Cradle of War (A Captain's Crucible Book 3) (22 page)

J
onathan returned to the berthing area so he could feel like he had some semblance of privacy. On the way he retrieved some of the fresh gruel his Raakarr hosts had left for him in the airlock and then he cloistered himself in the psi-shielded tent to eat it. When he was done, he donned his helmet once more and tapped in Captains Rodriguez and Rail via Dragonfly 1. Audio only. He then explained his battle plan in full.

“I don’t like it,” Rail said when he finished. “You risk the
Talon
, our prize. The only fully intact alien vessel we’ve captured, complete with crew.”

Jonathan didn’t consider the
Talon
a prize, nor her crew their prisoners, but Captain Rail had chosen to align with the AIs on that point. Jonathan had ceased debating her and the AIs on the issue, as it wasn’t up to any of them: if the NAVCENT senior command wanted to throw away a potential alliance with an opposing faction of the alien race, that was certainly their prerogative. Perhaps Valor was wise to keep Jonathan as a prisoner. Then again, he doubted his captivity would sway the senior command toward an alliance—it was the promise of technology, and a map of key outposts and colonies in Raakarr territory, that would likely do the trick.

“A better plan would involve the
Talon
skirting the enemy fleet while the
Artemis
and
Galilei
provided a diversion,” Rail continued. “Race her to the Slipstream and seek asylum in the uncontested space beyond. I’d rather you sacrificed our vessels to get the
Talon
through, than risk its destruction. “

“I appreciate that,” Jonathan said. “But the risk will be minimal. If anything goes wrong, we can simply retreat. The enemy can’t outrun the
Talon
. Our ship has the same maximum speed as all of their vessels.”

“Unless you take a hit to one of your reactors during the flyby,” Rail said.

“We won’t,” Jonathan said. “Our biggest problem will be convincing the United Systems vessels not to fire on us.” He was being sarcastic, of course, as that wouldn’t prove a problem, not with the corvettes in tow. At least, that was the hope.

“We all know battles are unpredictable,” Rail transmitted. “Fluidic. Chaotic. Plans must change in real time, along with the changing battle space. What seems like a minimal risk to the
Talon
now, could at any point become a major risk during actual combat. Skirt the enemy fleet, Captain. Let the
Galilei
and
Artemis
distract the enemy.”

Jonathan sighed. “Even if we attempt to skirt the main enemy fleet, once it becomes apparent we’re rushing directly toward the far Slipstream, the Raakarr will intercept us. We’ll never make it, not without enduring at least one potentially crippling flyby.” He paused. “Come on, you don’t really want to sacrifice yourself for me. I thought you wanted to testify at my inquiry?” He forced a grin, though remembered at the last moment that she couldn’t see his face.

“My testimony will be useless if you’re dead,” she said. “And anyway, if you agree to avoid the battle, we can transfer the crews back to the
Talon
and let the AIs mann the corvettes. We won’t be sacrificing ourselves at all.”

“You’d willingly return to the
Talon
, and essentially submit yourselves as prisoners to the Raakarr?” Jonathan said. “Because that’s what I am, basically.”

“If that was what it took, yes.”

“Another option is to simply remain here and wait it out,” Rodriguez interjected. “Let’s see who emerges victorious from the next engagement. If the United Systems wins, we pass through the Slipstream into Delta Avalon. And if the Raakarr win, we can evaluate the situation and decide what to do next. Maybe human reinforcements will have arrived by then. Or perhaps the Raakarr will have only one or two ships remaining after their victory, and we can easily finish them off.”

“We’d be remiss if we didn’t come to the aid of the United Systems fleet while we could,” Jonathan said. “Waiting isn’t an option.”

“I agree with that,” Rail said. “I prefer some sort of action, rather than nothing. Fly by them, or fight them, but don’t hide here cowering like a vole in its nest while the cats play.”

Jonathan considered his options a moment, then made up his mind. “I’m going to go with my original battle plan. The
Talon
will not skirt the enemy fleet. All three of our ships will play a part in the coming battle.”

“Wait, what about the cargo container?” Rodriguez said. “We have to ensure it survives, don’t we?”

