At that moment, a sense of discomfort grew in her stomach and the edges of her vision started to waver. At last, something was about to happen. The Sirona ship was about to move.
"Heads up, my friends," she announced. "Timon, get ready to hit it."
The area around the large silver ship started to shimmer. Mahra felt the energies moving toward a point in the distance beyond the vast metallic bulk and she tensed, ready to give the command. It had to be at the right moment or they'd lose the opportunity completely.
"Now Timon! Now!"
The Sirona ship shimmered and disappeared. Pellis had hit the conventional drive as soon as Mahra yelled her warning and The Pilgrim shot out from behind the concealing platform. On Mahra's command, Pellis jammed down hard on the jump switch and they immediately made the leap into that place of familiar grey blankness.
Again, Mahra's senses were awash with the shapes and patterns of jump space, but this time it was different. She knew they were not alone. She could feel the vast ship's wake in front. It acted like a pointer for her and she followed it unerringly, tracing its path without difficulty. She only hoped the ship in front couldn't sense The Pilgrim's presence in the same way. Even if they could, she thought, it was unlikely that the Sirona would be expecting another ship to follow them. Hopefully, if they had planned well enough, the Sirona wouldn't be looking.
There were elements of a gamble in what the CoCee planned, but so far it seemed to be working. The Sirona had arrived and obviously observed the vast gathering of ships taking place around New Helvetica. That gathering couldn't mean anything good for a place that the Sirona had so much interest in, and it seemed to have prompted the desired reaction.
They travelled a long time through the vague void's blankness. Mahra could see and feel, but the others had little sense of what was taking place. She strained forward on her couch, waiting, waiting, barely daring to breathe in case she missed the instant of their reappearance in normal space.
Then Mahra felt the change in front and she knew without thinking, that the Sirona ship was about to re-emerge from the non-space they both moved through.
"Timon, Jayeer, get ready to cut the drive on my word. I think we've arrived. Wait .... Wait .... Now!"
They cut the drives and The Pilgrim popped into normal space. They had emerged in a place that Mahra knew no human had willingly been to before. For a moment, their vision was obscured by the Sirona ship's bulk in front, but then the other details started to become clear.
They were inside a new system — that much was clear. Mahra looked around, trying to accumulate as many details as she could, and to guard for potential threat. Chutzpah seemed at ease, so she thought they had a few moments yet.
A huge red globe sat filling one side of the darkness to their right. In the middle distance hung a collection of silver globes clustered in numbers she could barely guess at. Mahra heard a low whistle from down below. She too was awed by the display. Jayeer's voice barely registered as he spoke.
"Hmm, very interesting. According to the displays there is not a single world in sight. One large star and several groups of ships. That's it. There has to be about thirty in that group up ahead and it looks like there are several other groups, just as large, besides."
"This is it!" said Mahra. "Well, some of the stories seem to have been right. It's not a home world. It's a home system … But there are so many of them."
Mahra suddenly realised how exposed they are, sitting in the emptiness. There was nowhere at all to hide. Jayeer was still muttering observations and there was nothing but stunned silence from Pellis.
"Timon, come on. We've seen enough. Hit it now!" she said urgently. The group of silver ships in front was starting to separate into its component parts and she didn't want to be around when it did. "Come on, Timon," she muttered. "Come on."
It was clear they'd been spotted. If he didn't activate the drive soon, the Sirona ships would be upon them.
"Now!" said Timon, and her senses surged with their entry into jump space.
They had the information they needed and as soon as they were secure in jump, Mahra let out a deep breath and started reading off co-ordinates to Jayeer through the com. The system was a long, long way from New Helvetian space. But now they knew how to get there. All they had to do now was get back in one piece.
Jayeer busied himself compiling the information into a broadcast message they would release as soon as they re-entered New Helvetian space. They would have to do it quickly. Mahra could feel the energies in the void behind them shifting. They had company, and Mahra knew, without doubt, that more than one Sirona ship had jumped into the corridor behind.
"Timon, they're following. I hope everything's in place when we arrive. There's about a dozen of them behind us."
"I hope so too, Mahra."
She could remember all too vividly what happened to their contact off Kalany. Desperately she tried to sense if the ships were getting closer, but all she could tell was that they were behind and following. She reached inside herself, calming and achieving focus. She concentrated on the patterns she was sensing, pushing emotion to one side.
The Pilgrim popped back into normal space virtually at the same point they disappeared. Jayeer immediately sent his broadcast and the figures and co-ordinates streamed into the memories of dozens of battle-ready ships. Mahra still brimmed with visions of the space beyond void, but they had no time. The moment was too close. Months of planning was about to came to fruition. If only it would work. Mahra had done her part and now it was up to the rest of them. Timon opened a channel and broadcast to the collected ships below.
"All right. Each one of you knew why we're here. Take your lead from our ship. You have the co-ordinates and each of you is as ready as you'll ever be to do this. Battles one, two and three take up your positions. We haven't got long."
Mahra heard the tone of command in his voice. The traces of his accent were back, so she knew without having to be told that he wasn't altogether comfortable. None of them were. What they were about to do was going to be hard.
Mahra's perception started to shift. Line upon line of intersections converged on the space around them. The Sirona were coming to see and there were many, many of them. They were arriving in numbers greater than she first thought. More must have followed the initial pursuit.
"Here they come," she said pointlessly as thirty or so separate shapes shimmered into existence in the space in front. They had to time this just right. Mahra swallowed, waiting for Timon to give the order.
"On my command," came Pellis's voice over the com. "Now!"
