Rissa and Tregare

by F. M. Busby

  The second turn! The light was against her now but she knew it had to be soon-saw a shadow and swung into it-the cut widened again and she was safe. Well above summit height, she stayed there until the ground below came its closest and began to drop away.

  She spoke aloud. "Next time, peace knows-I'l ask first!" But she thought, all things considered, she had not done so badly!

  She made a slow, curving descent, barely topping the last.

  ridge before her direct approach to the plateau. She saw the scoutship but not the second aircar; Tregare, then, was stil at Two. She landed, saw no one about, and went into the cabin.

  Its door was locked. She turned her key in the pattern that opened without setting off alarms. Inside, she opened their suitcases and stowed the contents into drawers.

  She had a shower, long and hot. She called the scoutship and found herself automatically relayed through to Lefthand Thread. Tregare was not aboard, and the man who answered did not know how to connect her with Carcharadon, so she said, "Then please tel Tregare that his wife arrived safely at Base One.'" He acknowledged and she cut the circuit. she went outside and met Kenekke guiding a sort of motor-ized wheelbarrow, piled high with boxes. "Hello, Anse. Now I see why I got automatic relay when I called the scout." "Hi, Ms. Kerguelen. Yes, I set it that way when I go out." "Have you been here all along? Since we left, I mean?" "No, I've spent some time down at Two. Hain's there now."

  "Do you take turns between here and there?" "More than we'd like, but it's only for a little while." "Good. Well, I will not interrupt your work further." They smiled and she went back into the cabin.

  Restless, she paced the main room. Then, in the kitchen she poured fruit juice and sat. Icannot be inactive likethis-I must learn the work they do at Base Two and help with it. Decision made, she went to the scout; Kenekke admitted her. "If I might trouble you a moment?" He nodded. "Are there reading-tapes here, and a projector?" "Yes, sure. What kind of tapes do you want?" "Technical material. If possible, on the installation of weapons. That is what Tregare is doing, and I wish to help-if only because, if I stay in that cabin much longer, I shall begin chewing it into smal pieces!" He laughed. "I could gnaw a few chunks off this scout, myself. Well, let's see-there's not much on weapons as such, but it's jury-rigging for installation that concerns us now." "Yes-that is what I would like to see."

  "It won't be on tapes, though-the captain worked al that out on paper. He made copies. I think I can find you a com-plete set, or nearly."

  "I wil certainly appreciate it, if you can." The man looked through a chest of large, flat drawers, removing drawings and sheets of notes, and piling these on the cart-table. Finaly, "I think this is most of it, Ms. Kerguelen." He frowned for a mo-ment. "I'll have to remember; the captain said that around other folks, we're to call you Ms. Obrigo." He shook his head. "I guess I don't have to understand it."

  She touched his hand briefly. "You and Hain heard my true name because I could tell Bran Tregare trusts you. I am not certain whether it is so important here to hide my identity. But on Earth thirty years ago, it was a mater of death. And, as we know, UET has long fingers."

  "UET!" Kenekke's face and voice made a snarl. Then he hunched his shoulders, roled his head from side to side; she could sense the crackling tensions leaving him. "If it's against them- don't worry; I won't make any slips. And neither wil Hain." He smiled tentatively.

  "They wanted you bad, eh? I hope you stuck 'em a good one!"

  "They thought so, apparently." She hesitated. "Enough so, that to get off Earth safely I had to kill a Committee policebitch. And another of their hounds, I am told, was sent to folow me to Terranova-but he did not expect me to get off at a halfway point when I had paid to go so much far-ther."

  "Their greed-they can't believe we're not all as greedy." Kenekke laughed. "You go spacing for them-they keep everything you own tied up, and think that ties you. 1 walked off from the whole lot-and they're welcome to it, for I have freedom, and-"

  "And you would not trade! Of course not. Neither would I." She started to pick up the large, awkward papers, trying not to lose the pile of smaler sheets. Kenekke took the over-sized drawings and fashioned them into a long roll. Then he slid the smaler notesheets into a plastic folder.

  "Here-easier handling, this way." She thanked him and returned to the cabin.

