Ascendant

by Jack Campbell

  Carmen Ochoa had already prepared for what had increasingly seemed an inevitable step. She did a final update on the data coin holding the backed-up files she wanted to save. Popping the data coin out of its slot, she sealed it into one of her jacket pockets, then picked up her bag as she stood.

  The situation display looked depressingly similar. The invasion fleet getting ever closer, while Saber and the remaining enemy destroyer tangled repeatedly as Glenlyon’s warship tried to stop that invasion force. But with the enemy ship able to concentrate on one opponent Saber’s efforts had mostly been frustrated.

  Loren paused beside her to look at the display, his face haggard with weariness and worry. “We actually got a question from someone in the government demanding to know why Glenlyon’s ship hadn’t stopped the invasion fleet.”

  “You’re kidding.” Carmen shook her head. “They don’t have any obligation to do what they’re doing. But they’re still fighting to defend us. And people are complaining about that?”

  “Sure. The same people who kept finding reasons for the last few years not to sign a formal defense agreement with Glenlyon,” Loren said, his voice derisive. “I hear Glenlyon’s ship has been asked to help defend our orbital facility once the invasion gets here. Shark would be a sitting duck at the facility if she was alone, but if Glenlyon’s ship stays to help, that last enemy warship won’t be able to face both of them at once.”

  “But we don’t know if Glenlyon will do that?”

  “They’ve already done far more than we had any right to expect. I hope they will. Otherwise, we’ll lose Shark for certain, along with the orbital facility.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Carmen asked.

  “I want you to link up with one of the defensive ground units and assist them in any way you can. There’ll still be intelligence sections active with the ground forces command, and I’ll be with the high command staff, so feed those sections and me anything important you run across,” Loren said.

  “One of the ground units?” Carmen asked, not believing her ears.

  “Yeah.” Loren gave her a look that felt far too much like a final good-bye. “You pick the unit. I can’t officially assign you to the same place as Dominic because of the rules. Something about married people in the same combat unit. But I can leave it up to you. Try to get through this in one piece, Carmen.”

  “You, too,” she said. “I’d hate to have to train another boss.”

  “Don’t forget your rifle.”

  “I won’t.”

  Carmen said a few more good-byes and left, her rifle in one hand, a pack with all of her personal gear and as much extra ammunition as she’d been able to acquire on her back. The campaign to hold Ani against the “rebels” had been abandoned, the entirety of Kosatka’s ground forces and militia volunteers supporting them concentrating around Drava and Lodz where the enemy invasion forces were expected to land. Dominic Desjani’s company had taken up positions a few kilometers from the spaceport, hiding amid office buildings and stores that were now deserted except for the too-few defenders.

  Mass transit in the city had already shut down, the controllers for the buses and trains wiped and locked to prevent the enemy from quickly making use of them. But Carmen was able to hop a ride on a military vehicle heading in the same direction that she needed to go. She sat in the back, along with a few others whose expressions were as numb as hers probably was, while the lightly armored vehicle rumbled through the nearly deserted streets of Lodz.

  If the dreams of those who had built this city were to survive, many of those same dreamers might have to die. Carmen looked upward to where the invasion fleet was steadily drawing closer and thought curses at whoever had sent them here.

  * * *

  • • •

  “Thruster group two is fully operational!”

  Rob swung his gaze across his display, his mind running through a series of lightning estimates. Saber was making another attempt to get at the invasion fleet, climbing upward from the front of the enemy formation and below to hit the passenger ship. But the enemy destroyer was already coming in on a vector from one side to hit Saber’s vulnerable rear shields. It was a well-planned defensive move, taking advantage of Saber’s by-now-obvious thruster problem.

  But Rob saw another chance that had suddenly appeared as thruster group two came back online. “Come down zero one degrees, come left zero zero three degrees,” he ordered. “Lieutenant Cameron, give me a refined intercept solution on that trailing freighter!”

  Saber’s sudden move, impossible before all of her thrusters came back into use, threw off the enemy destroyer’s counterattack. The enemy shot past, out of range of Saber, as Rob’s warship aimed for the freighter that had already taken damage earlier from both Saber and Piranha. “Ensign Reichert, I want maximum hits on that freighter. We may not get another intercept like this.”

  “Weapons targeted,” Reichert said. Like the others on the bridge, she had been up for too long, still going thanks to Up drugs that could keep people awake and mentally sharp for days on end. Afterward, those drugs exacted a price when the metabolism of those people crashed, but in the short term they could mean the difference between survival and death.

  Saber whipped past the lagging freighter, whose hull already bore scars from previous hits. With a perfect, clean shot at vital areas, the destroyer pumped particle beams and grapeshot into the freighter’s bridge and engineering areas.

  Cheers erupted on Saber as the freighter’s power core blew up, taking with it everything and everyone the freighter had been carrying.

  “We got one,” Lieutenant Cameron said, grinning.

  “Let’s hope it was carrying a lot of important stuff,” Rob said. “Give me a vector back to hit the invasion fleet again. Best target given our current vector.”

  “Yes, sir. Sir, we’re about to hit fifty percent on our fuel cell reserves.”

