GENERATION WARBIORS

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diat die captain would preserve the fiction of a real drill. If nothing else, to cover his tracks with his Exec, and actually enter and lock off his own pod.

Things could get very sticky indeed if the captain discovered before entering his own pod, diat Dupaynil had some of his crew locked away. Four were already “podded” when Dupaynil checked in. He secured dieir pods. It might be better to wait until everyone was in. But if some came out, then he’d be in worse trouble. If tiiey obeyed the drill procedures, diey wouldn’t know they were locked in until he had full control.

One after another, so quickly he had some trouble to keep up widi diem, the others made it into dieir pods and dogged die hatches. Eight, nine (die senior mate, he was glad to notice). Only the officers and one enlisted left.

“Captain! There’s something . . .”

The senior mate. Naturally. Dupaynil had not been able to interfere with die ship’s intercom and reconfigure the pod controls. The mate must have planned to duck into his pod just long enough to register his presence on die computer, then come out to help die captain space Dupaynil.

Even as die mate spoke, Dupaynil activated all his latent sensors. Detection be damned! They knew he was onto diem, and he needed all die data he could get. His control locks had better work! He was out of his own escape pod, widi a tiny button-phone in his ear and his hand-held control panel.

Ollery and Panis were on the bridge. Even as Dupaynil moved forward, the last crewman checked into his pod and Dupaynil locked it down. Apparently he hadn’t heard die mate.

That left the captain and that very new executive officer who would probably believe whatever the cap-tain told him. He dogged down the hatch of his escape pod manually. From the corridor, it would look as if he were in it.

Go forward and confront the captain? No. He had to ensure that the others, especially the mate, stayed locked in. His fix might hold against a manual unlocking, but

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