Perilous Shield

by Jack Campbell

  “The news from Maui concerns the Supreme CEO in Ulindi Star System,” Malin reported.

  “Supreme CEO?” Drakon checked the star display. Ulindi was one of three stars that could be reached from Maui. Another one of those stars was Midway itself. “What does that mean?”

  “I’d say it was pretty self-explanatory,” Iceni commented shortly.

  Malin, experienced in dealing with superiors who didn’t always get along with each other, continued speaking as if he hadn’t heard the remark. “From what we have learned despite all attempts to keep anyone from finding out what is happening at Ulindi, it means that CEO Haris managed to kill the other CEOs in that star system and overawe all opposition.”

  Drakon squinted at his display, mistrusting what he was reading. “Haris is the snake CEO. How did he get the Syndicate government to sign off on a title like Supreme CEO?”

  “Haris is no longer answering to the Syndicate government.”

  “A senior snake rebelled?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Drakon looked toward Iceni. “Do you know Haris at all?”

  She shook her head. “No. I never associated with snakes.” Relenting a bit, she added more. “Even snakes can be ambitious. This Haris might have seen his chances of gaining more power falling away with every star system that left Syndicate control.”

  “So he decided to start his own little empire?”

  Malin brought up a new image on the display. “General, reports from Maui say there is a strong flotilla there from Ulindi. It was on its way to the jump point for Midway, but halted that movement when merchant ships arrived reporting the presence of the Alliance fleet. That news was outdated when they got it. Black Jack had left Midway soon after the freighters carrying the news to Maui.”

  “It bought us time,” Iceni said. “Good.”

  “A little time. It leaves us with six days to act, Madam President,” Malin explained. “A freighter headed for Rongo via Maui left Midway three days ago, doubtless taking word of Black Jack’s departure with it. The freighter would have taken four and one-half days in jump space to reach Maui, would have passed on its information, and the Ulindi flotilla would have headed for the jump point for Midway. It would probably be half a day before they reached it and jumped for Midway, after which another four and half days would bring them here. Factoring in everything, the Ulindi flotilla should arrive six days from now.”

  “That is very little time,” Iceni complained. “I can’t argue with your timeline, though. They won’t delay any longer once they hear that Black Jack is gone. Apparently, Haris wants to expand his little empire. But that flotilla at Maui does not look like a force aimed at conquering this star system.”

  “No, Madam President, it is not. The Ulindi flotilla consists of a single C-class battle cruiser and four Hunter-Killers. If there are ground forces embarked, their numbers are very limited.”

  “No ground forces?” Drakon pondered that. A flotilla built around a battle cruiser could do a lot of damage to a star system. But it couldn’t take over that star system. Even if Midway surrendered under the threat of bombardment, Ulindi’s control of this star would last only as long as it took the battle cruiser to leave. “How much else does Ulindi have?”

  “According to our best information, only one heavy cruiser, which must have remained at Ulindi to protect Haris. The ground forces at Ulindi total perhaps a division, but most of that is recently raised and barely trained. Less than a single brigade of former Syndicate soldiers form the core of Haris’s ground forces. The rest of internal security at Ulindi is handled by local militia, police, and snakes.”

  “Not much to build an empire on. That sounds like barely enough to maintain control of Ulindi. What’s he planning then?”

  Drakon had addressed the question to both Iceni and Malin. Iceni frowned and spoke first. “He must know that we intervened at Taroa. Maybe he heard about our push to get a much tighter defense agreement with Taroa even though the government there is supposed to be keeping it secret.”

  Malin shook his head. “Our offer to Taroa is widely known all over that star system. More than one Free Taroan government official must have talked freely.”

  “Which means Haris heard about it,” Drakon said.

  Iceni made a fist and almost slammed it onto the table before controlling herself. “I should have realized that trying to tie Taroa much more closely to us would cause local problems. Haris sees us as a threat to his ambitions and wants to hit our mobile forces before we can take advantage of Taroa’s resources as well.”

  “That makes sense,” Drakon agreed. “Anyone planning on empire-building out here could well see us as rivals who need to be taken down as soon as possible.”

  Malin spoke diffidently. “There is another possibility given the composition of the Ulindi flotilla. In Kommodor Marphissa’s absence I discussed the situation with Kapitan-Leytenant Kontos.”

  “You did?” Drakon glanced at Iceni again. “What did Kontos say?”

  “He thinks they want the battleship.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  DRAKON had to pause, startled. “The battleship?”

  “Of course,” Iceni said in a low voice. “We’ve tried to keep the battleship’s status secret, but there’s probably not a soul in this star system and every nearby star system who doesn’t know it still has a skeleton crew and is far from combat capable. They plan to swoop in, take the battleship, then haul it home to finish it.”

  “Which is how we got the battleship from Kane in the first place.”

  She gave him an aggravated look. “I fully intend that our theft of the battleship will be the last successful attempt to steal it. If Supreme CEO Haris wants to become a local power, he needs more firepower, and it looks like he’s trying to build that up the same way we are, by taking it from someone else less prepared to defend it. Why did Haris have to have a battle cruiser?”

