And the same routine with Jenise Rorvik and Melaine Holmbach from Inconnu Deux. These women Liseie did know, especially Jenise who had shared the long trek around Shaarbant. But Delarov scheduled them back into freeze, so that was that.
At one point, argument arose. Delarov wanted Anders Kobolak to pilot the seoutship, but his wife Alina Rostadt was scheduled to return to freeze. Lisele shook her head. "It won't work, captain. You don't know Anders. He took a bad hit, when his sister died with my uncle Ivan. A while there, we weren't sure he'd pull out of it. No-either Alina's with him, or lie's no good to you."
Slowly, the captain nodded. "You know these people. I suppose I must take your word about them.
Lisele nearly said, "You'd better!" But didn't. The upshot was that Anders and Alina were left as last to be revived. Decisions about them could be made when the lime came.
Before, though, next up were Alys Molyneux and Naomi Gray, both Engineering aides to Darwin Pope. Molyneux,
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blond and robust, got through the illness better than most- but took the incident baldness as a personal insult, and sulked accordingly. The other woman-thin, only in her mid-thirties but looking older-came near to dying before her fever could be controlled, but never complained.
Then it was the turn of Arlen Limmer and of Comm Chief Eduin Brower. Lisele didn't expect the bulky Chief to give trouble, and he didn't. Arlen, she had worried about; he was nice, and she liked him, but his weak point was that he'd never had to endure much of anything. So how would he handle this?
Through the worst of it, better than Lisele had expected. Then, though, recovering but suddenly bald, stubbornly he wore a cap. When Lisele saw it on him, she said, "Arlen, you don't need that thing."
Grumpy voice: "I'll wear it if I want to."
She couldn't help but laugh. "Of course you can. But you don't look any worse than the rest of us, at that stage. So why bother?"
For the first time he took a careful look at the irregular, tufted outline her hair showed. Messy, she thought, was the operative word. Arlen said, "Yours all came out, too?"
"Along with everybody else's, on this ship."
"Oh, well, then." From the bed, Arlen flung his cap at the nearest wall. "That way, it's all right."
So she gave him a friendly kiss, and left feeling good about the young man. Until it came to her mind, that it would be nicer if Arlen didn't need a unanimous vote, to know how he felt!
Last roused, Anders and Alina suffered through to recovery. Then, in the temporary situation with nine persons up and doing, Delarov called council.
"We don't yet know," she said, "whether we can deal with the colony on Sitdown." Having explained that situation earlier, she didn't repeat herself. "To find out, the scout has to go there. My feeling is, it should carry its maximum personnel complement." She turned to Lisele. "I believe you've calculated the scout's travel time, from here to Sitdown?"
"Yes. With normal redline accel and decel, a little over seventv-three hours."
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Delarov nodded. "That agrees with my own estimate. So for such a short time, it's feasible to run a bit crowded. Eight people, say, won't tax six bunks too much." She paused, then said, "The question is, who goes?"
"And who stays?" said Anders Kobolak. "Awake, I mean."
Delarov smiled. "Awake? Myself, only. To conserve supplies. No emergency can arise, here, quickly enough that I couldn't rouse others, if need be."
Impatient now, Lisele said, "All right; who does go?"
Fingers twisting a tuft of hair that had outgrown the rest, Delarov said, "You, for one, if you agree. Because of your background, your assimilated knowledge of UET." Lisele nodded. "The Kobolaks, likewise." Anders signed assent. "Arlen Limmer and deWayne Houk." Lisele had misgivings about Houk, but-
From the look of Arlen, he was not only willing but eager. "Eduin Brower." The man looked both pleased and dismayed. "Plus Alys Molyneux and Naomi Gray, because I think Chief Houk is going to need some engineering assistance."
The captain paused. "Do I hear any objections? From the persons named, or otherwise?" No one spoke. "Then I think we have our landing crew set. So at this point, I'm afraid everyone else goes into freeze. Because it's vital that we conserve supplies."
Well, Lisele thought, one thing was certain. Poker player or not, Katmai Delarov knew how to conduct an operation.
