Jack Campbell - Leviathan

Of course. They’ll aim at Dauntless . They’ll throw everything they’ve got at her. “I’m going to give them what they want,” Geary said. “A lot of clean shots at Dauntless .”

Desjani twisted her head rapidly to stare at him. “I’m waiting to hear the rest of the plan, Admiral.”

He pointed. “We go through here. The center of the dark ship formation. Not a glancing blow. We aim to go through them.”

Desjani nodded. “Then what, Admiral? Because the dark ships won’t plan any maneuvers if we come in aimed at that spot. They’ll know even if we make a last-second alteration of vector, we won’t be able to get clear of their weapons’ engagement envelopes.”

“Exactly. I want them targeted on Dauntless , and I want them waiting to get their shots. We’re going to refine what I told the heavy cruisers to do at Varandal.”

“Messing with the dark ships’ targeting priorities?”

“Exactly.” He indicated the other two formations of his fleet. “We’ll maneuver so that our battleship formations will be coming in at the same point in the dark ship formation, at the same time.”

“So our battleships can target the dark ships while they target Dauntless ?” Desjani nodded again, her expression revealing no emotion. “It’s a smart plan. Which other ship will you be transferring to before that?”

“I’m staying aboard Dauntless .”

“No, you are not, Admiral! Because Dauntless will not survive that firing pass! There is no possible way, and you must survive. I recommend moving to Leviathan because Captain Tulev—”

“Tanya.” Geary pointed to his formations again. “The dark ships will target Dauntless . As long as Dauntless remains a priority target, they will not shift targets, and they will hold fire waiting to hit her. How long does it take our fire-control systems to reprioritize targets? About a second?”

“About that,” Desjani said. “Maybe a little longer. It depends on the complexity of the firing solutions and the relative velocity of the engagement.”

“My idea is to bring in our three formations so they intercept the dark ships as close to simultaneously as possible, but with the formation containing Dauntless a fraction of a second in the lead, and at the last possible moment accelerating our battleships so they switch lead with the battle cruisers, coming in a fraction of a second before Dauntless .”

She stared at him. “So the dark ships are holding their fire, waiting to hit Dauntless , while our battleships hit them a fraction of a second earlier?”

“Yes,” Geary said. “The dark ships don’t get their shots off because we hit them just before they fire.”

“Can you handle a maneuver like that?”

“No. But our maneuvering systems can, right? This is close to a straight-on intercept, without much deflection to worry about, and our three subformations are close together and moving along nearly the same vectors. Our automated maneuvering systems can make it work.” He paused. “I think it should work with the fire-control systems of the dark ships, which are identical to ours in every way that matters.”

“Why don’t we check on that?” Desjani gestured to Lieutenant Yuon. “Have Senior Chief Tarrani get in touch with me immediately.”

It took less than thirty seconds for Senior Chief Tarrani’s image to appear before Desjani. “Yes, Captain?”

“I’ve got a question about our fire-control systems, Senior Chief,” Desjani said. She explained Geary’s plan. “Can that work?”

Tarrani’s expression had shifted from puzzled to startled to admiring to considering. She took a few moments to answer. “Based on the way our fire-control systems work, Captain, the answer is yes. Keep the time differential down to less than a second, and the fire-control systems will not shift targets. They won’t change targeting priority based on that small an interval because recalculating time to fire and sending commands throughout the ship to shift weapon firing times takes just over one second. If we can cut the approaches of our three formations that fine, it will work. The dark ship fire-control systems will not reprioritize based on that small an interval.”

“You realize that you’re betting not just your butt but your life on that answer?” Desjani asked.

“Yes, Captain, I realize that. If you can make the maneuvering systems pull it off, then it will work. If it doesn’t work, it won’t be because I didn’t give you a good call on what the fire-control systems will do. It’ll be because the maneuvering systems screwed up their solutions.”

“I’ll see what Chief Busek says,” Desjani began.

“Uh, Captain, Chief Busek is pretty good, but she came up pretty fast because of the losses on her previous ships and those we took in engineering in the last year. Her experience is a bit limited,” Senior Chief Tarrani explained. “Yes, I’d ask her, but I’d also ask the person aboard the ship who has the most experience with maneuvering systems.”

“And that would be?” Desjani asked in the manner of someone who already suspected the answer.

“Master Chief Gioninni, Captain.”

“Naturally. Inform Master Chief Gioninni and Chief Busek that I need to hear from them immediately.”

Tarrani’s image vanished, to be replaced within a few seconds by the hefty figure of Master Chief Gioninni and the stick-thin shape of Chief Busek. Desjani once again explained what was intended. “Can the maneuvering systems make this happen?”

Chief Busek began to nod, paused, then glanced at Master Chief Gioninni. “Captain, I think the answer is yes, but I would like to hear the Master Chief’s opinion.”

Gioninni smiled with serene certainty. “We’re doing point one five light right now? And the enemy is coming at us at point zero five light?”

“That’s right, Master Chief,” Geary said. “The dark ships are holding their velocity down to ensure they get good fire-control solutions on us when we encounter them.”

“Which means we’ll meet them at a combined relative velocity of point two light,” Gioninni concluded. “That’s important, because the same relativity junk that messes with our fire-control systems can also throw off our maneuvering systems. But point two light is copacetic. Our systems can see precisely enough at that velocity to cut everything as fine as they have to. Yes, Captain, the maneuvering systems can do it. In theory.”

“In theory?” Desjani pressed.

“Well, Captain, you know how it is,” Gioninni explained. “There’s theory, and then there’s the real universe. The maneuvering systems can calculate those approaches and that final acceleration by the battleship formations so that it will play out exactly like you want. But the maneuvering systems can’t tell if the dark ships might do something a little different, or if the guide ship on one of the battleship formations might have a slight hiccup in its main propulsion when the acceleration burst order comes down, or something like that. Yes, our systems can do it, but there isn’t any one hundred percent guarantee that something as precise as that will not be impacted by some sort of friction in the process.”

“It wouldn’t take much friction,” Chief Busek offered. “But it should work.”

“Would you bet your butt on it?” Desjani asked.

Chief Busek hesitated a moment, then nodded.

Master Chief Gioninni scratched his head, thinking. “I’m not naturally the gambling type, Captain—”

“ You’re not the gambling type?” Desjani asked with obvious skepticism.

“No, ma’am,” Gioninni protested. “Gambling is a game of chance. There’s risk and uncertainty as to whether or not you’ll win. I never gamble, Captain.”