Taylor said nothing. He just continued to stare at the ceiling while Sophie turned on his holoplayer. But he sat up and looked straight ahead the minute he saw Allyson Harshbarger's holoimage.
She was in a burka again, surrounded by men with swords. One of them was Murshad.
"-the Survey Service is filled with infidels... they rape women and strangle babies in their cribs," said Allyson. "They have no respect for his holiness Laquinta the Great or the Book of Blood. The Captain of the ship above me, Michael Taylor, spits on the image of Laquinta and..." She sobbed for a moment, "He relieves himself on the Great Book of Blood!" She was crying openly now. "The Survey Service is filled with such savage brutes; they molest their daughters and cook their babies, and eat them with cat meat. I renounce-" she broke down, sobbing again, "I renounce these war criminals in the strongest of terms-"
Taylor muted the transmission. All he was looking at now was the holoimage of Murshad, who was standing behind Allyson, grinning from ear to ear.
********
The transmission from Admiral Chellina came two hours later. Taylor took it in the conference room with Sophie Astor had his side.
"It seems the situation has gotten out of hand, Captain," said Chellina. "I sent you in there to rescue three people, and now our entire embassy staff has been taken hostage, and the Ramadhans are making noises of launching another war against us. This is hardly what I hoped for when I sent you in, Mike."
Sophie tried to speak, but Taylor put a hand over hers. "Admiral, a lot of this was Commissioner Harshbarger's doing. She was the one who insisted on going down there, alone. She was the one who insisted I withdraw the additional guards from the embassy."
"Yes, well, it seems Ambassador Harshbarger had quite a lot to say about you too, Mike, at least, before she got taken captive," said Chellina. "Before she left for Ramada, she made a report to the World Government which would scald your ears. She said that you suffered from 'severe Laquintaphobia', due to your searing experiences on PR-52981, and were hopelessly biased against the Ramadhans. She said that your overly muscular approach--her words, not mine--in relieving the siege on the embassy was the precursor for all the aggressive acts that followed." She leaned forward. "The World Government wasn't looking too favorably on you after her report, Mike. And now we have Allyson broadcasting propaganda for the Laquintans, and our embassy staff is still being held, at an undetermined location. How do you think all that sounds to us here at the Admiralty?"
"Not very good," said Taylor.
"Not very good," Chellina repeated, ever so slowly. She paused, and then looked up at Taylor. "Captain, I'm sending Captain Tolliver of the Battle Cruiser
Renown
to assist you."
To assist him
. He was being replaced. Now he knew how Andrea felt when he arrived on Sheppard's Planet.
"But he won't get there in time before their deadline passes," said Chellina. "They're threatening to execute a hostage every ten minutes, starting two hours from now, unless the three women are turned into their custody."
Taylor raised his eyebrows. "Admiral, are you suggesting I turn three World Government citizens over to these people?"
Chellina bit her lips. "Only two of them are actually World Government citizens, Mike. One of them is actually a native Ramadhan, isn't she?" She checked a readout. "Yes. There's a Mohammida Najjar, isn't there?"
"What are you saying, Admiral?"
"That perhaps if you turn over one of them, one who isn't even a World Government citizen, you can buy enough time for the
Renown
to get there and assist you."
"To turn her over to be killed, you mean."
Chellina bit her lips again. "I'm not going to order it, Mike. I'll leave it up to you. Chellina out."
Her image faded.
Taylor turned to Sophie. "Analysis?"
"None is needed," said Sophie. "This is a classic no-win scenario. Either you will turn over the three women, and they will be slaughtered, and perhaps the embassy staff as well; or you don't turn them over, and the embassy staff is slaughtered all the same. This is the real reason the
Renown
is being sent here. Once World Government citizens are slaughtered, you will be relieved of command in disgrace, and Captain Tolliver will take over the mission from you."
"That's my analysis as well," said Taylor nodding. He saw her eyes narrowing. "Do you have a question, Sophie?"
