The Desert of Stars (The Human Reach) (29 page)

“What now, Mercer? Bad enough day already.”

“Sir, the Chinese fleet isn’t slowing down. They’re not going
to the wormhole. They’re going to do a flyby on the Long Nu moon and go after our
transports. We have to leave, right now, if we’re going to intercept with any
remass left to fight.”

Neil could see the anger and fear wash over Howell. The
captain put his hand to his forehead and rubbed it backward.

“My god … fifty thousand … only two frigates to defend them
… but no orders,” he muttered to himself.

“Sir?” Neil said.

Howell ignored him. “Comms, can we talk to the flag?” Other
ships had seen the Chinese fail to turn over and were sending similar messages.
Lights blinked back and forth, and after a slow, ten-minute exchange, the reply
came back.

Go.

The transports were a day’s travel away.

USS Javier Benavidez y Diaz

“Leaving? You’re leaving, Sergei?”

“Mister Calvin, I am in no mood to put on a spacesuit, so I
am staying here,” Komarov said. “But I’m afraid Admiral Volodin is quite
concerned about your forces’ capabilities, and he feels obligated to protect
Russia’s soldiers. So he will be unable to commit any of our combat-capable
ships to defending your transports. He does wish you luck.”

Soon, the Russian warships thrust
away from the crippled American ships, off to meet their transports, which were
breaking off from the much larger American herd.

I suppose we know the limits
of the alliance,
Donovan thought. He could understand their reasoning, but
the dissolution of the joint fleet galled him.
At least they stuck by us
when the missiles came in.

USS Apache

The five
Kiowa
-class escort frigates in the fleet –
Apache, Iroquois, Comanche, Chinook
and
Kiowa
herself – were the
first to depart, as they had had the easiest time clearing their systems of the
virus.

Other American ships mastered the virus and thrust as well,
creating a long, ragged train charging to interpose themselves between the
Chinese fleet and the transport herd. When she at last decided
Diaz
would not be fixed in time to take part in the defense, Admiral Cooper
transferred her flag to the light cruiser
San Francisco,
which launched
as soon as she was aboard.
Sprague
and
Ramage,
the heavy frigates
left to defend the transports, also broke from the herd to meet up with the
others.

A sense of shock settled over the American ships.
How did
we get outmaneuvered like this?
Veterans of the prior defeats in 11 Leonis
Minoris wondered if fate had somehow decreed that this star system was not
meant for America.
Three light cruisers, three destroyers and
eight
frigates versus eight cruisers and nine smaller ships. How do we win that?
But
they had to. While the loss of the warships in this system would be terrible,
the destruction of the transports and the troops aboard would be beyond the
pale: tens of thousands of American dead, worse than Antietam or Argonne. More
likely the transports would have to surrender, and, if the Chinese were
merciful, the soldiers would ride out the war in a camp.
Not that the war
would last long, with our ability to land troops off Earth almost entirely
destroyed.
The one-star admiral in charge of the transports had ordered
them to stay together, but if the Chinese fleet got too close, they would
scatter.

The Chinese fleet rounded Long Nu, gaining little speed but
getting a remass-free change in heading thanks to the gravity well of the big
moon. Cooper and Admiral Kong were playing a game of chicken, of sorts, daring
each other to burn more remass to arrive at the transports sooner. Burn too
much, of course, and the ships would not have enough left for a maneuvering
fight. Burn too little, however, and the American defenders would have more
time to bring
Diaz
and the other cruisers into the fight.

Neil and Jessica found a little time to spend together –
nothing intimate, just a late night meal alone before they both would attempt
to sleep. Neil chattered about the counterlasers Jessica would face on the
Langfang-
class
light cruisers in the Chinese fleet, and she just held his hand.

He shut up after a while.

Although
San Francisco
had caught up to the other
ships, Admiral Cooper’s stern contralto came through tinny over their speakers,
making her seem far more distant than she was.

