by Bill Baldwin
And indeed, the change began less than a week later, manifesting itself in revised enemy tactics called "doubling," whereby escorting squadrons of Dampiers were escorted by a squadron of the League's powerful new Gorn-Hoff 262A-1As, first production version of the P.1065. These stood off maddeningly from the battles until it was certain that the Dampiers had fought themselves into a corner (as they usually did). Then the Leaguers would jump into the fray, effectively tripling odds against the IVG, To no one's particular surprise, the new Gorn-Hoff 262s were superb warships; in many ways the equal of Mark Valerian's Starfuries—in some, superior.
Happily, during the months imposed between Calhoun's initial briefings on the Leaguers' new, chevron-contoured prototype and Brim's first personal encounters with production versions, Sodeskayan intelligence sources were able to provide considerable data on the new Leaguer ships. So their startling performance came as no surprise. It was a fortunate thing, too. For unbeknown to the ex-Imperials, the squadrons of "easy" Dampier opponents had been making them moderately lax. And even with ample forewarning, they still turned out to be a nasty surprise on the day they first showed up.
Brim had Starfury in the middle of a frenzied melee well below LightSpeed. With his quad outnumbered three-to-one by Dam-piers, the Carescrian had been flying for all he was worth, twisting and turning, trying to set up shots for his disrupter crews while nursing the generators, scanning the instruments, and watching for the few scrappy Toronder skippers who yet remained among their savaged squadrons. Just as the enemy crews appeared to be getting ready to pack it in for another day, his eyes caught a second group of ships cruising high off the port bows. These, however, were making curious, oscillating Drive wakes—like ones he recalled from the endless Gorn-Hoff P.1065 briefings he'd been forced to sit through in Avalon, "Everyone on his toes," he broadcast to the bridge crews, "we've got some special company, Purple Apex."
Tissaurd needed only a glance through the forward Hyper-screens. "Bloody Gorn-Hoffs," she swore under her breath. "The new 262s! We've got to take out that xaxtdamned fort somehow."
Brim nodded grimly. "If we ever have a moment when we're not fighting for our lives." Abruptly, the Drive wakes flickered out and the enemy starships slowed to Hypospeed. He switched on the COMM and set it for general. "Special threat alert, all firing crews!" he announced throughout the ship. "Hands prepare for unknown enemy warships. Special threat alert, all firing crews. Hands prepare for unknown enemy warships!"
A moment later the Dampiers literally evaporated in breakneck retreat and the Leaguer warships surged forward to replace them. Brim no sooner disengaged from the last fleeing Toronder than he was immersed in a fight where suddenly life and death hung in the balance. He pulled Starfury into a half loop, passing so close to a pair of the big Gorn-Hoffs that for a moment he could see through their bridge Hyperscreens—but the three ships passed so closely to each other that none could bring its disrupters to bear. The Gorn-Hoffs followed in their own half loop, but by this time, Brim had cranked Starfury into a tight turn and the IVG disrupter crews were able to get off two good volleys from eight 406s that sparkled along the left-hand Leaguer's starboard "wing" and blasted one of its 375-mmi turrets out into space like a top.
A hail of return fire smashed the Sherrington cruiser aside like a cork in a millrace, blanking the Hyperscreens momentarily and pulsing the cabin gravity so that Brim's restraints constricted painfully around his body.
The Carescrian tightened his turn, Starfury's rugged space-frame groaning in protest as the steering engines struggled to bring the speeding ship onto a new course. But they had him cold, sitting on his tail as if they were under tow. As he angrily ground his teeth, he realized that they had probably been watching him for several cycles and planning the whole thing.
From their position, he guessed they would expect him to tuck Starfury's nose under and try to run for it. Instead, he twisted upward and toward them in a corkscrew. He'd guessed right! As he thundered at them, it was they who had had to turn.
But the zukeeds had been ready for that, too! Two more Gorn-Hoffs suddenly appeared directly in his path; clearly they'd been waiting on the chance that he might do the unexpected.
Brim was a brave starsailor—and survivor of more than his share of battles against "impossible" odds—but those battles had also made him smart. Clearly, anytime one ship was up against four that were flown by crews of that caliber, the prudent thing to do was to execute a well-known maneuver known as "getting the xaxt out of there." As an old Carescrian proverb put things: It's no disgrace to run if you are scared.
He was!
