Another ping hit
     "Doppler shifting away, he's moving past us, sir."
     Jason let out a sigh of relief.
     "Keep secure  for silent  running," Jason  announced  and  he  left the
bridge, followed by Vance.
     "I thought you were crazy  to  land like this,"  Vance  said  and Jason
looked over at him and smiled weakly.
     "Maybe I am."
     The  move was  unorthodox  in the extreme.  Less  than twelve hours ago
Vance's  team had picked up a series of orders shifting more than  a hundred
scout and  recon ships into the sector they were now occupying and  to cover
all  the  surrounding jump  points.  Apparently  something  had  tipped  the
Kilrathi off to their presence. His first thought was to run and hide inside
the  atmosphere  of a gas giant but there were  none to be found within  the
system. There  was,  however, a green housed world  cloaked in heavy clouds,
its  surface  boiling hot  and  scored by  deep canyons. Placing  two  light
carriers down  on the surface under the lip of an overhanging cliff had been
tricky. If discovered they  would be near defenseless. A light fighter armed
with just a couple of antimatter warheads would  make short work of them  if
they were caught and unable to lift off in time.
     So far the subterfuge had worked,  and with the planet's extremely slow
rotational period, Vance  had been able to keep a watch on but  signals from
the direction  of Kilrah,  now  three hundred and eighty  light  years away.
However, the Hari system was blocked by the bulk of the planet.
     The only  problem  was that the scout ships simply refused to leave and
had  thus kept  them  pinned  for three  days,  out of  touch  with Paladin,
wherever he might now be.

     "Here we go, laddie, jump in ten seconds."
     Paladin cinched up his safety  harness and waited.  He spared  a  quick
glance over at Ian who sat placidly next to him.
     This next jump was totally blind, leaping into a jump point without any
idea where they were going. The last three jumps had taken them further than
any human had ever ventured before, far beyond the outer run of the Kilrathi
Empire and into the completely uncharted  realm of the  long dead  Hari. The
burst signal they were  tracking down had fired off again only six hours ago
and was very close, in a star system less than eight light  years away. They
had slipped through the sector using the Stealth, though it appeared  as  if
one  of  the  dozen picket  ships  they  had  passed had at  least gotten  a
temporary lock on them. In a couple of  seconds he would know  if this  jump
would take them to their goal.
     The jump transit hit, blurring  vision.  The  stars ahead  disappeared.
Paladin swallowed hard and waited. Maybe I'm getting too old for these sorts
of games, he thought. Twenty years of fighting is pressing  the edge  of the
envelope just  a  little too much.  He pushed the thought  aside,  no  sense
dwelling on it.  Besides, what the hell would I do with  myself  to kill the
boredom?
     A new starfield  snapped into  focus and at the same instant  the radar
detection alarm started to shriek its warning.
     He leaned over in  his chair, punching the alarm off and turned to look
at the readout screen.
     "Well, lad, we're being tracked," he announced, trying to keep the fear
from  his voice. It always amazed  him how all the others looked to  him  as
someone with ice  water in  his  veins. If  only they really  knew  just how
gut-wrenching the fear could really be.
     He  watched  his  screen  as optical  mounts turned, tracking  down the
incoming  paths  of the radar,  passively searching out the darkness for the
enemy.
     "Got  one sighted, make that two,  now  three, the  closest standing at
thirty eight thousand clicks, a light corvette."
     Another  high  energy radar burst  snapped on them, this  one  a narrow
focus beam. It could only mean that the Cats were on to him.
     He spared a quick look up at the unknown  system they had just entered.
The jump point was fairly close into the systems sun, a standard class M. He
continued the optical sweep.  He'd  have  a  good five  minutes  before  the
corvette would start to close. Now that they'd been found out, they could at
least do a quick scan before jumping back out and shaking off the pursuit in
the system which they had just jumped from.
     "Getting  an awful  lot of sublight radio traffic in this  sector," Ian
announced. trying to get an optical lock on the signals."
     Ian, working the long range optical scanners,  stayed hunched  over his
screen. A full radar sweep  would  have been better, but  they would be long
gone before  the first returns even started to bounce back. The  use  of the
narrow band translight pulse was out  of the question. They'd have  to  drop
completely  out of Stealth and it'd reveal their true mission to the  picket
ships.
