Praxis def-1

by Walter Jon Williams

  Sula sped through the next few questions secure in the knowledge that she was doing extremely well on the exams. Military law was her weakest subject barring interpretation of the Praxis, and so far the questions weren’t difficult.

  A first definitely seemed within her grasp.

  She tapped the butt end of her wand on the screen as she contemplated the next problem, which had to do with jurisdiction among the various military and paramilitary organizations on a ring station outside the military base proper, and then the door to the exam room banged open.

  “Scuuuuum!”

  Sula could thank years of conditioning for the fact that her mind continued to gnaw on the problem even as she leaped to her feet, chin high, throat bared.

  “My lord?” The Daimong proctor seemed more flustered than the cadets. “Why are you-”

  The intruder was Terran, and wore the uniform of a full captain. “We have an emergency situation,” he said. “The exams are canceled. All Fleet personnel are to report to their stations. Those who have no current assignment are to report to Ring Command, Personnel Section.”

  “But my lord-” the Daimong protested.

  “Now, scum!” The captain’s order was directed toward the cadets, not the exam proctor.

  The cadets crowded for the exit. The problem of jurisdiction slowly faded from Sula’s mind, and she looked about her with growing astonishment.

  The proctor appeared not to know what to do. She was making attempts to contact someone on her desk comm, but seemed to be having no success.

  Emergency situation, Sula thought, and then ran to the changing room to get out of her robes and into her uniform. Despite the buzzing speculation of the other cadets, her mind was still trapped in the pattern of exam questions.

  Examinations for lieutenant,she thought,have been canceled for the following reasons:

  1. On the whim of a superior officer.

  2. Because we say so.

  3. Lieutenants’exams have never been canceled.

  The correct answer, of course, was the third.

  Lieutenants’exams have never been canceled.

  Which meant that whatever was going on, it was big.

  Coronaducked and darted and sped along the southern edge of Magaria’s ring, the slim form of the frigate obscured by the brilliance of its blazing tail of annihilated matter. Martinez felt himself pressed deeper and deeper into the acceleration couch, spreading into the supportive gel like a piece of putty pressed into a mold. The weight of the pistol was a fierce pain digging into his right hip.

  He may have blacked out as acceleration approached ten gravities, butCorona didn’t stay at such speed for long, just enough to achieve escape velocity once it was time to dodge out from the ring station and onto a course for Magaria Wormhole 4.

  He was using Magaria’s ring for cover, knowing that the Naxids would never dare fire at him for fear of hitting the ring. And when it was time to break cover and dash for the wormhole, he kept the rim directly betweenCorona and the Naxid squadrons.

  Corona’sacceleration dropped to six gravities, which was misery for the crew, not because they lost consciousness, but because they retained it, and with it the discomfort of the ship’s desperate, blazing acceleration.

  Eighteen minutes intoCorona’s escape, Martinez finally heard from the Naxids.

  “Urgent message via communications laser, my lord.” Vonderheydte’s words came into Martinez’s earphones. “From Ring Command.”

  The comm laser was necessary to punch a signal throughCorona’s hot plasma tail. “Tell them to stand by, I’ll speak in person,” Martinez said.

  “Very good, my lord.”

  “Are the intership radio channels still jammed?”

  “No, my lord. Jamming dropped about two minutes ago, with the Coronas ahead three to one.”

  Martinez smiled, and then his smile faded as he realized why the jamming had ceased. Seizure of the non-Naxid squadrons was complete, and it was no longer necessary to prevent the target ships from signaling their distress.

  Coronawas truly alone now, in a hostile system.

  He counted out two minutes-two more minutes in which the inevitable was delayed-and told Vonderheydte to patch Ring Command onto his displays. He waited until the winking light on his console told him he was being recorded.

  “This is Martinez,” he said.

  His display showed that his interlocutor was a Naxid in the uniform of a senior captain, whose speech was delayed only slightly by the message crossing the distance between them.

