complete overhaul before long.'
'Oh, ho! Valthyrra Methryn is getting old!'
'We are all getting old, my dear. Some of us simply do not show it. By the way, do you know if Home Base might have any plans for these ships? Balgan might be in the market for a few, if they are getting that rich.'
'Balgan would get all they can afford, certainly,' Fyrdenna said. 'Our prices are always low, and our rates reasonable. This wealth of star drives will put a great many other ships in service as well. The trouble is that we still do not have a fourth of the ships avadable for delivery that are needed. Things should be improving, though, if I continue fetching home loads like this. And that seems promising, with things heating up all over.'
'Of course, half of our carriers will be wanting overhauls in the next few years,' Valthyrra pointed out.
'No problem!' Fyrdenna insisted. 'How long has it been since you were home? Our support worlds have been prospering, and they are all behind us. Home Base is expanding. There is going to be a new construction airdock, and more carriers. There is even talk of a final push to defeat the Union.'
'The rest I can believe, but not that,' Valthyrra said doubtfully. 'We lost too much when we lost Terra, and that was a long time before you or I came out of the construction bay. We would have to get back what we lost before we can seriously consider making an end to this war.'
'So?' Fyrdenna asked. 'You send your crack pilots into Vannkarn after the Vardon's memory cell, and we would have Terra back in a year to two.'
Valthyrra hesitated in her response, since the idea had definite appeal. Of all the big wolf ships, the Vardon had been the last to know the location of Terra. She had been destroyed when Valthyrra had still been very young; one of her memory cells, the big information storage units of her computer mind, had been found by the Union centuries later. Their attempts to access that wealth of information had proven futile, and at last the unit had been placed on display in Vannkarn, the capital of the Rane Sector. The Starwolves had long believed that they would one day get it back and find the way to Terra, where the big carriers had first been built. Perhaps that time would be soon, Valthyrra thought, if a certain pack leader could be trained to the task.
Thenderra Delvon arrived slighty ahead of schedule, coming out of starflight at Boulder barely an hour after the Methryn. Valthyrra Methryn turned immediately and accelerated; she had given up every spare ton of cargo to the Lesdryn and now felt light and quick and just a little mean. The second carrier fell in behind her and began to close quickly. Two small ships shot out from beneath her, a transport and a single fighter, both as black as space itself. The two little ships shot along a straight line toward the Methryn, slowing to match her speed as they dropped down slightly to pass below her star drives as they approached her left landing bay.
Only a small group had gathered in the bay to welcome them. Most of the crewmembers had to remain at their posts, with an immediate jump to starflight coming. And none of the pilots, even the pack leaders, had dared to show themselves in the past two days. Out of sight was not necessarily out of mind, but it was a good deal safer.
Mayelna, in white armor, led the delegation. Consherra waited nearby, wearing the white tunic and pants that were the general uniform of an officer. Valthyrra was present in the form of a probe, a special type of remote, a simple streamlined shape barely a meter long, with folding wings and a retractable neck with a pair of cameras inside a protective cowling. Despite its small size it could outfly and outshoot a Union fighter and yet hover motionless on projected fields, and it even had a pair of arms folded inside of narrow bays along its underside. Velmeran, uninvited but not unwelcome, wore the black armor of a pilot.
Side by side, the two ships entered the bay. Flying with an easy precision that would have put most ptiots to shame, they moved to the front of the bay and landed gently. A rack was immediately lowered behind the fighter and locked into place. Benthoran had the boarding platform folded down just in time to assist the pilot out of the cockpit.
It was then that Velmeran saw that the pilot, who he assumed to be the pack leader, was female. There was no guessing her age, since Kelvessan did not change in appearance from early adulthood to old age three hundred years later. But there was something about her that made him think that, however long she had lived, she had seen and done quite a lot in that time. She looked to him very capable and very dangerous. And his first reaction was one of shame, that this was the type of leader he could only pretend to be.
She was joined by three others from the transport, one male and one female in black armor, and another male in regular clothes who carried both of his left arms in a sling. That, at least, was some indication that this group did fight. The pilot was clearly the leader, for the others waited for her, and she went first as they approached the waiting group from the Methryn. She stopped before Valthyrra's remote and bowed her head in respect.
'Valthyrra Methryn, I am pack leader Dveyella of special tactics. This is my second, Baress.' She indicated the injured member first, then the armored male and female. 'Threl and Marlena.'
Valthyrra dipped the probe's camera pod in response. 'I welcome you. This is Commander Mayelna, First Officer Consherra and pack leader Velmeran. We are grateful for your assistance…'
Dveyella held up a hand to interrupt. 'Please, before we go any farther, I must tell you that my pack is temporarily shorthanded. Baress, the only other fighter pilot I have, is recovering from a recent accident and will not be able to fly for at least another week. His fighter was hit and damaged, so that his field drive controls failed on approach…'
'I bounced twice,' Baress admitted guilttly. 'Once off the Delvon's lower hull and again off the side of her landing bay. Thenderra was so mad she almost begrudged sending out a capture ship to get me.'
'I can imagine,' Valthyrra remarked softly.
'Then you cannot fight?' Mayelna asked impatiently.
'I thought I made this plain when you contacted us,' Dveyella said with some surprise. 'I said that we could fight if you could loan us a good pilot to take the place of Baress. Valthyrra indicated that we could have Velmeran, that he is the best you have.'
Velmeran's surprise was nearly as great as Mayelna's. Both were greatiy astonished that Valthyrra would go so far to have her own way, surprised that she had managed to trick them both, and surprised at themselves for not expecting it. Velmeran at least was spared Mayelna's indignation, since he obviously had no prior knowledge of this. But he quickly decided that if fate, or a conniving computer, was going to give him the opportunity, then he was going to seize it. For herself, Valthyrra was glad that probes were practicatly indestructible.
'The best pilot you have is good enough for me… assuming that he has the endurance,' Dveyella continued after a moment of profound silence. 'Most people cannot maintain hypermetabolism long enough to work in special tactics.'
'I can recommend no one else,' Valthyrra declared.
Dveyella crossed her arms as she looked Velmeran up and down very closely. 'What about strength? I am strong enough myself, but I do like to have a second who can assist in matters of… lifting and removing obstacles.'
Valthyrra turned her pod to look at Velmeran. 'Do not fail me now.'
'Do you have something in mind?' Velmeran asked.
He was not worried, for he was sure that Valthyrra knew his strength.
Indeed she did. The fighter was quickly unracked and Velmeran approached it quickly and confidently. It was, of course, no secret that he proposed to lift the nose of the little ship. That was no small task, for a Starwolf fighter was twenty meters of heavy machinery, dense plastics and spun carbon filaments. A great deal of its weight was in the very back; in order to tilt it back on its rear struts, all he had to lift was about six tons. But he did that easily with only his upper arms.
'He is stronger than I am,' Baress admitted quietiy to his captain.
That was saying a lot, and Dveyella did not answer. Among their own kind, size and sex were not good indications of strength. Baress was about the strongest person she had ever met, and she was herself just a little stronger still. But Velmeran was even stronger. There was no longer any question about whether she would allow him to go. Indeed, Valthyrra Methryn might have a hard time getting him back.
'Suits me,' she admitted casually. 'Commander?'
'It seems to have already been decided,' Mayelna answered slowly, still loath to agree. 'If you are going to run our errands for us, then we should at least offer you any help we have to give. I had meant to have Velmeran's pack standing ready to help you get clear…'
