Foreigner - Explorer. Part 25

"Out!"

No question. Bren ducked back for the door, fast as any offending fool.

Jase stalked to the door in pursuit. "Cameron, you stupid son of a b.i.t.c.h! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

A bewildered investigator started to intervene. But Jase shoved Bren back hard, dived out after him, whirled and hit the door switch as the man tried to come out.

The door shut. The investigator had skipped back: security doors meant business. Kaplan immediately hit lock lock.

And that was, if not that that, at least an significant improvement on the s.h.i.+p's...o...b..ard situation.

Bren let go his breath. Jase straightened his jacket.

"Good job," Bren said shakily, and in Ragi. "The intruders are now contained in Jase's office, nadiin-ji." He was astonished and relieved, quite astonished at himself, and Jase, and Jase's team. He didn't know what precisely what they were going to do about the morsel they'd just lodged in their collective gullet, but they'd defended the s.h.i.+p from capture. They'd won. Themselves. The human species had won one.

Jase gave an approving glance to Kaplan and Polano: "Well done. Well done, gentlemen." Pressman, the third of Jase's men, appeared from a little down the corridor, out of Ogun's office, with a rifle.

"Any word coming from Sabin?" Bren asked.

"No," Jase said sharply. "Her signal's quit. And these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds aren't getting off this s.h.i.+p until there is is word." word."

Not good news. Not at all.

"Everything all right down on crew level?" Jase asked.

"Everything but third-s.h.i.+ft crew stewing in their cabins."

"We'll fix that," Jase said, and led the way back into the bridge area, into the middle of the bridge. "Cousins," Jase said to all and sundry on the bridge, "the problem is now contained. C1, kindly continue jamming any output or input from station. Then give me contact with my office, intercom image in my office to monitor thirty-two, with audio."

"Yessir." C1 cheerfully punched b.u.t.tons, and began the process.

Jase picked up a handset and thumbed in a code. "Gentlemen."

Bren stood by, watching the monitor, on which one saw four armored station agents battering the office door with rifle b.u.t.ts-and asking himself how, if they had begun jamming, they were going to hear from Sabin at all.

They would not, he feared.

"Mr. Becker," Jase said.

Battering stopped. The group looked at the desk.

"Our captain's signal has ceased," Jase said. "You are now jammed, gentlemen. Turn in all armament and electronics and cooperate with Phoenix Phoenix authority, and we'll negotiate for your return to your own command. The same authority that established Reunion in the first place is now in charge of this station, and will be in charge, and I advise you not to disarrange my office, gentlemen, since I may be judging your case." authority, and we'll negotiate for your return to your own command. The same authority that established Reunion in the first place is now in charge of this station, and will be in charge, and I advise you not to disarrange my office, gentlemen, since I may be judging your case."

Bren earnestly wished he had a tap into what Jase received on his earpiece.

"That's all very well, gentlemen," Jase said, "but you're on our deck, this s.h.i.+p maintains its own rules, and I don't give a d.a.m.n about your local regulations. Turn over your weapons and peel out of the armor. To the skin. You've far exceeded your authority and my patience, and unless I get a direct countermand from the senior captain, not likely under current circ.u.mstances, the lot of you are under close arrest."

One man moved. Leveled a gun at the door and fired. The sound reached the corridor.

Jase punched one more b.u.t.ton. "Kaplan? Fire suppression, B4."

The view on screen clouded. Instantly.

The intruders had, Bren recalled, masks among their body-armor. They surely had internal oxygen. They surely were going to use that resource, fast.

"Gentlemen," Jase said, "I'm going about other work. Advise me when you're ready to comply with instructions. I know you're on your own air. But we can keep the office in fire-suppression for the next century or so. And if you do succeed in breaching that door, gentlemen, be a.s.sured you'll walk into worse. Would you like to negotiate at this point? Or do you want to be carried out after your air runs out? Because I'm prepared to hold out until the next century, but I don't think you'll last near that long."

Bren didn't hear what the men answered. But Jase seemed grimly pleased.

"C1," he said, "take precautions, condition red."

