The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast (29 page)

Geary looked at Naxos and Araya. “Do you both hate the Syndic CEOs who used to rule here?”

Both nodded immediately. “They just cared about themselves,” Naxos grumbled, head still lowered.

“There was a revolt in the Midway Star System, too. After they kicked out the CEOs, they shut down the labor camps. Their leaders said there would never again be labor camps anywhere they controlled.”

“How are we supposed to punish the enemies of the people?” Araya demanded.

“Is that the question you should be asking? How to keep doing things the way the CEOs did? Or should you be wondering why you want to act like the people you hate?”

Naxos raised his head and held it up this time, looking intently at Geary. “I said that. Many times. Why change leaders if we’re going to be the same as the old leaders?”

“I can’t make you do things differently,” Geary said. “But I think you’re right to be asking yourself that question.”

“What guarantee would we have that doing things differently would be the same as doing things better?” Naxos asked.

“None. It’s not enough to be different. And there will be lots of disagreement on what is better and what is worse or the same.” Geary paused, remembering his own recent experiences. “But as long as you’re talking, as long as people can change things they don’t like, as long as you aren’t refusing to listen to other people, then you’ll have a chance of doing things better.”

“Do you listen to other people?” Araya asked in acidic tones.

“All the time,” Geary said. “Other people act as a mirror of sorts, second opinions on whether I’m doing the right thing, whether my preconceptions and assumptions are justified, and whether there are better answers than I’ve come up with so far. In combat, I often have to act quickly, but even then I listen when someone suggests alternatives. I don’t have to agree with them, I don’t have to do what they want, but I
listen
.”

“I had a few good supervisors,” Naxos said, looking at Araya this time. “They listened when I suggested things.”

She flushed slightly, mouth tight, then nodded. “Yes. As a sub-executive, I tried to listen to the workers, including you. I prided myself on that. Did I stop listening?”

“You’re listening now,” Naxos pointed out.

“Ha! You’re a very insubordinate worker, aren’t you?” She addressed Geary again. “We can do more listening, and convincing and planning, if we are allowed to talk to those on the other ships.”

“I’ll tell Colonel Kim to give you access to comms.”

“You’re going to trust us?” Araya didn’t bother hiding her skepticism.

“If you’re going to create trouble, if you’re going to organize a new dictatorship to replace the current one, I’d rather know now,” Geary said. “And, as I’m sure you already expected, those comms will be monitored. Given the potential for riots on the ships, I have no alternative.”

“Why tell us that?”

“Because, at this point, you’re not my enemies, and I’d like to keep it that way. The Alliance already has enough problems and enough enemies.”

Araya and Naxos stared at Geary for several seconds. “How could we ever be anything but enemies?” Araya finally asked.

“Batara used to be on friendly terms with the Alliance, before the Syndics took it over,” Geary said. “If there are any records left in Batara that the Syndics didn’t destroy or alter to fit their preferred version of history, you can look it up.”

She shook her head. “That’s a very big if. The Syndicate tried to destroy all hard copy, so they could easily alter all of the digital histories every time the official version changed.”

Something suddenly became clear. “I was talking to someone else, a former citizen of the Syndicate Worlds like you, and they used the word ‘history’ as if it was interchangeable with ‘lies.’ I didn’t understand that.”

Araya shrugged. “We call what’s real
hard copy
. History is lies, and hard copy can be lies, but you can’t change hard copy once it has been printed. No undetectable updates, no invisible revisions, no additions you can’t spot. Hard copy is what it is. My friend here”—she gestured toward Naxos—“thinks that you are hard copy, Admiral. I hope he is right.”

By then enough time had elapsed for Geary to return to the bridge of
Inspire
and wait. The two light cruisers and four HuKs had not left their orbits near the inhabited world, and aside from a few small craft operating near orbital installations, nothing else human could be seen moving in the star system except the Alliance warships and the refugee ships they were escorting.

Duellos had not left the bridge and now shook his head. “I wondered if you were just being extra cautious, but the lack of activity is suspicious. They knew we were coming, and those ships orbiting near the main planet have seen us and had time to react yet haven’t done anything.”

“I ordered
Fleche
to be careful.”

Shaking his head again, Duellos spoke in a low voice. “This fleet spent decades considering careful and cowardice to be two sides of the same coin. Aggressive action in any circumstance is almost engraved on their DNA.
Fleche
is less than two light-minutes from intercepting the planet, about seventeen minutes’ travel time if she maintains her current velocity. I would strongly advise reminding her of your orders.”

