Ride The Rising Tide (The Maxwell Saga) (13 page)

After a while two more people came into the anteroom. Both hurriedly straightened their uniforms before knocking at the Captain’s door and being admitted. One was another Senior Lieutenant, the other a Senior Chief Petty Officer.

At last the door opened again. Warrant Officer Dhruv said, “Come in, PO Maxwell.”

“
Aye aye, Sir.”

Steve swallowed hard, tried to look less nervous and more confident, and marched through the door. He snapped to attention inside, facing the Captain as he sat behind his desk.

“So you’re the one who started all this fuss,” Innes rumbled. He was a tall, burly man, his salt–and–pepper close–cropped hair crowning a heavy–set face with dark beard–shadow on the cheeks and chin. His slate–gray eyes stared unblinkingly at him.

Steve didn’t know how to respond. He settled for a simple “Yes, Sir.”

“Close the door behind you and take a seat, PO.” Innes leaned back in his seat, fingers drumming on the desktop as Steve pulled a chair from the small conference table in the corner, brought it to where the others were seated before the desk, and joined them.

“
I don’t mind telling you, my first instinct was to dismiss your suspicions out of hand,” he began. “I’d never heard anything so fanciful in my life, particularly from a very junior NCO, and even more so in the absence of any concrete evidence whatsoever! However, Senior Lieutenant Parasurani mentioned your certainty that other merchant spacers would support your opinion of Medusa vessels. Senior Lieutenant Razçak and Senior Chief Lamartine both served in the merchant marine before joining the Fleet, so I called them in and asked them about Medusa. Both unequivocally supported your views — profanely so, in one case.” He looked pointedly at Senior Chief Lamartine, the ghost of a smile on his lips. Unabashed, Lamartine grinned.

Innes glanced at the officers. “I’ll be asking BuIntel why they didn’t include information about Medusa and similar planets in our Intelligence Pack for this mission, because it’s certainly relevant to our operations — but that’s a matter for another time.”

He looked back at Steve. “I’ve also taken into account your performance while you’ve been with us. Senior Lieutenant Parasurani reports that you’ve done an excellent job as
Grasswren’
s cutter pilot, frequently going above and beyond what’s expected of you. The most recent incident was ten days ago, when you volunteered to take ammunition to a Marine patrol and evacuate their wounded under fire. Not only did you succeed in both tasks, you also wiped out a terrorist mortar team, despite being wounded.” His eyes went to Steve’s uniform jacket, which now bore three personal and two unit award ribbons, plus the Planetary Combat Badge.

“
Colonel Shota placed a ringing endorsement on your personnel file. I’m well aware he doesn’t hand them out lightly. Given that, plus your outstanding track record with us, plus your commanding officer’s support, plus two trusted members of my crew who share your views about Medusa, I’m forced to take your warning seriously, notwithstanding your junior rank.

Innes looked at each of his visitors in turn. “The question is, what do we do about this? How can we find anything illegal — if it’s there — without unduly delaying the shipment? The UP Commissioner’s already asked me to expedite delivery by every means possible, including using our own cutters and cargo shuttles to supplement
Leona’
s in bringing everything down from orbit. I simply can’t delay matters too long. I need ideas, gentlemen. Let’s hear from you.”

There was silence for a few moments as everybody thought. Senior Chief Lamartine spoke first. “Sir, we could contact
Leona
while she’s inbound, asking her to transmit her structural plans, load diagram and cargo manifest to us as soon as possible. We could use the excuse that the UP Commissioner has asked us to expedite delivery, so we want to plan our inspection before she arrives in orbit. I think that provides enough justification for our request that she won’t find it suspicious.

“
The structural plans will help us understand the layout of the ship, and determine which areas are more likely to contain hidden compartments. There probably won’t be one in the middle of a wide open cargo hold, but a warren of little rooms or a maze of tight, confined passages is a different story. The cargo manifest will show us how the freight is packed, so we can select for inspection only those containers that are more likely to have spare space inside them where smuggled goods might be concealed. The load diagram will show us where they are aboard
Leona
, Sir, so we can go straight to them without wasting time looking for them.”

Innes nodded approvingly. “All excellent points, Senior Chief. Very well, we’ll do that. What else?” He looked around the room.

Steve hesitantly raised his hand. “Sir, I presume
Baobab
has a Loadmaster to handle stowage of her cargo and supplies?”

“
That would be me, PO,” Senior Lieutenant Razçak answered.

“
Great! Sir, you have to balance the ship’s load to maximize her longitudinal stability, right?”

“
Yes, of course, otherwise our next hyper–jump might be our last.”

“
Yes, Sir. I presume
Leona’
s load diagram and cargo manifest will provide the mass of each cargo container or crate or pallet on board?”

“
They should, if they’re any good.”

“
In that case, Sir, could you use your software to figure out whether
Leona’
s longitudinal stability is optimized by the current location of her cargo? If it is, that’s an indication she may be innocent. On the other hand, Sir, if the weights and locations of her cargo as shown on her load diagram don’t add up to optimum longitudinal stability, that may indicate they haven’t told us about everything on board. There’d have to be something more, heavy enough and in the right location to bring her longitudinal stability back to where it should be. In fact, Sir, if you can guess what weight would be required to do that, and where it’d have to be positioned, that might tell us where to look for a secret compartment full of smuggled goods.”

“
Hmm…” Razçak scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It’s not a bad idea in principle, PO, but there are problems. For example, every ship fine–tunes its longitudinal stability by moving liquid ballast between tanks on its spine or keel.
Leona
might have enough ballast to account for any discrepancy in declared cargo weight and location.”

“
Yes, Sir, but wouldn’t
Leona’
s structural diagram show her ballast tanks? You could figure out whether their location and size is enough to compensate for any discrepancy you detect, Sir.”

