Outside, however, she was a different story. Not a hull plate had been refinished. With exception of a new Hyperscreen panel, every stain and dent the old ship brought with her from the Salvage Yard was intact. One had to look closely indeed to discover the tremendously enlarged waist hatches for her 122-mmi twin-mounts. These could, of course, have been normal enough modifications during an ED-4's many years of hard duty all over a galaxy. ED buffs-and they did exist in considerable numbers-might also have noticed a slightly enlarged KA'PPA antenna in its streamlined housing under her chin-or the beautifully machined hatches in her bow and stern behind which the 90-mmi antitank disruptors were mounted. Brim had been most unhappy about the latter. They were simply done too well for a ship her age. But by the time he discovered them, every one of the shipwrights had fallen hopelessly in love with the graceful old ship, so he'd simply let it drop.
The most noticeable features were rather outsized dorsal and ventral anticollision beacons mounted amidships. Prize looked as if she belonged to someone who-at one time or another-had experienced a very close call and was making sure it didn't happen again. In reality, the "beacons" were focusing N-ray generators, disguised to the degree that they even included large, strobing beacons as part of each assembly. Brim did approve of the way each was constructed of stained hullmetal to match the rest of her hull. After they were mounted, the pair looked as if they might have been installed at the factory.
While Claudia showed Collingswood around the warehouse, Calhoun called Ursis and Barbousse together with Brim just outside the gangway. "Is auld Prize really ready to fly, noo, gentlemen?" he asked, looking forward around the gentle curve of the hull. "You've had scarce forty days to ge' her in order." Suddenly he turned and nodded to Brim. "Wha' do ye think, laddie?"
Brim frowned for a moment. "I guess I'm ready to take her up, Cal," he replied. "Just as soon as we move her to the harbor." Then he grinned and held up his index finger. "But only if Nik also agrees that she's ready to go."
"All right, Nik, how aboot ye?"
The Bear shrugged. "She tests out as if she's ready to fly, Number One," he said. "But I won't have anything better than test data to go on until we get her into space and the systems go under some sort of load."
"Ye're willin' to fly under such circumstances, tho'?" Calhoun asked.
"With Brim at the controls, of course," Ursis replied with a shrug.
"An' ye, Chief?"
Barbousse grinned. "I'll go just about anywhere with these two gentlemen," he said.
Calhoun laughed while the building trembled to the thunder of more heavy starships arriving in formation. "Probably I'm crazy." he continued when be could be heard again, "but if the three o' ye are willing to bet your necks in that auld bird, I guess I am, too. How many mair innocents we risk gettin' this gr'at auld bucket of bolts off the water?"
"Well," Brim answered, scratching his head. "I'll need a backup Helmsman, for certain.
I've had Ardelle Jennings in the ED-4 simulators since we got back from patrol. She's good enough technically for long cruises, but she needs a lot more experience improvising." He nodded for a moment, then raised his eyebrows. "That way," he added, "I can also put Galen Fritz in Defiant's left seat for a while-with Aram and Angelene to back him up."
Calhoun nodded. "Sounds like guid choices to me, Wilf. How about you, Nik?"
Ursis chose Alvin Gambler, one of the younger systems officers, as his backup-a human, no less-after which Barbousse named a small crew of quartermasters, signalmen, and disruptor crews.
"You'll be in charge o' the ratings, Chief," Calhoun directed.
"Aye, sir," Barbousse answered as if he'd been in charge all his life. Brim smiled-there was a lot more to Utrillo Barbousse than met the eye. A lot more....
"A'right, gentlemen," Calhoun said with a smile. "I wu'ld suggest that ye round up your crews immediately. We are goin' to move this ship to the harbor right after sundown-an' be on our way into space afore dawn. Any questions?"
"No questions," Brim answered in unison with the others. He grinned when Collingswood and Claudia returned to the gangway. He could tell by the look on the latter's face that she knew, too. She winked surreptitiously. Tonight was the night they had plans to finally get together.
"Claudia tells me that she thinks she can have Prize provisioned by sundown, Cal," she said. "How about your crew?"
"They'll be ready, Captain," Calhoun answered. "All they need now is thy orders."
Collingswood smiled. "They have them, then," she declared. "Go to it, gentlemen. Our civilian friends have worked miracles with old Prize, here. Now it's our turn. Bring us back a bender!..."
Brim met Claudia on his way to the street door. She'd clearly been waiting for him.
"One of these days," she said with a wistful grin.
"One of these days," Brim affirmed, touching her hand as he passed. Clicks later, he settled into the old taxi they used for transportation, Barbousse gunned the grav, and they were off for Defiant.
Later that evening with the sweet rumble of two ancient Galaxy 10-320-B1C gravity generators in his ears, Brim squeezed between Ursis at the systems console and Calhoun in the commander's seat, then settled himself behind the controls of the ED-4. "All set?" he asked, turning to Jennings at the right-hand Helmsman's console.
"Just like the simulators, Wilf," Jennings assured him. "Nothing to it."
"How about you, Nik?" he asked.
The Bear looked up from his instruments for a moment with a pleased grin on his face.
"Just listen to old Galaxy's purring down there-like a couple of extra-large rothcats. She's ready to go."
Brim swiveled in his seat. "On your command, Cal," he said.
The older Carescrian glanced at his timepiece and nodded, "Let's be on our way, laddie," he said.
"Aye, sir," Brim answered, scanning the ancient control panel. He took a last look at the
'tween-decks monitors, then activated a ground link. "Stand by to move ship," he ordered.
Below, someone in the sizeable throng waved, and moments later the huge ramp door began to slide up into the ceiling.
"The door is open," a voice announced presently from the control panel. "At your orders...."
"Wheel is amidships; trim is neutral. Ready to proceed, sir," Jennings announced-all professional Helmsman's Academy now.
"Hands to stations," Brim ordered over the ship's intraship. "Special duty starmen prepare for departure." From the open door at the rear of the bridge, he could hear alarms and the sound of running feet as space hands made last-moment adjustments to spare gear and focused the ship's gravity fenders. Powerful electric motors whirred and the deck began to pulse beneath his boots as Ursis raised the ship a few irals to clear the pool. Outside, ground crews were running here and there, singling up mooring beams and umbilicals from pool-side.
Brim swallowed hard and braced himself. "Switching to internal gravity," he warned.
Moments later, a wave of nausea swept over him as Prize dipped momentarily, then regained her hover. He blinked his watering eyes clear and took a long, deep breath. "Cast off, fore and aft," he ordered into the ground link.
Simultaneously, all mooring beams winked out and a ground technician yanked the last umbilical, expertly catching the long cable in three looping coils before its plug end could touch the brick floor.
Brim slid the Hyperscreen panel open beside him. Then, half leaning out of the opening, he carefully backed Prize out of the warehouse-only just negotiating the narrow doorway and the sides of the ramp as he eased the old starship into the chilly night. Swinging her stern around to parallel the stream, he drew abreast of the spray-swept Payless pier at the same moment that a familiar long-haired figure stepped into the glow of a Karlsson lamp and peered out toward him.