Torchship Captain

by Karl K Gallagher

  ***

  Resuming twenty gravs forced Finnegan to abandon repairs. He crawled over to Mitchie. “Ma’am, if we go down to ten gravs I can use the crane platform to patch those holes.”

  “Negative,” she answered. “My orders are to maintain twenty until we’ve passed through the fleet formation.” I’d want thirty if it wouldn’t make some of the pressure suits spring leaks from lying on the deck.

  An hour and a half later Hiroshi dropped thrust to ten gravs. “All hands. We are three hundred klicks past fleet formation.”

  Finnegan had the remaining two holes patched in twenty minutes. One patch failed as the pressure came up, but his second fix held. He killed a roll of vacctape making it tight.

  Dubois was dead when the corpsman opened her suit.

  BDS Patton, Danu System, acceleration 10 m/s2

  “Executing on the plan, sir,” reported Commander Leith. “We’re on track to a tenth of a second.”

  Admiral Galen nodded, his face stiff as he suppressed a sleepy yawn. He resisted the temptation to laugh at Leith’s boast. When the Betrayers recognized the trap their response would disrupt the plan by more than seconds.

  “Backstop salvo on track,” said Ensign Grove. Those missiles had been launched two days ago. Their course took them well clear of the enemy force and the tail of reinforcements behind it.

  “Ready to launch main salvo.” Leith counted down to the launch. On Patton’s flag bridge they could feel the shiver as the ship spat out twenty missiles. The main display filled with symbols as every warship in the fleet fired all their tubes.

  Commodore Deng monitored internal communications. “Three Fusion squadrons fired late. Bachak is tearing them a new one.”

  “Enemy has changed firing pattern,” said Ensign Grove. The Betrayers had been concentrating bursts of missiles on seemingly random targets. “They’re launching widely dispersed missiles. Looks like counter-fire to our salvo.”

  Galen let himself smile. “Good. That’s what we want them paying attention to.”

  “Second salvo launched on schedule.” Leith shifted the tactical display to show the waves of missiles flying toward each other. “Losing some to counterfire. Shifting second wave to cover the gaps.”

  Silence fell for a minute. Everything was proceeding on schedule. No decisions were needed. Eyes fixed on the clock, waiting for the next event.

  Special electronic warfare missiles in the initial salvo activated. Some spread out a dozen decoys each. Others raced ahead, burning their drive at an unsustainable rate, hiding the movements of other missiles behind their plumes. The most expensive ones aimed laser, maser, and radar beams at the Betrayer ships, trying to overload their sensors.

  It was enough to keep their human owners from being able to follow the action. Leith switched the display to a simulation of what should be happening.

  The containers jettisoned from the Joshua Chamberlain were falling through the enemy fleet. The Betrayers, wary of mines, had parted to stay clear of them but hadn’t wasted missiles to destroy them. Each container held two dozen missiles. If they were executing the timed sequence correctly liquid hydrogen was being pumped into the shell around each one.

  As the missiles were flung into space the frigid black shells would conceal them from Betrayer sensors. Not for very long. Just long enough for them to close the distance to the nearest Betrayer ships.

  The storm of missiles, decoys, and explosions pressing toward the enemy fleet would also distract them from the sneak attack, if the timing was right.

  Galen’s crew had no way to know if the containers were deploying the missiles. The human fleet’s sensors couldn’t possibly detect them. Not until the missiles lit their torches and rammed their targets.

  When two lines of plumes appeared on the display sighs of relief sounded across the flag bridge. Seconds later explosions flared. Cheers broke out.

  “What’s the count?” demanded Admiral Galen.

  Eyes turned to the sensor console. Chief Heinz compared the new data to the simulations they’d run. “Three percent more ships destroyed than the best case scenario,” he said.

  “Superb work,” said Galen. “Keep the pressure on.”

  “Shifting the main salvo to pattern Charlie,” said Leith.