This seemed like another good time to not just listen but also accept the advice. Geary touched his comm controls. “
Fleche
, this is Admiral Geary. Maintain caution while conducting your mission. There is a possibility of a serious threat hiding behind that gas giant. Check out the back side, then return to the formation. Geary, out.”

The message should arrive a couple of minutes before
Fleche
and the gas giant reached each other as the warship zoomed in from the outer star system and the planet swung along its orbit.

Fleche
was fifteen light-minutes from
Inspire
when the light cruiser swooped over the northern pole of the gas giant and got its first look at the side hidden from view of the fleet. Geary watched intently as the images from
Fleche
appeared on his display. Everything he was seeing had happened fifteen minutes ago.

Fleche
’s combat systems sounded alerts as a HuK appeared around the curve of the planet. The HuK had been rising at a slow rate, heading toward the path that
Fleche
was taking, a dead giveaway that the HuK knew
Fleche
was coming.

The HuK spun about and accelerated downward, skimming the upper atmosphere of the gas giant as it fled.

Geary watched, appalled, as
Fleche
rolled, turned, and dove after the HuK in full pursuit. He felt a numbness inside and realized his hand was quivering above the comm controls, wanting to send the commands to the Alliance light cruiser to follow her orders, to finish searching the back side of the gas giant, and to return safely to the rest of the Alliance warships.

But this had all happened fifteen minutes ago. Any order he sent would take fifteen minutes to arrive, and he knew with a sick certainty that would be too late.

As Duellos had reminded him, he hadn’t been in command of this fleet that long. He had been in charge a tiny fraction of the time since the war began, a war whose destructive and mindless path had favored ever-more-aggressive and mindless tactics as trained tacticians died en masse and new commanders sought to make up for lack of training and experience with a narrow focus on what they saw as courage and honor, and on a willingness to die rather than retreat.

Geary had done a lot to change those attitudes. But he could not in a short time eradicate the false lessons created by a century of stubborn bloodletting and pursuit of personal glory. The fact that such attitudes were partly justified by claims that they embodied the true spirit of Black Jack, of
him
, had only made it harder.

Now he watched
Fleche
in hot pursuit and waited for what he was certain would come.

Two Syndic-design heavy cruisers appeared around the lower curve of the gas giant, bracketing
Fleche
and on top of her too fast for the light cruiser to react. The heavy cruisers were too close, the moment of engagement too fleeting, for missiles to be employed, but the two enemy ships each hurled out a volley of hell-lance particle beams and the metal ball bearings known as grapeshot. The fire lashed
Fleche
’s shields, collapsing them, some of the impacts going on to tear holes in the lightly armored Alliance warship.

Geary could see the damage reports as they appeared on his display, showing that
Fleche
had suffered serious hits to her maneuvering systems as well as her weapons.

He saw the helm orders appear as
Fleche
tried to alter her vector.

Ten seconds after the heavy cruisers had flailed
Fleche
, the Alliance light cruiser caught sight of a massive shape like that of a squat shark rising around the curve of the gas giant. At the velocity the light cruiser was moving, there wasn’t even time for the crew to react before they were within range of the battleship’s weapons.

Two and a half minutes after diving in all-out pursuit of the HuK,
Fleche
disintegrated under the hammerblows of the battleship’s weapons. None of the light cruiser’s escape pods left the ship. None of the crew had time to reach them and launch them.

The data feed cut off as the light cruiser was blown apart.

Fleche
, along with her entire crew, had died fifteen minutes ago.

Geary gradually became aware that the bridge of
Inspire
was totally silent.

The quiet was finally broken by a single word as a young officer spoke plaintively. “Why?”

“Why?” Geary repeated, wondering why his voice sounded so soft yet could be heard so clearly on the bridge. “Because the commanding officer of
Fleche
forgot that it was not about him. He forgot that it was not about glory. He forgot his orders, he forgot his responsibilities, he forgot his training and his duty. Because of that, he wasted the lives of his crew. Don’t ever do any of those things.”

Geary took a deep breath, straightened in his seat, then spoke in a firm voice. “We’ve got at least two heavy cruisers and a battleship that must have already popped out from behind that gas giant and will be seen by us at any moment! Do your duties, fight smart as well as bravely, and
Fleche
is the only ship we will lose today!”