Accelerating to the upper limits of Starfury's Hypospeed envelope, he zigzagged and skidded like a madman in an attempt to break for home. But the four Gorn-Hoffs hung on like Drive cement, two high and two low—just out of lethal range....
Why didn't they fire?
Spasms of anxiety danced up and down Brim's spine like ice. He glanced at Tissaurd who was sitting bolt upright in her seat, her forehead beaded with sweat.
"Aren't the zukeeds going to fire?" she growled through clenched teeth. "We could thraggling die of old age!"
Starfury had become easy meat, sandwiched between two pairs of expert crews. Her main armament was divided among four attackers, and the percentage certainty of destroying one of the Leaguer ships with a salvo of only three disrupters was a little less than fifty percent. Sooner or later, somebody would make a mistake, which at least one of the Leaguers would spot instantly. After that....
And then it came to him. "A mistake!" he half shouted. "Wow I remember!"
"Mistake?" Tissaurd asked, glancing his way for a moment. "What do you remember? Whose?"
Brim grunted, hauling the big starship around in a tight curve with the four Leaguers still hot on his tail. "Gorn-Hoff's design team made the mistake," he growled, checking the rearview display on his panel. "They didn't build enough power into those new ships of theirs to fly at top speed and simultaneously fire all fourteen of those new superfocused Theobold disrupters at maximum power."
Tissaurd met his eye. "Voot's beard!" she exclaimed. "That's true. I remember it from somebody's briefing—yours, probably."
Brim nodded. "Like right now," he said, "those four ships on our tail can probably muster no more than eight of their Theobold 375s apiece. I figure that gives each of them something like a forty-five percent certainty of destroying us, per salvo: about the same chance we have of getting one of them with three of our 406s. But since that certainty percentage isn't additive among the four ships, those twenty-four big Theobolds behind us still share only a single ship's forty-five percent chance of stopping us." He laughed grimly as he steered into yet another extreme maneuver. "It's a standoff, so long as I can keep them from catching up. At this speed, if they fire, they'll also deprive their generators of energy, cutting into their ability to maneuver." He chuckled. "Of course, they could fire a bigger salvo at lower power—and change the percentages significantly. But with a proportional decrease in range, they'd come closer to our 406s. And then they might not get off any shots—ever."
At that moment, one of the low Gorn-Hoffs became vulnerable as it attempted to follow Brim's wild maneuvering and blocked his partner's field of fire. But for only an instant.
That was all it took.
Straightaway, Brim pushed over, drew back on the power, and as Starfury's nose came down, the disrupter crews fired a terrific salvo ahead of the errant Leaguer. Perhaps the enemy Helmsman didn't even see the thick bolt of energy sizzling past in front of him, but at any rate, he flew right into it, with devastating effect. The concentrated firepower of six 406-mmi disrupters tore her entire bow away, along with the bridge, then rippled along the hull until it blasted her Drive section open like an overripe fruit. Rescue globes popped into the doomed ship's wake as the few surviving crew ejected. Then clicks later, the big Gorn-Hoff exploded in a blinding flash, bombarding its partner with a hail of hullmetal shards and whirling debris.
When the Hyperscreens cleared, Starfury's twelve main disruptors were now tracking four apiece among the remaining Gorn-Hoffs, and his kill probability had now risen to fifty-eight percent. Moreover, the surviving low Leaguer had clearly been damaged by its exploding partner. Huge areas along its starboard "wing" had been shattered and raked with debris.
Had Brim been either of the two high Leaguers above him in such a situation, he would have attacked at that very moment, counting on surprise for extra protection. They didn't, hesitating for one fateful moment while he decided to attack. In the wink of an eye, he pulled back on the nose and judiciously applied full power, coming over at them in a complete renversment with Starfury's steering engines howling in protest.
The Leaguers were caught with their battlesuits at half mast. Before Starfury's disrupter crews could set up for another salvo, they turned and fled, accelerating toward LightSpeed on maximum output. Brim supposed that the sight of their exploding colleague might have taken much of the fight out of them.
It didn't take any fight out of Brim. He lit off after all three of them—annoyed with them and downright angry at himself.
