by David Brin
The Gubru captain was concerned with a Pthaca ship encroaching on its lead. The commander contemplated maneuvers to destroy the Pthaca, but the master computer suddenly squawked frantically for attention.
"They have not done that!" the captain chanted as it stared in disbelief at the display. "They cannot have done such a thing. They cannot have found such a devilish trap. They cannot have ..."
It watched the Pthaca ship collide at a large fraction of light speed with a barrier that had not been there minutes before.
It was only a diffuse stream of gas particles, drifting in their path. But, unexpected, it met the Pthaca warship's screens like a solid wall. At a fair fraction of light speed, any barrier was deadly.
"Veer off " the Gubru commanded. "Fire all weapons on the quarry!"
Fiery energy lanced out, but the beams stuck an intangible wall between the Gubru and the rapidly turning Earth ship.
"Water!" it shrieked as it read the spectral report. "A barrier of water vapor! A civilized race could not have found such a trick in the Library! A civilized race could not have stooped so low! A civilized race would not have ..."
It screamed as the Gubru ship hit a cloud of drifting snowflakes.
Lightened by megatonnes, Streaker screamed about in an arc far tighter than she could have managed minutes before. Her locks closed, and the ship slowly refilled with air. Internal anti-gravity was reapplied. Her spacesuited crewfen flew back to their duty stations from the hull rooms where they had taken refuge.
In the still water-filled bridge, Gillian watched the annihilation of the first two pursuing vessels. The crew cheered as the third battered cruiser swerved desperately, then suffered a malfunction at the last moment, and collided disastrously with the diffuse cloud. It dissolved into a flat ball of plasma.
"The rest of them are still out of sight beyond the gas giant," Gillian said. "After the chase from Kithrup, they'll think they know our dynamic, and never guess we could turn around like this!"
Tsh't looked less certain. "Perhapsss. We did fire off a decoy probe along our old flight path, mimicking our radiation. They may chase it.
"At least I'd be willing to bet they'll come in on a tight and fast hyperbolic-c."
"And we'll pick 'em off as they come!" Gillian felt a little giddy. There was just a chance they might be able to do it cleanly, so cleanly that they might be able to lie low, to wait a little longer for Hikahi and Creideiki. For another miracle.
Streaker groaned as she fought to change direction.
"Suessi says the wall braces are under stresss," Lucky Kaa reported. "He asks if you're going to be turning off stasis again, or pulling any other ... uh, he calls them `wild, crazy, female maneuvers.' His words, sssir!"
Gillian gave no answer. Suessi certainly didn't expect one.
Streaker completed her sharp turn and sped back the way she had come, just as two more battle cruisers came into view around the limb of the gas giant.
"Get 'em, Tsh't," Gillian told the dolphin officer. An outrage she had not allowed to show in weeks of frustration came out in her voice. "Use your own tactics. But get them!"
"Yesss!" Tsh't noted Gillian's balled fists. She felt it too. "Now!"
She whirled and called to the crew.
* Patiently,
We took the insults --
* Patiently,
Evil intent --
* Now we stop,
Patient no longer --
* Dream and logic,
Join in combat !!
The bridge crew cheered. Streaker dove toward the surprised foe.
116 ::: Galactics
The voice of the Soro matriarch growled out of the communications web. "Then we are in agreement to stop this chase and join our forces?"
The Tandu Stalker promised itself it would remove two legs, not one, for the shame of making this agreement.
"Yes," it replied. "If we continue in the present manner, we will only erode ourselves down to nothing. You Soro fight well, for vermin. Let us unite and end it."
Krat made it explicit. "We swear by Pact Number One, the oldest and most binding to be found in the Library, to capture the Earthlings together, to extract the information together, and to seek out together the emissaries of our ancestors, to let them be the judges of our dispute."
"Agreed," the Tandu assented. "Now let us finish here and turn about together to seize the prize."
117 ::: Takkata-Jim
He now understood what humans meant by a "Nantucket sleighride."
