The Lost Fleet: Dauntless

by Jack Campbell

  Rione waved at the display. “I understood these presented images that compensated for relativistic effects when necessary.”

  Captain Desjani, her ship’s honor apparently at stake once more, answered. “Madam Co-President, the systems can fairly accurately compensate for relativistic effects on this ship because they know what this ship is doing. For any other ship, the systems can only estimate from what it can observe. We’d get a time-late and distorted picture of the other ship, and the resulting corrections vary in accuracy. The image we get could differ significantly from where the other ship is actually located and from what its actual course and speed vectors are at any moment.”

  Any further questions from Rione were forestalled by the communications watch. “Captain Desjani, we’ve received a challenge from Syndic defense forces in-system.”

  Desjani looked at Geary, of course. He frowned at the display and the time. “That was quick. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that base on the fourth planet must only now be picking up visual on the first fleet ship coming out of the jump point.”

  “Agreed.” Desjani swept her gaze across the bridge. “That signal must’ve come from a Syndic source about fifteen light-minutes out from the jump point. Find it,” she ordered her watch-standers.

  It only took a few moments, thanks to the fact that the fleet was spread out so much. Using the bearings from which the Syndic signal had been received by different, widely separated ships, the source was easily localized. Full-spectrum sensors focused on the spot, finally picking out a small object. “It’s tiny,” the communications watch reported. “That’s no ship. Not a crewed object, either. Assess the source of the signal to be an automated traffic management assistant.”

  “Why didn’t we spot it before now?” Desjani demanded.

  “It seems to have been out here a long time, ma’am. Very heavily pitted. Preliminary sweeps assessed it as most likely an ancient piece of debris drifting through the system.”

  Geary, pondering how that description also matched the last century of his own existence, rubbed his chin as he studied the display. The closest ship to the object, the cruiser Ardent, was less than a light-minute away. That thing won’t be equipped with weaponry, but it might have stuff that’ll help the Syndic base track us, and it could have a self-destruct capability that could damage any ship that wanders too close. Better safe than sorry. “Ardent, this is Captain Geary on the Dauntless. Get rid of that thing.”

  Then he had to wait almost two minutes for a response. “Ardent, aye. It’s gone.” Geary watched his display, knowing that it would be several minutes at best before he’d see the indications that Ardent had blown away the satellite.

  “Should we answer the signal, Captain Desjani?” the communications watch persisted.

  She looked to Geary again. “It must’ve sent a report to the base.”

  “Yeah. That report will arrive a little after they get visuals on us, I guess.” Geary thought the problem through, aware that he was setting in motion events and decisions that would play out for the next several hours. He tried not to think about how many lives in Corvus System and the fleet rested on what he decided now.

  “Captain Desjani,” Geary stated carefully, thinking again of the shocked defenders of Corvus System. “Please inform the Syndic authorities that we are here to accept their surrender. Broadcast that through the entire system.”

  She gave him a puzzled and disappointed look. “So far, everything indicates there’s very little in the way of defenses here, and what they have is hopelessly outdated. Defeating them won’t be hard at all.”

  “No. But we’ll get a lot more supplies and usable parts off of them if they surrender quietly than if we have to smash them into submission. We may even convince them to pony up more if they think it’ll keep us from wrecking everything in this system.”

  “Isn’t it better to ensure that their capability to resist is eliminated?”

  “No.” Geary shook his head firmly. “Losing the Syndic assets in this system would mean nothing to the Syndicate Worlds, but every ship damaged and weapon expended here means something to the Alliance. We’re better off winning without a fight. If we broadcast a surrender demand now, it’ll arrive everywhere in the system about a half hour after our presence has been detected. They’ll have had time to realize how much force we have relative to them, time to get really scared, and that’s when our demand will arrive.”

  Desjani still looked disappointed but held back whatever else she’d intended arguing. A few minutes later, Dauntless broadcast the message as the Alliance fleet continued falling toward the inner system at a tenth of the speed of light.

  Geary watched his display, willing time and distance to pass more quickly. The Syndic base should’ve spotted the Alliance fleet by now, but even if the nickel corvettes got moving immediately, the Dauntless wouldn’t see that movement for another ten minutes. He concentrated on his own ships, trying to sort out the tangle of movement vectors so he could figure out how well they were doing at getting into formation. Judging from how hard it was to read their movements, his ships weren’t doing all that well. Granted, the fleet’s speed made repositioning more difficult, but still the individual ships seemed to be doing a poor job of straightening themselves out.

  “The Syndic commander has responded to our demand that they surrender,” Captain Desjani grumbled.

  “Okay.” Geary checked the time, confirming that the response to his surrender demand must’ve been sent very quickly. He took a moment to pick the right control, then found himself gazing at the image of an elderly man in an obsessively neat but worn Syndic Executive Class Officer uniform.

  The Syndic Executive visibly gulped, but he shook his head and tried to look resolute. “This is to acknowledge receipt of your transmission. Your request must be denied. I am not permitted to surrender any forces or installations within this system. Transmission end.”

