The camera pod moved into the upper bridge, although it continued to face forward, watching the viewscreens. 'A freighter.'
Mayelna glanced up. 'A freighter?'
'Well… yes, a freighter,' Valthyrra said. 'Just now dropping out of starflight to enter the system at high sublight speeds.'
'You find that odd?' the Commander prompted, knowing already that there must be more.
'Well, it is a medium bulk freighter, nearly identical to the one now in my hold,' she explained. 'My scanners indicate that it is empty of both cargo and crew, although there is something in its hold that reminds me, by its power output levels, of a fairly large total conversion bomb being powered up for detonation.'
'Another trap?' Mayelna asked. 'No, the same one, twelve hours late,' Valthyrra replied cryptically. She turned her camera pod abruptly to face Mayelna. 'This is the bait that we were meant to take. Circumstance, or poor planning on their part, put an identical freighter on this same lane twelve hours earlier. The bomb was meant to destroy our packs and perhaps even damage or disable me. That fleet was meant to take care of anything that was left. They saw us chasing what they took to be their own bait and launched their fleet before they were aware of their mistake.'
Valthyrra moved her camera pod forward to the middle bridge. 'Consherra, take direct manual control. That ship has turned and is driving at us. It is under remote control from the station now, and they will try to get it close enough to detonate. Keep at least fifty thousand kilometers between us, but evade the thing so as to keep it running in circles. Cargin, keep a cannon on that ship but hold your fire until I say.'
'What about yourself?' Mayelna asked.
'I am going to try to match frequencies and get that freighter under my control.'
'You do not have to pass control to me for that!' Consherra protested, already fighting her manual controls.
'I know,' Valthyrra agreed. 'You need the practice. Do not let that thing get close enough to blow me up, or I will likely never let you fly this ship again.'
The ship closed at speeds no real freighter could have achieved under the burden of a full hold. Linked now to the station deep within the system, it was engaged in a suicidal attack, driving hard at the larger ship in the hope of getting near enough for the total conversion device it carried to be effective. And Valthyrra judged that distance to be twenty-five thousand kilometers, although such a thing could be hard to predict.
Consherra faced the difficult task of maintaining the proper distance, and playing dodge with that little ship at three-quarters light speed made that distance uncomfortably tight. But the Methryn was feeling her full eighteen million tons, and she was shipping nearly two million extra tons besides. The ships circled each other like two fierce predators; the freighter kept turning back to dart at its target, and Consherra would use the Methryn's superior acceleration and maneuverability to circle around behind it.
'Just a little longer,' Valthyrra gently assured her. 'Hold it steady.'
'I am!' Consherra snapped, fighting the controls as the freighter rushed in yet again. 'I only have four hands!'
'Is there some point to this?' Mayelna asked impatiently. 'You cannot possibly want the thing. Where would you put it?'
'No, I do not want it,' Valthyrra replied, the servos in her boom humming against the strain of their tight turn. 'The conversion device is already powered up, so that ship is not safe to approach. I just want to prove a point.'
A moment later the freighter broke off its suicidal attack. It seemed to pause for a moment, then turned in- system and accelerated to low starflight speeds. Valthyrra Methryn held her camera pod at a decidedly smug angle.
'Where is it going?' Mayelna asked, as mystified as the rest. 'Did they call off the attack?'
'No, I have control of it,' the ship said. 'I am teaching them a lesson, a taste of their own medicine. Turn about is foul play, but fair is fair to equal share and all's the same in love and war. I am returning the favor… and the bomb.'
'What the deuce are you babbling about?' Mayelna demanded. 'Do you mean to say that you are going to destroy their station with their own bomb?'
'That, or at least scare them badly.'
Valthyrra refused to explain, and the members of her bridge crew could only watch the scan of the system schematics on her forward viewscreen as the giant freighter hurtled inward toward the military station and the world it circled. No one could believe that she intended to destroy not only the station but the planet itself, for Starwolves would never reduce themselves to such barbarity. And they were quite correct. Valthyrra waited until the final moment before detonating the conversion device just short of target, doing no damage but lighting up all space in that general area. They could well imagine every loyal Unioner, beginning with the Station Commander, shaking with fright in that fierce glare.
'All stations secure. Resume normal duties. Prepare for immediate transfer to starflight,' Valthyrra announced with total lack of concern. She turned her camera pod to look at Consherra. 'You have the coordinates. Please recheck those figures a final time and execute the transfer to starflight. Your speed will be fifty. You have the helm.'
Valthyrra left the astonished first officer at her post, moving her camera pod up into the upper bridge. Mayelna sat back in her seat, both sets of arms folded on her chest. 'Are you quite finished?'
'For now,' Valthyrra replied. 'What do you think?'
'About your aggressive new policy?' the Commander asked. 'You know that I do not agree with you completely, or you would not ask. I prefer that we be a little more cautious. Our pilots — none of our pilots — are used to real warfare. They are used to slow ships that do not fight back.'
'Pilots like Velmeran and his pack?' Valthyrra asked. 'If the performance of the entire ship is to be hampered by your hesitancy to send your son into battle, then he must transfer out. I can arrange for Thenderra Delvon to give us a pack in exchange.'
Mayelna frowned. 'You do know how to fight dirty. I would not part with Velmeran for anything… and I say that as his Commander. He is just not ready. He has not yet decided what he believes.'
'He talks undecided, but he acts like he knows exactly what he believes in, and what must be done. You said something to that effect yourself.'
'While you were eavesdropping through a vacuum cleaner,' Mayelna said accusingly, and sat back in silence. She rubbed her nose and pulled her ear at regular intervals, thinking furiously. But, try as she could, she could come up with no good excuse. 'It is not just Velmeran. I feel responsible for every pilot on board this ship. I would not send them out to something they are not ready for.'
'Of course,' Valthyrra was quick to assure her. 'Every person on this ship is like a child to me. I am, after all, a mother ship.'
'But this is what we were made for. And we will be as ready for it as we possibly can be.' Mayelna paused and glanced up at the camera pod. 'That means you as well. We are going to have to give serious thought to an overhaul.'
'Ah, me… well, yes,' Valthyrra agreed weakly, although her lenses appeared unfocused.
The lift door snapped open and Consherra, head down, stepped forward. She immediately struck something large and black and bounced off with a sound like a Class D freighter slamming into dock about three times faster than was good for it. A head-on impact between two armored Kelvessan can be the closest approximation of the meeting of the immovable object and the irresistible force. Consherra was the smaller of the two and thereby lost the contest, the weight of her armor, nearly equal to her own, got the better of her balance and threatened to send her over backward. Four strong arms caught her, preventing a certain fall.
'Are you all right?' Velmeran asked.
'Fine. Fine,' she answered as she swatted his hands away and pushed him back inside the lift. 'Can we get out of here before anyone comes to look?'
'I was hoping to find out what happened,' Velmeran said, confused by this hasty retreat.
'I know that,' she replied irritably as she typed in the coordinates for the area of her own cabin.
'So explain,' Velmeran said. 'I already know the general history. What about the interesting little
