The Iron Admiral: Deception (16 page)

He connected to his clerk. “Send Commander Jorgsen in.”

Jorgsen winced when he came to attention to salute. “You wanted to see me, Sir.”

“Yes,” drawled Saahren. “And I expect you know why.” He waited for a few more seconds before he said, “At ease.”

He replayed the encounter with Allysha while Jorgsen stood legs apart, hands clasped behind him. A sheen of sweat formed on the man’s forehead. Saahren hid the smile. He shouldn’t be enjoying this, but he was. And he’d make sure Jorgsen never even thought about going near Allysha again.

“I’d like your explanation,” he said.

Jorgsen met Saahren’s gaze and swallowed. “She’s… she’s a very attractive woman. I just wanted to get to know her better.”

“Do you always force your attention on ladies, Commander? Because that’s what it looks like to me.”

Jorgsen squirmed. “When some women say no, they really mean try harder, Sir.” He tried a smile.

“That’s all.”

Saahren rose slowly to his feet. A drunken miner on Tisyphor said something like that, all those months ago, after he’d assaulted Allysha. He’d taken pleasure in bashing the notion out of that man. A pity he’d couldn’t do the same with Jorgsen. He walked around his desk to stand in front of the officer, forcing the man to look up at him. Jorgsen was tall, but Saahren topped him by a good ten centimeters. “Why wait for her in a deserted corridor?”

“An impulse. I just thought maybe she’d be more receptive in a more private place.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “She overreacted. I wouldn’t have tried to force her if that’s what you think. I’d never do that.”

“No?”

“No, Sir.” He licked his lips. “Sir, if you’re offended about the remark I made, about you—”

“I don’t care what you think about my sexual capacity, Commander.” He loaded his voice with threat.

“But I do care when you try to force your unwanted attentions on a woman on my flagship.”

Jorgsen blanched.

“That you targeted this particular woman I can only see as errant stupidity.”

He leaned over the man, dominating him. “Understand this. If any such incident regarding you is brought to my attention again, you will find yourself heading a prison garrison in the Glaspar Reaches.” And now he held Jorgsen’s eyes with a stare that admirals and presidents had learned to fear. “You will leave Allysha alone, Jorgsen. Go near her again and you’ll answer to me. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yessir.”

Saahren straightened up. “Dismissed.”

Jorgsen saluted, wincing only slightly as he came to attention, performed an impeccable about turn and left the room.

Saahren returned to his seat and drummed his fingers on his desk. That was done. The word would spread, of course. Although nobody else seemed to have been stupid enough to try his luck with her. It seemed she’d learned her lesson with Bristol, as well. No more sparring with him. That was a good thing.

He allowed himself a smile. Time, that was all it needed. She was so comfortable with him. She hadn’t even blushed when she’d mentioned sex. Sex. Every time he saw her, his body reminded him. But it was so much more, just to be with her, hold her, talk about things that didn’t matter.

He sighed. Eighteen days. Eighteen days and her contract was finished. Eighteen days and she could walk out of his life. He hoped it would be long enough, because he was fresh out of ideas.

Comm. traffic went backwards and forwards on the console, endless streams of unintelligible data in its raw form so she could check for interlopers. The others had all gone to take part in the parade in the hangar bay, a special one because the crew was going to be given planet leave, the first for some in several months. Just as well she was here; at least she could cover for them up here on the bridge.

The fleet drifted in orbit around Guerrion’s inhabited planet, Gueri Nestor. On the central display the massive warships showed up as tiny dots in relation to the system’s sun. Off to one side, the Keltar nebula glowed bright in the blackness.

One more week and the contract would expire. One more week and she need never see him again.

Saahren. He’d killed her father. Indirectly, but still.Then why the pang of impending loss, Allysha?

With an effort, she put her mind back to the task at hand. This was probably going to be one last throw of the dice, a longish stop-over at a planet that had seen turmoil in the past. If nothing turned up here, then she would have to accept there was nothing to find.