  She had had her fill of fruit juice; she made a pot of coffee.

  She put the papers in the best order she could determine -Tregare's numbering system was helpful, but she found it somewhat cryptic-and began studying drawings along with the correlated notes. At first it was like learning a new language, but she persisted and soon was understanding more than not of what she read.

  Dark approached. She turned lights on and closed the cur-tains, and suddenly realized she had forgotten to eat din-ner. She was hungry but-let's see now-she turned a sheet, looked back to the previous one, saw the discrepancy she had missed, and nodded. part of her mind heard the aircar land, but she paid no con-scious heed until the knock resounded at the front door. Then she sprang up and ran to open it.

  "Bran!" She hugged him and raised her face; his kiss was quick and light, and he did not return her embrace. Puzzled, she stepped back-then saw his hands held out from his sides, black with grime, and the smears on face and clothes. He laughed. "Let me clean up; then I'll greet you prop-erly." He gestured. "See? You got a smudge on your front, there."

  She brushed at it and shook her head. "I do not care. But, al right-get your clothes off; I wil run the tub for you." With the water running at the proper heat, she went to the kitchen for her coffee, and brought a chair to set beside the tub. Tregare slid down into the hot water. "Aah-this is good!"

  "Since when do captains get their hands so dirty? And how does the work progress?"

  "Captains do what they know best, like anybody else. Prog-ress? Not bad, except someone misread a drawing and welded a turret mount in, the wrong way around. That's how I got so pretty-cutting the thing free and helping manhandle it into place, then welding it in right. Simpler to do it than tel it."

  She nodded. "Some things are-I have also found that true. But I meant-what proportion of work is done, on Vanois' ship? And have you begun on Limmer's?"

  "Limmer's? Lefthand Thread's already equipped." He paused to rinse lather from his hair, then said, "I guess I haven't filled you in on that part of the operation. All right

  -you guessed it back on Inconnu-my arsenal's on a place caled New Hope. I ran onto a group of Escaped UET techni-cians trying to make a living there. Pioneer world-not much market for their talents-making farm machinery was about the size of it. But some of them were weapons experts, so we made a deal."

  She smiled. "Tregare, the Good Samaritan at a profit."

  "Right again. I provided the equipment they needed, and drawings, and samples of a few pieces of hardware. Yes-that missing projector you noticed, for one. So they build weapons for me. And when Limmer picked up the first load, he had them equip Lefthand Thread, just to be sure everything worked."

  "First load?"

  "Enough to arm six more ships, to make up the eight I want. Only three on UET's schedule are armed, so five of mine-if I have eight-get rigged with dummy hul plates to hide the weapons. Limmers is fixed that way-that's why you can't see it's armed. For combat, the plates are jettisoned." Trying to reach behind him, he winced. "Hey-scrub my back, wil you? Bruised my shoulder-not much of a thing, but right now it hurts to reach back that way."

  "All right." She rubbed lather onto him, then rinsed it, splashing water up as he bent forward. "Now-tel me some-thing of the weapons themselves, since I am to train in oper-ating them."

  "Sure. Wel, there's two kinds, plus a defense-of sorts-against one of them. Three separate jobs, there; take your pick." He leaned back again. "The energy projectors- Inconnu mounts eight-are the trickiest to handle. Each one is a pair of lasers-above visual range-that have to converge on target and heterodyne for peak heat in the infrared. You can b
low a hul to vapor- if you're tuned right and your convergence is on. Tuning's tricky because frequencies drift as the thing heats up when you fire. UET never bothered; they just set it to creep through the hot part of the spectrum in the first five-six shots."

  "But on your ships it is different?"

  "Yes. You've got a tuning lever-for one component only, because it's the difference that counts-and a monitor display. When you're on-peak, your scope shows a circle; if it tilts, you move your right-hand lever the other way to push it back."

  "That does not sound too difficult."

  "Except that with your left hand you're controlling conver-gence. If the light on either side of your scope starts blinking, you move the range lever in that direction until it goes out. So you're watching and doing two things at once, and it takes practice to get your coordination down to a reflex."

