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Easygoing, I'd always thought. How come you two couldn't live on the same
ship? Not that it's any of my business, come to that."
Grecht finished his drink, and stood. "Precisely. But I'll tell you, anyway. I
\iown my\i ship, and that includes the people on it. Hoad couldn't accept the
principle."
Incredulous, Tregare gazed at the man. "Neither could I." "So you'd have
sneaked off too, tail between your legs?" No such thing had Jargy done. Two
questions here. But only one answer. "No,"
said Tregare. "I'd have killed you." Grecht didn't stay much longer.
\c\u12\u
A Job To Do
\cFor lift-off from Freedom't Ring, Tregare gave Erdis Blaine the office. He'd
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have liked to have done it himself, and drift a little sidewise toward \iMarch
Hair\i and maybe scare Grecht's guts out into his shorts, but that wouldn't be
fair to a lot of other people, so he didn't. And
Gonnelson had done a lift, and so had Jargy. It was Blaine's turn. And she did
fine with it.
They headed for Number One now. Not a straight shot, because that would pass
too close to a UET
colony, and the course also needed a bulge to miss a dust cloud expanding from
where a star had once erupted as a medium-sized nova. Tregare looked through
what records he had from Escaped ships, and hoped he wasn't missing anything
essential.
One item caught his notice. His totally random choice of direction in which to
bulge his course would take \iInconnu\i well within range of a Hidden World
listed in his new information. Tregare called a conference; his Control
officers plus the Chief Engineer. Holding up a rough sketch, he said,
"Shegler's Moon. It's not all that far off our planned course, and close
enough that if we go there we'll have a time-ratio of five at Turnover.
Question is, should we have a look at the place?"
Mallory didn't care. Jargy said, "Why not?" Erdis Blaine favored the idea.
Gonnelson's hand made a sweeping palm-up gesture, sidewise toward Tregare.
"I guess you mean, Gonnelson, it's up to me?" The man nodded. "Okay; consensus
says we go there.
So-"
"I'm surprised, Bran," said Jargy Hoad. "I'd have expected you to do all your
own deciding, not take votes."
Looking, Tregare saw that his old friend was sincere, not needling him.
"Well-" He thought about it. "When it comes
\c\b200
\c201\b down to squat, there's no time for voting. And what this ship's going
to \ido,\i someday-anybody doesn't agree, I buy them out. But on stuff like
this, the major owning shares should have a say."
"And the minor ones?" Erdis Blaine asked that.
Impatient now, Bran shook his head. "Those are courtesy shares, a system of
wages, and you know it. If we have to ask people who don't know what the
problem is, we're in deep."
Enough of that; he began telling them about Shegler's Moon. The systems star
massed about one-
point-five of Sol and ran hotter and whiter. The satellite's primary combined
a mass of about three Earths, an atmosphere like that of Venus, and an orbital
distance that beat Mars somewhat.
"The Moon itself, the Escaped outpost, is maybe eight thousand kilos
across-light on gee and thin on air."
Hoad leaned forward. "It hardly sounds like a great place to settle on. All
the frequent eclipses, for one thing."
"Not all that many," said Bran. "Good tilt on the orbit." He read them the
rest of it straight off the data sheets: temperature range, availability of
water, edible vegetation but no vertebrate animal life. "Until their frozen
zygote supply grew up to be cows and such, most of the protein came from a
meat tank. But this latest report-some years old by now-says they have a
stable colony going. And a good fuel-production plant, of course, for
refueling ships."
"That part I'd figured," said Mallory. "Or else you wouldn't have suggested we
go there at all."
So \iInconnu,\i still wearing the \iTamurlaine's\i insignia, cut course for
Shegler's. With the ship still coming up toward a vee that would halve ship's
time compared to that of planets, Jargy
Hoad on watch called down to Tregare's quarters. "Bran? Something up ahead. I
think we're overhauling somebody. Not straight on. There's some skew between
us. You want a look?"
"Be right up." He dressed and went to Control. "What have you spotted?"
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In space the passage of a starship left-well, indications. Not a "wake"
exactly, but etheric turmoil that jiggled outside viewscreen images and put a
bit of hash into communication channels
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%...g%20View%2001%20-%20Star%20Rebel
%20v1.0.txt (94 of 102) [7/14/2004 3:16:59 PM]
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%20F.%20M%20-%20Lo...0F.%20M%20-%20L
ong%20View%2001%20-%20Star%20Rebel%20v1.0.txt if those were open. If the
disturbances were on the increase, it meant you were closing your distance.
"You want to swing over and check this, Bran? Intercept?"
"Couldn't hurt to have a look. Assuming its not too much
\b202\b work." Meaning cost in fuel, and they both knew it. For maybe thirty
seconds he watched a couple of instruments, then said, "I'd guess we're
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