Dreadnought (36 page)

Valthyrra
responded out of desperation, locking het scanners on the fleeing ship and
forcing herself over threshold prematurely. She knew that she could keep pace
with the Dreadnought if she could only catch it before it was able to disappear
from her own scanner range. She could hardly imagine how that machine could
have gotten itself into starflight without the use of any of its primary
drives, until she locked in her spanners for a detailed analysis. The
Dreadnought, as Commander Gelrayen had observed, had been built with multiple
redundancies and capacities that far exceeded the needs of normal use. Its
secondary drive system, a very refined and powerful version of her own field
drive that would have normally been reserved for close maneuvering, was in fact
powerful enough to carry it past threshold. After it had used its primary
drives to take it nearly to light speed before they had been destroyed, it had
used the gravity of the star as an added boost to get it clear of the
Starwolves as soon as possible.

Under
the circumstances, the Dreadnought certainly no longer possessed the power to
outrun a Starwolf carrier; its only hope had been to get itself into starflight
before it could be tracked. Valthyrra had not forgotten that it still had its
complete array of weapons and could probably defend itself as well as ever. She
launched a spread of six missiles, each carrying conversion devices and given a
very precise set of instructions. The missiles did not attempt to strike the
Dreadnought itself but paced it, moving in close beside its massive hull before
detonating. Shaken by that rapid series of concussions, the Dreadnought lost
power and dropped down out of starflight.

When
it again began building its remaining generators to an overload, Valthyrra
accepted that gesture as an honest one and remained in starflight to take
herself to safety as quickly as possible. That was just as well for her. The
Dreadnought’s generators reached their capacity in a matter of seconds, and the
explosion of the first caused a cascade of detonation through the complete
power array. The Dreadnought was consumed in a sudden blast that was quite
literally equal to that of an exploding star, its cumulative capacity for
self-destruction far greater than anyone had anticipated. At least its brief
run into starflight had carried it well outside the system, and its passing did
no harm to anything except itself.

Valthyrra
Methryn circled around to collect her fighters, and to make a final check for
survivors.

Captain
Janus Tarrel did not accompany the Starwolves back to their base at Alkayja
station. While the freighter Taerregyn carried the damaged carrier Destaen home
for extensive repairs, the Methryn and the Vardon had remained in system for a
time to attempt to salvage the wreck of the Kerridayen and search for
additional survivors, including the ship itself. Commander Daerran and his
bridge crew were still missing and none of the ship’s memory units that had
been located so far had survived intact, but the Starwolves still had some hope
that the Kerridayen herself could still be rebuilt; as much as sixty percent of
the carrier’s hull, including her forward-thrust main drives, her star drives
and her generators, were still reasonably intact or could be repaired. The ship
itself would probably fly again, after years of refitting, and possibly with a
new guiding sentience.

As
much as she wanted to stay with the Starwolves a while yet, Captain Tarrel left
the Methryn within hours of the destruction of the Dreadnought. Because the
Starwolves had been able to intercept the alien weapon before it could attack,
the local system, including the System Fleet, had survived undamaged. After the
System Commander had made contact with the Starwolves, he offered a heavy
cruiser for her use. Hardly two hours later, she found herself on her way to
Vinthra with only the special armor that had been made for her and a great many
new aches to remind her of her time among the Starwolves. When Valthyrra
Methryn had moved to intercept the Dreadnought during its attempt to escape,
she had used some very sharp accelerations.

Tarrel
did not believe that the Starwolves simply wanted to be rid of her now that her
usefulness was at an end. The circumstances of her sudden departure had not
been of their contrivance, nor did they operate in that manner in the first
place. In fact, they were very anxious to know if the Union intended to extend
the truce now that the Dreadnought was destroyed, and they looked upon her as
an important source of information. But she had been given the means to leave,
and no one could think of any good reason for her to stay.

Since
she was once again only a passenger on someone else’s ship, she had time to
wonder whether or not she had unfinished business with the Starwolves. She
wanted very much to be able to encourage them to re-evaluate their standing
with the Republic and to seek their own destiny. That seemed certainly to be in
the best interests of the Kelvessan themselves and she believed that it would
also be in the best interests of her own kind, if not necessarily best for the
Union. At the same time, she knew only too well that the actions she
contemplated would be viewed as improper if not actually treasonous by the
Union, and she remained a Union Captain with all the duties and moral
responsibilities that involved. So perhaps it was just as well that the matter
had been decided for her, even though she could not escape the feeling that
this was not yet over.

The
massive military and commercial complexes above Vinthra had survived intact
only by virtue of the fact that the Dreadnought had not come here. And that had
been entirely a matter of chance. That sprawling array of docking components,
warehouses and repair facilities would have been one of the most tempting
targets in Union space, if the Dreadnought had known of its existence, and it
certainly could not have been moved to safety. Captain Tarrel watched the final
approach to station through the wide bank of windows in the cruiser’s lounge,
wondering if she would see her own Carthaginian nosed in to a docking, slip,
although she was not surprised when she did not. She was able to see only a
small proportion of the ships moored at the station, and there was even the
chance that Carthaginian was out running errands at the moment.

After
all that she had been through, she almost expected some recognition of her
efforts. Still, she was practical enough not to be surprised when no one was
there to meet her as she came off the ship. She arranged to have her bags sent
to visiting officer’s quarters on the station, then presented herself at Sector
Commander Victor Lake’s office. At least he was on station at that time, but he
was away for the moment. His personal secretary was away also, and the computer
indicated that she was welcome to wait. Since only the computer was there to
look at her, she elected to stay rather than leave a message. The fact that
Lake was due back at any moment decided the matter, since she did not feel like
waiting long for anyone.

