The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible

by Campbell, Jack

  Instead, Geary focused on the last part of Desjani’s assessment. “Iceni didn’t run the last time the enigmas attacked, remember? She stayed on the planet even though before we showed up it looked like the enigmas were going to walk all over this star system. That’s what she’s like. What do you think of that Drakon character?”

  Desjani made an irritated gesture. “He looked real. I mean, not like a CEO.”

  “That was my impression, too. He seems like a professional, like someone who wouldn’t abandon his post.”

  “How did he get to be a CEO?”

  “I don’t know,” Geary replied. “You’re right that we can’t forget that. But I’m going to assume the best of them because that can’t hurt right now. All we can do is watch whatever they do.”

  Rione nodded somberly. “Will the planet be habitable after the bombardment hits?”

  “That depends where the projectiles land,” Geary said. He took a deep breath, blew it out slowly, tapped his comm controls, and started speaking.

  “This is Admiral Geary. We have done our best to eliminate the enigma force, but some ships have gotten past us, and some of those have launched a bombardment aimed at your inhabited planet. We will continue our pursuit of the enigma ships but cannot stop the incoming bombardment. I urge you to take any possible measures to ensure the safety of your people. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

  With nothing else to do after that but watch the paths of ships and bombardment projectiles heading toward their targets, Geary glumly studied the three Syndic or former Syndic flotillas, trying to figure out what he would do if he were the Syndic commander. “If they handled things right and coordinated the movements of those two heavy cruisers at the gas giant properly, they could force the enigmas to run a gauntlet to get to that battleship or the inhabited planet.”

  Desjani shook her head. “In theory, sure. But they’re not that good.”

  “They need to be that good if they’re going to survive. We can’t stay here. Whatever the people here have left to defend them after we leave has to be able to fight smart, or they’ll be overwhelmed.”

  “You can’t teach them your ways of fighting,” Desjani objected. “Aside from the fact that we can’t hang around this star system for months, teaching smart fighting tactics to Syndics would not sit well with anybody.”

  “It doesn’t look like they are Syndics anymore.”

  “How do you judge that? Admiral, I agree anybody here has to fight better than the average Syndic CEO, but you can’t teach them. The fleet and the government would raise hell if Black Jack himself offered his secrets to people who still wear Syndic uniforms, even if they call themselves something else.”

  Geary nodded, knowing that she was right but knowing that he was also right. How could he help the people here defend themselves?

  That assumed that there would be anything left here worth defending, of course.

  “Admiral?” General Charban had come onto the bridge and now pointed questioningly at the observer’s display. “What are the spider-wolf ships doing?”

  He hadn’t bothered looking, not since the spider-wolves had swooped out of the fight. “They were above the plane of the star system and closer in to the star since they hadn’t headed back to engage the enigmas like we did,” Geary replied, searching his own display. “Now they’re— What in the name of the living stars are they doing?”

  Desjani gave him an alarmed look, herself focusing on the spider-wolves’ position and movements. “They’re . . . aiming for an intercept with the enigma bombardment,” she said in disbelief. “According to our system, they can manage it since they were positioned closer to the inner star system than the enigma launch points and have better acceleration than we do.”

  “Why?” Geary demanded. “What’s the point of intercepting a kinetic bombardment? The projectiles move too fast and are too small to get a decent fire control solution on them.”

  “For us,” Desjani said, understanding growing in her eyes. “Admiral, the spider-wolf ships are faster than us and a lot more maneuverable. They were where they needed to be to intercept a bombardment launched from the enigma ships. If they can come in behind the kinetic projectiles, reducing the relative speed of the engagement, and maneuver into the right positions, our systems say that in theory they could at least score glancing hits and divert the paths of those rocks.”

  Rione was staring ahead, openmouthed with surprise. “They’re intervening. They won’t help us fight the enigmas, they won’t help defend warships against the enigmas, but they are moving to try to defend our civilian population.”

  “You say the spider-wolves were where they needed to be to manage this intercept?” Charban asked Desjani. “It seems they intended to be able to do that if necessary.”

  Desjani looked frustrated. “Why do they have to be so damned ugly?”

  “I am increasingly certain that they are asking the same thing of us,” Charban replied with a smile. “They know that the people here are those who are, or were, our enemies, and it impressed them that we were willing to fight to defend them. Perhaps that action by us decided the spider-wolves to take their action. As different as we are, this is a point at which our understandings meet.”

  “It’s strange,” Geary said. “We seem to have a number of things in common with the spider-wolves, who are the most physically unlike us of the alien races we’ve encountered. The two other alien races, the enigmas and the bear-cows, may look a lot more like us but their mental processes are more alien than those of the spider-wolves.”

  “No one ever promised that the universe would be easy to understand,” Charban said, “or that it would meet our expectations rather than challenging them.”

  “Nineteen minutes to intercept of the spider-wolves with that bombardment,” Desjani said. “Look. The spider-wolf ships aren’t locked into formation anymore. They’re adjusting their vectors to come in behind different clusters of rocks launched by different enigma ships.”

