"Well...who are you thinking about?" she demanded. "Her or me?"
Brim laughed. "You," he assured, "every time."
She smiled broadly again with her teeth on her lower lip. "I actually think that you might be telling the truth." she said.
"Thanks," Brim said. "I am-but I guess there's no way I can prove it."
"Well," Claudia began, her face coloring for a moment. "If you're really interested, there is something you can do to make me feel sure of your words."
"What's that?" Brim asked seriously. "I think I'd do damned near anything...." His voice abruptly trailed off when Claudia drew her knees up again.
"Prove it, Wilf Brim," she demanded in an urgent whisper. "One more time...."
As morning sun began to stream through the windows, Brim shared a badly needed shower with Claudia, then relaxed on her bed-for the first time-to watch her toilette and discuss the relationship they seemed to have defined during the night. "How could I stay angry with you, Wilf?" she asked through a half-dozen hair pins held in her teeth. Frowning, she inspected her coiffure in a large mirror behind her cluttered bureau. "I wanted you as much as you seemed to want me." She brushed a few last strokes, then carefully inserted the pins one by one. "And," she added at length, "whether or not you know it-or even particularly care-you gave me the most wonderfully scandalous night I have ever spent. I could forgive nearly anything for that." Grinning in spite of a sudden blush, she bent slightly to peer down at her crotch. "I shall be quite tender there, I suspect...."
Within the metacycle-in ample time to report for morning watch-Brim returned to Defiant with a light heart, the sure knowledge that he had made a lifelong friend, and a moderately strained back. The latter, he realized, was part and parcel of this most delightful and intimate new relationship. He wouldn't have changed things if he could!
Late in the week, Collingswood invited Claudia and a number of her civilian associates on the Payless Affair-as Project Campbell had come to be known-to a top-secret awards ceremony in Defiant's secured wardroom. There, amid rousing cheers and applause, she presented Calhoun, Ursis, and Barbousse with Imperial Comets for their work against the
"latest threat from the League," as their engraved citations read. Following this, she summoned a thoroughly surprised Wilf Brim to the forward end of the room and handed him a shining golden envelope embossed with the Great Seal of the Empire.
Embarrassed and a little flustered by the unexpected attention, Brim concentrated on opening the splendid envelope instead of listening carefully to what she had to say. Only the words "Emperor's Cross" and a thunderous round of applause registered before he removed the presentation material-a personal note from Greyffin IV, summoning him to Avalon "as soon as events permit" to personally receive the medal itself.
Shaking his head in disbelief, Brim was quick to discount his part of the mission, but Collingswood only laughed and would hear none of his protestations. "Sorry, Lieutenant Brim," she said with a grin. "You will have to take that up with the Emperor himself when you get to Avalon...."
That evening Brim-once again dressed in mufti-escorted Claudia to the Payless warehouse where old Prize was commissioned an official Imperial vessel and delivered to the Admiralty Intelligence Operations Division. Subsequently, she would continue in the extraordinarily hazardous D-ship role to which she had been modified-manned exclusively by volunteers from the covert side of "The Firm," as COMINTEL was known, and operated from a secret location. At the-unspecified-conclusion of these duties, ownership would automatically transfer to the sprawling Imperial War Museum in Avalon, where she would go on permanent display as an important historical artifact.
Following the ceremonies, Brim stood on the Payless wharf, sheltering Claudia from the bitter wind and flying spray with his coat. Out on the canal, Prize was just beginning to gain way over the racing white caps, her old Laterals thundering defiance at the darkness. Just before she vanished in cascades of spray behind the corner warehouses, Claudia's arm clasped his waist tightly, and he turned to find tears streaking her cheeks.
"Those 'volunteers' at The Firm," she said over the diminishing tumult, "I've heard what kind of missions they fly. "We'll never see her again, will we?"
Brim bit his lip. His mind had been following a dismally similar path. "Probably not," he said as the last breakers from the starship's wake cascaded under the wharf and broke on the stone seawall beyond. "Nor will we see the likes of her again, either. Old Prize was special, somehow."
"Strange," Claudia remarked as they turned back to the warehouse, leaning into the teeth of the wind, "but I think it might be better that way. I can't see her ending up in a stuffy museum.... She wouldn't fit there. She'd be.. . bored, Wilf."
Later that night, with Claudia asleep in his arms, Brim smiled wistfully, reflecting on her words. She was right, of course. Every starship he'd ever come to know had her own unique personality-like proud Defiant, and tough old Truculent before her. Even the treacherous Carescrian ore barges.... Prize would likely spend the remainder of her days in one last, great adventure-the kind she had known since the moment she first soared out from the ancient Cloverfield yards more than two hundred years in the past. And then she would vanish forever in a blaze of glory.
He nodded his head and closed his eyes, sinking dreamily into the warmth of Claudia's perfumed fragrance. Not a bad way to go, he thought as sleep began to overtake him. Not a bad way to go at all....
Chapter 8
ANTIQUARIES
Shortly following Prize's departure and the subsequent closing of Payless Starmotive Salvage-"Just when we were starting to get a couple of calls," Barbousse complained with a chuckle-the pace of the war suddenly-and ominously-slackened. Clearly, Kabul Anak was concentrating his forces in preparation for the coming assault. Simultaneously, reports from Imperial spies indicated that small squadrons of Triannic's heavy warships continued to sortie-in support of Liat-Modal's troop transports, it was assumed. But the League's main battle fleet remained stubbornly in harbor near Tarott.
During a rare morning of inactivity- Defiant was not due out until the subsequent daybreak-a note from Claudia informed Brim that she would be late meeting him after work.
He frowned in disappointment; nearly all her evenings had been spoken for since Defiant's latest planetfall, and he was eager for her company. Now at odds and ends until well into the evening watch, he was idling outside the main hatch when Wellington and Ursis suddenly appeared on the brow.
"What's going on?" he asked, gazing indolently over the surrounding expanse of jam-packed gravity pools. Rumor had it that nearly one hundred fifty fleet units had been temporarily relocated to the big base, and even the skies-teemed with ships.
"Until tomorrow morning's takeoff, friend Wilf, very little," Ursis declared over the reverberations of a battleship and three heavy cruisers thundering up from the bay in lofty cascades of spray.
"Actually," Wellington interjected, "Nik and I just now stopped by your cabin and found you were gone. We've signed out to tour the Gradygroat monastery. Would you like to go along?
You could be our guide."
Brim shrugged-he certainly had enough time to kill. "Why not?" he said with a grin. "It's a pretty fascinating place. I'll sign the Good Book and be right with you." Moments later, the three Blue Capes were on their way along the brow toward the swarming public tram stop....