Battle of the Ring (32 page)

“Whatever else happens, I will have the pleasure of killing you
first,” Trace declared, unimpressed, as he aimed his gun.
“Fire!”

The auxiliary bridge was rocked as every gun exploded at almost exactly the
same instant. Flames and thick, black smoke enveloped each of the gunners, and
pieces of the white-hot metal pelted the nearer half of the bridge like
hailstones. The fire alarms rang shrilly as the ventilation to the area shut
down to suffocate a possible fire as the single door to the bridge snapped
shut; had they possessed a sense of smell, the Starwolves would have been
overwhelmed by the odor of burnt flesh. A few seconds later the ventilation
came back on at full power, drawing away the thick curtain of smoke to slowly
reveal eight blackened, lifeless bodies.

The door reopened a moment later. The Starwolves assumed that it was an
automatic function, and so they were caught by surprise when a sentry ambled
through at its best pace. Baress dived for Consherra’s gun, while the
other two prepared to dodge.

“Sentry, halt!” a voice commanded sharply, and the machine
pulled itself to a stop. A moment later a tiny human peered cautiously through
the doorway. “Don’t shoot, please. I’m not armed.”

“We will not fire,” Velmeran assured her.

Maeken Kea entered cautiously, glancing apprehensively at the bodies that
were still smoking lazily. “So you got him at last. I assume that you
have some way of causing guns to explode when fired?”

“On a small scale,” Velmeran answered evasively. “Am I
correct in assuming that you are Captain Maeken Kea?”

“I am. I assume as well that you are Velmeran.” She did not make
a question of that as she came to a stop three meters away.

“Of course. You do not seem particularly worried about the fate of
your late Commander.”

“Bastard!” Maeken spat viciously. “I’ve only just
found out about how he liked to play with nuclear weapons. I’ll not
apologize for anything I’ve done to try to win this battle, but I am
sorry for some of the tricks he pulled. For that, most of all. And for what he
did to you. He’s paid for it all, I suppose. I’m just sorry that I
had any part of it.”

“I am also sorry that you had any part of this,” Velmeran added.
“Any other captain would have given me less trouble. But it is over
now.”

Maeken frowned. “That is what I wanted to ask you about. It seems to
me that you people have been a great deal busier than anyone first thought. I
suppose that there is no question that you have done enough damage to assure
the destruction of this ship.”

Velmeran nodded. “You could not stop it at this point even if you knew
what to look for.”

“So I had assumed.” She paused a moment to glance at the charred
bodies. “If you don’t mind, I would like very much to get my crew
away from here. All I have are children with fresh commissions and harmless
Feldenneh... technicians, not soldiers.”

“My mercenary common sense tells me that I should eliminate such a
capable Commander as yourself,” Velmeran remarked frankly, and paused
only a moment to consider the matter. “As soon as I leave this chamber, I
am going to instruct the Methryn to attack in fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Maeken said as she hurried to the
communications console on the lower portion of the bridge to relay the order to
abandon the ship. The Starwolves collected their weapons and left in a hurry.
Velmeran was already in telepathic contact with Tregloran to relay his orders
to the Methryn. They now had to use the lift to get away in time, and he
doubted that he had the strength left to get himself out of the Fortress
otherwise. It no longer mattered how many lights they tripped on the bridge.

Lenna, you have less than fifteen minutes to get yourself back to the
fighters,
Velmeran warned. She lacked the ability to reply in clear words
the way the Kelvessan could, but he received the impression that she was
already well ahead of them.

The lift accelerated quickly, the computer control compensating for the
longer run with greater speed. It had completed most of the distance when the
car began to break to a sudden, jerky stop. Velmeran appeared to listen to some
distant voice.

“The Challenger knows where we are,” he explained. “She
means to hold us here until a group of sentries can arrive to investigate,
Baress, you are young and strong. Pop open those doors so that we can take a
look.”

“I might be stronger than you at the moment, but I remind you that I
am nearly twice as old,” Baress said as he took hold of the edge of each
door and pulled them apart. They parted easily, revealing a blank wall of gray
metal just beyond. “Definitely a wall. Is that what you expected?”