As one, three separate wings of CoCee ships accelerated and suddenly faded out of existence, The Pilgrim in the lead. Just before they winked out, chaos erupted behind them. The Sirona ships had spread when they emerged, moving to mark the borders of the CoCee fleet gathered below. The first large ovoid moved sideways toward the outer edge as the CoCee ships moved up to meet them. At the same moment, a burst of killing light struck from the sides, above and away from the converging CoCee fleet. It played across the surface of the outermost Sirona ships until they glowed with fury. For the briefest of times it appeared the Sirona ship was unaffected, that it could swim through the energies that bathed it. Then, in a sudden burst of orange and glowing debris, it ceased to be a ship. In its place was a glowing ball of debris. It was joined in an instant by another. The power of the orbital platforms was doing its job. The CoCee had chosen their place well.
Immediately the Sirona recognise the threat and started to return fire, but by then, the fleet had joined the fray. Mahra just had time to see the start of the assault as the images disappeared from her senses behind them.
They were on their own now. In the space beyond jump, The Pilgrim and its companions moved toward the Sirona system. Because they could no longer see the violence erupting behind them and they had no way of knowing which way it was going. Mahra knew there would be losses, but there was no way she could influence tha
t outcome any more. She only hoped that now they could do their part.
Battles one, two and three numbered forty-six ships in all. She knew they were not enough, but they had surprise on their side. The Sirona couldn't possibly be expecting their arrival, but when they did, their message would be clear.
As a group, the CoCee ships emerged on the other side of jump. The huge red star filled their view. Fortune was with them. None of the spherical groups of Sirona ships were in the immediate vicinity of their emergence.
Mahra's heart was in her throat as they popped into normal space, expecting nothing short of the reception they had prepared for the Sirona ships around New Helvetica, but nothing moved around them. Jayeer reported that there were a few Sirona clusters present, but none close enough to cause concern. All they had to do now was wait.
They were ready when Mahra felt the first sensations of an approach through jump. She could feel five ships approaching back through the corridor — only five. If they were part of the same group that had emerged over New Helvetica, then the battle had gone better than expected for the CoCee forces. Mahra knew she was making assumptions, built on nothing but hope, but for now, things seemed to be working in their favour.
"Timon," she said. "There's only five of them. Maybe there are more coming, but I can only feel five at the moment."
The five ships solidified before them. Each wore the marks of battle and Mahra knew she was right. She strained to sense any more, but she felt nothing.
Pellis barked the command and the CoCee ships opened fire, their weapons targeted on the emerging Sirona. One by one the retreating Sirona emerged. One by one they met a wall of fire and erupted, blossoming into balls of spinning debris.
"Right," said Sind over the com. "We have movement. A couple of the clusters are starting to break up. No, make that several. Here they come! They're starting to head this way!"
"All ships. We have company again," announced Pellis to the assembled fleet. "Let's stay around long enough for them to see us and know who we are. Then we leave. No engagement. Let that be clear. No engagement."
The first Sirona ship moved into view, then another and another. A vast wave of silver ovoids trailed around the edge of the dull red disk taking up so much of their view. Silently the Sirona edged closer toward the small CoCee fleet, nearing the limits of effective firing range. Timon must have known it would have no effect. The ships were well outside the range of even The Pilgrim's weaponry, but he fired all the same. Three short bursts of blue light arced toward the approaching Sirona. Yet still the ships came on.
With the afterimages still glowing in their sight, he yelled the command, and the fleet jumped, leaving the Sirona behind with their message.
What the alien creatures made of the wreckage of their returning ships and the parting burst of ineffectual fire, they could only guess. When their group of jump ships emerged from the long tunnel, the CoCee fleet was ready, but none of the Sirona followed. Mahra felt not a trace of their movement behind. Apparently, their message had been clear enough for now.
When the ships re-emerged in New Helvetian space, the battle's devastation was clear to see. Pieces of wreckage floated around the world and just three of the five orbital platforms remained. Mahra did a quick count, but only two-thirds of the vast fleet they left behind seemed to have survived. She scanned the surrounding space, but there was only debris.
"Timon, Jayeer," she said, surprised by what she was sensing. "I can't feel anything behind us. They're not following."
"It's too soon to tell, Mahra," said Jayeer.
"Well, at least we got through this part of it," said Timon. "And we showed them a thing or two as well. The Sirona are going to have to think twice before going ahead with anything else."
"But what about the losses?" said Mahra.
Timon's voice sobered. "Yes, we'll be hurting from this one for a while. But with what we know now, we should get the backing of all of the worlds behind us. I don't care how deep the corruption goes. The Sirona are going to find themselves a little short on welcome from now on."
Mahra thought about this, and she knew he was right. She could hear the noises of the fleet as a background over the com, but there were other things on her mind.
"What now?" she asked.
"Well," said Jayeer. "We wait here long enough to be sure that things are truly over for the time being. After that ... the real work begins."
"What say you, Mahra?" said Timon. "Are you ready?"
Mahra knew then, without even having to think about it, that her place was here. She knew without doubt she'd see the Sirona again, but the next time, the odds would be very different. To know that they were different, and she had helped make them that way, satisfied her for the moment. Things weren't going to be easy for the Sirona from this point forward. And with her help, the legacy of The Cradle would live on.
Finally, she was in a place where she belonged. She could sense the rightness — a rightness that had been missing from everything for years. She thought back to the last time she felt that rightness, of the years of harmony she had spent with the Old One and she breathed a silent thanks.
She reached up to tickle Chutzpah beneath his chin and smiled.
"Yes, Timon. I think we're ready now," she said.
The End
The Jump Point Page 28
