Maxwell Saga 5: Stoke the Flames Higher

by Peter Grant

  He snapped, “Command to Communications. Signal to Dasharatha. Deploy two cutters and half your damage control party to rescue survivors. Have them search the wreck while the lifeboats dock with you. Jettison the lifeboats when empty, and destroy them with your laser clusters. Do not leave them adrift, and do not allow them to approach Athi. They’d only confuse our defenses. We will cover you.”

  “Communications to Command, aye, sir.”

  Another lifeboat put off from Salishuka’s forepeak, and a fourth launched from amidships… but there were no more.

  “That’s a bad sign, sir,” the Executive Officer said, his voice tight, sweat beading on his pale forehead. “Our ships carry a dozen lifeboats each.”

  “Yes. There are going to be a lot of casualties.”

  The Electronic Warfare officer spoke, slowly, his voice trembling. “EW to Command. Sir… how did they do that?”

  “Command to EW. I’m guessing, but I think this is probably what they did. Several hours ago, they launched a dozen of their missiles. They used only the firing tubes’ mass drivers, not the missiles’ gravitic drives, which they programmed for a delay. They aimed the missiles towards our patrol line, and let them draw ahead of their ship, using the extra velocity imparted by the mass drivers. They then slowed down for several hours before following their missiles in, timing their movements to get to within four million kilometers of us at zero nine hundred precisely. By then their faster-moving missiles were several million kilometers closer to us.

  “They sacrificed themselves as a decoy when they activated their ship’s gravitic drive, and fired off their remaining missiles. They expected us to come charging at them like a bull at a gate, eager for the kill. They were partly right. That’s what Salishuka did – and she ran headlong into the missiles they’d launched earlier. She couldn’t detect them on radar at that range, because a missile is a much smaller target than a ship, and they were coming in silently, head-on to her, with no drive signature. They were probably programmed to fire up their gravitic drives as soon as their sensors detected one or more of our destroyers approaching to within a quarter of a million kilometers. They’d have been set to home on our emissions alone, rather than follow pre-launch guidance from their ship’s fire control system. If I’m right, whoever commanded that patrol craft did a superb job. Even though he was my enemy, I’d have liked to shake his hand. I couldn’t have done better myself.”

  “They certainly did better than Captain Kulkarni, sir,” the Exec murmured behind him. Korrapati snorted, but made no comment. If the Captain wasn’t dead, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do to his superiors on Bihar. His poor tactics had probably ensured that his chances of making Admiral had just taken as much damage as his destroyer.

  “EW to Command, thank you, sir. Ah… what if the other Devakai patrol craft is around, sir? What if they try to ambush us while we conduct rescue operations?”

  “Command to EW. They don’t need to. Our patrol line has already been disrupted. Until we’ve rescued Salishuka’s survivors, we can’t concentrate on intercepting the Kotai small craft streaking past us towards the planet. We’re going to have to hurry up with the rescue, then either destroy her remains with some of our own missiles, or mark her with a beacon until we can tow the wreckage back to Athi orbit. I doubt she’ll move under her own power again. She took a shellacking.”

  He took a deep breath. “My guess is, the last Kotai patrol craft will try to do the same thing to the patrol line around Athi. We’d better warn them. Communications, record a signal for transmission to Commodore Singh at OrbCon, flash priority…”

  December 7, 2851 GSC, 10:00 – 12:00

  ATHI SYSTEM – DEVAKAI PATROL CRAFT BHISHMA – 10:00

  “Sir, there’s a light on the correct bearing for the rendezvous!” The spacer’s voice was excited, but he held it down to a whisper.

  “Why are you whispering?” Lieutenant Palli asked, smiling. “It’s not as if anyone can hear us out there.”

  “Sorry, sir,” his crewman acknowledged, looking abashed as he stood up from where he’d been crouched at the viewscreen. “It’s just that with all this creeping around quietly…”

  “I understand,” his commanding officer assured him. “Let’s see if we’ve found the right ship.” He trained a tight-beam dish onto the approximate bearing of the light, and instructed it to begin its search pattern. Within a few minutes, it flashed green. It had detected a tight-beam directed at it, and locked on to it, establishing a circuit.

