Sol (The Silver Ships Book 5) (22 page)

“Which ship is in the front?”

“A freighter, the
Shamrock
.”

“Signal our ships to reverse course. They’re to reassemble in fleet formation behind the
Shamrock
. Order its captain to slow to one-quarter present velocity. Then contact the other four civvie captains, and order them to form up on the
Shamrock
. They will be our shield.” Portland stared at the monitor for a minute, watching the scattered debris of the destroyer and the bodies of the crew floating in the dark and shuddered, wondering what kind of humans fought with weapons like these.

“Well, I didn’t see that coming,” Tatia commented to the group, who were on the conference comm and observing the demonstration via the holo-vids at the station and across the fleet. The struggles of the crew from the destroyer’s failed pods ended with the breach of their disintegrating environment suits.

“You dissolved … everything … even the crew!” said Shimada, staring horrified at the holo-vid. “I thought the nanites would attack the hull or the engines or something specific.”

“Technically, Captain —” was as far as Z got, before Cordelia’s signal interrupted him.

“You were quite explicit about the safety distance, Mr. President,” Julien commented, hoping to ease the heartache he knew his friend was suffering. He shared a glance with Renée, who stood behind Alex and kept her slender hands on the president’s shoulders.

“The man just had to be sure it wasn’t a trick, and he used an entire destroyer to discover the truth,” Alex said sadly and switched the holo-vid’s view to that of Portland’s fleet. “The admiral is on the move. Captain, do you care to revise your estimate of what Portland will do?” When Shimada failed to answer, Alex shifted to a command tone, “Captain Shimada, will Portland change the strategy you suggested earlier?”

Shimada jerked as if she was shocked. “What? Um … I don’t know. Wait.” She took a deep breath and straightened her spine, her eyes focusing far away. Slowly the pain ebbed, and Shimada returned her attention to the room to regard Alex with an odd mix of emotion. A thought crossed her mind to tell the president what she thought of his demonstration, but her eyes wandered to Renée’s face, and the thought fled. A woman she had considered a lovely companion to the president wore an expression that said, “Express that thought at your peril.”

“You’ll have frightened the admiral and most likely everyone in the fleet who had a view of the demise of the
Dauntless
and its crew.”

“And by now the story has been circulated to every crew member and has grown exponentially,” Tatia added.

“Undoubtedly,” Shimada agreed. “Harakens will be viewed as monsters … waging warfare with inhuman weapons.”

“Hmm … maybe we can use that,” Alex said. “What about Portland’s strategy, Captain?”

Shimada looked at the holo-vid. “I can’t tell what direction the fleet is moving. How do you know?” She glanced at Alex, who tapped his temple. “Um … so care to enlighten this unenhanced individual?” asked Shimada, her tone revealing the pain and anger she was holding back.

“The fleet is moving to intersect a freighter, the
Shamrock
, Captain,” Julien supplied. “There are four other ships on course for Idona behind the freighter. Undoubtedly, they will provide a substantial number of civilians for your good admiral to sacrifice, much as he did his destroyer and its crew.”

Anger flared inside Shimada, and she pushed it into her eyes as she bored into those of Julien, who patiently regarded her in return. After a moment, her action seemed futile, and she glanced back to the holo-vid, a feeling of exhaustion overcoming her as if her rage was burning the energy out of her. A long sigh escaped her lips, and she gathered her thoughts to respond to Alex’s question.

“As I said, Mr. President, you’ll have scared the admiral, but he will depend on what’s always worked for him. His main force will shield itself behind the civilian craft as Julien supposed. Since he favors a pincer movement, he’ll probably expand that maneuver now by adding a third and fourth attack force. Two will come at your flanks on the ecliptic; two others will go over and under the ecliptic. It will divide your forces into five defensive groups.”

“And the largest contingent of the fleet will be hiding behind civilians,” Tatia added.

“Captain, Commander Ellie Thompson here. Do you have any idea how he will divide his forces?”

