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passed the comm room and heard
Tolridge's voice. Talking, apparently, to an incoming ship: "... helpful if
you'd burn the weeds off one of the more overgrown ones. " Tregare couldn't
make out the answering words, but then Tolridge said, "Inconnu, yes. Leaving
in a few days, I think. " Turning back to the room's door, Bran caught
something about hoping to talk with him, and then Tolridge said, "We'll see
you down here soon then, Graf Spee. "
He walked into the room; the woman looked up. He said. "Who's upstairs, you
were telling all about me?"
She looked startled.
"Graf Spee.
Ilse Krueger commanding. "
The name rang a bell; after a moment he snapped his fingers. "Got it. I've
heard of her, here and there. Smallest person ever to survive the
Slaughterhouse. Hadn't heard she was Escaped, though. " He scowled. "You sure
it's not a UET trick? I mean, what name did the ship have, before?"
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"Why, I don't know! But a woman, commanding "
"Or claiming to command. Well, never mind. I'm going aboard ship now, and
either way, I'll take care of it. "
On
Inconnu, up in Control, Tregare put his forward screen on hi-mag and monitored
the incoming ship's descent. From this angle he couldn't see if it was armed
or not, but coming down its weapons made no difference anyway. He had his own
turrets slaved to the console in front of him; it that ship so much as
twitched its Drive blast in his direction, the next second it would be a cloud
of plasma. And to be certain, he warmed the projectors with a few harmless
blasts into atmosphere, to bring his heterodyne into peak energy range. Then
he waited.
Circumspectly, with no way of knowing that Tregares projectors tracked
Graf Spee, that ship landed a civil distance from
Inconnu and never hinting any threat of Drive blast. When
Spee's ramp was down and the South Forty delegation came out to give greeting,
so did Bran Tregare, accompanied by his First and Second Hats. Gonnelson
didn't want to come along, but Bran told him he could merely shake hands and
fake it.
Not far from either ship the three groups met. Tregare, waiting while Mayo
Tolridge did the hellos and introductions, took an evaluating look at Ilse
Krueger. Peace take it, she was small
a meter and a half, maybe, if that much. Slim but not fragile, and she moved
well. Closer up he saw blue eyes with a barely discernible slant to match the
Slavic cheekbones. Her blond hair, too short to hold a curl, lay smooth with
only a slight hint of wave. Maybe that hair covered scars, but otherwise the
Slaughterhouse experience showed only in a pale mark from above her right
eyebrow back toward her ear. Of course, Bran reminded himself, limbs and torso
no doubt carried worse souvenirs, because the woman had survived and
graduated.
The introductions had got around to him and her. Her handshake didn't try to
do anything much, but it wasn't limp, either. She smiled slightly, and said,
"Tregare, eh? This is a fine occasion. "
"Right. " Then he said, "Congratulations on your Escape and command, Krueger.
I don't think
I know all the history. "
Obviously she knew what he meant because she nodded. "I see. All right; under
UET this ship was the
Bismarck.
Captain was Garrett Trumbull. Doul Falconer was First Officer and I was
Second; Doul and I, we " She shook her head. "I'll never get over missing him.
" Tregare watched her put her poise back together. "It was Doul who took
charge of organizing Escape. I
helped. The Third hell, I don't want to remember the name of that little
hyena. He's the one who got Doul killed. " For a moment her face went pale and
gaunt; then, quite matter-of-factly, she said, "Once I had the ship secured, I
found time to cut his ratty little throat. "
For once, Tregare had nothing to say. Krueger continued, "If it were up to me,
I'd have
named this ship
Falconer, after Doul. But he'd picked
Graf Spee, a joke he understood and I
don't. So I've kept the name. "
"Sure. " Time to change the subject, so he asked where the ship had traveled
since Escape, and what other ships she knew about. And mentioned the overall
info net; she knew of it but had had only a few chances to feed it or draw on
it. "Well, I put quite a lot of stuff in, here.
You'll be getting it. "
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Then he accepted her invitation to dine aboard
Graf Spee.
Gonnelson and Prestor didn't like the idea of his going aboard this stranger
ship solo, but he went anyway, saying that an unarmed craft in need of
refueling was in no position to pull anything tricky. "Not with
Inconnu here, and two armed scouts. "
"One, " said Gonnelson.
"They don't know that. " Anyway, Tregare's hunch said he faced no danger, so
he went with it.
Kruegers Second Hat, an older man sporting no UET tattoo on his cheek, met
Tregare at ramp-top and escorted him to captain's quarters. Wearing a
light-blue outfit, something between a uniform and a jumpsuit, Krueger greeted
him. She didn't have bourbon, but her
Terranovan brandy was pretty good, and later Tregare enjoyed the dinner a lot.
The main dish was a kind of stew or goulash; some of the blended flavors were
new to him, but he decided they could be habit-forming in rather a hurry.
He was saying as much when the corridor door opened and in barged two large,
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