He could have saved his breath. Daniel hadn’t been in the least doubt about the commodore’s opinion.
* * *
The bustle around Adele on the Princess Cecile’s bridge hadn’t penetrated her concentration, but when Daniel appeared, still shouting orders back down the companionway, she looked up from her console. Daniel already had the jacket of his 2nd Class uniform off and was unsealing the fly of his trousers to drop them also.
“Adele!” he said. “Are you interested in seeing South Land? Frankly, I’d just as soon have you here to handle communications, but you’re welcome to come if you’d like. I’ve told Woetjans that I’ve got Hogg to shepherd me so she’s not going to tag along. Mon may need a bosun in the event the good commodore gets another harebrained idea.”
A sidebar showed that Lt. Mon was in the Battle Direction Center, alerting the crewmen who’d be accompanying Daniel to the middle of nowhere. A few of them might start out with a hangover, but they were all present and accounted for. Daniel hadn’t known what was going to happen when he formally reported to Commodore Pettin, but he’d made sure he and his whole complement would be prepared for it.
“I’d go if you wanted me,” Adele said. “I’ve slept many a night on a cot in the Academic Collections. A tent in a rocky desert isn’t going to be worse. But if you really want me here, there are ways I can be more useful.”
With Tovera’s help, Hogg had finished packing duffle bags for himself and Daniel. Unasked he traded Daniel a utility jacket for the grays. As he did so, the kneeling Tovera slid Daniel’s trousers down and tapped his ankle for him to raise his right foot. She gave Adele a sidelong smile.
“I’ll tell you one way right now,” Daniel said. “See if you can find out how Pettin decided to send me off to the South Land. I’m surprised he even knows about the ruins. He certainly doesn’t have the reputation of being an archaeologist!”
“I’ve already determined that, I believe,” Adele said, half smug and half peeved at being told to do something that had been obvious to her from the moment Daniel called in as he left the Winckelmann. “I don’t know if you have time . . . ?”
“Yes,” he said, now lifting his left foot as directed to step out of his trousers. “Everything’s obviously under control here. I’d like to know what’s going on before the arrival of the Captal’s guide—and spy, I presume.”
At the open arms locker down the corridor, Sun handed impellers or submachine guns to the spacers told off for the expedition. His assistant, Gansevoort, ran the recipients’ ID chips through a reader that paired them with the weapon serial numbers.
Adele’s wands refocused her holographic display so that Daniel could view it from where he stood. Tovera was pulling the leg of his utility trousers over his right boot.
“It’ll be quicker if you explain it, I believe,” Daniel said with an austerity that was not quite a rebuke. He switched legs while his hands did up the buttons—more rugged, weather resistant, and silent than any other closure system—of his jacket.
Adele considered what had just happened. Daniel thought her gesture was a way of saying, “You can’t match my skill even if I show you what you ought to be looking for.” He was quite possibly correct. Both he and the situation demanded better performance from her.
“Sorry,” Adele said, readjusting the display. “I checked Commodore Pettin’s message log.”
“His secure log?” Daniel asked with a frown of puzzlement. Tovera was buttoning his trousers.
“It’s not that secure,” Adele said. “If there’s anything else you’d like to know from the Winckelmann’s records, just ask me.”
Daniel grinned and shook his head. Hogg, who already wore a stocked impeller slung muzzle-down over his right shoulder, handed Daniel an equipment belt complete with a holstered pistol.
“Mr. Gerson from the Commission staff called for an appointment yesterday at twenty forty-seven hours Cinnabar time,” Adele resumed. The Sexburgan day, slightly longer than that of Cinnabar, was brought into alignment by adding an intercalary eighty-one minutes to the ship’s clock at midnight. “I think he was with Admiral Torgis when he—”