Steele's Demon Star

by Dietmar Wehr

  Scheer turned away to look at the holographic system map again. “Given how badly the HRCN beat us in the last war, I’m surprised that you would want to escalate this mission into a full-blown new war, Admiral.”

  “The King had to accept a humiliating peace treaty because their side took and kept the initiative plus the incompetence that our squadron leaders displayed early on. This time we have the initiative, we’ve purged the tactical deadwood out of the command structure, and this time we have the Black Knights. I’m not looking to conquer Caledonia, Admiral, but I do want the RSN to be recognized as an equal by the HRCN, and that means forcing them to accept a humiliating peace treaty. Any more questions?”

  “No, sir.”

  Beauchamp turned and walked away without saying anything else.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hara entered Relentless’ Flag Bridge and was pleased to see that everyone had their pressure suits on already as did she. She set down her helmet on the rack beside her Command chair as she looked at the main display, which was showing the new force of 12 ships still at the edge of the system.

  “TacComp has designated the bogeys as Sierra2 and hostile,” said Roark. “Preliminary classification at least heavy cruiser but probably larger, Admiral. Whatever class of ship they are, they’re all the same size.”

  Hara noticed that some of the personnel were looking at the Tactical Officer now, and she understood why all too clearly. If the 12 ships were all the same size and were larger than heavy cruisers, then her squadron of 4 battlecruisers was facing 12 RSN battlecruisers and adding the five heavy cruisers to the scale didn’t even begin to even the odds. Her years of experience told her that she should withdraw all her ships, but that option wasn’t even on the table. The Diamond K wasn’t back yet, and leaving her to face the RSN’s wrath by herself was a line that right now Hara wasn’t prepared to cross. What made the situation even worse, was that Mac’s ship was due back anytime now. The K could literally be transiting the wormhole right now for all she knew. Somehow, she had to keep those 12 battlecruisers away from the black hole wormhole long enough for the Diamond K to get back first.

  “Do we have a trajectory for them yet?” she asked.

  “Sierra2 isn’t heading for any of the five wormholes yet, Admiral,” said Roark. “Its CO might still be in the process of assigning targets to his ships.”

  Hara shook her head. “I’d be surprised if whoever’s commanding that fleet is stupid enough to split his force up into five or six divisions. I wish he was making that mistake. No. He’s taking his time assessing the tactical data because he thinks he hasn’t been spotted yet. Crossing the light speed threshold at minimal deceleration that far out wouldn’t generate gravity ripples strong enough to be detected by any of the heavy cruisers. This commander is being far more cautious than I would have expected from someone commanding twelve battlecruisers.” When the TO didn’t reply, she shifted her thinking to the question of what she should do now with her stealthy battlecruisers and with her five heavy cruisers. If she ordered them to shut down their transponders, Sierra2’s CO would begin wondering if his force had somehow been spotted and Hara didn’t want him asking that question this early. Her heavies would continue squawking their IDs, but that didn’t mean they had to stay where they were. Valiant was positioned at the wormhole that was closest to Sierra2. And while not in immediate danger, Hara didn’t want it to stay that close in case Sierra2’s CO decided to go after the easiest to reach target first.

  “New orders for Valiant. She’s to rendezvous with Daedalus at a leisurely pace and await further orders. And while we’re at it, let’s notify all five heavies that unknown and presumably hostile ships are in the system and they’re to go to Condition Two but continue to transmit IDs.”

  With those orders being executed, she sat down at the Command Station and took the precaution of strapping herself in, just in case.

  Scheer was reviewing status reports on his station console when the tactical display pinged for attention. One of the heavy cruisers, the Valiant, was moving away from the wormhole it had been monitoring. He checked the distance and saw that the time stamp on the ID was almost 13 minutes ago. That meant she started maneuvering after his fleet had gone sub-light. Was it possible that Hara had recon drones this far out? If two recon drones had detected his gravity ripples and had triangulated their intersection, there would have been enough time to transmit a situation report to all five ships plus Hara’s stealthy force, and Valiant would have received it first. But if she was retreating, she was doing it at a very leisurely pace! With his fleet’s FTL vanes now completely powered down, there were no more ripples to detect. Valiant’s CO couldn’t be sure that the newly arrived ships weren’t accelerating as fast as possible to intercept him. He was also surprised that Valiant hadn’t shut down her transponder. That supported the interpretation that his force hadn’t been detected and that Valiant was moving for some other reason. With his first wave of Black Knights spreading out in front of his fleet, Scheer was content to wait and see if any of the other cruisers started moving too. If they did, that would be the tipoff that Hara’s recon drones had detected his ships.