"You seem unnaturally calm, sir," said Sophie.
"Is that what your passive observing tells you, Sophie?" Taylor asked.
"I think so," she said.
"You
think
so!" Taylor smiled tightly. "This moment was worth it, if only to hear uncertainty in your voice."
Fear was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs. "It's over! It's all over! Our career is going to end in disgrace!"
"Calm down," said Calmness.
"How can you possibly be calm at a time like this?" Fear yelled.
"Because that is what Survey Service Captains do at a time like this," said Calmness. "You used to impress me, to motivate me, to even control me, when I was a child, a teenager, at the Academy, and even early in my active career. But I have changed over the years. Don't you recognize me? I used to have a different name... I used to be Ambition. Just like you used to be something called Inadequacy."
"I was Ambition for many years, until, when I finally achieved my highest calling, I became Ambition no more. Ambition was no longer required. So now I became what you see today," said Calmness. "The perfect model of a Survey Service Captain. Calm, cool, collected, and highly rational under fire. I have become which what I always wanted to be, but not because of a scrap of braid on my shoulder, or a cap on my head. Because I became that way inside, in here."
"So... do you know a way out of this?" Fear cried, as not a single word Calmness said got through to him.
"Not yet. But I need to think. And for me to think, you need to go away."
"How-"
"Like this," said Calmness, and he tapped Fear on the shoulder and Fear disappeared, totally... vanquished.
********
An hour later, the bridge crew filed out of the briefing room. They returned to the bridge, with Taylor in the lead.
Allyson's assistant Monehan Janney was there, looking anxious. "There's only ten minutes until the first execution. Have you decided what to do, Captain?"
"Yes," said Taylor simply.
"So... are you going to give up the Najjar woman?"
Taylor turned and said simply, "Wait and see." He turned to Audrey King. "Audrey, open up a channel to the Prime Minister Nabil."
The holoimage of the Prime Minister appeared on the holoscreen. "Captain?" he said uncertainly. "There are only minutes left until the deadline."
"I know," said Taylor. "We have made a decision."
"And what is that?"
"We refuse to turn over the women," said Taylor.
"Not even the Ramadhan citizen, Captain?"
"Not even her," said Taylor. "You see, Mister Prime Minister. Mohammida Najjar may be a citizen of Ramada, but she's also under Survey Service protection. And in the Survey Service, we never leave people behind."
Suddenly, the image became split screen, with Nabil on the right half, and the Jihadi Murshad on the left half.
Aha! I knew they were listening in!
"You will not turn over the unbelievers to us, Captain?"
"I will not," said Taylor. "In fact, if you don't release the hostages right now-"
Suddenly the view expanded, showing the ambassador, a functionary named Crodfoller, down on his knees. Ambassador Anderson Crodfoller had been an outspoken admirer of Laquinta for many years, condemning the "muscular activism" of the Survey Service which he said only "fueled radical elements" who wanted to turn the followers of Laquinta from their truly peaceful ways. As an apologist for Laquintaism, the World Government found him the perfect choice to be Earth's ambassador to Ramadhan. Even after the embassy staff had been taken captive, he had spoken out to his hostage takers about his great love and admiration to Laquinta. The only thing his obsequiousness had earned him was a beating and an unwelcomed taking up the ass, which was meant as an educational service to the rest of his staff on the merits of keeping quiet while their captors were trying to eat lunch.
As Crodfoller kneeled, he saw Murshad, raising a gleaming sword above him. As the sword came whistling down, no one would ever know if Crodfoller, in his last precious seconds of life, still retained his great love and admiration of-
Ann Marie Queen gasped and cried out as Ambassador Crodfoller's head fell off his shoulders and rolled off the holoscreen.
