millions of people, but she trustsyou, and sheloves you. He went so far as to see that her breasts wereperfection. Her reaction to his kiss there was wide-eyed amazement and clinging.
For a moment, then, she was calm and self-possessed. She pushed his head away, looked athim, those green eyes piercing. "One thing is important to me," she said. "Yes?" "I can never prove, without your trust, that youare the first man ever to see me like this." "I believe," he whispered. "When you know that you are the first to haveme, will you believe that no man has ever seenme?" Well, itwas possible. Not probable, especiallyconsidering that she'd worked in the film industry, but it
waspossible. "Yes," he said. Her intake of breath, her wide eyes, her tremblings, which could have been fear, touched him—and then
he was talking to himself again. She trusts you, Pat, and you're just waiting for achance to stop this criminal thing she believes in.And
even if she's willing to kill millions, and perhaps tear down civilization as you know it, rightnow she's just a girl, just a young woman wholoves you and trusts you. "Corinne, let's talk for a minute," he said, pulling the silken material of her gown up to coverher. "Talk?" she asked."Talk?"
"I do believe you," he said truthfully. No woman could be that accomplished of an actress. "Brendensaid you had always been romantic, that you hadalways looked forward to loving one man."
She giggled. "Someday when we have hours andhours, I'll tell you how damned difficult that was,the ruses I had to use."
"It was that important to you, wasn't it?"
"Of course," she said, beginning to look a bit puzzled.
"Then it's important to me to help you keep thatresolution, Corinne." He rose, pulling away fromher clutching hands. "Honey, you've waited this long. We can wait a little longer."
Because, although his conscience ordered him tobetray her, to do all he could to stop the Taratwofleet, he could not betray her on a personal level. If he accepted her offer of herself, then he'd be boundto her, for having accepted something which she had valued so much, he could never, then, betrayher in any way.
"Damn," she whispered. "I told you how I feel.This could be, I pray that it won't be, but it could be our last time alone together before we fight."
"I know
"I know, honey, I know. You think about it,though. See if I'm not right. It will be much betterthis way. We'll take the oldSkimmer after we'remarried and get lost in space somewhere for weeksand weeks."
She came into his arms, weeping. Her kiss relitthe flames in him, but then she was pulling away,talking through tears. "I do love you so much,"she sobbed, "and to think that you value me thatmuch, are so considerate of my feelings, that makesme love you even more."
He spent the night on theSkimmer. Corinne joinedhim there early in the morning, in a neat blueuniform, all business, and they lifted up to join thefleet. Corinne's flagship was a gleaming new heavycruiser. It had come out of a Zedeian shipyard lessthan one year past, and represented the latest innaval technology.
The ship's disrupter installation was topside forward. The weapon was manned by a young Dorchluntercut from the same pattern as all the others,a serious, handsome boy of not more than eighteen. Fleet communications was handled by anofficer from the Brenden's home planet, a brisk,efficient man who, under Corinne's orders, soonhad her half of the fleet in formation to attack theother half of the fleet under the Brenden's command.
The last time ships of war had opened the double fail-safe locks on weapons was when a smallUP fleet wiped out the pirates who had made theHogg Moons their hideway. And yet, with UP X&Aships opening new blink routes constantly, withthe knowledge that at one time there'd been akiller race in the galaxy, ships of war and their crews needed training, just in case. The fleets ofthe UP were always having war games. It wasstandard practice for all ships, including those builtfor Taratwo by the Zedeians, to have a way ofkeeping score accurately in those war games. Eachweapon was equipped with a harmless beam projector, and the ship's sensors were tuned to detectthe light beam's impact, should a ship be hit. Thusthere were two records, one on the ship whichfired the weapon, and one on the ship which was hit. Central fire control gathered the computer dataand, in a war game in space, sent out the word tovictim and victor when a ship was hit.
It had been, Corinne said, fairly simple to integrate the disrupters into the system. By activatingonly the primary power source of a disrupter, a stream of harmless electrons bypassed the closedsystem of the secondary power stage and registered as a hit on the target ship.
UP naval tactics were well recorded, in hundreds of books. Since the Zedeian war, theorieshad not changed. A fleet was most effective whenin formation, bringing massed firepower to bear. Anaval engagement, then, would become a struggleof endurance, shield against laser, AMM againstmissile. UP tactics were perfect for the Brenden,for, unlike the UP ships, his ships had to makeonly one hit, on any portion of a ship, to be of deadly effect. Laser weapons, missiles, projectileweapons—all had to make multiple hits on ashielded ship to do significant damage.
Corinne chose a modified V formation. Fromthat formation, firepower of all ships could beconcentrated. The Brenden came with stackedranks, the screen images showing a square madeup of little dots, the ships stacked line on lineabove each other, but with the ranks falling awayat staggered distances to make for differences in range for the opposing fleet.
Taratwo men manned the conventional weapons. Missiles would not be used. They were too expensive, and too easily countered with AMMs. Ina real action, the main purpose of using missileswas to divert the enemy's attention, to keep aportion of his computer capacity engaged, and tokeep men busy. In an exercise, missiles were simulated by computer, and the men at the AMM stations would be engaged in sending out not actualkiller missiles but little electronic blips on a computer screen.
Two exercises were running simultaneously. Eachhalf of the fleet was doing its best to make enoughlaser and missile and projectile hits on the other half to keep from being tagged with the electronstream from a disrupter.
The results were overkill.
Pat had gone to stand near the young Dorchlunter. Laser range and disrupter range were almost equal, so that even as Pat saw the blinkings from the Brenden's fleet, the disrupter gunner wasspraying simulated death, taking out ship aftership in a display of swiftness and efficiency whichwas awesome. Only scattered laser hits registeredon Corinne's fleet, not enough to strain the screens.The swarm of simulated missiles were engaged bya swarm of simulated AMMs from Corinne's firecontrol; projectile weapons were never used, forthere was not time before multiple disrupter hitshad left the Brenden's fleet dead in space.
The action lasted less than five minutes. It took a quarter hour for the computers to gather and tabulate. Not one ship in either fleet had beenseriously damaged by conventional weapons.Everyship, in each fleet, had been killed, and killed againand again by the deadly, swift, emotionless gunners behind the disrupters.
The Brenden joined them on Corinne's flagship."Makes me almost feel sorry for the poor bastards," the Brenden gloated. "I'd say it'll take just about three engagements to have them yelling fornegotiations, and maybe two more after that forunconditional surrender."
"What if they change tactics?" Corinne asked.
The Brenden laughed. "Military thinking wasfrozen in place a thousand years ago."