Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,3
at Ishii, then at the marines. One of them was flexing his arm and glowering back.
“I’ve failed to earn it then. Let me go in and practice my negotiating and people skills on Captain Ishii. He won’t be nearly as hard to win over as Prince Jorg.”
Judging from the way Ishii folded his arms over his chest and glared at him, he didn’t agree.
Zee stepped aside but walked close behind as Casmir joined Ishii at the command chair.
“Can you have him stand over there?” Ishii pointed at a wall. “Prince Jorg is comming in three minutes, and he believes you’ve been in the brig since I captured your shuttle, not loitering at the new sickbay coffee shop like a feckless university student meandering through his major on his parents’ crowns.”
“I didn’t know word of the coffee shop had spread.” Casmir pointed for Zee to move to the indicated spot. The last thing he wanted was for Ishii to imprison him for real.
“I understand Doctors Sikou and Angelico were upset when Sato sneaked off the ship and failed to leave instructions on the espresso machine’s operation.”
“I didn’t realize it was such an advanced piece of machinery.”
“One minute, sir,” the communications officer said.
Ishii glanced at the large forward display. Currently, it showed a field of stars. Casmir wished it could go on showing that. He didn’t want to see a giant version of Jorg’s face. Or any version at all.
“Is there any point in me suggesting that you cooperate wholeheartedly with him?” Ishii waved his marines to come closer and frame Casmir. “While bowing deeply, groveling, and perhaps throwing in some genuflections?”
“I don’t think I can do all that at once without falling onto your deck.”
“Just don’t have a seizure. It won’t win any sympathy from him.”
Casmir doubted anything won sympathy from Jorg.
As the communications officer announced, “Incoming comm, sir,” Casmir clasped his hands behind his back and tried to look like a forlorn prisoner, though it troubled him that Ishii felt the need to perpetrate the ruse. If not for Casmir and his friends, Dubashi wouldn’t have lost his potential mercenary army—and his entire moon base. Shouldn’t he be rewarded for his initiative? Or at least, shouldn’t Bonita and Qin be let go because of that initiative?
Zee glared at the two marines as they stepped close to Casmir. One lifted a hand, as if to grip his shoulder and hold him in place, but Zee leaned forward, and the man dropped it.
Prince Jorg’s face appeared on the display. Ishii and Casmir bowed deeply, as did everyone else on the bridge. The hawk-nosed Jorg wore a faint sneer, and this polite display of respect did not alleviate it.
“You are on course to Stardust Palace Station to retrieve the rest of the crushers, Captain?” Jorg asked without preamble.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Ishii said, his tone much more reverent now than it had been with Casmir, “though we have not yet been given permission to dock there.”
“Has the sultan explicitly denied you permission?” Jorg demanded.
“Yes, Your Highness. We did ask.”
“Find a way to acquire permission, load the crushers onto the Osprey, and while you are there, I want you to get the slydar detector from Shayban.”
Ishii blinked. “Your Highness?”
“Your Intelligence officers must be aware that such a thing exists now.”
Casmir knew from firsthand experience that it did and that Shayban had one. He didn’t know if it was a device or software that worked with existing scanners, but he had witnessed Stardust Palace Station effectively firing on Rache’s slydar-camouflaged ship.
“We are, Your Highness, but we’ve also learned that the devices have to be purchased from Sayona Station in System Cerberus. As you know, we can’t leave Stymphalia right now.”
“The Chivalrous is going to go work on that problem now while acquiring more allies.”
Go work on that problem? Where would Jorg go? It would be harder for Casmir to get his friends back if he had to fly halfway across the system to catch up to the Chivalrous.
“But you misunderstand me, Captain,” Jorg continued. “I don’t want you to buy a slydar detector from some unscrupulous huckster. I want you to get the one that’s proven to work from Sultan Shayban. Either copy his software, if that’s all it is, or get him to give you the device. You are authorized to pay him a fair price for it. If he is unwilling to give it up, you will force the issue. We will need it as soon as we’re able to return home. Sooner. We