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Z-plus-ten, we have that much more tie-in on him."
Bran had just about run out of data, which was why they were into chatter. "Do
all Hidden
Worlds have data banks like yours?"
"I hope so. I try to send the word along, and copies of our stuff, with any
ship that cooperates." He paused. "Actually, I didn't originate the idea. I
got it from Cade Moaker on
\iCut\i
\b171\b
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Loose Charlie. He brought a packet from Number One, a sort of starting kit. "
Moaker. Bran had forgotten the Mac's fly-by with that ship. Now he told it.
Drake nodded. "He wouldn't have been from here, on that one. The coordinates
and vectors don't fit."
Relaxed now, sitting back, Tregare said, "Any more you want?"
"From you, no. Unless you think of something else for me. And far as I'm
concerned, your ship's cleared. You can go ahead with the dealings." Drake
stood. "But I'll appreciate it if you'll send your people over in groups of
twelve, to fill in anything else they may have for us. Will you set up a
circuit to me from your Control room, so we can cut out the delays with the
walking back and forth?"
"Sure." Ready to leave, Bran shook hands. "See you." He found his other people
had finished too.
They walked back to the ship.
Drake's systematic checking went fast. On his advice, Tregare dumped the five
survivors of
Farnsworth's team offship, bag and baggage. "We'll relocate them to a
settlement a few hundred kilometers north," the man said. "They won't be the
first of their kind, by any means. It's an ongoing problem, and our solution
usually works out."
Another order of business was recruiting to fill the ship's vacancies. There
were plenty of young people with an eye to space for the unskilled slots, but
a shortage of trained spacers. Bran wound up with a full roster plus a few
supernumeraries, but realized he was going to have to set up an intensive
training program. So, not to waste time, put his officers on it immediately.
On the financial end of things, Tregare lucked out. Quite a lot of his cargo
was electronic components, stuff that carried high value in small bulk. His
fuel and supplies put a smaller dent in his assets than he might have
expected. And rather than commission to carry New Hope's cargo, he bought it
outright and would sell it the same way. The Long View . . .
When the Council threw a banquet for the \iTarn's\i officers and top
ratings-about twenty in all-
Tregare turned up with a couple of good ideas. He was seated between Corlys
Haines and a Professor
Landis. First, Haines asked him if he intended to visit only Hidden Worlds in
future, or bluff it out at UET colonies also. "Raiding can be profitable, I'm
told."
\b172\b
"Yeah, I've heard that. Matter of face, I've been working on a faked log to
use for bona fides if
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%...g%20View%2001%20-%20Star%20Rebel
%20v1.0.txt (80 of 102) [7/14/2004 3:16:59 PM]
file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/Incoming/Busby,%20F.%20M%20-%20Lo...0F.%20M%20-%20L
ong%20View%2001%20-%20Star%20Rebel%20v1.0.txt we hit UET territory."
She touched his left cheek. "Then you and your new officers had better do
something about your symbols of rank."
\iRight.\i His cheek proclaimed him Third Officer, while Gonnelson and Druffel
and Blaine had no markings at all. Now why hadn't he thought of \ithat\i
objection when Farnsworth wanted the ship to go on in to Terranova? He said,
"You have anybody here who can do it for us?"
"Yes." It was agreed; Haines left to make a brief call, and returned to say
that the needle artist would visit the ship the next day.
Meanwhile, Bran had been talking with the professor, and he found the talk
interesting. Landis headed a technical group stranded here by Escape of the
ship they'd been riding. "And I have a prize gang of lab jockos, captain, and
a rather good lab"-he spread his hands-"we could hire out to design all sorts
of gear and arrange the building of it, but all this place wants is better
farm machinery!" He laughed. "Well, not quite that bad, but nearly."
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The man started to change subjects, but Tregare raised a finger. "Let me think
a minute."
Actually he didn't have to think about anything except how to say it.
The equation was this: he wanted to do UET in the eye, and peace take it, he
would! But one ship wasn't enough; he needed allies. The trouble was, far as
he knew, no other armed ship had Escaped, ever.
But that didn't mean that maybe an Escaped ship couldn't be armed later. So
Tregare asked Landis about that. "Say I give you a spare turret projector out
of ship's Stores, along with the specs for it, and for the circuitry. And the
other stuff-missiles and counter-missiles, which I haven't studied all that
much. Hull plate adapters, all that." He stared at the prof. "How'd you like
to build me some weapons, and arm other Escaped ships I send here?" Because
there \iwas\i a Hidden
Worlds grapevine, and ships left messages for each other; \iit could work.\i
Landis squinted. "It won't come cheap. You will pay how?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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