“Time to safety limit?” Kosho felt a great lightness steal over her as the Naniwa slipped past the last of the gargantuan wrecks. They were once more in open space, with nothing between her battle-cruiser and the distant speck of the artifact but vacuum. Somewhere ahead the ionized clouds of two Hayalet -class battleships marked the edge of the thread-weapon guarding the Sunflower. She hoped they would be able to use that-somehow-to their advantage in dealing with the rest of the Khaid. Her attention snapped to Helsdon, who was still crouched over his consoles, stylus tapping intermittently as he tried to tune the sensor array to detect the quantum distortions caused by the alien weapon.
Her other earbug was filled with bursts of chatter from out-system, where Pucatli’s sensor booms were trying to capture and decipher the enemy battlecast.
“The Khaid have counterattacked,” Oc Chac reported. He, too, was watching the sensor plot closely.
Thai-i Olin laughed nastily. “If what I’ve heard is true, these Maltese would match Xipe himself in flaying them to the bone.”
“The Khaid assault anyone who assaults them,” Susan replied softly, her mind filled with disquiet. “They are ambitious. Destroying even one Order ship would win the survivors enough respect among the Kovan planets and stations.” Those men on the little ship, she suddenly realized, were Order Knights. The Moulins… Hummingbird arranged all this!
An instant of pure fury was ruthlessly suppressed. Susan breathed in sharply, steadying herself. Hummingbird arranged everything. Even the Khaid. Everything. The deaths of all those Mirror scientists and their support ships. He used me. He even used Sayu! Gods of mountain and stream, his ambition is without limit! He’s traded an entire Fleet battle-group-all of my dead crew-a super-dreadnaught fresh from the yards for that thing.
In the threatwell, the Chimalacatl loomed, growing steadily larger with every passing second.
“Up speed a quarter-point,” she spoke sharply at Olin, startling the Mexica officer. “ Sho-sa, prepare a combat team-if any of our marines are left alive-for a boarding action.”
No one is going to miss a spare Judge amid all this slaughter. No one.