As soon as deWayne Houk was revived and briefed, Delarov called council. "This is going to be a seminar, or orientation session, on keeping your stories straight when you get to Sitdown. Here are some of the parameters."
Since the Patton's last contact with history was its departure from Earth in New Year Ten, Sitdown's Uties would know nothing of Escaped Ships or the Hidden Worlds they'd colonized. And certainly not that UET no longer ruled. The Tamurlaine's personnel would be expected to know at least some of the names on UET's current Presiding Committee: Lisele had heard of Cairn Forbisher, that Committee's last Chairman, and Maita Pangreen, daughter of a previous one. "Aarem Zavole," said Eduin Brower. "And Hrodicken; I forget her first name. She was second gun, under Forbisher."
So far, so good. Now. UET terminology. "Kobolak," the captain said, "you'll be the Tamurlaine's. First Officer, not
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First Hat. And don't forget the 'the,' which they use and we don't. They have my last name, as captain, but not my first. Since UET never gave command to women, you will keep in mind that your captain's name is Karl Delarov. But of course Karl will never speak over the comm-link; I will. Under my own name, to keep things simple; they can assume the captain and I are married. Also-"
"Just a minute!" Lisele had remembered something. "The tattoo."
"What?" Delarov looked puzzled.
Eduin Brower said, "She's right. UET officers had their insignia of rank tattooed on their left cheeks. Unless we have somebody who can do the job, and remembers those designs well enough to fake it, Kobolak won't pass for any First Officer." He looked over to Lisele. "That what you meant, youngster?"
She nodded. Then another idea came. "Why not a Third Officer, instead of First? And-and promoted from a Chief rating, not too long ago? In space, when our original Third- oh, what did happen to him?"
Anders Kobolak grinned. "He went outship to replace a broken antenna. And then-" He spread his hands. "Who knows? Up in Control they heard him yelling as he drifted away, but he didn't say what happened." With a mock frown, he spoke in very self-righteous tones. "Carelessness has a thousand ways of killing."
Delarov nodded. "It's good; I like it. Solves the tattoo problem, anyway." Her brows raised. "What was his name? Surely we should know that, in case someone asks."
It was becoming a game now, Lisele thought, and the way everyone was getting into it, as good as dress rehearsal for a play. For no reason she could identify, she said, "Ivan Marchant." Then, "Well, he's dead, and if just using his name can help us, he d like that."
"Good enough reason," said Delarov. "Now, then-" So she went over some additional matters. These Uties knew only STL ships with hundred-person crews, so that's what the Tamurlaine had to be. Control and Engineering each had one officer in charge with a First, Second, and Third working watches, so names had to be put to these positions. "Just in case," the captain said. "What we can't afford is contradictions."
"Too true," said Brower. He was punching all the agreed
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fictions into Tinhead; later, everyone would have readouts to study.
They went through three more major items. First, the state of things on Earth at the Tamurlaine's departure date: Houk, Brower and Gray provided most of that information. Then the ship's route and stopovers: suddenly Far Corner and Franklin's Jump acquired new coordinates that would fit the timing.
And finally the ranks and titles of the entire scout-riding group. Molyneux and Gray were Second and Third Engineer, respectively. Houk, not Drive Chief but Drive Tech, First. Brower and Rostadt both to be rated Comm-techs. Kobolak the new Third Officer, as previously agreed. Arlen agreed to be a Second rating in navigation.
To fit the circumstances, Lisele's recorded bio-age was upped from fifteen to eighteen. Her status became that of a recent cadet, now holding a Third rating, and her trainee specialties were Comm and Nav. "Gunnery, too," she said.
Waiting while the most recent revivees came back to nearly full vigor, the group had two more such meetings. Little new ground was broken, but some earlier constructs underwent refinement. And then came time, with everything aboard the scoutship fine-combed to show no contradictions, that March Hare had its best velocity vector for the scout's launching.
So with Anders Kobolak in First Pilot's seat, the small craft exited to space. Sitdown, here we come!
