor down there, just bare rock that's bound to be irregular. It's not safe for a ship the size of theDeMarce. And just what do you propose to do while we're on the ground, can you tell me that, over?"

"TheLadouceurwill be in orbit making sure no one surprises us on the ground the way we're about to surprise theVieux CarreeandBabanguida," Daniel said. He sounded calm, almost bored. "Break. Captain Hoppler, do you see your way clear to obeying orders, over?"

The blue glint of theIndependence 's High Drive brightened, dragging a hiss across the short-wave spectrum. "Why yes, of course, Admiral," Andreas Hoppler said with studied nonchalance. "Newbern is a real planet, not a spherical soup-bowl like Kostroma where my colleague comes from. I'm used to landing on solid ground. I'm setting down now. Guard us well, Admiral. Hoppler out."

"Squadron Six, this is DeMarce Five," announced Midshipman Blantyre, who'd presumably awarded herself the first lieutenant's call sign according to RCN protocol. "I'm ready and willing to bring her in, sir. As you know, I've got hard-surface experience, over."

Is that true? Adele thought. She started to bring Blantyre's record up as a sidebar on her display, then realized that written documentation wouldn't go into that level of detail. Besides, Blantyre'd said that Daniel knew she had experience. If that'd been true in any meaningful sense, Adele would've known it too.