"Yes, Sir."
The captain closed the connection almost as abruptly as had Mr. Hill. No longer in the least bit tired, Carlie straightened her tunic and went to review her other middies, vaguely seeking reassurance that they, at least, were out of danger.
On Aaron's Rod Judith felt the sudden clarity that comes with having made an irrevocable decision. She should have felt it when she cut her hair or when she donned men's clothing or when she took Flower from the planet's surface, but it wasn't until she sat here, nothing but the star-filled emptiness of space in front of her that she felt the last of the chains that had held her on Masada snap and leave her free.
"I'm plotting us the most direct course to hyper limit," she said crisply. "Odelia, let me know if anything new comes from the surface. Sherlyn, keep an eye out for anything moving on an intercept course."
An odd thought occurred to her.
"Connect me to Rena."
"Damage Control here."
"Rena. Has anyone taken a good look at the shuttle on which the smugglers came aboard?"
"I did, actually. My team seemed best equipped to inspect it."
"Where did it originate?"
"It's registered to a Silesian ship, the Firebird."
Sherlyn volunteered, "Firebird is here in system, Judith."
Judith nodded her thanks and continued, "How's it set in the hold?"
"Facing out toward the doors. I guess they turned it around somehow."
"Good. How confident do you feel about checking its piloting programs?"
"Pretty good. But, Moses, it's unarmed and unarmored. I don't think it will do as an escape vehicle."
"Good to know. Get acquainted with its piloting program. I may have something for you to put into it."
"Yes, Moses."
At least Masadan women are good at taking orders, Judith thought with a faint trace of humor.
Dinah had glanced over at her, but the older woman said nothing and when Judith volunteered nothing of her thoughts, returned to checking the weaponry boards.
Odelia broke the quiet that had settled over the bridge.
"Moses, surface is now insisting we return to orbit."
Judith nodded.
"Odelia, I don't think we can fool them for long, but let's mess up the works. Tell them you're Sam . . . Tell them we're taking the ship out on Ephraim's orders. That should at least slow them down long enough to talk with him."
Odelia nodded, the skin around her eyes tight with worry. Judith heard her query the computer for Sam's identification codes and instruct it to configure her voice mask to match his range.
Good. Thinking for herself. I suspect we're going to need a lot of that if we're going to get out of here alive.
That diversion bought them enough time that the planet had visibly receded, but at last the call came as Judith had known it would.
"They say they've spoken with Elder Templeton and that he has no idea what they're talking about. They sound really angry."
"Let them be angry," Judith said. "The more angry they are, the less energy they'll have for clear thought. Any sign of pursuit?"
"Several drives have gone active," Sherlyn reported, "including the Firebird's. The only thing moving toward us are a couple of light attack craft."
"We're better armed than any of those," Dinah reported.
Judith knew that the Faithful's dedication to building a navy had not extended to extensive in-system defense. Simply put, the Graysons didn't want war, dedicating their energies to protecting their own system. The Faithful, on the other hand, had specifically designed their navy to take Yeltsin's Star back, and each LAC cut into offensive tonnage. They'd built just enough LACs to keep their system from being a sitting duck while the rest of the fleet was away, and those ships were widely spread out. Nor were they likely to fire on a ship belonging to a prominent citizen.
"Good, Dinah," she said. "We may need to remind them of that. How do we look for offensive capacity?"
"Full-up," Dinah reported crisply. "Jessica reports that the magazines are well-stocked and that her crews have the tubes ready for loading. The energy mounts are powered up and ready. Point defense is standing by."
"As I recall specs for the LACs," Judith mused. "They're pretty much limited to one salvo each from their box launchers and a single spinal laser, right?"
"Right," Dinah confirmed.
"Well, we won't throw away missiles unless absolutely necessary, and we have the range on them."
"We're also armored in Ephraim's reputation," Dinah reminded her. "They're going to be reluctant to fire on the vessel of such a successful privateer."
But what Ephraim gives, Judith thought, he can as surely take away.
The hyper limit seemed very far away indeed. It seemed even farther when Odelia reported a few moments later:
"We have a call from Ephraim Templeton."
"Let us all hear it," Judith said, unwilling to let the man become a phantom to her companions.
Ephraim sounded very angry, what Rena called "beating angry." By the time Odelia put his transmission up, he was already in mid-flurry.
" . . . and I promise that only God's wrath will be greater than mine when we catch you. Turn around immediately!"
Judith grinned, forcing herself to seem more amused than she felt.
"Now there's real incentive."
"If you do not," the transmission continued, "I shall come after you myself, and my vengeance will be terrible!"
"Send back the following," Judith said. " 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' Then refuse further transmissions. I don't think we can talk him out of his course."
"Do you think he'll really come after us?" Odelia asked.
"Oh, yes," Judith said. "I'd guess he's already on his way. The question is whether or not he can get to either Psalms or Proverbs before we can get clear."
She glanced at the plot, which showed the planet not as far away as she had imagined, and suspected that Ephraim could catch up. Although her handling of Aaron's Rod had been competent, she was keeping the ship at a comparatively low rate of acceleration.
Part of that was because of her awareness of her delicate human cargo, which wasn't ready for space travel, but another part—and she had to be honest with herself—was because she was afraid to try and attempt anything too elaborate. Nor was she prepared, with her trained-by-rote Engineering crew, to risk reducing the safety margin on the privateers' inertial compensator the way a more experienced crew might have. Worst of all, the Havenite modifications to Ephraim's other ships had included upgrades for their compensators. Even with the same safety margin, they could pull a substantially higher acceleration than Aaron's Rod. With fully trained crews to get the highest possible speed out of them, their acceleration advantage would be even greater.
Still, there might be time for the Sisters to get away. Ephraim had been half the planet away from his estate when he was notified. She and her allies had disabled the Blossom, the only other ship to orbit vehicle available in his hangers. There might be time.
And if there wasn't?
Judith frowned, and, oblivious to her nervous crew, buried her face in her hands and tried to think.
"Would you mind telling me," Michael said as he chugged up the stairs after John Hill, "what is going on?"
"You saw those men exit the Conclave Hall?"
"Yes. Templeton. Shipping."
Michael kept his replies short. The program of exercise he'd been following shipboard, he was discovering, didn't prepare one to run up stairs.
"Someone has stolen a Templeton ship."