Long View - Zelde M'Tana Part 27

She looked down. That one-it could cover the drive room, cargo holds, and-and, peace take it, all of Fester's country! Including Surgery. To Charvel she said, "Thanks. I have what I need, and you're relieved." She tried to keep her face quiet.

"Now then, Mauragin-"

"Now then, M'tana-" 'Even trying to mimic her, his voice came whiny. "Isn't it enough, you've kept me here past your proper relief time? I'm due back in my quarters-"

"Your little friend can wait. When you get the chance, explain to her. But for now- ".

Red-faced, Mauragin shouted. "For now, have you logged yourself late on watch?

You didn't give me time to do it. Or can the captain's pet come and go as she pleases?

I will file a complaint! I-"

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"You? You stinking t.u.r.d, you're under arrest!" She left the control seat and moved toward him. He backed away.

"Under arrest? For what?"

"Attempted murder, two counts. That good enough?" Before he could answer: "Rooster-take him to his quarters; he stays there. Pick up a guard to see he does. Toss his girl friend out or leave her there-I don't care which. But either way, you and the guard search the place first, and bring me anything you think maybe I ought to see."

Nodding, Rooster took hold of Mauragin's arm. The man shook him off, and turned-and Zelde saw he was armed. His hand hung near the needle gun, not quite touching it. "M'tana? You want to think again?"

Don't wait-move! She walked to face him, one pace short of b.u.mping. "You so much as touch the gun, you know what that's called. Give me it!" Could she take him, gun and all? Might have to try. "What's the matter? You need to ask, do you?

Ask whoever's pulling your strings lately?" She bit her lip. d.a.m.n! Why tell him everything I know?

Whatever, it stopped him. "I was-well, defending myself."

"Defending? Against an order from me that ranks you? You think again-it won't lift." She held her hand out. "The gun. Now."

Other hand quivering, tense to chop, she watched him decide. Then, with thumb and first finger only, he brought the gun out and reached it toward her. She saw his face change, knew his mind was changing, too-but then, moving in no hurry, she had the gun.

She gave it to Rooster. "Just in case." She stepped back. "Take him along now. Like I said-remember?"

"Right." Hogan had the gun pointed a little away from Mauragin, down and to the side. Real polite, Zelde thought, but right there if he needed it. Then the two men left Control.

She took the watch seat and stared ahead, one hand tapping on its armrest.

Something she should do-what was it? Her mind was fogging a little, and she knew she couldn't afford that.

"Officer M'tana?" The voice startled her. She shook her head.

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She looked, and things started making sense again. "Charvel. What you still doing here?"

Head down, looking up through bushy brows, he seemed nervous. "It seems I started trouble; I still don't know how. But I felt I should stay and see it through."

He cleared his throat. "Was it something I said, that decided you to arrest Carlo?"

Careful-don't tell all of it. "That what he saw, gave him the idea to jump us around like he did, was inside the ship. I know what it was. He goes to trial"-if he lives that long-"it'll all come out in the record. All right?"

"Sure, Officer M'tana-and thanks." He turned to leave.

Now she remembered what she had to do. "Stay a couple minutes, maybe?" He nodded; she switched the intercom to Dopples' room and picked up the hush-set.

When the First Hat answered, she said, "Dopp-Mr. Adopolous, I mean-I just now done some things. Here's what, and here's why." She told it fast.

When she was done, he said, "For the most part, I can't fault your moves, M'tana- and I appreciate the report. However, you're short a watch officer. Do you have anyone in mind for the job?"

"That's what I'm asking you." She hesitated. "You know a Charvel? Redheaded, short? Monitor tech, for one thing. You think he's qualified?" She explained her reasons.

After a pause, Dopples said, "Among the ratings-which doesn't give us a great field of qualifications-I'd say he's as good as most. Steady, as I recall-and would seem to be trustworthy, which is important just now. So if you wish, appoint him."

"Temporary," said Zelde. "Parnell to confirm later, if he agrees." For a moment she nearly choked. "Or-or you, Mr. A."