The parade lasted only a little longer than the standard weekly ones and soon enough staff augmented the bridge crew to man the great ship in planetary orbit while those lucky enough to be in the first contingent planet-side prepared to leave. Tensan had volunteered to take a half-day shift with Allysha, while the other four members of the team had a break. He joined her on the bridge, relaxed and cheerful,

and they helped monitor the traffic as the shuttles departed.

“The senior officers are out first,” Allysha said, observing the display on holo two. “Three Presidents launched within a few minutes, with escorts.”

“Privilege of rank,” Tensan said. “Besides, the other officers check all ranks before they’re allowed off the ship, to make sure they’re properly dressed.”

“Squeaky clean and sparkling, eh? You mean the admirals don’t have to check their captains?”

Tensan laughed. “Oh, I can just see that. A line-up of captains being inspected. I think once you get to commander, they trust you to look the part.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You mean to say junior officers are checked?”

“Oh yes. I’ve seen lieutenants who didn’t come up to expectations sent off to shine up.”

“Well, they’d never say that about you.”

He smiled, pleased at the compliment.

“I want to monitor the comm. traffic, Tensan.”

“Why? We have comm techs to do that.”

“Yeah, I know.” She couldn’t tell him about her other role; she didn’t have the right: unfortunately. It was a hindrance. “I know the comms people do it anyway, but they’re not looking for what I’m looking for—or they would have found it by now.”

“What are you looking for?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe a rider. You know, something extra tagged on to a legit signal.”

“Why?” Tensan waited for a moment, as Allysha debated with herself. “‘Lysha, it’s hard to look for something if you don’t know what it is, or what it’s for. And I am Fleet Intelligence.”

True enough. She’d tried everything she could think of by herself. “Yes, okay. It’s possible that somebody on this ship is in league with the terrorist groups.”

“Well… that’s hardly a surprise. Okay, so we’re looking for a disguised contact. Fine. Which systems do we start with?”

Relief fluttered through her. It would certainly be easier with some help, especially from Tensan. He was the best of them, without a doubt. “Anything coming in; anything at all.”

Gueri Nestor rotated beneathArcturus . The terminator line slipped across the planet’s face and patches of light bloomed like flowers in the darkness of its wake. Tensan and Allysha took turns in having breaks,

brought each other cups of kaff, or just walked around the strangely quiet bridge.

“Have you had a chance to talk to Jingsu and Leeha, Tensan?” she asked as they switched to another system.

“Mm.” Tensan set the monitors, eyes fixed on the screen. “It was Leeha’s birthday yesterday. I booked in a multi-dim call.”

“How old is she now?”

“Seven.” A fond smile spread over his face. “I’d hoped to be there for her birthday party but that’s life in the Fleet.”

“Yes, I guess so. I suppose that sort of thing is the hard part. You don’t get to see your kids grow up.”

“It is, yes. I haven’t been there on her birthday since she was four.”

“It must be hard for Jingsu.”

“Oh, not hard. She has family and friends. She knew that when she married me.” He sighed. “I do miss them, though, in the quiet times.”

Allysha nodded in sympathy. It must be hard, being away from family and friends. She was looking forward to seeing Xanthor and Ceta again. And it would be nice to be back on Carnessa. Of course it would.

Tensan shifted, rubbing a hand across his face. She glanced at the chrono. They’d been here for the full half day, no wonder they were both getting tired.

“I think we both need a break, Tensan.” She stretched her shoulders, feeling the pull in her back. “Why don’t you take off? I’ll close down and join you shortly.”

He stood, stretched and walked stiffly away.

She dawdled around the bridge glancing over the heads of the crew at monitors full of dancing lines or rows of numbers. Somebody yawned. In the view screen the planet turned, swathed in bands of cloud in the sunlit hemisphere and rivers of lights in the darkness of the night side. This had been a complete waste

of time. They might as well have used the comms scans for all the good it had done. It had seemed such a

good idea; if something was going to happen then the time to do it would be when the ship was as near to

deserted as it ever would be. Maybe Saahren was wrong: maybe the movement of weapons had nothing to do withArcturus .

She dropped back into her chair and prepared to close down. The monitoring functions were locked onto the system in the logistics area. Her hands hovering over the keyboard for show, she carried out one

last mental check.

