WITH THE LIGHTNINGS(14)
One of the lovers had started to whimper. The other moved away so as not to be caught in any thunderbolt that resulted.
There should be time to transfer the lumber before the dinner, Adele thought; and if not, well, she'd be late. That was a prerogative of a Mundy.
Daniel Leary stood and raised his glass. "Fellow officers," he said, "I give you the Aglaia. May she always rejoice in good officers!"
Hogg watched beaming from the hallway. He'd taken over the landlord's kitchen to prepare dinner for the Aglaia's four junior commissioned officers—Captain Le Golif was at the Elector's dinner in Daniel's place.
Daniel couldn't afford red meat at Kostroman prices and Hogg was, truth to tell, no more than a passable cook, but matters had gone well. The pilaf had been adequate, and Bantry was a coastal estate. Nothing could have better trained Hogg to prepare a meal on Kostroma, a planet where fish was the staple and there was almost no land more than fifty miles from the sea.
Besides, the wine was excellent.
"And may Admiral Martina bloody Lasowski leave the ship's officers to do their jobs on the voyage home!" muttered Lt. Mon. His steward had filled about three glasses to every two for the other officers dining.
They all drank. Wonderful wine, absolutely wonderful.
Three hours in the company of the Aglaia's two lieutenants and two midshipmen had returned Daniel's normal sunny disposition. The wine hadn't hurt his mood either. No sir, not in the least.
Lt. Weisshampl belched, stared at her empty glass for a moment, and thought to pat her lips with her napkin.
"Maybe we could lock down the blast door in the corridor to the passenger suites?" said Midshipman Cassanos, a fresh-faced youth of eighteen on his first commission.
Midshipman Whelkine was female, a year older, and had never given Daniel a real smile in the three weeks he'd known her on shipboard. Her hands clenched on her glass when Cassanos spoke, but that wasn't necessarily a response to the words. Whelkine's skills were well above the norm for officers at her level of experience, but Daniel had never before met anyone as fearful of putting a foot wrong.
"Midshipmen with interest," Mon said, fixing Cassanos with eyes like two obsidian knives, "should have sense enough not to insult admirals who can spike any chance of command assignment for those midshipmen in future years. Do you understand me, Cassanos?"
Cassanos stiffened in his seat, flushing with embarrassment. "Sir," he said. "I spoke out of turn. I humbly ask the pardon of our host and the assembly."
"Did you say something, Cassanos?" Daniel said as he sat down carefully. "Nobody here heard you, I'm sure."
Mon's reaction was kindness, not hypocrisy. He was the second lieutenant of RCS Aglaia, a communications vessel with a light cruiser's hull and masts but the armament of only a corvette. Space normally given over to weapons and magazines provided passenger suites comparable to an admiral's accommodation on a First-Class battleship. The delegates to Kostroma travelled swiftly and in the luxury befitting their rank, but without tying up an important naval asset and putting the nose of Elector Walter III out of joint.
Mon's skills as an officer were respected or he wouldn't have a berth on a showpiece like the Aglaia; but he didn't have interest, and he hadn't had either the flair or the good fortune to get a command slot in other ways. Mon would be promoted, slowly but steadily, through a series of staff and ground positions till he retired . . . unless drink and bitterness led him to say something that the RCN couldn't overlook.
Cassanos had a chance. Mon didn't want the boy to lose it through the misfortune of aping a loser like himself.
A steward filled Daniel's glass. The servants were from the Aglaia's staff, attending this dinner through some arrangement Hogg had made with the purser. Hogg had provided the wine also. As usual he hadn't volunteered information about his source of supply and Daniel had determinedly refused to ask. Daniel was scrupulous about the provenance of his normal fare, but this dinner was a matter of honor. If he knew that Hogg had raided Admiral Lasowski's private stock, he'd have to do something about it.
"I served under Lasowski when she was captain of the Thunderer," Lt. Weisshampl said. The wine in her refilled glass was the rusty color of a dried cherry; she stared with solemn intensity at the highlights on its surface. "A cautious officer. Not a person to trust a subordinate to do her job—but fair, wouldn't invent a problem if there wasn't one. Just cautious."
Technically the Aglaia's crew weren't subordinate to Admiral Lasowski in the chain of command. The admiral and her staff were passengers on the RCS Aglaia, a vessel under the command of Captain Le Golif. Nobody who'd ever met an admiral believed that would be the reality, but Daniel knew the Aglaia's situation was worse than most.