“Good enough. Tambu out.”
He stared thoughtfully at the blank viewscreen for several moments after signing off. His orders to Blackjack had been rather vague and poorly defined. He’d have to take some time to phrase them better before he sent them out to the fleet. Of course, that would have to wait.
He set the list of planets to one side and turned back to his work table.
Right now he had to wade through these reports. He had stalled long enough-too long. He owed it to the fleet to be selective about his priorities.
INTERVIEW IX
“Though I didn’t realize it at the time, that was the start of the Defense Alliance. It never occurred to me that they might be mounting the weapons on ships, much less that they were planning to band together against us.”
“That must have been an ugly surprise,” Erickson laughed.
There was a moment of silence before the reply came.
“I lost five ships the first day the Defense Alliance began functioning as a unit. The humor of that escapes me.”
“I’m sorry,” the reporter squirmed. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to make light of it.”
“You aren’t the only one who didn’t know,” Tambu sighed. “You see, Mr. Erickson, the Alliance’s counteroffensive came before I had gotten around to passing the warning to the fleet.”
“So when the Alliance attacked, they were totally unprepared,” Erickson finished softly. “I can see where you would feel guilty about that.”
“I never like losing a ship, but I don’t feel particularly guilty. They were fighting ships and should have been ready for trouble. They fell to attack because the years of low resistance had taken the edge off their alertness.”