Jack Campbell - Invincible

Rione’s expression became like stone, but when she leaned in close to talk to him, her voice held plenty of emotion. “Dammit, listen to me, Black Jack . You may think that you can do anything you want right now, but the truth is that a wrong step could destroy everything.”

“I am very much aware of that,” Geary replied, keeping his own voice low. “I am also aware that the surest way to bring about a real mutiny in this fleet is to order my ships to assist the Syndicate Worlds in regaining control here. Even if I didn’t find that morally repugnant, my own fleet wouldn’t follow such orders, not even from Black Jack.”

She pointed a rigid finger at his display. “Have you wondered why Boyens is hanging around that hypernet gate, Admiral?”

“He’s there so that if the enigmas crush the locals, Boyens and his flotilla can pretend to put up a gallant fight, then hyper out of here,” Geary replied.

“That’s an option, but Boyens knows that hypernet gate has a safe-fail mechanism on it. He knows he could cause it to collapse without risking his own flotilla, and he has a battleship with him to bring that about if we don’t do as he wants.”

That was an ugly possibility. The hypernet gate at Midway was a critical element in the importance of this star system to the Alliance. If the Syndics lost control of the star system, they would have no reason to let that gate remain intact. “I can—” What? Threaten to attack an official Syndicate Worlds’ flotilla despite the peace treaty? Start the war again? How much enthusiasm would the war-weary populace of the Alliance have for that course of action?

“How do you know,” Rione pressed him with her words, “that the enigmas will attack when they see what you have here? Isn’t this a substantial force? More than they would want to face?”

“It’s not that substantial,” Geary said. “Not compared to them. A number of the warships in this force have also been battered in previous engagements, and the enigmas will be able to spot that damage. If they think—” He paused again as a new thought struck. “Captain Desjani, have we ever figured out just how much detail the enigmas can transmit using their faster-than-light communications?”

She shook her head, pointedly ignoring Rione’s presence. “No. Basic information, as far as we know. I was talking to my comm officer about that, and he said that if the enigmas had routine, complex, faster-than-light communication, we should have been able to see signs of that by what wasn’t visible to us when we went through their territory. We wouldn’t see all of the routine message traffic flying between parts of star systems. But the comm traffic in enigma star systems was about at the level we would expect, which implies they can send some data, but not a lot, and still depend on regular light-speed comms for most traffic.”

“Which would mean the enigmas here would know the Alliance fleet was coming but not necessarily how many ships that involved.”

“They’d know—” Desjani grinned. “They’d know what showed up here. So the enigmas here might think the bear-cows got all of our battleships and heavy cruisers? That only our fastest ships got away?”

“Maybe. If the enigmas don’t know the battleships and heavy cruisers are coming on behind, they’ll be overconfident, thinking our strength has really been whittled down already. But if the enigmas do know our battleships and heavy cruisers are coming, they’ll know they have to try to beat this formation before we get those reinforcements,” Geary added.

“Which will encourage the enigmas to attack as quickly as possible,” Desjani concluded.

Rione had listened, and now her gaze was withdrawn, her expression intent as she thought. “The enigmas here might or might not know about the captured bear-cow warship, and might or might not know about the six spider-wolf ships coming here. But the Syndicate forces and the rebellious forces will not know either of those things.”

Geary smiled. “Do you think they might throw off CEO Boyens’s calculations?”

“They might well, Admiral. The importance of getting that information to the government on Prime might override any plan by Boyens to blackmail us by threatening the hypernet gate. Still, try not to destroy too much of this star system.”

“I’ll do my best, Madam Emissary.”

Desjani had lost her smile as she looked at Geary. “Hey, Admiral, have you considered what the enigmas might do when they see that Kick superbattleship? Because that superbattleship doesn’t work any more than one of those Syndic battleships does. Right now it’s only military function is RBRSRIT.”

“RBRSRIT?” Geary asked.

“Really Big Really Slow Really Inviting Target.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. At least our superbattleship that doesn’t work isn’t here yet. And don’t forget, even though dreaming up new acronyms to describe that ship seems to have become everyone’s favorite hobby in the fleet, she’s called Invincible now.”

“I still don’t feel good about that.”

The enigmas should have seen them coming at around half an hour after the Alliance fleet arrived at the jump point. Then the enigmas would very likely have begun accelerating toward the Alliance ships, while Geary had already pushed up his own velocity as he headed right for an intercept with the enigmas. On a display showing large reaches of the star system, the track of the Alliance fleet was a vast curve, heading in toward the star and the place where the enigma formation had awaited them.

The distance between the two forces should be closing rapidly, unless the enigmas had defied all expectations and instead charged in another direction. If the enigmas moved straight for the hypernet gate, they could still collapse it before Geary’s pursuit force could get there.

Geary tried to look unconcerned as the last minutes elapsed before they should see the enigma reaction to their arrival. Much farther away, none of the Syndicate or rebel forces in this star system would see anything for almost another hour.

His display updated in a flurry of new information as the light from the enigma reaction finally reached the fleet. Desjani’s lips drew back in a fierce grin. “Here they come. Just as predicted.”

The enigmas were accelerating along a vector clearly aimed to meet Geary’s forces, the alien ships showing off their impressive maneuverability as they increased speed at a rate the human ships couldn’t match.

The estimated time to intercept kept updating, scrolling downward fast as the velocity of the enigma ships kept increasing. Then there came a sudden shift, the alien ships ceasing their acceleration. “They saw us come up to point one five light speed,” Desjani said. “So they stopped at… point one six light speed. If we both hold that, we’ll meet in sixty-five minutes. Nobody’s going to get any hits if we pass each other at that velocity, though.”

Geary nodded, knowing he would have to reduce the velocity of his ships at some point before that intercept so his fire control systems would have a decent chance of scoring hits on the enigmas. The enigmas would also slow down to give themselves good shots so—

Would they?

That’s what human warships would do. But he wasn’t dealing with human warships, human commanders, human tactics.

Geary watched the enigmas coming, fast and on a direct intercept with the Alliance formation, an ugly certainty growing in him. They had seen something of enigma tactics in the long journey through enigma space. They knew what the enigmas would do. Straight, stand-up fights weren’t how the enigmas liked doing things. It wasn’t that they lacked courage or feared death. They just did things differently than humans might choose to do them. And one of the things the enigmas had done was… “They’re going to ram.”