There was an answering murmur from exhausted crew, all the while crew locked down, pulled down covering panels for the consoles, all calmly.

Small under-console panels divulged weapons. The bridge crew armed itself, hand-weapons, a few heavier, to defend the s.h.i.+p's heart and nerve center if it got to that. Jase might have read his captain's training out of a rule book, but d.a.m.n, Bren thought, he'd learned a few things on the planet, and he was ice calm.

Bren's pocket comm vibrated. He said, without taking the device out publicly in Jase's domain, "One hears, nadiin-ji. One believes the s.h.i.+p's personnel are managing the situation very well indeed. Wait."

The lift door opened. Security personnel arrived, the s.h.i.+p's few remaining, in full kit, with breathing a.s.sist and antipersonnel armament.

"Four Guild enforcers are occupying my office," Jase said with a hook of his thumb. "Fire suppression's engaged. Captain's signal's gone dead and they're for security confinement. My personal guard is sitting on the situation. a.s.sist."

s.h.i.+p's integrity was the s.h.i.+p's highest law. s.h.i.+p was country and family, even if they'd had their b.l.o.o.d.y fights. And station admin was only a cousin-relations.h.i.+p, when it came to that. Bren didn't say a thing, only stood and watched the security team, clearly ready for some time, head down the short hall.

The executive offices security door shut across that view, protecting the bridge from whatever unpleasantness might break out of Jase's office.

Jase stood still, pus.h.i.+ng the earpiece firmly into his ear. The spy-eye was still running, but the white fog inside the office gave way to thermal image. Four armed men, each in a corner, clear as could be.

The door to that office opened. A barrage opened up, anti-personnels bouncing all over-astonis.h.i.+ng in a small s.p.a.ce. There seemed to be a deal of wreckage. The intruders flinched, went down under a continuing volley of pellets that richocheted off every surface in the small office and hit from every angle.

Two attempted a breakout. Bren stifled a useless warning.

The two dropped at the door, netted and shorted out, in every electrical contact exposed. A third went down, in split-screen, clawing at a suit control that didn't seem to be functioning, and a fourth tried to bolt.

Security netted that one, too, right atop the other two, a struggling lump. It looked like Kaplan who hauled that one out and up.

It was over. Won. Bren let go a breath. His knees felt the weight of hours.

"Got the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," Jase said quietly.

The bridge crew breathed, too, shoulders just that degree relaxing-but they were still armed, still waiting for orders.

"You can let them out, C1," Jase said. "Get additional security to do a fire-check and a bug-check down there. Let's not have any lingering problems."

Definitely learned in his time in Shejidan, Bren thought. Banichi would declare it a fine job. Not finessed, but certainly well ended. They stood there, watching the search on the monitors, and he took a moment to report. learned in his time in Shejidan, Bren thought. Banichi would declare it a fine job. Not finessed, but certainly well ended. They stood there, watching the search on the monitors, and he took a moment to report.

"Nadiin-ji, one believes the local matter is now aptly handled. Jase-aiji has done extremely well. One regrets to report Sabin-aiji's signal has ceased for some undefined reason, but the internal threat is under arrest and destined for detention. Jase remains firmly in charge of the s.h.i.+p."

Doors opened. Armored, masked security, Kaplan, Polano and Pressman among them, by the badges, dragged their prisoners out, four net-wrapped men, stripped of armor and weapons-men who looked far smaller and less threatening, in disarranged blue fatigues stained with sweat.

"Have medical look them over, inside and out," Jase said. "Then tank the lot and have a look at their communications."

"Yes, sir," the head of the second team answered, and bundled the problem out of view of the bridge, lift-bound.

"C1," Jase said quietly.

"Sir?" Crisp and proper.

"Once they've cleared the lift, I'll go down and address the crew on two-deck. And for bridge crew," he said, raising his voice, turning to make it carry. "Well done. Good job, cousins. Continue measures in force, pending further orders. We'll go to s.h.i.+ft change very soon now, with thanks."

Relief went through the bridge crew on the gust of a sigh. Arms went to safety, a scattered, soft sound.

