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  The human spoke at length, and Cassian waited patiently for the AI to translate. Finally, the human stopped, and the AI began.

  "We understand you are running from the Bats. I am sorry to hear that they have destroyed your civilization. You may be sure that we will help you in any way that we can. But also, please understand, we cannot take any chances that you might, in fact, be spies for the Bat Empire. We do not know very much about the Bat Empire, and thus we must be careful. For that reason, we are going to ask you to come with us. We will escort you to another location, where we can communicate at length in comfort and safety. It will take about three weeks to reach our destination. We will re-provision your ship and provide you with vectors. We will be happy to transfer some or all of your passengers to our larger ships for the journey. Will this be satisfactory to you?"

  Cassian thought for a moment. These creatures were very leery of the Bats, he could tell. And in his mind, that made them potential allies. And he had to admit, if the tables were turned, he would probably act in the same cautious manner. He was sure that, wherever they were going, it wouldn't be anywhere close to the home planet of these creatures. Not unless they were completely stupid, and they didn't strike him in that vein.

  So, they would take him to a neutral location, far from their own space, and then there would be an interrogation - they might call it something else, but that's what it would be. And they would pick his brain for anything they could use against the Bats. Cassian could see the gleam in the eye of the human officer across the table from him. When the human realized that Cassian and his people were refugees from the Bat Empire, he nearly salivated at the thought of obtaining intelligence from them.

  But Cassian didn't care. He would tell them anything they wanted to know, if they gave him just one thing. Just one thing he wanted from these humans, after he saved his people in the corvette. Just one thing...

  A chance to kill Bats...

  Beehive Cluster - Near Pestilence Port

  22 April 2185

  "Out of six-space, Captain." said the Tac Officer.

  "Very good, Reah," said Hecate. "Set a course for Pestilence Port and keep us stealthed. If anybody is going to be surprised out here, I want it to be the other guys."

  "Roger, Mum," confirmed Reah.

  Andrea grinned. "Like a lion lurking among the sheep."

  "A small lion," said Hecate. "Let's not pick on anybody bigger than us."

  Turning back to the Tac Officer, Hecate asked, "What do we have in the system, Reah?"

  "Well," said Reah, "We have the A5-class star, two small rocky planets in close that are too hot for habitation, three gas giants out in the edge of the system with a lot of moons, and a ton of junk all around. It's a really cluttered-up system. Pestilence Port is on the largest moon of the innermost gas giant, basically a mining colony, low population. We have about a twelve-hour run-in to the port."

  "OK. Any threat areas I should be aware of, maybe a good place for an ambush?"

  "Oh, tons of them," said Reah. "Just take your pick. Like I said, a very cluttered up, junky system. Rocks everywhere."

  Hecate sighed. "OK. Keep your eyes peeled. This could very well be an ambush scenario. Let's don't get caught with our knickers down."

  "Roger, Skipper." agreed the Tactical Officer.

  As the Nemesis moved into the system, Hecate sat loosely in her command chair, while Andrea paced the bridge from console to console, looking over shoulders, cocked for action. Hecate smiled. That is why they were such a good team. She was the relaxed, thoughtful one, Andrea was the tightly wound spring. But if anything happened, both knew exactly how the other would react and how to use that to their advantage.

  Hecate was no protected, cosseted Princess of the Blood. Princess Deinomache, her mother, had also been a Fleet Navy Officer, and had worked her way up to Frigate Captain. Throughout Hecate's childhood, it had been understood she would serve in the Navy, and she had been prepared accordingly. Like all members of the Imperial family, she had trained in hand-to-hand combat from the age of six, mastered hand weapons and armor by ten, started flying her own flitter at thirteen, and flew her first space shuttle at fourteen. By the age of eighteen she had graduated from the Imperial Naval College at Aronte and entered the Fleet. And she had worked her way up the hard way - never once using her blood or her title for advancement. Now, at twenty-seven, she was a destroyer Captain, and would soon be in line for a frigate.

