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underlying assumption of Operation Ark’s planners.
    â€œAt least we managed to push their damned scout ship far enough back to give Breakaway a fighting chance of working,” Thiessen observed.
    Pei nodded. The comment came under the heading of “blindingly obvious,” but he wasn’t about to fault anyone for that at a moment like this.
    Besides, Joe probably meant it as a compliment , he thought with something very like a mental chuckle. After all, Breakaway had been Pei’s personal brainchild, the sleight-of-hand intended to convince the Gbaba they’d successfully tracked down and totally destroyed mankind’s last desperate colonization attempt. That was why the forty-six dreadnoughts and carriers which had accompanied the rest of his task force in stealth had not fired a missile or launched a fighter during the fight to break through the shell of capital ships covering the Gbaba scout globe around the Sol System.
    It had been a stiff engagement, although its outcome had never been in doubt. But by hiding under stealth, aided by the background emissions of heavy weapons fire and the dueling electronic warfare systems of the opposing forces, they had hopefully remained undetected and unsuspected by the Gbaba.
    The sacrifice of two full destroyer squadrons who’d dropped behind to pick off the only scout ships close enough to actually hold the escaping colony fleet on sensors had allowed Pei to break free and run, and deep inside, he’d hoped they’d manage to stay away from the Gbaba scouts. That despite all odds, all of his fleet might yet survive. But whatever he’d hoped, he’d never really expected it, and that was why those ships had stayed in stealth until this moment.
    When the Gbaba navy arrived—and it would; for all of their age, Gbaba ships were still faster than human vessels—it would find exactly the same number of ships its scouts had reported fleeing Sol. Exactly the same number of ships its scouts had reported when they finally made contact with the fugitives once again.
    And when every one of those ships was destroyed, when every one of the humans crewing them had been killed, the Gbaba would assume they’d destroyed all of those fugitives.
    But they’ll be wrong , Pei Kau-zhi told himself softly, coldly. And one of these days, despite everything people like Langhorne and Bédard can do to stop it, we’ll be back. And then, you bastards, you’ll—
    â€œAdmiral,” Nimue Alban said quietly, “long-range sensors have picked up incoming hostiles.”
    He turned and looked at her, and she met his eyes levelly.
    â€œWe have two positive contacts, Sir,” she told him. “CIC makes the first one approximately one thousand point sources. The second one is larger.”
    â€œWell,” he observed almost whimsically. “At least they cared enough to send the very best, didn’t they?”
    He looked at Thiessen.
    â€œSend the Fleet to Action Stations, if you please,” he said. “Launch fighters and began prepositioning missiles for launch.”
    SEPTEMBER 7, 2499
LAKE PEI ENCLAVE,
CONTINENT OF HAVEN,
SAFEHOLD
    â€œGrandfather! Grandfather, come quickly! It’s an angel!”
    Timothy Harrison looked up as his great-grandson thundered unceremoniously through the open door of his town hall office. The boy’s behavior was atrocious, of course, but it was never easy to be angry with Matthew, and no one Timothy knew could stay angry with him. Which meant, boys being boys, that young Matthew routinely got away with things which ought to have earned a beating, at the very least.
    In this case, however, he might be excused for his excitement, Timothy supposed. Not that he was prepared to admit it.
    â€œMatthew Paul Harrison,” he said sternly, “this is my office , not the shower house down at the baseball field! At least a modicum of proper behavior is expected out of anyone