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he had to.  But once again, to what end?  That was just his hubris trying to force him into action.  If his goal now was to save as many of the men as possible, that would be a good way to sabotage that effort.
    “General, I see they’ve sent you to do their dirty work,” he said, his voice dripping with scorn.  “Glad you could make it, too, Lester,” he added.
    “What?  Who sent me?” the commandant asked.  He shook his head in confusion, and then continued, “Look, we don’t have much time.  The task force from First Fleet is on its way here, and we’ve got to be long gone by then.”
    What? 
    Now it was Ryck’s turn to look confused.  His scorn evaporated as he tried to process what the commandant had said.
    “I. . .what?  You’re not here to arrest us?”
    “Arrest you?  Hell no!  We’re here to rescue you.  You think I’d agree to arrest you?  Me?”
    “But, the meister, she said the Federation was here, and she would not grant us asylum, so, well—”
    “General?” Lester Linney asked, tapping on his watch. 
    “Ryck, we’ve really don’t have much time,” the general said, turning to Ryck.  “And we are not prepared for a fight yet when the First Fleet’s task force arrives.  We’ve got to get the Kravitch and Temperance fired up and moving, then all of us need to diddiho out of here.
    “Going where?” Ryck asked, his mind still reeling. 
    “To Tarawa, of course,” the commandant answered.
    What?  Tarawa?  But—
    “Unless you want to stay here,” he continued.
    “Ryck, we really have no time.  I don’t want to be caught in orbit when the task force arrives.  I know you’ve got questions, and we’ll answer on the Kravitch , but now, we’ve got to get onboard.  Unless you have a better plan, I really, really suggest we blow this joint and get out of the meister’s turquoise hair,” Admiral Linney said.
    For a moment, Ryck’s suspicious mind wondered if this was some elaborate trick to get the two ships off station where they could be easier dealt with.  He pushed that thought away.  He was being thrown a lifeline, and only a fool in his position would wonder who was doing the throwing.
    “Lead on, Admiral Linney. We are at your command,” he said, his heart suddenly lighter.

FS KRAVITCH
     
    Chapter 6
     
    “The Third Fleet?” Ryck asked, trying to get his mind around it.
    “Not 100%, but enough so that every ship is with us, except for the Pieter Smolev , which was loaded with the 2,800 dissenters who wanted to remain with the government and then sent back to marry up with the First Fleet,” Lester Linney said.
    Ryck, Captain Plummer, Genghis, and Commander Bortello were with Lester, the commandant, and Colonel Prince Jellico in what had been Ryck’s stateroom until he’d insisted that General Ukiah take it over.  Over the last thirty minutes, Ryck had been bombarded with facts, too many to absorb.  And he was still in shock that after essentially giving up and being ready to sacrifice himself in an attempt to save most of his men, he’d been given a second chance.
    As the task force commander, Rear Admiral Linney and the 42 ships of the Third Fleet had “accepted the transfer” of the “prisoners” from Meister Henricks-Pata and Juliette Station 2 , thereby giving her reasonable deniability.  She was turning them over to the Federation Navy, after all, and how could she know that the Third Fleet had joined the mutiny?  It made no sense, and no reasonable person could have assumed that she’d been in on the plan.
    She’d been standing in her doorway as the five men were being escorted back to the Kravitch , her slight smile all Ryck had needed to know.  She’d done what she could to protect him and his men without endangering her station, and General Ukiah had been more than willing to play along and give her the cover she needed.  She could have refused, and the Third Fleet would have done nothing.  And she’d get the reward from