  As the order went out the missiles racing toward the enemy moved into the gaps in defensive fire left by the destroyed ships. The follow-on waves focused on the next ring of ships outward. Newly launched missiles were spread over the whole enemy formation, ready to be targeted on whatever new openings appeared.

  Ensign Grove announced, “Enemy defensive fire is adjusted to cover the inner zone. Middle and outer zones still have gaps until their new counter missile fire is in place.”

  Galen acknowledged the report and turned to Leith. “Why was your best case scenario off?”

  “CIC’s trying to figure that out. The best guess is that our decoys and jamming overloaded the Betrayer sensors to where they filtered out anything that wasn’t an obvious attack. The sneak missiles didn’t draw any defensive fire until they lit their torches.”

  “Good. Let me know if they have any better ideas on it.” The admiral sat back and muttered, “For the clumsy programming of our enemies, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen.”

  The first wave of missiles smashed into the Betrayer formation. Nine-tenths had been destroyed along the way. The survivors were enough to widen the gap torn in the formation by Joshua Chamberlain’s surprise.

  Dozens of Betrayer ships exploded or were damaged enough to fall behind. Ships turned to close the gap in the formation, weakening their protection against incoming fire in hopes of building a solid defense again.

  Galen didn’t wait for his crew to report on the movement. As soon as he saw the shift on the display he ordered, “All warships reverse course. Resume fire at full rate when turnover is complete.”

  The second wave of missiles smashed more Betrayer ships.

  Galen’s stomach twisted as Patton switched end for end. Now they were accelerating straight at the Betrayers.

  Gagging noises told of someone losing his rations to the sudden maneuver. Galen kept his eyes on the display. Whoever it was didn’t need an admiral adding to his problems.

  “Get a towel,” snapped Chief Heinz at the unfortunate one.

  A Betrayer ship blew into a cloud of gas before any missiles could reach it.

  “Terror is firing her spinal beam,” said Commodore Deng.

  “Wish we could afford one of those damn battleships,” muttered Leith.

  “I’d rather have a hundred cruisers,” said the admiral. “Stay focused.”

  The Harmony’s flagship blew up another enemy.

  Galen ordered, “Activate Backstop.”

  “Backstop aye.” Ensign Grove transmitted commands to the missiles on the other side of the system.

  She stiffened. “Enemy fire pattern is changing. Half their tubes have switched from counter-missile to offensive.”

  Everyone on the bridge knew that accelerating toward the enemy made the human fleet more vulnerable to enemy missiles. There’d be less time to intercept them. The missiles would also close at higher relative velocities, making them harder to hit.

  They’d only lost a few ships while retreating across the Danu system. Now the fight would hurt.

  Commander Leith asked, “Permission to shift some missile fire to defensive, sir?”

  “Denied. We’re here to kick their ass, not dance with them.”

  Leith nodded.

  The Betrayers had lost hundreds of ships as they maneuvered back to a solid disk formation. Now they had a tightly integrated web of anti-missile fire which smashed incoming waves of missiles even as the turnover let them come in closer together.

  The humans’ defenses were not solid. Commodore Deng handled reports from the subordinate formations. The Fusion fleet suffered the worst. After Deng made another count he snarled, “The Goddamned Committee of Public Safety sent their
spacers out to just die!”

  “Hate the Betrayers, not our allies,” said Galen. The display was so crowded he could barely follow the progress of the battle. When the two fleets reached each other the exchange would be cataclysmic.

  Then about a fifth of the enemy fleet turned over, accelerating away from the battle. Ensign Grove analyzed the movement. “Almost three hundred ships. All lighter units. The formation is closing up the gaps.”

  “Did one of their coalition decide to quit?” wondered Chief Heinz.

  Grove said, “They could just be trying to make sure they have a full report on the battle delivered to their home nodes.”

  Multiple crashes sounded. Galen realized a Betrayer missile had come close enough to throw shrapnel through the ship’s hull. He glanced down at his message display. The flagship’s captain wrote, “Five hull breaches. Multiple fires. Damage control responding. No loss of combat effectiveness.”

