David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"Sissie Five, this is Six," Daniel said, stretching his arms to the sides. He arched his shoulders backward to loosen those big muscles too. "We'll be lifting in theAgaveas soon as the last of the prizes has lifted, which I judge to be within the next half hour. We'll get a light hour distant before we exchange personnel, though, over."

Daniel was grinning with satisfaction; Adele found herself smiling back at his image. He had reason to look satisfied. Even if things went badly from here on out, Commander Daniel Leary, RCN, had singed the beard of Guarantor Porra. Nothing would take that away.

"Roger, Six," Vesey said. Despite the compression, there was more animation in the lieutenant's voice than Adele'd heard since the day Midshipman Dorst had died in battle. "I'm looking forward to relinquishing command. Five out."

"Six out," Daniel replied. He rose from his console. Adele turned when his image blurred from her display.

There were only five of them on the bridge. Daniel grinned and said, "I'm going to offer my resignation to Minister Lampert in the BDC now, I believe. Would any of you like to come along? We'll leave for theAgave in ten minutes."

"I'll wait," said Sun, intent on his display. "Somebody might try t'lift, you know?"

He really loves those heavy guns, Adele thought. Well, he was a gunner; he should. Sun didn't think of the result as ruin and charred corpses. Rather, it was the meaning in his life.

"Adele?" Daniel said.

She shook her head. "I'll stay at the equipment here until we leave the ship," she said. "Just in case."

Sun would understand. And of course Daniel understood also.

"Here you go, master," said Hogg, handing a sub-machine gun to Daniel. He took the weapon but frowned in surprise.

Hogg hefted his impeller. "Most of who's aboard isn't Sissies," he said, "and they been issued guns for the business out there. Just in case, you keep that with you."

He nodded at Adele and added with a touch of challenge, "Tovera's in the BDC. I told her I'd take care of things on the bridge so she could watch the wogs there. Understood?"

"I do indeed," said Daniel with a spreading smile. "And I assure you, Tovera isn't any more concerned about Officer Mundy's safety than I am."

Adele grimaced, but she didn't speak. Daniel strode off the bridge, cradling the sub-machine gun. He was whistling.

WhistlingThe Handsome Cabin Boy, Daniel sauntered toward the Battle Direction Center at the end of the A Deck corridor. Tovera stood in the hatchway; she gave him a glance and a cold smile, then returned her attention to the interior of the compartment.

"Her cheeks appeared like roses…," Daniel whistled as he stepped past her. Tovera lifted the muzzle of her sub-machine gun politely so that it didn't point at the middle of his back, but she didn't bother to greet him.

Daniel grinned. He preferred Tovera's silence to her speech. When she spoke, he felt as though he were talking with a viper sunning itself on a rock; albeit a very useful viper.

"Well, I'll tell you, Duncan!" said Blantyre, sitting at one of the star of five consoles in the center of the BDC. "If you don't think you can handle a ship that big with six men, then you've got a choice. You can get some of the Alliance crew to sign on with you, or you can bloody walk back to Pelosi! Now, make up your mind in the next three minutes or stay here and rot. Control Two out!"

James Shearman, a Power Room tech who'd been learning the rudiments of astrogation, sat at another of the consoles. He nodded awareness to Daniel but didn't speak. Seward was at the console nearest the hatch, but Lampert sat hunched on a bench folded down from the starboard bulkhead. When he looked up at Daniel's entry, his eyes were dull as mud.

Blantyre caught the motion in the corner of her eye and turned also. "Sorry, sir," she said. "I had to redirect Team Twelve toThe Cimmerian Queen because theSwordsmith 's High Drive motors had all been taken off. Not a bloody thing on record about it, but they were!"

"I'll send a strongly worded protest to the Harbormaster's Office, Blantyre," Daniel said dryly.

"What?" said Blantyre, blinking. She was a stocky woman, perhaps a hair too forceful but shaping into a very good officer. "Oh, sorry sir. Sorry. Anyway, theCimmerian 's nine thousand tonnes where theSwordsmith was twenty-three hundred, so Matt Duncan wants somebody to hold his hand. There's no time for that now, I figure."

"As do I," Daniel agreed. Changing tone slightly, he went on, "You and Shearman are ready to transfer to theAgave in a few minutes?"

"Yes sir," said Blantyre. "The forward party shifted our gear with their own."

"Roger that, Six!" said Shearman. He had straight black hair and was cultivating a thin moustache to make himself look older than his twenty standard years. It actually made him look more like a rat, but a very keen rat. "Ready and willing!"

Minister Lampert stared at Daniel, wringing his hands but saying nothing. Seward turned but didn't get up from his console. He said, "Are you going to let us go, Leary?"

When Seward moved, Daniel noticed that he was watching looped imagery of the attack on theSiegfried. Daniel found it odd to view a record of what he'd given only passing attention to after the first missile hit. At that point the guard ship was out of the war; the additional destruction was more a matter of embarrassment than pride. He couldn't have afforded to take a chance, though.

Daniel turned toward Lampert and made a slight bow. "I'm here to resign my commission," he said, "if that's what you mean. And-"

He returned to Seward.

"-surrender command of theLadouceur to you, Captain," he said with a smile. "I'm leaving you with a crew of two hundred and fourteen. That should be more than sufficient for your return to Pelosi, though I'll admit the prize crews have left you short of leading spacers and riggers more generally."

"That's not a proper crew for a light cruiser!" Seward said. "That's not half a proper crew."

"It's more than sufficient to work ship," said Daniel. "You'll want to avoid combat, of course, but-not to be pointed, Captain, but I'd have expected you to avoid combat regardless."

"You can't resign," said Lampert. He straightened on the bench and his voice grew stronger with each word. "You were dismissed. You're a pirate!"

The Minister was wearing clothing from the ship's stores, a coarse tunic and trousers with soft-soled boots. The dress uniform he'd boarded in was unsuitable for general use, even if it hadn't been soaked in blood and other matter when authority was transferred back to Daniel. Spacers' slops were unflattering garments at best, but Lampert looked like a burlap sack half-filled with beans.

"Well, that's one for the lawyers, I suppose, your Excellency," Daniel said with a bright smile. "In any case, theLadouceur will be in your hands, yours and Captain Seward's, just as soon as the last of the prizes have lifted. I brought those crews into the situation, so I feel responsible until they've gotten out again. Then I'll leave with my cadre, the Cinnabar contingent-"

He'd almost said, "My Sissies." The Bagarians might've misunderstood.

"-on another captured freighter. I wish you and the Bagarian Republic all deserved fortune." Daniel coughed, then added, "I programmed a course back to Pelosi by way of the Heart Stars, Captain, but that was just a courtesy. I have no desire to influence your actions after the moment I relinquish control."

"Sir," said Blantyre, "Duncan's closed up theCimmerian Queen. They'll be lifting in five."

"Ten, I suspect, Blantyre," Daniel said with a grin, "but I like to see optimism in my officers."

His face hardened, though his cheerful smile remained. He looked from Seward to Lampert.