"We'll make do. How soon can you get underway? We're in a bit of a hurry."
Jordana Tegge offered a smug smile. "We've been ready since our scanners picked you up four hours out."
"Then let's do it, Captain. Follow at a distance of thirty marks."
"Will do. Tegge out." The viewscreen went blank.
"Mondragon?" Tal turned to Jagan, who was seated beside Kass at Tactical. He might be determined to add Scorpio to the rebellion, but, by Omni, he wasn't so stupid he failed to hedge his bets.
"Perhaps if I could touch her . . ." Jagan mused. "Betrayal of the Empire should be such a massive emotional upheaval, I expected to feel something. Truth is, reading Tegge was almost like trying to read a robot. There was . . . nothing. Pardon the mixed metaphor, but that woman's one cold son of a bitch."
"I agree," Kass murmured.
Of course she did. Tal stifled a wince.
"I'm beginning to think not all the witches are on Psyclid," Jagan said. "Some of the Empire's outer limits may be getting up to tricks of their own. Tegge is from off-world, is she not?"
"Epsilon 3, one of Regula's more recent conquests."
Jagan nodded. "Either they have acquired talents of their own, or they have indulged in a bit of racial mixing," he offered. "Off-hand, I would guess Tegge has her own set of talents, including a mental curtain strong enough to cover her entire crew. And just to make it more interesting, this could go both ways. She could be the best non-Psyclid ally you've yet acquired, or she could be out to slit your throat. And none of us the wiser until the moment comes. "Sorry," Jagan added, but Tal noted the sorcerer didn't bother to hide his grin as he became aware that every pair of eyes on the bridge was staring at him.
Nor did Tal have any difficulty catching the message-perhaps Kass's talents were rubbing off on him. Weird wasn't quite covering the sudden influx of the psychically gifted into the rebellion. Mondragon might find it amusing, Tal didn't. Then again, if Tegge had Psyclid-like gifts, it seemed more likely she would side with the rebels than with the inflexible, unbelieving Empire.
"Helmsman, set course to Choya gate."
After a bit of midnight persuasion, Kass had admitted to knowing an alternate wormhole on the far side of Tat, one she hadn't mentioned while urging him to avoid Tat altogether. The only problem, she'd told him, was that in order to reach Choya gate, they had to pass within five hundred marks of 323, the standard jumpgate they'd used when first traveling to Tat. The gate where Fleet might well be waiting. And if they took a roundabout route to Choya gate, the battlegroup that had ambushed them earlier would have time to catch up. Presuming, of course, Fleet suspected that Astarte had returned to Tat and not headed directly back toward the heart of Regulon territory. Or someone, using Fleet's powerful communication system, had informed them
As always, Tal had to assume worst case-a battlecruiser and two hunterships were still on his heels. And furious over Mondragon's deception. Therefore, Astarte would make best speed to Choya and hope their luck held out.
"Engineering, give us all you've got. I want to tear past 323 like a comet hell-bent on exiting the whole batani galaxy."
He felt Kass smile. Maybe one day soon-if they lived that long-he'd begin to like this soulmate thing.
Chapter 27
They were two days out of Tat and moving fast, hoping to bypass gate 323 far enough off Fleet scanners that any lurking blockade would never know they were there. Kass, after nearly four years at the Academy absorbing the latest in Fleet technology, had her doubts. The former Orion's systems had not been updated in more than two years. It was possible Fleet scanners would pick up the two rogue hunterships while Astarte's scanners remained blank.
The critical moments when they were closest to 323 were approaching fast. K'kadi, who swore he was recovered from his last psychic effort, was seated next to her at Tac, Jagan once again occupying the second seat at Engineering. Kass reached out with her limited telepathy. Jagan?
Nothing. But my skin crawls like the days before the invasion.
Tell him!
He knows. He's just hoping this won't be a worst case.
Kass repressed a shiver. She'd fought to attend the Academy so she could become a warrior. Now was the time to prove she could be something more than Captain Rigel's hotshot Psyclid freak playing at war.
K'kadi's fingers closed over Kass's arm, offering comfort. Did he too feel doom hovering? Or was he simply picking up on her personal distress? Kass patted his hand, flashed a reassuring smile.
