"Why was she pushing for that so quickly? We don't need to talk to her without Ober-dwan do we?" Lenys raised an eyebrow at him. "Or is there something you aren't saying? Good Captains shouldn't keep secrets from their Execs you know."
"It's mostly to give us another avenue of getting to the prince. Right now he's not going to do Admiral Calthran much good. We need a conscious Emperor."
"I can agree with that, sir."
"Captain, we have a problem," Vidall's voice interrupted. "I'm putting it on your plot now."
Tam nodded and flipped the display over so Lenys could see it as well.
"I don't know if it's just bad luck or they were looking for us, but take a look at these readings." Four faint circles appeared in a tetrahedral pattern along their projected track. "Each of those looks like a superdreadnaught running in stealth, and if they keep to projections we'll be within a quarter light-second at closest approach."
"A quarter of a light second," Lenys' eyes seemed to follow the plot off into darkness before she quirked an eyebrow. "I think we can manage to keep out of a superdreadnaught's passives at that range."
"But what else is out there?" Tam pointed at the display. "Any commander worth the rank would have escorts spread out to half a light-second, and it's a lot easier to detect a superdreadnaught than her consorts." He grimaced, "it's more than likely there's another two or three dozen ships out there, all of which are a lot harder to pick up with our passives than the big bruisers."
He pulsed his com. "Attention all hands, battle stations and silent running. I repeat, battle stations and silent running." The whole ship seemed to shudder as the lights dimmed, and every nonessential system went to standby mode. As always, the hush when the ventilators dropped to minimum speed caught Tam by surprise. They were so much part of the background that he ignored them until they went quiet and caught his attention with their absence.
Tam copied Vidall's plot to another display, and reached for the controls. "Four super dreadnaughts, here." He muttered, highlighting the icons. "One full battle squadron, in standard tet formation." He muttered a bit more as he plotted more points on the display. "By the book spacing so... if they've got them there should be at least one squadron of heavy cruisers and two of lights, plus a destroyer screen."
Lenys leaned in towards the display. "So the book says, put the CAs close to the SDs to add point defense or support the screen, one CL outside each of the SDs, and the remaining squadron running ahead within a light-minute or so."
Tam nodded, "and figure with those numbers at least one or two DDs to cover each SD with point defense and who knows what they've got for rovers." He looked at Vidall's original feed. "We need more data, at least enough to get a decent track on those big ones."
Lenys went back to her own station and started feeding data into the plot. "If we figure the four squadrons you mentioned, plus at least another two of DDs we should get a locus like this." A glowing sphere surrounded each of the super-dreadnaught icons. "Put one cruiser outside each SD, then throw the heavy and the destroyer into the standard escort zone and let's see what we come up with." The spheres turned more pear-shaped, all the bases pointing towards a common center. "Now we extend their course and see how things look."
"That doesn't look good," Tam said, superimposing Talon's course on the image. "We're going to be close," he grimaced as the course they were taking intersected one of the pear-shaped loci just short of the fourspace limit. "Too close. Even a super-dreadnaught would pick us up at that range."
"Why are they out here?" Lenys muttered, "could they be looking for us already?"
"It's possible, but I doubt it, it's most likely an exercise."
"Good, having an entire battle squadron looking for us is the last thing we need."
"To be honest, I don't think it would make much difference." Tam pointed at the formation. "Their job is to look for people trying to break the Interdict, so they probably have their sensors peeled for someone doing exactly what we're up to. Sneaking through their space."
"Which means they're actively looking for someone like us even if they don't have any idea we're here," Lenys finished grimly.
"That's part of it." Tam drummed his fingers softly on the arm of his command chair. "The other part is that if they're doing the search part of the exercise, what do they have playing the other side?"
"The other side..." Lenys' eyes widened as Tam watched. "Anyone running an exercise by the book like that is going to have someone out there playing the 'hide' side of their little game of hide and seek."
"Exactly, and they are going to be trying to imitate a hole in space just as hard as we are." Tam took another look at the plot. "Get Lieutenants Deggon and Vidall and give me options for a course correction without breaking stealth. I want to generate enough of a lateral vector to at least keep us out of their position locus if we can't get any further."
"Aye sir," she nodded. "Any thoughts as to priorities?"
"Not getting spotted." Tam looked at the plot, hoping to see something leap out at him. "If we can't guarantee that the course change won't be spotted we ride through and hope to make it past them."
"Aye sir, maximum stealth."
"You have it." He turned his attention to the main screen. "I have the bridge." A few quick commands and he had everything plotted on his repeater screen, including a direct feed from Fahad Vidall's plot at tactical. Frowning, he pulled up the plot again, his fingers moving over the controls. There was a spot where they just might be able to make it, and it wouldn't require much of a course change to make it. Just a little bit of thrust would do. If it worked, they would be through in a matter of hours.
Four hours later he was still on the bridge. Lenys had come up with the ancient idea of using a tether and asteroid for momentum transfer. Finding a suitable mass had been the tricky part, but as they were more concerned with avoiding the other ships than picking an exact course, they had been able to find something before they got too close. Another four hours had provided Vidall with the opportunity to find more of the Interdiction Force, as well, and they were cruising into a hornet's nest.