It took them another fifteen minutes to see that the battleship, accompanied by two heavy cruisers and four HuKs, had risen over the top of the gas giant and begun accelerating toward an intercept with the mass of refugee ships.

“We threw off their timing,” Geary said to Duellos. “
Fleche
accomplished that much. In another hour and a half, we should see those light cruisers and HuKs near the inhabited planet coming toward us, too.”

Duellos’s eyes were searching his display. “Didn’t the refugees say that Tiyannak had four light cruisers?”

“At least four.”

“The other two could be hiding behind this planet,” Duellos said, pointing to a cold, barren world the size of one and a half Earths but lacking much in the way of atmosphere or water. It orbited thirty light-minutes from the star and would cross the path of the Alliance and refugee ships a few hours before they reached that part of space. “Everything else that someone could hide behind is too badly positioned in their orbits.”

“I’ll need to leave the light cruisers and destroyers to screen the refugee ships, while I take the battle cruisers against that battleship flotilla,” Geary said.

“That’s probably your best option,” Duellos agreed. “Given enough time, my battle cruisers can probably wear down that battleship. But we don’t have enough time. How are we going to stop the battleship before it reaches some of the refugee ships, causing them to scatter and become easy prey?”

“I’ll think of something.”

LOOKED
at one way, the whole thing was pretty simple. He had to get his warships and all of the refugee ships to the primary inhabited world, off-load the refugees, and along the way deal with any threat posed by the warships, which must be from Tiyannak. A mission so simple it could be condensed into a single sentence.

But, as the ancient warrior sage had said, all of the simple things in war end up being really complicated.

Geary looked over at Duellos. “What do you know about Commander Pajari?”

“Not a lot,” Duellos admitted. “I think she took command of
Spur
less than a year ago.”

In that year, and since Geary had been reawakened, Pajari had apparently done nothing praiseworthy enough or stupid enough to draw Geary’s special attention. That described many of the commanding officers in the fleet, though, since there were nearly two hundred fifty heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. The captains of the battleships and the battle cruisers tended to speak up at conferences because of their seniority and influence. Usually, the commanders of smaller warships stayed silent except for general expressions of approval or disapproval. One of Geary’s ongoing regrets was that he had never had the time to get to know all of those officers personally.

He checked Pajari’s service record and found that she had been commissioned just four years ago, having served on three ships, two of which had been destroyed in battle, before gaining command of
Spur
. Like many officers in the fleet, she might be young for her rank and responsibilities, but she had immensely more combat experience than Geary had had at her age and rank.

“I’m going to trust her with command of the escorts for our convoy of refugee ships,” Geary said. “Pajari will have to fend off threats to the freighters, using the light cruisers and all of the destroyers, while I take the battle cruisers to handle that battleship.”

Duellos raised both eyebrows. “You won’t take any destroyers with us?”

“Given the size of our group of freighters, and with potentially three enemy flotillas coming after them from at least three directions, Pajari is going to need all of our escorts.” Geary zoomed in on the image of the battleship heading toward an intercept, accelerating ponderously but steadily, like a massive, armored animal building up unstoppable speed. Despite the intervening millions of kilometers, the image was crystal clear, the enemy warships appearing to be unmoving against the endless space around them despite their large and increasing velocity. The two heavy cruisers and two HuKs accompanying the battleship were not spread out, acting as escorts in a typical formation, but were instead tucked in extremely close to the battleship. “We won’t be able to peel off the escorts with that battleship easily.”

“No. An unconventional formation, and one that will be hard to counter,” Duellos agreed. “Any firing runs aimed at the escorts will bring us within range of the battleship’s weapons for certain. On the other hand, those four escorts with the battleship must have their maneuvering systems slaved to it. They’re so close, that’s the only way to avoid the tiny bobbles or variations in starts and stops of maneuvers that would otherwise cause a very nasty collision.”

Geary nodded. “How can we use that?”

“I’m working on an answer to that question, Admiral.”

To his own surprise, Geary smiled crookedly. “What about suggestions for dealing with the battleship?”

Duellos waved toward the back of the bridge. “My people are running sims to try to find solutions.”

“What have they found so far?”

“So far?” Duellos shrugged helplessly. “They’ve found a number of plans that
won’t
work.”

