' and I don't want to hear about how how you did it just yet ' you did it just yet '

'It was only a little comet.'

' did it occur to you what might happen to any nearby ships?'

'What happens to this ship,' said the Doctor, 'or to any of the others, is nothing compared to what would have happened if I hadn't destroyed Ca.s.sandra. Captain, I've just saved you the 131 nasty decision of what to do with an ultimate weapon. Keep it, and let every power in the galaxy come in search of what you've got? Or destroy it?'

Sokolovsky stared at the Doctor. Vincenzi said, 'Sir, this is turning sour very fast. We counted on a quick getaway, not a month's worth of repair work. Half the ships in the Task Force will be on their way here by now, and we don't even have a warp drive.'

'I can help there,' said both Doctors. Sokolovsky glared at them. The original Doctor stood up and said, 'I'll make you an offer, Captain. I'll repair your warp-drive system for you if you'll release your prisoners. All of us. Let the original crew use the lifeboats.'

Vincenzi said, 'They could be useful as hostages.'

Sokolovsky shook his head. 'The Task Force won't show us the slightest mercy. Get right on to it. Both of you,' he told the Doctors. 'We'll worry about this particular piece of bizarreness later. Vincenzi, get my crew off this ship.'

The prisoners found themselves shuffled around a lot in the next couple of hours. There weren't enough people to interrogate them properly. Chris ended up by himself in a cabin with the door locked, but no guard.

It was a nice cabin, probably a lieutenant's, with a soft bed and a fresher. He spent a while trying to get the terminal to work. It probably hadn't even been disabled a lot of the ship's computers had been knocked out when the comet blew up.

The fresher was still working. He had a shower and put on half a navy uniform, just the white pants and T-shirt he didn't want them thinking he was trying to impersonate an officer or anything.

He lay on the bed, trying to get some sleep. You never knew when you'd need it.

The ultimate weapon, the Doctor had said. Wonder what it was? No wonder he'd been in a hurry to get there. Both of him.

He hoped the Ogrons were OK.

The cabin door opened. He rolled on to his elbow. 'Oh, hi!'

132.

Roz came in. One of the new soldiers locked the door behind her. 'The Doctor sent me down to see you.'

'Justice,' said Chris.

'Fairness,' said Roz.

They traded a high-five. Chris beamed. 'Good to see you again,' he said. 'How's Fury? Cleaned the place up?'

'You could say that,' said Roz. She turned the lieutenant's chair around and sat on it, leaning over the back. 'I trashed an N-form.'

'Awesome,' said Chris. 'So, uh, which which Doctor sent you to see me?' Doctor sent you to see me?'

'I was hoping you could tell me what was going on there. I can't get anything out of either Doctor they're up to their identical hats in the warp drive.'

'Well, if he hasn't told you, he sure won't have told me,' said Chris. 'He usually briefs you better.'

'Jealous.'

Chris shrugged. 'He knows what he's doing.'

'He'd better, if he's going to go round blowing up planets.

What do you know about the guys who took over the ship?'

'Not much. I don't recognize their uniform. They're obviously not pirates too disciplined.'

'Mmm. Someone's private army, maybe.'

'That's one heck of a bold move,' said Chris. 'Knocking over an Imperial carrier!'

'Maybe there's some cargo we don't know about. Whatever.

We've still got a mission to complete. We don't have time to get caught up in some petty local war.' Roz drummed her fingers on the back of the chair. 'There's a carrier on the way.'

'Which ship?'

'The Pequot Pequot.'

'Indigenous Cla.s.s,' said Chris. 'That's not so bad. They predate the Wars of Acquisition. They don't have any big weapons there'll be a couple of squadrons of fighters aboard.

We'll have to counter with ours.'

'Yeah,' said Roz, 'but Sokolovsky's just put his crew off the ship in lifepods. Who's going to fly them?'

133.

'Are you guys sure about this?'

Son of My Father didn't answer, squeezing himself deeper into the fighter's cabin. It was meant for an average-sized human body, just too small to comfortably accommodate an Ogron's wide shoulders.

Chris reached in and tugged the straps into place. 'Secure,' he said. Son of My Father still didn't say anything. After a moment, the fighter's canopy began to lower with a hiss.

Chris jumped down from the ladder, rolled it over to Sister's Son, sitting in the other fighter. 'Are you really sure?' he said, reaching in to fasten the straps.

'You heard,' said Sister's Son. 'The Pequot Pequot will catch up with us too soon. Me and him will go and make them busy, make them slow.' will catch up with us too soon. Me and him will go and make them busy, make them slow.'

'They've got two squadrons of fighters aboard,' said Chris.

'This really isn't such a good idea.'

'Chris,' said Sister's Son. 'You regular guy. Listen, me and him, we decide what to do. We decide.'

Chris just looked at the Ogron, mouth tugging down at the corners.

