“Titan’s still lagging.”
Geary nodded in response to Desjani’s words, feeling a tightness in his guts as he watched the big, slow ship’s movement. “I wish she could’ve gotten closer to the jump point.”
“Given the amount of damage she’s sustained, Titan got as close as she could in the time available and given the plan’s constraints.”
Geary gritted his teeth, though not in anger at Desjani. She was doing exactly what she should do—tell him the truth as she saw it. But he’d approved the plan. He’d seen Titan in it, in the short time he had to look at that plan, and hadn’t known the huge repair ship would be a concern. Hadn’t known that she’d move so slow. It wasn’t like they’d had a lot of time to move her or that they could be too obvious about it, but he’d approved the plan, they hadn’t been able to stall the Syndics long enough, and now Titan was in real trouble.
Because now he could see signs that the enemy was reacting, finally realizing that the Alliance fleet was fleeing toward the jump point. The time-late images of the wall of Syndic warships showed it stretching out of shape toward them as the faster ships began to pull away from their slower counterparts. Three minutes for them to see what we were doing, some time more for them to figure out what it meant, and then three more minutes for us to see them act on that information. They’ll be closing on us now, and the information will get more and more timely, but that’s not a good thing since it means the enemy will be getting closer to being able to engage our rearmost ships. He couldn’t call it a rear guard, because the ships farthest back were there from necessity, not design.
Geary found himself wishing for hidden squadrons of ships, waiting to leap out from some impossible concealment to lop the head off of the Syndic formation. But he had no such squadrons, no such means of hiding them, and any ship he sent to hit those exposed ships at the head of the Syndic advance would be unable to retreat to safety before the Syndic main body closed in.
Geary kept watching the ships and their movement vectors slide across the display and didn’t need to calculate the result. His own experience with understanding relative motion provided the answer as the minutes crawled by. “The Syndic interceptors are coming on too fast. Titan won’t make the jump point before some of them get within engagement range of her.”
Desjani nodded. “Concur.”
“Can Titan’s escorts stop them?”
She pondered the question for a moment, then shook her head. “Not just with their stern weaponry. They’d have to turn.”
“And then they’d be doomed.” I might have to do that. Might have to order that. I don’t want to lose those ships, those crews, but if it’s them or Titan, and Titan’s necessary for everyone else to get home…
Another nod from Captain Desjani. “We can abandon Titan. Try to pick up some of her crew.”
“We need that ship.”
Desjani hesitated, then she nodded a third time. “Yes.”
“Then we can’t abandon her.” Desjani gave him a worried look. Trying to figure out how the legendary Black Jack Geary can get out of this mess? If you do figure out how, let me know. How to buy time for Titan? Geary scowled at the displays, trying to find some way to change the physics and coming up with only one answer no matter how he tried.
Trade at least a ship for a ship. Either a squadron of lighter ships, or some ship powerful enough to single-handedly stave off the onrushing Syndic lead elements but less “important” than Titan. I can’t use Dauntless. Wouldn’t it be a relief if I did? Another last stand, and this time end it all for sure. No more burden of command, no more legions of desperate people looking to me as their only hope. No more fate of the Alliance, perhaps, hanging on my head, and no more hearing about Black Jack Geary, the Hero of the Alliance. But I can’t. The key’s onboard. I made a promise. Even if I hadn’t, I can’t abandon my duty to all of these people. But then which ship do I choose instead? Who do I send to their deaths? His eyes searched among the ships, trying to make a choice he hated.
And then he saw something else. “What’s Repulse doing? She’s falling back.”
Desjani gestured to her crew, then waited for a reply. “I’m informed Repulse has notified the fleet that she’ll be maneuvering independently.”
“What? Get me their commanding officer.” Repulse was still only thirty light-seconds away, so it took only a minute for Dauntless to send its request and Repulse to reply. The newly familiar face of Repulse’s commanding officer appeared before Geary. “What are you doing?” Geary demanded without preamble. “You’re going to be overtaken by Syndic ships soon unless you get your speed back up. Return to your place in formation.”
