“The answer is so simple that Valthyrra only had to think about it for half a minute,” Gelrayen explained. “Any shield is simply a projection of a great deal of energy, and there would always be static discharge between the ship and the shield except that the shield is grounded to the ship. Under those circumstances, anything that is also grounded to the ship is grounded to the shield as well. That tells you how to put something through a shield.”
“Yes, I see,” Tarrel agreed. “Then modifying a fighter to penetrate that shield is very simple. The tricky part is actually doing it.”
The concept sounded reasonable enough and she believed that the Starwolves might actually make it work. It involved some piloting that she would not have attempted, but the flying skills of the Starwolves were legendary. There was something about this business that bothered her a great deal, but she was not going to mention anything to Commander Gelrayen at this time. By the time that the lift had carried them all the way back through the ship to the bay, the packs that had been launched earlier had already come back aboard. Two packs had returned to that bay, and the overhead handling arms were lifting the large black fighters into their racks for safe storage.
Gelrayen went immediately to the pair of fighters sitting in their racks at the front of the bay. The only difference in these two large ships, at least that Tarrel could see, was that they had been fitted with some curious harpoon and cable device under their long, tapered noses. Each ship also carried four featureless black pods farther back along their extended forward hulls, things that looked suspiciously like explosive devices. Pack Leader Teraln was already waiting for them, standing beside the nearest of the two fighters while one of Valthyrra’s probes hovered at his side.
“Has Valthyrra explained the theory to you?” Gelrayen asked.
“Theory, yes,” Teraln agreed. “What she has not explained is why I get to volunteer for this.”
“Your name started with a T,” Gelrayen offered. “If you have no interest in going along, I can find another volunteer easily enough.”
Teraln looked surprised and annoyed at the idea that he could be replaced. “Oh, yes? Who?”
“Captain Tarrel, for one.”
“Oh. Then I certainly volunteer.”
“I wonder if I should be offended?” Tarrel asked Valthyrra, but the remote gestured “no” with its camera pod.
“Valthyrra, what is the Dreadnought doing?” Gelrayen asked as he climbed the boarding platform beside the cockpit.
“Absolutely nothing, last time I looked,” she responded. “I have decreased my impulse scans to one each minute, to avoid calling an excess of attention to myself.”
“Then I believe that we should go immediately,” he decided. “If we wait until that thing starts to move, we might never get a chance to attempt this maneuver. We will be dependant upon your scans to lead us to it.”
“As long as she can place us to within twenty kilometers,” Teraln amended as he hurried to his own fighter. “From that range, you can actually see the beast. That shield is actually a shade darker than background space.”
“Then do not alter your scan interval, unless it begins to move again,” Gelrayen added as he settled himself into the cockpit, while a bay crewmember helped him with his straps. “If it stays in one place, we already know all we need about where to find it.”
“I understand,” Valthyrra said.
“Complete your rescue efforts quickly, and then you and the Vardon should begin to withdrew slowly. I will need you back immediately once that shield goes down, so put Captain Tarrel back in her seat. Teraln and I will get ourselves well clear before you come into range. If, by chance, this does not work and I do not come back, then you are to have sole command of the ship, but listen to Kayendel and Captain Tarrel. Your first duty is save yourself and the other ships. Anything else?”
“Take good care of yourself,” Valthyrra called to him. “I love you.”
Gelrayen paused and stared. “What?”
“Hey, bear with me. This emotional stuff is all very new to me.
The two fighters sealed their cockpits, and began to power up their major systems. Valthyrra and Captain Tarrel joined the bay crew in retreating a short distance, as blast barriers came up from the lower deck to protect the ships farther back in the bay from the drive wash. The two pilots signaled that they were ready and Valthyrra gave them a count with the lights above the forward bay door. The two fighters engaged their main drives at the final green light, but left their racks and moved out of the bay relatively slowly, dropping down to avoid the transports and capture ships bringing escape pods to the transport bays near the front of the carrier.
“Well, what are their chances?” Tarrel asked.
“Very good, I should think.”
Tarrel glanced down at the probe. “Valthyrra, did you ever have a chance to discuss this plan with Fleet Commander Asandi?”
“Yes, I discussed it with him by com during my approach to Alkayja station after my last battle with Dreadnought. He said then that the plan was too dangerous, that the packs would not survive in close range to the Dreadnought. We have already seen that they can. Commander Asandi told me that I should not discuss this plan with the other carriers.”
“I see.” Tarrel turned toward the lift, expecting the probe to follow her. “Did it ever occur to you that Commander Asandi deliberately sent this fleet into a battle that he knew would be too dangerous? To phrase things a little more plainly, do you suspect that it might have been in his interests to commit a portion of his fleet to their own destruction?”
“Is there any reason to suspect why he should?”
“Commander Asadi indicated to me that the Republic fears the Kelvessan and has reason to make certain that they do not prosper. I am betraying his trust in me, but I believe that he has failed in his trust with the Kelvessan and their ships.”
“I had suspected that the Republic, or at least the Fleet Commanders, had a history of failing to encourage Kelvessan scientific and cultural development. I am not convinced that Commander Asandi contrived the destruction of this fleet, only that he displayed poor judgement in refusing to consider my plan more seriously. I must discuss this privately with the other ships.”
Tarrel stepped inside the lift that opened at her approach, then moved aside as the probe drifted in behind her. “You carriers can make up for the lack of support from the Republic.”
Valthyrra looked up. “How?”
“You seem to have made a good start. Don’t let them wear their clothes. Do whatever it takes to keep them thinking about their own racial identity. Talk them into altering their appearance. Just do what you think best.”
The two fighters moved cautiously into position, engaging their main drives no more than absolutely necessary. They really did not believe that they were fooling anyone with such subtlety; least of all the Dreadnought, with its proven instinct for seeking out and destroying any machine it found in space, including many smaller and less obstructive than a Starwolf fighter. Their only hope was that the Dreadnought would remain drifting on its present course and continue to stubbornly ignore anything going on about it, and they simply wanted to encourage that condition to continue for as long as possible by being reasonably discreet.
Considering the fact that the Dreadnought had just devastated a fleet of Starwolf carriers, destroying two and severely damaging a third, the ability of two lone fighters to face and destroy that beast seemed very unlikely.
The Methryn’s scan gave them the Dreadnought’s position easily enough, bringing them slowly in with perfect accuracy, behind the target that they could not see. Eventually as Pack Leader Teraln had said, the Dreadnought could be seen. At very close range, it was darker than background space, and no stars could be seen through that blackness. It had been very considerate so far, staying on course and ignoring their presence if it knew they were there at all. Even Valthyrra had been unable to offer any explanation on what the Dreadnought could be doing while it drifted, seeming to have closed itself tightly inside its shield. It might have been contemplating strategies, believing that it had failed in its mission because it had been unable to destroy all the Starwolf carriers. It might have simply been repairing a wrecked sensor array. Whatever it was doing, it certainly went about it with single-minded determination and an absolute belief in its own invulnerability.
