Kalinin allowed that the European squadron might react poorly to the message. However, the Joint Senates had specified what was to be said, so that was what Anaximander was saying. The American assertion that Alpha Centauri was American territory relied on a somewhat enthusiastic interpretation of the Azores Convention, that century-and-a-half old temporary truce negotiated at a date when interstellar travel was barely more than a hypothetical possibility. The Europeans might well claim that Centauri was linked by warp points to the Solar System, and was therefore European. It might not help European equanimity that the United States had neglected to tell the EU that Americans lived outside the Solar System, let alone that there were eighteen American states on Alpha Centauri's habitable worlds, Lincoln and Markoff.
"I'm not hearing a response," Captain Wolfe noted. "The Europeans aren't responding."
"Patience." Grand Commodore Kalinin had kept the athletic figure he’d had even in his brief stay in the Far East Russian Republic’s Rozhestvensky Naval Youth Academy. His nervous tension showed only as the fingers of his two hands pressed together. Would his subordinates sense his concern? So far, American forces had the ten-to-one mass superiority that fleet doctrine identified as being required for a favorable outcome. Nonetheless, previously unknown hostile ship classes were an unpleasant surprise. "Let us be patient," he repeated. "So far as we know, they're as surprised as we are. They're Europeans, so they're much slower than an American Captain and crew would be, were our roles reversed. We knew in principle someone could come through the Clarksburg point, though the Clarksburg system has always been deserted. They most likely think they are a million light years from Earth, and wonder how we got here."
"Yes, Sir," Captain Wolfe acknowledged. Kalinin felt silent relief that he, rather than Wolfe as senior Captain, was commanding the engagement. He was a precise tactician. In simulation evaluations, his colleagues claimed that he always handled difficult positions brilliantly. He always thought there was a best path, sometimes not a very good path, and took it. Wolfe never quite took simulations seriously. How would she respond to real combat? Not well, Kalinin suspected, not unless it was combat with memo pad against the Remfotron electronic supply serviles.
The luck of the draw had put him here now for a month's observation of flotilla readiness. It could have been his peer, Grand Commodore Ter-Minassian. It was not that Ter-Minassian was not able. A less competent man would never have risen so quickly to the swallow-tail coat of a Commodore, let alone the copper-lace stole of a Grand Commodore. He was, however, sometimes a bit aggressive. Ter-Minassian had had the highest ratings at the Federal General Staff College, the three years he'd spent there before being promoted to Grand Commodore of Lincoln. He'd be commanding the American Solar Navy by now, Kalinin expected, were it not for Ter-Minassian’s misfortunate circumstance of birth: Ter-Minassian’s grandmother had spent a term as Congresswoman from Khamchatka, soon after the Siberian Republic was added to the Union, so Ter-Minassian was Constitutionally ineligible to be an officer of the American Solar Navy.
Anaximander now had a response. The babelizer morphed the FEU message -- in French, as expected -- to 'Americans, erect your limbs. Americans, give me your gun.' "
"Very good,” Kalinin said. “My compliments to the Armored Cruiser Division, and as soon as we have full power we shall go to active evasion. Please advise Flag Captains Quintana and Liu that their Squadrons will advance in combat box formation the moment their Monitor Divisions have come to full power,"
"We'll close?" Wolfe asked. "This isn't a precise match for any of the contingency plans."
"Indeed, Captain Wolfe, it's not a match at all," Kalinin noted. "It's not a reconnaissance or diplomatic vessel. It's not a major attack. It's not someone trying to violate the Non-Intercourse Act. It's none of the above, and matches no contingency plan. However, as I have noted in my reports to the Joint War Committee, the number of contingency plans we are allowed to maintain is not very large. Junior Commander Mjojo? We have a few moments. Analysis and recommendations?"
