"There was nothing in her record to indicate her ability in combat until Xavier," the admiral

said. "If she could hide that kind of talent, and she did, then this is no more difficult. And after all, she'd never been in contact with any of the Families before-Altiplano has no Seat in Council."

"There is that." The commander looked thoughtful. "I wish we knew whether there was anything more to it."

"More? Verbal assault on the Speaker's daughter isn't enough?"

"Well . . . is it just personal, or is it political? Is she the spearpoint for something?"

"I don't know, and at the moment I don't care. We've wasted entirely too much money and time on this young woman, and we're going to have to figure out a way to get repaid without risking the welfare of the Fleet." The admiral looked around the table. "Someone had better have an idea how."

Down at the far end, a lieutenant commander raised her hand. "Sir, she's elected to take both the basic level Search and Rescue as well as Escape and Evasion, right?"

"Yes . . ."

"SAR is chronically short of junior officers for both ship XOs and SAR team leaders, and those are command track billets. There are at least three openings for lieutenants in Sector VII alone."

The admiral thought a moment. "Relatively small ships, elite crew, operating independently for the most part-yes. She'd be under really close supervision; if she messes up, or tries to foment some kind of action, her captain would know for sure. Good. What have you got?"

"Shrike, I thought. Podaly Solis is commanding it, and his exec just applied for family leave."

"Mmm. I don't know about having her second in command . . ."

"My thought was, it puts her more directly under the captain's supervision than she would be as a team leader. And we have no doubts about Solis; he helped us clean out that mess at Sector HQ, as I'm sure the admiral recalls."

"Yes, that's true. Probably the best we can do. Blast the girl; why couldn't she have been as good as she seemed?"

Sector VII HQ, Aragon Station

Esmay arrived at Shrike's dock area to find it in perfect order; the guard saluted crisply and checked her orders.

"I'll just let the captain know-we didn't expect you until early next shift."

"Gossamer came in early," Esmay said.

She wondered what her father would think now, both about her promotion and the trouble she was in.

She was sure he'd followed her career as best he could from Altiplano; her promotions and awards were matters of public record, and the news media had covered the Koskiusko affair. Her thoughts drifted to her great-grandmother-so fragile, so embedded in her culture's past. What would she think? For an instant, she wished she could sit beside that low chair, and pour out the whole story. Surely her great-grandmother would understand about Barin; surely she would feel the same way about Brun.

Captain Solis greeted her with reserve; she did not know whether it was his habitual mood, or whether he had been informed of the trouble she was in.

"You're quite inexperienced to be taking over as number two," he said. "I understand you have a

distinguished combat record, especially considering that you were not in command track at the time. But the executive officer of an SAR-that's asking rather a lot of you."

"I'll do my best, sir," Esmay said.

"I'm sure you will. Your experience on a DSR will be some use, and I see you stood well in your classes in both search and rescue and escape and evasion. Still, it will be a stretch, and you might as well be prepared." He gave her a long look. "Now, about this other problem-your quarrel with the Speaker's daughter." He shook his head. "If I'd been your CO, I'd have had you up for conduct unbecoming. He didn't, and so far you have no record here, but I warn you-I will not tolerate disrespect for the civil government of the Familias Regnant. Officers do not play politics. We serve; we do not interfere."

Esmay wanted to say that Brun was not her father, and had no official position of her own, but she knew she must not. Why did they keep thinking that her opinion of Brun's behavior had anything to do with her loyalty to the Fleet? "Yes, sir," she said.

"You will find no support for any Family games on my ship," he went on. "And no room for grandstanding, either. You do your job, and do it well, and you'll get the appropriate credit in your fitness reports. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll expect you back here in two hours for a briefing. Dismissed."

It was cold comfort that her duffel was all in her compartment when she got there. At least her new position ensured a compartment, even on so small a ship. She glanced around. Bunk, storage lockers, desk, cube reader, and-to her surprise-a row of display screens above the desk. Esmay inserted her datawand into the slot, and these screens flashed to life. One displayed the orders of the day; another gave the status of the two SAR teams and their vehicles; yet another listed stores, crosslinked to consumption rates.

Esmay stowed her gear in the lockers-she had nothing to put in two of them-and changed into a clean uniform. She did not look forward to the next meeting with her captain.

He was, however, slightly more affable. "I hate losing Colin," he said. "But his wife was killed in a traffic accident while she was downside arranging for their children to change fosterage.

It's going to take him quite a while to sort everything out . . . the kids have outgrown the grandparents, and the retired uncle who was going to take them was killed in the same accident."

