"Jawohl, my friend, victory above all. Victory at all costs."

They both looked at Chief Ranatunga for a long moment; then Max turned and took a few steps toward the door, but stopped and looked back at Kraft. "At all costs. It's easy to say, isn't it?" He pointed to the dead man. "But when we pay, that's the currency we use. How much more, Kraft? How much more will we have to pay?"

CHAPTER 16.

05:44Z Hours, 28 January 2315 "This plan of yours strikes me as being excessively complex and p.r.o.ne to failure at several discrete junctures," Dr. Sahin said to Max, his voice pitched so as to be inaudible beyond the command island in CIC.

Garcia nodded his agreement. "Sir, I have to agree." He was just as quiet as the doctor. "There is a lot to be said for just charging in, blowing that little freighter to flaming atoms, and getting out before anyone even knows we've been there."

"Gentlemen," Max said amiably, "I'm just as fond of getting in and getting out as the next man, but there are other factors you're failing to consider. Although the cartographic data we received from the Vaaach says that this is a Krag s.h.i.+p with a Krag cargo, she's broadcasting a Ghiftee transponder ID. That means that there is a strong possibility that she has a legitimate Ghiftee registry and is therefore officially cla.s.sified under interstellar law as a neutral vessel.

"And gentlemen, I can't just go gallivanting around the galaxy blowing neutral vessels to h.e.l.l and gone, because," he counted off the points on his fingers, "one: they'll court martial my happy a.s.s and throw me in the brig until I'm about a hundred and twenty-seven years old. Two: I will be held liable in damages by an Admiralty court for the value of the s.h.i.+p and its cargo, which is more money than any of us will ever see in our lifetimes. And three: the Union Foreign Ministry is doing everything in its power to get the Ghiftee-not to mention the Romanovans, the Ras.h.i.+dians, Pfelung, the Texians, and just about every other human and nonhuman neutral power in this end of the swamp-to come into the war with us against the Krag.

"Now don't you think that it is just possible that a Union wars.h.i.+p launching an unprovoked attack on an innocent neutral freighter merrily navigating through unclaimed s.p.a.ce, not to mention the deaths of its innocent, neutral crew, just might undermine those efforts? Does the name Lusitania mean anything to you?"

Both men silently conceded the point. "But," the doctor pressed on, "if the Ghiftee are neutral, how can we interfere with their s.h.i.+p at all, much less do what you're planning?"

"It's the law. By their repeated unprovoked attacks against neutral s.h.i.+pping, the Krag forfeited their right under customary interstellar law to have themselves and their goods carried in neutral s.h.i.+pping. There is occasionally some fairness in law, you know. It's a natural consequence of their actions: because they did not respect neutral rights, they do not get to avail themselves of neutral rights. So the Krag, both their rat-faced selves and their cargo, are legally contraband and can be seized wherever they are found. But we have to have evidence that the contraband is on the s.h.i.+p, so to do that, we have to board her."

"Then why not just board her without all the elaborate, and apparently gratuitous, play acting and deception that your plan entails?" the doctor asked.

"Because the instant this little freighter suspects us as a Union wars.h.i.+p, she'll run."

"What if she does?" the doctor asked. "If she runs, we know she is guilty, so then we catch her. My understanding is that our vessel is a very speedy one."

"It is, but this freighter is faster. This particular design is built for and marketed to smugglers and blockade runners. Her top speed is a hair faster than ours, and since she's lighter, she accelerates like a rabbit. We need to convince her to heave to and permit us to lock on a grappling field, or we'll never get on board."

"But won't she flee the moment she sees us?"

"There, Doctor, is where you're showing yourself to still have dirt on your feet."

"Dirt?" He looked at his boots.

"It's an old s.p.a.cer expression. To have dirt on your feet means that you think like a planet dweller rather than someone who lives and works in s.p.a.ce. You've been on s.h.i.+p for so short a time that you still have planetary soil on your footwear. Your question shows that you approach vessel identification like someone who has seen it on trid vid dramas but never done it in real life."

