Elizabeth Moon - Once a Hero

Esmay felt the heavy silence in the room. She supposed the others had worked through this equation before: the Bloodhorde had never been known to free or exchange prisoners, though a few had been rescued from appalling conditions. Thus a quick death—or relatively quick—would be a mercy compared to slavery on one of the Aethar’s World planets. But to contemplate the annihilation of so many of their own . . .

“We believe— I believe—that there is a chance to defend this ship and prevent those deaths,” Dossignal said. “It’s not a good chance, but it is a chance. You are the ones best suited to carry it out. We do not know how much time we have; let’s not waste any.”

With that the planning session began in earnest. Esmay had never been involved in mission planning before; she said nothing and listened, wondering how she fit into this. Admiral Dossignal outlined his ideas, then assigned officers to specific tasks. “Lieutenant Suiza,” he said finally. “Except for the crew of Wraith , you have the most recent, and in some ways the most valuable, combat experience.”

Esmay could feel them all staring at her; her breath caught. “Sir, the admiral knows I was only—”

He cut her off. “This is no time for humility, Lieutenant. You are the only officer we’ve got who has actually fought inside a ship. And you commanded Despite , with remarkable results. I’m not assigning you to command the ship we hope to capture—there’s a more senior and more experienced officer—but I am calling on your knowledge of intraship combat.”

“Yes, sir.”

“At the same time, I think Captain Hakin’s security squads would benefit from your expertise . . .” He glanced at the captain, whose face reddened. “We have hostile forces aboard, and we’ve already taken casualties. Security hasn’t located them or prevented the trouble they’ve caused so far.”

“If the admiral wishes,” Hakin said, through gritted teeth. “My reservations are on file.” He gave Esmay a look of cold distaste.

“Commander Seveche, you will be responsible for the actual detachment of T-4 from the hub. I leave it to you how you’re going to keep the necessary preparations from being recognized by the intruders, whom I’m sure are observing what they can.”

“Yes, sir. I think some judicious tinkering with the artificial gravity controls could provide an excuse . . .”

“Whatever. If events overtake us before detachment is possible, we need a fallback plan. Along with your other duties, Lieutenant Suiza, I’d like you and Commander Atarin to liaise with Koskiusko ’s security about that. Commander Jimson, you’re to make sure that people get what they need out of inventory, without letting any more personnel be captured.”

“We need more security personnel,” Captain Hakin said.

“True, Captain. If it would help you, I’m sure that Admiral Livadhi can suggest individuals now enrolled in one of the tech courses who have sufficient background to be useful and have been aboard long enough to know their way around.”

“I’ve had Commander Firin make a list already,” Admiral Livadhi said. “We have twenty-eight enlisted personnel with a secondary specialty in ship security, and another thirty-four who have done security work at some time or other within the past ten years. All are currently qualified with shipboard small arms. In addition, we have more personnel in the remote sensing course than Admiral Dossignal thinks will be needed for the rest of this mission. They can improve surveillance . . .”

“I’ll be glad of them,” the captain said, this time with no resentment in his voice.

“I must emphasize the urgency of the situation,” Dossignal said. “We don’t know how long before a Bloodhorde battle group arrives—or how many ships it might contain—or how the intruders will affect our efforts. We—” He stopped as someone knocked on the door. The guard there lifted his eyebrows; Dossignal nodded and the guard pulled the door open.

A disheveled security guard looked straight at the captain. “Captain, you’re needed on the bridge, urgently. We have a situation.”

“Excuse me.” Hakin pushed back his chair.

“What kind of situation?” Dossignal asked. The guard looked at the captain who shrugged irritably.

“Tell him, Corporal.”

“The emergency oxygen conservation system went off on half a dozen decks of T-5, and knocked out everyone in sickbay and the ship’s administrative offices. Two people got out and gave the alarm.”

“I’m on my way. You’ll excuse me . . .” It was not a question.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Dossignal said. “I should have—we haven’t had any experience of this sort of thing. Lieutenant Suiza . . . can you tell us . . . what sort of mischief might we expect?”

Esmay gathered her scattered wits. “Sir, they’ll try to get weapons, if they don’t already have them. With stolen data wands, they can find out where the ship security weapons lockers are, and if they get a data wand keyed for security, it might even give them the access codes. Then they’ll try to isolate and immobilize large numbers of the crew, probably by locking them into various compartments. That’s what Captain Hearne’s allies tried to do to us on Despite . Here I suppose they’d try to cut off the wings from the core. They’ll damage systems that give them effective control of ship operations . . . environmental systems, including ventilation as they did here, hatch controls, communications, scan. I’d expect them to take hostages from critical positions . . . if they’ve been loose in sickbay, they’ll have medical personnel and supplies, including gas exchange equipment, so that we can’t use the equivalent trick on them.”

“And your response would be—”

Through her mind flashed what she knew about the DSR. “The same tactics would work against them if the captain initiated them. Manually reset the ship’s support systems so that each wing is independent for life support, as it was designed, then isolate the wings. They’ll be trapped, and outnumbered wherever they are. If they’re not in the core section, they won’t be able to get to the bridge. If they are in the core section, they won’t be able to use the wings for refuge, and ship security can go through the core first, then one wing at a time, until they’re located. Ship security will need a different, secure communications system, because we have to assume the present one is already compromised.”

“But if we do that, we won’t be able to set up for detaching T-4,” someone said. “And if the other ships come . . .”

“If we’ve all been knocked out with sleepygas,” Esmay said, “we won’t be able to detach T-4 either.”

A moment’s silence, as the others digested that, and she realized that she had just implied—no, said—that a commander was being stupid.

“Lieutenant Suiza,” Dossignal said. “I’m putting you in charge of security for the 14th—specifically, T-3 and T-4. Liaise with regular ship security, but don’t wait—do what you think needs doing. Atarin, who’ve you got for her?”

The door opened again; Captain Hakin interrupted without apology. “They got into Security; they’ve got the weapons, and gas masks. Riot gas, probably. Maybe more.”

Almost as one, heads turned to stare at Esmay, who was still on her feet.

“As I said,” Dossignal stood also, and the others scrambled up. “Lieutenant Suiza has been through this before; she correctly anticipated their moves.”

“I’m closing off the wings,” the captain said, as if Dossignal had not spoken.” We’ll have to get the support systems isolated, but at least I’ve ordered the hatches closed, to everything but T-1. I’ll give you the new codes, but—”