Intrepid

20

''And they broadcast that on an open channel! To everyone,'' Thorpe said, struggling to keep his voice under control.

''Yep,'' Colonel Cortez replied. ''I think she's trying to raise the countryside. Get a real rebellion going. We'll have to slaughter a whole lot of sheep putting it down. You got any problems with me getting the captured townspeople organized into groups of ten? They kill one of my men, I kill ten of theirs.''

''No!'' came as a scream over the net.

''Who said that?'' came from both Thorpe and Cortez.

''I said that, Benjamin T. Whitebred. Those town folks are the artisans, the technical experts. They're worth money. A farmer whacks one of your pogues, you whack as many hayseeds as you like, but don't go knocking over people we're going to need to keep this colony earning money.''

''Who gave you access to this channel?'' Thorpe asked, voice low and cold. Two armed guards and the comm officer kicked off from their bridge positions and headed aft for Mr. Whitebred's stateroom. Thorpe mashed the mute on his commlink. ''Don't hurt him, but bring him up here. Now.''

Finger off the mute button, Thorpe continued his talk with Cortez. ''Did you see the way the pictures had been processed. That original feed from our landing. Rerun it,'' he said to the 2/c sailor who had taken over the comm slot.

The picture of the white berets marching ashore reappeared. Now there was a commentary block over them. ''Note that White Hats have no armor,'' followed at the end of their scene by ''And they can't march straight. Can they shoot straight?''

''That sure looks like an incitement to rebellion to me, Hernando.''

''That's what I'm thinking,'' the colonel said. ''It's bad enough to have half my transports broken-down, but to have them pointed out to the locals, oh man, William. They're either laughing at us for being too dumb to drive … or inviting any local kid with a slingshot to go out and hit us. I've got to do something about that.''

''I know, Hernando, believe me, I know. That Longknife girl enjoys yanking a warrior's chain. We need to give her a good solid yank ourselves.''

''Yeah, like a short noose over a tall tree,'' gave them both a chuckle.

Which Thorpe swallowed quickly as the guards dragged Whitebred onto the bridge. As they did, they liberally bounced him off of the bulkhead, overhead, and deck. The civilian fought them, yanking on the three-foot tethers, one to his left wrist, the other to his right ankle. The guards must have had plenty of practice at moving resisting sailors in microgee. Each would glide from one handhold to another, give him a yank while they were secure, then take off for the next grip.

Whitebred bounced off of anything that got in his way and never succeeded in getting a purchase anywhere. It was pathetic for a grown man to be so helpless. Hadn't the man spent any time training in microgee? What was he doing in space?

The guards found themselves handholds, one on the deck, the other on the overhead, and maneuvered Whitebred to a position where he gently twisted in the wind. Occasionally he faced Thorpe directly. Any half-trained sailor would have known how to cancel his rotation, face his captain, and take his dressing down like a fighting man.

Not Whitebred.

''What were you doing listening in on my command channel?'' Thorpe demanded.

''I represent the money, buster. We listen in on anything we want to,'' would have been a whole lot more effective comeback if Whitebred hadn't been twisting his head around at all kinds of odd angles as he struggled to keep eye contact with Thorpe. Did the bloody fool have any idea how ridiculous he looked? He must have heard the bridge crew snicker at his empty claims.

As much as Thorpe hated playing to the crew, the civilian was challenging him as captain. This could not be allowed.

''Steady this fish you've landed,'' Thorpe ordered the guards.

They reeled in their catch, leaving him splayed out like some sacrificial animal, one arm and the opposing leg pulled out straight. From the look on his face, painfully straight.

Thorpe released his seat belt, and carefully maneuvered himself until he was almost nose to nose with Whitebred. ''While you are on my ship, you will follow my rules. Do you understand?'' he said, sharp, hard, but in a deadly low voice.

''I represent the money that got you this ship,'' the businessman insisted, but the power in his words was drowned by the tears in his eyes … and the blubbering of his mouth.

Thorpe glanced at the two guards. They gave the ropes a painful yank.

Whitebred gave a yowl. ''You can't do that to me.''

''You are on my ship. You are under my discipline. You and your moneyed interests sent me and my sailors and soldiers here. The assumptions you predicated this investment upon have been shown to be inaccurate. I am, at present, attempting to resolve this conflict of expectations and reality. This is a matter that can only be handled by officers like Cortez and myself. You are interfering with our work.''

With a flick of his ankle, Thorpe got his body moving back to his command chair. He settled into it with hardly a twitch. Whitebred floated there, awed at what he'd just witnessed.

''Now then, you will return to your room and stay there. Comm Chief, you will remove any unauthorized communication gear you find there.''

''Yes, sir.''

