"AND JUST WHO," Demanded Commodore Renko, "will it be this time?" He added, "Or what?"
"I don't know, sir, I'm sure," simpered Miss Yakovna.
Renko looked at his new secretary with some distaste. There was no denying that she was far more photogenic than her predecessor, and that she possessed a far sweeter personality. But sweetness and prettiness aren't everything. He bit back a sarcastic rejoinder, looked again at the signal that the girl had just handed him. It was from a ship, a vessel with the unlikely name of Blagochestivyy (Pious). And it was not a word in some alien language that could mean anything---the name of the originator of the message was Terran enough. Russo-Terran at that. Vasilli Smirnov. And after that prosaic apellation there was his title---but that was odd. It was not the usual Master, Captain, Officer Commanding or whatever. It was plainly and simply, Rector.
Blagochestivyy....Rector....that ship's name, and that title of rank, had an archaic ring to them. Renko had always been a student of naval history, and probably knew more about the vessels that had sailed Earth's oceans in the dim and distant past than anybody on the Rim Planets and, come to think of it, the vast majority of people on the home lanet itself. He remembered that most of the ancient sailing ships had been given religious names. He remembered, too, that record had once been the shipmaster's original title.
So what was this ship coming out to the Rim, giving her ETA, details of last clearance, state of health on board and all the rest of it? Some cog, some caravel, some galleass? Renko smiled at his own fancy. Nonetheless, strange ships, very strange ships, had drifted out to the Rim.
"Miss Yakovna..." he said.
"Yes, Commodore," she replied brightly.
"This Blagochestivyy...see what details Mikhailov's Register has on her."
"Very good, sir."
The Commodore---rugged, stocky, short, iron-gray hair over a deeply tanned and seamed face, ears that in spite of suggestions made by two wives and several mistressses still protruded---paced the polished floor of his office while the little blonde punched the buttons that would actuate the Port Alexander robot librarian. Legally, he supposed, the impending arrival of the Blagochestivyy was the port captain's pigeon. Renko was Astronautical Superintendent of Rim Runners, the Commonwealth's shipping line. But he was also the officer commanding the Rim Planets Naval Reserve and, as such, he was concerned with matters of security and defense. He wished that Olga, his wife, were available so that he could talk things over with her. She, prior to her marriage to him, had held the rank of Commander in the Intelligence Branch of the Interplanetary Federation's Survey Service and, when it came to mysteries and secrets of any kind, displayed the aptitudes of a highly intelligent ferret. But Olga, after declaring that another week on Ymir would have her climbing up the wallpaper, had taken off for a long vacation---Crom, Bori, Mitra and points inward---by herself. She, when she returned, would be sorry to have missed whatever odd adventures the arrival of this queerly named ship presaged----and Renko knew that there would be some. His premonitions were rarely, if ever, wrong.
He turned away from the banked screens and instruments that made his office look like an exceptionally well-fitted spaceship's control room, walked to the wide window that took up an entire wall, which overlooked the port. It was a fine day----for Ymir. The almost perpetual overcast was thin enough to allow a hint of blue sky to show through, and the Ymir sun was a clearly defined disk rather than the usual fuzzy ball. There was almost no wind. Discharge of Perun, Renko noted, seemed to be progressing satisfactorily. There was a blue flare of welding arcs about the little spacetug Sudz, presently undergoing her annual survey. And there, all by herself, was the ship that Renko---tot he annoyance of his wife---often referred to as his one true love, the old, battered Boris Yeltsin. She had been built how many (too many) years ago as a standard Epsilon Class tramp for the Interplanetary Transport Authority. She had been converted into a survey ship for the Rim Planets' government. In her, Renko had made the first landings on the inhabited planets to the Galactic East, the planets that were now referred to as the Eastern Circuit. In her he had made the first contact---but not a physical one---with the anti-matter systems to the Galactic West.
