The tension on the bridge of Dauntless relaxed considerably. He imagined the same thing was happening on every Alliance ship. The men and women of this fleet trusted him, had confidence in him, had seen him beat the odds time and again. They did not doubt he could do it once more.
He had such doubts growing inside him, but he could not admit to them, could not give in to them, could not allow them to distract him from his efforts to somehow turn this fight around.
Another call, this time to only one ship. “Captain Ulrickson, what is the status of your repair efforts?”
Captain Ulrickson looked as if he had aged a few years since their last conversation. “Fearless will be ready to maneuver with the rest of the fleet,” he said.
“Good,” Geary replied. There wasn’t any sense in warning Ulrickson what would happen if Fearless wasn’t ready and could not keep up with the other warships. Ulrickson already knew the consequences. Neither he nor his crew needed any additional motivation.
Incredible had managed to get her propulsion damage fixed, but Geary’s other damaged warships were still trying to get necessary repairs accomplished in time to make a difference.
The dark ships were closing in, the battleships directly behind and the battle cruisers looping toward Geary’s formations from below.
“I have to maneuver in five minutes,” Geary murmured to Desjani.
“Fearless knows what has to happen,” she whispered back. “We’ve all been through this many times. Those of us who survived it, that is.”
“That doesn’t make it any easier.”
“It’s not supposed to be easy,” she said. “Be glad you’re not on Fearless.”
“Hold on.” He had three formations. The dark ships considered Dauntless to be their priority target. They wouldn’t be fooled easily again into disregarding other threats, but they had shown a pattern of concentrating against their chosen targets. “There’s something I can try.”
His hands raced across his display, setting up options and trying them out. “I need to make it look to the dark ships like I screwed up and left them an opening.”
Geary issued commands. Tango Three, the Alliance formation containing Fearless, pivoted their bows so they pointed beneath the oncoming enemy and began braking their velocity at a moderate rate. Fearless was able to keep up as Tango Three slid beneath the track of the dark battleships.
The other Alliance battleship formation, Tango Two, pointed their bows above the approaching dark battleships and began both braking slightly and rising above the projected path of the enemy.
At the same time, Tango One, the formation containing Dauntless and the other Alliance battle cruisers, began looping upward in a long turn that would bring them down behind the current track of the dark battleships.
“Admiral—!” Lieutenant Castries began in horrified tones.
Desjani stopped her with a single gesture. “I believe Admiral Geary knows exactly what you’re worried about.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I did it on purpose.”
The situation that had moved a lieutenant to want to tell an admiral he had messed up was not too hard to spot. The movements of Tango Two formation, sliding above its previous track, and Tango One, climbing faster above and beyond Tango Two, were aligning both formations along a single arc.
“I want the dark ships to see my ‘mistake,’” Geary explained to Castries. “It’s going to look like a perfect chance for their battleships to swing upward along an arc that will first let them hit our battleships in Tango Two, then continue on to hit our battle cruisers in Tango One.”
“You gave them bait,” Castries said with dawning realization. “So they wouldn’t go after formation Tango Three containing Fearless.”
“Are we going to try to hit them?” Desjani asked, clearly itching to do just that.
“No,” Geary said. “The odds would be horrible. We’re going to give them a taste of their own medicine. One the dark ships will not anticipate because, contrary to the suspicions of my own flagship captain, Admiral Geary has never tried to completely avoid contact with the enemy on a firing pass.”
“Ouch.” Desjani winced. “I deserved that. But we can’t win by just avoiding them.”
“I know. But we need to wait for them to make a mistake.”
As the dark battleships raced toward Tango Two, Geary factored in the small time delay until his message would reach the Alliance warships, then sent orders. “All units in Tango Two, set main propulsion on full at time one three.”
Captain Jane Geary called back quickly. “Admiral, if we make that maneuver we will certainly miss engaging the dark ships as they pass.”
“That is my intent, Captain. We cannot engage the dark ships under circumstances that almost guarantee suffering far more severe losses than they do. We will be trying to set up future firing passes in which the dark ships will be at a serious disadvantage.”
Jane Geary wasn’t happy, and the Jane Geary who had raised some hell during the mission into enigma space might have done something different than ordered, but she accepted his reasoning.
The dark ships, anticipating another Alliance attempt to hit them a glancing blow, countered with a slight jog in their track to bring them where they expected the Alliance formation to be. Instead, with the ships in Tango Two suddenly braking their velocity at full power, the dark ships overshot their target by a margin wide enough to eliminate any chance of combat.
Geary ordered Tango Two to cut back their propulsion again, then waited as the dark battleships swung up toward an intercept with his battle cruisers. Typical battleships, like those Geary had, would not have been able to pull off such an intercept against more agile battle cruisers. But the dark battleships were nimble enough to have a chance at it.
Assuming Geary had wanted to face twelve battleships with his nine battle cruisers, which he did not.