“I am afraid so. Give it a punch and see how thick it is.”
Baress drew back an armored fist and put it through the panel, then peeled it
back like foil. Baress tore open a way large enough to climb through in a
matter of seconds, then slipped through to the other side to receive the guns
and helmets that Velmeran passed to him. Soon they were all assembled in the
corridor beyond.

“Sentries will be coming from every direction, so we had better
hurry,” Velmeran warned. “The stairs leading down are about two
hundred meters ahead.”

They found the stairs quickly and descended to the level of the outer
airlock. Baress now led the way, assuming the role of vanguard since it was
obvious that Velmeran would be lucky just to get himself out of the ship. They
soon came to the access conduit that served as a channel for a maze of pipes
that ran the length of the ship. The corridor that led to the airlock
intercepted this a hundred meters farther down. Baress was about to step out
onto the wide walkway that ran above the river of pipes when Velmeran pulled
him back.

“Sentries,” he explained. “At least five. They are waiting
for us.”

To prove the point, he broke off a half-meter section of handrail from a
nearby service ladder and tossed it out onto the walkway. A barrage of powerful
bolts centered on that target. Then the fire shifted to the entrance of the
passage as the automaton tried to bounce bolts down the side corridor to their
unseen targets.

“We have to work our way around,” Velmeran decided reluctantly.

There was a sudden, unexpected explosion from somewhere around the corner,
followed by a steady hail of bolts that gave the Starwolves the distinct
impression that the sentries themselves were under attack. When yet another
exploded, Baress was overcome with curiosity and cautiously peered around the
corner. He drew back instantly, looking decidedly astonished.

“So what is it?” Consherra prompted impatiently.

Baress shook his head slowly. “I still find it hard to believe, but I
think the cavalry has arrived to save us.”

Velmeran looked for himself, and was met with the most incredible sight he
had ever seen. Bill, the sentry, was running at his best awkward pace along the
walkway behind the ambushers. Lenna Makayen was perched on the very top of
his back, her rifle in hand, and both of them were firing for all they were
worth. The other sentries, mystified at the unexplainable attack of a Union
officer and one of their own, did not even fight back as they fell quickly
under the assault. They shot their way through the line of attackers and drew
to a stop before the three startled Starwolves.

“Hurry up!” Lenna urged. “We’ve cleared the passage,
but more are on their way.”

“Lead on, then,” Velmeran answered as they fell in behind
Bill’s protective bulk. “How did you know where to find us?”

“Bill did,” she explained. “He’s been listening in
as the Challenger has been ordering her sentries about trying to find you. The
first ambush is here, and the second is at the far end of the long corridor
leading to the outer hull. You need to call Treg and the others and have them
catch those sentries from behind. How many are there, Bill?”

“Three,” the machine replied, typically concise. They were about
halfway down the tunnel to the outer hull when a short, rapid burst of cannon
fire echoed loudly through the length of the passage. No bolts lit up the
interior of the long corridor, however, and at its end they found Tregloran
standing with his rifle in hand, surrounded by the smoking hulks of three
sentries.

Tregloran turned without a word and led the way to the airlock. They stopped
at the door and Lenna handed down her rifle before hopping off Bill’s
towering back. She headed immediately for the suit room, already stripping off
her clothes at a furious pace.

“You people go on and get yourselves out of here,” she ordered,
her accent thickening as she tried to sound firm and authoritative.
“It’ll take me a couple of minutes to get into this suit. I
can’t go outside without it, and I’ll get it on no quicker with you
waiting for me. It would be foolish of you to get caught here with me.”

“So who’s arguing with you now?” Velmeran asked, imitating
her perfectly. “I have to go. Valthyrra needs me. But you get yourself
out of here.”

“I’ll be just fine,” she assured him. “Bill is here
to watch out for me.”

“The Challenger has left the ring for open space,” he added.
“That might give you a little more time.”

