"We don't have hours. We're too slow anyway, with Mr. Bury aboard."
"Exactly. We'll fight what we find there while you and your escorts go right on past. They won't be expecting that."
"That's the way I see it," Renner said.
"Then we all go on. Commodore, I suggest you work on the message to Balasingham. He isn't going to like seeing a bunch of Motie ships coming at him."
"Right. Thanks," Renner said. "Omar, make sure your people understand. Commander Rawlins will have his computers work out a course for every ship. It's important they follow directions exactly."
"Understood," Omar said. "Thank you."
"Okay, Commander, we'll wait for you to call. Thanks." Renner turned to Freddy Townsend. "So. Still think we can get through at two hundred klicks?"
"Piece of cake."
"Just what is happening?" Joyce asked. "Freddy?"
"Give me a minute," Freddy said.
"Omar," Renner said. "When you can spare a moment, we have a job for your Engineer." He tapped furiously and a series of diagrams appeared on the screen. "I need this set up."
"The Flinger, Kevin?"
Bury. "Yeah." Renner glanced at Bury's medical readouts. They'd settled to normal. "Glad you got a good rest. We're going through, and we don't know what's on the other side. I want to erect the Flinger."
"Indeed." Bury sighed. "In that case-Cynthia, I believe you should open the sealed locker in Compartment Eight. We may need its contents."
The brown Motie Engineer had been studying the screen. Now she chattered to Omar.
"Problem?" Renner asked.
"No, she understands the mechanism and its purpose. It will be done in less than an hour. Indeed, she says she can make considerable improvements-"
"No!" Bury said. "My ship, and by the Prophet, no! Leave it as it was designed."
Renner was chuckling, but stopped when he saw the medical readouts. "Omar, I think it will be best if the system works as I expect it to. We can leave the improvements for another time."
"Very well." Omar spoke rapidly. The Engineer and Watchmakers went aft to find their pressure suits
"Please," Joyce said. "Won't somebody tell me what's happening?"
"What's happening, or what we think is happening?" Glenda Ruth asked.
"Both!"
"I would appreciate the information myself," Bury said.
Kevin kept an ear cocked. Freddy, too, was listening, though he had his own work.
"Not for the record, my opinion only." The screens showed a chart of the Mote system. Glenda Ruth said, "The Khanate sent its main war fleet through the Sister while the Masters and their colony ships stayed behind. East India and Medina made it too hot for them, and they fled through as well. We figure they'll be headed for the Jump to New Cal, but they'll have to find it first.
"Meanwhile, our group is heading toward the Sister. There's another squadron of alliance ships that can work it so they get there just ahead of us. Atropos goes in with those. If there's nothing there to shoot at, they'll head directly for Agamemnon at the exit point. We'll follow at our own speed."
"Oh," Joyce said. "Of course. We know where it is."
"So we ought to get there first... Atropos and the Medina fleet, that is. Rawlins goes directly there, so the Khanate won't know just how strong we are."
"But we're expecting trouble."
"The Khanate is entirely likely to leave a sniper or six," Glenda Ruth said.
"But they know how many ships we have. Don't they?"
"How could they possibly know what we'll take through? Anyway, that's why Atropos goes first. He goes through and we follow, as many as we can. Some snugged up behind Atropos, the rest in a crazy-quilt pattern. The notion is that some get through. A lot get through."
"Oh."
"Something else they won't expect," Freddy said. "Or rather they will expect-"
"Jump shock," Omar said. "They will have experienced it. Eudoxus says it is formidable-but less so for you than us. They will not expect you to recover as quickly as you will. Our Warrior officers agree. It is a good plan."
Atropos went second. First there was a fan of twenty East India warships not much larger than Imperial corvettes traveling at high but different speeds. Their mission was to distract whatever enemy waited on the other side of Crazy Eddie's Sister.
Freddy Townsend watched in appreciation. "Any regatta commodore would be proud of that performance."
"Or fleet admiral for that matter," Renner said. "All right, there goes Atropos." Alliance warships huddled close behind the Imperial cruiser, in what would have been called "line ahead" in wet navy days. Now they vanished one by one as Sinbad hurtled toward the Jump point.
Sinbud's Warrior entourage would have been visible if the Field were not up. They were needed for more than protection. Freddy Townsend was using them for triangulation.
The Sister was thirty seconds away.
"If we make this, it'll be a record," Freddy said. "Will I be allowed to file it?"
Kevin said, "Not my decision. And if we miss, we can try again, of course, but that's three hours down the recycler, Freddy, and I don't know how important three hours is. Give it your best."
"Always."
Victoria and Omar concurred: any decent Warrior pilot could do this. With twenty Warrior pilots to triangulate, even a human pilot had a chance.
Kevin never saw Freddy hit the switch.
7 Jump Shock
Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In the two days before the Khanate ships found them, Jennifer had little to do but watch Terry, and talk to Pollyanna, and pray. The God of mankind was God of the Mote, too. She prayed for solutions that would bring peace to both kinds of mind.
When the Khanate ships approached, Jennifer looped Freddy's stored data on the Contraceptive-Longevity Worm. The Khanate Warriors found it running when they burst through the wall.
For a time they ignored it. Two Engineers, four Watchmakers, and a Warrior searched once for booby traps, then in leisurely fashion for anything of interest. A Mediator and a Master arrived, discussed, examined. Cerberus's cabin was again infested with Moties.
The Mediator listened to the recording Victoria had made, the notice in trade Koine that the ship was salvage but that Medina Alliance would pay well for Jennifer and Terry. The Mediator turned to the Master and spoke. The Master spoke curtly. Both ignored the humans.
The Warrior went away. The Mediator examined Pollyanna without waking her, then took position in front of a monitor recently worked over by an Engineer. Watchmakers scurried about like big, helpful, curious spiders.
Over the next several hours Cerberus changed again. A pity Freddy couldn't see this. The Khanate found his drive, Hecate's drive, pushing too light a load. They added a truss to hold cargo, fiddled with the drive to get yet more thrust, added nets of spheroids, as if Cerberus had sprouted clusters of tremendous grapes. More cargo . .. and weaponry? Jennifer couldn't tell. Terry would have known, but Terry wasn't talking.
Terry dozed most of the time. Something would get his attention: Jennifer caressing his neck or ear, or a Watchmaker running across his back. His eyes would open; maybe he would smile, maybe he would drink some water or broth, speak a few words, and presently go back to sleep. He wasn't keeping good track of events. Jennifer had to keep her own counsel.
Help would come. Jennifer waited.
Inside, the Moties were at work. This time there was no stopping them. Their interest was in the screens, cameras, computers, communications. They didn't touch the air system. Perhaps the Tartar Engineers had sufficiently altered that.
Pollyanna woke. She and the Khanate Mediator chattered as they watched the monitor