"How long?" Amos ben Sierra Nueva said desperately
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your work, she thought, turning and striding briskly for the door. "I don't care what anyone says, Ms. Hap. I think you're going to do a great job." It was one of the communications technicians. Channa smiled pleasantly at her and said softly, noting her name tag. "Frankly, Ms. ... Foss, I don't give a damn wAoi you think. I'm only concerned with the quality of your work. Which, at the moment, you're not doing." She continued down the corridor. "Excuse me." Simeon said to Channa when she was out of earshot "Yes?" "Did you have to be so nasty to her?" "Simeon, it would be unprofessional of me to allow people to choose up sides like that We can chew out a section chief, but interfering in the chain of command is petty and divisive and causes morale problems. Per- haps I'm not going to be here very long, and I'm unwilling to leave that sort of mess for someone else to sort out \bu've got to nip these things in the bud."
down thoughtfully. Then she shifted her weight and crossed her arms. "Simeon, I noticed that Tell Radon was here twelve years longer than standard retirement date." "He wasn't ready to go," Simeon replied suspiciously. "But six years ago he submitted his resignation," "He changed his mind and withdrew it. I wasn't about to force him out He's a friend." 28 Amu McCaffrey &? SM. Stating "Un-hunh. Well, when I glanced over some of the meeting records for the last few years, I couldn't help but notice that everyone behaved as though he wasn't there. On the infrequent occasions when he did make a contribution, it was immediately questioned. Or don't the words 'Is that right, Simeon' sound familiar?" "So what are you getting at?" "I'm getting at the basic difference in our styles, Simeon. When I'm cruel, it's to prevent more pain fur- ther down the line. When you're cruel, it's to get your own way." "What!" "Surely you know that consideration for a friend can go both ways? Maybe Tell Radon stayed because he knew you would prefer it that way. You've had things your own way around here for quite a long while now. I don't imagine you were looking forward to breaking in someone new. Some stranger who might want to do things their way instead of using the nice, smooth routines you've worked out over time." "Where are you getting this bullshit?" She shrugged. "It's thatoryoujustgotso used to seeing him humiliated on a daily basis that you didn't notice it anymore. Either way, it probably felt the same to him."
he would have said something. Why would he suffer in silence when he knew he could come to me?"
you're biased? You've been finding fault with me since we said hello. Let me tell you something, omniscient one, you can't get a good impression of Tell from the recs. He hated the damn meetings, 'Hell,' he used to say, 'these frigging meetings make my brain melt.' He rarely spoke at meetings. They just weren't his style."
when he did speak?" "You're making a simple request for confirmation sound like attempted murder." Channa bit her lower lip. "Simeon, the recs will con- firm that what I saw is there, very plain to see, unmistakable, dear, obvious. You might find a review of the meeting recs illuminating. Okay?" After a moment's reflection, something in Simeon opened like an eye and he saw a bitter twist to Tell Radon's mouth. Tell had always described it as "gas," but...
She blushed, but her expression remained hostile. "I'm angry," she said honestly. "My career is in ribbons because you wanted him to stay on. So when I saw..." She bit her lip again. Then she went on more calmly. "You have to be careful how you use expressions like, 'you cut her off at the knees' and 'you were cruel,' around me. It tends to set me off. Also, you could have taken me at my word instead of turning self- righteous."
you're really so hot to get out ofhere, I'll back your trans- fer request to the hilt. Since I didn't get what I asked for last time, I figure I'm still owed a few favors...." "Ho no. The last time you backed someone to the hilt, the hilt ended up protruding from between my shoulder blades. Thank you so much. Now that I think about it, I intend to give Central Admin plenty of time to forget this mess and my starring role in it. You're stuck with me for a couple of years, at least, so you'd better get used to it. Oh, on the subject of overlooking things...' "Yeah?" What now? Is there duston the tight fixtures? "I came face to face with a little boy in one of the aft engineering compartments."
know about him? After all, you are able to view all areas of the station."
wall and leaned casually against it. "He was gone before I could react. But you know what's really strange? There is nothing on file about such a kid." The silence lengthened. "Simeon?" she asked with some asperity. "A little boy?" "Yes, Simeon, about twelve years old N Standard N give or take a couple of years. In the aft power com- partment. A restricted area, I believe. A kid who looks and smells like a Sendee mud-puppy. Whose child is he? What can you tell me about him? Don't even try to tell me you know nothing. Kids don't acquire a patina of dirt like that overnight He also looked like he'd been eating regularly, if not well. So someone's been looking out for him... minimally."
be a very good idea right now, Simeon thought. He froze her image and scanned it for temperature variations and pupil dilation. She was angry on behalf of an aban- doned child rather than at him. Which makes a nice change.
