Jack Campbell - Leviathan

“Dr. Nasr said they could run into problems if they encountered new situations,” Geary said. “New limitations, or possibilities they create by working around old limitations. But unless those problems cause their weapons to go off-line, they probably won’t help us much.”

He was studying his display again, seeing the dark battleship formation, a little smaller now, the two subformations on either side remaining close, as it came up and around to head back toward an intercept with the Alliance warships. The dark battleships had been moving a lot slower, and so could turn in much less distance, though that was a relative term given how huge the turns were when ships were moving at appreciable fractions of the speed of light. The dark ships were steadying out earlier than Geary’s ships were, heading along a flat curve to meet up with the Alliance warships as they cleared the top of their own turn.

The enemy was clearly aiming to hit the Alliance formations head-on again, and this time he couldn’t count on any dark ships holding their fire while waiting for the right target to get within range. “They’re still going at a lot less velocity, so they can keep turning inside our own maneuvers,” he grumbled.

It left only one good option, to change velocity just prior to the dark ships’ intercepting his formations, aiming to throw off the enemy plans and enabling Geary to hopefully hit a portion of the dark ships while the rest of them were unable to engage the Alliance ships.

With plenty of time left before both sides clawed through their vast turns, Geary rearranged his formations, keeping three of them, but changing the diamonds to discs aligned along the path the ships were taking.

Trying to judge the right moment for the next maneuvers, he watched the movements of ships through space, the great arcs marking the projected paths of his formations and the dark battleship formations, as well as the flat curve of the route of the dark battle cruisers racing to reach the scene of the fighting. “All units in First Fleet, reduce propulsion to forty percent maximum at time three six.”

The propulsion of the Alliance warships had been pushing them around the arc, altering the direction of movement, the more force, the tighter the turn, limited by how much stress the ships and crews could stand and how much push the main propulsion units could provide. Even with the ships’ inertial dampers straining at full capability, both ships and crews had been feeling some of the pressure of the forces tearing at them.

As the dark ships raced toward another intercept, the force on Geary’s ships abruptly lessened as the main propulsion units on the warships throttled back in accordance with his orders. Just as abruptly, the arc of the turn the ships were going through shifted, growing wider, the Alliance warships swinging outward farther than they had been moments earlier.

The dark ships, aiming for where the Alliance ships should have been, were now on paths that would take them just under the Alliance formations, whose flattened discs would give nearly every Alliance warship a decent shot at the enemy. Ideally, if Geary had called it right, the top edge of the dark ship formations would be within range of the Alliance warships’ weapons. The Alliance warships themselves were traveling along the arc, but their bows, with the majority of their weaponry and their strongest shields and armor, were pointed toward where the enemy ships would pass.

If this pass worked, it would be perfect.

The moment came, and went.

“No engagement,” Lieutenant Yuon reported, sounding as if he were responsible for the failure.

“The dark ships thought you were going to accelerate again and tighten our turn,” Desjani said as she studied the playback from the last encounter. “They tried to compensate for that, we both went in different directions, and nobody was within range of anybody.”

“I considered tightening the turn,” Geary said. “It could have gone either way. Let’s try again.” He activated the fleetwide command net. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, pivot one four zero degrees up, accelerate to point one light speed.”

The Alliance warships swung in place, then lit off their main propulsion again at a higher intensity. Their paths began to recurve, twisting up along the opposite direction of the previous turn, but higher, aiming toward where the dark ships were also slewing about and maneuvering for another intercept.

“Have engineering check something for me,” Desjani called to her watch-standers. “I want to know what they can tell me about the main propulsion signatures on the dark ships.”

The answer came within a minute. “Engineering has been running that analysis, Captain. They say the signatures on the dark ships are identical to those on our main propulsion units.”

“But the dark ships have consistently been maneuvering harder than we do,” Desjani said. “It’s not because their main propulsion units have more capability than ours? They’re just using more thrust?”

“Yes, Captain. They’re burning their main drives hotter and longer to get more thrust out of them.”

“Thank you.” Desjani glanced at Geary. “Can we use that?”

“I don’t know.” Geary gestured toward the virtual tiles hanging in the air near his command seat that listed the status of all of his ships, updating every time any change took place. “They’re forcing us to maneuver hard as well. As hard as we can, anyway. I can’t let them run rings around us.”

“So they’re burning fuel cells faster, but they’re also forcing us to do the same.”

“Yeah. And we don’t know how big their fuel cell reserves are. Did the builders use the same levels as on our ships, or did they add extra stockpiles?”

Desjani made a face. “One of those agents we’re holding might know. How about if we stick them on the bow of Dauntless before our next engagement with the dark ships? Just to encourage them to talk.”

“We can’t do that, Tanya.”

“I wasn’t going to put them out there in their shirtsleeves. I’d put them in survival suits,” she said. “I wonder if duct tape would hold them on to the outer hull? We could find out.”

“Still can’t do it,” Geary said. “But I wish we could.”

This time, the two formations were racing toward an intercept in which both would be at an angle to the other, meeting partway through their turns. Once again, Geary faced the question of whether to try to tighten the turn or to slack off on acceleration and widen it. Another look at the damage status of some of his ships, Fearless and Incredible in particular, led him to decide to once again ease off acceleration just before contact.

“I should be used to the waits between firing runs by now,” Geary murmured as he watched the apparently slow movement of both forces through the immense distances of space.

“I’m not,” Desjani commented, “and I’ve been doing it longer than you have, old man.”

“Excuse me?”

“Old man, sir .”

“That’s better.” A touch of the comm controls. “All units in First Fleet, go to forty-four percent propulsion at time one four.”

In the last moments before contact, the Alliance warships swung a little wider, once again aiming for the upper portion of the dark ship formation.

“No engagement,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “No ships were within range of the enemy during the pass.”

“Damn,” Geary got out in a whisper. “Let’s try this different.” He swung the battle cruisers up again, curving back once more, but both of his battleship formations went out to the sides and then up, the three formations bracketing the future path of the dark ships also coming back in another upward curve.