“
True. You obviously know something about a Loadmaster’s work.”

“
I watched the Loadmaster at work aboard the merchant freighter where I started my spacefaring career, Sir, and read about the subject in the ship’s library.”

“
It shows.” Razçak turned to Captain Innes. “I can’t guarantee that PO Maxwell’s idea will produce definitive results, Sir, but it’s certainly worth trying. Even if I can’t pin down a location to within a few meters, I may be able to identify a portion of the hull — for example, the after third of the ship, or the bows — and say with some confidence that any discrepancy is probably located within that area. That’ll help our search party narrow their focus, Sir.”

“
Will you be able to do all that before
Leona
arrives in orbit?”

“
It won’t be the first time I’ve pulled an all–nighter, Sir.”

“
Then do so, please, Senior Lieutenant. Thank you for your suggestion, PO. Let’s hope it helps us find what we’re looking for — if it’s there, of course.”

“
Yes, Sir,” Steve acknowledged, feeling a little shaky after daring to speak up in the presence of so many senior personnel. At least Captain Innes hadn’t cut him off at the knees for his temerity!

Warrant Officer Dhruv said, “Sir, we could increase the size of our search party. I normally have only ten Spacers with me, but if we could borrow additional personnel from the other patrol craft or from
Baobab
, we can fit forty or more aboard our cutter. That’ll make the search much faster, and we’ll have more personnel on hand if anything goes wrong. We can explain to
Leona
that the extra Spacers are there for the same reason we asked for her documentation — to speed up the inspection in order to get her cargo planetside as quickly as possible.”

“
Good idea, Mr. Dhruv. Thank you.”

Parasurani chimed in, “Sir, we can use some of those extra personnel to station armed guards on
Leona’
s bridge and in her engineering spaces. Four or five Spacers in each area will do. If anything goes wrong, they’ll be able to stop the crew from trying to run for it.”

Innes frowned. “Won’t that arouse the suspicions of
Leona’
s crew? It’s not part of normal boarding and search procedure.”

“
We can explain it’s because this is an arms cargo, Sir, requiring additional security precautions due to the presence of terrorists on the planet. That sounds plausible enough that I think they’d probably accept it, Sir.”

“
Very well, we’ll do it. Thank you, Senior Lieutenant. Anyone got any more ideas?” No one spoke. “Thank you all for your contributions. Senior Chief Lamartine, kindly detail some of our Spacers to reinforce
Grasswren’
s boarding and search party, brief them, and issue them the necessary weapons and equipment. Her cutter will collect them from us on the way to
Leona
tomorrow morning. Co–ordinate that with Warrant Officer Dhruv, please. He’ll remain in command of the boarding party.”

“
Aye aye, Sir. Permission to accompany the boarding party, please, Sir?”

“
If you wish, Senior Chief. Oh, yes — detail two NCO’s to take charge of the sections stationed on
Leona’
s bridge and in her engineering spaces, to stop her crew making a run for it if necessary. Make sure they know what to do.”

“
Aye aye, Sir. One last request, please, Sir. Could PO Maxwell come aboard
Leona
with us? I know he’d normally remain with his cutter, but he might spot something that someone lacking merchant spacer experience might miss.”

“
Make it so, please, PO Maxwell.”

“
Aye aye, Sir,” Steve acknowledged. “In that case, may I request that Senior Chief Lamartine include one of
Baobab’
s cutter pilots among his Spacers, please, Sir? Your pilot can secure the cutter while I accompany the boarding and search party.”

“
Make it so, please, Senior Chief.”

“
Aye aye, Sir.”

Captain Innes rose to his feet. “Very well, gentlemen. I’ll leave matters in your capable hands. I’ll be very interested to see what comes of this little affair.”

~ ~ ~

Baobab’
s docking bay was thronged with thirty of her Spacers and a dozen more from
Grasswren
. Armorers issued bead carbines, ammunition chargers and power packs, supervising carefully as the recipients prepared their weapons for use. It had been decided that it would be safer for so large a group to do so in the docking bay, rather than in the confined area of the armory. Clearing barrels had been secured along a bulkhead to permit safe weapon handling.

Senior Lieutenant Razçak arrived, looking tired and weary after his all–night calculations. He took Warrant Officer Dhruv, Senior Chief Lamartine and Steve aside.

“PO Maxwell, you were right,” he began without preamble. “
Leona’
s weight and balance figures don’t add up to satisfactory longitudinal stability. There must be something on board that they haven’t reported. If it’s very heavy, it’ll be located not too far forward of her midships point. If it’s lighter, it’ll be near her bows, where its leverage on her center of gravity will be greater. I can’t see smugglers trying to sneak tens of thousands of tons past the scrutiny they know a legitimate arms cargo will inevitably attract, so I’d expect to find a smaller stash of contraband in Holds One through Eight, near the bows. Holds One through Four are on the upper level, two to starboard and two to port of the main passage. Holds Five through Eight are below them.”

“
We’ll give them special attention, Sir,” Dhruv promised. He glanced at Lamartine. “Senior Chief, you and PO Maxwell are both former merchant spacers. I’d like each of you to lead a section of our search party, because you’ll have a better eye for anything out of place on a merchant ship. Any suggestions as to how we should structure the group?”

“
Yes, Sir. Let’s have twenty spacers form one large group under your overall command. I’ll lead half of them, and PO Maxwell can take the other half. You can co–ordinate our activities and make any decisions required about anything we find. We can split the two halves into four, or even smaller groups, to check a large area faster if necessary. That’ll be the most flexible arrangement, Sir. The remaining Spacers can make up the groups for the bridge and engineering spaces, plus a couple of independent search parties to check areas less likely to contain what we’re looking for.”