David Drake: When the Tide Rises

"My dears," Daniel resumed in time to forestall Kitty's no-doubt similar suggestion, "I really don't think I'm in the mood for dancing just now. As a matter of fact, I seem to have finished my punch and-"

He broke off again, gesturing with an index finger to call the girls' attention to the fact they were about to have visitors. A big man in uniform with a tall, slim woman at his side was striding toward them.

"Good evening, Captain Stickel," Daniel said brightly, standing straight instead of letting the stone railing carry some of his weight. Michael Stickel was captain of theLao-tze. Daniel had seen him in passing when the Residence was the Diamondia Squadron Headquarters, but they hadn't met formally.

"I've been looking for you all night, Leary," Stickel said. "I should've guessed you'd be a proper RCN officer and keep close guard on the punch bowl."

From some lips that would've been an insult, but it sounded friendly this time. Daniel said, "May I introduce my charming companions, Captain?"

Bloody hell, he didn't know any of their last names. Nothing unusual in that, of course, but under the circumstances it was going to be awkward. He was pretty sure that one of them was Governor Niven's daughter, but even that wasn't a help: the Governor was as bald as a cue ball.

"No, you bloody may not," Stickel said. "Ollie my dear-" It came out as one word, olliemadur. "-why don't you go powder your charming nose."

It wasn't a question the way he said it.

"And take Leary's little friends along with you," he added, "so that he and I can have a man talk, the two of us."

Daniel didn't mind Stickel shooing away the girls, but he wondered whether the senior captain would've been so brusque with Adele. He smiled faintly. Perhaps he would have been-the first time. He wouldn't repeat the insult after he'd met Lady Mundy, however.

"I was just up there talking with Kithran," Stickel said, nodding toward the Residence, beyond the railing of the upper terrace. The windows were brightly lighted, save for those of the ground floor room which Admiral James had taken for his private office. "He's still working on the bloody report to the Senate which he says-"

Stickel glared at Daniel. His hair was iron gray and cropped short. Between that and his craggy face, he looked more like an aging bruiser than a respected senior captain in the RCN.

"-you're taking to Cinnabar tomorrow morning. It seems to me that it could wait another day or two, given that blockade runners carried the news back before we'd finished putting crews in all the prizes."

"I assure you, Captain," Daniel said calmly, "the decision on timing was his Lordship's alone. This won't be the first time I've felt what a hangover does to the process of inserting into the Matrix, but it isn't an experiment I wanted to repeat."

Stickel roared with laughter. "Well," he said, "Kithran was a pigheaded bastard when we were at day school together, so I didn't imagine a corvette commander had started leading him around by the nose. Still, I think even an admiral can take a night off for a party, don't you, Leary?"

"Yes sir, I certainly do," Daniel said. He grinned broadly. "But I didn't think it was the place of a corvette commander to tell his Lordship that."

Stickel laughed again. "Well, Idid tell him," he said, "and it made bugger all difference. There was nothing for it but that he should hash over my report again before he does his own final. You gave him your report too, eh, Leary?"

"Yes sir," Daniel said. "I believe his Lordship compiled the reports of all captains in the squadron. Or senior surviving officers in the case of theExpress andEscapade, I suppose."

Fireworks streamed skyward from both sides of the narrow passage through the mole separating the Inner and Outer Harbors. Theboomp! of mortars reached the terraces only seconds before the shells burst into stars. Those in turn burst into lesser stars, rattling like the wind through bamboo blinds.

Stickel watched for a moment. "Pretty toys for children," he said with a harshness Daniel hadn't expected. "Children and civilians. We could tell them about real fireworks, couldn't we, Leary?"

"Yes sir," Daniel said. He thought about theSissie 's bridge going dark except for the yellow-green deathlight which sizzled from all metal surfaces. He licked his lips and wished he hadn't finished his drink.

"But they wouldn't understand," he said. He seemed to be hoarse. "And sir? You and I are out there so that they don't have to learn, aren't we? So that the civilians here and the ones back on Cinnabar never learn."

"Well said, boy!" Stickel said. "Bloody well said."

His voice got rougher and he said, "Your father's Speaker Leary, I hear?"

"Yes sir," said Daniel. He was asked the question frequently. There was nothing to do but return a flat answer and hope that was an end to it. "We're not close."

"Bloody dangerous man to be close to," Stickel said. "But nobody ever said he was stupid, and I see his son isn't either."

More fireworks thumped, popped and rattled. Blue and golden streamers trailed down toward the water. Daniel would very much have liked another mug of punch. Or a mug of raw alcohol from the Power Room with just enough water to keep it from lethally drying his mouth and throat.

"Well, that's neither here nor there," Stickel said. "We're not politicians."

His face hardened and he said, "You'renot a politician, are you, Leary?"

"No sir," Daniel said, "I most certainly am not. Sir!"

He was reacting like a cadet at the Academy being grilled by a member of the cadre. He hadn't expected this tonight, though Stickel didn't seem hostile-only forceful. Very forceful.

"Kithran tells me that you launched your missiles to nudge theDirektor Heinrich into one of their own that they wouldn't notice because they were concentrating on you," Stickel said. "Is that true, Leary? That you planned it that way?"

"Captain," said Daniel, feeling an icy mixture of anger and fear, "I didn't put anything of the sort in my report."

"I know what you put in your report, boy!" Stickel said. "I've read the bloody thing, haven't I? I'm asking you if that's what youdid , because Kithran says it is."

Daniel licked his lips again. "What his Lordship says is correct," he said, "but I did not say that to his Lordship or to anyone else. Until just now, sir."

Stickel laughed explosively again. "Well, I owe Kithran a case of brandy, then," he said. "I swore nobody was that good. I thought you'd gotten lucky-or anyway, we'd gotten lucky, since you weren't claiming the hit yourself."

"Well sir…," Daniel said, feeling himself relax. He'd thought he was being accused of lying or-possibly worse-bragging. "I must say thatI didn't believe theLao-tze launched thirty-six missiles in her initial salvo. I'd have bet much more than a case of brandy against that happening. I'mvery glad that I'd have been wrong."

Captain Stickel beamed. "You noticed that, did you?" he said. "That was nice work, but I can't take much credit for it. I will say that myLao-tze 's got the best bloody crew in the RCN, bar none!"

"I won't argue with an officer of your rank and merit, Captain," Daniel said, hoping his smile was broad enough to blunt the very real edge to his words, "but if we were civilians I'd ask you aboard theSissie and we'd see what we saw."

"By theGods, Leary," Stickel said, but he was laughing again. "I heard you have ginger! I guess otherwise you wouldn't have the record you do. Say-when we're both back in Xenos, which I hope won't be any longer than it has to be, you look me up. We'll have dinner at my club and we'll talk, you and me."

"Thank you, sir," Daniel said. Bloody hell, this could've gonebadly wrong; but it hadn't. "I'll be honored to accept your invitation."

"Excuse me, Captain?" said a cool, perfectly modulated voice.