“The admiral favors using his destroyers anchored by a cruiser in the pincer movements. If he uses four attack groups, each escorting a cruiser, it would strip the main force of cruisers, which I don’t think he’ll want to do.”

“Why not?” Ellie asked.

“He’ll want to ensure that no matter what happens to the pincer forces, his battleship will be well guarded.”

“A wonderful leadership style,” Tatia commented.

“Criticism is easy, Admiral,” Shimada said. “I’m sure your president has evaded the risks of battle as well.” Shimada was floored by the huge swell of laughter that echoed around the room, including that issuing from the holo-vid’s speakers. Even the twins and SADEs were smiling at her.

“People, leave the captain alone. Her day has been trying enough with the loss of her compatriots,” Alex said and the laughter died instantly.

Shimada could feel the heat in her face and neck from the flush of embarrassment. It was the compassionate expression on the president’s face that mollified her.

“So you’ve led from the front,” Shimada guessed.

“Too far in front and too many times,” Tatia acknowledged.

Shimada watched the heads in the room nodding their agreement and heard murmurs of assent from the holo-vid. She realized her failure in trying to find comparisons between her people and the Harakens. It wasn’t that they weren’t human; it was that they were a fundamentally different society — a society that bore little resemblance to that of the UE.

“Well, if the admiral does come at us in five groups with one hiding behind civilians, we are going to be challenged.”

Shimada didn’t know whose voice issued from the holo-vid, but she didn’t understand the underlying problem. “What’s the problem? You fire your missiles into the face of the four pincer groups and dissolve those ships away. Then you deal with the main force another way. Destroy the pincer forces, and you’ll have cut his fleet’s firepower by three-fourths or fifths.”

“Z used a third of his nanites stock in the demonstration,” Tatia replied. “It would take him much more time than we have to produce enough nanites to obliterate the four sub-fleets. But it wouldn’t matter. We only have four Daggers, which would mean one fighter would have had to cover the spread of a UE squadron. Not going to be viable.”

“You … you tried to bluff the admiral?” Shimada asked, staring at Alex.

“It seemed a good play,” Alex replied.

“But I told you the admiral would not be impressed. Why waste showing your secret weapon when you have so little of it?”

“Captain,” Julien responded instead. “Perhaps it has escaped your notice that we came here to prevent a war not start one. It was a calculated gambit that our president wished to try. He is usually quite successful with his inventive strategies. Just not today,” Julien added, shrugging an apology to Alex.

Alex sent back.

“So what will you do now?” Shimada asked.

“That, Captain, is yet to be determined. Anybody hungry besides me?” Alex asked and headed for the room’s exit.

What amazed Shimada were the good-natured smiles on the faces of the Harakens as they followed their president out of the room.
They’ve just learned their leader pulled their pants down in front of the enemy and admitted he doesn’t have a backup plan, and they’re all smiling and going to dinner,
Shimada thought in amazement.

“Come, Captain,” Franz said taking Shimada’s hand into the crook of his arm and guiding her toward the exit. “The universe will look a little better after some good food and hot thé.”

Shimada’s thoughts were in such a daze that she allowed Franz to lead her, never pulling her hand from his grasp. His powerful hand gently holding hers was a comforting touch in contrast to the enormously uncomfortable events she witnessed today.

Three days later, Shimada’s prophecy proved true. Admiral Portland divided his forces and four pincers flared from behind the shield of civilian ships. A cruiser anchored each of the destroyer groups flanking on the ecliptic. It was squadrons of destroyers only that shot above and below the ecliptic to form the third and fourth attacking forces. The main group, tightly tucked behind a spread of civilian freighters and passenger liners, was composed of the admiral’s battleship, two cruisers, and three destroyers.

The Haraken fleet officers were back aboard their carriers as were Cordelia and Julien. Z, Mickey, Ellie, and the only three other Dagger-qualified pilots were aboard the
Rêveur
. Shimada returned to her destroyer and was told explicitly by Alex to take no action in support of his people, regardless of what happened to them.

