Desjani actually snarled as she studied the display. “Ancestors forgive me. He’ll be at maximum velocity when he pierces through our lead units. We’ll have very little chance of achieving hits on him unless we can fix his course exactly—”
“We can’t! We can’t exactly project his course because we don’t know exactly where he is now!” Geary paused, then bared his teeth. “But we know exactly where he’s going.”
“Titan?” Desjani’s hands played across her controls. A hugely elongated cone appeared, the broad end centered on where the ship systems estimated the Syndic cruiser was now. “Here. If that cruiser is headed for Titan and has to brake down to a velocity low enough to get high-probability targeting data on Titan as he passes within weapons range, he’ll have to start braking about here, and that’ll mean he’ll intercept Titan’s course here.” Her finger pointed at the place where the cone had shrunk down to a narrow needle.
Geary nodded, feeling a momentary surge of exultation. That was why the Syndics hadn’t built more ships like that light cruiser. Once you figured out what their target was, escort ships behind the main body could intercept it short of the target. But Geary’s elation quickly faded as he studied the area around the course Desjani had drawn in. There’s nothing in place to stop that cruiser. Titan’s escorts are still too far off from chasing after those worthless corvettes, the reserve squadrons are scattered all over the place, and Titan’s fallen even farther back because the fleet has been accelerating away from her.
And the commander of that Syndic light cruiser had been smart enough to see what was going on and to see that Titan was the Achilles heel of the Alliance fleet. Smarter than me, Geary admitted. That’s a very good sailor out there. Too bad I have to do my best to kill him or her.
The first thing to do was to make sure that the light cruiser had something else to worry about. “All ships in Cruiser Squadrons Eight and Eleven are to pursue the Syndic light cruiser.” That was far more ships than should be needed, but Geary couldn’t tell how many of the ships in those squadrons were actually close enough to the Syndic cruiser to worry it. None of them could possibly catch the cruiser before it reached Titan, but if Geary could slow it down, perhaps they could play a role. “All other ships engage the light cruiser if it comes within effective weapons range.”
He took a moment to check on the corvettes. Their screening of the courier launch over, the Syndic corvettes had turned to run. Geary shook his head. They’re too slow, and they waited too long. There were Alliance ships less than a half hour behind them, and the corvettes couldn’t accelerate worth a damn. “Captain Desjani, please inform those two corvettes that if they do not surrender immediately, they will surely be destroyed.”
“Yes, Captain Geary.” Desjani kept her thoughts to herself this time.
Up and to the side, the Syndic courier ship had depended on speed and relativistic uncertainty to get past the onrushing Alliance ships, but an Alliance destroyer had taken advantage of the luck of its position relative to the courier and rolled in from below in a perfect intercept. Geary had only a moment to realize he hadn’t offered the courier a chance to surrender before the destroyer opened fire, its hell-lances dancing along the path the courier was following. The courier ran into the barrage, which punched right through the thin defenses of the Syndic ship. The courier’s engines blew, and the entire ship vanished as the explosion shattered it into small pieces. Pity. Good intercept, though. Who was that destroyer? Rapier, one of the Sword Class ships. I’ll need to remember her.
“One of the corvettes has broadcast surrender,” Dauntless’s communications watch announced, unable to keep a trace of dismay from her voice.
“Tell”—Geary checked the display hastily.—“Audacious to overtake and board the corvette and ensure it’s stripped of anything we can use.” He paused, thinking about how poorly orders had been followed so far, then hit his own controls. “All units in the Alliance fleet, this is Captain Geary. I have personally accepted surrender of the Syndic corvette PC-14558.” Desjani stared at him, eyes wide. Geary avoided her gaze, looking stubbornly at his own display. He’d just told everyone that the surrendered corvette was effectively under his personal protection now. It was an extreme measure, but he had an ugly feeling that otherwise even a surrendered ship wouldn’t be safe from attack by some of his overenthusiastic commanders.
He switched his gaze back to the battle cruisers far astern, wishing they could somehow teleport next to Titan, then searched for the Syndic cruiser.
And found it racing past the leading Alliance ships.
Geary watched with a sense of helplessness as the Alliance ships closest to the Syndic cruiser scrambled to intercept it, and saw all of them fail as the cruiser’s velocity, now up past .2 light, so effectively confused Alliance targeting systems that they kept misjudging their predictions. A few specters came close, trying to follow right up the cruiser’s path. But all of them were caught in a stern chase with low relative speed. They died in flares of light as they were taken out by the Syndic cruiser’s defenses, which had only to fire backward, knowing any pursuer would be coming from directly astern.
Everyone was looking at him now. They weren’t saying anything, but Geary knew what they were thinking. What do we do, Black Jack? How do you get us out of this mess? Because he knew they’d be certain he could. Idiots. If they kept getting into terrible tactical situations, how long would it be before Geary couldn’t figure out any way out?
Damn and damn again. That Syndic commander spotted the weakest point in the fleet. If we lose Titan our chances of getting home go way down. But he doesn’t have to kill Titan. He just has to slow her down some more, leaving us to either wait around for the main Syndic fleet he no doubt guesses is coming after us, or abandon a ship this fleet needs.
No, Titan’s just one of the weakest points in this fleet. The other weak point is the lack of discipline that led Titan’s escorts to abandon their responsibilities. I can’t do anything to lessen our need for Titan, but I can sure as hell try to fix the discipline in this fleet.
If I get the chance.
Geary’s eyes ranged across the display, ignoring the combat system’s uncertain guesses at the Syndic cruiser’s exact position and vector, letting his instincts judge the chances of any Alliance warships getting to the Syndic cruiser before it could reach Titan. He barely registered the rapid death under an avalanche of Alliance hell-lance fire of the second Syndic corvette, the one that had tried to flee rather than surrender, as Geary realized there was in fact one ship still far enough back to interpose herself in time.
Dauntless.
That cruiser could be on a suicide run. Dauntless should be able to take it easily in terms of firepower, but if it decides to ram Dauntless or run in close and self-destruct, I could lose this ship. Even if the cruiser doesn’t want to ram anybody, his ability to see what’s ahead of him in time to do anything about it is severely compromised by his speed. Just trying for an intercept could cause a collision bad enough to annihilate both ships.