A powerful drum beat was growing in the Flux now, booming through the net like the rumble of kettle drums. Then a braying voice:
HEAVE TO! HEAVE TO OR BE DESTROYED! NO DELAY! THERE WILL BE NO SECOND WARNING!
To punctuate the words, two more bursts of neutraser fire flared off the bow of the Narseil ship.
Ho’Sung’s voice reverberated in reply: THIS IS THE NARSEIL H’ZZARRELIK. WE ARE SETTING OUR STABILIZERS AND PULLING IN OUR NET! WE REQUEST A PARLAY. REPEAT, WE REQUEST A PARLAY. Then he ordered in a more muted voice, Riggers, shut down and withdraw!
The net rocked with laughter, broadcast from the other ship. The three Narseil and Legroeder pulled the net close around the ship, set the autostabilizers, and withdrew. The last words Legroeder heard in the net were: THIS IS FLECHETTE. STAND BY FOR BOARDING…
Legroeder emerged from his clamshell to a scene of deadly calm on the bridge of the Narseil ship. The captain and commander were each at com posts, murmuring instructions. The weapons control panels were alight. The Narseil weapons crew, led by Agamem, were stone faced, motionless, awaiting orders.
Ho’Sung conferred in a low, hissing voice with mission commander Fre’geel, then turned back. His manner was intense, but he seemed very calm. “Riggers, stand by to return to your stations on my order!” He spoke into the ship-to-ship com. “Flechette, our net is down. We have unarmed civilians aboard—”
One, anyway, Legroeder thought.
“—please do not shoot again! What are your orders?”
The answer was a staticky shout: YOU WILL OPEN YOURSELVES TO BOARDING, OR WE WILL BLOW YOU OUT OF THE FLUX!
Ho’Sung stood silent for a moment, then looked at Legroeder. “You’re the expert in human behavior. They’re not responding to the prearranged signal. Do you see any reason not to regard this as a hostile contact?”
Legroeder shook his head, swallowing. “I think we have a fight on our hands.”
Ho’Sung gestured a go-ahead to Fre’geel.
There was no further communication from the pirate ship, now framed in the long, narrow band of the monitor across the front of the bridge. The raider was nearly bow-on to H’zzarrelik’s flank, presenting the smallest possible target while keeping its bow weapons trained on the Narseil ship. Three lines fired out from the frigate, snaking through the glowing mists of the Flux to attach with a thump to the hull of H’zzarrelik.
A company of small, suited figures emerged from the side of the raider ship. The pirates moved with alarming speed along the lines between the vessels. They would be at the airlocks in less than a minute, and they would be none too concerned about whatever damage they might cause boarding the ship. “Open the airlock hatches,” ordered Ho’Sung.
Legroeder stared at the screen, fighting back memories of a pirate boarding, long ago…
“Pinpoint all targets,” said Fre’geel, to Agamem and the weapons crew.
Legroeder held his breath.
“Ready,” said Fre’geel calmly, as the pirates approached the ship, “to destroy targets, fire… now.”
The screen erupted with light. The sides of H’zzarrelik blazed as the concealed neutrasers fired. The beams were too fast for the eye to follow, but Legroeder saw the nose of the pirate ship seem to explode, and smaller, multiple explosions zip like lightning along the boarding lines. Cinders that had been suited raiders were blown off into the Flux like so much pepper.
Before anyone could exult, the raider ship released a blossom of return fire against H’zzarrelik. The deck shuddered beneath Legroeder’s feet as the first blast hit, but by the time he had caught and steadied himself, Agamem and his crew had pinpointed and destroyed those weapons on the pirate’s flank.
H’zzarrelik was yawing in the grip of the raider net. She was damaged—how badly Legroeder couldn’t guess—and Ho’Sung was shouting commands for damage control. But what about the enemy ship and its riggers? Legroeder couldn’t tell. This was a perilous moment: the Narseil had eliminated the nose weapons on the Flechette, plus a couple of side weapons. But the fight was just beginning; the raider captain had most likely just revised his plan from “capture” to “destroy.” H’zzarrelik held a momentary advantage due to surprise. It was possible they could even destroy the pirate ship right now, if they wanted—but maybe not without destroying themselves in the process. The ships were too close together to use the torpedoes. And that wasn’t what they had come for.
Ho’Sung and Fre’geel were snapping out orders. Deep in the belly of the ship, Narseil fighters were preparing for their own assault. If H’zzarrelik could survive long enough to get them on their way over to the enemy…
“Maneuvering fusor! Portside stern, hard!” Ho’Sung shouted.
A loud groan passed through the hull, and in the long screen—part of which was now dark, knocked out—Legroeder could see that the Narseil ship was rotating away from the raider, into a more protected nose-on position. But hardly had the maneuver begun than Legroeder heard a shout of “Torpedoes in the Flux!” Three jets of light streaked from the pirate ship. Three missiles shot away into space, and then looped back, bearing down on H’zzarrelik.
“They’re mad!” hissed Palagren. “They’ll kill us both!”
Agamem already had the Narseil defenses in action. A flash of neutraser beams took out one of the torpedoes with a splash of light, and a second went spinning away. The third streaked inward unhindered, until with a shudder, the side of H’zzarrelik vomited a torpedo of its own. The two connected about a kilometer from the ship, near the edge of the enemy’s rigger-net. The torpedoes exploded together in a curtain of fire.
An explosion in the Flux was not like an explosion in the vacuum of normal-space. The energy from the explosion blossomed like a jellyfish, enveloping the two ships. Some of the energy flared outward into the Flux, but much was focused inward, drawn to the nets. The Narseil net was withdrawn, but the pirate’s net was fully deployed, and it blazed up like a sparkler. A moment later, it went dark, dropping its hold on the Narseil ship.
“Maneuvering power!” Ho’Sung shouted. “Riggers, return to your stations!” The Narseil captain darted across the bridge, giving orders to his crew. Legroeder and the others scrambled to their rigger-stations.
If the curtain of fire from the explosion did not hit the ship directly, the waves of turbulence in the Flux did. The ship had begun to lift and turn, shaking horribly. Legroeder was halfway into his rigger-station, the clamshell still open, when the strongest wave hit. In the screen across the bridge, he saw the ship turn sideways to the pirate ship, then begin to tumble. He drew a fearful breath as the clamshell closed around him.
Reentering the net was like pulling on a tight bodysuit of unraveling fabric. The net had been seared, even in its withdrawn position; but it was still workable. He shouted, Ready! as he strained into position and stretched his arms into the Flux. The other riggers joined him, and they began expanding the net.
It was like sticking his hands out from a spinning raft into the base of a waterfall. The Flux had taken on the look of a cosmic maelstrom, and across the whirlpool of light, the raider ship was a chip spinning on a swirling stream. The pirate captain had badly miscalculated in firing those torpedoes. The two ships were some distance apart now, but the currents seemed as likely to slam them back together as to carry them further apart. It was probably a good time to counterattack, while the other ship was helpless; but H’zzarrelik was nearly helpless, too. Maneuvering was going to be very difficult.