Under all cheer and excitement, a knot of tension was in him. He figured that word from the New Brazil would arrive at any minute.
“Your pardon,” Dragoika interrupted. “I must go to the—what you say—the head.” She thought that installation the most amusing thing aboard.
Karamzin watched her leave. Her supple gait was not impeded by the air helmet she required in a Terran atmosphere. The chief problem had been coiling her mane to fit inside. Otherwise her garments consisted of a sword and a knife.
“Way-hay,” Karamzin murmured. “What a shape! How is she?”
“Be so good as not to talk about her like that,” Flandry rapped.
“What? I didn’t mean any harm. She’s only a xeno.”
“She’s my friend. She’s worth a hundred Imperial sheep. And what she’s got to face and survive, the rest of her life—”
Karamzin leaned across the table. “How’s that? What sort of cruise are we on, anyway? Supposed to check on something the gatortails might have out in space; they didn’t tell us more.”
“I can’t, either.”
“I wasn’t ordered to stop thinking. And you know, I think this Starkad affair is a blind. They’ll develop the war here, get our whole attention on this sinkhole, then bang, they’ll hit someplace else.”
Flandry blew a smoke ring. “Maybe.” I wish I could tell you. You have no military right to know, but haven’t you a human right?
“What’s Starkad like, anyway? Our briefing didn’t say much.”
“Well—” Flandry hunted for words. They were bloodless things at best. You could describe, but you could not make real: dawn white over a running sea, slow heavy winds that roared on wooded mountainsides, an old and proud city, loveliness on a shadowy ocean floor, two brave races, billions of years since first the planet coalesced, the great globe itself … He was still trying when Dragoika returned. She sat down quietly and watched him.
“—and, uh, a very interesting paleolithic culture on an island they call Rayadan—”
Alarms hooted.
Karamzin was through the door first. Feet clattered, metal clanged, voices shouted, under the shrill woop-woop-woop that echoed from end to end of the long hull. Dragoika snatched the sword off her shoulder. “What’s happening?” she yelled.
“Battle stations.” Flandry realized he had spoken in Anglic. “An enemy has been … sighted.”
“Where is he?”
“Out there. Put away that steel. Strength and courage won’t help you now. Come.” Flandry led her into the corridor.
They wove among men who themselves pelted toward their posts. Near the navigation bridge was a planetary chartroom equipped for full audiovisual intercom. The exec had decided this would serve the vip and her keeper. Two spacesuits hung ready. One was modified for Starkadian use. Dragoika had gotten some drill with it en route to the squadron, but Flandry thought he’d better help her before armoring himself. “Here; this fastens so. Now hold your breath till we change helmets on you … Why did you come?”
“I would not let you fare alone on my behalf,” Dragoika said after her faceplate was closed.
Flandry left his own open, but heard her in his radio earplugs. The alarm penetrated them; and, presently, a voice:
“Now hear this. Now hear this. Captain to all officers and men. The New Brazil reports two hyperdrives activated as she approached destination. She is returning to us and the bogies are in pursuit. We shall proceed. Stand by for hyper-drive. Stand by for combat. Glory to the Emperor.”
Flandry worked the com dials. Tuning in on a bridge view-screen, he saw space on his own panel, black and star-strewn. Briefly, as the quantum field built up, the cosmos twisted. Compensators clicked in and the scene grew steady; but now Sabik outran light and kilometers reeled aft more swiftly than imagination could follow. The power throb was a leonine growl through every cell of his body.
“What does this mean?” Dragoika pressed close to him, seeking comfort.
Flandry switched to a view of the operations tank. Seven green dots of varying size moved against a stellar background. “See, those are our ships. The big one, that’s this.” Two red dots appeared. “Those are the enemy, as near as we can tell his positions. Um-m-m, look at their size. That’s because we detect very powerful engines. I’d say one is roughly equal to ours, though probably newer and better armed. The other seems to be a heavy destroyer.”