David Drake - When the Tide Rises

She smiled faintly. She'd heard Sissies bragging about how Mistress Mundy'd cleared the missile pit, putting two rounds through the same eye of every member of the launch crew who'd dared to show himself. That was pretty much true, as a matter of fact.

And no one except possibly Daniel suspected what it cost her in the hours before dawn to have done that. To have done so many things of that nature, because they were part of the job.

Not complaining was part of the job too, at least as she saw it. She was Mundy of Chatsworth.

"Roger, Signals," Daniel said calmly. "Link me to all ships in the squadron soonest and inform me when you're ready, over."

Adele frowned. Does he think I'm too worn out to do my job? Aloud she said, "You're connected to the whole squadron as soon as you speak the keyword, Captain Leary. Would you prefer that I manually connect you? Out."

She meant, "Over." It was all childish nonsense anyway, boys playing games.

"Squadron, this is Squadron Six," Daniel said instead of-pointlessly-answering her. "I'm sending the approach information and order of attack to the bombardment force."

Adele transmitted his words on 15.5 KHz, the frequency to which the whole squadron was supposed to be tuned, as well as via individual laser heads aimed at each of the other vessels. She could guarantee that a modulated laser painted each Bagarian ship, but in her wildest dreams she didn't imagine that all of them had working receivers or that they'd bothered to turn them on if they did.

"The initial order of attack," Daniel continued, "isColumbine, Forsyte 14, andStager Brothers. These leading vessels will rendezvous with theLadouceur, Independence, andDeMarcerespectively after they've launched their initial loads. ClintonandBurke Trading, wait for further orders. Are there any questions, over?"

"Who the hell do you think you are to be giving me orders, boy?" said a voice. Adele identified it as Captain Michael Stout of theStager Brothers, a 600-ton tramp whose plating rattled at anchor. She slugged the information to the command console in text. "I'll go in when I decide I'll go in. Out!"

"Stager Six, this is Squadron Six," Daniel replied mildly. "I sincerely hope you'll attack when your orders from the commanding admiral direct you to attack, Captain Stout. Your vessel is within 18,000 miles of the flagship, and our guns are trained on you. Do you understand, over?"

There was a hiss of static across the shortwave spectrum: the 800-tonColumbine was braking hard with her High Drive to drop her into Churchyard's gravity well. Almost simultaneously the squadron's two missing ships reentered the sidereal universe.

Adele fed the information to the command console and went back to eavesdropping on the increasingly panicked Alliance HQ. The personnel on duty were beginning to realize what was happening. It wasn't her place to judge, but Adele allowed herself a tiny smile.

Things seemed to be going according to plan.

Adele watched theStager Brothers begin its attack run. Despite Captain Stout's prickliness, his approach through the top levels of the atmosphere was as smooth as that of any starship could be.

She smiled. Perhaps being prickly was a necessary part of being good. There were certainly people who'd found Adele Mundy difficult over the years, and even Daniel ruffled feathers with his focus on accomplishing the mission regardless of proprieties.

Ever since theColumbine came alongside, theLadouceur had been ringing like the interior of a steel drum. A warship in action was always noisy, but this time the missiles bumping down the rollerway were being transferred to the smaller ship rather than sliding into the cruiser's own launching tubes. Woetjans had all her riggers on the hull, manhandling the projectiles across the gap separating the ships and clamping them into theColumbine 's hull mounts.

Adele didn't imagine the effort was going to be of any use, though. Certainly none of the previous attacks had been.

"Adele?" said Daniel unexpectedly. She'd carefully avoided interrupting him at a time when he had his hands full. Out of squeamishness she hadn't even echoed the command display as she sometimes did from curiosity. Since things were going so badly, it would've felt to her like staring at a friend who'd just upset the table at a formal dinner.

"Yes, Daniel?" she said, replying on the same two-way link and pleased to ignore protocol.

TheStager Brothers had made two circuits of Churchyard, cutting progressively deeper as if shaving thin slices from the atmosphere. As Stout started his third orbit, he launched his four plasma missiles. This was no part of Adele's job, but simply as a matter of interest she'd expanded an image of the vessel coming around the curve of the planet.

The only communications that she had to monitor right now were the excited chatter of both the Alliance and Bagarian forces. The Alliance voices were predictably in a better humor, but nothing important was being said by either side.

"I'm going to be taking charge of theColumbinefor the next attack," Daniel said. "Can you keep me in direct touch with the entire squadron?"

One of theStager Brothers ' missiles didn't appear to separate until the ship drove up through the atmosphere again on gimbaled thrusters. The missile continued for a few moments on a ballistic course, then began to tumble; it quickly broke up.

"One moment," said Adele, because she didn't give Daniel a certain answer without knowingeverything about theColumbine 's commo suite. She'd never had occasion to learn that information before now But she'd gathered it, because it was information and that was what she did, gather information against need. In the particular instance she'd thought knowing the particulars of the Bagarian ships might help her communicate with them, though in the event she'd decided that the 20-meter band was all she could count on.

The thrusters of theStager Brothers ' remaining three missiles lighted. One blew up three seconds later, rocking the ship that launched it. The blast didn't appear to do serious damage, but Captain Stout's torrent of profanity was justifiable if pointless.

Adele brought up the data on theColumbine and considered it coldly. She smiled: she did everything coldly. Even when others might think that she'd lost her temper, she was really quite cold inside.

In the particular instance, the data was better than she'd feared it might be. She said, "Daniel, theColumbine has a working laser communicator. It's a single-head device, but theLadouceur can retransmit to the rest of the squadron without a noticeable lag. Oh!"

"Is there a problem, Signals?" Daniel said. He remained on the private channel, but he'd slipped into formality to jog her out of her silence.

The problem is that I have to be at both ends of the transmission in order to make the relay work.

The thruster of theStager Brothers ' third missile cut off abruptly. Without power for its gyroscope, the missile wobbled, swapped ends, and tore itself into a shower of fragments. They blazed white with the friction of their passage through the atmosphere.

Instead of replying to Daniel directly, Adele switched manually to the command channel and said, "Cory, I'll be away from my console for a considerable length of time. Until I return, can you relay laser transmissions from theColumbine to the rest of the squadron if I set the system up for you? Over."

"Ah," said Cory. "I'm sure I can, sir, over."

"Negative, Officer Mundy," Daniel said. He didn't exactly shout, but he meant to be heard and obeyed. "Your presence with theLadouceur's sensor and commo suites will be absolutely necessary if something unpredictable occurs. You willnotbe leaving the bridge. If that means a gap in my control of the rest of the squadron, then that's still the better choice, over."