Amazingly and extremely fortunately Grimes was able to get some time alone with Maggie and Fenella. Somehow he had been put in charge of setting up makeshift spaceport facilities in the drill ground, with Amazons scurrying hither and yon at his bidding. Among these women soldiers were Shirl and Darleen. Grimes called them to him, on the pretense that they were to act as his liaison with the Amazon officer in charge.
"Did you get our note?" asked one of the New Alicians.
"Of course. It was the information I needed. Now, you two, stick close to us . . ." He broke off the conversation to give orders to an Amazon sergeant. "Yes. I want that inertial drive pinnace out of the way. The field must be completely cleared." And to a lieutenant, "Just leave it here, will you? Yes, I can operate it . . ." From the speaker of the portable transceiver came a voice, that of Lieutenant Gupta. "Krait to Palace, Krait to Palace. Do you read me? Over." Shirl handed Grimes the microphone on its long lead. "Palace to Krait," he said. "I read you loud and clear. Over." "Lifting off," came the reply. "Are you ready for me? Over." "Not quite. I shall call you as soon as the marker beacons are set out. Over and out."
He was free now to give hasty instructions to the four women. "Gupta is under your orders, Maggie. I want him and all his people out of the ship. You go aboard on some pretext—to the control room. You know how to operate the airlock controls, don't you? Good. Then, as soon as we get the chance, the rest of us will board. Button up as soon as we've done so and get upstairs in a hurry. You can do that much, can't you? Then I'll take over as soon as I can."
"What if we're fired on while we're lifting?" she asked. "I'm no fighter pilot. I'm only a simple scientist with the minimal training in ship handling required for all Survey Service officers in the non-spaceman branches."
"Krait's a Federation ship. I don't think that Ellena would dare to try to blast her out of the sky. At least, I hope not. And I'll scamper up to control, to take over, as soon as I possibly can."
And then, leaving Maggie and Fenella standing by the transceiver, he, with Shirl and Darleen as his aides, took charge of the final preparations for the reception of the courier. Three powerful blinker lights had been found and adjusted to throw their beams upward and set out in a triangle almost at the exact center of the field. The lights were not the regulation scarlet but an intense blue. It did not matter. Gupta would be told what to expect.
Gupta had made good time, drifting over from the spaceport on lateral thrust. The arrhythmic cacophony of his inertial drive was beating down from the clear sky as he hung over the drill ground at an altitude of one kilometer. The light of the mid-morning sun was reflected dazzlingly from her sleek slimness.
"Clear the field!" Grimes bellowed through a borrowed bullhorn.
"Clear the field!" the cry was taken up by officers and NCOs.
Grimes, accompanied by Shirl and Darleen, returned to the transceiver. He took the microphone from Maggie, ordered Gupta to land at the position marked by the beacons. Gupta acknowledged, then came in slowly, very slowly. Anyone would think, thought Grimes, that Krait had been built from especially fragile eggshells.
But Krait came in, her inertial drive hammering, maintaining her in a condition of almost weightlessness. Luckily there was no wind; had there been she would have been blown all over the field like a toy balloon.
She came in, and she landed. Her drive was not shut off but was left running, muttering irritably to itself, in neutral. Obviously Lieutenant Gupta wasn't at all happy about the situation. Grimes was. Krait, even under Maggie's unskilled management, would be able to make a quick get-away.
"Krait to Commander Lazenby," came from the transceiver speaker. "Your orders, please?"
Grimes passed the microphone to Maggie. "Report to the Lady Ellena in the command office, please."
There was another period of waiting.
At last Krait's airlock door opened and the ramp was extended. Down it marched Lieutenant Gupta. For some reason he had taken the time to change into his full dress finery—starched white linen, frock coat, gold braided sword belt and ceremonial sword in gold-braided scabbard, gold-trimmed fore-and-aft hat. He threw a grudging salute in Maggie's general direction. She, not in uniform, could not reply in kind but bowed slightly and stiffly.
"Where are your officers, Lieutenant?" asked Maggie.
"At their stations still, Commander."
"They are to accompany you to audience with the Lady Ellena. It is essential that her instructions be heard by everybody."
"If you so wish," said Gupta. He lifted his right wrist to his lips to speak into the communicator.
"Tell them," said Maggie, "not to bother to change out of working uniform. They can come just as they are."
"All the officers?" queried Gupta.
"Yes."
"But regulations require that there must be a shipkeeper."
She said, "I shall be your shipkeeper until you return. In any case, I wish to get some things from my cabin."
Scowling, Gupta barked orders into his communicator.
They came down the ramp in their slate gray shorts-and-shirt working uniform—a lieutenant jg, three ensigns, first lieutenant, navigator, electronicist and engineer officer. This latter, Grimes noted happily, had not shut down the drive before leaving the ship. He hoped that Gupta would not send him back to do so. But Gupta, unlike Grimes when he had been captain of such a vessel, was a slave to regulations. In these circumstances the drive must be left running until such time as the captain decided that it was safe to immobilize his command. And he was leaving Krait in the hands of an officer—Commander Lazenby—senior to himself.
Lieutenant Phryne marched up to them, followed by six Amazon privates. She saluted with drawn sword.
"Lieutenant," said Maggie, "please escort these gentlemen to the Lady Ellena."
"As you say, Commander."
As Krait's people marched off, Maggie mounted the ramp, passed through the airlock doors. How long would it take her to get up to control? Grimes had timed himself many years ago; it was one of the emergency drills. He doubted that she would break his record. He had done it in just under five minutes—but he had known the layout of the ship. Should he allow Maggie double that time? He snuck a glance at his wrist companion, surreptitiously adjusted and switched on the alarm. He looked around the drill ground. The well-disciplined Amazons had been ordered to clear the field; that order still stood. They were standing there around the perimeter, sunlight brilliantly reflected from metal accoutrements. Even so, Grimes thought, he and the others would have to be fast. Those women were dead shots and in the event of their being ordered to use no firearms, to take their prisoners alive, they could run.
His wrist companion suddenly beeped.
"Now!" barked Grimes.
Fenella sprinted up the ramp. Shirl and Darleen each made it to the airlock with a single leap. Grimes followed hard on their heels. He was dimly aware that the Amazons had broken ranks, were pouring inwards from all sides toward the little spaceship. But he had no time to watch them. The outer airlock door was shutting, was shut. The deck under his feet lurched. He and Fenella and Shirl and Darleen were thrown into a huddle. Structural members were either singing or rattling, or both. Maggie must have slammed the drive straight from neutral to maximum lift.
He disentangled himself from the women, began the laborious climb—it seemed as though he were having to fight at least two gravities—up the spiral staircase, from the airlock to control.