"Restore the boards for next s.h.i.+ft and we'll carry on, cousins. That's all. I don't know how this is going to affect the senior captain's situation, but we've we've got the s.h.i.+p rather than losing it. And if they've got the fuel, we'll figure a way to work this. It's clear they're not going anywhere. Resume operations." got the s.h.i.+p rather than losing it. And if they've got the fuel, we'll figure a way to work this. It's clear they're not going anywhere. Resume operations."

Crew began putting weapons away, clearing the safety covers from consoles. The bridge began to normalize operations.

Jase's face had been flushed with anger. Now the sweat broke out and the flush gave way to pallor. Bren remarked that. But Jase didn't offer to go to quarters, and Bren himself didn't move. His legs felt like posts. The adrenalin charge was trying to flow out of him, fight-flight instincts having incomplete information from the brain, which said, with complete conviction, You can't quit. It's not done You can't quit. It's not done. They had an alien threat at their backs and station had slammed a stone wall down in front of them.

"Prisoners are secured in medical, captain." That from C1.

"a.s.sembly on two, C1, all s.h.i.+fts."

"Yes, sir," C1 said, and Jase said, from every speaker in the s.h.i.+p, and likely within hearing of the make-s.h.i.+ft brig: "Captain Graham will address crew on two-deck, all attend, all attend. Three minute warning."

"Mr. Cameron," Jase said.

"Captain?"

"You'll do me the honor, Mr. Cameron. You can explain the atevi position. I know ours."

Chapter Eleven.

TWO-DECK'S CORRIDORS were crammed in every direction, a crowd from two-deck and likely from the crew section of three-deck converging on the lift from the moment they got off, crew standing, galley staff prominent in whites at the left, upcoming bridge crew in blues on the right, a scattering of security thrown in at random. Faces, Bren noted, were tense... every man and woman in the corridors having heard as much as Cook's staff had had to give.

"C1," Jase said. "Route my comm to two- and three-deck intercoms." Intercom immediately came live. Jase's next utterance went out over the speakers, making the voice omnipresent, distant as he was from the remoter rows of cousins and crew. "You know by now the senior captain's gone to station, and that station sent on some investigators. They pushed. They're in medical. They'll be in the tank until we get the captain back."

A cheer. That curiously rattled Jase. A cheer hadn't been in his plans. Or his self-concept.

"Mr. Cameron's here in support of s.h.i.+p command. 'Sidi-ji does support us."

Second cheer. Jase was further rattled. He never had been a great speaker. He didn't have the killer instinct and he never knew when to quit. He slogged on, gathering force, if not eloquence.

"So we're going to get the captain back," Jase said. "But we're not helpless, meanwhile. We've got fuel to maneuver if we have to and remember we've got the only pilots who actually know how to handle this s.h.i.+p, never mind what anybody on station may have studied up in some simulator. They can't give us orders."

Third cheer. Which threw Jase completely off his pace.

"I'm no great shakes at the boards," Jase said. "And I'm not the senior captain by a long shot, which I know. I also know everybody aboard wants to be out there on deck doing something, and everybody wants to get onto the station, some of you with cousins to find; and everybody wishes station was what it used to be, but it isn't, and we can't, and I can't. So I'll tell you what my policy is, which is, first of all, no more secrets, so long as we're in this mess."

Maybe Jase drew breath. Maybe he wanted encouragement here, but he didn't hear it. The crew just stood still and silent. "So while I'm acting senior, I'm taking questions, and crew who wants to go onto the bridge and see for a fact what's going on, come ahead, never mind that protocol, just walk softly around working crew. If you've got a question, I want to hear it, in my office, in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. If you've got a complaint, I want to hear that, too, and I'll deal with it best I can in time-available. We've clearly got a situation working. The Guild leaders.h.i.+p isn't cooperating, we haven't heard from the senior captain, and I'm not turning this s.h.i.+p over to them, I'm not giving them their people back, and I'm not handing over the log. Meanwhile we've got an alien s.h.i.+p out there that's got its own agenda, possibly missing personnel of its own, and we've got to finesse that, too. We've got to stay alert, and we're going to get out of this somehow, cousins. h.e.l.l if I know how at this exact moment, but we got to Alpha and back, and we've built an alliance there, and our station, with Captain Ogun, is going to back us, not them, when we go back. If we go back under any circ.u.mstances but us in charge of our s.h.i.+p, there'll be serious trouble at the station where this s.h.i.+p left its kids and old folk, among others, and I'm not going to see that happen, or come dragging in, telling Captain Ogun we've brought him a problem. We settle it here, cousins. Any questions?"