"Look on the bright side. Adopolous out." The circuit light died.

She turned to Charvel, still waiting. "You got a first name?"

"Why, yes-Oilman. Gil. But what . . . ?"

"Keep your same watch schedule, Gil Charvel. But from now, Mr. Adopolous says, you do it as Acting Third Hat."

For a moment he was still; then he shook his head. "Me? I don't know enough. I don't understand half the instruments."

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"You've sat in for galley breaks? Sure you have."

"But then I can call someone-the watch officer, mostly."

Zelde thought about it. "I bet you know more than I did when Dopples handed me the job. Tell you what-if you got time now, sit down alongside and we'll go through a lot of this stuff for a while. And if you want to come in early, next watch, I'll tell Lera Tzane to expect you for more training. All right?"

"Well-" He shrugged. "Sure. And thanks, Officer M'tana."

"It's Zelde. Now set your a.s.s down and let's start."

After two hours, Charvel sounded tired and Zelde sent him off. Then she logged the promotion-first, though, she entered Carlo Mauragin's arrest. Not the reasons- maybe this log could be tapped-but only the bare event.

After that, the watch was dull; she was glad when Lera Tzane arrived early, and briefly told the woman what had happened. No details on Parnell, of course-just the main how-and-why of arresting Mauragin, and then Charvel's promotion. "Seems to learn fast," she said. "If he comes in ahead of time, like we said, I expect you can fill him in on a lot I don't know."

Tzane kept pushing at her hair, where on one side it wasn't staying up so good.

Maybe she was just stalling, because it was a while before she said, "Zelde? About Carlo-are you sure you didn't move too fast? Before you had all the facts?"

"Half-c.o.c.ked, you mean? 'Course I'm not sure I done right. Leaving that one alive could be the biggest mistake I ever made."

From the way Tzane looked, Zelde knew the two of them weren't seeing the same problem. She shook her head. "Lera-this is for the ship-and for Parnell. No way I dare take chances."

"But arresting Carlo-so abruptly, and without any real investigation-wasn't that taking a chance?"

"Not so bad as leaving him run loose. Lera, you got your ears turned off or something? He tried to kill Parnell-and Rooster, both at once. And came close to doing it. If I'd-"

With one last emphatic pat, Lera gave up on the hairdo.

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"Zelde, you've made your move now, openly. But we have no idea who might be behind Carlo, still hidden."

Thinking about it, Zelde chuckled. "We got some idea how that one works, though. So, next time somebody moves wrong, we get a-what you call it?-a cross- sighting. And then we zero in."

Heading downship, Zelde felt better. What she'd said to Lera, she thought it made sense-at least, it sounded good.

She was hungry-but first, check on Parnell. Off duty, Fesler would be, by now- probably asleep. But she found a junior aide, his feet up on Fesler's desk. He gulped. "I was just-"

The small stuff, she didn't care about. Monitor instruments would call this man if anything went wrong with Parnell-or Dopples, for that matter. And he showed her his log, with hourly checkoffs on both of them. She nodded. "Parnell-can I see him yet?"

"Sure." He stood. "He may not be awake, or recognize you." She followed him, to the room next to Dopples'. Dim light-she couldn't tell about Parnell's coloring, but he breathed regular. She touched his forehead; his head moved and his eyes opened.

"Ragir-it's Zelde. You hear me?"

Nodding, he mumbled something. He knew her, she thought-but could he talk sense? "You'll be all right, Ragir. You got that?"

His brow wrinkled. "Zelde, I dreamed something. The ship-knocked off course-I felt it." His eyes closed again. ". . . means anything-I don't know. Careful. . . ." His lips moved, but there was nothing she could hear.

"Careful, yeah, Ragir. But now you rest up." She kissed him, then turned and left. Even knocked out, he felt the ship jump!

Outside, she thanked the aide. "Just watch out for him, will you?"

