The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan (16 page)

The propulsion of the Alliance warships had been pushing them around the arc, altering the direction of movement, the more force, the tighter the turn, limited by how much stress the ships and crews could stand and how much push the main propulsion units could provide. Even with the ships’ inertial dampers straining at full capability, both ships and crews had been feeling some of the pressure of the forces tearing at them.

As the dark ships raced toward another intercept, the force on Geary’s ships abruptly lessened as the main propulsion units on the warships throttled back in accordance with his orders. Just as abruptly, the arc of the turn the ships were going through shifted, growing wider, the Alliance warships swinging outward farther than they had been moments earlier.

The dark ships, aiming for where the Alliance ships should have been, were now on paths that would take them just under the Alliance formations, whose flattened discs would give nearly every Alliance warship a decent shot at the enemy. Ideally, if Geary had called it right, the top edge of the dark ship formations would be within range of the Alliance warships’ weapons. The Alliance warships themselves were traveling along the arc, but their bows, with the majority of their weaponry and their strongest shields and armor, were pointed toward where the enemy ships would pass.

If this pass worked, it would be perfect.

The moment came, and went.

“No engagement,” Lieutenant Yuon reported, sounding as if he were responsible for the failure.

“The dark ships thought you were going to accelerate again and tighten our turn,” Desjani said as she studied the playback from the last encounter. “They tried to compensate for that, we both went in different directions, and nobody was within range of anybody.”

“I considered tightening the turn,” Geary said. “It could have gone either way. Let’s try again.” He activated the fleetwide command net. “All units in First Fleet, immediate execute, pivot one four zero degrees up, accelerate to point one light speed.”

The Alliance warships swung in place, then lit off their main propulsion again at a higher intensity. Their paths began to recurve, twisting up along the opposite direction of the previous turn, but higher, aiming toward where the dark ships were also slewing about and maneuvering for another intercept.

“Have engineering check something for me,” Desjani called to her watch-standers. “I want to know what they can tell me about the main propulsion signatures on the dark ships.”

The answer came within a minute. “Engineering has been running that analysis, Captain. They say the signatures on the dark ships are identical to those on our main propulsion units.”

“But the dark ships have consistently been maneuvering harder than we do,” Desjani said. “It’s not because their main propulsion units have more capability than ours? They’re just using more thrust?”

“Yes, Captain. They’re burning their main drives hotter and longer to get more thrust out of them.”

“Thank you.” Desjani glanced at Geary. “Can we use that?”

“I don’t know.” Geary gestured toward the virtual tiles hanging in the air near his command seat that listed the status of all of his ships, updating every time any change took place. “They’re forcing us to maneuver hard as well. As hard as we can, anyway. I can’t let them run rings around us.”

“So they’re burning fuel cells faster, but they’re also forcing us to do the same.”

“Yeah. And we don’t know how big their fuel cell reserves are. Did the builders use the same levels as on our ships, or did they add extra stockpiles?”

Desjani made a face. “One of those agents we’re holding might know. How about if we stick them on the bow of
Dauntless
before our next engagement with the dark ships? Just to encourage them to talk.”

“We can’t do that, Tanya.”

“I wasn’t going to put them out there in their shirtsleeves. I’d put them in survival suits,” she said. “I wonder if duct tape would hold them on to the outer hull? We could find out.”

“Still can’t do it,” Geary said. “But I wish we could.”

This time, the two formations were racing toward an intercept in which both would be at an angle to the other, meeting partway through
their turns. Once again, Geary faced the question of whether to try to tighten the turn or to slack off on acceleration and widen it. Another look at the damage status of some of his ships,
Fearless
and
Incredible
in particular, led him to decide to once again ease off acceleration just before contact.

“I should be used to the waits between firing runs by now,” Geary murmured as he watched the apparently slow movement of both forces through the immense distances of space.

“I’m not,” Desjani commented, “and I’ve been doing it longer than you have, old man.”

“Excuse me?”

“Old man,
sir
.”

“That’s better.” A touch of the comm controls. “All units in First Fleet, go to forty-four percent propulsion at time one four.”

