not until they moved into the cramped space now available on Inconnu did Rissa realize how much she had enjoyed their roomy groundside quarters. "But," she said, "it is only two months more-three, perhaps-besides the six or so from here to Earth."

  She and Lisele visited groundside daily-her ship's duties, now, took little of her time; she took advantage of her temporary freedom. One day, at tea with Eudyce Kobolak, she said, "Is it well now with you-accepting that Dacia and Anders leave with us soon?"

  The tall woman smiled. "Yes-Stepan and I see how they grow with the training they've had. They're Earthraised; they never really acclimated to Stronghold. Coming here-if Tre-gare hadn't taken the place, our son and daughter would be watching their every move and word for fear of Committee Police, the same as on Earth." She spread her hands. "Rissa -do you see what I mean?"

  "I think so-but there is more, is there not?"

  "That's right. Now you and Tregare-all of you-you go, hoping to do for Earth what you've done for Stronghold. 1 can't blame Anders and Dacia for wanting to be part of that."

  "Perhaps, later, you may come also."

  "No." Eudyce shook her head. "It was hard, moving here. Unless my thoughts change later, one uprooting is all I can take. Dacia and Anders say they'll try to come back someday; I'll have to pin my hopes on that."

  Rissa found little she could say. Finally, "And I hope we will see you again, also."

  time passed-Arlen Limmer's birthday came and then Lisele's -each briefly celebrated by the two families. Between those

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  dates came Tregare's 300-day minimum for earliest takeoff. He told the assembled captains, "I said, no longer than ninety days after this. But that was just me talking. Now I'm asking you-can we make it?" He looked around. "Anybody have a problem that might hold us back?"

  Tentatively, a few raised their hands. One by one he queried them-two were merely overcautious, one he agreed to confer with afterward, and the rest he was able to refer elsewhere for needed aid.

  "All right. Then we leave in ninety days-or preferably before that. When I know, you'll get at least three days' notice."

  The group dispersed. Tregare stood, and Rissa beside him. He said, "Just a minute, Derek." "Yes?"

  "I want to say-I appreciate the way you're lending your own people, as many as you can spare-stretching yourself thin, to help."

  Limmer smiled. "After all, I'm working for my own command-isn't that right?"

  Tregare snapped his fingers. "Oh, sure-why didn't /think of that?" The men laughed, and Limmer hurried to his next task.

  by six days Tregare beat his maximum. When Rissa's timer showed her 1,170th day on Stronghold, he gave his notice-not three days, but five "And get your partying over," he announced, "in the first three. Last day here will be solid check-listing; you won't want to be doing it hung over."

  Rissa declined to hold or attend any large farewell gatherings. She said, "1 wish my leavetakings to be more personal. But you go to whatever festivities you choose, Bran-it is all right."

  He frowned. "Well-a couple, I have to. And you should be at the Top Hats' bash-you really should."

  "Yes-very well. I will attend the dinner and stay a short time after, then excuse myself. For I planned to spend part of that evening with the Kobolaks."

  "All right. If I get loose reasonably early, I'll pick you up there."

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  the remaining work could be done at a reduced pace. Now only half the fleet's personnel had duty each day-and at night, only a skeleton force. Rissa checked schedules and arranged-sometimes with Tregare and sometimes alone-to find her visiting times with those she needed to see and talk with, both friends she surely would not see on Earth and also those she might not see.

  A full afternoon with her brother, part of an evening with Dcverel and Kenekke, a morning with Aedra Leng-somehow she found time for everyone. On the final evening, Tregare said, "I'm free until morning. Who do we see tonight?"

  "I had thought-the three of us only. And when Lisele sleeps, just each other."

  peralta squadron lifted first-gently, to avoid damaging ships closely grouped around its own. Then-also with care- Falconer and Malloy. Parnell was grouped at one end of the port with no ships near it-Zelde M'tana needed less caution and used the bare minimum. Tregare grinned. "In a hurry, that one."

  And now Renalle, well clear of Limmer's defensive fleet and the dummy hulls-Tregare whooped and slammed the power control against its stop. Inconnu growled and shivered; for the first time, Rissa felt the ship's full power. In seconds the sky was black; ahead she saw the leading squadrons spreading into formation. Then Tregare eased his controls back, and Inconnu and the other ships of Renalle coasted into position.

  Grinning, he said, "How's that for a liftoff?"

  "Recalling your departure from One Point One," said Rissa, "1 hope all below were safely inside. And this was six ships."

  He laughed. "Oh, sure-I told Derek this one was going to be worth watching, and he had the orders out." He looked at the screen. "Fine. Formation's a little ragged-matching velocities and then accelerations, but it's shaping up."

  Rissa looked. Centered on Inconnu the configuration was that of a bowl, rim forward. Tregare flipped his talk switch. "Squadrons report." One by one his commanders reported all ships operating in good order. He breathed deeply, exhaled a

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  gusty sigh. "Tregare to ail squadrons, al! ships, every man and woman aboard. Congratulations-well done."

