“T his is a rotating cluster,” Martin said, watching the scan. Ky had positioned her ship exactly where instructed, but Dona Florenzia, instead of being directly aft of her at twenty-thousand kilometers, had lined up behind Cornet, on the right. Sharra’s Gift was on the correct side of the formation, but a sloppy three thousand kilometers behind her assigned spot.

“We’re on target, though,” Ky said. “Good job, Lee.”

“What is the purpose of this formation?” Lee asked, not taking his eyes off his board. “It looks admirably suited for getting us all blown away at once. That is, if everyone gets to the assigned place…”

“It lets us all shoot someone in front of us without worrying about hitting each other,” Ky said. “Except for the Lady, which is guarding our rear.”

“With one little beam weapon?”

“And her missiles,” Ky said. “And she can lay a minefield back there to screen us, too.”

“So you think it’s good?”

Ky shrugged. “Not exactly what I’d have chosen, but it’s also good for practicing getting into, and maneuvering in, formations. You don’t want to start with some of the trickier formations when people can’t keep station in this one. We’re all pointed the same way, at least.”

“Oh, good grief,” Lee muttered. Dona Florenzia, apparently noticing that she was behind the wrong ship, had tried a quick correction rather than the right one, and was now gaining on the front of the formation, angling toward Vanguard. “I’m going to have to shift, Captain.”

“I’ll tell Capt—Admiral Andreson.” Ky activated the shipborne ansible. She wasn’t looking forward to this. So far Andreson had taken her election to admiral as proof of godlike powers.

Flower communications,” someone answered.

“Captain Vatta, Vanguard,” Ky said. “Dona Florenzia is out of position and closing on us; I will be moving Vanguard.

“Hold your position,” Andreson said. “I’ve ordered the Lady back to her assigned position; she’s just maneuvering.”

“Our scans show possible intersection.”

“Nonsense. There’s plenty of room. If you were more experienced—”

“Lee, give us a kick. Just what we need.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Vanguard under acceleration,” Ky said.

“I told you to hold position!” Andreson said. “That is gross disobedience.”

“Better than a collision,” Ky said. “Plot it on scan. I did.”

“You—oh.” The scans now showed that Dona Florenzia would plow right through the position Ky would have been in. “Even so, you should have waited for me—”

“Admiral, you have many responsibilities; I would suggest that captains need to be aware of their surroundings and make minor adjustments as needed. As soon as we can, we will resume our assigned station.” She could imagine Andreson’s eyes narrowing, the suspicious tightening of her mouth.

“You take a lot on yourself, Captain Vatta,” Andreson said finally. “But I am not one to deny merit where it exists, even if it is expressed so…inappropriately. We are, after all, from different cultures. Perhaps in yours juniors contradict seniors so blatantly.”

We elected you, you arrogant twit. For your three ships, not your brains. Ky knew she couldn’t say that. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you, Admiral,” she said. “It’s certainly true that Slotter Key has its own way of doing things.” And if Bissonet was defended by people like Andreson, no wonder the pirates had chosen it for their first system takeover.

It was the fifth day since they’d begun training, with just the six ships. Muirtagh had never arrived; Andreson was convinced he had just made a course error, but Ky worried that he wasn’t coming, and might have been a pirate plant. In that case, the pirates would know that they weren’t the only ones with shipboard ansibles. Andreson had shrugged off that threat.

“Even if he doesn’t come, he may just have decided that it wasn’t profitable for him,” she’d said. “No need to think he’s selling us out.”

No need, but also no need to think he hadn’t. Argelos had told her that his adviser was also concerned, but not enough to argue with Andreson.

Maneuvers continued rough the rest of that day. Just getting the ships into the simple formation took hours, and trying to maneuver the formation as a whole led to more of what Martin called rotating clusters. At the end of the day’s work, when Andreson called all the captains into the communications net, they all looked and sounded two stages beyond grumpy. Andreson’s scathing analysis, accurate though it was, didn’t help. An extended and exhausting wrangle followed.

It turned out that Zavala, whose errors caused the first blowup, had only an incomplete command of what Ky had assumed was the common trade tongue familiar to spacers everywhere, and most of his crew knew only a few basic commands. He had honestly mistaken which ship he was supposed to follow, and claimed that the admiral’s command to correct his position had forced him to accelerate faster than he chose.

