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ratings would be deciding among themselves what stories they would tell
at the inevitable Court of Inquiry when Discovery returned to Lindisfarne
Base.
Grimes was still working on his first, rough draft when his senior
officers with the exception of the Mad Major came to see him.
Yes? he demanded, swiveling his chair away from the paper-strewn
desk.
We d like a word with you, sir, said Brabham. The first lieutenant
looked as morose as ever, but Grimes noted that the man s heavy face bore
a stubbornly determined expression.
Take the weight off your feet, Grimes ordered, with forced affability.
Smoke, if you wish. He set the example by filling and lighting his pipe.
Brabham sat stiffly at one end of the settee. Vinegar Nell, her looks
matching her nickname, took her place beside him. Dr. Rath, who could
have been going to or coming from a funeral on a cold, wet day, sat beside
her. MacMorris, oafishly sullen, lowered his bulk into a chair. The four of
them stared at him in hostile silence.
What is it you want? snapped Grimes at last.
I see you re writing a report, sir, said Brabham, breaking the ominous
quiet.
I am writing. And it is a report, if you must know.
I suppose you re putting the rope around Major Swinton s neck,
sneered Vinegar Nell.
If there s any rope around his neck, growled Grimes, he put it there
himself.
Aren t you being& unfair, Captain? asked Brabham.
Unfair? Everybody knows the man s no more than a uniformed
murderer.
Do they? demanded MacMorris. He was cleared by that
court-martial.
And a gross miscarriage of justice that was, thought Grimes. He said,
I m not concerned with what Major Swinton did in the past. What I m
concerned about is what he did under my command, on the world we ve
just left.
And what did he do? persisted Brabham,
Opened fire against my orders. Murdered the entire crew of an airship
bound on a peaceful mission.
He did what he thought best, Commander Grimes. He acted in the best
interests of the ship, of us all. He deserves better than to be put under
arrest, with a court-martial awaiting him on Lindisfarne.
Does he, Lieutenant Commander Brabham?
Yes. Damn it all, sir, all of us in this rustbucket are in the same boat.
We should stick together.
Cover up for each other? asked Grimes quietly. Lie for each other, if
necessary? Present a united front against the common enemy, the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty?
I wouldn t have put it quite in those words, Captain, but you re getting
the idea.
Am I? exploded Grimes. Am I? This isn t a matter of bending Survey
Service regulations, Brabham! This is a matter of crime and punishment. I
may be an easygoing sort of bastard in many ways, too many ways but I
do like to see real criminals, such as Swinton, get what s coming to them!
And is Major Swinton the only real criminal in this ship? asked
Vinegar Nell coldly.
Yes, Miss Russell unless some of you are guilty of crimes I haven t
found out about yet.
What about yourself, Commander Grimes?
What about myself?
I understand that two airships were destroyed. One by the major, when
he opened fire perhaps perhaps! a little prematurely. The second by&
yourself. Didn t you maneuver this vessel so that the backblast of your
rockets blew the airship out of the sky?
Grimes glared at her. You were not a witness of the occurrence, the
accident, Miss Russell.
I know what I ve been told, she snapped. I see no reason to disbelieve
it.
It was an accident. The airship was well beneath us when it crossed
our trajectory. It was not backblast that destroyed it, but turbulence. He
turned to Brabham. You saw it happen.
I saw the airship go down in flames, said Brabham. He added,
speaking very reasonably, You have to admit, sir, that you re as guilty or
as innocent as the major. You acted as you thought best. If you d made a
normal liftoff, using inertial drive only, there wouldn t have been any
back-blast. Or turbulence. But you decided to get upstairs in a hurry.
If I hadn t got upstairs in a hurry, stated Grimes, I d never have got
upstairs at all. None of us would. The next round or salvo would have
been right on.
We are not all gunnery experts, Captain, said Dr. Rath. Whether or
not we should have been hit is a matter for conjecture. But the fact
remains that the airship was destroyed by your action!
Too right it was! agreed MacMorris. An the way you flogged my
engines it s a miracle this ship wasn t destroyed as well.
Gah! expostulated Grimes. Reasonable complaints he was always
prepared to listen to, but this was too much. He would regret the
destruction of the second dirigible to his dying day, but a captain s
responsibility is always to his own vessel, not to any other. Nonetheless he
was not, like Swinton, a murderer.
Or was he?
You acted as you thought best, murmured Brabham. So did the
major.
Major Swinton deliberately disobeyed orders, stated Grimes.
I seem to remember, Captain, went on Brabham, that you were
ordered to make a sweep out toward the Rim.
