Robert Asprin – Tambu

Tambu frowned at the ugly sounds coming from the assembled captains, but Egor wasn’t finished yet.

“How do I know?” he called in answer to one of the many questions shouted from the group. “I’ll tell you how I know. The Scorpion was there! We were there at Elei!”

His words stilled the rising babble like a bucket of water tossed on a fire. All eyes were on him as he turned to stare at the viewscreen.

“The Scorpion was orbiting Elei when the Alliance ship arrived,” he announced coldly. “Under orders, we withdrew rather than put up a fight. When we returned later, we found out about Whitey.”

Tambu bowed his head as the icy rage in Egor’s words washed over him. It was obvious that Egor blamed Tambu personally for Whitey’s death.

Egor continued, “Unfortunately, my crew heard about it first when they went planetside. I had to exert every bit of discipline and authority at my command to keep them from retaliating against Elei for what the Alliance had done. What’s more, I’ve blocked them from meeting or communicating with the crews from any other ship. It wasn’t a popular thing to do, but I felt it was necessary to keep the story from spreading through the fleet before we could discuss it here at the meeting.”

Egor faced the other captains, inadvertently turning his back on the viewscreen.

“Well, we’re at the meeting now,” he growled, “and the question I want to put before the assembled captains is: what are we going to do about it? How long are we going to let the Defense Alliance push us around before we push back?”