“And then?” Valthyrra asked.
“Then we come back as soon as we can assemble the fleet,” he answered. “They committed a major crime against the Kelvessan race when they revoked the Second Ammendment, and that gives us the opening we need. I am sure that they will see our side of things when they find themselves looking out the window at the noses of twenty Starwolf carriers.”
He leaned back against the front of the console of the central bridge, considering the problem carefully. He could not delay in answering Lenna’s call, and he did not dare to leave this problem at his back. He was very afraid of what might become of the Kelvessan in his absence, but he had to know what Lenna had found or it might be too late to stop a new offensive from the Union against the Starwolves. Having one major crisis was bad enough, but two at the same time was an almost impossible situation. The timing could not have been worse. He could imagine that Donalt Trace was laughing at him somewhere, thinking that his biggest surprise was yet to come.
At least Velmeran had that one consolation. He was not going to be surprised a second time.
He looked up, noticing that Venn Keflyn was watching him closely. He was never completely sure what the Aldessa was thinking, and reluctant to believe that his race was most closely related to her own. But even the Valtritians themselves held it to be true. The Kelvessan appeared vaguely human on the surface, but the resemblance was purely superficial. In terms of biology, biochemistry, genetics, and — most importantly — mental and social development, they were very closely related to the Kelvessan.
“This was likely enough to happen,” he said quietly in the language their two races shared. “They can never forget that our race was created to serve their need.”
“Nor can your own people forget that as well, it seems,” Venn Keflyn said in return. “Perhaps your people should have a world of their own.”
“People of many races can live as easily on any world, even with others,” he pointed out.
“Yes. But the one thing that they all share is that, at one time in their history, they all came from a single home world,” she pointed out. “The Kelvessan are the one exception. Perhaps the time has come that you should find a world to call your own. Not to stand apart from others, but to have that one place where you can all stand together.”
“Commander,” Valthyrra interrupted gently, moving her camera pod close. “We are ready. All three ships are standing by for your word.”
He glanced over at Admiral Laroose. “What about it? Are you going along for the ride?”
“I have to go back,” he said. “If I am not here, there will be no one about who is still a friend of the Kelvessan. And your people need a friend or two just now.”
Velmeran nodded. “I could not ask that of you, but I very much need for you to watch things here until I return. I will have Baressa install you in your own shipping crate in a very polite and gentle manner, so that you will not be accused of complicity.”
“…and hurry,” Valthyrra insisted.
“Hurry,” Baress complained as he reached inside one of the shipping crates for his gun belt and helmet. “As if I need to be told to hurry.”
He looked around as he belted on his guns. Fortunately the wide corridor that ringed the inside of the docking bays had remained mostly empty since Velmeran’s return. There was one pair of guards at the entrance to the bay’s control room, and another farther down the corridor on the passage to the main lift. The Commander had said nothing about being discreet, but he thought that he could scatter this lot without the need of actually shooting anyone.
“I will try to make this very brief,” he told Trel and Marlena just before he slipped on his helmet.
It seemed that the station guards had taken no notice of the three Starwolves preparing for battle. They drew their guns and took swift aim, filling the wide corridor in a sudden storm of bolts that exploded in flame and smoke against the walls and ceiling. The guards ducked their heads and dove for cover.
Baress seized the moment of confusion, hurtling himself with surprising speed down the length of the corridor to the entrance of the control room, located before the center of the bay and a quarter of a kilometer from the entrance to the airlock. Trel and Marlena continued to shoot as rapidly as their guns could charge, maintaining the confusion in a deadly hail of bolts.
Baress ducked inside the entrance to the control room, looking quickly about for the emergency release. Fortunately it was clearly marked, a large lever located in a recessed box beneath the main control panel. Holding the release trigger, he pulled back sharply on the lever. Explosive bolts blew within the frames of the two sets of braces which held the Methryn steady within the bay by the ends of her blunt wings, and gas pistons swung the braces clear. For a moment the immense carrier hung suspended in freefall, steadied only by the nose bracket that held her shock bumper and a pair of long, slender docking tubes.
Baress waited only long enough to see that the Methryn was clear, then hurried back to the door. The guards had regrouped and were doing their best to return fire from the cover of a side corridor, but Trel and Marlena, shooting from the cover provided by the crates, were reminding them to keep their distance, and their weak pistols could not have pierced Starwolf armor even from a much closer range. He covered the distance back to the airlock in a matter of seconds, sending his companions on ahead of him.
“The ship is clear,” Valthyrra announced. “All of our people are back on board and accounted for. The other carriers report the same.”
Velmeran nodded. “Get under way.”
The Methryn began to back out of the bay, moving straight and steady until she was well clear of the edges of the bay. The pair of long, slender docking probes shattered as she first began to move back, their length splintered into segments that spun aimlessly in the freefall of the bay. Then she turned with surprising speed and agility for a ship so vast, whipping around, then accelerating directly away from the station, moving out of system on a course that would take her back toward Union space. First the Delvon, then the Valdayen fell in close beside her. Flying in tight formation, the three carriers continued to accelerate to light speed.
“System control is calling,” Valthyrra reported. “President Delike wants to talk to you.”
“I thought he would,” Velmeran commented. “He did impress me as a slow learner. Put him through.”
“Commander Velmeran?” That voice sounded uncertain, surprised, and perhaps even a little hurt. Something had happened that he obviously did not understand.
“You made this inevitable,” Velmeran told him plainly, not waiting for him to ask. He had no more patience for this simple man. “You were badly mistaken on at least one point. I am not obliged to obey your word. When you treat a Kelvessan like a machine, you have found the quickest way to arouse our complete and unforgiving anger.”
“But you can’t do this,” Delike protested. “You will destroy our peace.”
“There is no peace that does not include us,” Velmeran answered. “You and your friends have committed a very serious crime against my people. I have other important business to attend to just now, but then I will be coming back to have an accounting from you. Think on that.”
“I order you to return!”
“Barking asshole!” Velmeran muttered, then turned to Valthyrra. “Cut that. Let them think about it for a while.”
“Perimeter defense cannons are moving to intercept us,” Valthyrra warned him. “Should we prepare to destroy them?”
“Not if we can help it,” Velmeran said. “That is our property, and very expensive to replace. We will try to get into starflight before they come into range, but be ready all the same.”
Whether he liked it or not, he was afraid that they would have to destroy the defense drones. They were built like small carriers that lacked stardrives, barely an eighth as large, carrying no crews and automated rather than self-aware like their larger cousins. And yet, despite their relatively small size, they carried a firepower that even a carrier had to respect. Being fairly stupid machines, they could not be bluffed.
“Valthyrra, go ahead and send out a warning to all other carriers,” he added after a moment. “Inform them of the situation. Tell them to continue their patrols for now, but to button things up and be ready to come when I call. Tell them to anticipate about two weeks.”
“Do you really anticipate a fight?” Consherra asked, watching from her station at the helm.
