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Mahadhevan, after pausing to let his audience presumably have time to be outraged by his attitude, spoke again, sounding unconcerned. “You will wait here, in the orbit I give you, while I pass on your request to Imallye. That is all.”

The image vanished.

“Are you certain that we cannot provoke hostilities?” Diaz asked, his voice angry now.

“I’m supposed to avoid it if possible,” Marphissa said, trying not to become equally angry. “That ass is too busy showing off his new status to listen to what I told him. He might delay sending on a message just to emphasize his current exalted state.”

“What will we do, Kommodor? He has sent us the orbit we are supposed to remain in.”

Marphissa thought, the image of the devastation at Iwa filling her mind. “I cannot risk this fool’s slowing down the warning I must give. Comm specialist, set up a signal tagged for military and civilian leaders here in Moorea, no matter who they are loyal to. I want the signal aimed to intercept the orbit of the primary world and those warships orbiting near it. Kapitan Diaz, while I send my message out, you are to take Manticore toward the primary inhabited world at a velocity of point two light speed.”

Diaz grinned. “Yes, Kommodor! And if Mahadhevan and the Mahadhevan react in a hostile manner?”

“That HuK does not have sufficient firepower to hurt us on a single firing run. We will see, Kapitan, if Mahadhevan has enough brains to realize that. If he does not, we will have to show him that attacking warships of Midway without provocation is a serious mistake.”

Surely President Iceni would want her to act quickly, and to refuse to be easily intimidated by a single ship far weaker than her own. But Marphissa still waited, outwardly calm but inwardly tense, to see what the worker-turned-commander would do when his orders were ignored.

Manticore could easily handle a single HuK. But that battle cruiser could smash Manticore if Imallye decided to back even a foolish decision by one of her subordinates.

And she knew almost nothing about Imallye.

“Shields at maximum strength,” Marphissa ordered. “Do not power up weapons.”

Manticore accelerated out of orbit, heading down the long path to where the primary inhabited world of Moorea would be in sixty hours.

Chapter Six

“The Mahadhevan is changing vector,” the senior watch specialist announced.

Marphissa eyed her display, watching the HuK accelerating and coming around, using her experience to guess its path even before it had settled out. “An intercept. The man is a fool.”

“Power up weapons?” Diaz asked hopefully.

“Not yet.” She slouched back a little in her command seat, then tapped the control to contact the HuK again. “Mahadhevan, I am happy to accept your offer to serve as our escort while Manticore heads to a meeting with Imallye.” Marphissa could only guess that the pirate queen would be aboard the battle cruiser, but Imallye’s forces couldn’t include that many ships of that size. Imallye would almost certainly be riding the battle cruiser, and perhaps was acting as the warship’s commanding officer.

“Just let me know if Mahadhevan requires specific stationing instructions relative to Manticore,” Marphissa continued with cheerful confidence. “It would be very unfortunate if any accidents occurred while your ship was close to my heavy cruiser. For the people, Marphissa, out.”

Diaz looked from Marphissa to his display and back again. “May I ask what you are doing, Kommodor?”

It was an exceptionally bold question for anyone trained in the Syndicate system of absolute obedience. Marphissa gave him a stern look, then laughed. “I am responding to Mahadhevan on his own terms. Do you not recognize what he was doing? Trying to overawe me and dare me to dispute his status and his orders?”

“I saw that,” Diaz said. “And now you are going back at him in the same way?”

“Exactly. You must have seen the same game played a thousand times or more when you were in school.”

“Yes.” Diaz looked at his display again, where the HuK Mahadhevan was continuing on a course to intercept Manticore. “But I have never seen that schoolyard game played with warships carrying arsenals of deadly weapons.”

“The ball is in his court,” Marphissa said. “He must decide whether to throw a punch or take advantage of the out I gave him and pretend that it was always about his escorting us to his superiors. That’s what he’ll do if he’s smart.”

“And if he’s stupid?”

Marphissa gave Diaz a serious look this time. “He is in command of one of the warships of Granaile Imallye. What intelligence we have on Imallye says that she has amassed a significant fighting force and established control of more than one star system. We see evidence here at Moorea supporting that intelligence. Would such a capable commander allow a reckless fool to command a warship? The Syndicate may see HuKs as throwaways, warships that last only moments in most combat situations, but neither we nor Imallye have so many warships that we can afford to think that way. So, if what we have been told of Imallye is right, if what we see here at Moorea before us is as it seems, then for all his posturing Mahadhevan must have some intelligence and skills. I tell you this to explain my reasons for acting as I am. I am not simply responding to a schoolyard bluff with another bluff, but made my decisions based on analyzing this particular situation.”

“Thank you, Kommodor,” Diaz said. “Even after serving with you for a while I am still surprised, and grateful, to have you explain your reasons and plans to me.”

“If worse came to worst for me, you’d have to carry out this mission,” Marphissa said, waving away his words to cover her inner embarrassment at Diaz’s admiration. “And you may command a force on your own someday. I hope to provide you with good training for that.” She smiled. “Despite my own lack of experience.”

The combat systems specialist broke into their conversation. “The HuK Mahadhevan will be within our weapons range in seven minutes, Kommodor. He will be close enough to fire on us in eight and a half minutes.”

On Marphissa’s display a translucent globe appeared around the Hunter-Killer, depicting the effective range of its weapons. Another, larger, globe centered on Manticore showed the longer range of the missiles and more powerful hell lance particle beams that the heavy cruiser carried. After the heavy cruiser had changed vectors to accelerate toward the inner star system, the HuK had been positioned slightly above and just forward of Manticore. As the HuK dove toward an intercept with the heavy cruiser, its relative position did not change, but the other warship drew steadily closer.

Marphissa watched the edges of the globes approaching each other as the minutes passed.

“Kommodor,” Diaz said respectfully, “the Mahadhevan will be within range of our weapons in three minutes. I recommend targeting the Mahadhevan at this time but holding fire until the HuK fires upon us.”

“Do not target the other ship yet,” Marphissa said. “We must allow Mahadhevan the man to pretend that his actions are not driven by fear of us.”

Diaz nodded, biting his lip as he watched the distance between the two warships dwindle. “You appear to have an insightful knowledge of the workings of the male mind, Kommodor.”

“One of the benefits of an unsuccessful dating history,” Marphissa replied dryly. “Ah,” she added with satisfaction as her display showed new movement. “Here he goes.”