David Drake - When the Tide Rises

Adele smiled again. His concerns would've been valid, had the RCN not gotten much better information by other means.

"Captain," she said. "I've transmitted your message. I'll inform you when we have a response from Pitcher Six. Over."

She was a little embarrassed at the informal way she'd summoned Daniel from his sleep, though she knew that nobody-least of all Daniel-would complain or even refer to it. Still, in RCN terms she'd behaved unprofessionally. She'd do better now that time wasn't pressing.

"Thank you, Adele," Daniel said, using her first name in subtly crafted absolution. "Master Cazelet has earned himself a medal. Unfortunately, he's not a member of the RCN so I can't recommend him for one. Ah-"

He gestured to his display. Information still fed in from the escape capsule. It refined the holographic ships, providing details which fleshed out what'd been conjecture.

"I have all the data I need, I believe. I'm concerned that if he continues to transmit to us, an Alliance ship will spot him. And there's no longer any need, over."

"Unfortunately," Adele said, pleased but a little surprised to find that her voice remained dispassionate, "I'm afraid that if I contact Master Cazelet from here, I'll make his detection almost certain. A signal from Diamondia, even a laser beam, will be scattered significantly by the time it reaches Zmargadine orbit 71 light-minutes away. It'll paint Alliance ships at the same amplitude as it does the capsule, and I don't believe thatall Guphill's signals officers will be asleep. Over."

"Ah," said Daniel. "Yes."

Adele thought that he might say they were all sharing the danger or something else pointless, but in her concern… in heranger, anger at the situation and at herself for allowing Rene to put himself into the situation; and anger at Daniel, because he'd quite correctly said that it should be done. In her concern and anger, she'd done a disservice to Daniel's intelligence.

"We're going to crush Guphill, you know, Adele," he said instead. His voice was calm, but she heard the excitement underlying it; he was already trembling with the urge to drive in, to strike, and to keep on striking so long as there was an enemy standing.

As she'd watched Daniel do, and helped Daniel do, many times in the past.

The Alliance squadron was beginning to vanish from the imagery Rene sent back. The ships, singly and in pairs, were inserting into the Matrix. It appeared that they were too intent on their own activities to notice that they were under observation by an RCN outpost. Rene might come through this safely after all.

Coughing as much to clear her mind as her throat, Adele said, "Do you mean that because he's taking his entire force to the Bagarian Cluster-presumably, that is-that we can destroy the base on Z3 and effectively end the blockade? Over."

"Ah, but that'snotwhat's happening," Daniel said with the enthusiasm of a man who was enthusiastic about just about everything: an insect, a planet, or a thought. And very often enthusiastic about a bimbo, of course, though there seemed to have been a change since he met Miranda Dorst. "Look here, Adele. Look at the sail plans of thePleasaunceand theEitel Friedrich. Notice the differences, over."

Adele was ready to say that she was no more competent to discuss sail plans than she was to plot a course through the Matrix. That was true, of course, but because she didn't dismiss things without examining them, she looked at the images Daniel had forwarded to her: a battleship and a battlecruiser respectively at the moment they inserted into the Matrix.

And she did see the difference; it required no more specialized expertise than telling a bull from a cow. "Captain," Adele said, "the battlecruiser has almost all its sails set. The battleship has only eight-"

Of forty-eight.

"-antennas raised, and only a portion of their sails have been unfurled."

She cleared her throat again and added, "I don't know what that means, however. Over."

As Adele spoke, her wands sorted the imagery according to the pattern Daniel had just pointed out. She was embarrassed not to have seen it for herself. Intellectually she knew that no one, no matter how careful, could notice everything; emotionally she felt that she herself should be the exception.

"A portion of the squadron headed by the battlecruisers is rigged for a long voyage," Daniel said. "These are generally the faster, more maneuverable vessels. The remaining ships, roughly half the total-"

Without interrupting verbally, Adele transmitted the sort she'd just completed to the command console. The two battlecruisers, one of the three light cruisers which had lifted from Z3, the four destroyers-all members of that class in the squadron save the pair on picket around Diamondia-and six sloops had shaken out most of their sails. The two battleships, the four heavy cruisers, and the two remaining light cruisers were only partially rigged.

Daniel chuckled, then continued, "As I say, half the total is planning to insert into the Matrix, then extract almost immediately. They're going out purely to provide cover for the force being sent to gut the Bagarian Cluster like a fish. Guphill's counting on the fact that Admiral James can't be certain what may have happened behind the screen of Zmargadine."

He paused. "But Guphill's wrong," he said, "because of our outpost in the rings. I assure you that I'll jump Matthews a rate for this, and if Master Cazelet would care to become a midshipman backdated to the day he boarded theSissie, it's a done deal. I don't have the clout to arrange that, but Navy House'll grant Admiral James any favor he asks if he breaks the siege of Diamondia."

"I see," said Adele. But because she didn't trust any news until she'd confirmed it and didn't trust good news even then, she said nothing more for a moment while she manipulated a different two columns of data.

"Daniel," she said. After hesitating a moment, she echoed her present display onto the command console. She resumed, "Daniel, you're very confident in victory, so I realize there's something that I'm missing. It appears to me, however, that even with half his strength sent to the Cluster, Admiral Guphill has a far stronger fleet than Admiral James does. Where's my mistake, over?"

"I'm afraid that this tabular comparison is quite correct," Daniel said. He snorted. "Of course it's correct, it came from Signals Officer Mundy. In terms of tonnage, throw weight, crew size-any quantifiable measure of value-the remaining Alliance squadron is greatly superior to ours. Each of their four heavy cruisers is individually stronger than theAlcubiere, and theLao-Tze's older than my father. She's scarcely comparable to brand new battleships like thePleasaunceandFormenterawhich she'll be facing. But."

Daniel adjusted the display. Adele wasn't sure he was acting consciously rather than letting his fingers act by rote while he gathered his thought, but the tabular arrays sorted themselves into opposing fleets formed in three dimensions within the holographic volume.

"First," Daniel said, "the Alliance squadron will return from its feint without any expectation of fighting, while our ships are at action stations even now as they lift from Diamondia. That's a very considerable benefit to the RCN. And second-"

He looked at Adele and grinned.

"The second advantage is even less tangible, Adele," he said, "but it's more important. It's the fact wearethe RCN. We know it and they know it. Every Alliance spacer from Guphill to the Landsmen in Training knows that no matter how many ships they have, they've always got to expect us to go for their throats. Deep in their hearts, they're afraid and they know we aren't. We're the RCN."

"I see your point," said Adele. She wiped the lopsided tables of ships and missiles, ofmateriel. "More to the point, Daniel, I feel it. Signals out."