"What's so strange about finding a Mewiis ship? You said there were several races in this sector,"

Mother reminded Minstrel.

"Mewiss are not from this sector. Nor are they in the path of the current heading the T'kaan are taking."

Jaric was still studying the sensors when his hands danced quickly over the console.

"T'kaan engine signatures show the squadron has veered from its previous course after they took the ship out," he announced tersely.

"Yes," Mother acknowledged. "T'kaan procedure on meeting a new race is to obtain as much data as possible from their computers; to see if the species is large enough for another reproductive cycle. Then call in the entire fleet. The Mewiss may meet their criteria for another xenocidal war. They are heading toward the Mewiss' worlds in order to gather that data."

"Yes, they are now headed for the heart of the Mewiss worlds. I just confirmed from their course change," Minstrel said. "They compriseone of the Three Kingdoms."

"Three!" Becky and Kyle said together.

"Three races combined against a T'kaan fleet. That would be good odds." Jaric added thoughtfully.

"Except the Kraaqi and Hrono are sworn enemies to each other. The Mewiis have a history of playing them off against each other for their own ends. That is why Minstrels have never contacted any of these races."

The room grew silent.

"But we have a more immediate problem," Minstrel said. "This is a Surveyor cla.s.s Mewiss ship. There will be a Colony ship somewhere behind it."

"The T'kaan will destroy it, too, after they have sucked all the data out of it," Mother said.

"It will be full of children and their parents. The Mewiss are a family oriented race and are always searching out new worlds to colonize," Minstrel said reflectively.

The room fell silent with the thought of a ship full of helpless children coming under the merciless attack of the horned ships. Kyle sat next to Jaric and spoke. "Mother, we have to help that ship. Even if all we can do is warn them."

Mother calculated her options and all vectors that would intercept the T'kaan on their new course. She spoke a millisecond later.

"My hyper engines are still fully operational, and they can sustain maximum power." Mother's voice grew silent as Minstrel began transmitting to her.

With Minstrel's knowledge of Mewiss procedures, she plotted a likely position where the ship might be located. Using the gravity wells of a couple of binary star systems, Mother hoped they could get there ahead of the T'kaan.

All were in high spirits as they set off on their newfound mission.

The hours stretched by under the full power, faster-than-light journey. There was life inside her hull again, for her children were moving with a new energy-with a new purpose.

Red alarms howled through her speakers, interrupting her reverie.

Mother had been wrong.

"I've got a big ship here. Mother, drop out of light speed! Now!" Kyle ordered.

"There are other targets," Mother replied as she slowed.

"T'kaan!" Jaric shouted.

The elongated cigar shape of the Mewiss colony ship that appeared on the viewscreen was gargantuan.

But the T'kaan battle cruiser and the two frigates were quickly pummeling it into submission.

"Her shields are failing." Becky shouted from her console.

"The Mewiss are not a fierce race, but they do believe in a good defense. If their shields are already dropping..." Minstrel did not finish her thought.

"We've got to help them. We can't just leave them here to die." Kyle shouted.

From the viewscreen they could see laser fire burst from the Mewiss ship, striking back at the attackers.

Two direct hits blossomed across T'kaan shields.

"Both T'kaan ships...minimal damage," Jaric announced tersely.

"We can give them some damage!" Kyle stood with fists clenched.

Mother quickly calculated her resources. "Can you fight, Minstrel?" Mother asked.

"For such a n.o.ble cause. Yes."

The three young warriors raced for their fighters while Mother brought herself into position. Guardian strode to his position in Ops with two of the Fixers. The minutes seemed to stretch into millennia, whileout in s.p.a.ce the Mewiis' main shield began to buckle.

Three fighters leapt from the rear hatch of Mother as her manta-ray shape followed close behind the spherical ship of Minstrel. Moments later, all of them were in sensor range of the T'kaan.

The effect was immediate.

"The T'kaan battle cruiser is turning for us." Minstrel said calmly.

"Stay on course, until I give you the word," Mother answered. She swung herself tighter in behind the larger ship of Minstrel. In fact, she was sailing so close behind the circle ship that any sudden maneuver by either ship could cause catastrophe. But she needed this tiny amount of surprise, for Minstrel's ship still hid her from the T'kaan sensors even at this range.