Takkata-Jim was tired. He had fled for what seemed like hours. Every time he tried to make the boat drift to one side, so he could surrender to one party, the other side fired salvos between him and his goal, forcing him back.
Then, some time ago, he detected a long chain of ships leaving Kithrup in the other direction. It didn't take much to figure out that Streaker was making her move.
It's over, then, he thought. I tried to do my duty as I saw it, and save my own life at the same time. Now the die is cast. My plan is lost.
I'm lost. There's nothing I can do except, maybe, buy Streaker a few minutes.
Some time ago the two fleets had stopped tearing at each other as they chased him. Takkata-Jim realized they were coming to an agreement.
Suddenly his receiver buzzed with a basic contact code in Galactic One. The message was simple ... stop and surrender to the combined Tandu-Soro fleet.
Takkata-Jim, clapped his jaws together. He hadn't a transmitter, so he couldn't respond. But if he stopped dead in space they would probably take that as a surrender.
He delayed until the message had been repeated three times. Then he began decreasing speed ... but slowly. Very slowly, drawing out the time.
When the Galactics had drawn close, and their threats began to sound final, Takkata-Jim sighed and turned the longboat's fire-control computers back on.
The boat bucked as small missiles leaped away. He applied full thrust again.
When both flotillas simultaneously fired volleys of missiles at him, he tried to evade, of course. It would be unsporting to give up.
But he didn't have the heart for a major effort. Instead, while he waited, he worked on a poem.
* The saddest of things
To a dolphin -- even me --
Is to die alone. ... *
118 ::: Streaker
The ambush at the gas giant was unexpected. The enemy came in close, using the great planet's gravity to swing about in a tight hyperbolic turn. They were unprepared for an attack on their flanks.
Compared with their breakneck dive, Streaker was almost motionless. She fell upon the pair of cruisers as they passed, lacing a web-like tracery of antimatter in their paths.
One of the battleships blossomed into a fireball before Streaker's computers could even identify it. Its screens were probably already damaged after weeks of battle.
The other cruiser was in better shape. Its screens flashed an ominous violet, and thin lines of exploding metal brightened its hull. But it passed through the trap and began decelerating furiously.
"It'll misss our mines, worse luck," Tsh't announced. "There wasn't time to lay a perfect pattern."
"We can't have everything," Gillian replied. "You handled that brilliantly. He'll be some time getting back to us." Tsh't peered at the screen and listened to her neural link. "He may be very tardy, if his engines keep missssing. He's on a collision spiral with the planet!"
"Goody. Let's leave him and see about the others."
Streaker's motion was taking her away from the giant planet, toward another group of five onrushing cruisers. Having witnessed part of the ambush, these were all adjusting course furiously.
"Now we see how well the Trojan Seahorse works," Gillian said. "The first bunch was close enough to read our engines and know we're Earth-made. But these guys were too far back. Has Suessi altered our power output along Thennanin lines, as planned?"
Wattaceti whistled confirmation. "It's done. Suesssi says it'
ll cut efficiency, though. He reminds you that our engines aren't Thennanin."
"Thank him for me. Now, for all our lives, what happens next depends on whether they're an unimaginative lot, as Tom guessed they'd be.
"Full power to the psi shields!"
"Aye, sssir!"
Energy detectors lit up as the oncoming ships swept them with probe-beams. The motley assortment of approaching ET vessels seemed to hesitate, then diverged.
"Numbers one, four, and five are accelerating to pass us by!" Tsh't announced. The bridge was filled with chattering dolphin applause.
"What about the others?"
Tsh't's manipulator arm pointed to two dots in the holotank. "Decelerating and preparing for battle! We're picking up a beam-cast in Galactic Ten! It's a ritual challenge!"
Tsh't shook her head. "They do think we're Thennanin! But they want to stop and finish us off!"
"Who are they?"
"Brothers of the Night!"
