Scornful Stars Read online

  “Yes, please,” Sikander replied. He’d earned it, after all, and so had the rest of Decisive’s officers in attendance. Normally ships returning from a two-month patrol would be able to stand down and adopt something close to a civilian work schedule, with full weekends for activities such as fishing trips and afternoon cookouts, but Decisive had been in port for only a long week before Harrier returned with the news that had sent Sikander and his crew right back out again on the Fort Jalid raid. Today’s gathering marked the first time in more than three months that he’d had the opportunity to entertain, and he meant to enjoy it.

  “I have to say, this corner of the island has a lot going for it,” the Kashmiri engineer observed as he handed Sikander a fresh bottle of beer. “I see why you like the marina district.”

  “Are you thinking about buying a place on Tawahi?”

  Shah nodded. His family was just as rich as Sikander’s; he could afford anything on the island. “I intended to look into a condo somewhere along the West Beach strip soon after I arrived, but then we went to space only a few days after I reported for duty. I just didn’t have much of a chance to see what was available before we left.”

  “West Beach is very nice, and you’d be close to the nightlife, such as it is around here. But I find that a boat slip in my backyard is hard to beat.”

  “I spend enough time on ships already, thank you,” Shah said with an easy laugh.

  “It’s not the same thing,” Sikander said, bemused by the engineer’s relaxed attitude. The Shah he saw every day on Decisive was a results-driven, hands-on leader who pushed himself—and his subordinates—hard. This Shah was a man evidently quite comfortable in his own skin, and even though he’d sampled Sikander’s beer cooler, it wasn’t just a drink or two showing. Away from Decisive and out of uniform, Amar Shah was a Kashmiri aristocrat whose pedigree rivaled Sikander’s own, and he knew it. Sikander wasn’t sure how he felt about that; he liked to think that he didn’t expect an unusual amount of deference from his officers in a social setting, but then again, most of them didn’t really change their stripes in his presence just because they were ashore. Well, that’s why I host these gatherings, isn’t it? he told himself. It’s an opportunity to get to know my key people in a less formal environment. I shouldn’t be put off when they let down their guard. He poked at the grill, and gave Shah a small shrug. “Besides, it’s not about the boat, it’s about the fishing.”

  “Which is something else that I’m not very interested in—although naturally I wouldn’t presume to criticize my superior officers’ choice of pastimes,” Shah said diplomatically.

  “Good, because otherwise you wouldn’t get to eat today.” Sikander grinned to take the sting out of the words, and studied his handiwork a moment longer. On careful consideration, he judged the kebobs to be done but not overdone. He raised his voice and announced his findings to the dozen guests lounging around his patio: “Dinner is ready! Grab your plates.”

  “Dinner!” Amelia Fraser’s children—Eric, five, and Ivy, three—shouted in chorus. Sikander had put on a couple of hot dogs for them, which usually suited them just fine.

  “About time,” Amelia observed. “I was beginning to wonder if you remembered how to work that thing, Captain.”

  “Food on top, fire on the bottom. It’s not that hard.” Sikander set the kids’ hot dogs on a pair of plates, then loaded up a platter with the fish kebobs and carried them over to the serving table Darvesh had set up for him. He motioned for the Frasers to lead the way and see to their children, then followed them down the table to arrange a plate for himself—he’d found that no matter how much he insisted, many of the junior officers at one of his cookouts wouldn’t think of helping themselves to the food until after they’d seen their CO make a pass through the line. He took a seat on the low stone wall that ringed the patio and pool, and watched as Decisive’s officers—well, those who weren’t on duty or busy with Saturday plans of their own—loaded up their own plates.

  “Thank you, Captain. This is great,” Jay Sekibo said, taking a seat on the wall near Sikander’s spot. As one of Decisive’s longer-serving division officers, he’d been to a few of Sikander’s cookouts and was not overly nervous about bumping elbows with his commanding officer in a social setting … which was another one of the reasons Sikander hosted the gatherings to begin with. Not only did they build a certain amount of camaraderie in the wardroom, they helped him to introduce junior officers to the fleet’s social life—a little bit of professional development that was easy to overlook. For that matter, it didn’t hurt to show his department heads, who might not be all that far from commands of their own, something about domesticization of ensigns.

