Intrepid

53

''Four minutes to close encounter,'' the quartermaster said.

''Cut acceleration,'' the captain ordered.

Kris went from near three hundred kilos to weighing nothing.

Vicky grabbed for the burp bag, held it clamped to her mouth for a while, then put it aside, still looking green.

The State Security colonel filled his bag. Gunny handed him another and it was half-filled before he finished.

Kris took in normal life out of the corner of her eye. She concentrated on the reports from the Wasp's inertial platform.

''We are steady,'' Sulwan reported.

''All hands,'' the captain announced, ''where you are is where you will stay. Do not even think of moving.'' The inertial platform reported the Wasp steady to the tenth decimal place.

''Rotate Batteries 3 and 4 to minus thirty,'' Kris ordered. The lasers on the bottom of the Wasp angled themselves down as far as they could. ''Rotate ship up thirty.''

Now the Wasp herself nosed up 30 degrees, bringing the lower two batteries zero on to the approaching liner. When it came time to flip ship during the precious second fragments the Tourin was in range, the Wasp would only have to do 150 degrees.

The actual close encounter would happen too fast for human participation. Kris, Nelly, and Vicky had gone over and over the actual plans for that fleeting second. Those plans were laid into the computer … waiting.

When it came time to execute, only Nelly could do it fast enough. Nelly would fire the two lower batteries. Nelly would rotate the ship, using full power throughout the spin, as Sulwan had approved. Nelly would fire the top two lasers up the kilt of the departing liner.

Humans decided what to do, but Nelly would do it.

Except that Kris had a red button under her palm.

At the first sign that the plan had gone awry, Kris would mash the button. And Nelly would find she had no plans to execute. Probably, Nelly wouldn't remember she'd ever had a plan. With Nelly, you could never tell.

No question, Kris would remember that there had been a plan and that she had aborted it for some reason. Or had tried to abort it. Could something pass from her eye, to her brain to her hand to the red button in anything like the time they had?

She would find out soon enough.

The distance to the Tourin now counted down at a mad pace. The millions of klicks passed in reasonable time. When the count reached hundreds of thousands, the numbers raced. The last five hundred thousand klicks passed in a breath.

Kris quit breathing as the count passed a hundred thousand.

If Kris had to call it, Batteries 3 and 4 fired at a range of thirty-five to thirty thousand klicks.

Then the ship began to flip like a mad dervish.

She fought dizziness but refused to close her eyes.

The Wasp steadied for less than a heartbeat. Lasers 1 and 2 fired.

The Tourin raced on, seeming untouched by their efforts, unmarred by the lasers' caresses.

Kris's eyes widened at the thought of total failure.

A spark shot out from the liner. A split second later, the ship seemed to twist off its long axis.

Then, in the blink of an eye there was nothing left of the liner and five thousand human beings but glowing dust cooling through red and yellow into violets and blue.

''Holy God,'' someone whispered on the bridge.

Kris sat there.

''Well, I'm glad that's over with,'' came from the back of the bridge, no doubt the State Security colonel's opinion.

From around Kris's neck, a suddenly little girl's voice asked, ''Kris, did I just kill five thousand people?''

What could Kris tell her computer?

''I'm sorry, Kris,'' Vicky said, reaching out to stroke Kris's elbow. ''But it's not your fault. You did everything you could not to have this happen.''

''Did I?'' Kris said, then mashed her commlink. ''Everyone who's been following this last evolution, save all your data. There will be an inquiry into it.''

''Whose?'' Vicky asked.

''Mine,'' Kris snapped. ''Captain Drago, if you will, put one gee on this boat to help with saving data.''

''Sulwan, one gee if you please.''

Kris took on weight and stood. ''Captain Drago. Captain Krätz, Jack.'' Kris looked around and found faces missing. She tapped her commlink. ''Colonel Cortez, Penny, and Abby, please report to my Tac Room. Professor mFumbo, you come, too.''

''Yes'' and ''As you wish'' answered her commlink. ''Why?'' came on the bridge from Captain Drago.

''Because I am sick and tired of hearing that a Longknife did this or that or the other, all during the same supposed whatever. I'm tired of not knowing who did what to whom. This time, so help me God, I'm going to know just exactly what happened, and if Peterwald State Security wants to say one thing and Wardhaven intelligence patches together another story, at least I will know the truth. You understand me?''

It was Captain Krätz's turn to step forward and face the fire in Kris's eyes. ''That assumes that, using the data we have, we can actually tell you what happened.''

That took a little of the firestorm out of Kris's sails. But not much. ''We have the best instrumentation of any ship in space, between what Captain Drago has pirated from whoever is his employer and whatever the boffins have ripped off from their universities. Maybe you can't tell me what I did and how it happened that five thousand lives were put to the torch. But I want you to face me, with your hands on the best information that these instruments can yield, and tell me that. You hear me.''

''Yes, we hear you,'' Jack said, coming forward. ''You've got a lot of people on this board you've set up. I understand the two captains. Maybe even the colonel. But me, Penny, and Abby?''

''You and Penny are trained criminal investigators. Abby's the board's secretary. That ought to make her job easier.''

Jack didn't look like he liked what he'd heard. But he looked even less eager to argue with Kris at the moment.

''Now, if you will excuse me,'' Kris said, ''I have to talk to a father who pleaded for me to save his son's life. Somewhere I've got to find the words to explain why I killed his boy.''

''Kris, that's cruel,'' Jack cut in. ''Don't do it.''

''When somebody makes you prince, you can gainsay me,'' Kris shot back. ''Until then, shut up.''

The bridge crew stood aside as Kris marched out.