  “Very well.” Rob sat back, rubbing his eyes and hoping that the Up drugs weren’t impairing his thinking. If he let fuel get too low, he wouldn’t be able to get Saber back to Glenlyon. And there wasn’t anywhere in Kosatka that he could refuel while that enemy destroyer was still on the prowl.

  “Sir, we’ve got an incoming call from Kosatka.”

  The distance to the planet was only measured in a few light minutes now, making a conversation possible but also emphasizing how little time was left for Saber to stop the invasion.

  First Minister Hofer of Kosatka stood in his office, his attitude that of someone about to depart. “Commodore Geary, I’m not certain if I’ll be able to speak with you again. I’ve been advised to evacuate along with what is left of the government here in the city. I . . . wanted our gratitude for your assistance to be on the official record.”

  Hofer paused, a shadowy thought darkening his features. “And yet I ask one more thing of you. Shark is still helpless at our orbital facility. The invasion force hasn’t attempted to destroy our facility or damage Shark. They obviously plan on capturing both. Kosatka urgently asks if you can remain in the vicinity of our facility to help Shark. Emergency repairs are still under way. If you can hold off an attack on the facility for long enough, Shark can join you. If not . . .”

  The leader of Kosatka shook his head helplessly. “Please do what you can. And when you return to Glenlyon, let them know Glenlyon will never stand alone while Kosatka remains free. May our ancestors bless your efforts. Hofer, First Minister, out.”

  Rob rubbed his eyes again as the message ended, wondering what he should do.

  “I hear we’re at fifty percent fuel reserves,” Vicki Shen said in a low voice nearby.

  Absorbed in the message, he hadn’t heard the executive officer come onto the bridge. Rob lowered his hand and nodded to her. If anything, Shen looked a lot worse than the rest of the crew after her nonstop efforts to get the thrusters working. “How is the rest of
your repair team?”

  She shrugged. “Still able to work. What are you going to do?”

  “What would the checklists say?” Rob wondered.

  “At fifty percent? Request permission before continuing mission, and if that’s not possible break off and return to the closest refueling location.”

  “Is that what you recommend?”

  “No, sir. That guy,” Shen said, pointing to the symbol representing the enemy destroyer on Rob’s display, “has to be lower on fuel than we are. On the way up here, I asked our sensors for an analysis on Shark’s status, which I confirmed by some one-on-one coordination with Shark’s executive officer. If repairs continue at their current rate, and if we can buy them three more days, they should be able to get under way.”

  “And then we’ll have the enemy destroyer outnumbered two to one while he’s really low on fuel,” Rob said. “It’s still a helluva risk.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Can they land anybody on that facility if we’re helping Shark? If they can do that, they could capture Shark by storm along with the facility.”

  “You’re asking the wrong person, sir,” Shen said.

  “Yeah.” He tapped one of the internal comm circuits. “Mele, I need you on the bridge. We need some Marine input.” Rob looked at Vicki Shen again. “Before Captain Darcy gets here, I’d like to know your recommendation.”

  The hesitation he saw in Vicki Shen didn’t have anything to do with her tiredness, Rob knew. This was the sort of tough decision that Earth Fleet had long ago outsourced to automated checklists. The kind of decision that Shen and the other Earth Fleet veterans aboard had been trained to avoid making.

  “In your gut,” Rob asked softly, “what do you want to do?”

  Shen stared at the display. “Win. Beat these guys. Avenge Claymore.”

  “Then—”

  “Captain, if I’m thinking with my gut, if I go with what I want to do, I may not be thinking about what I should do.”

  “Fair point,” Rob said. He lowered his voice even more to ensure they weren’t overheard. “My gut keeps telling me to get back to Glenlyon, where my wife and girl are. I know why that is. I’m afraid for them. So your gut is telling you to stay and fight, and mine is telling me we’ve done all we can and should get back to the place we’re obligated to defend.”

  A long moment of silence stretched between them as Rob thought through his options. “Three days. You think they can get Shark under way in three days?”

  “Yes, sir,” Vicki Shen said.

  “But can we be sure of holding that facility even if we stay those extra days?” Rob asked himself as much as her. “And by then our fuel reserves will certainly be less than forty percent. Can they hold that facility if we stay?”

  Mele Darcy came onto the bridge, still in the lightweight battle armor she’d been wearing since before the engagement began. Even though she had surely napped at times, she couldn’t be feeling good after being inside the armor so long. “Does somebody need a Marine?” she asked Rob.

  He stared at her, suddenly realizing that she could not only help answer his question but that he had a weapon he’d forgotten about. “Yeah. I need Marines. Lieutenant Cameron, how long until the next intercept?”

  “Thirty-five minutes, sir. But the enemy destroyer is coming around and will meet us in thirty-three minutes.”

  “Good.” Rob stood up, surprised at how unsteady he felt on his feet and wondering how long he’d been sitting. “I’m going to hold a conference with Commander Shen and Captain Darcy in my stateroom. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”

  It only took a couple of those minutes to explain his idea. Mele Darcy frowned, looking toward one corner of Rob’s stateroom as she thought it through before replying.

