[Black Fleet Crisis(60)

The pilotless ferret D-89 had an appointment with an imaginary spot in space, twelve kilometers directly astern of the Teljkon vagabond.

Racing in on a trajectory at right angles to that of the vagabond, it would slice across the imaginary defensive sphere surrounding the vagabond in the maneuver sailors call crossing the T. D-89’s mission was to breach the perimeter much as the Hrasskis ship had, but not as aggressively as theBoldheart had.

“Minimal provocation, minimal risk to our assets, ” Pakkpekatt had ordered.

According to the plan, the ferret would be inside the vagabond’s defense perimeter for less than a second.

If the alien vessel tried to jump into hyperspace, the interdiction pickets were directly ahead, ready to stop it.

“Like clapping your hands behind a sandfrog to make him jump into your net, ” said Lando. “I hope the net holds, Colonel. “

“Do you have any reason to think it won’t? “

Lando shrugged. “We don’t know what sort of hyperspace drive that ship has. An interdiction field designed for our engines might not work on it. “

“It is not a matter of design, but of principle. No hyperdrive can operate in the shadow of a planetary gravity well. Or so I am assured by my technicians. And I have confidence in their expertise. “

“I’ll bet the captain of theBoldheart had confidence in his shields, too, ” Lando said. “A pity the Intelligence Service couldn’t lay hands on a full-fledged Interdictor for this mission-“

“Here it comes, ” Pakkpekatt said quietly.

“All recorders are on, ” sang out Lieutenant Harona.

“All shields at full strength. All commands report ready.

Interdiction field is ready. The captain of theLightning reports he is standing by to pursue if needed. “

“Nobody blink, ” Lando said under his breath.

In preparation for the

intercept, Pakkpekatt had ordered

that theGlorious be moved back from its usual trailing position fifteen klicks aft of the vagabond to the safer distance of twenty-five kilometers.

At that distance, the ferret would have been visible as a dot moving in swiftly from the right, the vagabond as an oblong dead ahead-if either ship had been lit by a nearby sun, carrying running lights or highlighted against the background of a bright nebula. None of those was the case, so there was nothing to see.

“Tracking, ” said Pakkpekatt.

A red circle appeared around the position of the alien vessel. A moving green circle marked the progress of the ferret.

“Magnify center, right, ” said the colonel.

The now familiar shadowy view of the tail of the vagabond ship filled the right third of the viewscreen.

“Let’s have the feed fromLightning , left, ” Pakkpekatt said. The left section of the forward bridge viewscreen acquired a pale blue border and shimmered into a profile-view of the strange vessel.

“I want to see the range, ” Pakkpekatt said.

Numbers appeared at the top of the forward viewscreen decrementing quickly at first, then ever more slowly. The two circles on the display merged for a moment as the range paused at the number 12.001, then began to increase.

Suddenly the bridge’s speakers began blasting out a wildly modulated sound. It could not be called musical, but there was no other ready word to describe the experience of it. Three men with headsets on tore them off and threw them down, only to find the sound still hammering at them, nearly as loudly, from the ship’s comm system.

Lando smiled in surprise when he discovered that the sound was both familiar and new to his ear-the same as the Hrasskis recording, but much more distinct.

For the first time, he could tell that there were two “melody” lines, something that only signal analyzers had been able to detect before.

There was relief on the bridge when the signal from the vagabond abruptly ceased. Its job done, D-89 continued out of the intercept area and off the bridge display.

Almost at the instant D-89’s tracking circle vanished, a brilliant white flash filled all three sections of the display, so intensely that those looking that way were left momentarily blinded. When the flash faded, the vagabond was gone from theLightning feed and suddenly smaller in the magnified view.

“What was that? ” Pakkpekatt demanded.

“Target jumped-but the field held it in realspace, ” said Harona.

“Target has moved ahead about three kilometers. Just sitting there now-no sign of sublight engine activity. “

“My heart jumped, too, ” said Lando. “For a moment there I thought she’d blown up. Or taken a shot at us. “

They waited for nearly an hour before deciding that nothing else was going to happen. Then Pakkpekatt ordered the spotter ships to move up, and hadGlorious brought back to its accustomed position, trailing fifteen klicks behind the vagabond.