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Navy in three months at Pacific Base than you have in your whole ten-year
career."
He wished she wouldn't talk like that.
She said it only because she actually didn't understand the petty
deadly intrigue of Navy officialdom. It bothered him more than if she had been
one of the clever old-in-service Navy wives who used rank like a rapier.
Nancy had never known what home base life was until now. Glenn had seen
plenty of it before they were married. He'd tried to explain the difference
between Pacific Base and the other places they'd been. But she didn't know
what, he was talking about.
She didn't know about rank. She didn't know that home base wives
flaunted rank like any land-locked Admiral. She couldn't understand that it
wasn't like Ceres, where the Commander's wife had midwifed the birth of Jimmy
when the base surgeon and every assistant were called away because a lock port
blew during a cruiser take-off.
Nancy didn't understand how absurd it was for her to offer to care for
the Kendricks' youngest during the Commander's three-week vacation-an
exclusive camp had been planned for him.
That was when they first came to the Base and some of the women finally
explained with kindness some of these details when they saw that Nancy was
merely innocent of intrigue, that her naive behavior was not some clever
campaign to beat their game.
So Nancy thought she understood now. But she didn't. She still didn't
understand that it was more than some stupid kind of play acting, a feminine
counterpart of military foppery. She could not comprehend how utterly serious,
how completely deadly, was the little tight society of Pacific Base.
And so she came up with bizarre remarks such as saying that Glenn was
old fashioned for believing that hard work alone would win advancement.
Bizarre-like a child having come upon a glittering dagger, fascinated by its
brilliance, not knowing its proper use.
* * * *
Caroline Kendricks fluttered up as they came to the doorway. "I should
have known where you two would be," she said with sly insinuation that made
Glenn shudder. "Anyone would think you were just engaged. But,
Captain-Commander Kendricks has been looking for you. Something very urgent at
the Base, it seems. He'll see you in the library."
Glenn frowned. He gave Nancy's hand a squeeze and moved away. "Excuse
me, darling. I'll see what it is."
The "library" was a small office in the front of the house, where
Commander Kendricks kept a desk and a telephone. On the walls were paintings
of the space-ships he had commanded. On the desk were six or eight volumes of
Navy Regulations. These constituted the library.
Glenn knocked and was ordered in.
"Mrs. Kendricks said you were looking for me."
The Commander nodded, managing to convey an implication of displeasure
that Glenn had not been at his, side the moment he was needed.
There was no sign of liquor in Kendricks' face now. He wore his normal
space tan and his hands and eyes were steady. Glenn had the impression that he
always ordered uniforms a trifle small to emphasize his own great bulk. Now he
sat stiffly behind the desk as if momentous happenings were beneath his
jurisdiction.
"Central Headquarters just notified Base that a stranger in distress is
on the way in," said Kendricks. "She's not a member of the Galactic Council
but has references from Paramides. She asks use of our repair facilities.
Central gave permission. I've notified Base. You will report there at once and
see that proper facilities are provided"
"Yes, sir. When is she due in?' Kendricks made no answer. His round
hard face remained set. In such a pose the lines began to show in definite
depth.
"Is that all you have to say, Captain? 'When is she due in?' Is that
the only chord of response this information strikes in you?"
Glenn flushed. He had grown used to baltings these past three
months-sometimes he felt capable of anticipating them. But the suppressed
rebellion against the unwritten law that required his presence at the party,,
the inescapable inanity of small talk he had heard ten thousand times
before-these had shut off all rational processes in his mind tonight.
"I beg your pardon, sir," he said evenly. "I understood your
information to be that a stranger in distress has been granted haven, that --
"
And then he had it. Knew what cue he had missed.
"We will, of course, alert every member of the Analysis Crew to the
possibility of a Fourth Order drive," he finished lamely.
"I trust so-I trust so. You have not been with us very long, Captain.
Perhaps you cannot be expected to understand the importance of this prime
objective. It may underline it for you ff I point out that the only reason for
allowing a completely unidentified stranger into this base is the possibility
of subsequently finding ourselves in possession of a Fourth Order drive. Do
you understand that clearly?"
"Yes, sir."
"It remains to be seen." Kendricks glanced at the six dialed
chronometer on his wrist. "Half an hour at the most. He was in the
thirty-thousand-mile orbit when Central called. You'll have to hurry."
Glenn saluted and turned to the door, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]