Alarm of War

“Sweet Gods of our Mothers,” someone muttered.

Captain Fuller nodded grimly. “I’ll see you all in Refuge.” Her face disappeared from the comm screen and in a moment the Everest was accelerating hard back toward the space station.

“You’ve got your orders,” Rowe said briskly. “Keep attacking until you have exhausted your missiles, then use lasers as best you can. Don’t let up! We are buying time here. You are to attack until Admiral Douthat reaches Atlas, then break off and regroup there. Good luck to you.”

Emily took a deep breath to steady herself, then looked around the bridge. Alex Rudd was busy tying in the other ships into the New Zealand’s communication system. Chief Gibson looked dazed, but began checking his inventory of missiles and drones. Betty stood at the comm console, tears streaming down her face. She forced a smile when she saw Emily looking at her and nodded, lips trembling. Mr. Partridge was whistling a soft tune under his breath, giving his sensors a once-over.

“Alice, tell the other ships to go to passive sensors and stealth conditions. We are going to go high and attack the Duck battleship from above. Detailed instructions will follow soon.” As soon as I can figure out what the hell I am going to do.

The first attack with anti-matter weapons destroyed about a third of the remaining layer of the Vicky minefield. Admiral Mello was disappointed; he had hoped for more.

“How long before we’re ready for the second attack?” he asked Captain Pattin. The anti-matter missiles had to be loaded manually. They were configured differently than regular missiles and were not compatible with the auto-loaders. A serious design flaw, in Mello’s opinion, but there had not been time for a reconfiguration of the missiles or the auto-loaders before they left Timor.

Captain Pattin glanced at her console. “Thirty minutes, Admiral.”

Mello fumed and cursed the men who designed the damn anti-matter weapons without proper consideration for combat conditions. “Very well. Order all ships to match speed with the Vicky minefield and keep an eye out for those Vicky destroyers. They’ll be desperate to break up our formation.”

“As you order, Admiral.

Emily took the New Zealand, Emerald Isle, Yorkshire, Kent and Galway higher and higher into the minefield, until they were five hundred miles above the plane of advance of the Duck battleship. By then the minefield had thinned out and they would become starkly visible once they left its meager shelter. The Dominion cruisers had slowed their rate of advance and were plodding along. She didn’t know what they were waiting for, but she fervently wished she had some anti-matter missiles of her own. Somewhere below her, Captain Rowe was slowly picking his way through the minefield, hoping to get as close as he could to the Duck cruisers and catch them by surprise. It was a desperate gamble.

Emily still had no idea what to do, other than just popping out of the minefield and firing every weapon available when they had a clear shot at the enemy battleship.

“Captain Tuttle, Captain Specht is on the line; she wants to talk to you.” Betty’s hand hovered over the console, ready to put them on the screen.

Emily exchanged a look with Alex Rudd. “Betty, is she on needle laser or the standard comm channel.”

Betty’s jaw worked. “Standard comm channel, Captain.”

Emily frowned. She had ordered everyone to stealthy running, which meant meant no communications unless it was really important and then only by needle laser.

Chief Gibson leaned over and whispered. “Lieutenant, Captain Rowe specifically put you in charge of this mission. You are in command. You don’t have to apologize for that to Captain Specht or take any crap from her.” She looked at him, feeling more gratitude than she could express. He nodded once and went back to his console.

“Put her on,” she told Betty. Captain Specht’s face appeared on the screen.

“Captain Tuttle, I am waiting for your battle plan,” Specht said impatiently.

“Captain Specht, we are in stealth mode, which means no radio communications,” Emily said coldly. “If you must contact me, contact me by needle laser per your orders. The battle plan will be forthcoming. New Zealand out”

Emily cut the communication and sat back in the command chair. She folded her arms, and then crossed her legs. Then she unfolded her arms and uncrossed her legs.

She had no idea what to do.

On the Dominion ship Vengeance, a sensors operator lifted his head from his instruments. “Sighting! We’ve just caught three seconds of an encrypted radio transmission from the forward edge of the minefield, on a bearing that puts them between four and six hundred miles above our plane of advance at thirty degrees off Virtual North. Not seeing any ships in the clutter, but there is somebody there.”

“Good, good.” Admiral Mello rubbed his hands together. “Mark that point and watch it. Captain Pattin, ready two anti-matter missiles for that position. Do not fire until I tell you.” Mello grinned wolfishly. He loved this. The Vickies were there and he knew it, and they didn’t know that he knew. As soon as they showed themselves, he would blanket the area with anti-matter munitions, then punch a hole to the Atlas and it would be his.

“How much longer until the anti-matter weapons are fully loaded?” he asked again.

“Twelve minutes,” Captain Pattin answered.

Soon. Very soon.

The H.M.S. Everest reached the Atlas and docked. When Captain Fuller stepped into the docking bay, she was astonished to find Queen Anne Radcliff Mendoza Churchill waiting for her, alone except for Sir Henry and four of her armsmen, each of whom carried a weapon open in his hand.

“You must be Johanna Fuller,” Queen Anne greeted her warmly. “I have heard much of you and the Everest.”

Fuller blinked. With her stood five of her crew, mostly senior chiefs who could be counted on in a pinch, all armed. The Queen’s bodyguards were watching them intently.

“Your Majesty,” she began, “I’ve been ordered-”

Queen Anne nodded. “Yes, yes, of course you have.” She smiled and extended a hand. “Come, Captain, walk with me.” Her eyes sparkled. “But tell your men to restrain themselves from doing anything, um, provocative. My armsmen are very protective of me and we wouldn’t want any unpleasantness, would we?”

They ambled across the ship bay and into the crews’ lounge. All the while Queen Anne smiled warmly and Sir Henry glowered and scowled. Two more armsmen joined them, taking up a rear position behind her five chiefs. The chiefs looked increasingly unhappy and took great care to keep their hands away from their weapons.

“Captain Rowe, bless him, sent you to take me to Refuge,” the Queen said matter-of-factly. “But I have a more important task for you, Johanna. May I call you Johanna?”

Johanna Fuller felt like she had fallen into the rabbit hole, her earlier determination to march in and grab the Queen draining away.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

“Johanna, my advisors tell me that the Dominion have enough force to reach the Atlas within a few hours, maybe as little as two. We have several hundred tug boats that have been towing us, rather slowly I’m afraid, toward the Refuge wormhole. While you have been off fighting, about a hundred of the tugs have dropped their tow lines — I know they’re not really lines, Johanna, but that’s how I think of them — and have picked up missile launcher pods. These pods, I am told, are designed to work through a war ship’s combat AI. The tugs don’t have that type of AI, but the Everest does.” The Queen stopped and turned to her.

“So, Johanna, instead of spiriting me away to Refuge and taking a terrible risk that we will lose the Atlas, I want you to lead the tugs back and attack the Dominion ships.”

“For the love of God, Your Majesty!” Sir Henry said urgently. “You must leave! Get on the Everest and go to Refuge while you still can!”

Queen Anne smiled wanly and touched his hand. “Sir Henry, without the Atlas, all I would be in Refuge is a historical footnote, languishing without a people to lead or any means of projecting power. Atlas is our industrial base, the womb of our next fleet. While we have Atlas, Victoria has hope. We will stay together, Atlas and I.” She turned back to Fuller.

“So, Captain Johanna Fuller, will you lead them back?”