Jack Campbell - Leviathan

“You only bet on sure things?” Geary asked.

“If you call that betting, yes, Admiral. I can’t help it if any other parties to the transaction think there’s any chance that they might win.”

Desjani shook her head, looking briefly upward as if beseeching aid. “Do you regard the proposed maneuvers as a sure thing, Master Chief?”

Gioninni hesitated only a moment longer, then nodded vigorously. “Close enough, Captain. I’d give it a shot. But, I have to say, if there is any interference with the automated systems, if there is anyone deciding they need to nudge this or that a little because they think the approach isn’t quite right, then all bets are off. There are things humans do really well, and things we do a lot better than automated systems, but something like this calls for split-second timing that is a bit beyond our capabilities.”

“Thank you. We’ll keep that in mind, Master Chief.” Desjani dismissed the two chiefs, then looked at Geary. “Let’s do it, Admiral.”

Inputting the instructions to the maneuvering systems was almost too simple. The three Alliance formations were here, here, and here, traveling along these vectors. Alter their vectors so that all three pass through the same intercept point with the oncoming dark ships at almost exactly the same time. Specify that the formation built around Dauntless be fractionally in the lead until the last possible moment, when a burst of acceleration from the battleships would push them ahead of Dauntless by just less than a second.

The maneuvering systems contemplated the problem for all of two seconds before providing the necessary maneuvers.

Geary studied the results, glancing at Desjani for her opinion.

She shrugged. “Master Chief Gioninni is right. This has to be a hands-off set of maneuvers. The solution looks fine to me, but there is a really tiny margin of error.”

“We can’t help that. We have to hit the dark ships hard before the battle cruisers get close enough to engage us. This may be our only chance to inflict a nasty blow on the dark battleships.”

Geary ordered the maneuvering commands sent to every ship in his fleet. “All units in First Fleet, this is Admiral Geary. You are receiving sets of automated maneuvering orders which must be implemented precisely. No variations and no interference are permitted. These are to be hands-off maneuvers. Captain Armus, Captain Jane Geary,” he said, naming the commanders of Colossus and Dreadnaught , who were also in charge of the two battleship formations, “I am counting on your formations inflicting devastating damage on the dark ships along our path through the enemy formation. While the enemy is targeting Dauntless and the ships with her, you need to blow a hole through the enemy formation that the battle cruisers will exploit.”

“Understood,” Captain Jane Geary replied.

“The battleships will be leading the way?” Captain Armus asked, deliberately needling the battle cruiser commanders who were used to being at the forefront of action.

“That is correct,” Geary said, while Desjani quietly fumed beside him.

“We will be happy to ease the path of our comrades on the battle cruisers,” Armus concluded. The dour battleship captain did not smile often, but he seemed to be having trouble not doing so now. “Understood, Admiral.”

The automated maneuvers cut in, every ship in the Alliance force shifting vector, some accelerating as well as altering their track through space. The three diamonds of Geary’s subformations compressed into narrower wedges, all three now on paths that were rapidly bringing them together.

Geary itched to issue commands, to insert himself directly into the maneuvers. But there were times to do that and times to trust in the equipment that men and women had painstakingly created. “We rarely notice them, do we?” he said to Desjani.

She gave him a questioning look, then nodded. “You mean the automated systems? All of the stuff we depend on to keep this ship working?”

“Yeah. We only notice it when it breaks or malfunctions in some ways. The rest of the time, it’s just there.”

“That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Desjani replied. “Transparent technology. It works without anyone having to worry about it or having to master arcane commands and rules. Sure, it needs a lot of tender, loving care and the occasional hard kick in the rear to keep it working right, but that’s why we have our enlisted specialists aboard, to provide the help the automated systems need so they can help humans kill each other.”

“You are such a romantic soul,” Geary said, watching the time to contact with the enemy scrolling down rapidly. “I wonder how the dark ships handle maintenance and repair?”

“They must have automated systems to look after the automated systems. And other automated systems to look after the automated systems that look after the automated systems. And maybe another layer beyond to look after those automated systems. Can you imagine the complexity and the cost of all that?”

“Not easily.” He kept his eyes on his display, where the movements of every Alliance ship exactly matched their planned vectors, two hundred warships moving in a complex dance that would soon end in a brutal climax.

Hands off. Having set it up, all he could do now was watch.

“Five minutes to contact,” Lieutenant Castries said, echoing the information on Geary’s display.

“Very well.” Desjani sat back in her command seat as if relaxed, but the expression she turned toward Geary betrayed some worry. “Isn’t this a little last-ditch and desperate for this stage of the battle, Admiral?” she murmured, too low for anyone else to hear.

“We need to hit them really hard this time,” he repeated.

“That should happen, but if the timing of our battleships is off by even a second, you and I and everyone else aboard Dauntless will never know it. We’ll take so many hits that the only thing left will be a cloud of dust heading really fast along our last vector.”

“I know.” He had seen just that happen too many times already to too many warships, and he knew that Tanya had seen a lot more ships die in combat than he had. “If that happens, at least what used to be you and me will be part of the same dust cloud.”

“Wow. Is that what you consider romantic, Admiral?”

“It’s the best I’ve got at the moment, Captain.”

She kept her eyes on her display, smiling. “See you on the other side.” Then, much louder, Desjani called out to the watch-standers. “I want every shot to hit. Take out as many of these soulless bastards as we can.”

“Ready, Captain,” the watch-standers chorused.

Geary could hear the tension in their voices but also the determination. He understood the mixed emotions because he felt them himself. Any firing pass was a gamble. No matter how good the maneuvering systems were at avoiding collisions, the fact remained that even the smallest error could result in two warships running into each other at velocities that instantly reduced both to tiny fragments. Or the enemy might choose to target your ship in particular, or a lucky hit might penetrate to a critical area, or…

Some things were not worth worrying about, not when you couldn’t do a thing about them.

But this was a particularly risky firing pass, and everyone knew it.

“One minute to intercept,” Lieutenant Castries called out, her voice almost cracking on the first word but steadying and coming out clear and firm at the end.

The six formations were rapidly converging, Geary’s three formations headed for that single point where the center of the dark ship main formation would be, and the dark ships coming on steadily, with the smaller formations on either side sliding closer to the main body.