What infrastructure had existed was abandoned or just gone. It was one thing to hear that the Kenmiri had been withdrawing toward their core worlds.
It was another to pass through what was still, at least theoretically, civilized space and see nothing.
A chilly guilt was nestled at the base of Henry’s spine, and it hadn’t moved in three days.
“Should be a nice, quiet fourteen-hour vector adjustment, then,” he said aloud. “Keep our eyes open. This isn’t unclaimed space and the degree of quiet we’re seeing is making me uncomfortable.”
“Feels like there’s no one left, doesn’t it?” his tactical officer asked. “I guess it’s more there’s no ships left. If the Kenmiri took their ships with them, there’s not many worlds that can build a skip drive.”
“And five months is barely enough time to establish a new government, let alone start up trade again,” Henry conceded. Of course, that had another downside: the Kenmiri had a bad habit of setting up slave worlds full of factories and mines that intentionally lacked a sufficient local food supply.
Somehow, he was grimly certain the insectoids hadn’t moved those people before they’d abandoned them. Some of them would have found ways to survive—if nothing else, most of the industrial worlds could build skip drives—but others wouldn’t.
Which was more blood on Henry Wong’s hands, if rather indirectly.
He didn’t even need the alert that buzzed in the back of his internal network to realize that wasn’t a productive thought chain to follow.
“Not much we can do either way,” Ihejirika noted. “Though I thought trade was part of what the Ambassador was supposed to negotiate. Did that get mentioned at dinner? Or were things too busy?”
He might not have meant it the way it had come out, but the the innuendo was blatant. Henry made a cut off gesture that shut his tactical officer up.
“Watch your suggestions, Commander,” he warned. He and the Ambassador, plus various members of their staffs, had been trading dinner invites back and forth every few days for the entire trip. It was a good way to make sure he knew her mind, after all.
“Apologies, ser,” the other man said, his gaze suddenly fixed on his console. He paused. “Did the Ambassador say anything about trade treaties, though?”
“It’s been mentioned,” Henry confirmed, letting his tone stay cool. “We’ll see how the Gathering goes.
“For now, I suggest we keep our eyes on the scopes. The Kenmiri might have retreated, but we should still be treating this as hostile territory.”
While Henry would never admit it to his people, the warning to treat Kenmiri space as hostile territory was becoming a formality for him, too. Intelligence suggested that the Kenmiri had withdrawn into the core six provinces around their home world.
The nearest system of those provinces was almost sixty light-years away from Apophis-Four. The only people who were likely to be running around out here now were Vesheron, and the Vesheron were allies.
Weird, disorganized, barely-functional-at-times allies…but allies.
He was going over what he’d completed of his dissertation—an occasional hobby that rarely resulted in much. He’d earned his master’s in astrophysics by UPSF correspondence shortly after the war started.
He’d been working on his PhD for fifteen years. Even though he was in a correspondence program designed for UPSF officers during wartime, he suspected his advisers never expected to receive a completed document.
Henry wasn’t sure he expected to ever give them one, either, but it gave him something to focus on when he didn’t have other distractions…which was rare enough as a starship captain.
His internal network interrupted him with a notice that he was getting a priority com from the bridge. Surprised, he flicked the call from his network to his office and answered it.
“Wong.”
“Ser, this is Commander Ihejirika,” his tactical officer said.
“So I presumed, what with you being the officer of the watch and all,” Henry pointed out. “What’s going on?”
“I’m transferring a visual pickup to your feed,” the other man said in answer. The image that showed up was of one of Apophis-Four’s gas giants. The closest one, Henry noted.
“Ninety seconds ago, we saw this.”
A series of sparks lit up across the rings of the gas giant. They sparkled for a moment, then went away. It repeated a few seconds later. Then again.
“I was going to say that looked like reflections to me, but it isn’t, is it?” Henry asked.