“That’s ridiculous,” Simon Battersea said. His Cornet had turned in the third best performance, according to Andreson. She had scored herself first and Ky second. “The orders were perfectly clear: line up behind Vatta’s ship—”

“No word of Vatta was spoken,” Zavala said. His ice-blue eyes, striking under dark brows and that red hair, flashed angrily. “I have the order here. It says, ‘In direct line from the flagship, form line behind intervening ship and hold position at three thousand kilometers.’ From my initial position, your ship was directly in line with the flagship.”

“It didn’t mean initial position,” Simon said. “That was obvious to everyone else—”

“Simon,” Andreson said. He sat back, lips pressed together. She seemed to speak to Zavala, though with the vidscreen showing a window for each, Ky couldn’t tell where she was looking. “I’m sorry, Captain Zavala, that my orders were unclear. I meant, of course, a line parallel to our course, from my ship back through the formation. But I understand I will have to be very clear.” Though the words were courteous, the tone was similar to Simon’s and implied that Zavala had to be really stupid to mistake the intent. Zavala’s pale face flushed.

“Your correction, I understand, was also an attempt to follow my orders, but it did require Captain Vatta to accelerate and lose her perfect position. I shall be very careful in the future to give precise orders,” Andreson said.

“That would be wise,” Zavala said. He had lost the flush, but Ky noted a telltale paleness around his mouth. He was still very angry.

“Tomorrow, we will learn this formation,” Andreson said. The graphic came up on the central window. “Perhaps being in closer order will prevent confusion.”

Ky opened her mouth then shut it. Close-order drills with ships were, in Spaceforce, not recommended until units could keep position in the more open—and safer—formations.

“You were going to say something, Captain Vatta?” Andreson said.

“My crew could use more practice in the open formation, Admiral,” Ky said.

“Your crew did exceptionally well,” Andreson said. “You don’t need the practice, and frankly, I don’t think more practice will help the others. Close formation will force precise response to precise orders. We will do this one, and we will do it at one-kilometer intervals.”

Which meant ships that erred were likely to collide and damage or destroy one another.

“That’s too close,” Argelos said. “By your own plots, we were all out of position more than a kilometer sometime today.”

Andreson’s mouth widened in a feral smile. “So I expect you all to be more careful. We cannot defeat Gammis Turek’s pirates, who are experienced in ship maneuvers, by being sloppy.”

“But, Admiral—” That was Pettygrew, the other Bissonet captain. “We don’t have the experience yet—”

“And we won’t get it if we don’t practice,” Andreson said. “You’re from Bissonet, Captain Pettygrew; you know what the stakes are here. We have no room for careless, sloppy, incompetent ship handling.”

“Are you saying I’m incompetent?” Zavala asked.

“I’m saying we must all improve,” Andreson said.

“You said Captain Vatta didn’t need to improve—”

“No, I said Captain Vatta didn’t need to practice that particular formation any longer.”

Ky looked at Zavala’s face; he was clearly not convinced. “I do not think it is safe,” he said. “It will do us no good if we collide.”

“Then don’t collide,” Andreson said. “If you are careful, nothing will go wrong.”


_______

The next day’s maneuvers began badly again. Zavala refused to close within five kilometers; Ky, all too aware of Cornet on one flank and Bassoon on the other, sympathized with him, but had no attention to spare for the argument that raged on the com. When Andreson called for the formation to rotate about its long axis, a tricky evolution, Cornet wobbled, coming within seven hundred meters of Ky before opening the distance again. By the time they broke for lunch, tempers had frayed all around. Zavala had retreated to a thousand kilometers; the others pulled back at the announcement of a meal break despite Andreson’s orders to hold formation.

“My pilot needs a break,” Argelos said. “And before you say it, I know if we were in a battle he wouldn’t get one. Still…”

“Mine, too,” Pettygrew said. Ky said nothing to Andreson, but nodded when Lee asked permission to open a distance from the two nearest ships.

“She’s nuts,” Lee said when he had pulled them back to a thousand kilometers from the nearest ship. “If we’re that tight, we’re going to worry more about hitting each other than where the enemy is, and it gives them a target barely five kilometers across.”

