"What about slingshotting?" Contreras, ex-cop, now the Gamble's bosun's mate, asked. "Full power around this moon, then around Cavite and hit 'em when we come back through."
"Won't work," Sten said. "The Tahn'll pick us up the minute we come out from shadow. That'll give them more than enough time to set up a prog and nail us on the way in."
Contreras tugged at her ear and sank back into thought.
"We can't just sit here, sir." McCoy said. An ex-jailbird, he was now master's mate, engine room.
"Do we have any idea what's left of our fleet?"
"We're still picking up broadcasts that Foss says are from the Swampscott. And there seem to be a couple destroyers still in the air."
"Maybe we do wait," McCoy tried. "Sooner or later, somebody down on Cavite's gonna try one. We hit the Tahn from the other side when they do."
Sten gnawed a fingernail. "Crappy plan," he said finally. "Anybody got a better one?"
There were negative head shakes all around.
"Okay, McCoy. We'll give it a shot. Everybody not on watch get their heads down."
Hypno-conditioning let any of them go instantly to sleep and return to full alertness at command. But the ship's detector alarms went off before any of them had made it to their bunks.
Sten sprinted to the command deck. Foss indicated one screen with a solitary blip to one side.
"That's the Richards, sir. Correct IFF response. And that..."
Sten didn't need an explanation—the second screen showed another, larger indication. Tahn, of course. Probably a heavy destroyer.
Foss touched keys and moved the two images onto the larger center screen. "It's closing on the Richards ."
Sten had the mike open and broadcast power at full, breaking com silence. The Tahn ship would certainly pick up his broadcast, but he might be able to save the Richards now and worry about his own skin later.
" Richards... Richards... this is Gamble. Bogey on intersection orbit. Closing on you. Bogey location—"
The Richards cut in. "Gamble... we have him. I shackle... X-ray delta... Two. Unshackle. Over."
Lieutenant Estill—Sten noted that his voice stayed quite calm—was using a simple voice code. X-ray: main engine. Delta: damaged. Two: fifty-percent power loss.
"This is Gamble. Heading yours, over."
Sten hit the GQ alarm. "I want an interception course, Mr. Foss. Engines!"
"Ready, sir."
"Primary drive full emergency. Secondary drive full standby."
'Sir."
"All weapons stations report launch readiness."
"All live stations ready, sir."
"Mr. Foss. What do we have?"
There was now a third blip on the main screen. A red line threaded from the third blip—Sten's ship—toward the Tahn destroyer and the Gamble. Suddenly the dot on the screen that was the Richards shimmered, coming out of AM2 drive.
" Gamble... this is Richards. Status now I shackle X-Ray delta four. I say again four, over."
Main drive out completely.
"AM2 drives can't break down," Foss said.
"Th' hell they can't," Alex said. "Tha's one that did. Now shut up and mind your screens."
"This is Gamble. I shackle Yankee alfa one break Mike tango echo, over."
Yankee: secondary—Yukawa drive. Alfa: engage. One: full power. Mike: maneuver. Tango: toward. Echo: enemy.
"This is Richards. I shackle. Yankee also delta. Three."
Sutton hadn't been able to repair the Richards, or his repairs hadn't worked for long.
There were three points of view: To the Tahn destroyer, the Richards appeared to come to a halt as the destroyer closed. To Sten, both ships moved across his main screen. A stationary observer, hanging in space, would not have mental reactions fast enough to perceive any of the three ships as they went past at many times light-speed.
Foss superimposed two time ticks on the main screen. The left was the estimated number of seconds before the Tahn ship would come within launch range of the Richards. The right showed time before Sten could attack the destroyer. The seven-second differential could doom the Richards.
"Kali. Stand by."
"Ah'm ready."
"Foss. Distress flares ready to launch."
"Distress... yessir. Ready."
"Flares... fire! Kali! Launch!"
The huge missile slid out of the Gamble's nose just as two distress flares bloomed, radiating through broadcast, radar, and visual wavelengths.
One second later the Tahn ship launched two antiship missiles at the Richards.
"Alex... don't worry about what I'm doing. Get that destroyer."
"Lad, Ah'm in a world ah m' own. Dinna fash."
"Distress signals again... launch!"
Sten was hoping that the flares would shake up the Tahn. Maybe the destroyer's weaponeers would divert their missiles toward the Gamble. They didn't. The Richards was far too sitting a quacker to ignore.
But the failure wasn't complete. Possibly the controllers' attention was broken for a critical quarter second. Because the first missile missed the Richards completely—not too hard, since the tacship wasn't that much bigger than the missile was. The second missile went off close enough to the Richards to blank its blip on Sten's screen.
Clear screen—and the Richards was still there!
"Ah now th' worm'll turn," Kilgour murmured—and triggered the Kali.
Sixty megatons blew the Tahn ship in two. One-third of the destroyer—its midsection—ceased to exist except as raw energy. Some of the stern, pouring sparks and a flash of flame, pin wheeled on. The remnants of the bow started on a tangented orbit toward Sten.
" Richards... Richards... this is Gamble. Over."
Dead air.
"This is Gamble. Are you receiving me?"
Foss saw an ancillary meter flicker. "Sir... there's a 'cast from a suit radio on the Richards. Stand by." He added another frequency.
"...this is the Richards. I say again, this is the Richards." It was Tapia's voice.
"This is the Gamble. The destroyer's killed. Give status, over."
" Richards. Seven dead. Three wounded. XO in command."
"This is Gamble. We're matching orbit. Stand by for pickup."
"Negative on that," Tapia said. "The main lock's crushed. We can't reach the emergency. And our secondary drive is going any second now. Stand clear, Gamble." Tapia's voice was a monotone.
" Richards... this is Gamble. Are survivors in suits?"
"That's affirmative."
"Can you reach the Kali inspection hatch?"
With the Richards's Kali launcher down, the tacship's centerline launch tube was empty.
"We can. Can you open the outer hatch? We have no weapons."
"The can opener is on the way, over." Sten closed the com. "Alex?"
Alex diverted control to a Fox countermissile and launched. The small missile sped far beyond the Richards at full launch speed before Alex could cut its power and bring it looping back toward them.