The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan (10 page)

“A week is already faster than scheduled. I assumed you would get things done faster, but a week is longer than I can wait before heading for Bhavan.” He could see the disappointment that Duellos was having a hard time hiding. “That actually works out to our advantage. I want some insurance against the possibility that dark ships might attack Varandal while the fleet is gone.
Inspire
,
Formidable
, and
Implacable
can provide that insurance along with a scratch force of cruisers and destroyers that will also be getting operational again in the same time frame. And I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that having you in command of the remaining elements of the fleet at Varandal will be a source of great comfort to me.”

“I see.” Duellos pursed his lips as he thought, then nodded. “I understand both your logic and your reasons. I’m not happy, but it’s not your job to make me happy, and it is my job to do what is needed. What am I supposed to do if dark ships do show up?”

“That depends on how many there are,” Geary said. “If it is a force small enough that you can handle it, try to bring it to battle and wipe it out. I’m sure that you’ve been studying the records of the engagements we’ve already fought with the dark ships and know what a challenge that will be. They’re tough, fast, and nimble.”

Duellos smiled. “So are my battle cruisers.”

“As I know from personal experience,” Geary agreed. “If the dark ships come in force, then your job will be to divert them from attacking other targets in Varandal, attempt to lure them into futile chases and missed intercepts against your force, and in general stall them and prevent them from doing damage while waiting for the rest of the fleet to get back to Varandal.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Duellos remarked in a dry voice that made it clear he was mocking his own words. “I’ll do my best, Admiral.” He saluted, clearly ready to depart again.

“Roberto,” Desjani said, “how is everything else?”

“Ah, now we are engaged with personal matters.” Duellos paused, his expression shifting, then made a slight, indefinite gesture with both hands. “There is a clearer understanding. My wife knows how much losing this would hurt me.” He waved around, this time including the entirety of the ships and environment of the fleet in the gesture. “And I understand better her concerns for me and for the future.”

He made a face. “Our eldest daughter is complicating matters. She has a strong desire still to enter the fleet as well, despite many now telling her it is a dead end and no longer required since peace abounds and nothing really important will ever happen again.”

Desjani smiled bitterly. “Yeah, I’m loving this peace stuff. I wonder how the folks at Bhavan are feeling about that right now?”

“Not to mention those at Atalia,” Duellos said. “That’s what worries my wife. She knows the risks of being in the fleet still exist. And if our daughter follows me into the service . . .”

Desjani smiled wryly. “I’d offer to look after her, but I’ve had so many ships shot out from under me that wouldn’t necessarily comfort anyone.”

“No, it wouldn’t. My wife and I agreed that we have visions for the future that are incompatible, and we agreed that we still want to have a future with each other. So . . . a dilemma.”

“There are assignments that could keep you closer to home,” Geary said.

“System defense?” Duellos looked offended. “After all we have seen?”

“What about a training assignment? That’s valuable. A chance to pass on what you have learned. At the least, you could save a few lives by teaching people what not to do.”

Duellos paused, then shrugged. “Perhaps. If we can resolve this latest mess. I will keep an eye on the place until you return, Admiral, and if the dark ships show up, I will see what some old, beat-up battle cruisers and some beat-up crews can do against the newest bright and shiny that attracted the eyes of our leaders.”

Three days later, the hastily assembled First Fleet was approaching Varandal’s hypernet gate when a courier ship carrying Captain Jane Geary popped out.

“What’s happening?” Jane Geary asked as the courier ship raced to intercept
Dreadnaught
so she could rejoin her ship.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t make it back before we left,” Geary told her.

She scowled. “I delivered the information to the people you had specified. I’ll fill you in on that later though I will say now that each of them promised to immediately get on the matter. But, after delivering the materials, I couldn’t get a ship back to Varandal. Delays and excuses and postponements. Finally, I threatened to go public, and this courier ship miraculously became available.”