Jaric saw the Hunter fighters as they spewed from the main door in the cruiser's hull. Twenty-four fighters arranged themselves in eight groups of threes. Jaric's eyes hardened.

"Watch out!" Kyle shouted over the comm.

The dogfight began with the intensity of a Force Ten hurricane as the T'kaan fighters came screaming in at them. The intensity only increased from there.

"I've got some on my tail! Give me..." Becky shouted.

Green tracers suddenly mixed with T'kaan red all around her. Kyle's ship flashed past as one of the T'kaan ships attacking her exploded and the other tumbled out of control. But the three ships that had been tailing Kyle now turned towards her.

Kicking her throttle, she turned straight into them, concentrating fire on the ship to the right. She squeezed off her shots and then put her ship into another hard turn and right into another T'kaan formation.

"There's too many!" Jaric shouted as the ship he was firing upon exploded. Now he had to deal with three more coming from the side.

"The battle cruiser is powering weapons," Minstrel reported calmly.

But Mother had been powering her special weapon, the T'kaan/Human hybrid designed specifically for her and her dead sister ship-the A ship. She monitored the power levels throughout her circuitry as every ounce of power not directly tied with her engines was used to supercharge the weapon for its mighty blow. She would have to make this one shot count. There wouldn't be time to recharge it again, and her main batteries were no match for a capital ship.

She could hold her own against the firepower of frigate-cla.s.s warships with her twelve main guns, but not against a battle cruiser.

"On my mark, Minstrel," Mother shouted. Long seconds pa.s.sed in silence. "Now."

Blue death leapt from Minstrel's main batteries, streaking now for the mighty battle cruiser. The twin bolts blossomed across the forward section of the cruiser's shields. Simultaneously, Minstrel's ship turned hard to port while Mother turned hard starboard from behind. Now, Mother was revealed to the T'kaan sensors.

"The range is still too far. I want to get closer," Mother announced.

But the reputation of the Iron Huntress preceded her. The coiling bodies of the T'kaan warriors writhed with both fury and fear as they recognized her haunting profile once again. The T'kaan officer-in-charge of the squadron twisted his tentacles around and around each other nervously as he stared at the viewscreen with fangs agape.

"The frigates are breaking off from the colony ship," Becky said as she rolled her ship away from more attackers.

"Yeah, they're turning for Mother!" Kyle shouted.

"And none too soon, the Mewiss' shields just buckled," Jaric sighed.

"We must give them time," Mother said. But it was now Mother's turn to begin twisting and dodging as she tried to bring her hybrid gun to bear. She directed all her processing power to her tactical systems.

She had nothing else to give in this fight. She couldn't dance and dodge effectively with her sub-light engines still damaged. She had to calculate this strike and make it count.

The first, single blow would have to find its mark-there would not be time for a second try with the hybrid weapon.

"Okay boys and girls!" Kyle shouted. "Break!"

Surprisingly, the three human fighters broke from the frenzied T'kaan fighters buzzing all around them and drove straight for the battle cruiser coming at Mother.

"Try this out!" Minstrel shouted as her weapons fired again.

"Lock missiles." Kyle ordered.

"I've got a bogey... no, five Hunters! Coming after us fast. We've got to rush it!" Jaric shouted.

"Forget the computers! Aim and fire!" Becky shouted above them all.

Kyle grinned as he sized up the ship and its direction in a single glance.

"Eat my fire!" He yelled as all his missiles leapt away. In the next instant, he kicked his fighter hard and spun it completely around killing the engines simultaneously. Now flying backwards through s.p.a.ce, he fired his lasers straight into the T'kaan fighters that had been chasing him-the Hunters had become the hunted. Explosions lit up the stygian darkness as two of them exploded in sudden fireb.a.l.l.s.

Becky and Jaric sent their own missiles and then each turned in opposite directions, one right and the other left. T'kaan tracers flew around each of them like a blizzard of shining death.

"My shields are below twenty percent." Becky cried as her ship shuddered under twin impacts.

Kyle glanced quickly at his own-just as they dropped to zero. "Break off!" Kyle yelled into his comm. "Break off!"