  "Contact!" yelled the Tac Officer. "I have a stealthed destroyer, barely visible, coming out from that big asteroid behind us, vectoring for our six, I designate DD1"

  "Battle Stations!" yelled Andrea. She turned to Hecate. "It's an ambush, all right,"

  As the klaxon sounded both overhead and in their internal comms, Hecate assessed the picture in the holo.

  "Bring us about forty-five degrees to the left, Helm, and make for that big moon over there by the outermost gas giant. Up to max standard. Let's get some protection behind that moon. Get our weapons hot, Guns. Comm, hail this bitch and see if she wants to talk."

  "Aye, Mum," said the Weapons Officer and Comm Officer simultaneously.

  "No response, ma'am. Still coming on, still stealthed. If we didn't have the new Mark II detectors, we wouldn't even know she was there."

  "Thank God’s thumb for that," said Andrea. She glanced at Hecate briefly. "I wonder if Auntie knows we have those..."

  Hecate shushed her. "Not now, Andrea. What's it looking like, Tac?"

  "Still coming hard, ma'am. She's gonna have us right about the time we get to that moon. Whoever she is, she's got a Mark II also. She's right on us."

  "OK, let's plan on a tight perigee with a vector change as we go around that moon, I want to scrape dirt off the tops of the mountains and come around it with enough vector change to make exit a good 20 degrees off vector from our inbound track. Let's see if we can fox this lady. Prepare for excess g's."

  The klaxon, which had stopped, sounded again with the singsong of the excess g warning, letting crew members know they were about to exceed the limits of the compensators.

  "Contact!" yelled the Tac Officer. "I have another stealthed destroyer, coming from behind the moon we're making for, designate DD2. It's a setup!"

  "Damn!" yelled Hecate. "I walked right into it!"

  Andrea yelled at the Helm, "Roll our belly armor to the bitch in front of us, she's closer, and get us the hell out of here!"

  "Aye, Mum!"

  "Guns, open fire with everything!" yelled Andrea.

  “Too close for missiles, Mum,” yelled the Weapons Officer. “They won’t arm before they hit!”

  "We're gonna get pounded," observed Hecate. "Hang on, everybody."

  The Nemesis’ railgun cannon let loose their first shots with deep thumps that shook the whole ship. At the same time, the Tac Officer yelled, "Incoming!" and then the sharp, metallic clang of a cannon round striking the armored belly of the destroyer nearly knocked everyone off their feet.

  "This bitch can shoot," yelled Andrea. "Waggle and Wobble, Helm. Guns, anything?"

  "Aye, mum, we hit her once. No obvious damage, but she knows we're here."

  "Let's do a little better than that. Keep firing!"

  Deep thumps from the aft cannons showed that the Weapons Officer had already decided that. But that was immediately followed by two more incoming cannon rounds striking their belly, in quick succession.

  "They’ve both got our range, now." said Tac. "We're bracketed."

  "Max Emergency, Helm!" yelled Andrea, diving for her command chair, and immediately got knocked to the floor as the Helm rather enthusiastically firewalled the engines to full emergency power, the initial 202g thrust exceeding the limits of the compensators by 2gs, then rising quickly as the AI piled on as much as it thought the humans inside the tin can could tolerate. With the destroyer on a random walk course away from the two enemy ships, the g-forces pushed Hecate deep into her seat while the random walk from the AI jerked her back and for
th against her straps. As the g-force built to the destroyer's max of 207g - 7 g over the limit of the compensators, crushing them into their seats - Andrea managed to finish crawling into her combat chair and strap herself in, blood oozing from her nose but otherwise seemingly OK. Hecate wondered how many broken bones this battle would cost the crew; but there was no choice. She was in a crossfire between two ships of equal size and firepower to hers, and both had her range. She had to change the equation. "Be ready, Guns!" she grunted.

  "Aye, ma'am" groaned Guns under the g-force. As their relative angle to the pursuers behind them opened a bit, Hecate heard her own aft cannons blazing away, alternating between the two pursuers. All three ships pounded each other for several seconds as Hecate rushed away from the battle line and the other ships twisted toward her.

  "Contact!" groaned the Tac Officer. "Another one, right in front of us, in stealth, just waiting for us, DD3!"

