Battle of the Ring (24 page)

“And me,” Lenna added with determination.

“You?” Velmeran looked at her questioningly. “Just what do
you think you can do for us?”

“Any number of things,” she declared. “For one thing, I
can put on a Union junior officer’s uniform and walk around that big ship
just about anywhere I want to go. That’s why you hired me, remember.
I’m your spy. And saboteur.”

Velmeran considered that for a moment and nodded thoughtfully; he knew
exactly what she had in mind. “I believe you might just be useful after
all. If you are not previously occupied – and able to stay awake
– I would be honored if you would accompany us.”

Lenna smiled mischievously. “I already knew that you would be needing
me.”

“And I knew when I called you here that you were planning to
go,” Velmeran added. “So this is where we stand. Baress, Consherra,
and I will go inside the fortress to do the program tampering. Lenna will go
along to do whatever she can. I have been looking at Schayressa’s scan,
so I know where we can enter. It involves a walk – in straight-line
distances – of just over five kilometers. Since our direct communication
will be cut off, we had better make arrangements now. As soon as we go in,
Valthyrra will allow the Challenger to pass and fall in some distance behind.
We can use transports in formation to clear a corridor that resembles her own.
At our signal she will close for the attack, forcing the Challenger out of the
ring and into open space.”

“And just how do I force her out?” Valthyrra asked.

“She is going to go willingly,” he assured her. “When she
sees an undamaged Methryn coming at her from behind, she is going to run to
open space where she can fight more effectively.”

The camera pod nodded thoughtfully. “You are probably right. But how
do you land seven fighters on her hull undetected?”

“In a mass of general confusion. To put it simply, we need a
diversion.”

“Oh? What kind of a diversion?”

“Oh, I had something in mind,” Velmeran said as he leaned back
in his chair. “If nothing else works, we can always throw rocks.”

“Are you sure that you feel up to it?” Velmeran asked, pausing
at the door as he followed the others out. Valthyrra regarded him quizzically.
“Do I feel up to it?”

“Well, you are getting a little old.”

“Old?” She lifted her camera pod threateningly. “I, for
one, do not consider eighteen thousand to be old at all, not compared to how
long I expect to last. Nor do I believe that Donalt Trace or any other
two-armed primate can build a better machine than I am, and I intend to prove
it.”

“Just checking,” Velmeran said, and disappeared out the door.

“I like that!” Valthyrra remarked to herself as she stared for a
moment, then turned to Mayelna. “Surely he has no complaint about my
performance.”

Mayelna stared in disbelief. “Are you serious? He was just playing
with you. When were you ever not ready for a fight?”

“I guess so,” she agreed weakly, then turned to Consherra.
“And what of yourself? What could possibly possess you to insist upon
going?”

“As I recall, you and Velmeran did all the insisting,” Consherra
replied defensively. “Then, once you convinced me of the necessity, you
abruptly changed your minds.”

“I had momentarily forgotten one important matter,” the ship
reminded her. “As you seem to have forgotten altogether. How can you
possibly go? Can you still fit inside your armor?”

Consherra glanced apprehensively at Mayelna, and could tell by the
Commander’s expression that she was well aware of what the ship was
implying. She had the sudden urge to tamper with Valthyrra’s programming;
this was embarrassing enough as it was.

“Yes, I can still fit inside my armor,” she insisted, turning
back to the glaring camera pod. “I am still just a month along, with five
months yet to go. This is something I must do.”

“And what about the safety of your child?” Valthyrra countered.

“I am aware of the risk, and I accept it,” Consherra replied
firmly. “You know that little short of my own death will do my child any
harm.”

“Velmeran would not want you to take this risk.”

Consherra drew herself up sternly. “Velmeran is my mate and the father
of my child. I know that he would not approve, but the decision remains my own.
Baressa is pregnant by the same father, and yet not even he questions her right
to take part in this. In fact, he left her in command of the packs in his absence.”

