The Gripping Hand (58 page)

Omar uncurled and sat up. What followed was a rapid exchange between
Sinbad
and its twenty small Motie Warrior fighter escorts. Omar said, "You are to be protected."

Irritating. Kevin said, "If I tell you that I am a Mediator-Warrior—"

"Ships Six through Twenty deployed between us and Bandit Cluster One. Ships One through Five in reserve. Expected attack at high velocity, two clusters of fighters around a fuel tank, expected to separate, plus a Master ship. These are some random ally of the Khanate, arriving late but obliged to protect the Sister from capture by East India and Medina."

"
Much
better, Omar. Might they be aware that the Khanate has abandoned them? Give me your best guess."

"They will not guess that, because the Khanate need not have told them what the Sister does. Ship One suggests you activate your Langston Field now."

Renner did that. Screens went black, then lit one by one as he raised cameras.

Violet lights were diminishing toward the Pleiades. "Omar, did
all
of our escort go off to fight?"

"Omar's off," Freddy said. "I see four Warrior fighters still with us, not holding any special position. Dammit—" He didn't have to finish. Glenda Ruth was watching Joyce's screen with bright eyes.

Joyce spoke to her, a near-whisper in the dark cabin. Kevin wasn't meant to hear. "Are we going to fight, do you think?"

"To fight, or to timidly hide behind our allies? Hmm." If Glenda Ruth hadn't meant him to hear, Kevin didn't believe he would have. "Joyce, we tried to put everything we know in the message to Weigle. We even duped your tapes as a supplement."

" 'Even'?"

"Barring that message, whether or not it went through, everything mankind knows about Moties is right here in
Sinbad
."

Three enemy dots had become a spray of lights.
Sinbad
's Warrior fighters were dancing, an unpredictable pattern. The enemy began to dance, too. When the enemy is light-seconds away, it is possible to dodge laser beams.

"The thing is," Glenda Ruth said, "if
Sinbad
has to fight, it'll be a very bad sign."

"It's likewise true that my holos may be the most important thing to emerge from Mote system."

"Point."

"I've read about space-fleet engagements," Joyce said. "They all say the same thing. They'd be boring if they weren't terrifying. I didn't really believe that before."

The weaving lights of the enemy ships had converged to one blurred point and stayed that way. Renner frowned. What did they think they were doing?

They were withdrawing, the Warrior ships protecting the Master.
Sinbad
's entourage were too many for them.

Bandit Cluster Two was bigger. They went past at six hundred klicks per, firing once. Cluster One's beams impinged on
Sinbad
at the same time, the attack easily absorbed by Langston Fields. Cluster Two decelerated to join One.

Atropos
reached the Sister and took up station there, without incident, surrounded by East India Trading's Warriors and the remnants of the Crimean Tartar war fleet. The Medina outriders were already arriving.

A third Bandit Cluster arrived, too. With Cluster One! Two they gathered their forces into a complex pattern half a million klicks out and forward of the Sister, then held station.

Freddy Townsend recorded that and later played it for Renner at high speed. "Sir, it ought to make a pattern, but I can't see it."

"Omar, who are these?"

"Three families, one local, none of any consequence. The Khanate's contract to depart Mote system must leave enough wealth behind to back any number of alliances."

"Okay. There aren't enough to attack us. They're expecting the Khanate to come surging back through the Sister. Then when we flee, these guys block our path."

"What's in that direction?"

"It doesn't matter. They're not between us and what we want. They only think they are. Freddy, how close are we to the Sister?"

"Three hours, but we'll be going through at two hundred klicks per, unless we increase thrust. Another three hours if we miss the pass."

Bury was asleep. His telltales seemed to have settled down: he was resting well.
Give him another hour
, Renner thought. "Belay thrust increase. Omar, we need a conference with our escorts and allies. Freddy, please call Commander Rawlins."

"Let me be sure of this," Rawlins said. "We're going through the Sister. Me first, and I'm to try to protect the lot of you. What from?"

"Whatever the Khanate has left as doorkeeper," Renner said. "Opinion is divided on just how much that will be."

"Okay," Rawlins said. "Standard convoy escort through a Jump point. I can do that, but the Moties will have to cooperate. Shall we work out the courses, or will you?"

"Your job," Renner said. "I've been away from it awhile. You'll do it better. Now, we're six hours behind you if Townsend's maneuver works, thirteen if it doesn't. You'd better not wait. We'll follow you."

"Yes, sir. Okay, I go in and cover the forty-seven Motie alliance warships you're vectoring in. Then when we're all through, we make for
Agamemnon
at flank speed."

"Everything that gets through," Renner said. "You've got a copy of my report to
Agamemnon
. Relay that if you can. The important thing is to keep the Khanate from getting out to the Empire. Don't you agree?"

"Yes. All right. Sir. Okay, but there are too many ships for me to cover them all. I'll have to send some through in a dispersion pattern. I'll work out the course vectors and send them over within an hour. As for
Sinbad
, you're moving too fast, it would take hours to match velocities."

