"Daelyn?" Velmeran asked suddenly, and stared at the girl. She grinned and waved at him.
Mayelna smiled. "I believe that you have met your sister. Half sister, at least."
"Sister?" he asked. "Nuts! I was hoping for another kiss."
"You can talk to Consherra about that. Right now you will listen to me," Mayelna said, in the Commander's voice. "Meran, I see something of the future that you must face. I suppose that is what everyone must see in you, that your life is tied up in some great and terrible fate, and that is why it is so easy to believe in you. I believe you, and I will give you all the help I can."
Velmeran stared at her in surprise. "You do?"
"Have I not said so from the first?" she demanded in exasperation. "I know who led the counterattack against that fleet. And I know as well who took over leadership on that expedition to retrieve Keth when Dveyella thought that it was time to pull out. Did you think that Valthyrra was the only one listening to every word that went over your com? Someday, left to your own devices, it might even occur to you how much I love you. And I hope that you will make the equally amazing discovery that you might just have some love for me in return."
"You love me?" he asked. "I do not recall that you have ever said that to me before."
"I have always told myself that actions speak louder than words," she replied gently. "That is just a coward's excuse, and I have had a hard lesson in how actions can be misinterpreted. Therefore I will say it plainly: I love you, Meran. Not because you are my son, or my best pilot, or because you are the most unique person I have ever met. No excuses or conditions. I love you just because of yourself, for you are special to me."
Velmeran nodded and swallowed nervously. "You are my mother…."
"And sometimes we need the help of someone who loves us," she finished for him. "I understand. Meran, there is no one here who does not love you. I have shed tears for you, because I shared your grief. Many of us did, more than you might imagine. Others would have, if glass eyes could weep. But you never did. Something was lacking, I suppose. Something that still needed to be done."
He smiled uncertainly. "Ghosts of more than one nature will rest more easily now."
"Then let them rest," Mayelna said. She took him in her arms and held him tightiy while he cried.
15
Even as the Starwolf carriers were gathering for their council of war, Jon Lake received some very disturbing news. News that frightened him as nothing in his life had frightened him before. With the packet containing the report in one hand, he stormed into the Sector Commander's office. The secretary and two guards in the outer office, under strict orders to admit no visitors, were undecided as to whether or not that applied to the Councilor as well. During the moment of hesitation, he was already past.
"Idiot!" the Councdor spat like an angry cat at the startled Sector Commander as he came through the door. "What are you trying to do?"
"Hello, Jon," Commander Trace said casually as he sat back in his chair, waving the astonished guards out of the doorway so that it would shut. "Yes, I ordered that test moved up three weeks. What of it? We lost the freighter because her captain did not get the hell out while he had the chance. But we did get Starwolves."
"A Starwolf!" Councilor Lake corrected him.
"Oh?" the Commander asked innocently. "My report said three. Ah, well, we will improve. Even one was a good start."
"The wrong one!" Lake declared. "You moved that test up so that you could send your trap after the Methryn, knowing where she was and that she would probably be hunting again. Why, Don? Were you trying to get Velmeran?"
"And why not?" Trace demanded. "He made me nervous. Too damned smart."
The Councilor did not reply to that, but opened the package he held and pulled out a photograph, which he threw down on the table. "Do you know who this is?"
"Starwolf," Commander Trace replied, hardly bothering to glance at it. "I cannot tell one from another."
"You should know, since you dined with her only a week and a half ago. There was a two-man prospector poking around the asteroid debris in the system, surveying for metals. Suddenly they saw a Starwolf carrier coming into system fast, and it seems that they recognized a Starwolf funeral when they saw it. They kept the body on scan until the carrier left, then rushed in and snatched it up at the last moment. And, being a company prospector, they turned the body over to Farstell rather than to the military. Since they sent the report on a military courier, it came to me instead of to you."
"What became of the body?" the Sector Commander demanded, almost greedily. Alive or dead, a Starwolf was a valuable possession.
"You needn't concern yourself, even though I can imagine you hanging her head from a post as a warning to all Starwolves. I have already ordered that body destroyed in our own sun, according to their own honors," Lake said with considerable heat, then grew cold and menacing. "Are you too big a fool to realize the consequences of your actions? Velmeran knows that you were after him. Now he is going to demand payment."
"What can he do, just one Starwolf?" the Commander asked, unconcerned, even contemptuously.
"Have I not taught you to understand them better than that?" the Councilor demanded. "They accept a certain amount of risk, but they always make us pay. They made us pay through the teeth for that last trap, and that was nothing personal. But you have made it something personal. Damn it, that girl was his mate. He is going to make us pay for her death if he has to take apart this entire planet, and the Starwolves are going to give him all the help he needs."
Councdor Lake walked over to stand before the window, staring out over the city. "I am going to take what steps I can to prepare for their attack. The first thing that they are going to have to do is crack the dome to get their fighters in. I am going to arrange to have the dome shield fail after only one or two determined hits from their big cannons. That power will be of more use in the planetary defense system."
Trace stared at him disbelief. "The dome shield has to remain up. It will delay them long enough for our fleet to move in."
"And let them fry this city in the process?" the Councdor asked, and shook his head. "I will not sacrifice this entire city for a block of metal. Also, we have to get our people out. I will warn Richart and everyone else to get to the sub the moment we see a Starwolf carrier coming in. Both of the sea gates will remain open from now on. Fortunately we should have a few weeks before they can put together an attack."
Preparations for the attack were made even before the Starwolves left Altiolandh. The nine packs that were to accompany Velmeran's own into Vannkam were quickly selected and transferred to the Methryn, where they were serviced and fitted with the big auxiliary cannons they would carry on their raid. The Methryn's packs that would not be a part of the attack force were divided between the Delvon and the Karvand for their own servicing. Everything had to be ready before their arrival at the Vinthran system.
Velmeran wanted to lead his attack force down just before dawn, local time, so that they would be coming up into the city early enough to catch most of its population still at home and in no real danger. He thought that a courier would have taken three days to arrive with news of the attack, and he wanted to make his raid before any major countermeasures could be arranged.