"What?"
"Avoid confrontation, sir. That's verbatim. If the SASAL's don't veer off, we have to avoid them."
"Damn. Combat, what the hell is he doing now?"
"He appears to be angling to cut across our bow, sir."
"I can see that, Combat! I want his CPA!"
Paul fought down a burst of anger. If I'd been down in Combat I'd have made sure my guys provided the Closest Point of Approach for the captain. Garcia just got my sailors yelled at because he wanted to answer the captain right away.
"Bridge, this is Combat. If we continue on our current course, CPA to the SASAL ship will be somewhere between forty and sixty kilometers."
Hayes' face reddened as he watched the SASAL ship continue onward. "I assume there's been no reply to our communications?"
"No, sir. None."
"Mr. Sinclair, I'd sure like to know whether or not that SASAL captain is also under orders to avoid confrontations!"
Paul, unable to think of any reply, simply nodded. "Yes, sir." Lieutenant Sindh somehow managed to make a gesture of long-suffering toward Paul without actually making it. Paul felt his frustration shifting to a similar sardonic acceptance of fate. A captain's many powers included the right to ask unreasonable questions and get ticked off if you didn't know the answers.
Captain Hayes drummed his fingers on his chair arm for several seconds. "Hell. Prepare to alter our current maneuver to avoid that ship. I want to open his CPA to one hundred kilometers."
"Aye, aye, sir," Paul and Sonya Sindh responded simultaneously, then both began calculating the necessary changes.
"Combat, notify all ships in the formation of our intended course change and tell them, uh, that is 'request' that they prepare to resume the exercise once the SASAL ship has finished ramming through here."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Officer of the deck, do you have the evasive maneuver calculated?"
"Yes, sir," Sindh answered calmly.
"Execute it. Get us clear of that idiot."
Sindh pushed the engage button and the Michaelson 's thrusters fired again, pitching her over to the side and altering her course through space away from the place where the SASAL ship would come closest to her.
An alarm sounded. "Bridge, this is Combat. The SASAL ship has his active fire control systems locked onto us."
Captain Hayes' face grew even redder. "I've had just about enough of this."
Paul stared at the symbol representing the SASAL ship. What are they thinking? Locking their fire control systems onto us is about the most provocative thing they can do. Surely they don't want us to shoot. They're just thumbing their noses at us, trying to show they won't be intimidated.
"Mr. Sinclair," Hayes ground out. "Are there any loopholes in those rules of engagement? Do I have any discretion on responding to what that ship is doing?"
Paul shook his head carefully against the force of the Michaelson 's maneuvers. "No, sir. We aren't allowed to take any action except to avoid confrontation."
"Great. Let me tell you, Mr. Sinclair, I would dearly love to confront those guys right now."
Me, too. "Yes, sir."
"Captain?" Commander Garcia called from Combat, sounding aggrieved. "Our evasive maneuver combined with evasive maneuvers by Maury and Alsace are completely throwing off the formation. It'll take us hours to get everybody back into position to restart."
Commander Kwan shook his head. "It's almost like they planned it that way."
Captain Hayes glared at his display as he answered. "That ship certainly seemed to know where it had to be and when it had to be there to mess with us. We shared our exercise plans with the Euros and the Russians. What are the odds they didn't leak?"
Paul noticed new symbols spring to life on his display and frowned down at it. "Captain? HMS Lord Nelson is maneuvering again."
"Why?" Hayes frowned at his own screen. "They were well clear of the SASAL ship's track through our formation. Where's the Nelson going?"
"We can't tell yet, sir."
"As if I don't have enough trouble with unfriendly foreigners, now I have to worry about what the so-called friendly foreigners are doing." Hayes angrily punched a communications button. "HMS Lord Nelson, this is the Exercise Movement Coordinator onboard USS Michaelson. Request advise the purpose of your maneuvers."
The Euro ship's reply, in a calm, lightly British-accented woman's voice, came after a pause. "This is HMS Lord Nelson. Roger. Wait one. Out."
"Wait one?" Commander Kwan questioned. "Don't they know what they're doing?"
Captain Hayes frowned again. "Of course they do. That's the Royal Navy over there, and that was the Nelson 's captain who answered us. What the hell is she up to?"
Paul heard a brief attention chirp from his display and glanced back at it. "The Lord Nelson 's firing thrusters and main drive again, sir." He watched as the arc of the British ship's projected path through space altered shape, quickly bending into a trajectory which crossed another projected path, then firmed as the warship steadied onto course. As the Nelson cut her drives to settle onto her new trajectory, a red symbol flashed to life on Paul's screen where the two paths came together. "Captain?" Paul tried to keep his voice from cracking. "HMS Lord Nelson 's settled onto a collision course with the SASAL ship."
" What?!" Hayes bent over his screen, as if being closer to it would resolve more detail.
"Bridge, this is Combat. The Nelson 's on a collision course with the Tamerlane."
Lieutenant Sindh tapped in a request for the Michaelson 's systems to recheck and confirm their calculations. "Estimate confirmed, sir. Nelson 's positioned herself so her trajectory will intercept that of the SASAL ship."
"Why the hell…? HMS Lord Nelson, this is the Exercise Maneuvering Coordinator. Interrogative your intentions."
The Lord Nelson 's captain responded immediately this time, her voice unruffled. "This is HMS Lord Nelson. I regret to report a possible problem with my maneuvering systems."
Captain Hayes stared at his display for a moment before replying. "Captain Vitali, you are on a collision course with the SASAL ship."
"Yes, we have noticed that."
"What is the exact nature of your maneuvering system problem?"
"We're still looking into it."
"Captain Vitali, you need to maneuver your ship again. You're on a very hazardous trajectory."
"The situation is a bit awkward, isn't it?"
Captain Hayes seemed lost for words for a moment before replying. "Do you anticipate correcting this 'problem' with your maneuvering systems in the very near future?"
"It's very hard to say."
Hayes took a deep breath. "Captain Vitali, as Exercise Movement Coordinator I very respectfully request that you immediately maneuver so as to avoid collision with the SASAL ship."
"What's that?"
"I believe you heard my request."
"Oh, rot. The signal's breaking up. We appear to've developed a communications problem as well. I must have a talk with my officers about these system problems. This is HMS Lord Nelson. Nothing heard. Out."
Kwan was staring at his display, his jaw loose. "I can't believe she's doing this."
Captain Hayes' face had reddened to a deep shade approaching purple. "Damn crazy Brits."
Paul leaned toward Sindh so he could speak in a whisper. "What're they doing?"
Sindh glanced toward Captain Hayes before replying in the same low tone. "The Brits? They're going head to head with the SASALs."
"They deliberately put themselves on a collision course with that other ship so the SASALs will have to maneuver to avoid them?"
"Right. They're playing chicken, and they've one-upped the SASALs."
"You don't play that kind of game with warships. That's insane."
"Well, yes. But the Brits aren't really insane. Just very sure of their inherent superiority over every other form of human life. So it's more of a calm certainty that the other person'll blink first."