Chapter 3: Pursuit

Rand crossed the bridge to his console, moving as quietly as he could. Less than ten minutes remained before their next null space jump. All of Captain Jeryth's attention seemed to be on the ship's sensors, but Rand knew that his entrance had been duly noted.

He smoothed back an unruly lock of damp hair from his forehead as he slid into his seat. He'd barely had time to step into a shower before leaving his quarters, shrugging into a fresh uniform from a dispenser as he walked down the corridor to the bridge. The ready light on his console came on as he sat down, and he realized that he no longer had to punch in for his presence to be known to Skryben.

'... nine minutes and twelve seconds from... Mark!... '

The count down resonated within his mind with electronic precision, just as he knew the time of day by the ship's clocks, and where they were in relation to their starting point within the Imperial Cluster. The space around them remained clear...

"Third Officer Korsun." The Captain's voice was low, yet clear. "If you will reserve your attention for the duties of your position, I will remain on guard against any surprise by our Vortigen friends."

Rand flushed, and busied himself with rechecking his calculations. A few times, his fingers failed to keep up with his racing thoughts, and the results of his calculations appeared on his screen before he had quite finished typing in his figures. Then he calmed, letting his training take over from his emotions, and things went better. Was that flash of amusement really from the mind of Skryben, or was he listening in on another mind? The touch of laughter softened, and he had an instant glimpse of Berniss' sparkling eyes. In his imagination, she blew him a kiss before turning her attention back to her duties.

'... six minutes and forty seconds from... Mark!... '

Almost time, now. Everything was ready. Skryben was one of the newer ships of the fleet, and could jump at intervals of exactly thirty minutes, thanks to her late model fusion generators. Older ships of her class could take several minutes longer to recharge their capacitors. He'd studied their characteristics at the Academy. Hedn, for instance, could jump every thirty one minutes and forty seconds when recharging at max, while the older Bettvin took a full thirty four minutes. A few of the newer ships, such as Beddlz, could jump in even less time than Skryben.

"YELLOW ALERT! YELLOW ALERT! ALL HANDS! MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! YELLOW ALERT! YELLOW ALERT!"

Once again, he could hear the sound of crew members racing to their posts. There was little chance that the enemy could appear at a point within firing range before jump time, but the Captain was taking no chances.

'... three minutes and ten seconds from... Mark!... '

"First Officer Tshegh." The Captain's voice was as calm as ever. "Prepare to fire if any target presents itself. Hit them before they recover from the confusion of their jump."

At his console, Joerd Tshegh nodded, all of his attention centered on his board.

'... thirty seconds from... Mark!... '

The screens stayed clear... Stayed clear...

"Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors charged. Ready for jump."

Third Shift Pilot An Inpi, report!"

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Do it!"

In the instant before Third shift Pilot An Inpi could close the switches, a glare of energy washed over Skryben's flanks. One Vortigen raider had emerged within a fraction of a light second of them! Then the flare of released energy was gone, and they were resting peacefully, light years away from their foe.

"Jump completed." Homr An Inpi held his voice steady. Rand, wondering how the pilot could recover so quickly, fought back a surge of nausea as he tried to focus his eyes on the figures that danced on the screen of his console.

"Jump completed," he managed to report. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

"Very good." Captain Jeryth's voice echoed throughout the ship as he continued, "STAND DOWN FROM BATTLE STATIONS. RESUME YELLOW ALERT IN TWENTY THREE MINUTES FROM... MARK.

"Now, let's see what the screens recorded." He stepped back slightly as the center screen played back the happenings of the last few minutes. Time slowed to a crawl as Skryben stretched out the playback to a time scale mere humans could comprehend. Only a few tens of thousands of kilometers away, a point of light appeared. It grew brighter, spreading in a globular flare that radiated all across the range of frequencies, from long radio waves on up through the hardest cosmics. Within the hollow sphere of radiation, a tiny speck was barely visible through the glare. Then, off to one side, another point of light appeared, and another, only to snap off as Skryben jumped.

