“Meaning, you’d like to take it up above the plain again.”
“Yep. It takes time, but it makes sure we arrive safe and sound to bash her ears back.”
“Pin her ears back,” Nelly corrected.
“You pin them, Nelly. For me, it’s bashing time,” the captain said.
“Kris, is that what is called walking into one?”
“Exactly, Nelly.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Getting back to the matter at hand,” Kris said. “Captain, what’s this about pushing things at 3.5 gees? I thought the new ships were good for more than that.”
“They are, Kris, but we haven’t had a serious reduced availability for maintenance for a while. We’ve been riding the Wasp pretty hard, and while we take good care of her, I’d hate to find that I didn’t take good enough care of her.”
“What I’m hearing is you want to tighten up your safety margin.”
“That, and I really don’t want to be doing my final deceleration as I’m approaching the jump with her still on this side of it. Those might be dinky 18-inch pulse lasers, but if she’s aiming them up my engines, things could get deadly in a hurry. No. Let’s catch her with our forward batteries and thickened forward armor.”
Kris nodded. “Conduct this pursuit as you see fit, Captain.”
“My, a Longknife that has learned caution and prudence,” Drago said. “As I live and breathe.”
Kris smiled at the jab. “So long as it ends with me having Sampson’s guts for garters, I have no problems with what you do between now and then.”
“Then let’s slow to three gees and take the high road, Admiral.”
“Nelly, send to squadron. ‘On my mark, reduce speed to three gees and conform to the flag’s movements.’”
“The squadron’s ships are standing by, Kris.”
“Mark,” Kris said.
In the egg, she hardly felt the lessened acceleration.
Kris half expected to hear from Sampson, but she had nothing to say, and Kris did not choose to taunt her. A woman like her was unstable enough without Kris’s adding more to it. She wanted her ship back, and, as livid as she was at Sampson, she wanted her crew back as well.
No doubt they’d spend the next long years as loader operators on the guano island, but they’d be alive. Too many people who had crossed Kris’s path weren’t.
Around Kris, the ship went about its prebattle drill. The lasers were charged and dialed in. The armor was strengthened on the bow. Kris brought up the Weapons board on her egg.
Captain Drago must have had an alert on that. He immediately looked in Kris’s direction, then motored over to her.
“You want to handle the shoot?” he asked.
“You think I shouldn’t?”
“It’s just that there’s bad blood between you and her, between Sampsons and Longknifes. If things go well, that’s nice. If they don’t, it might be better if someone else closed the firing circuits.”
“Captain, do you honestly think anyone is better on Weapons than me and Nelly?”
“No.”
“Do we want to capture that ship in as close to one piece as possible?”
“Yes. From my viewpoint.”
“Yes, from my viewpoint, too.”
“Then the shoot is yours.”
By slowing and taking the long road, they arrived at the jump a half hour after the Sisu. Once again, the boffins and Nelly had dialed the jump in to the last possible decimal place.
Once more, the squadron followed the Wasp through the jump.
36
“We jumped a bit over a thousand light-years,” Nelly reported.
“The Sisu is four hundred thousand kilometers ahead of us, accelerating at 2.1. No, make that 2.0. Correction, she’s down to 1.9 gees acceleration,” the Musashi chief reported from sensors.
“Someone’s engines are hot,” Senior Chief Beni, ret, reported.
“Hold at three gees,” Captain Drago ordered. “We’ll overtake her carefully. Wouldn’t do to be too close if she blows her reactors.”
“Captain. Admiral,” Chief Beni said, his voice even, careful, but intent. “I have radio traffic in system. I think it’s coming from a planet closer to the sun. But I’ve also got reactors. Thermonuclear reactors with an alien raider signature.”
“Where?” came in two-part harmony from Kris and Captain Drago.
“The alien-type reactors are all the way on the other side of the system. There’s a gas giant with a major moon and ring system. The reactors are orbiting that giant.”
“Any make on the reactors?” Kris asked.
“They appear to be like the first batch you tangled with. The ones my son fought.” That made it personal.
“We’ll handle those other situations when we finish with Sampson,” Kris said, running all the complications that had suddenly appeared through in her mind. She had a subordinate who had mutinied against her and stolen a ship. She had a newfound world with a civilization at least at the early-electromagnetic stage, and she had bug-eyed monsters.
Dear God, Kris almost prayed, do I deserve all of this on the same plate?
God did not answer her question.
Smart of Her, no doubt.
Hurriedly, Kris filed the new alien and the old alien away in an ever-growing box marked TO BE OPENED LATER, and fixed her sights ahead on the ship well out of range.
It fled from them. They pursued faster.
The range closed inexorably.
“Sisu, cease your acceleration, or you will be fired upon,” Kris ordered as the renegade came into extreme range.
“You wouldn’t dare fire on a neutral flag,” Sampson shot back. “Scanda isn’t part of your old man’s bunch of political patsies.”
“The Scanda ships are under my command,” Kris said. “However, I don’t think you’re up to date on my latest wild goings-on. I fired on a Helvetican flag freighter at M-688. I have yet to add a Scandian to my collection. Don’t mind if I do, though.”
“You’re crazy,” Sampson shot back.
“You are in violation of orders. Cease acceleration and surrender your ship.”
“You’re a fine one to talk about violating orders.”
“Tell me, Carolyn, which engine do you want me to shoot out? Both your reactors are running in the red. Which one can better take a hit? I really don’t want to kill anyone, but I will not have you running away. Do you know there are aliens in this system?”
“Aliens!” came in a several-part harmony from voices not heard from before on net.
“Yeah, I know we’ve got a mudball down there with low-tech stuff.”
“And a dozen alien raiders, too. They’re on the far side of the system, but, no doubt, they’ll be headed this way as soon as they get a good look at you.”
“You said we wouldn’t have to worry about those bloodthirsty-type aliens,” came through the net hookup.
“And we won’t. They can’t catch us.” Sampson’s voice cracked as she spoke.
“Their acceleration just fell off to 1.8 gees,” Chief Beni announced.
“How are you going to outrun the aliens when your reactors are going down on you, Carolyn?” Kris asked.
“She’s right, we can’t keep this up,” said a very scared voice.
“She wouldn’t dare fire on us.” Now Sampson sounded frantic.
“We are overtaking the Sisu,” the navigator said. “We will soon be in range of those 18-inch pulse lasers.”
“Did you hear that?” Kris said. “My navigator is warning me that you’re slowing down so much that I’m at risk of overtaking you, even passing you. If I do that, Sampson will get a shot at our stern. I can’t allow that. I’ll have to shoot out your reactors before then.”