Cynthia had Bury tethered into his water bed. Bury watched the Moties settle in.
"They've all got the worm," Kevin said.
"Yes. And how does it affect these cursed little Motie brownies? We test it here for the first time!"
"We may need them for damage control," Renner said. "Omar, can you keep them from mucking about with the ship? The last thing I need is to have the control system rebuilt."
"They will do nothing without orders." Omar took his place next to Victoria of the Crimean Tartars. "Your MacArthur was safe until the Engineer died. A Medina Engineer, Kevin. Even then a Medina Master or Engineer could have saved her. But-"
"But we didn't allow any communications with the Engineer or the Watchmakers, and Medina was already fleeing from King Peter," Renner finished.
"Precisely. It was not all your doing. After the arrival of King Peter's ship it would have been very difficult for you to communicate with Medina."
Renner nodded to himself. Even then, thirty years ago, the Moties had known more than the humans suspected. And what did they know now? But there was work to do.
"Rawlins?" A screen showed the commander of Atropos watching Sinbad's chaos with concealed disapproval. "Let us get well clear before you move in and refuel," Renner said.
"Aye, aye. Godspeed, Commodore."
"Thank you."
Refuel only. No Motie would ever touch Atropos. Paranoid, but am I paranoid enough? After thirty years with Horace Bury? Renner said, "All right, Mr. Townsend, let's launch."
An hour after Sinbad's departure, Rawlins called to report launch from Inner Base Six with full tanks.
One of Renner's screens displayed Atropos as a black dot on a violet-white glare. Another display, unmagnified, showed violet dots weaving a slow pattern about Sinbad. Another showed Commander Rawlins sprawled in his acceleration chair, and Chris Blaine behind him in a similar couch. The strain of three-gee acceleration showed in both faces.
"First things," Renner said. "The Moties report that our message to the Crazy Eddie Fleet went through as planned. No way to know if the Admiral got it."
"But he ought to," Rawlins said, "And no way to know what he'll do about it."
"Right," Renner said. "Anyway, for once things are pretty simple."
Rawlins lifted an eyebrow with some effort. "If so, it's the first time."
"Yeah. Bury and I have discussed the Khanate's options with the Moties, and we're all pretty much agreed on how things have to be. They've got two options. Plan A, they go through the Sister with everything they've got, hit whatever's waiting, and get through into Empire space, where they scatter. The Khanate is used to living off slim pickings: give them any kind of a system, and they'll soon be breeding like mad, if they can get their colony ships through."
Rawlins said, "What's to stop them? Why have a Plan B?"
"Well, they don't know they can get through," Renner said. "Or what they'll find when they do."
"They're risking everything they have," Glenda Ruth said. "Those colony ships are the Khanate. Everything they have, and they don't really know what they're facing. By now they'll have Terry and Jennifer, so they'll know Agamemnon was all there was a couple of hundred hours ago."
"Pity that engineer didn't just get himself killed," Rawlins said.
Freddy bridled; Renner spoke quickly to head him off. "What they don't know, because nobody on Hecate could know, is what reinforcements Agamemnon may have picked up."
"It won't be a lot," Rawlins said. "But maybe something. We did have some ships under repair, and this wouldn't be the first time Sinclair and his crew at the Yards passed a miracle."
"We're presuming they can talk to Terry and Jennifer," Freddy Townsend said. "The first Tartar group couldn't."
"The Khanate is richer than the Tartars," Glenda Ruth said. "They could have bought a half-trained Bury Fyunch(click) by now. I hope so."
"Why?" Rawlins asked.
"Jennifer admires Bury," Glenda Ruth said. "And she's impressed by the Empire. She'll be sure there'll be a big fleet with Agamemnon because she's got a romantic view of our competence. If they could talk to Joyce, it would be a different-"
"Now, Glenda Ruth, I don't-"
"We can hope," Renner said. "It may have happened that way. Whatever the Khanate learned from Jennifer Banda and Terry Kakumi, they're playing it plenty cautious. They're sending their warships through, but so far they've left their Masters behind. Those are still in Mote system with nothing but a corporal's guard."
Renner touched the screen controls and brought up images of the remaining Khanate ships. They were big ships, like civilian cruise ships in the Empire, and not one resembled any other. They were accompanied by a score of smaller ships.
"Two dozen-actually twenty-six of the big ships. That's the target. The thing is, a Master's family and entourage are a colony. Those are all the Masters and everything they need to survive, plants, symbiotes, useful Classes, everything. Each family a little colony.
"We go after those. Medina is vectoring everything onto those ships. So are East India and the Tartars. Byzantium has agreed to help. In about twenty hours, things are going to be plenty hot for the Khanate Masters."
"That part I understand. Fine by me," Rawlins said.
Blaine said, "It won't be a surprise attack by the time we hit them, but right now they don't know how fast we're coming. They won't have factored in the boost from Inner Base Six. The Medina Alliance is bigger than they thought, too, as they'll soon find out. So-what choices do they have? Either they pop through to get support from their war fleet, or they send for help. Quite possibly both, that is, they go through and then yelp for assistance, which means recalling the war fleet. That should buy some time for Agamemnon."
"Yeah, it just might," Rawlins said. He looked thoughtful. "If they do that, maybe we can reinforce Balasingham in time to do some good."
"Good thinking," Renner said.
"What's Plan B, Commodore?"
Renner said, "Our best guess is that the Khanate's Plan B is the same as Medina's. If they can't blast past Agamemnon, then they come back here, put together a big alliance that can defeat Medina, and offer to negotiate with the Empire."
"So the important thing is to see they don't get past Agamemnon. Other than that-do we care who wins?" Rawlins asked.
Kevin Renner had never thought of that at all.
"The Empire may not care," Bury said. "But we do."
Rawlins frowned.
"I'll second that," Freddy Townsend said.
Both men were civilians. Rawlins couldn't quite suppress a patronizing tone. "Now, I know you like these Moties, but Imperial policy is not to get involved with the internal affairs of candidate systems."
"We all know it happens," Freddy said.
"Maybe, but this is at a policy level a hell of a lot higher than any of us," Rawlins said. "Even with the Blaine heirs aboard."
"Rawlins-" Renner began.
"Commander," Glenda Ruth said. "We're only speculating on what the Khanate might do. The fact is, they haven't tried to negotiate with us. They have taken two Empire citizens captive, and they won't even talk to us about it."
"Hell, your friends took you captive."
"And are doing their damnedest to make restitution," Freddy said.
The two Mediators were listening intently, but neither spoke.
"Medina has earned our trust," Bury said. "Should we not earn theirs? Then there is a matter of property rights. Medina knew that-"
"Property?" Rawlins demanded, his reply delayed by the lightspeed gap.
"Yes, Commander. They knew that the protostar would collapse, that the Sister would open. They bought that knowledge with scarce resources. Including the life of an Engineer we allowed to die aboard MacArthur."