"Three ships, at least. Jumping in tight formation, unless that was just a fluke. Does anyone have any suggestions as to our next move?"

The bridge was silent for a moment, then Tshegh cleared his throat.

"Ah, we could wait for them to appear, then attack."

"We could. Against three foes, I calculate that we would have approximately one chance in thirteen point seven six of winning. Even worse odds, if there are more of them. We'll do it, if we have to, but let's save that one for a last resort. Any other suggestions? Third Officer Korsun? You seem to have something in mind. Do you have a fresh viewpoint, an idea to contribute?"

Rand hardly heard him. He was already intent on his screen, playing scenario after scenario through the ship's main processors as fast as he could feed in the information. At last he paused, conscious that the others on the bridge were staring at him.

"Sir? Oh, yes. I think so, but it's another really long chance. Everything would have to work just right, and I'd suggest saving it until we're in a lot more trouble than we are now. Until then, we'd be better off just running as fast as we can, and hoping that we can shake them off."

"You're probably right." The Captain's expression was unreadable. "But, tell us anyway what your plan is."

"I don't have all of the details worked out, yet," he apologized, pressing the keys that would display the results of his calculations. "First of all, I've assumed that the Vortigen ships will take at least a few seconds longer than we do to recharge."

"Why is that?" The question came from First Officer Tshegh. "Both jumps, they appeared about the same length of time before we left."

"The first jump, they were a long ways off. We didn't see their flare until several seconds after they arrived. The second jump, we didn't see them at all. The third jump, we spent some extra time, waiting for some repairs to be completed, and they caught up with us. They were right in our laps, and they still didn't arrive until just before we jumped. That indicates to me that we've got several seconds on them in recharge time."

"On the slowest of the three ships, assuming that they'll want to stay together as long as they can." Captain Jeryth continued to look at Rand's display. "Go on."

"Second, we have the ability to make jumps to very precise positions, with much finer control than we normally bother to use. We have plenty of time between jumps for all the computations we would need. The Vortigen ships will have to maneuver into almost exactly the same position we jumped from, in order to follow us so closely. If we were to make a short jump, using less than half of our stored power, then jump back almost immediately, we'd be right in the middle of them as they came together to follow us. You saw what the splash from their landing did to us from thousands of kilometers away. If they'd been much closer, they'd have fried our hull. If we came out right in their midst, at a distance of only a few tens, or hundreds of kilometers, the damage from our splash, even from a half power jump, would be a lot worse than a direct hit from one of our beams. We would have at least as much power in our capacitors as they would, and we'd be in a better position to hit them."

"It is a possibility. And you're right, it would be very risky. If they were too scattered, or if there were too many of them, we'd be sitting right in the middle of their formation, without the power to jump out of danger. If it worked too well, we could even end up in a collision. You've all seen training films, showing what happens when a ship comes out in the same place as another solid body. It would be a toss up whether we'd recover from the jump before they got their wits together. We won't try it except as a last resort. All right, do all of the necessary calculations. Store them in an Exec file, with all of the piloting moves included, so that we can call it up automatically. I wouldn't want to rely on a pilot to push the right buttons for it, so close to a previous jump." He switched the screens back to show an outside view. "All right. Make sure that we have everything prepared for our next jump, then take a few minutes to rest. This is going to be a long trip, and you'll need all of your energy."

With a jolt of surprise, Rand realized that only a little over an hour and a half had passed since he'd been awakened by the first approach of the Vortigen ships. He'd had a couple of hours of sleep, before that, but he'd been short on sleep for days. He finished his task, and gave a cursory look at the display on the navigation console. Finding everything in order, he headed for his cabin.

'... eleven minutes and six seconds from... Mark!... '

"Wake me in eight minutes," he commanded, mentally, as his eyes closed. He didn't even bother to kick off his boots as he sprawled on the narrow bed, and never did remember the feeling of his head touching the pillow.