  Vicki Shen spoke carefully, each word precise and well thought out. “We have time to set up the necessary maneuvers, Captain. We should be able to do what you ask.”

  Mele glanced at her, then at Rob. “We can count on Shark?”

  “I’ll get a commitment from them before we launch you,” Rob promised.

  “Are there any soldiers already on the facility?”

  “I’ll find that out, too.”

  “But you know already that you can limit how many enemy shuttles reach that facility?” Mele pressed.

  “Yes,” Rob said. “The enemy will be able to tie us up for a short period by threatening an attack run on Shark. But that will only give them a narrow window to get shuttles through, and only by angles of approach that are masked from us by the bulk of the facility structure.”

  “Are we expected to hold the whole facility for the necessary length of time?”

  “No,” Rob said. “Your job will be to keep the enemy from capturing Shark.”

  Mele nodded, her eyes thoughtful. “We can trade space for time. That’s the Marine version of Relativity. Time equals space multiplied by effort. Yes, sir. We’ll keep them from getting Shark. I’m going to need schematics of that orbital facility and as much as we can find out about what’s stored up there and how many people are left on it.”

  “Thank you, Captain Darcy. You may need to get most of that after you arrive at the facility.” Rob turned to Vicki Shen. “Start working out how Saber is going to handle the delivery while I call Shark’s commanding officer. We can’t stop the invasion fleet from reaching Kosatka, but this battle isn’t over yet.”

  “Captain . . .” Lieutenant Commander Shen hesitated, then spoke with unnatural calm. “There’s one other thing we can do to help Shark and Kosatka. Shark’s chief engineer was killed in the ambush attack on their ship. Shark is also a Founders Class destroyer. If we provided them with a skilled, experienced chief engineer, it might make all the difference in their getting those repairs done.”

  He stared at her. “You’re volunteering to transfer to Shark? Knowing that the ship might be captured?”

  Shen smiled slightly. “I have confidence in Captain Darcy, sir.”

  What else did he need to ask? Rob wondered. “The remaining officers aboard can handle all possible engineering situations that might occur on Saber?”

  “Yes, sir. I trained them, sir.”

  Rob nodded, reluctant, unsure what else to say. “Your offer to volunteer is accepted, Lieutenant Commander Shen. We’ll send you over along with Captain Darcy’s Marines.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Shen pointed to Rob’s desk display. “We’re also still on an intercept run,” she reminded him.

  “Yeah. I need to handle that, too.” Rob dashed back onto the bridge, reacquainting himself with the current situation with a glance at his display as he dropped into the command seat. “I want an estimate of our odds of inflicting critical damage on another freighter or the passenger ship before the invasion fleet reaches the planet.”

  “We already ran it, sir,” Lieutenant Cameron said, sounding not proud of having anticipated the need for the estimate but unhappy at the results. “The odds are effectively zero. We don’t have enough time left, or enough firepower, given that the enemy destroyer is still a threat. If we persist in attacks on the invasion fleet, there’s at least an even chance that Saber will receive disabling damage.”

  Rob knew he could dispute those estimates, which after all were only the result of imperfect attempts to quantify things that couldn’t really be quantified. But, after two days of trying to stop the invasion fleet single-handedly, he felt the truth of these estimates. It was only because Piranha had helped damage that one freighter, and because Saber’s sudden return to full maneuverability allowed a move the enemy hadn’t anticipated, that a single freighter had been destroyed. Other ships had taken damage, but not nearly enough to stop them. And Saber herself had narrowly avoided receiving serious damage on some of those attack runs.

  Moreover, he could easily see that the current firing run would result in the ene
my destroyer getting far too good a shot at Saber on the way.

  “Break off this attack,” Rob ordered, feeling a burst of anger at the necessity.

  “Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Cameron responded. “Breaking off attack. Request new vector guidance.” He sounded unhappy, resigned to the inevitable.

  Everyone on the bridge looked like they felt the same way, Rob saw. He tried to inject more confidence into his voice as he gave the next command. “I want a vector to Kosatka’s orbital facility. Work up what we need to do to slow enough to drop off our six Marines, then stay close enough to the facility to protect Shark against attack and the facility itself from enemy shuttles dropping off an attack force.”

  Used to having the well-trained veterans of Earth Fleet respond smoothly to orders, Rob was startled when they reacted by staring at him.

  “We’re not giving up?” Ensign Reichert asked, grinning in disbelief.

  “Hell, no, we’re not giving up,” Rob said. “We’re attacking along a different vector. This battle is not yet lost, and I intend to continue doing whatever we can to win it.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Half a day later, Mele Darcy paused in one of Saber’s air locks as the destroyer continued braking, matching vectors to soon and momentarily match the orbit of Kosatka’s orbital facility. Gazing across the gap between Saber and the open construction area around Shark, the facility glowing beyond in the light of Kosatka’s star and the planet below dappled with a living world’s heraldry of white and blue and green and tan, Mele couldn’t help wondering why she’d been stupid enough to volunteer for the job of leading Glenlyon’s Marines. “I just had an epiphany,” she said to Rob Geary over the command circuit in her armor.

  “How beautiful the universe is even when people are trying their best to kill each other?” he asked. “One minute to when you jump, by the way.”