In a few minutes it would not matter who suspected what. In a few minutes he would have won.
One of Starbase's satellite fortresses shed a blast of light.
First projectile was in.
Delicate Harmony went into its attack run. "Stand by. Fire as you bear."
Another orbital fortress vanished in fire. The first was a hulk with a hole punched through.
The lighting dimmed as Delicate Harmony fired.
"Breakaway! Breakaway!" someone shouted, excited as a child. "The fleet is coming in!"
They all grinned. For a moment some humanity shone through.
Delicate Harmony lurched. Turtle felt a touch of sadness. Such a beautiful machine to waste. "What was that?" he demanded.
Techs looked puzzled. "Were we hit?" one asked.
"I can't get through to the bridge."
Turtle said, "Look at the hull. See where we're hit."
A man screamed. Others yelled. The techs who talked to the Godspeakers went crazy. Turtle yelled, "Help those men!" Provik's toxin worked! "What's happening?"
The ship lurched. A real hit. Panic shone in nearby faces.
"Calm down. Do your jobs. Get those men out of here if they're injured." One of the fighters did a suicide smash into an enemy ship. Another fighter had vanished. Turtle's number one rider limped badly.
A third orbital fortress took a hit. A projectile streaked through, hitting nothing. A fifth smashed into Starbase itself, with so much energy it started a slow rotation.
Turtle asked, "Comm, did you get that squirt off to the fleet?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good." That damned number two rider was not cutting around the action to head for the tag end. Were those fools going to try to get him out? "I want a message run to Damage Control. We need communications back."
One officer frowned. The first hint of suspicion. He wondered why the Gqdspeakers had become the first casualties.
Why didn't those halfwits get out? Soon it would be too late to slide around the fleet. If the Outsider crew figured it out... He made sure his back was clear.
Two more orbital fortresses went. A badly diminuated projectile hit Starbase. Delicate Harmony stood toe to toe with the remaining enemy. Armaments exhausted, the surviving fighters watched. The number two rider drifted closer but remained silent.
A tech gobbled, "All dying! Poison."
Turtle shot the three ranking officers before they finished turning. "Get to work." The crewman stared. "Work! Or none of us get out alive."
Delicate Harmony staggered.
— 132 —
WarAvocat tried to think like Kez Maefele. Starbase was vulnerable, obviously. Else the Ku would not have engineered an all-out assault... Or would he? Or would he?
Breath of a suspicion.
"Alert! Red One! Prepare for magnum launch!"
Now. He would see if he could think like the Ku.
VII Gemina broke away at T. Rogolica.
"Damn me! I was right!" The system swarmed with the weakest and oldest units of the Outsider fleet.
In minutes he knew. The fleet had attacked, drawn off the Guardship covering the Barbican, and had fled just before that Guardship arrived. And had come back after the Guardship departed.
The Outsiders had no pickets watching for trouble from deeper inside Canon.
Only a few Outsiders escaped the Guardship's fury. Afterward, WarAvocat said, "Aleas, the Ku isn't quite the monster I supposed. Unless he's something worse."
"What?"
"I was gloating because I'd screwed up his schemes. But what if I am his scheme?"
"He sent those ships here hoping you'd destroy them?"
"I'm beginning to think so."
The Barbican was scrap and gas. Outsiders had not destroyed it.
They had captured it somehow. The Guardship returning from T. Rogolica had destroyed it—and it had destroyed the Guardship. Local space was empty. No defenders. No attackers. No watchers. No Horigawas. Nothing but silence.
WarAvocat told Aleas, "I'm not sure I want to see what comes next."
"We have to go. VII Gemina needs repairs."
Not just because Gemina had spoken. Seventy percent of the secondaries were gone. The Guardship's skin was an encyclopedia of battle damage. VII Gemina ought not to risk another engagement before undergoing repairs.
There was life at Gateway. Of a sort. Gateway's orbitals had been destroyed. Gateway was beyond recognition. But its Core had survived.
It did not know the fate of Starbase. Nothing friendly had come out. Very little unfriendly had.
Tight-lipped, WarAvocat ordered the Guardship onward.
— 133 —
The number two rider drifted as though it had been crippled, ignored. Then it blew the main drive off Delicate Harmony's opponent. "Tricky," Turtle said. "Keep working. They haven't quit."
He saw what his people planned. Stupid. A bet against long odds. But they were going to try. He had to cooperate.
He backed to the nearest hatch, jammed it with a shot, did the same with a second, then stepped through a third, jammed it from the outside, headed toward the rider locks.
He ran headlong into the Damage Control party he had summoned. There was a tense moment. A shot sent them scurrying.
In minutes the whole ship would be alert. Even if they took him off, how did they figure to pull out again under fire?
He knocked out spy eyes, welded hatchways shut. He created a zone where he could not be pinpointed. Then he examined the rider hatches. They could not be sealed by remote.
Delicate Harmony shuddered. Lighting faded, came back. A mechanical clanging started aft, hysterical in intensity. The ship lurched, lurched again. What the devil? It was hell being blind to everything but that passage.
He picked a spot near the middle hatch and prepared to make the stand so likely to get puffed in legend.
New noises started up forward. They had begun breaking through the sealed hatches.
Delicate Harmony continued to stumble and lurch and clatter.
The passageway was full of fire. On the deck were six Outsiders who had tried to be heroes. Turtle did not miss.
They could not get a clear shot without exposing themselves. Stalemate. Till the bunch working their way forward set up a crossfire.
Turtle had maybe three shots left. He was considering saving the last for himself. Or should he go out hand to hand, risking capture, torture, sacrifice?
Zap! A running Outsider pitched headlong. Two shots left. Or one and the easy way out.
He had refused that option when they ground the Dire Radiant down.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The outboard hatches blew inward. Grenades tumbled through with Ku warriors right behind.
The shooting was over in seconds. An assault team headed forward. Ah! They meant to hit Combat so there could be no shooting when the rider pulled away.
He reeled as Midnight smashed into him. "Oh! You're all right. I was so worried."
"You'd better get back..."
The Outsiders from back aft arrived. Turtle shoved Midnight through the hatchway. A wild beam gnawed at his back. He grunted, shoved her at Provik. "Hang onto her!" He raced to the rider's Combat Center, ignoring pain.
Only one soldier was on duty. "Any comm off ship?"
"No, sir."
"Damn." But he had expected it. He tried to estimate how long to reach Combat, how much resistance, while catching up on the situation outside.
That was going exactly as choreographed.
He went to the nearest outboard lock. It was quiet out there now. They were waiting to cover the assault team. He asked one of his people, "You arrange to unload the rider crew?"