"Yes, of course." He turned back to Fesler's office. Zelde stood put-what needed doing next? Eat, maybe. Get some sleep-if she could, wound up like she was. No coffee, for sure, though mostly she could drink it by the pot and sleep like a rock.

But now. . . .

In the galley she saw n.o.body she wanted to talk with.

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Then she noticed two senior ratings, sitting together, watching her. Both, she knew, were pretty thick with Carlo. She thought, Why the h.e.l.l not?-and carried her tray over, and sat down with them.

The skinny blond one, Paskow, pushed his longish hair back and stared at her.

Staring back, she decided that without all those old pimple scars, he'd be good- looking.

But it was Bellarn-the pale, brown-haired woman- who spoke. "Evening, Acting Second. Care to join us?" Her voice was quiet, not showing the sarcasm of her words.

Zelde, with a straight face, said, "Thanks-don't mind if I do," and began eating. Now let's see who makes the mistakes.

It took a while, waiting. Then Paskow said, "Scuttleb.u.t.t has it that Acting Third Mauragin's been arrested."

Zelde took a big bite, and chewed it in no hurry, before answering. "That right?

What else does it say?"

The two ratings looked at each other, then back to Zelde. "You haven't answered the question." Bellarn again. "You didn't ask one."

Paskow leaned forward. "Is Carlo arrested? And if so, why?"

Zelde paused. Well, she'd started this; might as well go ahead. "Yeah. He is." She beat the next question. "By my orders, confirmed by Adopolous. New Acting Third is Gil Charvel-and the First Hat put his chop to that appointment, too."

Paskow licked his lips. "You haven't said why." "That's right." She waited until Bellarn tried to speak, so that her own words cut the other off. "You'll get that an- swer when I do-when the court-martial brings in a verdict." Watching their faces, she purely hoped she had the jargon right!

Bellarn again. "How can you pull an officer from duty, put him under arrest, when you don't even have charges to prefer?"

Zelde was done eating. The others had coffee in front of them, but she didn't. She stood. "You got it wrong. There's charges, you bet your a.s.s! It's only that until the trial, we can't be sure which ones fit the G.o.dd.a.m.n facts."

The two looked at her. She gave them time to come up with an answer. Then she turned away, walking just fast 220.

enough so she didn't look like running away from anything. And thinking, that setup hadn't worked so bad!

She went to quarters and found she was lonely. But after a bath-the unit's water- cycling quota was in good shape, so she soaked in a hot tub-it turned out she was close to sleepy. She had a short drink, bourbon over ice, and went to bed. She started to think about something-but lost track of it, and then was asleep.

She woke feeling good, came out of bed in one lunge, kicked high once and then ran tiptoe. Looking in the mirror she touched her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and ran her hands over her ribcage, and down along her sides and thighs. For a moment she shivered, grinning. Then it came back to her-all the troubles. She sighed, and got dressed.

She needed to talk; she checked the time, nodded, and called Turk's place. "You two ready to eat? Meet me in the galley?"

Some silence; then: "Rooster's working. You stay there; I'll bring breakfast."

Before Zelde could answer, the circuit died.

After a time Zelde answered Turk's knock and let her in. Breakfast was mostly scrambled eggs-with a little meat, some juice, and a pot of coffee. "I hope you like it." Fine with Zelde, and she said so.

"Then let's shut up and eat." When they had cleaned their plates and were down to coffee, Turk said, "The reason we ate here-Zelde, this ship's ready to boil over.

Right now, you shouldn't go anyplace without someone guarding your back. For that, I brought a gun." She showed it; then she told what she'd heard, including word from Torra Defose. At the end, Zelde nodded.

"All right, Turk-if you say so. But who's behind Carlo?"

Headshake. "No idea yet. Someone that's good at hiding."

Zelde tried to think about it, how it all fit. She couldn't find a handle. Well-"I'm going on watch now, early. If you think I need guarding, come with me-all right?

There's n.o.body I trust more."

So when Zelde went to Control, Turk was right behind her.

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