Tactical Error (14 page)

“If you wait a while, he probably will be,” Consherra remarked.

“He promised to guard our patrol until he hears from us.” He
turned as Baress entered the bridge. “I have a very important task for
you. Your friend Baressa will be bringing a shipping crate full of unconscious
guards through the main airlock to leave outside. Valthyrra will arrange to
have additional crates – empty – brought out at about five-minute
intervals. You, Trel, and Marlena will go outside to stand guard over those
crates, which are theoretically filled with our weapons. At my signal, you will
go to this bay’s control room and pull the emergency docking brace
release and get yourself back on board as quickly as you can manage.”

“What about the docking probes?” he asked.

“You can hardly do anything about that and still get back on board the
ship, and may the Great Spirit of Space help anyone we may happen to leave
behind. There is no danger to the station, since the bay has its own
atmosphere.” He turned back to Valthyrra as Baress hurried to carry out
his orders. “Have you relayed those instructions to the other
ships?”

“They comply,” the ship agreed. “In fact, they seem to be
tremendously pleased.”

Velmeran turned to Admiral Laroose. “So what about it? Would you like
to go along with us? We can put you overboard in one of those shipping crates
with our two duteous friends.”

Laroose shrugged. “Before I answer that, can I ask what you intend to
do about this mess? I cannot see you abandoning the rest of the Kelvessan to
slavery.”

“How long can I stay away before they begin this plan of sterilizing
and selling the Kelvessan?” Velmeran asked in return. “I was left
with the feeling that this is something yet to be.”

The human shook his head slowly. “It’s not even been announced
publicly yet, and a long way from being put into effect. They do have to move
cautiously on certain points or they’ll have this business blow up in
their faces, and they know it. Weeks, if not months. If the Starwolves revolt,
public opinion may make it impossible for a long time to come.”

“Two weeks at most is all I need,” Velmeran said, mostly to
himself. “You see, I know a few things that your people here do not.
There have been rumors bouncing about that the Union has finally found a way to
fight and defeat Starwolves for all time. I sent Lenna Makayen to investigate,
and less than an hour ago she sent back word saying that it is the end of
civilization as we know it. This might sound like the alarmist predictions of a
militaristic mind, but I cannot believe that they will keep the peace if they
have a way to finally defeat us.”

“But why are they trying to get us to destroy the Starwolves for
them?” Laroose asked.

“It would be nice for them if it works,” he answered. “It
creates a fair amount of confusion under any circumstances. Did you really
expect that the Starwolves would submit to having themselves and their ships
destroyed?”

“Not for a moment.”

“Neither would they. But where does it leave us? Either the Starwolves
become renegades trying to operate without the support of the Republic behind
us, or else we end up fighting ourselves. This was all designed to throw us
into confusion, and it has cost them nothing.”

“The first shipping crate has been moved into the station,”
Valthyrra reported. “Baress is standing by, with Trel and Marlena to
cover him. The Delvon is at this same stage, and the Valdayen will be ready in
a moment. Should we have packs standing ready?”

“Standing ready,” Velmeran agreed. “But we will not put
out any ships unless we must. Our intention is to catch them by complete
surprise and to run before they can mobilize to stop us. My intention this time
is to leave them with something to think about.”

“And then?” Valthyrra asked.

“Then we come back as soon as we can assemble the fleet,” he
answered. “They committed a major crime against the Kelvessan race when
they revoked the Second Ammendment, and that gives us the opening we need. I am
sure that they will see our side of things when they find themselves looking
out the window at the noses of twenty Starwolf carriers.”

He leaned back against the front of the console of the central bridge,
considering the problem carefully. He could not delay in answering
Lenna’s call, and he did not dare to leave this problem at his back. He
was very afraid of what might become of the Kelvessan in his absence, but he
had to know what Lenna had found or it might be too late to stop a new
offensive from the Union against the Starwolves. Having one major crisis was
bad enough, but two at the same time was an almost impossible situation. The
timing could not have been worse. He could imagine that Donalt Trace was
laughing at him somewhere, thinking that his biggest surprise was yet to come.

