“As for your feelings about me personally,” he continued, “You may be surprised to learn that I agree with you. The episode to which you refer is not one of which I am proud; but I have no intention of defending myself or my actions to a subordinate. I will say only that it was an aberration — not typical behavior for me.
“Now. For good or ill, you are the senior Commander aboard. I can do three things with you; give you command of Starhopper, make you Flag Captain of Vir Rekesh, or retain command myself with you as exec.
“I’ve decided on the third alternative. Starhopper ’s crew is all outerworlder. I will not subject them to a skipper who considers them inferiors. For the same reason, I’m not going to appoint you Flag Captain. You’ve served as the exec of a cruiser before. You’ve done it well enough to retain the position. How you’ve been able to successfully do that despite being an arrogant snob and while retaining such silly prejudices, I confess I don’t understand. But by the time this mission is over, I will know whether you’re as effective as your manner indicates you think you are.”
He sighed. “Now, sit down, Commander, and let’s figure out how to make this ship as battle-ready as possible as quickly as possible.”
To-Ling reluctantly took a seat and for the next half hour they discussed the situation aboard the Rekesh. As their discussion continued her reluctant air slowly dissipated, and soon she was animated and enthusiastic. As long as the discussion remained professional, her snobbery was not evident. But as Kas brought the discussion to a close, her arrogance reasserted itself, and Kas shook his head as she stalked stiffly out of the room. San To-Ling was going to require watching.
The next officer summoned to Kas’ cabin was Var Ler-Traken, Kas’ next senior officer. Ler-Traken was the opposite of To-Ling. Tall and distinguished-looking, he could have been a vid star. But if anything, Ler-Traken seemed even more unhappy than To-Ling. With him it showed in a black scowl and growled surliness.
Kas sighed and briefly wished for the days when he had only the five crewmembers aboard Starhopper to concern him. “All right, Commander. You’ve made it obvious that you’re unhappy. Tell me about it. And you can be honest.”
The scowl faded slightly. “I’m sorry it shows so much, Commodore. But not very sorry. I was in transit when I was grabbed for this mission. I had orders to command of a destroyer, Harpy.”
Kas nodded. “And of course, such orders are usually followed shortly by promotion to Captain.” Ler-Traken nodded.
Kas sighed. “I’m sorry about that, Commander. But this mission is vital, and I won’t apologize for the best officers available being grabbed for it. I’m sure that if we succeed, the delay will be short. And of course, if we fail…”
A first, faint smile played across the handsome face. “If we fail, we won’t have to worry about it.”
Kas grinned and nodded. “Exactly. Now. As I recall your record, your last assignment was as Captain of a frigate.”
Ler-Traken nodded again. “Yes, sir. Sparrow. We were involved in that border skirmish at Snomish last year.”
Kas straightened. “Of course! You captured a Glory ‘pirate’ intact, right?”
Ler-Traken smiled grimly. “Yes, sir. Of course, she wasn’t a pirate. She was one of those corvettes the Glory bought about fifteen years ago. And that skipper was at least a Swordsir, even if the crew didn’t wear insignia.” The smile faded. “They booby-trapped the airlock, but we were ready for their tricks. When we got aboard without blowing the main fusactor, the crew suicided. The Glory claimed they were pirates, of course. But they had a harder time explaining the ship.”
A smile tugged at Kas’ mouth. “I remember. You caused quite a diplomatic disturbance, Commander. Excellent work.”
Ler-Traken nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
Kas made up his mind. An officer with command and battle experience was just what he needed. And Ler-Traken had not only been good enough to defeat a corvette with a frigate, but smart enough get boarders aboard a Glory ship. Glories were famous for setting booby traps to simultaneously suicide and destroy their enemies. When defeated in battle, they often tried to lure the enemy close aboard and trigger overload of the main fusactor.
“Commander,” he began, “How do you feel about outerworlders?”
Ler-Traken frowned. “I don’t understand, sir. What about them?”
“Do you have any problem with commanding a ship with a crew of them?”
The man shrugged. “Of course not, sir. I don’t care where they’re from. I only care how they perform.” He shot a glance at Kas. “Unless they’re planning to take a swing at me, of course.” he added grimly.
Kas winced, then put on a smile. “I think you’ll find they’re a good crew. I’m giving you Starhopper. I know what she looks like,” he added hurriedly as a scowl began to darken the handsome face, “but there’s a lot more there than meets the eye.” He shrugged. “Much of the success of this mission is going to depend upon you and Starhopper. You’re going to have to function as my eyes and ears. I can’t even move Rekesh until you go let the diplomats know to begin negotiating passage for her through other systems’ space.”
The big man nodded. “I guess that means I’ll be warping out almost immediately.” He looked pleased now, his annoyance abated by a new command and a mission.
Kas nodded. “Yes, but you’ll still be ‘undercover’, pretending to be a trader, until the cookie pushers can negotiate passage for two Empire warships. And you can’t go to the system we’d originally planned. There’s an Alliance base there, and I barely managed to lie my way through. Naturally, you can’t show up in ‘my’ ship.
“So, you’ll go to the next-closest system with an Empire consulate, a place called ‘Remor’.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it, but my resident expert tells me you needn’t worry about strict customs inspections.” He smiled. “’Laid back’ was the term she used. I gather that means things are pretty loose there — or at least, informal.”
Ler-Traken frowned. “‘Resident expert’… does that mean someone who knows more about the area than Fleet Intelligence? I hope?”
Kas grinned. “Much more. She and her crewman are traders, born and raised out here. You’ll be meeting them. In fact, you’ll be dropping them off on Remor. We sort of rescued them from a Glory corvette, and they’ve been quite a help in getting us out here alive.”
Ler-Traken’s frown deepened. “You’re saddling me with civilians, sir? What about when we get to this Remor? What’s to keep them from turning us all in? For all we know, there’s a big reward for Starhopper and her crew.”
Kas’ grin faded and he nodded. “True. But I’m certain they won’t betray us. They’re Alliance citizens, but Remor isn’t an Alliance system. They’re also known to have helped us when they could have betrayed us. I doubt they’d be considered heroes by the Alliance.” He shrugged. “Besides, I know them now. I trust her — them.” His tone held an element of finality.
Ler-Traken’s frown remained, but he nodded firmly. “Yes, sir. I guess the trip out here was pretty interesting.”
Kas’ grin was back. “I’m not sure ‘interesting’ is the word I’d use, but it certainly wasn’t boring.” He straightened. “Now, Captain, There is one other thing I want to mention before you get busy. Starhopper ’s crew. They’re all outies, as I mentioned. But more importantly, they’ve spent the last several months struggling to hide the fact they were military, to appear to be traders. They’ve worked hard, and they’re very convincing, which will help on Remor. But of course, once you leave there, you’ll need to reimpose the military manners and courtesies to which you’re accustomed.” He fidgeted and flushed. “I guess what I’m doing is suggesting that you consider that when you see lapses. I…”