[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Rapier's wing and punched it into a spiraling climb.
"Here we go, ladies," she began, then kissed her career goodbye. "Break and
attack!"
Bishop and Hunter responded immediately, peeling away and booting off guided
missiles.
Although Cheddarboy and Gangsta hesitated a second, they pledged themselves
to Angel by showering two of the Rapiers with concentrated blasts of neutron
fire.
The veteran Sinatra banked hard and came around on the Diligent's six o'clock
to simultaneously launch two dumbfire missiles at nearly point-blank range.
No, he hadn't directed his fire at the merchantman, but at two Rapiers whose
pilots were obviously too intent on their strafe. They flew in a tight pair,
just a couple of meters off each other's wings.
"Ouch," Sinatra said dryly as the two fighters vaporized in a rolling carpet
of contiguous explosions.
Another Rapier sliced across Angel's cone of fire, and she banked on a wall
of vacuum to follow. A guided missile veered after the Rapier, accelerated at
the last second, then jammed itself up the fighter's port exhaust cone. She
grimaced as sophisticated machinery became scorched scrap metal. Then the
strange absence of blips on her radar scope drew her attention. Six blue dots
appeared on the display, with a quartet of enemy contacts shifting off to
port.
"The rest are buggin'," Gangsta said. "Descending to escort position."
"All of you shift to escort." Angel turned on a wing and thundered off to
Page 196
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
catch up with the merchantman. She opened a comm channel, general frequency.
"Angel to Diligent , copy."
Blair appeared on her Visual Display Unit, and suddenly his absence felt more
like years than weeks. He looked somewhat leaner, his face more haggard, more
lined, his hair a little longer than she preferred. What was with that robe?
And hadn't he lost his Pilgrim cross? "Commander," he said stiffly.
"Lieutenant Marshall and I have five civilians on board."
"Marshall's alive?"
The blond jock shoved Blair away from the camera. "Lieutenant Todd
'Maniac'Marshall back from the dead, ma'am !"
"You would've liked your memorial service, Maniac.Lot of women were there.
What did you do? Score with half the crew?"
"Those days are behind me."
"Really."
"Is Zarya with you? I can't find her private channel."
"Commander?" Bishop said, breaking into the link. "Check out the
supercruiser."
Angel looked to starboard, where nearly a kilometer away the grand capital
ship seemed to cower before the faceless black head of the well.
"Hey, Commander? I asked you a question," Maniac said. "Is Zarya with you?"
Blair pulled up a telescopic image of the supercruiser. He held his breath as
she soared at Point of No Return velocity toward a gravitic winter storm
consuming thousands of metallic leaves. Its power ghastly, breathtaking, even
beautiful, the gravity well marked an ebony dimple in a sheet of space
otherwise illumined by Earth's pale blue glow.
"She cut the transmission," Maniac cried, scowling from the copilot's chair.
"You believe that? I think something's happened to Zarya."
"The Olympus has reached the jump point," Merlin said. "In about five seconds
it'll tear apart just like that Snakeir we baited into Scylla. And still no
word from Commodore Taggart. I'm continuing to hail on all frequencies." He
cocked a thumb back at the viewport. "Our capital ships are opening tubes. If
the well doesn't get the Olympus , the torpedoes will."
Scores of white lines stretched from the string of Confederation ships and
crossed each other's trajectories in a patchwork of residue that needled on
toward the supercruiser. So startling was the image of the well, the fleeing
ship, and the horde of pursuing torpedoes that Blair had trouble watching.
Paladin's not on board. He's not.
TheOlympus began pulsating with light, as though waves of gravity lapped at
her bending and coruscating hull. Her wedge-shaped bow seemed to tuck itself
in, and her mountainous superstructure began to flatten toward her antimatter
guns, as though she shied from the enormity of her fate.
And then&
Page 197 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]