Starplex

Rissa flipped keys, and one of her monitors showed the hyperspace map, the maelstrom of tachyons visible around the exit point.

"More maneuverable are we than Starplex," said Longbottle. "An exit we may choose."

Rissa thought for half a second. "Can you tell where Keith and the others went?"

"No. Shortcut rotates; I can match their angle of approach, but no time to work out if that will mean we exit at the same place."

"Then — then go for New Beijing," said Rissa. "Starplex will eventually end up there for repairs — if it can."

Longbottle squirmed in his tank, and the Rum Runner arched upward then down, coming at the shortcut from above and behind. "Insertion in seconds five," he said.

Rissa held her breath. There was nothing visible on her monitors. Nothing at all…

A flash of purple.

A different starfield.

A massive black starship.

A starship firing on a flotilla of United Nations vessels.

Four — no, five! — dead hulks pinwheeling against the night, surrounded by clouds of expelled atmosphere.

Everything was bathed in bloody light from the red dwarf that had recently emerged from this shortcut.

It flashed in front of Rissa's eyes, the words fully formed, like a chapter title on some future textbook screen. The Rout of Tau Ceti.

Waldahud forces attacking the Earth colony, seizing the one shortcut that serviced human space, a giant battle cruiser easily dispatching the tiny diplomatic craft normally stationed there — a giant battle cruiser that had all its force screens aimed forward, protecting it from the returning fire being launched by the UN ships — a giant battle cruiser that the Rum Runner was directly behind.

Rissa had never killed before, had never even deliberately injured before.

She swung the handles that aimed the laser, and leaned on the triggers.

PHANTOM wasn't here to animate in the beam for her, and the Waldahudin battleship was too far away for her to see the red dot moving across its hull — Moving across its thruster fuel storage tanks — Ripping them open — Igniting the fuel — And then — A ball of light, like a supernova — The bow window going completely black — Longbottle arching in his tank, moving the Rum Runner away from the expanding sphere of debris.

Rissa took her hands off the triggers. The window grew clear again.

She was shaking from head to foot. How many Waldahudin had been aboard a ship that size? A hundred? A thousand? If they'd planned to actually move on to Sol system and storm Earth and Mars and Luna, perhaps as many as ten thousand soldiers — All dead.

Dead.

There were other Waldahudin ships in the area, but they were tiny one-person fighter craft. The big black vessel must have been their mothership.

Rissa exhaled noisily.

"You acted well," said Longbottle gently. "You did what you had to."

She said nothing.

The UN ships were banking now — New Beijing was a human-dolphin colony — and coming in to attack the small Waldahud fighters. The Rum Runner buffeted slightly as it passed through the cloud of expelled atmosphere from the destroyed battleship.

Rissa's console beeped. She looked at the glowing red indicator, like a drop of blood, but did not move. Longbottle eyed her for a moment, then nosed the similar control in his tank. A woman's voice came over the speakers. "This is Liv Amundsen, commander of the United Nations police forces at Tan Ceti, to Starplex auxiliary craft." Rissa glanced at her monitors. Amundsen's ship was still three light-minutes away; no point in trying a real-time conversation. "We have identified your transponder signal. Thank you for your timely arrival. Our casualties are heavy — over two hundred dead — but you've saved New Beijing. You can bet they'll pin a medal on your chest, whoever you are aboard that ship.

Over."

A medal, thought Rissa. Jesus Christ, they give medals.

"Rissa?" said Longbottle. "Do you want me — ?"

Rissa shook her head. "No. No, I'll do it." She tapped a key. "This is Dr. Clarissa Cervantes aboard the Rum Runner; I'm here with a dolphin pilot named Longbottle.

Starplex was also attacked by Waldahud forces; it headed through the shortcut network to destination unknown, but may require emergency drydock facilities. Can you accommodate?"

She watched the stars drift by as she waited for her signal to reach Amundsen's ship, and the reply to make its way back. The Waldahud forces were repelled at Tau Ceti, said the history book in her mind.

But what was the next chapter? Two hundred from Earth or its colonies were dead… Dolphins didn't believe in vengeance, but would the humans demand it? Would this be the one skirmish, or were we about to see all-out war?