Generation Warriors by Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon Read Free Book Online Page B

say so."
    "But how can I leave when all—"
    Sassinak hushed him with a gesture. "There are more tricks in that com shack than Dupaynil knows about. So far, he's the only one who knows that you were present when these orders arrived. And hes got priority orders he doesn't know about yet. But he soon will. Just follow my lead."
    The bridge crew came to attention when Sassinak arrived, but she gave the helm to Ford and entered the communications alcove.
    "Captain's orders," she said crisply to the officer on watch. "You received an IFTL a short time ago?"
    "Yes, ma'am, to the captain's address with encryption."
    Sassinak could not tell if the com officer's tension was normal or not. "The contents of that message require me to sit com watch myself for two hours." This was unusual, but not unheard of: sometimes extremely sensitive information was sent this way. "I expect incoming IFTL signals, encrypted, and by these orders," and she waved the paper, "only the ship's captain can receive them."
    "Yes, ma'am. Will the captain need any assistance?"
    Sassinak let herself glare, and the com officer vanished onto the bridge. What she was going to do was both illegal and dangerous... but so was what Dupaynil had done, and what the enemy had done. She logged onto the board and engaged her private comlink to the Ssli interface.
    So far, normal procedure. But now... her fingers danced on the board, calling up the file of the original encrypted message. And there it was, the quadruple header code she had never forgotten, not in all the years. Idiots, she thought; they should have changed that long since, as she had changed from a naive ensign standing communications watch to an experienced and powerful ship captain.
    With the right header code, it was easy to prepare an incoming message Dupaynil would have to believe was genuine. The other "incoming" message would be in regular Fleet fashion. Ford's detachment on "family compassionate leave"... but it would not arrive until Dupaynil was gone.
    Where to send Dupaynil? Where would he be safely out of her way, and also, in his own mind, doing something reasonable? She wished she could send him to a Thek, preferably a large, old, very slow one... but that wouldn't work. Fleet Security had nothing to do with the pacifist Bronthins, or the Mrouxt.
    Suddenly it came to her, and she fought back a broad grin which anyone glancing into the alcove might notice (why would the captain be grinning to herself in the com shack?): Ford would dig up dirt on the Paraden family's dealings, and Lunzie would find what she could on Diplo... and that, according to what they'd found on Ireta, left the alien Setis without an investigator. That would be Dupaynil's chore.
    He had done a lot of diplomatic work, he'd said. He had bragged after dinner, once, about his ability to get along with any of the alien members of the Federation, and even said the Seti weren't as bad as everyone thought.
    So, quickly, carefully, Sassinak wrote the orders. The Ssli had always shown her special considerations, above and beyond their usual shipboard duties. She owed her life to the sessile Ssli communications officer on her first tour of duty when Hssrho had located her in deep space after she'd had a "misadventure" in an evac pod. In gratitude she had always taken care to cultivate the Ssli communications officers on every other posting. Now she consulted the resident Ssli. She could not simply pretend that an IFTL had come in; the computer records would show it had not and Dupaynil probably had subverted computer security to some degree. But Dupaynil's actual shipboard experience was limited and Sassinak knew that he had never bothered to introduce himself to Dhrossh. Her favorite Wefts, such as Gelory, had mentioned in passing that Dupaynil's mind was not the right sort for direct contact. Whatever they meant by that.
    The Ssli thought her scheme was delightful... an odd choice of adjective, Sassinak thought, and wondered if the