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McCle
Poor Amy...
"First order of business, those coordinates. Then we get Thomas to a Psych team... "
A policeman came in. "Marathon's stabilized orbit, Admiral. Her shuttle will be down shortly."
"Thank you."
"Marathon?" Mouse asked. "I thought she was in mothballs."
"She was when you left. Nothing is anymore. They're crewing the older ships with Reserves. They're replacing regular Fleet patrols. The initial battle will involve every first line ship we have."
"They sent one old cruiser to replace three heavy squadrons?" McCle
"Not exactly, Marathon is mine. Intelligence Admirals don't rate. Thomas, are you going to spill?" Beckhart turned to the policeman, who had remained near the door. "Officer, start moving our gear. Sergeant Bortle was supposed to scrounge up transport."
McCle
"What's the program?" Mouse asked.
"First we bluff the Fishers. Then we move to Stars' End and ride herd on the scientists Marathon brought out. They'll supervise the Seiner teams. When I'm satisfied with progress, we space for Luna Command. After debriefing, you loaf till Thomas' Board is over. I imagine Thomas will get hung with a desk. He might even move back to the Line."
"How hard will they be on him?"
"The Board will clear him. On psychological grounds. There's precedent. But they'll want him off operations. Which makes sense, I guess. He could be burned out. He might still do commercial or diplomatic work. That wouldn't waste his training. You I don't know about yet, Mouse."
McCle
"I might retire," Mouse mused. "Captain draws a good pension." Though he smiled, the coals of lost dreams lay banked behind his eyes. He had fulfilled his goals too early in life.
"Not till after the war, you won't," Beckhart said. "Nobody retires till then. Thomas? Are you going to give me what I need? Do I have to rub your nose in our intelligence tapes first?"
"All right. It's Three Sky Nebula. Inside the wedge and pointing toward galactic center, begi
"Three Sky? Really? I thought it would be way outside our usual sphere." Beckhart's stiffness began to fade. He became the Admiral of old. Smiles and friendship. And willingness to spend a man's life. "The purloined letter thing. That's why ships disappear there." After a pause, "I have things to do before we leave. Meet me in the lobby in half an hour. Ready for space."
"Ready for space?" McCle
"That was a subtle hint, son. Get cleaned up. I'll have a man bring you a uniform. And try to make peace with your woman."
"Thank you, sir."
He set a record for bathing, shaving, and shifting to the clean uniform. He had ten minutes left when he finished.
One minute later he entered the room Beckhart was using as a brig. It was just a hotel room without windows, with two guards posted outside its only door. Amy and Marya sat against opposite walls, ignoring one another.
"Amy?"
She refused to acknowledge his presence.
He grabbed her chin, forced her to face him. "Look at me, dammit!" For two weeks he had been trying to make her understand. She had refused. He wanted to beat it into her stubborn head. It took an effort to speak calmly. "We're leaving in a few minutes. If you want, you can come with us."
She glared.
"We'll end up at Stars' End. I thought you might want to join your research team there. Instead of being sent straight home."
Still she glared.
"If you go back with the internees, you'll end up at the Yards. With your mother. I thought maybe you'd want to go where you had a friend."
She would not say anything.
"All right. Be stubborn." He turned to the door. "Officer? I'm ready."
"Moyshe, wait. I... Yes. I'll go."
He sighed. Finally. The first yielding. "I'll clear it with the Admiral." A wan smile teased his lips as he left the room.
It would be a long journey. Maybe long enough for him to win his case.
Beckhart did not like his idea at first.
"Sir," McCle
"Thomas... I can see right through you. You don't give a shit about... All right. It's another trade-off. Bring her. But you're responsible for her."
"Tell the guards to turn her over to me."
"Go get her, will you? You're wasting time."
An hour later, they were aboard the shuttle to Marathon. Mouse was shaking. Beckhart was lost in dispatches that had come out aboard the cruiser. Amy had her eyes closed. She was pale and grim.
McCle
She could not see his betrayal of her people as impersonal. She wanted his feelings for her to have been an agent's play-acting. Somehow, that would absolve her of complicity.
She was a self-torturer.
Could he criticize her? Or anyone else? He lived his life in a self-inflicted Iron Maiden.
He and Amy had been doomed from the begi
Had he changed during this mission? People did, but usually too slowly to notice. He did not trust the changes he saw. Too many might be artificial.
The Psychs would sort him out. A small team had come out aboard Marathon. Maybe when they finished he would know who he really was. He was not sure he wanted to know.
Book Three
STARS' END
Twenty-one: 3050 AD
The Main Sequence
The lights came on. McCle
McCle
"It is," Beckhart promised Mouse. "It's tough to swallow. Even when you're there yourself. All that ruthlessness, for no discernible purpose, only makes it more frightening"
McCle
"I'll be all right. Just give me a minute."
McCle
"What? Where? How?" Beckhart came toward McCle
"The Seiners have one at their xeno-archaeological research facility. You remember, Amy? I asked if it had been built by an intelligent slug? The one nobody wanted to work."