A minute later, instead of answering directly, Commander Michael Geary just grinned triumphantly. “You screwed up, Great-Uncle Black Jack. You know that, don’t you? Titan’s in trouble. Cresida’s not a bad officer, but she’s not as experienced as she’d like to think. And she can be a hothead, jumping without thinking first. You should’ve checked her plan better. It takes a lot of time sailing around Titan to realize what a slow tub she is under the best of conditions. That means there’s only one option if Titan’s going to saved.”
Geary tried to use his fingertips to push back a growing pain in his temples. “I understand Titan’s in trouble. I know we need to do something. But there’s different ways of executing that option.”
Another minute, while the Syndic pursuers grew closer. Geary watched them, impressed despite himself by the acceleration of which these modern warships were capable.
Repulse’s commander officer shook his head. “All of the options come down to the same thing. And you know it. Well, I’m going to do you a big favor, Great-Uncle Black Jack. I’m going to save you the trouble of choosing who dies. Repulse is close to the line between the closest Syndic ships and Titan. My ship’s well positioned for this action, and she’s got the necessary firepower. She’s also got damaged main drives that I’ve been pushing too hard and are threatening to fail, so she may not be able to keep up with the fleet regardless. Feel better?”
Geary felt the coldness inside again, but he could only find one word in answer. “No.”
The Repulse’s commander’s grin stretched wider at Geary’s response, becoming a bit grotesque. “Because of your mistake, I’ll finally get to live up to the legacy of Black Jack Geary! My ship holding off the entire Syndic fleet! My ancestors, our ancestors, will be proud. How long do you think my ship’ll survive, Great-Uncle Black Jack?”
Geary barely kept from snarling in frustration. A ship would die because of him. At least one, because if Repulse didn’t hold the enemy off long enough, then Titan still wouldn’t make it to the jump point in time unless Geary sent more ships back to screen her. And this man he wanted to embrace as a link to his dead brother couldn’t let go of his anger even now. “Hold them off as long as you can. They’ll try to slip some ships past you.”
A minute later, Michael Geary shook his head again. “They won’t make it. I’ll have clean shots at their flanks when they try.” The grin finally wavered and went away. “This isn’t easy, is it? I understand a bit now. I truly didn’t want this. You do what you have to do, though, and it’s up to your ancestors how it all turns out. You just have to … the Syndics will capture any of my crew who get off before Repulse dies. I know you can’t wait around to pick them up now. Promise me that some day you’ll try to get them out of the Syndic labor camps. Don’t forget them.”
Another promise, another demand on him, from someone who knew damned well that he wasn’t a demigod but still needed to believe in him. “I swear to you I won’t forget them, and I’ll do everything I can to someday get them home.”
“I’ll remember that! And our ancestors heard you as well!” Michael Geary laughed sharply, his gaze shifting rapidly as he looked off-screen at his own ship’s bridge.
“It’s going to get very hot any moment now. I need to go. Get the fleet out of here, damn you.” He hesitated. “I’ve got
a sister. She’s on the Dreadnought, back in Alliance space. Tell her I didn’t hate you anymore.” The connection broke leaving Geary staring at the ghost memory of his grandnephew’s face.
He became aware that Captain Desjani was looking at him, wondering what his private conservation with the Repulse had involved. Geary spoke to her, trying to keep his voice flat and controlled. “Repulse is going to attempt to hold off the Syndic ships long enough for Titan to get to the jump point.”
Desjani hesitated, her eyes widening. “Sir, you should know, the commanding officer of Repulse is—”
“I know who he is.” Geary guessed his voice sounded rough, harsh, and had no idea how that would seem to the bridge crew of the Dauntless, and he didn’t really care at the moment.
Desjani stared at him for several seconds, then looked away.
