Peter Telep - Pilgrim stars

"Never mind that, just-" She broke off.

Blair stiffened. "Angel?" He spotted her Rapier caught on the well's rim.

"You're still in the clear, Blair. Hook up with Third Squadron. Don't… come… any…" Exertion robbed her words.

"Wish you would've told us that sooner," Maniac interjected. "Thing's reeling me in."

Now hovering high and behind the Olympus, Blair counted all seven of his comrades battling against the well's unfailing pull. Had it not been for Merlin's warning, he would be with them, though he would still experience the distinct horror of watching them die.

"I'm gonna run out of fuel in a minute," Gangsta said.

"I'm right behind you," Cheddarboy added, his voice cracking.

"Tell you what? If this is it, then I'm going out like an officer," Maniac announced. "We all should. Set self-destruct for ten seconds."

"Maybe he's right," Zarya said. "My afterburners are in the red, turbines starting to overheat."

"Yeah, and if this well doesn't finish us first, the cruiser will mow us down anyway," Bishop said. "It's coming right at us."

Blair closed his eyes and rocked in his seat, groping for a solution. He couldn't let them die. He couldn't let her die.

It's coming right at us. Bishop had said that. The Olympus would not create and fly toward a gravity well unless it intended-

"What are you doing?" Merlin asked as Blair advanced the throttle, ignited afterburners, and swooped down at the murky lake of darkness.

"The Olympus is going to jump that well," Blair answered. "And so are we."

"Even if we jump the well, they'll capture us on the other side."

"No, they won't. You'll see. But first we have to pick up the others."

"The others? It's too late for them."

"Wrong again."

"I can't watch," Merlin said, then blinked out.

Two-handing the stick, Blair wrestled against the well and brought his fighter within ten meters of Angel's.

His VDU crackled to life. "You're a fool," she said.

Ignoring her, he engaged the retrieval tractor system and fired a beam at her Rapier. "You're locked on. Now listen up, people!" Blair regarded his radar scope, taking mental note of each Rapier's position relative to each other and to the well. "Gangsta? Fire a tractor at Cheddarboy, and Cheddarboy you latch on to Bishop."

"Interesting plan, mate," Hunter said. "We'll embrace in death."

"Do what he says," Angel shot back. "All of you. Link up. And Blair, can you do it?"

He swallowed. "I think so."

"What's he going to do?" Bishop asked. "And how the hell will linking help? We'll buy it anyway."

Angel huffed. "Everyone except Bishop link up."

"Uh, that's okay," Bishop said shakily. "I'm with you."

Blair stared out across the string of jets, all facing away from the gravity well, every thruster burning brightly. Though he couldn't see the beams that joined their crafts, his tactical display revealed the emission lines. The chain looked good. "Okay. On my mark you will engage emergency flameout systems, bringing thrust down to zero."

"At which time we get sucked in," Maniac said.

"That's the plan," Blair retorted. "And if anyone wants to bail, do it now." He waited a moment, listening to the grinding of his thrusters as they began to superheat. "Okay. Ready now? Here it comes. Mark!"

Like a string of holiday lights winking out, the squadron's thruster cones darkened-

And Blair cut into a hard, starboard roll at ten degrees per second, dragging the other Rapiers behind his. The afterburner gauge rolled even higher into the red as he now faced a whirlpool of swirling haze traversed by hunks of rubble. The radar scope showed the supercruiser just one hundred and fifty meters behind them, but with an abrupt flash that fell over Blair's canopy, the Olympus's jump-drive engaged, and it blurred overhead to dematerialize into the well.

"It jumped," Zarya said. "It created its own well and jumped it."

"But we ain't going to be so lucky," Bishop predicted. "They probably had NAVCOM coordinates to negotiate this thing. We only got Blair's good intentions and his one-and-oh record."

The well tightened its grip, and Blair anxiously reached out with his mind into the gravitic eddies. He had jumped the gravity well known as Scylla and had jumped the Charybdis Quasar, relying only on his Pilgrim senses to navigate. The well in front of him shouldn't be any different-

But it was. As he drew closer, the Rapier shaking violently, he expected to see his mother since she, or more precisely, her essence, resided across the universe and passing through gravitic warps enabled him to experience her for a fleeting moment. He reached deeper into the well, squinting into his mind's eye, probing with every sense, with all he was, fighting for a glimpse of her face, a whisper, a warning, anything. He saw only a curved corridor representing a safe passage that looped through the well. Where are you, Mother? Have you left me forever?

"Ten seconds to the well's Point of No Return," Merlin shouted as he reappeared with a shimmer and peeked through fingers covering his eyes.

"Thought you couldn't watch this," Blair said, thumbing a button to engage the Rapier's jump drive.

"Thought you could use some help."

Blair closed his eyes and called off the first set of coordinates to his navigation computer.

"Coordinates plotted," the computer responded.

He rattled off the second set and heard the response, followed by the computer's warning about reaching.7 light speed, the well's PNR velocity.

"I'd tell you that you're off course for the jump, but I know the reply," said Merlin. "I still do not understand how or why this distortion affects my CPU."

"Save the mystery for another time," Blair shot back.

An alarm blared rapidly, indicating an aft hull breach. Thankfully, the cockpit had not been compromised. Yet. He shut down the alarm, then checked the jump drive clock. Four seconds to jump. Three, two-

The gravity well shucked itself off into a tableau so white that it seemed to absorb the Rapier, absorb Blair, absorb the others and lift them all into its silky arms. For an instant, the frailties of being human seemed meaningless. Blair felt as though he could be anyone and anywhere, do anything, join with every bit of matter down to the quantum level.

Then it was dark, over, and he was just Blair, seated in his cockpit, enveloped by the familiar void tinged blue by Lethe's reflected light.

"We're back?" Merlin asked.

Blair heaved a sigh. "Wasn't sure that was possible. Now we know it is." He brought up Angel's private channel. "Commander?"

"Blair," she acknowledged, gathering her breath. "You know, I was supposed to jump Charybdis with you, and I was kind of upset that I missed that. This puts it all into perspective. Question. Why aren't we on the other side of the well with the Olympus?"

"We could've jumped there, but I figured they would just launch fighters and overtake us. So I looped us through the well and back onto our original vector."

"But now we've lost them."

"No. I marked their coordinates. I'll read them to my nav computer and upload to the data net."

"Nice work, Blair."

"It's Pilgrim."

"Choose another call sign."

"I won't. And I wish everyone would use it."

"All right, I'll give that order, but you deal with the harassment-because you're asking for it." She resumed the steely tone of squadron commander. "Ladies? Disengage retrieval systems and sound off."

VEGA SECTOR.DOWNING QUADRANT BORDER.CS TIGER CLAW.TARTARUS SYSTEM.PLANET LETHE.

2654.080.0730 HOURS CONFEDERATION STANDARD TIME

Gerald shifted past the hatch and stormed into Paladin's quarters. He cocked his head, searching the dark living area, then found his target in a corner meagerly lit by a desk light.