"Jon? You didn't tell us that," said Amanda.
"Why do you think he looks so stressed?" said Aline. "He's known for a while now his original sums were off."
"Why didn’t you say something?" asked Alana.
"I didn’t know either. But it's obvious when you consider the stress showing on his face these last few weeks."
"Welcome to the party," I said to Slice. "The more the merrier. Just make sure everyone who comes with you knows the risk."
"The risk will be less than you think. Most of the Sci-Fi fleet is only a day behind me. Price pulled them out of Fleet One as soon as he realized they were unlikely to be fighting there, and you would definitely be in Cobol."
I did the math. It wasn’t a huge difference overall, but every ship helped.
"Glad to see you John," I said. "Jane, let's be heading back there please."
"Confirmed."
Forty Five
It took the American engineers almost all the time we had to prepare the Sphere for another use. It was now almost ten times larger, incorporating a minor redesign. The fleet was arrayed around the jump point, with the door to the Sphere left open on the opposite side from the down jump lane. Lined up with the opening was part of the German missile platform.
"Here they come," said Jane, saying what we could all see.
"Start her up," I responded.
A single missile fired from the platform, which disappeared in the center of the Sphere, to reappear and become a dozen missiles on the other side. One of these hit the incoming alien ship, which came apart, most of the debris jumping to appear momentarily within the sphere. The rest waited for a target to come in range, and duplicated the effect another eleven times. The platform started firing off single missiles steadily.
The Sci-Fi fleet had turned up three days before as Slice had suggested, and the rest of Fleet One only yesterday. But I’d sent Bentley to the Midnight jump point. While the aliens were still well behind them along the spine route, I wanted the back door kept shut at all costs.
The majority of stations and ships had already passed into Midnight ahead of the fleet, with only a few stragglers still coming along the spine.
Everything in Outback was go for rapid jumping. Stations were joined into long lines, with every docking port being used by ships. Borgcubia was going in first, joined to the front of all the Australian sector stations. The evacuation fleets were currently offloading in Outback, before doing a final round of the Australian planets. The shipyards were in Nexus, with missile production their sole task. Those of my freighters not doing the rounds of the Australian planets with the evac fleets, were running loads of missiles to both fleets.
Orion's Belt was now fully loaded. Almost all of the Australian sector light fighters had landed aboard her, as had every single heavy fighter and Privateer, no matter where they were from. This included all of the American fighters and bombers, and also the Sci-Fi ones. Lacey had re-organized their launch tube assignments, so all the ships with missile launchers were on one side, and the ships with hard-points were on the other. Some of the smaller ships had doubled up in the tubes, so we used every ship we had. He'd spent the last day learning how to spin his ship, so the hard points could all fire, spin to bring the launchers to bear, and spin again once the launchers needed reloading. In this way, the ship would continuously fire even while reloading was going on.
I was relieved it would all be over soon. The math was really easy now. It was only ten days until the Door into Gaia opened. Five days later it would close, giving Gaia an untroubled year which didn’t require a defense or running.
But because of the bypass route, the aliens would be in Outback in twelve days.
They had to be delayed. It was that simple. We had to buy another four days, which would see the Door closed, with nothing to show there even was one when the aliens arrived. As long as we achieved it, nothing else really mattered. If we achieved it, there was one thing left to be done.
But first, this was where I’d drawn the last line in the sand. After this I had one more my ace up my sleeve, but I didn’t rate it very high. Here was better.
I brought my mind back to the here and now. The launching of missiles was getting faster. A half hour later and they began to be fired as salvos. Another hour and we were firing full broadsides. The aliens kept coming, but we were still trashing them before they came through.
"And here it comes," said Jane.
We'd been watching the approach of a series of ship masses, several of which had been assembled above Azgard, the others coming though from Midgard and the American planets behind. This was what I’d been worrying about for a long time now. Once they learned to make the masses, every single planet was making them now, and they were all coming at us, one way or the other. It no longer mattered what was happening along the spine. We had to hold here.
My mind kept wandering, and wondering. Too much on it. Maybe I should be delegating running this battle? Maybe I should have brought Bentley here? Maybe I should have stayed in bed?
"Time to flip them the bird?" asked Alana.
"What's the bird?" asked Grace.
She received a dozen middle fingers, and everyone cracked up except me, as I was judging distances. I looked at Alana. She was ignoring the byplay and looking at me. I nodded.
"Jane," said Alana. "Prep the first bird please."
"Confirmed. Bird ready to fly."
Alana looked at me again. I checked the distance again, checked the rate of fire from the missile platform, looked back at her, and nodded again. She grinned in a way I’d never seen before, and even Annabelle seemed surprised.
"Jane?"
"Yes Alana?"
"Co-ordinated launch of the first bird please. You may fire when ready."
"Confirmed." There was a short pause. "Bird away."
Nothing appeared to happen, except Alana was leaning forward expectantly. Everyone was looking back and forth between Alana and the view of the approaching mass, and so half of them missed it.
The mass exploded. In a fraction of a second, it simply ceased to exist, as did every ship for a good way around it. The platform stopped firing, since it had nothing to shoot at.
