Elizabeth Moon - Hunting Party

She punched up the local office of Usmerdanz, and worked her way up the levels until she found someone she could really talk to. “Captain Serrano . . . yes.” The owner of that silky voice had found her reference in the file, she could tell. “We . . . ah . . . placed you with Lady Cecelia—”

“Yes,” she said, interrupting. “I notice that Usmerdanz also placed other crew members, and I was wondering if you could give me some details.”

“All pertinent details should be in the ship files,” the voice said, with an edge as if a knife lay under the silk. From their point of view, she was the unknown quantity; she had been on their list less than a month, and there would always be questions about someone of her rank who resigned a commission without explanation. “Surely Captain Olin left the files open-keyed . . .”

“I’ve accessed the ship files,” Heris said. “But I find nothing equivalent to our—to the Space Service’s fitness reports. Are periodic evaluations handled by the captain aboard or . . . ?”

“Oh.” The knife edge receded behind the silk again. “Well . . . there’s no established schedule, not really. In the commercial ships, of course, there’s always some sort of corporate policy, but not on private yachts. Usually the captain keeps some sort of reports. You found nothing?”

“Nothing,” Heris said. “Just the data that might have been in the original applications. I thought perhaps you—”

“Oh, no.” The voice interrupted her this time. “We don’t keep track of that sort of thing at all.” Far from it, the tone said. After all, one could hardly recommend someone known to have problems on a previous vessel; best not to know. Heris had known Service people with the same attitude. “If there’s nothing in the ship files,” the voice went on, “then I’m afraid we can’t help you. We could supply incomplete data on education, background—but nothing more than that. Sorry . . .”

Before the silken-voiced supervisor could disconnect, Heris asked a quick question. “How do you choose which to recommend to which employers?” A long silence followed.

“How do we what ?” No silk remained; the voice sounded angry.

“I noticed that only Sirkin—the newest crew member—ranked particularly high in her class, and she’s told me she was looking for a short-term job on a yacht for personal reasons. The others generally rank in the middle quartiles. Yet Lady Cecelia’s paying top wages; I wondered why you weren’t recommending these positions to your most qualified applicants.”

“Are you accusing us,” the voice said, all steel edge now, “of sending Lady Cecelia unqualified crew members?”

“Not at all,” said Heris, although she suspected exactly that. “But you aren’t sending her your cream, are you?”

“We sent you ,” the voice replied.

“Exactly,” Heris said. “I know I’m not on the top of your list of captains . . . and I shouldn’t be.” As she had hoped, that admission soothed some of the anger in the voice on the com.

“Well. That’s true. I suppose.” Heris waited through some audible huffing and muttering, and then the voice went on. “It’s like this, Captain Serrano. There’s good people—qualified people—who aren’t right for every opening. You know what I mean; surely you had people even in the R.S.S. who were good, solid, dependable performers in ordinary circumstances, but you wouldn’t want to have them in charge of a cruiser in battle.”

“That’s true,” Heris said, as if she’d never thought of it herself.

“We supply crews to all sorts of people. We tend to hold out our best—our cream, as you said—for the positions where it matters most. It’s true that Lady Cecelia is a valued client, and her family is important, but . . . it’s not like that yacht is the flagship of Geron Corporation, is it?”

“Not at all.”

“She’s got a fine ship, relatively new, has it refitted at the right intervals, spares no expense in maintenance, travels safe routes at reasonable speeds. . . . She doesn’t need someone who can cope with a twenty-thousand-passenger colonial transport, or maneuvering in a convoy of freighters. Other people do. And her requirements dovetail nicely; we suggest for private yachts crew who are stable emotionally, perhaps a little sedate—” Lazy, thought Heris, could be substituted for that euphemism. No initiative. “Obedient, willing to adapt to a variable schedule.”

“I see,” Heris said, intentionally cheerful. She did see; she did not like what it said about the agency’s attitude toward her, or toward her employer. She was sure Lady Cecelia had never been told that her safety was less important than that of a load of frozen embryos or bulk chemicals. She had trusted the agency, and the agency had sent her junk. It had not occurred to Heris before that very rich people could have junk foisted off on them so easily. “Thank you anyway,” she said, as if none of that had passed through her mind. “I realize things are different in civilian life; I’ll just have to adjust.”

“I’m sure you’ll do very well,” the voice said, once more wrapped in its silken overtones. It wanted to be pleased with her, wanted Lady Cecelia to be pleased with her—wanted everyone to be pleased with everything, for that matter.

Heris herself was not at all pleased by anything at the moment, but she knew she would adjust, though not the way the agency intended. She would pull this crew up to some decent standard; she would exceed the agency’s low expectations and make of Lady Cecelia’s yacht a ship any captain could take pride in. Even working with the slack crew she’d been given. She knew Lady Cecelia wanted as speedy a departure as possible, but the delay her nephew caused gave Heris just enough time to interview each member of her crew. Those short, five-minute meetings confirmed her original feeling that most of the crew were past whatever prime they’d had. At least the ship was good: a sound hull, components purchased from all the right places. Regular maintenance at the best refitting docks. Like the crew, her instincts muttered. Heris blinked at the screen on her desk, fighting off worry. Surely Lady Cecelia hadn’t been cheated on everything.

Departure: their slot in the schedule came late in third shift. Lady Cecelia had already sent word that she preferred to sleep through undockings. Heris could understand that; she did too, on ships she didn’t captain. By this time, the ship’s own systems were all up and running; by law, a ship must test its own systems for six hours prior to a launch.

Heris arrived on the bridge two hours before undock, having checked all the aired holds herself, and as much of the machinery on which their lives depended as she could. Everywhere she’d looked she’d found gleaming new casings, shiny metal, fresh inspection stickers, their time-bound inks still bright and colorful. It ought to mean everything was all right . . . and the unease she felt must be because this was a civilian ship, tricked out in plush and bright colors, rather than an honest warship.

Her sulky pilot had the helm, his narrow brow furrowed. She put on her own headset and listened in. He was giving voice confirmation to the data already sent by computer: the Sweet Delight ’s registration, destination, planned route, beacon profiles, insurance coverage. Heris caught his eye, and pointed to herself—she’d take over that tedious chore. The lists of required items came up on her command screen. Why an officer of an outbound vessel had to confirm by voice the closing of each account opened during a Station visit, each time repeating the authorization number of the bank involved, she could not fathom—but so it was, and had been, time out of mind. Even on her own cruiser someone had been required to formally state that each account was paid in full. It could take hours, with a big ship; here it was a minor chore.