At least Velmeran had that one consolation. He was not going to be surprised
a second time.

He looked up, noticing that Venn Keflyn was watching him closely. He was
never completely sure what the Aldessa was thinking, and reluctant to believe
that his race was most closely related to her own. But even the Valtritians
themselves held it to be true. The Kelvessan appeared vaguely human on the
surface, but the resemblance was purely superficial. In terms of biology,
biochemistry, genetics, and – most importantly – mental and social
development, they were very closely related to the Kelvessan.

“This was likely enough to happen,” he said quietly in the
language their two races shared. “They can never forget that our race was
created to serve their need.”

“Nor can your own people forget that as well, it seems,” Venn
Keflyn said in return. “Perhaps your people should have a world of their
own.”

“People of many races can live as easily on any world, even with
others,” he pointed out.

“Yes. But the one thing that they all share is that, at one time in
their history, they all came from a single home world,” she pointed out.
“The Kelvessan are the one exception. Perhaps the time has come that you
should find a world to call your own. Not to stand apart from others, but to have
that one place where you can all stand together.”

“Commander,” Valthyrra interrupted gently, moving her camera pod
close. “We are ready. All three ships are standing by for your
word.”

He glanced over at Admiral Laroose. “What about it? Are you going
along for the ride?”

“I have to go back,” he said. “If I am not here, there
will be no one about who is still a friend of the Kelvessan. And your people
need a friend or two just now.”

Velmeran nodded. “I could not ask that of you, but I very much need
for you to watch things here until I return. I will have Baressa install you in
your own shipping crate in a very polite and gentle manner, so that you will
not be accused of complicity.”

“ ...and hurry,” Valthyrra insisted.

“Hurry,” Baress complained as he reached inside one of the
shipping crates for his gun belt and helmet. “As if I need to be told to
hurry.”

He looked around as he belted on his guns. Fortunately the wide corridor
that ringed the inside of the docking bays had remained mostly empty since
Velmeran’s return. There was one pair of guards at the entrance to the
bay’s control room, and another farther down the corridor on the passage
to the main lift. The Commander had said nothing about being discreet, but he
thought that he could scatter this lot without the need of actually shooting
anyone.

“I will try to make this very brief,” he told Trel and Marlena
just before he slipped on his helmet.

It seemed that the station guards had taken no notice of the three
Starwolves preparing for battle. They drew their guns and took swift aim,
filling the wide corridor in a sudden storm of bolts that exploded in flame and
smoke against the walls and ceiling. The guards ducked their heads and dove for
cover.

Baress seized the moment of confusion, hurtling himself with surprising
speed down the length of the corridor to the entrance of the control room,
located before the center of the bay and a quarter of a kilometer from the
entrance to the airlock. Trel and Marlena continued to shoot as rapidly as
their guns could charge, maintaining the confusion in a deadly hail of bolts.

Baress ducked inside the entrance to the control room, looking quickly about
for the emergency release. Fortunately it was clearly marked, a large lever
located in a recessed box beneath the main control panel. Holding the release
trigger, he pulled back sharply on the lever. Explosive bolts blew within the
frames of the two sets of braces which held the Methryn steady within the bay
by the ends of her blunt wings, and gas pistons swung the braces clear. For a
moment the immense carrier hung suspended in free-fall, steadied only by the
nose bracket that held her shock bumper and a pair of long, slender docking
tubes.

Baress waited only long enough to see that the Methryn was clear, then
hurried back to the door. The guards had regrouped and were doing their
best to return fire from the cover of a side corridor, but Trel and Marlena,
shooting from the cover provided by the crates, were reminding them to keep
their distance, and their weak pistols could not have pierced Starwolf armor
even from a much closer range. He covered the distance back to the airlock in a
matter of seconds, sending his companions on ahead of him.