"He calls himself Joat," Simeon confessed with a sigh. "I don't know how long he's been here. I dis- covered him by accident myself. He's mechanically brilliant. The area he's staked out as his own just stopped needing repairs. That's probably the only reason I investigated. I mean, there are enough squeaky wheels around here. Why take notice of one that's quiet? Then I noticed that the last repair made in that section was two years ago. I got curious about nothing ever going wrong. So I went on a prowl, using THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 31 mobile bugs, and kept, well, softpersons refer to it as seeing things out of the corner of their eyes. I always thought that had something to do with blinking, you know, eyelashes getting in your line of sight or some- thing. But I kept seeing these flickers of movement and I don't blink. By turning up my sound reception I could sometimes hear little scrapes and movement, but there was a sort of'white noise' masking it It seemed unlikely that everything else in the area was running perfectly with the exception of my sensors, so I decided to do a stakeout. Eventually, he got careless and wandered into my line of sight. The first time I spoke to him, blip, he disappeared. It was a long time before I could get him to talk to me. You'll note I said talk, not trust. He's incredibly wary. I can't believe he was clumsy enough to let you see him." "Tvioyears?" Leave it to you, you bitchoid, to pick out the pertinent mfor- mation. "I said the last logged repair was two years ago. It's been known to happen. What can I say? Some- where from two years to two months, who knows?" "Who is he, Simeon?" "His story is that he ran away from a tramp freighter. Joat told me that the captain won him from his uncle in a card game. I know, I know, that sort of thing's illegal, but it does happen out here in the boonies. The tramp left abruptly and went somewhere not listed. Joat has never had it soft, but apparendy, the captain he ran from was of a different order ofbrutality altogether."
out of Dickens." "Yeah, well, the more things change..." and he left the sentence dangling. "What are you going to do?" he asked warily. After his first, disastrously wrong, impression, Channa hadn't struck him as a bleeding heart Would she suggest flooding the compartment to flush the poor kid out? 32 AnneMcCaffrey fef SM. Stirling "We've got to get him out of there. We can't leave a little boy in a dangerous and restricted area. It's illegal at best and irresponsible by any standard."
doesn't want to be with people. The little guy can barely tolerate me. He likes machinery better than people, and I qualify as a borderline case. Besides, even / can't find him if he really doesn't want to be found. Maybe we should leave him alone for the time being. He's where he wants to be."
child wants to be alone in the dark and the cold of a power room, or wherever he's lodged himself. He needs and deserves to be taken care of. It's his right." "I agree in principle, but I think he needs more time. I'll take the responsibility." "What does that mean?" "I'll take full and complete responsibility for what happens to him." Channa brightened. "Really?" "Yeah, really." "Okay," she said, "I'll call up some information on adoption procedures and we can get things underway." "What?" I'm always screaming what? at this woman. Pm beginning to feel like a demented parrot. "Well, what else did you mean when you said you would accept responsibility?" "That, if anything goes wrong, I'll answer for it." / swear, if I had hair I'd tear it out. Softshells have some advantages after all. But, what is this ... this .. . wench trying to do to me? "Great! If he gets killed or maimed, you'll accept a discommodation? Well, how big of you!" Channa cut Simeon off when he began to splutter a protest "By now you should know that I listen to what you say, even when you don't. I promise you, Simeon. I will always call you on it when you try to shut me up or THE CITY WHO FOUGHT 33 fob me off. You're not going to shuffle this one off, buddy. I won't let you." "What are you talking about? I didn't put him in this situation. I want to help the kid. Hell, I am helping. I just don't see any need to rush him. The feet that you saw him may mean that he's almost ready to come out on his own. I'm certainly opposed to coercing him. Geeeze but you're hostile! You're so willing to believe the worst about me that every time I talk to you I feel like my circuits are being realigned. Am I really such an evil bastard? Or," and he changed his tone from plaintive to trenchant, "could it be that you really are the most bloody-minded, impossible woman I have ever met?"