  “Lord Lieutenant Martinez,” the Naxid said, “I am Senior Captain Deghbal, commanding Magaria Ring. You have departed the ring without permission, and engaged in reckless maneuvers that have endangered your ship and the station. You are ordered to return at once.”

  “I thought Captain An-Char commanded the ring station,” Martinez said.

  “Captain An-Char is unavailable.” The words were spoken after a slight hesitation. “I am in command of the ring. You are directed to return.”

  “Can you can assure me that Lord Lieutenant Ondakaal is under arrest?” Martinez said. “He opened fire on my airlock guards and wounded one of them. He said that our ship was to be boarded and we were all to be killed.”

  Deghbal reared slightly at this, and Martinez knew that his barefaced lie had caught the Naxid completely by surprise.

  Anything to confuse the Naxids and get Ondakaal in trouble, he thought. And more important, to delay.Delay. Delay had to be his chief object now.

  “Everything is now under control,” Deghbal said finally. “There is no reason to be alarmed. You may returnCorona to her berth.”

  Martinez took a deep breath against the gravities that sat on his chest. “Lord Escap,” he said, “I have been instructed by my captain not to permit anyone aboard the ship without his express order. Can you get me that order?”

  Anger added force to Deghbal’s reply. “Your captain’s permission is not necessary! My order alone should be sufficient!”

  Martinez did his best to look as if he was seriously considering this line of argument. He gave the camera a plaintive look. “Well, Lord Escap,” he said, “I would really like my captain’s order on this.”

  “I am your superior officer! You must obey my orders! If I am not obeyed, there will be unfortunate consequences for both your ship and yourself!”

  Martinez wondered if anyone had ever actually disobeyed one of Deghbal’s orders before. Probably not. He hoped he could profit by Deghbal’s unfamiliarity with disobedience, and again tried to look as if he were pondering the escap’s words. Then he hardened his face into what he hoped was a kind of dim-witted, stubborn resolve.

  “I want Captain Tarafah’s order,” he said. “I trust him to know what’s actually going on.” And then he frowned at the camera. “End transmission.”

  I am enjoying this too much, Martinez thought, but still he pictured Deghbal cursing at the orangeEnd Transmission symbol appearing on his displays. Then he wondered if he’d overplayed his hand, if Deghbal would be angry enough simply to order a barrage of missiles to pursueCorona until the frigate was destroyed.

  He looked toward Tracy and Clarke, who were monitoring the sensor screens, and said, “Screens, if you see missile tracks, let me knowfast. ”

  Pinned by acceleration on their tandem couches, they rolled their heads toward him in wide-eyed surmise-though not related, so far as he knew, they looked very much alike, being dark-haired, broad-shouldered young women-and then turned their heads quickly back to their displays.

  Martinez paged Alikhan, this time using the ship’s system rather than his sleeve display, a convenience that enabled Martinez to use his headset mic rather than having to talk into his sleeve button. Alikhan’s own sleeve button showed nothing but the ceiling in Tarafah’s cabin, the only view available as Alikhan lay in the captain’s bed under six gravities.

  “Did you have any luck?”

  Alikhan’s voice showed the strai
n of the gravities he was laboring under. “I got the gear to the captain’s cabin, my lord. But all I had time to do was search his desk-no luck there.”

  “If I slow our acceleration to two gravities, do you think you could handle the-the gear?”

  “I could, my lord.”

  “Right. End transmission.” He raised his voice to carry to Eruken. “Engines. Reduce acceleration to two gravities.”

  “Very good, my lord.” Plain relief dripped from Eruken’s words. The ferocity of the acceleration eased, andCorona’s frame groaned with the release of strain.

  “My lord?” Vonderheydte’s query came into Martinez’s headset. “May I have permission to use the toilet? I was drinking coffee while I was censoring the mail, and-”

  Martinez grinned. The commonplace trumped the dramatic every time. “Permission given,” he said. “Transfer the comm displays to my board while you’re gone. Be careful.”