The magnification screens showed the two approaching battlewagons, dark and deadly and growing nearer.
What to do? Gillian kept her face impassive. She knew the fen were watching her.
We can't outrun them, especially not while we're faking Thennanin engines or wearing this heavy Thennanin shell.
But only a fool would try to take them in a straight battle. A fighting fool like Tom, she thought ironically. Or Creideiki. If either of them were in command I'd be preparing condolence wreaths for the Brothers of the Night right now.
" Gillian?" Tsh't asked nervously.
Gillian shook herself. Now. Decide now!
She looked at the approaching death machines.
"Down their throats,' she said. "Head toward Kithrup."
119 ::: Galactics
"We shall leave half of our joint fleet above the planet. None of the others will dare return, now that we have consolidated. We shall also send squadrons to clean the moons of hiding enemies, and to investigate the happenings out beyond the gas giant."
The Tandu Stalker had only four legs now, instead of the former six. The Soro Krat, wondered what accident had befallen the leader of her unpleasant allies.
Not that it really mattered. Krat dreamt of the day when she could personally detach the Stalker's remaining limbs, and then all its head buds.
"Is it possible that that out-planet chaos may be caused by the quarry?" she asked.
The Tandu's expression was unreadable on the display screen. "All things are possible, even the impossible." It sounded like a Tandu truism. "But the quarry could not escape even the stragglers' small might. If they are captured by them, the remnants will fight over the spoils. When our task force arrives, we will take over. It is simple."
Krat nodded. It did sound elegant.
Soon, she told herself. Soon we will wring the information out of the Earthlings, or sift it out of their wreckage. And soon thereafter we will be before our ancestors themselves.
I must try to make certain some few of the humans and dolphins are left alive, after they tell us where the Progenitor Fleet is located. My clients do not appreciate it when I use them for entertainment. It would save trouble if I found amusements outside the family.
Wistfully, she longed for a scrappy male of her own species as a joint Tandu-Soro detachment of thirteen ships blasted at full thrust toward the gas-giant planet.
120 ::: Streaker
"Damage to the stasis flanges on the port ssside!" Wattaceti announced. "All missile slots in that sector are out!"
"Any harm to the inner hull?" Gillian asked anxiously.
The fin looked blank as he sounded out the damage control computer. "Nope. The Thennanin shell's taken it all, ssso far. But Suessi says the bracings are weakening!"
"They'll try to concentrate fire on the port side now that it'ss damaged," Tsh't said. "And they'll expect us to turn away. Starboard missile batteries! Fire mines at forty degrees azimuth by one hundred south! Slow thrust and lurk fuses!"
"But-t no one's there!"
"They will be! Fire! Helm, roll ship left two radians per minute, pitch up one per minute!"
Streaker shuddered and groaned as she turned slowly in space. Her screens flickered dangerously under powerful battle beams she could never hope to match. Not a blow had been struck on her opponents. They kept up easily with her lumbering attempts at evasion.
From Streaker's shadowed quarter six small missiles puffed lazily outward, then cut thrust. Streaker turned to try to protect her weakened side, a little more slowly than she was really capable of turning.
Sensing a fatal weakness, the enemy battleships followed the turn. Beams stabbed out to blast at Streaker's damaged side, at what the Brothers of the Night thought was their supine enemy's real hull.
Streaker shook as the beams penetrated her shields and struck the Thennanin armor. Stasis flickered, giving them all eerily vivid feelings of deja-vu. Even in the water-filled bridge the blasts nearly threw the crew from their stations. Damage control spotters screamed reports of smoke and fire, of melting armor and buckling walls.
The cruisers drifted confidently into the mined region, and the missiles exploded.
Gillian clutched a handrail whitely. On those sensors that had not been blasted to vapor, the enemy was hidden by a cloud of roiling gas.
"Hard thrussst, twenty degrees by two seventy!" Tsh't called. "Stop roll and pitch!"