“She’s scared,” Martin said. “I’ve seen that before. That kind of anger is fear, really. She wanted the job, but she’s beginning to realize what it takes and she thinks she doesn’t have it.”

“Hugh, is that your reading?”

“Oh, definitely.” Her second in command had remained cool all through that difficult day, but she could tell he was worried. “She thinks the only way to hide it is to act scary herself. Thing is, she’s going to drive Zavala away.”

“You think so?” Ky said. “He seemed so enthusiastic when we met—”

“Ciudad’s part of the Loma Linda group,” he said. “We had some recruits from there, and one or two officers. Culturally quite different from Slotter Key. Take you, for instance: you’re used to giving orders to men and having them obeyed, and it doesn’t bother Lee or Martin or anyone else—male or female—that you’re a female captain. Ciudad’s different: they aren’t into gender equality much at all. It’s hard enough for Zavala to obey a woman in command, and she’s not doing anything to make it easier for him. If he’s here another three days I’d be surprised.”

“Should I talk to him?” Ky said.

Hugh shook his head. “You’re a woman, too. He may think you’re not as bad, but still you’re female. And you’re not the problem. She is.”

“Captain, you’ve got a call…from Zavala.”

“Right,” Ky said. She opened her screen.

“Captain Vatta,” Zavala said. His expression was calm, but she noticed the tension around his eyes.

“Captain Zavala,” she said. “How may I help you?”

“I do not think you can,” he said. “It is that woman—she is impossible!”

Fragments of lectures on military etiquette raced through her mind. Junior officers criticizing seniors behind their backs—disloyalty…but this was not Slotter Key Spaceforce Academy. This was…nothing yet. Nothing if it fell apart.

“We’re all new at this, Captain,” she said.

“I am making allowances,” Zavala said. “I am telling myself that she has never had such command before, that she may be under great stress. But to speak to me that way, to call me a coward, in front of all of you—that is not something a man of my people can accept without disgrace. It must be answered with honor.”

Ky had the feeling that she was missing something important. “You will forgive me,” she said, feeling her way. “I was having such trouble in the close formation that I was not listening to everything she said.”

“Ah.” A world of meaning in that tone, if only she knew what it was. “So you did not agree with her?”

“No, Captain Zavala. I was distracted; I’m sorry. For what it’s worth”—not much, she was sure—“I thought your distance was prudent, much safer than the close-order drill.”

His gaze sharpened. “Prudent. You are thinking I thought only of safety?”

She had said something wrong; she tried to think why. “Captain Zavala, I was thinking only of safety. You did say, didn’t you, that it made us more vulnerable to attack, all bunched up like that?”

“It is stupid,” Zavala said. “But she called me a coward, an old lady—”

“That was rude,” Ky said.

“It was worse than rude,” Zavala said. “It is a mortal insult, and I must answer it with honor.”

Again Ky could not quite understand; she was afraid that any question would make Zavala angrier. “When you say answer it with honor…,” she said.

“I mean a duel, of course. A duel of honor. Do you not have such?”

“Not on Slotter Key,” Ky said. “A duel of honor is a trial of some sort? A test?” Running, she thought, or climbing, or even a fistfight, primitive as that sounded.

His eyes widened. “A duel of honor is fought with the blade and the heart, until they are one.” He thrust his right forefinger into his chest. Then he shook his head, speaking very distinctly as if to a small child. “It is a fight with the sword, Captain Vatta, that ends in the death of one, either challenger or defender.”

“You’re going to challenge Petrea Andreson to a duel?” Despite herself, that ended in a near-squeak. She bit back That’s absurd, which gave her time to think of all the ways this was a very bad precedent to set.

“I must,” Zavala said. “And I would like you to be my second. She will have a male second, of course, and then we men will fight because no woman can duel.”

A prickle of irritation. “Why not?”

“Dueling is between men. Women fighting is just—” His hand waved dismissively. “There is no honor in it. No insult to you, Captain Vatta, for your defense of your ship, which we have heard about. That is different. For a woman to fight in defense of her family or home—or their extension in planet or system—is normal. But the duel of honor belongs to the realm of men.”

“And you expect us to stand by and watch you fight?”

“It is how it is done,” he said, with the dignity of someone who knows all the rules and intends to follow them.

“What if Captain Andreson refuses your challenge?”