  Moving under two gravities was like walking with another person on your back. Sprains and breaks were common, and Martinez couldn’t afford injured personnel.Corona’s “doctor”-actually a pharmacist second class-was also the team doctor, and had been left behind on Magaria.

  But he didn’t want the crew in Command to pee all over themselves either.

  “Whoelse needs the toilet?” Most of the hands went up. High gees were hard on bladders.

  Come to think of it, Martinez thought, he could use the toilet himself. He made a general announcement to the ship’s company that people would have some time to make ablutions, again with care.

  IfCorona survived the next few hours, he’d put the crew into vac suits, with the necessary sanitary appliances built in.

  Four crewmen had rotated in and out of the toilet before Alikhan reported in. “I’ve got the safe open, my lord. No luck.”

  Black anger descended on Martinez. This failure had very possibly killed everyone. “Search the room,” he said. “Then his office.”

  “Very good, my lord. Does he have a safe in his office?”

  “I don’t know. If there is, you’ll know what to do.”

  Martinez was last in rotation for the toilet. Stooped with the weight of gravity, he had just shuffled back into Command when the next transmission came from Ring Command. “It’s the elcap, my lord!” Vonderheydte proclaimed cheerfully, as if in the belief that Tarafah’s mere electronic presence would straighten out all misunderstandings and solve allCorona’s problems.

  “Stand by,” Martinez said. He lowered himself gently into the couch, released the cage to gimbal to a more comfortable position, then lowered the displays to lock in front of him.

  Martinez wondered if he shoutedWhere is your captain’s key? at some point in the conversation, whether Tarafah would have the chance to answer before the rebels flattened him or switched off. He wondered if Tarafah would even consider giving him the answer to the question.

  And he wondered that if he so much as asked the question, would he be confirming Ring Command’s worst suspicions and immediately trigger a salvo of missiles aimed inCorona’s direction.

  He decided he’d better not ask.

  “Martinez here,” he answered.

  Tarafah glowered at him from the display, which jerked and bobbed a little. It was probably someone else’s sleeve camera, since Tarafah was wearing sweats and had no sleeve rig of his own. Martinez heard crowd noises in the background. Tarafah was somewhere indoors, with institutional decor, and his voice echoed off the hard walls-probably he was in one of the rooms or corridors beneath the football stadium.

  “What’s this I hear about you launchingCorona and going like a skyrocket all over the ring?” Tarafah demanded.

  Delay, Martinez thought.

  “I hear the Coronas are ahead three to one, my lord,” he said. “Congratulations, first of all-your careful planning is bearing fruit.”

  “It’s four to one now,” Tarafah said. A touch of vanity tinged his anger.

  “Sorensen to Villa to Yamana to Sorensen to Digby-and goal. Brilliant, my lord.”

  “Thank you,” Tarafah grudged. “But I’ve got to get back to the team-we don’t want the Beijings to get another goal in the final minutes.”

  “Yes, my lord. I’m sorry you were asked to leave the game.”

  “My ship.” Tarafah’s eyes narrowed. “What about my ship?”

  “Armed Naxids tried to board theCorona, my lord. I had to get her out of dock.”

  Tarafah gave a dismissive look. “That’s been explained. It was a surprise inspection.”

  “They werearmed, my lord,” Martinez said. “Why do inspectors need guns? And they were storming every ship on the station. Forty of them to every ship. Naxids.Only Naxids. With guns.”

  Tarafah’s eyes cut away, to something or someone out of frame, and then back.

  “Was it a Naxid who brought you the information, my lord?” Martinez inquired gently. “Are there Naxids with you now?”

