by Dietmar Wehr
“Are Hara’s three cruisers still holding their positions, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir, and the approaching ships are decelerating for what looks like a rendezvous with the existing group.”
“Understood. I’ll be on the Bridge shortly. I want the squadron put on alert. When Hara makes her move, we may have to act fast. Out.”
It was almost two hours later when the Admiral finally did make her move. By then, the tension on Excalibur’s Bridge had ratcheted up to a level that threatened to become counter-productive, and Sogard had begun wishing that she would make her move.
“Incoming text message, Commodore.” Before Sogard could respond, he heard Abernathy’s stress-filled voice.
“All six enemy ships are moving towards us, Commodore.” The tactical display pinged to announce a situation status change. All six red icons were accelerating. The sidebar data showed that the rate of acceleration was about half of what they could have made. Sogard nodded in understanding. Hara was letting him know that she was so confident in her firepower superiority that she didn’t need to rush. The test message scrolled across the main display.
[Vice-Admiral Hara to Commodore Sogard. As you can see, my reinforcements arrived first, and I now have enough combat strength to annihilate your squadron. Since there is no declared state of war between our two star nations, I’ll allow you to withdraw without resorting to deadly force. My 200,000-kilometer line in the sand still holds. If the range between my ships and yours drops below that level, I’ll interpret it as meaning that you intend to fire on my ships, and I’ll react accordingly. Tell your King that this star system is claimed by the Hereditary Republic of Caledonia and any attempt by the King’s Navy to take control of it will be considered a de facto declaration of war. If he wants a war, he can have one. No further communications will be sent or tolerated. End of message.]
Sogard felt his face burning with humiliation. It wasn’t the demand that his ships withdraw that bothered him so much. Rather it was the dismissive tone that bitch had taken that rankled. He knew that Abernathy and the others on the Bridge were looking at him to see how he’d respond and whether the squadron would withdraw or fight. He desperately wanted to fight even though the outcome was obvious. His pride was screaming at him that a glorious death was better than a humiliating survival, but his sense of professionalism won that tug of war. The men and women under his command didn’t deserve a pointless death. Instead, the squadron would withdraw and live to fight another day.
“Squadron orders,” said Sogard in a voice that was ragged with stress. “We’ll rotate one hundred eighty degrees and accelerate for a direct trajectory to Socorro.”
As his squadron started to build up velocity, he wondered if Hara would keep her ships within radar range all the way or break off when they reached the wormhole. It wasn’t long before he had his answer. As soon as his ships’ velocity matched hers, her ships boosted their acceleration to match his. The message was crystal clear. Admiral Hara wasn’t going to assume that his ships would leave the system. She was going to make sure of it by following along behind him until his ships transitioned to FTL velocities.
It was 65 minutes later when the Helm Officer informed Sogard that the squadron had reached the minimum 10% of light speed which would let them activate their FTL vanes and begin pushing forward the ether in front of them. Sogard was about to give the order to initiate FTL acceleration when a thought occurred to him. He quickly stepped over to the Helm Station.
“We tracked Caliburn’s trajectory when she left, correct?” he asked the HO.
“Yes, sir. Once she was out of radar range, we were able to pick up her gravity beam ripples when she reached super-luminal velocity.”
“And do we know how fast she was moving through N-space at that point?”
“NavComp was able to calculate a pretty good estimate of her sub-light velocity based on how long it took for her FTL vanes to kick in, Commodore. It looks like she pushed her accel right to the safe limit of point five five Cee.”
“So, her best transit time to Socorro would be…?”
“Twelve days three hours, sir,” answered the HO.
“And if reinforcements left immediately and pushed to the same accel limit, when would they get here?” asked Sogard.
The Helm Officer consulted the Navigation Computer. When he turned to look back at Sogard, he was smiling. “They could be entering this system any time now, Commodore. You’re hoping they’ll arrive before we go super-luminal, sir?”
Sogard grinned and nodded. “Exactly. Order the squadron to reduce acceleration to 25Gs, turn on transponders, and maintain until further orders. We’ll stall as long as we can. If we pick up so much as a hint that incoming ships are decelerating down to sub-light, we’ll try to contact them and rendezvous with them. It’s a long shot I know, but it’s worth a try.”
“Yes, sir! I’ll get those orders out right away, Commodore.”
“Why are they dropping to a lower accel rate? And why are they squawking their IDs now?” asked Hara to no one in particular. When there was no immediate response, she turned to the Helm Officer.
“I don’t want the range to drop solely because we’re accelerating faster than they are. Pass the word to the rest of the squadron that we’re matching those lower acceleration rates.”
She didn’t relax until all six ships had reduced their acceleration as ordered, but even then, she continued to rack her brain for a possible explanation for Sogard’s actions. It just didn’t make any sense. If he had changed his mind about withdrawing, then he would have begun decelerating or at least stopped accelerating entirely. But he was still gaining velocity although at a much slower rate and that was the strange part. It was almost as if he expected the arrival of reinforcements, but it was too early for that. Wasn’t it?