     "Paladin, switch to my  screen," Ian whispered, his voice suddenly high
and tense.
     Paladin switched into the  long range optical scan, his eyes  straining
as Ian spun the optics up to their highest  magnification, which  could pick
up an  object the size of a one pound  coin from two hundred thousand clicks
out.
     "My lord," Paladin gasped, "hit the holo recorder switch."
     "Already running," Ian replied.
     Paladin  stared  at  the screen  in  disbelief when  Ian  punched  in a
computer enhancement with scale gradients  superimposed over the image. They
were looking at a ship that was at  least fifteen hundred  meters in length.
Several seconds later the computer, now armed with more information, cleared
the first image from the screen  and  replaced  it with  a higher resolution
enhancement, with the beginning of an analysis of what they were looking at.
     "Fifteen hundred  and eighty  meters, estimated half a million ton bulk
weight," Paladin  whispered. "ъange  102 million clicks,  orbiting the  only
planet in the system.
     "Dozens of  ships orbiting that planet," Ian announced,  "coming up now
on second screen."
     Paladin spared a  quick glance  over to  the  secondary images forming,
three  more  ships like  the first one, half  a dozen more apparently  still
under  construction, a dozen cruiser type  vessels that were bigger than the
old Concordia Ч battleships he could only guess would  be the word for them,
drawing the  term out of ancient nautical  history. Part of  the screen  was
tallying off a count  of transports,  more than  a  hundred of  them  either
docked into  what appeared  to be an  orbital construction yard that  filled
half a dozen cubic kilometers of space, or hovering around it
     The alarm went  off  again,  warbling  with a high  insistent tone  and
Paladin turned to look back at his tactical.
     We've  got  company, laddies. Looks like two  Stealths  just  jumped in
behind us. Prepare for evasive!"
     "We'll lose the visual lock, Ian shouted. "I  don't have a full read on
it yet."
     Paladin  weighed the variables and  in less  than half  a dozen seconds
from the sounding of the second alarm he came to his  decision. Turning back
to his main screen he cleared it of the optical and punched in the order for
a translight beam  sweep,  dropping his  ship out of Stealth mode. The pulse
went  out, even  as he swung his ship hard  over into  an evasive. The first
Stealth already had a lock on him and dropped a missile which he assumed was
one  of the new and more  deadly IFFs.  Before  the missile was even clearly
away Paladin popped a scrambler, a decoy pulsing with  a standard Confed IFF
code and capable of reflecting back a radar image of a fleet light corvette,
a counter he had rigged up based upon Ian's unpleasant experience.
     Ian looked  over  at  him in  surprise and grinned, as  the transponder
snapped to life. It was a clear give away  as to  who they really were along
with the translight pulse sweep. Seconds  later the  data came sweeping back
in with a high resolution read of the enemy fleet. The first missile at  the
same time streaked into the decoy and detonated. Two more missiles swept out
from the Stealths which  were turning  to  follow Bannockburn in its evasive
and Paladin punched out another  decoy while at the same time launching half
a dozen dumb fire flechette bolts from  his rear tubes that would fill space
behind him with  thousands of nail-sized shot that  could  rip a  fighter to
shreds if it got caught in the spread.
     Even as he piloted the ship he watched the other screen. A  green flash
indicated that the pulse had been successfully read and stored by the ship's
computer.
     "Check it!" Paladin shouted.
     "We've got good data," Ian replied.
     "Load it  along with the optical read  and our coordinates into a burst
signal, aim it back towards Tarawa."
     "Loaded!"
     Paladin toggled a switch into the burst signal line.
     "Green one, green one, this is green two, am under attack, cover blown,
repeat cover blown, get the hell out and back to the barn."
     He hit the burst signal  button and the light; in the cabin momentarily
dimmed as  nearly all the  ship's  energy  was diverted  to powering out the
signal across the hundreds of light years of space back to Tarawa.
     At  least  they'd  have  the information even  if  they  bought it.  He
realized that in the scheme of things his job was done, he had uncovered the
suspected  fleet. Within minutes Tarawa would  have the information and it'd
blow the lid right off the armistice when it came out that the Kilrathi were
building  the  ships  in  clear  violation  of  the   terms.  The  political
ramifications  would be explosive, he realized.  At  the very least ъodham's
government  would  fall. It'd also  mean  that the war  would be back on. He
thought again of what he'd just uncovered and the images still locked on the
secondary screen chilled him.  The carriers were more than  twice  as big as
anything now  in the fleet. Even if every ship was still active and on  line
the new Kilrathi ships had the power to do anything in space.