He shook his head, then smiled at Esmay. "You'll find we have good teams, Lieutenant. And a tour on an SAR is always interesting. We deal with problems that the big boys ignore-everything from private yachts stranded by jump-drive blowouts, to collisions. You will learn a lot. And since we didn't expect you until tomorrow, you're not on the watch list yet, which gives you time to poke around and start learning your job."

"All I've had was the basic SAR course, sir," Esmay said. "They assigned me before I had time for the advanced . . ."

"Better than nothing," he said. "And if you know you don't know, you'll ask questions instead of blundering around causing trouble. Now-the duties of exec on this ship are different than on line ships. That's because our mission is different. There's the basic stuff, of course-but I'd like you to look at this-" He handed over a data cube. "And of course you'll want to meet everyone-we'd planned a get-together this evening, at 1900-"

"That's fine, sir," Esmay said. "I can get unpacked, have a chance to look this over . . . unless you have something now."

"No, that's fine. We're not kicking out of here until day after tomorrow anyway. There's a meeting tomorrow, which you'll have to attend as my representative-you haven't been with the ship quite long enough to take over full prep."

Alone in her cabin-her name was already on the door, she noticed, with the permanent engraving EXECUTIVE OFFICER underneath-she inserted the cube the captain had given her into the reader. She knew what an exec did-or thought she did. Run the ship, basically, under the captain's command.

But on a Search and Rescue ship, the exec also had the responsibility of supervising all rescue efforts, while the captain concentrated on ship security-of both this ship and the rescued one.

She blinked at the listing for the security detachments-she had not realized that an SAR ship would carry marines, though it made sense. Most of the time when ships needed rescue, it was the result of some deliberate act, and the troublemakers might still be in the area.

And she'd had only the basic course . . . so it was definitely going to be a case of "sergeant, put up that flagpole" if they had a rescue call before she had learned the rest of the stuff she needed. Which meant she had better make friends with the sergeant equivalents.

She scrolled quickly through the headings of her job description to the ship's table of organization, and began to figure out who would do the actual work, while she "supervised." These were the key people she must have on her side. The words in the leadership manuals were fresh in her mind. The five rules of this; the seven principles of that. She reminded herself where the cube of those manuals was. She would review it as soon as she'd finished the captain's cube. She knew she could lead, when she let herself remember it.

Shrike mounted two complete rescue teams, cross-trained in both gravity-field and zero-gravity work. Like most of the smaller SARs, the gravity-field training specialized in low-pressure and vacuum work. Most of their calls would be to space stations or ships in deep space. A forensic team and a lab full of analytical gear suggested that SAR might include something more than accident assistance. And the medical support team was substantially larger than a ship this size normally carried, including both major trauma regen tanks and two surgical theaters, with all that implied. Again, it reminded her of a miniature of Koskiusko.

Rescue One was commanded by a lieutenant she remembered from the Academy as a clown of sorts, Tika Briados; he didn't seem clownish now, as he led her around the ready room with its racked suits and equipment. It all seemed a jumble to Esmay, though an orderly one-she recognized only about half the equipment and wondered how long it would take to learn the rest. Rescue Two's commander was a jig she'd never met before, Kim Arek; she was eager and energetic, busily explaining things that Esmay hoped she could remember. She kept nodding, and found herself liking Jig Arek for her single-minded enthusiasm.

Going through both rescue team areas had taken hours, she found when she finally got away from Arek, and she needed to get ready for the meeting with the other officers. She did hope they weren't all going to mention Brun Meager.

The wardroom was crowded when she got there.

"Lieutenant Suiza-glad to meet you." The blocky major who thrust out his hand reminded her of Major Pitak. "I'm Gordon Bannon, pathology."

"Officers-" That was Captain Solis, who stood; the others quieted. "This is Lieutenant Esmay Suiza, our new executive officer. Some of you have heard of her-" There were murmurs that Esmay hoped referred to her earlier exploits. "She's fresh out of Copper Mountain, with the basic course in SAR, so I'm sure you'll all cooperate in educating her into the real world." He sounded friendly enough; this was clearly an old joke, for their chuckle had no edge to it.

After that, the others came up one by one to introduce themselves. Esmay began to relax as she chatted with them; they were clearly more interested in how she might perform here than in anything which had happened in her past.

In the next few days, she threw herself into her work, loading her scheduler with everything she could think of, or that anyone suggested. When Shrike left the base, she was just beginning to think she had a handle on her assignments. Shrike would patrol alone through the sector, ready to assist in any emergency that fell within its mission statement. According to those who had been aboard longest, days might go by with nothing happening, or disasters might overlap . . . there was no way to predict.

"The ship's a part-container, part-bulk hauler that lost power on insertion . . . the insystem drive's functioning at maybe twenty percent. They say it's fluctuating, and they can't make orbit.