“Now we know who won,” Geary told Desjani.
“‘President’ Iceni”? Desjani asked. “Like someone elected her? Who are they kidding?”
“Wasn’t there another CEO on the planet?” Geary asked.
Lieutenant Iger answered. “Yes, sir. CEO Hardrad. I can’t find any mention of him in any of the current message traffic. Iceni was in overall charge of the star system, Drakon was the military ground forces commander, and Hardrad was in charge of Syndic internal security in this star system.”
Internal security. On a Syndicate Worlds’ planet, that meant a lot more than simply police. It meant someone who kept the population under control. But if Hardrad was gone . . .
“Hold on,” Geary said. “If the people running things here, Iceni and Drakon, revolted against the Syndics and got rid of Hardrad, then that flotilla with the working battleship in it, the one under Boyens’s command, might not have been reinforcements at all.”
Iger said something rapidly to someone beside him, got an answer, and nodded to Geary. “Yes, Admiral. That’s a real possibility. That flotilla may have been sent here to bring a system in revolt back under control of the Syndic government on Prime.”
“Do we know who owns the battleship that doesn’t work?” Desjani asked.
“Yes, Captain,” Iger replied. “From the communications patterns it is under the control of the authorities on the planet.”
Desjani gasped a short laugh. “This isn’t a three-way fight. It’s a four-way fight. Us, the enigmas, the Syndics, and the rebels. All we have to do is figure out what the other three are going to do.”
“I know what Boyens will do,” Geary said, pointing to the Syndic flotilla near the hypernet gate. “When we had him aboard Dauntless as a prisoner, he struck me as being deliberate and calculating. He tried to figure out where each possible move would lead before he acted, and even then preferred to wait to see what others did before he committed himself to a course of action. He’s almost certainly here with orders to subdue the rebels in this star system. Getting involved with fighting the enigmas might damage or destroy his own ships, making it harder or impossible to defeat the rebels. So he’ll stand off from any fighting, stay near the hypernet gate, and wait for us to beat the enigmas. Once that is done, he’ll move in on the rebels, who might have lost ships to the enigmas during the fight, and regain control of Midway. To Boyens, that will be a win-win solution.”
“What about the rebels, Admiral?” Lieutenant Iger asked. “Wouldn’t it be to their advantage to also avoid getting involved in the fight so they could conserve their forces for the eventual battle with Boyens’s flotilla?”
Desjani snorted. “Let’s you and him fight. Sounds like Syndics, all right. They’ll just wait to see how much damage we and the enigmas do to each other.”
“If we need them, the rebels will have to act with us,” Geary said, drawing a skeptical look from Desjani. “If we lose, then they face not just Boyens, who wants to bring them back into the Syndic fold—”
“Which doubtless means busy firing squads for weeks and weeks,” Desjani broke in.
“—but they also face the enigmas, who, as far as they know, want to wipe them out.”
“That’s a point,” she conceded.
“They might also want our gratitude,” Lieutenant Iger pointed out. “A reason for us to back them against the Syndicate Worlds’ flotilla.”
Geary sat back, thinking out options, while everyone waited. He could feel them trying not to watch him as the seconds ticked past. “We arrived twenty minutes ago. In ten more minutes, the enigma force will know we’ve arrived. They’re here, they’re waiting here, to destroy us. I fully expect that as soon as they see us, those enigmas will accelerate straight for us and bring us to battle.”
Desjani nodded. “Agreed. So where do we go?”
“We go to meet them, Captain. Meet them and kick them back into their territory so hard they won’t be able to stop skidding until they reach Pandora.”
He knew those words would be repeated around the fleet, or at least the portion of it that had arrived at Midway, and, from the shouts already echoing through Dauntless, that they would be greeted with approval. “All units, this is Admiral Geary. Immediate execute, accelerate to point one five light speed.”
Geary called General Charban. “General, that message you put together offering the enigmas an agreement in which we leave them alone, and they leave us alone. Broadcast it to that enigma force here. I don’t expect them to take the offer, but I want to try.”
Charban nodded in sad agreement. “I think they will need at least one more unmistakable lesson that force cannot achieve their goals with us. The message will be sent immediately, Admiral, and I will let you know the instant that I receive a reply, if any reply comes.”
Geary reactivated the window where Lieutenant Iger waited. “Lieutenant, find out everything you can about the situation in this star system. Confirm who really is in charge, what they’ve been doing, and anything else that might influence my decisions on what I should do.”
Iger saluted, his image vanishing.
As the main propulsion units on the battle cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers of the pursuit force kicked in, Geary saw another large virtual window pop up next to him. The only thing visible inside the window was text, which to his quick glance looked a lot like an official document of some kind. A voice began reciting words as those same words were highlighted in the document. “Fleet regulations mandate that no ship is allowed to go under seventy percent fuel-cell level in the course of operations so as to ensure sufficient power reserves to cope with any outcome or contingency. Any unit reaching the seventy percent level must immediately—”
Geary finally found his fleet commander override and punched it.
The voice stopped. Then it started again.
He hit override once more.
