"The mirror worlds, all their settlements have forts and real soldiers," Captain Choransky said with the air of a man trying to explain why humans can't breathe water. "If we sashayed up to Umber, say, they'd just laugh at us."
"If they didn't blow our asses away," Bivens added, shaking his head in sad amazement. "That's what they'd do, you know."
Mostert grimaced. "We all know the orders President Pleyal has sent to his colonies," he said in brusque admission. "That won't last-it can't last. The colonies can't depend on Rabbits for labor. They need Molts to expand their operations, and they want to buy them from us. But-"
"They want to buy if there's a gun to their head," interjected Roon, who'd commanded the Preakness.
"But that means we don't go where they've got guns of their own," Bivens said.
"They want to do most anything with guns to their heads," Roon added with a giggle.
Mostert's face was naturally ruddy, so the best clue to his mental state was the way he suddenly flung his glass to the side with a fierce motion. The vessel clinked against the wall but didn't break.
The clot of ships' officers, all of whom had drunk more than was good for them because they were nervous, grunted and looked away.
Gregg smothered a smile. Alexi Mostert had used better judgment when he bought tumblers for this gathering than when he made up the guest list.
Piet Ricimer swept the room with his eyes. "The best way to break the monopoly on out-system trade which the Feds and Southerns claim," he said in a clear voice, "will be for Venus to develop our own network of colonies, trading stations-perhaps our own routes across the Mirror or around it in transit space. But that will take time."
He stepped closer to the dais though not onto it. His back was to Mostert but he held the eyes of everyone else. Gregg watched their host over Ricimer's head. Mostert's expression was perfectly blank, but his fingers were bending the spoon into a tight spiral.
"For now," Ricimer continued, "we need to gain experience in out-system navigation in order to carry out what I'm convinced is God's plan. But-"
His smile was as dazzling as the ring on his finger. "-God doesn't forbid us to help ourselves while carrying out His will. The investors in the voyage just completed are wealthier by more than a hundred percent of their investments. Our mistress, Governor Halys"-Ricimer nodded to Duneen-"included. No one who's served with Captain Mostert can doubt that an argosy he commands in person will be even more successful."
Gregg began to clap. He was only slightly surprised when light applause ran quickly across the room, like fire in cotton lint.
"For you gentlemen who don't know him," Mostert called from the dais, "this is my relative Captain Ricimer. He'll be commanding one of the vessels in the new endeavor."
There was another flurry of applause. Gregg raised an eyebrow. Ricimer acknowledged with something between a deep nod and a bow.
A servant entered the room carrying a round package nearly a meter in diameter. He scanned the crowd, then homed in on Ricimer.
"One moment, gentlemen," Ricimer said loudly to cut through the buzz of conversation following his speech and Mostert's.
He took the package and ripped the seal on the thin, light-scattering wrapper. All eyes were on him.
"Councilor Duneen," Ricimer continued, "we've spoken of the artifacts to be found beyond Pluto. I ask you to take this to Governor Halys, as my personal token of appreciation for her support of the voyage just ended."
He reached into the package and removed the fragment of porcelain birdbath Gregg had last seen in a garden on Virginia. Though carefully cleaned, the broad bowl was only half complete-and that badly worn.
There was a general gasp. Gregg's skin went cold. A flick of Mostert's wrist sent the spoon to follow the glass he'd thrown.
"And this as well," Ricimer continued loudly. His left hand shook the wrapping away. He raised a copy of the birdbath in its perfect state, the scalloped circuit whole and the colors as bright as Venerian ceramicists could form them.
Ricimer waved the ancient artifact in his right hand. "The past-" he cried.
He stepped onto the dais and waved his right hand. "And the glorious future of Venus and mankind! God for Venus! God for Governor Halys!"
Stephen Gregg clapped and cheered like everybody else in the meeting room. His eyes stung, and a part of him was angry at being manipulated.
But tears ran down the cheeks of Piet Ricimer as well, as the young spacer stood clasped by both Mostert and Duneen on the dais.
14
Above Punta Verde
"Featherboat Peaches landing in sequence," Ricimer said. "Peaches out."
He cradled the radio handset and engaged the artificial intelligence. "Hang on," he added with a grin over his shoulder, but even Gregg was an old enough sailor by now to have cinched his straps tight.
The thrusters fired, braking the 20-tonne featherboat from orbit, the last of Captain Mostert's argosy to do so. The deep green of Punta Verde's jungles swelled beneath them, though their landing spot was still on the other side of the planet.
The screens dissolved into colored snow for a moment, then snapped back to greater clarity than they'd managed in the stillness of freefall. Gregg swallowed his heart again.
Leon sat beside Gregg in the constricted cabin. He patted an outer bulkhead and muttered, "Silly old cow."
"You know, Piet," Gregg called over the vibration, "I never did ask you how you got that replica birdbath made so quickly."
"A friend in the industry," Ricimer replied without turning. "My, ah. ."
He looked back at Gregg. "My father preaches in the Jamaica hamlet outside Betaport," he said. Gregg had to watch his friend's lips to be sure of the words. "But there were ten of us children, and now the new wife. He has a ceramic workshop. Mostly thruster nozzles for the port, but he can turn out special orders too."
Ricimer's voice grew louder. "He's as good a craftsman as you'll find on Venus. And that means anywhere in the universe!"
"Yes," Gregg said with a deep nod. "I was amazed at the high quality of the piece."
That was more or less true, but he'd have said as much if the bath looked like somebody'd fed a dog clay and then glazed the turds. A Gregg of Eryx understood family pride.
"You might," Gregg continued, changing the subject with a smile, "have parlayed it into something a little bigger than the Peaches. Your cousin really owed you for the way you put his voyage over with the investors. Councilor Duneen was impressed too, you know."
For a moment the featherboat trembled unpowered as her remaining velocity balanced the density of Punta Verde's atmosphere. The thrusters resumed firing at low output, providing the Peaches with controllable forward motion. The featherboat was now an atmosphere vessel. At best, the larger ships were more or less terminally-guided ballistic missiles.
"Ah, this is the ship to be in, Stephen," Ricimer said, no less serious for the laughter in his eyes. "Isn't that right, boys?"
"Beats the Tolliver, that's G-g-heaven's truth," Tancred agreed. "Leaks like a sieve, that one does. Wouldn't doubt they were all on oxygen bottles by now."
The featherboat could accept twenty men or so in reasonable comfort, but the six men from Ricimer's intrasystem trader were more than sufficient for the needs of the vessel. Gregg wondered if that was why his friend had accepted the tiny command when he might have pushed for the 100-tonne Hawkwood or even the slightly larger Rose. Piet Ricimer was a first-rate leader, but the business of command as opposed to leadership didn't come naturally to him.