  Hara kept checking the black hole wormhole location on the display to see if the Diamond K had arrived yet. Mac’s determination to take the ship to the black hole system after losing two men and the missile boat was laudable. It was clear from his message that the loss of the two crewmen had affected him deeply. Many other officers would have called off the survey attempt and returned to Caledonia. Mac had also apologized for the financial loss that the lost missile boat represented although it was hard to see what he could have done to prevent it other than not sending the boat through the wormhole and risking the ship instead. Her return message that arrived after the K had entered the wormhole and would be waiting for him when he returned had pointed out that the contract with the HRCN included a reimbursement clause for damage to or loss of equipment during survey missions, so she wasn’t concerned about the financial impact on her company. Losing crewmen though could give her company a bad reputation, and that did concern her, but at the moment, there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Admiral,” said Roark quietly.

  “What is it, Howard?”

  “The long-range system is getting intermittent indications of something relatively close. The last time I saw anything like these readings, it was during field tests with small craft. The closer something that small gets, the stronger the detection is. TacComp has triangulated data from the other ships, so we have a tentative location, but for the signal to be this unreliable, the object has to be smaller than your standard shuttle. I’m wondering if it’s an unmanned drone because it’s not heading directly for us.”

  “I’m assuming that if it were radar scanning, you would have told me,” she replied.

  “Yes, Admiral. If it’s some kind of reconnaissance drone, it’s using passive systems only.”

  She looked at the tactical display which was now showing a flickering yellow icon that was on a bearing more or less between her four battlecruisers and the Sierra2 ships. When she expanded her focus, it dawned on her that with the super-giant star behind her ships, the drone might be able to see their silhouette visually.

  “Do we have a good enough triangulation to hit that object with lasers?” she asked.

  The Tactical Officer shook his head. “Not at this range, Admiral. If we fired enough shots, we’d hit it sooner or later but only by sheer luck.”

  Hara hadn’t really expected to be able to destroy or disable the recon drone if that’s what it was, but it was worth asking the question. Even if it had been possible to do it with some certainty, she could see the arguments against doing it. From Sierra2’s Commander’s point of view, if one of his recon drones suddenly stopped transmitting, he would naturally wonder if it had been detected and fired upon. Given the geometry of the drone’s location, her battlecruisers’ position and the blue sun’s location, it was on
ly a matter of time before the drone saw her ships silhouetted against the sun and informed Sierra2’s CO of her position. If she waited until Sierra2 began moving directly at her ships, then any reaction on her part would confirm her opponent’s suspicion that his ships were being detected somehow too. The only way to prevent that was to move her ships now and in a way that could be interpreted in other ways.

  “New squadron orders. I want the squadron to move on a general heading for Daedalus at one hundred twenty-five Gees. Make sure that Conquistador is kept apprised of our movements and let’s notify the cruisers as well. If Sierra2 begins moving toward us, we’ll react accordingly.”

  “I think we’ve found Admiral Hara’s stealthy ships, Admiral,” said Commander Johansen, Scheer’s Fleet Tactical Officer, in a low but excited voice. “All we have is a visual bearing, so range is approximate. Updating tactical now.”

  Scheer looked at the holographic display. It was a lot smaller than the one back on Socorro, but it was quite useful nevertheless. A red triangle with the number 3 inside appeared along a dotted line leading from drone BK13 to the super-giant blue sun at the center of this system.

  “What does TacComp say they are?” asked Scheer.

  “Only a fifty-five percent probability that they’re battlecruisers, sir. If we could get another drone to triangulate the range more precisely, that percentage would go up.”

  As Scheer watched, the red icon began to move but not very fast. The question was where to? “Do we have enough data for NavComp to guess where those ships are going?”

  “Not yet,” replied the Flag Helm Officer. “I recommend diverting another Black Knight to get a second bearing, Admiral. BK fourteen is in the best position to do that although it’ll take approximately twenty-three minutes before it can silhouette those ships against the sun.”

  Scheer was reluctant to disrupt the carefully planned deployment of his recon drones. By moving one out of position now, it potentially created a gap in coverage that could allow an enemy to slip through unnoticed. But when he weighed that against the advantage of knowing where those three battlecruisers were going, the choice was clear.

  “Go ahead and redeploy fourteen.”

  Hara checked the chronometer. Almost 30 minutes had passed since the recon drone had been detected and Sierra2 had not changed vectors at all yet. Had their drone not seen her ships or was there another explanation. She tried to put herself in the position of Sierra2’s CO. A single visual bearing would be of limited usefulness because the range would not be precise and the direction of movement of the ships could only be guessed at. It would require at least one more bearing to get range data and an approximate trajectory. Maybe her opposite number was waiting for a second drone to maneuver into position to provide that data. The tactical display pinged a status change. Sierra2 was maneuvering, and as the projected trajectory swung around, it stopped when it crossed her ships’ trajectory at the point where both groups of ships would arrive at the same time if her battlecruisers continued to accelerate at 125Gs.

  “He must have gotten that second bearing,” she said then realized that she had spoken her thought out loud.

  “Sierra2 will intercept us in eighty-nine minutes, Admiral,” said Roark.