  Palli picked up a microphone. “Bhishma to Varaha, over.”

  His father’s familiar voice crackled over the speaker. “Varaha to Bhishma. It’s good to hear your voice, my son. Over.”

  “Yours, too, father. I’m sure you saw the glorious fight that Drona, Karna and Shalya put up for the Incarnate God. Their deaths were great victories! Four enemy patrol craft and a destroyer wiped out, along with almost all their crews! Over.”

  “Yes. Their people at home will reel under the shock of such losses, and demand that their governments withdraw their forces. They won’t dare interfere here or at Devakai, for fear of more such disasters. They’ve lost the warrior ethos, under the impact of what they laughingly call ‘civilization’. We shall restore it to its rightful place in the settled galaxy!”

  Anandkumar could hear the gloating triumph in his father’s voice. He grinned in savage agreement as the older man continued, “I think I can provide a distraction that will both ensure success for my mission, and help you to fulfil your own. What do you think of this?” He rapidly outlined his proposal.

  “I think your plan is a good one, father. My only concern is, how will I reach my jumping-off point in time? I can’t go that fast using reaction thrusters alone; but if I use my gravitic drive, the enemy will detect it as I get closer. Over.”

  “If you use your reaction thrusters at full power, and your gravitic drive at its lowest power setting at the same time, you should be able to do it. We don’t normally use both forms of propulsion together, but I had to do so during the night to get here on time. It more than doubled my rate of acceleration. The enemy didn’t intercept me, which I think proves they didn’t detect me. That should enable you to get close without being noticed. You can then use full power on your gravitic drive to get into missile range before they can stop you. Over.”

  “Very well, father. I’ll do it. Over.”

  “Good! I have one last favor to ask of you, my son. Our cutter’s drive unit has developed a defect. We don’t have a spare, because we sent all our other small craft to carry troops to Athi. Please send your cutter over to us, so that we can load the bomb aboard it instead. Over.”

  “I’ll send it right away, father; then I must get under way, if I’m to be on time. May the blessing of the Incarnate God go with you. We’ll meet again beyond the veil of death, when we find out what awaits us when his promises are fulfilled. Over.”

  “I’m sure it will be beyond anything we can imagine, my son. Go with my blessing, as well as that of the Incarnate God. Strike home in his name! I’ll start my run at 11:40. Over.”

  “I’ll do the same, father. In Kodan Sastagan’s name, goodbye.”

  —————

  ATHI SYSTEM – DEVAKAI MERCHANT SHIP VARAHA – 10:20

  “With respect, no, sir!” The pilot’s voice was adamant. “This is my cutter. If she’s to be used as part of your attack, I want to be at the controls. She’s my bird, sir.”

  Captain Palli glared at him in frustration. “But you’re not trained for this mission! My pilot has spent weeks rehearsing it in the simulator. No, spacer. I can’t allow you to take over – not this late in the operation.”

  “Well, then, at least let me fly aboard her, sir! That’s my job! When I was asked to volunteer for this mission, back at Devakai” – It was more like ‘told I had volunteered’, the spacer thought resentfully, but he didn’t dare say so aloud – “I was told it was because you needed small craft pilots. If
I’m going to die in the service of the Incarnate God, let me die doing what I do best. I ask in Kodan Sastagan’s name!”

  He waited on tenterhooks while the Captain frowned, deep in thought. At last he said, “Very well. I can’t complain about a man wanting to do the best job he can; and you asked in the Incarnate God’s name. I can’t refuse that. My pilot will fly the mission, but you can go with him.”

  “Thank you, sir!” The relief in the cutter pilot’s voice wasn’t feigned at all.