     The Cats undoubtedly  knew  that their cover  had just been  blown. The
only hope  was to fully  remobilize before the ships already completed could
be moved  up into  action  and meet them on  the frontier.  If  they  gained
confederation space with our defenses down it was over.
     The two missiles  hit  the  second  decoy  and detonated.  The Stealths
dropped out of masking and came to full visual, transferring their energy to
neutron  guns  and laser.  A shot lanced  into  the portside  stabilizer  of
Bannockburn and Paladin pulled hard  to starboard, lining  up  a  deflection
shot on one  of his  tormentors.  He  flared off half a dozen more flechette
rounds, followed by two dumb  fired bolts. The  flechette rounds broke open,
each deploying a  spread of  sixty thousand nail-sized shot across a hundred
meter wide piece of space. The wave slammed into the  Stealth,  shredding it
to ribbons and the ship silently detonated.
     The picket ships were already racing in to join the  fray, their  speed
well up  past a  thousand  clicks  a second with  maneuvering  scoops  fully
closed.
     "Turning in on jump  point. Get ready for uncalibrated jump in  fifteen
seconds!" Paladin shouted.
     Another laser  burst  hit  Bannockburn  dead  astern,  overloading  the
shields,  cutting  into the Y-axis maneuvering thrusters, and Paladin cursed
as he purged the thrusters fuel lines before they detonated.
     He  spared a  quick thought for the message he  sent  out,  hoping that
Tarawa was at least still alive to  get it, otherwise this whole  damn thing
was for naught. "How the hell did I ever get into this business?" he shouted
even as the jump transit hit.

     "We've got it"
     Jason  looked up  at  Vance who had  not even  bothered to knock before
bursting into his cabin.  The  normally unflappable director of intelligence
seemed almost giddy with excitement.
     "Got what?"
     "The signal damn it, the signal. Come on, I'll show you."
     Jason followed Vance  back down the  corridor into  the fighter bay. He
had a flash memory of  the same corridor, running towards the bridge when it
was hit by the Kilrathi suicide pilot, killing O'Brian, the first captain of
the Tarawa, the corridor decompressing when the hull was shattered
     They  reached  the end of the  corridor, the two security guards  still
requiring that even Vance show ID and undergo a corona laser scan. It struck
him as a  bit absurd, here they were hiding on a planet's  surface,  no  one
could possibly sneak  aboard to impersonate Vance, and the man had come down
the corridor only a minute before. But  he knew that security above all else
required no relaxation.
     He showed his ID as well and leaned into the corona scanner.
     The  guards opened  the  doorway into the bay  and  saluted,  the  door
slamming shut behind them.
     The  D-5 team  was gathered in a knot  around what was Vance's cubicle,
and to Jason's surprise he saw  bottles of champagne being passed around. He
was  about  to  raise an  objection  to such  an  open  violation  of  fleet
regulations  but  then  realized that  fleet  regs no longer applied,  since
officially they were not part of the fleet,  and in  fact officially did not
even  exist. Intel people  had always struck him as a little strange and  he
realized that perhaps they needed to blow off steam like this otherwise they
would have cracked  under the pressure long ago. They were no different than
pilots in that respect.
     The crowd parted for Vance, patting him on the back.
     "Good  job, people, now let's finish our  party and get back  to  work,
there's a hell of a lot to be done before this mission is finished"
     The crowd seemed to immediately sober up and drifted away back to their
stations.
     "Here's what all the excitement is  about. I thought you should know in
case anything happened."
     "Anything happened?"
     "We could take a hit to this bay and our entire team gets  wiped out. I
want someone off this deck  to know what  we've just found out I want you to
remember the message but you are to immediately, and  forever, forget how we
found out"
     Jason nodded in agreement
     Vance pointed  to a two dimensional screen. On the right side was  what
Jason assumed was phonetically translated  Kilrathi, on the left long series
of  white  blocks, and  occasional  words  in  English  which  were  partial
translations of the message.
