So why aren't they attacking? He asked himself. Or doing something other than poking at the edge of our sensor network?
“Launch a recon shell of drones,” he ordered, slowly. It was possible the aliens were trying to divert his attention from something else, sneaking up on the other side of the flotilla. Or, perhaps, that the Peace Faction’s starship was a Trojan Horse. “I want to know if anything is trying to sneak up behind us.”
The Admiral’s face appeared in the display. James felt his eyes narrow in concern. The Admiral looked haggard, utterly exhausted. It wasn't uncommon for Admiral Smith to work long hours and not get enough sleep – James had known him long enough to be certain there were fewer more dedicated officers in the Royal Navy – but they couldn't afford it. He made a mental note to suggest the Admiral return to bed, then leaned forward. There was no way the Admiral would go to bed now.
“Admiral,” he said. “The aliens appear to be trying to make us jumpy.”
“And succeeding magnificently,” Admiral Smith said. “Tactical analysis?”
“They’re trying to wear us down,” James said, bluntly. “By now, they must have a pretty good idea of the limits of our technology.”
“And starfighter designs,” the Admiral agreed. “They’ll have captured some models at New Russia, if nowhere else. Withhold the remaining starfighter squadrons for the nonce, I think.”
“Aye, Admiral,” James said. “But we’ll have to rotate the CSP back through the ship in” – he checked his display – “twenty minutes.”
“Which raises the question,” the Admiral mused. “Do they know that we will have reduced fighter coverage then or have they just managed to get lucky?”
James frowned. There might have been spies on Ark Royal – he was grimly aware he didn’t have enough Marines to cover them all – but it was unlikely in the extreme that any of the spies were working for the aliens. It was hard enough communicating with a faction of aliens that actually wanted to talk. Somehow, he found it hard to imagine the aliens successfully comprehending the value of human sexual indiscretions and then using one such incident as a blackmail tool. Unless they’d found a human traitor ... an Arnold, a Petain, a Witherspoon ...
But there was another option.
“They could have spies on the Peace Faction’s ship,” he said, slowly. “Or maybe they’ve just been shadowing us since the first battle and have just decided to up the tension a little.”
“It’s a possibility,” the Admiral said. “Polly thinks it’s unlikely – the aliens are a consensual species, apparently – but we have to bear the possibility in mind.”
Polly, James thought, with some private amusement. He’d nagged Uncle Winchester to find Admiral Smith a bride – the aristocracy had survived by co-opting commoners with remarkable talents or well-earned fame – but maybe it wouldn't be necessary. But then, Polly MacDonald was young enough to be the Admiral’s daughter. It was unlikely the Admiral saw her as anything other than a substitute child. Come to think of it, he’d treated many of his younger crewmen as sons and daughters too.
He pushed the thought aside as nothing more than a pointless distraction. “They will have had time to alert their superiors that we made contact with the Peace Faction,” he said, instead. “They might be trying to force us to compromise ourselves in front of the other factions.”
“It looks that way,” the Admiral agreed. “Order your pilots to hold the line, Captain. There’s no way we can do anything else until they close in to attack.”
“Aye, sir,” James said. “Assuming they do, of course.”
He sighed. No military force could remain at full alert indefinitely, no matter what the politicians and armchair admirals thought. Given near-constant alerts, his crews would start to be worn down until they were falling asleep at their consoles. If he knew, beyond a doubt, that the aliens weren't going to attack, he would have sent half of his crew back to bed. But there was no way he could take it for granted.
“And they’ll know precisely where we intend to pass through the next tramline,” he said. There were two more jumps between their current position and the alien-selected destination and they knew nothing about the next system. The War Faction could be plotting an ambush and there would be no way to be sure until they jumped through the tramline. “They could use that against us.”
“Yes,” the Admiral agreed, flatly. “We have to get rid of our unwanted shadows.”
“And find their carrier,” James agreed. He looked down at the display. The drones hadn't found anything, which worried him. Either the alien starfighters had radically extended endurance or the aliens had managed to improve their terrifyingly good stealth systems still further. Neither one boded well for the war. “It could be far too close to us for comfort.”
“Unless they’ve built an escort carrier design of their own,” the Admiral suggested. “That could be why they launched so few starfighters at us.”
James sucked in his breath sharply. The Admiral was right. If the aliens had copied one human idea, why couldn't they copy others? They’d lost enough carriers in the war to be dangerously short of launching platforms ... he hoped. The alien diplomats had refused to go into hard details about just how much firepower the War Faction had at its disposal. He couldn't blame them, as the negotiations might break down violently, but it was irritating.
They’d want an escort carrier design for the same reason we wanted one, he thought. Additional starfighter launching platforms.
