Alarm of War (45 page)

“We can’t,” snapped Sir Henry, speaking for the first time. “We cannot verify the source, so we cannot verify the accuracy of what they told us.”

“This could be a trap,” Wicklow continued. “The Dominion may want us to believe the worm hole will reverse course so we’ll plot our course accordingly, when all along it will be moving west, further and further out of reach.”

Douthat motioned for silence, then gestured to Peter Murphy. “Mr. Murphy, if we turn west with the worm hole, and it does reverse course, can we turn back and still catch it?”

Murphy shot a morose glance at Opinsky, who shook his head. “Don’t see how, Admiral,” Opinsky said. “Hard to turn the Atlas, real hard. If your data is right, the worm hole will move west about twenty degrees off our plane of advance, so we’d need to turn twenty degrees left to try to hit it. To do that we’d need to start turning now, right now, and even then it would be close. But you’re sayin’ that it is gonna turn back east again, to our right and end up fifteen degrees off our current plane of advance. Well, Ma’am, we can go left and maybe make it,
or
go right and probably make it, but we can’t start left and then change our minds with any hope of hitting the worm hole if it really ends up going to our right. If you follow me,” he concluded glumly.

“So we have to decide,” Admiral Douthat said flatly. “Our sensors are reporting that the worm hole has in fact begun to move left. We can either turn with it, or we can trust this message and turn
away
from it, lining up Atlas to enter it when – and
if
– the wormhole reverses course.”

“This message is a Dominion ruse, an attempt to misdirect us,” Wicklow said heatedly. “Any fool can see that.”

“How do we know that?” asked Captain Eder of the
Lionheart.

“We don’t know it is not,” Sir Henry replied. “And because we don’t know, we cannot trust it. We must go left.”

The argument raged for another few minutes, going nowhere. Hiram sat quietly, trying to puzzle it out. Then, when there was a brief lull, he asked: “Admiral Douthat, you said that the message was addressed to Queen Anne and to me, is that correct?

Douthat nodded curtly.

“Exactly what does the message say?”

Douthat pushed a button and the message appeared on a screen:

To Queen Anne of Victoria and to Lt. Hiram Brill, Fleet Intelligence:

Hiram Brill, your aunt sends you chocolate cake.

Hiram laughed out loud. “Turn east, Admiral. The message is good.” He explained about Jong, the monk from The Light, and his odd question about Hiram liking his aunt’s chocolate cake.

“This is nonsense!” Wicklow spluttered. “This could be a Dominion trick, or even if it isn’t, why should we trust The Light? How could they possibly know what the worm hole will do?”

Queen Anne raised her hand and Wicklow fell silent. “Admiral, I have reason to trust this message as well. I believe I know who sent it. I don’t pretend to know why they believe the worm hole will reverse course, but I think we may rely on it.”

“Your Majesty,” Sir Henry protested, but she cut him off.

“I understand your position, Sir Henry, but a decision must be made, and I have made it.” She stood. “Admiral Douthat, direct the tugs to turn Atlas to the east and plan your battle tactics accordingly.” She smiled warmly at everyone in the room. “I have the utmost faith in your ability to get us all safely to Refuge. May the Gods of Our Mothers bless you all and keep you from harm.”

• • • • •

Admiral John Mello stood at the helm of the D.U.C.
Vengeance
and stared at his hologram display. His blocking force was in place; now they awaited the inevitable Victorian response to it.

“Do you think they’ll go for it, sir?” Captain Pattin asked quietly.

“Without a doubt.” Mello smiled coldly. Sometimes you defeat your enemy through their arrogance, sometimes through their fear. And sometimes, simply through their predictability.

It didn’t really matter, as long as you won and they died.

• • • • •

After the others had cleared the conference room, Queen Anne sat with the remaining captains of the Coldstream Guards. The others sat away from Captain Wicklow, no one wanting to appear as if they were taking his side by sitting too close. Captain Wicklow in turn looked at them with unveiled disdain. Queen Anne studied them in turn, observing their body language, hoping that the Guards could maintain enough unity to be combat effective for this last, vital push.