''You aren't going to start shooting hostages we need, are you?'' Whitebred's voice cracked as he pleaded, not for human beings' lives but for his bottom line.

''Not yet, but not because of you. Because I don't want to. Colonel, have you been listening?''

''Every word.''

''You've captured some gommers with mud on their boots.''

''Yes, Captain. I've got quite a few.''

''Organize the groups of ten, like you said. If you have to shoot, start with the hayseeds. If they have any smarts down there, they'll throw their hand in before you get to anyone that our employers might weep for at his funeral.''

''Good thinking, William. Will do.''

''Just one of the advantages of being a couple of hundred klicks above the fray, Hernando. You want me to broadcast a martial-law decree.''

''I recorded one my staff worked up. I'll send it to you.''

About the time Cortez's martial-law announcement arrived, the Comm Chief returned, several comm stations in his hand, all trailing wires that showed they'd been yanked out with little thought to their reinstallation.

''He still sniveling?''

''No, sir. At the moment, he seems quite happy. I think he convinced himself he had something to do with the outcome.''

Thorpe scowled as he shook his head. ''How do such fools survive into adulthood?''

''Kind of makes you wonder why he was the only one champing at the bit to go with us,'' Weapons said.

''Show me Cortez's announcement,'' Thorpe ordered, and reviewed the video. It would be nice to have something as entertaining as the broken-down trucks or the ''shoot the white hats, not the armored troops.'' Still, Cortez, snarling into the camera threatening to shoot ten of them for any one of his they shot would surely get attention.

Thorpe glanced at the clock. Hardly time before they fell below the horizon. The Longknife announcement had been when they were almost directly above the settled lands. Somehow that brat and her team had produced a better product in less time.

Of course, she didn't have to deal with Whitebred. And once the fighting started, neither would Thorpe.

He shook his head. Let Longknife think she'd won something this time. When the bullets started flying, she'd discover that she couldn't count on a slow decision. Not from Hernando, and not from her old captain.

''Broadcast the video,'' Thorpe ordered, then settled back in his chair to study the main screen. It showed all that he'd learned from the latest pass. North of Bluebird Landing there was that nebulous cloud of something. His troops would drive into it while he was on the other side of this troublesome planet.

Now there looked to be three clear paths moving south from the lake they'd lased with such interesting results. Three!

Two went along opposite sides of a wildening creek. No, call it a river. The third started off from the farmhouse they'd burned and stopped just short of another homestead.

For a moment, Thorpe considered hitting that one with an eighteen-inch beam, then dropped it. Whoever was bossing the Longknife ship had let him get away with being empty last time. He would not trust that he could get away with that again.

You had to wonder where the financiers had gotten this ship. Two weak reactors. Two eighteen-inch pulse lasers that took forever to reload. A pair of long popguns that could hardly cause a dust devil two hundred klicks below.

But I took the command. Jumped at it. God, I hate the beach. I'd have chewed my arm off if that was what it took to get back to space.

The settled area dropped below the horizon. Thorpe would have more than an hour to wonder what was going on back here. ''Sensors, are those microsatellites still hanging out there?''

''Yes, sir. They juggle their orbit and come into view for a few seconds, then fire a burst and they're gone again. It can't be very easy keeping them in orbit.''

''No, it can't,'' Thorpe agreed. But a rich brat like Kris Longknife would have toys like those around. Thorpe had nothing like that. Nothing he could make into them.

He swore to himself. Still, he kept a confident look on his face for the crew and waited for the next chance to get that Longknife girl.

* * *

Kris viewed the martial-law announcement with Gramma Polska, the elder of the Polska clan. The old woman might or might not have had a few years on Gramma Ruth … it was hard to tell. The years seemed harder out here.

What Gramma Polska didn't lack was steel in her backbone.

''One of my boys was in Deverton when they landed. We ain't heard from him since. Told him he was a damn fool for going, but there was this girl. He said he'd talk her into moving out here in no time at all. Xanadu girl. You'd have thought she was already used to the idea of moving on.''

''Gramma Polska, we didn't come here to start a bloodbath.'' Kris found it easy to say the half-truth, half lie. It didn't pass muster under those old gray eyes.

''So I heard about you Longknifes. You say you never start a fight, but holy Mother of God, do they find you. You want to tell an old woman what you are planning on doing with the dozen of her boys that are champing at the bit to go along with you and your Marines?''

Kris shook her head. ''It's not that I know and won't tell you. Simply put, I really don't know how this thing will go down. It looks like most of their soldiers are headed north. I'm heading south. We're going to meet somewhere in the middle, and a meeting engagement is one of the most slippery things we do in my business.''

''And you ain't interested in counting your chickens before any of them takes up playing the harmonica.''

