Yes.
"Him and me are going to have a talk."
Wait! Hope is not yet lost. It will take the hunter time to reach a turn node. We will have a fourteen-hour lead when it begins its chase. It will need several days to catch up. There is a Guardship we can reach first.
"Which one?"
I do not know. They are using a code for unhurried reports. Its identity matters less than its proximity.
"To you, maybe. I'd as soon take my chances with the Outsiders as be saved by IV Trajana again."
It is the only safe isle in a hostile sea.
"I'm going to have my meeting of the minds with the Chief."
I shall be along presently.
Jo stopped off to consult her arsenal before visiting the bridge.
Jo or AnyKaat remained on the bridge every moment, armed and angry. They made sure the Pioyugovs held the heart of the strand and ran in the red.
They understood better a day later, when Seeker came onto the bridge. The hunter is a new type. It has more power than expected. It is gaining faster than expected.
"Catch that, genius?" Jo snapped at the Chief. "You wind this son out and stretch it or I'm personally going to make sure those bastards take you alive."
— 122 —
Six Tregesser ships left P. Benetonica 3B together: three overstaffed Haulers, two crowded Travelers, and a Voyager carrying Lupo Provik, his family, and T.W. Trice. House Tregesser's fleet would limp fora while. Provik did not intend sending those ships home.
House Tregesser belonged to Tina Bofoku and Cable Shike now. And Shike would have no trouble running it his way. It would be a long time before the Directorate recovered.
Lupo watched his homeworld dwindle. T.W. joined him. She was on the same wavelength. "Shike killed them, didn't he?"
"I think so."
"I checked every angle I could think of."
"He did it. Even if he and Tina can account for every second."
"Maybe if we knew what he planned before he walked into the Pylon and found out you weren't gone."
"It doesn't matter. He won't last. The Guardships or Outsiders will finish him before the year is up."
"I'm glad you finally took my advice." For years she had urged him to get out.
"We finally could afford to."
— 123 —
WarAvocat rested his hands on the back of Aleas's seat. A black ship model floated before her. Its length to thickness ratio was the highest he'd ever seen. That indicated a high powered linear accelerator type starspace drive. Ought to be a going sonofabitch running a straight course.
"New approximation?" The original had been watching them for two days.
"Yes. And Gemina doesn't like it. These bulges along here, all the way back, are riders." She tapped her board. Two lesser hulls separated from opposite sides of the main. "The riders' drives are always clear. They can output with the rider nested. These blisters between riders are fighters. They nest nose down thirty degrees with their drives clear."
"They can thrust to maneuver the main?"
"Gemina says the whole can outrun and outmaneuver most anything."
"Tractor vanes on the riders, too?"
"Light duty but mounted so they can supplement those on the main."
"A beautifully wicked piece of machinery."
"Probe has both oxygen and methane readings from inside."
"Let's see what it can do."
WarAvocat launched five riders and a dozen pursuit fighters on silent approaches. He and Aleas moved to WarCentral.
"WarAvocat. Target is moving."
Impossible. "No way could he have picked up our secondaries yet."
"Gemina concurs. Target action is independent of ours."
WarAvocat watched track data develop. Moving closer to the Web. And not sneaking. "Find its closest point of approach to the strand. Redirect the strike there."
The strand marked the apex of a triangle. The shortest leg ran to VII Gemina. Time passed. The Outsider spotted the secondaries. It accelerated.
"That bastard can move!"
"Attack speed," WarAvocat directed.
Minutes later, "WarAvocat, target has launched two riders and four fighters."
He asked Aleas, "Why? They can't handle what I sent." He studied the geometry. His secondaries would reach CPA moments behind the Outsiders.
A pinpoint of light appeared in the main action tank, waxed, waned, between converging forces. A breakaway.
On the time lag mark, Gemina piped, "... emergency. Guardship, this is Lieutenant Jo Klass TAD off Guardship VII Gemina aboard Pioyugov Traveler Dawn Watch. I have a bogie on my tail. Emergency. Emergency."
"Red One!" WarAvocat snapped. "Aleas. Missiles and interceptors." Alarms wailed, "Access, OpsAvocat. Stand by to move ship."
A second breakaway came. The speaker added to her message, "The bogie is off the Web and launching. I have you fixed. I'm coming in hard."
Missile tracks moved toward the action at accelerations that would cause ordinary steel to creep like heated wax.
Aleas remarked, "She's cool."
"She's a good soldier." Jo Klass. Out here. With two top-tech Outsiders trying to keep her from getting home. What the hell?
They were shooting out there now.
His secondaries brushed the insystem group away from the Traveler. Others met the breakaway in a head-on firing pass. A fighter died on each side. The breakaway had not put out its riders. It was gaining on the Traveler fast. No way his secondaries could turn and catch up. The Traveler would live or die depending on Aleas's missiles.
The voice from the Traveler calmly announced, "Bogie is launching missiles."
WarAvocat watched his own streak closer, chased by lagging interceptors. He did not ask Gemina for the probabilities. He had a bad feeling and did not want it confirmed.
Klass must have had a bad feeling, too. "WarAvocat, we're getting a coded squirt from the Traveler."
"WarAvocat, the Outsider has done a rollover and is using full thrust to dump velocity."
They believed they had their kill.
He checked his secondaries. Most were maneuvering to face the Outsider's escape run. The other and its riders had climbed onto the Web, to safety, leaving its fighters to fend for themselves.
His first missiles streaked past the Traveler as the enemy's arrived. That fraction of the universe turned to fire.
"Guardship, we have damage aft. The ship is starting to break..." A roaring blast of static. Then nothing.
— 124 —
Excluding Delicate Harmony, all ships of the new class had names like Sword of Shadow, Fang of Darkness, Voice of Doom. Turtle thought the Outsiders a real uplifting, cheerful bunch.
He had been summoned to combat because Hunger of the Destroyer, shadowing VII Gemina, and Edge of Night, chasing a mystery Traveler, had them a situation.
He entered combat, glanced at a display of that remote encounter. "What have we got?"
An Outsider brought him the brittle yellow paper they used for hard copy. "Transcript of in-clear messages from the Traveler to the Guardship. They transmitted more by coded squirt."
The Traveler had been fading when he arrived. Now a missile, making an appreciable percentage of the velocity of light, caught Edge of Night. End of that story.