  "Crap!" spat Andrea.

  Hecate smiled grimly, shaking her head. "They've really got us in a box, Andy. Our only choice is to go right through this one. Helm - ram that bitch in front of us!"

  "Aye, mum!" yelled the Helm, her voice quavering.

  The Weapons officer launched all four of the Nemesis’ missiles at the destroyer in front of them, but they were so close that only one of them armed before reaching the target. It exploded near the other destroyer, but somewhat behind it, not doing any real damage.

  With her aft cannons alternating between the two pursuers now boxing her in from behind, the Nemesis charged toward the new enemy, firing both forward cannons as fast as possible at the ship before her, alarms flashing across the board.

  "Overheat on all cannon, Captain!" yelled Guns, her face shiny with sweat.

  "Keep firing, keep firing!" yelled Hecate as the ships rushed together.

  "Mum..." called the Helm, as they were a few seconds from collision.

  "Do! Not! Flinch!" yelled Hecate. At that moment, a tremendous explosion struck their ship, as the destroyer closest behind them scored a direct hit on their engines. The blast spun them to the side, an instant before they flicked by the ship in front, missing by less than a hundred meters. The lights went out, and every screen on the bridge went dark.

  The force of the explosion had knocked Hecate hard against the side of the command chair; she thought a rib was probably broken. Overhead, the emergency battle lights came on, building slowly to full intensity. The holotank flickered and resumed operation on battery power. But the picture it painted was not good.

  Andrea grunted in pain beside her, then whispered bitterly, "They've got us."

  Hecate nodded. "Yep. We're dead in the water. Guns are disabled, main engines are out, and we're just coasting along like so much junk. They'll come in and finish us off."

  Minutes later, smoke lay over the bridge, drifting in the light of the emergency battle lamps. They had managed to get the spin of the ship under control using docking thrusters, but everything else was out. Andrea stood behind the auxiliary command console and laid two rifles on top, facing the bridge entry. She shook her head. "Hecate, think what you are saying."

  Hecate paused from stacking extra ammo charges behind her own console and stared at Andrea. "Andrea, think about it. We get ambushed by three destroyers. All three of them have Mark II detectors. A perfect setup. This is Navy."

  In the holotank, the three enemy destroyers approached cautiously, a few minutes from boarding them.

  Andrea shuddered. "Hecate, no...it can't be..."

  Hecate glared at her. "Let's be realistic. You know Auntie. You know she's capable of anything. And now...I think we know who set up the ambush for my father, too."

  Andrea put her hands over her ears, as if to block out the sound. Then, taking her hands away, Andrea went on. "Why? Why would Auntie want to kill you? Or your father? He was no threat to her - why would she do that? He was about as disinterested in Palace business as anyone I've ever known. All he wanted to do was to pursue his stupid Earther theories. And you - you're what, fourth in line?"

  Hecate sighed. "Actually, third. I know. A long way from first or second. But this is a crazy world we live in. This is a setup, and it’s Navy, and that means it's Auntie."

  Andrea thought out loud. "I take it that means, there'll be no survivors."

  Hecate grimaced. "You got it. That’s why they’re boarding us, to make sure."

  Commander Andrea Iona Satra gave a big smile. "Good, then I don't have to worry about accidentally killing any good guys!" She hefted her pulse rifle, checking the charge for the second time since they had passed out weapons for their last-ditch stand.

  Hecate gestured to the Tac Officer. "Make sure everybody has spare ammunition and..."

  "Contact!" yelled the Tac Officer. "Frigate, designate FF1. I think...it's the Black Ship!"

  Hecate turned to the holotank. The wedge-shaped Black Ship appeared well above and off their port beam, moving backwards in a hard combat decel, just coming into range equidistant between the three enemy destroyers. Before Hecate could even think, the much larger frigate class beam weapons and cannon of the Black Ship lashed out multiple times in succession, faster than any destroyer could hope to return fire. Within seconds, all three enemy destroyers were hit, and hit hard. The one closest to them, off their tail, shed several large fragments. Firing back, the three destroyers hit the frigate but with no apparent effect, their rounds glancing off the front wedge of the frigate while making bright yellow flashes.

