“But what if she escapes?”
Mayelna frowned. “I should be so lucky.”
The unexpected but relatively minor problem of the intruder was forgotten within minutes. The Kalvyn was now ready to move herself into position, where she would be ready either to assist the Methryn or, according to plan, move in to stand watch over Tryalna. She would have liked to have consulted with Velmeran a final time, but he had not yet returned. Mayelna and Valthyrra did their best to advise her.
“As I see it, you should go ahead as planned,” Mayelna said, watching the scanner images on the main console at her own station. “Velmeran is certainly busy over here, but as far as I can tell he has no intention of changing his original plan.”
“Very well, then,” Schayressa replied. “I will pace myself with your attack so that I do not get ahead of you. Be careful.”
“We will keep that forever in mind,” Mayelna assured her, and glanced up at the figure in black armor waiting patiently at the top of the steps.
“Yes, what is it?” she asked absently. The Starwolf was no one she recognized, but she assumed this tall girl to be a pack leader from the Kalvyn. Then she did a double take and nearly jumped out of her seat. “Heavenly days! Lenna Makayen!”
Valthyrra spun her camera pod around so fast that something inside the hinge made an odd noise.
“Just me,” Lenna said, grinning sheepishly. She carried the heavy armor with no problem, in spite of the fact that it weighed fully as much as she did. “You are the trusting sort.”
“I knew you would come,” Mayelna told her. “My problem is not keeping you, but getting rid of you. I must compliment you on your disguise.”
“I’m back in makeup,” she said, obviously pleased with herself. “All I have to do, it seems, is make my eyes look bigger. And hide my ears. All the Starwolves on this ship have pointed ears poking through their hair, but no one seems to notice that I have none.”
“I see what you mean,” Mayelna observed. “Then what gave you away this time?”
Lenna shrugged helplessly. “I just overlooked the fact that when you walk around a Starwolf ship looking like a Starwolf, the other Starwolves expect you to speak Starwolf.”
“Tresdyland,” Mayelna corrected her.
“Anyway, I thought it safe enough to go down and use the simulator. I never thought that Keth would still be lurking about. I expected him to have gone to the Kalvyn with his students like he was supposed to.”
“Yes, some people do that,” the commander remarked dryly. “Where did you get that suit?”
“Oh, it’s Velmeran’s, to be sure.” Lenna beat her head forward to look at the armor. “He’s the tallest Starwolf on this ship, so I thought his suit might fit me. And I knew that he had an old suit standing on a rack in his cabin.”
“And the lower arms?”
“Empty, of course. So what do you propose to do with me? If it’s all the same to you, I would as well remain in the simulator. It is in a heavily protected part of the ship. And the artificial gravity simulates the G’s in a fighter, so that I’m increasing my tolerance for accelerations. I can hold the controls through a fifty-G turn now. You show me an ordinary human who can do that.”
Mayelna regarded her speculatively. “Just what is your fascination for the simulator?”
“It’s not a matter of fascination, Commander. Velmeran and I both know what he’s going to have to do to destroy that big ship, and he’s going to need my help. I’ll need to be good enough to fly with him, and I haven’t so long to practice.”
Mayelna frowned thoughtfully. “I think I know what you have in mind, and you may be right. Very well, then. Lenna Makayen, you are now a Starwolf. Valthyrra, how long will it take to make her a suit?”
“The better part of a day,” the ship replied. “For now, it would take only fifteen minutes to pull the lower arms off that suit and set some plugs in the holes.”
“All right,” Mayelna agreed, and turned back to Lenna. “You are now a pilot on board this ship. It is impossible for you to fly with the regular packs, but I am assigning you to Velmeran’s special tactics team. First, you will go immediately to have that suit modified. Keth will meet you there, and take you to the fighter assigned to you. That will give you perhaps two hours of practice in a real ship, with emphasis on launching and landing. Is that agreeable?”
“Very,” Lenna replied, trying vainly to hide a triumphant smile.
“This solves a couple of problems,” Mayelna continued. “It is not safe to send you away… safe for either you or us. If the Union learned that you had been aboard a Starwolf carrier, they would take you apart for any information you might have. Also, I suspect that Velmeran’s special tactics team will prosper from having a human spy. And to keep you busy between missions, I am also going to assign you to Consherra as an assistant helm. Now, is there anything special you might need?”
Lenna thought for a moment. “For now, I will probably need a Union officer’s uniform of intermediate rank. I will certainly need other disguises in the future, including a suit with four arms for when I need to be a real Starwolf. Could we possibly mechanize the lower arms?”
“It can be done,” Valthyrra agreed.
“Consherra told me that you are an experienced pilot,” Mayelna said. “We will be giving you a cabin on the pilot’s level, and do what we can about giving you a little more heat. And just what do you find so amusing?”
“It’s my father, Commander,” Lenna explained, grinning broadly. “He didn’t even want me to be a Trader. If he was still around, he would blow a gasket if he knew that I was a Starwolf. But I wonder if Velmeran is going to be agreeable to all these plans.”
“He anticipated this, and it was his idea. He had already discussed it with me,” Mayelna said with a sly grin. “Get on with you, now. We have work to do, and so do you.”
“Yes, Commander!” Lenna turned quickly and almost ran down the steps. Smiling with amusement, Mayelna thought that this might not be such a bad idea. After all, it was not every day that a problem became a potential asset.
Three hours later, the Methryn was ready to begin her attack run. Originally, Velmeran was to lead the fighters against the Challenger’s support fleets, but he had decided at the last moment to remain aboard the Methryn. It was the carrier, after all, that would be doing the actual fighting in this battle; the packs were going out just to provide a diversion.
Still, Velmeran thought it best to encourage Donalt Trace to believe that he was away with his pack. The packs were divided into two groups. A smaller, under Baressa, would go after the supply ships orbiting the fifth planet. The larger group, which was to have been his, was to attack the fleet of warships stationed at the seventh planet. Baress was given command of both Velmeran’s pack and this attack force, and Lenna Makayen was elected to fly replacement in the pack. Although she could never equal real Starwolves in either skill or endurance, she could run a good bluff.
“All packs away,” Valthyrra reported. “Both assault forces have formed under their leaders and are ready to advance.”
“You may relay to them their order to advance,” Velmeran responded as he stood leaning over the front console of the Commander’s station, watching the forward viewscreen. “Close and secure the landing bays and ready your primary and secondary batteries.”
“Yes, Captain,” Valthyrra answered with martial formality.
Velmeran turned quickly as he became aware that Mayelna was standing behind him.
“This is your first time to fight from the bridge,” she began. “It seems to me that you should be sitting at the Commander’s station. It has all the monitors and controls you need to keep an eye on everything.”
“But… that is your place,” he protested.
“That seat is for the Commander of this ship,” Mayelna insisted. “I will assist you in every way I can, but just now you are the Commander.”
“Oh, no. I could not,” Velmeran objected as she physically pulled him over to the seat, retracted back on its runners. “I do not feel up to that seat just yet.”
“Nonsense. It fits you just fine, I am sure.” Mayelna managed to force him into the seat and activated the
