He watched the rigger climb stays hand over hand, throw a leg over the yard, and then kick the parrel with his other foot. The sail’s taut fabric fluttered loose, then drew tight again as the jack hauled it into position.
“Beautiful,” Daniel whispered. “Just beautiful. Any captain would give an arm to have a crew like mine.”
“Daniel,” Adele said, all expression squeezed out of her voice by the helmet-to-helmet contact. “Thank you for making me a part of your crew, part of your family. Regardless of what happens next.”
By reflex Daniel opened his mouth to say, “Now, don’t count us out yet . . .” but that wasn’t the right response for a friend.
“Yes, well,” he said. “I expect the Sissie to give a good account of herself. Beyond that, the future’s rather in the lap of the Gods. There’s some reason to hope that Chastelaine’s crews won’t be in the best condition after what must have been an unusually difficult voyage.”
He stepped slightly apart to stare at the Matrix between the sails of the corvette’s A and B rings. All time and space danced in that shimmering wonder.
Helmet to helmet again with Adele but speaking as much to himself, Daniel said, “I suppose I came out here for a . . . for another, let’s not say last, look at the Matrix before I set up the next series of maneuvers. Quite wonderful, don’t you think?”
“I too think my present situation is wonderful, Daniel,” Adele said with the understated precision that was even more a part of her than the personal data unit.
Daniel laughed and hugged her through the rigid bracing of their suits. “Let’s go below,” he said. “We’ll have business with the Alliance very shortly. And by God, the Alliance has business with us!”
Lt. Mon came up Corridor C from the Battle Direction Center, moving like an angry boxer. Somebody called to him from a compartment—Hoagland, the technician who was going over the Medic again before it might have to be used. Mon ignored him and glared at Adele when she looked up to watch his approach.
“Permission to enter the bridge!” Mon said loudly. He didn’t use his knuckles but slapped the hatch flange twice with his fingertips to make it ring.
“Granted, Lieutenant,” Daniel said, muting his holographic display to only a shimmer like dust motes between him and Mon. Daniel’s face showed very little, but to Adele he appeared as puzzled about what Mon was doing here as she was herself.
“Captain,” Mon said. Even Betts turned briefly from his console before going back to his fantasy of missile tracks. “We won’t have much time after we exit for observations so I thought I’d say this now. Goddam little in my life went the way I’d have liked it to, not till I met you. I guess on average I’ve come out ahead.”
Mon thrust his hand through the display area of the command console. Daniel leaned forward and lifted slightly from his seat to clasp arms with his second in command.
“It’s a mutual pleasure, Mon,” he said. A familiar smile lit his eyes and made the right corner of his mouth quirk upward. “I hope, however, that the association won’t continue on the atomic level after today.”
Mon looked blank, then guffawed. He slapped his left hand over Daniel’s right, sandwiching it against his biceps muscle, then unclasped and stepped away.
“Sun, all of you?” Mon said. “I always figured I’d die in bed with my wife. Thanks to God and the RCN, I may be spared that. Good luck to all of you!”
He turned and strode back the way he’d come; an angry little man who always saw the worst in a situation and who never did less than his duty. Adele felt a surge of, well, friendship for him.
Daniel started to bring up his display, then grinned more broadly at Adele and activated the PA system instead. “Fellow spacers!” he said. “We’ve shown the RCN how to sail and the Selma pirates how to navigate the Matrix. Now we’re going to show the Alliance how to fight. Three cheers for the Princess Cecile! Hip-hip—”