"Home to meet its sender," said Peter.
Admiral Lands stood glumly alone on the bridge of his flagship. He knew that Causo would have spread the word by now--the launch of the Little Doctor had been illegal, mutinous; the Old Man would be court-martialed or worse when they got back to civilization. No one spoke to him; no one dared look at him. And Lands knew that he would have to relieve himself of command and turn the ship over to Causo, as his X.O., and the fleet to his second-in-command, Admiral Fukuda. Causo's gesture in not arresting him immediately was kind, but it was also useless. Knowing the truth of his disobedience, it would be impossible for the men and officers to follow him and unfair to ask it of them.
Lands turned to give the order, only to find his X.O. already heading toward him. "Sir," said Causo.
"I know," said Lands. "I relieve myself of command."
"No sir," said Causo. "Come with me, sir."
"What do you plan to do?" asked Lands.
"The cargo officer has reported something in the main hold of the ship."
"What is it?" asked Lands.
Causo just looked at him. Lands nodded, and they walked together from the bridge.
Jane had taken the box of the starship, not into the weapons bay of the flagship, for that could hold only the Little Doctor, not the box around it, but rather into the main hold, which was much more copious and which also lacked any practical means of relaunching the weapon.
Peter and Wang-mu stepped out of the starship and into the hold.
Then Jane took away the starship, leaving Peter, Wang-mu, and the Little Doctor behind.
Back on Lusitania, the starship would reappear. But no one would get into it. No one needed to. The M.D. Device was no longer heading for Lusitania. Now it was in the hold of the flagship of the Lusitania Fleet, traveling at a relativistic speed toward oblivion. The proximity sensor on the Little Doctor would not be triggered, of course, since it was nowhere near an object of planetary mass. But the timer was still chugging away.
"I hope they notice us soon," said Wang-mu.
"Oh, don't worry. We have whole minutes left."
"Has anyone seen us yet?"
"There was a fellow in that office," said Peter, pointing toward an open door. "He saw the starship, then he saw us, then he saw the Little Doctor. Now he's gone. I don't think we'll be alone much longer."
A door high up the front wall of the hold opened. Three men stepped onto the balcony that overlooked the hold on three sides.
"Hi," said Peter.
"Who the hell are you?" asked the one with the most ribbons and trim on his uniform.
"I'm betting you're Admiral Bobby Lands," said Peter. "And you must be the executive officer, Causo. And you must be the cargo officer, Lung."
"I said who the hell are you!" demanded Admiral Lands.
"I don't think your priorities are straight," said Peter. "I think there'll be plenty of time for us to discuss my identity after you deactivate the timer on this weapon that you so carelessly tossed out into space perilously close to a settled planet."
"If you think you can--"
But the Admiral didn't finish his sentence, because the X.O. was diving over the rail and jumping down to the deck of the cargo hold, where he immediately began twisting the fingerbolts that held the casing over the timer. "Causo," said Lands, "that can't be the--"
"It's the Little Doctor, all right, sir," said Causo.
"We launched it!" shouted the Admiral.
"But that must have been a mistake," said Peter. "An oversight. Because Starways Congress revoked your authorization to launch it."
"Who are you and how did you get here?"
Causo stood up, sweat dripping off his brow. "Sir, I am pleased to report that with more than two minutes' leeway, I have managed to prevent our ship from being blown into its constituent atoms."