'... three minutes and six seconds from... Mark!... '

'... two minutes and fifty seconds from... Mark!... '

'... TWO MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS FROM... MARK!... '

'... All right, all right! I'm moving!... '

Rand struggled upright, feeling worse than if he'd stayed awake, and staggered into the hallway. By the time he reached the bridge, his head had pretty well cleared and he was feeling halfway human. He slumped into his chair, bracing his head on his left hand while his right played over the keys of his board. Figures danced across his screen, but he found that he was getting most of the information direct from Skryben's banks. Captain Jeryth had called for yellow alert status before he woke, and the crew members were already back at their battle stations.

Once again (or was it still?), Captain Jeryth stood immobile before the great central screen. All about them, space was dark and empty. Behind them, the great glowing ball of the Imperial Cluster hung, taking up more than a quarter of that segment of the screen. Ahead, the Vortigen Drift sprawled, an ungainly, twisting rope of star stuff that glowed with its own light against the darkness of the void. Beyond it, lesser groupings and clusters of stars formed an unexplored background, too far away to be of interest to any of the Empire's missions or trading combines.

The Vortigen ships were powered and propelled by engines that were close copies of the Empire's. There were no records to prove it, but the resemblance was too exact to be pure chance. Some zealous Ursudine missionary or luckless trader, scouting for souls to save, or new worlds to do business with, had fallen into the hands of the Vortigen. It might have been decades, perhaps even centuries ago. Even now, too little was known about the Vortigen. Were they a single race, holding dominion over the worlds of their drift? Or were they, like the humans, the space faring representatives of a cluster wide culture of many races? That was one of the questions that Skryben's voyage was meant to answer. If they could slip unseen into the Vortigen Drift... If they could explore, undetected... If, in the final analysis, they could return alive... If... !

'... one minute and zero seconds from... Mark!... '

"RED ALERT! RED ALERT!"

"First Officer Tshegh." The Captain's voice was calm. "The same orders as before. Prepare to fire if any target presents itself."

Joerd Tshegh nodded, his attention centered on his board.

'... thirty seconds from... Mark!... '

The screens stayed clear... Stayed clear...

"Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors charged. Ready for jump."

"Third shift Pilot Inpi, report!"

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Hold steady, now. Wait for them to show."

The seconds stretched out... Stretched out...

"Do it!"

Rand had the impression that the ship actually jumped before the command was given, but he couldn't be sure. The glare of light from the screens cut off, even as it appeared, and they were once again far from their starting point.

"Jump completed." Homr An Inpi's voice wasn't quite so steady, this time. So, even he wasn't immune to the effects of repeated jumps. Rand had begun to wonder.

"Jump completed," he managed to report. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

"Very good." Captain Jeryth's voice echoed throughout the ship as he continued. "STAND DOWN FROM BATTLE STATIONS. RESUME YELLOW ALERT IN TWENTY THREE MINUTES FROM... MARK."

"Thirty minutes and forty one seconds," Rand reported, scanning his console. "We have almost exactly forty one seconds on them."

"Confirmed." Captain Jeryth nodded slightly. "Set up figures for a series of fifty straight away jumps along our present heading, with a small random deviation programmed into each jump after the thirtieth. That should take us well past the Drift, ending more than a full jump ahead of our friends. Then, we'll take a jump at sixty degrees to our present course, angling off to rimward. We'll pause there, until we're sure that we aren't being followed."

"But..." Rand's objection died, unvoiced. Fifty jumps, at thirty minute intervals!

"ATENTION, ALL CREW!" He could hear the Captain's voice echoing through all parts of the ship. "We are commencing a continuous series of at least fifty jumps, as rapidly as our capacitors can be recharged. Work will continue as usual on repairs of battle damage during this time. Medication will be issued to work crews as needed. Those not on duty at any given time should remain in their quarters, resting as much as possible."