Tovera saw Daniel and nodded minutely. Two spacers coming back from town carrying a rolled carpet between them stepped sharply to the opposite side of the ramp, careful never to make contact with the servant.
Daniel’s face became still. The nod meant that Tovera was bringing him a message that Adele didn’t choose to send over the air.
He’d have walked toward the ramp to meet the servant halfway except that the howl of a two-stroke engine racing from the town drew his attention. Hogg had liberated an air-cushion scooter for the duration of his stay on Falassa. It bounced across a canal. Hogg was driving in a beeline toward the Princess Cecile with the little engine punched out. Daniel suspected he’d make better time if he crossed at the culverts instead of driving over the canals simply because he could, but Hogg had a fondness for the direct approach.
A fondness that had rubbed off on his charge, Young Master Daniel. Subtlety had its place, but there were worse tendencies in an RCN officer than the willingness to go straight for the throat of a problem.
Daniel stood where he was, flipping a coin mentally as to which messenger would reach him first. Tovera did, a few seconds before Hogg tried to stop the way he would in a truck and learned that redirected fans don’t give nearly the braking effort that tires against a solid surface do. The scooter slid twenty feet past Daniel on a chorus of curses from its driver.
“Mistress Mundy wishes to tell you that the Astrogator has called an assembly of all siblings in half an hour,” Tovera said with her usual look of cool amusement. “Twenty-seven minutes, now. He’s told everyone to gather in front of the Cinnabar corvette.”
“Ah,” said Daniel. He touched the switch on his helmet, cuing it manually rather than using an oral command to engage the intercom. “Lieutenant Mon, please recall all personnel to the ship without delay. Captain out.”
“Master, the whole load of pirates’s coming here for a meeting!” Hogg cried as he leaped off his vehicle. “That’s the Falassans, the ones still alive, besides all the lot we come with and any odds and sods from the third bloody planet besides, whatever the bloody name is! It don’t sound like anybody’s pissed off, but there’s going to be a shitload of ’em swarming out here!”
“The third planet of the cluster is Horn,” said Tovera without expression.
Daniel looked up at the riggers. “Woetjans?” he called, using his lungs instead of technology. “Don’t be concerned about the visitors who’ll be arriving shortly. Just keep working till you’re done, because I very much want to be able to lift from here on a moment’s notice.”
* * *
Adele felt Daniel’s presence behind her and turned. To her surprise, he’d changed into his Dress Whites since she last noticed him. She’d been busy, of course.
“Adele?” Daniel said. “I don’t like to bother you, but could you make sure the external speakers are cued to my helmet? The simple way to learn would be to test the link, but I don’t want to look uncertain in front of our visitors.”
“Yes, I’ve connected you,” Adele said. She got to her feet, feeling a trifle wobbly. She hadn’t actually been at her console so very long, but she’d been very focused for the last half hour. “Would you like me to run the Astrogator’s words through our system also?”
The ship was restive though quiet save for the sounds of machinery. The crew was at action stations. Along with all the normal assignments, Dorst had a squad of marksmen in the wardroom ready to join their fire to that of the automatic impeller at the open hatch. If things went wrong.
“Kelburney has speakers on his armored car,” Daniel said. “I assume he intends to use them . . . but if you can disconnect those and switch his voice through ours, yes, please do it. The symbolism would be useful.”
Adele turned and entered a preset command, using the console’s virtual keyboard instead of taking her personal data unit out of its pocket. If she could do it, indeed!