'Do this,' said Sister's Son, 'do that, good Ogron, bad Ogron all gone now. We go flying, Chris. OK?'

Chris nodded. 'Try a quick strafing run to distract them, and then pull away. And watch your a.s.s out there.'

'Can't,' said Sister's Son, glancing down at the straps.

'I meant ' The Ogron was rumbling with subsonic laughter.

Chris grinned. 'Just be careful, OK?'

It took Chris two minutes to get back to the bridge, where Vincenzi was in charge of the engagement. Chris looked at the tactical schematic, a circle of computer graphics on the forward viewscreen.

Immediately, he knew something was wrong.

'Sister's Son's fighter,' Chris said. The icon was crawling across the screen, away from the Victoria Victoria. 'He launched already.

He wasn't supposed to launch for another two minutes!'

The Doctor was watching the screen, intently. Everyone else had their heads down in their displays.

134.

Chris said, 'There's been a mistake or something. We have to call them back.'

'I can't raise either of our fighters,' said CommOps.

'The Pequot Pequot have launched their fighters, sir. Iphiko cla.s.s have launched their fighters, sir. Iphiko cla.s.s eight Wings. Proton cannons, no missiles,' said TacOps.

'Too late,' Vincenzi told Chris, with a shake of his head.

Sister's Son, thought Chris, what the h.e.l.l have you decided?

'Five seconds to intercept. Second fighter launching on schedule.'

The icon marking Sister's Son's ship flared. The data beside it turned from green to red.

'First Wing destroyed. Second fighter firing missiles.'

'He rammed it,' said Chris. 'He shot right past the Wings and rammed the Pequot Pequot.'

'G.o.ddess,' said Vincenzi. 'With a full complement of missiles still in their launch tubes.'

'Severe structural damage to the Pequot Pequot,' said TacOps calmly.

'Her port engine is afire.'

The Doctor, at least the Doctor who had stayed on the bridge, was staring at the screen in disbelief.

The inverted triangles that represented Son of My Father's ASDACs converged with the blips marking the first wave of Wings. Three of the enemy fighters flared and dropped off the display.

'He didn't launch too early,' said Roz. 'He planned to ram the frigate from the start, didn't he?'

Captain Sokolovsky nodded.

'Still no answer from our remaining fighter,' said CommOps.

'If only there was something we could do,' said Chris.

Son of My Father's missiles. .h.i.t the remaining two fighters, destroying both. Chris heard Roz swear softly.

'They're not breaking off,' said TacOps.

'With that much damage, they may not be able to. The Pequot Pequot will try to launch a second flight,' said the captain. will try to launch a second flight,' said the captain.

Do this, do that, good Ogron, bad Ogron all gone now.

'They're not going to get the chance,' said Chris.

'But they're Ogrons Ogrons,' said the Doctor. 'Ogrons don't do this.'

But Chris knew in his guts that some Ogrons did.

135.

'Good rock,' said Roz. 'Bad rock.'

The Pequot Pequot flared and died. flared and died.

'G.o.ddess,' said Sokolovsky. He turned to the trooper who was standing in as SensOps. 'Survivors?'

'No sir,' said the trooper.

Vincenzi said, 'We're OK again. They've bought us the time to get the repairs done and get the h.e.l.l out of here.'

Chris leant on a console. 'Geez,' he said.

The Doctor turned to look at them. 'Am I the only only one who's surprised by this?' one who's surprised by this?'

'Engine burn,' said SensOps. 'Make that two, no three engine burns in Orestes GSO.'

'Ident?' asked Sokolovsky.

'Working, sir.'

Should have been right away but Sokolovsky remembered the man was just a grunt, cross trained to near competence but a grunt nonetheless.

It had been half an hour since the Pequot Pequot had broken apart under the impact of the second fighter. Someone back at Agamemnon Command would have made a decision by now. had broken apart under the impact of the second fighter. Someone back at Agamemnon Command would have made a decision by now.

He crossed to the second SensOps board and ran an ident sequence himself. Hadn't done that in a while. It took him all the way back to Black Body 27 and the remembrance of real fear.

Ident said that one of the bogies was a Magritte-cla.s.s heavy cruiser, probably the Giacometti Giacometti, the other two were a Dog-cla.s.s and a Jaguar-cla.s.s destroyer Dingo Dingo and and Cougar Cougar. That made sense, the three most modern ships left in the task force. Sent to sort out whoever'd killed the Pequot Pequot.

The Magritte-cla.s.s carried soldinosc soldinosc, really big, high-V missiles with a thirty-six-megaton warhead. Given a long run they could hit a fair percentage of lightspeed and still make the terminal manoeuvres to hit a moving ship. Giacometti Giacometti would wait until it cleared Clytemnestra's debris ring and loose off a pair of them at the would wait until it cleared Clytemnestra's debris ring and loose off a pair of them at the Victoria Victoria. Weapons like that arriving at relativistic velocities could ruin your whole day.