The remainder of the fight over Myrkr seemed to provide Chazdrul Harn with an excellent reminder that his former Peace Brigade alumnus Narl Lukhan might have been an impulse hot-headed braggart, but he hadn't stayed alive by being stupid.

Wayward Soldier had found itself battered from all sides by the starfighters chasing after it, but the gunship had enough of a head start over Lukhan's two Assassin corvettes that he'd been able to outrace them to the protective range of Dragon Queen's turbolaser cannons. Hapan warships had heavy batteries more fitted for combat between capital ships than battling starfighters or even quick little corvettes, but one or two lucky shots would be enough to punch through either ship's shields, and now that the fight had come closer to home, the Miy'tils were attacking with a new-found bravado.

"What's happening now?" asked a familiar, slightly frantic voice.

Harn looked down to see the little Bimm freighter pilot, Vjarna, come up beside him.

"Is your ship secure?" he asked.

The Bimm nodded. The flight to Dragon Queen had battered his freighter badly, and Mandala had barely managed to couple with Wayward Soldier before forcing its engines into an emergency shut-down.

"I should warn you," said Harn, "We picked up some explosion inside the worldship a few minutes ago, probably big enough to be a ship detonating."

Vjarna's long ears drooped. "Do you have any idea whose it was?"

"No. We can't get close enough to scan and we can't make comm contact with anyone on the worldship." He paused, then added, "It's too early to worry. We have to keep ourselves alive."

Vjarna clearly wasn't one to mope. The little Bimm nodded and looked at the tactical display, which showed the two corvettes flying wild loops in and out of Dragon Queen's firing range. "What's he doing?"

"Keeping those Miy'tils busy," Harn grunted. "And harassing those Hapans."

"Do you think he's stalling for reinforcements?"

"I hope not. Even if he does, they'll get pulled from hyperspace well-clear of the planet thanks to those pulse mass mines."

He froze and looked back at the holo. Lukhan's starfighters, now without a carrier to roost in, were buzzing around like flitgnats, as angrily and endlessly as the corvettes themselves, but as he stared at the holo he realized there was some pattern to their frenzy. As they bobbed and weaved and whirled cartwheels through space they kept edging close to two particular points in space, too regularly for it to be simple chance-

He lurched for the comm station. "Get me the Hapans!"

"Right away, Boss."

Even as the holo of that stern woman admiral flickered to life, the bridge shuddered slightly as one of the pulse mass mines exploded and its gravity well collapsed.

"I was just about to tell you they're making a break for it," Harn said.

The admiral nodded curtly. "We're moving to cover the mines now. Can your ship run interference for us?"

"We already took one beat-ing."

"If that mercenary escapes-"

"You people hired us to vape your bioweapon or whatever, not hunt down who's responsible."

The woman gave a haughty sneer. "Listen here, First Officer Harn-"

The Baragwin held up a claw. "Get closer and we'll provide some cover, but we're not getting ourselves blown up over your fight. Sorry, admiral, but we're in it for the money."

The admiral looked like she was about to give retort, then paused, like she was listening to something. Then she said, very icily, "Follow our shadow. We go in together you closer."

"Yes, ma'am." Harn gave a mock salute, and the holo winked off.

-{}-

Admiral Baas turned away from the holo-projector with the look of ill-concealed frustration mixed with disdain Hapans so often put up when dealing with outsiders, especially aliens and males. In other circumstances, Tenel Ka would have found it almost comical.

Right now, she just worried.

"The Miy'tils are moving ahead," Baas said as she looked at the tactical holo, "But the corvettes are already firing on the pulse mass mine. I don't think we'll be able to take them."

"Some of the starfighters may not be hyperspace-capable," Tenel Ka said.

"True, bit I doubt the snubfighter pilots know who hired them. We need confirmation of Ducha Markessa's complicity, and for that we need their leaders."

"Fact," Tenel Ka nodded grimly. As concerning as that was, she was more worried by the two wrecked capital ships that were tumbling toward the worldship. The craft were less than a minute from impact, and once they hit, there would only be limited time to recover their people on the surface. She wanted to think they were alive, that she'd feel the deaths of the Zel sisters, Zekk, even Tahiri, but there was no way to know for certain.

The deck shifted with the death of the second interdiction field, and she heard Admiral Baas bite back profanity.

"There's nothing we can do now, Admiral," she said as the two corvettes streaked madly away from the planet. The Miy'tils gave chase but the mercenary starfighters scrambled every which-way. She couldn't see them jump to hyperspace, not with her bare eyes, but the fatal winking-out of both corvettes was unmis-takable.

Baas, to her credit, took the loss with crisp aplomb. She called, "Tell the hangar to prepare one shuttle for launch to the worldship. Assemble a recovery team with weapons and vac suits. Tell them to be prepared for anything."

"Tell them their queen will be going with them," Tenel Ka added.

That raised the eyes of everyone on the bridge. Before Baas could object she fixed the admiral with her best regal glare and said, "Their communication systems may be down, their people scattered. I will be of unique service in locating them."

Baas knew well enough when not to argue with her queen. Voice stiff with obvious disapproval she said, "Very well, Your Majesty. It will be done."

Tenel Ka should have felt better about that, but when she looked out the viewport she saw the brief flash of the mercenary ships slamming into the worldship. It seemed like just a small spark against the massive dead form, and she didn't see any apparent nudge in its orbit, but she trusted her people's projections.

"Assemble the team at once," Tenel Ka said. "We haven't much time."