Chapter 48
SO IT WAS SPACEWAYS PRINCESS that took in the first prize while Sister Sue and Agatha’s Ark continued their cruise.
Shortly after Captain MacWhirter’s ship had been detached from the squadron Captain Prinn made a personal call to Grimes. He was glad that it was during Williams’ watch. It was bad enough that he should overhear what was said; it would have been far worse had it been any of the other officers.
She looked out at him from the screen of the controlroom Carlotti transceiver, her normally harsh face even harsher than usual. Behind her Grimes could see others of the Ark’s crew, among them the young Graf von Stolzberg. All of them were regarding him with condemnation.
“Commodore Grimes,” she said, “I am serving notice that after this cruise I shall refuse to put out again under your command. It is my opinion, and that of my officers, that you deliberately goaded Captain O’Leary into taking unjustifiable risks. Why could you not have done as you did eventually, ordering Captain MacWhirter to take charge of the prize? That would have given Captain O’Leary time to make the necessary adjustments or repairs to his Mannschenn Drive. But you were foolishly inflexible and insisted that he close the main body of the fleet without delay. Furthermore you couched your message in words of a kind that should never be used by a commanding officer to those serving under him. That brutal message was contributory to the disaster.”
She moved to one side. Marlene’s son (Grimes’ son) came forward.
“Commodore Grimes, speaking as the El Doradan representative aboard this vessel, I put myself as being in complete agreement with what has been said by Captain Prinn. I shall report to Commodore Kane and to the El Dorado Corporation upon your unfitness to command any further privateering expeditions.”
And what about your fellow El Doradan? Grimes thought but did not say. What about the El Doradan representative aboard my vessel? She’s one of your lot, Ferdinand my boy. She made O’Leary blow his top . . .
He asked coldly, ignoring the young officer, “Is that all, Captain Prinn?”
“That is all, Commodore Grimes. Over and out.”
“She’s got it in for you, Skipper,” said Williams sympathetically.
“And rightly so, Billy. Rightly so.”
“It was that bloody Wally’s fault!”
“Everything that happens aboard a ship,” said Grimes tiredly, “is the captain’s fault. And everything that happens in a squadron is the commodore’s fault.” He laughed without much humor. “It’s a pity that O’Leary’s given names were Patrick Joseph, not William Moore. That would have taken one weight off my mind . . .”
“But I’m William Moore, Skipper,” said the mate. “William Moore Williams.”
“I know,” said Grimes.
He went down to his day cabin, sent for the Countess of Walshingham.
***
When she came her cat was with her. The animal (?) sat down on the deck and stared, in an oddly hungry manner, at the golden figurine of Una mounted on her golden bicycle. It ignored Grimes—which was just as well. Did it, he wondered, recognize a fellow robot? Did the mini-Una possess some sort of organic brain, just as the evil black and white beast did?
“Must you bring that creature with you?” Grimes demanded irritably.
The tall girl stood there, superb in her tailored uniform, looking down at him disdainfully as he sat behind his desk.
“I thought you knew, sir,” she said, “that all El Doradans have their guardians, their watch animals. Felix is my protector. Should anybody attempt to do me harm he will attack.”
“And you think that I might attempt to do you harm?”
“You would like to, sir, wouldn’t you? You wish that you possessed the punitive powers of the old-time captains on Earth’s seas.”
“Frankly, Ms. Walshingham, I do wish just that. What you did merits a flogging, if nothing worse. How are you people trained—if at all!—in the El Doradan Navy? Don’t you know that an officer passing on a message from his captain to another captain is supposed, if necessary, to . . . to edit the message, to put it into the proper Service terminology?”
“Since when, sir, was this armed rabble a Service?”
Grimes kept his temper. He said slowly, “It may interest you to know, Ms. Walshingham, that Captain Prinn, blaming me for what happened to Captain O’Leary . . .”
“That bog-Irish slob!”
“Quiet, damn you! Captain Prinn put through a personal call to me. She holds me responsible for what happened to Pride of Erin and condemns me for it. So do all her officers—including your compatriot the Graf von Stolzberg.”
“That mother’s boy!”
“I have not yet written my report on your conduct and capabilities. When I do so I shall see that you read it. I do not think that Commodore Kane will continue to think highly of you when he has done so.”
“I could hardly care less, sir. The Commodore is not a true El Doradan.”
“He is your commanding officer. So, come to that, am I as long as you are on my books.”
She flushed. “As the representative, aboard this ship, of both the El Doradan Navy and the El Dorado Corporation . . .”
“You are still my fourth mate. That will do, Ms. Walshingham. Get out, and take that animal with you!”
“With pleasure, sir.”
When they were gone Grimes sent for Mayhew.
***
“That bitch,” he said. “That arrogant bitch! Did she realize what she was doing, what the results were likely to be, when she passed that message?”
“I don’t think so, sir. She is, as you say, arrogant. Captain O’Leary was a member of the lower orders. She feels no more sorry for him and his crew than she would for a dog or a cat belonging to somebody else and not to her.”
“But there was an El Doradan officer aboard Pride of Erin.”
“A man, Captain. She despises all men, aristocratic or otherwise. Even so, she has her needs.”
“I thought that the other bitch, the green-skinned one, was satisfying them.”
“So did I. I have been refraining from prying into their sweaty amours. I’m not a prude, sir, but I am fastidious. And, I suppose, something of a snob. I could not bring myself to make love to a woman who was not, like me, a telepath. And, very unfortunately, such women are usually either very plain or very unintelligent. Or both.”
Grimes poured more gin for both of them.
He said, “It’s dear Wally’s love life that I’m concerned about, not yours. As long as she’s getting her odd form of satisfaction she’s a little less of a bitch than she would be normally. That goes for the Green Hornet, too.”
“That’s the odd thing, Captain. The pair of them are passing through a heterosexual phase. Not all the time, but for a lot of the time. Bestowing their favors upon the junior engineers. I don’t suppose you want to know the details . . .”
“I don’t.”
“That’s just as well, Captain. I’d hate to have to find them out for you.”
“Ours is a nice ship, ours is,” said Grimes glumly.