The cargo container that held the hard-won specimens collected over the past six months had been transferred from Dragonfly 1 to the
Galilei
when the human crew boarded earlier.

“Even if we lose the
Galilei
,” Jonathan replied. “Keep in mind that the
Artemis
has a backup of the holographic drive. As does the
Talon
.”

“Well sure, but I’m more concerned about the specimens,” Rodriguez said. “There’s no backup of those.”

“Load up the cargo container in a lifepod so you can jettison it if you’ve suffered irreparable damage,” Jonathan sent. “We’ll just have to hope the Raakarr don’t intercept it if it comes to that. Now, if there are no more objections to the plan, I have to run it by Valor.”

There weren’t.

When he discussed the plan a few minutes later with Barrick, the telepath also advocated avoiding combat. Or Valor did, anyway.

“Valor says he wants to make contact with your government as soon as possible,” Barrick replied. “He says there is no time to pursue the enemy. He wants to bypass them and fly directly to the Slipstream.”

Jonathan repeated the same arguments he had given Rail, and after much back and forth, he finally got the Raakarr captain to agree.

He took a few moments for himself in the berthing area while the three ships prepared for the upcoming battle. He sat down inside the tent and removed his helmet to breathe the manufactured air, which was only slightly less stale than inside his suit. It stank slightly, thanks to the open latrine in the compartment. The blue light from the filaments outside was filtered slightly by the tent fabric, making it difficult to see. Even so he was able to swap out his suit’s oxygen canister for a fresh one. When that was done, he lay his gloved hands on his knee assemblies, and listened to his breathing.

I’m almost home, now. Just one more battle and I’ll be back in United Systems custody. When Valor gives me up, anyway.

He almost hoped the enemies would destroy the
Talon
in the coming combat so that he wouldn’t have to face the board of inquiry. Going down in a blaze of glory was far preferable, in his mind. Far, far preferable.

Come on, Jonathan, it’s not going to be that bad.

Sure, there was a good chance he would be dismissed for his actions, or jailed, but he would endure. He always had.

The blue glow inside the tent became crimson as the filaments lining the bulkheads outside changed color.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Time to fight.

Jonathan donned his helmet and went to the airlock. Escorted by combat robots and mist-cloaked Raakarr, he hurried to the bridge.

“The particle cannon is fully charged and ready,” Barrick informed him when he stepped inside the compartment.

Jonathan nodded. He glanced at the time on his aReal: 0600 hours. Just as the three captains had agreed.

“Commence the operation,” Jonathan ordered.

J
onathan waited patiently as the alien ship accelerated to eighty percent speed. He had ordered the
Talon
and the two corvettes positioned far enough from the wormhole so that they would hit their target speeds well before reaching the Slipstream: when the vessels emerged from the other side, he wanted to give the impression that the ships already moved as fast as they possibly could. Restricting the speed of the
Talon
to eighty percent ensured the Raakarr vessel didn’t outrun the corvettes—Jonathan needed the distance between them to remain constant for his plan to work.

“Otter informs me we’re passing through the Slipstream and into Delta Avalon,” Barrick said.

“Tell Valor to set a course for the Raakarr fleet,” Jonathan said. “And have him transmit the prepared script.”

In that script, the
Talon
portrayed itself as one of the dart ships that had escorted the laser vessel waiting in ambush within Vega 951. Earlier, Valor explained he had recorded the serial numbers of the actual ships escorting the laser, and changed theirs to match one of them so that any independent queries to the
Talon’s
AI would support that declaration.

In the script, Valor was also to pretend damage had disabled their particle cannon and limited their maximum speed to eighty percent: again, his crew had fed false diagnostic information into the AI so that any remote access would prove their claims.

Lastly, Valor was to assert that a single United Systems corvette pursued them. And he would request assistance.

Valor would do all of that using a mind signature calculated and transmitted in realtime by the AI, a signature based on the captain of the dart ship whose identity Valor had assumed, taken from the archives of the local computer system. It would be like Jonathan transmitting a realtime, computer-generated hologram to impersonate someone else when communicating with his own fleet.

