“Sullivan’s on the bridge?”
I nodded as we reached the stairs. I didn’t do two at a time on the way up but kept moving. I had no reason to believe those two cruisers wouldn’t kick their drives hot when they realized what happened to the pinnace.
“Marsh, Del, Verno too,” I said. Philip had only met Verno and Ren when the Loviti pulled us off Marker. “Del’s Stolorth,” I added because I felt he should have fair warning, on that aspect at least.
“Regarth?”
“Yes.”
Philip gave me a quizzical glance then shrugged. “I’ll hold off so I don’t have to say it all twice. But, Chaz, before we get there.” He grabbed my arm and stopped climbing. “Are you all right?”
I looked at him. “You’ve got blood dripping down your face and you’re asking me?”
“That’s not what I mean, damn it, and you know that. Tage released everything your brother knew about Sullivan.”
“We saw.” I moved up the stairs again. So did he.
“His life as he knew it is over.”
I stopped at the blast door to the main corridor. If the situation weren’t so dire, I would have laughed. “Philip, that’s the understatement of the century. But yes, he’s expecting rejection, even retaliation. He can handle it.”
“And you? How will you as his ky’sara handle it?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. People keep ramming ships into us. It’s kept me busy.” I started to push against the heavy door but stopped. I looked up at him, realizing how odd it was not to be able to hear someone’s thoughts, sense his emotions when you talked to him. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t clearly read his feelings on his face, just as I could when I saw him leaning in the pinnace’s hatchway. Just as I could when he told me he thought he’d never see me again. Being on the Karn was not going to be easy for him, and he had more than a few surprises ahead. He deserved a better answer than my quick quip about ships. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m very glad you’re safe.”
“I wish circumstances were different.”
“So do I.” I shoved the door open and trotted quickly for the bridge, Philip on my heels.
Sully and Del both turned when we came through the hatchway. I felt Sully’s probe sweep over me but then it was gone. If he had comments or questions about Philip being here, he wasn’t asking them now.
I did quick introductions because there wasn’t much time. Philip would have to tell his story while we fought off a pair of cruisers.
“Philip Guthrie, you remember Verno? That’s Marsh Ganton, engineer. Captain Regarth, second pilot and, right now, helm.”
“Sullivan.” Philip looked at the man who needed no introduction. But Philip’s family had studied Ragkirils. Philip knew more than most humans did. I took my seat in the pilot’s chair and saw we were moving quickly at specs-plus for the gate. I wondered if Philip would spot what was different about Sully now. I wondered if he’d realize who Del was.
“Thanks for the lift,” Philip was saying. “I have news—lots of it—and most of it bad. But you have trouble coming. Partly my fault, I’m afraid.”
Sully nodded slowly. “You want a med-kit?”
Philip patted his forehead gingerly then raised an eyebrow at the blood on his fingers. “I must look pretty bad. Chaz asked the same thing.”
“Sit.” I motioned to the empty chair behind Verno at communications. “I’ll get Dorsie up here to work on you.”
“First things first,” Philip said. He pulled the rifle’s strap from his shoulder and held the weapon out toward Sully, stock first. “This might interest you and,” he paused with a glance at Del, “Captain Regarth.”
Del chuckled. “I’ve long found your family’s research on us interesting. Incomplete but interesting.”
Well, that answered one question.
Yes, lover, he’s guessed who I am. The history of the Serians is something the Guthries did manage to record fairly accurately.
Sully was hefting the rifle. I had no idea if he heard Del’s comment to me. He ran one hand down the stock then stopped suddenly. “Fuck.” A spurt of alarm first from Sully, then Del.
I couldn’t catch the details that flowed between Sully and Del, only that the rifle contained something that impacted the Kyi and those who used it.
Philip lowered himself into the seat. “I don’t have to tell you that’s one of the reasons Tage wants me dead.”
“Let me see it,” Del said.
“Cruisers thirty-five minutes and closing,” I announced as Sully tossed Del the rifle.
“I can get you a little more power,” Marsh said, “but I’ll have to pull from the shields.”