“In a very short time,” she said evenly, “Admiral Douthat will send the Queen’s Own and Black Watch ahead to attack the Dominion blocking force. If that attack is successful, the main body of the Dominion fleet will either be defeated or at least out of position to stop our passage through the Refuge worm hole. The Coldstream Guards will remain with Atlas to serve as the reserve and to protect it from any attack from the rear, although Admiral Douthat assures me that such an attack would likely get bogged down in the minefield.”

“There are two issues Admiral Douthat asked me to deal with,” the Queen continued. “First, who shall command the Coldstream Guards, and second, what to do about the pending arrest warrant for Lieutenant Tuttle.”

“It is perfectly clear, Your Majesty,” Captain Wicklow said earnestly. “Following the unfortunate death of Captain Grey, I am the senior officer of the Guards and should, as a matter of rank, tradition and expertise, assume command. As for Lieutenant Tuttle, she should be taken into custody immediately for treason in the face of the enemy for turning her guns on a ship of Your Majesty’s navy. Her actions were criminal and she must now face the consequences.” He looked coldly at Emily. “And, I might add, Your Majesty should immediately open an investigation into the mysterious circumstances of Captain Grey’s death. From all reports she died under most irregular circumstances. Most irregular.”

“If by most irregular, Joe, you mean she died while her ship was
attacking
enemy instead of running for home, I couldn’t agree with you more,” Captain Rowe said pointedly. There was a rumble of agreement from the other captains, all of whom had stayed and fought despite the odds.

Captain Wicklow nodded calmly, seemingly oblivious to the insult he had just received. “You fought against overwhelming odds and won, Captain Rowe, no one will deny that. But that doesn’t change the basic fact: You should never have fought that engagement. By doing so you placed a third of the Queen’s remaining Fleet in extreme jeopardy, with little chance of success. The fact that you survived doesn’t change the fact that you were wrong to do so.” He glanced at Tuttle. “As for this junior officer, she will hang, of that I assure you.” He smiled at her.

Queen Anne pursed her lips. “No, she won’t, Captain Wicklow.”

Wicklow frowned. “Your Majesty?”

“Captain Wicklow, you will continue to captain the
Gloucester
, but I am assigning the
Gloucester
to the Queen’s Own. You will now report to Admiral Eder. Captain Rowe of the
Bristol
will assume command of the Coldstream Guards and I will leave it to him to decide who should captain the
New Zealand
. My decision on these assignments is final.”

Wicklow flushed a deep, angry red. ““Perhaps, do to Your Majesty’s inexperience in these matters, you do not realize that the time-honored traditions of the Fleet are that the senior officer automatically assumes command of-”

“Do
not
lecture me on military protocol, Captain,” Queen Anne said tartly, “least I be forced to lecture you on the blatant inappropriateness of a line officer who takes it upon himself to issue arrest warrants and seize evidence in contravention of the established procedures of the Office of the Judge Advocate and the Military Police.”

Wicklow refused to back down. “I must protest, Your Majesty! I acted in the face of a clear criminal conspiracy-”

The Queen held up one slender finger, silencing him. “I have no time for this. In a few hours we will be in the most important battle of Victoria’s history. But take note, Captain, I am more than a little curious as to why the logs of your ship, the
Gloucester,
give one account of the incident with the Dominion reinforcements, while the logs of the other ships give a different account. I intend to explore this further once we have made it to Refuge.”

“You impugn my integrity, Majesty!” Wicklow said, his voice rising. “I have friends at court who will stand by me on this, influential people held in high esteem by the Queen’s brother.”

In the silence that followed, Emily thought she could hear her own heartbeat. She looked anxiously from Wicklow to the Queen, then to Hiram. Hiram allowed a very small smile.

“As it happens, Captain Wicklow,” Queen Anne said coolly, “
I
have no brother.”

Captain Wicklow looked flustered. “My apologies, Your Grace, I referred to your mother, Queen Beatrice, and to the Duke of Kent.”

Anne leaned forward, speaking coldly and deliberately, as if to a malicious child who has just strangled the family cat.