  He grinned. "Now, then-you've got both hands busy. How do you aim and fire?"

  "A foot pedal, I suppose?"

  "Partly right. You don't have to aim. Control picks your target and sets the computer to stay with it or change to another. And the projector fires whenever both range lights are out and your circle's within five degrees of optimum.

  "You do have a foot pedal, though-it's an override-doubles your combined range-and-tuning tolerance to let you take poorer shots. But that's only for when you're losing and can't get a shot off, otherwise."

  "So I have one entire foot free-I can play chess, or scratch my other ankle!"

  He laughed and reached for a towel; standing in the drain-ing tub, he dried himself. "Rissa, I suppose you've eaten?"

  "No. Kenekke let me borrow your drawings of how the weapons are to be installed. Studying them, I forgot dinner." He put a robe on and they moved to the kitchen. He looked at the sheets on top of each stack of papers. "You've got pretty well into it, for one day. But why? You won't need to know these things."

  "I will, Bran, if I am to help you at Base Two. I cannot spend my days here, idle. I become-lonesome." Now he gave her the overdue embrace and a longer, intense kiss. Then he ran his hand through her hair to the back of her neck, and squeezed gently. "Well-if you want to get your hands dirty, why not?"

  "Good. Now I will clear the table of these papers. Then, shall I prepare food, or wil you?"

  "My imagination's more into weapons than food-but so's yours, I expect."

  "I will do it; you have worked harder."

  "Al right. Here-I'l take care of the notes and drawings." He evened each stack neatly and put them on the main room's smal desk. Then he set the table, poured two glasses of wine, and sat while she set food to cook.

  "What are the other two weapons jobs, Bran? You have missiles, I know."

  "Yes-fusion and neutron heads, two of each. Short-haul drives souped up to fifty gee, while they last. Missiles and mis-sile defense, you understand, are control-room jobs. You feed your target to the computer by holding it on-screen-if the missile's fired, it'll follow and seek. Computer control acti-vates your launch button only if range and relative velocities are right for a hit-but again, there's an override to widen tolerances so you can take a desperation shot if it's that or go under." Standing, she sipped her wine and nodded. "The combina-tion of human and computer control-its design impressed me." She stirred a pot of steaming vegetables a moment, then said, "And the defenses, Bran?"

  "Partly automatic-if the computer, the detectors, sense anything incoming at missile-grade acceleration, projectors facing the right way lock on it and fire continuously. Tuning and convergence have to take their chances-there isn't time for adjustments-the damned things are coming too fast!

  "The rest of it-wel, far as I know, it's untested. Sort of a countermissile-two kinds, really-one with a warhead and the other blows a cloud of powdered metal to make like a ship and fool the attacking missile. We mount two of each-could use more, but where's the space for it?

  "These can't be steered; you point 'em and that's that. I can't guess how many gees the drive pulls, but I looked at the drawings and if it lasts more than three seconds I'll eat it for dessert. Either kind blows when the drive does, or by prox-imity." He shook his head. "Frankly, I'm not counting on those gadgets much-either option-in a tight passage."

  "Then I do not wish to work in missile defense." She sniffed the air and decided dinner was ready. "Just a mo98

  ment." She brought the food to the table; they served them-selves. "I think-the projectors, Bran."

  "That puts you out in a turret by yourself. I'd rather have you in Control with me. There's stil the missiles themselves."

  "I will learn and practice both, and then decide."

  He shrugged. "Fair enough, I guess."

  they ate in silence for a time; then he said, "What happened since I left the Lodge?" She told him of her latest visit to the Hatchery and her meeting with Bleeker. "And Liesel has as good as approved Sparline's marriage to Ernol. Oh-and Hawkman suggests that perhaps he and Liesel may consider going to Earth-buy-ing a ship of their own!" She reached and touched his hand. "It is because you are going there, Bran-and it was first Hawkman's idea." She laughed.

  "Initially, Liesel was quite shocked."

  "Yeah." Tregare grinned. "And then she saw the chances to be had there, if I can shake UET up enough. Wel, it's fine with me if she winds up owning the whole damned planet! It's in a lot worse hands, peace knows..."