“Helm. I want to calculate the absolute minimum round trip from here to Socorro and back,” she said in what she hoped was a casual voice. The HO had the answer in less than a minute.
“It’s possible that his destroyer could arrive as early as now, Admiral.”
“Then that’s what he’s doing. He’s hoping that he can stall going super-luminal long enough for reinforcements to arrive,” said Hara.
“But how would he know when those reinforcements will arrive?” asked the Tactical Officer.
Hara nodded. “Ha. That’s just it. He doesn’t know for sure, but he’s done the same calculations we have, and he doesn’t want to leave this system without making every effort to link up with whatever reinforcements are coming.” She told herself that she would have done the same thing if she had been in his place, but that didn’t answer the question of what, if anything, she should do about it. If she did nothing and his role of the dice panned out, she could suddenly be facing superior odds and a difficult decision. She could eliminate that risk by attacking his destroyers now before the reinforcements arrived, but if any of his people survived the attack, which was likely, he’d be able to report to their King that Hara had reneged on her explicit promise to let the Commodore’s ships leave peacefully. Not only might that enrage King Pierre enough to declare a new war, but it also would not go down well with her superiors when they learned of it. That kind of skullduggery would undermine the reputation of the entire HRCN, and the trustworthiness of other flag officers would be questioned with possibly disastrous results.
“We could attack now,” said the TO in a somewhat hesitant voice.
“No,” said Hara emphatically. “I told the Commodore that I’d let him leave peacefully, but if he changes his mind, for whatever reason, then all bets are off. If he detects approaching ships, he’ll begin decelerating to avoid overrunning them. What we’re going to do is move closer so that the range is just a hair over my two hundred thousand klick line in the sand. We’ll then keep pace with his destroyers, and if he cuts acceleration at all, he’ll be allowing the range to drop below that threshold, and that will give us the justification to fire our lasers. So
, the question, Helm, is how close to that line in the sand can NavComp get us and still match velocities with that force?”
“NavComp can get us within one percent easily, Admiral. I wouldn’t want to try to get closer than that, though.”
Hara nodded. One percent was close enough. Radar results at that range had enough margin of error that her squadron might actually cross her line in the sand itself without realizing it if it tried to get closer.
“Then go ahead and set up that maneuver. Take extra time if you need to. This time around, precision trumps speed.”
Two minutes later, the Helm Officer signaled that he and his counterparts on the other ships were ready.
Hara took a deep breath and said, “Execute.”
Rear Admiral Nolan DeSoto’s eyes opened wide when the heavy cruiser Stormbringer’s tactical display updated seconds after the ship dropped below light speed. He had expected to see Commodore Sogard’s five destroyers’ transponder IDs scattered throughout this star system covering the wormholes. But instead, they were all clustered in a tight formation that was head in an almost parallel vector.
“What the hell is Sogard up to?” DeSoto turned to his Com Officer. “Can we aim a comlaser accurately enough from this range to contact Commodore Sogard, Lieutenant?”
“Possible but very low probability, Admiral.”
“Then send this text message and repeat the transmission if you need to.” DeSoto recorded his query then returned his focus to the display and the sidebar data. It was obvious that Sogard’s destroyers were heading for Socorro which was why his ships and DeSoto’s six heavy cruisers plus Sogard’s destroyer Caliburn were on virtually parallel if opposite trajectories. Unfortunately, Sogard’s force was almost 55 million kilometers ahead, and unless the trajectories changed, they’d pass each other at a distance of 8.9 million kilometers.
“Helm, as soon as our vanes are powered down, I want the squadron to execute a turn for a rendezvous with Commodore Sogard’s squadron. Your rendezvous point will have to be preliminary until we can coordinate with the Commodore.”
The Helm Officer’s acknowledgment was in a tone that revealed how uncertain the officer was about accomplishing his Admiral’s goal. DeSoto understood the difficulty. Rendezvous implied that Sogard’s destroyers would reduce speed so that both groups of ships would arrive at the same point at the same time with zero velocity. But until his destroyers started to decelerate, it was impossible to predict where that point in space would be or how sharply the Admiral’s squadron needed to turn to get there. DeSoto got his TO’s attention and gestured for her to come over to his Command Station.
“Yes, Admiral?” she said when she got there.
“I want to pick your brains, Tylla. Can you think of any reason why Commodore Sogard would want to take all his destroyers out of this system before we arrive?”
She stared at the display for a few seconds before answering. “There’s only one reason I can think of, Admiral, and that’s if he’s being chased by a superior force. I do notice one curious thing, though. His ships have already reached the minimum velocity for transition to FTL, and yet he’s still accelerating but only at twenty-five Gees. Either one or more of his ships has been damaged and can’t accelerate any faster, or he’s stalling for time hoping that we’ll show up, sir.”
DeSoto found himself nodding. That all made perfect sense. His message to Sogard would take just over three minutes to reach him. The automatic time stamp on the message would tell Sogard’s Helm Officer how long it took the message to get there and therefore approximately how far away DeSoto’s ships were. Sogard’s reply would take another three minutes to reach DeSoto. He checked the chronometer. Two minutes had elapsed; four more to go.