A sound escaped Alana's mouth, and she was so entranced I don’t think she knew she'd made it. Aline caught my eye grinning, and I guessed Alana was experiencing something which was her idea of better than sex.
"What the hell was that?" asked George.
"Ask Alana," I said. "It was her baby."
"I don’t think she's capable of words just now," said Amanda, grinning like Aline was. "You better tell us."
"You remember those nukes we pulled out of Earth?"
"We fired a nuke?" asked Aleesha.
"Yes and no."
"Which is it?" asked George.
"It wasn’t just one nuke. It was ten of them."
"Well I can see why Alana is in demolition heaven," said Annabelle, "but what's unusual about it?"
"Did anyone see it launch?"
There was a series of no's.
"Exactly. Alana and Jane figured out how to put ten nukes together in a single payload, and cloak it so it wouldn’t get destroyed too soon. We fired off a full broadside of normal missiles at the same time as a diversion. If you play the vid back really slowly, you'll see where the cloak turns off a fraction of a second before detonation."
BA hauled Alana out of her seat and hugged her, breaking her enthrallment. The rest were out of their seats and joining in the hug before you could say 'group hug'. I stayed where I was, already back to judging distances and times.
"Jane, get Big-bird prepped."
"Confirmed."
"Big bird?" asked George, who like me, was still in his chair.
"Yeah. Long range version of what we just tested."
"How long?"
"Should be able to fire in about another five minutes."
"What at?"
I zoomed in the navmap for him.
"Isn't that bigger than the one we just hit?"
"I was thinking so. They're still adding to it."
It was bigger, and continued to grow. I waited ten minutes before firing off Big-bird. A half hour later, there was another massive explosion, and the nearest mass vanished. There was more cheering and hugging. I still didn't join in. Every time I did this, I expected the other shoe to drop. And what amazed me each time, was it didn’t.
Forty Six
We got our four days, but we weren't going to get a fifth.
I was exhausted, and I was sure I looked as bad as George and Grace did. None of us had managed more than four hours sleep at a time. In my case it wasn’t totally a necessity for me to be in the CCC, but I felt I had to be there as much as possible. After all, the buck stopped with me. Angel slept wherever I slept, and more often than not, it was on a bed in my Ready Room. Aline had made sure I showered when I needed it. Jeeves had kept me fed.
I was there each time we sent a nuke through. We ran out of Big-bird's first, using them to pick off masses after they left the orbit of Azgard, and later as masses came though from Midgard. The platform kept picking off individual ships as they showed up, and the Sphere was taking care of the ones which made it through the jump. Once out of long range missiles, we had to wait for the masses to come to us, before we fired the short range ones. And finally, we ran out of them as well.
Yesterday I’d changed my mind on dispositions. I'd sent every ship below Battleship size to the Midnight jump point, and brought back Hammer and the Battlers from Fleet One. Orion was loaded for bear, with all the smaller capital ships we could cram on her. They all had rear launchers, and could re-aim their turrets rearwards, so it didn’t matter which side Orion had pointing at the enemy for them.
For the last twelve hours, the missile platform had been in continuous full barrage mode, while the Sphere's internal shields were taking the load of what made it through. We'd had three masses jump in now, contained by the Sphere, but the aliens now knew what we had there, and knew how to get by it. Each new mass was much bigger than the last.
The thing which staggered me the most was how fast masses were launching from Azgard. They must have long ago eaten everything there was to eat, but they were obviously breeding at an exponential rate even with nothing left to eat. Maybe they were eating the rock itself. Who knew? Well I guessed I could find out, but what was the point in asking? It wasn’t going to help us. Twice I’d sent a Big-bird to take out the disk making the planet dark, but it hadn't slowed down the production of ship masses at all, and the disks were simply remade by the ships streaming in from the American sector.
Elation mixed with exhaustion. Gaia was safe now. The Door would close before the aliens could get there, so hopefully they would eat the Outback system bare, and then leave without ever knowing there was another jump point there. At a full speed run, all my ships could be there in a little over one full day. So we were back to a rear-guard now, or would be as soon as they broke through. The longer we could hold them the better, but I didn’t like our chances of it being much longer.
The next mass was almost here.
"Pull the missile platform back Jane."
"Confirmed."
"Are we going to lose the Sphere this time?" asked Dick.
"I'm not planning on losing it just yet."
"Jon!" Aline seemed a little pensive.
"No, I'm not doing a suicidal stunt this time."
"What's this 'this time' crap?" she responded.
"Figure of speech."
She looked at me suspiciously and I gave her the maniac grin. She looked even more suspicious, since no-one had seen that side of me in a long time now. The grin flickered and died, and I went back to concentrating.
Missiles continued to flow into the jump point, but as the platform got further away, their range on the other side diminished. I did ranges in my head, watching how far the missiles were getting, and the position of the oncoming mass.
"Cease fire on the missiles Jane."
"Really?" she asked.
"The mass is about to enter their range, and they are not going to do much against it. No point in wasting missiles. Better to get the platform repositioned for supporting our withdrawal."