  Hecate yelled. "Guns - get me a weapon! Anything!"

  The Weapons Officer stared at her. "If I drop life support, comp and lights, I think I can get one rail gun up for about thirty seconds."

  "Do it!" yelled Hecate.

  The lights dropped, and gravity went away. The Weapons console powered up. Hecate stared at the holo. The black frigate fired again at the destroyer directly in front of them, and it began to turn away, preparing to run.

  Hecate yelled at Guns. "That one! The instant you see her ass, let her have it!"

  As the fleeing destroyer made its turn, its engines came into view. Instantly the Weapons Officer fired the rail gun. Too fast for the eye to follow, a huge railgun slug entered the starboard engine of the enemy destroyer. The destroyer exploded in a fireball, shredding metal in every direction, including dozens of fragments that came back toward the Nemesis, pounding against the hull like rain. Seconds later, as the other two enemy destroyers were lashed hard by the black frigate's fire, they tried to accelerate away from the action. As they powered away, another one exploded in a fireball. The Black Ship continued to fire at the third enemy destroyer as it departed, taking bits and pieces off it - until suddenly its engines quit and it coasted, bleeding air and debris, on a course to nowhere.

  Inside the bridge, Guns powered down the rail gun and her console. Slowly the battle lamps came back on, dim and barely visible, gravity came back, and the air handlers started up again.

  “Zeus’s Balls!” breathed Andrea Iona. She hit the "Off" switch on the pulse rifle she was holding, and it began whining down as it returned to an inactive status. Hecate realized she was also still holding a powered pulse rifle and hit the "Off" switch on it as well.

  The Comm officer lifted her head. "Mum, we're being hailed!"

  Hecate looked at her, in shock. "Put it on," she said.

  A female voice came over their comms: "...assistance? Over. Rim Defense Force Frigate Paris to Aeolian Destroyer Nemesis, may we offer assistance? Over."

  Onboard the Frigate RDF Paris

  Hecate stepped off the AEN Nemesis onto the improvised docking adapter. She took another two steps; the third took her off the docking adapter onto the RDF Paris. Close behind her came Andrea Iona. A strange warbling sounded as she entered the Black Ship; two ratings and two officers on each side snapped to attention and saluted her as she entered the bay; she was shocked to see one of the officers was male. Behind her, she heard Andrea Iona gasp. The man on the end was holding a whistle in hi
s mouth, blowing the warbling tone. A tall female officer standing next to him stepped forward and spoke in perfect Aeolian. "Welcome aboard, Princess-Captain. I'm the XO, Commander Prentiss. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to the Admiral’s day cabin."

  Hecate nodded curtly and followed her out of the entrance bay, down a passageway and then, after a turn, along another passageway to a stairwell. Up the stairwell they went, and directly onto the bridge of the starship. Hecate had little time to look around; but she noted it was much larger than the one on the Nemesis. Several command chairs sat to the rear of a large central holotank, easily three times the size of the one on her destroyer. Operational consoles were arranged in rows behind the holotank, facing forward. Before she could register more, Commander Prentiss led them through a hatch into a cabin on the port side of the bridge.

  Inside the cabin, Hecate noted a desk with two chairs in front, and a hatch in the rear, though which she could see a couch. To her right, another hatch opened into a separate conference room, into which Commander Prentiss led them.

  As they entered, a man stood up from the far side of the table. His uniform was remarkably like that of the Aeolian Navy dress uniform, white, with gold trim and buttons. His shoulder boards contained four gold stripes.

  Commander Prentiss announced her. "Captain Egan, Princess-Captain Hecate Andromache Aronte and her XO, Commander Andrea Iona Satra."

  Captain Egan stepped forward and reached out a hand to Hecate in a strange gesture. In something of a daze, she extended hers forward also. He shook her hand up and down. How strange, she thought, to see male officers – and a Captain at that! She couldn’t help but turn to look at Andrea, who was standing beside her with her mouth open.