Torchship (39 page)

Alexi looked up from his soup at the name of his homeworld.
The Navy-provided pacifier shots let him take care of himself, but eliminated
talking as well as violence.

“Demeter,” said Mitchie. Billy seconded it.

“How bad did it get hit?” asked Bing. “I don’t want to
vacation in a bombed out city.”

“It’s just the orbital defenses that are damaged,” said
Schwartzenberger. “No damage to the surface other than some debris landing.”

“All the news says the worst impact to the civilians on
Demeter is that the citizen stipend is being cut by a third until they’re
rebuilt,” said Guo.

“Did the news say anything about Steelhome?”

Guo looked grim. “A marine unit landed but couldn’t find any
survivors, so they pulled out. The Navy used ‘strategic weapons’ to clear the
AIs off.” The galley was quiet for a moment.

“Anybody want to speak up for Argo?” asked the captain. “Demeter
it is then.”

***

Now for the hard part
, thought Mitchie. She’d been
nodding and smiling as Guo spewed out ideas for how to spend two weeks together
on Demeter. Introducing her to his favorite museums, theaters, and concert
halls was his top choice. He also liked the tropical beach resort and private
cabin in the woods. Half a dozen other options went by. Finally he ran down. “You’re
being really quiet,” he said. “When you spoke up for Demeter I thought you’d
have some specific things in mind.”

I did
. “Mostly I wanted to see a real sky again as
soon as I could.”

“Sounds like you’d want the outdoor ones then.” He had the
options ranked on his datasheet. The cultural tour slid down to third.

“For a few days, sure.”

“So—beach then city?” Guo was clearly ready to circle the
planet if that’s what would make her happy.

“Well, here’s the thing. I have some personal errands to run
so I can’t just take the whole time as vacation.”

That produced his I-see-how-to-fix-this face. “Okay. Let me
know when and where you’ll be doing stuff and I’ll find things that fit around
them. How long are they going to take?”

“I’m going to need a week solid, I’m afraid.”

“A week! What kind of ‘errand’ takes a whole week?”

Finding combat vets on leave and pouring booze into them
until they start talking too much
. “It’s—really, I’ve just been cooped up
on this ship so long I want to be alone for a while.”

He wasn’t hiding his frustration any more. “Mitchie, if that’s
what you wanted, you would have said so before I got to the spelunking tour.
What do you really want?”

This is the problem with falling in love with a smart
guy.
The voice in the back of her head offered a hearty I-told-you-so. She
offered another rationale for separate honeymoons which Guo promptly shredded.
Dammit,
I used to be good at making stuff up on the fly
.

It was all downhill from there.

***

Fives Full
lifted off in the morning. By lunchtime
the whole crew knew they were arguing. At dinner Mitchie and Guo didn’t speak
to each other. They left the table early, going opposite directions.

“My aunt had a marriage like that,” said Billy. “One week
and poof, like it never happened.”

“She wasn’t from Akiak,” said Bing.

“They take marriage seriously there?”

“They take promises seriously there. Life’s a lot closer to
the edge. If word gets out you’re a promise breaker you won’t get the help you
need to make it through winter. And if someone makes you break a promise you
let everyone know what they did.”

“I don’t
want
to know what they’re fighting about,”
protested Billy.

“Too bad.”

Demeter System. Acceleration 10 m/ s
²

The captain was sharing some coffee with his first mate in
the galley when the argument spilled out into the corridor. A compartment hatch
slammed open. Rapid bootsteps—Mitchie’s, by the soft sound—headed toward them.

Guo yelled, “I knew you’d lie to me! I always knew you’d lie
to me! But I thought you’d have enough respect for me to make them
good
lies!” He slammed his hatch closed. Mitchie reached her compartment and slammed
the hatch behind her.

Schwartzenberger turned back to his cup. Bing stared at him.
“I asked her,” he said. He pointed to where the corridor passed under the
bridge hatch. “I stood right there and asked her. I told her she didn’t have to
go through with it.”

“We can’t go on with them acting like this,” she said.

“I know. I was hoping they’d sort it out one way or the
other but it keeps going.”

“Someone’s going to have to help them work it out.”

