The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 99 —

WarAvocat felt old and tired. Was it time to step down?

VII Gemina had fortress-busting down to a mechanical routine. But each new system threw up a more hysterical defense. Nowadays he needed another two Guardships backing him.

He stared at a viewscreen showing a fortress he meant to kill. It was the biggest yet. And only one of five. The system was a sector capital.

VII Gemina came to rest with respect to its target. "Project the tube," WarAvocat directed.

Screen generators strained to produce a shaped field. Twelve modified riders moved into the expanding bubble, feeding it with their own shaped-shield generators till it expanded into a tunnel with its small end firmly against the fortress's screen.

"Loose the Hellspinners."

Hellspinners preferred the path of least resistance.

The Twist Masters cut loose. Hellspinners tumbled down the funnel and collided with the enemy screen. They gnawed through. After the Hellspinners splattered the fortress for several minutes WarAvocat introduced a pulse into their flow. Axial cannon CT shells flew. After those opened a pathway, thermonuclears followed, killing the fortress's shield.

WarAvocat moved to the next fortress. The other Guardships finished the first with their Hellspinners.

Systematic. Routine. Too much time left to think about the chain of chance that had brought VII Gemina here, point ship in a war no one understood but that looked likely to persist for years. VI Adjutrix's data had been incomplete.

There were a hundred gas giants, as reported, but VI Adjutrix had failed to mention the other species the colonial creatures dominated.

The Guardships focused on the methane breathers, but the other side's dying was done by subject species. WarAvocat hoped that with continued fleet successes the subject races would shift allegiances.

All this because VII Gemina had stumbled over a krekelen shapechanger.

WarAvocat smiled gently. Some House had set that up hoping to grab a Guardship. They had enlisted Outside help without realizing what they were getting. They would have lost VII Gemina instantly had they taken it.

The artifact crossed his thoughts. What had become of her? Had Haget caught the Ku? The Ku haunted him.

The new Haget was a staff officer with one of the ridership squadrons. Klass was in the pits, an apprentice Twist Master. The civilians were in storage.

Space behind VII Gemina turned purplish. The barrage pounding the fortress had sparked a self-sustaining Hellspinner reaction.

So damned tired. He really should consider stepping down.