"Meran, can you hear me?" he asked over com, rather apologetically. "I seem to be in considerable trouble."
Velmeran heard, and instantly knew that something was wrong. He moved free of the battle to pace the fleet a short distance out. "I hear you, Keth. What is it?"
"I seem to be stuck inside one of the carriers," he explained. "She turned in front of me. I tried to punch a hole through a main corridor. But I did not quite make it, and now my generator is wrecked. I was hoping that you would be able to disable this ship."
"We will do what we can," Velmeran assured him. "Which ship?"
"I am in the lead carrier."
"I hear you. Baressa?"
"I am on it," Baressa responded immediately.
"Right. Valthyrra, where are those other packs?"
"I cannot get enough pilots to their ships to launch a pack from either bay," Valthyrra responded. "The first two should be leaving in the next two minutes. Can you hold out another five or so?"
"No! You had better bring yourself in, so that you can deliver them to the scene. And charge your cannons."
"Coming!" Valthyrra replied, and she did not sound at all unhappy.
By that time Velmeran, Baressa and a third ship were moving up on the lead carrier, intent upon clipping all six of her main drive engines. An instant later it seemed that every Union ship in the fleet was firing at them, so that they were forced to break off their attack and move away. That was when Velmeran realized just how much trouble they were in. The Union fleet had captured a live Starwolf. Whatever else they had come to do was quickly forgotten; their only goal now was to protect that carrier long enough for her to escape.
And they were quick to seize their chance. The lead carrier suddenly broke free of the fleet, so abruptly that she left her escorts and tenders behind. She reversed course almost a full half-turn and began to accelerate rapidly back into the system, building swiftly to light speed. Three wolf fighters broke from the fleet to chase her, but they were only just beginning to close when she went into starflight.
"She just jumped!" Velmeran warned. "Valthyrra, put a drone on that ship."
"On it!" Valthyrra promised. One of her smaller forward bays began to open. A small machine shot through the bay doors as soon as they opened enough to allow it to pass. The drone paused a moment as it oriented on its target, then disappeared into starflight with a blinding flash of its tiny engine.
The drone was a fail-safe, for Velmeran did not intend for that carrier to escape. The giant ship continued to accelerate into higher starflight speeds, faster than he had thought Union ships could run. But she was mostly bays, and those were empty. Nor was she retreating back to the main base, a move that would not have kept her safe. She was running out of system.
"Velmeran, she is casting something loose!" Baressa warned.
She had been in a position to see the small bay door swing out. The three fighters scattered, and a moment later a launch was ejected from its small bay. Without acceleration dampers to drain off the energy of its tremendous speed, the little ship was vaporized almost the instant it left the carrier, and it radiated the energy of its acceleration in a tremendous destructive flash. But the trick had failed, for the three fighters were back on the warship's tail immediately.
Velmeran was moving in for a shot at her star drive when he again sensed the droning of many drives at low starflight speeds. He paused a moment, realizing that the Union base had launched another fleet nearly the size of the first, moving quickly to reenforce the remains of the first. It was a trick to make him let go of that carrier, a trick he could not refuse. He could not leave two packs to fight that without their pack leaders.
"Valthyrra, are those packs out yet?" he demanded.
"Just leaving," her reply came.
"There is another fleet closing in."
"So I see," Valthyrra agreed. "Three battleships and twelve destroyers. And forty stingships."
Velmeran cut his com link and swore every oath he had ever heard, including the really good ones he had learned from his mother. But the matter was decided for him; he reversed course, and the two fighters joined him.
"Keth, there is a drone on your ship," Velmeran called back while he could. "We will come to get you."
"Do not worry about me," the older pilot replied. "They want me alive, so I am in no danger. You just keep those kids out of trouble. Tell the Commander that I'm sorry."
Their com link faded as the carrier moved out of range, screaming out of the system at her best speed. The tiny drone followed it at a discreet distance, silent and unobserved.
The odds were worse than ever, just three fighters against fifteen warships and two score stingships. Velmeran had no idea who the third member of his group was; he hoped that it was one of Baressa's pilots and not his own. He had to overtake that second fleet and stop it short; if it caught up with the first group, his students, now tired and quickly reaching the limits of their endurance, would be outnumbered and vulnerable. There were enough stingships with this second group to be effective, especially against pilots who might be growing inattentive and careless.
"Valthyrra Methryn, do you have packs out yet?" he asked a final time.
"Two packs just moved into starflight and can reenforce your pilots in perhaps two minutes," Valthyrra responded. "Another two packs can be there within another minute."
"Listen. I am going to try to get this second group of warships out of starflight before they join the first," Velmeran explained quickly. "We will have a greater advantage if we can keep them apart. Send these two packs to reenforce me. Send the next two to relieve the packs already in battle."
"Anything you say," she agreed. "Meran, that first group is driving directly at me."
"Do you prefer to reenforce the pilots there and stop it?"
"No, I can fend for myself if anything comes through. I need the practice. Barman. Shayrn. Take your packs and reenforce Velmeran's position."
"We are on it," Barman agreed.
On board the Methryn, Valthyrra moved the standby alert up to full battle alert. Crewmembers looked up apprehensively from their stations or paused in her corridors, awaiting orders. The Methryn had not gone into battle in many long years, for most not even in their lifetimes. They had played out this alert in test runs so often that the reality was something of a shock. But the ship was to be protected at any cost and no one dared to cross a Starwolf carrier. And yet for some, those who tended the machines or sorted supplies or taught the young, it was the first time in many years that they had felt like real Starwolves.
"All crewmembers stand by," Valthyrra announced through her maze of corridors and many decks. "This is a class one battle alert. All on-duty personnel to their posts. All damage control parties stand by. All nonactive personnel will remove to the inner sections."
"That second fleet just left starflight to fight," Velmeran reported. "We need reenforcements. Baressa and I are up to our… necks in stingships."
"You can have two packs in two minutes," she assured him. "Can you hold on?"
"Do we have any choice?"
"No," Valthyrra said. "We will have matters well in hand shortly."
Velmeran paid her excuses little mind. He was getting tired of excuses, and at the moment he was too busy to care. He had not exaggerated; three fighters among all those stingships were simply too few targets for too many guns. Stingship cannons were powerful but slow to fix on target. By keeping close in, they were not allowed the time they needed to get off a good shot. Indeed, the stingships had to be careful to avoid shooting or even ramming each other.
The two packs had been left to their own designs for several minutes now, and they were finally bringing their own part to an end. Of the original fleet there remained only a battleship and two destroyers as well as several tenders and transports, themselves no threat but a considerable nuisance. The Methryn was still closing, now so close that her viewscreens were picking up cannon flashes. The battleship suddenly cut from the main group, driving directly at the Methryn, while the rest continued at a right angle to her approach.
"Go clear up whatever might be left," Valthyrra told the pilots when she saw them circle back to give chase. "I will take care of this one."
Mayelna glanced up from her screens. "Do you know what you are doing?"
"I should certainly hope so!" the ship replied indignantly as she swung her boom around to the helm and weapons stations on the middle bridge. "Cargin, I will operate the cannons. Consherra, stand by with your hands on the manual controls in the event something happens." She glanced around. "Do I know what I am doing? Do you think me a tottering wreck?"
"You are getting a little old," Mayelna commented as she sat back to watch, seemingly disinterested.
"Old?" Valthyrra asked incredulously. "Now I feel obliged, just to prove that I am still a very alert and capable fighting ship. Indeed!"
"Then shut up and do it."