“The ship is clear,” Valthyrra announced. “All of our
people are back on board and accounted for. The other carriers report the
same.”

Velmeran nodded. “Get under way.”

The Methryn began to back out of the bay, moving straight and steady until
she was well clear of the edges of the bay. The pair of long, slender docking
probes shattered as she first began to move back, their length splintered into
segments that spun aimlessly in the freefall of the bay. Then she turned with
surprising speed and agility for a ship so vast, whipping around, then accelerating
directly away from the station, moving out of system on a course that would
take her back toward Union space. First the Delvon, then the Valdayen fell in
close beside her. Flying in tight formation, the three carriers continued to
accelerate to light speed.

“System control is calling,” Valthyrra reported.
“President Delike wants to talk to you.”

“I thought he would,” Velmeran commented. “He did impress
me as a slow learner. Put him through.”

“Commander Velmeran?” That voice sounded uncertain, surprised,
and perhaps even a little hurt. Something had happened that he obviously did
not understand.

“You made this inevitable,” Velmeran told him plainly, not
waiting for him to ask. He had no more patience for this simple man. “You
were badly mistaken on at least one point. I am not obliged to obey your word.
When you treat a Kelvessan like a machine, you have found the quickest way to
arouse our complete and unforgiving anger.”

“But you can’t do this,” Delike protested. “You will
destroy our peace.”

“There is no peace that does not include us,” Velmeran answered.
“You and your friends have committed a very serious crime against my
people. I have other important business to attend to just now, but then I will
be coming back to have an accounting from you. Think on that.”

“I order you to return!”

“Barking asshole!” Velmeran muttered, then turned to Valthyrra.
“Cut that. Let them think about it for a while.”

“Perimeter defense cannons are moving to intercept us,”
Valthyrra warned him. “Should we prepare to destroy them?”

“Not if we can help it,” Velmeran said. “That is our
property, and very expensive to replace. We will try to get into starflight
before they come into range, but be ready all the same.”

Whether he liked it or not, he was afraid that they would have to destroy
the defense drones. They were built like small carriers that lacked stardrives,
barely an eighth as large, carrying no crews and automated rather than
self-aware like their larger cousins. And yet, despite their relatively small
size, they carried a firepower that even a carrier had to respect. Being fairly
stupid machines, they could not be bluffed.

“Valthyrra, go ahead and send out a warning to all other carriers,”
he added after a moment. “Inform them of the situation. Tell them to
continue their patrols for now, but to button things up and be ready to come
when I call. Tell them to anticipate about two weeks.”

“Do you really anticipate a fight?” Consherra asked, watching
from her station at the helm.

“No, I think not,” he said. “Without the Starwolves, the
Republic has only a fraction of the strength of the Union. Two carriers could
go through the Republic Militia in a matter of days. Twenty or so carriers
would be overkill, except that they do make a very powerful weapon of
negotiation.”

“Twenty or so carriers moving in formation would frighten
anyone.”

“Coming into range in forty seconds,” Valthyrra reported. He
looked up at her. “Can you make it into starflight by then?”

“If we give our run a couple of more G’s, then make the jump
just a little premature.”

Velmeran nodded. “Do it.”

“Coming into visual range of the nearest drone,” Valthyrra
reported.

Valthyrra centered the main image of her viewscreen on the scan of the
nearest defense drone, sitting almost directly in their path. As black as space
itself, its triangular hull was in most ways like that of a carrier, short of
nose and lacking a tail to house a stardrive. Velmeran stood for a moment,
watching the drone.

“Cut acceleration,” he said suddenly. “Cut across its path
at the very outside limit of its range, shield to full, but do not return
fire.”

“Well... sure,” Valthyrra agreed reluctantly, obviously
confused. She relayed the order to a pair of very perplexed carriers.
“Stand by.”