“To you boat pilots I say this. There’s not one of you who hasn’t lost a friend in this fight. Some of you have lost many friends. Too many. I look out here and… there are so few of you! Barely more than thirty out of more than a hundred and fifty. You are the bravest and best of the best. I and the rest of the rim owe you everything. I hope some of you will stay with me. To the others, I say there is no disgrace in leaving now. On the contrary, every one of you has a medal coming. If you decide to go, go with your heads held high. Go as heroes! I will make sure that passage to your home systems is arranged as quickly as possible.
“Finally,” I continued, “I mentioned that we will be leaving for Outback in a few hours. In the meantime, I will make myself available to any of you to discuss your individual situations.” I straightened. “I want to make certain that you understand how much I appreciate the sacrifices you've made for the rim; and I promise you that both Viceroy Cord and I will do our best to make sure the people of the rim appreciate them, too. For now, I salute you.”
A gratifyingly large percentage of them jumped to their feet and returned my salute. A large lump had somehow become lodged in my throat, so I just muttered, “Thank you,” and fled out the hatch.
Shar was waiting. “I saw you palm that ace, Admiral!”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied with as much dignity as I could muster.
He grinned. “It’ll be weeks or months before all of the repairs are completed on all of the ships. So you’ve left them the choice of staying with you or sitting on their butts on Outback, arguing over who’ll eventually get to go first. ‘You'll have to wait until the yard and dock space is available’,” he mimicked. “When have you ever known a shipyard to be empty? Space will be ‘available’ when you say it is, and you know it!”
I looked around guiltily. “I know. And I feel terrible about it. I, we, owe them better! But, what can I do? I might need their help with Thaeron.”
His grin faded. “I know. What do you think the boat pilots will do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Shar. But I didn’t have the courage to press them hard to serve again. There are so few of them left!”
He nodded soberly. “I understand. And I agree. I’ve never served with braver people — in or out of the Fleet."
Chapter XVI
I’d barely got to my cabin before Toms Tindarr was knocking at the door.
“Ye can count on alla us, Admiral,” he said with a cheery grin. “We’re wi’ ye!”
I shook my head. “Thank you, Toms,” I said in a heartfelt tone. “But I must admit I don’t understand. Your casualties were so high, yet you’re still willing to serve.”
Toms shrugged, and looked slightly uncomfortable. “It’s ye as don’ unnerstand, Admiral. See, rock jock ain’ zackly a respected perfession. Mostly we’re loners ‘n misfits. We generally loses a couple dozen a year, but don’t nob'dy care. ‘Cept Ye! Ye ‘n th’ Viceroy, Ye care!”
He shrugged. “Take Lar Quiston. He were a bum an’ a ne’er-do-well. His fambly threw him out — that’s how he ended up a rock jock. But ye an’ Cord, ye sent a ship’s cap’n allaway t’ Keth’s World t’fetch his whole fambly to Bolt Hole, so’s ye c’d persent ‘em a medal fer ‘im. Now he'll be ‘membered by his fambly as a hero, ‘steada a bum.” He shook his head. “Naw, Admiral, we’ll go ennawheres wi’ ye!”
I could feel warmth creeping up my face. I hurriedly thanked Toms and ushered him out. Sending Jamro to Keth’s World for Lar Quiston’s family had been strictly Cord’s idea. It seemed I owed him another apology.
Ultimately, all but one of the privateer crews elected to stay. I thanked each of the eleven crews, even the one that was opting out.
After some discussion, Cord agreed that I should take the entire force to Outback with me. That way, we could jump straight to Thaeron without time-consuming delays returning to Haven. He also agreed to send our scout tramp on to Outback to report.
The news at Outback was good; at least, as good as I could expect. Relentless was barely capable of maneuvering and jump. But if we couldn’t get her to Thaeron’s orbital shipyards, she’d never fight again. Though Fearless ’ jump comp was still out, all her other systems were operational. That meant that one of our two cruisers and three destroyers would be available for the Thaeron campaign. Even Jamro’s Harpy was now battle-ready. Perhaps we wouldn’t have to rely so much on the privateers and boats.
But captains are captains. They’re never satisfied with the condition of their ships; and they’d been hogging the orbital repair docks. I put a quick end to that.
To be honest, though, most of the repairs to the privateers had been completed in the planetside yards. Despite the complaints, there was little remaining to be done to make all the privateers spaceworthy. I was even able to get our one defector yard space for disarming. Frankly, I didn’t want his crew hanging around complaining and inducing others to change their minds. My one fear was that his disarming would be complete before we heard from Thaeron. If the other crews saw him lift off to trade, well…
Actually, that was what happened. Luckily, though, the day before she was scheduled to lift, our scout arrived in the system. All the crews were so busy betting on whether we’d have to fight that the tramp’s departure was almost unnoticed. I didn’t make any effort to keep the scout’s crew from talking on their way in from the jump point. If the crews wanted to gossip badly enough to tolerate communications lags of as much as an hour, they were welcome. I didn’t want the privateer crews thinking I was witholding information.
When she finally arrived in Outback orbit, I sent for her captain and asked for his report.
“The man in charge was an old man, a Captain. He’s the CO of the base on Thaeron.” He grinned. “But don’t underestimate him because of his age,” he added, “His chest is covered with ribbons. This is no armchair officer.”
He shifted in his chair before continuing. “I think he figured me out in about five seconds. Knew what I was doing there, and that you sent me. I told him about Jonas and Van-Lyn bein’ dead and Nemesis and Dauntless destroyed, and gave him a copy of the tape of the Emperor’s visit. After he pumped me for every bit of information I had, he gave me a message for you.”
I was startled. “What kind of message?”
“He said, ‘Tell Kedron that I said to leave us alone for a while. I’ve sent a courier to HQ on Prime for orders. If he’s telling the truth, all he has to do is wait until that courier gets back, and he’ll have nothing else to fear from us. But if he shows up here with a fleet before the courier gets back, we’ll fight!’”
I thought, hard. The elderly Captain seemed a competent leader. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to leave him alone. In fact, I couldn’t afford much delay at all, without risking the dissolution of half my fleet. On the other hand, did I really need the privateers?
I raised my eyes to the scout Captain. “All right. Now, tell me everything you saw and heard.”
He stared at me intently. “You're going to attack? After what the Captain said?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. However, before I make the decision, I want to have all the facts. Now, what did you see and hear, and what do you think about it?”
He stared at me for another long moment, then sighed and began. “Well, they towed an old hulk of a battle cruiser out to picket the jump point. It looked like they’d been stripping it for years; I was surprised it held atmosphere. Still had enough weapons to scare me, though.
“After I emerged, they sent a pilot aboard to guide us along the cleared lanes through the mines. Seems they’ve sowed mines over the whole system, thousands of ‘em. If you go there lookin’ for a fight, you’d better worry about them.