“The nature of our service is not one where I am able to
speak to you in person, so this transmission will have to suffice. The enemy
has divided our fleet, and it falls to us to prevent them from defeating us in
detail. We will draw a line they cannot cross. As you fight and as you fear,
think of your sisters and brothers fighting beside you. Think of your sisters
and brothers on the transport fleet. And think of your sisters and brothers in Sequoia,
waiting for us to free them. We fight for all of them. Cooper out.”

“Kong just blinked,” Neil told Captain Howell.

“What do you mean?”

“The Chinese admiral – his ships have just increased their
deceleration. He intends to slow to engage us. We’ve shown him we can interpose
our ships between his fleet and the transports, and while we’re an inferior
force, he can’t afford to ignore us, because if he tried to blow by us at his
current velocity, we’d be able to take part in a mutually suicidal exchange of
kinetics. We’d all die, but we’d save our troopships, and he’d lose his fleet
and any ability to defend Kuan Yin. So he’s got to burn even more remass to
slow to a safe engagement speed.”

“Great. Now all we have to do is beat a force with nearly
twice our firepower.”

“We do have some advantages, sir, and it’s important to
remember they are improvising as much as we are. They had no way to know their attack
on our systems would be as successful as it was. They fired all of their offensive
missiles and used up a bunch of their defensive ones, and they don’t have any
spinal mounts on their ships. They’ve burned a lot of their remass to get here;
they don’t have any tanker support, and our transport herd can eventually
outrun them.”

Jessica said, “So it’s lasers and short-range kinetics, and
they’ll want to conserve remass. They’ve got the advantage in numbers, so
they’ll try to mob our ships for the flank laser shots. How do we take
advantage of that?”

Her boss, Ortega, snorted. “Maybe that prewar doctrine of
standoff missile attack will finally be the right call.”

Howell nodded. As combat approached, his irate persona was
retreating again. “Mercer, you care to share our observations with the flag?”

Neil shook his head. “Sir, I can send them in, but Admiral
Cooper’s S-2 has made it clear he doesn’t really care what the intel officers
in the fleet have to say.”

Howell grunted. “Typical. Well, I can try to talk to the
flag captain when I get a chance.”

“Thank you, sir,” Neil said.
We haven’t figured their
entire strategy out, yet, but I can’t think of any better alternatives.

The Chinese had apparently learned their lesson from the
earlier defeat of their two beam cruisers. The damage to their optics now
repaired, they broke off from the main body of their fleet, each with two
frigates in attendance, and headed in separate directions, turning again toward
the American ships when they were each bearing 45 degrees off the main axis
between the two fleets. The
Deng Shichang
was above the plane of the system,
and the
Zhou Man
was off to one side.

We’ll have to go after those, or they’ll tear us apart
,
Neil knew.
They have the initiative, and we’re being railroaded into
responding on their terms.

Just as the Chinese fleet underwent turnover to meet the
Americans, Admiral Cooper ordered the frigates
Sprague
and
Chinook
after
the
Shichang
and her escorts, while
Ramage
and
Apache
were
sent after the
Zhou Man
. They didn’t have to kill the enemy, just keep
the beam cruisers from being able to fire into the main American fleet.

The main bodies surged toward one another and closed to
three thousand kilometers distance.

The Chinese ships are spread a lot thinner than I would
expect … it will be difficult for them to cover each other with their point
defenses. Are they trying to get in position for flanking shots? They dispersed
much earlier than they had to.

“Signal from the flag, all ships in main body, missiles
free,” said
Apache
’s comm officer. “Admiral says empty the magazines.”

We’re launching too soon,
Neil’s gut told him.
Why
do I think that? That’s it! They don’t want to defeat us in detail. They’re
going to try to slip some ships by us to hit the transports. We should conserve
some of the missiles to chase down any leakers who are going for the herd.
He sent his analysis to Captain Fordham, Admiral Cooper’s intelligence officer
on the
San Francisco.
He also told Captain Howell.

“All right, we’ll try to hold some back, but we’re not a
missile bus like the big ships,” Howell said. “And we may need them all just to
keep after our targets.”