Jaric gritted his teeth as he punched his engines to the red line and beyond. The children's three fighters flew out of the swirling dog-fight and out toward the stars as each one worked feverishly on repairing their highest priority damage.

Mother's shields blossomed again as the cruiser sent a second salvo into her from its horns. She surmised that the T'kaan considered her the biggest threat, as now the frigates were racing to join the capital ship, ignoring the crippled Mewiss vessel. In seconds they would bring their own guns to bear on her, and then it would be too late.

Finally, her hybrid weapon showed fully charged. She checked her sensors and found the range was prime. She sighed within her circuits. There was no doubt she could take out the cruiser, but she needed this kill to be spectacular; to make an impression on the approaching frigates-to trick them into rapid retreat. She couldn't outmaneuver both frigates with her damaged engines The cruiser was coming head on, showing Mother its smallest profile.

"My weapons are powered again," Minstrel reported to Mother.

"Hold your fire," Mother answered.

Mother waited, her dark manta-ray shaped silhouette still on a collision course with the cruiser. But inside, Mother readied her engines-to give them all she had just one more time. Silently inside her mind, she promised herself a good repair before any more skirmishes.

A third salvo leapt from the cruiser Mother's sensors had antic.i.p.ated this to within bare milliseconds. As the blasts erupted from the enemy guns, she pushed her sub-light engines hard as she twisted and rolled. Alarms screamed inside her electronic mind as her engines roared and then sputtered and coughed.

She felt them surge a second time, and then stutter, and then surge again. All throughout her electronic being circuits popped and complained. Her primary power source went off line and was immediately replaced by her backup. Lights dimmed everywhere inside her corridors.

But somehow, she danced between the deadly tracers.

Now, it was her turn.

Righting herself slightly above the cruiser now, and with a better firing angle, she aimed her mighty weapon.

"Surprise!" Jaric shouted as he watched.

The gargantuan bolt of energy that leapt from her nose sent a powerful greenish glow all along Mother's hull in a ghostly reflection.

All of her power concentrated at that precise moment did its damage just as it was calculated. The oversized bolt leapt straight for the cruiser's shields. But it did not blossom across the cruiser's shields, not like a normal weapon. The immense beam drove straight through the shields as if they weren't even there. With a flash, the mighty stroke blew apart the entire forward section of the mighty ship. The resulting explosion then sent a shower of white light outwards in a ball of shimmering sparks. Milliseconds later, secondary explosions began rippling down the entire length of the cruiser-explosion after explosion.

When the last sparks evaporated, there was nothing left where the ship had been just seconds before.

The bolt had split the cruiser open like a ripe melon.

Mother's sensors now locked onto the oncoming frigates.

What would they do?Even as she pondered, she began distributing valuable processing cycles in order to repair the damage she had already sustained.

A new problem arose. Her engines were off-line, she had pushed them too hard with her last, frantic maneuver. That sustained forward momentum was pushing her inexorably towards the oncoming frigates-against her will. She couldn't turn.

It was all a bluff now, a huge one. And it was the last card she had to play.

Jaric, Becky and Kyle were flying a good distance away now, trying to escape as had been their impromptu plan once Mother had taken out the battle cruiser. But the T'kaan fighters pursued them tenaciously. In less than a minute, the T'kaan fighters would close again with the three fighters. And the humans had little or no shields.

Mother felt despair for the first time. She replayed the T'kaan battles once again in her logic circuits, and sighed. The T'kaan did not scare. They did not run.

"They are still on course for your Mother. It does not look as though she or they will turn from their impending collision," Minstrel said with a surprising calmness. Without warning, the Circle Ship disappeared within its Stealth Mode.

"Minstrel!" Jaric shouted.

"Minstrel can't leave us. Not now?" Becky gasped in disbelief.

Mother's sensors registered the frigate's powering up their weapons. She knew with a certain heaviness that it was finally over. She had no engines to maneuver, not even to run. She had no weapons except her normal armament and they would not be enough to disable two frigates before she herself fell before them.

All she could do was watch as they destroyed her.

She flew toward impalement on their black horns of death. As the final seconds pa.s.sed, her thoughts turned to the things she loved most-her children.