Max continued, warming to his subject. "Telling friend from foe out here is no easy matter. From a million kills away, even if a s.h.i.+p were painted bright white and lit up like the Galactic Princess on New Year's Eve, a high-resolution optical scanner would pick it up as just a bright speck, so we mostly rely on transponder ID signals and IFF codes exchanged electronically. Those can be faked, so at closer range we try to verify visually what the electronics tell us, but most of the time you still can't see a d.a.m.n thing unless you light the other s.h.i.+p up with half a dozen of your own high-power collision lights, which is a good way to get shot at because lots of folks interpret that as a distinctly unfriendly act.

"Even at close range, most of the time you can actually see very little. We're in deep s.p.a.ce, nearly forty AU from this system's sun. It's dark out here. Really dark. And no one-and I do mean no one-paints wars.h.i.+ps anything but black. Not just black but with layers of coatings that absorb visible light and lots of other forms of energy. Generally, all you can see is an area where you can't see any stars, sporadically filled in with an occasional running light, collision light, or viewport, but little or nothing of the shape of the hull itself."

"So," the doctor said, "that is why you have taken, I hear, every crew member not strictly needed to operate the s.h.i.+p and put him to work installing false running lights, self-illuminating panels that look like viewports, and making various dummy antenna and fixtures to attach to the hull."

"Exactly, Doctor, we're going to be a Romanovan revenue and inspection cutter, a vessel that's very roughly the same size and shape as we are-not surprising since the Romanovans habitually copy Union designs, at least generally. In the dark, it will be close enough. People see what they expect to see. And that's where you and your linguistic talents come in."

Max's comm panel buzzed. He hit the b.u.t.ton. "Skipper here."

"Brown here, Captain. We may need a postponement."

He suppressed a sigh of exasperation. "I don't think we can do that, Wernher. What's the problem?"

"Sir, in order to mimic the profile of the Romanovan s.h.i.+p, I'm having to make a very large number of fittings, fairings, dummy antennae, and other attachments to the hull. I've got all three metal shops working full tilt, but they're falling behind."

"What about putting additional men to work with hand tools?"

"We've got the extra tools, but all the people skilled in metal working are already at work in the existing shops. There just aren't that many people on board who have the necessary skill. I know: I've already determined that I need to train more men in metal-working skills, but that won't solve my problem in the next few hours."

Max thought for a minute; then it hit him. The engineer's thinking was stuck in a box. A metal box. "What about all that damage control wood we keep on board to sh.o.r.e up bulkheads and build temporary compartments and fixtures?"

"What about it?"

"Can't we use that? I know we've got eight or ten men with reasonably good carpentry skills."

The comm line was silent, but for the engineer's inarticulate sputtering. After about ten seconds, he was able to form words. Barely.

"Surely. Sir. You aren't... you can't be... suggesting that I place... wood on the hull?" His tone sounded as though Max were suggesting that he replace one of the gleaming white Verrakian marble pillars at the Temple of Universal Justice with rude columns made from mud bricks mortared with musk ox s.h.i.+t.

"Wernher, think about it. These things are nothing but props. They don't have to carry any structural loads. They don't have to withstand weapon fire or atmospheric friction. They just have to sit on the hull and look like what they are supposed to look like for about thirty minutes. They could be made of papier-mche or PlayKlay for all the difference that it would make. If it makes you feel any better, we will remove them at the earliest convenient moment."

"Well, sir, it still feels improper, somehow...."

"Great. I knew you were too good an engineer not to follow the data, Wernher. Now fire up the wood shops, and let's get these frauds fas.h.i.+oned and fitted. CIC out." He closed the connection. "And now, Doctor, speaking of frauds, let's get you to the quartermaster for a fitting."

"Approaching jump point Alfa," announced LeBlanc. "Coming to full stop. Thirty seconds or so pa.s.sed. "There. Skipper, we are at full stop, right on top of this system's Alfa."

"Very well. Okay, people. Operation McGruder One: Execute."