Every minute after that seemed impossibly long, Geary watching Titan’s achingly slow progress and the vectors of the Syndic warships piling on speed as they closed the distance. The fastest Syndic ships had pushed their velocity up past .1 light and were still accelerating. “Isn’t there any way to make Titan go faster?” he finally snapped.
The others on the bridge exchanged glances, but no one answered. Despite his earlier determination to keep an eye on the big picture, Geary focused on the Repulse, knowing that what happened around her would determine the fate of other ships. The rest of the Alliance fleet was accelerating toward the jump point, limiting its speed to keep from leaving slower ships behind, but drawing steadily away from Repulse. The damaged battle cruiser had ceased accelerating, coasting along behind the rest of the fleet as if her propulsion systems were totally blown. She was almost forty-five light-seconds away from Dauntless now, and losing ground by the moment. Geary did a quick estimate in his head, figuring that by the time the Syndic pursuers reached Repulse, the badly damaged ship would be over a light-minute behind the rest of the fleet.
The wall once formed by the Syndic fleet had stretched into a sort of ragged cone, with the bulk of the Syndic ships back in the base, while the fastest ships had charged forward as quickly as they individually could, their tracks converging on an intercept with Titan. Geary saw the great opportunity the extended Syndic formation offered for a vicious counterblow, just the sort of opportunity a mythic commander like Black Jack Geary would surely take. But I know what would happen to my fleet after I blew away those leading Syndic ships and the rest of the Syndic fleet caught up to us, and I’m not the Black Jack Geary these people think I am.
Like members of a grand ballet corps sweeping together for a finale, the Syndic ships gracefully arced down toward Titan and the lone Alliance warship, Repulse, barring their path. Three Syndic Hunter-Killer ships that must have strained their drives to the utmost were in the lead as they tried to race past Repulse at better than .1 light speed, aiming directly for Titan and her escorts. Geary watched the battle on the display floating before him, knowing the events he was watching had already played out a minute earlier, seeing the shape of the Repulse slowly turning to face the pursuers. Too slowly. Her damaged main drives had apparently lost much of their maneuvering and acceleration capability, leaving Repulse unable to move with any speed.
According to Repulse’s last update, her propulsion system wasn’t that badly damaged. Why is she wallowing like that? Then Geary noticed the Syndic HuKs not altering course to further avoid Repulse and realized what his grandnephew was doing. He’s pretending to be in worse shape than he is. It’s his only ace, and he’s playing it very well. If only I’d had some time to get to know that man.
Repulse, swinging slowly and majestically up and around, barely managed to bring her main weapons to bear and fired her kinetic grapeshot, patterns of large metal ball bearings aimed to intercept the path of the oncoming HuKs. At the speed the HuKs were moving, relativistic effects would mean they’d have a distorted image of the outside universe, which together with the time-late lags caused by the distances involved meant the Syndic ships would lose vital time in seeing and responding to any threats.
whether because they had too little warning time to react or simply chose to ignore the barrage, the HuKs swept directly into the grapeshot kill patterns, their leading shields sparkling with impacts as they absorbed the barrage. The Syndic warships surged onward, still fixated on the Titan. “No hits,” Geary commented tonelessly.
Captain Desjani shook her head. “There wasn’t much chance of one, but all those head-on strikes against the HuK shields by the kinetic rounds must’ve depleted the shields a great deal. The relative speed of the impacts was huge. They’ll have to shift a lot of power from the sides and rear to try to rebuild their front shields.”
“I see.” And now he did. Or rather, he was seeing what had happened over a minute ago. The HuKs sprinting past Repulse obviously weren’t worried about taking any more shots from the Alliance ship. But before the projected paths of the Syndic ships began to pass Repulse’s position, the battle cruiser had rolled with sudden speed and agility, changing aspect to bring her main batteries to bear on points the HuKs would pass through. The Syndics probably didn’t see the maneuver in time to react, maintaining their courses and allowing Repulse to target the spots they’d occupy as the enemy tried to race past.
