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voice.
"Ever seen his knives? Ever seen him throw?"
"Yeah, every year or so he takes up a new weapon. Keeps him alert."
Gerswin ignored the background chatter, and hoisted the faintly struggling
figure over his shoulder and headed for Nitiri and the lock control center. The last
thing someone who was bleeding needed was a full dose of sleepgas, and until he
could unsuit, there wasn't a thing he or anyone else could do.
As he reached the hangar locks he felt the vibrations of the Sindelar's, boat
locking in with Winsters.
The young officer was limp by the time Winsters and Gerswin had her unsuited
in the yacht boat, the single place aboard the Sanducar not permeated with the
gas.
Winsters began working, and without glancing at his commander, observed,
"She should be all right. While you pinned the one in the thigh pretty deep, you
missed about everything you could miss. Shoulder wound's mostly muscle. She'll
be laid up for a while, but it doesn't look like any permanent damage."
Gerswin sighed, followed it with a frown. One casualty wasn't bad, but why did
it have to be a female officer? On some planets that wouldn't set well at all, if it
ever got out.
"Remember, Winsters, no names, and no treatment once she's conscious
without privacy gear and an armed guard."
The former shambletown kid nodded with a grim smile. "Understand,
Commander. Understand."
"You take her back with you. We'll go on as planned. Have Dewart bring back
the officers when you get the signal."
"Need more support?"
"We're set, unless something changes. We're securing the crew, and we've got
the supplies for the jump. If they have any spare torps, I'll send them back when
you send over the exec. Best we break before someone sends out a corvette."
Gerswin sealed his suit and headed back into the Sanducar and the command
bridge, leaving Nitiri to outlook the Sindelar's boat and lockseal the outer doors
as well.
On the bridge, he began the checks. 'Interrogative drives."
'In the green. Power up sequence at minus fifteen to touch po nt."
'Navigation, interrogative screens." 'Up and in the green. Course feed input on
schedule. Will have break point computations adapted in twelve plus or minus
two."
"Gunnery?"
"Captain, for our purposes, no guns. Permission to divert to screens."
"Go ahead, if you can reshunt without leaving traces after arrival and
downloading."
"No problem."
Gerswin wondered how small that diversion problem really was, but extra
power to the screens certainly wouldn't hurt.
"Drives, interrogative governor status." "Plan to reset at plus point two. Enough
to throw off the hnpie computers, but not enough to hurt our passengers."
"Navigation, interrogative visitors." "Captain Black, no visitors in sight. None
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anticipated." So now all he had to do was wait . . . He needed one quarter of a
standard Imperial hour, one quarter hour before His Imperial Majesty's freighter
Sanducar could vanish from orbit for an unknown destination.
At that point, the Sindelar would also vanish to deliver a few messages, and to
send out a raft of message torps, before being returned to its rather surprised refit
crew.
Then-Gerswin shook his head, violently, and refocused his attention on the
screen before him. One thing at a time.
First, his teams needed to finish securing the crew. Second, they had to bring
the freighter from stand-down to full operation. Third, they had to recover the
exec and two officers and leave orbit without discovery and attack by Imperial
vessels.
"Captain, incoming from yacht." "Stet. Lock in and recover."
"Captain Black? Incoming on standard comm net. Interrogative response."
"Respond without screen. Explain you're doing last minute maintenance. Ask
to feed back in three to five." "Affirmative. Will do."
Gerswin checked the read-outs. Minus ten until full power-up sequence was
complete. He hoped the Sindelar's boat was clear by then. He jabbed the
engineering stud. "Interrogative drive status." "Minus nine until green." "Report
when ready." "Yes, ser." "Navigation, interrogative status." "Minus seven until
course feed complete." Gerswin sat watching the screens, looking at the flow of "
information on the status of the ship, watching the green panels light, watching
the red shift to amber, and then to green.
Another thought crossed his mind, and he tapped the tight beam back to the
Sindelar.
"Landspout, this is Captain Black. Interrogative status of messengers."
"Captain Black, messengers ready to depart within one plus of your
completion."
"Affirm one plus."
"Stet."
He turned back to the unfamiliar bridge board.
"Captain." This time the voice did not come from a distant channel, but from
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