“Do it,” Sully said as I nodded.
“How many of these do they have?” Del asked Philip.
“I’ve seen three. I’m fairly sure they’re all prototypes. The others were smaller, lighter in weight, and the power packs were different.”
Dorsie bustled onto the bridge in response to my earlier request, med-kit in hand. We had one on the bridge, but I knew she liked hers from the galley better. I did a quick introduction, and then Philip sat quietly as Dorsie fussed over him, cleaning the dried blood and sticking clear anti-infection patches on the cuts and gashes.
Del tossed the rifle back to Sully, who left his station at nav just long enough to secure the weapon in the locked storage compartment in the ready room. We had more pressing problems. Like the cruisers.
“Strap in,” I ordered. “They just kicked weapons ports hot. I don’t think they’ll be able to intercept us. But they’re going to try to blow some damn big holes in us before we get there.”
The ready room chairs all had safety straps. Dorsie grabbed one by the door. She’d only be in the way on the bridge.
Philip unhooked his straps. “Sullivan, I can work second nav.”
“Take weapons,” Sully said. “Del and I are the only ones who can work nav for this jump.”
I caught Philip’s curious glance as he changed seats.
“It’s a Kyi gate,” Sully told him. “Your family’s research is about to get a little more complete.”
Data I’d been waiting for flashed on my screen. “Got ident on the cruisers. Ghita Day and,” and I hesitated, seeing the second ship’s name on my screen, “the Masling.”
I glanced at Philip, then remembered what he’d said earlier. Captain Cory Bennton was dead. He’d been Philip’s commanding officer for many years. Later, a very good friend. That’s why seeing ship’s ident had startled me. “I can’t believe Cory’s crew didn’t mutiny.”
“A lot did,” Philip said grimly. “But Tage had his people standing by.”
“Enough to staff a cruiser?”
“Fleet’s well below capacity and, mark my words, that will hurt Tage in the short run. But he’s using Prew’s Special Reserves, a lot of whom came through Fleet. We can only hope whoever’s sitting in Cory’s seat now has shit for brains and pie-plates for hands.”
“Prew authorized this?” Sully asked.
“Prew’s made Tage Supreme Military Commander, or some such title.” Philip grimaced in distaste. “I was trying to avoid a one-way trip to Moabar when the announcement came through and wasn’t paying much attention to the festivities.”
That scared me more than the two cruisers ahead of us. The Guthries were one of the oldest, most respected families in the Empire. Moves like that against Philip would cause deep repercussions.
“Philip, what in hell’s going on?”
“Hell, nugget, pure and simple. Now, keep an eye on the Masling. She’s the better ship, just out of refit. She’ll pull ahead of the Day. Olefar is one who quickly swore allegiance to Tage,” Philip continued, naming the Day’s longtime, long-hated captain. “Good riddance. Tage can keep him. He’ll also be one to waste his birds early on. Another reason he hangs back.”
Nothing like a reliable inside source.
I could almost grow to like the man, Del said.
Fr
om Sully, a silence I didn’t know how to interpret. And had no time to ponder further.
Philip was right about Olefar. A pair of bogies streaked toward us as the Masling moved ahead. But so did we, dropping secondary aft shields almost completely, Marsh working magic to assure we’d make the jumpgate. It would not be a pretty entrance—if we made it. Max sublight ones never were, the gate’s hard edge playing havoc as a ship switched too abruptly from sublights to hyperdrive. But it was the only chance we had. We had to make jump. The Karn was no match for two Fleet cruisers in a firefight.
Philip countered the first pair of bogies easily, but there were more behind those, and the Masling kicked up to speeds that had me wondering if Sully didn’t have a sibling out there somewhere in engineering.
Philip didn’t like what he saw, but not for the obvious reasons. “Her core will burn out at that rate. And that will be a waste of a damned fine ship.”
“They want you, badly,” Sully said.
“Yes,” was Philip’s answer, but no explanation. I knew one was coming, once we got past this and were just ghosts again in jumpspace. And I had a very strong feeling I wasn’t going to like what I’d hear.
