He slid around, darted in, knocked the weapon from her hand, kicked. "And I cautioned you that that would be fatal."
The light went out of her eyes.
WarAvocat watched the Outsider rider hurtle closer. A report came saying the escape pod had contained the artifact and a second woman. "Ready the Hellspinners," he ordered. Why the hell wouldn't the Ku give up?
Twelve riders lost or damaged. A hundred boarders wiped out, probably. To what purpose?
He did not comprehend. Though now he knew he could have gone shitstorm in that end space.
Enough was enough. If the Ku insisted, then die he would.
"Access, the Deified Aleas Notable."
After a long pause, a strained, "Yes?"
"Where the hell are you?"
"Here." From one of the screens reserved for the Deified.
"What have you done?"
"I nearly lost my objectivity, Hanaver. I had to come back."
"But..."
"Don't argue. There's no point. You have a task to complete. Complete it." She vanished.
He faced the wall display, sliced off the pain.
The Ku was coming like he meant to smash through VII Gemina.
He suffered an epiphany. He would not long survive the Ku. That was there in the way Aleas told him he had a job to finish.
The incoming rider adjusted course. The Ku would have to do more if he was not to overshoot the strand....
He laughed. "You bastard! I've seen this trick before." The Ku would threaten collision till he raised screen, then would slide past without a shot being fired, too fast for the Hellspinners. Or, if the screen stayed down, he would run in on the skin of the Guardship, too close and fast to track accurately, holding himself in with strands of artificial gravity—till he decided to let loose and whipped off at some unpredictable angle.
WarAvocat gave orders.
Beams licked out. Shells ricocheted off the rider's screen. A few Hellspinners rolled, just for effect. The rider came in like a Lock Runner.
It passed inside screen limit.
WarAvocat raised screen.
The Ku was trapped inside.
Provik said, "It didn't work."
"Not this time." Turtle dumped velocity as violently as possible. He kept an eye on the surface of the Guardship. It took four orbits to shed speed. He put the rider down in a wasteland of battle damage, set SCAM to blend, cycled down as far as he could. "They can't detect us here from inside or out. They'll have to send searchers. Let's hope they make a mistake before they find us." He fought off weariness. "We have work to do. Those bodies have to go. Their equipment and weapons and rations have to be collected."
WarAvocat watched the riders straggle in, ignoring the scrutiny of the Deified and live crew, wondering what next.
What next was the Ku would wait for him to screw up while he waited for them to get hungry and make their own mistake.
He issued general orders, said, "Bring the prisoners to my quarters when they arrive." The hell with what anybody thought.
— 140 —
Lupo Provik disentangled himself from Two. He went to a window. Beyond lay the world he had chosen as the seat of his stolen empire. It was a beautiful world, still untarnished. He meant to keep it that way.
"You're brooding again."
"I suppose."
"One and Four again?"
"Yes." The news dribbled in. The Ku seemed to have done everything but get the hostages away.
"It was a thin hope."
"I know. I know. It had to be done. And they volunteered. But knowing that doesn't fill the hole in here." He studied the forest that swept up his mountain. "Now we're safely out, I can't help wondering if it was worth it."
Two understood. "It was. This isn't Tregessser Horata DownTown, where you'd be dead by now if you hadn't reached up and grabbed. And none of the rest of us would have lived."
"I suppose."
"If you have to brood, worry about how we're going to keep the Guardships from finding us."
"They'll be too busy picking up the pieces and holding the Rims."
"If you can't do anything constructive with your mind, come do something useful with the rest of you."
— 141 —
WarAvocat was wounded. Lady Midnight did not remember him. And she had aged. It was terrible to look at her and recall the beauty that had faded. So he looked at the other woman, who had come aboard as haughty as a queen, unafraid, contemptuous.
He could not fathom her attitude. It seemed misplaced. "You're not in the Tregesser Pylon," he told her.
"Which renders me vulnerable to maltreatment. It doesn't change who's quality and who isn't."
Ouch. He lifted an eyebrow. "Why did you leave your companions? Why should you expect any mercy?" She radiated something intensely sexual. He wondered how she would be.
"The Ku and his bullies are determined to go out in high Ku style. They want to die. But they also want to make a fool of you for as long as they can."
"They haven't done a bad job."
"They've forgotten something in the heat of their game. Getting the Outsider fleets to suicide only gets rid of the fleets. The point of the war for the methane breathers is to buy time while they ready a place to hide."
WarAvocat frowned. "There is no safe place."
"Wrong. We spent a year there. But I can't tell you where. Only the Ku knows. And he has no reason to tell you."
He quizzed her. She was forthright. But why? He asked.
"I have people on that rider, including a son."
There it was. She wanted to cut a deal. "I'll think about this." Long enough for them to get real hungry out there. If shipboard politics permitted.
Three days. He had not made a dent in Midnight. The Tregesser woman had been easy, and interesting, but inclined to manipulate. She overvalued her skills.
She was strange. In the usual loose confinement, she roamed around muttering like a madwoman.
He did not think she was crazy. She was up to something. She got around too well, too, like she knew where she was going....
Ku wearing captured combat gear invaded a rider bay and carried off shipboard rations. He had not anticipated that. They were daring. They could become lice on the body of the Guardship.
Were they trying to force something? More likely they had no choice. Midnight and the Tregesser woman had come aboard gaunt.
They were vulnerable out there, even if they were indetectable. He had options. He sent fighters to pepper the area with 40mm CT. Afterward, he sent a message. He wanted the methane breathers' final redoubt.
Instant uproar. The Deified did not want deals. They wanted revenge. Living crew did not want campaigns, they wanted Starbase Dengaida, to get Gemina into therapy.
The Valerena's muttering paid off sooner than she expected. She took a turn in a remote corridor and there was Tawn. Had to be, though it was female. It had that look.
Its being female was a surprise. That would make seduction more difficult. And this Tawn, on a Guardship filled with the Living, would be less naive.
WarAvocat waited uneasily for the Ku's representative. Provik appeared to need no guide. Disturbing. "Do you have yourself under control, Colonel?"
Klass nodded. She knew she was a psychological counter. She was tough. She had come out of the tank knowing she had been killed and had gone to find out how and why. She was ready to hunt the Ku. Maybe too ready.
Why was Provik with the Ku? They had lied skillfully at P. Benetonica....
The air asked his attention, communication for his ears only. He listened, accessed the surveillance on the Tregesser woman's quarters. She was having a conversation with someone who was not there. Bizarre. He would have to give that more attention.
Provik arrived. He was direct. "The Ku says he'll give you the location and a method of attack if you'll give him Midnight and Valerena Tregesser and turn your back while he disappears."