But there was little time to think about it. Already the missiles from the surface were within range, homing (as Sassinak had suspected they might) on the transport. Arly took out this first assault easily, dumping the data generated by their explosion into a primary bank for analysis later. If there was a later. For the escort vessel, boosting at its maximum acceleration, would all too soon round the planet’s limb on their trail. Already Huron had boosted the transport into an outward trajectory; Sassinak let theZaid-Dayan fall behind and inward, where she could more easily intercept the surface-launched missiles. Behind them, she knew, would be the manned craft: the little one-man killerships, and the larger escort. Their only chance to protect the transport, and save themselves, lay in using every scrap of cover the complex system offered.
The main display screen now showed a moire pattern of red, yellow, and green: safe zones, when both transport and cruiser were hidden from all known enemy bases and ships, zones when one or the other were exposed, and maximum danger zones when both were exposed. On this pattern their current and extrapolated courses showed in two shades of blue - and the display shifted every time another factor came into play.
“If that tub had any performance capabilities at all,” Sassinak muttered angrily, punching buttons, “Huron could use that inner moon as a swing-point, and head back out picking up another swing from the middle one - and that’d take him safely over the ring, too. But I’ll bet that thing won’t take it - “ Sure enough the return from Huron’s ship showed unacceptable acceleration that way. But she had performance to spare, plenty of it, if she guessed right about how the slaver escort would choose to come in.
“Swing-point off the second moon gives ‘em the best angle,” said Arly, hands busy on her console as she checked out the systems again.
“No - fastest is the deep slot. using the planet itself. They’ll come by like blown smoke - maybe get a lucky shot, and for sure see what they’re up against. They can use the maneuver Huron can’t - it’s a high-G trick, but they’ll save fuel, really, and it gives them a reverse run in less than two hours.”
“So?”
“So we go up and meet them. Outside.”
TheZaid-Dayan barely vibrated as the most versatile insystem drive known lifted her poleward and away from the planet. Sassinak held to the edge of their own green zone, making sure that they could blow any missile sent after the transport with their LOS optical weaponry. Ahead, the transport lumbered along, slow and graceless. Sassinak tried not to think of the children on board, and hoped that Huron had enough sedative packs along.
“Captain - got a ripple.” The faint disturbance ahead of the escort’s high speed movement showed on one screen. Sassinak tapped her own console, while nodding a commendation to the Helm tech. “Good eyes, good handling. Yes - here she comes. Arly, see what you can do - “
Arly chose an EM beam, lethal to unshielded ships, and temporarily blinding to the sensors of most others. Sassinak followed the green line of its path on the monitor; the beam itself was invisible. Something flared out there, and Arly grunted. “Thought they’d have shields. But it may have glared out their scan.” In the meantime, a flick of pale blue sparkled into brilliant rainbows: the escort had fired back, but their own shields held easily. Sassinak watched another line score with bright orange the yellow zone near them on the monitor - a clear miss, but remarkably good aim for a ship that had just been lashed by an EM beam. TheZaid-Dayan shifted in one of the computer-controlled jinks, covering the transport’s stern just as the escort vessel fired at it. Again the cruiser’s shields held.
The escort, on the course Sassinak had predicted, was now in rapid transit between them and the planet. Arly lay a barrage of missiles near its expected path. At the same time, the scans showed the telltale white blips of missiles boosting from the escort.
“Those are targeted to the transport,” Arly said. “They’ve got all its signature.” Even as she spoke, she had their own optical weapons locking on. But although two of the missiles burst suddenly into silent clouds of light, another had jinked wildly and continued. Arly swore, and reset her system. “If that sucker gets too close to Huron, I can’t use these - “ Again the missile seemed to buck in its course, and continued, now clearly aiming up the transport’s stern.
Sassinak opened the channel to Huron on the transport. “Huron - dump the bucket!” The only defenses they’d been able to give him had all been passive, and this one depended on a fairly stupid self-guidance system.
The “bucket” was a small container of metal foil strips, armed with explosive to disperse them and make a hot spot of itself. It could be launched from a docking bay or airlock. If heat, light, and a cloud of metal fragments could confuse it, they’d be safe. If not, Sassinak would have to try to “grab” the missile with the cruiser’s tractor field, a technique dismissed in the Fleet Ordinance Manual as “unnecessarily risky.”
She watched tensely as the monitor showed the “bucket” being launched on a course that fell behind and below the transport. When it exploded, the missile shifted course, and headed for that bait. So - they had stupid missiles. Now if Huron had enough buckets…
But in the meantime, the escort passing “beneath” them had gained on the transport, improving its firing angle. It had detonated or avoided the missiles Arly had sent to its expected position. Helm countered with a shift that again brought the cruiser between the worst threat and the helpless transport. The cruiser’s shields sparkled as unseen beam weapons lashed at her. Arly’s return attack met adequate shielding; the deflected beams glowed eerily as they met the planet’s atmosphere below.
Unfortunately, the best solution was narrowing rapidly, as all three vessels were approaching the terminator. Beyond that, too quickly, the base’s own missiles and scoutships would be rising to join the fray. Sassinak could not keep the cruiser between the transport and everything else. There are no easy answers, she thought, and opened the channel to Huron again.
“If your ship will take it, get on out of here,” she said. “I know you’ll have casualties, but we can’t hold them all off for long.”
“I know,” he said. “We can’t - afford another close transit - I’ve done what I can for ‘em.” She saw by the monitor that the transport had increased its acceleration, climbing more steeply now.
“Can you make the swing-point for that inner moon?” she asked.
“Not… quite. Here’s the solution - “ And her right- hand screen came up with it: far from the ideal trajectory, but much better than before. It would lengthen the attack interval from below and the manned moonlet would be on the far side of the planet when they passed its orbit. Best of all, surface-launched missiles wouldn’t have the fuel to catch it. Only the escort already engaged was a serious threat. And that, committed as it was to its own high-speed path, could not maneuver fast enough to follow, after the next few minutes. Not without going into FTL - if it had the capability to do that so near a large mass.
“Good luck, then.” She would not think of the children crushed in the slaveholds, the terrified ones who found themselves pressed flat on the deck, or against a bulkhead, unable to scream or move. They would be no better off if a missile got them, or one of the optical beams.
The configuration of the three ships had now changed radically. TheZaid-Dayan had fallen below the transport, keeping between it and the escort, which was now approaching its turnover if it was intending to use the inner moon as a swing-point. Its course so far made that likely. All she had to do, Sassinak thought, was keep it from blowing the transport before the transport was out of LOS around the planet’s limb.