Free Sertian Princess by Peter Kenson Page A

mission.  The orders, of course, had already been transmitted into the ship's computers but the authorisation code which would allow him to access them, would not be sent until the Cleopatra was under way.
    The previous day had been so hectic that he hadn't found time to meet Anton again until the evening in the wardroom on Runnymede.  Then the two of them had retired to Mikael's private quarters on board Cleopatra, with a bottle of Galatian brandy, and had spent half the night discussing the possibilities of the mission while the fitters continued working on the ship.  When they had finished both the talking and the brandy, they were none the wiser except to agree that the mission had a lot of priority behind it, which could only mean that somebody very high up was interested in its success.
    Anton had received his orders seconding him to the Cleopatra and was due to report aboard just before launch time.  He had spent the intervening time collecting together what he called a few surgical necessities, as he reasoned that they would not be seconding a surgeon to the mission unless there was a good chance of some casualties.
    He arrived at the Cleopatra with a full gravsled in tow, just as the last fitter was leaving.  He ducked through the hatchway and, turning towards Mikael, gave him his best naval salute.
    "Surgeon Commander Barasny, reporting on board, sir.  Here are my orders."
    For a moment, Mikael was completely taken aback as, all through their years of training and then service, Anton had always outranked him.  It had never affected their friendship in any way but it had always been there.  Now Mikael was the Captain in command of his ship, welcoming on board his new surgeon.
    "Glad to have you aboard, Surgeon," he formally replied.  Then he grinned at him.  "You cut it awfully fine, Tony, and what have you got on that sled?"
    "Just a few medical supplies I thought I might need."
    "Just a few! It looks as though you're proposing to equip a complete hospital ship.  I don't know what you've been used to on the Pushkin, old man, but the Cleopatra has only got a tiny sickbay."
    "I'm sorry, Mikky, but I didn't get a chance to check out your sickbay before I came.  So I thought I'd better come prepared."
    "Prepared for a small war by the look of it."
    Mikael turned to the bosun's mate standing at the back of the airlock.  "Bosun, show the Surgeon where the sickbay is and have some of the men get these supplies on board and stowed away.  And in double quick time."
    "Aye aye, sir."
    "Join me on the bridge when you're ready, Tony," and Mikael ducked out of the airlock.
    The Cleopatra was a short, stubby little ship, built about 50 years previously, primarily for escort duties.  She carried a complement of 8 officers and 67 men.  Her main offensive armament consisted of two Mark IV Wehner-Metson pulse lasers fixed forward of the bridge and six torpedo tubes, four located centrally and two aft.  She carried the latest Mark 85 torpedoes with the MITS (Multiple Independent Target Seeking) warheads, and also SMART Neutron bombs for use either against space targets or against ground based installations.
    Defensively, she was equipped with a ring of short range laser cannons around each of the two main airlocks.  These served the dual purpose of defending the corvette against a hostile boarding action and also providing close range defence against incoming missiles if the ECM systems failed to deflect them.  The force screens around the ship were designed to absorb the equivalent of 100 full power laser pulses in any 10 minute period without overloading, and the Cleopatra carried the latest 'stealth' equipment to reduce the risk of registering on electronic or mass detection devices.
    The sickbay on the Cleopatra was situated on the second level just forward of the rear torpedo room.  The Surgeon's private quarters consisted of a small cubicle barely large enough for a bunk, a locker and a foldaway desk.  In