Free Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C. J. Cherryh Page A

own quarters,” Conn said. “I’m tired.”
    “Yes, sir,” Beaumont said quietly. “This way. We’ve made them as comfortable as possible.”
    He was grateful. He squared his shoulders out of the slump they had acquired, walked with her and with Bob and Gallin in that direction. She opened the door of a smallish dome bubbled onto the main one, with a plastic paned window and a door sawed out of the foam and refitted on hinges. There was a bed inside, already made up; and a real desk, and a packing mat for a rug on the foamset flooring.
    “That’s good,” he said, “that’s real good.” And when the company made to leave: “Captain. Can I talk to you a moment?”
    “Sir.” She stayed. Bob Davies and Pete Gallin discretely withdrew, and the reg who had brought some of the luggage in deposited it near the door and closed the door on his way out.
    “I think you know,” he said, “that something’s wrong. I imagine it bothered you—my not being down here.”
    “I understand the procedure calls for the ranking officer to stay on the ship in case—”
    “Don’t put me off.”
    “I’ve had some concern.”
    “All right. You’ve had some concern.” He took a breath, jammed his hands into his belt behind him. “I’ll be honest with you. I reckoned you could handle the landing, the whole setup if you had to.—I’m feeling a bit of strain, Ada. A bit of strain. I’m getting a little arthritis. You understand me? The back’s hurting me a bit.”
    “You think there’s a problem with the rejuv?”
    “I know I’m taking more pills than I used to. You use more when you’re under stress. Maybe it’s that. I’ve thought about resigning, going back to Cyteen on a medical. I’ve thought about that. I don’t like the thought. I’ve never run from anything.”
    “If your health—”
    “Just listen to me. What I’m going to do—I’m going to take the command for a few weeks; and then I’m going to step down and retire to an advisory position.”
    “Sir—”
    “Don’t sir me. Not here. Not after this long. I just wanted to tell you the stuffs failing on me. That’s why we have redundancies in the system, isn’t it? You’re the real choice, you. I’m just lending my experience. That’s all.”
    “If you want it that way.”
    “I just want to rest, Ada. It wasn’t why I came. It’s what I want now.”
    “There’s still that ship up there.”
    “No.”
    “I’ll take care of things, then.” She put her hands in her hip pockets, blinked at him with pale eyes in a naked-skulled face, showing age. “I think then—begging your pardon…it might be a wise, thing under the circumstances—to take a joint command and ease the moment when it comes.”
    “Eager for it, are you?”
    “Jim—”
    “You’ve already started doing things your way. That’s all right.”
    “The staff has wondered, you know—your absence. And I think if you talked to them frankly, made it clear, your health, your reasons—you really are a figure they respect; I think they’d be glad to know why you’ve suddenly gone less visible, that it’s a personal thing and not some upperlevel friction in command.”
    “Is that the rumor?”
    “One’s never sure just what the rumors are, but I think that’s some of it. There’s a little bit of strain.”
    “Troopers and civs?”
    “No. Us and Them. The visible distinction—” She rubbed her shaved scalp, selfconsciously returned the hand to her pocket. “Well, it solved an immediate problem. People get tired and they get touchy; and I went and did that on the spot, that being the way I knew how to say it. And the rest of the staff followed suit. Maybe it was wrong.”
    “If it solved the problem it was right. I’ll talk to them. I’ll make everything clear in my own way.”
    “Yes, sir.” Soft and quiet.
    “Don’t respect me into an early grave, Beaumont. I’m not there yet.”
    “I don’t expect you to be. I expect you’ll be around handing out