Jack Campbell - Guardian

What had Charban complained about? He thought the Dancers were withholding something, were not admitting how well they could communicate with humans. It’s the same sort of thing, isn’t it? Dangle the objective just out of reach of whoever you’re dealing with. Is that what the Dancers are doing to us in a different way? But why? Because that’s how they do things, and they may not even realize they’re doing it when it comes to talking with us? Or are they doing it deliberately, to get us to pursue some goal they’ll keep just beyond our grasp?

“They’re just holding formation.” Lieutenant Yuon sounded baffled.

It took Geary a moment to realize that the lieutenant was talking about the Covenant ships. It was true. Even though the Covenant flotilla had lost nearly half of its ships, the remaining ships had stayed rigidly in formation, a now-lopsided bird with only one wing.

Desjani spoke with dawning realization. “This is the opposite of what we were like, isn’t it? We were fighting without regard for formation, just slugging it out, before you reminded us how good formation fighting could multiply our effectiveness. But these guys are acting like they can’t imagine breaking formation. They haven’t even adjusted the formation to compensate for their losses or form a more effective defense. It’s like there’s a spot they have to be in relative to the guide ship, and they aren’t going to move from that spot even if the living stars showed up and said go.”

Dauntless had swept through her turn and, instead of continuing on toward the undamaged wing of the Covenant formation, was lining up on the center of that formation. Desjani clearly intended to take out the flagship this time. Geary didn’t question that targeting decision.

The Covenant ships did not pivot to face the oncoming Alliance battle cruiser, instead continuing to accelerate at their best rate toward the Dancers. Still moving fairly slowly relative to Dauntless , they fired weapons that could bear aft and down, scoring several hits this time as Desjani bored in on her target.

Specter missiles leaped away from Dauntless , the entire volley aimed at one of the megacruisers, then the battle cruiser tore through the Covenant formation again, hammering the megacruiser from which Mister Medal’s transmissions had come.

As Dauntless began another wide turn, her thrusters pushing her down and to starboard this time, Geary watched the Covenant flagship explode. Near the site of the flagship’s destruction, the megacruiser targeted with specter missiles had taken multiple hits on its stern and was spinning wildly away from the formation.

“One more run ought to do it,” Desjani said.

“Captain!” Lieutenant Castries called. “Escape pods are launching!”

“From which ship?” Desjani asked sharply.

“Um… all of them.”

Once again, Geary found himself watching his display in disbelief. The megacruiser badly hurt on the second firing run was spitting out escape pods, as was the megacruiser that had lost propulsion on this attack run. But so was the so-far-untouched last-surviving megacruiser, as were the three remaining corvettes. “They’re panicking.”

“They’re…?” Desjani gave him the look that meant his words made no sense to her.

“Their commander is dead. They may not even have known why he attacked us. Most of their ships have been destroyed. They know they’re outmatched in firepower, maneuverability, and tactical skill. They’re panicking.”

“What?” Desjani repeated. “That— What? They’ve taken losses, so they’re giving up?” She sounded far more confused than Yuon had been earlier.

Looking around the bridge, Geary saw the same incomprehension on the faces of everyone else. “They’ve never fought a real battle,” he said, speaking slowly. “Just practice fights, against fake enemies who probably always lost. Because no commander wants to lose, and in practice battles senior commanders always place themselves in charge of the ships playing their own side. This is the first time they’ve faced an enemy who didn’t cooperate with them, an enemy who wouldn’t roll over and play dead because that’s what the plan called for, an enemy experienced in real combat who played for keeps. This is the first time they’ve seen ships destroyed in battle, the first time they’ve seen comrades die, the first time their training and their weapons haven’t worked the way they were supposed to. Everything they’ve been told was right has turned out wrong, their officers probably have no idea what to do when things don’t go exactly according to plan, and discipline has simply disintegrated on those ships as everyone tries to save themselves.”

Desjani shook her head. “The next time they want to fight, they’d better be ready for a real fight. We could walk over these guys, couldn’t we? An Alliance fleet could wipe them out while they were still fainting at the sight of blood.” She sounded angry as well as contemptuous.

“If we wanted to,” Geary said. “Do you want to?”

“Hell, no. People who bail out of perfectly good warships aren’t worth the energy needed to put a hell lance through their escape pod.”

He could understand how the crews of the Covenant ships felt, their escape pods spreading out and away from the abandoned warships that plowed onward and, unless boarded by crews from some of the Sol shipping farther out toward the edge of the star system, would keep traveling outward until they were lost in the deep dark between stars. He could also understand how Desjani and her crew felt, hardened veterans who had sailed with Death too long to be shocked or surprised at his appearance among them. They knew war. The Covenant crews had known only parades and drills and practices with foreordained results. Dauntless had been built for war. The Covenant ships had been built for peace even though they had the outer shape of warships. When the crews and ships of the Alliance and the Covenant had met, the result had been inevitable.

Geary looked away from his display, wondering if this was indeed the last fight between the Alliance and the Covenant. “Envoy Charban, please ask the Dancers to rejoin us. We will be proceeding toward Old Earth as originally planned. Senators Suva, Costa, and Sakai, Envoy Rione, the engagement is over. Sol Star System is no longer menaced by an occupying military force, and the threat to the Alliance governmental representatives has been eliminated.” He threw that in just to remind the senators that they had been targets, too. “We will continue en route Old Earth.”

The Dancers were already coming back toward Dauntless , their ships moving in a pattern that might have meaning to the aliens but remained incomprehensible to humans.

“They want to go to the surface,” Rione said. She was leaning back in her seat in the conference room as if she didn’t have the endurance left to stand.

“The surface,” Geary repeated. “The Dancers went to send someone down to the surface of Old Earth.”

“Yes. Sol Star System authorities say they’ll have to debate and discuss the issue and asked us to wait. The government controlling that portion of Old Earth where Kansas is located, though, has invited us to land. They’re eager for the prestige of being the site of the arrival of the Dancers.” Rione looked at the image of Old Earth slowly rotating above the conference table. Dauntless and the Dancer ships were in orbit about that fabled planet, looking down on white clouds, blue oceans, and large continents that every human had seen images of but relatively few alive had actually gazed upon in person. Few lights showed on the parts of the globe experiencing night, but that was normal. Light sent outward and upward served no purpose but waste. Of more importance were the full-spectrum images that showed cities and towns in a density that was shocking to those from worlds where the human presence had come much later.