Peter Telep - Pilgrim stars

Bellegarde had already pulled up the holographic map of Robert's Quadrant by the time Tolwyn arrived. The systems of Baird's Star, Tartarus, Dakota, K'rissth, and Freya glinted in three dimensions within a rectangular box comprised of hundreds of green cubes. The portal system of Port Hedland stood just outside the box, and a solid red line marking Aristee's last known trajectory curved from a point between Tartarus and Freya and headed on toward Port Hedland, where the line became dotted to indicate Bellegarde's projection.

"What do we have, Richard?"

He spoke rapidly, realizing that he should calm down-but the news represented their first real break in fifteen days. After he finished relaying the data to Tolwyn, he turned to a communications monitor and activated an audio-video recording. A muscular black man appeared, his face sweaty, his eyes like heavy gray sacks. Bellegarde thumbed down the volume and said, "I just glanced at a few of these interrogations before you arrived, and this one seemed particularly interesting. Man's name is Doug Henrick. Says he was taken by force and ordered to fly. Says the others were as well-that's why they sent off a distress signal instead of trying to hide from the Windmar."

"Or they were just disabled, knew they couldn't make it back to the ship, and figured they'd lie so we wouldn't execute them for treason," Tolwyn said. "No, they willingly joined Aristee's force. They were either left behind or had second thoughts and went AWOL."

"I agree. Anyway, this guy thinks Aristee intercepted one of our comm drones near Aloysius. He also says that she plans on modifying her hopper drive so that it'll create a much larger gravity well. He says that by one-four-eight, maybe sooner, she'll have it ready. Her next stop? Earth."

"Convenient timing. Ten days shy of our deadline. But what if Mr. Henrick allowed himself to be captured to feed us misinformation? I'm sure he hasn't submitted to a cerebral scan-and even those can be fooled with the right training. I'm dubious because he knows too much for a pilot."

"I thought the same, until I learned that he's had contact with Christopher Blair. They went to Blair for help in getting close to Paladin. He says the situation got too complicated and he and a few others decided to make a run when the cats attacked. They left behind William Santyana. Name ring a bell?"

"Brilliant test pilot. Retired too young. I see Aristee's conscripted only the best."

"Santyana wants out as well-but Aristee has his family on board. He's working with Blair and Paladin." Bellegarde paused to consider the tone he would use to deliver his next bit of news. He simply had to say it. "Sir, Henrick also says that there's some doubt as to Paladin's loyalty."

"I'm not surprised."

"I guess you were worried about him. Why?"

"We'll leave it there. For now, we'll have to trust him. Paladin has rarely let me down."

Bellegarde shut off the recording, then eyed the holograph. "Sir, I know that last week we sent the Tiger Claw and Fosubius battle group to Earth, but I respectfully suggest that we join them to strengthen our presence, whether Henrick is lying or not. We can't afford to ignore this. Aristee can jump to Vega and follow the Ulysses corridor right back to Sol."

"That would be the long route, Richard. With her hopper drive, she might be able to jump directly from Port Hedland. In fact, she doesn't even need to reach that jump point. If our information is true, then right now she's remaining within interstellar space and buying herself time until her drive is ready. Trouble is, she's got the Kilrathi on her tail."

"But she managed to take out three cruisers and a destroyer- with no evidence that she used the hopper drive to do so. Considering that she has only one ship, I find that unbelievable. Or has she formed a battle group? But where would she get the ships and the resources? All of our vessels are accounted for."

"She has another weapon, Richard. Access the datanet when you get a chance. Search for Pilgrims, extrakinesis or hypersensory perception. You'll find it interesting."

"I found it interesting when 1 studied it as a cadet. But there were only a few Pilgrims with that power, and using it to kill was against their edicts, so most of them stayed out of the war. I thought we wiped out the ones who fought."

"A lot more fought than history records. And we didn't kill them all. The escapees have had children by now. If we look at the Windmar's analysis of the debris, we'll find Kilrathi bodies with crushed organs, missing eyes, and other evidence of gravitic manipulation."

"And they're powerful enough to destroy four Kilrathi capital ships? My God___"

"During the war, they were even stronger. But the power drains them. That's when we struck."

"So if Aristee arrives in Earth orbit with her hopper drive online, she can use her people to stall us long enough to engage the drive and draw Earth into the well."

"Clever woman. Her plan would've been even more effective if Bill Wilson's timing had been better. He should have delayed his deal with the Kilrathi. They shouldn't have attacked Pegasus until Aristee's hopper drive was modified. That way if Wilson failed, Aristee could move in quickly and take out Earth. I'm speculating here, but I think the cats wouldn't wait, and Wilson got cocky enough to take on the whole mission himself. He failed, and Aristee was left ill-prepared to accept the baton. But she's running with it now."

"The Halstov battle group is at Port Hedland right now," Bel-legarde said, pointing to a cluster of blue orbs on the holograph. "Let's move it to intercept. Between us and the cats, we'll take her out."

"You're forgetting our order to recover that ship intact." He took a deep breath. "Now Richard, what I'm about to tell you is highly confidential and could get me court-martialed, but the time has come for you to know. Just after Aristee attacked Mylon Three, the space marshal persuaded the joint chiefs to recover the hopper drive at all costs. I mean at all costs. Aristee's targets were considered expendable. I viewed the holo of Gregarov's meeting with the joint chefs, and her fervor was, in a word, unsettling. So I've been doing a little digging since this all began. Called in a favor at Confed Intelligence, and my source just came through." Tolwyn took a step closer and lowered his voice. "For the past three years Ms. Gregarov has been receiving her-eyes-only intelligence reports regarding the Pilgrims' construction of the hopper drive. The system's components were assembled on all five of the enclaves and on McDaniel. Pilgrim engineers worked in isolation, and only one group knew how to assemble the drive. That group is on board the Olympus. Most of the other Pilgrims who worked on the components have been taken into custody."

"So Gregarov stood by and did nothing while the Pilgrims assembled the drive?"

"She wanted them to build it. Pilgrims were the original engineers, and the unit often requires a Pilgrim to assist in the operation. She figured she'd take possession before they could use it. Trouble is, the Pilgrims realized there was a leak and fed misinformation to Intell. Aristee got the drive online before Gregarov could react."

The magnitude of what the space marshal had done sent Bel-legarde toward the bulkhead. He raised his fist, thought better of slamming it on the durasteel. "She sat there in the wardroom and tried to blame us for civilian deaths. The blood's on her hands. Did she know about Bill Wilson as well?"

"I'm not sure. In any event, you and I have new orders for which I take full responsibility. If we can't confiscate that drive, then no one else can have it." Tolwyn looked sadly to the deck. "And if that means destroying the ship and losing two of our own, then so be it."

The hatch suddenly opened, and Space Marshal Gregarov carried her glare into the map room. "Lieutenant Wilks just summoned me here. When I asked him to report, he provided me with a lengthy description of a message forwarded from the Barnicket Light. Why wasn't I informed sooner?"