Ascending - James Alan Gardner [57]
Nimbus quivered. His stomach closed, wrapping around and around the infant until he completely lost his humanoid form: becoming a thing like an egg himself, with the child swaddled in the middle. “Her name?” he said. “Don’t ask me, I’m just the father. I have nothing to do with my own name, let alone my daughter’s.”
“She should be named Oar,” I said. “Then she would be admired and respected by all the world.”
“No,” Uclod said, “I’m calling her Starbiter. That’s final.”
He glared around, daring us to challenge him. Lajoolie laid her hand approvingly on his arm. Nimbus kept silent and I decided to hold my tongue too—it would be pleasant to think of a small young person growing up to carry on my name…but there are always things one cannot have, are there not? And having a new Starbiter was almost as good as having a new Oar.
Almost.
The Tale Of A Tainted Tree
We proceeded down a hallway, passing many closed doors with trees painted on them. Festina explained these trees were hemlocks, because the name of the ship was Royal Hemlock.
Not long ago, this had been the flagship of Admiral Alexander York himself, the awful villain whom Festina had slain. I wondered if she had received this ship as the spoils of conquest, like gaining ownership of an enemy’s possessions once you had killed him…but apparently the navy did not work that way.
Festina explained there had been a Purge after York died, wherein Royal Hemlock’s former crew members got dispatched to unappealing posts because they were tainted by association with the late admiral. This left the ship almost empty…and the remaining high admirals quickly attempted to restaff the vessel with their own toadies. This was a perennial game amongst members of the Admiralty, each one endeavoring to expand his or her power by creating ships whose crews were loyal to a single admiral rather than to the navy as a whole. In this way, the admirals created ships that could be called upon for private errands—like the ones I had met near Melaquin’s sun. They had been sent to my homeworld to suppress the truth, even though their “official” duties required them to be someplace else.
With Royal Hemlock, however, no admiral succeeded in gaining an upper hand. Indeed, the new crew had a handful of people from each high admiral’s camp, making the ship totally unsuitable for covert villainies: whatever secret scheme one admiral might attempt, all the other lackeys would immediately report to their own masters. Royal Hemlock became useless for Corrupt Intrigues…so the council assigned the ship to Lieutenant-Admiral Festina Ramos. If nothing else, all those spies would keep watch on my friend’s activities.
“So we are surrounded by sinister infiltrators?” I whispered, peeking surreptitiously at the mooks behind us.
“Absolutely,” Festina said. Turning to the mooks’ leader, she asked, “Sergeant, whose payroll are you on?”
“Admiral Wang, ma’am.” The sergeant favored her with a quick salute.
Festina smiled and glanced back to me. “He gives a different name every time. It’s become a little joke between us.” She turned back to the mook-man. “A good way to put me at my ease, right, Sergeant? Makes it simpler to stab me in the back later on.”
“Whatever you say, Admiral.” The mook saluted again.
The Lassitude Of Traitors
A door opened ahead of us; Festina waved us inside. “Conference room,” she said. “We have a lot to discuss.” As our group and the mooks filed past her, she called to no one in particular, “Ship-soul, attend. Captain Kapoor, please.”
A moment later, a man’s voice sounded from the ceiling. “Yes, Admiral?”
“Are you free to join us in the conference room?” Festina asked.
“If there’s an enemy ship nearby, I’d prefer to stay on the bridge.”
“Very well, Captain…but please listen in, and offer your opinion whenever you like.”
“Thank you, Admiral. Do you want the meeting secured?”
Festina thought for a moment, then answered, “No. If we keep our talk too hush-hush, we’ll have all the spies on board trying to find out what’s happening…which means they’ll ignore their