  Tarafah hesitated, and then his look hardened again. “Of course they’re Naxids,” he said finally. “They’re from Fleet Commander Fanaghee’s staff.” His tone turned accusing. “You’ve got thefleetcom involved, Martinez! Do you know howvast this is?” A loud cheer roared up from the nearby crowd, and impatience crossed his face. “I’ve got to get back to the game. Now you turnCorona around and get back to the station-everything will get straightened out once you get back.”

  Martinez’s heart sank. This, he thought, is the precise moment at which any of this stops being fun.

  “You’re saying this freely?” he asked. “Under no duress or compulsion?”

  “Of course,” Tarafah snapped. “Now getCorona back to the rim and we’ll get everything settled.”

  “Yes, my lord,” Martinez said, tasting the bitterness that striped his tongue at the knowledge of what he’d have to say next.

  Delay, he told himself. Delay was all. Delay would justify everything.

  “If you’ll just give me the code word,” he told Tarafah, “I’ll swing the ship around and start the deceleration.”

  Tarafah had started to turn, ready to return the football pitch, but now he swung back to the camera. “The what?” he said.

  Martinez tried to keep his face earnest. “The code word,” he said. “The code word you gave me last night.”

  A snarl of frustration crossed Tarafah’s face. “What are you talking about, Martinez?”

  “Remember?” Martinez said, sorrow and dread entering his heart even as he tried to keep his face earnest and eager. “Remember at dinner? When I raised my suspicions about the Naxid movements, you told me that no one was to boardCorona unless you gave the password.”

  “I never gave you a password!” Tarafah said. “What are you driveling about?”

  He seemed genuinely baffled. Sadness weighed on Martinez like the slow, inevitable pressure of gravity. Tarafah didn’t yet understand just how seriously he had been betrayed.

  “The password that tells me that you’re free and uncoerced,” Martinez said. “You’ve got to give me the password, my lord, before I can turnCorona around.”

  “I didn’t give you anything-” The camera on Tarafah jiggled. “-Anything of the sort. I-” He hesitated, his eyes cutting out of frame, then back. “I demand that you turnCorona around and return to the ring station!”

  “Without the password?” Martinez said, and this time he allowed his sorrow to show. “I understand, Lord Elcap. End transmission.”

  He could have kept the dialogue going for another few rounds, but he didn’t have the heart for it.

  He had bought time, and he had bought it with his captain. It would take time for the Naxids to get a password out of Tarafah, the more so because the password did not exist.

  For a moment Martinez gave himself up to the images of Tarafah being slashed with stun batons, battered, shackled, shot. He saw Tarafah lying in his blood, insisting through pain-clenched teeth that there was no password.

  Delay.He had bought time, that was the
important thing.

  He paged Alikhan again. “Anything?”

  “Therewas a safe in the elcap’s office, my lord. Nothing in it but documents.”

  “Have you searched the office?”

  “I’m doing so now, my lord.”

  “Shall I send you help?”

  “Can you trust anyone else for the job, my lord?”

  The question brought Martinez up short. Whocould he trust? The captain’s and lieutenants’keys were the most dangerous items on the ship. It was a capital crime-one of those involving flaying and dismemberment-to possess a key that didn’t belong to you. Was there anyone on the crew who was truly convinced that it was necessary to get ahold of the keys, and actually obey the order?

  Martinez considered the matter, then laughed as a possibility occurred to him. He checked the crew manifests to find where the crew action stations were, then paged Zhou and Knadjian. The two stared at him from the displays, surprise plain on their bruised faces.

  “I want you to report to Alikhan in the captain’s office and follow his instructions,” he told them, to their further surprise.

  Corona’smerry thugs should have a fine old time tearing the captain’s stateroom to bits.

  “My lord!” Tracy, the sensor operator, gave a sudden surprised squeak. “Ferogashhas launched!”

  A cruiser, roughly twiceCorona’s size. “Do you have a course?” Martinez asked.

  “It hasn’t fired its torch, my lord. It’s just separated from the ring station.”

  “Let me know if it goes anywhere.”

  “Yes, my lord.”