“Seventeen minutes to hard edge,” Del announced.
I felt a new flurry of information between him and Sully. What I could catch was just guidance, gate data. Sully was focused on the nav console, not even raising his head to watch another set of plasma torpedoes burst apart under Philip’s sure hand at weapons.
“Marsh, how are we?” We’d have to engage the hypers shortly. And we’d be doing so at the point closest to the cruisers.
“We’re holding, Captain. But I’m going to need to back down, slough off soon. Unless this gate is different?” he asked Del.
“That will be as you’re used to. But if Sullivan or I ask you to do something, do it. There won’t be time for explanations.”
“Understood,” Marsh said but he still glanced at me, waiting for my affirmative nod before turning back to his screens. He looked nervous, and that wasn’t a demeanor Marsh wore well.
“There are no gate beacons,” Del continued. “You won’t see the gate until we’re almost at hard edge. It will respond to Sullivan and myself but, Chasidah, you will be aware of it. For that reason, it’s safer if you let us link with you. Mr. Ganton, I assume your discomfort with Ragkirils won’t be an issue here?”
Another glance at me from Marsh. “Uh, no.”
“Excellent. Philip, keep those cruisers away from us. And try not to worry about Chasidah. We’ll take good care of her.”
“I would expect nothing less from you,” Philip answered, but I didn’t miss the tightness in his voice.
Now that that’s settled… Del’s voice sounded clearly in my mind. The next minute the floodgates opened and I saw Sully’s console’s data and I saw Del’s and I saw my own, and I felt something distant and very powerful coming closer. The Kyi gate. The viewscreen showed only the starfield and growing points of light that were the cruisers. But overlaying that in my mind was a bright abyss, dead center. It looked like no gate I’d ever seen.
I was lost for a moment without beacon data. The gate had no real-time coordinates. Then I realized that wasn’t the issue. I felt the gate. I felt the ship. It was simply a matter of drawing those two feelings into the same line.
Gabriel, she’s a natural! I knew it! Del was chuckling.
Nothing from Sully, then: She’s always been my best interfering bitch. Born to be at a stellar helm. But there was an odd timbre to his voice. I didn’t know—
The gate pulled me again. We were slightly off course. Then I felt the Karn reposition from a slight nudge from the thrusters. Okay, that was better. Gate, there. Us, here. Nasty-assed cruiser bearing down hard just off our starboard side, at about the one o’clock position. The Ilario Masling. Damn them for killing Bennton! He had a wife and daughter. Now I’d not even be able to pay respects at his funeral.
If Tage even granted him one.
The rumble of the ion cannons sounded. We were close enough to use them, but that also meant those birds Olefar was throwing at us were coming more quickly. Less time to take them out and force the Masling off course.
But we could—
“The pinnace. Philip.” I jerked toward him. “No, keep your eyes on the screens. Just listen to me. Could she still respond to a remote autodestruct?” The Meritorious had.
I felt a startled question from Del. Interest from Sully.
“She can and she will, Chaz,” Philip said.
“Fourteen minutes,” Del announced, but I knew that already.
I turned to the other side of the bridge. “Verno, I need an emergency jettison in the shuttle bay. Eject the shuttle. It’ll take the pinnace with it.”
“It’s only money,” I heard Sully intone through gritted teeth.
Marsh snorted.
“On your command, Captain Chasidah,” Verno said.
“Philip, can you open a link with the pinnace from here?”
He was already tapping on his screens. “It’s hot. On your command, Captain Bergren.” He shot me a quick grin.
“Marsh, we’re going to need aft—”
“Aft shields at 70 percent and rising, Captain.”
I checked position of the Masling, the gate. It would be tight, very tight and I had no idea what the explosion behind us would do to gate entry. I guessed we were about to find out. I just needed it to create a screen when we were most vulnerable.” Dump her, Verno, now!”
Shuttle bay warning sirens wailed once then fell silent, but lights continued to flash. The Karn acted as if there was a fire in her bay or poison in her gut. She evicted everything, spewing pinnace, shuttle, and whatever else hadn’t been locked down out into the blackness behind us.
