"Didn't that cause problems with Puck? Giving him a subordinate position while Ramona kept command of her own ship?" the reporter asked, eager for clues of dissention.
"Surprisingly enough, not. I expected him to be much more upset than he actually was. Egor gave me more problems than Puck did."
"What kind of problems did Egor cause?" Erickson pressed.
"It was strange. I had expected problems with Whitey and Puck, but it never occurred to me that Egor would object. Whitey and Puck took the change in stride, but Egor put up an unholy argument. He flatly felt he wasn't qualified for an independent command."
"But you changed his mind, right?" the reporter smiled. "Whitey had commented before on your powers of persuasion."
"Not really," Tambu sighed. "I still maintain Whitey was wrong in attributing superhuman persuasive powers to me, and this is just one example of my failures. I did get Egor to accept a command position, mostly by pointing out there was no one else available with the necessary qualifications whom I trusted."
"What about Puck?"
"Even Egor admitted that Puck was too young for command. Not so much in years, but he lacked maturity. On that basis, Egor accepted command, but he never really agreed with me as to his qualifications." "So in essence, you forced your will on him?" Tambu hesitated a moment before answering.
"I suppose you're correct," he said finally. "If that was an error, it's one I paid for a hundredfold afterward. I was constantly receiving complaints, both from Egor and from the other captains as to his shortcomings as a commander. He was probably the least effective captain who ever served under me."
"Why didn't you relieve him of command, then?"
"That is one of those hindsight questions we were speaking of earlier," Tambu admitted. "I've asked myself that a hundred times in the last few years and still haven't come up with a satisfactory answer-mostly because I'm unsure of my own motives during that period. Mostly, I think, it was because of friendship. Egor was my friend, and I gave him command of a ship because I believed in him and his abilities. To take this command away would have been a sign that I no longer believed in him. Balanced against that was my own stubborn pride. I didn't want to admit I had been wrong in my assessment of his abilities, and I sincerely felt that the problems he was encountering were manufactured by him in an effort to prove me wrong. I genuinely believed that once I made it clear that I wasn't going to remove him from command, he would resign himself to the task and solve his own problems. I saw it more as a test of wills than as a sign of incompetence on his part."
"That must have been pretty rough on your friendship."
"It was, particularly as the force continued to grow. As my time was divided across an increasing number of ships, my rapport with my original crew-with my friends-became dangerously thin."
"I can see that," Erickson commented thoughtfully. "Even adding to your fleet by conquest, the number of ships would grow geometrically."
"Even faster than that," Tambu countered. "Few people realize exactly how fast the fleet did grow. You see, not all the new ships came to us as fruits of battle."
CHAPTER FOUR
"You're sure she'll be all right?" Tambu asked again.
"Look, will you relax?" Whitey scolded, her exasperated expression received clearly on the command console viewscreen. "Women have been having babies since prehistoric times. The hospital is more than able to handle any complications that might arise."
"I still don't know why you didn't sign her into the hospital on Carbo when you were there last month," Tambu grumbled. "It's a better facility."
"We aren't talking about a limb transplant," Whitey argued. "It's a childbirth, a simple childbirth. Besides, I tried to talk her into staying on Carbo and she wouldn't do it. Deny can be very strong-willed when she sets her mind to it. What was I supposed to do? Force her to go on shore leave and strand her there?"
"It isn't your fault, Whitey," Tambu sighed. "I know that. It's just this is the first childbirth in the fleet, and I don't want anything to go wrong. I guess I've been taking it out on you. Sorry."
"That's all right," Whitey shrugged. "If you can't sound off at us, who can you sound off to? Most of the new recruits would faint dead away if you talked to them direct, much less shouted at them."
"It's not quite that bad."
"Well, anyway, Pepe's staying with her here on Bastei, so he'll be able to handle any problems that we've overlooked," Whitey continued. "We'll be back in a month to check on things and pick them up if they're ready."
"You're sure they're set on rejoining?" Tambu pressed. "Shipboard is no place to raise a kid."
"I already tried that argument, and it didn't work. Deny was raised on shipboard."
"But that probably wasn't a fighting ship. There's a difference."
"We haven't done any fighting for a long time," Whitey observed. "Anyway, they both want to keep working for us, and I'm not about to stop them. Do you want to overrule me?"
Tambu shook his head, then remembered she couldn't see him.
"No," he said hastily. "It's your ship, and if you're willing to put up with it, I won't interfere."
"Good," Whitey nodded. "Then it's settled."
"She is registered at the hospital under her real name, isn't she?" Tambu frowned.
"Yes, she is!" Whitey exclaimed. "And her medical records have been transferred from her home planet. That's what I meant in my original report when I said we were following recommended procedures. Your recommended procedures."
"I'm doing it again, aren't I?" Tambu said.
"Yes, you are.'' Whitey was still annoyed. "Do you get this wound up over everything that happens in the fleet?"
"Not everything," Tambu admitted, "but a fair number of things."
"You can't afford that-not with eight ships under you. If you can't keep some distance between yourself and the minor hassles of running a ship, it'll tear you apart in no time."
"But if I don't keep track of what's going on-" Tambu began, then broke off.
A small red light had begun to blink insistently on his command console accompanied by a soft chime.
"I'll have to sign off now, Whitey," he explained hurriedly, "I've got a 'blinker' emergency coming in."
"What's up?"
"I don't know. It's from the Dreamer."
"Puck's ship?" Whitey exclaimed. "He hasn't been in command for a month yet. What kind of trouble can he have gotten into that quick?"
"That's what I'm about to find out," Tambu announced grimly, reaching for the cutoff switch.
"Well, sometime when you get a few minutes, give me a call so we can talk about other things than business." Whitey called desperately. "We never just talk anymore."
"Right," Tambu agreed absently, "I'll do that. Tambu out."
He was hitting buttons as he spoke, switching the communications relays to accept the Dreamer's transmission. Whitey's face faded, to be replaced immediately by Puck's worried features.
"Tambu here," he announced, forcing a calm tone into his voice. "What's the problem, Puck?"
"I'm-I'm not sure it's a problem," Puck stammered in return.
"Well, then, why don't you just tell me why you put in a priority call?" Tambu suggested patiently.
"We've got a pirate ship here. It came up out of nowhere and caught us with our sails out."
"How big a ship?"
"About twice our size. And armed to the teeth. If it opened fire, we wouldn't have a chance."
"Then I'd say you have a problem," Tambu announced grimly. "I take it from your comments that so far it hasn't fired on you?"
"That's right. It's just sitting out there watching us. We've got its captain on the horn, and he says he wants to talk to you." "To me? About what?"
"He won't say, but he says if you aren't on board our ship, we should relay his transmission to you." "All right, patch him through." "Will do," Puck acknowledged. "Should we try to get our sails in while you're talking?"