  “If we let them,” said Hara for the benefit of her Flag Bridge crew. They knew as well as she did that her force was massively outnumbered and outgunned. What they didn’t realize was her determination to keep Sierra2’s commander busy chasing her for as long as she could to buy time for Diamond K’s return. But she had to be careful not to let Sierra2 build up so much velocity that her ships wouldn’t be able to stay out of missile range. She stepped over to the Helm Station which on a Flag Bridge was used mainly for navigation calculations. The Flag Helm Officer looked at her with a questioning expression.

  “What do you need, Admiral?”

  “Since Sierra2 is already moving faster than we are, they’ll be able to catch us even if we go to max acceleration. It’s only a matter of when. So, the only way to prevent that is if we transition to FTL before they get within missile range. Assuming we continue at our present acceleration for now, when would we have to speed up to reach minimum velocity for FTL?”

  The FHO grinned. “I’ll have that answer for you in about five seconds, Admiral. If we go to maximum acceleration in roughly nineteen and a half minutes, we can still transition to FTL before they can catch us.”

  “Okay, and assuming we continue on this vector, where would Sierra2 and we be at that point?” asked Hara.

  “Right about there,” said the FHO pointing to the main display.

  Hara looked at it and frowned. “I can’t tell from this angle. Will Sierra2 still have a line of sight with the black hole wormhole when we get to that point in time?”

  “No, Admiral. The AG38 star will be blocking their view by then.”

  “Good! That means if the Diamond K emerges from the wormhole after that point, Sierra2 won’t pick up their transponder ID and wonder what they are or what they’re up to. Unless you hear otherwise from me, what we’ve just discussed is what we’re going to do. Keep updating those trajectories. Under no circumstances do I want this squadron brought within Sierra2’s missile range without having minimum FTL velocity.”

  “Understood, Admiral.”

  “Now, what about Daedalus and Valiant? When do they have to start boosting for FTL velocity?”

  “I’ll have that answer for you in a minute or so, Admiral. There are too many permutations for NavComp to come up with a quick answer.”

  Hara understood the complexity. The other five cruisers were at different points in the system and therefore different distances from Sierra2. It was entirely possible that one or two of them would have to start accelerating earlier than her battlecruiser force if they wanted to be sure of staying out of Sierra2’s missile range, assuming that those RSN ships might decide to go after them. If that turned out to be the case, then she faced a difficult decision. Should she let one or two of her heavy cruisers risk being caught by missile volleys in order to maximize the time that Diamond K had to return unobserved or keep her cruisers safe and shift the risk to her company’s ship. Damn it, Mac. Hurry up and get back here!

  Scheer’s chat with Admiral Molitor was interrupted by the FTO’s report. “We’ve detected another ship, Admiral. It appears to be stationary. The plot has been updated.”

  Scheer and Molitor looked at the holographic display. A new red icon now appeared in a position that was not even close to where Admiral Hara’s three ships had been or were now.

  “Why would she position a single ship there?” asked Scheer.

  “I think I know the answer,” said Molitor. “I think that ship is acting as a communications relay between Hara’s squadron and the five heavy cruisers. That way, she can maneuver stealthily and has to worry about keeping only the relay ship informed of her movements. If we can ambush that ship, her ability to control those cruisers will be severely disrupted, Admiral.”

  Scheer folded his arms across his chest as he pondered Molitor’s recommendation. He was opposed to splitting his fleet on principle but catching that relay ship by surprise was very tempting.

  “Okay, Admiral. Pick two of your battlecruisers and order them to attack the relay ship.” Molitor rushed over to the Com Station.

  Hara was once again back at her Command Station when the tactical display pinged again. A second icon was breaking away from Sierra2.

  “Admiral, two ships have—”

  “Yes, I see it, TO,” said Hara quickly. It wasn’t clear yet where those two ships were heading for, but Hara was willing to guess they were after Conquistador.

  “Can they bring Conquistador within missile range?” she asked. The answer came quickly.

  “They can unless Conquistador begins max acceleration within seventy-seven seconds, Admiral,” said the FHO.

  “Damn!” Given the time it would take a message from her to reach Conquistador, she had only a few seconds to
decide how to respond. “Tell her to head for Vanquisher. We’ll rendezvous with her there. She’s to tell Vanguard and Challenger to rendezvous there as well under stealth. Can Valiant and Daedalus make it without being intercepted?”

  The FHO shook his head. “No, sir. Given Sierra2’s velocity, they wouldn’t be able to cut across its path without falling into missile range.”

  Hara wanted to pound her armrest in frustration but resisted the impulse. She needed to project as much confidence as she could to keep the Flag Bridge personnel from panicking. “So much for keeping our detection system secret. As soon as they see us react, they’ll know that we know about them. Tell Valiant and Daedalus to use their wormholes and then head back to Caledonia independently. Helm, inform the squadron to head for the black hole wormhole and go to max acceleration.”

  Scheer was shocked when the Black Knight drones reported that the relay ship and Admiral Hara’s three ships were suddenly accelerating at their maximum 250Gs.