"Grand Commodore, we are 310,000 leagues from the warp point center," Mjojo answered crisply. Wolfe’s fourth-in-command took the question calmly. "That's five light-seconds, minimum safe distance with power down. We're 50 minutes to the warp point if we go to maximum acceleration and make a firing pass, more like 80 minutes depending on how they move if we want to arrive at the warp point at zero relative speed. Anaximander is immediately outside the primary warp zone -- 30,000 leagues from warp center, ninety degrees north relative to us from the warp point center. The Europeans are spread over 10,000 leagues, not maneuvering or firing. We cannot assist Anaximander before she engages. Recommendations: Anaximander should perform her primary mission -- reconnaissance -- and engage the unknowns if she fires." Kalinin’s memories took him back to his time as an instructor at the Champaign Naval Academy, the first lesson in astrogation, the cadet being required to imagine the six cardinal directions: Starward, Sunward, and, standing near the starcore, feet on the plane of the ecliptic, facing Lincoln as he moved leftward around the sun, the four compass directions: Down and up were South and North, with and against the orbital motion were West and East.
"Why not engage a DeGaulle?" asked Wolfe. "Hurt their capital units first."
"Ma'am," answered Mjojo politely, "A Hellenic-Class Reconnaissance Frigate can not hurt a deGaulle. Besides, we know what a deGaulle carries. We don't even know what the unknowns are, let alone their armament."
"Well said," Wolfe answered. Kalinin nodded agreement.
"So advise Anaximander," Kalinin indicated. To Mjojo's eye, Kalinin's posture showed the slightest relaxation. Kalinin had agreed with his analysis. Then Mjojo understood. What would Kalinin have done if Wolfe had disagreed? Mjojo knew that his analysis was by the book in a circumstance where the book analysis was completely sound. If Wolfe hadn't masked her disagreement, Kalinin might have had to overrule his flagship's captain in favor of a lowly Junior Commander, one Gabriel Mjojo, or suffer the consequences of her weaker tactical judgement. That might not, Mjojo considered, sit too well with the person who would remain as his immediate superior after Kalinin returned home. Sooner or later, Mjojo allowed, Wolfe would retire, and he would float one more position up the seniority ladder. In the meantime, he had to come out looking well, or make sure that things were demonstrably someone else's fault. The latter was by far the more reliable procedure within the SLPSDF.
MacPherson's voice came over the intercom. "Images from Anaximander, all opponent classes." The holodisplay gave detailed views of the invading ships. The Isandhlwana's data servile plotted an image match. Kalinin looked carefully at the display. deGaulle and Firenze classes agreed with intelligence data. The Prince Edwards appeared to have additional previously unreported radar arrays across their bow and stern. The unknowns remained unfamiliar: The pickets were simple flat-white dodecahedral hulls, while the larger vessel was a long line of fused dodecahedra.
"Petty Officer Bader," Wolfe spoke into her tab microphone, "your analysis on unknown vessels, as soon as possible." Even in a State Defense Force, "as soon as possible" was generally understood to be as a synonym for "yesterday".
Arthur Bader's shaven-scalp head appeared on another holodisplay. ‘Fleet Intelligence Center’ the display's channel tag read. "The hull shapes are standard warp field forms. There are no extension spines. They presumably generate their warp fields proximate to the hull. That's a breakthrough for the Europeans. Use of boron-cycle fusactors is novel. FEU radar above the 3,000 bevaSteinmetz band is novel."
"Novel?" Kalinin asked.
"No indication of tests, sir, by the Europeans," Bader answered. "Though we're pretty sure the FEU does its serious weapons testing out-of-system. The large ship has an extreme aspect ratio, at least 7-to-1. It resembles no type or proposed type that I know."
"Break, break!" Swenson interrupted. "Missile separations, Firenze 2, 3, unknown picket 4. Apparent target is Anaximander. Anaximander signals she i
s engaging with soliton torpedoes. Anaximander is returning torpedo fire." She brought the torpedo tracks--clearly bracketing the Anaximander's position--up on the main datascreen. Further target tracks showed the unknowns firing on the nearest static radar buoys.
"Engineering full power," Another voice came through the intercom systems.
"Monitors at full power in four minutes," Swenson reported. "No glitches in anyone's power-up sequence."
Torpedo tracks etched lines across the screen. Isandhlwana's officers waited for the monitors to finish powering up, helpless to intervene until the entire flotilla could energize drives and weapons.