Just before contact, Geary pivoted his battle cruiser formation, bringing their bows down and back, and began accelerating along the reverse of the curve he had been following.
The dark battleships, still moving at point one five light speed, had so much momentum along their track that they had no chance of reacting quickly enough to try to catch Geary’s battle cruisers. The dark ships tore past and onward, trying to bend their path into a tighter turn, their main propulsion once again roaring at maximum.
Geary brought his battle cruisers down and over, while the battleship formation Tango Two swung through its arc and began diving as well, and the other battleship formation, Tango Three, changed its own vector to push back upward.
Would the dark battle cruisers realize in time that Geary was aiming to bracket them with his three formations as the dark ships came climbing toward the former path of the Alliance ships?
“Blast,” Desjani grumbled as the dark battle cruisers swung wider to their port, aiming for Geary’s battle cruisers and avoiding the Alliance battleships.
Once again, the dark ships had a lot of velocity and a lot of momentum. Geary twisted his formation and raced over the top of the dark battle cruisers at such a distance that no engagement was possible.
The image of Captain Ulrickson appeared. “Fearless has one of the damaged main propulsion units back online. We can keep up now. May the living stars bless you for giving us the time to get the fix done, Admiral.”
“Thank the living stars that the dark ships fell for the diversion, Captain,” Geary replied.
He had to focus intently on his display again, watching the curving paths of the dark ships as they came around making the tightest turns their hulls could withstand. The main battleship formation of the dark ships was rearranging in midturn, merging with the two small formations on either side, then re-forming into two dark battleship formations each holding six battleships as well as nine heavy cruisers, nineteen light cruisers, and about forty destroyers.
Since the dark ships boasted more weapons than typical Alliance warships, and Geary’s ships bore accumulated damage from months of campaigning and too few resources for repair, each new dark battleship formation was more than a match for each of Geary’s battleship formations. The dark battle cruiser formation was also stronger than Geary’s battle cruiser force, with about twice the firepower.
“They don’t have to hit us with multiple formations at once. I think instead they’re going to try to box in one of our formations and hit it hard with one of theirs,” Desjani said.
“I think you’re right, but we won’t let them,” Geary vowed, already working up new orders to counter the moves of the dark ships. “At some point, the dark ships have to make a mistake.”
He narrowly got Tango Three out of another dark ship attempt to catch that formation, tried to use the momentum of the dark battle cruisers’ latest maneuver to trap them, failed as he was forced to avoid another set of moves by the dark battleships, got Dauntless and the other Alliance battle cruisers free of a triple attack that tried to force him into contact with one or more of the dark ship formations, swung Tango Two out of a forming trap, began to set up another attack, had to shift his battle cruisers away from that, moved Tango Three at the last moment to avoid yet another dark ship attack by all three enemy formations . . .
Geary lost track of time, completely lost in the constant dance of the three Alliance and three dark ship formations. He made a few mistakes which were minor enough to avoid disaster, but the dark ships made no mistakes, giving him no openings.
His ship commanders, as aware as Geary of how close they were to being annihilated, made no protests for once despite the lack of firing on the firing passes that always avoided getting close enough for combat when the dark ships had the advantage. And it seemed the dark ships with their superior maneuverability and firepower always had the advantage.
Geary roused himself from his intense focus on his display to become aware that Dr. Nasr was standing beside him and offering a small med patch.
“You are in need of this, Admiral,” Dr. Nasr said.
“A stim patch?” Geary blinked, trying to recall when this engagement had begun. “How long have we been conducting firing passes against the dark ships?”
“You began these series of maneuvers sixteen hours ago,” Dr. Nasr said, sounding composed but also unyielding. “You are required to apply a stimulant patch to maintain alertness and mental clarity. My assistants are ensuring that everyone in the crew receives a patch. All other ships are also administering stim patches.”
“How long are they good for?” Geary asked.
“They will have to be renewed after eight hours. You can apply a series of six patches one after another if judged necessary given the situation, but beyond that you risk negative health and mental outcomes.”
“I had to do a series of six once,” Desjani said as she slapped a patch on her own arm. “I don’t recommend it. Coming down from that was hell.”
Sixteen hours. Geary applied his own patch, then refocused on the situation. Battles in space could be extremely long but rarely involved extremely long periods of continuous action. If nothing else, wide-ranging maneuvers would eventually buy time for an exhausted nap between firing runs.
But against the dark ships, this time it had been a seemingly endless succession of attacks, counterattacks, evasions, and lunges. One set of fast maneuvers after another, constantly straining ships and their crews.
Motivated by a sudden concern, Geary called up data on fuel cell status for his warships. “Most of our destroyers are down to thirty-five percent on their fuel cells,” he told Desjani.
“That’s not surprising,” she grumbled. “We’ve been jerking around the entire fleet time and time again.”
But the dark ships had been pushing themselves even harder.
