battle continued a fl?ight offi?cer named Bami was pursuing a zigzag course through a matrix of defensive fi?re when he saw a quartermile-wide swath of the battleship’s metal skin suddenly appear in front of him as a shield generator went down. Fortunately, Bami had the presence of mind to fi?re all four of his Avenger missiles before pulling up and corkscrewing through a storm of defensive fi?re.
There was a huge explosion as one of the Ramanthian’s weapons struck a heat stack and sent a jet of molten plasma down the ship’s number three exhaust vent into the decks below. That vaporized 120 crew beings, cut the fi?ber-optic pathway that connected the NAVCOMP with Big Momma, and forced the computer to hand over 64.7 percent of the Gladiator’s weapons to local control. And, without centralized fi?re control, it was only a matter of time before the Ramanthian fi?ghters found another weak point and put the Confed vessel out of her misery. Of course Bami didn’t know that, but the explosion spoke for itself, and the fl?ight offi?cer was thinking about the medal he was going to get when his fi?ghter ran into a chunk of debris and exploded.
ABOARD THE CONFEDERACY BATTLESHIP
The front of Captain Marina Flerko’s uniform was red with the blood of a rating who had expired in her arms fi? fteen minutes earlier as she entered Nankool’s cabin and stood across the table from him. “I’m sorry, Mr. President, but the Gladiator is dying.”
Nankool’s face was pale. “And the rest of the battle group?”
Flerko’s voice cracked under the strain. “Destroyed, sir. The moment they left hyperspace. The bugs were waiting for us.”
“Your advice?”
“Surrender, sir,” the offi?cer answered grimly. “There is no other choice.”
Calisco swore, and Vanderveen felt something cold trickle into the pit of her stomach. Only a small handful of beings had been able to escape from Ramanthian prisonerof-war (POW) camps, or been fortunate enough to be rescued, and the stories they told were universally horrible. In fact, many of the tales of torture, starvation, and abuse were so awful that many citizens assumed they were Confederacy propaganda. But the diplomat had read the reports, had even spoken with some of the survivors, and knew the stories of privation were true. And now, if Nankool accepted Flerko’s recommendation, Vanderveen would learn about life in the POW camps fi?rsthand.
Nankool’s normally unlined face looked as if it had aged ten years during the last few minutes. His eyes fl?itted from face to face. His voice was even but fi?lled with pain. “You heard the captain. . . . What do you think?”
“We should fi?ght to the death!” Koba-Sa maintained fi?ercely. “Give me a weapon. I will meet the Ramanthians at the main lock.”
“They won’t have to board,” Flerko said dispiritedly.
“Eventually, after they fi?re enough Avengers at us, the ship will blow.”
“Which is why we must surrender immediately!” Calisco said urgently. “Why provoke them? The faster we surrender, the more lives will be saved!”
“Much as I hate to agree with the undersecretary of defense, I fear that he’s correct this time,” Ambassador Ochi put in wearily. “There’s very little to be gained by delay.”
“I think there is something to be gained,” Vanderveen said fi?rmly, causing all of the senior offi?cials to look at her in surprise. “Losing the battle group, plus thousands of lives is bad enough,” the diplomat added. “But there’s something more at stake. . . . If we allow the Ramanthians to capture the president, and the bugs become aware of who they have, they can use him for leverage.”
“Not if they don’t capture me,” Nankool said grimly.
“Captain, hand me your sidearm.”
“Not so fast,” Vanderveen insisted. “I admire your courage, Mr. President. I’m sure we all do—but what if there’s another way?”
“Such as?” Ochi inquired skeptically, as the deck shook beneath their feet.
“We need to fi?nd a dead crew member with at least a superfi?cial resemblance to the president and jettison his body,” the diplomat replied earnestly. “Once that’s accomplished, we can replace him.”
“Damn! I think she’s onto something,” Secretary Hooks said approvingly as he made eye contact with Vanderveen.
“Your father would be proud!”
The FSO’s father, Charles Winther Vanderveen, was a well-known government offi?cial who had long been one of Nankool’s principal advisors. And while the elder Vanderveen would have been proud, he would have also been beside himself with worry had he been aware of what was taking place millions of light-years away. “We must act quickly,” the young woman said urgently. “And swear the crew to secrecy.”
“I’ll offer to surrender,” Flerko put in. “Then, assuming that the bugs accept, we’ll stall. That should give us as much as half an hour to fi?nd a match, put the word out, and implement the plan.”
“What about the hypercom?” Koba-Sa growled. “Can we notify LEGOM on Algeron?”
Having lost the converted battleship Friendship, on which it usually met, the Senate had been forced to convene on the planet Algeron. Until recently it would have been impossible to send a message across such a vast distance unless it was sealed inside a message torp or carried aboard a ship. But, thanks to the breakthrough technology that had been stolen from the Ramanthians on the planet Savas, crude but effective hypercom sets had already been installed on major vessels like the Gladiator. “Yes,” Vanderveen said decisively. “They need to know about the trap—so the navy can fi?nd a way to prevent the bugs from laying another one just like it. Plus, they need to know about the rest of our plan as well, or the whole thing will fall apart.”
Under normal circumstances any sort of suggestion from such a junior foreign service offi?cer would most likely have been quashed. But the circumstances were anything but normal, so there was clearly no time for formalities, and Nankool nodded. “Agreed. Make it happen.”
ABOARD THE RAMANTHIAN DESTROYER
Commodore Lorko was still in the destroyer’s control room when the vessel’s com offi?cer entered with the appalling, not to mention somewhat repugnant, news. The extent of the junior offi?cer’s disgust could be seen in
