The hatch slid open, creating an instant hurricane as the air Draycos had just poured into the bay went pouring right back out again. Jack held on gamely until the wind had stopped, then looked out.
Draycos slid up his neck and looked out, too. The Essenay was right outside the hatch, pacing the carrier no more than fifty yards away, its hatch wide open. I guess we jump? Jack asked.
Yes, but not too fast, Draycos said. Remember that the only thing available to slow us down is the airlock's back wall.
Got it, Jack said dryly. Taking a deep breath, he bent his knees, leaned halfway out of the hatchway, and shoved off.
"The Essenay is still pacing the carrier," the captain reported. "No indications yet that the prisoner has escaped."
"That won't last long," Neverlin growled, pounding his fist rhythmically on the edge of the captain's chair back. "All Morgan has to do is blow the hatch, suit up, and unweld the kid from the bulkhead."
"And then get to the edge of the jamming bubble in time to warn the refugees," Frost said. "Maybe we should detach one of the Djinn-90s from Backstop and have it deal with them."
"If the Hammerfall Leaders are confused by one ship out of five being diverted, they have no business being the leaders of anything," Neverlin agreed. "Do it."
"Just a minute," Alison spoke up, leaning toward the display. "Are we sure Virgil Morgan is actually aboard that ship?"
"If it's not Morgan, who is it?" Frost retorted.
"Maybe no one," Alison said. This was one of Jack's deepest secrets, she knew, and she felt a little funny about revealing it without his permission.
But she needed to buy him some time, and making his situation look more hopeless than it really was might do the trick. "I keep thinking about the fact that in all the time I flew with him Jack never once called or met up with his uncle."
"Then who's flying the Essenay?" Frost persisted.
"I don't know," Alison said. "But didn't Jack say his parents had been Judge-Paladins?"
"I'll be cursed," Frost breathed, his anger and impatience suddenly gone. "I'll be double cursed. That's his parents' old ship. Morgan must have stolen it the same time he hooked up with the kid."
Neverlin barked a short laugh. "Well, well. A Judge-Paladin ship, eh? No wonder we haven't been able to find Virgil Morgan all these months."
"Explain," the Valahgua demanded.
"We couldn't find him because he isn't aboard that ship," Neverlin said. "Not anymore. He's dead or just gone—it doesn't really matter which."
He pointed to the display. "What matters is that that ship is being run by a very sophisticated computer."
He smiled maliciously. "And a computer can't suit up and cut Jack free."
"Which means Jack is still out of the picture," Frost said. "He'll stay chained to the bulkhead until all this is over and we go back and get him."
"Assuming he lives that long," Neverlin said. "If his ship has managed to kill all the Brummgas, he and the K'da will die as soon as their current air tank runs out."
Neverlin looked at Alison. "In which case we'll try to keep one of the civilian refugee ships intact for your father," he added.
"I'd appreciate that," Alison said, breathing a quiet sigh of relief. Finally, something she'd done had worked.
"There—see," the Lordhighest put in. "They have increased speed. The warships are coming to our aid. They will now be the first to die."
"Patience, Lordhighest," Neverlin said calmly. With Jack and Draycos off the threat list, his plan was back on track again. "We're going to allow those six ships to go past us unharmed. Perhaps we'll let the next batch through, too, assuming the Lordover on the Foxwolf is able to persuade them to send a second group. We want as many enemy ships out of position before we show what we have waiting."
Alison gazed at the displays, estimating times and distances. If every ship kept to its same course and speed, she realized with a sinking feeling, Neverlin's plan was going to work beautifully. Those six K'da/Shontine warships would be completely out of the fight by the time the Foxwolf and Advocatus Diaboli opened up with their Death weapons. If the K'da and Shontine detached another group of warships as well, Neverlin could probably take out a good percentage of the remaining defenders before they even realized what they were facing.
And then, as she watched, another group of ten K'da/Shontine warships moved away from the refugee fleet. Forming up into a loose combat array, they started forward.
And Alison came to a decision.
"I'll be back in a minute," she said, heading for the bridge door.
No one bothered to answer. With their attention on their incoming prey, possibly no one even heard her. Leaving the bridge, she headed aft.
Back on Brum-a-dum she had promised Taneem she would help protect Draycos's people. Up to now, everything she'd done toward that goal had been relatively safe and easy and ineffective. But all of that was about to change.
All of it.
CHAPTER 27
The trip across the fifty-yard gap seemed to Jack to take forever. But then, all at once, the Essenay's open hatchway loomed in front of him.
And then he was through the opening and flying across the airlock way faster than he'd realized he was going. He threw out his arms and braced himself.
He hit the far wall, thankfully not as hard as he'd expected. His arms took the impact with ease, and even as he bounced back again he felt the flow of air against his vac suit as Uncle Virge closed the hatch behind him and started filling the airlock.
"Are you all right, Jack lad?" the computer's voice came as Jack unfastened his helmet. He'd barely gotten it off before Draycos leaped out of his collar and took off toward the cockpit. "Langston said Harper got killed ramming the Advocatus Diaboli—"
"Later," Jack interrupted. Stripping off the vac suit, he headed| after Draycos.
He was halfway to the cockpit before Uncle Virge's last comment suddenly registered.
Harper had been killed?
But there was no time to think about that now. He and Draycos had a fleet to save.
Jack reached the cockpit to find Draycos standing behind the pilot's seat, his forepaws resting on the back of the chair, his long neck moving back and forth as he scanned the Essenay's displays. "How's it look?" Jack asked, slipping past him and sitting down.
"The fleet's still far out of the Death's range," Draycos said. "But several of the warships have left position and are moving forward. They seem to be angling toward three areas to the rear of the Advocatus Diaboli."
"Great," Jack grunted, glancing over the Essenay's systems as he strapped in. The only ships he could see ahead of them were the Advocatus Diaboli, the Foxwolf, and five of Frost's Djinn-90s. The latter, to Jack's mild surprise, had spread themselves wide to all sides instead of flying in a group between him and two bigger ships. "Uncle Virge, do you have a tag on the rest of Neverlin's fleet?"
"They're about a thousand miles behind us," Uncle Virge said. "In three different groups, like Draycos said. All three groups are moving up fast."
"Pretending they're chasing the poor defenseless Foxwolf and Advocatus Diaboli," Jack said, nodding grimly. "Uncle Virgil and I ran this scam I don't know how many times."
"How do we defeat it?" Draycos asked.
"All it takes is a toot on the whistle," Jack said, keying the long-range transmitter. "K'da/Shontine fleet, this is the Essenay," he said. "Please respond."