Intrepid

''I found it in my research,'' Nelly said. ''Back in the nineteenth century on Earth, freebooters and mercenaries would put together an armed expedition in a wealthy country and go off to a poor one and take it over, loot it, and either leave it or keep running it. Could that be what Captain Thorpe and company are doing here?''

''Very good research,'' Kris said, knowing full well that her computer was going far beyond what usually passed for a computer search … and doing it after setting up the search conditions herself. Nelly was a growing girl. And a surprising one.

Did this come from teaching a twelve-year-old?

No way to tell.

''They've got an ex-Navy captain running it,'' Captain Drago said. ''And I'd bet money that tight-beamed message to the deck was to trigger pullers. Sure fits the bill.''

Kris nodded as the piece easily fit into the jigsaw puzzle Pandemonium had suddenly become. ''And no doubt Chief Beni will have a full report on the armament of Thorpe's command.''

''Yes I do,'' the chief said, setting a hugely loaded tray down at Kris's left elbow.

''He's in zero-gee orbit,'' Beni started, only after stretching his mouth around a mightily stacked hamburger. ''He's only running a trickle off his reactors. Yep, he has two reactors though he's doing his level best to hide one of ‘em.''

''And guns?'' Captain Drago and Kris asked as their patience wore out. ''Has he got anything charged?'' Kris finished.

''Full capacitors for two pulse lasers and a long popgun, size on either unknown,'' the chief said.

Drago let out a low whistle. ''Your former captain sounds like someone eager to do unto others before they do unto him.''

''Something I noticed before,'' Kris breathed softly.

''Will we have to fight our way into orbit?'' Drago asked.

''Too early to tell. Captain, please launch two probes, one for the jump to Xanadu, the other for this system's other jump.''

''Load on them a report on what we've found?'' Drago asked.

''Yes,'' Kris answered.

''But there are no buoys for them to pass a message along to on the other side,'' the chief pointed out.

''Thorpe won't know that, will he?'' Kris said.

''Sneaky, just like a Longknife,'' Drago said, then started muttering into his commlink.

''What's our sneaky Longknife up to?'' Jack asked as he joined the table, taking the space at Kris's right elbow. Their passenger, Andy Fronour, took the seat on his right.

Kris quickly brought Jack up to date on Thorpe's armament.

''So he's hot and loaded. Sure you wouldn't like to come back in a few weeks with, say, a half dozen cruisers?''

''Nelly found a word I'd never heard of,'' Kris said. ''What does filibuster mean to you?''

Jack took a bite from his club sandwich and studied the ceiling for a moment. ''In politics, that's what the minority party does to slow down your old man. Or, on old Earth, it's a bunch of jolly optimists with too much time and firepower on their hands going down and helping the poor stay poor.'' Jack swallowed his bite. ''Let me guess, the last one applies here.''

Drago shook his head. ''This Presley's Pride thing. It's off to hell and gone the other side of the Iberium Association. Are they planning on stripping this place and setting up there?''

''The pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Earth, thought they were heading for Virginia,'' Nelly said.

Kris shrugged. ''Whether they rechristen Panda to Presley and say ‘oops, we took a wrong turn,' or haul everyone over there, it's not going to be very much fun for them.''

''What are you going to do?'' Fronour asked, not looking all that interested in what little food he'd put on his plate.

''That is something we'll have to think about carefully as we do this approach,'' Kris said. ''Having you here, however, gives us a lot more options when it comes to calling Thorpe's bluff. The real question is, can we do it without getting a lot of people killed in the process?''

''But if you run for help,'' Fronour said, his voice shaking, ''there may not be anyone here when you get back.''

''Yes,'' Jack whispered softly, eyeing Kris.

Kris weighed all she'd learned so far. Then added in all she'd done to complicate her former captain's own tactical situation … and decided it was still too soon to make a call.

''What does Panda look like?'' Kris asked. ''Chief, you have any good planet pictures yet?''

''We're learning more by the moment, but it's only starting to take shape. Nelly, could you show what we have?''

The computer heliographed a map onto the top of the tablecloth, but it left much to be desired. Was that a terrain feature or a drop of soup left behind by a previous diner?

Kris applied her finger to said item and found it soup. Even with that knowledge, it was none too easy to get her spinning gray matter to factor out the blob.

Captain Drago retrieved a roll of plastic flimsy from beside a stack of readers next to the wardroom couch. Unrolled, the meter-by-meter square quickly became a map of the entire planet.