In the last moments before contact, the Alliance warships swung a little wider, once again aiming for the upper portion of the dark ship formation.

“No engagement,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “No ships were within range of the enemy during the pass.”

“Damn,” Geary got out in a whisper. “Let’s try this different.” He swung the battle cruisers up again, curving back once more, but both of his battleship formations went out to the sides and then up, the three formations bracketing the future path of the dark ships also coming back in another upward curve.

This time he did a last-second shift to starboard with the battle cruisers, while the two battleship formations swung lower and toward each other, in an attempt to bracket the dark ship subformation to one side of the main formation.

“No engagement.” Lieutenant Yuon had stopped sounding guilty. Now he appeared to be confused.

Geary, feeling angry and frustrated, assessed the status of his ships, then called out new orders. One Alliance battleship formation swung
wide to starboard, one swung wide to port, and the battle cruisers twisted about and aimed straight for an intercept with the dark ships coming back for another run.

He dove the battle cruiser formation before contact, aiming under the dark ships, while the battleship formations on either side held their vectors so that no matter which way the dark ships went, the Alliance warships should get some shots at them.

“No engagement.”

Geary could feel everyone on the bridge carefully not looking at him. He could sense how crews on every other ship in the fleet were reacting. Something was very wrong, and he wasn’t sure what it was.

Had he lost his nerve? Was he so afraid of losing this battle that he wouldn’t take the necessary losses to win it?

But he was doing nothing differently. He was trying to hit the enemy. And how could the dark ships keep missing his ships if Geary was displaying any sort of unconscious pattern of avoiding closing to weapons range? He might not be aware of it, but the dark ships would see such a pattern. They would exploit it and catch him next time.

“Admiral?” Tanya was eyeing him with an unusual level of concern apparent.

“Something is wrong,” Geary said. “None of the passes are working.”

“We have to close to engagement range.”

“I
know
that!”

“Admiral,” Desjani said in her most formal tone of voice, “we have to hit them despite the risks—”

“I have demonstrated my willingness to take risks, Captain,” Geary snapped.

“Getting too close is dangerous, but if we don’t—”

“Captain Desjani, I am making just as strong an effort to engage those dark ships as I ever have in any battle!” He glowered at his display as Desjani fell silent and stared fixedly at her own display. What wasn’t working? he wondered. To guess incorrectly that many times in
a row? To completely miss engaging the dark ships time and again? How could that be happening?

Not by chance.

“Damn.” His tone of voice brought Desjani’s eyes back on him. “It’s not us. We’re not engaging on these firing passes because the dark ships are deliberately avoiding getting within range of us.”

“They’re avoiding action?” She took another look at her display, swallowed, then inclined her head toward him. “My apologies, Admiral. I did not consider that possibility, but I’m certain that you’re right.”

“None of us considered it, Captain,” Geary said. “Because of the ruthless tactics of the dark ships prior to this. But they are tactics, and tactics can change depending on the situation. Right now, the dark ships have a reason to avoid action just as we have had reasons to seek action.”

“But why would they—?” Her eyes widened. “They’re just keeping us engaged and occupied in dealing with them, forcing us into repeated maneuvers to counter them. Stalling for time and keeping us in this region of space.”

“Until their battle cruisers get here,” Geary said, his voice as grim as his mood. “And then they will hit us with everything at once.”

THE
dark battleships were turning to engage again, but Geary swung his formations on through their last turn, not steadying out until the enemy battleships were behind him and his own warships were aimed at an intercept with the dark battle cruisers ahead. Those battle cruisers were braking velocity at a rate that would have torn apart Geary’s ships. By the time they reached where Geary’s ships were tangling with the dark battleships, they would have been going slow enough (if point one light speed could be considered slow) to engage the Alliance forces.

“What are we doing?” Desjani asked.

“Changing the game,” Geary said. “We underestimated the dark ship AIs. First we get out of the trap they tried to pin us in. Next—”

An alert sounded on his display.

“
Fearless
just lost another main propulsion unit,” Lieutenant Castries said.

