His timing appeared to be good. Rudu's lips moved as he subvocalized something to whatever implants he carried and then stood up, nodding to his captain. Esmaraude nodded back and turned toward Keale. As Rudu disappeared through the hatch in the floor that led down to the gravity deck, Esmaraude waved Keale forward.
“Keale, so glad you could join us.” She kicked out a chair for him.
“You're top on my list of priorities, Esmo, you know that.” Keale sat down. Esmo was a short, square woman with thick brown hair cut short to keep it out of her way. Whereas most people who took on eye implants had cameras or video displays you couldn't tell from a natural eye, Esmaraude had a pair of old-fashioned looking wire-and-crystal spectacles connected to terminals at her temples. They gave her greater display range and flexibility, she said, and the extra memory space allowed her to book directly into the ship's info systems if she needed to.
The corner of Esmo's mouth twitched. “I am top priority only because I have something you want, Kaye.”
He shrugged elaborately. “I want to do my job and keep your people safe.”
She sighed. “You really think we're in for trouble?”
“I really think we could be, yes.”
All the humor drained out of her eyes. “Where from?”
Keale knew she didn't mean who'd start it. “Can you get me a schematic up on this?” He tapped the station screen.
Esmo preferred to give her commands with keys rather than her voice. She typed on the pad for a moment. The screen cleared and showed a 3-D white-line print of the Ur. Keale reached across and hit a couple of keys. The diagram resolved itself to show the ship as seen from above.
“Right here.” He laid his finger on the space between the city dome and the engineering dome.
Esmo peered at the screen. “You think they're going to get through the tunnels?”
“No. We can seal the hatches. The shortest, easiest way between their space and ours is straight across the hull. It's only thirty meters from the city dome to engineering, and us.”
Now Esmo was looking hard at him. “It's thirty meters of hard vacuum, Kaye. I know the pogos can hold their breath a long time, but …”
“They're going to have access to pressure suits that we're going to show them how to use.” He frowned at the schematic. “Maybe nothing will happen, Esmo, but if they're going to do anything in the heat of the moment, I don't want to make it easy on them.”
Esmo dropped her gaze. She pulled the command word out of its slot and studied it. It was a fragile glass and electro-optic key that decrypted all the command systems on the ship. Without it, even if you could get the engines going, you couldn't make any navigation calculations. You could not override any of the artificial intelligence's standing orders. You could not open any locked doors or databases. There were two other keys. Rudu King had one for the gravity systems, and the chief engineer had one for the ship's drive. But it was Esmo's key that controlled the minute, complex workings of the ship. The slender, sparkling artifact represented the real power of the captain. Keale wondered what was going on behind her impassive eyes as she looked at it.
Esmo returned the key to its place. “Want a cup of coffee?”
“Sure,” said Keale. He stood up and followed her to the foodstore. What are you not getting at, Esmo?
Esmo got two plastic mugs out of the cupboard and started drawing rich, black coffee out of the urn. Its scent filled the air. She handed one to Keale and put the second on the counter while she peeked into the bread box. The smell of yeast and baking immediately joined the coffee.
Finally, she turned around. “Why are you doing this, Kaye?”
“Because I give a damn about whether the people on this project live or die,” he said irritably. “Which seems to be a major cause for surprise.”
Esmo shook her head. “I don't mean that. I mean why are you doing this.” She waved her hand toward the command center. “Sneaking around, laying down the emotional blackmail, trying to drum up underground support with the seniors.” She stopped when she saw him grimace. “There aren't that many people on this project yet, Kaye. Word still gets around fairly quickly.”
Keale took a quick sip of coffee. A good blend, rich but not too bitter. Trust Esmo to get the best for her people, and herself. Esmo took her job seriously, but she liked her comforts. “I'm doing this because the veeps and presies aren't voting me anything to work with. We're getting a thousand multipurpose shuttles, but not one of them will be armed. I'm only getting fifteen hundred security personnel per ship, to cover both Human and Dedelphi personnel, and that includes the admin bodies.” He frowned at his coffee, remembering the last conversation he'd had with Veep Brador on the subject. “It's been made quite clear to me that most of the trouble has been expected to come from the Human side of things, as the Dedelphi do not appear to have problems such as petty theft or drunkenness. They definitely do not have any problem with sexual assault, for obvious reasons, and what brawls they do have are settled in-family. So, none of my fifteen-hundred-per-ship personnel are going to be equipped with lethal-force capabilities.” He set the coffee down and folded his arms. Esmo watched him without a trace of expression on her face. “Since there's no help there, I've got to find it where I can.”