“That’s Captain Springweather,” the woman corrected loudly. “Just because I don’t have one of Max Kruger’s instant commissions doesn’t mean I’m not captain of my own damned ship.”
That earned her a look from Bikina as well as Galbraith, but the only response came from the senior officer, who cleared his throat. “Yes, of course,” he said with an ingratiating smile. “Captain Springweather’s survey of the system spotted the jump point closest to the derelict, roughly thirty thousand klicks away. It hooks up with the jump point here in the Oecumene system. My intention is to deploy Xenophon and Durandel first, to get an initial tactical scan of the area in case there should be any hostile activity around Vaku.” His tone made it clear that he didn’t expect any such thing. He was going through the motions, Bondarevsky thought, hoping to impress the brass with his thoroughness even though he really didn’t see the point of going in expecting trouble. That probably wouldn’t matter at Vaku, unless the Cats were preparing some sort of elaborate trap for the Landreich. But it could spell trouble later on if Galbraith carried that same attitude into a real combat situation.
Hopefully Bondarevsky would be far away if and when that came to pass. But poor old Tarawa-and any of his friends unfortunate enough to be aboard under Galbraith s command-might be in for trouble.
“Once the initial scan is completed, Durandel will relay an all-clear signal by drone through the jump point, and we will send in the rest of the battle group. Independence will go through first and immediately launch her fighters to cover our approach and conduct a close-in examination of the target. Commander Tolwyn, I will expect the fighter squadrons to do a thorough job of sweeping the region in as short a time as possible. I do not want to keep the battle group waiting around on full alert for any prolonged period. If there is a danger to be dealt with, I want to be able to move as quickly as possible to deal with it. And if there’s nothing to block our closer investigation of the Kilrathi carrier, I want to be able to close in and start the detailed survey job ASAP. Is that clear?“
“You won’t have any problem with my people, Captain,” the younger Tolwyn said, the slight emphasis his own sign of irritation at the captain’s usurpation of authority over the flight wing.
“I trust not,” Galbraith said, unruffled. “The order for the rest of the battle group will be Sindri, then City of Cashel, then the factory ship. Vision Quest and Calihurn will bring up the rear.”
“Do we really need a rear-guard in an operation like this?” Pamela Collins asked. “It isn’t as if we have any enemy activity to worry about in these parts.”
“We’ll do this by the book, Captain,” Galbraith said. “If something should happen to one of the non-combat ships I want a destroyer on hand to deal with it. And I particularly require a civilian ship to be escorted at all times while under our protection.” He darted another look at Springweather. “In any event, those are the deployment orders. I expect them to be carried out exactly as posted.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Collins said. “As you order.”
“Once the battle group has assembled and the fighter sweep is completed the initial survey can begin. Colonel Bhaktadil will have command over this phase of the operation.“ He looked across at Richards, Tolwyn, and Bondarevsky. ”In all deference to your ranks and reputations, until we’re sure there’s no threat on board that supercarrier I require the operation to be conducted strictly within the chain of command.“
Richards gave him an easy smile. “Don’t worry, Captain,” he said. “I for one am happy to stay as supercargo for the time being. Just be glad Old Max didn’t come along for the ride, though. I doubt you’d have much luck keeping him from taking charge. Or from stealing a lifeboat and crossing over to the derelict all by himself if he thought you weren’t moving fast enough to suit him.”
“Er, yes. Well…as long as the position is understood,” Calbraith said. Bondarevsky hid a smile. Evidently Galbraith wasn’t as free and easy as a lot of the Landreich colonials when it came to free expression about the Commander-in-Chief. “Colonel?”
The Gurkha Marine officer gave a curt nod. “Ten shuttles will board simultaneously at various key points on the supercarrier,” he said crisply. “Each will carry two squads in full space armor and standard infantry weapons loads. I will be using both my own men and the marines assigned to Karga, off of the City of Cashel. These will be used to immediately secure the two bridges and the flag bridge, engineering, weapons control, and the flight deck. Investigation of other sections of the ship can be conducted later, but the key areas must be secured early on to avoid problems later if there should be any Kilrathi aboard.”
“The odds are entirely against that,” Diaz spoke up for the first time. “Judging from the power readings obtained by Vision Quest, there’s no way they’re sustaining any shielding. The crew would have fried.”
“It’s a precautionary measure, Mr. Diaz,” Admiral Tolwyn said. “In case the supercarrier’s bait for a trap, for example. If the Kilrathi just wanted to draw us into an ambush, the derelict might have troops deployed aboard as soon as they saw us coming.”
“And we don’t necessarily know how accurate Vision Quest’s readings were,” Galbraith put in. “No offense, Captain Springweather,” he added hastily. “But you did conduct your investigation at long range, and there’s no knowing if you might have missed something. Improvised shielding within the hulk, for instance, to maintain survivors…or an ambush force. Or other ships operating close alongside the supercarrier, using its bulk to shield their emissions.”
Diaz looked uncertain. “I…see. Are you gentlemen seriously expecting Kilrathi in the Vaku system?”
It was Bondarevsky who answered. “Mr. Diaz, a good space officer always expects the worst. That way he’s prepared if there’s trouble.”
Galbraith smiled reassuringly. “But in all probability, Mr. Diaz, this will just be a particularly large and elaborate exercise for the battle group,” he said. “Don’t worry about the Cats. The object of all this is to keep them from interfering…assuming they’re anywhere within ten parsecs of here.”
Richards spoke up. “Look, Captain, I do have one problem with everything you’ve put together here. I’ve been reading through your mission orders, and I see that you don’t plan to let Goliath personnel go aboard until after you’ve secured the entire ship. That could take a day or two, given the ground you’ve got to cover.”
“That’s about right,” Galbraith nodded.
“It seems to me that we could send elements of the specialty teams aboard right away. The initial points the marines are assigned to grab-control, engineering, weaponry, and flight-these are also the places where we have to conduct our initial observation of conditions aboard the ship. If we can’t fix these, there’s no point in going on. And no point risking our boys in securing the rest of the ship if we’re not going to put her back in service.“
“A squad of marines will have its hands full setting up a perimeter and looking for Cats,” Galbraith said. “They shouldn’t have to babysit a survey team at the same time.”
“I’m sure the survey teams will have enough sense to sit tight inside the shuttle until somebody gives an ‘all clear’ and it’s safe to go to work,” Richards replied. “I’m not talking about carrying out a full-scale survey in the middle of a firefight, for God’s sake. But if we can get started looking at conditions aboard right away, we can make a judgment about the next stage of the project a lot more quickly, and maybe save a lot of wasted time, effort, maybe even lives.”
Galbraith rubbed his eyebrow with one elegantly-manicured hand. After a moment he nodded reluctantly. “Very well, Admiral. What exactly did you have in mind?”