  He cut the circuit and turned to Rissa. "Peace take us- who'd have thought it? Rissa, we're on our way!"

  Six months to Earth, while that world's clocks ran twenty times as fast. She would be returning, thought Rissa, to an Earth that had seen fifty-eight years without her-while she herself had lived less than six, and more than half that on Stronghold. The long view ...

  Ship's routine was not arduous, its monotony broken by practice sessions. Near light-speed, the fleet's separate drives needed little adjustment, but the ships could simulate low-speed combat as though their relative velocities were not tiny vectors added to their mutual greater one. In turret practice, Rissa found that the minor changes of acceleration affected her coordination-but with practice she adapted to the new-factor and her scores rose again.

  But in combat she would not be operating a turret. Tregare told her, "I need you here in Control for about three jobs- and I'm still inventing two of them."

  "Inventing? Do not make work for me, Tregare, to keep me safe."

  He shook his head. "No such thing. These squadron maneuvers showed me problems-I'm working on ways to handle them with the fewest people. Trouble is, UET didn't have a real squadron system, -let alone trying to control groups of squadrons. So-"

  Except in stable formation, one ship's computer could not feed wide-band, detailed information to another-or control the other's weapons. As speeds and accelerations changed, the wide-band circuits needed to carry complex information in real time fell prey to Doppler shift. "The error rate gets unworkable," Tregare said. "There's circuits that could compensate, I'm told-but UET didn't need them so we don't have them, or the drawings to build from."

  He shrugged. "It doesn't matter-with all the drivewakes crisscrossing, we couldn't punch a complex signal through all the ionization, anyway. But-cooperation's still what we need."

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  ' 'So-what kind of answer are you seeking?''

  "If we can't centralize control in fine, we'll have to do it in large. Coordination officers alongside commanders, here and in each squadron-and same from Top Hats to each ship. I haven't sorted it out yet, who does what and how many it takes. I see three functions I'm trying to reshuffle into only two-so that here, for instance, I can do one of them and you the other."

  She looked toward his scribbled notes. "May I study these?"

  "If you hadn't asked that, I would have."

  The answer, developed over several hours by both of them together, turned out to be the more simple than Rissa expected. Finally Tregare pushed the papers away. "We'll work out the details later. There's more to it, of course-but what it boils down to, I tell them where to go and you tell them what to do when they get there."

  with a few changes, the system adapted well to squadron level. Tregare and his Top Hats worked out contingency plans, each based on one of several possible combat situations, to be used when direct communication was lost. Rissa devised shorthand codes for all orthodox or expected tactical moves. And one day, about two-thirds through the voyage, Tregare declared himself satisfied.

  "I can't think of any chance we haven't allowed for," he said. "All we need now is more practice."

  "Yes, Bran-but do you mind if I continue to look for things we may have missed?"

  He laughed. "Sure, go ahead-you will, anyway!"

  ship's work was not all of Rissa's life. Liesel Selene, close to halfway through her third year-and Arlen Limmer, thought Rissa, would be nearly nine!-was a considerable part of it. And to not much lesser extent, of Tregare's.

  Looking to the time when Lisele would leave with the scout-ship, Rissa or Dacia-sometimes both-often took the child there to play. Gradually, more and more of her toys and other belongings were kept there, and occasionally she and Dacia

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  slept aboard the small vessel. Convinced, eventually, that Liseie would accept the separation without too much difficulty, Rissa lost her anxiety about the matter.

  intership communications were not all business. Tregare had arranged for a few small viewscreen terminals to-be set up in each ship's galley, and earmarked several frequencies for "chatter circuits."

  "All scrambled, of course," he said, "just in case. But no reason folks can't talk to their friends, while we're sailing out here in no place."

  Usually Rissa had no long wait for a clear circuit-the more usual obstacle was finding that the other party was on duty. One day she tried -three times without reaching her brother. Shortly after the third attempt, he returned her call.

  "Hi, Rissa-sorry I was held up so long. This squadron coordination job-I don't know how you manage it, for the whole fleet. Sure knocks me out of my coffee breaks, these days."

  "But you are now free for a time?"

  "Sure. Why? Anything urgent?"

  "Merely that we have not spoken together for more than two hundred hours. I like to know that all is well with you."

  "Oh, I'm fine." But his face was taut. She waited, brows raised, until he said, "Can't fool you, can I? Maybe that's why I haven't called." He shrugged. "All if is-the closer we get to Earth, the tighter I wind up. Can't seem to relax, at all."

  "The outcome worries you?"

  "Not that much-I've chanced my life before, in lesser causes. No-it's that we're going where thev rule."

  "They?"

  "UET-the ones who-"

  "But they are dead, Ivan-remember?"

  "The new ones, they'll be the same-they're all the same." His head shook back and forth.

  "Ivan!" Until he looked at her, she waited. "Ivan-if you reach Earth alive they will be in your power, not you in theirs. Is that not correct?"

