Glen Cook - The Dragon Never Sleeps

But when he ran data from the region, he could not find a hint of anything to support his suspicion. If Kez Maefele had come through, he had done so like a ghost.

Aleas thought, attacked the problem from a different perspective. She input the tumbling rider exiting the Starbase end space, the probe blossom, the missiles that had been detected at this end, and told Gemina to see if the known data forbade them being linked or made it impossible for that anomalous contact to be the Ku.

— 138 —

The rise in comm chatter was ominous. Turtle altered course a hair. "Get me a pod of missiles ready." His people knew what to do. It would be a twist on another old trick. Several began the complicated programming.

Before they finished, the probability points on screen had shown drive sign. "That IFF didn't fool them," Turtle said. "Though they had to think about it for a while."

"What're you going to do?" Provik asked.

"Put a pod of missiles out running the vectors we were making when the interceptor spotted us. On scan they'll echo like a rider. They'll provide an IFF feedback. Another old trick."

"What about us?"

"We'll vanish. If the pod does its job, they'll think we're dead."

Aleas had called in the secondaries to VII Gemina 's right and had sent riders from the center to the left. It would be hours before recovery was complete and the Guardship could move to the center of action.

"Contact report came. Right where it ought to be. IFF responder IDing ridership JV47."

"That isn't a VII Gemina rider," WarAvocat said.

"Could the interceptor have made a mistake?"

"Of course. They were preoccupied. But I'll bet they didn't."

Aleas moved ships to close a pocket around the contact. "You want them alive?" She knew he did.

He was troubled. This had developed too passively.

Aleas ordered a fighter closer to the target. There was a chance the Outsider really was crippled.

It did not respond to comm attempts, except for the automated IFF. It looked too cold to support life. "You think they might be dead?"

"No." Because he did not want the Ku to evade him that way, either. Nor any of the others ... He tried not to think about the artifact.

"We'll know once Probe takes a look."

The fighter drifted closer, ignored. Then, "I'm getting weird drive readings. Like they're in bad shape. Starting to move. Turning toward the Web."

WarAvocat was acutely aware that he was hearing news twelve minutes old. Neither he nor Aleas could control what was happening.

The fighter reported the rider's drives behaving increasingly erratically. The senior officer present ordered the fighter to fire across the rider's nose. The fighter closed in. "Can't see them yet. Must be running high SCAM. Wait. There's a drive glow...."

A static blast overrode the signal.

Turtle eased the rider up to the array proclaiming itself a Guardship. It was bigger than he had hoped.

Provik and his girlfriend, Blessed and the Valerena, were EVA. Only they could squeeze into Outsider suits. They floated ahead, on tethers, opened a passage through the decoy's titanium and filament frame. Turtle nudged the rider through. The people outside closed up behind.

Provik and his woman anchored the array to the rider. Blessed and the Valerena made connections so its broadcast output could be controlled from the ship. Both tasks took hours.

Turtle greeted them when they returned. "Good job. The pod just blew. From all the cursing it looks like they bought it."

He went to the bridge, gently nudged the array toward the strand. He programmed the decoy's output to decline gradually.

It would take longer to escape this way, but he felt good about his chances. Hell. They might even pull out now.

He settled down to rest, tried not to think about hunger.

WarAvocat retreated to his quarters to sulk. He slept for twelve hours. And awakened with the conviction that the Ku was not dead. But he could produce no rational support for the feeling.

"Access, Colonel Jo Klass. Klass, WarAvocat. Meet me in the aliens' quarters."

He stepped into the passageway—and found himself face to face with a naked woman, the most beautiful, erotically stimulating women he'd ever seen. She smiled as she passed.

He stared. No woman aboard VII Gemina looked that good. None ever had.

His voice squeaked. "Tawn?"

She smiled over her shoulder, turned into a cross corridor. He ran after her. When he turned the corner he saw no one.

Aleas would shit.

He wandered off to keep his appointment, bemused. That was enough to make you forget other women existed.

For a few minutes, anyway.

WarAvocat tightened his nostrils. He'd never get used to the smell. He told Klass. "There were several people on that rider they both knew. I want to know if they can be found the way Seeker found you."

Klass was puzzled. "But they're dead. I heard they tried to run on a bad drive and blew their Q."

"Indulge me, Colonel."

— 139 —

Turtle glared at the screen. VII Gemina had no reason to hang around but it was, still running random rider patrols. He could not get enough from their comm chatter to understand why.

Their presence kept him moving at a crawl. He was two hours from the strand. He would take this for one more, then he would run.

He had been telling himself that for eight hours. Gut it out another hour before making the run.

One of his nonKu said, "Kez Maefele, I'm getting a ghost. Not like anything I've ever seen."

Turtle's stomach grumbled as he bestirred himself.... "That's a Guardship trying to run silent. They know we're here. Stand by for violent maneuvers." He surveyed screens. They had put out another decoy, then had sneaked around to get between him and the strand. Only you could not sneak with something that big.

The drives were warm. All go. "Ready?" He slammed it into the red. The rider ripped the decoy apart.

Immediately the screens sparkled with radiation from drives. He was not surprised. He would have sneaked up from behind, too. They would be decelerating to match his pace.

"Head straight for the strand. They won't shoot right away." He eased back on the acceleration. Had to hold something back. He would need it soon.

Jo stood on the operating bridge of a ridership clad in lightweight EVA armor used for boarding operations. She shared her post with Group Commander Colonel Haget. He had reverted to the Haget of old. They might never have met.

His task was to catch the Ku's rider. Hers was to capture the Ku.

She said, "WarAvocat guessed right again."

Haget grunted..

"That bastard can move."

"We had a running start."

No point being there with him. She joined AnyKaat and her troops, real soldiers who understood what it meant to be soldiers. AnyKaat was sweating. "Relax. Pretend it's Merod Schene."

"But it isn't Merod Schene. And we aren't up against retarded bastards."

"True." There were Ku aboard that rider.

"Boarders, stand by," came by overhead.

Why the hell did WarAvocat want them alive?

Twenty riders in the pack, too close to escape. But not shooting. WarAvocat wanted prisoners.

Turtle felt he had no right to make a decision for everyone. "Listen up, please. We're trapped. We're one hour thirty-nine minutes from the strand with VII Gemina moving into our path. We have a slim chance because they want to capture us. If we go for that chance, we'll have to fight. If we fight, the odds are they'll kill us. Our deaths would have only symbolic value. Do we fight or surrender?"

His Ku did not hesitate. "We fight. They will kill us anyway." The other soldiers agreed, as did Provik and his woman. Midnight and the Valerena disagreed. Which left Blessed.