  “Is there any chance we can take them with what we’ve got?” Drakon asked.

  Iceni shook her head impatiently. “Even if the Recovery Flotilla hadn’t hauled half of our strength with them, it would have been very touch-and-go to defeat a flotilla built around a battle cruiser.”

  “Any ideas?” Drakon asked Malin.

  “No good ones, sir,” Malin replied. “Our mobile forces are simply too badly outmatched. We could try sending the battleship somewhere else and leaving it there until Haris’s flotilla leaves.”

  “We couldn’t have the battleship stay here and avoid that flotilla?” Drakon asked.

  Iceni shook her head. “No battleship can outrun a battle cruiser. They’d be run down in fairly short order. The same thing might happen if we send the Midway to some other star system. Anyone else who saw it would see a perfect and very valuable target to acquire for themselves.”

  “In that case,” Malin continued, “the best remaining option available to us may be to lure the battle cruiser close to the battleship, then blow up the battleship, taking the battle cruiser with it.”

  “That is not an option!” Iceni insisted, her face flushing with anger. “We need that battleship.”

  “Madam President,” Malin said, “if we have no other means of stopping Haris from taking the battleship, using it to eliminate his battle cruiser would at least leave him without the capability of threatening us.”

  “And how much good will that do us when the Syndicate sends another flotilla here?” Iceni demanded.

  Malin hesitated, then shook his head. “None, Madam President.”

  “Blowing up both ships is a lousy option,” Drakon said, “but what else can we do?”

  Iceni turned her frustration on him. “You tell me! You’re the military expert, General! I have some experience with mobile forces, but it wasn’t my career.”

  “My experience is with ground forces,” Drakon pointed out, keeping his voice
level. “I’ve been in this kind of situation before, where every option is bad, and it’s a matter of choosing the one that hurts the least. But we can’t change the reality of what we’re facing.”

  She glared at him, then looked away, breathing in slowly and regaining control. “You can’t think of anything?”

  Drakon barely masked his surprise at the disappointment he saw in her. Disappointment in him? She expected him to pull more mobile forces out of his hat to save the day? “I’ve got a few basic principles for how to fight. One of those principles is that it is a mistake to confront the enemy’s strength with your weakness, or his strength with your strength. Instead, you should confront the enemy’s weakness with your strength.”

  “How can that work here?” Iceni asked.

  “It can’t. Ground forces can’t take on mobile forces unless the mobile forces come to them and make themselves targets, and there’s no reason why—” He broke off, trying to figure out why his last statement felt very important.

  “General?” Iceni said, studying him.

  “Madam President,” Drakon said, his words coming out slowly as he mentally groped to uncover the idea hanging barely out of reach, “how will that battle cruiser try to capture the battleship?”

  “There’s only one way to do it,” Iceni said. “Send a boarding party over. One large enough to defeat the skeleton crew on the battleship.”

  “Using shuttles?”

  “No. A single battle cruiser only has a few shuttles. They couldn’t carry nearly enough people for an attack, and if the battleship had even a few weapons working, the shuttles could make easy targets.”

  “We used shuttles to capture that battleship at Kane,” Drakon pointed out.

  “And,” Iceni added, tapping her forefinger hard against the desk to emphasize her words, “we were extremely worried that the shuttles would be destroyed on approach. We used them because we had to, but we knew we might lose them. I would not have chosen that method of attack if I had been able to launch an attack directly from my own warships. Not with only a few shuttles.”

  “You need overwhelming force applied quickly,” Drakon said.

  “Yes. Exactly. Is that so different from ground forces operations?”

  “No.” Drakon looked into the distance, thinking. “I haven’t done any boarding operations. Walk me through what the battle cruiser will do.”

  Iceni shrugged. “It’s pretty simple in this case. The battleship doesn’t have working weapons or a crew large enough to operate it. Running wouldn’t make any sense because the battle cruiser could easily overtake it. The battle cruiser will pull up close alongside the battleship, matching any movement so the two ships are motionless relative to each other. Then a boarding party will jump across the gap between the ships, arriving at several main hatches simultaneously, entering the battleship, and overwhelming any defenders. Kapitan-Leytenant Kontos and his crew can hole up inside the defensive citadels for the bridge, propulsion, and weapons, but the boarding party will be equipped with the means to crack open those citadels in fairly short order.”

  “Close?” Drakon questioned. “How big a gap between ships?”

  “Fifty meters. Maybe a hundred, depending on how risk-averse the battle cruiser’s commander is.”

  “How big will the boarding party be?”

  Iceni spread her hands. “That depends. A battle cruiser should have about fifteen hundred in the crew. Syndicate doctrine spells out how many to send in a boarding party based on the target and its condition but sets a maximum of half the available crew.”

  “Seven hundred? Eight hundred maximum?” Drakon asked.

  “If Haris’s commander follows Syndicate doctrine.”

  Malin had gotten what Drakon was driving at. He smiled thinly. “Seven hundred mobile forces personnel in survival suits with hand weapons?”

  “Yeah,” Drakon agreed. “Maybe some special forces among them, but that would only be a couple of platoons, at most.”