The first step belonged to the stealth officer. "Emitting a burst of Cherenkov-Heaviside radiation. Switching from Stealth Mode to Emulation Mode-electronic and drive signatures now mimic a Romanovan revenue and inspection cutter, Flavius cla.s.s."

One of the missions for which the Khyber cla.s.s destroyers were built was penetrating into enemy s.p.a.ce and destroying his s.h.i.+pping to cripple his war production, much as United States submarines had penetrated j.a.pan's Pacific defense perimeter to destroy her Merchant Marine during Earth's Second World War. To enable them to perform that mission, in addition to a highly effective stealth suite to hide the s.h.i.+p's own emissions, each also had a sophisticated "emulation" suite consisting of emitters designed to mimic the electronic signatures radiated by the drives, weapons, sensors, and other systems of a variety of other s.h.i.+ps. She could not change her color or her shape, but in terms of her electronic, graviton, and other emissions, the c.u.mberland was the s.p.a.ce-faring equivalent of a chameleon.

"Ahead at zero-point-zero-five c, steering the first leg of standard Romanovan search grid. Prepared to increase speed according to Romanovan jump-recovery procedures," said LeBlanc.

"Broadcasting transponder ID code copied by Naval Intelligence from the RRIC Caracalia," announced Comms.

"Visual inspection confirms that all our shutters are closed, all dummy viewport panels are illuminated, and all false running lights are activated and operating," said mids.h.i.+pman Kurtz in a steady, if still treble, voice. Max had put the mids.h.i.+pmen in charge of much of the visual deception scheme, and as the mids.h.i.+pman in CIC, Kurtz was their liaison with Command.

"Beginning active sensor sweeps. All sensor types, frequencies, polarization schemes, modulations, and phase variances calibrated to mimic Romanovan sensor protocols," said Kasparov.

As a result of these deceptions, Max was hoping that the sensors on board the Ghiftee freighter (freighter sensors were usually pretty rudimentary) would show what appeared to be a s.h.i.+p coming through the jump point that led to Romanovan s.p.a.ce, identifying itself electronically as a Romanovan cutter, emitting the same sensor beams as a Romanovan cutter, recovering from jump at the same rate as a Romanovan cutter, and carrying out the same search patterns as a Romanovan cutter. The purported Ghiftee should conclude, therefore, that the c.u.mberland was a Romanovan cutter. If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and flies like a duck, it must be a duck.

"Speed is now at point two eight," said LeBlanc, forty-six minutes later, "which is what the Romanovans like to cruise at in this cla.s.s. Executing second leg of search pattern."

"Active sensor contact," announced Kasparov. "Bearing, range, course, and speed congruent with previous pa.s.sive contact identified as November two. Getting a good, strong return. Sir, that would be a solid detection for a Romanovan s.h.i.+p."

"Very well. Now we act like we just spotted them. Maneuvering, increase to what would be flank for the Romanovans and shape course to intercept."

"Romanovan flank, intercept course, aye."

In a few minutes, the c.u.mberland had accelerated to 0.55 c, just as a Romanovan cutter would under the circ.u.mstances. An hour and a half later, the destroyer had matched course and speed with the freighter and was holding station eight hundred meters off her starboard beam.

Just then, Dr. Sahin walked onto the bridge, resplendent in the crimson and gold uniform of a Romanovan cutter captain, glittering with enough multicolored braid, oddly shaped insignia, and jewel-encrusted medallions to decorate a dozen admirals and the bellmen from every five-star hotel in the quadrant, and made only slightly more ridiculous by the matching riding breeches tucked into gleaming cavalry boots, complete with loudly jingling, jeweled spurs. An absurdly long sword in an elaborately bejeweled scabbard hung at his side. Several men broke out laughing.

"Dr. Sahin," the skipper exclaimed, "you look as though you outrank G.o.d!"

"I beg you, sir, to say nothing further along those lines. It is a most impious remark," said Sahin, genuinely horrified.

"I beg your pardon, Doctor. It was an improper thing to say. But that uniform!"

