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like a powerlifter's beneath his robe.
"Are you part of a script? Am I accessing your data?"
He chuckled. "That's a clumsy assessment, don't you think?"
"Then what are you?"
"I'm just me. And you're just you. And here we are."
"You with Captain Aristee? Are you helping her?"
The old man's brow knit as he took offense. "Of course. Where else would I
be?"
"I don't know. Where are you now?"
"Why, I'm here, brotur, with you."
"Where is Amity?"
"Oh, were it that easy, young man."
"There's enough residuum here for me to estimate her destination. You can't
hide that from me."
"Yes, I can. But her destination should already be quite obvious to you. If
she's made a fatal mistake, this is it. Oh, I'm tired of sitting in judgment.
We each have a path." He took in a long breath, sighed loudly. "Now, young
Pilgrim, let me teach you about who you are, where you belong, and why life
among the elect is yours."
Chapter 9
Vega Sector,Day Quadrant
Merchantman Diligent
Midpoint Lafayette and Tamayo Systems
2654.083
0600Hours Confederation Standard Time
"Mr. Blair? Mr. Blair?"
The voice rang through him, and for a moment, Blair did not recognize his own
name. He discovered himself staring at Paladin instead of the old man.
"Did you find him?" the commodore asked. "I think so," Blair replied,
straining to remember exactly what had happened. "He never said who he was,
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but I think it was McDaniel. He said he wanted to teach me about being a
Pilgrim. Then someone called. I'm not sure if it was you or maybe even
Aristee. And here I am."
"Where are they headed?"
Blair sighed in disappointment. "He wasn't giving that up. I didn't know he
could hide the coordinates."
"That's not something the average Pilgrim can do," Paladin said, then added
under his breath, "sanctimonious bastard."
"He did say that their destination should be obvious and something about
Aristee making a fatal error."
Paladin set his lips together, threw his head back, and studied the conduits
crisscrossing the overhead as though they were lines on a star map. All at
once he snapped out of the vacant look and activated the comm console. "Mr. Z?
Tell the captain to recall all fighters and set course for star number" he
leaned toward one of Blair's nav screens "ten-two-nine-one."
"Aye-aye, sir," said the Claw's comm officer.
Blair hustled back to his nav station and pulled up data on star 10-2-9-1.
White dwarf. Part of the binary system called Blytheheart. He frowned. "Why is
she going there, sir? No Confederation colonies. Some mines, refineries,
mostly commercial operations. Is she recruiting?"
Paladin waited to answer until he had redirected the Diligent on a new
vector, back toward the Tiger Claw . "Amity's not headed to Blytheheart at
all, Lieutenant. We are."
Although Blair deepened his frown, the commodore focused his attention on the
helm controls. Ah, yes. Paladin wanted him to figure it out for himself.
Using the nav computer, Blair quickly plotted a course from the Claw's
present position to Blytheheart. He studied a three-dimensional map of the
surrounding star systems and quickly realized that Blytheheart represented the
jump point nearest them. Okay, so Amity wasn't headed there, but they were.
Wait. She doesn't need jump points. We do. So we're going to Blytheheart to
jump where ? He tapped in a barrage of commands that would bring up every
destination ever achieved by Confederation craft via the Blytheheart jump
point. Names of star systems scrolled down the display, and one immediately
caught Blair's eye: McDaniel's World, the name of a system and a planet that
represented a spiritual headquarters for the Pilgrims. "Sir? I think I know
what you're up to. But if she just jumped to McDaniel, then she can probably
take care of business and be gone before we arrive. According to my data,
it'll take the Claw just under five standard days on full impulse to reach the
Blytheheart jump point. She can waste that entire planet in five minutes."
"Mr. Blair, Captain Aristee has made a grave error and we'll take every
advantage of it."
"I don't understand." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]