By the 23rd Century, holography had gotten so precise that objects rendered in it looked real, or nearly so. So when the Ambassador's head rolled off of his shoulders, some on the bridge of the Survey Service Command Cruiser USS
Relentless
half expected to see it roll onto the floor of their own ship.
As the ambassador's headless body fell to the ground, out of view of the holographic recorder, the crew could see the holoimage of Murshad, his eyes gleaming, his curved sword raised high, with blood dripping from it.
"Blood!" Murshad cried, his eyes gleaming, a wide smile pasted on his lips. "The Great God of Blood has been honored!" He looked out at them, seeking a reaction.
The crew of the
Relentless
looked horrified, and rightly so.
But not its Captain.
If Murshad was hoping to elicit an unguarded reaction from the Captain, he was sorely disappointed. Captain Michael Tiberius Taylor of the United Survey Service had no expression at all on his face. He simply watched, and observed.
"Blood, Captain Taylor!" Murshad said again, feeling frustrated by the lack of reaction.
"I see," said Taylor calmly. Earlier in his career, when he had been an Ensign, or a Lieutenant, even a Lieutenant Commander, viewing such a scene might have been unnerving. But Taylor was a full Captain now, as seasoned an officer as they came in the United Survey Service.
"Now release the infidels to us, or I will sacrifice the rest of your embassy staff to the Great God of Blood, one by one, right here, right now, in front of you all!"
They all knew what would happen if Taylor turned the women over to Murshad. He would execute them. The bridge crew turned to look at Taylor. Taylor looked unruffled. He looked around a moment, as if weighing, considering. His crew looked at him for guidance anxiously.
Murshad grew as impatient as Taylor's crew, perhaps even more so by the lack of response.
"Well, Captain?" he asked, in an annoyed tone, his sword still dripping with the blood of diplomats.
"No," said Taylor curtly.
"No?" said Murshad. "Are you ready to watch the execution of the rest of your staff, one by one? Ahmed, bring that one, the girl, the young one with the big melons. Perhaps that will stir more of a response from the famous ladies' man." A young blonde woman with a gorgeous bust came into pickup range. She had panic in her eyes. She squealed as a Ramadhan held her arms behind her back.
"Or... perhaps I will get a different response from you if I blow up your manske," said Taylor.
"My manske?" said Murshad. He looked confused. His eyes narrowed. "Which manske do you mean?"
"All of them," said Taylor.
"All of them?"
"All of them. All the manskes on Ramada. In two minute intervals, starting now," said Taylor. "Mr. Garrity, lock forward megajoulers on the Laquisha manske, on the outskirts of Al-Sa-Naa."
"No!" cried Monehan Janney, Allyson's assistant. "He's gone mad! Don't you see? His experiences with Ramada have made him totally irrational. He burned thousands of people with the
Asgard
, and now he plans to do it all over again! Stop him! Don't let him do this!" She turned to Sophie. "Commander Astor. You're a Passive Observer. Tell me what you see?"
"I see... the Captain of a Survey Service vessel," said Sophie. "Mister Garrity, the Captain gave you an order. Carry it out."
"Yes, Commander." The weapons officer toggled his display in stunned silence. And then, "Targeting..." and then, "Weapons... locked."
Murshad's eyebrows furled. "You wouldn't. You couldn't."
"I would. And I could," said Taylor, raising his eyebrows conversationally. And for the first time he smiled, and his smile had real emotion in it.
The holoimage of Murshad stared directly into Taylor's eyes. "You're bluffing."
"Am I?" Taylor asked. He turned to his weapons officer. "Mr. Garrity, open fire."
The
Relentless's
forward megajoulers lanced out, blowing up the manske. They could see the explosion on the holoviewer magnified from orbit.
"Ready to give up, Murshad?" said Taylor. He waited only a half second for a response. "No? Mister Garrity, lock forward megajoulers on the Simbashi manske."
"No!" Prime Minister Nabil cried. "The Simbashi manske is a Galactic Heritage Site, deemed so by your own World Government."
