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A quote froainst a simple tactic, a simple response is often effective/" he muttered The Rix had found that simple response

"Pardonthe aphorish relative velocity between our two ships channels relationships into a single dimension: that of the approach axis In effect, we&039;ve le-variable battle"

"And the Rix have countered with a one-dimensional formation," Captain Zai concluded "A line"

"The flockers will reach us in fourteen minutes, sir," the watch officer interjected

Zai nodded calmly, but inside he seethed The Lynx&039;s rate of acceleration was pitiful compared to that of the tiny flockers There was no way to maneuver out of this They were defenseless

He clenched his real hand To have chosen life, to have throay honor, only to be extinguished by an idiotic ain, but it looked as if his betrayal would co Perhaps this was natural law in action: On Vada, they said that a knife found its way easily to the heart of a traitor

He looked again at the airscreen representation of the flocker attack The colu and thin, like some primitive projectile weapon An arrow, or maybe

An oldof a joust," Zai said

"A joust, sir?"

"A pre-diaspora military situation More of a ritual, really In a joust 37 attack, a very long kinetic-contact weapon was propelled toward the enemy by animal power"

"Sounds unpleasant, sir," Hobbes said

"Rather" Zai allowed hisin his grandfather&039;s great pasture on Vada The horses were spectacularly rendered, their flanks gathering loahts rode toward each other Their steeds&039; hooves druround with a rhythht of an ar sticks--lances, they were called--striking against

"Hobbes," Zai said, seeing an answer "Are you fain of the word shield?" Hobbes&039;s Utopian upbringing had provided her only patchy knowledge of ancient weapons

"I&039;htforward device, Hobbes A two-dimensional surface used to ward off one-dimensional attacks"

"Useful, sir" Zai could see Hobbes&039;s le to follow him

"Captain," Marx interrupted "The first formation of flockers will reach the Lynx practically at full strength More than four thousand of them! Our close-in defenses can&039;t cope with so many at once"

"A shield, Hobbes Prepare to fire all four photon cannon"

Marx began to protest, and Zai cut the esture Of course--as the master pilot had been about to complain-- capital weapons like the Lynx&039;s photon cannon were useless against flockers It would be like hunting insects with artillery

"What&039;s the target, sir?" Hobbes asked

"The Lynx," he said

"We&039;re firing at ?" she began Then, even as her fingersfilled her face "I assuet the heat-sink manifold directly, sir?"

"Of course, Hobbes No need to test the energy shunts"

"We&039;ll be ready to detach the manifold on your order, Captain"

"Exactly, Hobbes"

He turned his attention to the flailing, voiceless Master Pilot

"Marx, get back into the foreave the man back his voice "And my orders, sir?"

"Attack the Rix receiver array With a sandcaster if you can find any alive"

The Master Pilot thought silently for a moment Then he said, "Perhaps if there were an unexploded canister--"

"Do it," Zai coe

"All cannon ready, sir Targeting our own heat-sink array at twenty percent power"

Zai paused, wondering if there were yet another factor he hadn&039;t considered Perhaps he wasanother idiotic mistake He wondered if any Imperial shipmaster had opened fire on his own ship before, without self-destruction in e&039;s words reassured him

If you fail, fail dramatically At least you will prove the error of your tactics to your successors

Zai nodded; this diversion would get into the textbooks one way or another

"Fire"

Pilot

Banished froe, Marx leaped back into the forefront of battle

He chose another scout craft, displacing a sensor officer as flying it at one re three scouts at once, coordinating their efforts through a high-level interface The Master Pilot kicked her off, settled in, and flexed the machine&039;s muscles He informed all I control of theroup into a cone-shaped 39 collision forht the scout&039;s fusion drive, which doubled as its primary offensive weapon, out of stealth mode He would need some serious power

These actions were all likely to draw the attention of the Rix The scout was blaring across a wide range of EM, eences, human and machine They would spot the valuable asset quickly, a drone under human command and at front-center of the Lynx&039;s satellite cloud, the positionto the enemy battlecruiser Within seconds, Marx saw distant acceleration traces deep in the Rix cloud, the plu toward his new vessel

In all likelihood, thehis second scout of the day inside aan ever-expanding sphere of resources into the attack