The voice made a third effort and Geary held down the override this time. Once certain that the subroutine installed in the fleet’s systems by headquarters had been choked into a coma by this final effort, he checked the fleet status readouts, seeing that after the dash through Pele his destroyers were either at or rapidly approaching the seventy-percent mark.
“Problem?” Desjani asked, her voice tense at the possibility that Geary’s comms might be acting up again.
“Staff infection,” Geary explained, using the standard fleet term for mandatory subroutines loaded into fleet systems to enforce headquarters rules and requirements. “The destroyers are getting down to seventy percent on fuel cells.”
“Oh, no,” Desjani said in a noticeably insincere way. “What will you do? Halt the battle? Ask the enigmas to hold off until we’re ready to fight in accordance with fleet regulations?”
“No.” Geary tapped his comm controls. “All units, this is Admiral Geary. I take full, personal responsibility for the fuel-cell levels on every ship of this fleet. You will continue operations under my express orders, here placed officially in the record.”
“You can get court-martialed for that, you know,” Desjani said.
“I’ve heard that.”
Desjani’s next statement was cut off by the appearance of Emissary Rione, striding down to stand next to Geary’s seat on the side away from Desjani. “What are you going to do?” Rione asked.
“Defeat the enigmas,” Geary said, his tone as short as his answer. “Which I think will be necessary.”
“And then? CEO Boyens will surely ask your assistance in ‘reestablishing order’ within this star system.”
“I can’t stop him from asking,” Geary said.
Rione glared at him. “Admiral, we need this star system. It is not only the gateway to enigma territory, but is also our only known connection to spider-wolf-controlled regions.”
“Believe me, Madam Emissary, I am abundantly aware of that.” Geary drummed his fingers on one armrest. “Are you about to tell me I have to help Boyens and the Syndicate government reas
sert control here?”
“I am telling you, Admiral, that there is already a major fight under way in this star system, one that could inflict serious collateral damage on everything here. A battle between Syndic loyalists and the rebel forces controlling this star system could easily cause even more damage. We do not need a star system blown apart by civil war and destroyed in the name of saving it from the enigmas.”
“Your concerns are noted, Madam Emissary,” Geary said, keeping his own tone of voice cool this time. “I will endeavor to ensure that any destruction is limited to things, people, and places that are not of any particular concern to the Alliance.”
Rione’s expression became like stone, but when she leaned in close to talk to him, her voice held plenty of emotion. “Dammit, listen to me, Black Jack. You may think that you can do anything you want right now, but the truth is that a wrong step could destroy everything.”
“I am very much aware of that,” Geary replied, keeping his own voice low. “I am also aware that the surest way to bring about a real mutiny in this fleet is to order my ships to assist the Syndicate Worlds in regaining control here. Even if I didn’t find that morally repugnant, my own fleet wouldn’t follow such orders, not even from Black Jack.”
She pointed a rigid finger at his display. “Have you wondered why Boyens is hanging around that hypernet gate, Admiral?”
“He’s there so that if the enigmas crush the locals, Boyens and his flotilla can pretend to put up a gallant fight, then hyper out of here,” Geary replied.
“That’s an option, but Boyens knows that hypernet gate has a safe-fail mechanism on it. He knows he could cause it to collapse without risking his own flotilla, and he has a battleship with him to bring that about if we don’t do as he wants.”
That was an ugly possibility. The hypernet gate at Midway was a critical element in the importance of this star system to the Alliance. If the Syndics lost control of the star system, they would have no reason to let that gate remain intact. “I can—” What? Threaten to attack an official Syndicate Worlds’ flotilla despite the peace treaty? Start the war again? How much enthusiasm would the war-weary populace of the Alliance have for that course of action?
“How do you know,” Rione pressed him with her words, “that the enigmas will attack when they see what you have here? Isn’t this a substantial force? More than they would want to face?”
“It’s not that substantial,” Geary said. “Not compared to them. A number of the warships in this force have also been battered in previous engagements, and the enigmas will be able to spot that damage. If they think—” He paused again as a new thought struck. “Captain Desjani, have we ever figured out just how much detail the enigmas can transmit using their faster-than-light communications?”
She shook her head, pointedly ignoring Rione’s presence. “No. Basic information, as far as we know. I was talking to my comm officer about that, and he said that if the enigmas had routine, complex, faster-than-light communication, we should have been able to see signs of that by what wasn’t visible to us when we went through their territory. We wouldn’t see all of the routine message traffic flying between parts of star systems. But the comm traffic in enigma star systems was about at the level we would expect, which implies they can send some data, but not a lot, and still depend on regular light-speed comms for most traffic.”
“Which would mean the enigmas here would know the Alliance fleet was coming but not necessarily how many ships that involved.”
“They’d know—” Desjani grinned. “They’d know what showed up here. So the enigmas here might think the bear-cows got all of our battleships and heavy cruisers? That only our fastest ships got away?”
“Maybe. If the enigmas don’t know the battleships and heavy cruisers are coming on behind, they’ll be overconfident, thinking our strength has really been whittled down already. But if the enigmas do know our battleships and heavy cruisers are coming, they’ll know they have to try to beat this formation before we get those reinforcements,” Geary added.