  “One platoon, at most,” Iceni corrected. “And more likely Haris’s snakes than special forces. What are you thinking, General?”

  “I’m thinking, Madam President, that if this comes down to a boarding operation, we’re dealing with a situation in which ground forces could balance the odds.” Drakon leaned toward her. “If that battleship were full of mobile forces personnel, we couldn’t pack it with armored ground forces. But it’s almost empty. There’s lots of room for soldiers. And if that battle cruiser can send its boarding party jumping across the gap between ships, my soldiers can jump that same gap onto the battle cruiser.”

  “It’s not that simple.” Iceni bit her lip, her eyes calculating. “But it could be done. My mobile forces people can tell your people what defenses the battle cruiser would have against a counterboarding operation. It would have to be a total surprise, too. They couldn’t know we had a lot of soldiers waiting on the battleship.”

  “Six days.” Drakon looked at Malin. “Can we do it? Can we get a substantial number of soldiers onto that battleship before our preparations can be spotted by Haris’s force when it arrives?”

  Malin’s eyes were hooded as he ran through mental calculations, then he nodded. “I’ll have to confirm my estimate, sir, but we should be able to if we can get our people into orbit quickly. There’s a freighter in orbit, a converted passenger hauler, that’s getting ready to depart. If the President’s warships tell that freighter to wait, we can use it.”

  Iceni turned to Togo. “Notify orbital control that the freighter is not to leave orbit.” She faced Drakon again. “You have no experience with boarding operations?”

  “No. But I think we should try this, and I should command this operation.”

  She bent her head, elbows resting on the table, forehead against her clenched hands, and said nothing for a couple of minutes. “Are you saying we should try it because it seems to be the only option?” she finally asked Drakon. “Or because it could work?”

  “It’s not the only option. As Colonel Malin pointed out, we could blow up both ships. But I do think a counterboarding operation could work. If what you told me about what the battle cruiser will do is right, this is worth a try.”

  “And if Haris only wants to destroy our battleship?”

  Drakon thought about that, unhappy at the prospect. “We’d be screwed.”

  “We’d lose the battleship,” Iceni said, “and everyone on it. Crew, soldiers, and whoever the on-scene commander was. General, we can’t afford to lose you.”

  Drakon raised both eyebrows at her as he leaned back. “Was that an imperial we you used?”

  “If you want to think of it that way.” Iceni scowled at him. “Who takes your place as ground forces commander if you died out there? Who takes your place as co-ruler? I’m not a fool. I know there are people who follow you who would not follow me. Someone else has to command this operation.”

  “It’s nice to think that you don’t want anything to happen to me, but giving me orders—”

  “I can’t make you see sense, and I can’t make you follow my orders, but I know I don’t have to.” Iceni nodded toward him. “You’re smart enough to know that I’m right.”

  Drakon looked away, frowning. She’s brilliant. Openly praising me for being smart enough to know she’s right, so if I argue, I’ll be acting like I’m not so smart.

  Colonel Malin cleared his throat. “Sir, Colonel Gaiene has conducted at least one boarding operation.”

  “He has?” Drakon pondered that, grateful for the out that Malin’s suggestion offered. “He would be good for this operation. It calls for his talents.”

  “Colonel Gaiene?” Iceni asked icily. “His talents? Does the operation involve consuming large quantities of alcohol and the attempted seduction of any female who comes within groping range of Gaiene?”

  Drakon shook his head at her. “Conner
Gaiene knows where to draw the line. He’s also good at exactly what this operation will require.”

  “I find that hard to believe,” Iceni said.

  “You know why he’s like he is. You also know how he did on Taroa.” Drakon rested his fist on the table between them. “I will not sideline Colonel Gaiene.”

  She eyed him for a long moment. “Because he would not last long without responsibilities to tether him to some semblance of the man he once was?” Iceni finally asked.

  Drakon hesitated, then made a deliberately vague gesture. “Because he can do it, because he’s the best officer for the job.”

  “If Colonel Rogero were here, I might still argue the point. What about Colonel Kai?”

  “Colonel Kai,” Malin said, “has no experience in space operations.”

  Iceni looked downward for several seconds, then nodded. “All right. Gaiene can command.” She leaned close, her eyes on Drakon, and spoke very softly. “You have too many walking wounded on your staff, General.”

  “War does that to people,” Drakon replied in the same low voice.

  “Does that include you?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  She sat back again, her eyes on his. “This has to be my decision.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s mobile forces. If we do this, it involves a lot of your people. But ultimately, it’s a mobile forces action. It’s my responsibility to make the call.”

  Drakon smiled crookedly. “You didn’t learn that while becoming a Syndicate CEO.”

  “Taking responsibility for my decisions? No. I didn’t learn that from the Syndicate.” Iceni sighed. “I say we go with it.”

  Drakon turned back to Malin. “Get in contact with Colonel Gaiene. Tell him a substantial part of his brigade has to be ready to lift yesterday. Full combat gear and supplies for two weeks. How much troop lift do we have?”

  “We have plenty of shuttles,” Malin said.

  “Have we told the freighter to remain in orbit?” Iceni asked Togo.