“I’ve picked up multiple pulses so far,” the tactical officer replied. “I think they don’t think we can see them. We have a pretty significant pickup-and-processing upgrade over the Jaguar’s, and most of our sensors are still telling me there’s nothing there.”
“So, what is there, Commander?” Henry asked.
Ihejirika paused.
“At least six ships. They’re using short medium-power pulses to launch themselves into a slingshot course around the gas giant. I’d guess their intent is to build up as much velocity as they can before they emerge from behind cover and come out at us.”
Henry studied the image and tapped some commands of his own.
“I’m not seeing anything big enough for a capital ship, so let’s guess Kenmiri escort-sized ships,” he noted. “If they are Kenmiri escorts, they can pull one point two KPS squared. Coming around the gas giant won’t give them that much extra velocity.”
“It converts what velocity they’ve got into a vector toward us, though,” Ihejirika replied. “They’ll emerge on an intercept course at just over two hundred KPS. They’ll have just over two million kilometers to close, but it’s not like we have much that can hit them at that range.”
The tactical officer wasn’t wrong. The gravity driver fired a round at seven percent of lightspeed. That was enough to be deadly at reasonable combat ranges, but it limited those ranges to about a quarter-million kilometers.
Most people’s lasers had a focusing distance of around that as well. The two heavy lasers flanking Raven’s grav-driver were at their most effective within a hundred thousand kilometers, but their targets would know they’d been touched at a quarter-million.
Their missiles could get to two million kilometers…if they spent most of the flight ballistic. They only had five minutes of fuel aboard. Their powered range was only about three-quarters of a million kilometers.
“You’re assuming they’re hostile,” Henry pointed out. “They’re almost certainly Vesheron, not Kenmiri.”
“They’re maneuvering like they’re hostile.”
Raven’s Captain sighed.
“You’re right,” he allowed. “Your estimate of engagement time?”
“Assuming Kenmiri escorts? They’ll come out from behind the gas giant in about two hours. If they bring their drives up at full immediately, they’ll reach laser range for Kenmiri escorts twenty-five minutes after that unless we do something.”
“Take the ship to readiness one,” Henry ordered. “Get O’Flannagain’s birds into space and held in a defensive patrol. I’ll be on the bridge before FighterDiv is in vacuum.”
On the bridge, Ihejirika had highlighted what information they had on the big displays as the alpha crew started making their way in. Readiness one called for two shifts on duty and one shift off, with all bridge officers at their station.
New icons started appearing on the tactical plot as Henry took his seat in the center of the room: O’Flannagain’s Dragoons.
“Four birds in space, assuming escort formation,” Iyotake reported from his station in the combat information center / auxiliary bridge. “Second flight prepping for launch.”
“This is O’Flannagain,” the pilot’s voice interjected into the channel. “If they want to play games, let’s play games. Permission to go buzz them.”
“Permission denied, Commander,” Henry said with a chuckle. “At least, don’t buzz them yet. This may all be some unfortunat
e misunderstanding.”
The FighterDiv commander’s snort made her opinion of that suggestion clear.
“Lieutenant Commander Moon, let’s ping them with the Vesheron ID codes. Subspace and radio, if you please,” he ordered.
“As for assuming this a misunderstanding…I don’t truly think so. Colonel Song? Bring the reactors to full and initialize the gravity shield.”
“Yes, ser.”
Icons on the relay screen lit up as the reactors came fully online. Raven carried four fusion reactors, each capable of providing enough power for her normal maneuvers and operation on their own. Two were required to enter skip drive, assuming they had a lot of time to charge the capacitors.
The gravity shield consumed the full output of a reactor, plus whatever extra it could steal from the rest. With it online, only the gravity driver and missile launchers were fully energized. The lasers, both defensive and offensive, were feeding from capacitors that would take several minutes to recharge from the power that could be spared.
The use of those capacitors and power distribution in general were critical to the successful operation of a battlecruiser. Nine times out of ten, the capacitors would be refilled fast enough that it wouldn’t matter.
