Alarm of War

Repulse reported more damage and fell out of line.

“Did I ever tell you that before I joined the Fleet, I sold furniture for a living?” Emily asked absently. “I wasn’t very good at it.”

Rudd peered at the holo display, trying to make sense out of what he saw. “Did you really cross their front?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yes, and I relieved Captain Wicklow of command, too. I don’t think he was happy.”

Rudd looked at her, aghast.

The tactical display showed them entering the chaff cloud on the right flank of the Dominion cruisers. The path of the entire Battle Group hooked sharply to the right.

““How is the captain?” Rudd asked Naama Denker.

“Alive, no thanks to Lieutenant Tuttle,” Denker snapped. “She’s got a concussion and I think she’s bleeding internally. I need to get her into a medipod and get her stabilized, but I am under orders not to remove her from the bridge.”

Captain Grey opened her eyes and weakly patted Denker on the hand. “In a fight, Naama. Do your best.” Her eyes closed again and her chin rested on her chest.

Rudd shook his head, his eyes shifting from Grey to Emily to the tactical display and back again. “Sweet Gods, Em, if those cruisers see us coming in, they’ll chew us to pieces.”

“I know.”

“We will emerge from the chaff cloud in five seconds,” Merlin warned.

“All ships, prepare to fire everything you’ve got,” Emily shouted.

The Dominion cruisers turned away from the Victorians and accelerated steadily, but it would take time to get up to cruising speed. The holo showed a roiling cloud of EMC snow and chaff behind them and to the sides, but the lead captain could see the precious supply ships to his left, piling on the acceleration, no doubt anxious to put as much distance from the last known position of the Vickies as they could.

The holo display suddenly flashed crimson. An alarm chimed. The captain looked up, annoyance battling with alarm.

“Well, what is it?” he snapped.

They came out of the chaff within six hundred miles of the DUC cruisers. Almost sitting on them. “Fire!” Emily shouted. “Fire and reload and fire at will. Merlin, fire decoy drones. Right down their throats!”

Surprised as they were, the Dominion ships reacted swiftly, pouring laser and missile fire back at the on- rushing Victorian war ships. The frigate Mt. McKinley shuddered and rolled over, tumbling end over end. Life pods popped out of its hull, but there were pitifully few. Her sister frigate Annapurna lost huge chucks of her hull to an anti-matter missile. Air and bodies streamed out. A second missile hit made it spin clockwise like a child’s top. One solitary life pod emerged from the chaos, only to be holed by a laser.

Both the Victorian and Dominion crews raced to reload missiles and recharge lasers. The longer recharge time for the Dominions spelled the difference; the surviving Victorians fired three dozen lasers into the enemy ships, then launched another missile volley.

Three of the DUC cruisers fell silent. The fourth, which had turned away sooner, continued its desperate acceleration, popping chaff and decoys behind it, and made its escape.

“Damage report?”

“We’ve got sixty two dead, many injured. Missile batteries 4, 5, 9 and 12 are out. Laser turret 3 is down, but should be back up soon. All six engines operable, but Engine 2 will need some work as soon as we can get at it. Life Support systems are satisfactory, but the moisture scrubbers got knocked out in that first attack, so it is going to be pretty damp in here real soon.” This was Seaman Partridge, barely old enough to grow a beard, standing in for the Systems Officer, who was injured or dead, Emily didn’t know which.

Emily turned weary eyes on the three Dominion supply ships, which only now realized they were on a course toward the enemy rather than away from it.

Emily opened a com line to them. “This is Her Majesty’s Ship New Zealand. You have thirty seconds to get to your life boats and get clear, then we’ll destroy your ships.”

The captain of one of the supply ships called back. “You can’t do this. We have wounded. We need more time.”

Emily’s left hand was shaking. She put it under her thigh and sat on it. She felt eerily disconnected, as if she were watching herself from a distance. Keep it together, Emily.

“You want more time?” she said acidly. “You have invaded my Sector, killed my Queen and attacked us without provocation or mercy, and now you tell me you want more time? Fine, then, I will give you time to put your wounded into your life boats and give you safe passage, but on the condition that you tell me where the other supply vessels are. Surely you have their coordinates.”

His eyes shifted sideways, then back to her. “I’m not required to tell you-”

“So be it. All ships, prepare to launch on my mark,” Emily ordered crisply. Now her right hand was shaking, too. “Five, four, three-”

“My God, where is your humanity?” the supply ship captain cried. “We’re defenseless.”

“You tell me where those other supply ships are and I’ll see if I can find my humanity,” Emily snapped back. “You are out of time, Captain. Last chance to save your crew.”

He glared at her, then nodded abruptly, shoulders slumping.

“We have the coordinates of the other Dominion supply ships,” Emily broadcast to the other Coldstream Guard ships. “They are five thousand miles away, below our plane of advance. We are going to attack them, then find our way back to the Atlas.”

Time was the critical factor now. The Dominion cruiser that got away would alert Bogey One and reinforcements would be coming. They had to do this quickly. But this time, Emily intended to go in smart. She sent one flight of ten reconnaissance drones in front of her, and behind them, but six hundred miles above their plane of advance, she positioned forty decoy drones. She brought them up to cruising speed and then let them coast, powered down and virtually invisible to anything but active sensors.

Then she sat back to wait. Beside her, Naama Denker knelt beside the unconscious Captain Grey, monitoring her vitals. “She needs to be in a medipod,” Denker said sternly.

Emily shook her head. “If she goes to sickbay, command will pass to Captain Wicklow. The Captain told me not to let that happen.

“If she dies, command will pass too,” Denker said coldly.

Alex Rudd drifted in again, head still bandaged and looking pale.

“Are you here to relieve me, Alex?” she asked. She hated the thought of it, yet at the same time it would be a tremendous relief to hand over responsibility to someone else.

Rudd shook his head. “I keep getting dizzy spells and have to lie down. Probably got a concussion. Anyway, you’re doing fine.” He looked at her, chewing his lip. “Did you really relieve Captain Wicklow of his command?”

She shrugged. “I needed Merlin to coordinate a time-on-target attack. Wicklow refused to yield control. There wasn’t time to debate it.”

Rudd wearily rubbed his forehead. Wicklow was known for treating is subordinates ruthlessly. He never forgot a slight, no matter how small. And he had friends in Court, influential friends who were rumored to be close to the Queen’s brother, the Duke of Kent. “If he finds out it was you, Emily…”

Emily shrugged again. She had already figured out that much. “I’m going to nail those Dominion supply ships, Alex. After that, well…”

Rudd looked around the deck. There was broken glass and blood smears everywhere. “Not much like the simulations, is it?”

Emily smiled wanly. “Real blood.”

On the Dominion command ship, Admiral Mello looked up in alarm as Jodi Pattin joined him, white faced.

“We just received a courier drone from the supply ships you were using as bait. The escorts have been destroyed and the remaining supply ships are at risk.”

Blood drained from Mello’s face. This was to be the decisive battle, by which he would destroy or capture the