“I’m glad that worked. Your executive officer can brief you on the situation when you reach
Dreadnaught
. We’ll enter the hypernet gate as soon as the courier ship delivers you and gets free of the hypernet bubble.” As Jane Geary’s image vanished, Geary turned a concerned look toward Desjani. “They were trying to delay her return. Do you think her threat to speak to the press is really what got her back here?”

“Of course it did.” Desjani said it as if the answer should be obvious. “She’s a Geary.”

“She’s not Black Jack—”

“She’s his closest living relative. I mean, as far as is known,” Desjani said. “Her special status isn’t confined to fleet matters or politics. If she wants to talk to the press, the press will come running.” She sighed. “According to everything I heard, Jane never sought out the press. She didn’t exploit her status in any way. But that could have been because it would have been perceived, rightly or wrongly, as her personally benefiting from the family name. Now, she’s working the problem along with us, and she’s using every weapon in her inventory to help us win.”

“Maybe someone at Unity is going to fix the dark ships problem before we get to Bhavan,” Geary said.

“You don’t really believe that.”

“No. I don’t.”

—

GEARY
brought the First Fleet out of the jump point from Molnir to Bhavan with all warships ready for immediate action. Having lost
Adroit
at Atalia, with
Intemperate
badly damaged during the fight at Varandal, and the three battle cruisers
Inspire
,
Formidable
, and
Implacable
still undergoing critical repairs, Geary only had nine battle cruisers with him. He should have been able to muster twenty-one battleships, but
Relentless
,
Superb
, and
Splendid
were also in dock, leaving only eighteen. Twenty heavy cruisers, forty-one light cruisers, and one hundred twelve destroyers made up the rest of the force. There were no auxiliaries or assault transports along this time. Just front-line warships.

“Oh, damn.”

Geary heard Desjani say that as he tried to shake the disorientation caused by exiting from jump space. He finally managed to focus his own eyes, seeing what had caused her comment.

Sixteen dark battleships orbited near the jump exit from Varandal, along with thirty heavy cruisers, forty-five light cruisers, and an even one hundred destroyers. They were arranged in a rectangular box facing that jump point, only a couple of light-seconds away from it, ready to hit anything arriving at Bhavan directly from Varandal.

“Roughly even odds,” Geary said.

“You mean if the dark ships didn’t outgun our ships?” Desjani asked, her voice bleak.

“Yeah. Ancestors save us. If we’d come straight from Varandal, they would have torn us apart before we could get past them.”

“The only advantage we have is that we have battle cruisers and they don’t,” she said. “But what are the odds that we can use maneuverability to wear them down in any meaningful way? They’re three and a half light-hours from us. We’ve got that much time before they see us, and seven hours before we see their reaction.”

Which left it in his hands. Geary studied his display with a sinking feeling. Even if every one of his ships had been at one hundred percent effectiveness, this would have been a very hard fight.

Aside from the dark ships and Geary’s fleet, though, it was a very empty battlefield. Bhavan had one planet seven light-minutes from a star that was a bit less luminous than ancient Sol, the standard that humans still used. That planet was comfortable enough for humans that it now boasted a significant population in many cities as well as a lot of industry both on the planet and orbiting above it. Five more planets also orbited the star, most rocky but one a gas giant in a slightly erratic orbit that seemed to have swept up at least one other planet in its wanderings. Mining and manufacturing facilities orbited some of those worlds as well, some large enough to qualify as good-sized towns in their own right.

But the many sorts of civil shipping that should have filled space between the planets and around the planets was nowhere to be seen. Freighters, tugs, passenger liners, and other craft that would normally be plodding along their great, curving routes between worlds were all absent.

There were, however, a suspiciously large number of debris fields, by their size fairly recent, and concentrated through the regions that shipping should have occupied.

“It looks like the dark ships have wiped out every spaceship that didn’t manage to jump out of danger,” Desjani said.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Castries reported, “we have indications that every craft capable of entering atmosphere has taken refuge on planetary surfaces. From the chatter we’re picking up, they are terrified of the dark ships going after them, but for some reason the dark ships have refrained from targeting anything that wasn’t in space.”