     "When Geoff left  he went back amongst other reasons,  to have ConFleet
send  out a false message  which stated that  our primary  matter-antimatter
assembly  plant  on  the moon  had  been  destroyed  due  to  an  accidental
detonation.  As  a  result no  new weapons would  be  delivered  for several
months. The message of course was a complete fabrication.
     An hour ago we  picked up this message from Kilrah  to their Hari  base
and cracked part of it."
     Jason leaned over to look at the screen.
     Most of  the message  was untranslated but one line  highlighted in red
leaped out  at  him  .  . .  "ъemove target  2778A on  moon of nak'tara from
primary strike list Accident has destroyed target, . . ." there were several
lines untranslated . . . "shortage in antimatter weapons produced from 2778A
expected, will update."
     Jason looked back up at Vance.
     "They took the  bait. We broadcast the false message  on a code we knew
they had already cracked. Their  listening post, most  likely right in their
embassy office  picked it up and passed  it back  to  Kilrah. Nak'tara means
Earth.  It means that whatever it is they're preparing out there in Hari  is
being aimed  for an  attack straight  at Earth.  Damn it, the  bastards  are
getting ready to strike."
     Jason leaned back  in the chair and closed  his eyes for  a  moment. He
could  understand  the  elation of  Vance's  crew.  Their  job  was  to  get
information and they had just pulled out a gold nugget of information unlike
anything found in years. They had reason to celebrate. But it  meant as well
that the armistice was nothing more than a sham. Though he had assumed it to
be so from the beginning, there had always been a small part of him that had
hoped against hope that maybe the peace was  real after all. This was a dark
proof that shattered the dream.
     Damn all of  them, the Kilrathi,  the political leaders back home  that
had led them into this fix, damn all of them.
     "Think we should lift  off and get the hell out of  here?" Jason asked.
"We could punch our way through the picket screen.
     Vance shook his head.
     "And bring back what? One partially decoded message as proof. The peace
party crowd would say it  was cooked  up  to restart the war.  A lone  burst
signal does not an ironclad case make."
     "They could be moving at any time now. We should be alerting  ConFleet,
they'll believe us."
     "Son, ConFleet will believe us,  but they're the  only ones. You've got
to remember  this  as  well.  We  don't  exist as far as  the  government is
concerned. There aren't more than half a dozen people off this ship who even
know  we're  out here. How do you think it'd  be  presented if we go rushing
back  home and stand  up to announce that we  parked this ship clear on  the
other side of the Empire in clear violation of the armistice? The real truth
of  what we found would  be lost in the screaming and protests not only from
the Kilrathi but  from some of our own  people as well.  It'd also blow  the
cover on  this D-5 system. That's one of the problems with  intelligence. If
we  make  public  what  we've found, the  Kilrathi will  figure out just how
capable our  surveillance is  and change their procedures and  it  might  be
years before we can break it back down again."
     Jason nodded. They'd need something hard, clearly recorded visuals, and
even then  some  people would  claim it was a  fake  out. Hell, the Kilrathi
would  most likely have to start kicking down the front  door  before anyone
would act.
     "So we just sit here and wait."
     "Too bad  this planet screens  us  from your friend  Paladin.  Maybe he
might have something by now," Vance replied. "Hell, we're stuck here, unable
to move and one ship out to scout. I doubt if he's even got within a hundred
light years of their base."

     * * * * *

     Standing up to stretch, Prince Thrakhath growled softly as he continued
to look at the screen which showed the latest intelligence report.
     The  intelligence  report  from Jukaga matched  that  of what  his  own
military chain of command had stated. Jukaga most likely knew that Thrakhath
had  his  own  lines  of  communications,  and since the incident took place
within  a  military  command  district  he  would find out about  it  almost
immediately.
     Someone,  almost  undoubtedly  from the  Confederation, had  penetrated
right into the very system where the new fleet  was  being  constructed. The
translight  radar sweep could only  have been done by a very  well outfitted
spy ship, as no smuggler could afford to carry  such equipment. Beyond that,
the ship had been using Stealth masking. The fact that the humans had either
learned  the  secret of Stealthing or captured such equipment  was stunning.
They were on to something. The question now was whether  the information had
gotten back  to  the Confederation and their fleet command. No burst  signal
could possibly cross such a  distance. The spy ship had sent out three burst
signals  so  far,  all  of  them  aimed towards the Paghk  System,  where  a
suspected ship  was  still being hunted. But no  b