“Any updates from
Gallant
?” Geary asked. He could scroll through the display looking for that information himself, but he needed to spend that time and concentration on the big picture.
“
Gallant
reports about half of her combat systems remain active,” the operations watch reported. “Shields weak but regenerating, several major breaches in hull armor being sealed. Estimated time to regain some maneuvering control is twenty minutes.”
Deciding that
Gallant
could look out for herself for the time being, Geary lined up the battle cruisers on another intercept with the Syndic flotilla and adjusted the track of the battleships so they’d hit the Syndics again.
The wait to contact was agonizing this time.
Resolution
and
Incredible
drifted helpless, both ships too badly damaged to have any hope of surviving another Syndic attack and neither having enough working weapons to have much chance of inflicting any damage on the enemy. The Syndic box, even smaller now, was curving in from above and the left. Farther to the left and slightly higher, the Alliance battle cruisers were swooping down on the Syndics. Off to the right and roughly even with the Syndics, the Alliance battleships were boring in steadily.
It must have become apparent to the Syndics that they didn’t have a hope of rendering death blows to
Resolution
and
Incredible
before being savaged by the rest of the Alliance fleet. As the two Alliance formations drew close, the Syndic flotilla abruptly dove, greatly increasing its down angle and steadying out toward where the smaller Syndic formation was holding off from the battle.
Geary rapped quick commands to the battle cruisers and the battleships, correcting for the Syndic moves.
As the Alliance ships steadied onto their new vectors, collision-warning alarms blared. Geary barely had time to jerk his gaze to the alerts before the Alliance battle cruisers raced through the Syndic flotilla from one side and above almost at the exact same instant as the Alliance battleship formation tore through from the other side and slightly above.
For that heart-stopping instant, a lot of warships going on widely different vectors at very high speed threaded past each other, automated maneuvering systems screaming alarms in protest as they tried to avoid collisions in the maelstrom of warships. Meanwhile, the automated combat systems on every combatant saw a suddenly target-rich environment and gleefully hurled out shots in all directions.
Then the three formations were diverging again. Geary inhaled heavily as he realized he’d forgotten to breathe for a moment.
Even Desjani looked pale. “Sir, have you considered the possibility that there could be such a thing as being too good at compensating for the movements of the enemy?”
“Not until just now.” He took another breath and checked his display, then checked it again. “We lost some more destroyers, but that was probably to enemy fire. No collisions?”
“All the same, let’s not do that again, sir.”
“Okay.” The Syndic flotilla’s box, subjected to so much firepower at once from different angles, had disintegrated. Two battleships were still slogging along their track, but both had sustained significant damage. No Syndic battle cruisers remained, and the escorts had been slaughtered. Conversely, with so many targets at once, the Syndics hadn’t been able to concentrate their fire. Aside from some unfortunate cruisers and destroyers, the Alliance fleet had avoided more serious damage.
Geary breathed a sigh of relief. “Formation Indigo Two,” he ordered the battleships, “break formation and get those two remaining Syndic battleships. Formation Indigo One, general pursuit. Avoid the two surviving Syndic battleships until they’ve been reduced by our battleships.” The last thing he wanted was another loss like
Opportune
.
To his surprise, Desjani didn’t instantly whip
Dauntless
around to go after a target. She saw his reaction and shrugged. “The only thing left worth killing is those battleships. Besides”—she pointed to her ship’s status display—“we’re down to thirty-five percent fuel-cell reserves.”
“Thirty-five percent?” In peacetime he would have been court-martialed for letting fuel-cell reserves get that low on ships under his command.
“Good thing we saved
Titan
,
Witch
, and
Jinn
,” Desjani observed. “We’re going to need every fuel cell they can squeeze out between here and Varandal.”
THE butcher’s bill after a battle was always the worst part. Geary read through the names.
Courageous
,
Intrepid
,
Exemplar
,
Goblin
, heavy cruisers
Tortoise
,
Breech
,
Kurtani
,
Tarian
, and
Nodowa
. Light cruisers
Kissaki
,
Crest
,
Trunnion
,
Inquarto
, and
Septime
. Destroyers
Barb
,
Yatagan
,
Lunge
,
Arabas
,
Kururi
,
Shail
,
Chamber
,
Bayonet
, and
Tomahawk
.
