The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [118]
Greg had projected a kind of cavalier optimism mingled with anger and defiance, mainly because he did not want to face his own despair. As he sat listening to Commander Remosca laying out the bleak realities, something that Uncle Theo once said came back to him – ‘A ship tied up in the harbour is safe, but is that what ships are for?’ It was a folksy little saying but its nugget of wisdom was clear. He had once told the Tygran Ash that while Darien was worth fighting for it was the people who were worth dying for.
The gathering had agreed unanimously to stand their ground. Greg just hoped that the dying part would be slow to arrive.
Now, sitting in the Retributor’s pilotless shuttle pod – a short-range craft on loan from the Roug, apparently – his thoughts turned to the situation on the planet’s surface. There had been several attempts to establish contact with the Human rebels at Tusk Mountain but all effective channels were being jammed. The source of the jamming was mainly Giant’s Shoulder, which wasn’t such a surprise now that the Legion agent and its combat droids were in control of the place. But Ash was not seeing the break in communication as an immediate crisis and wouldn’t authorise a shuttle journey to the surface. Nor would he order a bombardment of the Giant’s Shoulder defences, on the grounds that it might provoke retaliation which they could do without in the hours ahead. Greg was frustrated at these decisions but had to resign himself to them.
At last the pod reached the Starfire, the Tygran ship that had brought him from Nivyesta and which had been heavily damaged in action against the Hegemony carrier’s escort vessels. Although the hyperdrive was junk, the thrust engines had been partially repaired and some of the weapons were back online. They could move and they could fight, after a fashion.
The pod docked with one of the underside hatches, and moments later he was climbing from the pod’s weak deck gravity into a weightless airlock. It was a small, blue-lit chamber with a short ladder. The outer hatch thudded shut, sealed audibly, and the light turned red.
‘Just a few seconds, Mr Cameron, and you’ll be through.’
Sure enough, moments later Lieutenant Berg was helping him up into a cramped compartment.
‘Welcome back, Mr Cameron.’
‘Glad to be back, Lieutenant,’ he said. ‘Commander Ash clarified my position, by the way. He was very keen to point out that you are in command and that I am just a civilian adviser.’ He shrugged. ‘And that’s fine and dandy by me, really.’
Berg grinned. ‘You shouldn’t worry, Mr Cameron. I’m sure I can find you something to do, given the circumstances.’
Greg nodded as he followed Berg out and along the spine corridor. In order to fully operate the Silverlance, the former Hegemony ship, Ash had left the Starfire with little more than a skeleton crew of eleven, barely enough to cope with the necessary repairs. The Retributor’s captain, K’ang Lo, had said that he could spare some of his techs so perhaps that would solve their problems. Provided the language problem was solvable.
They had just entered the split-level bridge when the tac officer, a woman Greg didn’t recognise, turned with an excited expression.
‘Sir, I was just about to alert you – a fleet of eighteen vessels has exited hyperspace at the periphery of the system!’
‘Have they identified themselves?’ Berg said as he lowered himself into the commander’s couch.
‘Yes, they are claiming to be a Vox Humana expeditionary force sent to offer assistance to the besieged people of Darien … ’
‘Go to combat-readiness,’ Berg said, and Greg could hear the high-pitched alarm from the corridor outside. ‘How have the other captains reacted?’
‘Taking the same precautions, sir. Shall I screen the ongoing exchange?’
‘Go ahead.’
Greg had resumed his old seat, at