Tam could see his breath moving slowly in the dimness. The bridge crew were bent over their stations, talking in hushed voices and stealing quick looks at the main plot. The plot glittered with light codes, as Vidall's systems were able to get better looks at the ships in front of them. There was a full battle squadron with supporting ships, and Talon's course would take them right through the middle of them. Even with the course correction there was no way to get past them. The safest path, Tam's mouth quirked a bit at the word, was right through the middle where Vidall's computers predicted would be the force ahead of them's minimum visibility.
This was not what he had signed on for, sneaking through an entire fleet in a destroyer. Tam almost laughed at the thought that he was doing anything you could walk into a recruiter's office and sign up for. Covert missions to restore the Emperor were the stuff of bad fiction, not the life of an imperial officer. He didn't want to think about what the post-mission report would involve. He shook his head at the thought and noticed the bridge crew stealing glances and then turning back to their own stations, their heads a little higher. They must be thinking if the Old Man's smiling it can't be that hard. Glancing back at his display he kept the knowledge of just how hard it was off his face.
A steward brought a cup of cold coffee and he took a sip and grimaced. No matter how much he liked it hot, it always tasted nasty cold, but there was no way he would pull rank to make sure his coffee was warm when everyone else had to make do with cold. Rank had its price as well as privileges, and he could not enjoy one without paying the other.
The thought of rank and price sent his thoughts the sickbay and he opened a com-link. "Captain to medical, how's our patient doing?"
"He's doing just fine Captain, and so's the other one. She's already regained full consciousness and he's dozing lightly. I expect he should be up on his feet within another t
welve to twenty-four hours barring any unexpected complications."
"Understood, Captain out." Tam closed the link and returned his attention to the screens. It was going to be a damned close run thing, closer than he had any right to expect would succeed.
*
"Other one?" Jayne muttered the words as the captain's voice vanished. "I guess when one patient's royalty, anyone else has to take what they can get and smile that they're getting anything at all."
"It's not quite that way," the woman smiled and turned towards her. "Yes the Emperor is important, but there is a lot more to it than simple parentage."
"Isn't that all royalty is ever about?" Jayne shot back. "We had a revolution over two hundred years ago to get rid of the stupid idea that birth made one fit to rule."
"I won't disagree with you on that, but birth is not what makes an Emperor. It is part of it, but not all of it by any means."
"What else could there be for royalty?" Jayne swung herself fully upright so she could look the other woman in the eye. "It's all about accidents of birth."
"That may be where you come from, but it's not the case in the Imperium. His royal highness over there is not the rightful Emperor simply because of his blood, but also because of a number of much more important psychological factors."
"If these psychological factors are what matter, why have royalty anyway? Why not have elections with candidates limited to those with the proper profiles?" Jayne shook her head.
"Because there is a genetic factor involved as well, and the best way to conserve that was through a monarchical system." The doctor's voice sounded a lot like the one Jayne used when she had to explain things to Bill that he just didn't seem able to get, and she fought off a wave of sadness.
"Why are they important?" Jayne tried to phrase the question less antagonistically. "Shouldn't psychology be enough?"
"Not in this case," the doctor replied. "The Emperor is the only one who can release the planet-busters of the Imperial Guard, and one of the protections that's in place is that they have to be a member of the Imperial Family, and be able to pass the psychological tests."
"Planet-busters?" Jayne's voice rose despite herself. "You want John because he's the only one who can blow up planets? Doesn't that seem a little ridiculous?"
"You saw Ober-dwan, you heard his story."
Jayne nodded. "About being one of only five hundred survivors of his race, you mean?" She looked at John. "What does that have to do with him?"
"The Imperium is threatened by the same enemy that destroyed Ober-dwan's home world. The only way to stop them is with the planet-busters of the Imperial Guard, and Prince Jhon over there is the only person who can release those weapons. That's why we had to find him."
"So we're heading back to this Imperium or whatever it is as fast as possible, and that's why you don't have time to put me back."
"Not exactly," the doctor shook her head. "We're heading back as quickly and quietly as we can, because we have to make it past the Interdiction Force without being detected."
"Why hide from the Force?" John's voice sounded rough. "They wear the same uniform that we do."
"Because the Force that dropped you on the planet they were supposed to be interdicting and left you there for ten years with no memory of who you were, that's why," the doctor snapped, then visibly caught herself before continuing. "Your Highness."
"Enough with the titles," he said. "You're saying that I was marooned by my own people?"
"Yes, sir, your highness I mean."
"So it is true," Jayne blurted the words out before she realized she'd spoken. "You really are one of these people, whatever they are."
He nodded, "I really am."
"Well I won't call you your highness," she said. "We got rid of that habit with the revolution and I see no need to bring it back."
"No, I don't suppose you would." He grinned, then turned his attention back to the doctor. "Now why don't you fill me in a little on what's been going on, Doctor Jaren."
