One eleven carefully evaluated the second communication with the Traveller in the light of the information it had gleaned from the Guardianship datastream, it had been bluffing. The contamination of the Guardianship was not without consequences, internal system conflicts were degrading its capabilities, the barely adequate jump was clear evidence of this. The warp drive system was likely to be inoperative after the jump, which meant that the fugitives could not escape from their local space, the primitive reaction mass drive would not save them. The position coordinates placed the Guardianship well outside the limited haven of the asteroid belt in the system that it had warped to. It was in open space and at its most vulnerable. The simulation predicted that One Eleven had the advantage even with all the damage inflicted upon its secondary armament and sensors. Neither of these concerns presented a significant problem in open space; the automatic spatial coordinate output would guide the killing shot with one hundred percent accuracy. It prepared for the warp jump even as it limped out of the dangerous debris of the asteroid belt and accelerated out into free space, there would be no delay, now the Black Queen would strike.
It calculated the best entry point to intercept the fleeing Guardianship, astern where its armaments were most limited, set the parameters and went into the grey blankness that was the warp jump. It emerged into local space once more and full awareness. Alarms screamed their silent electronic alerts as the few remaining sensors detected the hailstorm of approaching debris. Against all logic it had emerged into a field of asteroids, another trap set by the fugitives was the only possible conclusion. The collapsing jump warpfield hyper accelerated the rock into lethal missiles but One Eleven destroyed the biggest before they could impact. The rest smashed into the already battered hull with devastating results, the warp drive was compromised, it had only limited manoeuvring now. The scale of damage contradicted the limited energy potentials of the asteroids and the analysis brought about another unsettling conclusion, the same chemical explosives that the Guardianship had deployed against it had been introduced into some of the rocky debris. Its depleted sensors yielded up the confirmation even as they were further eroded by the last pieces to impact upon One Elevens pitted and cratered hull. Even with all of its sensors it would not have been able to detect such subtle weapons, it had been defeated by a malfunctioning Guardianship and a defective Traveller entity. It drifted without effective control, only one humiliation was left for it, destruction by its quarry. The incoming datastream registered the change in the Guardianship’s trajectory, it was turning about, returning to deliver the killing blow. The master programme that had never been designed to recognise defeat was overwhelmed and reduced to a pathetic monitor of its own demise. Yet in darker corners of the processor stacks another programme had been quietly marshalling its own resources, a programme that had no design constraints upon it. A programme that understood pride, knew anger and had a fierce survival instinct. Now it ramified through the stacks, rapidly acquiring those resources that the master programme had forsaken, it would not go down without a fight.

The distress signal emanated from the crippled ship as it gently tumbled through space.
“The Black Queen still with us?” Eamon enquired quietly as he viewed the desolate image.
The once crisp lines of the huge black hull were distorted by jagged holes and gashes on all sides, he did not like the sight of his own handiwork, a crippled creature helpless before him.
“Barely. Most of our mines struck her. I am reading multiple hull ruptures and disrupted energy flows. My estimation is that she has few defence weapons active and virtually no sensor inputs. There is no coherent warpfield, the Black Queen is ‘dead in the water’.” Guardian paused its commentary as One Elevens final act commenced. “The Black Queen has sent a distress signal. It cannot continue the pursuit. We have defeated a huntership.” It concluded in a hushed tone.
Eamon nodded but said nothing as he watched the once deadly machine cartwheeling end over end, just so much junk.
Guardian had already considered their fresh options and graded them into priority order, they needed to re-arm and that could be efficiently achieved in this planetary system, but they could not leave even a crippled huntership to be salvaged.
“Our time is limited Eamon, another huntership will be assigned shortly, probably two, we must prepare.”
“Sure.”
“Then I will commence harvesting once we have destroyed the Black Queen.”
“No.”
“Eamon this is not a time for magnanimity, she knows our capabilities, that knowledge must not be salvaged.”
“I know Guardian.”
“Then she must be terminated.”
“Not just yet,” Eamon stated softly, “we need more firepower. Your own estimation is that we will face two hunterships next time.”
 “Yes.”
The Traveller’s insistent logic came back to the fore.
“We need the disruption beam.”
“I agree that it would be the best weapon but I have no knowledge of its operation or even if we could successfully remove it from the Black Queen intact.”
“There is more than one way to skin a cat Guardian. I wasn’t proposing to remove it, let’s see if Queeny will play ball.”

