destroying logic. “My station… I belong back there.”
“You belong nowhere now, Mr. Konstantin.”
“Let me talk to them. If I can get a truce from Union to get close enough… I
know the systems. I can handle the central systems; the techs… may be dead. They
are dead, aren’t they?”
She turned her face away, turned the cushion, returning to her own business. He
reckoned his danger, leaned forward and set a hand on the arm of the cushion so
that she could not ignore him; a trooper moved, but waited orders. “Captain.
You’ve gone this far. I’m asking you… you’re a Company officer. You were. One
last time… one last time, captain. Get me back to Pell. I’ll talk you out again,
free. I swear I will.”
She sat still a very long moment.
“You going to run from here beaten?” he asked her, “Or leave at your own pace?”
She turned, and it was not a good thing to look into her eyes. “You looking to
take a walk?”
“Take me back,” he said. “Now. While it matters. Or never. Because later won’t
matter. There’ll be nothing I can do and I had as soon be dead.”
Her lips tightened. For several moments she sat dead still, staring at him.
“I’ll do what I can. Up to a limit. If they make of your truce what I think I
will…” She brought her hand down on the cushioned arm. “This is mine. This ship.
You understand that. These people… I was Company. We all were. And Union doesn’t
want me loose. You’re asking for what could turn into a firefight right next to
your precious station. Union wants Norway. They want us badly… because they know
what we’ll do. There’s no way I can live, stationer, because I’ve got no port
I’ll dare go to. I’ll not come in. I never will. None of us will. Graff. Set us
a quiet course for Pell.”
Damon drew back, reckoned that the wisest move at the moment. He listened to the
one-sided com he had accessible, Norway advising the Union fleet that they were
moving in. There seemed to be some dispute. Norway argued back.
A hand touched his shoulder. He looked around, found Josh there. “I’m sorry,”
Josh said. He nodded, holding no grudge. Josh… had had few choices given him.
“They want you, all right,” Mallory said. “Handed over to them.”
“I’ll go.”
“Ignorant,” Mallory spat. “They’ll mindwipe you. You know that?”
He thought about it. Remembered Josh, sitting across from him at a desk and
asking for the papers, end of a process Russell’s had started. Men came out of
it. Josh had. “I’ll go,” he said again.
Mallory frowned at him. “It’s your mind,” she said. “Till they get their hands
on you, at least.” And into com: “This is Mallory. We’ve got ourselves a
standoff, captain. I don’t like your terms.”
There was a long delay. Silence from the other end.
On scan, Pell showed, with Union ships hovering about it like birds about
carrion. One looked to have docked. Long-scan showed a scattering of red-dotted
gold out by the mines, the short-haulers, and the lonely position of one other
ship, indicated by a blinking light at the edge of the scope, offscan but in
comp’s memory. Nothing moved, save for four blips very near Norway, closing into
tighter formation.
They had come to a relative halt, drifting in time with everything else in the
system.
“This is Azov of Unity,” a voice came to them. “Captain Mallory, you have leave
to dock with your passenger to let him off. Your approach to Pell is accepted,
with thanks from the people of Union for your invaluable assistance. We’re
willing to accept you within the Union Fleet as you are, armed and with your
present crew. Over.”
“This is Mallory. What assurances has my passenger got?”
Graff leaned closer to her. Held up a finger. Norway resounded to the clang of
something against her hull, a lock closing. Damon looked distractedly at scan.
“Fighter just docked,” Josh said at his shoulder. “They’re gathering the riders
in. They can run for jump—”
“Captain Mallory,” Azov’s voice returned, “I have a Company representative