"Kanis!" Tregloran exclaimed, answering for them all. Kanis was one of three places that all Starwolves liked best; the climate was good — meaning cold and dry — the port was interesting but tame enough that they did not have to worry, their kind was very well liked by the locals, and there was no Union base. The others were quick to nod in agreement.
"You are all agreed on Kanis?" Valthyrra asked. "Very well, then Vinthra it is!"
Velmeran looked at the machine questioningly. "Vinthra? Why Vinthra?"
"I have business in Vinthra," she answered simply.
"And since Vinthra is also the capital world of this sector, you also have a lot of brass — if you will pardon the pun — poking your big nose there immediately after your last two encounters with the military."
"So it would seem," Valthyrra agreed. "All the more reason, in my estimate, for going to Vinthra."
Her probe turned and drifted off at a sedate pace toward the lift door, no doubt to return itself to its rack; Valthyrra had transferred immediately to the bridge the moment she was finished there.
"Then we are not going to Kanis?" Tregloran asked, as mystified as the rest of the pack.
"Copperbottom asked us where we would like to go," Velmeran explained the ship's odd sense of humor. "She never promised to take us there. Some of her jokes are older than she is."
Tregloran only shrugged. "The underground city of Vannkarn should be just as much fun."
Dveyella frowned. "Actually, I have had quite enough of underground cities for now."
"You wish to speak to me, Commander?" Keth asked hesitantly, standing in the doorway of Mayelna's office behind the upper bridge.
Mayelna quickly put away her computer terminal, swinging the monitor around on its support arm until it locked into place on the arm and flipped the keyboard over so that the wood grain of its bottom matched inconspicuously with the rest of her desk, while using one of her free hands to indicate the two chairs before her. Although she seemed distracted, she watched Keth closely as he crossed the room slowly to take his seat. It seemed that he was at last beginning to understand how matters stood in regard to his future. Understand, perhaps, but not necessarily accept; he still wore his black armor.
"So, how did your visit to the medic go?" she asked casually.
"I thought that you might tell me," Keth replied nervously. "You have the report. There is something wrong?"
"No, there is nothing wrong for someone your age," Mayelna said, with slight emphasis on that final word. "Keth, Valthyrra and I have a small problem that you might be able to solve for us. We have some busy times ahead of us, and we want more packs for those two bays we are reopening. We have a whole class of students, fourteen in all, just waiting to begin flight instruction. They can be fighting in two years, with another class of twelve ready to begin when they are finished. All they need is an instructor. I thought that you might want to do that."
Keth looked at her in surprise and mild confusion. "There must be someone else. I do not have that many years left, and I would prefer to spend them in the pack. Surely you can understand that."
"That is not your choice," Mayelna said. "I will not force you to be an instructor, but you will either instruct, or you will be retired. Valthyrra and I have decided, and your physical has proven us correct. You can no longer endure the stress of hard accelerations. I will not have a repetition of this previous fiasco, nor will I allow you to be a menace to the other pilots."
"Commander, that was not my fault!" Keth protested. "I saved myself when that ship turned in front of me… "
"There is nothing wrong with your reaction time, I will grant you that," Mayelna interrupted him. "But the fact remains that if you had time to find that corridor to try to poke through, then you also had time to turn. Any other pilot would have missed that ship. I have been waiting for you to retire since I put you in Velmeran's pack two years ago. If it is too much for you to admit to yourself, then you force me to decide for you."
"Commander, it is not fair!" Keth declared in anger, although he did not look up and Mayelna wondered if he might cry. The most bitter lies can be those a person tells himself.
"No, it is not fair," Mayelna agreed. "The great scheme of life seems to have no respect for a three-hundred-year career. Nature has no respect for seniority. Do you think that I do not understand what this means to you? Flying was my life, all that I ever cared about. I have not seen the inside of a fighter in the eighteen years since I came up to the bridge. Day after day I sit in that chair and watch this ship fly herself and nothing hurts me more than to see the packs go out, knowing that I will never fly again. I was young and strong the night Valthyrra called me to the bridge. But I have grown old, sitting in that chair while the packs fly without me. And I do not much like to think about it, because I feel like I have lost something that has been very important and dear to me forever. Every day that passes is a treasure lost."
She paused, rubbing her nose absently as she sat back. Then, noticing Keth staring at her, she crossed both sets of arms. "Do not get me wrong. I know that tending the bridge is very important, and I am proud to do it. The fact is, I am of more use to this ship on the bridge than in a fighter. And I quite intend to stay there another thirty years. But I will retire, when the time comes, and Velmeran is going to have to follow me up there. And yet, Great Spirit of Space help him, he will still be very, very young when that time comes, and flying is no less his life than it was mine."
Keth laughed softly. "So that is the great secret! Valthyrra would blow her breakers if she knew."
"I imagine that she knows already. I would spare him that fate, and yet I know that it has to be." Mayelna shook her head regretfully. "This is the talk that I should be having with him, if I had the courage. At least I will have an end to the problem you represent."
"I will be your instructor," Keth agreed, still reluctant. "We are, as you point out, slaves to duty. I am of more use to this ship teaching others to fly than I would be in a pack, certainly more use than I would be retired. I should be glad for the few more years that you are willing to give me. Someday I may even feel grateful."
"Just now, I am sure, you only feel that you have lost something rather than gained," she agreed. "Go move your things down to the instruction bay and start setting things in order. And, if you are smart, you will act like this was your idea as much as anyone's."
Keth smiled as he rose to leave. "Thank you, Commander."
He passed Valthyrra on the way out. She paused a moment to watch him, twisting the remote's long neck around backward, before she drifted on into the office.
Mayelna sat back in her chair, watching the machine closely.
"I take it that matters progressed smoothly," Valthyrra said.
"Very well, indeed," Mayelna said. "Your timing seems to be as accurate as always."
"No, my timing seems to be rather off of late," Valthyrra said, refusing to be teased. "Are you so spiteful that you are actually encouraging Velmeran to join this special tactics team?"
"Velmeran thought that you were trying to get rid of him, arranging for him to go with Dveyella."
"Why would I want to get rid of him?"
"Because he is too young to suddenly be so popular, and he is causing dissension among the older pilots. I just wanted to show him that you have no such plan. If you had a mouth, it would have been gaping."
"Then I quite forgive you," Valthyrra said contritely. "You know, he might have been right… about the older pilots. But they gave a very bad showing of themselves, and they have only themselves to blame."