The Gripping Hand

"They'll send for their Warriors."

"The whole fleet?"

Eudoxus spoke with the Master of Base Six. Another Master got involved, then two Warriors and an Engineer. Ultimately Eudoxus said, "As I surmised. Dividing one's forces is rarely a good idea. They will bring back all of their fleet."

"Nothing to gain. Why did they try it at all?"

"We surmise that they did not anticipate our use of I

"Good. Then what we do is get in position, wait until their battle fleet goes through the Sister, and pounce."

"And when their fleet comes back?" Omar asked. "Several thousand ships."

"We cross that bridge when we come to it," Re

"And hope the horse can sing," Glenda Ruth added, but she spoke so softly that no one but Re

6 Judgment

First ponder, then dare.

Helmuth von Moltke

"No," Kevin Re

"I'm the only correspondent present," Joyce said. "An opportunity of a lifetime, and you can't say no!"

"You'll slow us down."

"Not I, Commodore Re

"Horace."

Bury was pacing a contorted path through Sinbad's crowded cabin: his last chance to inspect his altered ship. "Ms. Trujillo is correct, of course. Yet I must come. This is my ship, and I have messages to send, orders to give, that I can only give personally." Bury waved toward the new control panel. "Sinbad is better defended than she has ever been. And all that is irrelevant. Kevin, if we do not win, no one in the Empire is safe. Having Joyce aboard will not change that and will not lessen our chances."

So who do we leave behind?"

"Jacob, I think. Nabil-"

The old man hissed in surprise. "Please, Excellency, I have served you for all of my life."

"Serve me now. Hold this message cube in safety aboard Base Six," Bury said. "Cynthia-"

"I think I should be with you, Excellency."

"Then we agree, because that was what I was about to say."

"All touching, but we have no time," Jacob Buckman said. "Horace, I think you're crazy, but good luck." He shook Bury's hand and held it an instant longer. "We-"

"Good-bye, Jacob."

"Um. Yes." He turned and joined Eudoxus and the others who would stay on Base Six.

"Mother isn't going to like this," Chris Blaine said. He took his sister by the shoulders. "Commander Rawlins is right. They need one of us here on Sinbad, and I'll be more useful on Atropos."

"If we don't bring this off, nobody's safe," Freddy Townsend said. "Anywhere. Not even Sparta."

Re

Sinbad was intensely crowded. The Motie Engineers had reworked Sinbad's interior and added a fuel tank outboard, where the add-on cabin had been. The control bridge held two couches for humans. It was bounded by collapsing doors that opened onto the main lounge. There they had built shaped acceleration couches for two Mediators and two Engineers, each with a Watchmaker, as well as couches for the other humans. Sinbad looked cluttered, with incomprehensible gadgetry attached at odd angles wherever there was space for it.

Cynthia had Bury tethered into his water bed. Bury watched the Moties settle in.

"They've all got the worm," Kevin said.

"Yes. And how does it affect these cursed little Motie brownies? We test it here for the first time!"

"We may need them for damage control," Re

"They will do nothing without orders." Omar took his place next to Victoria of the Crimean Tartars. "Your MacArthur was safe until the Engineer died. A Medina Engineer, Kevin. Even then a Medina Master or Engineer could have saved her. But-"

"But we didn't allow any communications with the Engineer or the Watchmakers, and Medina was already fleeing from King Peter," Re

"Precisely. It was not all your doing. After the arrival of King Peter's ship it would have been very difficult for you to communicate with Medina."

Re

"Rawlins?" A screen showed the commander of Atropos watching Sinbad's chaos with concealed disapproval. "Let us get well clear before you move in and refuel," Re

"Aye, aye. Godspeed, Commodore."

"Thank you."

Refuel only. No Motie would ever touch Atropos. Paranoid, but am I paranoid enough? After thirty years with Horace Bury? Re

An hour after Sinbad's departure, Rawlins called to report launch from I

One of Re

"First things," Re

"But he ought to," Rawlins said, "And no way to know what he'll do about it."

"Right," Re

Rawlins lifted an eyebrow with some effort. "If so, it's the first time."

"Yeah. Bury and I have discussed the Khanate's options with the Moties, and we're all pretty much agreed on how things have to be. They've got two options. Plan A, they go through the Sister with everything they've got, hit whatever's waiting, and get through into Empire space, where they scatter. The Khanate is used to living off slim pickings: give them any kind of a system, and they'll soon be breeding like mad, if they can get their colony ships through."

Rawlins said, "What's to stop them? Why have a Plan B?"

"Well, they don't know they can get through," Re

"They're risking everything they have," Glenda Ruth said. "Those colony ships are the Khanate. Everything they have, and they don't really know what they're facing. By now they'll have Terry and Je

"Pity that engineer didn't just get himself killed," Rawlins said.

Freddy bridled; Re

"It won't be a lot," Rawlins said. "But maybe something. We did have some ships under repair, and this wouldn't be the first time Sinclair and his crew at the Yards passed a miracle."

"We're presuming they can talk to Terry and Je

"The Khanate is richer than the Tartars," Glenda Ruth said. "They could have bought a half-trained Bury Fyunch(click) by now. I hope so."

"Why?" Rawlins asked.

"Je

"Now, Glenda Ruth, I don't-"