Eesyan had joined Garuth in the center of the Command Deck. Shilohin, Monchar, and some of the scientists were gathering around from the sides of the room. “They have to be stopped,” Eesyan said, sounding worried. “They could have Uttan prepared and defended as a failback base. If they reach it and regroup, they could decide to fight it out. It would only be a matter of time before they realized that we don’t have anything to challenge them with. With Uttan in their hands, we’d be in real trouble.”
“What is Uttan?” Hunt asked from the screen.
Eesyan turned away from Garuth and answered in a faraway voice as he tried to think. “An airless, waterless ball of rock on the fringe of Jevienese space, but very rich in metals. The Jevlenese were granted it long ago as a source of raw materials to build up their industries. It’s obviously where their weapons came from. But if what we suspect is right, they’ve turned the whole planet into a fortified armaments factory. We’ve got to prevent Broghullio’s getting there.”
While Eesyan was speaking to Hunt, Garuth quickly reviewed what he could recollect of the Thurien h-transfer system. VISAR or JEVEX could jam h-beams projected into their respective regions of space by virtue of the dense networks of sensors they possessed, which enabled them to monitor the field parameters of a transfer
toroid just beginning to form, and disrupt the energy flow through from h-space. Without the sensors, jpmming wouldn’t work. But the only sensors that existed in the vicinity of Jevien were JEVEX’S and VISAR would not be able to use them since it could only do so through JEVEX, and JEVEX was dead. Hence a beam from Uttan couldn’t be disrupted by vis~. So that was why the Jevlenese had shut down the system.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Calazar was saying from the other screen. “We haven’t got anything near there. Our ships are still eight hours away at least.”
An agonized silence fell on the Command Deck. Calazar was looking helplessly from one side to another about him, while to one side of him Hunt and the Terrans on Earth had frozen into immobility. On the main screen the five Jevlenese vessels had cleared the edge of the planet’s disk.
A feeling of composure and confidence that he had not known for a long time flowed slowly into Garuth’s veins as the situation unfolded in sudden crystal clarity. There was no doubt about what he had to do. He was himself again, in control of himself and in command of his ship. “We are right here.”
Eesyan stared for a second, then turned his head to gaze uncertainly at the five dots on the main screen, now diminishing rapidly into the starry background of space. “Could we catch them?” he asked dubiously.
Garuth smiled grimly. “Those are just Jevienese planetary transports,” he said. “Have you forgotten? The Shapieron was built as a starship.” Without waiting for a response from Calazar, he raised his head and called in a louder voice, “zoiuc, dispatch Probe Four in pursuit immediately, recover deployed probes, lift the ship into high orbit, charge all on-board probes for maximum range, and bring the main drives up to full-power readiness. We’re going after them.”
“And what will you do then?” Calazar asked.
“Worry about that later,” Garuth replied. “The first thing is not to lose them.”
“Tally ho!” zoit~c cried, mimicking a flawless English accent.
Hunt sat up and blinked in astonishment on one of the screens. “Where the hell did it pick that up?” he asked.
“Documentaries of World War II British fighter pilots,” ZORAC announced. “That was for your benefit, Vie. I thought you’d appreciate it.”
chapter thirty-eight
Broghuilio stood on the bridge of the Jevienese flagship and scowled while the technicians and scientists clustered around a battery of datascreens in front of him took in the details of the report coming through from the long-range scanning computers. Gasps of disbelief sounded among the rising murmur of voices. “Well?” he demanded as his patience finally exhausted itself.
Estordu turned from the group. His eyes were wide with shock. “It can’t be possible,” he whispered. He made a vague gesture behind him. “But it’s true. . . there’s no doubt about it.”