A few minutes later the stars vanished, and Geary was gazing upon the drab gray of jump space again. Thinking of the Syndic reserve flotilla’s mission and their superiority in numbers, and the state of the Alliance fleet, he couldn’t help wondering if this would be his last jump.
FOUR apparently endless days later, they sat in their seats on the bridge of Dauntless again, counting down the minutes until they left jump. Geary took long, slow breaths to relax, rolling his shoulders as if preparing for hand-to-hand combat. Desjani sat with her eyes glued to her display, her face calm, her eyes lit with excitement. At the back of the bridge, Rione remained silent, but tension seemed to radiate from her. The watch-standers were poised at their stations. Dauntless’s entire crew stood on duty throughout the ship, ready for action.
“All weapons ready. Set to fire on automatic,” Desjani said with a coolness that felt eerie amid the stress-filled atmosphere.
Ahead of them, in the gray emptiness of jump space, one of the mysterious lights seemed to bloom across their path. It could have been close or immensely distant, but it hung there a moment as if waiting for Dauntless. Geary heard almost everyone’s breath catch at the mystifying omen.
“Exiting jump space.”
The endless gray and the inexplicable light before them vanished as the stars appeared.
Dauntless yawed around, seeking to avoid possible mines and enemy fire.
Braced against the maneuver, Desjani was still eyeing her display. “They’re not at the jump point.”
Geary stared at his display, unable to speak for a moment as he looked upon Varandal Star System.
After so many jumps, so many light-years crossed, so many Syndic-controlled star systems transited, the Alliance fleet had finally reached Alliance territory. Varandal, home of a regional fleet headquarters and many fleet installations along with strong defenses. He’d studied the database on Dauntless, seen how those installations and defenses had multiplied since the last time he had been to Varandal a hundred years before, but seeing it now for real still felt disorienting. Familiar and yet greatly changed.
Alerts sounded and symbols pulsed. Geary watched updates rapidly proliferating across his display as the fleet’s sensors evaluated everything they could see. “We’re in time.”
The hypernet gate still stood, just under six light-hours distant.
Three light-hours away, the Syndic reserve flotilla orbited the star Varandal. Seven light-minutes from the box of enemy warships a small formation of Alliance warships hovered, the survivors of those who had attacked Atalia, then tried to defend Varandal. “Two battleships, one battle cruiser, six heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, nine destroyers,” Desjani read off. “That’s all that’s left.”
Geary looked at the display, feeling a growing sense of unease. “Why haven’t the Syndics destroyed everything? A lot of the defenses in this system have been hit by kinetic bombardment, but the Syndics haven’t hit a lot of other things. All of the other facilities seem intact.”
“What are they up to?” Desjani muttered.
“Alliance fleet!” The incoming transmission surprised Geary, who only then realized that a destroyer had been positioned near the jump point as a scout, the lone Alliance ship lost in the midst of the scores of warships that had just arrived. Now the voice of Howitzer’s commanding officer rang out. “Praise the living stars!”
Desjani turned to her operations watch. “Get a full record from that destroyer of what’s happened here since the Syndics arrived. We need to see it now.”
“Linking to their combat systems now,” the watch reported. “On your display.”
“Maintain station, Howitzer,” Geary ordered, then concentrated on his own display, where historical events were playing at an accelerated pace. The Alliance defenders had made a stand half a light-hour from the jump point, losing another battle cruiser and a battleship along with numerous escorts. “Odds that bad, and they charged right at the enemy again,” Geary grumbled.
Admiral Tethys had commanded that action, but had died when Encourage was destroyed. Captain Deccan on the Contort had assumed command then, until Contort was blown apart during another Syndic firing pass. Then Captain Barrabin on the Chastise took charge, but Chastise ’s power core had overloaded during another clash well over two light-hours from the jump exit.
According to the records from Howitzer, since the destruction of Chastise, the remaining warships in Varandal had been commanded by Captain Jane Geary on Dreadnaught . Aside from Dreadnaught, only the battleship Dependable , the battle cruiser Intemperate, and their surviving escorts still faced the enemy.
Between those events, the Syndic reserve flotilla had launched kinetic bombardments, leveling the Alliance defenses in the star system. But they hadn’t launched any subsequent bombardments, nor had the reserve flotilla yet closed with the few surviving Alliance defending warships even though to Geary it seemed that there had been opportunities to do so.
Why hadn’t the Syndics finished off the defenders? Why hadn’t they destroyed more of the Alliance facilities here? Of course the images they were seeing of the enemy were three hours old. It was possible that had happened by now.
“What the hell.” Desjani had been watching her display intently, and now her hands moved rapidly, replaying part of the record. “Look at this. After the last clash with the Alliance defenders here.”
Geary peered at the detail she was highlighting, zooming in on the Syndic reserve flotilla. The fleet’s optical sensors were sensitive enough to pick out small details across immense distances of airless space. “Shuttles? What are they doing?”
“From heavy cruisers to other ships,” Desjani murmured, then she entered more commands, and the view tightened even more, showing the access points where shuttles had been next to one of the heavy cruisers. “Personnel. See? They’re taking personnel off the heavy cruisers.”