At that they were very lucky. If they’d had to flee the star system with the Syndics in pursuit, easily three times that many cruisers and destroyers would have been lost, plus more battle cruisers and battleships. As it was, the Alliance fleet had time to make repairs and get the ships moving again.
Resolution
, though shot to hell, would be able to keep up with the fleet, but he didn’t yet know if he’d be able to save
Incredible
.
Gallant
had enough maneuvering control back to fight once more, though many of her weapons remained out of action.
They’d have to linger here a little while, whether they liked it or not, to get the propulsion on damaged ships repaired, along with other critical systems, to collect escape pods from Alliance ships abandoned during the battle, and to distribute the all-too-few fuel cells manufactured on the auxiliaries since the fleet left Dilawa.
Desjani was grumbling. He followed her gaze to the smaller Syndic flotilla, which had torn off toward the jump point for Padronis after the destruction of the large flotilla. Now the cruisers and HuKs of that flotilla were fanning out, some continuing on toward the jump point and others heading for the jump points for Kalixa and Dilawa. “We’ll never get them now,” Desjani complained. “I was hoping they’d make a stand at the jump point for Padronis so we could trash them.”
“Odds are they’ve laid their mines and are now rushing off to report what happened here,” Geary commented.
“They abandoned their comrades! They didn’t even try to hit us while we were fighting the main Syndic flotilla!”
So that was what was really bothering her. To Desjani those Syndics had let down their comrades, and even if they hadn’t been Syndic scum, they deserved to pay for that. “Tanya, I’d bet you that small flotilla had orders to stand off from the engagement so it could form a last-ditch defense if we ran for the Padronis jump point.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“At least they’re not darting in trying to snap up any of our damaged ships.”
Before Desjani could reply, an image popped up before Geary, showing Captain Cresida grinning. “I thought you’d like to know, sir, that we’ve recovered the escape pods from
Courageous
, including the one carrying a slightly banged-up but still-operational Captain Roberto Duellos.”
Geary smiled back so broadly his cheeks hurt, then looked over to Desjani. “Duellos is safe on
Furious
.”
“I told you he was difficult to kill,” Desjani replied serenely, then she smiled, too.
“Here he is, Captain Geary,” Cresida announced.
Her image was replaced by that of Duellos, his uniform torn and scorched in a few places. “Captain Duellos reporting for duty, sir.”
“I . . .” His words stopped coming, and Geary just looked at Duellos for a moment. “Damn, I’m glad you’re okay. I’m very sorry about
Courageous
. And
Intrepid
.”
“Thank you on all counts.” Duellos looked down for a moment. “It’s hard to lose a ship, but then, you know that as well as I do.”
“Yeah. It hurts like hell. Get yourself checked out and get some rest.”
“I need to look after my crew, sir.” Duellos gestured vaguely to one side. “Make sure they’re being taken care of. The crew from
Courageous
and those off
Intrepid
on the ships that picked them up.”
Geary started to say that Cresida could be trusted to do that, then stopped himself. He remembered his own sense of helplessness after his cruiser
Merlon
had been destroyed, the wish that he could do something, especially for the crew that were forever beyond his aid. Of course Duellos wanted to see to that himself. It would give him something to do besides dwell on the loss of
Courageous
and those crew members who hadn’t made it off the ship. “Certainly, Captain Duellos. Let me know if you or your crews need anything.”
Duellos moved to break the connection, but then hesitated. “You know what I need, Captain Geary, and you know you can’t provide it. But I thank you, because I know you understand.”
As soon as the window showing Duellos closed, Geary checked the fleet’s status again, unwilling to let his mind dwell once more on the loss of
Merlon
. Unfortunately,
Dauntless
wasn’t alone in having fuel-cell reserves in the 30 percent range.
