he had to cover.
“Tell me all you can about Operation Annihilate,” he said. “Operation Annihilate is the
code name for our attack on the Empire. Our entire navy will rendezvous at a point in
space and attack Earth in force. We have more than enough strength to wipe out the
fleet normally stationed there. Our own fleet is commanded by Admiral Shen Tzu, who is
currently operating as an ordinary pirate. Our original plan was to attack during Princess
Edna’s wedding. The robot duplicate of Lady Bloodstar was supposed to kill both the
Emperor and the Princess, leaving the succession in doubt and causing chaos at the
court, while our ships massed and destroyed the Imperial Fleet stationed at Earth. It was
you who stopped the assassinations, and somehow the Navy prevented Captain Ling’s
contingent of ships from achieving its rendezvous. Full implementation of Operation
Annihilate was delayed until a better time.”
“And when is that better time?” Vonnie interrupted. “Right after the Princess’s ascension
to the Throne,” Lady A said emotionlessly. “SOTE will be expecting us to attack during
the ceremony, so we intend to wait thirty-six hours and hit them after they relax a bit.
Confidence in the new Empress’s abilities to command will be a little shaky, and she may
make tactical mistakes out of inexperience that will give the victory to us. Again, our
ships will come from bases scattered throughout the Empire and rendezvous at a given
point in space on the day before the ceremony, then depart as a group for Earth.”
“Where is the rendezvous point?” Jules asked.
Lady A gave him a string of numbers, which he again jotted down. “How many ships are
there in your fleet, and what sizes are they?”
“We have one thousand and fifty-eight. Most are small personal fighters, but we have
twelve Galaxy-class cruisers, fifteen Constellation cruisers, fifty Nova superdestroyers. .
.”
A sudden uproar in the hall outside interrupted the proceedings. “There must be an
intruder in there!” the d’Alemberts heard Tanya Boros cry. “Blast the door in, quickly!”
The door to the room began glowing as blaster beams from outside concentrated their
enormous power on it. Within seconds there would be nothing between the SOTS agents
and an army of unknown size waiting to gun them down.
Their visit at this house was coming rapidly to an end.
Chapter 13
Pias’s Offer
The three ships drifted in subspace, waiting for their quarry to arrive. The word “drift”
was a relative term, for they were really moving at more than a hundred times the speed
of light; nonetheless, compared to the speeds that were possible in subspace theirs was
a veritable crawl. They didn’t want to move too quickly and possibly overshoot their
target.
Ordinarily the bridge of a pirate ship was no place for idle visitors, and Yvette would not
have been welcomed. But as the woman who had the specialized knowledge of how to
combat the Paradise’s defenses, she was able to insist most forcefully that she indeed
belonged here; and since Fortier/”Rocheville” had been put in charge of this particular
operation, she had an ally able to accommodate her demands.
They were cruising between the planets Hsoli and Kuragana, waiting for the Paradise to
come by on its regular run. Its route was known as precisely as though it were on tracks,
so there was just the question of waiting for it. This time, much as Yvette hated to think
about the loss of money and effort they’d put into it, the Paradise would not escape the
pirate trap.
There was a blip on the long-distance scanners, indicating the Paradise had shown up
exactly on schedule. Fortier barked a command and the trio of pirate vessels speeded up
to match their target’s velocity, simultaneously converging on its position. Coming as they
did from three different directions, the Paradise would have no option; it could never
hope to outrun all of them, so its only choice was to drop back into normal space and
play the standard game of pirate and prey.
At first, events followed the same pattern as before. All the ships left subspace at
precisely the same moment, and the pirates began their interference pattern to prevent
the Paradise from beaming a message to the Navy. At the same time, the Paradise
withdrew its engines into the body of the ship, as it had done before.
“That’s a crucial spot right there,” Yvette pointed out to Fortier and the other real pirates
on the bridge. “As long as the engines and the power source are working, he’s in
command.”
“But we can’t use our ships’ guns to destroy the engines without blowing holes in the
Paradise,” Fortier said. “We want to take it intact.”
“Then send some of your men up inside there with hand weapons,” Yvette told him.
“You’ve got to cut his power and particularly you’ve got to stop him from turning on the
ultragrav. All his crewmembers are DesPlainians, and they’ll outmaneuver your fighters
every time under high-grav circumstances.”
Fortier nodded and gave the appropriate orders. One of the other ships sent out a team
of men-not to the open airlock as had happened on the last attack, but to the underbelly
of the Paradise. There, in their protective sheath, the ship’s engines were withdrawn and
silent. Using even high-powered hand blasters was not the most efficient way of
destroying them, but the pirates did not want to suffer the fate of their sister ship that
had been captured and humiliated. If this slow, painstaking work was the way to win, that
was the way they’d do it.
It took nearly an hour of concerted effort, but eventually the pirate forces burned their
way through the tough plating of the Paradise and were able to dismantle her drive and
power systems. Assured, then, that the ultragrav could not be used against them when
they entered, attack teams from each of the three ships swarmed through the airlock into
the Paradise itself. At Yvette’s suggestion, though, other pirates remained back on their
ships to guard against incursions from the Paradise’s defenders.
Suddenly the unexpected happened. Like a plant shooting off spores, the Paradise
suddenly shot off more than a hundred lifepods in all directions. In essence, Pias was
surrendering the Paradise itself in exchange for the safety of its passengers and crew,
knowing how fearsome were the odds against it. The move took the pirates completely
by surprise-and Yvette pretended it surprised her as well, though she’d known in
advance precisely what would happen.
Fortier now had a choice. None of the lifepods was equipped with a subspace motor,
meaning they could only travel at less than light speed; each one did have its own
automatic subcom unit, however, transmitting a repeated distress signal and location for
the Navy to pick up. Fortier could set his ships to the task of rounding up the pods, since
they were moving so slowly-but since they were radiating outward in all directions that
would be a very time-consuming job … and in the meantime, his ships could not jam all
the subcom transmissions the pods- were emitting. The Navy could be on its way here
before he’d collected even half the pods, and this mission would be as much a failure as
the last.
Fortier chose instead to go after the Paradise itself. (In actuality the choice was not
hard, since it was part of Yvette’s plan, but it was good to have a solid reason behind his
action when Admiral Shen questioned him about the matter later, as he surely would.)
Although the passengers had gone and probably taken most of their money and
valuables with them, the ship and its furnishings had an intrinsic value in themselves, and
would keep this expedition from being a total loss.
The boarding party was quite surprised, however, to find that an auxiliary generator still
maintained a one-gee field within the Paradise, and that one lone figure was waiting for
them. Pias Bavol was calmly seated in the central casino, playing out a game of solitaire
at one of the card tables. He looked up, tipped his hat and waved as the pirates entered.
“Good day, gentlemen, I’ve been expecting you.”
“Who are you?” asked the leader of the assault team. “Brian Sangers, at your service;
owner and operator of the once-proud and now temporarily defunct Paradise gambling
ship. Please be so kind as to inform your captain that I offer him the privilege of making a
deal with me.”
The pirate waved his blaster at Pias. “You don’t look in much position to deal with
anybody.”
“Oh, put that silly thing away, it’s liable to go off. Killing me will gain you nothing. I am a
man of small personal fortune, all my cash being tied up in this enterprise. The money
and important guests have all departed in the lifepods, and there’s no one who’d pay
much ransom for me. The Navy will soon be coming in response to the distress calls from