Counterstrike (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3) (13 page)

“Both of those are aft-facing tubes,” Singh frowned.

“Do you really think that we’ll be the ones pursuing in this fight?” Jackson snorted.

“Point taken,” Singh said. “So, what are your thoughts on the cube itself? Knowing you, I’m sure you were livid once you realized that the Vruahn had put a sentient, self-aware weapon aboard your ship without telling you.”

“I wasn’t pleased,” Jackson said, “but I don’t believe it’s actually sentient. I believe it gives the appearance of a self-aware personality for our sake. I had a similar experience with the Vruahn computer aboard Colonel Blake’s ship. It seems the Vruahn are able to give their AIs varying levels of intelligence depending on use and function. What I find more interesting is whether these interfaces are something they developed for our benefit or if they prefer to relate to their tech on a more personal level.”

“Interesting,” Singh said in a tone that indicated he thought it was anything but before draining his water glass. “I better get back down there. I’m not really sure how much work this will require and I don’t want some ambitious lieutenant modifying my ship while I’m up here eating.”

“Always a pleasure.” Jackson raised his own glass in mock salute. He concentrated on trying to force the rest of his meal down past the icy lump that had formed in his stomach over the last day. Colonel Blake had come through and found the Phage core mind, and with that the mission was no longer an academic exercise. There was an entire armada waiting in Terran space for the Ninth to come through and actually capture a living Alpha.

General quarters! General quarters! All hands to battlestations. Set condition 2SS.”

Jackson had rolled out of bed before Lieutenant Davis had finished her announcement calling the crew to action. It had been nearly eleven days since the frenzied work that had integrated the Vruahn weaponry and prepped the squadron for the coming battle. Eleven long days that had frayed nerves and worn tempers thin, but it looked like that might all be coming to an end.

Once they had finalized their strategy, Jackson had gone down to the main cargo hold and had one more conversation with the cube before they actually began implementing their plan. Now that it was more or less general knowledge aboard the ship that the cube was much more than just a packing crate he had loosened the restrictions he’d placed on the device regarding its interfacing with the
Ares
. The cube was able to detect the Phage almost instantaneously once they entered a system, so he had made sure that it would issue a warning no matter who was on the bridge.

“Report!”

“Possible contact, sir,” Davis frowned. “The Vruahn device issued a warning with a general distance that would put it near the edge of the system and a heading that had an accuracy of seventy degrees.”

“That’s not very accurate, Lieutenant,” Jackson said. “Why isn’t the tracking data updating?”

“Enemy signal lost. Attempting to reacquire.”

“So that answers that,” Jackson said as the words scrolled across the main display. “Or maybe not.”

“Sir?” Davis asked.

“If this is a Phage Super Alpha, and it’s the only Phage ship in the system, will it still be broadcasting their carrier frequency?” Jackson held up a hand to silence Davis. “Go ahead and answer audibly through the bridge speakers.”

“Probability is high that you are correct, Captain,” the cube said. “Adjusting search parameters to compensate for a single advanced forward unit.”

“Just think how much easier it would have been if the Vruahn had just given us a few sets of their active sensors that are capable of picking a Bravo out of an asteroid field,” Barrett groused.

“I asked for them, Lieutenant Commander,” Jackson said. “Apparently with our metal alloy ships the system couldn’t be adapted. Vruahn ships use a type of ceramic composite material for their hulls. No metal.”

“Sorry, Captain,” Barrett said. “Just complaining out loud.”

“Coms! Send the order to the
Artemis
and
Atlas
to get started,” Jackson ordered. “We are operating under the assumption a Super Alpha has arrived in-system, sent out a query message to any potential Phage left, and will now be coming downhill to investigate. Tactical, how’re we looking?”

“All perimeter Spheres have been successfully deployed, as have their associated Shrikes,” Barrett said. “The Spheres are operating autonomously, but I have an override command that the Vruahn cube has put on one of my terminals.”

“I have to say, handing over control of so many nuclear penetrators isn’t my favorite part of this plan, sir,” Davis said softly.

“Nor mine,” Jackson agreed, “but the risk is minimal and our technology is simply too slow to make proper use of them anyway. You have to look at it as a calculated risk … why would the cube bother firing our own missiles at us when it has seventy-two gravity bombs already at its disposal?”