If you ever achieve a command of your own, Grimes told him coldly,
you will discover that the captain of a ship is entitled expected, in
fact to use his own discretion. It was suggested that I make my sweep out
toward the Rim but the Admiralty would take a very dim view of me if I
failed to follow up useful leads taking me in another direction.
All that has been achieved to date by this following of useful leads,
said Rath, is the probable ruin of a zealous officer s career.
Which should have been ruined before he ever set foot aboard this
ship! flared Grimes.
Then I take it, sir, said Brabham, that you are not prepared to
stretch a point or two in the major s favor.
You may take it that way, agreed Grimes.
Then, sir, went on the first lieutenant, speaking slowly and carefully,
we respectfully serve notice that we shall continue to obey your legal
commands during the remainder of this cruise, but wish to make it clear
that we shall complain to the proper authorities regarding your conduct
and actions as soon as we are back on Lindisfarne.
The inference being, said Grimes, that if Swinton is for the high
jump, I am too.
You said it, Commander Grimes, put in Vinegar Nell. The days when
a captain was a little or not so little tin god are long dead. You re only a
human being, like the rest of us, although you don t seem to think so. But
you ll learn, the hard way!
Careful, you silly cow! growled MacMorris.
Grimes forced himself to smile. I am all too aware of my fallible
humanity, Miss Russell. I m human enough to sympathize with you, and to
warn you of the consequences of sticking your necks out. But what puzzles
me is why you re doing it for Major Swinton. The Marines have always
been a pain in the neck to honest spacemen, and Swinton has all a
Marine s faults and precious few of the virtues. And I know that all of you
hate his guts.
He is a son of a bitch, admitted the woman, but he s our son of a
bitch. But you, Commander Grimes, are the outsider aboard this ship.
Lucky Grimes, always on the winning side, while the rest of us, Swinton
included, are the born losers. Just pray to all the Odd Gods of the Galaxy
that your luck doesn t run out, that s all!
Amen, intoned Rath, surprisingly and sardonically.
Grimes kept his temper. He said, This is neither the time nor the place
for a prayer meeting. I suggest that you all return to your duties.
Then you won t reconsider the action you re taking against the major,
Captain? asked Brabham politely.
No.
Then I guess this is all we can do, said the first lieutenant, getting up
to leave.
For the time being, added Vinegar Nell. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
ratings would be deciding among themselves what stories they would tell
at the inevitable Court of Inquiry when Discovery returned to Lindisfarne
Base.
Grimes was still working on his first, rough draft when his senior
officers with the exception of the Mad Major came to see him.
Yes? he demanded, swiveling his chair away from the paper-strewn
desk.
We d like a word with you, sir, said Brabham. The first lieutenant
looked as morose as ever, but Grimes noted that the man s heavy face bore
a stubbornly determined expression.
Take the weight off your feet, Grimes ordered, with forced affability.
Smoke, if you wish. He set the example by filling and lighting his pipe.
Brabham sat stiffly at one end of the settee. Vinegar Nell, her looks
matching her nickname, took her place beside him. Dr. Rath, who could
have been going to or coming from a funeral on a cold, wet day, sat beside
her. MacMorris, oafishly sullen, lowered his bulk into a chair. The four of
them stared at him in hostile silence.
What is it you want? snapped Grimes at last.
I see you re writing a report, sir, said Brabham, breaking the ominous
quiet.
I am writing. And it is a report, if you must know.
I suppose you re putting the rope around Major Swinton s neck,
sneered Vinegar Nell.
If there s any rope around his neck, growled Grimes, he put it there
himself.
Aren t you being& unfair, Captain? asked Brabham.
Unfair? Everybody knows the man s no more than a uniformed
murderer.
Do they? demanded MacMorris. He was cleared by that
court-martial.
And a gross miscarriage of justice that was, thought Grimes. He said,
I m not concerned with what Major Swinton did in the past. What I m
concerned about is what he did under my command, on the world we ve
just left.
And what did he do? persisted Brabham,
Opened fire against my orders. Murdered the entire crew of an airship
bound on a peaceful mission.
He did what he thought best, Commander Grimes. He acted in the best
interests of the ship, of us all. He deserves better than to be put under
arrest, with a court-martial awaiting him on Lindisfarne.
Does he, Lieutenant Commander Brabham?
Yes. Damn it all, sir, all of us in this rustbucket are in the same boat.
We should stick together.
Cover up for each other? asked Grimes quietly. Lie for each other, if
necessary? Present a united front against the common enemy, the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty?
I wouldn t have put it quite in those words, Captain, but you re getting
the idea.