Uneasy quiet. Maybe certain ones wanted to ask questions. Maybe others wanted to make observations. But no one moved.

Then somebody called out, "Taylor! Taylor's son Taylor's son!"

Taylor. Senior captain. Dead for centuries. But the genetic bank of those days produced the s.h.i.+p's special children. The special ones, born to be outside the Guild, outside politics, outside precedent.

"Taylor!" someone else shouted, and others took it up. "Taylor!"

Jase didn't want that. He stood there a moment, not moving, then lifted the com unit again. "So get to work," he said. "s.h.i.+ft change, cousins."

Jase clicked the com off at that point, pale around the edges, sweating, maybe feeling all the hours he hadn't slept. And there was a cheer from the crew.

"Good job," Bren said under his breath, in the same moment a handful in bridge blues came through to the front, third s.h.i.+ft pilot and backup in the lead.

"Captain." Third s.h.i.+ft pilot and second senior navigator, Jase's own s.h.i.+ft. "We'll back you. You want a team to go out there on station after the old lady, there's those on third that'll go, no question. We're asked to say that."

"Thanks," Jase said. Just thanks. A hand on the pilot's shoulder. "We'll see what we learn in the next hour." Jase's most urgent wish seemed to be to escape this expectation, this adoration he'd not asked for. Bren knew. He'd been likewise seized upon, made into a symbol. From that moment, however, one couldn't back down. Crew flung their support at Jase. They gathered around him, they surrounded him, they cheered him and laid hands on him in outright relief for what they thought he was.

Then Bren found hands on his own shoulders, the same officers with, "Good job, sir, d.a.m.n good job."

He honestly didn't know what good job, in his own case. Jase had played the cards. His own action hadn't been a particularly good plan, only desperate, moment to moment babysitting a problem, but not at any point solving it. The situation they had left in their hands owned too many loose ends, still, leaving far too much still at risk.

Yet the crew believed in them, expected a solution.

He was ever so relieved when Jase extricated them both, back safely inside the lift.

Jase punched five-deck. "I'll get you safely home. Get some rest."

"And you."

"Got to get Sabin back," Jase said. "Not optimum, not an optimum situation. She's our authoritative voice, the only one the Guild's going to listen to in negotiations. Especially if she's told them her opinion of me."

"Is the Guild going to believe anything she does isn't a subterfuge? Don't flinch. Lull them into thinking we're stuck without her, if they'll believe that-let them think their card is higher than it is, so they don't make any further move against the s.h.i.+p."

"Bren, she may be on their their side. She may always have been. I've grown up with the woman, I've taken my orders from her, and I don't know where she stands. But I'm scared to death something's happened to her, her and nine-tenths of our security team. And I don't think she'd betray side. She may always have been. I've grown up with the woman, I've taken my orders from her, and I don't know where she stands. But I'm scared to death something's happened to her, her and nine-tenths of our security team. And I don't think she'd betray them them."

Jenrette, was Bren's thought. But in that instant the lift, having hit five-deck, opened its doors, and Bren stared, shocked, at the sight of leveled guns in the hands of two of Gin Kroger's engineers-they weren't marksmen, they weren't apt to shoot, but there they were, in case.

"We're all right," Bren said, and walked out.

"Banichi said so," their leader said. Jerry. "But he also said meet you. Captain." Belated courtesy to Jase.

"It's all right," Jase said. The s.h.i.+p's captain stood at the edge of foreign territory, the dowager's domain, and Gin's, and the rules and precedences down here were different. "Good job. Good job, the lot of you.-Get some rest, Bren."