her probe to investigate. Consherra reached out with one hand to hold her back.
“I often think of joining you here,” Tryn continued after a moment. “I always meant to. But then I went up to the bridge to stay, and there was no longer any question. And yet it was never because I did not love you enough. I hope you understand that.”
“I understand completely,” she assured him. “The same was true for me. Anyone else may change from ship to ship but not us. I am needed here. I could not have loved you more, but not even that was enough to break the bonds of responsibility that tie me to this ship.”
“And so there was never any hope for us?” Tryn asked.
“No, there never was,” Mayelna said, shaking her head sadly. “Perhaps it was foolish of us to even allow this to begin.”
Tryn reached out gently, almost cautiously, to take up her hand in his. Their reunion was one of reconciliation from the start, as if they must first apologize to each other and themselves for allowing the years to slip away while they remained apart.
“No, it was never foolish,” he insisted. “I have often felt frustrated by the circumstances of our union, but I have never regretted it. My only regret is that I cannot have you with me always.”
Maylena smiled, and it seemed to Velmeran that he had never seen his mother so happy. They took each other in their arms and kissed their reconciliation complete. With the shadows of the past laid aside, they could now look to what was and what may yet be.
“Mayelna, there is one thing that I must know,” Tryn said gently. “Is Velmeran my son?”
Mayelna stood silent for a long moment staring into his eyes as he held her tightly into his arms. Velmeran took a few hesitant steps in their direction, waiting for her reply. Consherra and Valthyrra remained where they were, forgotten for the moment, as they watched expectantly.
“Do you even need to ask?” Mayelna answered evasively. “Looking at the two of you together, can there be any doubt?”
“No, Mayelna. I want to hear you say it,” Tryn insisted. “You would never tell me before, and I have never pressed you. I cannot imagine that you would not want to admit that Velmeran is my son. Is there some reason that he should not know that I am his father?”
“No, of course not,” she said, turning away. “Is it really that important to you?”
“Yes, it is. I will not be parted from you again without hearing you say it. Please, tell me.”
She turned to him slowly, seeing the desire and need to know reflected in his eyes. Then she saw Velmeran, waiting quietly a few steps away, silently begging her to say it was true. Tears came suddenly to her eyes, and yet she smiled warmly. “Of course he is.”
For a moment Tryn and Velmeran stared at each other. Then Tryn turned to his son, smiling in warmth and reassurance as he held out a hand invitingly, and Velmeran hurried to join them. The three embraced quickly, in silence, then walked together down the empty hall to Mayelna’s cabin. Valthyrra, staring intently at the small group, began to drift after them. Consherra caught her by the base of the probe’s long neck and hauled her back.
“Not this time,” she hissed. “For once keep your nose out of it.”
“But she does not know that for a fact,” Valthyrra protested, turning her camera pod to look up at her captor.
“What does it matter?” Consherra demanded quietly. “They have what they believe, and what they want to believe. And that is all the truth they need.”
Valthyrra considered that, and her camera pod nodded in silent agreement as she turned for a final glimpse of the three. She wished them all the happiness they might find.
10
The transfer of crewmembers between the Methryn and the Kalvyn proceeded quickly and was completed in only two hours. Valthyrra shed all the weight she had to spare, such as over a hundred tons of refined ores and other raw materials in her holds. For the same reason, she did not send out her distillation ship to collect pieces of drifting ice to replenish the supply of water she carried as fuel. Her tanks were only a quarter full, but she considered that more than adequate. Converted to pure energy, a little water actually went a very long way, even when feeding a carrier’s big engines.
Velmeran hoped to buy himself an extra hour or two by having the Methryn move forward in steps, edging cautiously into system and then pausing for final preparations. An important question in his mind was whether or not Trace knew that sequential firing of conversion cannons would destroy his ship. If so, he knew that he had to fight and defeat the Methryn before more carriers showed up. The other question was why he had not used the same tactic to force the Kalvyn back into battle and destroy her while he had the chance, before the Methryn had time to arrive.
And so the Methryn began her leisurely run into system. There were twenty packs, nearly two hundred fighters, standing free on her decks in the landing and storage bays as large accessory cannons were being mounted to the undersides of their hulls. Other work was progressing as well, including the erection of a slender tripod on wandlike legs a hundred meters above her upper hull.
The Methryn’s bridge, as large as it was, needed to be twice as big to accommodate all the people who had business there. So it seemed to Mayelna, who seemed to have some trouble trying to follow six other conversations at the same time. At that moment Velmeran marched onto the bridge from the right lift corridor. He had been from the bridge to various parts of the ship and back again so many times that on his last visit, hardly ten minutes earlier, Valthyrra had teased him for simply riding the lift for fun.
“Is everything ready?” he asked as he approached Mayelna and Valthyrra, waiting at the base of the steps leading to the middle bridge.
“It will be,” Valthyrra answered simply.
“The tower will be ready ahead of schedule,” Mayelna added. “The construction crew reports that they will be finished and back inside by the end of the hour. Which is good, since we need to have them in well before we come deep enough into system for any activity to be scanned on our outer hull.”
Valthyrra made some curious, noncommittal sound. She approved of Velmeran’s plan completely. The tower was constructed of slender aluminum rods, light enough to escape detection by Union scanners even at close range. Valthyrra did not object to the tripod, but what went atop it.
“Speaking of scanning, Don has to know that we are moving into system by now,” Velmeran said. “And he also has to know that we are stalling for time. Has he given any indication of a threatening gesture to hurry us on?”
“No, not yet,” Valthyrra answered. “But then, we have been under way only the last three minutes. I will be keeping a very close watch.”
Velmeran paused for a long moment, so obviously in the grips of a new idea that the others waited patiently for him to finish. Whatever it was, he did not need long to decide.
“Call me a lift, Valthyrra,” he said as he turned and hurried away. “I have to talk to someone.”
“And they are off!” Valthyrra remarked softly. “It is Mayelna’s Folly ahead by a length, followed by Out of Time, with Lost Patience a close third.”
“Do you ever stop?” Mayelna asked as she started up the steps to her own station.
“Never. Keth is calling for you.”
“Very well.” Mayelna sat down heavily and rolled the seat to its forward position, then leaned over the intership com. “Yes, what is it, Keth?”
“Commander, I wish to report that I have discovered an intruder.”
Mayelna looked up at Valthyrra, who only stared back in return. She turned back to the com. “I understand. Send her up to the bridge.”
“Should I provide escort?”
“No, she knows the way.”