“Enough, Val,” Mayelna interrupted when the ship was prepared
to protest yet again. “She is right on two important points. She is
needed, and it is her decision. Nor is Velmeran to be told of... her condition.
He has enough to think about just now, and that would be too much of a
distraction.”

“Very well,” Valthyrra agreed reluctantly.

Consherra turned to Mayelna and smiled self-consciously. “I am sorry,
Commander.”

“Sorry about what?” Mayelna demanded gently. “Dear girl, I
can die happy now.”

“But, commander...”

“No, girl, stop worrying about it,” Mayelna said firmly. She
began to rise but decided that she should not; this came as more of a surprise
than she wanted anyone to know. “Listen, I know what this means to you,
and I know how happy this is going to make him. That is all that really
matters. If my approval is that important to you, then understand that I could
not be more pleased. And you can bet that old chips-for-brains is excited, or
she would not be so overprotective. Now, you go get ready.”

“Yes, Commander,” Consherra agreed eagerly, obviously pleased,
although her cautious retreat from the room suggested that she was still afraid
that she had done something wrong. She turned and hurried down the corridor.

“So, she got your little boy in trouble,” Valthyrra remarked,
amused. “I see the problem now. If you people did not have such a guilty
conscience about neglecting your duty, I might have the crew I was built
for.”

Knowing that she had at least an hour, Lenna hurried to her cabin and
hastily climbed into her armor. She had already set aside what she would need,
putting the Union officer’s uniform that Valthyrra had made for her in a
pressure-resistant bag along with a modest supply of emergency makeup and her
old Union service pistol. She preferred the more powerful Starwolf guns, but
the aging jack-snapper was part of her disguise. Collecting her supplies, she
went directly to the landing bay, where their fighters had just been brought
out, and tucked the bag into the small storage compartment in her own ship.
Then she climbed inside the cockpit, closed the canopy, and promptly fell
asleep.

Such was her condition when the others arrived a little over an hour later.
They halted in front of the first fighter while Velmeran mounted the steps of
the boarding platform and rapped sharply on the closed canopy.

“Wake up, Lenna!” he ordered, although she could not have heard
him inside the sealed cockpit.

After a moment the latches snapped open and the canopy rose slowly to reveal
Lenna, yawning hugely. Velmeran reached in and lifted her easily from the seat,
standing her on the edge of the platform. Still yawning, she led the way down
the steps to join the others. Baress handed her a large rifle and a belt that
held several small, thick metal disks. She looked at the items curiously.

“The Challenger is virtually uninhabited,” Velmeran began.
“She has about one regular crewmember to every cubic kilometer of
interior space, and the Kalfethki are confined to a small area. Unfortunately,
there are sixteen automatons to every cubic kilometer, and no handgun is going
to dent their armor. That rifle has an armor-piercing carrier beam and enough
of a charge to wreck the inside of any sentry, and it is also the only thing
that can kill a Kalfethki quickly. The heat charges are just as effective
against sentries, but you have to get one against the hull of the machine for
it to do any good.”

“I know how it works,” Lenna assured him. “Tregloran explained
it to me.”

“He did?” Velmeran looked questioningly at Tregloran, who
pretended ignorance.

All the various weapons were handed out to the members of the assault force,
and they hurried to their ships to stow their equipment. Velmeran helped
Consherra with her own, since she handled the weapons with such unease that
they might have been fierce, alien creatures and likely to bite. Climbing into
the cockpit, however, she betrayed her complete familiarity with the fighter.

“I will get you back safely,” he assured her as he helped her
fasten her straps.

She looked at him with open astonishment. “I am not concerned
about myself. I know that you will be taking all the chances, so I want you to
watch out for yourself. Just remember that the winning of this battle does not
win the war. We need you alive for more important matters.”

Velmeran smiled. “Now you sound like my mother.”

“Oh?” she asked skeptically, and smiled. “When we come
back, I have something to say that should convince you otherwise.”

“Glad to hear it,” he remarked, and kissed her quickly.

