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"If, on the other hand, we do a steep reentry—which, by the way, is what we're pla
"Oh."
"Make a hell of a hole," Kosutic snorted.
"I can imagine," O'Casey said faintly.
"I imagine that this is about where we should be detecting the Saint, Sir," Sublieutenant Segedin said.
"Understood." Captain Krasnitsky looked at the helmsman. "Prepare for course change. Quartermaster, pass the word to the Marines to prepare for separation."
"They should have detected us by now," Captain Delaney said. "Why are they still decelerating for the planet?"
"Could they still intend to land their Marines?" the chaplain asked, leaning over the tactical display beside him.
Delaney's nose wrinkled at the sour smell of the chaplain's unwashed cassock. Washing among the faithful was an occasional thing, since it used u
"They must," Delaney mused. "But they're still too far out." He smiled as the display changed. "Ah! Now we have a feel for their sensor damage. There's the course change."
"Prepare for separation. Five minutes," the e
Roger looked up in surprise from his conversation with Sergeant Jin. The Korean was surprisingly well versed on current men's fashions, and after Roger had circulated briefly around the compartment (doing his best imitation of Mother at a garden party), he'd settled down for a long talk with the sergeant. Better that than a long talk with the fascinating Sergeant Despreaux. Something told him that getting "interested" in one of his bodyguards in a situation like this one probably was a bad idea. Not that it would have been a good idea under any circumstances, he reflected with a familiar moodiness.
"You'd better get your armor back on, Sir," Jin said, glancing at the chameleon suit Roger had changed into. "It'll take you at least that long."
"Right. Talk to you later, Sergeant." Roger had become accustomed to walking the transom, and now he sprang lightly onto it and skipped forward, swinging gracefully from pillar to pillar.
"Show off," Julian muttered as he shifted the rucksack across his knees. It wasn't particularly uncomfortable, since it was supported by his armor, but the confinement got to him after a while.
He'd been awakened by the prince's circuit, and hadn't yet gotten back to sleep. He realized that his responses to the fop's rote questions had been a bit surly, but the prince hadn't seemed to notice.
"I don't think he was showing off," Despreaux said tartly. "I think he was hurrying up front."
Julian raised an eyebrow. Since Despreaux was seated across from him, it gave him the perfect opportunity to needle her, and it would have violated his most deeply held principles to pass it up.
"Ah, you're just jealous because he has better hair than you do."
She glanced sideways to get a glimpse of the rapidly undressing prince.
"It is nice," she murmured, and Julian's mouth dropped open as the realization dawned on him.
"You like him, don't you? You've got the hots for the Prince!"
Her head snapped back around, and she glared at the other squad leader.
"That is the stupidest thing— Of course I don't!"
Julian started to tease her further, but then the full implications hit him. There was no way the Regiment would allow one of the guards to carry on with a member of the Imperial Family. He looked around, but all the other troopers seemed to be asleep or had earbuds in. Fortunately, no one had caught his earlier outburst, and he leaned forward as far as the packed equipment permitted.
"Nimashet, are you nuts?" he hissed softly. "They'll have your ass for this!"
"There's nothing going on," she replied just as quietly, fingering the gray chameleon cover of the rucksack on her knees. "Nothing."
"There'd better be nothing!" he whispered fiercely. "But I don't believe it."
"I can handle it," the sergeant said, leaning back. "Don't worry about me. I'm a big girl."
"Sure you are. Sure." He shook his head and leaned back as well. What a cock-up, he thought.
On the opposite side of the transom, Poertena managed to turn a laugh into a cough. He rolled his head around as if half-asleep, and coughed again. Despreaux and the Prince, he thought. Oh, t'at's pocking fu
"What's so fu
But at least the phase drive had suffered no further damage. In fact, it was actually in better shape than for the last encounter, so they'd have a few more gravities to play with and more time on the power. And while they'd lost launchers, they'd also used less than half the total missile inventory against their first opponent, so the next fight would be nearly even.
Except for the cruiser's ability to dance rings around them.
"Oh, I was just thinking about our ship's namesake," Krasnitsky answered the question with a grim smile. "I wonder if he ever thought 'What the heck am I doing this for?'"
Roger watched the external monitors as the giant docking hatches opened. The perfect blackness of space beckoned as the tractor moorings cut loose, and the shuttles drifted forward. As they cleared the ship's field, DeGlopper's artificial gravity fell away, and they were in freefall.
"I forgot to ask, Your Highness," Pahner said tactfully. "How are you in microgravity?" He carefully avoided any mention of the excuses O'Casey had made to explain the prince's "indisposition" the first evening aboard.
"I play null-gee handball quite a bit," the prince said in an offhand ma
"I'm go
"I've got a Mo-Fix injector around here somewhere," Kosutic said with the half-malicious chuckle of one who possessed a cast-iron stomach. Even the smell of the ejecta was survivable; it wasn't like she hadn't smelled it before.
"I'm allergic." Eleanora's voice was muffled by the plastic bag. Then she leaned back and zipped the bag shut. "Oh, Goddd... ."
"Oh," Kosutic said in more sympathetic tones. She shook her head. "We're going to be out here for a couple of days, you realize?"
"Yes," Eleanora said miserably. "I do realize that. But I'd forgotten these shuttles don't have artificial gravity."
"I don't think we can rotate, either," the sergeant major told her. "We're going to do a long, slow burn. I don't think we can do that and rotate at the same time."
"I'll live... I think." The chief of staff suddenly ripped the bag open and buried her face in the contents. "Arrggg."
Kosutic leaned back and shook her head.
"I can see this is go