She wasn’t sure how to describe the admiral’s intervention, so she gave a shrug that didn’t affect the angle at which she held her wands.
“When he saved my ass,” Daniel said as he buckled the equipment belt around him. “Saved the Sissie’s collective ass, very possibly. And yes, Gerson did accompany the admiral.”
“The message said that—” Adele said. She paused, then instead of paraphrasing, quoted, “Gerson said, ‘I have information for your ears only, regarding the workings of the Commission and their bearing on your command. It is imperative that we speak before ten hundred hours tomorrow.’ Pettin called him. Gerson refused to say anything further even though the line was encrypted.”
She was quite certain that Gerson was simply being paranoid rather than that he really believed anyone could hear the message. This was a case where paranoia had paid off.
“They met three hours later—” Two hours and fifty-one minutes later, but Adele had learned overprecision tended to bother those she spoke to. “—according to Pettin’s appointment record. Gerson stayed forty-five—” forty-three “—minutes, during which time Commodore Pettin called up all the information about South Land in the Winckelmann’s data banks. That was limited to the Sailing Directions, of course. He then put through a call to the Captal da Lund, confirming that a car and guide would be here at ten-thirty hours local time today.”
“I see,” Daniel said quietly. Now dressed for action, he sat at his console and looked over the changes Lt. Mon had made in the watch roster to reflect the personnel going off to South Land for three days.
“All right, muster on the quay with your ground packs!” Sun said to the spacers he’d just armed. He’d be acting as Daniel’s second in command so he had every right to order them out, but Adele knew that the shout—which had startled her—was meant to alert Daniel to the detachment’s readiness.
The ten crewmen trotted toward the companionway, carrying in one hand the weapons they’d just been issued and the small pack holding toiletries and a change of clothes in the other. RCN crews were frequently used for detached security and fatigue duties on distant worlds where no other Cinnabar personnel were available, so there was a Standard Operating Procedure for it. Adele doubted whether “detached” often meant a dozen people being put in the middle of a desert over a thousand miles from their ship, though.
Daniel looked up to see Sun, the last in line, heading down toward the quay. Pasternak was coming up from the power room, using the other companionway. He looked worried, but Adele knew by now that was the engineer’s normal expression.
“We’ll be sleeping under tarps,” Daniel said to Adele and to Banks, waiting silently at the attack console although he was technically off duty at the moment. “That shouldn’t be too bad if rain’s as rare as the data say.”
“I’ve downloaded all the available information on Sexburga into your helmets,” Adele said. “They have plenty of storage capacity, and it’ll save time by you not having to go through the communications satellites to reach the ship’s data bank.”
“Ah,” Daniel said. “I appreciate that.”
His face twitched as if he were trying to suppress a smile. Then he said, “Adele, why do they want me to go to South Land? The Captal can’t really care about the ruins. He’d go himself if he did.”
Adele shrugged again. “There’s nothing available electronically that even suggests a reason,” she said. “There’s a physical archive in the basement of Council Building, that’s the local government. The midshipmen and I found it the other day. While you’re roughing it, I intend to search there to see what I can find.”
Pasternak entered the bridge; Lt. Mon was coming down the corridor from the Battle Direction Center. Betts got to his feet. Daniel rose from his console also, to take his leave of his officers before joining the detachment on the quay.
“There’s worse forms of busy work that a captain can find for a junior lieutenant,” he said, flashing Adele a boyish grin. “But I really wish I knew what Vaughn’s friends are playing at.”
“So do I,” Adele said aloud. Her mind added, And one way or another, I’m going to learn.