“Initiating communications gamma ray,” Barrick said.

Ten minutes later the telepath announced: “The
Galilei
has emerged behind us.”

Jonathan was no longer in communication with the vessel and its crew, as they were once more under a strict radio embargo by his order; he had deactivated all comm nodes aboard just to be on the safe side.

However the corvette would be reaching out to the United Systems vessels in the system, just as the
Talon
had done to the Raakarr. No planets or radiation belts blocked the space between them, so it wasn’t necessary to have any repeater drones strung out between the fleets.

“Have the Raakarr replied to our transmission yet?” Jonathan asked.

“Negative.”

In another ten minutes, Barrick said: “We’re receiving a reply from the Raakar.” He paused. “Otter says they’re warning us that something destroyed their comm nodes near the Slipstream, and they’re not sure what. They want us to be vigilant.”

“That’s a good sign,” Jonathan said. “They still think we’re on the same side. One big happy family. Although, I suppose they could simply be pretending to believe us... there was no answer to our request for assistance?”

“Apparently not,” Barrick said. “But they do want to know why we abandoned the laser ship.”

“Go with the canned reply.”

Which was:
we received a distress signal via the comm nodes strung between Vega 951 and Anvil Rappel. When we arrived, it turned out that the humans had captured one of our comm nodes and somehow reprogrammed it. We flew right into their trap. We managed to destroy one of them, but lost our companion ships in the process. The survivor chased us across Anvil Rappel. The humans had hidden a Gate with the help of their shuttles, and deployed it in front of the Slipstream as we grew near. We couldn’t destroy it, because of our damaged particle beam, so we passed through. The lone human ship pursued. And here we are.

“Valor is sending it,” Barrick answered.

Twenty minutes later, Jonathan asked: “Any answer?”

“None yet.”

“Still digesting our communiqué, then,” Jonathan said. “I wonder if they’ll buy it. No ships are breaking away?”

“None,” Barrick replied.

“Looks like we’re going to have to go with Plan B,” Jonathan said.

“How long until the
Galilei
switches over to that plan?” Barrick asked.

“We have another thirty minutes,” Jonathan told him.

At the thirty minute mark, still no answer had come, and the Raakarr fleet had dispatched no ships to intercept them.

“They still don’t fully believe us,” Jonathan said. “Well, let’s hope what happens next does the trick.”

“Otter says we’re detecting a missile launch from the
Galilei
,” Barrick announced. “It’s closing.”

Every five minutes Barrick spoke the range. “Fifty thousand kilometers.”

“Forty thousand.”

“Thirty.”

Jonathan clenched a gloved hand. If the
Galilei
mistimed the explosion...

At the sub-one thousand mark, Barrick said: “The missile detonated prematurely, as expected. Valor is modifying our attitude and course, cutting engines, and venting heat from cargo bay one to simulate damage.”

After the explosion, the
Talon
was to drift slightly off to one side, but otherwise continue forward at the same speed. Earlier, the ship’s engineers had shut down one of the reactors and installed a conduit between a radiation vent and a duct that led to the cargo bay; a hatch allowed that conduit to open and close, so once the reactor was back online it was simply a matter of opening the hatch and cargo bay doors to make the ship appear to have taken a terrible blow. The crew had also filled the cargo bay with detritus so that a debris trail followed the ship. Once again, Valor had managed to place “organic” material in with that detritus.

“Valor is sending the scripted distress signal,” Barrick said.

Jonathan waited.

At the current distance he knew it would take ten minutes for the visual and thermal information from the attack to reach the enemy, and another ten minutes before any response was perceived by the
Talon
.

Right on schedule, twenty minutes later three dart ships broke away from the enemy task group, leaving behind the pyramid vessel, laser ship, and two dart escorts.

“They fell for it,” Barrick said excitedly.

“I wish I could share your elation,” Jonathan said. “Because you do know, the battle is far from over.”

“Three ships,” Barrick said, sounding suddenly unsure of himself. “Is that too many?”

Jonathan didn’t answer.