“If her second will not fight me, then I leave. I will not stay here to see my honor dragged in the dirt.” He paused, then went on. “You do not have duels or affairs of honor on Slotter Key?”

“We don’t have duels,” Ky said. “We do have honor.”

“How can you have honor if there is no blood price?” Zavala asked.

A vision from the implant of her home in flames, her dead mother’s face, blocked out the screen for a moment. “There is a blood price,” she said, her voice thick.

“You killed your kinsman Osman, I was told,” he said. “For killing your parents, is that not so?”

“It was not a duel,” Ky said. “It was vengeance.” Very satisfying vengeance, though she knew she shouldn’t feel that way.

“I think we are not that different,” Zavala said. “So will you be my second? You are the only one I can ask.”

Ky hesitated. “What would my responsibilities be?”

“You don’t—oh. Of course. After I challenge her, you and her second will make the arrangements for the duel. It is different because in my civilization we do not challenge women, but you will explain it. I will meet her second in an honorable duel. As we are shipboard, the weapons choices available will naturally be limited to those that will cause no harm to the ships. That is why I said sword.” His voice was completely calm now, as he pointed out the practical aspects of dueling to the death on shipboard, and told her that Andreson, as challenged, would have the choice of weapons: one of three styles of sword. “And I have a handbook that you can read, for the correct wording at the time…”

This was surreal. This made no sense. They had real enemies in the universe, and he was about to kill someone, or be killed, just because he felt he’d been insulted? Perhaps she could persuade him. “Captain Zavala, while I agree that what she said was wrong, and an insult, still…this is a perilous situation we’re all in. Turek and his pirates are out there trying to capture more systems and dominate everyone…isn’t that more important?”

His face hardened. “Nothing is more important than honor. Without honor, how can I fight Turek? I must have the confidence of my crew. How can my men respect me if I accept insult without defending myself?” Then he gave her a tight smile. “But, Captain Vatta, it is the duty of one’s chosen second to test one’s resolve, as you have just done. As I said, you are more like me than I would have thought possible.”

“I see.” She didn’t see, not completely, but she did recognize intransigence. He was going to duel or he was going to leave. At least arranging the duel would take some time and maybe he would cool off, or maybe Andreson would apologize. Neither was likely, but that was all the hope she could find. “Then I accept—I agree to be your second in this matter, though I wish it could be deferred.”

“You should have been the commander,” Zavala said. “You would not have let this happen.”

That was true in one way, but she suspected that Zavala’s cultural heritage provided him with unseen trigger points that would give any female commander problems.

“You do understand,” he went on, “that if she refuses my challenge, I will be forced to withdraw from this alliance.”

“Yes,” Ky said.

“I recommend that you also withdraw, not because you are my second, but because that woman will get us all killed, if she goes on like this, and then where is your idea?”

“It’s because it’s my idea that I can’t withdraw,” Ky said. Though Andreson might very well send her away just for cooperating with Zavala. “I must share the risk.”

“As you wish. I will send my challenge to Andreson before the meal break is over.”

Ky had no appetite after that, but forced herself to eat something. She would need it if this went as badly as she feared.

She did not expect what Zavala did next: he hailed all the ships, bringing everyone online to hear his challenge. She had assumed he’d make the challenge in private, and she would have a chance to ask Andreson to apologize. Instead, in formal phrases, stilted in their translation from his native language, he called upon Andreson to give him satisfaction of “mortal blood on the field of honor.”

“What are you talking about?” Andreson asked, looking more annoyed than anything else.

“A duel, madam, for the insults you have laid upon me, to prove in blood whether such be deserved.”

“Duel? Nobody does duels anymore.”

“On the contrary, madam—”

“That’s Admiral—”

“No, madam, it is not. When an affair of honor is involved, formal ranks are discarded. You will wish to name a second—a male second, I must insist—”

“Excuse me!” Andreson had flushed. “I haven’t said—I’m not about to—”

“You refuse my challenge? Then, madam, it is you who are a coward!”

“Wait a minute!” That was Pettygrew of Bassoon. “This is—this is ridiculous. We have a real enemy—”

“A point made by Captain Vatta,” Zavala said.

“You talked to her first?” Andreson pounced on this distraction. “You and she have been talking about me behind my back? That’s outrageous!”

