Martinez didn’t envy Jinja his job. The only forces he had were those that were captured with him, four or five thousand military to police several million Naxids.
Altasz and the stay-behind force would help, though. Altasz, along with his missiles, to keep everyone on the planet and the ring compliant and obedient.
Martinez wondered if his old shipmates fromCorona were well. Fahd Tarafah, his old football-crazy captain, and his premiere Koslowski, the talented goalie. And Lieutenant Garcia, the only other officer to believe that the Naxids were going to rise. At a crucial moment she had slipped him her lieutenant’s key, which allowed him to enableCorona ‘s weapons and permitted his escape.
He sent messages to them all to let them know thatCorona had survived and was in the system. There was no answer, so perhaps proper communications weren’t working yet, or the old Coronas had been moved to another planet.
He checked on his friends and lovers. Lady Elissa Dalkeith’sCourage had been lightly damaged, and would be part of the attack force. Vonderheydte’s cruiser had suffered severely and would remain in the Magaria system, but Vonderheydte had survived and seemed reasonably cheerful. Cadet Kelly, in her pinnace, had survived the strike that wiped out her shipmates, and was taken aboard Sula’sConfidence. Martinez could only hope that Sula and Kelly didn’t spend their time exchanging stories about him.
Ari Abacha’sGallant had done very well as part of Sula’s Squadron 17. Shushanik Severin’s Exploration Service frigateScout had been heavily damaged and would need dockyard repairs. Severin had survived with a broken collarbone.
Illustrioussent off repair parties to aid other ships. Some of them came back shocked at the carnage they’d seen. Martinez kept busy devising exercises for the squadron that Michi had promised him.
The two derelict ships turned out to be friendly. One had lost all its engines to antiproton weapons, and its crew was taken off by the other, which was barely able to maneuver.
Tork sent off a missile carrying his official report. It would accelerate to relativistic velocities between Magaria and Zanshaa, then broadcast its coded contents to the capital.
The attack force sorted itself into its new formations and began exercises to accustom each ship to maneuvering with its new comrades.
Two thousand missiles arrived in the system and, defanged by the proper codes, began braking at speeds that would have pulped any human. The weaponers spent several harried hours recovering missiles before the fleet narrowed its trajectory to pass the wormhole.
Still in the inflatable body cast, still on the flagship that was feebly decelerating in an attempt to claw its way back toward Magaria’s ring station, Tork issued a last ringing command.
“In the past, under the Shaa and the Praxis, the empire existed in a state of harmony and perfection. Your ancestors were a part of that harmony. It is your task to restore the lost perfection of the empire by cutting out the imperfect and disharmonious element.
“Prove yourselves worthy of your ancestors! Fulfill the perfection they have bequeathed to you! Purge yourself of irregularities and innovations!Long live the Praxis! ”
The Orthodox Fleet flashed through Magaria Wormhole 5, and at that instance became Chenforce. Martinez felt his heart sing a chorus of thanksgiving. Chenforce had been lucky for him.
He had his squadron now, and Tork was far behind.
THIRTY-FOUR
Afew hours after passing the wormhole, Lady Michi shifted Captain Carmody’sSplendid to Cruiser Squadron 9, which put Sula back in charge of Squadron 17.
Martinez happened to witness Michi’s communication to Carmody, and was struck by how relieved Carmody seemed to have escaped squadron command.
“Please understand,” Michi said, “that this reassignment is meant as no reproach to yourself. I will put a note in your file to that effect.”
“Very kind of you to say so, my lady,” Carmody said. “Truth to tell, I never understood what a heavy cruiser was doing in a light squadron in the first place, and…”
Carmody seemed to lose track of his conversation.
“And?” Michi prompted.
Carmody blinked. “Oh. Well. Lady Sula is—quite an extraordinary person—isn’t she?”
Martinez concluded that Sula had managed to bring Carmody to a state of terror in an unusually short time. He figured the only reason Tork wasn’t afraid of her was that he lacked the imagination.
Martinez himself had no time to be terrified. He was shifting to Light Squadron 31 in a few hours, with the rank of Acting Squadron Commander.
He had a final breakfast with Acting Captain Fulvia Kazakov and gave her the combination to his safe. His belongings and his portrait were packed. He had Buckle give him a final haircut so he could make the best possible impression on his new officers.
In his address to the crew ofIllustrious, he told them how privileged he felt to have commanded them in battle and how proud he was of them. He said that his current assignment was temporary and that he would be back after Lady Michi finished off the Naxid fleet once and for all.
He heard the cheers ringing down the corridors. Smiling, carrying the Golden Orb, he made a royal progress to the airlock, where he met his servants and the cadet, Falana, who would act as his signals officer. He stepped aboardDaffodil for the journey to Squadron 31.
As the airlock door swung shut, he heard one rigger turn to another and say, “There goes our damn luck, off to that useless undeserving set of buggers.”
He stepped aboard Lieutenant Captain Lady Elissa Dalkeith’sCourage twenty minutes later, to the usual honor guard, the silent row of officers, and a jaunty recording of “Our Thoughts Are Ever Guided by the Praxis.”
Dalkeith had been his premiere onCorona. She was middle age and gray-haired, and had been languishing as a very senior lieutenant until Faqforce’s victory at Hone-bar had put all Martinez’s officers into the spotlight. She had been lucky enough to be promoted to Lieutenant Captain after the battle, when Martinez’s star was at its height but before Lord Tork and his clique had decided to drag that star down by main force.
“Welcome toCourage, Lord Captain,” she said. Martinez was surprised, for about the hundredth time, at Dalkeith’s voice, the high-pitched piping lisp of a child.
“Happy to be aboard,” he said.
He shook her hand and was introduced to her officers, then escorted to his quarters.
Couragewas a large frigate, with twenty-four missile launchers in three batteries, and was enough likeCorona that Martinez was surprised when he came across the occasional difference. Frigates had no quarters for flag officers aboard, since light squadrons were usually commanded by the senior captain rather than a designated squadron commander. As he had once displaced Kazakov from her quarters onIllustrious, he now displaced Dalkeith, who displaced her first lieutenant, and so on down the line.
More annoying was the fact thatCourage had no Flag Officer Station. Martinez would command Squadron 31 from Auxiliary Command, from the couch normally used by Dalkeith’s first lieutenant, who was supplanted—again—to one of the engine boards, where she would monitor the ship’s condition from a reconfigured station. Since the premiere—whose name was Khanh—had little to do in combat other than wait for Dalkeith to die, the inconvenience was not crucial.
Nor were the sleeping arrangements going to be much of a disadvantage to anyone. Martinez knew he wouldn’t have much chance to sleep in the bed he’d taken from Dalkeith—that Michi was planning a series of heavy accelerations—and suspected he’d be doing most of his sleeping on his acceleration couch.