“That’s a people problem,” said the captain. That described
the category of problems he generally left to the mate to handle.

“I tried. She won’t talk to me.”

He sighed. “Okay. I’ll talk to her.” Bing smiled. “In the
morning. After she’s calmed down some.”

“All right.” She topped off their cups.

***

Schwartzenberger sat on the bridge, listening to the very
quiet ship. Everyone stayed in their rooms or below decks to avoid the
former-lovebirds. He finally heard the sound he was waiting for, Mitchie’s
hatch opening. A minute later he heard one of the galley cabinets open and
close. Then her compartment hatch closed. He gave her ten minutes for her
breakfast before knocking on the hatch.

“Come in.” He stepped in, blinking at the dim light. She was
in her bunk, two meters above the deck, a pair of teddy bears at each end. “Oh,
sorry, sir. Didn’t realize it was you.” She turned the light to full. “Um, have
a seat.”

The bulge of the crane extension shaft made a nice bench,
especially with the cushions she’d put on it. He sat and leaned against the
wall. “Pilot Long, why are you on this ship?”

Mitchie had dropped down and sat in a fold-out chair. “Sir?
You hired me.”

“That doesn’t explain why you asked for the job or why you’re
staying.”

“It was the only Disconnect ship hiring on Lapis.”

“Look, we all have reasons for being on this bucket,” said
the captain. “It’s an honest ship, but it’s a dead end. No future in it. I’m
here because I fucked up so badly no one ever thought I’d be able to repay the
damage. Bing keeps following me around. Guo is a control freak who doesn’t have
the seniority to have his own converter room on a bigger ship. Billy—well, he
actually deserves to be here. Why are you here?”

“It’s a good job.”

“With your skill you could be piloting a racing yacht, or a
rescue ship, or co-pilot on a liner. You’ve even got a little fame to help you
make the connections for it. Why the hell are you still here?”

Mitchie smiled. “I guess I’m like Billy. It’s an easy job
and I get to party a lot.”

“No, you’re not a party girl. You act it on leave, but I’ve
worked with enough to see the pattern and you don’t fit. You never show up to
duty hungover. You never get arrested. And when party girls get married they
give it a real hard try for three months or so before they fuck it up.”

“You’re going to fire me for being a lousy wife?”

“No. I’m considering firing you because you don’t make
sense. And things that don’t make sense bother me. That’s the sort of thing
that might blow up and take out my whole ship.”

“Fine, fire me for not making sense. There’ll be another
ship along that’ll take me.”

“I’d be firing you for a regular pattern of lying that makes
you untrustworthy. And putting that report into the captains’ net. You can go
fly yachts but I don’t want to inflict you on another working ship.”

Mitchie sat very still. “Are you formally threatening to
blacklist me?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, actually. I need to know: are you threatening to
blacklist me?”

“Yes,” said Captain Schwartzenberger.

Mitchie stood and went up the foothold Guo had welded onto
the bulkhead when she first came on board. She took a teddy bear and sliced a
multiply resewn seam open with a knife from under her pillow. A roll of plastic
sheets came out. She handed the outer one to Schwartzenberger. “Sir, since you’re
threatening to break my cover I’m now authorized to reveal this information to
you.”

He recognized the header markings from his time on the Defense
Force Budget Committee. “SECRET: Defense Coordinating Committee” with a
holographic background. He tilted it to a few angles to bring out some of the
details he remembered. The message began, “Shipmaster: Lieutenant Senior Grade
Michigan Long of the Akiak Space Guard has been assigned to an intelligence
mission of critical importance. You are required to render all possible
assistance to support the successful completion of this mission.” It went on to
list the applicable law of each Disconnected World belonging to the DCC.

“So, I work for you now?” asked Captain Schwartzenberger.

“Well, you would, if I hadn’t gotten some more mail. This
was under the same need-to-know as my identity.” She peeled off another sheet
and handed it to him.

This had the same header, but began “Effective this date,
ALOIS SCHWARTZENBERGER is appointed an officer in the Bonaventure Planetary
Defense Force Reserve with the grade of Commander.”

The captain skimmed down the densely-written page. “Been
telling stories about me, Long?”

