Glen Cook - The Dragon Never Sleeps

"At fifteen hundred hours my chief of staff will open a port in the screen. You will shoot through and head for the strand. When you're convinced you'll make it, you'll eject me, the Colonel, and the data."

"And we're quits?"

Klass said, "No. I'll find you someday." She moved slightly. Provik's woman had the mouth of a weapon in her face almost before she started.

"How many times you have to die?"

"I only have to get through once."

"Colonel! No immunity, Kez Maefele. Just a head start. In exchange for that information."

Turtle nodded. "And if I don't come through?"

"Colonel Klass is carrying an explosive device. She won't hesitate to use it."

WarAvocat probably had his own, Turtle reflected. "I'll take a chance. It may be the only chance." He produced a cassette. "Everything I can give you is on this. You may review it if you like."

"I like."

The rider powered up cautiously, lifted off the Guardship, pointed its nose toward where WarAvocat claimed a port would open.

It opened on the mark, a black mouth in the pearly shimmer.

Turtle shoved it deep into the red. The rider plunged forward.

"Hellspinners, Kez Maefele."

"Raise screen."

"Miss. Another miss."

"Someone must not care if they get WarAvocat along with us."

"Missiles launching, Kez Maefele."

Turtle's human companions cursed and blustered. His Ku stuck to business. He put the rider through the port. It popped shut behind them. The missiles exploded against the inner face of the screen. "Politics," Turtle said. "They must be on the verge of civil war. Launch the pod as soon as they're ready. Let them chase that."

The sudden acceleration caught Strate unprepared. "Can't he do anything gently?"

Three minutes later there was a violent thrust at right angles to the first. The Ku had launched the pod.

It revolved. WarAvocat saw missiles banging off the inside of VII Gemina 's screen, saw Hellspinners seeping through. He became so angry he almost had a stroke.

VII Gemina , operationally in control of OpsCrew rebels, accelerated toward the strand but arrived too late. Three days of hurtling back and forth produced no sign of the rider.

WarCrew backed by Gemina regained control, went back, collected WarAvocat. He was hale enough to vent his rage. Within an hour there was a new OpsAvocat, and a dozen Deified had gone to the electronic equivalent of purgatory. One was a Dictat. WarAvocat exceeded his legitimate powers dramatically. WarCrew who had cooperated, even unwittingly, he had recycled.

In hours living WarCrew were in control, totally and absolutely. Soon the Guardship was on the Web, headed Outside.

Strate formally informed crew of his intentions. "We will finalize the matter of the Godspeakers. Then we will visit Starbase Dengaida for what help may be available. Then we will travel to P. Benetonica to pick up our unfinished business there."

Privately, he told Colonel Klass, "I think the Ku will try to rejoin the original Lupo Provik, wherever he's gone. Somewhere on P. Benetonica 3 there'll be someone who knows some truth and someone who's in contact with Provik, however indirectly, who'll serve as the first stepping-stone in the chain."

The Valerena Tregesser heard the public announcement. From that she reasoned forward to WarAvocat's private thoughts.

— 143 —

VII Gemina limped across the Rim, a determined cripple, much slower than during the crashing inward run. In private WarAvocat was as concerned as anyone else. Gemina had no recollection of a time so desperate the Guardship had carried on with this much damage.

He hoped for the best.

A long, slow passage, without political complications, allowed time to look into what he had shelved or missed. He spent a lot with Klass and her Meddinians, trying to integrate their knowledge into what Gemina already had. Which meant frequent collisions with the unpleasant fact of Gemina 's burgeoning ego.

He spent some time in damaged areas where Gemina could not eavesdrop, too, discussing that with senior live crew. The meetings did not produce much. He did learn that there were no breaches in the Core's armor or seals. The problem was not organic. It would develop slowly—but could not be treated medically.

Klass had a suggestion: resurrect her sidekick. "She's the only one aboard who's had a kid or has had to deal with one. Right now Gemina is a real bright baby. We could make some breaks for ourselves if we started from the beginning trying to bring it up right."

He chuckled, not taking her seriously.

"You start right now teaching it ‘I Am A Soldier.' That it's got specific duties and responsibilities and honors and privileges. Teach it that it's an important part of the crew but only a member of the crew. That's in the programme already. Reinforce it whenever you deal with the personality. Treat it that way and demand that it behave that way."

An amusingly flaky idea—that grew on him. He adopted it. It might buy needed time. He authorized AnyKaat's restoration.

He permitted the Tregesser woman to insinuate herself into his bed. It was a way to keep an eye on her. She had some private agenda. What it was he could not fathom.

He suspected she was in regular contact with Tawn, and they might even have a physical relationship, but he could worm nothing out of her. Nor could he learn much through surveillance. Gemina still insisted Tawn was mythical and would not see her though crew sightings were a commonplace.

He took VII Gemina off the Web at a system already designated B. Alenica, nicknamed Chatterpoint, deep within the methane-breather empire. Chatterpoint was the place to leave data packages whenever one Guardship had something worth sharing with others.

There were recent optimistic packages from old confederates IV Trajana and XII Fulminata . According to them, it was almost over. A couple more gas giants to hit, some mopping up, putting quits to roving warships without bases to support them anymore.

Simpletons.

WarAvocat set out a package containing VII Gemina 's news, with requests for support in the waste space.

Valerena came early the day VII Gemina departed Chatterpoint. She was troubled. He asked, "What is it?"

"Guardship politics. I made a mistake, staying. I don't fit this reality at all. Some of the Deified are going to try to kill you. But I don't see how they could."

— 144 —

Lupo hugged everybody, including Turtle, then hugged everybody again. For hours everybody told everyone what had happened for a year and a half. "You pulled it off!" Provik enthused. "I don't believe it. But why did you come back, Kez Maefele? I thought you'd do another long disappearance."

"I hope I have." The Ku looked around. "And there was nowhere else where I had more friends."

Lupo was startled. He heard truth there, if not the whole truth. "There's more."

"Yes. When I gave WarAvocat the data, all I gave him was what he needed to silence the methane breathers. I reserved information about several tag ends with no military significance. If I could find a partner willing to share the wealth of that waste space with the Ku people..."

Lupo burst out laughing. "You never stop scheming, do you?"

"Do you? I have to be what I was made to be."

"You have a deal. Down the middle. I'll put up equipment and capital. You come up with the manpower and keep the Guardships out of our hair. They haven't given up on us."

"No. But VII Gemina will be occupied with internal problems perhaps long enough for us to become a matter of no consequence."

"I hope so. Come on, we have to have an all-Canon blowout to celebrate the most bizarre passage in modern history."