Charles Gannon - Raising Caine

Piet shook his head. “That’s madness. No one can take four gees of sustained deceleration and then be ready to un-ass their couches and conduct an assault. One or the other maybe, but not both.”

“And yet,” Ayana pointed out calmly, “there is no other explanation for the intruder’s course of action. They mean to board us.”

Velho accepted that the impossible was becoming the inevitable and sought for a way to reverse that trend. “Piet, give me full portside roll from the emergency attitude control system.”

Ayana looked around with a smile. “Excellent, sir. They will not be able to dock with a rolling ship, not until they have rematched relative vectors. That will delay them considerably. And using the compressed gas of the emergency ACS will not give them a ready thermal target, as would the plasma thrusters.”

Jorge smiled, but feared the expression was as crooked as he felt. “That’s the idea. Now, let’s see if it works. In the meantime, get me an updated damage report, and get Kozakowski back on the bridge.”

* * *

“Srina Pere — Perekmeres,” Sehtrek grunted out past the lung compression of the sustained four-gee counterthrust.

Impressive; not many low-bred, even Intendants, have that much willpower. “No need to speak,” Nezdeh said with considerably less effort. “I see it. A faint roll in the target. Tegrese, thrust signatures?”

“No new thermal signature,” she replied.

So. The Aboriginals are not using their heavy plasma thrusters, then. Which logically meant compressed gas thrusters. “Sehtrek, give me a particulate density scan of the space immediately proximal to Arbitrage .”

“Plumes of p-parti-ticles on the port side—”

“Track those plumes back to the hull of Arbitrage . Relay those coordinates to Tegrese. As soon as you have them, Tegrese, fire one UV laser blister at each.”

Sehtrek gasped out, “Relaying.”

Tegrese nodded. “Firing.”

“Report,” Nezdeh demanded as, at three points along its port side, the Aboriginal craft spat out showers of violently spinning debris.

Sehtrek coughed. “Plumes dissipating. No new particulate emissions from compressed gas thrusters.”

“Roll rate of target?”

“One tenth of an RPM.”

“Ulpreln?”

“Commencing correction.” Lurker bucked slightly as a new, inward-spiraling vector was added to her course.

“Time to intercept?”

“Revised ETA is five minutes.”

Nezdeh toggled her beltcom. “Brenlor?”

“Here.”

“Stand by for boarding. In five minutes, the rehabilitation of our House begins in earnest.”

By the time Caine and Downing reached the secure conference room on board the Commonwealth shift-carrier Lincoln , the rest of their delegation workgroup was present: Sukhinin, Gray Rinehart, and biological expert Ben Hwang. The Marine guards started to close the door—

Flashing a clearance card at the guards and breezing past them into the compartment, Etienne Gaspard continued toward the head of the table. Once there, he took the chair that the other five had left unoccupied, so as to avoid the appearance of taking charge. “Good,” Gaspard said, “we are gathered.”

Caine and Downing exchanged looks. “Why, yes,” Downing murmured, “we are gathered.”

Caine resisted the impulse to close his eyes. Really? I’m going to have to babysit this jackass across God knows how many light-years?

Sukhinin had the rank, both military and political, to bring Gaspard to heel. Or at least, to try: “ Gospodin Gaspard, while it is good of you to come, it is also a mystery. You were not summoned, to my knowledge.”

“An understandable oversight. Fortunately, upon debarking from Doppelganger , I requested an update on all top clearance communiqués. When I saw the topic of this meeting, I realized that I would have to be involved. It is only logical that we are sending a consul to the Slaasriithi, is it not?”

“Yes,” Sukhinin said slowly, “it is.”

“Then let me be the first to congratulate you on this extraordinary assignment, Admiral Sukhinin. I’m sure you will be—”

“I’m not going,” Vassily said with all the animation of a slab of granite. “You are.”

Gaspard smiled, then looked at Vassily and the other people in the room. The smile fell away from his face. “Gentlemen, this jest is in very poor taste.”

“It is not a jest, gospodin Gaspard. Consul Visser must return to Earth. I must remain here, due to relationships already forged with the Arat Kur. You are the only available consul.”

“But — but I have prepared for this assignment to Homenest assiduously, constantly, for many months! It is an outrage that I should be asked to—”

“ Gospodin Gaspard, you are not being asked. You are being told. Am I clear?”

Gaspard finished sputtering, remembered the poise he had lost about two sentences earlier. “What is not clear to me, Admiral Sukhinin, is whether you have the authority to make this decision.”

Sukhinin smiled. It was not a pleasant expression. “Computer,” he spoke at the ceiling, “secure communication protocol Borodino Five. Raise UCS Trafalgar .”

Within two seconds, a new voice boomed out of the speakers: Admiral Lord Thomas Halifax, C-in-C of the Republic Expeditionary Fleet. “Vassily, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Thomas, I am sorry to disturb you, but I require a confirmation of one of today’s earlier decisions. You are comfortable designating Consul Gaspard as Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Slaasriithi, yes?”

“Comfortable? Completely! Right man for the job, I’d say. And we can’t have you gallivanting off to parts unknown, you old war-dog.” He paused. “Problems, Vassily?”

Sukhinin’s narrowed eyes and mirthless grin were aimed at Gaspard. “No, I think not. Thank you, Thomas. Tea, sometime?”

“Of course. Your way or mine, Vassily?”

Sukhinin sighed. “I am a good host. We shall spoil the tea with clotted cream and serve it in dainty cups.”

“Right, then. I’ll have my orderly set it up. Halifax out.”

“Computer,” Sukhinin spoke to the ceiling, “close channel.” He lowered his gaze back to Gaspard. “Consul Visser solicited Admiral Lord Halifax’s recommendation on this matter. He witnessed, and seconded, her appointment of me as her replacement. Therefore, it has the approval of both military and civilian authorities. Now, are there any further questions about my orders ?”

Gaspard’s chin was desperately high. “No, Admiral. I am satisfied as to their legality, but must question their advisability. Specifically, what background materials do we have on the Slaasriithi?”

Downing leaned forward. “Only the ‘child’s primer’ that they gave to us at the Convocation, of which I believe you received a copy.”

“Yes…but, mon Dieu , that document is so general as to be worthless. Have you not requested more details?”

“We have,” Caine explained. “When we asked for a more extensive history of their species, we got a response that boils down to ‘come meet us; then you will understand.’”

Gaspard stared at the others in the room. “Gentlemen, must we truly accept such an enigmatic invitation? This is all most irregular.”

“Yes, it is irregular,” agreed Downing. “But yes, you must go. This is not just a matter of seeking a conventional, realpolitik alliance, but a unique opportunity to initiate a technical intelligence pipeline that could furnish us with paradigm-shifting advances. Bloody hell, if the Slaasriithi don’t keep you bottled up in your own modules the whole time, just touring their ship could be an engineering gold mine.”