  Galen didn’t need the message to know about the fires. The smell of smoke was in the air, mixing with the sweat and vomit odors already there.

  ***

  On the other side of the Danu system the Backstop missiles were accelerating toward the gate offering passage to the Argo system. A few Betrayer ships were lined up to pass through, decelerating to ensure they reached the gate at the precise speed and angle for safe passage.

  The missiles weren’t trying for that. They aimed for the loop of cosmic string forming the gate. The Betrayers fired counter-missiles but only intercepted a few of them.

  The first Backstop missile detonated its nuclear warhead as it passed close to the string. A blast of radiation shook the gate, sending vibrations around the loop in both directions.

  The next missile came in from the far side. It started another set of waves through the string. A third and fourth exploded. The rest flew past, self-destructing when clear of the gate. Galen had prohibited overkill. He hoped the gate would eventually be usable again.

  The Betrayer ships headed for the gate boosted their torches to maximum thrust. It wasn’t enough. As they passed through the chaotically vibrating gate the forces tore them into dust before flinging them light years away.

  In the Argo system eight light years away this gate’s counterpart was still sending ships to Danu. But the ships lined up for the jump would receive no report that the humans had turned and attacked.

  ***

  On the Patton Admiral Galen studied the tactical display. Both the human and enemy formations were tattered where enemy fire had destroyed or disabled ships faster than others could maneuver to close the gap. A countdown measured the minutes to when the fleets would pass through each other.

  He turned to his chief of staff. “Deng, order all units to disperse at minus two minutes. Captains are authorized to maneuver freely to avoid collisions.”

  “Aye-aye.”

  “And warn the stragglers to watch for kamikazes.” Not that the warning would help ships too crippled to maneuver.

  Now the admiral’s only duty was to look confident and not distract anyone from their jobs. Galen sat still and kept his eyes on the tactical display.

  Another batch of Betrayer ships turned over and fled the imminent clash. Grove counted forty of them. Not enough to reduce the bloody wounds the humans were about to take.

  The flagship captain’s voice sounded over the PA. “All hands. All hands. Helmets and gloves. Helmets and gloves. No exceptions.”

  Normally only crew in the outer compartments wore their full suits. The vacuum proof gloves made it hard to only push one button at a time and helmets forced all conversation to use the intercom. The captain must expect the ship to have breaches all the way to the core.

  Galen twisted his helmet back and forth to check the seal was clean. He pulled the gloves on slowly. Likely no one was watching but he wanted to give the right impression. The sweat on his palms let them slide on more smoothly than usual.

  The steady thump of missile launches stopped. For a long moment there was only the distant roar of the torch as background noise. Then the whine of lasers and chatter of point defense cannon began. Firing them continuously might burn them out—if they survived the next few minutes.

  The display showed the fleets merging, red icons overlapping with blue. Patton swayed in evasive maneuvers.

  Shrapnel smashed into the hull, a dozen hits at least. Then a ringing sound Galen hadn’t heard in any battle before. A laser etching into the hull maybe?

  Smoke puffed out of the ventilation grills. Patton’s weapons went silent. Passing each other at multiple kilometers per second made for a quick engagement.

  Damage control workers started running a saw in the next compartment. The smoke stopped pouring in.

  Patton shivered with missile launches.

  Galen couldn’t hear anything over the saw. The tactical display was frozen at the moment of closest approach. He could see Grove and Heinz working on the console to fix it. He resorted to typing a message to Leith. “What are we firing at?”

  The reply came back on his repeater screen. “Enemy stragglers. Damaged ships heading toward us.”

  He sent his next message to Deng. “When half the surviving ships have reported in order a turnover. We need to finish off the Betrayer force.”

  Catching up would be hard. The closing velocity they’d built up to attack the Betrayers now carried them farther from the enemy ships. They’d have to stick to long-range missile fire. God only knew if that would wipe out the enemy before they reached the vulnerable logistics ships Galen had left behind.