"Confirmed."
I waited while those missiles still on our side jumped. After the last one vanished, I opened a channel to the fleet.
"Any minute now, the next mass will be coming through. All ships prepare to open fire on my command. Hunter out."
The few members of the team who weren’t in the CCC, took their places, just movement in my peripheral vision, as I counted down in my head.
"Cut the lemon," I ordered.
"Confirmed."
The Sphere split in half at the center, and station tugs on each half, pulled it in opposite directions.
"Not too far Jane. Just enough to let them in."
She looked a dagger at me, and went back to concentrating. The two halves stopped. We had enough room to fire through, but not a lot of margin.
"Fire," I said into the fleet coms.
We opened up with everything we had, and tired as I was, my timing was perfect as our fastest pulses arrived the instant the mass jumped in. We burned a layer off the front of it, and continued as it came down the jump lane.
"Squeeze the lemon," I ordered, and followed it by "Cease fire" into fleet coms.
Fire stopped, and the two halves of the Sphere pushed back towards where they'd started from. Shields met alien ships breaking off from the mass, and nearly three quarters of the mass vanished. But so did the shields on the inside of both sides.
"Throw the lemon!" I barked, and Jane immediately had the two halves moving off again as fast as she could accelerate it.
But it wasn’t fast enough. I was about to order all ships to fire again, when the aliens opened fire themselves, and both side of the Sphere staggered, and blew apart.
"Damnit!" I yelled. "All ships fire. Prepare to withdraw."
"The best laid plans of mice and men," said Amanda.
"What have men got to do with it?" said Dick, in a high pitched squeaky voice.
There were a few chuckles, as everyone had seen the vid versions of my favourite books, so the reference made sense. As comic relief went, it was a good try, but I had too much to keep track of to pay attention to it.
Tiredness was gone, as adrenalin flooded my system. Angel was sitting upright now, fascinated by the light show going on for her benefit.
Ships began taking hits, and shields started going down. The cylinder was once again pouring alien ships in as fast as they could jump.
We'd already lost the upper hand. Too many ships still remained from the mass, and they were now behind us and we were taking fire from all sides.
The missile platform detonated suddenly with the force of a nuke. I sat there with my mouth hanging open, shock stunning me into immobility. Battleships leapt to fleet speed and retreated, their shields well below fifty percent.
"The Knights have said Ni," said Dick quietly, and I made an effort to get a grip.
"Run away," I ordered.
"Confirmed. Running."
All the remaining ships turned for the exit vectors and went to fleet speed towards their first waypoint.
I sat there, watching the aliens begin to spread out as they always did. I must have sighed audibly.
"Couldn’t be helped," said Susan Bentley, from her hollo. "It would have been nice to pull the same trick again in Midnight, but no plan survives contact with the enemy."
I looked at her for a moment, the adrenaline leeching out of me, and exhaustion taking over again. Finally I nodded and turned back to the navmap, this time looking at the rest of the system. There was still a trickle of ships coming through from Atlantis. I checked further, and the last one visible was still in Avon.
"Admiral," I said to her, "send our fastest ships through to Avon and Atlantis, and have them dock with the slowpokes. We've got thirty six hour
s to save as many as we can. Let's use them. The Titans should go find whoever is last on the line, and pick them up. Land them on the hulls if you have to, but let's get everyone safe while we still can."
"Aye sir. I'll handle it."
Fleet coms came on again.
"All Captains are to stand down, and have a full ten hours sleep. XO's are to take five now as well, and swap with Seconds so they can get five. We'll work out a balance once Captains are back on shift. No exceptions. Admiral Jane will be monitoring, and will force this if necessary. Individual ship assignments will follow shortly. Bentley out."
"Confirmed."
Aline was standing by my chair, so I let her pull me down, and with Angel on my shoulder, I followed her to my suite.
She helped me change, tucked me in, and sang me a lullaby.
Or I might have been dreaming.
Forty Seven
Two days goes by quite fast when you sleep for more than half of it. But by the time the aliens had cut off the Atlantis jump point, there were no ships visible on the comnavsats beyond. I'd decided not to contest the Midnight jump point, and the fleet was in an orderly withdrawal towards Bad Wolf.
I had time to brood now, sitting in the CCC, mulling over my mistakes and how many people had died as a result. There'd been over two hundred on the missile platform. Not my fault they were there, as the teams who'd trained to use it had decided to stay with it, rather than have it fully automated. My fault for not getting it out sooner, and sending it away completely. I'd run the vid in slow motion, and a lucky shot had burned through into a magazine. Its own missiles had destroyed it. It highlighted just how vulnerable every ship was, given we all carried major stocks of missiles, and these were continually replenished and added to. The only saving grace was we'd been out of nukes. Had we still had some, we'd have lost ships as well.
I did a sorry meditation for those who'd died, begging their forgiveness. If not, well there'd be some pissed off people not knowing why they hated me in the next life. I ended it telling them I’d be along soon enough, and maybe we could all reincarnate somewhere together, and get the karma sorted early in our new lives.
Hero to the End (The Hunter Legacy Book 13) Page 22