am going to instruct the Methryn to attack in fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you, Commander,” Maeken said as she hurried to the communications console on the lower portion of the bridge to relay the order to abandon the ship. The Starwolves collected their weapons and left in a hurry. Velmeran was already in telepathic contact with Tregloran to relay his orders to the Methryn. They now had to use the lift to get away in time, and he doubted that he had the strength left to get himself out of the Fortress otherwise. It no longer mattered how many lights they tripped on the bridge.
The lift accelerated quickly, the computer control compensating for the longer run with greater speed. It had completed most of the distance when the car began to break to a sudden, jerky stop. Velmeran appeared to listen to some distant voice.
“The Challenger knows where we are,” he explained. “She means to hold us here until a group of sentries can arrive to investigate, Baress, you are young and strong. Pop open those doors so that we can take a look.”
“I might be stronger than you at the moment, but I remind you that I am nearly twice as old,” Baress said as he took hold of the edge of each door and pulled them apart. They parted easily, revealing a blank wall of gray metal just beyond. “Definitely a wall. Is that what you expected?”
“I am afraid so. Give it a punch and see how thick it is.” Baress drew back an armored fist and put it through the panel, then peeled it back like foil. Baress tore open a way large enough to climb through in a matter of seconds, then slipped through to the other side to receive the guns and helmets that Velmeran passed to him. Soon they were all assembled in the corridor beyond.
“Sentries will be coming from every direction, so we had better hurry,” Velmeran warned. “The stairs leading down are about two hundred meters ahead.”
They found the stairs quickly and descended to the level of the outer airlock. Baress now led the way, assuming the role of vanguard since it was obvious that Velmeran would be lucky just to get himself out of the ship. They soon came to the access conduit that served as a channel for a maze of pipes that ran the length of the ship. The corridor that led to the airlock intercepted this a hundred meters farther down. Baress was about to step out onto the wide walkway that ran above the river of pipes when Velmeran pulled him back.
“Sentries,” he explained. “At least five. They are waiting for us.”
To prove the point, he broke off a half-meter section of handrail from a nearby service ladder and tossed it out onto the walkway. A barrage of powerful bolts centered on that target. Then the fire shifted to the entrance of the passage as the automaton tried to bounce bolts down the side corridor to their unseen targets.
“We have to work our way around,” Velmeran decided reluctantly.
There was a sudden, unexpected explosion from somewhere around the corner, followed by a steady hail of bolts that gave the Starwolves the distinct impression that the sentries themselves were under attack. When yet another exploded, Baress was overcome with curiosity and cautiously peered around the corner. He drew back instantly, looking decidedly astonished.
“So what is it?” Consherra prompted impatiently.
Baress shook his head slowly. “I still find it hard to believe, but I think the cavalry has arrived to save us.”
Velmeran looked for himself, and was met with the most incredible sight he had ever seen. Bill, the sentry, was running at his best awkward pace along the walkway behind the ambushers. Lenna Makayen was perched on the very top of his back, her rifle in hand, and both of them were firing for all they were worth. The other sentries, mystified at the unexplainable attack of a Union officer and one of their own, did not even fight back as they fell quickly under the assault. They shot their way through the line of attackers and drew to a stop before the three startled Starwolves.
“Hurry up!” Lenna urged. “We’ve cleared the passage, but more are on their way.”
“Lead on, then,” Velmeran answered as they fell in behind Bill’s protective bulk. “How did you know where to find us?”
“Bill did,” she explained. “He’s been listening in as the Challenger has been ordering her sentries about trying to find you. The first ambush is here, and the second is at the far end of the long corridor leading to the outer hull. You need to call Treg and the others and have them catch those sentries from behind. How many are there, Bill?”
“Three,” the machine replied, typically concise. They were about halfway down the tunnel to the outer hull when a short, rapid burst of cannon fire echoed loudly through the length of the passage. No bolts lit up the interior of the long corridor, however, and at its end they found Tregloran standing with his rifle in hand, surrounded by the smoking hulks of three sentries.
Tregloran turned without a word and led the way to the airlock. They stopped at the door and Lenna handed down her rifle before hopping off Bill’s towering back. She headed immediately for the suit room, already stripping off her clothes at a furious pace.
“You people go on and get yourselves out of here,” she ordered, her accent thickening as she tried to sound firm and authoritative. “It’ll take me a couple of minutes to get into this suit. I can’t go outside without it, and I’ll get it on no quicker with you waiting for me. It would be foolish of you to get caught here with me.”
“So who’s arguing with you now?” Velmeran asked, imitating her perfectly. “I have to go. Valthyrra needs me. But you get yourself out of here.”
“I’ll be just fine,” she assured him. “Bill is here to watch out for me.”
“The Challenger has left the ring for open space,” he added. “That might give you a little more time.”
He herded the others into the airlock and indicated for them to put on their helmets. Since he had none of his own, he began taking deep breaths until the air in the lock began to thin. Moments later the lock opened on the blackness of space and not the boulder-strewn surroundings of the ring. Trel and Marlena were there immediately, bending over the opening and reaching down to lift them out. Velmeran went first. Speed was critical for him, since he was now without an air supply and too tired to last for very long without one. He felt the intense cold of open space immediately, cold enough here in the shadows of the ship to have frozen dry ice, and perhaps even nitrogen, temperatures that would begin to affect him within minutes. He hurried to the fighters, the others only a moment behind.
He also could not hear their warnings, because he was completely deaf without the medium of air to carry sounds from the com built into his collar. He was suddenly aware of the presence of a warship immediately behind him, and turned to see a destroyer emerging from a concealed lock perhaps seven kilometers ahead. As soon as it slipped from its rack, it began to drift rapidly toward them as the Challenger continued to accelerate past, skimming the black hull of the larger ship with just meters to spare.
Velmeran stood beside the fighter as he watched. The smaller ship was facing in their direction, and he was able to see the guns open and charged below the extended bridge. Suddenly it stopped, or rather it fired its forward engines to match speed with the Fortress and hover alongside not fifty meters from where they stood. Then the destroyer began to move laterally away from the hull of the larger ship until it was clear to navigate.
As the tension of the moment passed, Velmeran felt himself begin to grow cold and dizzy and broke contact with the hull to pull himself in free-fall into the cockpit of his fighter. Maeken Kea had rescued her crew from the doomed Fortress. If she had seen Velmeran’s party on the hull, then she had returned the favor. Even so, he left one of his own behind. The Methryn was closing, and Lenna had run out of time.
Officers hurried to take their places on the Methryn’s auxiliary bridge, a smaller copy of the one that lay in ruins. Cargin paused on the way to the weapons console to catch a bright orange cord and jerk loose the pin that freed Valthyrra’s camera pod. The boom immediately dropped down to a comfortable level and the twin lenses spun in unison as they focused. She turned to Cargin, who remained waiting.
“I am going to charge to eighty-five percent of overload on the conversion cannon,” she explained quickly. “Back me up on the gauges so that I do not exceed that.”
“Right.”
The Challenger had turned abruptly to head straight out of the ring, running for open space where she could shield effectively. Valthyrra accelerated rapidly, closing quickly on the Fortress after its initial gain on the smaller ship after leaving the ring.
