He dropped Bara off with Sheni in the crowded sickbay and headed for the bridge. This might be a warship, but it was a very strange one right now. The voices of children came out of open doors as he passed. Babies cried.

One section stayed quiet though. He frowned at it as he passed. A dark corridor, and a temporary barrier erected across it, the type engineers put up when they were busy in an area. But there was no sign of any engineering work. Oh well, he'd ask later. He found a lift and a moment later stepped onto the bridge.

"Vaz!" Jaff grabbed him into a backslapping hug. "Where the hell have you been?" He broke the hug and punched Chervaz on the arm. "I was worried about you, you big fool."

"Been doing a little job for Maiga."

"Ah well, when the missus gives you your orders." He lost the smile though, and frowned at the Captain's chair, where Maiga sat. "I hope she knows what she's doing, or we're screwed.

"I think she does. Are we underway?"

"Yes. And the rest of our ships are following. Seems her speech worked."

"Speech?"

"You missed the speech? Oh, man, and you call yourself a reporter!"

"Told you I was busy. Tell you about it later."

He surveyed the rest of the bridge. Wixa sat at a station, a sulky look on her face. A very strange looking man stood beside her. That must be Gry, Chervaz guessed. He had to get an interview with him at some point. Alex, rather battered looking, stood talking to Maiga. When he moved away, Chervaz and Jaff approached the Captain's chair.

"The Big Four ships have changed course away from the station," Maiga told them. "They're heading for us."

"They'll catch us eventually," Jaff said. "Some of the transport ships and the small ships can only reach half our speed."

"Do you plan to defend the flotilla with the Trebuchet?" Chervaz asked.

"I'm hoping I don't need to," Maiga said.

"I'm hoping you're right," Jaff said.

"She'd better be right," Wixa muttered.

Chervaz didn't speak, but despite his faith in Maiga, even he echoed the words in his head.

She'd better be right.

~o~

Maiga paced the bridge, getting reports every couple of minutes about how far behind the pursuing ships were. Not far enough. Her ships were close to the co-ordinates now, but the forward scanners weren't picking anything up yet.

"Only fifteen minutes behind us now," Wixa reported, looking over the shoulder of the officer at the scanning station.

"Should I call for battle stations?" Alex asked.

Maiga considered it for a moment. Of course the Trebuchet and a couple of the other ships could engage the pursuers and give the unarmed ships a chance to escape. But they'd almost certainly lose and be destroyed; leaving the scattered, helpless transport ships to be hunted down and finished off one by one.

It couldn't end that way. Not after all this, it couldn't.

"Perhaps as a..." she began to say to Alex.

"Captain!" The scanning station officer called suddenly. "Multiple contacts ahead, at the coordinates you gave. Dropping into normal space." Everyone on the bridge tensed, waiting for the ID. "Several dozen ships, various classes, getting the identification now... Human!" She yelled the word. "They're ours, Captain! They're ours!"

Relief flooded the bridge, eliciting gasps from many people. Jaff even punched the air.

"It's the High Committee, isn't it?" Alex said. "It's the Committee fleet."

Maiga nodded her confirmation and spoke to the scanning station officer again.

"What are the aliens doing?"

"They're scanning ahead of us. Slowing now, some have stopped."

"They're taking a good look," Maiga said. "Seeing if they fancy the fight." She doubted they would. The Committee fleet outnumbered them three to one. Not all warships, but enough armed ships to make a fight of it.

"They've all stopped now," Alex reported, standing at the scanner station. "Several of the Committee fleet ships have accelerated past us and taken up position between the flotilla and the aliens."

Protecting. Challenging. Maiga imagined how Wixa would put it. The ancient call to battle.

"They're withdrawing!" Wixa shouted. But they could all see it, the scanning station's readouts up in the main viewer now. The alien ships had started setting course out of the sector at high speed.

Now they cheered. A ragged sound of triumph with a lot of relief mixed into it. Alex flopped back into his chair beside Maiga's, as if his knees had given out.

Maiga just stood beside her chair and watched the forward view screen. Dozens of ships surrounded the Trebuchet and the rest of the flotilla. She could hear the communications officer having a busy time of it, fielding messages from all those ships.

"Captain," the comms officer managed to put everybody on hold for a moment, and turned to Maiga. "I have a message requesting permission to board for a small ship. It's from... Oh!" He looked amazed, but Maiga cut him off before he said the name, enjoying herself now.

"I know who it's from. Permission granted." She turned away, to her friends and said, "I'm sure you're all quite nosy enough to want to come down to the shuttle bay with me, so I won't try to stop you. Alex..."

"I'll take the con, ma'am."

"No. I want you to come too." She smiled at him. "I definitely want you to come."

~o~

"It's the Friss!" Jaff gasped as the doors to the shuttle bay opened, revealing the small ship.

"The rest of us guessed that five minutes ago," Wixa said, rolling her eyes. "Try to keep up.

A few Marines followed Maiga's group into the shuttle bay, mostly for the look of it. Military protocol. As they crossed the bay, a man stepped of the passenger hatch of the Friss and raised a hand in greeting. Alex made a choking sound and flashed past Maiga. He almost knocked Sev down when he reached him, charging into him at full tilt and lifting him fully off his feet. Sev laughed with delight and clung on to Alex as the other man buried his face in Sev's shoulder.

"Well someone's happy," Wixa said, grinning. "I wish I got welcomed home like that."

"Maybe you should get a robot dog?" Jaff suggested, provoking her to elbow him in the ribs.

"Good work, Lieutenant," Maiga said to Sev, as she walked past the still embracing Alex and Sev. Sev looked at her, smiling.

"You too, Captain. I'll give you details later. Bit busy now." He turned his face back to Alex.

Several more people disembarked from the Friss, and one, an older man, walked forward, offering his hand to Maiga.

"Captain. I'm Admiral Rand. Chair of the ruling Committee."

Maiga, adrenaline still rushing, resisted the urge to call him Randy.

"Pleased to meet you, sir."

He waved at hand at his companions, seven of them, and introduced them to Maiga, mostly Admirals and Generals, a few lower ranks. Maiga recalled that this was an elected Committee. Anyone could stand for election they said.

"The full Committee numbers thirty," Rand said. "But that would have been rather a tight squeeze on your little ship."

"Little, but tough."

"Indeed. Well, welcome to the fleet, Captain. I have to say I'm still amazed. When the Lieutenant found us and said if we came to these coordinates that the entire human population of Hollow Jimmy would join us, well, I found it hard to believe."

"Of course we had planned to try to persuade the humans of the station to come with us." A man whose name Maiga had already forgotten spoke up. "But we thought we'd never persuade the long term residents to leave."

"I thought nothing would get them out of there," Rand said. "I'm looking forward to hearing how you accomplished it."

"You might not approve."

"We approve of success, Captain."

"I can't take all the credit."

Maiga looked around at her friends, most of them clustered around Sev now, getting the story from him. Chervaz had his notebook out and stood part way between the two groups, trying to hear both. She thought about all the others who'd helped her against Bara. And she thought about Bara too. Who in the end had given Maiga exactly what she wanted.

"No, I can't take all the credit, sir. I had a lot of help."