A barrage of hell-lances erupted from the Alliance ship, racing outward to reach a point in space just as one of the Syndic warships passed through the same spot. The charged particle spears slashed into the HuK, then as Repulse kept rolling to bring her weapons to bear on another intercept point, another barrage fired and slammed into a second HuK. At fairly close range, the bolts of energy tore through the weakened side shields and the thin underlying armor, then ripped apart the guts of the Syndic ships.
Still moving at better than .1 light, the wrecks of the two HuKs raced onward, no longer accelerating, no longer living warships, no longer threats to Titan or any other Alliance ship.
But Geary’s eyes were locked on the third HuK, as Repulse brought her bow up and around in a wrenching maneuver to face it. He felt a familiar tension inside as if the display were showing events in real time, rather than revealing the light of actions already over a minute old now. The display showed what looked like a massive glowing ball leaping from the Repulse on a course that carried it straight into the HuK’s path. The ball seemed to hesitate a moment as it flared against the HuK’s shields, then it plowed through the weakened barrier and into the ship. Where the ball hit, the HuK simply vanished, a third of the ship gone in an instant, and the remaining pieces tumbling away as they were wracked by secondary explosions.
“What the hell was that?” Geary whispered.
Captain Desjani bared her teeth. “A null-field. It does exactly what the name says, temporarily nullifying the strong force that holds atoms together.”
“You’re joking.”
“No.” She pointed at the remains of the HuK. “Inside the null-field, atomic bonds fail. Matter simply falls apart.”
Geary stared at her, then at the display. Matter. Matter making up a ship, and matter making up its crew. Falling apart and gone. Not just dead, but vanished into nothing. “Does every ship have one of those null-fields?”
“No. Just the capital ships, and not all of them.” Desjani’s fierce grin faded. “They’re fairly new, short range, and they take a long time to recharge. I know why he fired it when he did. It was the only way to stop that HuK. But he may not get off another shot from it, and I doubt any Syndic capital ships will let him get close enough to nail them.”
“Can a shield stop those things?”
“A powerful enough one, yes.” She looked frustrated now. “Null-fields can’t be charged if you’re too deep in a significant gravity well, and the charge can only be held for a very brief time before you have to fire. As a result we haven’t been able to employ them against Syndic planetary targets, yet.”
“Planetary targets? You mean planets, don’t you?”
Frustration shifted to annoyance before Desjani
cleared her expression. “Of course.”
Of course. Hitting an inhabited planet with something which would make pieces of it fall apart into component particles was just a matter of “of course.” What’s happened to these people? How can they talk regretfully about not being able to destroy worlds that way?
His attention was jerked back to Repulse. Another brace of HuKs had tried to get past her, but the Alliance ship pivoted again, with an agility at odds with her tonnage, so most of her hell-lance batteries could bear on the path of one of the HuKs. Running head-on into that concentrated barrage, the HuK’s forward shields flared and failed, letting the hell-lances ravage the length of the ship and turn it into high-velocity junk.
Captain Desjani pointed, drawing Geary’s attention to the fact that Repulse was volleying specter missiles as fast as the ship’s launchers could pump them out. The remaining HuK took out the leading specters with its defenses, but then the torpedoes began getting through, hitting the shields and then punching holes through the ship. Within moments, that ship, too, was out of the fight.
“That was most of her remaining specters, Captain Geary,” Desjani advised. “Repulse’s captain is using everything he’s got to stop the leading Syndic ships.”
Geary nodded slowly, trying not to reveal his emotions. He’s leaving precious little for dealing with the following Syndic ships. But, then, that won’t matter, will it? Not in the big scheme of things, where getting Titan out of here intact is critically important. Damn the big scheme of things and damn the Syndics.
He studied the movement vectors, getting the feel of them with those first five HuKs gone, and could see the answer. “He might’ve done it.”
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