There was a pause before the voice continued, “There’s a ship lifting whenever Hesseltine gets her thumbs outa her ass, but I don’t guess that’ll happen before you’re on the ground. If you don’t set down on the first go-round, though, you better check back with me. Out.”
“Riggers topside!” Daniel ordered. The bosun had already opened the inner hatch of Bow Dorsal airlock. The High Drive keened, slowing the vessel. Working in a haze of not-quite-complete matter-antimatter cancellation was unpleasant for the riggers, but the quicker Daniel was on the ground confronting the Astrogator, the better. Surprise and the name of the RCN were the best weapons Daniel had at the moment.
Course vectors for landing filled the right half of Daniel’s console, set by Lt. Mon from the Battle Direction Center. Daniel switched the real-time display on the left to a Plot Position Indicator. Three vessels were in eccentric orbit around the planet. There was no certainty that they were guardships rather than hulks, but Dalbriggan Control seemed quite competent, albeit eccentric by the standards of more settled worlds.
“Captain, I’ve got set-ups on the three pickets,” Betts said as he concentrated on his attack console. The missileer’s fingers continued to type in coordinates, though his words had claimed the courses were already planned. “If we don’t watch out, they’ll be all over us like stink on shit! Over.”
Daniel smiled faintly. Obviously Betts shared his belief that the pirates were keeping a proper guard. Instead of replying, however, he said, “Dalbriggan Control, we’ll land after one circuit.”
The schematic showed all the sails were furled and most of the masts had been unlocked. Woetjans would have her riggers back aboard well before the corvette had completed its forty minute orbit.
“Have you assigned us a particular berth? RCN over.”
Daniel was emphasizing his association, the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, rather than the name of his vessel. The folk who ran the Selma Cluster didn’t care about ship names, but by God! they knew to care about the RCN.
“RCN, you can land any bloody place you want,” the controller said. “Just remember we don’t run to limousine service here, so if you don’t have your own ground transport you’re going to do a lot of walking.”
Daniel thought the controller had finished without signing off, but a moment later the voice added, “The Astrogator says he’ll meet you in the Hall and that you better not keep him waiting. Out.”
The riggers were thundering back aboard. Daniel checked the landing vectors and nodded appreciatively. A red-outlined overlay at the top of his screen showed the ground plan of the Council Field with the large building along the north side careted. Trust Adele to have information waiting before he needed it.
“Dalbriggan Control,” Daniel said, “this is Lieutenant Daniel Leary of the Princess Cecile. Assure the Astrogator that I understand him very well, and I’m pleased to see that he understands me as well. RCN out!”
The whine of the High Drive gave way to the roaring pulse of plasma thrusters as the Princess Cecile braked hard on its way into the atmosphere. Daniel was smiling. He had a good feeling about this one.
Though he didn’t suppose he could explain why in words that didn’t leave everybody else thinking he was out of his mind.
Chapter Twenty-four
The Princess Cecile came down on the patch of dirt between two Dalbriggan cutters, a hundred yards from the Hall. This was a normal landing place: already blast-scarred and separated by a berm from the Hall which faced it.
“Normal” meant a berth for a 300-ton cutter, however, not a corvette four times as heavy. The Princess Cecile’s plasma thrusters slammed the vessels to either side of her, flinging rocks and clods of baked clay against their hulls.
When the Princess Cecile finally came to rest, Daniel rose to his feet feeling shaken. “Almighty God!” he said to Adele because she stood facing him. “I almost let reflected thrust flip her over on her back. On water . . .”
He let his voice trail off because he feared he was making excuses. When a starship landed on water, as Daniel had on every previous occasion, a tilted thruster raised a plume of steam which righted the imbalance gently. From a hard surface, the plasma reflected in a violent shock wave. The Princess Cecile had pogoed from outrigger to outrigger in the half-second it took Daniel to cut thrust by three-quarters.