Starfury was faster, especially so after they passed into Hyperspeeds. And the damaged Gorn-Hoff immediately began to fall behind, clearly experiencing Drive trouble. Remorselessly, Brim continued to close in until, at about five thousand c'lenyts distance, the laggard began stunting. It didn't do any good. Starfury easily stuck with him, just out of range, until Ulfilas Meesha's disruptor crews fired a burst directly into Gorn-Hoffs stern that blasted through her Drive tubes and directly into the power chambers.
There were no rescue globes before or after that explosion. The ship and everything associated with it passed directly to subatomic particles in a single hellish detonation.
Afterward, Brim sullenly headed for home to report that he had blundered into a trap and had come out of it with two victories. Starfury now had nineteen confirmed kills, but—to himself—he felt that the two Gorn-Hoffs should have counted at least double. And now the IVG would have to take out the fort whatever the costs might be. It had become a simple matter of survival. He resolved to take it up with Calhoun as soon as he made landfall. Then, as he readied the ship for reentry, a globular display on Brim's COMM unit winked into life with a three-chime priority signal.
"Incoming Precedence-One message for you, Captain," a KA'PPA rating announced, "from Polkovnik Ursis back at Varnholm."
"A KA'PPA message?" Brim demanded. "We're below LightSpeed."
"It's a KA'PPA, Captain," the rating said.
"Very well," Brim said with a frown. "Put it on the display." He glanced at Tissaurd. "What could be so important that he needs to tell us before we land—and by KA'PPA?"
The tiny officer shrugged. "Beats me, Skipper," she said, leaning across her left-hand console to watch the old-fashioned characters appear on Brim's KA'PPA screen.
BNO-987HO97BFD GROUP Z98V09 13/52011
[UNCLASSIFIED]
FROM: N. Y. URSIS, CAPTAIN, R.F.F. @VARNHOLM HALL, ORDU
TO: B. O. CALHOUN, COMMODORE, R.F.F. COMMANDER, VARNHOLM HALL IVG DETACHMENT @ R.F.S. STARGLORY
COPIES:
W. A. BRIM, CMDR, R.F.F. @ R.F.S. STARFURY
F. L. MCKENZIE, CMDR, R.F.F. @ R.F.S. STARGLORY
T. D. MOULDING, CMDR, R.F.F. @ R.F.S. STARSOVEREIGN
IS OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION I.F.S. QUEEN EUDEAN ARRIVED VARNHOLM HALL PRECISELY FIFTEEN CYCLES PAST. LOCAL ABSENCE LARGE GRAVITY POOLS REQUIRES RETURN TO PARKING ORBIT APPROXIMATELY 150 C'LENYTS ALTITUDE. NO OVERT ACTION TOWARD VARNHOLM BASE IMPLIED, HOSTILE OR OTHERWISE. QUEEN CARRIES [NOTE RANK] VICE ADMIRAL PUVIS AMHERST DEMANDING IMMEDIATE MEETING UPON YOUR RETURN TO BASE. LEAGUE PASSENGERS POSSIBLE.
WITH MOST CHEERFUL REGARDS
N. Y. URSIS, CAPTAIN, IVG
[END UNCLASSIFIED]
BNO-987HO97BFD GROUP Z98V09 13/52011
"Sweet thraggling Universe," Brim swore softly. "Puvis Amherst—scum of the Empire and a Vice Admiral to boot." He shook his head angrily and scowled at Tissaurd. "The CIGAs are sure up to something, sneaking a battleship to Varnholm—and I'll bet none of our people knew about it. We'd have been warned, otherwise. No wonder Nik KA'PPAed—and in the clear."
"Yeah," Tissaurd agreed with a nod, "everybody in the Universe who wants to pick up that message will read it."
Brim glowered as he scanned his instrument panels. "The Commodore's got trouble now," he growled. "Amherst might be a scoundrel, but he's quick as a whipsnake—and a thousand times more dangerous."
"I sort of got that idea," Tissaurd said, backing away from his obvious rage.
"That's what I like about you, Number One," Brim chuckled, focusing through the forward Hyperscreens as an altitude warning began to flash on his nav panel. "You catch on fast." He switched on his COMM and contacted the Varnholm traffic controller. "Fleet K5054 descending through two hundred c'lenyts," he said.
"Fleet K5054: fly heading two thirty-five," the base replied. "Orbital traffic, fifty c'lenyts ahead of you: Imperial battleship."
"Two thirty-five heading; orbital traffic in fifty," Brim acknowledged. He glanced at Tissaurd. "Universe," he said, "the Queen herself. Amherst brought heavy support with him."
