Jirik nodded. "Naturally. I didn't expect otherwise. So, what do we do now?"
Cony returned Jirik's nod. "My astrogator has the target stars' coordinates, but he's not confident of his ability to handle your nav comp. So, he'll give your astrogator the coordinates, and watch him carefully as he programs the jumps. I'd suggest that your man not try anything fancy. Meanwhile, my comm expert will be sweeping to detect any transmissions from the ship. Once we leave the Wayoff system, he will disable to ship's ident beacon. There will be two short jumps before we line up on our base's system. When we break out in the target system, my man will take over the comm, and transmit our coded clearances."
"What kind of place is your base?" Jirik asked.
Cony's eyes narrowed. "I don't think that you need to know until we get there. Why do you ask?"
Jirik sighed resignedly, looking Cony in the eye. "Because I need to know that you haven't overestimated the old bitch's capabilities," he replied. "One of the reasons that you wanted a DIN-Class ship was because she could land, right?" Cony nodded, and Jirik continued, "Well, she can't just land any damn where. I need to know that your base isn't on some asteroid with almost no gravity, where we'd be better in orbit; or on some planet with really rough surface conditions, where she could get blown over, or hulled."
Cony nodded. "It's a medium-sized moon circling a gas giant. It has no atmosphere, and 0.2G gravity. Is that enough?"
Jirik grinned. "Fine. We'll have no problem grounding on a moon like that. Then what happens?"
Cony grinned back. "You sit on your asses for awhile, while we bring in and install the weapons and C & C gear. As the stuff is installed, your crew will learn to handle it. I doubt that you'll be bored. For security reasons, your fuel will be drained while you're grounded, and guards will be posted aboard. Perhaps by the time that everything's ready, there will be no need for such precautions; but for the present, I'm taking no chances. By the way, from this point until further notice, your crew's contact with each other will be monitored, as well. Don't plan any furtive crew meetings. One of us will be with each of you nearly all the time. Please warn your crew not to do anything to arouse our suspicions."
Jirik nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. We'll be careful.Any idea how long the refit will take?"
Cony shrugged. "The battle comps and comm gear have already been manufactured, and are sitting in a warehouse on Yonder. I've already sent word to begin shipping them to the base. The weapon specs that you brought are on their way to Border. Once they're built, they'll be shipped to the base as well. I'd say six to nine months for the refit itself, and then another three or four in familiarization and drills." He grinned sourly. "We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other. By the time she's finished, we'll either trust each other, or you'll be dead." His voice was flat, emotionless
Jirik's answering grin was knowing. "I assumed that, though I thought you'd be more tactful than to mention it
"I'm being honest, Captain," Cony replied. "From now on, there will be no lies between us. If we're to trust each other, honesty is vital."
Jirik nodded. "Accepted. When do we leave?"
"As soon as you can get clearance from Traffic Control to break orbit," Cony replied. "Please be careful, Captain," he continued, "I need you, and I really want to be able to trust you. But if you or your crew give me any cause to doubt you, please believe that I will have you killed immediately. Too much is at stake for me to take chances with you."
Jirik sighed. "You know, threats bore the hell out of me. In case you're planning any more, let's just take them as said, and get on with the business at hand."
They went up to the bridge. At Cony's nod, Tor called Traffic Control, requesting clearance to break out of orbit and maneuver toward the edge of the system for jump. It took several hours for the Lass to maneuver to her jump point, during which Valt and the terrorist astrogator worked busily at the nav comp. Finally, all was in readiness, and the Lass jumped on the first leg of her voyage to the terrorist base.
The first jump lasted only some sixteen hours, convincing Jirik that they were still in rim space when they broke out. Jirik took advantage of the jump period to warn each of the crewmembers about their inability to meet each other in private. The crew were obviously on edge, hoping fervently that Tomys' scheme for following them would work. It took Valt and the other astrogator over four hours to set up the next jump, due to Valt's fumbling and misprogramming. Jirik assumed that Valt was stalling, since he was a much better astrogator than that; but he hoped that Valt didn't carry it too far, and arouse Cony's suspicions.
When Cony did comment on Valt's ineptness, Jirik merely replied indifferently that the crew was well aware that their lives were at stake, and that they were nervous as a result. Cony seemed to accept this, but he began watching the crew thoughtfully. When they had jumped on the second leg, Valt apologized to Jirik for the delays, ascribing his mistakes to edginess. Cony, who was listening, nodded slightly, and Jirik tried to jolly Valt a bit, while including a veiled warning against stalling too much.
The second jump lasted less than ten hours, during which the crew and their 'guests' tried to get some sleep. When the breakout alarm sounded, however, all aboard were at their stations. Valt and the terrorist astrogator began work at once and, slightly over three hours later, they jumped again, on the final leg of their trip to the terrorist base. The final jump lasted some twelve hours, and the already-obvious nervousness of the crew had reached a fever pitch.
All of them, even the usually cheerful Tor, were irritable. Bran, usually imperburbable, got into a shouting match with his Boondocker guard, which had to be broken up by Jirik and Cony. The sulky Valt exploded at a jibing remark from his terrorist counterpart, and was enthusiastically pummeling the man when he was tackled by one of the Boondockers. Jirik and Cony were kept busy jumping from one fracas to another, until they called a joint crew meeting and let both sides vent their spleens. Cony's assurances of their safety failed to reassure the crew, though they seemed to enjoy the dressing-down that he gave the terrorists. Slightly mollified, they reacted better to Jirik's attempts to calm them and relieve the tension.
When the others had left, Cony said, "We can't go on this way, Captain! We can't have them at each other's throats for months!"
Jirik grunted. "My crew is scared. What did you expect? All you've done since we joined you is threaten us. Hell, you think that they don't know that you've planted spy-eyes all over the ship, and that they can't even go to the head unobserved? You've been treating us like Alley agents ever since you came aboard! You know as well as we do that even if we were Alley agents, we couldn't have had contact with anyone since we left Wayoff.
"What the hell do you think we're going to do? Stage an armed mutiny? What good would that do? Even Valt has no idea where the hell we are! I think that you'd better lighten up, before they decide that you're going to kill them anyway, and that all they can do is take some of you with them. You'd better decide whether you want our cooperation or our fear. You can't have both!"
Chapter 17
Cony looked uncomfortable. "You can't expect us to trust you, yet. For all we know, you are Alley agents!"
Jirik sat forward, his face inches from Cony's. "You damned fool!" he snarled, "What the hell could we do if we were? Sure, you have to take a few precautions; but you're getting carried away with them! Once we jumped from Wayoff, even you have to know that there was no way to pass any supposed information that we could have gathered! And, until we lift from this base of yours and break out in an inhabited system, there's no threat of us being able to do so. What are you afraid of? Do you think we're going to sabotage the Lass, or something? Why don't you quit playing at Superspy and grow up! You'll get a lot more cooperation from us by treating us as spacers, not spies!"