David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"Captain, your Excellency?" he said. "I told you that I don't wish to influence your actions. I think I should mention, though, that while I'll be leaving theLadouceur 's guns in fully operable condition, it might be better if no one goes near that console until after my cadre and I have lifted on theAgave. You see, if there were an accident, well… ThePrincess Cecile 's in orbit and Captain Vesey-for all her other virtues-is notoriously without a sense of humor."

Daniel gestured to Seward. "Captain," he said, "you might want to explain to his Excellency precisely what it means to try to climb out of a gravity well with a hostile vessel in orbit above you."

Seward scowled. "Just leave, Leary," he said. "Nobody's asking more than that. Just leave."

"Quite," said Daniel, nodding. "I regret that matters didn't work out better between us, and I certainly understand your attitude. But one thing, Captain?"

He cleared his throat, then dipped his left index finger toward the imagery on Seward's display. It'd cycled around to theSiegfried 's fusion bottle venting again.

"You'll recall your guard ship ignoring thePrincess Cecile when we arrived above Pelosi," Daniel said. "Your colleague Captain Hoppler said something to the effect that the corvette was too small to be of concern, even if she'd been hostile. I led the way here in theLadouceur because she was already in the Alliance books with her authentications in place, but I assure you that theSissie 's two missiles per salvo would've been quite sufficient to eliminate any guard ship. They certainly would've eliminated a converted transport like theIndependence."

Seward glowered. Daniel smiled more broadly and said, "A word to the wise, is all."

"Sir," said Blantyre with a touch of urgency. "TheCimmerian 's running up her thrusters and they all read in the green."

"Thank you, Blantyre," said Daniel. "Inform the bridge crew that we're transferring to theAgave immediately, and inform theAgave that we're coming."

"Done, Six!" said Shearman, rising from the console.

"Then let's move, Sissies!" Daniel said, striding toward the hatch. He glanced over his shoulder and added, "You Excellency? I wish the best of luck to you and the Cluster, but you're in a real war now. If you ever forget that, it will go very badly for you all."

"It'd be kinder for me to shoot them now than leave them for the Guarantor's amusement," Tovera murmured as she followed Daniel out of the BDC. "Besides, I'dlike to do it."

The bridge party was on its way down the corridor from the other direction. Sun led, and Hogg was chivying along Adele and the civilian.

"I'm sure both those things are true, mistress," Daniel said. "Just the same, we're going to leave matters in the hands of the parties involved. Sometimes they'll surprise you in a good way."

But not this time, Daniel thought. Not Lampert and Seward. But he'd still leave it to them.

CHAPTER 24: One Light-Hour to the Solar North of Jewel

"Admiral Guphill's exercising his squadron off Zmargadine," said Daniel as he viewed the Jewel System on theSissie 's command console. The volume of space involved meant that even a gas giant like Zmargadine was an icon rather than a scaled image. "The ability to do that may be a bigger advantage to the Alliance than the numbers are, over."

He was speaking on the command channel so that all the commissioned and senior warrant officers could hear, but it was basically a tutorial for the midshipmen.

With the exception of Vesey, the others on the push didn't know or care about fleet tactics, and Vesey already knew this lesson.

Adele was listening also, in fact if not by right. When Daniel came to think, he realized that she might be interested in knowing simply because itwas knowledge. Adele was less likely to be directing a fleet in battle than even Woetjans was, but if it ever happened she'd already know the theory.

Daniel shrank his field of observation by orders of magnitude. The Alliance ships became beads with three-letter designators: PLE and FOR for the battleshipsPleasaunce andFormentera, with similar abbreviations for the fourteen lesser vessels exercising with them. They were several light minutes from Zmargadine, using the bulk of the giant planet to conceal their activities from observers on Diamondia. As Daniel watched-more accurately, an hour before Daniel's observation-the squadron vanished raggedly into the Matrix.

Daniel expanded his field of observation again, but for the time being he couldn't tell where the Alliance ships had gone. Guphill had probably taken them out in a wide sweep, making several doglegs a few light-days out from their base. The exercise would keep his crews sharp, and Admiral James' squadron wouldn't be able to take advantage of the brief Alliance absence. By the time the data'd been recorded and analyzed on Diamondia, Guphill's ships would've returned.

A pair of Alliance destroyers cruised in powered orbits at a comfortable distance from Diamondia while the minesweeping flotilla ground inexorably away at the planetary defense array. Nothing had changed there since thePrincess Cecile lifted for Pelosi, except that there were fewer mines. The deterioration wasn't significant yet, but its slope led inexorably toward the capture of Diamondia by Alliance forces.

Daniel shrank his field of view again, this time focusing on Zmargadine, its rings, and its dozen moons. The Alliance base was on Z3, an ice moon with standard gravity and easily-obtained reaction mass for the squadron. It was at present on the opposite side of its primary from Diamondia, so RCN observers there couldn't tell when ships lifted or set down.

"Signals," Daniel said. He considered shifting to a two-way link with Adele but decided this was legitimately business for the whole command group. "Do you have equipment which would punch a laser signal from Zmargadine's rings back to Diamondia? That is, equipment that could be used from an escape capsule, over?"

"Yes, of course," said Adele with her usual disregard for protocol. Perhaps she felt that the question touched her professional abilities. The Mundies of Chatsworth were-Daniel grinned-notably punctilious of their honor. "For it to work from a capsule, I'd have to operate it myself, though. What do you want me to do? Over."

"Signals, I can't afford to lose you from theSissie 's complement," Daniel said, nailing down the important part of the exchange first. "I'd like to put an observer in Zmargadine orbit, though. A capsule with everything but basic life support shut down could hide in the rings for months. That'd give us detailed information on how Admiral Guphill reacts when he gets orders from Pleasaunce."

He cleared his throat without closing, then said, "Might Cory be able to handle the equipment, over?"

"No," said Adele. The edge was certainly there this time. "I told you, I'd have to do it myself."

"Mistress, I'd try, over," said Cory quickly.

"Yes, of course you'd try," Adele snapped. "And I'd try to land a starship if I had to. But I'd fail and you'd fail at this, Cory, so stop making a fool of yourself!"

"Officer Mundy," a new voice said with a hint of tremolo. "This is Cazelet. I can keep the laser head manually aligned with Diamondia. Ah-what I can't do, though, is maneuver the escape capsule. I have some basic shiphandling, but keeping station and a line of sight to Diamondia within a ring system is realistically beyond me. If Midshipman Cory can pilot the capsule, though, I don't see a problem, over."

"Bloody Hell, Cazelet, this is thePrincess Cecile!" Daniel said. "Half the crew can plotz about in Zmargadine's rings without dinging anything badly. Woetjans, take care of it! Over."

"Roger, Six," said the bosun. She'd lost twenty pounds while hooked to the Medicomp, but her voice was strong and she'd made it clear that she was still theSissie 's bosun. "And it's more'n halfI'dsay. All my riggers anyhow, over."