"In the rocks. Does it matter? We've given up hope of bursting through the other bridging point into your Empire. We must wait until our Warriors report success at the Mote."
"You intend to kill us all?"
"Yes. Your ships will have the advantage in the first instants because they will go through first and recover first from the shock. Unless humans tolerate the shock worse than we do?"
Jennifer laughed.
Harlequin frowned. "No? We watched you. You recovered very slowly."
"Harlequin, I'm half-dead of fatigue. Poor Terry's half-dead, period." An instant later she could have bitten her tongue off. Too late: Harlequin was leaping aft.
Terry's hand closed on the Motie's ankle and yanked him backward. Jennifer shrieked, "Kill him! Kill him, Terry!"
The Warrior was arrowing toward them.
Terry's arms closed around the Motie's head and shoulders. He twisted. "Dammit!" he muttered, and set himself and twisted much harder. The lopsided head turned with a pop like a branch breaking, and then the Warrior was wrapped around Terry like strangler vine, with his gun in Terry's ear.
Terry let go. Harlequin floated loose, still screaming thinly.
Under the Warrior's gun, they watched the Doctor pull and twist the Motie's head back into place. Harlequin's screaming died to a moan.
"No good," Terry said. "I forgot. No vertebrae, just that kind of handle that connects the skull to the shoulders. I only dislocated it, and the spinal cord isn't even in it, it's underneath. He'll talk."
"Jump shock. It hurts them much worse than it hurts us. They didn't know it."
"Yeah. But that was the last Warrior ship going through. I'm right, aren't I, Jennie?"
Jenny looked. "Yeah. Those other lights are all big Master ships, and they're all past the Sister."
"Hah. Slowed Harlequin down just enough. Now their whole Warrior fleet is in Mote system chasing down Sinbad and Atropos, and no Master to tell them different. Isn't that interesting? I wonder what a Navy man can do with that."
"We may not live to see it."
"Jenny, that took everything I had. If they decide to shoot me, don't bother to wake me." Terry's eyes closed.
8 Stern Chase
Retreat, hell! We're just attacking in the opposite direction!
US. Marine Corps commander, Changjin Reservoir, Korea
I'm just too damned old for this. Renner gradually became aware...
Cynthia was swearing in a loose-lipped mumble. Her body covered Bury's, obscenely, kissing... breath for him, squeeze his rib cage closed, blow into his mouth, squeeze...
Freddy said, "Atropos calling."
"Put'm through... Hello, Rawlins."
"Commodore, you're a flawless diamond on black velvet, Brilliant blue-white."
"Flattering. Ss'a quote-" From a historical novel, The Taking of Serpons Peak, just before the ship exploded. "Any threats here?"
"We're clear. Bandit Group One-Two-Three pulled well back from the Medina ships. East India is still holding the Crazy Eddie point for us, but not with enough ship to defeat what's coming here. Byzantium hasn't got here yet. Nobody's shooting at us. What's our move?"
Reimer's eyes were properly focusing now.
"General order: Make for the Crazy Eddie point. Keep station with Sinbad. Are we in communication with the Motie fleet?"
"Yes. I'll relay."
Bury was trying to sit up. Cynthia braced him.
Renner didn't recognize the Motie on-screen. A young Mediator, presumably male. "Commander Rawlins has informed us that a large Khanate war fleet, too large for our power, will arrive here through the Sister within the hour," the Motie said. "I am ready to convey your instructions to our Master."
"Avoid combat with the main fleet," Renner said. "Preserve your power, but we want you to take out any command ship that comes through. We expect the main Khanate fleet to chase us. As long as it does, leave it alone, but we don't want that fleet to get new instructions.
"Same for the Jump point. Make it expensive to go back through the Sister. Their main war fleet can do anything it wants to, and you can't stop them, but you can stop them reporting back to the Masters on the other side with anything short of a real battle group. Do that, please."
"Instruction received. Stand by for acknowledgment."
What else? "Townsend, get us moving toward the Crazy Eddie point. Cynthia, how much can he stand?"
"Pulse is strong."
"Anything," Bury said. "Kevin, do what you must. It is now in the hands of Allah."
"Yeah." And I think I'm too old for this. "Run up to one gee, Townsend. There's a stunt I want to try."
The communications screen lit again. "Your instructions will be obeyed," the Mediator said. "We will do what we can."
"Thank you. Rawlins, you stay with us."
"I can boost harder than you can."
"I thought of that, but no. I need you with us."
"You're assuming they're sending their whole fleet."
"I sure hope so," Renner said. "The warships anyway." His last observation in the red dwarf system was of the Master ships making for Bury's Star at low thrust. It didn't look as if they'd be coming back to the Mote system soon. And as long as the Warriors were chasing Sinbad- "We're bait," he said to no one in particular.
After Rawlins rang off, Renner looked around his ship. Horace was breathing by himself, eyes open, jaw slack, full of funny chemicals. Borloi extract, no doubt: no prohibition in the Koran against borloi. It was amazing that he could talk at all.
Freddy had recovered from Jump shock with stunning speed. Renner resented that. Glenda Ruth Blaine still looked as if she'd been blackjacked. The Moties were worse off, still keening in pain and angst. That couldn't last. Renner needed them.
The Empire ships fell toward the Crazy Eddie point at zero gee, following forty-five minutes of thrust. Renner couldn't tell them how long that would last. Cynthia was leading Horace Bury through a program of stretches. Joyce was preparing a sketch lunch. Nobody had ever asked if the reporter could cook. She could.
Telescopes aboard Atropos, then aboard Sinbad, observed small hot ships emerging through an invisible hole at high velocity and high acceleration. They dimmed, reducing thrust while they sought their targets. Presently they flared and moved at low acceleration toward the position of Bandits One-Two-Three.
"It worked."
"Why are you whispering? Call Atropos."
Freddy cleared his throat. "Yessir."
"They can't have taken time to refuel," Renner told Rawlins. "They're burning fuel they can't spare. Which means we can beat them to the Crazy Eddie point at anything above one point one gee."
If they chase us."
"Yeah. Assume they will."
"Then their best bet is to take it easy," Rawlins said. A stern chase is a long chase. Easy to use all your fuel in the chase and have none for the battle, Of course, they won't know where you're headed." Pause. "Or if they do figure it out, they won't know why."
"Okay. All we have to do is make sure they don't cripple us. I want to beat them to the Crazy Eddie point, but not by much, and I want to make sure we have plenty of maneuvering fuel when they catch up to us. Meanwhile, maintain your watch. You, too, Freddy. I want to know instantly if large ships with cooler exhaust and lower acceleration come through."
"Aye, aye, sir." Rawlins signed off.
At least he didn't ask if I know what I'm doing.
An hour later Freddy saw the Khanate Warriors turning. "They've found us," he said. "Somehow."
Renner grinned widely. "They've found us and they're chasing us. Stand by for acceleration. Horace, how does one standard gee sound? We'll take it up slowly."