“Why?”
Rione answered, her voice stressed. “Automated controls. You told me the Syndics can automate their ships and command them by remote.”
“But why would they want to automate heavy—” The reason hit him and Desjani at the same moment.
“They’re going to use those heavy cruisers to take down the hypernet gate,” Desjani said. “It makes sense. It all ties together. Look. The Syndics have penetrated deep within the star system, but they haven’t wiped out the Alliance defenders or heavily bombarded the Alliance facilities here.”
“Bait,” Geary breathed.
“Right. If they’d wiped out the defenders and destroyed most of the facilities in this star system, we might well hang around this jump point when we arrived, knowing that the Syndics would have to come back here through us sooner or later. But if there’s still someone and something to save—”
“We’re going to come charging at them.” Geary ran a finger across his display, imagining the fleet movements. “When they see us, they wait until the right moment, then they hit the remaining defenders hard enough to wipe them out and send those heavy cruisers toward the hypernet gate. The rest of their force heads for the jump point, tearing past us. By the time we know what’s happening, the shock wave is on its way, and the Syndics can jump out just ahead of it. If we hadn’t already figured out they intended to collapse the hypernet gate here, their plan might well have worked.”
“They get us and the entire star system.” Desjani looked ready to kill Syndics with her bare hands. “How can they be sure the gate does enough damage though? That’s the flaw in their plan.”
“It’s possible to scale up the level of an energy discharge from a gate collapse just like it’s possible to scale it down,” Geary replied. He didn’t look back at Rione. When Cresida had worked up the calculations on how to scale down a gate energy discharge, she’d had to work up the reverse solution as well. Geary had entrusted that doomsday program to Rione, hoping it would never be used by anyone. “We have to assume the Syndics have figured out how to do that, too.”
Th
ey’d already been here for fifteen minutes. The enemy wouldn’t see the fleet for another two hours and thirty minutes, but he couldn’t afford to waste another second of that time, since any orders he sent would require the same amount of time to reach the remnants of the defenders in this star system.
The first priority had to be orders to the remaining defenders of Varandal. “This is Captain John Geary, acting commanding officer of the Alliance fleet, to Captain Jane Geary, commanding the Alliance task force defending Varandal. The Syndic objective is to collapse the hypernet gate in this star system by destroying enough of the tethers on the gate. If the gate collapses, the resulting energy discharge will annihilate everything within this star system. We assess that the Syndics plan to collapse the gate using uncrewed heavy cruisers operating on automatic controls since any ship near the gate when it collapses will be destroyed. You are ordered to protect that gate,” his voice caught for an instant before he could say the next part, “at all costs. Protection of the gate takes priority over all other actions, including the destruction of Syndic warships not menacing the gate and protection of other Alliance assets within this star system. Do not allow your force to be eliminated as a threat unless that is required to protect the gate. Hold out. Help is on the way. To the honor of our ancestors. Geary out.”
He’d made it back, reached the star system where his grandniece was located, and his first words to her had been orders to sacrifice herself if necessary to defend the hypernet gate here.
“Are you sure your orders won’t be overridden?” Rione asked. “There may still be a surviving admiral within this star system.”
“No one’s asserted command over Jane Geary yet,” Desjani pointed out as if answering something that someone else had said. “But we’re back in home territory, and someone might try to order senseless assaults by the defenders or by this fleet.” Desjani turned to face her communications watch. “Should any orders come for Captain Geary from any officer senior to him within this star system, I want to ensure that this ship does not develop a serious problem with receipt and relay of incoming messages. Any error would be unacceptable. Under the circumstances, I will personally screen all such messages before receipt is acknowledged and before they are relayed to any other ships in the fleet to ensure they aren’t garbled and that Captain Geary isn’t distracted at an inopportune moment.”
The communications watch-stander seemed momentarily startled, then nodded with a serious expression. “I understand, Captain. If I see such a message, I should pass it on to you alone so that you can see how badly garbled it is.”
“Yes. Exactly. You are not to bother Captain Geary with anything like that until we’ve finished with the Syndics in this star system.” Desjani settled back in her captain’s seat and saw Geary’s expression. “Is there a problem, sir?”
“Only that I may still have been underestimating you, Captain Desjani.”
She raised one eyebrow at him. “That can be dangerous, sir.”
“I won’t argue that.” Geary turned, looking toward Rione. “Madam Co-President, while I’m engaging the Syndics, I’d appreciate it if you could find out what we’re dealing with in this star system on the Alliance side.”
Rione made a noncommittal gesture. “That’s already under way. As far as I can tell at this point, I’m the senior political figure present, so you need not worry about additional political thorns in your side for the time being.”
“That leaves the Syndics. How do we short-circuit their plans, Tanya?” He already knew the answer, the only one available. “We have to reinforce the defending task force and bring the rest of the fleet against the Syndics. Stop them from collapsing the gate and hurt them badly enough that they can’t carry out their plans.”
Desjani gave him a challenging look. “You know what battle cruisers do, Captain Geary.”
