David Drake - When the Tide Rises

"Command," Daniel said, verbally keying the channel which linked the officers. His orders were to Adele, but the information would please everybody aboard. "Signals, copy the raw data to all theSissie 's consoles and also transmit them to the flagship, attention CinC. When you've done that-"

At the bottom of the quadrant where Cazelet's imagery cascaded appeared the legend data transmitted. The letters were in glowing puce, a disgusting color which he suspected Adele had chosen deliberately.

Daniel choked to keep from laughing. A good thing I wasn't taking a sip of water, as I was about to. He continued, "Yes, and please restructure the data into a PPI layout centered on Z3 Base if you will. Distribute that in the same way, over."

"Yes," said Adele. He glanced to his side to see her wands dancing; it was like watching a machine, a very intelligent machine. "Shall I transmit the data to the other ships of the squadron also?"

After a minuscule pause she added, "Over."

Daniel winced. He was afraid one of the junior officers would blurt something, but nobody did. He suspected that it wasn't just that they made allowances for Adele's lack of familiarity with naval protocol: they respected her so greatly that there lurked at the backs of their minds the possibility that Lady Mundy was right again.

She wasn't right. Admiral James would react as though Commander Leary had walked into the Admiral's Bridge and taken a dump on his console.

"Negative, Signals," Daniel said mildly. "The Commander in Chief would regard that as an attempt to usurp his authority, particularly since thePrincess Cecile is technically not a member of the Diamondia Squadron. Six out."

The destroyers had their antennas raised and were shaking their sails out. Most of the heavy cruiserAlcubiere 's antennas were up, and the flagshipZeno had begun the process. The light cruiserAntigone was almost as old as theLao-Tze and like her was underpowered for operations in an atmosphere, but she'd be joining momentarily.

"Squadron," said a voice slugged as coming in through the laser communicator. Admiral James himself was speaking, not his signals lieutenant. "We will operate in two elements, Foxhunt and Barnyard. Orders will follow presently-"

An icon winked at the bottom of the command display; the orders had already arrived. Daniel restrained his urge to open them until the Admiral had finished speaking.

"We'll be taking the fight to the enemy, fellow officers," the Admiral continued, "of course. Because the enemy is superior in force, I expect rigid discipline and prompt obedience to my orders. I donotsay that I expect courage and professional shiphandling, because you wouldn't be in the RCN at all if you didn't display those qualities. Squadron Command out."

Daniel nodded approvingly. The Admiral's words were perfectly appropriate, though none of the captains had needed to hear them to understand the situation inside and out. He opened the Orders icon, but before he could begin going over the contents his console flashed an incoming message warning.

"Rascal," said Admiral James again in a harsher voice than before, "this is Squadron Command. You're Foxhunt Nine for the duration of this operation. You'll obey the orders of Foxhunt Command, that's Captain Bussom, without hesitation. Do you understand that Leary, over?"

Daniel stiffened at the console as though he'd been slapped. Does the Admiral think I'm going to hare off on my own in the middle of a fleet action?

"Squadron Command, this is Foxhunt Nine-six," he said as formally as he could manage. "Aye aye, sir. Nine-six over."

Obviously James did think that, and it was most unfair. Daniel'dalways obeyed orders in the past.

Well, almost always. And anyway, he respected both James and Bussom.

"Sorry, Leary," James said in a much softer tone. "I thought I needed to say that. We've got bloody little margin on this one, and if anybody gets creative it'll confuse everybody else. No matter how clever a notion it might've been on its own, over."

"Aye aye, sir," Daniel repeated. His mouth was open to close the transmission-he needed to look at the orders and he was sure the Admiral had something better to do than chat with the captain of the least powerful ship in his squadron.

Before he could do so, James said, "Bloody hell, Leary! Where did you get this imagery? It's not real, is it? It's a computer simulation, right, over?"

"Squadron," said Daniel, opening the file which Adele must've forwarded to him and the Admiral simultaneously, "the imagery and the derived PPI are real-time, transmitted from Zmargadine orbit some seventy-one minutes ago. You can take it to the bank, sir, over."

Admiral Guphill's reduced force had extracted in the vicinity of Zmargadine; now they'd begun striking their sails to set down on Z3. If they were keeping anything approaching a proper watch, they'd become aware when light from Diamondia reached the gas giant within the next few minutes that the RCN squadron had sallied.

"By the Gods, Leary," James said in a reverential whisper, "they've laid their balls on an anvil and we're holding the hammer. Judging by their sail plans, a visit from Guarantor Porra wouldn't surprise them as much as we're about to."

The Admiral paused, then went on, "Foxhunt Nine-six, head this material 'On behalf of Squadron Command' and distribute it yourself. I want everybody to know it came from you, just in case I'm not around to tell them myself after things settle out. Squadron out."

"Aye aye, sir!" Daniel said. "Foxhunt Nine-six out!"

He didn't need the bright pink transmitted legend to tell him Adele would've sent it even before Admiral James finished speaking. The legend nonetheless flashed.

He looked for the first time at the orders which the Squadronstaff had sent at the same time Admiral James himself was reading Commander Leary the riot act. They were headed captain's eyes only.

Daniel realized his lips had squeezed together into what he'd have called a pout if he'd seen the expression on someone else's face. Chuckling, he forwarded the orders to the BDC before he started going over them in detail.

"Captain's eyes only" was the sort of nonsense which staff officers came up with. Did they think a Sissie was going to send the plans on to Admiral Guphill? And didn't it occur to them that the whole purpose of the separated Battle Direction Center was to provide a backup command structure in case a missile sliced off the corvette's bridge?

The two battleships formed Barnyard, under Captain Clinton of theZeno. Admiral James was aboard theZeno, but he commanded the whole squadron rather than just the Barnyard element. The remaining vessels-Alcubiere, Antigone, six E-Class destroyers, and thePrincess Cecile -were Foxhunt.

Breaking the squadron into a heavy element and a screening element gave James a degree of flexibility, but the orders directed they stay together at least through the initial maneuvering. When all the ships were ready, they were to insert into the Matrix and extract in line ahead, heavy vessels leading, thirty light-minutes in-system of Zmargadine.

They were to be offset ten degrees system west of the line connecting the gas giant with Diamondia. Daniel nodded approvingly. If Admiral Guphill made his initial jump in a direct line toward Diamondia, the RCN squadron would be positioned to rake the Alliance ships with all missile tubes.

It'd take theLao-tze about ten more minutes to complete her rigging. The squadron was to spend seventeen sidereal minutes in the Matrix. Daniel was sure theSissie could make the run in less; theAlcubiere, a heavily sparred vessel under Captain Bussom who-like Daniel-had been trained in shiphandling by Commander Stacy Bergen, might be able to do it in twelve minutes or less. They'd both extract in seventeen, because synchrony was important and absolute speed was not.