What the hell?

She couldn’t connect with the machine. If it was down, an error message would appear, here on the bridge. She blinked and suddenly, the device was there again, as though it had never been missing. Odd.

An intermittent fault? Or maybe a spike? Nothing in the logs. Had she made a mistake? Imagined something? Still, this was logistics, worth a closer look. She’d checked the machine down there remotely before, ensured the detector functions that trapped illicit use were working as they should.

A tremor of excitement wriggled down her spine. The logistics area was on level thirty, toward the bow.

She’d never been there; never seen the machine that held the data and processed the transactions. She could get there by herself, but then what? She finished shutting down the monitors, and commed Tensan.

“Meet me in the transit foyer, Tensan. Something’s happening down in logistics and I need your help.”

She hurried to the transit and stopped the car in the foyer of Tensan’s accommodation level. Her nerves tingled with suppressed excitement. The semi-deserted ship seemed almost eerie. Normally, in a place like this there would be people passing by, voices in the corridors. The background murmur of life support systems seemed loud. Tensan’s approaching footsteps thudded in the silence. As soon as he was

in the car she pressed the button for the logistics level.

“For a little while I couldn’t get into the processor down there from the bridge, but there was no error report.”

“That’s not possible,” said Tensan. “At least, it’s not supposed to be possible.”

“S’right.” She adjusted her position slightly as the car shifted from vertical to horizontal motion. “But it can be done if you know how, even using an InfoDroid.”

Tensan stared at her. “Who would know how? Apart from you?”

She shrugged. “Who knows?”

She knew one name, but that was impossible. Sean wouldn’t be able to get onto a Fleet ship. Then again; red hair, green eyes, different voice. The only thing she’d recognized was the movement of his hand with the glass, the words he’d used. A face shaper, Leonov had said. Maybe if he had his face shaped again, he could be here and she’d never know.

The transit car stopped. Before they alighted, Allysha put a hand on Tensan’s arm. “We need to plan what we do Tensan. If somebody down here is involved in something underhand, we can hardly go barging in and warning everybody. I thought maybe we could make it like a training exercise. Tell them you want to show me something to do with the machine here.”

“Good idea.”

Like store rooms everywhere, logistics presented little more than a long counter in a narrow room to the outside world. The sergeant seated behind the barrier looked up, startled, when they entered and hurriedly shut down whatever he was looking at on his monitor.

“Lieutenant, ma’am,” he said, rising to his feet. “What can I do for you?”

“Good morning, Sergeant,” Tensan said. “I’m Lieutenant Wong from FI and this is Miss Marten, who’s working with us.”

“Sir,” the Sergeant said, while he looked at Allysha. “I’ve heard about you of course, ma’am. A pleasure to see you face to face, so to speak.” His eyes slid to her breasts. “I’m Sergeant Corfino.”

She forced a smile. What a slimeball. “Pleased to meet you, Sergeant. I expect all your people are off planet-side taking a break?”

He nodded, his gaze wandering over her body. “There’s just a skeleton crew here today and the man rostered on took sick, so there’s just me and Chief Astin. He’s off in the store somewhere. He’ll be back

soon, I expect.”

“We’re taking advantage of the reduced crew numbers, too,” she said. “It’s a good chance to take a look at your computer system while you’re not busy, if that’s okay with you?”

“Oh.” His eyes narrowed and he shot an uneasy glance at Tensan. “It’s not normal procedure, Sir.”

“Miss Marten is an expert in information system hardware,” Tensan said. “As you know, the computer equipment down here is a little older than some of the others on the ship and it has slightly different characteristics. I offered to show her the differences.”

Corfino licked his lips. “Begging your pardon, Sir, but can’t you do that from the bridge?”

“No,” Allysha said. “Lieutenant Wong wants to show me how the interfaces are set up, so I can see the relationship between the routers and the CIU. The LTRs on these machines are different to the main circuits and there’s a special OC translator required. You can’t see that sort of thing remotely. Look, we don’t want to get you into trouble. If you’d like authorization from Captain Pedder, I can contact him?”

She took out her comlink and made a show of making a call.