No excuses or conditions. I love you just because of yourself, for you are special to me.'
Velmeran nodded and swallowed nervously. 'You are my mother….'
'And sometimes we need the help of someone who loves us,' she finished for him. 'I understand. Meran, there is no one here who does not love you. I have shed tears for you, because I shared your grief. Many of us did, more than you might imagine. Others would have, if glass eyes could weep. But you never did. Something was lacking, I suppose. Something that still needed to be done.'
He smiled uncertainly. 'Ghosts of more than one nature will rest more easily now.'
'Then let them rest,' Mayelna said. She took him in her arms and held him tightiy while he cried.
15
Even as the Starwolf carriers were gathering for their council of war, Jon Lake received some very disturbing news. News that frightened him as nothing in his life had frightened him before. With the packet containing the report in one hand, he stormed into the Sector Commander's office. The secretary and two guards in the outer office, under strict orders to admit no visitors, were undecided as to whether or not that applied to the Councilor as well. During the moment of hesitation, he was already past.
'Idiot!' the Councdor spat like an angry cat at the startled Sector Commander as he came through the door. 'What are you trying to do?'
'Hello, Jon,' Commander Trace said casually as he sat back in his chair, waving the astonished guards out of the doorway so that it would shut. 'Yes, I ordered that test moved up three weeks. What of it? We lost the freighter because her captain did not get the hell out while he had the chance. But we did get Starwolves.'
'A Starwolf!' Councilor Lake corrected him.
'Oh?' the Commander asked innocently. 'My report said three. Ah, well, we will improve. Even one was a good start.'
'The wrong one!' Lake declared. 'You moved that test up so that you could send your trap after the Methryn, knowing where she was and that she would probably be hunting again. Why, Don? Were you trying to get Velmeran?'
'And why not?' Trace demanded. 'He made me nervous. Too damned smart.'
The Councilor did not reply to that, but opened the package he held and pulled out a photograph, which he threw down on the table. 'Do you know who this is?'
'Starwolf,' Commander Trace replied, hardly bothering to glance at it. 'I cannot tell one from another.'
'You should know, since you dined with her only a week and a half ago. There was a two-man prospector poking around the asteroid debris in the system, surveying for metals. Suddenly they saw a Starwolf carrier coming into system fast, and it seems that they recognized a Starwolf funeral when they saw it. They kept the body on scan until the carrier left, then rushed in and snatched it up at the last moment. And, being a company prospector, they turned the body over to Farstell rather than to the military. Since they sent the report on a military courier, it came to me instead of to you.'
'What became of the body?' the Sector Commander demanded, almost greedily. Alive or dead, a Starwolf was a valuable possession.
'You needn't concern yourself, even though I can imagine you hanging her head from a post as a warning to all Starwolves. I have already ordered that body destroyed in our own sun, according to their own honors,' Lake said with considerable heat, then grew cold and menacing. 'Are you too big a fool to realize the consequences of your actions? Velmeran knows that you were after him. Now he is going to demand payment.'
'What can he do, just one Starwolf?' the Commander asked, unconcerned, even contemptuously.
'Have I not taught you to understand them better than that?' the Councilor demanded. 'They accept a certain amount of risk, but they always make us pay. They made us pay through the teeth for that last trap, and that was nothing personal. But you have made it something personal. Damn it, that girl was his mate. He is going to make us pay for her death if he has to take apart this entire planet, and the Starwolves are going to give him all the help he needs.'
Councdor Lake walked over to stand before the window, staring out over the city. 'I am going to take what steps I can to prepare for their attack. The first thing that they are going to have to do is crack the dome to get their fighters in. I am going to arrange to have the dome shield fail after only one or two determined hits from their big cannons. That power will be of more use in the planetary defense system.'
Trace stared at him disbelief. 'The dome shield has to remain up. It will delay them long enough for our fleet to move in.'
'And let them fry this city in the process?' the Councdor asked, and shook his head. 'I will not sacrifice this entire city for a block of metal. Also, we have to get our people out. I will warn Richart and everyone else to get to the sub the moment we see a Starwolf carrier coming in. Both of the sea gates will remain open from now on. Fortunately we should have a few weeks before they can put together an attack.'
Preparations for the attack were made even before the Starwolves left Altiolandh. The nine packs that were to accompany Velmeran's own into Vannkam were quickly selected and transferred to the Methryn, where they were serviced and fitted with the big auxiliary cannons they would carry on their raid. The Methryn's packs that would not be a part of the attack force were divided between the Delvon and the Karvand for their own servicing. Everything had to be ready before their arrival at the Vinthran system.
Velmeran wanted to lead his attack force down just before dawn, local time, so that they would be coming up into the city early enough to catch most of its population still at home and in no real danger. He thought that a courier would have taken three days to arrive with news of the attack, and he wanted to make his raid before any major countermeasures could be arranged.
He was certain that Councdor Lake at least suspected the possibility of a counterattack on Vannkam. But he still believed that the element of surprise remained on his side, simply because Lake would not be expecting anything so soon. Hopefully he would also be expecting the Starwolves to come in the obvious way, through the dome. Velmeran doubted that he would do anything drastic to block the sea door even if he did suspect the possibility, since that was his own bolt hole. And even if he did, Velmeran would simply take his packs airborne to the port, where they would blast away the roof of the port building and fly down the tram tunnels, using their big cannons to clear the tracks. The plan was as nearly foolproof as he could hope.
The plan was that the Methryn would go in alone, coming in as close to Vinthra as she could to launch her packs. Then came the tricky part, for the assault force had to drift in almost powerless to avoid detection, at a speed slow enough that the most gentle braking would prepare them for planetary entry. They would be six hours in space and two more underwater, eight hours and more before they would return to their ships. Fortunately they would have to rely upon hypermetabolism only during the battle itself, only about twenty minutes before they were clear of the planet. The problem was that, for Kelvessan, that was entirely too long without eating.
Mayelna hurried down to the landing bay for a final word with Velmeran during the short jump into system. Valthyrra, in the form of one of her hovering probes, was there ahead of her. They waited beside his fighter as he made a final check of his pack.
'All ready?' Mayelna asked as Velmeran approached.
'Ready and eager, in fact,' he replied. 'It is hard for me to remember now how they were only green students only a short time ago. Now I trust them enough to take them with me into Vannkam.'
Mayelna smiled. 'To tell the truth, not that long ago I wondered if you would ever be a good pack leader. Now here you are, leading three entire ships on one of the greatest raids the Starwolves have ever attempted. In fact, I believe that you have assembled history's largest special tactics team.'
Velmeran shrugged, as if it were unimportant. 'I know better than to ask you not to worry.'
'Just as I know better than to ask you to be careful,' she said. 'When you come back, there is something else that I must talk to you about.'
'I understand,' he answered, glancing down shyly. 'It occurs to me that I should thank you — both of you — for making me what I am today. All your best efforts have paid off, it seems.'