Geary, who had decided at some point just to strive to keep from being beaten badly, felt a sudden glimmer of hope. The dark ships had definitely been programmed for tactics. Specifically his tactics. And Lieutenant Castries had already noted that the dark ships appeared to be using Battle Priority profile on their maneuvering solutions.
Had anyone programmed the dark ships for logistics concerns?
The ships that had hit Indras and then Atalia had used up their entire supply of bombardment projectiles, holding none back for emergencies. That implied a lack of attention to the expendable weapon supply aspect of logistics. Did the dark ships also not pay enough attention to other aspects of logistics?
And was Dr. Nasr right about what would happen if the dark ships hit a firm limit in their programming that they had not previously rationalized their way around?
Could he manage to avoid a decisive encounter for enough more time to find out?
He bent grimly to the task, avoiding each new lunge by the dark ships and attempting new attacks by his own warships, which were always frustrated. Another pass . . . another . . . six formations comprising hundreds of warships twisting and spinning through the vastness of space, each seeking the fraction of a second of advantage that it would need to inflict major damage on one of the other formations.
His commanding officers and crews continued to follow Geary’s orders, continued to believe that he would find a way out of this, while he prayed that he and his ships would hold out long enough.
The moment he had dreaded finally came, after nearly twenty hours of continuous combat maneuvering.
Tango Two had been forced to nearly kill its velocity to dodge a firing pass from a dark battleship formation. Now, its warships pointing straight up and main propulsion back on full, Tango Two was trying to regain speed, while Geary tried to bring the other two Alliance formations to its aid.
But the dark battle cruisers had seen the opportunity and were pouring maximum thrust from their propulsion, as was the other dark battleship formation, and Tango Two simply did not have enough velocity to avoid their charges and did not have the time to build up that velocity.
Captain Jane Geary on Dreadnaught called in, her expression that of someone facing the end. “We will make them pay, Admiral. Avenge us.”
“I will.” He had already probably lost Michael Geary, and now Jane would die as well. Because of his decisions, both of the grandchildren of his brother dead. Because they were Gearys and forced to follow in the footsteps of Black Jack.
“The dark battle cruisers are still coming around,” Lieutenant Castries said, sounding puzzled.
“Take another look,” Desjani said.
“Captain, they have passed the point at which they should have held to their vector to hit Tango Two.”
Geary and Desjani both sat up straighter, eyes going to the places on their displays where the dark battle cruisers were represented.
“What are they doing?” Desjani asked in disbelief.
“They’re still coming about, Captain,” Lieutenant Castries said, sounding as baffled as her commanding officer. “So are the dark battleships. They’ve also passed the vector for intercepting Tango Two.”
“So is the third dark ship formation,” Geary said. “Look.”
“Where are they going?” Desjani demanded. “Tell me where they’re going!”
Her lieutenants exchanged helpless glances.
“They’re finally steadying out,” Geary said. “Where is that—? Where does that vector lead?”
“Away from our formations,” Desjani said. “Why would they spend twenty straight hours trying to tear us apart and suddenly head off like that? Could Admiral Bloch have suddenly regained some control of them? Did some software routine activate that caused them to stop fighting us?”
“I think it’s software,” Geary said. “Something the dark ships did not see coming.”
“Captain,” Castries said, “the three dark ship formations are all steadying onto vectors for the jump point for Montan
.”
“Montan?” Desjani stared at her display as if an explanation for the inexplicable could be found there. “What could they want at Montan?”
“It’s the nearest jump point from where we are now in this star system,” Castries pointed out. “Aside from that, the only major feature at Montan is a hypernet gate, Captain. Montan is one of the fallback star systems if Varandal had fallen to the Syndics, so it had a gate installed to allow rapid shifting of defensive forces.”
“A hypernet gate?” Desjani turned a baffled gaze on Geary. “They’re trying to get back to their base? Are they running away from us?”
“It looks like it,” he said, fighting off an immense weariness and afraid to believe that his hope had really manifested.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, Admiral, that’s pretty damned miraculous for someone who claims not to have any ins with the living stars.”
“There’s no miracle involved,” Geary said. “The dark ships are programmed for tactics, not logistics. You’ve all seen how hard they’ve pushed their maneuvers, which has also burned their fuel cells at a very high rate. Look at our own fuel cell status. Look at our destroyers.”
Desjani checked the data. “Our destroyers are low. Fifteen percent on average. That’s not surprising after all the dancing we did at maximum thrust over the last twenty hours. You think the dark ships broke off because of low fuel cell reserves?”
“I know they did,” he said, unable to keep the triumph and elation out of his voice as the dark ships continued to head for the jump point for Montan. “Some of their ships, maybe all of their destroyers, must have gone as low as ten percent fuel cell reserves. What do fleet regulations say about that?”
Lieutenant Yuon, who had probably been studying just those regulations for his fleet promotion standards, answered quickly. “Any formation containing warships reaching ten percent fuel cell reserves must disengage and refuel immediately.”
“No exceptions, right?” Geary said.
“No exceptions, sir,” Yuon agreed.