He left a crewmember to assist her in securing the cockpit, gathering the
weapons he had left beneath the fighter and hurrying to his own ship. He
knew that he was wasting too much time. Valthyrra had already begun her evasive
maneuvers, and would soon be complaining that he was likely to ruin all their
careful planning with his procrastination. The ship had long since ceased to be
concerned for his safety, at least as far as he could tell. Mayelna did quite
enough worrying for the two of them, so he was not surprised to find her
waiting beside his fighter.

“I came to see you off,” she said, almost apologetically.
“I do not suppose that I need to remind you to be careful.”

“That idea has already occurred to me,” he assured her as he
transferred his weapons to his lower hands and keyed the hidden latch to
his fighter’s cargo compartment. “Would it be pointless of me to
ask you not to worry?”

“No way,” she said. “How is Consherra?”

“Calm, confident, and nearly as eager to begin as Lenna is,”
Velmeran said, his voice echoing hollowly as he worked inside the compartment.
“I wonder why this means so much to her.”

“Well, she used to be quite a Starwolf when she was your age, when she
still flew with the packs. That was a few years before you were even thought
of, naturally. I think she wants to prove that she is also a very capable
warrior, and not just a bridge officer.” She paused a moment to watch him
closely. “She has not forgotten that Dveyella was a warrior. And that,
had she lived, she would be going out with you on all these missions.”

“Consherra is comparing herself with a memory,” Velmeran stated
as he tightened the stowage straps around the gun. “And an increasingly
dim memory.”

“True, but the memory she is comparing herself against is her own, not
yours. Perhaps it is more important for her to prove something to
herself.”

Velmeran seemed about to say something, but decided otherwise. She
walked with him around the front of the fighter and up the steps of the
boarding platform, holding his helmet as he climbed inside the cockpit. She
obviously had something important in mind, some matter too important to
wait. Velmeran seemed too distracted to notice. In truth, he had something
equally important to say, if he could only find the words.

“Consherra means a great deal to you,” Mayelna said at last,
watching him fasten his straps. “You are aware, perhaps, that a male and
female may share a special relationship. There most often comes a time in
everyone’s life when you meet someone, and both of you become aware that
the two of you will be keeping company for a very long time to come. But you
must also realize, when a male and female join as mates, they are also
peforming a natural function and must be prepared for the results that nature
intended. Do you understand what I am saying?”

Velmeran stared at her in utter amazement. With typical Kelvessan
innocence, he completely misinterpreted her implications. “If this
is the little talk we should have had fifteen years ago... well, we should have
had it fifteen years ago. I am quite aware that Consherra and I are likely to
have a child sooner or later. Considering her sexual instincts, it will
probably be sooner.”

“Soon enough,” Mayelna agreed vaguely. “Would that please
you?”

“I imagine that it would please me very much,” Velmeran said as
he fastened the last strap. He paused a moment, uncertain, and looked up
at her. “Valthyrra will be going in for overhaul after this. I was
wondering... perhaps... if you would like to retire then.”

Mayelna stared in absolute astonishment and mystification. “Retire?
Why would I want to retire at this time?”

Velmeran shrugged. “It makes about as much sense as what you were
talking about.”

“That may be so,” Mayelna agreed, affording him a searching
stare. “Are you ready to command this ship? I do not question your
ability to do so; you have for the last two years. What I mean is, do you want
to?”

Velmeran nodded slowly. “As you said, I have commanded here for two
years now. I no longer have the time to run a regular pack as well as this ship
and my special tactics team. Nor does my pack bring me the pleasure and sense
of fulfillment it once did. I have outgrown it, you might say.”

“So now you want my chair?” Mayelna asked, smiling with
amusement.

Velmeran smiled shyly in return. “I would take nothing away from you.
I just thought that – under the circumstances – you might want to
take up residence on the Kalvyn.”

Mayelna swallowed apprehensively and looked away quickly to hide the tears
that rushed to her eyes. Nothing in all her long years had touched her as much
as that simple offer. Nothing meant more to her. “Meran, what... what can
I say?”