  He frowned, then nodded. "Yes-yes, sure, that's right! Ilse-she'd never surrender, she'd ram the planet first." He

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  breathed deeply and exhaled with a shudder. "Thanks, Rissa." Now he grinned. "I've been jittering myself into a first-class case of the heebies-I won't do that again. Now, then-anything else?"

  "You might think to ask after your young niece." And she told him the latest family anecdotes, listened in turn to Graf Spee's shipboard gossip-heeding it little, but watching her brother's face lose tension with the telling. Finally she said, "I must go now-Lisele will be hungry. To talk with you, Ivan

  -it has been good."

  "That goes double here. All right-I'll give Use your best

  -you do the same for us, with Tregare."

  "Yes." She watched the screen go blank, and nodded. "Yes." .

  tregare said, "You sure he'll be all right? Squadron coordination officer-if he cracked-"

  "Ivan? In action? Never. I was concerned of his feelings, not of his performance."

  "Yeah-I expect you're right. But check back now and then anyway, will you?"

  "In light of my concern, of course I shall."

  time came to jettison the scoutship, Liesel Selene's passage to Earth. Dacia Kobolak's crew had been chosen carefully, including a man to assume nominal command in case the scout arrived to find UET still controlling Earth. "They won't believe anything without a man in charge of it," Tregare had said.

  So Starbur Clegg, a senior rating in Navigation, agreed to have another centimeter pared from the stump of the arm he had lost in storming Stronghold-so that the wound would seem fresh, sustained in the battle UET must be convinced to believe. "Just make sure you don't short me on pain shots for the first three weeks..."

  The scout, carefully damaged and then patched, carried the scars of authenticity. Rissa and Tregare inspected it thoroughly; inside and out they found nothing to belie the planned deception. "All right," said Tregare, finally. "But we'll have the good-bye party on Inconnu-so's not to have to give this

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  bucket the inch by inch, all over again."

  Afterward, the celebration of departure finished and the taste of Lisele's final kiss fading from her lips, Rissa watched the screen as the scout dwindled and its faint drivewake was lost in distance. Tregare said, "They've got an extra week, remember-to stall or maneuver if they need to. But it doesn't make a lot of difference-they get there, either we've won or we haven't."

  "Of course, Bran." But she thought, Will I ever see her again?

  another crucial time approached; Tregare spoke on the screen with his Top Hats and other critical personnel. Wavering, their faces appeared on segments of his primary view-screen-other ships' captains were on voice circuits only.

  He said, "If we were UET we'd begin decel in two weeks- I'm starting a week early, to give us leeway to maneuver with if we need to." Rissa nodded; Lisele's scout had the same option.

  "We'll be slowed down a lot farther out," said Zelde M'tana. "Is that good, Tregare?"

  "I think so. Near Earth we can speed up again if the tactics say to, without piling up so much Big Vee that we overrun the planet."

  "But when we meet UET's fleet-" Kile Ressider was not on the screen, but Rissa recognized his voice. "-we'll be going slower than usual. Why give them more time to shoot at us?"

  Tregare shook his head. "Other way around. Kile-I'm giving us more time to shoot at them." He waited, but the other did not answer. "UET's projectors don't have heterodyne control-standard practice is waste a shot or two, warming up, then keep firing while the heterodyne drifts through effective range. It's good for fast passes and cooling down in between-nothing else. We do control heterodyne-once we last out their effective bursts we can cut them up, while their turrets make pretty flares and not much else. You see?"

  The other's "yes" sounded reluctant. Then, with enthusiasm, "Yes-I do see it. And have you thought to get more contact time, still?" Now he talked rapidly, describing a new maneuver.

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  Tregare's brows lowered, then raised. He listened, then said, "You've got a good idea, Ressider-I think I see a variation or two. Tell you what-when this is over, take ten, then let's you and I talk with our hands and show diagrams back and forth. Okay?"

  The other agreed, and Tregare concluded his announcement of plans. He met few questions and answered those quickly. He ended by saying, "Kile and I may take some time putting the best polish on his scheme, so let's adjourn until-oh, tomorrow, same time."

  He cut the circuit. "Rissa-if only that man had armed ship experience! I could have used a sixth Top Hat-smaller groups, easier to handle ..."

  "Once we reach Earth, he will have the experience. At that time you can promote him."

  "Sure. Now I've got to leave for a minute and then get back to him."

  "Yes. Will you need me?"

  "Not for now-we can talk it over later."

  "Very well. I will have some coffee and try a call on the chatter circuit."

  at first attempt, she reached Zelde M'tana. "Zelde! Are you not proud of Ressider? Although inexperienced, to make a plan that impressed Bran Tregare?"

  Fingering her lobeless ear, the big woman grinned. "Oh, I knew all along, that bleached-out stallion has more to him than usually shows, in bed or out. Just glad Tregare sees it too, now."

 

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