Free The Starwolves by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

twenty-five thousand kilometers,
although such a thing could be hard to predict.
    Consherra faced the difficult task of maintaining the proper distance, and
playing dodge with that little ship at three-quarters light speed made that
distance uncomfortably tight. But the Methryn was feeling her full
eighteen million tons, and she was shipping nearly two million extra tons
besides. The ships circled each other like two fierce predators; the freighter
kept turning back to dart at its target, and Consherra would use the
Methryn's superior acceleration and maneuverability to circle around
behind it.
    "Just a little longer," Valthyrra gently assured her. "Hold
it steady."
    "I am!" Consherra snapped, fighting the controls as the freighter
rushed in yet again. "I only have four hands!"
    "Is there some point to this?" Mayelna asked impatiently.
"You cannot possibly want the thing. Where would you put it?"
    "No, I do not want it," Valthyrra replied, the servos in her boom
humming against the strain of their tight turn. "The conversion device is
already powered up, so that ship is not safe to approach. I just want to prove
a point."
    A moment later the freighter broke off its suicidal attack. It seemed
to pause for a moment, then turned in-system and accelerated to low
starflight speeds. Valthyrra Methryn held her camera pod at a decidedly smug
angle.
    "Where is it going?" Mayelna asked, as mystified as the rest.
"Did they call off the attack?"
    "No, I have control of it," the ship said. "I am teaching
them a lesson, a taste of their own medicine. Turn about is foul play, but fair
is fair to equal share and all's the same in love and war. I am returning the
favor... and the bomb."
    "What the deuce are you babbling about?" Mayelna demanded.
"Do you mean to say that you are going to destroy their station with their
own bomb?"
    "That, or at least scare them badly."
    Valthyrra refused to explain, and the members of her bridge crew could only
watch the scan of the system schematics on her forward viewscreen as the
giant freighter hurtled inward toward the military station and the world it
circled. No one could believe that she intended to destroy not only the station
but the planet itself, for Starwolves would never reduce themselves to such
barbarity. And they were quite correct. Valthyrra waited until the final moment
before detonating the conversion device just short of target, doing no damage
but lighting up all space in that general area. They could well imagine every
loyal Unioner, beginning with the Station Commander, shaking with fright
in that fierce glare.
    "All stations secure. Resume normal duties. Prepare for immediate
transfer to starflight," Valthyrra announced with total lack of concern.
She turned her camera pod to look at Consherra. "You have the coordinates.
Please recheck those figures a final time and execute the transfer to
starflight. Your speed will be fifty. You have the helm."
    Valthyrra left the astonished first officer at her post, moving her camera
pod up into the upper bridge. Mayelna sat back in her seat, both sets of arms folded
on her chest. "Are you quite finished?"
    "For now," Valthyrra replied. "What do you think?"
    "About your aggressive new policy?" the Commander asked. "You
know that I do not agree with you completely, or you would not ask. I prefer
that we be a little more cautious. Our pilots – none of our pilots
– are used to real warfare. They are used to slow ships that do not fight
back."
    "Pilots like Velmeran and his pack?" Valthyrra asked. "If the
performance of the entire ship is to be hampered by your hesitancy to send your
son into battle, then he must transfer out. I can arrange for Thenderra Delvon
to give us a pack in exchange."
    Mayelna frowned. "You do know how to fight dirty. I would not part with
Velmeran for anything... and I say that as his Commander. He is just not ready.
He has not yet decided what he believes."
    "He talks undecided, but he acts like he knows exactly what