Marphissa tried to relax even though the acceleration leaking past the inertial dampers was still pushing her back against her seat. Her display showed the same information the specialist had reported. Her attempt to stay as far from Vengeance as possible while meeting Imallye’s demands, and her anticipation of the battle cruiser’s attack, had bought some time and space, but not nearly enough.
It wasn’t a wildly difficult problem for the automated systems to calculate. The most complex aspect of it was how much acceleration would slow as the velocity of both ships climbed ever higher. Relativity was unforgiving. As Manticore moved at ever-higher fractions of the speed of light, the warship’s mass would inexorably increase as well, making it harder for the same amount of thrust to push the ship even faster. If Manticore could somehow get close to the speed of light, the ship’s mass would grow so huge that it became impossible for any amount of thrust to keep accelerating her.
But such an effort would burn far too much of the heavy cruiser’s fuel cells, and in any event, Manticore’s velocity would be limited by another consideration. A ship could only enter jump if it were going at point two light speed or less. Manticore would have to limit her maximum velocity so that she could brake back down to point two light speed by the time she reached that jump point.
But Vengeance wasn’t planning on jumping, so the battle cruiser wasn’t worried about braking his velocity. And this was exactly the kind of situation that battle cruisers were built for, with massive main propulsion that let them accelerate faster than any other warship despite the large mass of a battle cruiser. The price for that was in far less armor than battleships, and not as many weapons as a ship that size could have carried. But battle cruisers carried plenty enough weapons to annihilate most of the warships they could chase down.
Diaz leaned close to Marphissa and spoke in a very low voice. “What is our plan, Kommodor?”
“Right now, I am praying for a miracle,” she murmured in reply. “Captain Bradamont taught me how to do that.”
Kapitan Diaz hesitated, licking his lips nervously. “Kommodor, Captain Bradamont has also instructed me. She told me that the situation is never hopeless as long as you can still move or fight.”
“I agree. But I am not seeing any alternative at this point to moving until we are caught by Vengeance, then fighting until we are destroyed. Help me find an alternative, Kapitan. We have fifteen hours until we are within range of the battle cruiser’s weapons.” Marphissa nodded to herself. “And if that happens, I intend engaging Vengeance and inflicting so much damage that Imallye’s battle cruiser will pose no threat to anyone afterward. Manticore will be destroyed, but Imallye will deeply regret the price of her victory.”
Diaz nodded as well. “Yes, Kommodor. My ship will not fail you.”
Marphissa turned her head to look at him and forced a smile. “Not your ship, nor its commander, nor its crew, have ever failed me, Kapitan Diaz, and I am certain that they never will.” She had let her voice rise in volume so the words carried, wanting the specialists to hear them as well. Word would have already spread through the ship of Manticore’s apparently helpless situation. Anything that would help morale, no matter how little, was important right now.
And Diaz deserved the public praise as well.
He flushed slightly, nodded again, then sat back and began tapping in internal comm connections. “I will speak with all of my officers and senior specialists to let them know that recommendations would be welcome.”
The next several hours passed with increasing slowness, as if relativity had already placed an iron grip of time’s rate of progression on the perceptions of those aboard Manticore. Marphissa had to use a down patch to get some sleep so she would not be exhausted when Vengeance finally caught Manticore. The rest of the time she spent running simulations of different attempts to avoid that intercept, each attempt only succeeding in bringing about the clash a little sooner. After a while, Marphissa abandoned that effort and began gaming out the battle between her heavy cruiser and Vengeance, trying to work out the best possible means of inflicting maximum damage on the battle cruiser before Manticore was destroyed. The results of those simulations were also discouraging, but she worked away at them stubbornly.
“Kommodor?”
Diaz’s voice roused Marphissa from a dark reverie of dying warships. She glanced around the bridge, noticing that everyone was quieter than usual as they contemplated the apparently inevitable, then focused back on Diaz. “Yes, Kapitan?”
“Senior Specialist Beltsios has an idea, Kommodor.”
Marphissa roused herself fully, tapping her controls to bring up a virtual window showing Beltsios. “What do you have, Senior Specialist?”
“Kommodor,” Beltsios said, speaking clearly and carefully, “I understand that you were informed of attempts by Imallye’s forces to plant malware in our systems.”
“Yes. I was told such attempts were all blocked.”
“They were, Kommodor! Are you familiar with the standing instructions we software specialists have always had when encountering non-Syndicate ships?”
Marphissa shook her head, frowning. “You mean standing instructions under the Syndicate? You are still following those?”
“Some of them, Kommodor, that do not conflict with the orders of our president,” Beltsios hastened to assure her. “One of those instructions is that when we encounter a ship not under Syndicate control, we are required to test its software defenses to see if it is vulnerable.”
Relieved, Marphissa nodded. “There is nothing objectionable about that. It is a good policy. You tested the defenses of Imallye’s ships, then? Just as her ships tested ours?”