Chapter 13
Eron Makar stretched in his command chair, looking about the bridge. The ballistic course seemed to be working better than he could have expected. No one expected a battle cruiser to be as stealthy as Indestructible had proved to be. She was the first in a new class of battle cruisers and Eron Makar was proud to be her first captain. Like all designs, she was the result of a succession of trade-offs. Her passive defenses were weaker than most of her older sisters, with the space going to more energy storage and much better ECM.
The result was a ship optimized for stealth and deep penetration raids. Indestructible could sneak deep within a defended perimeter, launch a strike that was almost as powerful as that of a full SD and then show heels to anything that stood a chance of cracking her shield. Eron gloated quietly to himself as he contemplated what he was about to show Admiral Loman.
"He won't know what hit him," the captain chuckled. "He and his Sector Guard cronies have no idea what it means to come up against the Fleet, even in an exercise."
"But they're about to find out, aren't they sir." His exec came up to stand beside him, one hand on the back of the command chair.
"Yes they are," Makar turned and grinned at the younger man. "I've no idea why the last rotation brought a new CO seconded from the Tavrolan Guard, but it's up to us to show him what the real fleet can do."
"Makes you wonder though, skipper," Commander Haiston continued. "That personnel rotation came through right on schedule, but the supply convoy is more than a week late."
"It's probably nothing more than being caught in red tape, Number One." Makar turned back to the display. "He's running things straight by the book, and that's going to be his strength and weakness. He has very good coverage, but I've read the book too, so I know where the holes are."
He pointed to the rest of the Interdiction Force, laid out before him on the display. "There's the flagship, sitting pretty, and we've got a clear course right up along side her." He grinned again. "If we were an enemy I could put enough fire into her that we'd have a better than even chance of escaping while she limped back for repairs."
"You don't like the admiral, do you Skipper?" Haiston's voice was pitched low enough that the rest of the bridge crew would likely pay no attention.
"You've got it wrong, Number One," Makar shook his head. "It's not him I have a problem with; it's what he stands for." He pulled up a secondary display. "You can see it here, looking at a chart of the Imperium. See how boldly the sectors are shown these days? The Imperium's falling apart and Loman and the rest of the Tavrolan Guard are working to help pull it further apart."
He almost stood, then controlled himself. "The Fleet exists to keep the Imperium together, not tear it apart. We are an Imperium, not some loose federation or collection of sectors, but if Tavrolan has his way we're going to be lucky if we end up any thing more than a collection of petty states." He shook his head. "We need the Emperor back."
Commander Haiston did not reply, and Captain Makar turned his attention back towards the screens.
*
"Admiral, I think we've got something here." The lieutenant's voice cut into Loman's musings. "There's a very faint source ghosting in and out of detection, coming on a least-time course from Earth."
"Direct from Earth, that's clever of Makar, he must have swung in very close before heading back out this way." Admiral Loman grimaced, "pity he's not likely to join us when we go back to the Tavrolan Guard." The reference to the guard called the difference between his uniform and those of the officers around him. He had been more than a little surprised when he had received orders from Gregor Tavrolan himself and put in a dispatch boat with orders to take command of the Interdiction Force.
"Aye sir, it is a pity," his lieutenant nodded with that look common to junior officers in the presence of their seniors, even when those seniors wore a different uniform.
And he probably doesn't realize that we were all junior officers once with that very same look
on our faces. The admiral allowed himself a moment to contemplate how little had changed since he had been an aide, before turning his attention back to the exercise. "Let's have a look at that data, lieutenant."
"Here it is sir, very faint, it hardly shows at all on the mass detectors." The junior's hands flew over the controls of the flag bridge display. "I'll overlay our course on theirs so you can see just how close they're coming, sir."
"Very well." Loman nodded, already focusing on the display before him. He frowned as he took a closer look, then reached out and tapped a couple of controls. "Take a look at that, lieutenant, and tell me what you see."
"A ship in high stealth running out from Earth, sir. Minimal mass and energy signatures."
"And no one has hit it with an active scan." Loman frowned again.
"That's right sir, as per your orders we have all active systems locked right down."
"Do it now," Loman glared at the display. "I want as close to a hull map as I can get. That signature just looks wrong for a batlecruiser."
"Aye sir."
If it wasn't a battle cruiser, then just maybe Tavrolan had sent him on something more than a wild goose chase.
*
Tam jerked upright as the alarm went off. "Status report, Mr. Vidall."
"Active scan just lit us up, Captain, looks like a heavy cruiser." The tactical officer flipped back to his displays. "It looks like the whole fleet is coming out of stealth, and we're in the middle of it."
The main screen echoed Vidall's words, as a full battle squadron dropped stealth and snapped into focus. Tam's jaw dropped as the threat receiver continued to wail. There was a heavy cruiser within a light-second, and a super-dreadnaught not much further behind. He forced his mouth closed as the rest of the force came into focus. It was exactly as he predicted, a full battle squadron, plus supporting vessels; over two dozen ships, the smallest of which was an easy match for Talon.
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