"You have my pardon, certainly. Indeed, it is a bit excessive. But the Romanovans do have an exaggerated sense of grandeur, as one would suspect for a colony of upstart Italians with pretentions of being successors of the Roman Empire. They even speak Latin, of all things."

"Now, Doctor, let's not have any illiberal remarks about Italians."

"Certainly not. Admirable people. Can there be any a n.o.bler tribe than the race that sired Vivaldi and Verdi, Da Vinci and Michelangelo, Dante and Cima? No. I refer to the Romanovans as a distinct species sprung from the Italian genus. One need only look at this comic-opera costume of a uniform, much less listen to their interminable bombastic symphonies or view their grotesque, grandiose architecture to know that, as a people, they have a deep-seated sense of inferiority and an overwhelming need for external validation."

"That, Doctor, is beyond me. Now, you are certain that you can pa.s.s for one of them-to convince someone who has heard their speech many times that you are a native?"

"Certainly. I have studied Latin since the cradle and spent a great deal of time in Romanovan s.p.a.ce with my father, selling machine tools and purchasing gourmet olive oil. Their language is merely cla.s.sical Latin with a Tuscan accent and with some rather idiosyncratic grammatical errors."

"Outstanding. Then have a seat right here." Max got up from his station and gestured for the doctor to take his place. The doctor's sword collided with the skipper's console, causing the tip to swing around and hit Garcia in the knee. The XO grasped the sword and guided it so that it would follow the doctor into the seat.

"Careful, Doctor," said the XO, "you'll put someone's eye out with that."

"Indeed," Sahin said with an embarra.s.sed smile. "I mustn't make more work for myself." Then, sheepishly, as if to explain the accident, "It is an unusually long sword."

The XO smiled. "They must be compensating for something."

"Indeed," said Sahin.

Temporarily evicted from his accustomed place, Max sat down at the Commodore's Station, a comfortable seat with a compact console on the command island, usually unoccupied, placed there for use by visiting senior officers, largely to keep them out of the way.

Now it was time to talk like a duck. "Comms, send the first message," Max ordered.

"Aye, sir."

The Romanovans, like the Romans before them, were enamored of all things traditional, and invariably hailed and communicated with foreign vessels using the old Interstellar Text Transmission Protocol, the same protocol that, with the interposition of a translation matrix, was used to communicate with alien species. The c.u.mberland, therefore, had prepared a series of communications in that clunky, hundred-year-old code, which did not allow the sending of lowercase letters, punctuation, or special characters. The first message read: "GHIFTEE FREIGHTER THIS IS THE ROMANOVAN CUTTER CARACALIA STOP PREPARE TO BE BOARDED FOR SAFETY AND CARGO INSPECTION STOP NULL ALL DRIVES AND DISABLE ANTIGRAPPLING FIELD STOP MESSAGE ENDS."

The freighter, like most s.h.i.+ps, had an antigrappling field. Such fields could be overcome either through brute force by a hugely powerful grapfield, such as the one generated by the Vaaach s.h.i.+p they'd encountered, or through finesse by jamming. The c.u.mberland, however, lacked the power to overcome an antigrap and could not jam such a field in less time than it would take for the freighter to escape. Max needed to convince the freighter to null its field.

About a minute pa.s.sed. "Response message, sir," said Comms.

The text appeared on Max's console, and on several others: "WE ARE IN UNCLAIMED s.p.a.cE STOP OUR COURSE DOES NOT TAKE US INTO OR THROUGH YOUR JURISDICTION STOP STATE AUTHORITY BY WHICH YOU CLAIM RIGHT TO BOARD THIS VESSEL STOP MESSAGE ENDS."

"Exactly what we thought they'd say," said Max. "Wait thirty seconds and then send the second message." In response to Chin's puzzled look, Max explained, "We don't want it to look like we had the message already written, do we?"

Chin nodded. "Aye sir. Wait thirty and then send message number two."