  The display reset. Icons began to appear as sensor data was collected from across the human fleet.

  Every time the saw stopped only to start cutting again a moment later felt like a cruel prank on Galen’s ears. Then it did stop and the only noise was a voice shouting to get their lazy asses to compartment Juliet Twenty Three.

  “How much longer until we have an assessment on the remaining enemy?” asked Galen. He spoke loudly in case the rest were as deaf as he felt.

  “That’s all we’ve found,” said Ensign Grove. “There might be some more drifting with their torches off. We’re running scans.”

  A box in the corner of the display reported statistics. Thirty-seven fully functional Betrayer ships.

  “That’s it? Our stragglers could take them.” Galen turned to the commodore. “Set up some ad hoc squadrons. Authorize them to engage at will.”

  “On it,” answered Deng.

  Patton turned over again without anyone losing a meal. Galen said a brief prayer of thanks that he and his crew had been spared.

  “Starburst, sir,” called Chief Heinz.

  It was obvious on the display. The surviving Betrayers were scattering in a circle, trying to get out from between the main fleet and the dozens of damaged ships hoping for revenge.

  Galen let himself smile. “That just makes it easier. Commander Leith, segment the fleet into pursuit groups assigned to each one. Ensign Grove, what’s the status on the Betrayer reinforcement groups?”

  Grove shifted the display to a view of the entire Danu system. “Mixed, sir. Some groups have turned over, some are still burning toward us. CIC thinks they’re grouping up to avoid being defeated in detail.”

  The admiral’s smile widened. “Too late.”

  Even if all the Betrayer ships in the system could form up before being brought to battle they had only half the firepower of the remaining human fleet.

  “Commander Leith, position Backstop salvos by all the other gates. We’ll shut those down too if we have to. We’re not going to let them get away. Not after this much blood.”

  “Aye-aye, sir.”

  Deng offered Galen a datasheet. The admiral looked it over. Casualty reports had been collected for the entire force. Hardly any ships were undamaged, just some destroyers who’d been passed over for more important targets. The Disconnect and Harmony fleets lost a quarter of their ships, crippled or destroyed. The poorly trained Fusion fleet was down
by forty percent.

  Galen realized he’d lost more men under his command in one day than any other admiral in history. And he’d been willing to lose more to stop the Betrayer onslaught.

  Which was not yet stopped. He looked at the maneuvers against the fleeing remnants of the first Betrayer fleet being coordinated by Deng and Leith. They were methodical, safe, and slow. Too slow.

  Galen unbuckled from his seat and took three steps over to Leith’s console. His legs were stiff from being still for hours and ached from lack of sleep. “You need to be more aggressive with those last few.”

  “Sir? I’m trying to conserve missiles.”

  “No. Waste anything but time. Take casualties if we have to. We need to turn and fight those reinforcements before they group up. The sooner we reach them the less we’ll bleed.”

  “Yes, sir.” Leith reviewed his display and issued new orders.

  Patton began to shiver as she launched missiles at the fleeing Betrayers.

  Three human ships were lost in the mopping up, ones who’d been damaged earlier and could be positioned to block the escape of the surviving Betrayers.

  Two minutes after the last of the thirty-seven enemy ships was destroyed the fleet flipped over again, boosting toward the Argo gate and the hundreds of enemy ships in between.

  The Betrayer fleet in the Argo system had been jumping into Danu at a steady rate. The first ones to arrive in Danu had paused in pursuit of the humans to concentrate enough ships to be a useful attack force. Following groups had been smaller, choosing to reinforce the initial force sooner rather than wait until there were enough them to be an independent threat.

  All those reinforcements had been thrusting continuously toward the human fleet. Now most had turned over and were decelerating to delay their doom.

  The first few groups were obliterated with no human casualties. Overwhelming numbers made up for the lack of deceptive tactics.

  The “coward” ships who’d fled the initial battle survived until they turned over to brake toward the Argo gate. The humans overran them without slowing.