“You and I both know what we have to do,” Geary said. “We have to take the battleship out of the threat column. There are ways we could do that using the battle cruisers’ superior acceleration and maneuverability to slowly whittle down the battleship, but that would take far more time than we have to work with. The only way to neutralize the battleship quickly enough to protect the refugee ships is to damage the battleship’s main propulsion. If we can also take out his maneuvering capability, so much the better.”

Duellos grimaced. “I’ve faced something like this situation before, Admiral. Three battle cruisers is the minimum possible force that could do what we need to do. Assuming the Syndic battleship’s rear shields are at full strength, the only way to achieve a quick takedown of its propulsion is for all three battle cruisers to conduct close passes within a very short interval. Ideally, the first battle cruiser weakens the battleship’s rear shields, the second scores enough hits to knock down the weakened shields or render them ready to collapse, and the third goes in with the shields down and actually gets a shot at hitting the main propulsion units. But the battleship isn’t going to just sit still for that. He’s going to be maneuvering, pivoting the ship, trying to ensure that all three firing runs do not hit the rear shields, and trying to hit our battle cruisers hard as each one comes in to attack.”

Geary nodded, thinking through alternatives. “What if our battle cruisers go in close enough to employ the null-field projectors?”

“Against an undamaged battleship? We lose at least one battle cruiser. Maybe two. And with no guarantee those sacrifices will enable us to score disabling hits on the battleship.”

“We won’t do that, then.” Geary shook his head. “Our advantages are our numbers, three battle cruisers to one battleship, and maneuverability.”

“Whereas his only disadvantage is lack of maneuverability,” Duellos said.

“No. He’s also neutralized his own escorts by keeping them tucked in so close. We can’t get at them, but they can’t interfere with our attacks.”

Geary closed his eyes, mentally running through what he would say next, then touched his comm controls once more. “Commander Pajari, I am placing you in charge of Formation Echo. You will have your light cruisers and all three destroyer squadrons. Your mission is to keep the refugee ships together and protect them from any attempts at attack.”

Surprised, Pajari saluted. “I will not disappoint you, Admiral. Do you wish me to continue on a vector toward the primary inhabited world?”

“Yes. You can alter the vector as necessary to deal with threats, but you and I know that the freighters won’t be able to do much. Colonel Kim’s soldiers will keep the freighter crews from panicking and trying to run, but they can’t do anything about the sluggish maneuverability of the freighters. Be advised that there’s a chance further enemy warships are hiding behind this planet.” Geary indicated the super-Earth farther in-system. “Maybe a couple of more light cruisers and HuKs. If the attacks on us are coordinated, within the next few hours we should see the enemy flotilla near the primary inhabited world coming out to intercept you, while anyone hiding near that other planet will pop out once they think we’ve committed our forces to dealing with the other two flotillas. If we can’t stop all of the enemy ships in the battleship flotilla, you may have to help fend them off as well.”

“Yes, sir,” Pajari said, her eyes narrowed as she concentrated on Geary’s words. “You call them enemy, sir. Are we free to engage any other warships in this star system as necessary?”

“You are. I am making the judgment that all other warships in this star system are part of the same forces as those that were at the gas giant. They have proven hostile intent by their destruction of
Fleche
.” In that way,
Fleche
’s sacrifice had accomplished something very important. He would no longer have to wait for those other warships to fire the first shot. They already had. “Engage and destroy any threats to your ships or the refugee ships.”

“Yes, sir!” Pajari’s eyes had blazed at the mention of
Fleche
.

“Commander,” Geary emphasized, “your mission is to protect those refugee ships. Don’t forget that in pursuit of some of those enemy warships.”

“I will not, Admiral.” Pajari smiled slowly. “They think we will rush off in pursuit, that we’ll forget our mission. We won’t. But if they think we will, we can use that.”

“You can use that,” Geary agreed, smiling back. “Have you conducted convoy escort operations before?”

“Yes, Admiral. Not with an ill-disciplined mess like those refugee ships, but the principles are still the same. I know what tactics the Syndics use to try to pull escorts out of position and reach the convoy. I’ll be ready for them.”

“Good. I’ll be dealing with the battleship. Geary, out.” He ended the transmission, feeling much more confident about Pajari, then nodded to Duellos. “Captain, let’s get your battle cruisers going. We’ve got a battleship to knock out.”

Duellos grinned as the watch-standers on the bridge let out cries of approval.

