Jack Campbell - Leviathan

He didn’t say what everyone else already knew. The dark battle cruisers could hit Dauntless and the other Alliance battle cruisers hard as well in such an encounter.

Eleven hours. He called the other ships in the fleet, telling them what he intended. It was a measure of how much he had influenced the fleet that no one protested about “fleeing” to Varandal. Or perhaps the commanding officers of Geary’s ships could read the situation and had no particular desire to die fighting against weapons the Alliance itself had created. Not unless they had a good chance of victory, which did not exist at Bhavan.

His sense that he was on top of the situation lasted for another twenty minutes.

“The dark ship formations are altering vectors,” Lieutenant Yuon said as alerts sounded on everyone’s displays.

“Where are they going?” Desjani demanded.

“They’re swinging starboard, as if they intend heading in-system,” Yuon said. “I think… Captain, I think they’re heading to intercept the primary inhabited planet in its orbit.”

“Hell.” Geary rubbed his forehead, thinking through options. “They’re moving to bombard the planet.”

“If they wanted to hit that planet, they could have launched their bombardment from where they were without changing course,” Desjani protested.

“Not if they want to go into low orbit about it and methodically pound it into an inferno unsuited for human life,” Geary said. “They want to force me to reengage them. They’ve been programmed with knowledge of my own actions during the engagements since I took command, so they know that Black Jack will not stand by while they wipe out the human population in Bhavan.”

She shook her head. “Isn’t this more likely to be a bluff? We think the dark ships identify Bhavan as a star system friendly to them. If we just keep heading for the jump point, won’t they drop the threat to that planet and try something else?”

“No,” Geary said. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Look what they did at Atalia and Indras. They are either programmed to be ruthless when they think it is necessary, or their thinking has gone off the rails, and they are justifying to themselves any action they want to take. They have targeted escape pods, they have targeted civil populations, they have even gone after a clearly Alliance installation like Ambaru Station.”

She frowned, thinking, then looked away. “Or, they may be programmed like Black Jack, but as you’ve already noticed, in addition to reflecting your own actions since assuming command of the fleet, they also sometimes act like the Black Jack we were all expecting before you really came back.”

Geary stared at his display, feeling a knot in his guts. “The Black Jack who would tell you that everything you had been doing in the war was right and would help you do more of it?”

“That’s the guy,” Desjani agreed. “I’m thinking how I would be looking at this situation before you showed up. You remember me then, I assume.”

“Yes, Captain, I do. The officer who shocked me by expressing disappointment that she could not employ null fields against inhabited planets.”

“Yeah. Her. It’s a good thing she didn’t know what hypernet gates could do to enemy star systems, isn’t it? If I put myself back into that mind-set, I know that I want the enemy commander to engage me. I know that this enemy commander will protect planets that he believes are really threatened. If he doesn’t respond to the threat to attack a planet, it would be because he doesn’t think I’d really do it. So I need to do it, I need to hammer that planet into total ruin, to ensure that next time the enemy commander doesn’t assume I am bluffing.

“I still don’t think that Admiral Bloch would bombard Alliance planets. But I have been watching the maneuvers those dark ships are carrying out, and I am not seeing Admiral Bloch’s touch in any of them. And he has not responded to your attempts to communicate. No one has. That’s not like Admiral Bloch, who would be reveling in your predicament and enjoying telling Black Jack to surrender to him. Even if Admiral Bloch is present, I don’t think he is in command of the dark ships anymore.”

“Then you agree with me that this is not a bluff? That the only way to keep the dark ships from wiping out human life on that planet is to move to engage them again?”

Desjani did not hesitate this time. “Yes, sir, I agree.”

“I concur with your thinking, Captain, even though I wish we were both wrong. Dr. Nasr believes that the dark ship AIs may have warped their programming into a state where they are simply justifying whatever they want to do. He thinks there may still be some hard limits on their actions, but we don’t know what those are. Based on Indras and Atalia, bombarding civilian targets is no longer one of those limits.” Geary took another look at his display. “They may not turn to engage us as soon as we turn to engage them. They may want to lure us as far from the jump points here as possible before moving to intercept us again. That’s what I would do if I wanted to minimize the chance of any opponent’s escaping. I’ll give them what they want, and they will regret getting it. This time I will go after the nearest wing formation.” He touched his comm controls. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, turn starboard five four degrees, up zero two degrees.”

As his three formations turned, Geary issued additional orders, pivoting the diamond formations again so they were canted forward, the leading point higher than the trailing point, and facing down the vector they were traveling. Then more commands, spreading out the formations, so that the battle cruisers were out to port, then two light-seconds to starboard the first battleship formation, and two light-seconds beyond that the second battleship formation.

“What are we doing here?” Desjani asked, her eyes on the display before her.

“I want to see who the dark ships aim for,” Geary said.

“The battle cruisers. So we can’t outrun them. Just like last time.”

“Not if the dark ships expect their own battle cruisers to show up behind us. Their best move in that case, the move I would make, is to concentrate everything they have on one of our battleship formations and inflict so much damage on it that it is rendered useless.”

They waited. On their current vectors, Geary’s ships would not catch the dark ships for days. Everyone knew that if the dark ships intended bombarding the primary inhabited world at Bhavan, they would have ample opportunity to do so. But no one said that out loud.

Even if the dark ships turned onto a direct intercept right now, it would take them nearly an hour to close the distance to Geary’s ships. If they waited, it might be several hours at least before anything else happened.

He felt a need for some time to think without eyes upon him, yet the solitude of his stateroom felt wrong. He also needed inspiration, and where could he find that?

Geary realized he knew somewhere that might help, and stood up. “You know,” he commented to Desjani, “it’s been too long since I talked to my ancestors.”

“Say hi to them for me,” she replied.

Geary walked to the special rooms near the center of Dauntless set aside for crew members to worship however and whomever they wished. Crew members saw him going that way, so he knew word would spread. He hated making a public spectacle of such an errand, but surely his ancestors would understand the need.

In one of the small rooms, Geary sat down on the hard, wooden bench and lit the single candle before him, watching the flame dance. You know what I am fighting, he thought. Please tell me what I need to do. I don’t want more people to die, especially men and women under my command. The dark ships must have more weaknesses that I can exploit. Weaknesses that will compensate in some measure for their advantages. I already feel confident that what I am doing is right, but I wouldn’t mind reassurance on those grounds, either.