He herded the others into the airlock and indicated for them to put on their
helmets. Since he had none of his own, he began taking deep breaths until the
air in the lock began to thin. Moments later the lock opened on the blackness
of space and not the boulder-strewn surroundings of the ring. Trel and Marlena
were there immediately, bending over the opening and reaching down to lift them
out. Velmeran went first. Speed was critical for him, since he was now without
an air supply and too tired to last for very long without one. He felt the
intense cold of open space immediately, cold enough here in the shadows of the
ship to have frozen dry ice, and perhaps even nitrogen, temperatures that would
begin to affect him within minutes. He hurried to the fighters, the others only
a moment behind.

He also could not hear their warnings, because he was completely deaf
without the medium of air to carry sounds from the com built into his collar. He
was suddenly aware of the presence of a warship immediately behind him, and
turned to see a destroyer emerging from a concealed lock perhaps seven
kilometers ahead. As soon as it slipped from its rack, it began to drift
rapidly toward them as the Challenger continued to accelerate past, skimming
the black hull of the larger ship with just meters to spare.

Velmeran stood beside the fighter as he watched. The smaller ship was facing
in their direction, and he was able to see the guns open and charged below the
extended bridge. Suddenly it stopped, or rather it fired its forward engines to
match speed with the Fortress and hover alongside not fifty meters from where
they stood. Then the destroyer began to move laterally away from the hull of
the larger ship until it was clear to navigate.

As the tension of the moment passed, Velmeran felt himself begin to grow
cold and dizzy and broke contact with the hull to pull himself in free-fall
into the cockpit of his fighter. Maeken Kea had rescued her crew from the doomed
Fortress. If she had seen Velmeran’s party on the hull, then she had
returned the favor. Even so, he left one of his own behind. The Methryn was
closing, and Lenna had run out of time.

Officers hurried to take their places on the Methryn’s auxiliary bridge,
a smaller copy of the one that lay in ruins. Cargin paused on the way to the
weapons console to catch a bright orange cord and jerk loose the pin that freed
Valthyrra’s camera pod. The boom immediately dropped down to a
comfortable level and the twin lenses spun in unison as they focused. She
turned to Cargin, who remained waiting.

“I am going to charge to eighty-five percent of overload on the
conversion cannon,” she explained quickly. “Back me up on the
gauges so that I do not exceed that.”

“Right.”

The Challenger had turned abruptly to head straight out of the ring, running
for open space where she could shield effectively. Valthyrra accelerated
rapidly, closing quickly on the Fortress after its initial gain on the smaller
ship after leaving the ring.

The Challenger was building to speed barely ten thousand kilometers ahead,
trying to get up to a speed where even minor shifts in field-drive steering
would throw her tremendous bulk into wide, evasive turns, making her a
difficult target for the Metryn’s conversion cannon. It might have been
that she was trying to survive long enough to get into starflight. But that was
a poor defense at best, for the smaller, quicker Starwolf ship could follow her
in and shoot out her exposed engines. She had to stay and fight.

The Methryn leaped forward as she unshielded the aperture of her conversion
cannon and began charging the powerful weapon. There could be no hiding such a
tremendous surge of power. The Challenger scanned it and cut acceleration as
she made ready to divert her full power to her shields.

Valthyrra could wait no longer, even though she was still three thousand
kilometers short of her target. She aimed herself quickly and fired. The
Challenger threw up her shield, full and strong from the first instant, forming
a misty white sphere around the ship. Only a fraction of a second later that
concentrated blast of raw energy struck squarely in the middle of the shield
and parted around it, like a wave breaking over a rock. For three full seconds
the Methryn turned the power to destroy a world against that shield, and it was
still intact when she found nothing else to throw against it.

For a moment Valthyrra was at a loss to know what to do. She could not fire
the conversion cannon again; although undamaged, the thick walls of the
containment chamber and the kilometer-long throat of the weapon glowed
white-hot. Then the dense shield came down and she saw that the Challenger was
already pivoting to face her, and she knew that she had no choice. Even as she closed
to attack, she turned sharply to head away at a right angle.