  “My pleasure, Jay,” Sikander replied. “We’ve had a busy couple of months, and everybody’s been working a lot of long hours. I just wanted to do a little something to express my appreciation.”

  “Which just so happened to provide you with an excuse to spend the morning trolling for sunfin,” Amelia’s husband Jerrod pointed out from the table the XO and her family had claimed.

  Sikander grinned—Jerrod Fraser had joined him on more than one of those fishing trips during his months at Neda. “Well, yes. That goes without saying.” He went on to regale Jerrod with an account of the morning’s fishing, after which the party conversation continued on to various other hobbies and interests. After dinner, Jerrod Fraser bundled up young Eric and Ivy and took them home for the evening bath and bedtime rituals, while Amelia lingered a little longer with the rest of Decisive’s officers.

  Darvesh Reza appeared with Sikander’s personal comm device. “A call for you, sir,” he said. “I believe it’s Ms. Pavon.”

  “Elena? I’ll take it, thank you. Please excuse me, everybody.” Sikander took his comm device from Darvesh and ducked around a corner of the house, seeking more privacy for the call. What’s she doing in Neda? I thought she was in Dahar. The idea that Elena might actually be somewhere in the same star system brought a nervous flutter to his stomach—they’d shared only a couple of conversations and an hour or two enjoying the harvest celebration at Mount Kesif, but he’d sensed that they might be at the start of something very interesting. I’m sure this is about Pegasus-Pavon concerns or perhaps another lead about piracy, not anything personal … or is it?

  He collected himself, and activated the unit’s small vidscreen. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Sikander, it’s Elena.” She smiled warmly at him from the tiny screen, her dark hair pulled back in a practical braid. “I just arrived on Neda, and I’m on my way down to Tawahi. Could I come by Decisive? I thought it would be nice to see you as long as I was in the system, and I have something I want to talk to you about.”

  “Umm, certainly, I’d like to see you too. But…”

  “Oh, I’m an idiot. It’s Saturday night there, isn’t it? You must have plans.”

  “No, no, it’s okay.” In fact, now that he’d recovered from his surprise, Sikander decided that it was more than okay. He’d had to cut their previous date short because of the news from Meliya, and then he’d managed only a cursory message thanking her for the tip that led Decisive to Zafer. He was frankly astonished that Elena Pavon had any interest in resuming their acquaintance, if in fact that was what this was about. “It’s not anything formal. I’m at home, hosting a small cookout for some of my officers. If you’d like to drop by, I can put a kebob on the grill for you.”

  “I’d love that. Are you sure I’m not intruding?”

  “Not at all. My address is 204 Marina Loop Drive.”

  “Great. I’ll be along shortly.” Elena ended the call.

  Did I just make a dinner date while I’ve got a houseful of guests? Sikander asked himself. Well, he had—if it really was a date, although he wasn’t entirely sure it was. Apparently the situation with Elena Pavon was not as clear as he might have hoped. He sighed, second-guessing his spontaneous invitation, and returned to the back patio. “Ms. Pavon may be stopping by soon,” he announ
ced to his guests. “You may remember her from Dahar.”

  “Ah, too bad. I was just leaving,” Amelia Fraser announced. “Time for me to get back home and tuck in the kids. But please say hello to her for me.” She stood up and gave the other remaining guests a look that somehow got everyone else on their feet, too.

  “Thank you, Captain, dinner was great,” Michael Girard said. “I, umm, have a thing to get to.”

  “Me too, sir,” Jay Sekibo added. “I’m meeting up with some friends later to hit the clubs. Good night, everybody.”

  Amelia Fraser ushered the rest of Decisive’s officers toward the door. Sikander saw them through the usual good-byes and thank-yous as they took to their flyers and ground cars, disappearing into the warm night. Amelia lingered only long enough to make sure her husband had collected all the children’s’ things.