  The resigned and disheartened waiting of a short time before had been replaced by tension. Geary watched the tracks of the spider-wolf ships and the rocks converging, curves sliding steadily close to contact, wondering if even the spider-wolves could handle a maneuvering problem that difficult.

  “Beautiful,” Desjani breathed, as the curving paths of the spider-wolf ships altered subtly. “Even their maneuvers are gorgeous.”

  “Our systems estimate that the spider-wolf ships will be within weapons range in two minutes,” Lieutenant Yuon reported.

  Geary checked the distance. Twelve light-minutes to where the spider-wolves and the kinetic bombardment would meet. Whatever the spider-wolves had accomplished might already be done, over before the human ships could even see the beginning.

  The bridge had gone silent, everyone watching their displays. Geary realized that he was even breathing as quietly as he could, as if any sound could disrupt events occurring far distant from him. Human instincts, born of hunters in the ancient past and on a world unimaginably far away, still subconsciously dictating actions among the stars.

  “How long until we know?” Rione asked, peering at her display, her voice, low as it was, still resounding to break the spell of silence on the bridge.

  “Another three minutes until we might see something,” Lieutenant Yuon replied.

  They were a very, very long three minutes, then several gasps sounded simultaneously as the first actions were seen. “Look at that!” Desjani said, her eyes lit with admiration. “They came in perfectly! Right behind their targets, zero deflection shots, getting the relative velocity as low as possible!”

  “But they still only have a short firing window before those rocks pull away.” Geary watched shots going out from the spider-wolf ships, willing them to hit even though he knew hits or misses had happened over ten minutes ago.

  “One, two, four, seven,” Lieutenant Yuon called out as the systems reported kinetic projectiles knocked off of their traject
ories by hits from the spider-wolf weapons. “Twelve, nineteen, twenty-six, thirty-eight.”

  Geary kept his eyes on the firing. Thirty-eight out of seventy-two rocks accounted for.

  “Fifty-one,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. The hits were coming faster now, as the spider-wolves perfected their positioning and aim, but the rocks were also pulling steadily farther away and were rapidly going out of effective range. “Sixty, Sixty-four, Sixty-eight, Sixty-nine.”

  “Come on!” Geary burst out. “Three more!”

  “Seventy . . . seventy-one.”

  The six spider-wolf ships were pumping out shots as fast as they could fire, but it was obvious that their accuracy had fallen off dramatically as the range had increased. The bridge was silent again, every eye locked on the symbol showing the last bombardment projectile still on course for the inhabited planet.

  “Damn,” Desjani muttered.

  “They’ve still got a chance,” Geary said.

  The spider-wolf barrage stopped abruptly and he felt sick inside. So close to complete success. But the spider-wolves had obviously given up—

  A single burst of fire erupted from the spider-wolf ships, every weapon letting loose at once, all aimed at the point where the kinetic projectile raced ahead of them.

  “Seventy-two,” Lieutenant Yuon said in a shaky voice.

  Desjani laughed, looked at Geary like she very badly wanted to kiss him, but settled for making a fist and punching his shoulder. “Thank you ancestors and thank you spider-wolves!”

  “Madam Emissary,” Geary said, feeling weak with relief, “and General Charban. Please send the spider-wolves our deepest, most sincere thanks.”

  Unlike the others on the bridge, Rione had a worried expression. “What if the enigmas fire more bombardment rounds?”

  “The spider-wolves are even better positioned for intercepts now,” Geary said. “They’d have even better shots at the next set of rocks. We still have to worry about what those enigma ships might attack, but no bombardments will get through to that planet as long as the spider-wolves stay between the enigmas and the planet.”

  The fleet’s sensors had continued to track the paths of the seventy-two enigma bombardment projectiles, but those tracks no longer bore threat symbols as the rocks tumbled away on paths that would pass clear of the inhabited planet.

  “Score one for diplomacy,” Charban said.

  Desjani, still elated, smiled at the comment. “General, I’d like to think of it as a great return on the investment of one case of duct tape.”

  “Captain, some of those enigma ships are making major vector changes,” Lieutenant Castries warned.

  Everyone’s eyes went back to their displays. “Well done keeping an eye on things while your superiors were being complacent,” Desjani told Castries. “Twelve of them.”

  “The twelve that fired the bombardment at the planet,” Lieutenant Yuon confirmed.

  The twelve enigma warships were diving far below the plane of the star system and turning back toward the welter of Alliance warships that were pursuing them and the other enigma ships. “A suicide run?” Geary speculated. “Are they going to try to get through to the auxiliaries or assault transports again?”

  To his surprise, General Charban answered. “Only those twelve are making such a major change, Admiral. We learned while we were going through enigma territory that they are not a united species. This force of theirs must have been made up of contingents from different enigma nations. I suggest that what we’re seeing is what’s left of one of those contingents deciding that they have already gone far beyond the demands of duty to any agreement to attack the humans. They tried to bombard the inhabited planet here, and that failed. They’re going home.”