Tension on the bridge was so high the air twanged with it, like an overwound lutà string. But the crew remained controlled, professional. The bridge crew might be rebels dressed as smugglers, they might be running for their lives, but their discipline was all Fleet.
Kass kept her eyes fixed on her hologlobe, its range set to maximum. They were coming up on Gate 323 . . . passing 323, passing, passing . . . all scanners clear. Kass watched Tal's jaw tighten as he gave the order to decrease speed and make the course correction that would send them into a shallow climb toward Choya. Kass gulped a breath. So far, so good.
K'kadi poked her in the ribs. Kass scowled at her hologlobe, still seeing nothing. Her brother jammed a finger at the edge of the globe nearest Gate 323, now behind them, where a dark shadow had suddenly appeared. As Kass watched, hoping she seeing nothing more than a glitch in the graphics, the shadow separated into multiple amorphous shapes. Five of them. No-o! Kass grimaced as the shapes took on definition, transforming into recognizable icons. A battlecruiser, two hunterships, and two frigates. Pok, dimi, and fyd!
Not a good day to die. Too much left undone. Too little love. Too little life.
"Battlegroup," Dorn Jorkan called out. "Headed straight for us. They know we're here."
"Comm, alert Scorpio," Tal snapped. "Engineering, if there's any more speed in this bucket of bolts, now's the time. K'kadi, can you disappear a ship long-distance?" Tal paused, rephrased. "What I'm asking is, can you make Scorpio disappear instead of Astarte?"
K'kadi's azure eyes grew wide. He glanced at Kass, tossed his mane of white-blond hair, then stared at the hologlobe where Scorpio's icon glowed clearly, precisely thirty marks behind Astarte. He drew a deep breath. Scorpio winked out.
Exclamations and harshly expelled breaths rippled across the bridge. "Well done, K'kadi, thank you," Tal said. "Bring Scorpio back. I'll tell you when we need to do it for real. "Mondragon, anything you can do for us?"
Kass shivered. A firefight was out of the question. They didn't stand a chance, but with the combined talents of Jagan, K'kadi, and herself . . .
Jagan and K'kadi, Kass amended, chagrined. Her great talent was teleportation, and in this situation she was useless. Messing with the missile trajectories of five Fleet warships, and the swarm of fighters they would launch, was out of the question. She simply couldn't do it. Useless, she was useless.
No, you're not.
Dimi! Jagan needed to stay out of her head. Am so! Kass returned. Forget about me and concentrate on one of your magic spells to slow them down.
"Three hundred marks and closing," Kass intoned. Pok, but Fleet's newest engines were fast!
Now all they needed was for Scorpio to launch missiles straight up their tail. Then Tal would know who was right.
Appalled, Kass considered her fleeting thought. There was a word for that kind of attitude. The ancients called it a Pyrrhic victory. In other words, you might be right, but you would be too dead to enjoy it.
"Time to Choya?" Tal asked.
"Eighty minutes at max sub-light," Kass returned.
Fyd!
Kass could only hope no one but Jagan heard Tal's reaction.
"I can buy us some time, Rigel," Jagan declared, "but I'll need to leave the bridge, work with my people. Sorry, but that's the best I can do. You'll have to trust me."
Kass? Tal asking her opinion.
Go for it.
"Permission to leave the bridge granted." Am I going to be sorry about this?
Kass returned a wave of reassurance. Whatever Jagan was or wasn't on a personal level, he excelled in the practice of magic. Especially when he broke one of Psyclid's most basic rules and linked minds with his assistants in the forbidden enlasé. And that was almost certainly what he was about to do.
Sixty minutes. "Battlegroup, two hundred marks and closing." And no sign Jagan and his magic circle of companions were doing anything but sitting around drinking kafi and telling tales of past travels.
Unfair. Jagan's coterie of warlocks and witches were as interested in saving their own skins as everyone else.
Half the distance to Choya and the battlegroup was still gaining. Kass gasped, blinked, refocused on her hologlobe, just as she heard, "What the fyd . . . ?" coming from the captain's chair.