At the appropriate moment, Chin hit the key for the second transmission. It read: "THIS SYSTEM HAS A JUMP POINT WITH COUNTERPART IN ROMANOVAN s.p.a.cE STOP THEREFORE UNDER ARTICLE XXIX SECTION 8 PARAGRAPH 12 OF THE SECOND INTERSTELLAR CONVENTION ON NAVIGATION CUSTOMS COMMERCE AND TERRITORIAL CLAIMS THIS SYSTEM LIES WITHIN OUR SYSTEM DEFENSE AND IDENTIFICATION ZONE STOP AS SUCH WE ARE ENt.i.tLED TO BOARD YOUR s.h.i.+P TO INSPECT IT FOR COMPLIANCE WITH INTERSTELLAR SAFETY PROTOCOLS AND TO DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR VESSEL OR CARGO POSE ANY THREAT TO THE SECURITY OF OUR IMPERIUM STOP MESSAGE ENDS."

This message had the dual attributes of not only copying exactly a message sent under similar circ.u.mstances by a genuine Romanovan cutter but also of being a scrupulously accurate statement of the applicable interstellar law. The Romanovans might be pompous a.s.ses, but they were punctilious about interstellar treaties.

"Sir," said Comms, "they are requesting visual. Receiving a carrier on channel 5."

"Doctor, that looks like your cue. Everything ready, Chin?"

Comms checked to be sure that the camera was set for a tight shot of the doctor, just his head and shoulders, with so little of the background included that no one could tell from the image that he was on a Union destroyer instead of the Romanovan cutter. "Aye sir, all set."

"Now, Doctor, remember you are playing a part. Imagine yourself as Admiral Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B."

The doctor sat up straighter, donned a Romanovan-style headset, adopted the stern aspect of aloof, haughty condescension that went with the Ruler of the Queen's Navy from Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, and nodded imperiously to Max.

Max gestured to Comms who said, "Opening channel 5."

The several screens punched into channel 5 briefly showed the standard interstellar visual comm test pattern, a black circle transected by two wide bars at right angles to each other, the bars each divided into several blocks containing different shades of gray. Because color perception varied so greatly from species to species, standard transmissions were in a monochrome mode inaccurately referred to as "black and white." Color communications generally took place only between s.h.i.+ps of the same flag.

The test pattern was soon replaced by the face of a human male with light hair, light eyes, a long, thin nose, and a small, pointy chin. He appeared to have an unadjusted age of about sixty, which meant he could be anywhere between 50 and 150. To the doctor's trained eye, and to Max's practically experienced one, the man appeared to be extremely nervous.

"This is Fergus McKelvie, Master of the Ghiftee freighter Loch Linnhe. We request further verification of your ident.i.ty before we consent to boarding."

"Captain McKelvie," the doctor replied in an unaccustomed accent, presumably Romanovan, and with equally unaccustomed steel in his voice, "you will be boarded, whether you consent or not. This cutter is armed, and in these dangerous times my orders are to treat as hostile and to fire upon any vessel that does not heave to for inspection. I suspect that your owners would not appreciate having to tow your vessel to the nearest yard to replace the drive unit that I am prepared to vaporize five seconds from now." Romanovan cutter captains did not ask nicely. They started with bl.u.s.ter and threats, then worked their way on up.

"Cutter captain, you know that we can outrun you."

"Granted. But you cannot outrun my pulse cannon, sir. I will have your main sublight drive burned off before you can even get it run up to 'flank,'" said the doctor as prompted by Max via headset.

He turned his head to the right, where he had been told the Romanovans put the weapons console on their cutters and barked: "Armis dominum, para incendere." As previously arranged, the stealth officer created the semblance of what would happen if a real cutter captain ordered his weapons officer to "prepare to fire." He activated emulation emitters, giving off a power signature similar to that given off by a cutter's pulse cannon being placed in Prefire Mode.

There was no doubt that the deception fooled the freighter captain, as reflected in his expression of abject horror. In fact, he looked as though he were about to become physically ill.

"No, no, no, no, NOOOO," he nearly shrieked. "Don't fire. That won't be necessary. Not necessary at all."