All we have to do is get close enough. And not all that close either.
Semirame KIoo was actually the first to perceive what Thian was thinking and stared at him with an awed expression. `That’s no way to fight a war, Thian Raven-Lyon!’ `Who was it said that all’s fair in love and war! Hell’s bells, Rome, why should more than the enemy die in a war they started?’ `The `Dini won’t look at it quite the same way, Clancy reminded him. `They achieve honour destroying Hiver ships.
Thian dismissed that. `They still have the scouts to take out.
That’ll give them glory enough. If I knew the insides of a scout as well as I do a sphere, we might be able to work out something inside `em, too.
`D’you think Ashiant will go along with this bright plan of yours?’ KIoo asked sceptically.
`Well, I think it’d be best if we let them all steam a bit. It wouldn’t be for me to act, as Grandmother says, like a cocky kid. But didn’t the `Dinis approach us to form a mutual protection Alliance because we managed to defeat the sphere with no casualties on our side?’ `What was it you said to Granddad, Thi?’ Rojer asked, cocking his head at his brother. `About presuming something we don’t know for sure?’ `For one thing, Thian,’ Clancy put in, `using our kinesis to shield against Hiver missiles has a finite limit – our individual strengths. I’ll be frank. I’d about run out of the energy to keep up the necessary gestalt on the Franklin before the engagement ended.’ Rojer nodded.
`Shielding ought not to be so great a problem. Look, let’s inform Captain Ashiant. Even my solution’s going to need more naval tactics than I know.’ `Glad to hear you admit it, Thi,’ said KIoo with approval. `But if I grasped your plan properly, it’d save a halacious amount of lives!’ Ashiant heard the report with a blank expression but the way his eyes blinked rapidly from time to time and the way they moved over items on his desk told Thian, who knew him the best, that he was already mulling over available options. At the point where Thian said that the High Council was keeping all additional units in Alliance space, he grimaced and `hmmmd’ deep in his throat.
`I can understand that,’ he said, allowing the words to emerge on a long expelled breath. `We shall first take Earth Prime up on his offer to send us more missiles and whatever other supplies the Fleet needs topping up.’ He tapped the connection to the bridge. `Mr Wasiq, please call a red emergency session of all captains, first officers, gunnery and commissary personnel. The Primes will be standing by to `port carriers to the Washington. Mr Vandermeer, clear the landing bay and be ready to receive human and `Dini visitors appropriately.’ Having given the necessary preliminary orders, Ashiant sat very still, not even steepling his fingers as he sometimes did, his eyes unfocused but, if Thian couldn’t read the thoughts, he was aware of intense mental activity ůAbruptly Ashiant rose and, with an odd explosion of breath from his slightly opened mouth, pulled the blouse of his shipsuit down.
`We have quite a job of work ahead of us, don’t we?’ Thian nodded.
Rojer, Clancy and KIoo shot Thian curious glances but he ignored them.
`Rojer, would you be kind enough to discover from Captain Soligen’s Primes, what course setting she’s currently on in her pursuit of the two spheres? If she knows which systems they emerged from, and where the third one might come from?’ Then he looked at Thian. `Has Squadron B been informed of the total picture?’ `Earth Prime was not specific on that point, sir.
Ashiant nodded. `Theri tell her, Rojer, and, as tacffully as possible, ask her to refrain from taking direct action. I think we have presumed too much from too little substantiated information -` Ashiant missed the look Thian received from the others, `… but from all the `Dinis know, a sphere does not initiate space attacks.
Let us hope they are, as has been their custom, singleminded in their current mission.