Conduct Unbecoming

CONDUCT UNBECOMING

Chapter 1

"What happened? Anja, where's Rik?"

Commodore (Retired) Thanta Orwell stirred experimentally in the sickbay bed, and squinted against impossibly bright lighting. The last place she remembered being was dark, and the H'cpt had kept her there for what seemed like a long, long time.

"Commodore, how are you feeling?"

It wasn't the voice she wanted to hear. It belonged, apparently, to a woman in a medical uniform-a woman who had pink skin, a flat-boned face, and gentle hands.

Hands that pressed Thanta down again when she tried to sit up. That was foolish, because she felt fine. Just a little disoriented, maybe, after something had knocked her cold-something she didn't remember.

"I'm okay," she said testily. "Anja! Where is Rik?"

Commander Anja Britton, executive officer of the Protectorate Defense Forces starship Solomons, leaned against the nearest bulkhead and held her arms folded just below her breasts. It was a posture Thanta Orwell had seen Anja Britton use many times before-always when the Patriarca native was trying to carry off a bluff.

Anja couldn't be doing that now. She had no reason, no reason at all, for wanting to deceive Orwell?did she?

"The captain took your place, Commodore." The medic, who must be largely Charonese if her appearance was anything to go by, answered when Britton didn't. Tartly, as if she found the silence exasperating. "That's how he got you away from the H'cpt."

"What?" Now Thanta did sit up-glaring at the medic as she did so, almost daring the woman to force her down again. This time her head didn't spin. "Commander Britton. Where's Captain Boehmer? And where in hell is the new ambassador? Report, dammit! Now!"

It couldn't be true. The ruling principle of Anja Britton's life was, "Thou shalt accept reality and deal with it, no matter what that means!" Yet this time, she couldn't believe her own memories had happened.

She stared for a moment longer at Commodore Orwell, who'd been her captain in tours of duty gone by. A captain whom Anja both respected and liked; a captain for whom she would, if anyone asked her, have been willing to take considerable personal risk. But hazard Rik Boehmer's life to protect Thanta Orwell's? That Anja would not have done, not under any circumstances.

Which made no difference now. Anja moved to the commodore's bedside, and she sat down there. She said quietly, "Backup's not here yet, Commodore. The Solomons is alone. I'm not sure why the H'cpt decided to hold you, after you called us and requested an early pickup-but Rik offered to take your place when he tried to open hostage negotiations and he got ignored. The H'cpt started paying attention then, and they accepted. So they've got him now. I'm waiting for the new ambassador and the amalgamation team to get here before I do anything else, because that's what Rik ordered me to do." She paused, staring into the older woman's eyes with angry intensity. Then she demanded, "What went wrong down there? What did they want from you, and what are they doing to Rik now that you're safe and he's the one they've got instead?"

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