"But this is the part we're wondering about," Freddy said, and with a woman peering over each shoulder, he moved his cursor about the screen. "Here, a quarter of the fleet turned around to chase us. Another third went on to join the Bandit cluster, the Khanate allies that never went through. What are they after? Why did they think they'd find Sinbad and Atropos in that direction?"
"Fuel," Kevin Renner said without turning around. "They must be desperate for fuel by now. They're trading time for fuel."
"The rest of them turned off their drives. That lasted for hours. Then we got this." Freddy put the cursor on a tight pattern of blue-white points, like a cityscape or the work lights on a half built factory. "And that's been following us, changing as it goes."
Again Kevin spoke without turning. "We think those ships are all linked up into one framework. They'd have broken up some ships to build it. It took them ten hours. Then they came after us."
"If Empire ships tried that, they'd come apart like nose wipes in the rain," Freddy said. "Even so, they're only doing a fifth of a gee. Hundreds of ships are following them from Bandit cluster, linking up."
"Fuel ships, of course. I bet they're dropping stuff on the way, too. Empty ships. Spare troops. They'll keep some framework to make their structure stronger. Unless I'm crazy. Jesus, Freddy, I wish we could see that thing better."
"It looks a lot like Vermin City, backlit," Freddy said. "Not much pattern, and that changes every minute. Okay, Joyce, Group A is still in the lead. They'll reach us first, yes? We have to outrace them."
"First, but with dry tanks. Group A can't maneuver," Kevin said. "That's not going to hurt them, unfortunately, because they've guessed where we're going. Group B might get to us late, but with fuel to maneuver."
"You're guessing, Commodore."
"But it's what Moties would do," Glenda Ruth said. "The ships they start with won't be the ships that attack you."
"Keep a watch. I want to close my eyes for an hour."
"Yessir. Hold it! Commodore?"
Drive lights flared where the cursor lay. "I see it," Kevin said. "See if you can get a better picture. I have the watch."
"What is it, Kevin?" Bury demanded.
"Won't know for an hour," Renner said.
They were building a sketchy dinner when they heard Freddy whoop. Joyce reset the oven before she followed Glenda Ruth.
Freddy was grinning. "Sanity check. We've been right all along. What do you see?"
Behind the tight pattern of blue lights that was Khanate Group B was a looser pattern, a score of drive lights well spread out and shifting in intensity. Kevin said, "Two of those just went out. Shot down by our guys?"
Freddy looked. "Our allies aren't anywhere near. It's possible of course. Warriors are just bloody damned good at killing...Enhanced view, Screen Two."
"Right. Khanate rescue ships, Freddy. They're towing that cylinder now. Rescue or salvage. And the rest are still coming... and there goes another pair. They're merging. Group B must be leaving garbage and personnel clear across the sky."
"That'll hurt ‘em."
"It will if our allies have anything to say about it. They're losing mass, losing numbers, losing firepower, all to get the fuel to reach us. You agree? It's us the Warrior ships are after. The Empire ships."
"Yes sir."
"I should talk to Atropos."
Joyce found the next hour even more confusing. It was frustrating: she had her news equipment, nothing was being kept from her, but she wasn't getting a story she could tell.
"The only thing that still concerns me is this," she heard Renner telling Atropos. "When we go through the Crazy Eddie point, we have to know that no Master ship has given the Warrior ships new orders. Otherwise we'll be abandoning the Mote system to the Khanate."
And that made sense, but how to lay it out for a viewer? If we lose, you'll never know it. Even we may never know. If we returned via New Cal and that little orange star, a year from now we could be talking to a replacement Eudoxus speaking for a replacement Medina. All Moties look alike, but these are the good guys and-?
"Maybe later," she said to Bury. "Maybe I'll understand later."
"And perhaps you never will," Bury said.
"If we lose-"
"Yes, of course, but even if we win. It has happened to me." And he launched into another tale of his terrible past, a skewed view of Empire history that Joyce could never have bought with pearls and rubies.
There had been incidents. Sometimes the Khanate fleet beamed laser light at them, forcing Sinbad and Atropos to take turns shadowing each other. Renner and Townsend had at first considered this a mere annoyance.
"Probably tryin' to distract us," Freddy said in one of the rare intervals he was off duty. Commodore Renner kept Freddy Townsend busy. When he did get a break, he often used the opportunity to talk to Horace Bury; and when that happened, Joyce invited herself into the party.
"They've scattered their fleet," Joyce said. "Some of the ships used all their power and now can't keep up. Why would they do that, Freddy?"
Freddy said, "I can tell you what they're doing, but why is out of my department. You'll be famous even if you don't know why."
Horace Bury chuckled. "I should instruct my brokers to invest in your network. You will have the highest ratings in Imperial history, I think."
"A few weeks ago I would have resented your saying that," Joyce said. "And even more resented it if you'd actually bought stock in IBC."
"And now?"
Joyce shrugged. "It's your ship, and we're all on it."
"Besides, his brokers will already have made the investments," Glenda Ruth said.
"Cautiously. They'll buy too little," Bury said. "After all, it was not certain that we would be bringing Miss Trujillo to the Mote."
"Or that we'd come out alive," Joyce said.
"Well, if we don't, it won't matter if the investment's no good," Freddy said.
"Oh, Freddy, that's silly," Glenda Ruth said. "His Excellency- "Acceleration warning. "Action stations."
"Oh, Lor', what now?" Freddy demanded.
"It's a big mess of junk under high velocity," Renner said.
Most of the leading Khanate ships were in deceleration mode at high thrust. Most of them. A few were burning fuel at a prodigious rate and converting that to energy beamed at Sinbad; and out of the glare of that beam came a dark mass on a collision course.
"We'll have to dodge," Freddy said. Sinbad began to turn.
"Yeah. Horace, Group A ran up to maximum velocity and then stripped their ships. It could be mostly fuel tanks. Freddy's turning the ship."
"It won't cost us too much fuel."
"No, but I should- Atropos calling, good." Joyce heard Renner setting a direction for the other ship. Sinbad and Atropos would diverge.
Four minutes later-the lightspeed gap-Group A's junk pile pulled into two masses. They'd armed it with motors. Freddy spoke of raping his lizard; Renner called Atropos and ordered a laser barrage.
Four minutes later the junk pile flared with the light of Atropos's barrage. An instant later it flashed a hundred times as bright! The camera overloaded and burned out before Freddy could enfold Sinbad in the Langston Field. Glenda Ruth was cowering with an arm over her eyes, and Joyce was waiting for glowing spots to disappear. She knew better than to interrupt Freddy or Kevin.
Freddy spoke anyway. "They had a mirror. The clever little nightmares waited for our beam and then threw it back at us. It's way dimmer now, but they're still throwing sunlight at us. It's nothing, Glenda Ruth. Just another goddamn nuisance attack."