That tenth time was when you learned just how good your engineers actually were.
“We’re receiving no response on any channels to the Vesheron recognition signals,” Moon reported. “I’m eighty percent sure they’re receiving us, but they’re not talking.”
“Bazzoli, maintain course for now but bring us up to five hundred MPS squared,” Henry ordered calmly. That extra tenth-KPS2 wouldn’t change much in terms of their course—if they’d been at full acceleration from the beginning, maybe, but with only a few hours at most in play…
“I’ve got live engines in the gas giant rings,” Ihejirika reported. “They’re going through with the slingshot, but they’re actively accelerating. Move that contact window up to forty-five minutes.
“Velocity at optimum weapons range will be two thousand KPS.”
“If their engines are live, we should know who we’re looking at,” Henry replied. “Get me IDs, Tactical. If that’s six dreadnoughts over there, we need to be doing something very different than I’m planning right now!”
If it was six dreadnoughts, they needed to run.
If it was the six escorts he was expecting, though…they were going to learn why it had been the United Planets Space Force that had carried the bulk of Operation Golden Lancelot!
Chapter Fourteen
“Ser, if you want IDs, that’s what my birds are for,” O’Flannagain interrupted as CIC crunched their data.
“Commander, please,” Henry told her. “If it’s what I think is over there, I have far better use for you than as scouts. And if we’re in more trouble than we think we are, sending your people in would be suicide. Check your people’s grav-shields and stand by for orders.”
The pilot shut up again, and Henry couldn’t conceal the smirk that hit his face.
Rocket-jocks. But better to restrain the eager lion than whip the reluctant donkey.
“Ihejirika? Iyotake?” he addressed the two men running his data. “They’re behind that gas giant now. Some data on what I’m looking at would be nice.”
“It’s not a dreadnought group, if that helps,” Iyotake told him. “My people confirm our first assessment: six ships, escort- or gunship-sized.”
“I’d love it if you could tell me there were no gunships over there,” Henry replied. A Kenmiri escort vessel packed a collection of lasers, including four primary beams that easily rivaled Raven’s two heavy lasers. Escorts were dangerous opponents, moreso to Henry’s fighters than to his battlecruiser, but they were deadliest in numbers.
Gunships, on the other hand, were what happened when you took the heavy plasma-cannon turret from a Kenmiri dreadnought and strapped engines and a life support plant to it. Raven’s gravity shield could deflect any attack, but there was always a chance that something could still hit the ship.
Plasma cannon were energetic enough that even a tiny sliver of the original plasma blast could strip away heat radiators and sensors. A full blowthrough from a plasma cannon was one of the few things that could kill Raven in one shot.
“I can’t tell you from what we saw,” Ihejirika told him. “Engine signatures for a gunship and an escort are pretty similar; a gunship is only about ten percent bigger.”
Henry exhaled sharply, studying the tactical plot. The Kenmiri ships would round the gas giant in just under fifty minutes and lunge toward him at two hundred KPS with an acceleration Raven couldn’t match.
“Order the ship secured for acceleration,” he ordered. “Ambassador Todorovich and her people are to report to acceleration tanks. The rest of the crew is to prepare for up to five gravities of subjective acceleration and report to battle stations.”
“Understood. We’ll pass the notices.”
Henry turned his attention back to the icons. They were Kenmiri ships…but that didn’t mean as much as it might. Only the El-Vesheron powers like the UPA had brought fleets of only their own ships to the battle. Even the Resta, with hidden shipyards and their own technology base, had used large numbers of stolen Kenmiri ships.
If nothing else, the Kenmiri wouldn’t have picked a fight with a UPSF battlecruiser without a dreadnought. The insectoids calculated every probability before they committed to action, and always tried to tilt the odds in their favor.
Most likely, he was facing Vesheron…but these Vesheron didn’t seem to be heading to the Gathering.