  Oh, for… Geary let out an exasperated breath. “Our request must be denied? Is he kidding? It sounds like he thinks we asked permission to hold a dance.”

  “In a few more hours we’ll bring his headquarters down around his head,” Desjani replied cheerfully.

  “Maybe. Until then, there’s no reason I can’t keep trying to get the idiot to see reason.” Geary almost smiled at Desjani’s expression. “Don’t worry. I won’t beg.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Don’t worry about it. Let me send this transmission personally.” Geary paused to order his thoughts, then pressed the right command sequence. “This is the Alliance fleet, Captain John Geary commanding, entering Corvus System. We’re here to accept your surrender,” Geary announced, not missing the irony of his demand after the Syndic CEO had used pretty much the same words to him a few weeks ago. “As you can tell from our arrival vectors, we’ve come from the Syndicate Worlds home system. Our work there is done for now.” Geary tried to put the right amount of victorious arrogance into that misleading statement. If the Syndic commander thought it meant the Alliance had trashed the Syndic home system, it might help overawe him. “We expect all Syndicate Worlds military forces and any local forces to lay down their arms, deactivate defensive systems, and cease any form of resistance. It should be obvious to you that we have more than enough firepower to enforce our demand, and that any resistance on your part would be meaningless. Failure on your part to surrender quickly guarantees the futile deaths of your defenders and serious damage to installations within this system. I expect your next message to be an agreement to surrender.”

  He leaned back, looked toward Desjani, and shrugged. “If that doesn’t get through to him…”

  “A hell-lance will,” Desjani finished.

  “Yeah. If it comes to that.” Geary frowned at the display. “Still no movement by the corvettes as of ten minutes ago. Interesting. They’re just maintaining the same positions in orbit relative to the Syndic base.”

  “Perhaps they’re planning to use them as part of the perime
ter defense of the base.”

  “That’d be awfully dumb, tying down ships into static defensive positions, even if we didn’t outnumber them so hugely.” He studied the picture. “I think there’s another reason, but—”

  “Syndic cruiser detected orbiting the fourth planet!” the recon watch announced.

  “Just one?” Geary watched the report scroll in. He didn’t recognize the class of the light cruiser, but the system declared it to be an obsolete design. “Are these specs right?”

  A dozen people on the bridge hurriedly checked. Desjani answered for them all. “Yes, sir.”

  “Wow. Look at the propulsion system on that thing! Why’d they stick so much propulsion capability on a light cruiser?”

  Desjani frowned, studying the data. “We don’t know. The design hasn’t been encountered and is known only through intelligence sources. Apparently, only a few of those were built, and if they saw battle, the records didn’t get back to us.”

  Geary nodded absently, thinking that the only reason the records wouldn’t have gotten back was if the Alliance force involved had been cut to ribbons. The light cruiser wasn’t heavily armed, though. It just had that honking big propulsion system. Hopefully I won’t have to worry what the idea was behind that. If the Syndic commander surrenders, I can ask someone. Otherwise, that cruiser will be a lot of junk floating in close formation after we blow a million holes in it. “The cruiser and the corvettes are still hanging around the planet. That’s a hopeful sign.”

  “It’ll make them easier targets, anyway.”

  Another hour had almost gone by when the Syndic commander’s response was received. “I am in receipt of your last communication,” the executive in the worn uniform stated precisely. “Standing Syndicate Fleet Fighting Instructions, Article Seven prohibits surrender. Article Nine requires all military installations to be defended in the most vigorous possible manner. Article Twelve states there are no situational exceptions to Articles Seven and Nine. Therefore I must again deny your request.”

  Geary stared at the image for a long moment. “How can he be that stupid?”

  Co-President Rione answered. “He’s a bureaucrat, Captain Geary. Look at him. Listen to him. He lives to enforce rules regardless of whether or not those rules make sense.” From her tone, Rione had met more than her share of such people already.

  Geary almost laughed at the absurdity of it. A bureaucrat. Some guy who’s probably spent his entire career making sure every letter of instruction laid down decades ago and light-years away are followed down to the last subclause. The sort who thinks following every petty rule matters more than anything else. Who else would end up in command of a system where the war was never supposed to come? Who else would want to hold that command for year after empty year?

  Then the reality of what the bureaucrat’s petrified insistence on following Syndic Fleet Fighting Instructions, Articles Seven, Nine, and Twelve would cause came back to Geary. He’d have to kill enough of the people serving under this bean counter to force a surrender. Damn him.

  Geary punched his communication controls viciously. “To the Syndicate Commander in Corvus System. Surrender is your only option. If you force us to destroy your defenses, I assure you that I will make every effort to ensure that you personally share the fate of your front-line personnel.” He broke the connection, then turned to Captain Desjani. “Have your communications people try to ram some messages directly through to the corvettes and the cruiser telling them we’ll accept their surrender.” Desjani let disapproval show for a moment, but she nodded and gave the orders. Give it a rest, Tanya Desjani. There’s no glory in smashing people facing impossible odds.