"Yeah," Tissaurd responded, squinting through the Hyper-screens. "I think I have her in sight."
"Fleet K5054," the controller broke in, "not to exceed forty-five hundred on the run-in; there's quite a bit of returning traffic right now; you'll probably have an eight- or nine-c'lenyt final it looks like."
Brim activated Starfury's powerful retarders and the ship began to slow. "OK, forty-five hundred on the speed, Fleet K5054," he replied, then peered ahead into the distance to a colossal, wedge-shaped form that was growing by the moment in the Hyperscreens as they approached. "Yeah," he said, "I see her. We'll pass within c'lenyts."
Tissaurd peered ahead as if she were mesmerized. "Sweet thraggling Universe, but she's beautiful. Skipper," she whispered aloud.
Brim nodded. The grand old ship had always been a symbol of everything worthwhile about the Empire she represented. "We'll have the salute. Number One," he said,
"Aye, Skipper," Tissaurd replied, touching a portion of her COMM console.
Overhead, KA'PPA rings shimmered out from Starfury's KA'PPA mast in the age-old Imperial salute; Brim had no need to check his console for the message, "may stars light all thy paths," nor the answer that shimmered forth from the battleship's lofty transmitter, "and thy paths, star travelers." As Starfury swept past no more than five or six c'lenyts from that majestic panorama of casemated turrets and wide-shouldered hull, the old warship looked powerful simply idling in orbit. He felt hairs tingle on the back of his neck. Queen Elidean and her four consorts were from another age—one that was dying even as the present war began. The future belonged to newer, smaller, more powerful breeds like Starfuries, and all too soon great ships like the Queen would fade into Universal darkness.
With the battleship receding in the distance, Brim's COMM panel came alive again: "Fleet K5054, check in with Varnholm Approach one one nine point four."
"One one nine point four, Fleet K5054," Brim acknowledged. Then he put the Queen from his mind. He had a starship to land, and afterward, it was very probable that he would have to help deal with Puvis Amherst. There was much to prepare....
* * *
As Brim swept over Varnholm Hall on final, he spotted a launch on one of the gravity pools that was bigger than anything Starfuries could carry. Clearly, Puvis Amherst had arrived. McKenzie's Starglory was nearby, already moored on her own gravity pool, so Calhoun was there as well. Brim took a deep breath to calm himself. He could imagine the conversations that were taking place.
Setting Starfury down with a minimum of runout, he hauled the big ship around in great cascades of spray, and taxied back to the pool area at high speed. Well-practiced docking crews quickly had the big cruiser secure on her pool, at which ti
me Ursis arrived at the foot of the brow, shading his eyes and squinting up at the bridge. He beckoned emphatically when Brim waved.
"Take care of her, Number One," the Carescrian ordered, sliding out of his recliner and heading back through the bridge at a trot. He took the companionways two steps at a time and arrived at the entry chamber even while the hatch was sliding aside. Ursis met him on the other side.
"The Commodore wants both of us in his office on the double," the Bear said. "Moulding and McKenzie are there already with Amherst. I saw an additional human emerge from their launch and join them, but I could not tell who it was."
Brim nodded, and the two trotted along the maze of stone catwalks that led to what was once an assay laboratory: leftover from Varnholm's original existence as a mining port. Two IVG guards—big Sodeskayan Sergeants, originally from the Special Security Corps—stood watchfully on either side of the door. Dwarfed at their sides were two human guards, wearing Imperial Fleet Cloaks embellished by large CIGA crests, who were casting worried glances at their IVG counterparts. As Brim and Ursis approached, one of the Bears opened the door, then both came to attention and saluted. The Imperials did not... until one of the Bears growled something in a low, menacing voice. At that, both humans immediately sprang to attention and saluted as if their lives depended on it. Brim stifled a laugh and returned their salutes. The terrified CIGAs were probably correct!
Inside the cramped "lobby," Barbousse and a third CIGA starsailor stood side by side, each holding a blast pike at the trail-arms position. Barbousse and the CIGA both saluted at the same time—smartly. Either Barbousse already had this one trained, or they'd actually run across a CIGA with some class. Barbousse opened the door and nodded. "Polkovnik Ursis, Cap'm Brim," he announced, "Commodore Calhoun asks that you go right in." Then he looked Brim directly in the eye and rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