“Commander O’Flannagain,” he addressed his fighter commander. “Set your course to intercept as the enemy clears the gas giant. You will salvo all of your missiles and get clear of their range. No heroics, no laser pass. Shoot to disable, prioritize any gunships present. Understood?”
“Yes, ser!”
Several seconds of silence passed and then the Dragoons leapt away from Raven. They had the same inertial compensators as Raven did, but with the pilots strapped into dedicated acceleration tanks and suits, they could manage 1.5 KPS2.
“That doesn’t leave us much of a chance to challenge them before we fire,” Iyotake pointed out.
“That’s what the shoot-to-disable order is about,” Henry confirmed. “They’re maneuvering to intercept us and they aren’t answering the damn phone, XO. Our job is to protect the Ambassador…and if anyone wants to get sticky about it, I have every grounds to believe those are Kenmiri warships.”
Icons streamed across the displays around Henry Wong as his crew reported in to their battle stations. From readiness one to full battle stations was supposed to be a matter of a couple of minutes at the worst of times. His order to secure the ship for acceleration didn’t help, but it was still concerning that it took almost four minutes for the last station to report in.
“We’re going to have to run more emergency drills,” he murmured to Iyotake. “Most of the securing for acceleration should be part of battle stations already. It should never take this long from readiness one.”
“No,” the XO agreed. “I’ll be on it as soon as this is over.”
“Raven is the newest and shiniest battlecruiser in the fleet,” Henry said. “Let’s make sure we live up to that.”
“Yes, ser.”
That was all that needed to be said for now, and Raven’s Captain turned his attention to his starfighters. After ten minutes, they were only about a third of the way to the gas giant but accelerating fast.
He projected their vector and grunted in approval. They didn’t know for sure where the Kenmiri ships would come around the gas giant, but assuming they’d followed the slingshot maneuver they’d gone behind the big planet on, there were a limited number of angles they could emerge at.
The starfighters would be in perfect position to volley their missiles at the escorts as they did so—and then vanish around the other side of the gas giant themselves before the enemy could return fire.
The missiles aboard the fighters were smaller than the ones in Raven’s magazines, with identical warheads but half the fuel. They also lacked the initial velocity imparted by Raven’s missile launchers, which meant they only had the starfighters’ velocity to fling them forward.
“Should we divert Raven toward the enemy?” Bazzoli asked.
“Negative. Stay on course for now,” Henry ordered. “Let them come to us. Initiate evasive maneuvers once they’re clear of the gas giant.”
Seconds continued to tick away. A gesture threw a timer of the hostiles’ estimated emergence time on the screen closest to Henry. Five minutes and counting.
“Ihejirika, are the guns ready?” he asked calmly.
“Solid shot in the main gun. Laser capacitors charged. Launchers loaded, conversion warheads.” The tactical officer nodded firmly, as much to himself as to his Captain. “All weapons are ready for action.”
“Song? Is the shield ready?” Henry continued.
“All shield systems are online and in the green. Sensors confirm a fifteen-thousand-gravity shear zone surrounding the ship.”
Very little in existence could handle going from microgravity to fifteen thousand gravities. Even less could handle going back seventeen centimeters later. Any physical projectile was shredded by tidal forces. Even lasers were badly distorted, rarely hitting the target they were aimed at.
With her shield up, it was difficult for anyone outside it to even locate Raven. They could easily detect the shield itself, though, and the Kenmiri, at least, had learned that the ship was always at the exact center of the spherical shield bubble.
Their own projectiles suffered the same problems, but they could open “gunports” in the shear zone to let beams, missiles and grav-driver slugs through.
“Emergence estimate in sixty seconds,” Ihejirika reported. “I hope they’re not too far off. O’Flannagain will lose line of sight behind the gas giant in eighty-two seconds.”
“For once, I hope they are Kenmiri,” Henry told his people with a forced chuckle. “If there’s one thing you can count on the bugs to be, it’s punctual.”
Raven's Peace Page 8
