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Rulaine-tall, spare, silent-produced his NeoCoBro liquid-propellant sidearm. "Are you sure you want to do this, Lieutenant?"
Weuve turned to stare at the query. "You may be new here, Chief, but on this hull, you don't question your orders: you obey them."
Rulaine shrugged. "Yes, sir." He quickly raised the gun-but aimed it at Weuve's cheek.
Who took a drift-step back in the microgravity. "Hey-"
The NeoCoBro uttered a weak cough-consistent with the low propellant setting used for nonlethal rounds-which sent a gel-capsule splatting against the side of ...
Who was shouting: "McDevitt, Gross, get-" Weuve's orders to his first pilot/XO and second engineer slurred into a groan and then a rough sigh; his feet drifte...
Downing breathed again. "Those new tranq rounds work rather quickly."
Rulaine nodded as he steadied his own recoil-induced drift with one hand, trained the gun on the other two bridge crewmen. He nodded at them. "Are we going to...
McDevitt swallowed and shook his head. Gross was actually smiling. "Hell, no: I'd have been happy to pop the CO myself."
"That's insubordination, mister: your CO was out of line, but he's still your CO. Be glad I don't put it in your record. Now, take the lieutenant, and get the...
"Yessir." The two of them skim-trotted off the bridge, towing Weuve. As the bulkhead door started sealing, Richard heard McDevitt ordering the ship's compleme...
Downing put away the Executive Orders that Weuve had-erroneously-dismissed as forgeries. "Very well done, Captain Rulaine. Obviously, you roused no suspicions...
"Guess not, sir. But I have to say this is the strangest assignment I've ever been given; what's it all about?"
"I can tell you what some parts are about, Captain. But I can't tell you what it's all about-as I suppose you have already surmised."
"I suppose I have, sir."
Glancing at the green beret's patient hazel eyes, Downing wondered what unusually gifted recruiting sergeant had seen beyond the insubordination of Rulaine's ...
Downing shrugged. "What I can tell you about your part of this mission is that we will be consigning this hull and its complement to the care of another ship ...
"Just ones you can't answer, sir."
Downing wondered how much Bannor's unconventional brain had already answered on its own. Certainly, he had inferred the extreme sensitivity of the mission fro...
Rulaine glanced at the internal monitors, frowned when he saw some of the crew becoming restive in the galley, turned up the sound: surprised complaints, but ...
Downing nodded. "Seal the bridge. Route all controls directly through here. Engage the antitamper failsafes, if they are not already active."
Rulaine double-checked the control panels. "Already active, sir. Switching all control to bridge; auxiliary is now deactivated."
"Very good. And be sure to keep one eye on the crew."
"I'll keep both eyes on them, sir." Rulaine drifted closer to the monitor. Without looking back toward Downing, he asked, "Sir, am I allowed to know the ident...
"Eventually. But right now, we need to focus on the one who's likely to attract-and possibly cause-more trouble than the other nine combined."
"A rabble-rouser, sir?"
"Nothing of the sort. But he does resent me-and for good reason."
ODYSSEUS
Caine pried open the malfunctioning door sensor he had removed: hair-thin fiber-optic connectors coiled around chips that should have been called "specks."
The doorbell's secure tone announced a recognized "friend" rather than an "intruder." Opal breezed into the suite, then his room-and stopped, surprised. "Is t...
"Yep, which is damned odd, considering it was just repaired. This time, I'm running the diagnostics myself."
Opal frowned at his tone. "Do you think that someone has been tampering with it?"
Caine smiled. "No, probably not. As Napoleon said, never ascribe to malice what which can be adequately explained by incompetence. But either way, the only wa...
"Can I help?" she asked brightly, sitting down very close to him.
He looked at her. "You're very cheery. Too cheery. So I'm guessing today's news is bad."
Opal's smiled faded. "Well-yeah. Just as we expected; the Scarecrow will be here soon. Sorry."
Caine went back to examining the sensor. "It was only a matter of time before Downing came sniffing around. And with Nolan's memorial being held on Mars, he h...
Opal responded in the flat, utterly reasonable tone that signified she was digging her heels in. "Well, just because Scarecrow is almost here doesn't mean we ...
"Yes?" Caine looked up, trying not to look hopeful or lecherous or shallow.
"I was thinking that we could get in one last visit to the dojo."
"Oh." Caine tried to sound enthusiastic. "Sure. Great." Not the direction I hoped our activities would take during our last day of privacy.
But that hope was, Caine admitted, pure fancy. After months of uncertainty regarding where his relationship with Opal was headed (if anywhere), it beggared be...
When they'd left Earth, Caine had hoped their traveling together would segue into their being together. But the frenzied rush of their departure hardly set th...
Or so Caine had thought. But he began to question that hypothesis when they made the journey to Mars without interference or even a message from Earthside. It...
But for what purpose? To coerce them back into the cloak-and-dagger webs that he habitually spun? No way. IRIS was a magnet for death: Nolan's demise, Tarasen...
He mustered a smile for Opal. "So, when should I meet you at the dojo?"
"Sixteen hundred hours sidereal. We'll work on releases, maybe a few throws, then kumite."
"Ugh." He smiled more broadly. "Sparring."
"You don't like getting a workout?"
"Oh, I like the workout. But getting my ass kicked every time does deflate my ego."