Alex, Renée, Julien, the twins, and squadrons of troopers stayed on station, with ten travelers in reserve. It crushed Alex not to be with his people, but he knew if he left the station, the fragile truce they created might collapse. He counted on his people to carry the day.

Étienne sent Alain as they strolled the main corridor in their leaders’ company, ensuring the station saw them.

Alain sent back.

Étienne replied, a grin on his face.

Alain sent back, returning Étienne’s grin.

Around the station, the air was one of nervousness. Station telemetry reported the maneuvers of the approaching fleet, and news traveled around the station faster than the speed of light. Captains and owners sought to launch their vessels as early as possible, but, on Alex’s orders, all craft were denied exit from the station.

It was the Harakens’ demonstration that curtailed the grumblings of captains and owners. Viewing the UE patrol ship and then the destroyer dissolve in a matter of hours, scared the station’s populace. To most, the images of the destroyer crew’s flailing arms and legs as they fought to repair their environment suits were horribly emblazoned in their memories.

Many of Idona’s people changed their opinions about the benign nature of the Harakens, who had brought the station’s people together. They had respected the strangers for their forbearance against the slights offered against them by the speaker and then the high judge, but most forgot that and suddenly saw their hosts as the aliens they first thought them to be. It was ironic that it took the death of their fellow UE citizens, despite the fact those people were commanded by an admiral intent on a war with the Harakens, to give the stationers, spacers, and rebels a common point of view.

Tatia was about to commit her entire force in the most complex battle she could imagine. That she would be following Alex’s plan gave her some measure of hope, but the failure of the president’s demonstration to intimidate Admiral Portland made her wonder if Earther minds were too convoluted to predict.

Time to stop worrying and act,
Tatia told herself.

The Harakens needed to wait until the pincer forces came closer to the station to see which of the groups would rate first contact. As suspected, it was the two flanking forces on the ecliptic with destroyers escorting a cruiser.

Tatia sent.

The
Rêveur
was close to the station, the best equidistant point to the four encircling forces. From the liner’s bays flew four of the aging Daggers the New Terrans first used to defend the Confederation. Each Dagger was armed with a full load of missiles.

In one of those rare moments of no communication, Z had requested Mickey supply the
Rêveur
with four Daggers and eight missiles. Mickey required a twelve-slot silo to hold the two missiles required at each fighter’s staging point within the
Rêveur
’s twin bays. The master engineer saw no need to load empty silos and ordered the techs to load the silos’ empty slots with Libran-X missiles. Considering past experiences, it seemed to Mickey the logical thing to do.

It was the edge Alex was looking for in the upcoming engagement. The Haraken travelers would have to close on the squadrons to engage them and would be susceptible to a powerful barrage of short-range missile and gunnery fire. But the Libran-X missiles were designed for a far more evasive and tougher foe than the Earthers’ ships. When Mickey disclosed his bounty of full missile silos to the room’s planners, it earned him a kiss from Tatia and then Alex, the latter buss making the engineer grin and flush red.

Z controlled the Daggers’ initial flights, timing the fighters’ arrival in the order required. The Daggers headed for the cruiser-anchored forces were pushed to max acceleration, and the other pair were lagged behind their sister ships so they would encounter their enemy squadrons hours later.

Since the Daggers required trained and experienced pilots, the tasks fell to Commodore Sheila Reynard, who with Admiral Tatia Tachenko captured the first dark traveler; and Commanders Ellie Thompson, Deirdre Canaan, and Darius Gaumata, three Librans who trained on the Daggers. The four pilots settled back in their seats for the ride, placing themselves in the hands of a SADE — something that caused a Haraken not one gram of concern anymore.

With most of the fleets’ commanders piloting the Daggers, Franz Cohen and Lucia Bellardo found themselves in charge of the carriers’ entire traveler force.

Lucia confided to Franz.

Franz replied.