difficult I can be. Just cross me if you want to find out" A chill settled in Simeon's mind. Does that mean that so far she's been reasonable? Gahf "You're about to become a father, Simeon. That's what full and complete responsibility for a child means. Congratulations, it's a boy. If your word is good."
emotional stability, you have a responsible job. You even appear to care very much about his feelings. Do you think such a wounded child, of his age, is going to have prospective parents lining up to take care of him? I think you've got a very good chance." She clapped her hands and rubbed them together gleefully. "So... let's get to work on it." Mart'an presented the menu with a flourish and left them with a bow. Channa looked around wide-eyed at the dimly lit, subdued elegance of the Perimeter Restaurant There were even actual beeswax candles burning on the tables; a fortune for material and air-bills both. No pleasure Ifaspetidmgxmwbodyebe's money, she thought 34 Atme McCaffrey & S.M. Staling The Perimeter was paying; something of a goodwill gesture. And it was logical for her to get acquainted with one of the station's premier tourist attractions.
the north-polar docking extension; the outer wall was a hundred-meter sheet of synthmet set on clear. Stars rolled huge and bright beyond N fixed stars and the frosty arch of the Snakeshead Nebula, and the bright moving points of light that were shuttles and tugs. Within, the floor was of glossy black stone set with squares of gold N SSS-900 processed a lot of gold as a by-product N and the tables were made of real and precious wood, glossy under the snowy linen tablecloths. Waiters moved amid a quiet chink- ing of silverware, savory smells wafting from the platters they carried. A live orchestra played some- thing soft and ancient. "Stars and comets N a little rich for this outposter!" Channa said. "I'd heard of the Perimeter, but somehow I never expected to actually come here."
an asteroid minin' center. Leastwise, not of the sort oui sainted Simeon cut his teeth on."
when I was at home. Didn't have the time, either. After I graduated and started pulling assignments, I've been mostly at outposts. Worse than Simeon's." Waiters filled water glasses, laid their napkins in their laps, brought warm rolls and softened butter. Everything except brush our teeth and massage our feet, Channa thought. It was a little unnerving. Most places you asked for the selection, told the table what you wanted, and a float brought the meal to you. The sheer expense of having live human beings do all this!
ticket," Patsy confessed in a whisper during a lull in the service. "Or unless a date was really tryin to impress
concentrate on the food without insultin' 'em. "If this weren't complimentary, I wouldn't be here now, either." They grinned at each other. "Well, thank you fer invitin' me," Patsy said. "I woulda thought you might invite that med-tech you were talkin' to last night."
able to eat if I remember him. Have you heard some of his anecdotes?"
point thar, ma'am. Chaundra's a nice enough feller, but his stomach's a mite too strong fer me."
can always talk to someone who likes the same music." Talk they did, touching on everything from Geranian folk ballads to eighteenth-century Earth composers, eventually matching the personnel of the station to various types of music. "Simeon? Straight honky-tonk, no question," Channa said firmly. Patsy laughed. "Oh, c'mon, Channa, there's unplumbed depths there. He's not that simple. It's just that the minin center assignment came at an impres- sionable age fer him. Rough, tough rockjack, you know. His public image."
