was taking place aboard the pirate vessel. Even as the attack force had been jetting over
to the Paradise, a small group of d’Alemberts with a boarding hatch of their own was
surreptitiously swimming over to the outlaw ship. They took a long, roundabout route so
that the pirate captain did not even think to look for them; they approached his ship from
the side facing away from the Paradise, and the captain had no inkling of their presence
until they actually blew open his inner hatch and began taking over his ship.
This was an unheard-of maneuver. Never in the history of commercial space travel had a
“victim” ship ever launched a counterattack against a bandit. The crew of the target
vessel normally had enough trouble defending their own craft; they should have neither
the resources nor the presence of mind to strike back at their tormentors.
The Paradise, however, had been designed first and foremost to deal with pirates;
gambling was at best a secondary consideration. Its crew were all well-trained
professionals, and they had their plans laid out well in advance of this encounter. They
were here to smash the pirate threat thoroughly, and that was what they were going to
do.
The light aboard the outlaw ship was no better matched than the one aboard the
Paradise. The pirate vessel was manned only by a skeleton crew; all its fighters had
gone across to do business on the other ship. Those left behind had not expected a fight.
They were not in their battle armor, and they did not have their weapons readily at hand.
They were waiting casually, as they’d done plenty of times before, to hear from their
comrades that the other ship had been taken and there was lots of booty for all. There
were only ten d’Alemberts in the attack force, but that was quite enough.
Before the bandit captain could give the order to flee, his ship had been overrun and his
crew was unconscious from the effects of the d’Alemberts’ stunners. The captain himself
fared little better. Three DesPlainians broke into the bridge, where he had hastily
barricaded himself, and captured him without a fight. The captain was a pitiful sight as he
pleaded desperately for mercy from his captors-mercy he would never have shown them
had their places been reversed.
With the situation now well in hand, the d’Alemberts turned off the pirates’ jammer and
calmly sent out their subcom call to the Navy. At the same time, aboard the Paradise,
Pias released his passengers from their rooms and casually explained that there had
been a real pirate attack this time, but that his defense system was all he had promised
it would be. The bandits had been defeated, and the Navy would come soon to take
them away. The cruise would then continue on as it had been doing-but he did apologize
that there would probably be a one-day delay in reaching the next port.
Some of the passengers were upset that they had been kept in the dark about the raid
until it was all over, but most of them were quite relieved. Few ships had ever dealt with
a pirate attack so successfully, and the security they gained from that knowledge more
than made up for the uncertainties they had felt during the raid itself. They knew they
were safe in the Paradise-a claim few other nonmilitary ships could make.
The Navy officers who came to the “rescue” were quite astounded at what the crew of
the Paradise had done. Pias did not tell them that this had been a SOTE operation from
beginning to end; there was no point in blowing his cover. Nor, despite strong pleas from
the captain of the naval destroyer, did Pias explain exactly how he had managed to turn
the tables on his attackers. He simply presented the capture to the Navy as a fait
accompli and let them worry what to do about it from there. He had a ship to run, after
all, and it was already behind schedule.
“The best part,” Yvette said later, when they were alone in their own cabin, “is that none
of the pirates got away to tell their cronies how we did it. The same trick would work
again if we have to do it.”
“We shouldn’t have to, though,” Pias replied. “We’ve just made the point we wanted to
make-we’re no pushovers, despite the ship’s frivolous appearance. From now. on, the
pirates will respect us-and me in particular, since I’m supposedly the brains of the outfit.
Now we move into Phase Two, before they decide to regroup and try another attack.”
Yvette scowled. This was the part of the plan she didn’t like. It would separate them as a
team and make coordinated effort difficult, if not impossible. Each would be on his own
from this point until they could actually smash the pirate organization. Yvette recognized
the necessity for acting this way, but there was no rule that said she had to enjoy it.
Thus it was that Yvette left the Paradise when it reached Bromberg and, operating under
the name Mila Farese, set about the process of betraying her husband, and selling him
out to the pirate chief.
Chapter 8
A Proper Gastonian
Time on Gastonia had an unpleasant tendency to lapse into a monotonous pattern. The
days dragged by for Jules and Yvonne, stacking one atop another in an accumulation of
weeks, and-aside from learning how to survive on their new world with more than a
minimum of comfort-they had the dreadful feeling that nothing was being accomplished.
Jules was gaining himself quite a reputation as a hunter, being successful on all the hunts
in which he participated. After a month on Gastonia, during which he’d been on three
major expeditions, he was making top money for a mere spearman. It was only a matter
of time before he’d be promoted to an assistant hunt leader, in charge of coordinating a
subgroup within the expedition. He was accepted by the other hunters as a friend and
comrade. and became a trusted member of their circle. But despite the fact that they
would talk to him more freely, he could not find out anything about a conspiracy on
Gastonia. The ordinary run of villagers did not know about such things.
Vonnie was able to confirm that from her own experience. Work in the tanning plant was
far less glamorous than hunting, and there was less room for advancement without
several years of apprenticeship learning the secrets of the craft. Nevertheless, Vonnie’s
strength, her devotion to her job, and her willingness to shoulder even the dirtiest tasks
without complaint-a rare quality on Gastonia-brought her into favor with the plant’s
managers. She occasionally received incentive bonuses, and was appointed shop
warden over the other workers in her department. Some of the people who’d been there
longer than she had were jealous of her rapid advancement, feeling their seniority should
have been taken into account, but she got along with most of her co-workers and there
were few problems. As Jules had found with the hunters, though, the ordinary citizens did
not appear to know about a conspiracy to take some people off the planet.
Because Jules spent much of his time away from the village on hunting expeditions-once
for six days at a time-the task of learning the ins and outs of Gastonian society fell
largely to his wife. Vonnie was a shrewd observer, and paid particular attention to the
finely spun webs of power within the village. Kwame Tshombase was, of course, the
ultimate boss, and his word was law-but he could not be everywhere at once, and he
relied on a series of lieutenants to keep the peace. Within the broad limits established by
Tshombase, each of these lieutenants was a petty tyrant within his own fiefdom. The
infighting and jockeying for favored positions among the lieutenants could sometimes
become fierce and bloody-a phenomenon their boss seemed to encourage. Perhaps it
amused him to watch his underlings squabbling among themselves-but more likely he
recognized the principle that if they were busy fighting each other, they would not have
the time or energy to think of overthrowing him.
But even Tshombase’s men could not wield all the authority in the village. There were
always cracks between the jurisdictions, and in these cracks the scavengers gathered.
Petty bureaucrats held sway over their own minor territories; bullies and ruffians
terrorized the less aggressive members of the community; and always in the background
were muffled plots and dreams to build a rival organization, depose Tshombase and take
over control of the village. For some, this was only idle speculation-but Yvonne had little
doubt that there were a few laying serious plans in that direction.
One night, while Jules was away on a hunting trip, she awoke to hear a strange noise. At
first, in the moment of half wakefulness before coming fully alert, it was only a dull