"Anaximander firing soliton torpedoes," MacPherson reported. Across the void, high-tech ball lightning surged from the Anaximander toward the incoming missiles, the lightning's path firmly under the control of on-missile plasma-state quantum logic circuits. The men and women in Isandhlwana's control room stared at the display. A dozen blobs of incandescent gas hurled through the void. All but one missed their intended targets.
"Doesn't say much for our antimissile defenses." Kalinin shrugged. Further antitorpedoes streaked from the Anaximander, clusters of a half-dozen bolts bracketing the track of one incoming missile after the next.
"Anaximander countermissiles may be inadequate with regular fire," MacPherson reported. "Incoming missiles from unknowns are pulling a solid 200 gees. Flight time will be slightly under seven minutes." Anaximander continued its countermissile fire.
"All ships are powered up," reported Swenson.
"Flotilla, this is Flag." Kalinin spoke to his microphone. "Bring up full screens and main drives. Assume open cone formation nine. On my signal, All Ahead Flank. Center cone on the deGaulles. All ships, spinal xrasers to target unknown picket vessels One and Two then Prince Edwards in order of increasing distance. Fire for effect. Hold fire on each target for thirty seconds, then cycle through target list. Swenson, supply target list and timing."
"Anaximander going to continuous fire on soliton antitorpedoes," MacPherson reported. "Anaximander xraser point defenses engaging."
"Assuming formation open cone nine," Swenson announced. "Ready for flotilla ahead flank. Two minutes to open cone formation."
"Captain," Kalinin asked, "Be so kind as to give us All Ahead Flank, would you? And please estimate time of arrival at stop."
"Do it!" Wolfe snapped at Mjojo.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," Mjojo responded. He taped a sequence on his keypad. "Executing. Currently estimate 78 minutes to stationary arrival. Can't give you more accuracy until we see how the Europeans maneuver." His superiors had been talking, but he had set up the half-dozen plausible American maneuvers on his taccomp. Sooner or later, Mjojo thought, Kalinin might notice that Mjojo was consistently ready at once when Kalinin requested that the flotilla displace. With Kalinin, Mjojo could at least hope for favorable notice. With Wolfe, there was no such possibility.
"Anaximander got five of twelve torpedoes," MacPherson reported. "No sign of torpedo detonations. Other torpedoes closed on buoys Dog One through Dog Four. Buoys Dog One, Three, Four ceased to radiate. Torpedoes appear to have reached the ends of their powered runs."
"Second-echelon buoys standing by," Swenson reported.
Kalinin held up one hand. "We're still seeing the visitors, I believe? Let's reserve those buoys until we lose tracking."
"Signal from Anaximander," Swenson said. "Captain Bevilacqua proposes that the incoming were reconnaissance drones. Loss of buoys was collision of unshielded buoy with torpedo drive field. She reports her outbound are high-yield devices. Crossloading data. Anaximander required vollied soliton torpedoes to hit incoming missiles."
"All flotilla ships. Xrasers firing," Mjojo reported. This was not a comfortable position. The hit percentages of Anaximander's antitorpedoes had been truly bad, and that failure could not be put down to crew error. "Unknown pickets are maneuvering sharply. Range and target size make solid hits marginal to attain." On display 3, the FEU ships pivoted repeatedly as they changed course. Data overlays revealed that the unknowns were also maneuvering wildly, but presented nearly a constant aspect toward the Anaximander.
One of the unknown picket ships flared green, then seemed swallowed by a yellow haze that faded back to green and blue and finally to black. "Had him for a few moments," Mjojo said. "Analysis of his screens in another minute."
"Unknowns apparently have spherical drive cores," Bader reported. "They're making sharp turns without changing their main axis at all. FEU's never done that before. It's not something in our book, either."
"There is rather little," Kalinin said, not quite to himself, "in our book that is not in theirs. Alas, the reverse is not true." Kalinin wondered if the Senates would reconsider their opposition to Fleet basic research and development budgets. In a period of budgetary stringency, Ter-Minassian had vigorously urged the Joint Senates War Committee to focus on maintaining ships in space, rather than directing the Navy's shipyards to develop new weapons that no one could afford to deploy. There had been a natural appeal to political reality. Most major parties other than the Democratic-Republicans-allowing that you could describe a 3% minority party as ‘major’-categorically rejected government manipulation of applied research beyond the military specification stage. Senator Meyer, Committee Chair for the past decade, had been more sympathetic. Kalinin wondered if Meyer had made progress, or if his Committee’s crackdown on bootleg research efforts had been more significant in retarding development.
