Tulan Page 3
"Intelligence!" Tulan shouted. "Casualties?"
Intelligence was listening to his earphones and punching buttons. "TwoLights lost, sir. Slight damage to seven more and to one Medium."
"All right. Get a telecopy of those pictures as soon as you can; wecertainly hit something. Maybe a Heavy or two." He relaxed, aching, andreflected that he was getting a little mature for actual combat.
The pull-back went on, drawing only the local ground-fire now that theenemy had been taught his lesson. Groups of ships lifted almostconstantly. The final position was an oval forty by sixty miles, heldalmost entirely from the sky. The last evacuees straggled in like wearyants, and when the radio reported no more of them the last fifty shipslifted together and ran the gauntlet with slight losses.
Tulan pulled the Force away for rest and repair. Group Two was idling atextreme radar range, making a convincing blip, and he designed somefalse messages to be beamed toward it with the expectation ofinterception. The impression he wanted to give was that Group Two wasthe Force that had been bombarding Coar, coming in now to join him.Actually, the latter fleet was farther away, hidden in the sun and, hehoped, unsuspected.
* * * * *
Things were going according to plan except for one puzzling item: therewas no message from Sennech's small garrison on Teyr. All he could getfrom the planet was a steady radar scan, which might mean that Sennech'scolony had been conquered by Coar's.
He'd been hoping to get certain supplies from Teyr, and now he took astrong detachment in close to the planet to find out what was wrong. Thethreat finally raised an answer. "This is the Chief of Council. What isit that you want?"
"Chief of Council? What are you talking about? I want the GarrisonCommander."
"I suppose you're Admiral Tulan. There's been a change here, Tulan; Teyris now an independent planet. Your garrison, with Coar's, comprise ourdefense forces."
Tulan stared at the planet's image. "You're at war with Coar!"
"Not any more, we aren't." There was a chuckle. "Don't sound so shocked,Admiral; we understand you're in mutiny yourself."
Tulan slapped the microphone onto its hangar. He sat, angry andbewildered, until he remembered something, then buzzed Communications."Get me that connection again. Hello? Listen. I have sixty thousandtroops in transports, with almost no food. I intend to land them."
"They're welcome as noncombatants, Admiral. They'll have to landdisarmed, in areas we designate, and live off the country. We've alreadygot more refugees than we can handle."
"Refugees from where?"
"Haven't you been in contact with Sennech at all?"
"No."
"Oh." There was a thoughtful pause. "Then you don't know. There's badradiation in the atmosphere and we're hauling as many away as we can. Wecan use your ships if you're finished playing soldier."
Tulan broke the connection again and turned, fuming, to Jezef. "We'llblast our way in and take over!"
Jezef raised his eyebrows. "What good would that do?" he asked.
"Why; they--for one thing, we've got to think of those troops! We can'tland them unarmed and let them be slaughtered by the savages!"
Jezef grinned. "I doubt if they'll refuse to let them have enough smallarms to defend themselves. They can't stay where they are."
"But they're military men, and loyal!"
"Are they? The war's over for them, anyway. Why not let them vote onit?"
Tulan jumped up and strode around the command room, while Jezef and thestaff watched him silently. Gradually, the logic of it forced itselfupon him. "All right," he said wearily, "We'll let them vote."
* * * * *
A few hours later he studied the results gloomily. "Well, after all,they're not Fleet. They don't have the tradition."
Jezef smiled, then lingered, embarrassed.
"Well?" Tulan asked.
"Sir," (that hadn't come out, in private, for years) "I'd like to berelieved."
It was a blow, but Tulan found he wasn't really surprised. He stared athis brother-in-law, feeling as if he faced an amputation. "You think I'mwrong about this whole thing, don't you?"
"I'm not going to judge that, but Sennech's in trouble far worse thanany question of politics, including your own family."
"But if we turn back now Coar will recover! It's only going to take us afew more hours!"
"How long does it take people to die?"
Tulan looked at the deck for a while. "All right. I'll detach everyship I can spare, and put you in charge. You'll have the transports too,as soon as they're unloaded." He stared after Jezef, wanting to call outto him to be sure to send word about Anatu and the boys, but somehowfeeling he didn't have the right.
* * * * *
He took the fighting ships away from Teyr, to where Group Two could joinup without being unmasked, then started sunward as if he were crossingto intercept Coar. A few miles in, where they'd be hidden in the sun, heleft a few scouts.
As he saw it, the enemy commander on the satellite, noting the armada'scourse and finding himself apparently clear, would have no choice but tolift his ships and start around the sun by some other path to help hisplanet.
That other path to Coar could be intercepted, and as soon as Tulan waslost near the sun he went into heavy drive to change direction. Hedrifted across the sun, waiting for word from his scouts. At about thetime he'd expected, they reported ships leaving the satellite.
He looked across the room toward Plot. "Plot! Feed that data toCommunications as it comes in, will you?" And to Communications: "Can webeam Group Three from here?"
"Not quite, sir; but I can relay through the scouts."
"All right; but make sure it's not intercepted. I want Group Three undermaximum acceleration for Luhin, and I want them to get running reportson the enemy."
"Right, sir."
Tulan was in the position he wanted, not needing to use his own radar,but able to pick up that of Coar's fleet at extreme range, too far togive them a bounce. He'd know their course, speed, and accelerationfairly well, without even being suspected himself.
He held that position until the enemy was close enough to get a bounce,then went into drive on an intercepting course.
One of the basic tenets of space maneuver was this: if two fleets weredrawing together, with radar contact, neither (barring interference fromfactors such as the sun or planets) could escape the other; for if oneapplied acceleration in any direction the other could simply match it(human endurance being the limitation) and maintain the originalrelative closing speed.
When the enemy commander discovered Tulan's armada loafing ahead ofhim, he'd been accelerating for about ten hours and had a velocity of amillion miles per hour, while Tulan was going the same direction but athalf the speed. The quarry began decelerating immediately, knowing itcould get back to Luhin with time enough to land.
Tulan didn't quite match the deceleration, preferring to waste a fewhours and lessen the strain on his crews. He let the gap close slowly.
He could tell almost the precise instant when the other jaw of his trapwas discovered, for Plot, Communications, and Intelligence all jerked uptheir heads and looked at him. He grinned at them. What they'd picked upwould be an enemy beam from Luhin, recklessly sweeping space to find theCoar fleet and warn it of the onrushing Group Three.
The enemy commander reacted fast. It was obvious he'd never beat GroupThree to Luhin, and he made no futile attempts at dodging, but reverseddrives and accelerated toward the nearest enemy, which was Tulan. Tulanwas not surprised at that either, for though Coar's fleets had bungledthe war miserab
ly, when cornered they'd always fought and died like men.
He matched their acceleration to hold down the relative speeds. Theswift passing clash would be brief at best. He formed his forces into anarrangement he'd schemed up long ago but never used: a flat disc oflighter ships out in front, masking a doughnut-shaped mass behind. Hemaneuvered laterally to keep the doughnut centered on the line ofapproach.
* * * * *
Roboscouts appeared and blossomed briefly as they died. The fuzzy patchof light on the screens swelled, then began to resolve into