“Yeah.” He had twelve battle cruisers left with the fleet, several of those still bearing significant damage. But they had the firepower he needed, and they could get it where it was needed. “How fast can we go without running out of fuel cells once we get to the Syndics?”
She ran the calculations. “Point one four light speed. Dauntless is accompanying them?” The question was tinged with worry and hope.
“You bet she is.” He started working up new formations. “We need to split the fleet. One formation consisting of the twelve battle cruisers accompanied by the light cruisers and some of the destroyers. The other made up of the battleships, the heavy cruisers, and the rest of the destroyers.”
“Got it. I’ll make sure the Twelfth Light Cruiser and Twenty-third Destroyer Squadrons stay with the battleships. They’re too low on fuel cells to accompany the battle cruisers.”
“Good catch.” They worked frantically, double-checked their work against each other’s, then Geary transmitted the orders. “All units in the Alliance fleet, execute attached maneuvering orders at time two one zero five.” He paused, eyes running down the list of battleships. Warspite. She’d done very well. “Captain Plant, you are designated the commander of the battleship formation. If something happens to me, you are to make every effort to prevent the Syndics from destroying the hypernet gate here.”
“I understand,” Plant replied several seconds later. “Good hunting, sir.”
Rione was by his side again, speaking urgently in a hushed voice only he could hear. “Captain Geary, you can’t send Dauntless into that kind of danger.”
“Madam Co-President,” he responded in equally quiet tones, “if that hypernet gate collapses, then Dauntless will be in peril no matter where in this star system she is located. We have to stop the Syndics from succeeding in that, and Dauntless is now one-twelfth of my battle-cruiser force. She is needed with her sister ships.”
Rione exhaled in exasperation but didn’t argue further, going back to her observer’s seat.
“Thank you, sir,” Desjani breathed.
“We need to beat the Syndics and survive, Captain Desjani. Can we do that?”
“We’ll do our damnedest, sir.”
On the display the smooth shapes of the Alliance subformations came apart, roughly half of the ships collapsing in toward a single disc holding every surviving battleship and the heavy cruisers along with a healthy number of destroyers. The battle cruisers, most of the light cruisers, and the rest of the destroyers surged forward, sliding together into their own smaller disc as all of them accelerated along a vector aimed at reaching a projected position between the Syndic reserve flotilla and Varandal’s hypernet gate.
Geary felt a thrill as the battle cruisers surged forward, hurtling toward the enemy at an acceleration that battleships could never match. He’d never really experienced the charge of a massed battle-cruiser formation, and even though the rational part of him saw the weakness of the armor and shields in the battle cruisers and knew this force couldn’t sustain much more damage, his emotions watched the display as the battle cruisers charged and felt an irrational thrill at the courage and glory of it all.
It wasn’t smart, but by his ancestors, it was magnificent.
He wondered how many of the battle cruisers would survive this charge.
TWELVE
MORE messages to send, one to the enemy. “Give me a link to the Syndic flagship.” A moment later, the link established, Geary put on his best “hero out of legend” look as he sent his message. “To the CEO commanding the Syndicate Worlds reserve flotilla, this is Captain John Geary. We know from whom your flotilla has been defending Syndicate Worlds space on the border on the far side from the Alliance. You know that the Alliance did not collapse the hypernet gate at Kalixa. You know who did. Don’t serve their aims. You will not be permitted to carry out your orders in this star system. To the honor of our ancestors. Geary out.”
It probably wouldn’t work, but it was worth trying.
Another message. “To the Alliance command center in Varandal, this is Captain John Geary, acting commanding officer of the Alliance fleet. I will
attempt to defeat this Syndic flotilla and request any assistance you can provide. Be advised that the Syndic goal is to collapse the hypernet gate here, producing an energy discharge of nova-scale intensity. To the honor of our ancestors. Geary out.”
Desjani got his attention. “Cresida is broadcasting her package. It’s going out to everyone in the star system.”
“Good.” He took a moment to think, watching his ships move through space, the arcs of their paths forming a brilliant web on the display. The battle cruisers were swinging out wide, the battleships cutting in through the star system, aiming to reach positions on either side of the Syndics.
Should he have said something else to his grandniece? But what could he say in the middle of battle? You’ve probably noticed that Repulse isn’t with the fleet. That’s because your brother probably died covering the fleet’s retreat from the Syndic home system. He gave me a message for you, by the way.
No. Anything personal would have to wait. Jane Geary didn’t need the distractions. Neither did he. Until this engagement was over, he was the fleet commander first, Captain John Geary second, and the granduncle of Jane Geary a distant third.
The battle cruisers were settling into formation with their light cruisers and destroyers, the battleships already falling behind. After the rush of activity, there would be a long period of waiting. Even at their higher velocity, it would take the battle cruisers twenty-five hours to reach their goal, an orbit between the Syndics and the hypernet gate. In about two and a half more hours, the Syndic reserve flotilla would see the arrival of the Alliance fleet. It would be a little less than three additional hours before the Alliance fleet saw how the Syndics reacted to that.
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