“Which will encourage the enigmas to attack as quickly as possible,” Desjani concluded.
Rione had listened, and now her gaze was withdrawn, her expression intent as she thought. “The enigmas here might or might not know about the captured bear-cow warship, and might or might not know about the six spider-wolf ships coming here. But the Syndicate forces and the rebellious forces will not know either of those things.”
Geary smiled. “Do you think they might throw off CEO Boyens’s calculations?”
“They might well, Admiral. The importance of getting that information to the government on Prime might override any plan by Boyens to blackmail us by threatening the hypernet gate. Still, try not to destroy too much of this star system.”
“I’ll do my best, Madam Emissary.”
Desjani had lost her smile as she looked at Geary. “Hey, Admiral, have you considered what the enigmas might do when they see that Kick superbattleship? Because that superbattleship doesn’t work any more than one of those Syndic battleships does. Right now it’s only military function is RBRSRIT.”
“RBRSRIT?” Geary asked.
“Really Big Really Slow Really Inviting Target.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. At least our superbattleship that doesn’t work isn’t here yet. And don’t forget, even though dreaming up new acronyms to describe that ship seems to have become everyone’s favorite hobby in the fleet, she’s called Invincible now.”
“I still don’t feel good about that.”
The enigmas should have seen them coming at around half an hour after the Alliance fleet arrived at the jump point. Then the enigmas would very likely have begun accelerating toward the Alliance ships, while Geary had already pushed up his own velocity as he headed right for an intercept with the enigmas. On a display showing large reaches of the star system, the track of the Alliance fleet was a vast curve, heading in toward the star and the place where the enigma formation had awaited them.
The distance between the two forces should be closing rapidly, unless the enigmas had defied all expectations and instead charged in another direction. If the enigmas moved straight for the hypernet gate, they could still collapse it before Geary’s pursuit force could get there.
Geary tried to look unconcerned as the last minutes elapsed before they should see the enigma reaction to their arrival. Much farther away, none of the Syndicate or rebel forces in this star system would see anything for almost another hour.
His display updated in a flurry of new information as the light from the enigma reaction finally reached the fleet. Desjani’s lips drew back in a fierce grin. “Here they come. Just as predicted.”
The enigmas were accelerating along a vector clearly aimed to meet Geary’s forces, the alien ships showing off their impressive maneuverability as they increased speed at a rate the human ships couldn’t match.
The estimated time to intercept kept updating, scrolling downward fast as the velocity of the enigma ships kept increasing. Then there came a sudden shift, the alien ships ceasing their acceleration. “They saw us come up to point one five light speed,” Desjani said. “So they stopped at . . . point one six light speed. If we both hold that, we’ll meet in sixty-five minutes. Nobody’s going to get any hits if we pass each other at that velocity, though.”
Geary nodded, knowing he would have to reduce the velocity of his ships at some point before that intercept so his fire control systems would have a decent chance of scoring hits on the enigmas. The enigmas would also slow down to give themselves good shots so—
Would they?
That’s what human warships would do. But he wasn’t dealing with human warships, human commanders, human tactics.
Geary watched the enigmas coming, fast and on a direct intercept with the Alliance formation, an ugly certainty growing in him. They had seen something of enigma tactics in the long journey through enigma space. They knew what the enigmas would do. Straight, stand-up fights
weren’t how the enigmas liked doing things. It wasn’t that they lacked courage or feared death. They just did things differently than humans might choose to do them. And one of the things the enigmas had done was . . . “They’re going to ram.”
SEVENTEEN
“WHAT?” Desjani’s stare centered on him.
“They’re going to ram,” Geary repeated, feeling totally confident in that assessment. “If they order fourteen of their warships to ram, one each for our battle cruisers, they’ll take out the core of our fighting force and a big chunk of our firepower in a single pass. The remaining enigma warships could easily handle our surviving light cruisers and destroyers, then mop up the Syndics here before dropping that hypernet gate on their way out. I will take any odds you want to name that they are planning on doing that.”
Her eyes shifted rapidly as they went from point to point on her display, then Desjani almost snarled her reply. “You’re right. It makes perfect sense to them. We saw them ram that asteroid, and we know they’re willing to sacrifice their own people for any number of reasons. If we went in on a straight firing run, they’d have a real good chance of getting at least a glancing hit on our ships with one of theirs, and at the speeds we’d be moving, that would be all it took. But how will we know that’s what they intend? If we just evade, we’ll lose every chance to engage them.”
“We watch to see if they slow down,” Geary said. “If they don’t brake their velocity down so they’d have a decent chance of scoring hits on a firing pass, it will tell us they want to score a different kind of hit.”
“At those kinds of velocities, that’s a tough shot even with a weapon the size of a warship,” Desjani muttered, running some simulations. “Hmmm. If they assign two ships to ram each battle cruiser, their odds of success go way the hell up. But . . . a pretty much head-on pass . . . it’s doable. Oh, hell. That’s why they took up the position they did, so that when we came at them, it would be a head-on firing pass, which would greatly increase their odds of scoring a hit with a ramming tactic.”
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible Page 33