“Loviti II. Guthrie, Philip. AuthCode 391105-CR.”
I heard Philip continue reciting the codes to initiate the autodestruct sequence, watched the Masling and the Day coming closer, felt the gate, felt the Karn, was Del and Sully working energies that flowed through them as it flowed through me. I had Del’s knowledge of the gate and Sully’s knowledge of the Karn, but I had my experience as pilot, as captain.
“Switching to hypers,” Marsh announced as the pinnace exploded, sending a tremor through the Karn. Chunks of metal shot out into the big wide darkness with nothing to stop them until they reached the cruisers, hurling the Karn’s smaller shuttle along with them.
Some pinged the Karn’s shields but we were moving away from it, not toward it like the Masling and the Day. Their shields would deflect most of the chaff but they’d be busy—and blinded—for the next few moments. And their torpedoes, if they were foolish enough to fire, would be confused by the scatter field.
“Five minutes to hard edge,” Del said.
That was more time than I liked, but it would have to do. I flattened vanes, scanner dishes, verified data on mass, velocity, and inertia as if this were a normal gate transit. But it wasn’t.
A silvery haze drifted through the bridge, small sparkles running down Del’s and Sully’s shoulders. Marsh stared at his console but Philip had turned, his gaze shifting from Sully to Del then to me.
We’ll make it, Del said. This is good. Beautiful.
Then it was there, real, the white abyss I’d only seen in my mind flashing open before us. I heard Philip swear softly—in amazement, not anger. Even Marsh’s “damn” held a tone of reverence.
And we slipped through the Kyi gate and into the neverwhen with all the sweetness of a lover’s kiss.
“I’m sorry about your father, your brother.” Philip cupped his hands around the steaming mug of tea in front of him on the ready room table and looked at Marsh and Dorsie sitting on his left, their backs to the bridge. “Fleet and the Admirals’ Council were unequivocally not behind what happened on Umoran. In spite of the evidence being thrown about.”
We were almost an hour past gate entrance. Ren and Verno were on duty, which was minimal in jump. The re
st of us were here in the ready room, door to the bridge open. No one was off shift. No one wanted to miss what Philip had to say. He had been talking almost nonstop for most of that time.
“But that was, for Prew, evidently the defining moment. Though it had been building, with Tage and his people continually feeding the emperor select bits of information, making him believe Sheldon Blaine was only a hair’s breadth away from claiming the throne. Every time a Farosian ship eluded us, it was because we let it. It didn’t help, of course, that Nayla Dalby took the high-security access codes with her when she left. By the time we realized she had them, changing them did little good, although we continued to do so. We’d lock her out for three weeks, maybe two months.” Philip shrugged. “Then she’s back in and she knows ship deployment, position, crew assignments. We can’t stop her.”
A look was exchanged between Sully, in his usual seat on my left, and Del, on my right. Philip was at the other end of the table, to my left.
I know how to deal with her, I heard Del tell Sully. A feeling of self-satisfaction went along with it…and something else. I was trying to figure out just what it was when Del made his offer out loud.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Philip said. “But I want you to understand,” he continued, “that this has been going on for several years. Since before Nalby turned traitor. The Council had been able to keep Prew’s paranoia to a minimum. We thought Tage was helping, was on our side. We found out after Marker,” he said with a nod to Sully, “that we were wrong.
“So what it comes down to is that Tage convinced Prew that the Admirals’ Council is in bed with the Farosians. Every recommendation we made for more representation from and involvement with the rim worlds, Tage twisted into our ‘increasing cooperation with Blaine’s Justice Wardens.’” Philip snorted.
“He might not be far off,” Sully said, leaning back in his chair, absently toying with the lightpen in front of him. “We had a run-in with Dalby over a week ago. She wanted Chasidah to act as their emissary to Fleet.”
Philip arched one eyebrow.
“We turned her down. Now, I’m wishing I’d tried for a little more information. Her timing is a bit too suspicious.”
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