  —————

  VELLALORE ORBIT – LCS PICKLE – 11:00

  “We’re missing something.” Steve said aloud. His voice was almost angry, exasperated. “Those Kotai bastards are up to something really tricky, and we haven’t figured it out.”

  Startled by his sudden exclamation, everyone on the bridge looked at him. “What do you mean, sir?” his First Lieutenant asked.

  “They’ve done everything just about perfectly up to now. They detected our outer patrol line, got their ground forces off their transport, launched their own patrol craft, then wiped out four of ours, allowing their small craft unhindered passage. Just when they would have been intercepted by the inner patrol line, another of their warships attacked it, putting one destroyer out of action and tying up the other two in searching for survivors. Personally, I think they should have left a search party in cutters to do that, while they looked for Kotai small craft and took them out, but that’s a matter of opinion.” His voice was frustrated. They’d watched the recent combat unfold in the Plot display. The ambush and near-destruction of the Bihar destroyer, with such heavy loss of life, had shocked them all.

  “The small craft carrying the Kotai ground forces will begin arriving at Athi within the next hour or two. We’ve got an inner patrol line that’s supposed to stop them. What are the Kotai going to do about it? They disrupted the first two patrol lines to get their people through. They daren’t leave the last one to shoot at them undisturbed. They’ve got to get their troops planetside, where their heavier weapons and assault shuttles will give them a chance to fight Marines on even terms for the first time. If they don’t do that, this entire mission will be a failure from their point of view. They don’t plan to fail. So far, they’ve done damned well. What have they got up their sleeves this time?”

  “Will they attack the patrol craft circling the planet?” Solveig asked from her seat behind him.

  “They can’t attack them all.” Steve stood up, and began pacing restlessly back and forth between his console and the Plot display. “The patrol craft are spread too far apart, guarding the entire hemisphere on the side of the planet where the Kotai will come in. If the last Devakai patrol craft attacks one of them, the others will be too far away to intervene – but equally, the attack can only affect one of our ships. The other three will be able to carry on intercepting incoming small craft. No, they’ve got to do something that will disrupt the operations of all four patrol craft, and make them concentrate on something else.”

  “What about attacking the capital, Karaidi, as you mentioned yesterday?” the journalist asked.

  “That’s a possibility, but we’re on our guard against it. It would also be over so quickly that the patrol craft wouldn’t have time to respond. They’d stay in their positions, and continue to intercept the small craft as they arrive. No, the Kotai need something that will force our ships to leave their patrol orbits and move somewhere else; but I’m damned if I can figure out what it might be.”

  “Might they attack us, sir, and the other ships around Vellalore?” Senior Lieutenant Laforet suggested.

  “I don’t see how they can reach us. They started out at the same speed as their small craft, all drifting towards Athi at one-tenth Cee. They’re going to have to start decelerating hard at any moment to avoid overshooting the planet or burning up in its atmosphere. The mother ship and the last patrol craft haven’t been able to use their gravitic drive systems at any significant power level, because we’d have detected them if they did. That means they couldn’t swing around the patrol line and come in behind it, on the other side of the planet, where we are. They wouldn’t have been able to add enough velocity using their reaction thrusters. If they’re coming in along with their small craft, at about the same speed, our patrol craft will spot them long before they can get to us.”

  “I suppose so, sir,” Juliette assented with a frown. “In that case, what other targets do they have? Could they reach OrbCon?”

  “The same objection applies. How would they get to it without being detected?” Steve shook his head as he returned to his seat. “We’ll just have to try to put ourselves in their shoes, and see if things look different from that perspective. Thinking caps on, everybody.”

  He cudgeled his brain, trying to figure out an angle of attack that would let the Kotai reach firing range without first being destroyed. His eyes strayed to the Plot. OrbCon, in its geostationary orbit above Karaidi, was moving around to the far side of the planet from Vellalore as the moon continued its circuit of Athi. Any attack on the ships around Vellalore would find it difficult to hit OrbCon as well, and vice versa.

