Elizabeth Moon - Once a Hero

“So you’re my new assistant,” someone said behind her. Esmay turned around. Major Pitak looked like her name sounded: a short, angular woman with a narrow face that reminded Esmay uneasily of a mule.

“Sir,” Esmay said. Pitak scowled at her.

“And no background at all in naval architecture or heavy engineering, I notice.”

“No, sir.”

“Do you at least have some background in construction of anything? Even a chicken house?” It was clear that Pitak was furious about something; Esmay hoped it wasn’t her own presence.

“Not unless helping put a roof back on a stable after a windstorm counts,” Esmay said.

Pitak glared a moment longer, then softened. “No . . . it doesn’t. Someone must be mad at both of us, Lieutenant. Sector HQ stole three of my best H&A specialists, promoted my assistant off this ship, and left me short . . . and now they’ve sent you, whatever your background is.”

“Scan, mostly,” Esmay said.

“If I were religious, I would consign their sorry tails to some strenuous afterlife,” Major Pitak said. The corner of her mouth twitched. “Blast it. I never can stay mad long enough to singe them properly, and they know it. All right, Lieutenant, let’s see what you do know. Whatever it is, it’s not enough, but at least you haven’t done anything stupid yet.”

“I’ve hardly had time, sir,” Esmay said. She was beginning to like the major, against all expectation.

“There’s a naive statement,” Pitak said. She had moved to her desk, where she yanked at a drawer without effect. “I’ve been sent idiots who managed to screw up before I’d met them.” Another yank, this one hard enough to shift the desk itself. “For instance, this drawer . . . it never has worked right since your predecessor times two thought it would be clever to rekey the lock. We still don’t know what he did, but none of the command wands work on it, nor does anything else but brute force and profanity.” Without changing expression, Pitak launched a blistering stream of the latter at the drawer, which finally yielded with a squawk.

Esmay wanted to ask why anyone would use such a pesky drawer—why not clean it out and leave it empty?—but this was not the time. She watched Pitak rummage through the contents, coming up with a couple of data cubes.

“You probably wonder why I put anything in here,” Pitak said. “Frankly so do I, but there’s little enough secured storage down here—not with all the specialists we have aboard, people who know all the tricks of every security device since the latch. They sent some background on you, but I haven’t looked at it yet, which I hope you won’t hold against me.”

“No, sir.”

“For pity’s sake, Lieutenant, loosen up. Find a seat somewhere. Let’s see here . . .” She inserted the cube in a cube reader as Esmay looked around for something to sit on. Every horizontal surface was crusted in clutter; the two chairs had piles of hardcopy that looked like inventory lists. Pitak glanced up. “Just shove some of that onto the floor. Danton was supposed to clean it up yesterday, but he’s in sickbay with some crud he caught . . . I think we’d do better to let them brew their nasty chemicals on board; they always get sick ashore.”

Esmay set a pile of paper carefully on the floor, and sat down. Pitak was scowling at the cube reader’s display.

“Well. For a mutineer and a hero, you’re awfully quiet, Lieutenant Suiza. Trying to cover your tracks?”

Esmay couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Hmm. The strong, silent type. Not mine, as you’ve already discovered. Planetary militia family . . . ye gods, one of those Suizas!” Esmay hadn’t had that reaction from anyone in Fleet before; she could feel her eyebrows going up. Pitak stared at her. “Do they know ?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir.”

A disgusted look, which Esmay felt she deserved. “Don’t play your games with me, Lieutenant Suiza. I mean, does Fleet understand that ‘planetary militia’ is an understatement when applied to the Suiza family of Altiplano?”

“I had assumed they did,” Esmay said cautiously. “At least, when I applied, there was a background check, and surely they found out.”

“You’re a careful pup,” Pitak said. “I noticed that ‘had’—what do you think now?”

“Uh . . . most don’t realize it, but I presume someone must.” Esmay wanted to know how Pitak knew—surely she wasn’t from Altiplano herself. Esmay had thought she was the first.

“I see.” Pitak scrolled through the cube contents; Esmay presumed it was a precis of her record. “Interesting place, Altiplano, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Ah—at least you were on the science branch at the Academy . . . interesting. You didn’t take the usual courses for someone going command track. What did you think, technical?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And then you end up the most junior officer ever to command a patrol vessel in combat—and win. I’ll bet someone’s looking into your background again. Well, I’ll tell you what, Lieutenant—the most important thing you can do right now is learn your way around this ship, because when I have something for you to do, I don’t want you to spend an hour finding out where it is. So—next three days, while we’re docked, go everywhere and see everything and be ready for an orientation exam when you come back. That’s 0800 on the 27th—clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Esmay said. Curiosity burned away the last shreds of her caution. “If the major doesn’t mind—how did you know about Altiplano?”

“Good for you,” Pitak said, grinning now. She had a strange grin, in that narrow face, all teeth somewhat bigger than seemed possible to fit in it. “I was wondering if you’d get up the nerve to ask. Met a fellow one time I thought of hitching up with, back when I was a jig and things weren’t going too well. Spent a leave on Altiplano, with his family. Heard all about the Suizas and their relations, and the local politics, but the whole time he was extolling the beauties of those big rolling plains and snow-capped mountains, I was wishing for a nice tight spaceship. Especially after a gallop over the plains in a rainstorm—I was sure I’d be fried by lightning, and I was so sore I couldn’t walk for days. I suppose you ride?”

“When I have to,” Esmay said. This was not the time to mention her own herd, which she hadn’t wanted anyway. “It’s—expected, riding. But I chose space.”

“My kind of woman. Now—get out of here and start learning where things are. I warn you, my exams are no joke. Here—this is what you need.” She tossed over a data cube. “That and good legs.”

“Thank you, sir,” Esmay said.

“0800 on the 27th.”

“Yes, sir.” Esmay paused, but the major didn’t look up. She retraced her way back to the hub corridors, then looked up her assigned quarters and figured out a route to that compartment. T-2 should be back the way she’d come, counterclockwise . . . then up the personnel lift, and . . . she paid close attention to the axial passage designation, even though T-2 wasn’t split by a repair bay . . . somewhere around here . . . .

Her compartment was small, but her own—lieutenants had that bit of privacy. Her duffel was waiting on the bunk, its seals unbroken. She stowed her gear in the locker, activated the status board, and confirmed her identity to the computer’s flat-voiced inquiry. On a bulkhead a colored plan explained the officer housing arrangement. T-2 was configured for personnel housing: decks of enlisted bunking, broken into large bays for most, with two- or four-person compartments for the most senior. An entire deck for junior officers, with ensigns in ten-man bays, jigs in two-person compartments, and lieutenants in separate compartments, ranging outward by seniority. Above her was a deck of billeting for field grade officers, and above that a deck for the flag officers; she blinked at the number of admirals aboard.