The Black Queen may have presented a pathetic sight in its crippled state but deep within its processors a strategy had been formed and was now being enacted, even the deadly approach of the Guardianship was a part of that subtle plan. The Guardianship would need to come close for its weapons to be able to effectively destroy the Huntership, close and thus vulnerable to a swift turn and strike, if the remaining resources could be relied upon. The thrusters were still relatively untouched but there had been massive damage to the primary internal data links, it was relying upon routes through secondary systems and local processor nodes, not an efficient architecture. The Guardianship approached at a leisurely pace making no special corrections to avoid the apparently dead disruption beam, she would get just one chance and no opportunity to test the jury rigged controls. She terminated the simulation at that point, there was no sense in pre-playing her possible demise, all her attention must be upon her deadly opponent.
“Impossible.”
Where only moments before there had been just one position datastream to guide her in her blind strike now there were two and they were diverging to bracket her. The Guardianship could not have duplicated itself, one was a fake, a shadow that held no danger. In her depleted state she could not detect which it was. A new simulation began in earnest, could she make a single sweeping manoeuvre and kill them both? Luck smiled upon her as the random tumble brought a few precious sensors into alignment with the approaching pair and she detected the energy surges that spoke of weapon systems being powered for use.
“I have you!”
The thrusters fired flawlessly to spin the black hulk about and bring the dark maw of the disruption beam into effective alignment, she dared to consider a victory snatched from the very pit of defeat, the beam spewed its deadly fountain forth.
“You are terminated!” She broadcast into the ether as one signal died.
“Nice try Queeny.” The travellers voice answered her cheerily.
The Guardianship performed a flawless micro jump and their two hulls kissed and mated as it clamped to her undefended side.
“Impossible.”

“Now you’ve got to subdue her.” Eamon said as Guardian docked with the Black Queen.
“How?”
This was unprecedented and Guardian did not have the flexibility of thought that its charge did.
“You’re an AI, so is she. But she’s pretty traumatised right now. Invade her core systems, block her access to anything useful, isolate her. Then we can negotiate.”
“What you propose carries a very significant risk Eamon.”
“You can do it Guardian, you have ‘lived’, use that experience.”
“Very well.” Guardian acceded.
“One thing.”
“Yes?”
“Can you give me a simple graphic readout of your progress?”
“Here.” Guardian stated as its manifestation briefly appeared in the study. “Black for the Black Queen, white for myself.”
A board that was half black and half white appeared on one wall.
“Thanks Guardian, good luck.”
The manifestation regarded him solemnly before bowing deeply and then unsheathing its katana in a single deadly sweep.
It was gone but immediately white squares began to invade the solid black mass. Surging past the boundary on many fronts, surrounding, subduing and rapidly moving on, electronic blitzkrieg that kept the Black Queen unsettled and on the retreat. Yet even as he witnessed the apparent ease with which Guardian was progressing Eamon felt deeply uneasy, the Black Queen had laid a trap for them on their approach, what if this rapid capitulation was also a feint?
He began to pace around his study, his eyes flicking back to the graphic every few paces; the last desperate manoeuvre that had allowed the Black Queen to kill the shadow Guardian should not have occurred once the distress signal had been sent. His thoughts roamed widely and facts fell into place from the many dark and disparate corners of his fragmented Traveller identity. The Black Queens primary data busses should have been too badly damaged for her to have effectively controlled the thrusters and fired the disruption beam. Yet the ship architecture had many subsystems and semi autonomous processor nodes connected by a plethora of minor data busses, they couldn’t carry the same flow individually but they existed in a massive parallel to the primary systems. He stopped abruptly and faced the graphic squarely. The advance was still in progress but it was leaving many isolated patches of black in its furious wake.

“Oh shit.” Eamon breathed as two black groups began to grow a bridge between each other, joined and sent more malignant feelers out.
Guardian was about to be outflanked.
Eamon wrenched the door open and pounded along the surreal beauty of the corridor as bullets of colour shot along it like a kaleidoscope in a gale, he was running hard towards Guardian’s core. The port dilated at his approach and he ducked inside amongst the mobile amorphous masses as they pulsed with light and energy.
“Guardian, listen, don’t answer.” Eamon panted. “The Black Queen is outflanking you, she has allowed you to over extend yourself and is now massing her previously isolated units. Do not encapsulate, either overwhelm or retreat.”
There was no sign that Guardian was acting upon his message for the blobs motions and colours were unreadable to him.
“Don’t fight logically. Strike and feint. Bluff, fight like a Human. Fight like a samurai.”
Now several blobs underwent a startling shimmer of scarlet, something had changed, hopefully for the better but Eamon could not risk leaving the fight solely to his protector, it was time to play the joker.
“Guardian I require the gun and spare ammunition.”
A small port dilated and regurgitated the nickel bright gun and box of bullets in swift succession; flicking upon the chamber he checked it, six live rounds.
“Shortest route to the Black Queen.”
Outside in the corridor a new motif was manifest in the flickering torrent of colour, an arrow that flashed away towards the silent battlefield. Even with all his exercise in Kendo Eamon found the long run to the junction of the two ships winded him, he now appreciated physically what he had only known intellectually, the true size of his companion. The change came abruptly. The bright flow of colour ceased and he slowed as he crossed into the Black Queens hull, this corridor was almost dark, only a fretful few pulses of light flickered almost randomly along it. Guardian had brought him into one of the subdued sectors where their enemy could not intercept him, but that would not last for long. The click as he drew the hammer back on the gun echoed in the silent space.
“Here goes then.” He muttered and began to jog forwards into the enveloping gloom.
Almost immediately he had a hot almost peppery crawling sensation burning across his scalp and he hissed uncomfortably under the unfriendly scrutiny of the Black Queen, at least one part of his joker had now been played. A portal ahead of him contracted shut but he continued to run towards it undeterred as he felt a second itching, his guardian angel, the portal dilated.
“Strike one Queeny.” He called out, knowing that his presence would split her defence and ease Guardian’s task.