He contemplated it as the alien icons moved in and out of sensor range. Escort carriers were nothing more than modified freighters, with a launching bay and additional life support shoehorned into the design. If they hadn't been so modular, rebuilding them would have been a major headache for the shipyards. As it was, they were fragile ships, barely able to stand up to a glancing blow from alien weapons. But then, a hail of plasma fire could burn a fleet of modern carriers to debris.
And if they’re feeling the pinch too, he told himself, they might have sent an escort carrier out here as a diversion.
“I think we need to rotate crews, Admiral,” he said. He paused. “And you should get some sleep.”
“So should you,” the Admiral said. He looked irked. James guessed that Janelle had been nagging him to sleep too. It was her job, although it took considerable bravery to tell an Admiral when he was doing something stupid. “I’ll sleep when things settle down.”
“Captain,” Farley said suddenly, “the drones are showing no further alien starfighters beyond the force we already detected.”
“Interesting,” James mused.
He studied the display for a long moment. He’d wondered if the aliens were trying to deceive him into believing they’d only launched a couple of squadrons of starfighters, while keeping the remainder of their force just out of sensor range, but it seemed otherwise. The upper estimate for how many starfighters there were in the alien force was twenty-five. Intelligence’s best guess for how many starfighters an alien carrier could launch was one hundred, a fair match for humanity’s modern carriers. And that suggested there was no full-sized fleet carrier within the system, just an escort ... unless, of course, the aliens were playing games. He hadn't launched his full complement of fighters either.
He took a breath. “Launch a third squadron of starfighters, then cycle the CSP back through the landing bay,” he ordered. There was still time on their life support packs, but he wanted to run them through replenishment as quickly as possible. “Once they’re ready to launch, hold them in the bay.”
“Aye, sir,” Farley said.
James turned his attention back to the Admiral. “With your permission, Admiral, I intend to step down the alert to the point we can send some of the crews to bed,” he said. “We should be able to see an attack coming in time to get the remaining starfighters launched and bring the ship back to full alert.”
“Wait until the CSP has been replenished,” the Admiral said. “That would be the worst mo
ment for them to launch an attack.”
James had his doubts. He had thirty-six starfighters covering the flotilla already, with two more squadrons ready to launch at a moment’s notice. The aliens were badly outnumbered – and they had to know it. And that meant they should be reluctant to do anything that would bring them up against superior force. But if they were willing to fire on their own people, he asked himself, would they be willing to attack even when they were hopelessly outgunned?
“Admiral,” he said slowly, keying the channel so only the two of them could hear, “if we knew the Russians were escorting an alien flotilla though their territory, would we consider attacking it anyway?”
The Admiral frowned. “Probably not,” he said. “But it would depend on just how badly the Russians were skirting the treaties.”
James nodded. There were treaties governing humanity’s wars, with the most important one being a ban on fighting within the Sol System itself, but no one really expected the treaties to last for long if two major interstellar powers went to war. Back when it had seemed likely America would go to war with China, if he recalled correctly, there had been a great deal of debate over just what the Royal Navy should do if either of the nations used British-controlled tramlines. And that had assumed the Royal Navy didn't join the Americans in war.
But if the Russians were escorting an alien fleet through their space ... how would the rest of the human race react? Was it a form of armed neutrality or deliberate treason against humanity? If the War Faction’s monomaniacal approach to the war led them to view the other alien factions as treasonous, would they see themselves justified in attacking the other factions? There was no way to know.
We’d see it as treason, he thought, morbidly. We’d react very badly to a human nation aiding the aliens we saw as deadly enemies. And the aliens aren't even capable of responding to different ideas, or even the concept we might not be beyond salvation ...
“I think we must assume the War Faction will attack the other factions,” he said, slowly. “An alien civil war might be at hand.”
“That would depend on just how much firepower the disparate alien factions control,” the Admiral pointed out. “It could be a very short civil war.”
“If the War Faction controls all the ships,” James agreed. “We might have to defend the other alien factions against their enemies.”
“With only a handful of ships,” the Admiral said. “And we need to lose our shadows as quickly as possible.”
He paused. “I think I’ve had an idea,” he added. “But it will have to wait long enough for the aliens to get bored themselves.”
“Understood, Admiral,” James said. “All we can do now is wait.”
He settled back in his command chair and watched, grimly, as the CSP returned to the landing bay. Somewhat to his surprise, the alien starfighters made no attempt to lunge towards the carrier and attack. Instead, they just watched, dancing at the very edge of sensor range. They were distracting, he had to admit, but he was damned if he was allowing them to distract him too far. If someone was trying to sneak up on them ...