“I asked her to act as my second,” Zavala said. “She attempted to dissuade me from pursuing the duel, as is the duty of a second to the challenger, but she has agreed.”

“You traitor!” Andreson glared from the screen at Ky. “How dare you conspire behind my back—”

“I wasn’t conspiring,” Ky said.

“You agreed to be his second. I call that conspiring.”

“I don’t,” Pettygrew said. “If he called her and asked her to be his second—that’s what happened, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Ky and Zavala said together.

“But she agreed,” Andreson said.

“I don’t see anything wrong in that,” Pettygrew said.

“Nor I,” Argelos said. “I have known Captain Vatta longer than you and I do not think it is any more than a courtesy to someone not from our culture.”

“Well, I’m not going to get into a physical fight like some backwoods barbarian,” Andreson said, her upper lip curled. “It’s disgusting.”

“I’ll be your champion.” Battersea had drawn himself up stiffly. “It would be unseemly for you to fight, Admiral, but if that’s what it takes to convince this…this person…then I’m willing.”

“Simon, there’s no need,” she began, but Ky interrupted her.

“If he is your second, then Captain Zavala will meet him.”

“It’s absurd—”

“Let me, please,” Battersea said, leaning forward.

“Have you ever dueled?” Ky asked.

“What does that matter?”

“Only that what Captain Zavala intends is a fight to the death. One of you will die. One of your ships will no longer have a captain, and may be lost to our cause.”

“Oh, he won’t kill me.” Battersea looked faintly amused. “I am an expert with a variety of weapons, and I have the choice, don’t I?”

“Yes: a choice of which kind of sword.”

“Simon, I don’t like this,” Andreson said. “It’s not civilized—”

“And now you insult my whole people!” Zavala said. “We are an ancient and honorable civilization where it is not the practice to insult others. That is civilized.”

“Don’t be silly, Captain Zavala,” Andreson said. “I’m not insulting your people. Every culture has fossils in its cultural closet; we still have people who use drugs that rot their brains, despite everything our government can do. Your people may be civilized in every other way, but settling problems by brawling—”

“A duel is not a brawl,” Zavala said. “But whatever you think of it, I must have an answer. Will you accept the challenge of mortal blood and send your second to duel, or will you not?”

“And if I don’t you’ll run away?”

“And if you do not accept my challenge, I will proclaim your cowardice and remove myself from your command.”

“You can’t call me a coward just because I won’t risk a…a friend at a time like this.”

“You called me a coward for less.”

“I just meant—”

“Your answer, madam!”

“You can go if you want. I’m not going to sanction dueling.”

“Very well. Then I withdraw from this alliance. I do not place my crew under the command of a coward and fool. However, my regard for the rest of the officers involved is such that I give my word I will not reveal the location or plans to anyone else at any time.”

“You—!” Andreson spluttered a moment, incoherent, then recovered herself. “Good riddance,” she said to the whole group. “We’re well shut of such an unstable person. And you’ve had more than enough time for lunch…back to your positions. We need work, not silliness.”

Zavala’s ship had withdrawn another ten thousand kilometers when the shipboard ansible bleeped. Ky turned it on.

“Captain Vatta, my apologies for involving you in what was not, after all, an affair of honor.”

“You didn’t intend it to go this way.”

“No. But I should have anticipated it. I wanted to ask you about the communications device you installed on my ship. If I am not in your alliance, you will not want me to have it, I think. Should I put it in storage for you at my next port after informing you where it is?”

The image of a shipboard ansible languishing in some commercial storage facility startled Ky into speech. “No! I mean, I am concerned that it might fall into the wrong hands. Keep it. We might cross paths again.” Perhaps, if Andreson imploded, he would come back to the alliance. An idea occurred to her. “Or perhaps you could communicate the idea of the alliance to your government, let me know what they think.”

“I know what they will think. They will think they want nothing to do with anything run by that woman. Any woman, I would say, but as you have said, the threat is very real. If a successful force were commanded by an honorable woman—” The stress on honorable was remarkable, considering that he wasn’t shouting. “—then they might consider it. But that woman—never.” He shrugged. “Still, if you permit, Captain Vatta, I will retain the communications device and perhaps contact you from time to time with information I consider useful.”