Am I? exploded Grimes. Am I? This isn t a matter of bending Survey
Service regulations, Brabham! This is a matter of crime and punishment. I
may be an easygoing sort of bastard in many ways, too many ways but I
do like to see real criminals, such as Swinton, get what s coming to them!
And is Major Swinton the only real criminal in this ship? asked
Vinegar Nell coldly.
Yes, Miss Russell unless some of you are guilty of crimes I haven t
found out about yet.
What about yourself, Commander Grimes?
What about myself?
I understand that two airships were destroyed. One by the major, when
he opened fire perhaps perhaps! a little prematurely. The second by&
yourself. Didn t you maneuver this vessel so that the backblast of your
rockets blew the airship out of the sky?
Grimes glared at her. You were not a witness of the occurrence, the
accident, Miss Russell.
I know what I ve been told, she snapped. I see no reason to disbelieve
it.
It was an accident. The airship was well beneath us when it crossed
our trajectory. It was not backblast that destroyed it, but turbulence. He
turned to Brabham. You saw it happen.
I saw the airship go down in flames, said Brabham. He added,
speaking very reasonably, You have to admit, sir, that you re as guilty or
as innocent as the major. You acted as you thought best. If you d made a
normal liftoff, using inertial drive only, there wouldn t have been any
back-blast. Or turbulence. But you decided to get upstairs in a hurry.
If I hadn t got upstairs in a hurry, stated Grimes, I d never have got
upstairs at all. None of us would. The next round or salvo would have
been right on.
We are not all gunnery experts, Captain, said Dr. Rath. Whether or
not we should have been hit is a matter for conjecture. But the fact
remains that the airship was destroyed by your action!
Too right it was! agreed MacMorris. An the way you flogged my
engines it s a miracle this ship wasn t destroyed as well.
Gah! expostulated Grimes. Reasonable complaints he was always
prepared to listen to, but this was too much. He would regret the
destruction of the second dirigible to his dying day, but a captain s
responsibility is always to his own vessel, not to any other. Nonetheless he
was not, like Swinton, a murderer.
Or was he?
You acted as you thought best, murmured Brabham. So did the
major.
Major Swinton deliberately disobeyed orders, stated Grimes.
I seem to remember, Captain, went on Brabham, that you were
ordered to make a sweep out toward the Rim.
If you ever achieve a command of your own, Grimes told him coldly,
you will discover that the captain of a ship is entitled expected, in
fact to use his own discretion. It was suggested that I make my sweep out
toward the Rim but the Admiralty would take a very dim view of me if I
failed to follow up useful leads taking me in another direction.
All that has been achieved to date by this following of useful leads,
said Rath, is the probable ruin of a zealous officer s career.
Which should have been ruined before he ever set foot aboard this
ship! flared Grimes.
Then I take it, sir, said Brabham, that you are not prepared to
stretch a point or two in the major s favor.
You may take it that way, agreed Grimes.
Then, sir, went on the first lieutenant, speaking slowly and carefully,
we respectfully serve notice that we shall continue to obey your legal
commands during the remainder of this cruise, but wish to make it clear
that we shall complain to the proper authorities regarding your conduct
and actions as soon as we are back on Lindisfarne.
The inference being, said Grimes, that if Swinton is for the high
jump, I am too.
You said it, Commander Grimes, put in Vinegar Nell. The days when
a captain was a little or not so little tin god are long dead. You re only a
human being, like the rest of us, although you don t seem to think so. But
you ll learn, the hard way!
Careful, you silly cow! growled MacMorris.
Grimes forced himself to smile. I am all too aware of my fallible
humanity, Miss Russell. I m human enough to sympathize with you, and to
warn you of the consequences of sticking your necks out. But what puzzles
me is why you re doing it for Major Swinton. The Marines have always
been a pain in the neck to honest spacemen, and Swinton has all a
Marine s faults and precious few of the virtues. And I know that all of you
hate his guts.
He is a son of a bitch, admitted the woman, but he s our son of a
bitch. But you, Commander Grimes, are the outsider aboard this ship.
Lucky Grimes, always on the winning side, while the rest of us, Swinton
included, are the born losers. Just pray to all the Odd Gods of the Galaxy
that your luck doesn t run out, that s all!
Amen, intoned Rath, surprisingly and sardonically.
Grimes kept his temper. He said, This is neither the time nor the place
for a prayer meeting. I suggest that you all return to your duties.
Then you won t reconsider the action you re taking against the major,
Captain? asked Brabham politely.
No.
Then I guess this is all we can do, said the first lieutenant, getting up
to leave.
For the time being, added Vinegar Nell. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]