Playing God(139)
“Commander Keale,” the room voice cut across his sentence. “Receiving transmission from sat-net beta.”
Keale's throat closed. Beta was the mini-net they'd thrown up around the Ur. “Room voice, open station and display.”
He spared a brief glance at Esmo, who kept her face perfectly blank. The station screen lit up and showed the vacuum, the Ur, and the twin plasma jets burning out of her nozzles. Keale imagined he heard the infrastructure creak as the ship lumbered forward, gathering speed.
“Room voice, emergency thread to Lieutenant Ryan.”
Ryan must have been sitting on top of a station because it was barely ten seconds later that his image appeared on Keale's screen. “Yes, sir?”
“Ryan, the Ur is on the move. We need a shuttle out to track it, at maximum range, you understand me? I don't want anybody crowding that ship to get a close look. We just need to track its course.”
Ryan's pale cheeks went paper white. “Yes, sir,” was all he said, though, and he cut the connection.
Keale turned back to Esmo. “The net's not mobile, so it'll be out of range soon,” he said ruefully. “Even I didn't think they'd get it moving this fast.”
Esmo leaned against the conference table and folded her arms. She tapped her fingers against her own forearm. “Do you have any idea what they're doing?”
“I've got a really good guess.” He touched three keys on the board, and the view on the wall screen switched from empty vacuum to the creamy sphere of Dedelph.
Esmo paled. “Kaye, you don't think…”
Keale met her gaze. “You've got enemies that have plagued your family since time immemorial. You've just taken control of a rock weighing several hundred million tons. What would you do with it?”
“Drop it on them,” said Esmo,” grimmer than Keale had ever heard her. “How'd they think of it, Kaye? They don't even have spaceflight.”
“No, but they've been throwing things at their enemies at least as long as we have.” His fist tightened.
“Have you got anything you could go after them with?” asked Esmo.
Keale slumped into the station chair. “Plenty. I've got hundreds of completely unarmed shuttles. I've got an engineering fleet four days away. I've got just under four thousand people armed with nonlethal force. I've got all of that.” He looked at the sphere. “And none of it is any good.”
“You've forgotten something,” said Esmo.
Keale lifted his gaze from the screen. “What?”
Esmo bit her lip, then said, “Another city-ship.”
Keale felt a strange calm cover him over. “Use another ship to ram the Ur?”
She nodded. “And soon. If they get too close to the planet, the collision will pour debris and fast-particle masses all over Dedelph.”
She seemed distant, her words a little unreal, but this was real, he told himself. This was more real than anything else he'd ever done. “How many people does it take to fly one of those?”
She shrugged. “Two people and one functioning AI can do it for short distances.”
He met her eyes across the gulf his unwilling mind had created. “Can you teach me what I need to know in time?”
She blew out a sigh, considering. “You're shuttle-rated, aren't you, Kaye?”
He nodded.
“Then, yes, I can.”
“All right. We can take the Manhattan. It's unoccupied.” Esmo nodded. “I'll break the news to the admiral.”
“I'll get the authorization from the veeps, so you can back up what you tell the admiral.”
Her eyes sparkled behind her spectacles with icy amusement. “You know, they might not let us do this.”
Keale shrugged. “Then I'll be extremely interested to hear the alternate plan.”
They both stood up. He opened his mouth, but she waved him quiet. “It's my job, too, Kaye, more than it is yours. They terrorized my crew. They shot Rudu's leg off him. They took my ship out from under me.” Her face went hard and he could see the fury burning hot and alive in her black eyes. “I am not going to let them get away with that.”
“I'll meet you in the hangar at fifteen hundred then.” His station beeped twice at him.
Esmo jumped a little. “What's that?”
“Something I've been keeping track of. That planetsider, Cabal, has been snooping around the private web. I had a thread drone on his back getting the proof.” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “It's probably not worth it, but I'll send somebody around to get him. See you at fifteen hundred, Esmo.”
“Fifteen hundred.” Esmo left.
Keale sat down at the comm station and typed in a brief command to call up the thread drone that had let him know it was finished with its job. Business as usual. Attend to security matters. Keep everybody and everything safe. Don't think about the suicide run you've just signed up for. No. Don't think about that.