"Tracking on Anaximander torpedoes," MacPherson said. "Anaximander firing second volley." A half-dozen sharp blue lines etched themselves across the battle plot display.
"Note their formation," Kalinin said quietly. "A flat plane of ships is apparently the FEU standard, or so ASN Fleet Intelligence reports. However, the large unknown is falling behind the plane. Perhaps it's not primarily a warship."
"Now we'll get a few of them," Captain Wolf announced. Kalinin's silent shrug gave poignant testimony to his doubts. The Anaximander was very heavily outmassed. Even against American countertorpedo defenses, the half-dozen torpedoes Anaximander had fired were highly unlikely to reach their targets. EU defenses had to be swamped before they could be penetrated.
One track after another disappeared. The final two torpedos flared brilliantly. "Detonations," reported MacPherson. "Can't tell if it was a defense or something Anaximander did."
"All ships: shift xraser fire to torpedo plasma clouds," Kalinin ordered. "xrasers to wide dispersion." He paused, then continued to the officers around him. "The cloud is not maneuvering, so we're sure to hit. Atomic fluorescence will tend to blind our European friends, helping further missiles to penetrate... Lieutenant, we have a few more moments for you to hone your skills. What is the strangest aspect of their behavior thus far? What would you do in this situation?"
"Sir, there's no behavior to be strange. They're out of our effective xraser range, given that they are maneuvering. They're not firing more missiles. There's no sign of xraser or laser counterfire. They're just dodging," Mjojo answered.
"Very good," Wolfe inserted.
"Precisely," Kalinin noted. "Almost parked. Are they waiting for something? Are they unusually slow, even for Europeans? Did we take them entirely by surprise? Or are they doing something we don't recognize yet? Whatever it is, they're spending their time before reacting. Though they got off their first torpedo volley fast enough."
"Anaximander is maneuvering behind the plasma fluorescence," Swenson reported. "Anaximander will pass through it in another three minutes."
"We perforce wait," Kalinin announced. His wife wished he would read fewer sea stories from prior centuries. The adventures of Hornblower and Harrington and Hererra brought with them an antique vocabulary.
"All ships, shift fire back to unknowns when Anaximander enters danger cone of our xraser fire," Kalinin ordered.
"Anaximander firing third and fourth torpedo volleys," Swenson reported. "All at different accelerations."
; "Clever. Cascade attack plan. Flotilla!" Kalinin spoke, "In the event that Anaximander torpedos detonate short of target, you will without further orders shift xraser fire to the plasma cloud nearest the enemy." Kalini looked back at his officers. "With multiple accelerations, we get to walk the fire in at the enemy, shifting xraser fire from one explosion to the next as detonation occurs."
"Anaximander approaching fluorescence," Mjojo said.
"Breakthrough! Breakthrough!" Swenson nearly shouted. "Europeans are opening warp gates." The intruding ships flickered and faded as they dropped into foamspace.
"Continue the advance," Kalinin ordered. "They know we're here. We can't hide by staying at a distance. Let's be close enough to get them by surprise if they come back."
"Warp gates closing," Wolfe announced. "Do you wish to follow them, sir?" she asked dutifully.
Kalinin's eyes betrayed his thoughts to Mjojo. Kalinin was wondering what would happen if he answered in the affirmative. American ships attempting warp transits had one annoying tendency. A third of them were never seen again, each time they made a transit. "Not this time, I think," Kalinin said. "This matter is one for the diplomats." He paused. "Perhaps it always was. Captain Wolfe, I wish an all-ships conference as soon as Anaximander stabilizes her screens enough that she can maintain a solid hololink. Please transfer complete records of the engagement to another message torpedo, and transmit to Lincoln. Also, please ready my pinnace for a return to Lincoln. I imagine that the Joint War Committee will want to chat me up quite soon enough."
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