“Now is the ideal time to start,” Ramona pressured. “Right now, the only ones who know what you look like are your crew and myself. If you wait, then you’ll have to try to get cooperation out of the combined crews as well as any new recruits. The sooner you start, the easier it will be.”
“But if I’m planning to be on your ship-” “You can board ahead of the crew. There’s a room off my cabin you could take up residence in without anyone being any the wiser. When they talk to you on the viewscreen, they won’t know if your signal is coming from somewhere on board or from another ship.”
Tambu leaned back and stared at the ceiling as he turned the thought over in his mind.
“It’s a good idea,” he admitted finally. “Maybe we can give it a try and see how it works. I’ll talk to my crew.”
“It’ll work,” Ramona declared triumphantly. “You know, I think we’ll work well together. Who knows? If we play our cards right, we might end up ruling the universe.”
“Who wants it? Right now I’ll settle for eking out a humble, but substantial, living.”
“I know, I know. But when you talk to the new recruits, you might make some veiled references to a secret master plan. It’ll help us fill the rosters if they think they’re getting in on the ground floor of something big.” “They are,” Tambu announced solemnly. “The question is how big-and I figure we won’t know the answer to that for a long time yet.”
INTERVIEW IV
“Then your original crew was surprised by your plans of expansion?” Erickson asked. Tambu seemed tyrannical, even in his early career.