“They haven’t hit any of the orbiting facilities, either,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “Nothing in a fixed orbit has been destroyed, Captain.”

“That’s weird,” Desjani commented. “It’s almost like . . . maybe that’s it.”

“What?” Geary asked.

She gave him a puzzled look. “It’s as if the dark ships identify this as a friendly star system, with anything in fixed orbit or on a planet safe from attack, but they see any ship in space as an enemy.”

“That at least makes some kind of sense,” Geary said.

“And we’re ships,” Desjani added.

“I already did that math.” He shook his head. “We have one big advantage, but only one.”

“And that is?” Desjani asked.

“We destroyed every one of the dark ships that we fought at Atalia. That means none of them had the opportunity to send any lessons learned to the other dark ships. They will still expect me to fight like Black Jack Geary, and they will fight like me as best they can.”

She gazed at her own display. Knowing her, he could see that she was worried but also determined to fight her hardest. “They’ll learn every time we make a firing run at them. Can we inflict enough damage on sixteen battleships like that quickly enough to make a difference?”

“We’ve got eighteen battleships.” He focused on his display again, trying to think. “What would I go after first if I were commanding the dark ships? Our battleships or our battle cruisers?”

“The battle cruisers. They can run if things get really bad. But we’d have a better chance of catching battleships that were trying to flee the fight.”

“All right.” He lowered his voice, making certain that the privacy field surrounding his and Desjani’s seats was active. “Tanya, our smartest move would be to leave Bhavan. These odds are ugly.”

“Leave without a fight?” She was trying not to sound upset and kept her own voice low, but the emotion came through anyway. “Abandon an Alliance star system to enemy forces? You can’t do that.”

“You can evaluate this situation as well as I can. Even though we’re coming in at them from a different jump point, that meant we had to come out three and a half light-hours from them, which is seventeen hours’ travel time. They’ll have plenty of time to set up attacks on us as we head for them.”

“If they act like they did at Atalia,” Desjani insisted, “they’ll come for us as soon as they see us, so that seventeen hours will be more like eight or nine hours. Which is what you would do, right? But you cannot . . . cannot . . .” Even now, Tanya had enormous difficulty saying the word “retreat” when speaking of Alliance fleet forces.

“This fleet is the only substantial force the Alliance has that can stop the dark ships,” Geary said just as forcefully. “If it is destroyed or takes serious losses, the Alliance will be helpless.”

“If the star systems making up the Alliance hear that this fleet, with
you
in command, left an Alliance star system to its fate against a force that looks inferior in strength to our own, then there won’t be any
Alliance left to worry about!” She glared at him. “You know that’s true! We have to hold the line. You have to hold the line. If Black Jack abandons the Alliance, the Alliance is done!”

He looked back at her, seeing the certainty in her eyes, and knew she was right. “That is one hell of a demand to put on me.”

“I . . . yes, it is.” Desjani shook her head. “But I didn’t make it that way, and I can’t change it. I can just help you handle it.”

“That’s a big thing,” Geary said. “Any ideas?”

“Give them a perfect run at you, then do the stupid thing again.” She must have seen something in him, her expression shading into questioning. “What?”

“I don’t know. Something else is bothering me, but I can’t figure out what it is.” He tried to drop all doubt and prepare for a battle that the other side would not even know was coming for another three hours. “At least our outguessing them on the planned ambush here proves that we can outthink the dark ships on strategy as well as tactics.”

He had arranged his own fleet into three formations again, this time three diamonds arranged vertically. The leading diamond contained all nine battle cruisers, while the other two, currently arranged one slightly behind and below and the other slightly behind and above, each held nine battleships. Ten heavy cruisers accompanied each battleship formation, along with ten light cruisers each, while the remaining twenty-one light cruisers were with the battle cruisers. Thirty destroyers were with each battleship formation, the remaining fifty-two with the battle cruisers.