“Queen Beatrice is
dead
, Captain Wicklow. The Duke of Kent is
dead
. All of the people you would count on to protect you are dead. You must now stand on your merits, Captain, without the benefit of friends in Court who owe you favor.” She cocked her head. “Do you understand now, Captain Wicklow?” She rose to her feet, her armsmen immediately forming up behind her. “Captain Rowe, assign a captain to the
New Zealand
and prepare your ships for departure.” And then she swept from the room.

Captain Rowe stood. “Prepare your ships,” he ordered the captains of the Coldstream Guard. He did not look at Captain Wicklow. He motioned to Alex Rudd and Emily. “You two stay behind.” When the room was clear he gave each of them in turn a hard look.

“Okay, listen, you two. Normally I would simply assign the
New Zealand
to the next senior officer, but we don’t have the time for a new captain from outside to get to know your crew and the ship. And anyway, you two make a good team.” He looked at Rudd.

“Alex, you are the most senior officer on board, so I should turn the ship over to you, but these are not normal times and from what I’ve seen, Miss Tuttle here has been in
de facto
command since the first attack on the Dominion supply ships. If we have to fight the Dominion ships in our rear, any mistakes we make could kill us, all of us. So I am asking you, Alex, no bullshit, should I give command of the
New Zealand
to you or to Emily?”

Emily almost blurted out:
Give it to Alex
. But Rudd spoke first.

“Sir, I am good, pretty damn good, in fact, but I’m not as good as she is. Keep me as the XO and make her interim captain of the
New Zealand
. I confess I’m a little jealous, but I can live with it.”

Rowe wheeled on Emily. “Lieutenant Tuttle, do you agree with Lt. Commander Rudd’s assessment?”

All I ever wanted to do was be a historian,
she thought fleetingly,
and I never want to send a man to his death again
.

Then, despite herself, she nodded to Captain Rowe, already thinking of what she had to do next.

Rowe studied the two of them for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay, then. Thank you both for acting like adults about this. I am authorized to give you both field promotions to full Commander; you’ve earned it. When this is over, I’ll speak to Admiral Douthat and we’ll see if you can keep it.” He took a deep breath, and Emily thought he suddenly looked very tired. “Return to your ship. The rest of the Home Fleet sorties in a little less than five hours. Two hours after that, I want the Coldstream Guards ready to go. I will contact you with your specific assignment.”

“What about the
Yorkshire, Kent and Galway
from the Second Fleet?” Emily asked.

“They’ve been assigned to us, bringing us up to twelve operational ships,” Rowe said. “Good thing, our ships are pretty beat up.”

• • • • •

Hiram Brill was waiting for her in the corridor. Emily grinned at him. “So, had a good debriefing with Cookie, did you?” To her surprise, Hiram stepped forward and gave her a hug.

“Thank you, Em,” he whispered. “Thank you.” He let her go and stepped back. “Bring her back, Emily,” he pleaded. “When she’s in full macho mode she takes stupid chances. Please, do whatever you can. Just bring her back.”

Emily felt her stomach drop. “I’m not in charge of the Guards, Hiram, and Cookie will be on the
Yorkshire
, not the
New Zealand,
” she protested. Part of her wanted to scream.

Hiram smiled and shook his head. “You really don’t see it, do you? Emily, haven’t you noticed that ever since the Dominion freighters pulled off that sneak attack, you have somehow managed to be involved in every important decision in every important battle? You may want to be a historian, Emily, surrounded by books in some dusty library, but the gods of war have other plans for you. You’re a warrior; it’s your curse.”

“Hiram, I – “

He held up a hand to stop her. “When the time comes, do what you can, Em. That’s all I ask. I’ve waited my whole life for her, just do whatever you can to bring her back.” His com buzzed and he looked at it. “They’re waiting for me. Good luck to you, Em.” And then he was gone.

Emily made her way back to the repair bay, where workmen swarmed over the
New Zealand
. She could see missiles and kinetic munitions being loaded on by forklifts and gravity pallets. She wondered briefly if they had enough food, but then realized in a day they would either be in Refuge or dead.