Part 24 (1/2)

”Are you going to vote me out?” Hans asked.

”Why did you do it?” Martin asked.

Hans looked away. ”They started keening. Women and men. I couldn't believe it, coming out and finding bodies. It was more than I could take. I'm sorry.”

”Say it to them,” Martin said.

”I'm saying it to you.”

Cham and Joe Flatworm entered. ”You b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” Joe said. ”You slicking b.a.s.t.a.r.d. We should kick you out now. Give it back to Martin and stick you away like a rat.”

Hans' face flushed and his jaw muscles tightened but he did not say anything, or move from his seat.

”We've all gone through h.e.l.l,” Martin said, feeling how pitifully reduced the Dawn Treader Dawn Treader's group of leaders had become, and so quickly. ”Hans agrees to apologize.”

”Apologize h.e.l.l. He should resign. Martin, you take the t.i.tle again.”

”No,” Martin said. ”Hans, convince us. Now Now.”

”I don't know if I want this mess on my head,” he said lightly, standing and stretching his arms. ”I'm giving serious thought to the old Big Exit. Cut my wrists and be done with it.” He glanced at Martin. ”The moms don't seem to give a slick what we do. We're just tools.”

”I'm not satisfied,” Joe said. He seemed on the verge of punching Hans; his arms crooked, fists clenched, chin thrust out.

”All right,” Harpal said. ”Stop this s.h.i.+t now and talk straight. Hans, tell us what you're going to do. And don't flex your ego.”

Hans shrunk a bit at Harpal's tone and unyielding choice of words. ”I'll pick it up again,” he said. ”I know we're in trouble if we let it slide now. Bigger responsibilities.”

”Good for a start,” Harpal said. ”What else?”

”I'll do penance,” Hans said. ”I'll put myself in solitude for a week after we get back on our feet. I'll tell the children-”

”Crew,” Martin said.

”I'll tell the crew. If...”

”If what?” Joe shot back.

”I want the mourners to spend time in solitude, as well. A day. The ones who set me off.”

”That's c.r.a.p,” Joe said.

”That's how they coped,” Harpal said.

”I have a different way of coping...” Hans began, but let it go with a shrug. ”All right. Just myself. In solitude for a week. I'm still Pan, I still give the orders. I agree to that, too. Harpal, can I lean on you for help-lean hard?”

”I'll do whatever I can,” Harpal said.

”That's all I ask,” Hans said.

We start fresh now, Martin thought, and with that thought came a kind of relief. They had cut cleanly from the disastrous past. In a way, Hans had taken the perfect course, allowing a clean break, expiation by the leader, a new game starting from this point. Martin thought, and with that thought came a kind of relief. They had cut cleanly from the disastrous past. In a way, Hans had taken the perfect course, allowing a clean break, expiation by the leader, a new game starting from this point.

If Hans had known this from the beginning, from the time he had come out of confinement-if Hans had planned this-then he was far more canny than anybody had given him credit for.

Martin s.h.i.+vered. He hoped it wasn't so.

The single mom-all the s.h.i.+p could produce now-told the crew what had happened to them and to the s.h.i.+p. They had survived the explosion of Wormwood with major damage-up to half the s.h.i.+p's capabilities reduced by failure of confinement fields under extreme neutrino bombardment; ten of the crew had died, and only now were their bodies being recycled. They had sufficient fuel to move on to Leviathan-if they voted to do so. The journey would take a minimum of one year, s.h.i.+p's time.

”Because of damage, you will not be able to face the antic.i.p.ated defenses alone,” the mom explained. ”For that reason, we suggest a combining of resources.”

Martin raised his eyes. This was the first he had heard of such a thing.

”There is another s.h.i.+p of the Law about two light years distant. We can match course with this vessel and join forces. This s.h.i.+p has suffered damage as well, and will benefit from joining forces.”

”How do you know all this?” Hans asked. ”You couldn't have heard about it on the noach.”

”We detected the results of their skirmish, and correlated their probable path of escape. When remotes extended this s.h.i.+p's sensing abilities, we used them to confirm the s.h.i.+p's path.”

”Without telling us,” Hans said.

”It was not important at the time.”

Hans shrugged, looked down at the deck. ”If we know, then the Killers know as well,” he said.

”The Killers do not know that we have escaped, though they may know of the survival of this second vessel. They do not know its present position, however. With both s.h.i.+ps combined, we will have the capabilities of a fully equipped s.h.i.+p of the Law.”

”On the other s.h.i.+p...are they human?” Erin Eire asked.

”They are not human,” the mom said.

”Do they need the same things we need?” Paola Birdsong asked. ”I mean, do they breathe oxygen, and so on?”

”With slight adjustments, environments can be joined,” the mom replied.

”What do they look like?” David Aurora asked.

”More information about this s.h.i.+p and its inhabitants will be available before we join forces.”

”Do we take a vote?” Ariel asked.

”A vote is not forbidden. But you must understand that we cannot fulfill our mission in our present condition.”

”No s.h.i.+t,” someone said in the back, out of Martin's sight; it sounded like Rex Live Oak.

”Do we really need to vote?” Hans said. ”I'm still ready to fight. If this is our only chance, we should take it.”

”Vote,” Ariel insisted, and Rosa Sequoia, in a calm, deep voice, as if speaking from a cave, agreed.

”All right,” Hans said. ”Martin, Harpal, take the count.”

The crew voted quickly, without energy. Of the sixty-five remaining, thirty voted no; thirty-five voted yes. Ariel voted to go; Rosa Sequoia voted against further action.