around.
You have much yet to learn, she thought, before you will pull me down and take my place, Pritil. Many learning scars shall mar that young hide first. I will enjoy teaching you until that day, my daughter.
Gillian and Makanee looked up as Takkata-Jim and Dr. Ignacio Metz entered sick bay, accompanied by three stocky, war-harnessed, hard-faced Stenos.
Wattaceti squealed indecipherable indignation and moved to interpose himself. Makanee’s assistants chittered behind the ship’s surgeon.
Gillian met Makanee’s eye. It had come, the confrontation. Now they would see if Makanee was only imagining things. Gillian still held out a hope that Takkata-Jim and Metz had compelling reasons for their actions, and that Creideiki’s injury was truly an accident.
Makanee had already made up her mind. Akki, the young midshipfin from Calafia, had still not returned. The doctor glared at Takkata-Jim as she would look at a tiger shark. The expression on the male dolphin’s face did little to belie the image.
Gillian had a secret weapon, but she had sworn never to use it except in the direst emergency. Let them act first, she thought. Let them show their cards before we pull that last ace of trumps. The first stages might be a little dangerous. She had only had time to make a brief call to the Niss machine from her office before hurrying to sick bay. Her position here might be difficult if she had miscalculated the degree of atavism loose on Streaker. Maybe she should have kept Keepiru by her side.
“Dr. Baskin!” Ignacio Metz didn’t swim very close before grabbing a wall rail and letting an armed Stenos pass before him. “It’s good to see you again, but why didn’t you announce yourself?”
“A grosss violation of security rules, Doctor,” Takkata-Jim added.
So that’s the way of it, Gillian thought. And they might try to make that stick long enough to get me into a cell.
“Why, I came for the ship’s council meeting, gentlefin and -mel. I got a message from Dr. Makanee calling me back for it. Sorry if your bridge crew fouled up my reply. I hear they’re mostly new and inexperienced up there.”
Takkata-Jim frowned. It was even possible she had sent such a call, which had been lost in the confusion on the bridge.
“Makanee’s message was also against orderss! And your return was contrary to my specific instructions.”
Gillian put on an expression of bewilderment. “Wasn’t she simply passing on your call for a ship’s council? The rules are clear. You must call a meeting within twenty-four hours of the death or disability of the captain.”
“Preparations were underway! But in an emergency the acting-captain can dispense with the advice of the council. When faced with clear disobedience of orders, I am within rightsss to …”
Gillian tensed herself. Her preparations would do no good if Takkata-Jim were irrational. She might have to make a break by vaulting over the row of autodocs to the parapet above. Her office would be steps away.
“… to order that-t you be detained for a hearing to be held at some time after the emergency.”
Gillian took in the stances of the guard-fen. Would they really be willing to harm a human being? She read their expressions and decided they just might be.
Her mouth felt dry, but she didn’t let it show. “You misread your legal status, Lieutenant,” she replied carefully. “I think very few of the fen aboard would be surprised to learn that …”
The words stopped in her throat. Gillian felt a chill in her spine as the air itself seemed to waver and throb around her. Then, as she grabbed a rail for support, a deep, growling sound began to emanate from inside her head.
The others stared at her, confused by her behavior. Then they began to feel it too.
Takkata-Jim whirled and shouted, “Psi weapon! Makanee, give me a link to the bridge! We are under attack-k!”
The dolphin physician moved aside, amazed by Takkata-Jim’s quickness as he rushed past. Gillian pressed her hands over her ears and saw Metz doing the same as the grating noise grew louder. The security guards were in disarray, fluting disconsolately with boat-Iike pupils wide in fear.
Should I make my break now? Gillian tried to think. But if this is an attack we’ll have to drop our quarrels and join forces.
“… incompetentsss!” Takkata-Jim shouted at the comm. “What do you mean ‘only a thousand miles away’? Pinpoint it-t! … Why won’t the active sensors work?”
“Wait!” Gillian cried. She clapped her hands together. Through a haze of building emotion she started to