“Yes, Kommodor, and Imallye’s ships were found to have effective defenses against any intrusion attempts on our part.” Beltsios paused, concentrating on his next words. “But, I thought, we have copies of the snake software captured at Ulindi. We have employed it defensively against intrusion attempts. The software we were given after Ulindi does not identify itself as offensive. It self-describes as defensive. But could it nonetheless be used offensively against Imallye’s ships despite their firewalls and other software defenses?”
Marphissa felt a stirring of hope. “And?”
Beltsios smiled triumphantly. “It is possible, Kommodor. I went into the menus and the code and I dug, looking for eggs and rocks and land mines and treasure chests,” he explained, giving the nicknames for various hidden software features, some good, some bad. “And I found something that calls itself Blindfold.”
“What does it do?”
“From what I and my coworker can tell, it is an attempt to use our kinds of software weapons to mimic what the enigma worms did to our sensors.”
That took a moment to sink in, then Marphissa gave Diaz a startled look. “The enigma worms selectively blinded our sensors so our systems could not see enigma ships. If we can get that into Vengeance’s systems—”
She faced Beltsios again. “Can we get it into the battle cruiser’s systems?”
“I do not know, Kommodor. I can tell that Blindfold contains the very latest snake tunneling worms. If Imallye’s ships do not have defenses against those, they can tunnel through the firewalls.”
Diaz gazed at the depiction of Vengeance on his display. “Doesn’t that require our systems to shake hands with the systems on the battle cruiser? Why would they do that instead of rejecting our attempt to link?”
“It does not require a handshake, Kapitan,” Beltsios said confidently. “The tunneling worms and Blindfold itself are contained in the initial contact attempt. When we knock on the battle cruiser’s firewall, the firewall’s defensive responses will give the worms the openings they need to exploit.”
“How did you think to look for that hidden program inside the snake software?” Diaz asked.
“It is a trick used by code monkeys,” Beltsios explained
. “Hiding something inside another piece of software. Officially, it is never supposed to be done. Under Syndicate instructions,” he added quickly. “It is something that software inspectors were always searching for when they audited our systems. So no one thought that snakes would employ it. But, I thought, the snakes always had a visible presence, and a hidden presence, so we would never know when we were being watched. Maybe they would also do that in official software, have an open function and a hidden one, even though their own rules prohibited it.”
“Good thinking,” Marphissa said. She checked her own display. “Imallye’s battle cruiser is twenty-three light seconds from us and closing at an ever-faster rate. Send that software to knock on Vengeance’s firewall, and let us see what happens.”
“Vengeance could have defenses against that generation of tunneling worms, Kommodor,” Beltsios said. “It is possible our intrusion attempt will fail.”
“It is still a far better option than any other we have,” Marphissa said. “Kapitan?”
Diaz nodded. “Senior Specialist Beltsios, attempt the intrusion as soon as possible.”
“I understand and will comply!”
As Beltsios’s image vanished, Diaz looked suddenly startled and gazed at Marphissa again. “It just occurred to me that even if we manage to blind Vengeance, Imallye will still know that we have to leave this star system through the jump point for Iwa. She can keep heading that way while working to clear her sensor systems of the snake worms. She’ll get there before us and wait for us like a cat at a mouse hole.”
“Damn! Couldn’t you have mentioned that thirty seconds ago?” Marphissa demanded. “Call that senior specialist and tell him not to send that knock yet!”
Diaz hastily conveyed the order. “It had not been sent. Senior Specialist Beltsios will hold it ready to send on our command.”
“Good.” Marphissa frowned, doing the thinking she should have done before too-eagerly ordering the employment of the malware. “Even if we get it into Vengeance’s systems, there is no telling how long it would take the code monkeys on the battle cruiser to neutralize the malware. It might take them hours, or only minutes. More likely minutes, if they are any good.”
“Then no matter when we send it—”
“Now you are being too pessimistic,” Marphissa chided him. “Kapitan, you were quite right that we could not send that malware too soon. We must wait until just the right moment.”
“But it might not work, Kommodor,” Diaz pointed out.
“Then we are no worse off than before,” Marphissa said, thinking that there probably weren’t a lot of ways in which they could be worse off. “But if it works, it can give us a small window of opportunity. Thank you for realizing that we must wait to try it and giving us that chance.”
“Senior Specialist Beltsios should have told us how limited the effectiveness of that snake malware is,” Diaz grumbled, his expression dark.
“Do not blame him,” Marphissa said, shaking her head. “He knows nothing of tactics and maneuvers and combat. Not our kind of combat. His job was to provide us with a weapon to use, and he did that. We are the ones who are supposed to know how to best employ that weapon.”
She checked her display, focusing on not only the position of Vengeance and the battle cruiser’s rate of closure but also on Manticore’s fuel state. “We’re burning through fuel cells, Kapitan. Cease accelerating. Hold our current velocity.”
“Kommodor?” Diaz looked and sounded bewildered by the command. “If we cease accelerating in order to conserve fuel cells, the battle cruiser will overtake us quicker.”
Marphissa nodded. “And without having built up as much velocity, so our relative speeds will still be fairly close. I want an extended opportunity to engage that battle cruiser, Kapitan. Our hope lies in that.”
