“You are entirely too cautious, Captain Vatta. I must admire that caution, inconvenient as it is for me. Where is the fair Stella?”

“Busy,” Ky said. “And your next project is?”

“Something I’m afraid you can’t help with,” he said. “I would give my left arm—or at least a couple of fingers—to get hold of a bit of technology no one is supposed to have yet. Ever hear of a pin ansible?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Ky said. “But I don’t have one.”

His eyes had widened, now they narrowed. “Where did you hear of it?”

“Never mind that… what’s it good for?”

“An ansible you can mount on a ship,” he said. “And more important, an ansible that allows real-time communications while you’re in FTL flight.”

Ky stuffed her first thought, That’s impossible, back in her mouth and said again, “That would be quite an improvement in communications… just having a shipboard ansible would be an advance.”

“Yes. And those do exist. The full-capability ones, those you can use in FTL flight, were in development the last I heard. But I suspect they now exist.”

“So why isn’t ISC bragging about this and selling them for vastly inflated prices?” Ky asked.

“Come, Captain, you have more business sense than that. I hope. ISC derives its revenues from per-message charges through the current ansible system—we don’t sell ansibles, ever.”

“Yes, but this is something that would make a bundle—”

“Comparatively? We would have to price it very high indeed, and we would be subject to competition, I’ve no doubt.”

“Yes…” Ky thought about it. “So you’re saying that there is a strong motive for ISC to freeze technological development that would risk its monopoly?”

He smiled at her. “I would not ever say that, Captain, because that would be revealing company secrets. Should you come to that conclusion on your own, I can’t stop you.”

Ky grinned back. “I’m glad we’re temporarily on the same side.”

“The thing is, if I had a pin ansible now, I could easily find out whether the more distant transfer lines are really blocked, or software clogged. As it is, I have to risk tapping into the station director’s control lines, and if he’s at all suspicious, he’ll realize someone’s snooping.”

Quincy called Ky on the ship com. “Can we find a time to talk?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I’m concerned about something.”

“Now, or a couple of hours? I’m expecting a visitor I really need to see.”

“Couple of hours is fine.”

Master Sergeant Roth fit Ky’s model for Mackensee much better than the callow lieutenant. Ky noticed that he and Martin looked each other over and came to some apparently favorable mutual conclusion. Roth brought with him a variety of Mackensee contracts. “Captain, I’m glad to meet you. Heard from our people at Sabine you did a fine job coping with those pirates.”

“Not much choice, Master Sergeant. Your lieutenant tells me you’re in a real bind here.”

The look on Roth’s face was eloquent. Ky remembered it well from MacRobert. “The lieutenant is… not too experienced,” he said.

“Your OIC had a medical emergency?”

“He told you that?” Roth scowled. “He doesn’t—sorry, ma’am. But he shouldn’t have.”

“Well, let’s see what you have,” Ky said. “We both seem to have a situation that would benefit from cooperation.”

“Thing is, we can’t get through to our headquarters,” Roth said. “We aren’t sure that the local ansible manager is being straight with us.”

“He’s not,” Ky said.

“You know that?” His eyebrows shot up.

“I have sources,” Ky said.

“Your own G-2?”

“You could put it that way.” She wasn’t going to compromise Rafe’s situation if possible. “We know he’s not straight, but we haven’t defined how bad it is.”

“So… what are your mission parameters?”

“My mission priorities are what you’d expect,” Ky said. “Survive, find other surviving Vattas and protect them, find out who’s doing this and how, and intervene.”

“Makes sense to me, Captain. You seem to have the intelligence; we have muscle. What would your strategy be if we were partners in this?”

“Unblock Lastway’s ansibles first, then work out from there. Collect a surcharge from other users to bankroll the project that far. If we’re out in space, we’re harder to find; if we unblock communications, it’ll be easier to figure out who’s blocking them. Once the financial ansibles start coming online, trade should resume, including bank transfers, which will make everyone’s life easier, including yours.”

“So you’d like us to do what?”

“Be the muscle you are. This ship is old, slow, unshielded, unarmed. I’d rather spend money hiring you than trying to turn it into a warship. But I don’t have much. As you may have heard, most accounts are frozen, not just yours. We have the money we made in trade, selling the cargo we had when we came.”

“Ma’am, if you can provision us, I believe the Old Man would not be displeased at a contract that put us back in contact with our people.”

“I believe I can do that, Master Sergeant. But what about your lieutenant? Will he sign off on this?”

“I certainly hope so. Our ship captains aren’t directly in his chain of command, but they’ll lean on him.”

“Another thing,” Ky said. “I’ve had a subcontract under Mackensee, but I’ve never been the contract holder. Who calls the shots in something like this? You? Your OIC? The ship captains?”

“Employer defines the mission, but has no direct command of Mackensee personnel. Ship captains command ship crew in space; troop commanders command troops but under the captains in space, and independently otherwise. In something like this, I’d advise stationing a Mackensee NCO as liaison aboard your ship, and your communications would be through him or her to our senior ship captain in space, or to the OIC otherwise. Would you anticipate any station or groundside actions?”

“Possibly station, not groundside. I would, however, like the option of direct consultation with your ship captains, captain to captain, should anything come up in space. If they’re protecting my ship, they may need to give me data quickly—”

“Oh, that’s fine. It’s just that you can’t tell them what to do, other than to carry out the mission you assigned in the first place.”

“Then let’s get it nailed down, get your lieutenant to sign off on it, and I’ll contact the banks to release funds. I presume you’d rather provision yourself than have civ do it—”

“Yes, ma’am, that would be ideal. Our immediate need is for rations; if the captain will take my advice, release just enough for, say, three days’ rations for a hundred troops, then your liaison can contact the ship captains and find out their needs. That would come to—” He looked blank a moment. “—just under five thousand credits.”

“Fine,” Ky said.

“There’s just a couple of things,” Roth said. “I’m sure it’s not a problem; you had a contract with us before. I know your record. But it’s something I have to say, since you’re the primary contractor here; please don’t take offense.”

“All right,” Ky said, wondering what was coming.

“Are you now or have you ever been engaged in slave trading?”

“No!” She could not keep the shock out of her voice.

“Sorry, ma’am, I’m sure these don’t apply; it’s just routine. I have to ask; it’s regulations.” He looked embarrassed but went on to the next. “Are you now or have you ever been engaged in transporting goods you knew to be stolen?”

“No.” Now that she knew the kinds of questions coming, it was easier not to react to them.

“Are you now or have you ever been engaged in piracy?”

“No.”

“Are you now or have you ever been in possession of a letter of marque issued to you by a planetary or system government?” Shock again. She paused, and Roth looked up. “Ma’am?”

“I… do have one. From Slotter Key. It was waiting when I got here, but—”