Ahead of them was Zulu-One, the designation for the beam
cruiser
Zhou Man,
a ship Neil had fought before in the system. He was
surprised at the degree of anger the little light on his screen aroused in him.
Beside her were two speedy escort frigates, Zulus Two and Three, which were roughly
on par with the
Apache
in mass and capability. The computer used their
hull numbers to identify them as the
Maqiang
and the
Dadao
.

Both the
Ramage
and
Apache
kept their noses
pointed directly at
Zhou Man,
so their main cannon could function as counterbatteries
should the beam cruiser fire on them, but any deviation and the frigates could
suffer a devastating blow. Meanwhile,
Maqiang
accelerated to one side,
lining up to flank the two American ships, and
Dadao
stood sentry near
the beam cruiser.

“Range to target, two thousand klicks,” Ortega called. “Zulu-One
is about twelve hundred klicks from being able to cause damage to ships in the
San
Francisco
group.”

“Signal from Romeo,” the comm officer said. Romeo was
Ramage,
whose captain was senior to Howell. “
Apache
, maintain bearing,
weapons free to engage Zulu-Two.”

A score of missiles raced away toward the flanking Chinese
frigate.
Apache
’s gun turret rotated and fired.
Ramage
released
her own missiles, fifty-eight of them, all targeting the beam cruiser.

“Zombie! Zombie! Inbound gun shells from Zulu-Two and
Zulu-Three!” the sensor chief said.

“Point defenses, take them when they’re in range,” Howell
said. “Don’t miss, Barrett.”

Maqiang
’s shells were aimed at where
Apache
was going to be. To make some of them overshoot, Ensign Cohen cut the candle at
random intervals and briefly coasted. As the shells closed,
Apache
’s
defensive lasers focused on them, and Barrett saw small, satisfying sparks on
her screen as their fuel reserves detonated.

Maqiang
’s
defenses targeted the incoming
missiles, destroying eight before the survivors burst into flechettes. The
frigate turned to dodge, its lasers targeting individual flechettes.

“Hit!” the fire control officer shouted. “Multiple flechette
strikes on Zulu-Two! Seeing multiple streamers on the hull – we got her good,
sir!”

Neil made a fist.

The CIC officer said, “Sir, Romeo’s firing vector
thrusters.”

No, no
, Neil thought. Several coilgun rounds had made
it through her defenses, and she had begun an emergency turn to dodge them,
taking her main laser cannon off the
Zhou Man
.

The beam cruiser
did not forgo the opportunity. The
shutter on her main laser retracted, and she fired a half-second pulse. The ultraviolet
beam struck
Ramage
in her top arrowhead, burning all the way through,
and cutting into her central cylinder.
Ramage
’s counterlaser turrets
fired, but they were too distant and weak to burn through
Zhou Man’s
armored
shutter.

“Captain,
Romeo
calling,” the comms officer said.
Howell nodded.

An unfamiliar voice spoke in the ears of
Apache
’s
officers.

“This is Lieutenant Jackson. I’m, uh, the deputy engineering
officer. I’ve lost touch with CIC, so we’re controlling the ship from down in
engineering. We’re hurt pretty bad, but we can still steer, and a lot of the defenses
are still showing green.”

“Point your nose back at Zulu-One,” Howell ordered.

“Right, sir, we’ll, uh, do that.”

Ramage’
s vector thrusters fired again, turning her to
face the great laser of
Zhou Man
once again.

Then Jackson added, “It looks like the laser pipes to our
main forward cannon are both done for, so we can’t use that new counterlaser
trick.”

Howell grimaced. Neil said, “Sir, the optics on the
Ramage
appear intact, so the Chinese won’t know she can’t shoot back. And tell
Jackson they’ve still got someone in their secondary fire control, because
their coilgun turret just rotated.”

Dadao
went to work on
Ramage
’s missiles,
whittling the number down to twenty before they burst into flechettes.

“Five minutes until our counterlaser turrets can take on
Zulu-One,” announced Lieutenant Carruth. That meant
Apache
would at last
be able to maneuver.

“Sir, showing missile damage to Zulus One and Three!” one of
the sensor techs called. “Zulu-One is undergoing turnover. They’re pulling
back!”