configurations, others so far away that they glimmered as moving lights against the starfield.
It was a powerful force, but nowhere near the size of the fleet that had held the Kilrathi at Terra. Yet this was supposed to be Earth's decisive strike, the knockout punch that would end the war.
Blair watched the other ships. and doubted.
'You look like you could use some company, Rachel Coriolis said from behind him.
Blair turned in his chair. 'Rachel . . . I thought you had the duty until seventeen hundred hours.'
'This is just a break,' she said. We've still got a lot to get done before the jump to Hyperion tomorrow, so I'm grabbing a bite to eat now and then pulling a double shift.' She mustered a weary smile. 'So, are you going to invite a girl to sit down, or what?'
'Sure, sure,' he said hurriedly. 'Please. Sorry . . .'
Rachel laughed. 'So, the rough, tough pilot goes to pieces under pressure.' She took the seat across from him, her eyes searching his face under a worried frown. 'What's the matter? Is it . . . Hobbes?'
He shook his head. 'Not that . . . not really. Fact is . . . it's, well, it's us.'
'Us? As in you plus me equals us?'
'Yeah. Look, Rachel, I started thinking some things over today, and I realized something. Yesterday I was all set for a nice little seduction scene. Dinner. Music. A quiet talk that could lead to . . . whatever.' He looked away. 'After what happened . . .'
'Hey, I understood then. I understand now. We'll still have our time together.'
'Maybe it was best that we couldn't make it happen,' he went on doggedly. 'It might be the best thing if we don't try to push it now . . .'
'Are you backing out on me?' Her expression hovered between concern and anger. 'I thought . . .'
'Look, Rachel, by this time tomorrow, God only knows where I'll be. Even if we carry out the mission, the deck's stacked against any of us coming back from Kilrah. It isn't fair to start something with you that I might not be able to finish. I wouldn't want you to have to go through what I did . . . with Angel.'
'Pilots . . .' She shook her head. 'They'd rather crash and burn than make a commitment. Look, Chris, I've been there, remember? I know what it's like. And I also know that if we keep putting our own lives aside because of what might happen tomorrow, eventually we'll run out of tomorrows. We'll never have anything to look back at, anything to remember except the war, just fighting and killing. I want something else to remember . . . whether it's one night, or an eternity. Don't you?'
'Do you really mean that? You want to go ahead, even knowing it might not be more than one night? ''
She met his eyes and nodded. 'I'd rather we had just one night together. Especially if the alternative is . . . never having any time at all.'
'Your shift . . .'
'Ends at midnight. I'll skip the dinner and the music if you'll be there for me when I come . . .'
'Midnight, then.' She stood when he did, and they came together in a long, lingering kiss. 'Midnight . . .'
CHAPTER XXIX
Acceleration pressed Blair into his seat as the Excalibur burst into open space. He cut in his engines and steered hard to port, toward the unseen jump point that would carry him to the enemy homeworld.
To the real Heart of the Tiger, he thought idly.
'Excalibur three-zero-zero, clear and under power,' Blair said aloud. 'Lancelot Flight, form on me and proceed as planned.'
The other three pilots acknowledged, closing around him. Four Excalibur fighters, to attack the Imperial homeworld. It still seemed like sheer madness. But this time it was truly mankind's last chance for victory.
'Lancelot Flight, Lancelot Flight, this is Round Table,' Eisen's voice crackled over the comm channel. 'Good luck to you all . . . and Godspeed.'
Blair didn't reply. Instead he checked his power levels, then spoke to the other pilots. 'Go to cloaks . . . now!' he ordered, switching on his own cloaking system. There was no apparent effect, other than the sudden increase in the fighter's power drain. Weapons and shields were useless while the shroud concealed the craft, but detection would be nearly impossible. Already the other Excaliburs had vanished. He was all alone in an endless night.
He checked the range to the jump point, and asked the computer for an ETA. Ten minutes. . . .
The timing of this phase of the operation was critical. The Confed's battle fleet had jumped into the Hyperion System from nearby Freya, challenging the local Kilrathi garrison forces with a series of strike attacks by fighters and capital ships. Victory had remained in reserve throughout nearly a week of combat ops, keeping to the fringes of the action. The Kilrathi were given every opportunity to commit their forces to the system, and they'd pumped in enough ships to put the Terran fleet at a serious disadvantage. It was all a part of the plan, to encourage the cats to thin out their home defenses and divert attention away from Kilrah. But it had been a costly fight already, and it was likely to get worse.
Today the admiral commanding the fleet had passed the word to General Taggart aboard Victory. There was no guarantee that the fleet could maintain the fight for more than a few more hours. Then they would have to break off, or go down fighting. Paladin had given the orders. The attack was on at last.
The carrier edged toward the jump point, seemingly to reinforce the Terran battle group built around the Hermes and the Invincible which had been heavily engaged in the area for several hours. According to intelligence reports, the Kilrathi were unaware of the Terran survey work done around Hyperion, and thus thought the Confederation knew nothing of the Kilrah jump point. But they had to be careful to keep from tipping their hands too soon.
As it was, they nearly ran into trouble when a Kilrathi destroyer escort left the enemy fleet on course for the jump point, but Eisen turned the situation to their advantage by pretending to pursue the enemy ship. That ship had passed through the jump point less than half an hour ago, and that transjump became the main reason for Blair's present preoccupation with the ticking countdown clock.
If the escort withdrew to Kilrah to summon additional reinforcements, the Terrans had to hope nothing else was waiting close to the jump point on the other side. Otherwise they might be blundering into trouble before the mission was even fairly under way.
He checked the ETA again. Three minutes . . .
'Message from the escort Ghordax, Lord Prince. From the fleet at Hyperion.'
Thrakhath allowed his throne to swivel past the viewscreen he was contemplating so he could look down on Melek. 'What is their report?'
''The battle proceeds well, Lord Prince, '' Melek said bowing. 'The Terrans cannot last long.'
'So there is no further need for reinforcements, then?'
'No, Lord Prince. None.'