  Still three hours until the fleet got close enough to the base to engage its defenses. Desjani’s eyes strayed to the section of the display showing the battle cruisers gathered around the jump point, and it wasn’t hard for Geary to read her thoughts. Duellos’s and Tulev’s ships would get to draw blood, but Dauntless would apparently have to be content with accepting the surrender of a few outdated ships. Desjani wasn’t happy about that.

  The ships of the Alliance fleet fell deeper into the Corvus System, while the individual ships crawled with widely varying speed and precision to the positions they were supposed to occupy relative to the flagship, the time-late images of the Syndic corvettes dithered around near their base, the Syndic light cruiser apparently continued to orbit the fourth world, and Geary watched it all with growing irritation. He started out trying to note every Alliance ship that was laggard about moving into the new formation, but it wasn’t too long before he’d had to switch to spotting those ships that were assuming their positions with relative speed. There were simply too many laggards to keep individual track of, and distressingly few good performers.

  The leading units of the Alliance fleet were supposed to be assuming a formation resembling a huge rectangle, with the flat face toward the enemy. The main body was supposed to be in another even-larger rectangle behind that, then the support ships and their escorts were supposed to be arrayed in a cube farther back yet. Two smaller cubes off to either side were to hold screening forces ready to screen against actions by enemy forces in those areas.

  Instead, the intertangled swarm of Alliance ships looked to Geary for all the world like a single distorted wedge, with the fat end toward the enemy.

  An alert pulsed, and symbols sprang to life on the display. Geary held his breath as Dauntless picked up Syndic ships exiting the jump point. Modern ones, moving fast. Geary felt adrenaline surge even though he knew he was watching events that had taken place ten minutes ago. And whatever defense his battle cruisers had carried out had also played out ten minutes ago.

  Geary barely had time to register the presence of a squadron of Syndic Hunter-Killers formed up around a single heavy cruiser before he watched short-range concentrated fire from Duellos’ and Tulev’s battle cruisers ripping the HuKs to shreds. Moments later, the Alliance attacks swamped the cruiser’s defenses and riddled it before it could get off more than a few shots that were absorbed harmlessly by the battle cruisers’ screens. On the heels of the visual sighting of the battle, reports from the battle cruisers began arriving, confirming what Geary had already seen.

  Geary waited, but nothing else came through after the reports of the first ships. They’d been an expendable force, sent through on the off-chance that the Alliance fleet had continued fleeing in panic and hadn’t tried to defend the jump exit.

  Expendable. Geary had always thought that was an ugly word and an uglier concept. Apparently, the Syndics didn’t share that feeling.

  Around him, cheers had erupted on the bridge of the Dauntless as they watched the small Syndic force get slaughtered. The sound wore at Geary’s nerves, leaving him looking for something to vent his anger on. He tapped the fleet communications circuit again. “All units not yet in standard attack formation Alpha Six are to expedite their movement.”

  Desjani gave Geary a surprised glance, but quickly hid her reaction. Not that the Dauntless’s captain had to worry. As flagship, the unit every other ship had to take position relative to, the Dauntless was defined as being in position the moment the order was issued. “Do you think that’s their entire fast-pursuit force?” she asked so quickly that Geary suspected she was just trying to change the subject.

  How the hell would I know? Geary wanted to snap back. Instead, he thought about the question for a moment. “I think so. If they were sending through more, why leave an appreciable gap between their arrival times?” He paused. “That wasn’t a big force, though. They should’ve been able to get it through the jump point right on our heels.”

  “They were just over an hour behind us.” Desjani appeared to be thinking, then nodded. “They hesitated, then sent through a small force just in case it might find us unprepared.”

  Hesitated. Yes. Geary nodded back. “They sent something so they could tell their superiors they’d maintained a hot pursuit. Enough to make it look serious, but n
othing big enough that they’d mind losing it.” And too bad for the sailors on the ships their bosses didn’t mind losing.

  “Yes. Human life means nothing to them.” Captain Desjani looked straight into Geary’s eyes, her voice flat.

  “Point taken.” I’ll have to remember not to misjudge Captain Desjani. She has what she believes are good reasons for everything she does. Geary bit his lip as he studied his display. If that was the entire Syndic fast-pursuit force, he could order the battle cruisers to rejoin the rest of the fleet. But the Syndics could’ve deliberately paused between waves to mislead defenders into thinking they wouldn’t be sending in anything else for a while. But those battle cruisers were already ten light-minutes away from the rest of the fleet. Ten minutes away for receiving messages. Ten minutes away from Geary even knowing if those ships were in trouble. At least an hour away from being able to help them. And they were getting farther away every moment. “Captain Duellos, Captain Tulev, this is Captain Geary. Well done. Please rejoin the fleet as expeditiously as possible. Have your ships assume assigned positions within standard fleet attack formation Alpha Six.”

  Ten minutes for Duellos and Tulev to get the message. Then they’d have to get their ships up to speed and start a long stern chase to catch up with the fleet. It’d be quite a few hours before they were in formation.

  But at that, it seemed those battle cruisers would be in formation before anyone else achieved that goal. Instead of resolving into the ordered rectangles, the Alliance fleet seemed to be rushing to further fatten the end of the rough wedge facing the Syndic base.