Jack Campbell - Invincible

Desjani had that unhappy look again.

“We can’t catch them,” he told her.

“I know that.”

“The Syndics might knock them back toward us.”

She brightened a little. “Yeah. They might. Even Boyens might be able to handle fourteen enigma ships when he has a battleship and twenty other Syndic warships under his control.”

Geary nodded, thinking that they should have heard from Boyens by now if he had sent a message once he saw Geary’s fleet. But Boyens, it seemed, was keeping tight-lipped for the moment.

The battle hadn’t ended, and neither had the chase; but the ships of the pursuit force relaxed their combat status, giving their crews a chance to rest and to eat decent meals. Far back toward the jump point they had used from Pele, the main-body formation came stolidly onward, not reacting as the eleven fleeing enigma ships en route to the jump point raced past well out of range of the main-body warships. Those enigmas had had enough, just as Charban had guessed.

After several hours, another message came in from the inhabited planet, once again showing Iceni and Drakon. Both were doing a very good job of trying not to look like people who had just had death sentences unexpectedly commuted. “We are in your debt again, Admiral Geary. I don’t know the nature of your allies, but we owe them an immense debt as well.”

“Wait until she gets a look at them,” Desjani commented.

“My warships,” Iceni continued, “will engage the enigmas heading for my battleship. I cannot control the actions of the flotilla near the hypernet gate. Do not trust that the flotilla there will act in our interest, Admiral. CEO Boyens, their commander, is known to you. If you make your orders clear to him, he may hesitate to act contrary to them. It is essential that Boyens understands that he is not in control of this star system and does not dictate what will happen here.

“For the people, Iceni, out.”

“She didn’t let that General Drakon talk this time,” Desjani observed.

“Maybe he didn’t have anything to say,” Geary said.

“That doesn’t often stop people from talking.” Desjani grinned. “Though he did look like the type who doesn’t run his mouth. Did you notice that Iceni called her units warships instead of mobile forces? And that she said ‘my’ battleship?”

“Yes. We’ll see what Lieutenant Iger and Emissary Rione make of that.” He considered his options. “Iceni clearly wants me to tell Boyens what to do.”

“She wants Boyens to know that you’re the big dog in this star system,” Desjani agreed. “That serves us and her, doesn’t it?”

“Not if it puts us in the middle between her and Boyens.” He thought a little longer, then tapped his comm controls. “CEO Boyens, this is Admiral Geary. The small group of enigma warships headed for the gas giant will be engaged by the forces in that region. The remaining fourteen enigma warships heading toward you must be halted before they can damage the hypernet gate by weapons fire or ramming. My ships will continue their pursuit and attack any enigma vessel whenever opportunity offers. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

Whatever Boyens thought of events and the messages being sent him, he still didn’t send any messages back to Geary, and his flotilla remained in the same orbit near the hypernet gate. On the other hand, Kommodor Marphissa sent Geary several updates, advising him of her planned vector for her flotilla to intercept the five enigma warships short of the gas giant, then providing new information when adjustments were required. Geary responded with a suggestion on employment of the two heavy cruisers at the gas giant, trying to phrase his words so that they didn’t come across as orders but still strongly urged action. “She knows her stuff,” Geary commented, “but the Kommodor seems to lack experience.”

“Experience in how we fight,” Desjani said. “Look how she keeps updating you. That’s Syndic-style command and control. But she’s not dependent on being told what to do. Her maneuvering solutions are technically good even if they’re not things of beauty.”

“You’ve just been spoiled by the spider-wolves.” Another thing he had never expected to be saying to anyone.

“Damn right.” Desjani twisted her mouth in a wry grin. “We’re going to watch the Syndics, the former Syndics, that is, fight somebody else. I’ve never had the chance to do that. But I have to warn you, based on what she’s doing against these enigmas, that Kommodor wouldn’t be able to handle Boyens’s flotilla with what she’s got.”

“But you still think it would be a mistake for me to try to teach them anything.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Is my opinion clear?”

“It is,” Geary said. Until he could find good arguments against her points, he couldn’t debate Desjani on the matter.

It took six more hours before Kommodor Marphissa’s flotilla rushed into contact with the enigmas, the two heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and twelve Hunter-Killers splitting just before the intercept so they could hit all of the spread-out enigma ships. Two of the five enigma ships were knocked out, and a third hit badly enough that it lost maneuvering control, spinning off its track at an angle to its former course.

The flotilla partially re-formed, leaving three of the light cruisers to go after the damaged enigma ship, the rest curving around in an up-and-over loop to chase the two remaining enigmas heading for the gas giant. Geary watched with mixed anger and frustration as those two enigma ships finally launched bombardment projectiles at the orbital docks and the battleship, then themselves whipped down and around to avoid an intercept by the last two heavy cruisers as they came on from the area of the space docks.

“Thirty-five minutes until that Syndic bombardment hits the orbital facility and the—” Lieutenant Castries paused. “Um, they’re moving.”

Geary squinted at his display. The battleship had lit off its main propulsion at partial power but remained fastened to the orbital dock. “He’s going to rip it apart. The dock can’t take that kind of stress.”

But as they watched, the battleship’s propulsion kept straining without tearing the ship and part of the dock loose from the larger structure. “Captain Smythe’s ships are almost a light-hour behind us,” Geary said. “Do we have any engineers here who can talk to us about what we’re seeing?”

“Engineering,” Desjani ordered that watch-stander, “I need anyone with structural stress experience in large orbiting structures to contact the bridge right away.”

It was perhaps no surprise that within a minute, the robust figure of Master Chief Gioninni appeared. “Yes, Captain?”

“You’ve worked on large orbiting structures, Master Chief?”

“I’ve worked on everything, Captain. What do you need?”

She pointed to the displays. “Can they do that?”

Gioninni squinted at the battleship stubbornly pulling at the vastly-more-massive orbital dock. “They are doing it, Captain. Shouldn’t be able to, though.” The master chief’s face twisted as he concentrated. “You know what they must have done, Captain? They must have figured out where the stress would concentrate on that structure when the battleship started yanking on it, and they jury-rigged heavy-duty reinforcement for those places and areas.”

“They could do that?” Desjani questioned.

“They got the stuff they need, Captain. That’s an orbital shipyard. Not a big, fantastolous one like the shipyards we trashed at Sancere, but it is a shipyard. That means they have the industrial equipment and the materials they’d need to do that kind of thing. All they needed was enough time.”