“All?” Quincy’s eyebrow quirked. “It’s more than just changing a controller board. But what next?” Clearly, she meant more than after the repairs, or even after Belinta.

“After that run? Depends on what we make from it. If we could bring this ship up to code—”

“Hull’s sound,” Quincy said. “Nothing wrong with the insystem drive that a load of fuel won’t fix.”

Ky cocked an eye at her. “You think I should do this, then?”

“I think you’ll do what you think you should, whatever I say,” Quincy said. “Which is as it should be. All I’m doing is giving engineering data.”

“Umph.”

“Though if you asked my advice—”

“About what?”

“See, that’s what I meant. You make up your own mind. If you asked my advice about what to do, I meant.”

“You would say what?” Ky persisted.

“I would say nothing,” Quincy said. “I would say it’s your career, and your decision.”

Ky looked at her, trying to read her face.

“Seriously. You’re young, yes, but this trip would mature anyone who survived it. I can guess what you might choose to do, but it’s only a guess. You’ll have to figure out what works for you. If it’s any help, I think you’ve done well.”

“Gary…” Ky said, between her teeth.

“Wanted you to save the ship, and you did. You didn’t waste his courage, Captain. I haven’t criticized you for it, and I never will.”

“But you knew him—you were his friend for years.” She could not ask directly, but she could not help asking indirectly, and scolded herself for that even as she asked.

“For years, yes. We were friends. I miss him. I’ve cried, and I’ll cry again. I don’t blame you. I said that before.”

“Yes. You did.” Ky took a deep breath, banishing the lump in her throat that threatened to bring on her own tears. “Well. We’ll talk later, Quincy. I’d better get ready for Colonel Kalin.”

Chapter Nineteen

Colonel Kalin was prompt, as she’d expected. In person he looked as tough and competent as he had over the comscreen.

“Well, Captain Vatta,” he said, extending his hand. She shook it; it was hard, callused. “I’m glad to meet you at last.”

“Welcome aboard, Colonel,” she said.

“Is there a secure area?” he asked.

“Not really; we can talk in the recreation area with the doors shut, or my cabin—though it’s quite small—or the bridge.”

“I see. The recreation area, then. I presume it’s monitored?”

“Of course. But merchants no more than the military want their affairs talked about. We have some screening capability.”

“You will not mind if I add mine…?” It was just barely a question.

“Not at all,” Ky said. She led the way to the rec area, and spoke into the intercom. “Bridge, this is the captain. I’ll be in conference in the rec room, with screens on. Use a visual flash if we have a situation develop.” She pulled out a chair at one of the tables. “Have a seat, Colonel.”

“Thanks,” he said, sitting down. She sat across from him as he glanced around. “Pardon me for being blunt, but we have a lot to talk about, and we’re both busy professionals.”

Ky nodded.

“I understand you’ve spoken to ISC about the ansible attack; they said you’ve told them we said we weren’t involved. And I’ve seen what you sent by beacon-flash as well. But is there anything, any detail, you haven’t included? We’ve had to post a hefty bond with ISC until they clear us for that action, and the sooner we settle that the better.”

“Nothing but the recording of Paison’s crewman talking to me,” Ky said.

“And you jettisoned his body?”

“Yes. No cold storage,” Ky said. Except in with their food, which she didn’t think needed saying.

“I wondered if that was why. Did you beacon it?”

“No, the only spare beacon we had aboard was put on our cargo.”

“Ah. We’re going to have to try to find it, because from what you and his com tech say, some of his contact information was on his person. Can you give us an approximate location?”

“Only with difficulty. We have the elapsed time, of course, but Paison tried to do a complete wipe of our system, so most of the data are suspect. We haven’t had time to do a purge and reset, though, so it might be retrievable.”

“Just not believable. Oh, well. The next thing is this contract between us. I hope you believe me when I say that we did not foresee any of the difficulties…”

“I didn’t think so…” Ky said.

“No. We said ten days, and expected to be back for the passengers in seven, actually. Usually that’s plenty of leeway. But when our techs couldn’t get even the backup ansible working, we knew we had to jump outsystem to get to ISC before they got to us. Again, we thought we would be right back in the system, but ISC wouldn’t pass us out of Tangier, and insisted that another commander be appointed. That’s when I came aboard this operation.”

“You were trying to work on the ansible platforms? I thought only ISC could—”

“We have techs who can restart backup systems,” the Colonel said, rapidly and not looking at her. “And yes, ISC knows about it.” She wondered anyway. “At any rate, we did not expect to be delayed coming back into Sabine system, and we were quite concerned—and expressed our concerns to ISC—that you would be running short of supplies. May I ask when you began rationing?”

“As soon as we’d cleared off the counters of the food we had no storage for,” Ky said. “My—I’d been told one time that it was always wise to have a few days’ reserve, so I calculated for twelve days, not ten. That wasn’t bad. Then, when you left the system, I cut back again, trying for the maximum survival with what we had. I had to keep crew rations up so they could do their work…”

“That must have been tough,” the Colonel said again. “But I’m also impressed. You’ll pardon me for saying what you know, that you’re quite young to be captain, and I would not have expected a civilian captain with so little experience to be that decisive. Your company must provide excellent training.”

“Actually, I learned that at the Slotter Key Space Academy,” Ky said. Surely he knew that already. Major Harris knew; Harris must have told him. “Before I was kicked out,” she added.

“Um, yes, Major Harris said something about that. Typical cadet trouble, he said.” Colonel Kalin shook his head. “You would be surprised how many good young’uns have something like that in their pasts. Now—I’d like to hear some details about this mutiny. We had no idea that Captain Paison was going to cause trouble.”

Ky wanted some details of the money she’d be getting, but this wasn’t the time to bring that up. Instead, she began a concise summary of the mutiny, starting with her realization that the passengers’ location in the cargo compartments gave them potential access to the control systems. When she came to the confrontation, the scene was as vivid in her mind as it had been since. She struggled to keep her voice level and her hands still.

“So Gary said ‘Don’t let them—’ and I shot Paison, and his mate cut Gary’s throat—”

“Why did you shoot Paison first?” Kalin asked. He sounded like one of her instructors at the Academy taking her back through a tactical problem.

“I didn’t have a good shot at the mate—the way he was holding Gary—and Paison was the leader. I thought maybe, if I got him—” Ky shook her head. “It was so fast—”

“You did the right thing,” Kalin said. “But again—it’s surprising. I’d have to credit your military training. Then what?”

“The mate’s arm sagged as Gary died, giving me a target. I shot him, but not fatally. He charged; I fired again, and that time got him in the throat. I thought that would end it—the others behind them were too stunned by the blood, I think. But Kristoffson came at me; my junior engineer and I fired together, and he went down. Then I told them to sit down, and they obeyed me, and—” And then had come the reaction, the surge of nausea, the grief, the need to keep going anyway, keep the control she had regained, save her ship… Again she fought back the lump that had appeared in her throat.