The Insurrection

They'll want to stay close--inside HBM range.

Sandoval waited impatiently. His cutter had come through the begi

"Commander Sandoval," she began without greeting or preliminary, "I'd better bring you up to speed.

Admiral

Trevayne is seriously injured and out of action.

I've assumed command. Nelson's shields are down and there's not much left of her armor. She's taken significant internal damage, including the virtual destruction of her flag deck; she can still maneuver, but we'll have to get her inside our globe. Captain Mujabi has taken command of BG 1. We've lost Olqmpus, and Drake and two more superdreadnoughts have taken heavy damage.

At the same time, the rebels have taken considerable HBM damage, but they're still closing. They'll be in beam range shortly." Sandoval gaped at her. Mother of God, what did the woman use for blood? Formaldehyde?

Aloud, he asked, "And Commodore Yoshinaka, sir?" "Alive and well." "I'd better get back, rejoin him.... his "Out of the question, Commander. You can't fly a cutter through what's happening out there." Was it possible that there was a very slight ironic twinkle in her eyes?

"Welcome aboard, Commander... and strap in tight.

Things are going to get bumpy." "Sir, we can't stop them! They just keep coming!" Magda Petrovna regarded her fighter commander levelly. Commodore Huyler was a good man under normal conditions, but these weren't normal. His pilots were doing everything perfectly--but what could you do when your enemy suddenly began to ignore everything your fighters handed out while he concentrated on mauling your flight decks? And those damned improved force beams were just the weapon to do it with, she thought grimly.

"Admiral." It was the rating monitoring Han's eom traffic. "Parnassus is Code Omega--coms is Copperhead. Shiriken reports total loss of energy armament." "Do your best, Commodore," she told Huyler.

"If you can't stop them all, try to cripple as many as possible. Go for the heavy cruisers--you've got better odds there. The screen will just have to handle the battle-cruisers." "Aye, aye, sir." The screen blanked, and Magda glanced at her battle plot. She hid her fears well, she thought, for that was part of the game. Yet her carriers had to remain in support range of the capital ships.

If she let herself be driven INSU-AAECTON away, those mammbth monitors and supermonitors would overwhelm Han no matter what. She leaned over and touched a eom stud, opening an all-ships cha

"Well?" Captain Joseph Yuan, M.D., rose and looked into Genji Yoshinaka's anxious face.

Repair parties labored furiously about them, rep left-brace essurizing the charnel house that had been a flag bridge. Since they and the medics had arrived, Yoshinaka had finally had time to worry.

For the first time since Yuan had known him, his control was perceptibly frayed.

"The admiral is suffering from acute anoxia, shock, and concussion," Yuan said in a voice of dispassionate professionalism. "His spinal cord is severed just below the fifth vertebra, and he has severe radiation poisoning. It's a miracle he's alive--and he won't be for very long.

I doubt a fully-equipped dirtside hospital could deal with this. I Yoshinaka fumbled to grasp what he had heard.

Yuan had warned him he might have gotten a bit of concussion himself, but that could not fully explain his pain and confusion.

"You're telling me yoeau, can't save hm?ful" "Not necessarily.

Two of Yuan's technicians entered, wheeling in a strangely repellent object. Its attached instrumentation and tankage couldn't hide its basic shape; it was a coffin. Yuan pointed at it.

"There's one chance--not a good one, but beggars can't be choosers. If we act fast, we can get him into th cryogenic bath. "Freeze" him, to use the vulgar term. Now, you realize that this procedure normally involves an extensive workup, but we haven't time for any of that.

We won't be able to "unfreeze" hims" Yoshinaka stared at Yuan as he would have stared at a horrifyingly calm, reasonable lunatic.

"What... what's the use, then, ff... hiswas The doctor raised a hand. "We can't unfreeze him now.

But we can suspend his vital functions indefinitely. And maybe at some time in the future we'll be able to undo the effects of this quickie job and repair the other damage. I can't promise that, but..." His temper flared, and Yoshinaka realized that this man might feel as strongly about Ian Trevayne as he did. "Damn it, this is our only chance to save him!" The technicians had been making hurried preparations as he talked. Now one of his medics looked up suddenly. "Doctor, his vital signs are weakening fast." "Goddamn it!" Yuan's face twisted in angry grief. "We may be too late already!

Get him in there! Move, manl Move!" On a sunlit beach in Old Terra's Midworld Sea, a little girl with chestnut hair smiled and beckoned, and Lieutenant Commander Ian Trevayne ran to join her.

Scan Remko's eyes swept the officers facing hm-hi flag captain and staff--comand his New Detroit Accent, always harsh, was a saw. "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't give a flying fuck about damage reports." His hand slapped his plot like a gunshot. "It's our job to keep those rebel fighters off the admiral, and that means forcing close engagement with their carriers. Those are my orders from the admiral. So I don't want to hear about fighters or missiles or any other goddamned thing. All that matters is that they've stopped backing away and we can get at them.

"You've never liked me much, have you, Captain?" Cyrus Waldeck looked him straight in the eye and spoke just as quietly. "I hate your guts, sir. But for now, let's go kill those rebel bastards!" Remko extended his hand. Waldeck took it.

"Sir, the enemy screen has forced a close engagement with Admiral Petrovna. She'll need every fighter she's got just to hold them off--she can't send her first strike back into the main engagement." Rear Admiral Jason Windrider eyed his chief of staff coldly. He didn't know Magda, Jason thought--not if he thought she'd hold back fighters Han needed. He watched her flagship's light flicker as it took hits, and his teeth ground together. Never before had they been in the same battle aboard different ships, and only now did he truly realize how much it could cost two warriors to love.

He stared at his plot bitterly. He had nothing heavier than a destroyer under his own command--just a lot of immobile barges and tiny escort carriers without a single offensive weapon of their own. There was no way he could come to Magda's aid, even if his orders had allowed it.

"Sir! We've intercepted a signal from Admiral Petrovna." Jason's eom officer faltered under his bitter eyes. "She... she's seeation, ding her first strike back to support Admiral Li, sir.

Jason closed his eyes briefly, staring deep into his soul. Then he nodded once, sharply. When he spoke, his voice was calm.

"Signal to Admiral Petrovna: "Suggest you recall fighters. Am moving to support battle-line and rearm fighters engaged against enemy main body. Windrider, out."" He turned to his chief of staff. "Leave the barges and get these buckets moving, Ivan." "But, sir," his chief of staff said quietly, "the enemy's between us and Admiral Li." There was no fear in his voice, only logic. "If we come close enough to support her, we'll be in missile range of the Rim battle-line. The ships will never stand it, sir." "They only have to stand it long enough for Admiral

Daoid Weber and Steve White Petrovna to deal with that screen," Jason said bleakly.