Victor
Lake arrived in a hurry, glancing at her briefly and without much concern on
his way through the outer office to his own. Then he stopped short and stared.
“Janus Tarrel? What the hell are you doing here?”

“What
am I doing here?” she asked, then paused and made a face. Since she had not
asked the Starwolves to send a message, the news had not arrived any faster
than herself. “Of course, you don’t know. The Dreadnought is dead, blasted to
little tiny pieces these last nine days.”

“So
the Starwolves finally came through,” Lake commented. “We were beginning to
think that they were waiting to see us whipped first.”

“The
Starwolves took a real beating for our sakes,” Tarrel said sharply. “They did
the best they could. You had my reports.”

“We
took quite a beating ourselves,” Lake insisted. “I’m not asking for sympathy
after all you’ve been through, but I’ve had the Combined Council and the heads
of every trade company demanding to know what I was doing. I must have invented
half a million ways to avoid telling them that the matter was out of my hands.
Do you tell people like that to sit tight and trust in the Starwolves? Why
don’t we go into my office.”

She
followed him through the inner doors into his office, where he went immediately
to the bar and began preparing drinks for them both as if that was his most
pressing duty of the moment. Tarrel wondered if she looked like she needed it;
her weeks among the Starwolves had left her fairly beat up, but she had had
time since then to recover. If he was to be serving drinks, then she decided to
help herself to the stuffed leather sofa, reclining sideways across its length
to encourage him to take the chair opposite.

“Why
did you send me that Walter Pesky person?” she asked sourly; her opinion of the
departed had not improved in the weeks since his death. “Was nobody aware of
the severity of his xenophobia?”

“Apparently
not,” Lake insisted. “The only thing in his record was praise for his precise,
diplomatic politeness in dealing with aliens, due no doubt to the fact that he
secretly hated and feared them. It seems that he only lost it once in his
career, but then he lost it all the way.”

“Well,
it was partly my own fault for not sending him home when I should have,” Tarrel
admitted. “I was just afraid of leaving him alone and completely unsupervised
until they had a ship free to bring him back. Of course, my only concern was
that he might do something to embarass us politically.”

“I
can hardly imagine anyone putting anything over on Starwolves. They deal with
their enemies fairly harshly.”

“Their
enemies, yes. We were theoretically friends and allies by that time, and
Starwolves can be so damned trusting with anyone they consider their friend.
You probably have to know them better to believe that.”

“No,
I’ve heard something to that effect before.” He handed her a glass, then
settled with his own drink in the chair opposite her. “Drump nut liqueur in
iced mint tea. I still recall your odd drinking habits.”

“I
was never a serious drinker in the first place,” she reminded him, taking a
quick swallow. “When did you start keeping mint tea at hand?”

“Since
I knew that you would be coming back here when your mission was done.”

She
nodded absently. “What about my ship?”

“Actually,
I seem to recall that the Carthaginian is out running errands somewhere in the
Sector. She should be back within the next few days, which means that you get a
short vacation.” Tarrel shrugged. “I’m in no state of mind to run a ship right
now anyway, even if we’re not at war with anyone for the moment.”

Lake
spent a moment watching the ice in his glass. “Can we talk business for just a
moment? I have to go out there very soon and announce that the Dreadnought has
been destroyed, and I need to be prepared for some very hard questions.”

“Go
ahead.”

“Did
the Starwolves ever find out what it was?”

“In
general terms, it was a big machine designed for the single purpose of wrecking
the space-faring capabilities of a civilization less technically advanced than
itself,” she explained. “We would have never found a way to destroy it
ourselves; you can tell that to anyone who says that we should have never made
a truce with the Starwolves. The only reason we survived is that we had someone
willing to protect us who possessed the ability to understand that thing and
fight it on its own terms. Except for Starwolves, we would be sitting here
waiting to die.”

“No
question?”

“No
question.”

Lake
nodded. “Was it sent to attack us specifically, or did it just happen to wander
into our space and begin executing its primary function?”

She
shook her head hopelessly. “There never was any way to know that for certain.
There was no evidence one way or the other, and no way to talk to that thing.
It was willing to listen, but it shot anything that did not give the proper
recognition code immediately.”

“The
fact that there was only the one suggests that the Dreadnought had simply
wandered in,” he suggested.

“I
don’t consider that conclusive,” Tarrel insisted. “If it hadn’t been for the
Starwolves, the one would have been enough to destroy us. Some unknown enemy
would likely have never considered that we would receive help from the
Starwolves after we’d been at war with them for thirty thousand years. I guess
that we’ll know the answer to that question if a certain amount of time passes
and they don’t send out a modified Dreadnought, one better protected against
Starwolves.”

“Is
that possible?” Lake asked.

“Even
the Starwolves can’t fight it. They just happened to find a way to sneak in
through its shield and destroy it from the inside. A design flaw that will
probably not be repeated.”

“In
that case, will the Starwolves be able to destroy a second Dreadnought if one
is sent?”

“If
that flaw is corrected, then no. But I believe that they have the ability to
come up with some new weapons in a hurry.” Victor Lake spent a brief moment
regarding his glass, then finished his drink in a quick swallow. “There are
certain questions of a very sensitive nature that I would like to discuss with
you off the record. I never asked these things, and you never spoke to me about
them. But these questions will be asked. If some powerful elements of the Union
wish to break the truce, then I do not have the power to stop them. I can even
be ordered to break the trace, and I can’t refuse short of resigning. And I
should warn you that there are strong incentives to break the truce as a
quicker way to recover our losses.”

She
had anticipated that much already, although it still saddened her to realize
that it was indeed inevitable. The truce was doomed, and they both knew it. “I
understand.”