''That's what my Gramma Ruth would tell me,'' Kris agreed.

''Smart woman. She a farm girl?''

''Was before she married a Marine.''

''So, you going to use my kids, grandkids as … what do you call it? … cannon fodder. Yeah, I heard in the Iteeche wars your Grampa Ray used up a lot of cannon fodder.''

That wasn't what Kris read in the history books. But Kris had less and less trust in what the learned scholars and newsies reported. She weighed several options and chose the one that seemed the most honest. ''Ma'am, I'd like to promise you, but I won't. If it would make you more willing to let them come and do what I order, I guess I could raise my hand and swear any oath you want. But the truth is that what we're headed into won't be easy to do and harder to foretell.

''I sure don't plan on using anyone as cannon fodder. And I kind of suspect my grampa Ray didn't think he was using all that many as you've heard about. Still, how a fighting man says he was used after a battle and what the commander thought he was doing may not come out sounding anything alike.''

The old woman snorted. ''I've had a few relationships go that way. To hear some guys talk, you wouldn't think we'd been on the same planet, much less in the same bed. I like your honesty, girl. I think I'll trust you with my boys. Oh, and a couple of my girls are good with a gun. You got any problems with them going along?''

''My mother would, but I'm hardly one to talk.''

''What you going to do about this martial-law thing?'' Gramma Polska asked, changing the topic.

''What would you do?'' Kris asked right back.

''I'd tell folks not to kill any of those rascals. Not now. Not until the time comes. They're looking for a fight. Don't get in their way. Sooner or later, they'll find one. Then they'll do enough dying. Maybe enough that they ain't all that interested in killing unarmed folks.''

The farm boss woman shook her head. ''I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but that's what I'd tell people.''

''Nelly, did you record what Gramma Polska just said?'' Kris asked, with a quick glance at her neck.

''I have a short-term record, Kris.''

''Include that in a tight-beam to the Wasp as soon as it comes over the horizon. Add my voice to a picture of Gramma Polska—‘I am Princess Kris Longknife of the Wardhaven Navy, and I strongly advise people to follow Gramma Polska's advice. A time of reckoning is coming, but it is not now. Don't do something that causes these outlaws to hurt your friends.' ''

''I will tight-beam it as soon as the Wasp is up.''

''Good. How long did it take Thorpe to respond to our first broadcast?''

''Ninety-two minutes. He was almost below the horizon when he sent the martial-law decree.''

''Let's get our reply to that one up as fast as we can.''

''Kris, in a minute Thorpe's ship will be out of line of sight. Shouldn't we be getting back to the trucks?'' Nelly said.

''Time flies when you're having fun.'' Kris sighed.

''Let me come with you,'' Gramma Polska said. ''My family will feel better about going if they see me with you.''

So Kris headed out of the huge sod-covered barn with food, full fuel tanks, and two extra trucks. One of them knew just the farmstead to head for, so it took over the lead.

The time with the Wasp went quickly. Captain Drago got the message responding to martial law and rebroadcast it in less than a minute. Information continued to be thin. It looked like Jack's scouts had made initial contact with Colonel Cortez's lead troops. At least Cortez's vanguard was no longer charging up the road as fast as they could drive, but had slowed down and now had people walking point and flank guards. That would give Kris more time to get south.

And Cortez more time to bring up his full force.

Every coin has two sides to it.

And, if Kris could read anything out of the cloud of noise around that vanguard, Jack was drawing them in to exactly the ambush they'd planned.

Make that ambushes. Two is always more fun than one.

Kris rode in the back of the truck this time, letting Jamie and his old man share the cab. She studied the rolling terrain, then eyed the troops in the trucks around her.

The Polska truck was in the lead, navigating across the sea of grass by whatever system these folks used. Here and there residual stands of broom trees stood, their land covered with underbrush that the locals avoided driving through. That would give away a lot to overhead observers.

But it was the troops Kris studied. In trucks with mostly Marines in the back, the troops had posted a watch, then flaked out to sleep. If you got time to spare, grab a wink had been the advice of the old sweats since before Caesar.

It was the other trucks that caused Kris to squint hard … and worry. The volunteers were up, looking around, fondling their rifles. A few cleaned their weapons. But the smart ones were very few. How would these people handle it when they saw their targets fall? When the man beside them fell, his head half-gone? What could Kris expect from these amateurs? They were fighting for their very lives. It was their freedoms that were on the line. But had they had enough time to realize the stakes? Could they find in their guts what they needed to go on when everything that was natural and human screamed run?

Kris sat down with a new problem to chew on. How do you train civilians into fighters in the short time she had? A very short time, Kris found, when she called up the map. Jack would spring the first trap in a bit more than one and a half orbits.