77
Maiden. The man with the heavy blaster, for instance. His name was Goral Craig; he hulked bearlike. Between his short-trimmed beard and the way his side-tilted cap hung over it, she couldn't make out the scar on his cheek-but for certain sure, he had one.
The needlegun-carrying woman: Deryth Mangentes. She'd tucked the weapon out of sight, but the bulge still showed. Her thick black hair was cut straight around at earlobe level; a wing of it now hid her left cheek, scarred or unscarred.
The other six: after a time, because of their unarmed state and the way they behaved toward the dominant three, Lisele wrote them off as flunkeys. So, once again she concentrated on what Kobolak was saying, and the answers he received.
"Not in proper uniform?" said Anders. "Of course we are. We left Earth eighty years after you did; over that much time, things change. Even the specs for uniforms."
With a noise that sounded like "Harumph!" Maiden changed the subject. Waving a hand, he said, "Call that a seoutship? A peanut, maybe. How many does it carry? And how far?"
Lisele saw Kobolak's brow wrinkle. Think it out good, Anders! The Second Hat took his time, then said, "It's a newer model, halfsize; armed ships carry four of them, not just two. Time and distance capabilities are much the same as the earlier ones, but this way there's more flexibility for scouting purposes."
So far, so good. Then Maiden said, 'This all of you? Just you five?"
"No, captain. As the regs provide, I left a watch crew on duty."
"Crew? No, you said halfsize; that means your peanut carries six." He wagged a finger. "Don't play games, youngster.
For a moment Lisele was afraid Anders would correct the older man, but his mouth opened only briefly; then he shut it. Maiden continued: "Well, maybe you weren't playing. One's a crew if that's all you've got!" He laughed longer than the mild quip seemed to deserve, until all his followers laughed, too. Then he said, "Regs or no regs, you're all coming to our welcoming party this evening. First new people we've seen in more than sixty years, you think we're not going to feast you?"
78
Now there was a poser. Even if Anders played on Maiden's conviction that the scout carried only six-and thus left two, unsuspected, to keep guard-he'd be letting Maiden establish dominance, partial command, over the scout. Lisele crossed her fingers. Don't give him anything.
But defying the old man could bring immediate conflict, before they'd had a chance to learn anything. Lisele turned to Gray and Molyneux. "Go below. Warm up the Drive, to standby. No more-we don't want those others to hear, if we can help it."
Gray left immediately; frowning, Molyneux followed. Lisele watched and listened. Unobtrusively, Anders Kobolak's right hand had moved back along the side of his hip, nearer to his gun. She'd heard him say he was good at something called "fast draw;" now she realized what the term meant. But he was saying, "-understand your feelings perfectly, sir, and regret being unable to comply. My own orders, you see." He shook his head. "You don't know Captain Delarov, what a stickler he is. I'm sorry, but I won't risk demotion. Not for all the well-intended hospitality on this world!"
Maiden himself had made no aggressive move. Now as he made a barely noticeable gesture to those behind him, Lisele saw Craig and Mangentes bring hands away from their weapons. Maiden said, "Orders, yes. Autonomous commanders. Always a problem. Well, then," and now he seemed cheerful again, "five of you come, this evening." His scowl seemed programmed, a routine action. "But not this five. Four of you, as you choose, plus the crew you've left on watch." Once more he laughed; dutifully, when they realized they were supposed to, his followers chimed in.
Consulting his wrist chrono, Maiden punched in some adjustments. "You use Earth-hours, of course. Ours are a little shorter." He looked to Kobolak. "What's the time of day, on your schedule?"
Anders checked, and said, "Fifteen-seventeen. We'll want to log your own time-frames into our Local readout-skeds, naturally, but that takes longer than we have, just now. I-"
"Fifteen-seventeen. All right." Maiden nodded. "Then have your group down here, to be escorted to our welcoming celebration, at seventeen hundred. If that's convenient?"
"Certainly. I look forward to the occasion."
Again, as at the first greeting, only the two leaders shook
79
hands. Definitely UET protocol. Then as the groundsiders left, Lisele put the ramp down, so the five could come back on board.
As Kobolak entered Control, before Lisele could greet him, he said, "The Drive's warm; I can hear it now. Why?"
