“Well, I was thinking about Captain Tarrel,” Kayendel remarked.
“Are you bothered, Captain Tarrel?” Valthyrra asked.
“Not in the slightest,” she replied. As a matter of fact, about the only thing she could see of the Starwolves at the moment was the backs of their seats. But as far as it went, she did not think that the curious frames of the Kelvessan looked ail that human in the first place. Since they were without exception powerfully muscled, and were by design incapable of carrying any real fat, the natural state was actually quite becoming to them.
“The ride home is going to be a long one, “Valthyrra observed in a softer, less contrived tone of voice. “We will need fourteen days at our present speed to reach Alkayja. I do hope to adjust phasing on the star drives to run them slightly hot, which will give us an extra ten to fifteen percent. That might cut things to nine or ten days.”
“No danger to the drives?” Gelrayen asked.
“None. If we actually do get into starflight, that is. After that, my only concern is for what happens next. I believe that I have some feel for the way the Dreadnought behaves, and I wish to continue my mission. That will depend upon whether the Great Powers are pleased with my performance so far, or if they see only my mistakes. And if they have four new main drives to give me any time soon.”
“Finding parts for you will be the only problem,” the Commander assured her. “There is no question about whether or not you deserve them.”
Captain Tarrel said nothing, but she knew how unpredictable the Great Powers could be. She remembered how reluctant they had been to allow the Methryn to go out the first time, when actual battle had not been the purpose of her mission. No matter what they thought of her performance, she still might find herself passed over in favor of more experienced ships. Although Tarrel would not mention it aloud, she even wondered if the Methryn, rather than receive the repairs she needed, might find herself stripped of useful parts to keep some of the older carriers flying. Valthyrra might very well be going back into the construction bay for months, or even years.
For her own part, she suspected that she would be watching the next stage of this battle from the bridge of yet another ship. She even had to admit that it probably would be best for the Methryn if she did have to wait out the rest of the battle with the Dreadnought. She knew that it was largely a sentimental response on her own part, that she wanted to see this young carrier get her chance to fight. If she was asked, Tarrel certainly intended to testify that Valthyrra had proven herself quite clever and resourceful enough to have earned special consideration.
The trouble was that the Methryn had learned more than anyone had really expected, but still less than they needed to know. She had proven that the Dreadnought could be fought and even hurt, but even her brief scan during the moment that the alien weapon’s shield had been down had not revealed any great secrets. The ship continued to defy any interior scans, and little enough could be inferred from the limited exterior view. If Valthyrra had been going home with a clear idea of how to destroy the Dreadnought, those same Great Powers would find it harder to deny her.
“I am sitting at threshold,” Valthyrra announced soon enough. “Shall I attempt the transition into starflight?”
“When you feel ready,” Gelrayen told her.
“Ready to engage star drives,” she warned the bridge crew. “Stand by all manual controls.”
As it happened, the only failure that was likely to require any member of the bridge crew to intercede with manual controls was the failure of Valthyrra herself, and that was extremely unlikely to happen for any reason except for complete power loss. The star drives began to phase very smoothly, especially so because they were slow to develop even the limited power available to them; so gentle, in fact, that it seemed for a moment that the carrier might even fail to pass threshold. Once she was in starflight, she continued to build speed at a leisurely but steady pace.
“I am settled into starflight to stay,” Valthyrra announced. “My drives might be weak, but they remain responsive. I will continue to build to my best cruising speed as things are before I try tampering with the star drives to boost their efficiency.” “Commander?” Kayendel asked; she was one of several crewmembers looking over their shoulders.
Gelrayen looked up at the camera pod. “Val?”
She knew what the game was, and she was eager enough to play along. “I really do not want any of those monitors or manual controls unsupervised for even a moment until I am settled into my best possible speed and we all feel certain that nothing will go wrong. Say, another ten hours? I hope that no one minds taking such a long watch without interruption.”
“We should be comfortable,” Kayendel remarked sourly as she turned back to her monitors.
Gelrayen was looking so amused, Captain Tarrel decided that it was time to take a part in their little game for herself. “Valthyrra, I have been thinking.”
The camera pod turned toward her. “You do it well.”
“You know, I have been very uncomfortable with the temperature aboard this ship since I first came aboard.” As a matter of fact, she really did not mind it much at all. “It occurred to me that part of the reason you have to keep it so cold is so that Kelvessan can wear clothes that, as you pointed out earlier, they hardly need. If none of the Starwolves aboard this ship wore their clothes, you could move up the temperatures to a level that I would find more comfortable.”
“Yes, that sounds very reasonable.” Valthyrra turned her camera pod to Gelrayen, who was looking very surprised by that time. “Commander, it would be very hospitable of us if we made that suggestion a standing order.”
Watching Gelrayen try to explain his way out of that one proved to be very entertaining.
Valthyrra had to fuss over her ailing star drives every step of the way, but she managed to bring herself home on her earliest projected schedule of nine days and was still able to avoid damaging herself in the process. When she finally dropped out of starflight well inside the Alkayja system, she was not the only one to feel extremely relieved to have actually made it. She transferred full power to her two remaining forward drives, struggling to cut her tremendous speed with only half the thrust that should have been available to her.
She had, of course, sent her full report on ahead to Alkayja by a tight-beam achronic message as soon as she had escaped from the Dreadnought, a week and a half earlier. Nothing that she had to say would come as a surprise, but Fleet Commander Asandi and his associates were still awaiting direct reports and observations, not only from her but Commander Gelrayen and Captain Tarrel as well. In fact, Asandi was in communication with the Methryn as soon as he was told that she was in system.
“Commander Gelrayen, your ship seems to have done quite well for herself, ” Asandi began enthusiastically. “We will try to have a construction bay ready for you as soon as you can get here. I’m afraid that we are still working on getting all the replacement parts she needs, however.”
“Thank you, Commander,” Gelrayen responded, standing over Captain Tarrel’s seat as he used the com on the upper bridge. If Valthyrra Methryn was very much in favor with Commander Asandi himself, that served as a good indicator about her future.
“It seems a shame to have had our newest carrier damaged on her first flight, but we expected that,” Asandi continued, then paused. “Commander, why are all the members of your crew naked? Not that it really matters to me, of course. That is entirely your own business.”