The abused engines struggled. The bracings holding Streaker to her armored shell groaned as she accelerated in a new direction.
"Blessings on that damned Thennanin armor!" One of the fins sighed. "Those beams would've sliced Streaker like toasssst!"
Gillian peered into one of the few operational holotanks, straining to see through the space-smoke and debris. Finally, she saw the enemy.
"A hit! A palpable hit!" she exulted.
One of the battlewagons bore a gaping hole in its side, burning metal still curled away from the cavity, and secondary explosions shook the cruiser.
The other one appeared undamaged, but more wary than before.
Oh, keep hesitating, she urged them silently. Let us get a head start!
"Anybody else around?" she asked Tsh't. If these two ships were the only ones left, she'd be willing to turn the engines back on full power, and let even the devil know they were an Earth ship!
The lieutenant blinked. "Yes, Gillian. Six more. Approaching rapidly." Tsh't shook her head. "There's no way we'll get away from this new bunch. They're coming too fasst. Sorry, Gillian."
"The Brothers have made up their minds," Wattaceti announced. "They're coming after uss!"
Tsh't rolled her eyes. Gillian silently agreed. We won't fool them again.
"Suessi calls. He wants to know if if ..."
Gillian sighed. "Tell Hannes there don't seem to be any more `female tricks' forthcoming. I'm fresh out of ideas."
The two battleships drew nearer, chasing Streakers stern. They held their fire, saving it for a total assault.
Gillian thought about Tom. She couldn't help feeling that she had failed him.
It really was a good plan, hon. I only wish I'd executed it competently for you.
The enemy bore down on them, looming ominously.
Then Lucky Kaa shouted. "Vector change!" The pilot's tail thrashed. "They're veering offff! Fleeing like mullet-t!"
Gillian blinked in confusion. "But they had us!"
"It's the newcomers, Gillian! Those six oncoming shipsss!" Tsh't shouted joyfully.
"What? What about them?"
Tsh't grinned as broadly as a neo-fin could manage. "They're Thennanin! They're coming in blassting! And it'sss not us they're shooting at!"
The screens showed the pair of cruisers that had been chasing them, now in full flight, firing Parthian style at the approaching mini-flotilla.
Gillian laughed. "Wattaceti! Tell Suessi to shut down! Put everything on idle and pour out smoke. We want to play the gravely wounded soldier!"
After a moment came the engineer's r
eply.
"Suessi says that that-t will be no problem. No problem at all."
121 ::: Galactics
Buoult's crest riffled with waves of emotion. Krondorsfire lay ahead of them, battered but proud. He had thought the old battlewagon lost since the first day of the battle, and Baron Ebremsev, its commander. Buoult longed to see his old comrade again.
"Is there still no response?" he asked the communicator.
"No, Commander. The ship is silent. It is possible they just now sustained a fatal blow that ...Wait! there is something! A flashing-light signal in uncoded open-talk! They are sending from one of the viewing ports!"
Buoult edged forward eagerly. "What do they say? Do they require help?"
The communications officer huddled before his monitor, watching the winking lights, jotting notes.
`All weapons and communications destroyed," he recited, "life support and auxiliary drives still serviceable ...Earthlings ahead, chased by a few dregs ... We shall withdraw ... happy hunting ... Krondorsfire out."
Buoult thought the message a little odd. Why would Ebremsev want to pull out if he could still follow and at least draw fire from the enemy?
Perhaps he was making a brave show in order not to hold them back. Buoult was about to insist on sending aid anyway when the communications officer spoke again.
"Commander! A squadron is outbound from the water planet! At least ten vessels! I read signs of both Tandu and Soro!"
Buoult's crest momentarily collapsed. It had come to pass, the very last alliance of heretics.
"We have one chance! After the fugitives at once! We can overpower the remnants even as they overpower the Earthlings, and be off before the Tandu and Soro arrive!"
As his ship leapt outward, he had a message sent back to Krondorsfire. "May the Great Ghosts dwell with you ...."