  “That’s possible,” Desjani conceded. “They sure as hell threw off their immediate pursuers with that move.” The Alliance warships chasing those enigmas, surprised by the radical course change of their prey and traveling at exceedingly high velocity, were having trouble bending their own vectors far enough to manage intercepts before the twelve enigmas got past on their way back toward the jump point. “Admiral, if some of the destroyers and heavy cruisers are detached from the main body, they can move to nail those guys.”

  Geary watched the twelve enigma warships breaking past their immediate pursuers, the last in line getting caught by Alliance fire and breaking apart. The other eleven continued on, outracing and outmaneuvering the human warships.

  His gaze went to the rest of the battlefield, where disabled enigma warships were self-destructing, their surviving crews still on board, in an effort to keep the secrets of the enigma race. Only nineteen other enigma ships were left, five of those aiming for the inoperable battleship and the docks at the gas giant, and the other fourteen for the hypernet gate. He thought of the bear-cows fighting to the death and suiciding to avoid capture. “No.”

  “No?” Desjani questioned. “Captain Armus can detach more than enough cruisers and destroyers to get those enigmas and still have plenty of ships available to protect his high-value units if some of them try to ram again.”

  “No,” Geary repeated. “There’s been enough. General, send another broadcast of our negotiation offer to those eleven enigma ships. Add in a statement that we’ve shown what will happen if they keep fighting us, then reemphasize that we are willing to agree to leave them alone if they leave us alone.”

  “Yes, Admiral,” Charban said.

  Desjani sighed, then nodded to Geary. “I guess we’ve killed enough of them. If a few get home to tell the enigmas what happened to the rest, it might make them think twice before trying anything like this again.”

  “That’s the idea,” Geary said, but she gave him a look that told him that she knew it was far from his only reason for avoiding more bloodshed.

  He watched the movements of ships on his display, feeling immensely tired now, knowing that if nothing changed, it would be hours or even days before anything else happened. But if any of the nineteen enigma warships still heading for targets made radical changes in their vectors, it might be only minutes before action occurred.

  And warnings were popping up on his display about the fuel-cell levels on the destroyers in the pursuit force, with here and there a light cruiser also showing low reserves. The light cruisers and destroyers couldn’t catch the enigmas as long as the enemy kept charging away from them, but those ships could run their fuel-cell reserves down to dangerously low levels in their futile chase. “All units in the pursuit force, this is Admiral Geary. Immediate execute reduce velocity to point one five light speed. Continue tracking enigma warships and engage them if the opportunity presents itself.”

  Desjani had that unhappy look again.

  “We can’t catch them,” he told her.

  “I know that.”

  “The Syndics might knock them back toward us.”

  She brightened a little. “Yeah. They might. Even Boyens might be able to handle fourteen enigma ships when he has a battleship and twenty other Syndic warships under his control.”

  Geary nodded, thinking that they should have heard from Boyens by now if he had sent a message once he saw Geary’s fleet. But Boyens, it seemed, was keeping tight-lipped for the moment.

  The battle hadn’t ended, and neither had the chase; but the ships of the pursuit force relaxed their combat status, giving their crews a chance to rest and to eat decent meals. Far back toward the jump point they had used from Pele, the main-body formation came stolidly onward, not reacting as the eleven fleeing enigma ships en route to the jump point raced past well out of range of the main-body warships. Those enigmas had had enough, just as Charban had guessed.

  After several hours, another message came in from the inhabited planet, once again showing Iceni and Drakon. Both were doing a very good job of trying not to look like people who had just had death sentences unexpectedly commuted. “We are in your debt again, Admiral Geary. I don’t know the nature of your allies, but we owe them an immense debt as well.
”

  “Wait until she gets a look at them,” Desjani commented.

  “My warships,” Iceni continued, “will engage the enigmas heading for my battleship. I cannot control the actions of the flotilla near the hypernet gate. Do not trust that the flotilla there will act in our interest, Admiral. CEO Boyens, their commander, is known to you. If you make your orders clear to him, he may hesitate to act contrary to them. It is essential that Boyens understands that he is not in control of this star system and does not dictate what will happen here.

  “For the people, Iceni, out.”

  “She didn’t let that General Drakon talk this time,” Desjani observed.

  “Maybe he didn’t have anything to say,” Geary said.

  “That doesn’t often stop people from talking.” Desjani grinned. “Though he did look like the type who doesn’t run his mouth. Did you notice that Iceni called her units warships instead of mobile forces? And that she said ‘my’ battleship?”

  “Yes. We’ll see what Lieutenant Iger and Emissary Rione make of that.” He considered his options. “Iceni clearly wants me to tell Boyens what to do.”

  “She wants Boyens to know that you’re the big dog in this star system,” Desjani agreed. “That serves us and her, doesn’t it?”

  “Not if it puts us in the middle between her and Boyens.” He thought a little longer, then tapped his comm controls. “CEO Boyens, this is Admiral Geary. The small group of enigma warships headed for the gas giant will be engaged by the forces in that region. The remaining fourteen enigma warships heading toward you must be halted before they can damage the hypernet gate by weapons fire or ramming. My ships will continue their pursuit and attack any enigma vessel whenever opportunity offers. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”