David Drake - When the Tide Rises

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She looked at the image, wishing that they were having this conversation electronically. There were far too many variables for certainty, and it would be easier to keep her tone of dry detachment if she weren't side by side with one of the many people who would die if her assumptions had been faulty.

"Competent people are very conscious of their own failures, their own mistakes," Adele said. "What they-"

She turned and met Daniel's eyes directly.

"What tends to escapeus is the fact that our opponents have human limitations also. Daniel, what would you think if I told you that the crew of the Alliance flagship, thePleasaunce, had removed twelve thrusters and all the starboard plating from the Power Room overnight?"

Daniel grimaced, then smiled broadly. "I'd think that Admiral Guphill had a crack crew," he said. "Yes, I take your point."

Daniel was bracing himself with his right hand on Adele's console. He drummed his index and middle fingers momentarily, then said, "It recently occurred to me that I regretted Admiral Anston's illness for the RCN's sake, not my own. You can understand that, I'm sure."

She frowned. "Of course I can," she said. "Daniel, your worst enemy wouldn't suggest that you'd put personal gain ahead of your duty."

"Yes," Daniel said. "But now, sitting here-"

He grinned.

"-squatting here, better, I realized that I most of all wish Admiral Anston were healthy for his own sake."

His smile faded. "I didn't know Anston well, but I knew him well enough to like him a great deal. The RCN will manage, just as I'm managing. I wish the same were true for him. Which brings me to another point."

Adele waited without comment, without expression. She didn't need to prod Daniel to speak, so she didn't prod.

"I said the RCN was pleased to have you, Adele," Daniel said. He rose to his feet. "But not nearly as pleased as I am personally."

Daniel strode back to his console. Adele resumed her examination of the seemingly out-of-serviceZeno. A very neat piece of work by the RCN, if she did say so herself.

Above Diamondia

Daniel had split his main display between the Plot-Position Indicator centered around thePrincess Cecile in Diamondia orbit and a large-scale equivalent which covered the region surrounding the Alliance base on Z3. The latter was as much conjecture as fact: distance and the enormous bulk of Zmargadine denied certainty, despite the specious confidence that the image instilled. A hologram looked the same whether or not it represented more than a computer's imagination.

Though imperfect, the display gave Daniel some information on what was happening near the Alliance base. A bright orange caret winked, highlighting the ship that'd just extracted from the Matrix almost 600,000 miles in-system from Zmargadine. It was too far for the corvette's sensors to have registered the precursors of an extraction, the distortions to the fabric of sidereal space-time caused when a portion of another bubble universe intrudes. It was too far as well for Daniel to identify the incoming vessel even by class.

He had a pretty good idea, though. He felt his palms start to sweat with anticipation.

"Signals, this is Six," Daniel said. He started to say, "A ship has extracted near Zmargadine." That'd be comparable to Adele telling him that theSissie 's thrusters had lighted. While she probably wouldn't say that in so many words, he'd heard the dry sneer in her voice often enough that he didn't have any difficulty imagining it again.

Instead he continued, "Will our outpost send us details of the visitor in the neighborhood of Zmargadine? I can't come closer than a rough idea of the tonnage, and even that's going to be a guess, over."

"I don't expect a report, no," Adele said. Her wands twinkled as she spoke; she was carrying on the conversation with a very small portion of her attention, which explained and even justified the way she ignored protocol. "I told Rene not to risk revealing himself unless there was something we needed him to tell us. Which the arrival of a courier at the Z3 base isnot, to my mind. Here, this is a 63% probability."

A pulsing red icon appeared on Daniel's display where the two screens met. Adele's skill would've permitted her to squelch the existing content in favor of the information she was forwarding, but though she was brusque, Daniel'd never found her discourteous by accident.

He opened the icon to an image of an Alliance aviso of the Hela Class. Adele's processing algorithms were obviously more subtle than those the RCN provided to the captains of its warships.

"The supply shipsBalrumandHiddenseekeep a three-week rotation from the Fleet base on Eisernberg," Adele said, anticipating Daniel's next question. "Presumably they carry normal communications as well as replacement personnel and food. This is the first time a courier ship has been sent to Admiral Guphill."

The caret marking the aviso faded from Daniel's display as the vessel itself reentered the Matrix. Now that her captain had oriented himself in the sidereal universe, he'd bring his vessel as close as possible to Z3 before making his final approach on High Drive and finally thrusters. If he judged his distance properly, he'd extract the next time with Zmargadine between him and RCN observers on Diamondia.

Daniel checked his PPI. The destroyersEcho andEclipse were in orbit with thePrincess Cecile.

"Signals," he said, "have our fellow friendlies noticed the courier's arrival? They don't show any sign of it, but then I suppose we don't either, over."

"The destroyers have only basic reconnaissance software," Adele said. "Even if they had something more advanced, they don't have specialists to use it properly. They'll have gathered the data, but it won't be processed till they're replaced on station in nine hours and download their logs to the Staff computer at Port Delacroix. I very much doubt their officers are concerned with anything beyond the space immediately neighboring Diamondia. Over."

Daniel considered the situation for a moment. Strictly speaking, thePrincess Cecile wasn't part of the Diamondia Squadron. She was operating under the orders of Navy House, which took precedence to those of the theater commander.

In more specific terms, the captains of the two destroyers were lieutenant commanders, junior in rank if not length of service to Commander Daniel Leary. Nevertheless, it was politic as well as courteous to tell them what he intended to do. So "Signals, please make immediate landing arrangements with Diamondia Control," Daniel said. "Break. Poultice Two, Poultice Three-"

TheEclipse andEcho respectively.

"-this is Rascal."

ThePrincess Cecile 's designator while operating with the Diamondia Squadron.

"We are setting down to refill with reaction mass. Good hunting, spacers. Rascal out."

TheEcho simply acknowledged. From theEclipse came, "Roger, Rascal. If you can scare up something to hunt, we could use the exercise, out."

Daniel believed it was the voice of Captain Gibbs, who'd been a Senior when Daniel entered the Academy. They'd chatted in friendly fashion earlier when they met in Squadron HQ. Jennifer Gibbs hadn't been unduly harsh to Entrant Leary at the Academy, and she seemed to regard their present reversal of status philosophically.

So did Daniel: the fortunes of war. But he couldn't help smiling.

"Captain, you're cleared to Berth Twelve in the Main Harbor," Adele announced crisply. An icon clicked alive at the bottom of Daniel's display; he expanded it into a half-screen schematic of both harbors, with Berth 12 highlighted.

"Ship," Daniel said, "this is Six. We'll commence our landing approach in three minutes."

He could probably have sent the message down safely with a coded microwave signal, but he was pretty sure that an Alliance signals officer of Adele's quality would be able to read that message in real-time. The Alliance probably didn't have an officer of Adele's quality-and the RCN probably didn't have another-but this wasn't the time to take chances.

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