"What do you mean, it never happened?"
Jonah's voice was sharp again; a week in the autodoc of the oyabun's flagship had repaired most of his physical injuries. The tremor in his hands showed that those were not all; he glanced behind him at Ingrid and Harold, where they sat with linked hands.
"Just what I said," General Buford Early said. He glanced aside as well, at Shigehero's slight hard smile.
"So much for the rewards of heroism," Jonah said, letting himself fall into the lounger with a bitter laugh. He lit a cigarette; the air was rank with the smell of them, and of the general's stogies. That it did not bother a Sol-Belter-born was itself a sign of wounds that did not show.
The general leaned forward, his square pug face like a clenched fist. "These are the rewards of heroism, Captain," he said. "Markham's crew are vegetables. Markham may recover—incidentally, he'll be a hero too."
"Hero? He was a flipping traitor! He liked the damned thrint!"
"What do you know about mind control?" Early asked. "Remember what it felt like? Were you a traitor?"
"Maybe you're right . . ."
"It doesn't matter. When he comes back from the psychist, the version he remembers will match the one I give. If you weren't all fucking heroes, you'd be at the psychist's too." Another glance at the oyabun. "Or otherwise kept safely silent."
Harold spoke. "And all the kzinti who might know something are dead, the Slaver ship and the Catskinner are quantum bubbles . . . and three vulnerable individuals are not in a position to upset heavy-duty organizational applecarts."
"Exactly," Early said. "It never happened, as I said." He spread his hands. "No point in tantalizing people with technical miracles that no longer exist, either." Although knowing you can do it is half the effort. "We've still got a long war to fight, you know," he added. "Unless you expect Santa to arrive."
"Who's Santa?" Jonah said.
The commander of the hyperdrive warship Outsider's Gift sat back and relaxed for the first time in weeks as his craft broke through into normal space. He was of the large albino minority on We Made It, and like most Crashlanders had more than a touch of agoraphobia as well. The wrenching not-there of hyperspace reminded him unpleasantly of dreams he had had, of being trapped on the surface during storms.
"Well. Two weeks, faster than light," he said.
The executive officer nodded, her eyes on the displays. "More breakthroughs," she said. "Seven . . . twelve . . . looks like the whole fleet made it." She laughed. "Wunderland, prepare to welcome your liberators."
"Careful now," the captain said. "This is a reconnaissance in force. We can chop up anything we meet in interstellar space, but this close to a star we're strictly Einsteinian, just like the pussies."
The executive officer was frowning over her board. "Well, I'll be damned," she said. "Sir, something very strange is going on in there. If I didn't know better . . . that looks like a fleet action already going on."
The captain straightened. "Secure from hyperdrive quarters," he said. "Battle stations." A deep breath. "Let's go find out."