“Okay, no space warp.” Steph flipped a bank of switches. “Good. I can work with that. Reaction drive?”

“Not like yours,” she said, “but similar, yes.”

“Range?”

“I am not sure.” She shook her head again. “Not beyond the star system, obviously.”

“I was hoping for a smaller area of operations,” Steph admitted as he punched in a new course. “Alright, get ready to hang on. I’m probably going to be pushing the limit of our CM field, so we’re going to be tossed around a bit. Tighten those straps.”

While she was working to do that, Steph finalized the new course and brought the ship’s dual reactors fully online.

“Here we go . . . ,” he said as he twisted the stick and shoved the throttle all the way forward.

►►►

IBC Piar Cohn

► “They’re evading,” the scanning chief announced.

“How can you tell?”

“I can see them when they eclipse objects behind them,” the chief said. “They’re diving into the gas giant. We should see them more clearly . . . now.”

Aymes looked up at the screen just in time to see a black silhouette as it appeared in front of the planet. The vessel was very small, smaller by far than even one of the Piar Cohn’s parasite vessels. That was good news and bad news.

At least they wouldn’t be in danger of combat with the unknown vessel that had plagued the initial Drasin incursion into the Oather territory. But he could tell at a glance that the target’s acceleration curve was extremely high, perhaps even higher than a parasite craft’s, which would make catching the ship difficult.

“Dispatch parasites Three and Eight to fence that ship in,” Aymes said. “I want Five to continue pursuit while Three and Eight take a counter orbit and catch the craft on the other side of the planet.”

“Yes Captain. Orders issued.”

“Good. Keep the rest in formation,” Aymes said. “We’re going after their home vessel.”

“On your orders, Captain.”

“On my orders indeed.”

►►►

Shuttle Eagle One

► “Stephan, I believe they have sent others after us,” Milla said, swiveling in her seat to look out to the side. “Two . . . no, wait, they are not on an intercept with us. They are going away.”

“Away? Away where?” Steph asked, hitting a bank of overhead switches to shunt full military power to the reactors.

“I am not sure. However, they are moving away from us now.”

“Are they closing on the planet still?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Damn. Clever bastards,” Steph grumbled, a dark smile on his face. “They’re gonna try a pincer.”

“What is a . . . pincer?”

“One chases; the other cuts around and gets in front of the prey,” Steph explained. “They’re going to cut us off by countering our orbit of the planet. This is going to get tricky.”