Free Flagship by Mike Resnick Page B

second, the Teronis are no fools. If he's too eager and offers them too many concessions, they'll know he's doing it out of weakness. They've been at this for more than a quarter of a century; what's one more year if your enemy is in deep trouble?"
    "Then what was the point of all this?" asked David Copperfield. "I mean, if they'll know in a week or a month or even three months, what real damage have we done them? All we've done is tell them that the Theodore Roosevelt is inside the Republic."
    "They don't even know that," replied Cole. "All they know for sure is that we weren't at Singapore Station when their fleet of eight hundred ships arrived."
    "Then I repeat: why have you gone to the trouble of doing all this?"
    "I sent one message to two locations," replied Cole easily. "It wasn't any trouble at all."
    "Damn it, Steerforth! You're toying with me!"
    "Use your brain, David," said Cole.
    The little alien frowned. "I'm thinking," he said. "Nothing's coming."
    "Domak?" said Cole, raising his voice.
    "Yes, sir?" said Domak's image, appearing over the table.
    "Have you got the latest damage reports?"
    "There's been no damage to the ship, sir."
    "I mean inflicted by the Republic in the McAllister Sector."
    "Yes, sir. I have it right here."
    "Stick it on a holoscreen and transmit it down here, please."
    A holographic screen with a three-dimensional map of the McAllister Sector and a long readout below the map suddenly replaced Domak's image. Cole scanned the readout intently for a few seconds, found what he was looking for, and leaned back.
    "Thank you, Domak," he said.
    "Will there be anything else, sir?"
    "Yeah. Tell Jacovic we're going to New Lenin, and have Pilot lay in a course to get us there. Tell him we don't want to arrive in less than three days. We wouldn't want to run into any Navy stragglers."
    "I'll get right on it, sir," said Domak, ending the connection.
    "What was that all about?" asked David.
    "New Lenin is the banking and trading capital of the McAllister Sector," said Cole. "Or at least it was until two days ago."
    "What happened?"
    "The Navy decided we had a secret base there," answered Cole. "End result: there are an estimated sixty-three thousand dead, most of the major buildings in the capital city of Gromyko have been destroyed, and as far as I can tell the Teddy R remains unscathed."
    "That's tragic, of course," said David, without much emotion. "But what does it have to do with what we were just discussing?"
    "David," said Cole, "if we're going to defeat the Republic, we're not going to do it with eight hundred ships and four thousand men."
    "I'm still not following you."
    "New Lenin has a population of three million," answered Cole. "Their planet has just been attacked for no valid reason by the Republic." He paused and looked into the little alien's eyes. "Now, if you were going to recruit a few thousand motivated men and their ships to our cause, where would you look for them?"
    "I see!" said David, his eyes widening.
    "That's where we're heading now. And every time the Republic overreacts against another world, we'll be there signing them up."
    "That might even make mean old Mr. Creakle proud of you, Steerforth!"
    "Who the hell is Mr. Creakle?"
    "Our headmaster," said David reproachfully. "How could you forget?"
    "I must have lost my head," answered Cole as Val entered the mess hall. "Or maybe I confused him with Barkis."
    "Ah!" said David happily. '"Barkis is willin'."'
    "Good," said Val. "Let's recruit the son of a bitch."

 
    During the flight to New Lenin, Cole had Christine locate alien colonies and enclaves along the way. He sent Braxite out in the Archie to recruit Molarians from the alien enclave on Kipling V. Domak was given the Alice and told to recruit Polonoi from the colony on Bednari III.
    "We have two shuttles left," noted Sharon. "Who do we send out next?"
    "We have one shuttle left." They were in Cole's office, and she looked at him questioningly. "The Teddy R can't land, so we'll