Geary designated the three battle cruisers as Formation Alpha, then paused to look over the situation carefully before calling the maneuvers. The large, unwieldy formation of refugee ships and Alliance escorts was still a bit over three light-hours from the inhabited world, which orbited only seven and a half light-minutes from the star. If Batara had been Sol, the home star of Old Earth, that would have rendered the planet uncomfortably hot for humanity, but Batara’s star burned a bit less fiercely, so the planet was only warm by human standards. Because the planet orbited so much closer to the star, the progress of the Alliance and refugee ships appeared to be aimed just slightly to the left of the star at this point.

What Geary now designated Flotilla One, the two light cruisers and four HuKs near that planet, was also directly ahead of the Alliance ships but light-hours distant.

Only fifteen light-minutes off the starboard bows of the Alliance ships were the battleship and its escorts, which Geary designated Flotilla Two. The battleship flotilla was coming in from the right as seen from
Inspire
, aiming to intercept the refugee ships as they headed inward. Because the enemy ships were on a direct intercept—even though the paths of the ships formed a huge arc across space—their bearing relative to the refugee ships would not change as the enemy drew closer and closer. To the freighters, the battleship would remain off their bows, but grow steadily and implacably larger as the distance between the ships shrank.

The super-Earth planet ahead of the Alliance formation had already crossed just beneath the Alliance ships’ vector, orbiting oblivious to the tiny actions of humans. By the time the Alliance ships themselves reached the path of that orbit, the planet would be slightly off to their left and moving away at the relatively sedate pace of about twenty kilometers per second as it swung around the star. If there were also enemy warships hiding behind that planet, they would spring out at the right time and come at the refugee ships from the front and left.

Whoever set this up did some clever planning. If we had just barreled in and reacted to each attack as it developed we would have been in a real mess by the time that third attack force appeared.
“
Inspire
,
Formidable
, and
Implacable
, this is Admiral Geary. You are now Formation Alpha. Our task is to take out that battleship. At time five zero, come port two seven degrees, down zero two degrees, accelerate to point one five light speed. Geary, out.”

A few minutes later, Geary felt
Inspire
swing to the right. The command port meant to turn away from the star, whereas starboard or starward meant turning toward the star. Upon arrival in the star system, the Alliance warships had automatically designated one side of the plane in which the planets orbited as up and the other as down. It was all extremely arbitrary, a human system for establishing mutually understood directions of right and left, up and down, in space where such things didn’t exist. If he had told
Formidable
to turn “right” the other battle cruiser might have swung in a direction one hundred and eighty degrees different from that of
Inspire
. But with the star just off to the left of the ships’ bows, everyone knew which direction turning away meant.

Inspire
’s main propulsion kicked in at full power, the force of the acceleration causing the ship’s inertial dampers to whine in protest. Geary felt himself being pressed back into his seat as some of that force leaked past the dampers. No other warship could accelerate like a battle cruiser, which carried more propulsion than a battleship but also sacrificed much of the armor, shield generators, and weaponry that loaded down the battleships. Battle cruisers were designed to get where they were needed fast with a lot of firepower. They weren’t designed to tangle with battleships.

Geary watched the vector for the battle cruisers lengthen dramatically as they charged toward the battleship.

“One hour and ten minutes to contact with Flotilla Two,”
Inspire
’s operations watch reported. “Remaining distance twenty nine point seven light-minutes. Closing rate point two seven light.”

“They’re coming on at point one two light,” Duellos commented to Geary. “They won’t slow down to fight us.”

“No. I don’t think they will,” Geary agreed. “They want to get to those refugee ships and force us into desperate attacks to protect those ships. We’ll brake before contact to bring the engagement speed below point two light.” Above that velocity, distortion in the appearance of space caused by relativity got too bad for human-designed systems to compensate, rendering an already very difficult fire-control problem almost impossible.

“How are we going to do this?” Duellos asked after about a minute of silence.

“I’m still working on that.”

“The captain of that battleship is Syndic,” Duellos mused. “By-the-book thinking and behavior.”

“Unless he or she is a rebel, in which case a more creative and unconventional junior officer might have suddenly been propelled into the position of captain,” Geary said. “You remember what some of the former Syndic officers in the rebellious forces at Midway were like.”

“That is something to worry about,” Duellos conceded. “However, those former Syndics at Midway were experienced at ship handling. They hadn’t been in the war zone facing the Alliance, dying in battle almost as fast as they arrived. Any Syndics here are the survivors of the last battles in the war, and any fighting since then. They probably have minimal training and not much experience.”