  Sikander eyed her suspiciously. “Would you care to explain why you chased off all my guests?”

  “In the year that I’ve been serving with you, I think I’ve seen you make maybe three dates. There is no way in the world I’m going to get in the way of a fourth.”

  “I don’t recall that an XO is supposed to concern herself with a CO’s dating situation.”

  “Most of them don’t need the help.” Amelia grinned at him. “Good night, Sikander. Have fun—and don’t even think about setting foot on the ship until Monday.”

  “Enough already! We’ll resume this discussion at the time and place of my choosing, I promise.”

  Amelia replied with a raised eyebrow, and headed for her own flyer; Sikander returned to his patio to straighten up. Naturally, Darvesh had already cleared most of the plates and glasses and restarted the grill. “I understand Ms. Pavon may be joining us for dinner?” the valet said without a hint of amusement.

  “It seems that way.”

  “Very good, sir. In that event might I recommend a fresh shirt, and perhaps a little cologne?”

  “Not you, too.” Sikander scowled at Darvesh, but he took his advice and retreated to his bedroom to change into khakis and a nice button-down shirt. The cologne struck him as a little too much, though. He finished changing just in time to answer the door when the bell chimed.

  Elena stood on his doorstep, wearing a flowing knee-length summer dress with emerald green stripes and matching sandals; a luxury flyer whirred softly in the drive behind her. “I take it I missed the party?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid my guests scattered suddenly—it was pretty casual, really. But I’m glad that you were able to stop by. Come on in.”

  “Thank you,” she said. She followed him through the house and out onto the patio; the last embers of Tawahi’s swift sunset glowed faintly along the horizon, and the colorful lights of the other homes ringing the basin glimmered across the water. “This is very nice. Do all Aquilan captains get waterfront homes?”

  “I’m just renting it for the duration of my assignment in Neda. I think it’s good to have a place to go home to each night when Decisive’s in port—there’s such a thing as spending too much time on your ship.” Sikander nodded in Darvesh’s direction. “Can I have Darvesh fix a bit of dinner for you? And get you something to drink?”

  “Please. I’m hungry, although it’s late in the morning by my ship’s time.”

  “Brunch for you, and an after-dinner snack for me, then.” Sikander poured her a glass of white wine that would go well with the kebobs and another for himself, and led her over to the patio table—cleaned up after the Fraser children and reset with two place settings by the efficient Darvesh, of course. “The last I heard, you were in Dahar. What brings you to Neda?”

  “My security team convinced me that Dahar was growing dangerous for me. Well, the kidnapping attempt did that, but afterwards my security people told me that it might be a good idea to get off the planet for a while, and I agreed with them.”

  “Kidnapping? Good God! What happened?”

  “Someone tried to grab me a few days after you raided Zafer: a gang affiliated with Zerzura’s pirates, or so I believe. They arranged a bogus after-hours meeting at my office in Mersin, and tried to abduct me when I finally left the building. Fortunately my personal assistant is better armed than I thought he was. We got away from the team they sent to grab me, although the kidnappers fled the scene before the Mersin police got there. Anyway, after that I decided that I could catch up on some work back in Nuevo León—it’s my family’s headquarters. But when I heard that Decisive and another destroyer had raided a second pirate base, I decided to stop by and see what you’d found. You’re sort of on the way back to Dahar.”

  “I’m glad that you are okay. And I’m glad that you decided to make the detour to tell me.”

  “If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m here to find some answers, Sikander. Seeing you is something of a side benefit.” She took a sip of her wine, as cool as if she dealt with kidnapping attempts all the time. “First of all, I want to see if you happened to catch any of the people who tried to grab me in Dahar—a long shot, but worth a try. Second, and perhaps more important, I’m certain that the kidnappers knew that I passed you the tip about Venture Salvage. That was the bait they used for setting up the bogus appointment. I want to know who you told about Venture Salvage, and when you told them.”