J
ONATHAN SPENT THE next two days mostly in the berthing area, occupying himself with various VR experiences in an attempt to distract himself while the two opposing fleets closed. During that time, the four ships of the first enemy task unit were apparently content to remain in place, repairing their damage. The human task group on the other side of the system likewise made no change to its orbit.

The
Talon
and
Galilei
continued to observe strict radio silence with each another, though the
Talon
did exchange messages with the Raakarr fleet, mostly to update the approaching craft on the progress of pretended repairs.

Jonathan returned to the bridge on the second day when the range between the opposing vessels dropped to within one million kilometers.

Nothing happened over the next two hours as the ships closed to the one hundred thousand kilometer mark of each other.

As the range continued to decrease, Jonathan remembered his discussion with the captains on that particular phase of the plan:

“They’ll think the
Galilei
is using you as bait,” Rodriguez had said. “Keeping you alive to lure them in. They’ll be expecting missiles.”

“Then we give them what they expect,” Jonathan had answered. “And something more.”

Several moments later, when only fifty thousand kilometers separated the
Talon
from the enemy ships, Barrick said: “The
Galilei
is launching missiles and mortars.”

The weapon trajectories were specifically designed to herd the incoming ships toward the
Talon
.

“Otter tells me the enemy ships have changed course, but will still give the
Talon
a wide berth,” Barrick said.

Jonathan couldn’t suppress a feral smile. “For now.”

A moment later Barrick announced: “The corvettes are separating.”

The two corvettes had been approaching in a single line, with the
Galilei
in the lead, and the
Artemis
just behind. The reactors of the
Artemis
had been completely offline so that the pair would seem a single ship with a slightly hotter heat profile than usual.

But with the two ships separating, the approaching enemy would realize their mistake.

“The corvettes are launching more missiles,” Barrick told him.

“Good,” Jonathan said. There would be a spread of slugs from the mag-rail point defenses, too, undetectable until the last moment.

“One of the corvettes is breaking off by thirty-five degrees,” Barrick said.

That would be the
Galilei
.

“Let’s see if the enemy ships take the bait,” Jonathan said.

The Raakarr were known to concentrate fire on those ships that seemed the most vulnerable. A lone corvette, directly behind the
Talon
, was a tempting target. But tempting enough, given the enemy’s likely elevated sense of caution?

“The three ships have changed course again,” Barrick said. “They’re now headed almost directly toward us.”

Jonathan couldn’t help a rising sense of alarm. “We don’t want them headed directly toward us!”

“I know...” the telepath replied. “But the
Artemis
, who the Raakarr are no doubt tracking, is directly behind us.”

Come on, Rail. Alter your attack vector...

Several tense moments passed.

“The
Artemis
has changed course slightly,” Barrick announced. “The enemy ships are compensating. Their closest point during the flyby will now be ten thousand kilometers off our starboard.”

“That’s better,” Jonathan said, feeling the sweat ooze down his ribs.

Thank you, Captain Rail.

“Enemy ships are thirty thousand kilometers away,” Barrick said a moment later. “Eleven o’clock position. The
Galilei
is swerving back in and firing a fresh wave of missiles and slugs.”

The corvette was performing a tight pincer maneuver, as planned.

“Perfect,” Jonathan said.

Several seconds later, Barrick announced: “Enemy is at twenty thousand klicks. Ten o’clock position.”

“Start bringing the engines back online,” Jonathan said.

“Valor agrees to bring the engines online,” Barrick replied. Then: “Enemy is fifteen thousand klicks away. Engines are back online.”

The three Raakarr ships were close enough by then to recognize the unique repair marks in the hull that betrayed the ship as the
Talon
, but so far the attackers gave no indication they had made the connection. Likely they were too distracted by what was going on with the corvettes.

In a magic trick, one hand led the eyes of the audience with misdirection, while the fingers of the other hand secretly performed the actual trick, usually right in front of the onlookers.

It was time to set the fingers of the other hand in motion.

“Come about to fire,” Jonathan said.

“Valor is bringing the
Talon
about to fire,” Barrick replied. He paused. “Apparently the targeted ships have realized what’s going on, and are issuing emergency maneuvers. One of them is turning its nose toward the
Talon.
”