“Of course, sir,” Davis nodded.

“Coms?”

“Orders confirmed, Captain,” Keller said. “
Artemis
just answered via tight beam laser.”

“We are now running silent,” Jackson said. “Full emission security protocols are in effect. Tell your backshops that I do not want a single radiation source active that has a path to an antenna on the hull.”

There were two more pulses on the frequency that they were assuming was the Phage network carrier upon which they built their “hive minds.” Jackson wondered how accurate the term frequency was, since the signal was not at all related to the EM spectrum and, as it had been explained to him, utilized a quantum effect that humans had barely begun to look at in theory, much less any sort of practical application. As such, they were wholly committed to trusting the Vruahn when they said that not only did this carrier signal exist, but that they had the means to detect it.

Thankfully the second Alpha they had killed of the three they’d found in the system was intact enough for him to implement his strategy. He had the
Atlas
and
Artemis
fly up next to the burnt-out hulk and match its velocity, rotation, and heading. After that it had been just a matter of waiting for evidence that a Super Alpha had made an appearance before ordering his two ships to begin lancing into the dead Alpha’s hull with pinpointed laser fire in what he hoped looked like an effort to dissect and recover pieces from the ship.

“Still nothing on passives,” Barrett reported. “But our range isn’t so great that I’m expecting to detect anything until the shooting starts.”

“I hope you’re wrong about that, Lieutenant Commander,” Jackson said. “We have two ships sitting down there with their asses hanging out in the breeze. Even with their active sensors running the Link won’t update in time at this distance for us to provide any meaningful support.”

“Understood, sir,” Barrett said tightly.

This was the part of the plan that Jackson was least happy about, but he felt there wasn’t much he could do to mitigate the risk. With the entire squadron flitting around the dead Alpha the target wasn’t likely to risk its own safety by getting close enough for them to fire on it. But with only two destroyers performing what was hopefully an obvious salvage operation Jackson hoped that the Super Alpha would be much more brazen in its approach. He knew that this particular breed of Phage had the ability to hide from their sensors, so the danger to his two ships was significant, but he also knew that if they ran silent and became a dark hole in space that the Phage had an equally tough time detecting them.

Under normal circumstances the risk of losing forty percent of his total force would be completely unacceptable, but they had been tasked with the success of this mission no matter the cost. Admiral Marcum had even gone so far as to intimate that he fully expected the Ninth to take significant losses. The part of that conversation that had galled Jackson so badly was that the admiral made it clear that he expected Jackson to make it back even if not everyone else did. Even as angry as he’d been when he had departed the
Amsterdam
, he had to concede that the ability to put his emotions aside and think purely strategically was a lot of what made Marcum fit to wear his stars and, conversely, Jackson’s own inability to do the same made him a questionable starship captain at best.

“One more pulse detected by the Vruahn sensor,” Barrett said. “Signal strength was good, but still no actionable information. Indeterminate—”

“Whoa!”

Jackson’s head snapped up at the outburst from the helmsman just in time to see the fading light of a massive explosion on the main display. They’d been sitting with the optical sensors trained on the
Atlas
and
Artemis,
and while they couldn’t make out exact details there was no doubt about the magnitude of the explosion they’d seen on the display. Explosions in space were an odd thing to watch, or at least not what one would normally expect. Once the oxidizers were gone it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“Rep—”

“Telemetry from the
Artemis
has dropped!” Hayashi shouted.

“
Atlas
is declaring an emergency!” Keller had to shout overtop of everyone else. “I can’t make it all out … too much shouting on the bridge.”

“Coms! Try to raise the
Artemis
!” Jackson was gripping the armrests so hard that his hands hurt. “Tactical, full active scans! Get me a fucking location on the target! OPS, I want the
Ares
at full power within the next five minutes.”

“Formation is going active,” Barrett said tightly as all three ships that were loitering in a loose triangle around the target area began bombarding it with high-power radar energy. They were at a close enough range that they didn’t have to wait long for valid returns.

“Got the bastard!” Barrett called out. “It’s moving on the
Atlas
.
Artemis
does not appear in the area.”