“Stand down one third of the crew,” he ordered, once the CSP had completed its replenishment cycle. “Tell them to get some rest in the sleep machines, if available.”
“Aye, sir,” Commander Williams said. “But if we have to wake them early ...”
“I know,” James said. Sleep machines worked well – very well. But if someone happened to be woken up too early they’d have terrible headaches. “If worst comes to worst, we will leave them in the machines until they complete their cycle.”
“Aye, sir,” Commander Williams said, again. “And will you be resting too?”
James shook his head. “Not yet,” he said, firmly. He would have to pass the bridge to her sooner or later, perhaps while having a quick nap himself in his office. But he wasn't going to do that until the Admiral’s plan was ready to go. “Catch a nap yourself, if you can. You’ll have to take command soon enough.”
He told himself to relax, but it wasn't easy. He’d been a naval officer long enough to know just how quickly a situation could move from controllable to utterly disastrous – and the aliens were deliberately trying to wear the crew down. It suggested they had more in mind than merely annoying the human flotilla ...
... And he wanted to be ready for it when they finally sprang their surprise.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“This is a bold plan,” Kurt observed.
“But workable,” Rose said. “Or it would be, if we were confident in our pilots.”
Kurt studied her for a long moment. She looked ... less stressed than himself, although he knew she wasn't waiting nervously for another message from the blackmailers. Their silence bothered him more than he cared to admit. He wanted, desperately, to just have it come to an end, but he knew he had to wait. There was nothing else he could do.
And he wanted to take her back to his office and screw her senseless. He couldn't do that either.
“I think they should be capable of doing it,” Kurt said. “The only problem will be keeping the aliens from realising what we’re doing until then.”
He paused as the pilots slowly filtered into the briefing compartment. Most of them looked tired, their edges already dulled by the constant alert. Four hours had passed since the alien starfighters had first shown themselves and nothing had changed, save for the pilots out covering the carrier against a sudden attack. If the aliens had wanted to wear down the human fleet, Kurt had to admit, it was working magnificently. And it wasn't costing them anything more than a handful of exhausted pilots.
Unless they have managed to extend their fighter range significantly, he thought. We still haven't found their damn carrier.
“All right, listen up,” he said, eying the pilots critically. As always, they seemed uncomfortably young and slapdash to be military officers. At some point, he told himself, they were probably going to have to discuss how best to wear a uniform with the survivors. “This is going to take some damn fancy flying.”
He ran through the briefing quickly, then studied them all carefully. “If you fuck this up, you will end up dead,” he said. The pilots sobered. Three of their friends were already dead, their bodies utterly beyond recovery. “If any of you want to back out, now is the time.”
No one said a word.
“Good,” Kurt said. “Man your planes!”
He turned back to look at Rose. “Watch our backs, ok?”
Rose nodded. “Of course,” she said, primly. “Isn’t that my job?”
***
“They’re still probing the edge of our sensor range,” Janelle said.
“Good,” Ted said. His one worry had been that the aliens would change their tactics before the humans were ready to launch their own operation. “Is Blackburn in position?”
“Aye, Admiral,” Janelle said. “And the remaining squadrons are launching now.”
Ted nodded. “Order the pilots to execute the first stage in” – he glanced at the display – “five minutes.”
He leaned back in his chair and waited while the seconds ticked away. Timing was everything, all the more so as no one was quite sure just how capable the alien sensors actually were. They were good, according to the analysts, but how good? The only real data he had came from how the aliens had reacted to the ECM drones. They’d rarely been fooled for long, yet they had been fooled.
“Admiral,” Janelle said. “The first stage is commencing ... now.”
Ted watched, dispassionately, as three squadrons of starfighters suddenly spun around and charged right at the alien starfighters, their sensors rapidly hunting for targets. The aliens started, then fell into a series of evasive manoeuvres that suggested they were unwilling to risk an engagement at such long odds. Ted hoped that was a good sign. If the aliens were feeling sensitive to potential losses, he thought, they were clearly worn down by the fighting too.
“They’re moving back out of range,” Janelle re
ported. “The starfighters are pushing them back.”
“Good,” Ted said. “Execute Phase Two.”
***
“All right,” Kurt said, as he watched his comrades charging the alien starfighters. “Follow my lead.”
HMS Blackburn was ugly enough to make Ark Royal look pretty – and indeed, the ancient carrier had a stubborn grace that the heavily-modified freighter couldn't match. She was nothing more than two hundred meters of blocky shapeless hull, studded with a handful of sensor blisters and weapons. Her true striking power came in the two squadrons of starfighters she carried to support Ark Royal. Kurt had barely a handful of seconds to admire the escort carrier before his starfighter latched onto her hull.
Ark Royal 3: The Trafalgar Gambit Page 24