  "The idea is only tentative, Bran-they must talk with you."

  "Sure-timing and al-wel, I'm wiling. The more I think about it, the better I like it. There's a problem, though."

  "I am sure there are many. Which do you mean?"

  "Erika's group. I'd hoped to work with them-sent mes-sages with feelers, guarantees of cooperation. As Tregare, of course-no hint of the relationship. But if Liesel is there, too..."

  She pushed her empty plate aside and refilled her glass. Swirling the wine gently and watching the light refracted through its ruby tinge, she said, "You do not think the two groups could work as allies?"

  "For a while, maybe. After that, I'd worry about Hulzein-eat-Hulzein."

  "Yes." She nodded. "And, Bran-I am a protegee of each faction. I would not wish to see either hurt."

  "No, you wouldn't. Me, though-and Erika-you can't expect me to have tender feelings toward the heirs of that skinny old harpy." He grinned. "Yes, I saw her once. Liesel dressed me as a serving-boy and said if I kept my mouth shut, I could see my dreaded Aunt Erika. I have to admit she impressed the hell out of me; even in memory, she still does." He tapped fingers against the table top. "I wish, just once I could have faced up to her. We might have got along, at that-if I'd lived through it."

  Rissa was shaking her head. "It is too bad, yes, that you could not have met as equals. But, Bran-'skinny old harpy' -Erika?

  Slim, yes-but wiry, not skinny. Do you know-when she was seventy she gave me my final testing in unarmed combat? And came close to beating me, overall."

  "I'm not surprised. Liesel was hel on wheels when I was a kid; I guess she hasn't kept in practice, here. Come to that, I don't keep it up too wel myself-in space, especially."

  She looked at him. "Bran, are you in need of exercise?"

  "Combat practice so soon after dinner? Peace, no!"

  '' I was not thinking of combat.''

  Smiling, he stood and laid his robe over the back of the chair. "I was wondering when we'd get to that." He came around the table to hold her. "Let's exercise."

  Two days without him had affected her more than she had realized. Her body moved without conscious intent-fiercely, violently. Then, in almost a scream, she cried triumph.

  Later they went through Tregare's drawings together, she explaining what she understood of them and he adding or cor-recting when necessary. When they were done, they talked for a time. Finaly Rissa stood and moved to hold his head against her.

  "Bran? It is not so late-is it?"

  He laughed. "I'd've asked if you hadn't."

  This time was more quiet for her, and gent
le; climax brought fulfillment and peace. In a very few minutes, then, she slept.

  at breakfast next morning, Tregare said, "How'd you like the pass, eastbound? Forgot to ask, yesterday, since obviously you got here al right."

  "I-I hate to tell you," but she began.

  Almost immediately he interrupted. "Clouds? You went in with an overcast? You should have turned back."

  "Perhaps. But I thought-" She continued. This time he heard her out. Then he shook his head.

  "I tried that trick once-going in high. Damned downdraft caught me off guard-time I got straightened up, I was too low and too slow to make it. All I could do was turn downhill to get speed. You reacted faster, to get away with that dive and still climb the pass."

  "Or-from time to time the downdraft may vary in strength."

  "Maybe. Anyway, your luck was in. But I hope you won't try it again under those conditions!"

  "Unless it is necessary, I will not, certainly."

  "All right." He pushed back his chair and stood. "Time we got dressed." He stacked the dishes to soak and joined her in the front room. "We'll take Anse along today; Hain can do the watch here."

  "You brought Deverel up with you last night?"

  "Sure. He gets lonesome down at Two-same as I do."

  "Yes. Well, I am nearly ready, except-what do I need to take with me? I mean-will we return here tonight?" She twisted her hair into a knot atop her head and secured it with a clasp.

  "And every night-unless something comes up and we have to work straight through. I don't expect that, but it could hap-pen."

  He called the scoutship; Kenekke was ready and met them at the aircar. Tregare took the controls. They rode in silence until close to landing; then Tregare said, "Remember, both of you-it's Tari Obrigo joining our work force today. I'm sure of the people I know on these ships, but there's some new to me."