“Helm! Put our nose on the target and drop the hammer.” Jackson leapt to his feet. “All ahead flank, emergency acceleration.”

“Aye aye, sir!” The helmsman shoved the throttles all the way up and disengaged the safety interlocks to allow the engines to run up past their accepted maximum operational output. The
Ares
surged forward with the helmsman manually piloting the ship down towards an enemy that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. From what they’d learned the Phage were unable to mask themselves from detection after firing their primary weapon, but the effect only lasted for around twenty minutes. Jackson hoped to close the gap to the point that it would be unable to hide from him no matter what it tried.

“Coms, have the rest of the squadron stand by,” Jackson said. “I don’t want them accelerating towards the target until we’re certain what it’s going to do. Tell the
Atlas
to do whatever it can to clear the area. OPS, is there any evidence the
Artemis
is still intact?”

“Negative, sir,” Hayashi’s voice sounded very small. “Radar is detecting a debris field that is consistent with the mass and composition of a destroyer. No lifeboat signals.” Jackson had to swallow three times in quick succession to make sure he didn’t vomit on the deck.

“Tactical, begin plotting a firing solution,” he said once he trusted himself to speak. “Targeting pattern Echo-Three-Three. Helm, come starboard seven degrees, four degrees declination and reduce engine output to one hundred percent.”

“Coming onto new course. Engines ahead flank, aye.”

“All offensive systems are online, sir,” Hayashi said. “Engineering is reporting all primary flight systems are good to go.”

“Prep the auxiliary boosters and deploy the nozzles.” Jackson could still feel his heartbeat in his ears after the loss of the
Artemis
. “Prime the fuel lines and stand by for ignition. We cannot let this bastard slink back off into the outer system.”

“Target is underway, sir,” Barrett said. “It’s accelerating slowly on a course that will almost perfectly bisect us and the
Icarus
.”

“Coms, tell Captain Wright to be ready for it to try and rush by her,” Jackson said. “She’s clear to engage as per our original targeting plan, and if she doesn’t have a shot she is to withdraw.”

“Target is approaching one of the gravity mines,” Barrett said, referring to the Vruahn gravity bombs they’d peppered the system with as a contingency. “Range of three hundred and forty thousand kilometers and closing, but it’s not on a direct intercept. It will cut across the outer range.”

“Can we catch it before it clears the weapon’s maximum range?” Jackson asked.

“Negative, sir,” Specialist Accari spoke up from the nav station. “Even with the auxiliary booster we won’t close within weapons range until we’re both within the gravity mine’s effective radius.”

“Shit.” Jackson looked at the graph the tactical computer was updating on the main display. The Super Alpha would cut across the influence of the gravity bomb at such an extreme range he’d have to order a full-yield detonation. That also meant that if he continued his headlong pursuit he would put the
Ares
at significant risk when the bomb went off.

“Is that bomb’s corresponding Shrike in position for a shot if the Alpha continues along this course?”

“No, sir,” Barrett said. “The missile will be far out of position even if the bomb succeeds in slowing it down or stopping the Alpha. We’d deployed it with the intent of detonating when the target was inbound from the outer system.”

“Understood,” Jackson said. “Helm! Zero thrust. We’ll continue along this pursuit course on momentum. Nav, I assume you’re tracking our progress and will alert the helm to any potential hazards?”

“Affirmative, Captain,” Accari said.

“Tactical, give the order to the Vruahn cube to detonate that gravity bomb when the Alpha passes at its closest projected point,” Jackson said. “Coms! Tell the
Icarus
and
Hyperion
to hold position.”

“Orders sent,” Keller said.

Jackson looked back at his com officer, and then around at the rest of his bridge crew. The shock and dismay they felt at the loss of the
Artemis
was written plainly on all of their faces. For the duration of the war the spacers of the Ninth had walked around with a cocky strut, secure in the knowledge that their squadron commander and their fast, powerful ships would see them through every conflict without a scratch. And why not? Every engagement the
Starwolf
-class ships had participated in to date had been won with hardly a scorched hull plate to show for it. But they’d never stared down an enemy like this: so much like the powerful Alpha constructs but so much more devious and cunning. Only the original crew members left from the
Blue Jacket
remembered what it was like to go up against a Phage ship like this.