“You want to be within weapons’ range of the battle cruiser longer? Yes, Kommodor.” Though clearly not understanding why, Diaz gave the orders, and Manticore’s main propulsion units cut off with what almost felt like a collective sigh of relief after the extended period of acceleration. “You have a plan?”
“I have a plan,” Marphissa announced assuredly, knowing that the specialists on the bridge would hear and convey the news throughout the ship so that Manticore’s crew would feel hope.
Diaz shrugged and smiled. “We all have confidence in you, Kommodor.”
Marphissa smiled herself and leaned back in her seat again, the very picture of poise on the outside. Inside, she felt fortunate that no one else aboard the heavy cruiser knew just how tiny were the odds of success.
But if Manticore was destroyed, she would go down fighting.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“WE will be within range of the battle cruiser’s weapons in ten minutes,” the senior specialist on the bridge reported.
Marphissa waved an acknowledgment, her hand now encased in the glove of the survival suit she had donned in preparation for battle. Everyone else was wearing a suit as well. The suits were nothing like the heavy battle armor of soldiers, being just strong enough to protect a human from the dangers of space and minor physical hazards if the hull of the ship was pierced by enemy weapons. “Kapitan Diaz, is your ship at maximum combat readiness?”
“Yes, Kommodor,” Diaz replied. “All shields at maximum, all crew at combat stations, all weapons ready.”
“Good.” Marphissa took a long look at her display, trying to estimate when to act given all of the uncertainties that existed. “Order your senior software and systems specialist to transmit the snake software when we are five minutes from being within range of the weapons on Vengeance.”
“Yes, Kommodor.” Diaz passed on the order, then gestured toward his display. “This marker will indicate when the software has been transmitted. Senior Specialist Beltsios has set it to show red if the knock fails, yellow if its status is uncertain, and green when the tunneling worms send back a pulse indicating success. It will remain green as long as the malware is active aboard Vengeance.”
“Understood.” Marphissa reached out to wave an extended finger through her display. “Pivot Manticore to face Vengeance bow on.”
Diaz didn’t question that command. It was an expected move prior to combat. Thrusters fired, swinging the heavy cruiser’s bow up and over in a smooth arc until more thrusters fired to halt the swing. Manticore’s bow, carrying most of her weapons and her strongest shields, now faced the enemy even though the heavy cruiser’s velocity in the other direction had not changed. Vengeance had been overtaking Manticore from both behind and a bit above and to starboard, hanging off that flank of the heavy cruiser and growing steadily larger as the remaining distance between the two warships dwindled.
As she waited through the next minute, Marphissa wondered why, after all her time in space, it still felt odd for the ship she was on to be racing backward at such incredible velocity. As long as the ship was going forward, that felt all right. But backward? It didn’t feel right at all.
The symbol marking the status of the snake malware came to life, glowing yellow.
Marphissa kept moving her gaze from the deadly threat of Vengeance drawing ever closer to the malware marker that continued to stubbornly display a yellow hue. Was it darkening to red? No. Maybe. No.
“One minute until we are within range of the battle cruiser’s weapons,” the combat systems specialist announced with a voice that somehow remained steady.
“Kommodor?”
“Wait.”
Somewhere aboard Vengeance, a different sort of battle was being fought between weapons and defenses carefully crafted by humans from coded pulses of energy. The battle was taking place at an incredible pace as the snake software attacked and the battle cruiser’s software tried to parry and block in a fencing match at the speed of light.
“Kommodor,” Diaz said urgently, “thirty seconds before Vengeance can open fire on us.”<
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“Wait.” Was the color of the marker altering yet? No. Yes. Darkening? But which way?
Green.
“Kapitan! Brake Manticore’s velocity enough to quickly bring us directly astern of Vengeance, then pivot one hundred eighty degrees again and target his main propulsion!”
“Yes, Kommodor!”
Manticore’s main propulsion surged to life once more, slowing the ship this time and allowing Vengeance to overtake her more rapidly.
Marphissa could not help smiling fiercely as she thought of the scene that must be playing out aboard Vengeance. Imallye would have been preparing to give the order to unleash a devastating volley upon Manticore, only to see the heavy cruiser suddenly disappear from her display. Imallye would be screaming at her crew right now, demanding that they find out what had happened, demanding that they find out how their target had completely vanished, ordering them to—
Vengeance fired her forward-facing hell lances, a lattice of deadly particle beams that speared through space.
The salvo tore through the spot where Manticore would have been if she had not reduced her velocity, then subsequent shots from Vengeance began working their way through space farther ahead along that track.
“They think we’re trying to accelerate away from them while we’re hidden,” Diaz said with a laugh. He was wearing the same sort of ferocious grin as Marphissa.
Manticore’s main propulsion had cut off as Vengeance slid by off to starboard and slightly above the heavy cruiser like a huge shark sailing past a smaller cousin. Usually, space engagements took place at combined velocities so great that the actual combat occurred within a tiny fraction of a second when the opposing forces were within range of each other. But despite the great speed that both Vengeance and Manticore were traveling, they were going in nearly the same direction, making their relative speed as slow as that of two ground vehicles passing each other.