David Drake: When the Tide Rises

The two cruisers were accelerating in their original directions of travel. Because both had been going away from the Barnyard element-they'd come out of the Matrix on reciprocal courses to that of the flagship-they'd be able to reinsert before the missiles reached them.

TheVineta was preparing to insert also. Her captain's instinct to help a fallen comrade had put the expanding cloud of thePleasaunce between her and the RCN battleships, so the incoming salvos weren't directed at her. A heavy cruiser shouldn't have been worrying about rescue in the middle of a battle, but in this case mistaken compassion had saved the lives of her whole crew.

TheZeno began firing the cannon in her four forward turrets at theHertha andViceroyAdelbert. The surviving Alliance vessels hadn't launched missiles before turning to flight, so the battleship's weapons weren't needed for self defense.

The distance was too great for bolts to do damage, but they'd make it difficult for the cruisers to insert. Even if the targets were outside the core of the flux, the sprays of ions unbalanced the ships' surface charge. TheLao-tze added her gunfire to theZeno 's, either responding to command or simply picking up on her consort's good idea.

The destroyers which'd been picketing Diamondia chose this moment to extract. Presumably they'd intended to join the left wing, but in the event only theT 72 was where it should have been. TheT 65 appeared closer to theAlcubiere than to the position of the left wing before the Alliance vessels began running.

Daniel thought theAlcubiere was derelict. To his amazement and delight, she slammed a pair of 6-inch plasma bolts into theT 65 's belly, blasting both outriggers and the High Drive motors. The destroyer immediately began blatting her surrender on the 20-meter and microwave bands. Her fellow slipped into the Matrix with the remainder of the left wing and theVineta.

TheHertha andViceroy Adelbert disintegrated under more hits than Daniel could count even when he slowed down the action. It was like watching ships of sand when the tide swept in.

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out. He felt his muscles begin to relax for the first time since Admiral James had transmitted course data to the Foxhunt element.

"Ship," he said, though more than half the crew was on the hull at the moment where they couldn't hear him. "This is Six. Well done, fellow Sissies. Bloody well done! Six out."

On the hull montage, Daniel saw two riggers twist a length of spar out of the sail it was holding stretched against the hull. To his surprise they dropped the tubing to the side instead of cutting it free and launching it into space.

The imaging head rotated to a different lens; Daniel switched it back manually to watch the riggers kneel. When they rose, they were lifting a figure in a hard suit. The silver-painted right arm meant it was Vesey. They started for the forward airlock, one of them gesturing in sign language to alert their watch commander.

Daniel licked his dry lips and brought up a navigation display. Shortly he'd plot a course to the wreck of theDirektor Heinrich. ThePrincess Cecile sailed like a barge just now, but it wasn't far to go. They'd save who they could from the crew of the cruiser they'd destroyed.

First, though, they'd pick up Matthews and Cazelet. That pair had gone a long way toward winning the battle…

A cross made from two huge stones topped the crag on which Adele stood with Lieutenant Vesey; each slab must weigh more than twenty tons. The structure was artificial, but it surely predated the human colonization two hundred years earlier. Scaly vegetation grew like orange-brown-cream paint on its south face.

Adele reached for her personal data unit but then quickly snatched her hand away. The megaliths of Diamondia weren't the reason she'd had Tovera set her and Vesey down here. The aircar waited for them on a plateau half a mile away-in sight, but well out of hearing.

Vesey hadn't spoken during the flight from the emergency hospital, a high school into which Medicomps and trained personnel from the larger warships had been moved. She remained silent as she looked down on Port Delacroix and beyond. The water in the Inner Harbor was pale green. In the Outer Harbor it was dark blue, and the open sea was sullen gray.

Adele followed the lieutenant's eyes, then frowned. Rather-again-than taking out her data unit, she seated herself on a slab of basalt and said, "Where are theAlcubiere andAntigone? I didn't think they'd been destroyed in the fighting."

Vesey glanced at her and managed a faint smile. Before answering, she sat a little more than arm's length away. Though she moved very carefully, the burns to her right arm and the bone bruises to both femurs were healing. Adele'd checked Vesey's medical records-of course-but she knew from personal experience that someone whom a computer said was completely recovered might feel pain stab where the bullet'd struck six months previously.

"TheAntigone may well be a constructive loss like theExpress," Vesey said. "She's in orbit now, but it may make better economic sense to salvage her fittings and scrap her here on Diamondia."

Her voice was soft but without any music. Like Vesey's hair and her figure, it was plain. She had a fine mind, though, a mind that both Adele and Daniel could respect.

"TheAlcubiere 's going to be repaired," Vesey continued. "On Cinnabar, of course. But she's lost half her plasma thrusters so it'd have been too dangerous to land her now. She's being jury rigged in orbit, and Admiral James sent up thrusters for the crew to install during the voyage home."

A plasma bolt had blown a starboard topsail yard across the back of thePrincess Cecile, trailing a shroud which'd struck Vesey at mid-thigh and slammed her to the hull. That'd saved her life, because except for her right arm she'd been under the topsail when the next three bolts hit.

Adele thought of returning to Cinnabar a year before in the capturedScheer, renamed theMilton. Very deliberately she said, "I don't suppose Captain Bussom would appreciate Daniel giving him pointers in how to sail long distances in a jury-rigged heavy cruiser, would he?"

Vesey stared at her wide-eyed, then realized Adele was making a joke. She snorted a tiny laugh, probably as much at Adele's perfect deadpan as from thinking about Captain Bussom's reaction to getting shiphandling advice from a junior commander.

"No, mistress," she said. "I don't think I'd recommend that Six do that."

They both looked down at Port Delacroix for a moment. The buildings were largely built from blocks of porous volcanic tuff. The gray stone had been whitewashed. It'd be dazzling later in the day, but now in the early morning the half-bowl of hills into which the town and harbors nestled blocked the direct sun. The roofs were brown tile, golden when lighted but at present drab.

Besides the losses and the missing cruisers, two destroyers were in orbit on picket duty. Even so the Inner Harbor was full of ships, prizes which'd surrendered rather be destroyed along with the base on Z3 after the battle. Only one of the seventeen was of any size, a 3,000 tonne freighter which'd arrived the day before with resupply. The rest were light craft which'd been sent to the Jewel System to grind through the planetary defense array.

None of the vessels was of remarkable value by itself, but altogether they'd eventually constitute a pretty trissie in prize money. The amount would be divided among the crews of two battleships and assorted lesser craft, with the Admiral Commanding getting an eighth; nonetheless it'd take even common spacers several days to drink up their portions.

"I don't think anyone objects to Admiral James' share," Adele said, voicing her thoughts. "His plan was very effective, though it was hard on Foxhunt."