” ‘Bout the only thing we can do, don’t, you think?”
“You mean just board and shoot him pointblank.”
“Hey, they never have been too fussy about us carrying weapons. Kifish etiquette’s on our side, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Haral said.
“He’ll ask me aboard. You wait and see. I get my chance, and then you blow his vanes if you can. I don’t have to tell you. You know what you’re doing.” A look aside at Haral. Old partner. Old friend. The one who just as well could have captained The Pride a long, long time ago. Who right now looked at her with that stolid calm behind which was a great deal of pain. “Long time.”
“Yeah,” Haral said again. “Watch out for Ikkhoitr, that’s what I got to do. But that’s not your job in there right now. No one but you’s got the credentials, hear me?”
“Nobody else can get close to the gods-be kif-”
“He’s going to be expecting a move like this. That’s why no one else can get close to him. This is why it doesn’t work for the kif. No percentage in it. You do it, Py, and we got ourselves a kif ball-up right here in the system.”
“We just got to get me inside there, that’s what we got.”
“We got those mahendo’sat hanging off system. We still don’t know where Goldtooth is-he could come tearing through here any minute, f godssakes, him and the whole clutch of humans. We got that message going out to the mahendo’sat. Jik’s coming in here-don’t do it. Don’t throw yourself into that mess. We just stay tight here, we talk to that bastard as long as he wants to talk, we got to hold our nerve, captain,
that’s what we got to do. We got to just bide our time and hope to-”
“Captain,” Hilfy said. “We got a query from Vigilance. Query, query, query, quote. That’s all they say.”
“Gods rot that nest of lunatics. Tell ’em shut it down. My gods, they’ll blow this up yet. Tell ’em-No. Tell ’em what I said. Shut it up. Next ship transmits out of turn I’ll have some ears for it, say that. Tell Harukk again the system is stable and his enemies are in retreat. Say that we have a contingent of mahendo’sat insystem in support of Jik, who’s gone on in pursuit of Akkhtimakt. Say that we’re ready to meet and arrange things.”
Eighteen ships in. The range out there was a confusion of ship IDs and colors as ships downshifted their V and others kept arriving.
“Aye,” Hilfy said.
“Captain,” Tully said. “Wrong. Ship wrong.”
“Gods.” Geran’s voice. “No ID on that last ship. It’s not outputting. We got an anomaly out there.”
Her heart sped. “Track and target. Get me vector on it.”
“Working,” Sif said.
It was behind the others. The line popped up, projecting course right with the rest of the mass.
Chapter Fourteen
It kept coming, a ship on which ID squeal had malfunctioned.
But that kind of malfunction was a kifish trick.
A pirate trick.
“My gods. It’s not theirs. It’s not theirs, they know it- stand by, stand by armaments!” Pyanfar shoved her arm into the brace and gulped air in starkest panic. “Haral! Control to me!”
“Aye,” Haral said on the instant, went over to switcher-one while Tirun busied herself with the tracking of the armaments.
“What is it?” Sirany wondered from her vantage.
“A stray,” Pyanfar said. “It’s a godsforsaken stray, Goldtooth’s or-”
”Priority!” Geran yelled, but it was already clear on the screen: the interloper had not dumped, and something else had come out from it: missile fire, projectiles launched C-fractional at ships that were relativistically stationary targets dead ahead of it.
“Priority!” Hilfy cried. “It’s Tahar! That’s Moon Rising! My gods, she’s going to run right through them!”
“Track on Harukk!” Pyanfar yelled, and slammed the mains in. “All ships, fire at will-tell ’em that’s an ally coming through!”
The armaments were tracking. Missiles launched with a thump and a shock against their own substance. Dead against Harukk, everything they owned to throw, hard as they could throw it.
“Ikkhoitr!” Pyanfar yelled over the whine of reloading. “Tirun, get their vanes. Never gods-be mind the others! Hilfy, give me output!”