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decided he had screwed up by bringing them together. It only rubbed everyone s
nose in the fact that there were hundreds of children who would share the
Fortress s fate.
Mouse s comm roused him from a troubled sleep.  Storm here.
 Contact withHittite , sir. She s coming in.
 I ll be right down.
When he reached Combat, the senior watchstander told him,  We ve fed them our
data, sir. We ve established a continuous instel link. She s got a couple of
Provincials with her, for what they re worth. They re going to go for the
command ship and transports first.
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 How soon?
The man checked the time.  They drop hyper in two hours and eight minutes,
sir. They ll be coming in with a big inherent and only a couple degrees out of
the slot to target.
 How much warning will our Sangaree friends have? Mouse nodded at the red
blips on the display.
 Depends on how good their detection gear is. Anywhere from five minutes to
an hour.
It came up closer to an hour.  Damn! Mouse spat.  Look. They re pulling
back.
Within a half-hour it was obvious the raidships were being moved to protect
the command ship and transports, and that they were still under that
relentless outside control.
 I guess we ll see just how mean one of those big-assed Empire babies is,
Mouse said.
 I suppose we will, sir.
Hittitedropped hyper and went into action in an awesome blaze of weaponry.
She and her escort settled into a quiet, deadly routine of systematic
destruction. The Sangaree seemed unable to touch her. But invincibility proved
an illusion.
 Hello, Iron Legion.Hittite here. Boys, I don t want to tell you this, but I
have to. We ve taken some drive damage. We ll have to pull out or lose our
screens. Sorry.
 Sorry? Mouse snarled.  Sorry don t help nothing.
 At least we softened them up a little for you. Hittite s Communications
Officer had not heard Mouse.  We make it eleven solid scratches and a whole
lot of bloody noses. Good luck, guys. Hittite out.
 Run the numbers, Mouse snapped.
 They re still going to get through, sir. Unless those bloody noses are worse
than they look.
 Bloody hell! I didn t want to hear that.
Frieda made her first appearance of the new day.  What s going on?
Mouse explained.
 Damn it all, anyway! She flew out of Combat.
Mouse was returning to his quarters when he saw the body lying on the
stretcher in the corridor. A girl of about fifteen. He did not recognize her.
She had to be a daughter of one of the enlisted men.
 What the hell? He knelt, felt her pulse. She was alive. Just unconscious.
Or sleeping.
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A sound startled him. He glanced up, saw two old men go into a cross corridor
carrying a youngster on a stretcher. The one to the rear gave him a furtive
look.
He started to run after them, became distracted when he passed an open
dormitory door. The lights were on. A half-dozen retirees were lifting
children onto stretchers.
 What the hell is going on here? he demanded.
They stared at him. Nobody said anything. Nobody smiled or frowned. Two
hunkered down, lifted a stretcher, came toward him.
He grabbed an arm.  I asked a question, soldier.
 Mouse.
He turned. Frieda stood framed in the doorway, not a meter away. She held a
weapon and it was aimed at him.
 What the hell are you up to, Mother?
She half smiled.  We re loading you youngsters aboard theEhrhardt . We re
sending you to your father. The Fishers will give you covering fire.
His thoughts zigged and zagged. That was a good idea. It should have occurred
to him. Gets the children out. It would be risky, butEhrhardt was one of the
fastest ships ever built . . . But Frieda seemed to be including him in this
Noah s Ark venture. He would not have any of that.
 I ve got a job here.
She smiled weakly.  I relieve you of command, Mouse. Bring a stretcher, men.
 Don t try to pull anything on me . . . 
 Take your father a kiss for me, Mouse. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
Mouse tried to jump aside. He was not quick enough. The stun bolt scrambled
his thoughts. He was falling, falling, falling . . . He never reached the
floor.
Forty-Nine: 3032 AD
Storm flung himself out of bed. A real nightmare had closed in on him. An
attack on his home . . . That was it. That was what he had overlooked. This
was a war against his Family. He had left a flank unguarded.
 Is that true? he asked, able to think of nothing else.
Thurston looked baffled.  Why would I lie about that?
 Don t mind me. I m just confused. Let s go.
Mouse had reestablished a continuous instel relay by the time Storm reached
the war room.  Mouse, what s it look like? he demanded.
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The burst went out. The response came back, it seemed, no swifter than the
speed of light.  It doesn t look good, Father. They re coming at us like
they ve gone crazy. No maneuver or anything. And it looks like they know our
weak spots. We re holding, but we re losing outstations faster than the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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