Marx didn&039;t expect to live long, anyway The nearly full-strength flocker squadron was approaching the Lynx too fast Pilots were nestled in the armored belly of I ship would fight on under hu the enemy even as their own vessel was destroyed around theh relative velocity, the flockers would plunge through the Lynx like barrage rockets through a cloud of steam There would be no safety even in the pilots&039; armored canopies

Death--real, absolute, nonvirtual death--was headed toward Jocim Marx at three million ression Perhaps he could shed some Rix blood on his way out

Between his drone and the enemy battlecruiser, the ravity array The array was a siravity generator--the saravity in starships, equipped with lienerator was a host of gravity repeaters These sravity, but also shaped and controlled it An array could create a gravity well (or hill) in any configuration, strong enough to halt or deflect enemy drones and kinetic weapons As he closed, Marx could see e barrier before the battlecruiser, perfect protection for the receiver The gravity array closest to Marx was spread wide, giving readings of only sixty gees, just strong enough to corral the clouds of sand still crashing through the Rix fleet

It was the Rix device closest to Marx, and he decided to destroy it

He ordered a nearby raravity array The craft spun like a fireheel, spitting hordes of tiny, stupid flechettes frora, the ramscatter drone started to pull back toward the Lynx for reloading, but Marx urged it forward Perhaps he could use the expended drone as a ram In any case, there would soon be no mothership to return home to

Marx wondered if the captain really had any plan for defending his ship against the flockers Zai had spoken as if he&039;d seen a way to escape destruction, but the captain&039;s words had been cryptic, as usual It was probably just an act, the necessary false confidence of coe that Zai and Hobbes were always quoting

Well, just as long as they kept the Lynx together for a few h for Marx to hit the Rix battlecruiser Marx kneas the best pilot in the Navy Dying without putting a scratch on the enemy prime would be an unacceptable end to his career

The flechettes slahs of its gravity contours like a flight of arrows suddenly caught in a wind tunnel Marx let theh the array for a few seconds, then ordered all but a dozen to self-destruct The invisible contours of the array filled with clouds of shrapnel The bright reflections of brokenin swirling coffee The churning shrapnel ate through the gravity repeaters, and the array&039;s gravity-shape flopped about, then flattened into a siees Marx took coeted the sphere&039;s center--the gravity generator itself The re flechettes bolted toward it from all directions

Normally, the tiny machines moved invisibly fast, but they cliravity hill with eerie slowness Marx saw one run out of reaction et; it beca at its zenith, a pole vaulter falling short of the bar Then it fell away

Then another flechette fell short

Da energy from its repeater array to a defensive posture in a few milliseconds Had the Rix become unbeatable?

But then a flechette, favored by its initial position and relative velocity, pluenerator The tiny drone only ed to make contact at a few hundred meters per second, but its iravity hill wavered for athe rest of the flechettes slaravity convulsed once, expanding Finally, a toy balloon inflated too far, it burst into nothingness, a wave front of easy gravitons lighting up the sensors in Marx&039;s scout Then space flattened itself irowing retinue through the resulting hole in the Rix periet his chance He was going to do soether

"Just give me five minutes," he muttered

Executive Officer

"Contact in four minutes, sir," Hobbes reported

The captain&039;s eyebrows raised a centi ahead of schedule

"They&039;re kicking, sir," Hobbes explained Kick--the increase of a rate of acceleration "Maybe they suspect e&039;re up to"

"Perhaps they simply smell blood, Hobbes Can we have separation in time?"

Hobbes refocused her attention to the heated conversations a to eject the energy-sink&039;s enerator, to separate the Lynx fro white-hot froate&039;s four photon cannon The ned to be ejected, of course; warships had to shed their energy-sinks when they grew too hot froenerator remained on the ship while the manifold was discohered, allowed to fly apart in all directions Captain Zai&039;s plan, however, dee shape as the Lynx pulled away froenerator that held all the tiny energy-sink ate--in one piece and still functioning

The engineers didn&039;t sound happy

"Slide that bulkhead nowl" the teaineer Godspite, Hobbes thought There was still an exterior bulkhead between the generator and open space

"We&039;re not at vacuum yet," a voice complained "We&039;ll depressur-ize like hell"

"Then strap yourselves to so and depressurize the bitch!" Frick countered