motion holos of the dishes as she ran her finger down the page. "I'll start with these grumawns, first, in the fiery sauce. Cleardrop soup. Grilled rack of jumbuk from Mother Hutton's World N good grief, they do have everything here! N baby carrots, salad. Spun pastry bluet confection for dessert, with Port Royal cof- fee. Castiliari brandy." "Sounds good. I'll go with the jumbuk too, but... hmm. Fennel-leek soup first. Wine?" 36 Atme McCaffrey fcf 5JVf. Stating "I don't usually N" Channa began. "If I might suggest?" Mart'an appeared at their table. Appeared, Channa thought, as if he'd blinked out of some hypothetical subspace. "The Mon'rach '97 to begin with, a half-bottle. Then, with the main course, a Hosborg estate-bottled '85. I'll open it now so it can breathe." "Sure," Channa said, then sighed with pleasure. "You know, I was looking forward to the Perimeter, ever since they told me SSS-900 would be N"
coiled steaming on top of a bed of fragrant saffron rice, the sauce to one side. Channa took a sip of the wine, chilled and with a feint scent of violets, then lifted one grumawn on the end of a two-tined fork.
self. She opened her mouth, and N The Confederate armor was grinding through the woods and fields north of Indianapolis. The burning city cast a pall of smoke into the sky behind them. Diesel engines pig-grunted as the smooth low-slung shapes of the tanks and tank-destroyers crashed through brush and twelve-foot high cornstalks, past the flaming shards of a farmhouse and barns. The long 90mm bar- rels of the tank guns swung toward the thin strung-out lines of the Union convoys, caught in the flank as they attempted to switch front The fighting vehicles surged back on their tracks at each monster crack of high- velocity cannon fire, and the air filled with the bitter scent of cordite. Chaos spread through the blue ranks as tracer and cannon fire sent trucks exploding into globes of magenta fire. A Northern tank dissolved, the turret flipping up like a frying-pan, a hundred meters into the air.
gray uniforms followed, advancing with their semi- automatic rifles carried at the port Here and there an officer carried a sword, or the Stars and Bars fluttered from a staff.
said into the bulky mike hung from his vehicle helmet His command tank was a little back from the edge of the combat, hull down; the general stood head-and- shoulders out of the commander's cupola. The turret pivoted under him, the massive casting moving smoothly on its bearing race. The long cannon fired in a flash that seared his vision, just as the opening salvos of artillery went by overhead. Down along the road, tall poplar-shapes of black dirt gouted skyward. Another explosion shook the earth and sent heavy vehicles pinwheeling like a child's models under a careless boot; the command-tank's round had hit the tracked carrier for a Unionist self-propelled gun. The general nodded. "Nothing to stop us short of the Lakes," he said. Nothing to stop them linking up with the British Guards Armored Corps, driving southeast out of occupied Detroit, cutting the Union in two.... "Conceded," Florian Gusky said, and lifted the visor of the simulation helmet. He sighed heavily and took a pull of his beer, then looked around the room as though surprised to find himself alone with Simeon, blinking away the consciousness of a world and war that had never been. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his heavy-browed face and he worked the thick muscles of his shoulders to loosen the tension.
said from a screen above his desk. "No dam' point. You've whipped my butt in that simulation fo^,fromboth Union and Confederate sides." 38 Arme McCaffnq & S JVf. SHr&ng "I could take a handicap," Simeon said with much less enthusiasm, Gus noted. So he nodded. The last time he had beaten Simeon was in a Caesar vs. Rommel match on the site of Car- thage, with the shellperson commanding Caesar's spear-armed host against Panzers and Stukas. Even then he had inflicted embarrassing casualties.
identify the female in question. "She's dining at the Perimeter." Gus raised his eyebrows in astonishment. "The Perimeter? That's some salary she gets." The Perimeter attracted two sets of guests: the rich, and spacers looking to blow six months' pay on one night. Simeon laughed. "Nab, she's a guest of the manage- ment. Patsy's with her." "Yeah, Patsy likes her," Gus said, his tone indicating that this revealed a serious and heretofore unsuspected flaw in Patsy's character. "Can you see them?"
laughing." "They're talking about us, alright," Gus said gloomily. "Geesh, Gus, let's get back to the game." There was a plaintive edge to Simeon's voice. Gus reached for the helmet and then stopped, a slow grin creasing his heavy features.
sometimes," Gus replied. He knew that Simeon badly wanted to pull Navy duty. Only a few staff-and-command vessels used shell controllers and Simeon didn't rate, yet. In the
as a fire-control officer on a patrol frigate. That had been some time ago N Florian Gusky had spent a decade's hard work clawing his way up to regional Yüklə 2,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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