  Sikander frowned. Evidently this was not the sort of date he’d hoped for, but he shifted his expectations and thought about the implications of her visit. “You think that someone on my end told the pirates where we got our tip from?”

  “I see only three possibilities.” Elena held up her hand and counted them off. “One: The investigators I hired to get that information left a trail for the pirates’ allies to follow back to me. Two: Someone tapped my communications. Or, three: The Commonwealth Navy—possibly inadvertently—let the source of their intelligence slip. I’d like to know which it is before I go back to Dahar.”

  “I can see this is going to be a working dinner,” Sikander said. “Let’s start again, and see if we can build a timeline. Tell me everything.”

  “In just a minute,” Elena replied, casting a longing look over at the grill. “Those kebobs smell amazing, and I’m going to insist on being fed before we go too much further.”

  They hurried through dinner; Sikander just picked at his own. Then they spent an hour or more poring over a calendar on Elena’s dataslate, tracing out the timing of messages and events with the remains of their dinner shoved over to one side of the patio table. Together they were able to confirm that the kidnapping attempt had taken place the day before Decisive arrived in Bursa with Qarash and the prisoners from Zafer, which was the first time Sikander’s crew had made any report of the action they’d taken; clearly the kidnapping was not in response to any Aquilan slip. On the other hand, the attempted abduction had occurred seven days after Elena received her investigators’ report about Venture Salvage and sent off a message to Sikander, so it was definitely possible that someone monitoring her communications—or aware of her investigators’ discovery—would have known to use Venture Salvage as bait.

  And a comm tap of some kind would also clear Elena of responsibility for the attack on Grupo Constelación’s Duquesa, Sikander realized. He’d mentally filled in those dates for himself as he went over Elena’s story. Somebody in Dahar who knew about the message Elena sent to me could easily have guessed that I’d leave Meliya exposed to go investigate Zafer, and passed word to their pirate friends to raid the system. If that was the case, it was a bold play … but Zerzura’s pirates were nothing if not audacious. Still, he was relieved to discover an explanation for the Duquesa attack that didn’t require him to choose between coincidence and complicity on Elena’s part. “There might be some possibility we’re overlooking,” he told Elena. “But it seems to me that you’d better assume that your communications aren’t secure. Be careful what you say in any messages you transmit, and find another channel to warn people who regularly correspond with you that they should be careful, too.”

  El
ena made a face. “Do you have any idea what a nuisance that’s going to be? Half my workday consists of sending and receiving messages.”

  “Routine business matters probably aren’t worth worrying about—it’s pretty clear that Zerzura’s pirates are already familiar with your ships’ sailing schedules and cargo manifests. Just make sure to safeguard your personal schedule and travel arrangements for now.”

  “And invest in the best commercial encryption system I can find.”

  “It probably wouldn’t hurt,” Sikander said. “Although I can think of a few ways to use what you know against whoever’s reading your messages. For example, you could send a fake message that indicates you’ll be at a certain place at a certain time, then arrange for someone to be waiting in case the kidnappers make another attempt on you.”

  Elena nodded in appreciation. “That’s clever.”

  “I served as a staff intelligence officer in the Tzoru Dominion a few years back. They covered some of the tricks of the trade during Intel School. If you think your enemy is listening in, you can say things you’d like him to hear.”

  “That’s an answer for one of my two problems—or a way to find an answer, at least. Now, what about seeing if you happened to capture any of my kidnappers?”

  “Do you know their names?”

  “The two that Omar shot were called Mert and Haluk. I don’t think they survived, but I did get a good look at three who did: the one I got with the stunner, and the two who chased me to the elevator when the transport flyer touched down in the garage. Show me your prisoners, and I’ll see if I can pick them out.”

  Sikander rubbed at his chin. “I think I can arrange that, but I’ll have to speak to the judge advocates, and they might need a statement from you. I’m afraid it might take a couple of days—it’s Saturday night, as you noted earlier. Will you be staying in Neda for a while?”