SECTION 20
Ulnar is well aware of how slim Don Larno’s chances of survival are at Endymion. Even at the maximum possible speed, the Ninth Defense Squadron cannot reach Endymion in less than eighteen days. Against a fleet numbering a hundred ships or more, the beleaguered garrison had little hope of survival, barring some kind of miracle. Now Ulnar regrets his caution in keeping his reserves at St. Germaine; if he had been closer to the frontier, there might have been a chance of helping Larno in time.
Ulnar thinks his best move now is to descend on Endymion in force. If the Ka’slaq are still in the system, the Legion can catch them and exact a measure of revenge. And if the main fleet has gone on, the squadron can interrupt their supply lines and draw back the main Ka’slaq strength from wherever it attacks next. Lingering in the back of Ulnar’s mind is the faint, irrational hope that the Endymion garrison might somehow survive, an impossible hope, perhaps, but the Legion was dedicated to making miracles happen.
Ulnar wastes no more time. Issuing the necessary orders, he waits in his private office as Valiant breaks orbit around St. Germaine, followed in turn by the other ships of the squadron. Under the space-twisting energies of their geodyne engines, the Legion’s vessels hurtle from their base and gather speed rapidly. freed from the restrictions of inertia and Einsteinian physics by the local distortion in the fabric of the universe created in the bowels of each ship.
The days pass slowly. Cut off from contact with the worlds of the Ninth Sector, the squadron exists like a separate universe. Ultrawave communications are not hampered much by interstellar distances, but a target the size of a spaceship moving at velocities far in excess of light is hard to pinpoint, and harder still to hold in an ultrawave beam. The seemingly endless time that passes en route to Endymion gives everyone aboard too much time to reflect on everything they’ve heard about their enemies.
In the final few hours of the approach to Endymion, Admiral Ulnar assumes his bridge position overlooking Valiant’s tactical plotting tank, where the ship’s computers interpret ultrapulse scans and other sensor information and translate these into a simulation of space around the flagship. The tank has remained clear of anything except natural objects—stars, dust clouds, interstellar debris—throughout the voyage, but now, with Endymion only three hours away, an unknown blip registers on ultrapulse. Unpowered and apparently lifeless, the unknown object still bounces back echoes characteristic of a spaceship or other artificial structure.
Cautiously, Ulnar orders one of his ships to move closer for a direct inspection. On teleperiscope, the object proves to be a battered, drifting spaceship, a human-designed vessel identified from shipboard files as a private yacht. A boarding party is sent to the yacht. Their report suggests that the vessel was near a massive explosion, a near-miss that tore most of the major structural members apart through the force of expanding gases buffeting the yacht, an effect one expert from the party likens to being “on the fringes of a newborn supernova.” A weapon that could induce such an effect is far beyond the vortex guns of the Legion ships.
The boarding party learns that the yacht was a private courier in the service of Endymion’s colonial government. On board are detailed accounts of everything the ship’s crew could collect regarding the fall of Endymion before they were themselves destroyed.
If Ulnar has had no previous information regarding what happened at Endymion (aside from Don Larno’s initial message), and he wants to review the information on board the courier/yacht, go to section 42.
If Ulnar waited to receive information about Endymion before leaving St. Germaine and he wants to review it on board the courier/yacht, go to section 46.
If Ulnar chooses to ignore the information contained on the courier/yacht, go to section 51.
On a piece of scrap paper note that eighteen days are used up in the voyage.