Geary slapped his comm controls. “
Fearless
, can you keep up with the formation?”

The image of Captain Ulrickson looked back at Geary. “We’ll keep up or die trying. Repairs are underway.”

The determination and the desire were admirable, but as Geary looked at his data he could tell that neither were adequate substitutes for a main propulsion unit. If
Fearless
could not keep up, they would have to leave her, or else sacrifice the rest of the fleet protecting her.

Desjani was looking at her display, her expression revealing no emotion.

“We’ve got half an hour before any more maneuvers are necessary,” Geary told Captain Ulrickson. “I need
Fearless
able to keep up at that point.”

“I understand, Admiral.”

“We’ve still got a chance,” Geary told Desjani as the call ended. “Those dark battle cruisers based their approach on reaching us back where we were tangling with dark battleships.”

“Which means they’ll be going too fast when we reach them, since we’re heading straight for an intercept with the dark battle cruisers,” Desjani agreed. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” she called in a louder voice to the watch-standers. “What is the first rule of combat maneuvering?”

“Never take your ship to the limit of her capabilities unless you absolutely have to,” Lieutenants Yuon and Castries chorused in reply.

“Because?”

“Once you take your ship to her limits,” the lieutenants said, “the ship has nothing else to give if you need it.”

“Exactly.” Desjani indicated her display with a dismissive gesture. “Those dark battle cruisers based their approach on the maximum deceleration they could endure, which means they can’t slow down any faster now that we are closing on them.” She lowered her voice to speak only to Geary. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to hit them as they pass us.”

“No.” He was sizing up the situation. The dark battleships were behind his formations, but accelerating at a better rate than his own battleships could achieve, especially with
Fearless
limping along. The repeated attempts at firing passes had kept Geary’s units fairly close to the dark ships as distances in space went, so the dark battleships were
not that far away and closing on the Alliance warships. Even if
Fearless
got one of her off-line main propulsion units working, Geary wouldn’t be able to avoid them for long.

The dark battle cruisers would slide helplessly past the Alliance formation at a combined closing speed of point two five light, too fast to hope for any significant number of hits. But as Desjani had noted, Geary’s ships wouldn’t be able to hit the dark battle cruisers, either. After that, both the dark battleships and the dark battle cruisers would be right behind Geary’s own formations.

“If we try to reduce speed to engage the dark battle cruisers, they’ll just evade us, and the lower velocity will allow the dark battleships to catch us faster,” Geary said between teeth clenched with frustration.

Desjani shook her head, looking pained. “Admiral, I’ve got nothing.”

“We’ve got one chance,” he said, speaking slowly to allow his thoughts to form. “Now we’re going slower than they are. We can turn inside them, or at least match them since they can maneuver tighter than us under equal conditions.”

“They’ve got enough superiority now to hammer us in any encounter,” Desjani said.

“If they get within firing range.”

Her anguish changed to surprise. “Now
we’re
going to avoid closing with them?”

“Yes. It’s not a tactic I’ve used before, so it will take them by surprise,” Geary said. It would surprise the dark ships the first time, and maybe the second time as well. But after that . . .

The dark battle cruisers whipped past the Alliance formations at a distance of five light-seconds, far too distant to engage even if the relative velocity hadn’t been so high. On Geary’s display, the projected track of the dark battle cruisers showed them braking steadily and hard until past their own battleships. He did not expect them to maneuver in that way, though.

“Dark battle cruiser formation is turning,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

The dark battle cruisers and their accompanying heavy cruisers and destroyers were bending their path through space, their main propulsion still blasting at full power, heading down. The projected path of the dark battle cruisers on Geary’s display bent and bent some more, shifting into a wide, wide turn that would bring the enemy ships back toward Geary’s formation.

He knew that everyone was waiting, nervously, to know what he would do, so Geary touched his comm controls. “First Fleet, the enemy believes that our options have been eliminated and we cannot avoid meeting them at their advantage. My intention is to frustrate their plans and force them into a variety of maneuvers until we can once again hit them at our advantage. I need the best from everyone. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

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.