"It looked like a fight out there, maybe, and-"
"You were going to lift out of here?"
She shook her head. "No. First, I'd have opened the ramp and done some shooting from there. But if we lost- especially if any of you got captured-I'd need the scout warmed up, so I could use it fast. To try and get you back."
His face lost its tautness. "Oh, hell-I'm sorry. Should have known you'd be thinking the way Tregare would, or Rissa." He came to hug her, and she could feel the tenseness still present in his arms. In her side vision she saw that Arlen Limmer wasn't too pleased, but that problem would have to wait. Anders said, "Sure, I can see it. You walk the scout, hovering on low Drive, around to where you can interdict them from the settlement. They saw what that trick can do. Then maybe you lift and turn back down to make a pass with the turret, really scare 'em loose. Right?" Now he laughed. "Sure it is."
She disengaged from him. "Good luck we didn't need it; you talked everything clear, just fine. Now, though-only an hour and half before Maiden's escort gets here. Anders, you have some fast thinking to do. Such as, who goes?"
He looked surprised. ""You do, of course."
"Instead of who? The ones who were groundside just now, I mean."
Not for long, Anders Kobolak thought about it. "It isn't the choice I'd rather make, but-" He turned to young Limmer. "Arlen, the same reasoning holds, as did before. While we're gone, you sit First Pilot. And going along with Lisele's hunch, keep the Drive humming on standby. Just in case."
This time Cray Maiden sent a larger contingent. Sent, not brought: descending the scout's ramp in time to meet the Pattern's delegation a civil distance from the spacecraft, Lisele saw that in Malden's absence the woman Deryth Mangentes led the group. A quick look showed the hulking Goral Craig also missing.
80
But following Mangentes came nearly twenty younger persons. No UET tokens on these, and except for belt knives, no weapons. Male and female, in their jumpsuits they had a look of sameness, and then Lisele noticed another reason. These wore no caps, and every haircut was much like her own, or the one she'd given Chief Houk. Well, getting along in a new place, conformity might help.
With a harsh downward gesture of her right hand, the woman brought the escort group to a halt. And waited, while Anders and the rest covered the few yards to where she stood. She said, "It wouldn't do to keep the commodore waiting. So as not to have to walk you too fast, let's move now and talk later."
Commodore, huh? Noting how the groundsiders were herding the visitors together-nothing obvious about it, except the result-Lisele decided they weren't in danger and considered the title. One ship, she thought, doth not a commodore make. But a colony-that might be something else, especially to the ego of its commander.
She wanted to share the idea with Anders, but people were in the way; she couldn't get to him without too much pushing. Well, it could wait. Instead she gave attention to the groundsiders around her. To her right, only a half-step ahead, was Deryth Mangentes. Breeze lifted a wing of hair and bared the woman's cheek; suddenly Lisele knew two things.
The exposed scar was in the shape of a UET Second Officer's tattoo. And hot iron, most likely, had burned it there.
XIII
Thinking back, Lisele tried to recall what Tregare had said about officers' cheek tattoos. They consisted of circle quadrants, cut on the diagonal. Third Officer got the bottom sector. For Second, one of the two sides was added; she couldn't remember which one, but presumably Mangentes, with the straight diagonal sloping downward toward the front,
81
had the traditional marking. First Officers picked up the other side, leaving only the upper arc blank; only captains displayed the full circle.
As worn by Cray Maiden, yes. Odd that seeing the man's scar, earlier, hadn't triggered recognition. But who'd expect to see officers branded like cattle?
They must have run out of materials, she thought-or perhaps the skills-for tattooing. Looking again toward the marred face, Lisele shuddered.
Has Anders noticed this? She looked around for Kobolak and saw him a few meters away, to her right and slightly behind, with a number of groundsiders between them. She started to move toward him but the others, somehow, didn't let her pass. Lisele stopped her effort; as she walked along, she checked the dispersion of the scout's personnel. Yes; each of the five was isolated, encircled by individuals from the Pattern.
Deliberate isolation? Let's find out. Again she moved toward Anders and again she was blocked. The young man in her path looked at her with an expression that was half smile and half determination. Lisele said, "Excuse me; I need to report to our captain."