“Writing reports is my job, sir.”

“Full Commander, huh. Must’ve been nice reports. Good Lord,
they’re paying me already. And you didn’t tell me about it?”

She shrugged. “Can’t collect until you’re back on
Bonaventure, sir. Didn’t seem urgent.”

“So, I’m guessing your arguments with your husband have
something to do with your Naval duties.”

She sighed. “I need to do things, he can’t know why, and he’s
smart enough to see through the cover stories I tried.”

“I’m not surprised.” He went back to reading his commission.
“What the fuck is a letter of marque? Never mind, that only applies if a war
breaks out.” He started reading the back side. “Aha! ‘Authorized to appoint
subordinate personnel to Naval rank, authority, and privileges as needed to
support carrying out Naval missions.’ That solves our problem.”

“Sir?”

“I’m now appointing Guo as Chief Engineer’s Mate Kwan and
giving him full security clearances for all classified information on this
ship.”

Mitchie chuckled. “I’m glad the DCC isn’t as hung up about
fraternization as the Fusion Navy or I’d be in trouble right now.”

“You’re already in trouble, that’s why we’re having this
conversation.”

“I know. My . . . intelligence gathering methods aren’t
compatible with being married.”

“So you need some advice on developing new ones. From Chief
Kwan,” said the captain.

“I can’t tell him about this! He isn’t cleared!”

“He is now. I cleared him.”

“He doesn’t have need-to-know!” protested Mitchie.

“I say he does. And this,” he waved his commission, “says
you have to follow my orders on it.”

She stared at him as it sank in. “How much do I have to tell
him?”

“Everything. Including all the details you haven’t bothered
me with.”

“This can’t be legal.”

“It’s an order,” said Captain Schwartzenberger. “Want it in
writing?”

“Yes. In case I have to explain to a court-martial why
exactly I blabbed ‘burn before reading’ to my brand-new husband.” She got a
notepad and pen out and handed them to him. She was pretty sure there were some
regulations she should consult, but she felt too relieved to argue it.

“There.” He signed the order and handed it to her. It went
back in the teddy bear with her mission letter. “I included the word ‘today.’”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do it. Just . . . let me wash and change
first, okay?” He gave her a wave and left.

She wound up washing her face an extra time after overdoing
her makeup. Honesty called for the minimum. Guo’d seen her without plenty of
times, but she wanted a little polish to buck her up through it. When she was
out of excuses to delay she went down the corridor and knocked on his hatch.

“Yes?”

She pulled it open. “Can I come in?”

“Why?”

“To talk,” said Mitchie. He sat on the edge of the double
bed he’d installed after Comet SMX. At a grudging wave she slipped in and
closed the hatch. She sat on the floor with her back against it. “I want to
tell you the truth.” She felt it boiling up inside her, waiting to all flood
out.

“Good.”

“Okay.” She sat silently for another minute. “I’m not very
good at telling the truth.” His lips quirked, and that was enough of a smile
for her to start pouring it out. “To begin with, I’m not twenty-five, I’m
twenty-nine.”

Mitchie braced for an explosion. Guo nearly let out
something—she’d expected at least a “What!”—but he kept his jaw clamped shut
and nodded at her to go on.

“Everything I said up to age nineteen was true. When Derry
died I was angry. I started poking around to find out what happened. When I
found out the Fusion did it I tried to enlist, but they threw me out of the
recruiting station. Too short to be a pilot, they said.”
I sound angry.
Guess I’m carrying more of a grudge about that than I thought.

Mitchie continued, “I kept poking around, trying to find
enough that I could publicize the incident, get people angry enough to get some
revenge. That got me arrested for security violations, and then a job offer. So
I went from flying shuttles to the Planetary Guard Academy. After a couple of
years they commissioned me and sent me on exchange to Bonaventure’s
Intelligence & Security School. Did some counter-intel fieldwork there.
Then I started this undercover assignment as a spacer.”

She paused for breath. Guo asked, “If it’s undercover, why
are you telling me?”

“I’ve been ordered to.” She explained Schwartzenberger’s
sudden promotion, Guo’s rank, and her orders.