Paul slapped some controls, cutting off the computer generated voice of the Michaelson 's maneuvering systems in mid-warning. "It's some of the probability vectors the Maury might be on, Captain. They're falling inside the five kilometer limit we put into the collision warning system."
"Five kilometers." Hayes shook his head. "This idea must've looked great to some genius back on earth. You ever hear of a guy named Wellington, Paul?"
"The Duke of Wellington, sir?"
"Yeah. Him. Before Waterloo he went around inspecting his troops, who were a pretty scruffy bunch, and then said 'I don't know what effect they'll have on the enemy, but by God they scare me.' That's what this maneuver reminds me of. I don't know what effect it'll have on the SASALs, but it's sure scaring me."
"Yes, sir. Maybe they'll try to duplicate it."
Hayes grinned. "That'd serve them right. XO?"
Commander Kwan, watching the final approach from his own seat on the other side of the bridge from the captain, turned at the hail. "Yes, sir?"
"Let's have this watch team relieved half an hour early. That'll give the new people plenty of time to get comfortable with the situation."
"We could just keep this watch team on until both ships have revealed themselves, Captain."
Paul glanced at Isakov. One of the odder things about being on watch was when the CO and XO talked back and forth over your heads as if you weren't there.
Hayes shook his head. "No. I want Paul down in Combat so he can analyze things from there if we need to react fast. And," he looked directly at the watch team, "no disrespect, Val, but you're not as familiar with this ship as the other officers of the deck."
Commander Kwan pursed his mouth. "Should we just bring the ship to general quarters? That might be prudent in any event."
Paul watched Hayes consider the question, then shake his head yet again. "No. But I do want maximum air-tight integrity set. Let's start doing that now."
Great, Paul thought. One more thing to worry about during this watch. The bosun sounded the alert over the ship's general announcing system, then as reports came in from different parts of the ship declaring their status Paul tabulated them and confirmed the reports against the remote read-outs on the bridge. The ship as a whole was always air-tight, of course, but maximum air-tight integrity meant sealing every internal hatch and nonessential opening inside the ship. That way, if anything punched through the ship's hull, the fewest possible compartments would lose air. Of course, if the Maury herself comes through our hull a few closed hatches aren't going to help much.
Sam Yarrow naturally wasn't thrilled to have to come on watch early, but he couldn't gripe too loudly with both the CO and XO on the bridge. He did managed to drag out the relieving process as long as possible just to aggravate Paul.
Yarrow studied the maneuvering displays again as he strapped into his seat. "Too bad nothing's near us."
"The Maury 's pretty close, Sam."
"So? It would've been nice to spring out on some fat, dumb and happy SASAL ship that thought it was alone out here. The two of us suddenly there, right on top of the guy. That'd impress them."
"I'm worried enough with just the Maury out here."
"What's the matter, Sinclair? No guts, no glory."
I'd prefer to keep my guts inside my body, Sam, glory or not. But Paul didn't say it out loud, not with Lieutenant Isakov still within earshot, and not after the mocking comments she'd made about his not being a hero.
Combat had more than the usual compliment of watch standers hanging around. Paul's own sailors were obviously curious or concerned, as well. "How's it look, Chief?"
Chief Imari made a face as she studied her own display. "Not as clear as I wished it'd look, sir."
"Yeah. For what it's worth, we're going to be ready to jump out of the way."
"Let's hope we have time to jump if we have to do it."
Paul nodded, then strapped in at his console. He rarely made use of the Michaelson 's internal video system, since he didn't like to think he was being watched when on duty himself, but now he wanted to have a heads-up to what the captain was thinking. Paul activated a window in his display to show video from the bridge and routed the audio from the bridge to his headphones. It'd be a distraction, but in this case he figured one worth the need to monitor the captain's intentions.
Time appeared to crawl after that. Combat seemed unusually quiet, without much of the usual conversation and wise-cracking among the sailors. When Paul glanced up he could see everyone intent on their displays.
At thirty minutes prior to the time when both ships were to reveal themselves, hopefully in close formation and going the same way at the same speed, a time counter popped into existence on the displays and began scrolling downward. Paul tried not to look at it, since the time counter made the minutes seem to drag even longer, like an old fashioned clock in a classroom that never seemed to move if watched too closely.
Five minutes. Paul took another look around Combat. Everyone seemed ready for anything. The fuzzy ball that represented the Maury 's estimated position had thankfully shrunk considerably, but enough uncertainty remained to keep everyone on edge and the Michaelson 's maneuvering systems in a constant tizzy about the threat of collision. On the bridge, no one was talking, either, every eye and full attention focused on the maneuvering displays. If something is seriously off, though, it won't matter. I know that. We'd have maybe a couple of seconds to react, which wouldn't be fast enough even if we could move the Merry Mike 's mass instantaneously. But if even one second makes a difference, we'll be ready.
Chief Imari's voice sounded in his headphones. "What do want to bet they're sweating just as bad on the Maury, Mr. Sinclair?"
"I wouldn't doubt it, Chief." He wondered where Jen was. If the Maury 's crew was reacting like the Michaelson 's, then surely Jen and the other engineering officers were at their duty stations, ready for whatever might happen. It felt odd to be able to see her in his mind's eye, to know pretty much how Jen and her surroundings would look at this moment, even though he had no way of seeing her in reality.
Paul stole another look at the bridge. Ensign Jack Abacha, still standing watches under instruction, was looking around with ill-concealed enthusiasm.. Where ignorance is bliss. He's probably the only one on board not experienced enough to know how dangerous this is.
The time counter scrolled down toward zero. On the window in Paul's display where video from the bridge was displayed, he saw Captain Hayes hold up one hand with his fingers crossed. Over his headphone he heard the captain's forced joviality: "Here's hoping."
Chapter Five
There wasn't any noticeable change onboard as the time counter hit zero. The ship's systems responded as programmed and the Michaelson became highly visible to the universe. The visual by-pass system shut off, making her once again easy to spot by the naked eye. Active scanning systems activated, sending out clear signals of the ship's presence as well as pinpointing her location.
The biggest change was the sudden looming presence of the Maury. The fuzzy ball wasn't there anymore. Now, her own anti-detection mechanisms deactivated, the Maury was there, another ship clearly pacing them at a distance of precisely eight point nine kilometers. Not exactly matching vectors, but close enough that there wasn't any threat of collision in the immediate future. A ragged cheer went up on the Michaelson 's bridge.
"Good job!" Captain Hayes exulted. "Congratulations, everybody. That ought to impress anyone who's planning to mess around with us."
Paul realized he was smiling widely. He turned to Chief Imari, raised one hand and exchanged a long-distance high-five with the chief. Crisis over. Let's see if anybody we can see reacts to us. Opening the range scale, he looked far outward to monitor the nearest SASAL ships, which were fairly deep within their claimed area of space at the moment.