Aikens and Okatar! The same personality, really, when you strip away the differences in race and cultural background. Both warriors. Both impatient with anything less than battle. Both eager to fight it out, here in this valley.
Aikensdoesn’t want to retreat from the valley because he’s anxious to meet Okatar in battleHis fear of a trap is just an excuse. Probably he doesn’t realize it himself, but it’s only an excuse. He wants to fight Okatar!
Vorgens frowned. Or do I merely want to believe it, because I think Aikens is wrong?
There was a way to verify his idea, Vorgens suddenly remembered. He turned back and half ran toward the dreadnaught. He clambered inside and made his way to the main computer. A dreadnaught’s computer served an amazing variety of functions, from directing fire control to making statistical predictions of an enemy’s intent. Vorgens was interested in the personnel records stored in the memory banks. The records were carried to allow officers to pick particularly qualified men for any given task. As a matter of course, the brigadier’s battle history would be there-
The computer control center was a tiny compartment, consisting of a desk-console with its control keyboard, and a readout viewscreen. The cramped compartment was unattended at this hour.
It took Vorgens a few minutes to figure out the coding
•sm that unlocked the computer’s memory banks, but Uy he had Brigadier Aikens’ battle record on the viewscreen.
Vorgens tensed in sudden shock as he read about Aikens’ first major battle. It was in the Pleiades Uprising, the rebellion in which Vorgens’ own grandfather had been killed.