The Big Black Mark - A. Bertram Chandler [89]
"Skip, you old bastard!" It was Mavis, her abundant charms barely concealed by a thin wrapper. She grabbed Grimes as he turned to face her, almost smothered him in a tight embrace. "Gawd! It's good to see yer back!" Then her face clouded. "But I don't suppose yer came back just to see me. An' where's yer ship? Don't try ter tell me that yer walked all the way!"
"The ship's in orbit," began Grimes.
"An' who're yer pals? Don't think I know "em."
Grimes made introductions, and while he was in the middle of them Shirley came in with a big tray, with tea things and a great dish of hot, buttered, lavishly jammed scones.
"An' now," asked Mavis, speaking through a mouthful, "wot is all this about, Skip? You come droppin' in unannounced, wif a goon squad, an' I don't think the bulges under their shirts are male tits!"
"Nothing more lethal than stunguns," Grimes assured her. "Now, I'll be frank with you. I'm here on a police mission."
"We have our own police force, Skip, an' we ain't members of your Federation."
"That's so, Mavis. But you're harboring criminals."
"An' what concern is that o' yours, Skip?"
"Plenty. The criminals are the entire crew of Discovery."
"Garn!"
"It's true, Mavis. There was a mutiny."
"You can't tell me that Commander Brabham'd do a thing like that. As nice a bloke as you'd ever meet. Not as nice as you, perhaps"—she smiled—"but nice enough."
"Brabham did do it, Mavis. He and Swinton were the ringleaders."
"Oh, Swinton. Him. And his bloody pongoes. That doesn't surprise me."
"They were going to push Dr. Rath and Mr. Flannery and myself out through the airlock. Without spacesuits."
"What!"
"Yes. I'm not kidding, Mavis. And then Vinegar Nell and Tangye persuaded the others to set us adrift in a small boat, with no Deep Space radio and no Deep Space drive. Where we were, we'd have died of old age long before we got anywhere."
"Is this true, Skip?"
"Of course it's true. We picked up a few news broadcasts before I came down in the boat, including the one about Vinegar Nell's wedding. Your news reader made the point that there has been absolutely no communication between Discovery and Lindisfarne Base. Brabham has his story to account for that, but it doesn't hold water, does it?"
"I . . . I s'pose not. But how did yer get yer boat back here?" She laughed at the stupidity of her own question. "But, o' course, you didn't. You were picked up, weren't yer?"
"Yes. By a ship called Sundowner, commanded by a friend of mine. He took us back to Lindisfarne. And the admiral commanding the base has sent a frigate to arrest the mutineers and take them back for trial."
"Wot'll happen to 'em?"
"The same as was going to happen to me. An unsuited spacewalk."
"It's a bastard of a universe you live in, Skip. I'm not sure that I'd like Botany Bay dragged inter it. Swinton an' his drongoes we can deal with. The others? They're integratin' nicely."
"We must take them, Mavis. All of them."
"An' what if we refuse to give 'em up?"
"Then we have to use force. Under Federation Law, we're entitled to."
"But we ain't members o' your bleedin' Federation."
"You're still subject to Interstellar Law, which is subscribed to by all spacefaring races."
"We aren't."
"I'm sorry, Mavis, but you are. You have been since Discovery's first landing."
"You might've told me. A right bastard I clasped to me bosom when I made yer free of the body beautiful."
"Look, Mavis. I've a job to do. Send for the City Constable, but don't tell him what for until he gets here."
"I'll call him—an' tell him to warn all yer so-called mutineers to go bush. They've too many friends on this bleedin' world for you ever ter find 'em. If they'd killed yer, I'd be thinkin' differently. But you're alive, ain't yer? Wot's yer beef?"
"You won't cooperate, Mavis?"
"No. Skip, an' that's definite." She turned to the girl. "Get on the blower, will yer, Shirl? Warn 'em aboard Discovery."