“That leaves some fifty three ships behind us, including their three surviving Hedgehogs and their two carriers, which we now know employ small attack craft. We are not sure of their size or throw weight, but we think that the ships behind us are mostly made up of ships from ‘Bogey Two,’ and we presume that most of them are undamaged.”
There was muttering around the table as the facts sunk in. Now the Atlas and the surviving Home Fleet were caught in a classic hammer and anvil position. The best way to get out of it was to turn either up or down from their plane of advance and run like hell, but they couldn’t turn and they couldn’t run. The enemy knew exactly where they were going. The only option was to fight their way through to the worm hole against two to one odds.
“You said two things we need to be aware of,” one of the captains voiced.
Douthat pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes. The second thing is that the worm hole is moving.”
The murmur of disquiet grew louder. Peter Murphy leapt to his feet, red faced and furious. “Admiral! You should have told me as soon as you learned. I need to start turning Atlas or we’ll lose the worm hole!”
Douthat made a ‘take it easy’ gesture with her hands. “Normally, you’d be right, Mr. Murphy, but we first learned of the movement not from our sensors, but from a communication from an unknown ship. It came via whisper laser, addressed to the Queen and to Commander Brill.”
Hiram sat bolt upright in his chair. What? He looked at Admiral Douthat, only to find that she was looking straight back at him.
“The message tells us that the worm hole has started to move west on our plane of advance. It will move west for seven hours, but then it will
For a moment there was stunned silence, then the room dissolved into an uproar. “How can we trust the message?” demanded Captain Wicklow.
“We can’t,” snapped Sir Henry, speaking for the first time. “We cannot verify the source, so we cannot verify the accuracy of what they told us.”
“This could be a trap,” Wicklow continued. “The Dominion may want us to believe the worm hole will reverse course so we’ll plot our course accordingly, when all along it will be moving west, further and further out of reach.”
Douthat motioned for silence, then gestured to Peter Murphy. “Mr. Murphy, if we turn west with the worm hole, and it does reverse course, can we turn back and still catch it?”
Murphy shot a morose glance at Opinsky, who shook his head. “Don’t see how, Admiral,” Opinsky said. “Hard to turn the Atlas, real hard. If your data is right, the worm hole will move west about twenty degrees off our plane of advance, so we’d need to turn twenty degrees left to try to hit it. To do that we’d need to start turning now, right now, and even then it would be close. But you’re sayin’ that it is gonna turn back east again, to our right and end up fifteen degrees off our current plane of advance. Well, Ma’am, we can go left and maybe make it,
“So we have to decide,” Admiral Douthat said flatly. “Our sensors are reporting that the worm hole has in fact begun to move left. We can either turn with it, or we can trust this message and turn
“This message is a Dominion ruse, an attempt to misdirect us,” Wicklow said heatedly. “Any fool can see that.”
“How do we know that?” asked Captain Eder of the
“We don’t know it is not,” Sir Henry replied. “And because we don’t know, we cannot trust it. We must go left.”
The argument raged for another few minutes, going nowhere. Hiram sat quietly, trying to puzzle it out. Then, when there was a brief lull, he asked: “Admiral Douthat, you said that the message was addressed to Queen Anne and to me, is that correct?
Douthat nodded curtly.
“Exactly what does the message say?”
Douthat pushed a button and the message appeared on a screen:
To Queen Anne of Victoria and to Lt. Hiram Brill, Fleet Intelligence:
We send you greeting in your time of trouble, and a warning. The Refuge worm hole has begun to move west relative to your plane of advance. It will move west on a horizontal axis for seven standard hours, then reverse course and move east past its point of origin. It will move east for ten hours from the time it changes direction, stopping at relative coordinates X-2930; Y-1446; and Z-0473 your perspective. Turn east now.
Hiram Brill, your aunt sends you chocolate cake.
Hiram laughed out loud. “Turn east, Admiral. The message is good.” He explained about Jong, the monk from The Light, and his odd question about Hiram liking his aunt’s chocolate cake.
“This is nonsense!” Wicklow spluttered. “This could be a Dominion trick, or even if it isn’t, why should we trust The Light? How could they possibly know what the worm hole will do?”
Queen Anne raised her hand and Wicklow fell silent. “Admiral, I have reason to trust this message as well. I believe I know who sent it. I don’t pretend to know why they believe the worm hole will reverse course, but I think we may rely on it.”
“Your Majesty,” Sir Henry protested, but she cut him off.
“I understand your position, Sir Henry, but a decision must be made, and I have made it.” She stood. “Admiral Douthat, direct the tugs to turn Atlas to the east and plan your battle tactics accordingly.” She smiled warmly at everyone in the room. “I have the utmost faith in your ability to get us all safely to Refuge. May the Gods of Our Mothers bless you all and keep you from harm.”
Admiral John Mello stood at the helm of the D.U.C.
“Do you think they’ll go for it, sir?” Captain Pattin asked quietly.
“Without a doubt.” Mello smiled coldly. Sometimes you defeat your enemy through their arrogance, sometimes through their fear. And sometimes, simply through their predictability.
It didn’t really matter, as long as you won and they died.
After the others had cleared the conference room, Queen Anne sat with the remaining captains of the Coldstream Guards. The others sat away from Captain Wicklow, no one wanting to appear as if they were taking his side by sitting too close. Captain Wicklow in turn looked at them with unveiled disdain. Queen Anne studied them in turn, observing their body language, hoping that the Guards could maintain enough unity to be combat effective for this last, vital push.
“In a very short time,” she said evenly, “Admiral Douthat will send the Queen’s Own and Black Watch ahead to attack the Dominion blocking force. If that attack is successful, the main body of the Dominion fleet will either be defeated or at least out of position to stop our passage through the Refuge worm hole. The Coldstream Guards will remain with Atlas to serve as the reserve and to protect it from any attack from the rear, although Admiral Douthat assures me that such an attack would likely get bogged down in the minefield.”
“There are two issues Admiral Douthat asked me to deal with,” the Queen continued. “First, who shall command the Coldstream Guards, and second, what to do about the pending arrest warrant for Lieutenant Tuttle.”
“It is perfectly clear, Your Majesty,” Captain Wicklow said earnestly. “Following the unfortunate death of Captain Grey, I am the senior officer of the Guards and should, as a matter of rank, tradition and expertise, assume command. As for Lieutenant Tuttle, she should be taken into custody immediately for treason in the face of the enemy for turning her guns on a ship of Your Majesty’s navy. Her actions were criminal and she must now face the