"We don't have hours. We're too slow anyway, with Mr. Bury aboard."

"Exactly. We'll fight what we find there while you and your escorts go right on past. They won't be expecting that."

"That's the way I see it," Renner said.

"Then we all go on. Commodore, I suggest you work on the message to Balasingham. He isn't going to like seeing a bunch of Motie ships coming at him."

"Right. Thanks," Renner said. "Omar, make sure your people understand. Commander Rawlins will have his computers work out a course for every ship. It's important they follow directions exactly."

"Understood," Omar said. "Thank you."

"Okay, Commander, we'll wait for you to call. Thanks." Renner turned to Freddy Townsend. "So. Still think we can get through at two hundred klicks?"

"Piece of cake."

"Just what is happening?" Joyce asked. "Freddy?"

"Give me a minute," Freddy said.

"Omar," Renner said. "When you can spare a moment, we have a job for your Engineer." He tapped furiously and a series of diagrams appeared on the screen. "I need this set up."

"The Flinger, Kevin?"

Bury. "Yeah." Renner glanced at Bury's medical readouts. They'd settled to normal. "Glad you got a good rest. We're going through, and we don't know what's on the other side. I want to erect the Flinger."

"Indeed." Bury sighed. "In that case—Cynthia, I believe you should open the sealed locker in Compartment Eight. We may need its contents."

The brown Motie Engineer had been studying the screen. Now she chattered to Omar.

"Problem?" Renner asked.

"No, she understands the mechanism and its purpose. It will be done in less than an hour. Indeed, she says she can make considerable improvements—"

"No!" Bury said. "My ship, and by the Prophet, no! Leave it as it was designed."

Renner was chuckling, but stopped when he saw the medical readouts. "Omar, I think it will be best if the system works as I expect it to. We can leave the improvements for another time."

"Very well." Omar spoke rapidly. The Engineer and Watchmakers went aft to find their pressure suits.

"Please," Joyce said. "Won't somebody tell me what's happening?"

"What's happening, or what we think is happening?" Glenda Ruth asked.

"Both!"

"I would appreciate the information myself," Bury said.

Kevin kept an ear cocked. Freddy, too, was listening, though he had his own work.

"Not for the record, my opinion only." The screens showed a chart of the Mote system. Glenda Ruth said, "The Khanate sent its main war fleet through the Sister while the Masters and their colony ships stayed behind. East India and Medina made it too hot for them, and they fled through as well. We figure they'll be headed for the Jump to New Cal, but they'll have to find it first.

"Meanwhile, our group is heading toward the Sister. There's another squadron of alliance ships that can work it so they get there just ahead of us.
Atropos
goes in with those. If there's nothing there to shoot at, they'll head directly for
Agamemnon
at the exit point. We'll follow at our own speed."

"Oh," Joyce said. "Of course. We know where it is."

"So we ought to get there first . . . 
Atropos
and the Medina fleet, that is. Rawlins goes directly there, so the Khanate won't know just how strong we are."

"But we're expecting trouble."

"The Khanate is entirely likely to leave a sniper or six," Glenda Ruth said.

"But they know how many ships we have. Don't they?"

"How could they possibly know what we'll take through? Anyway, that's why
Atropos
goes first. He goes through and we follow, as many as we can. Some snugged up behind
Atropos
, the rest in a crazy-quilt pattern. The notion is that some get through. A lot get through."

"Oh."

"Something else they won't expect," Freddy said. "Or rather they
will
expect—"

"Jump shock," Omar said. "They will have experienced it. Eudoxus says it is formidable—but less so for you than us. They will not expect you to recover as quickly as you will. Our Warrior officers agree. It is a good plan."

Atropos
went second. First there was a fan of twenty East India warships not much larger than Imperial corvettes traveling at high but different speeds. Their mission was to distract whatever enemy waited on the other side of Crazy Eddie's Sister.

Freddy Townsend watched in appreciation. "Any regatta commodore would be proud of that performance."

"Or fleet admiral for that matter," Renner said. "All right, there goes
Atropos
." Alliance warships huddled close behind the Imperial cruiser, in what would have been called "line ahead" in wet-navy days. Now they vanished one by one as
Sinbad
hurtled toward the Jump point.

Sinbad
's Warrior entourage would have been visible if the Field were not up. They were needed for more than protection. Freddy Townsend was using them for triangulation.

The Sister was thirty seconds away.

"If we make this, it'll be a record," Freddy said. "Will I be allowed to file it?"

Kevin said, "Not my decision. And if we miss, we can try again, of course, but that's three hours down the recycler, Freddy, and I don't know how important three hours is. Give it your best."

"Always."

Victoria and Omar concurred: any decent Warrior pilot could do this. With twenty Warrior pilots to triangulate, even a human pilot had a chance.

Kevin never saw Freddy hit the switch.

Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.

 

—Niccolo Machiavelli