Unable to do anything about that at the moment, he called
Incredible
, getting an image of her captain, Commander Parr. “How’s it going, Commander?”
“Could be worse,” Parr replied, smiling for a moment as he focused on Geary. “You didn’t need to save quite so many Syndics for us, sir.”
“Sorry about that. I’ve seen the updates from
Incredible
, but I want a personal assessment from you. Can you get her going again soon?”
Parr hesitated. “How long do we have, sir?”
“Maybe a few days. I can’t spare any more than that, and we’ve only got that much because we need to pick up the POWs on Heradao’s third planet.”
Commander Parr looked around, as if his personal appraisal of this small portion of
Incredible
could give him an answer. “Sir, I’d like to try.”
“Two days, Commander.”
“I think we can do it, sir.” Geary gave him a questioning look. “I
know
we can do it, sir.”
“Okay, Commander. Let me know if I can assist with anything.”
“
Titan
’s closing on us, sir. She’s going to help
Incredible
and
Resolution
.”
Geary smiled encouragingly. “You can’t get better help than that. Commander Lommand on
Titan
is a good officer. He’ll do everything that can be done. I look forward to seeing
Incredible
under way in two days.”
He slumped back, rubbing his forehead, after the conversation ended.
Desjani gave him a sympathetic look. “Will
Incredible
make it?”
“Beats the hell out of me. She deserves a chance, though. When is
Intrepid
going to be scuttled?” As they’d feared, that battle cruiser had suffered so much structural damage in addition to other injuries that there was no way to get her fixed up enough to accompany the fleet from this star system. Instead, her power core would be overloaded, blowing the ship into pieces too small for the Syndics to exploit.
Desjani bounced the question to her engineering watch-stander, who answered quickly. “Tomorrow, Captain. Late. They’re sure they’ll have everything salvageable off her by then. The two biggest pieces of
Courageous
are scheduled to be blown up tonight.”
“Should we tell Duellos?” Desjani asked Geary.
He thought about that. “Have you ever lost a ship?”
“A destroyer at Xaqui, a battle cruiser at Vasil, another destroyer at Gotha, a heavy cruiser at Fingal—”
“You were commanding officer of all those?”
“Just the second destroyer and the heavy cruiser after the one at Fingal.”
Geary stared at Desjani. She’d discussed some of her combat experience, but had never dwelt on her own actions or provided details of what had happened to the ships she’d been on. “I’m sorry. You don’t talk about them very much.”
“No,” she admitted. “I don’t. We both know why. And that answers my question about Duellos and
Courageous
, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.
Courageous
was his ship. He can decide if he wants to see her final moments.”
“I’ll pass the word to Cresida, then.”
“Thanks. If you ever do want to talk . . .” Geary offered.
“I know. Same here.”
“I’ll remember that.” He pulled out the scale on the display to view the entire star system. Syndic merchant shipping was still fleeing for any relatively safe place. There didn’t seem to be any fixed-orbit defenses in Heradao to worry about, though he suspected they’d find a number of those on the third planet. As Desjani had pointed out, the smaller Syndic flotilla had broken up, its component ships heading in different directions, none of those vectors anywhere near the Alliance warships.
There were still the Syndic HuKs standing picket duty at the jump points, of course, but they weren’t a threat and couldn’t be caught anyway. Geary leaned back, willing himself to relax now that the hard part was over. Maybe it was over not just in the sense of Heradao, either. What could the Syndics have left to contest the fleet’s return to Alliance space? No, the hardest part would be trying to block out more memories of exploding warships.
The only remaining contact with the enemy that the fleet had to handle would be whatever was needed to pick up the Alliance prisoners of war held in the labor camp on the third planet. The fleet’s sensors had confirmed that the camp was still there and apparently still occupied by a couple of thousand Alliance prisoners of war. Getting them liberated would require some negotiations, and doubtless some threats, but they’d been down this road before. “Madam Co-President,” he asked Rione, “could you get in contact with the Syndics and see how difficult it’s going to be to get our POWs off the third planet? Use any necessary threats, and you’re free to promise them that we won’t bombard the planet if they play nice.”