Part 17 (2/2)

'I meant ' The Ogron was rumbling with subsonic laughter.

Chris grinned. 'Just be careful, OK?'

It took Chris two minutes to get back to the bridge, where Vincenzi was in charge of the engagement. Chris looked at the tactical schematic, a circle of computer graphics on the forward viewscreen.

Immediately, he knew something was wrong.

'Sister's Son's fighter,' Chris said. The icon was crawling across the screen, away from the Victoria Victoria. 'He launched already.

He wasn't supposed to launch for another two minutes!'

The Doctor was watching the screen, intently. Everyone else had their heads down in their displays.

134.

Chris said, 'There's been a mistake or something. We have to call them back.'

'I can't raise either of our fighters,' said CommOps.

'The Pequot Pequot have launched their fighters, sir. Iphiko cla.s.s have launched their fighters, sir. Iphiko cla.s.s eight Wings. Proton cannons, no missiles,' said TacOps.

'Too late,' Vincenzi told Chris, with a shake of his head.

Sister's Son, thought Chris, what the h.e.l.l have you decided?

'Five seconds to intercept. Second fighter launching on schedule.'

The icon marking Sister's Son's s.h.i.+p flared. The data beside it turned from green to red.

'First Wing destroyed. Second fighter firing missiles.'

'He rammed it,' said Chris. 'He shot right past the Wings and rammed the Pequot Pequot.'

'G.o.ddess,' said Vincenzi. 'With a full complement of missiles still in their launch tubes.'

'Severe structural damage to the Pequot Pequot,' said TacOps calmly.

'Her port engine is afire.'

The Doctor, at least the Doctor who had stayed on the bridge, was staring at the screen in disbelief.

The inverted triangles that represented Son of My Father's ASDACs converged with the blips marking the first wave of Wings. Three of the enemy fighters flared and dropped off the display.

'He didn't launch too early,' said Roz. 'He planned to ram the frigate from the start, didn't he?'

Captain Sokolovsky nodded.

'Still no answer from our remaining fighter,' said CommOps.

'If only there was something we could do,' said Chris.

Son of My Father's missiles. .h.i.t the remaining two fighters, destroying both. Chris heard Roz swear softly.

'They're not breaking off,' said TacOps.

'With that much damage, they may not be able to. The Pequot Pequot will try to launch a second flight,' said the captain. will try to launch a second flight,' said the captain.

Do this, do that, good Ogron, bad Ogron all gone now.

'They're not going to get the chance,' said Chris.

'But they're Ogrons Ogrons,' said the Doctor. 'Ogrons don't do this.'

But Chris knew in his guts that some Ogrons did.

135.

'Good rock,' said Roz. 'Bad rock.'

The Pequot Pequot flared and died. flared and died.

'G.o.ddess,' said Sokolovsky. He turned to the trooper who was standing in as SensOps. 'Survivors?'

'No sir,' said the trooper.

Vincenzi said, 'We're OK again. They've bought us the time to get the repairs done and get the h.e.l.l out of here.'

Chris leant on a console. 'Geez,' he said.

The Doctor turned to look at them. 'Am I the only only one who's surprised by this?' one who's surprised by this?'

'Engine burn,' said SensOps. 'Make that two, no three engine burns in Orestes GSO.'

'Ident?' asked Sokolovsky.

'Working, sir.'

Should have been right away but Sokolovsky remembered the man was just a grunt, cross trained to near competence but a grunt nonetheless.

It had been half an hour since the Pequot Pequot had broken apart under the impact of the second fighter. Someone back at Agamemnon Command would have made a decision by now. had broken apart under the impact of the second fighter. Someone back at Agamemnon Command would have made a decision by now.

He crossed to the second SensOps board and ran an ident sequence himself. Hadn't done that in a while. It took him all the way back to Black Body 27 and the remembrance of real fear.

Ident said that one of the bogies was a Magritte-cla.s.s heavy cruiser, probably the Giacometti Giacometti, the other two were a Dog-cla.s.s and a Jaguar-cla.s.s destroyer Dingo Dingo and and Cougar Cougar. That made sense, the three most modern s.h.i.+ps left in the task force. Sent to sort out whoever'd killed the Pequot Pequot.

The Magritte-cla.s.s carried soldinosc soldinosc, really big, high-V missiles with a thirty-six-megaton warhead. Given a long run they could hit a fair percentage of lightspeed and still make the terminal manoeuvres to hit a moving s.h.i.+p. Giacometti Giacometti would wait until it cleared Clytemnestra's debris ring and loose off a pair of them at the would wait until it cleared Clytemnestra's debris ring and loose off a pair of them at the Victoria Victoria. Weapons like that arriving at relativistic velocities could ruin your whole day.

<script>