  A sudden chill came over him as he thought of the hospital ship. Brooks was aboard her, still in an artificially induced coma in his life support pod. Several hundred casualties from yesterday’s fighting had been brought up overnight, most of them Athi soldiers and civilians. Many were undergoing surgery this morning. The survivors from the Bihar destroyer had just been rushed to Cavell for treatment. Her icon in the Plot display was bordered in orange, indicating that her ability to maneuver was restricted. Her movements had to be gradual and gentle enough that they would not interfere with her surgeons’ delicate tasks. That means she won’t be able to evade incoming missiles without possibly killing her own patients, Steve suddenly realized.

  —————

  ATHI SYSTEM – DEVAKAI PATROL CRAFT BHISHMA – 11:30

  The cutter will be departing Varaha any moment now, Lieutenant Palli realized. She’ll be heading out under reaction thrusters alone, to remain undetected as long as possible. The enemy will concentrate on my father’s ship. That will let the cutter slip through their defenses to accomplish her mission… just as we shall, because their attention will be divided between us and Varaha. They can’t kill both of us in time to stop either of us.

  Idly he wondered what death would feel like. It didn’t matter, of course. Pain was something of this world, fleeting, temporary. It couldn’t possibly be compared to the bliss that awaited all of them in just a few minutes, as they passed through the veil of death into glory.

  “Missiles programmed, sir,” Ensign Ramanathan reported. “Er… sir, may I ask why we’ve allocated only four missiles to each depot ship, but eight to the hospital ship?”

  “The two depot ships are less important targets. It will be good if we can kill one or both of them, but their warships can function without them for a short time, until replacements are sent. The hospital ship, though… her loss will cause terror and horror. She has patients aboard from all the forces here – the Lancastrian Commonwealth, the Bihar Confederation, and Athi. If many of them die, the loss will affect many families on many planets, bringing fear to their hearts. It’ll make them much less likely to want to fight on against us. Besides, if we cripple her, there’ll be all her surviving patients and staff to rescue. It’s sure to force all the patrol craft to head for Vellalore, leaving the planet defenseless. That’s why I’ve allocated half of our missiles to her.”

  “I see, sir. And the communications frigate? Why aren’t we targeting her?”

  “Because we want news of these disasters to spread as fast as possible. Let her carry it. That can only help our cause.”

  “I suppose so. I’m a little sad that I won’t be able to see the effects of our triumph spread throughout the settled galaxy.”

  “Not in this life, no, but who knows what we may see from beyond the veil of death? Besides, karma may permit you to be reincarnated in Kodan
Sastagan’s service for your next life. If so, I’m sure you’ll have an even more vital part to play. The Incarnate God doesn’t waste his valued servants. By fighting here today, you’ll prove your worth to him.”

  “You can rely on me for that!”

  “I know I can, Ensign. If I wasn’t sure about you, I’d never have selected you to join me on this mission.”

  The younger man preened slightly as Palli turned back to his console. The time display was moving steadily towards 11:40.

  Soon… very soon… my moment of truth will come, he thought to himself. May I prove worthy of it!

  —————

  VELLALORE ORBIT – LCS PICKLE – 11:40

  “Plot to Command, gravitic drive signature bearing 063:270, sir! Same profile as the merchant ship we detected earlier.”

  Steve tensed. “Plot to Command, designate that as Target Alpha and –”

  “Plot to Command, second gravitic drive signature bearing 021:040, same profile as a Devakai patrol craft!”

  Steve froze. They found the speed to get around behind the patrol craft! How the hell did they do that without being detected? Now they’re trying to divide our attention. That freighter can’t threaten anyone from that bearing… or can she? We don’t have cross-bearings, so we don’t know the range yet.

  “Command to Plot, designate second target as Bravo. Input cross-bearings as quickly as possible.”

  “Plot to Command, coming in now from the other ships, sir… cross-bearings in, sir! Target Alpha is six million kilometers from us and crossing. Target Bravo is four million kilometers away and turning towards us.”