Sogard jumped in surprise when the Com Officer started shouting.
“Incoming comlaser message!”
“They’re here!” shouted Sogard. “Helm, see if you can triangulate their position! Let’s see the message, Com!”
[Rear Admiral DeSoto to Commodore Sogard. Why are your ships leaving this system? Immediately decelerate to zero velocity. My squadron will attempt to make a zero-zero rendezvous. End of message.]
Sogard’s enthusiasm disappeared almost as fast as it had appeared. What the Admiral wanted was impossible. With Hara’s squadron a hair over 200,000 kilometers behind him, if his ships slowed down at all, the range would drop below that critical level, and her ships would be within their rights to fire on his. He quickly made up his mind on what to do. First, send a message back explaining the situation, then make a vector change. He got busy recording the message.
Hara was slowly walking around the Bridge to stretch her legs when the tactical display pinged a status change.
“Seven ships have just entered the system!” said the Tactical Officer. “TacComp says one of the seven is smaller than the other six, Admiral.”
“That has to be Sogard’s destroyer, and that means the other six are at least heavy cruisers,” said Hara in a calm voice. Keeping her voice calm in moments like this was essential to keeping her Bridge crew calm as well, but inside she was anything but calm. Six heavy cruisers plus six destroyers were now arrayed against her five heavies and one battlecruiser. In terms of total combat power, she was now outgunned as well as outnumbered. Her only chance of emerging victorious and alive was if she could take on each group separately. Sogard’s ships were closer, but so far, he hadn’t let the range drop below her line in the sand level. As long as he continued to accelerate on a heading for Socorro, she was morally obligated to hold off on taking any offensive action against him. But the new group of ships was fair game. And yet, if she maneuvered to go after them, it would tip the RSN off that the HRCN now had a long-range detection system that did not rely on gravity ripples. Her standing orders were to only reveal that capability as a last resort if not doing so would jeopardize the safety of her command. In her opinion, the current situation did not rise to that level.
“We’re going to continue shadowing the Commodore’s destroyers for now,” she said. “If he’s not aware of the other group, he might just go super-luminal and simplify the sit—” She stopped talking when the display pinged again, and the red icons representing Sogard’s destroyers began veering off toward the new group. She turned to look at the Tactical Officer.
“That new group had to have picked up the destroyers’ IDs and contacted them with a comlaser,” said the TO.
Hara resisted the urge to curse. Instead, she turned to look at the Helm Officer. “Order the squadron to stay on the Commodore’s tail, Helm. Keep the range as is. Com, see if you can establish a visual connection with Commodore Sogard.”
“I have Admiral Hara’s Com Officer requesting a visual connection with you, Commodore,” said the Com Officer.
Sogard resisted the urge to curse. The last thing he wanted to do now was engage in visual chitchat with Hara but refusing to do so might trigger hostile action. “Put her on the main display, Lieutenant.”
As soon as her face appeared on the display, Hara began speaking. “You’re no longer heading for Socorro, Commodore. My willingness to let you leave peacefully was conditional on your returning to Socorro. Resume your previous heading. Failure to do so will be interpreted as your intention to stay in this system, and I will then consider myself free to use deadly force.”
Sogard forced himself to smile. “There’s no need for threats, Admiral Hara. I have no illusions about my little squadron of destroyers standing up against your much more powerful ships. We still intend to leave the system; just not by way of Socorro.” He expected her to ask him where he was going instead, but she didn’t.
“You’re not very convincing, Commodore. You wouldn’t be trying to rendezvous with newly arrived reinforcements, would you?”
“Oh, I wish that was the case but no, Admiral, there are no newly arrived reinforcements in this system.”
Hara stared at him without speaking, and her gaze suddenly made him nervous. Did she know som
ething, or was she trying to bluff him?
“You have one chance to convince me that you’re being truthful, Commodore. Engage your FTL vanes now. You have thirty seconds. If you’re still within our laser range after that, we’ll fire.”
The image disappeared before Sogard could respond. He had to make a decision quickly. “Damn that woman! Helm, order the squadron to deploy the vanes and execute the shortest possible FTL sequence! We’ll go sub-light again as soon as possible!”
As the HO issued instructions to the other ships, Sogard pounded his armrest in frustration. There was not enough time left to record a message and send it to Admiral DeSoto. He would see five transponder IDs suddenly accelerate to light speed and wonder what was happening. Without Sogard’s destroyers to show roughly where the enemy’s ships were, DeSoto would have no way of knowing where the HRCN squadron was, but the reverse was also true. And when the destroyer squadron dropped back to sub-light speeds, DeSoto would be able to pick up the ID signals again. With both squadrons approaching each other too fast to avoid high-speed flybys, Sogard was certain that DeSoto would order radical course changes whereby the two groups of ships would turn parallel to each other before converging to a rendezvous. The destroyers would keep their transponders on while the cruisers kept theirs off. Finding Hara’s force after coming together would then be Rear Admiral Desoto’s problem, not Sogard’s.