place in formation.”
A minute later, instead of answering directly, Commander Michael Geary just grinned triumphantly. “You screwed up, Great-Uncle Black Jack. You know that, don’t you? Titan’s in trouble. Cresida’s not a bad officer, but she’s not as experienced as she’d like to think. And she can be a hothead, jumping without thinking first. You should’ve checked her plan better. It takes a lot of time sailing around Titan to realize what a slow tub she is under the best of conditions. That means there’s only one option if Titan’s going to saved.”
Geary tried to use his fingertips to push back a growing pain in his temples. “I understand Titan’s in trouble. I know we need to do something. But there’s different ways of executing that option.”
Another minute, while the Syndic pursuers grew closer. Geary watched them, impressed despite himself by the acceleration of which these modern warships were capable.
Repulse’s commander officer shook his head. “All of the options come down to the same thing. And you know it. Well, I’m going to do you a big favor, Great-Uncle Black Jack. I’m going to save you the trouble of choosing who dies. Repulse is close to the line between the closest Syndic ships and Titan. My ship’s well positioned for this action, and she’s got the necessary firepower. She’s also got damaged main drives that I’ve been pushing too hard and are threatening to fail, so she may not be able to keep up with the fleet regardless. Feel better?”
Geary felt the coldness inside again, but he could only find one word in answer. “No.”
The Repulse’s commander’s grin stretched wider at Geary’s response, becoming a bit grotesque. “Because of your mistake, I’ll finally get to live up to the legacy of Black Jack Geary! My ship holding off the entire Syndic fleet! My ancestors, our ancestors, will be proud. How long do you think my ship’ll survive, Great-Uncle Black Jack?”
Geary barely kept from snarling in frustration. A ship would die because of him. At least one, because if Repulse didn’t hold the enemy off long enough, then Titan still wouldn’t make it to the jump point in time unless Geary sent more ships back to screen her. And this man he wanted to embrace as a link to his dead brother couldn’t let go of his anger even now. “Hold them off as long as you can. They’ll try to slip some ships past you.”
A minute later, Michael Geary shook his head again. “They won’t make it. I’ll have clean shots at their flanks when they try.” The grin finally wavered and went away. “This isn’t easy, is it? I understand a bit now. I truly didn’t want this. You do what you have to do, though, and it’s up to your ancestors how it all turns out. You just have to…the Syndics will capture any of my crew who get off before Repulse dies. I know you can’t wait around to pick them up now. Promise me that some day you’ll try to get them out of the Syndic labor camps. Don’t forget them.”
Another promise, another demand on him, from someone who knew damned well that he wasn’t a demigod but still needed to believe in him. “I swear to you I won’t forget them, and I’ll do everything I can to someday get them home.”
“I’ll remember that! And our ancestors heard you as well!” Michael Geary laughed sharply, his gaze shifting rapidly as he looked off-screen at his own ship’s bridge.
“It’s going to get very hot any moment now. I need to go. Get the fleet out of here, damn you.” He hesitated. “I’ve got a sister. She’s on the Dreadnought, back in Alliance space. Tell her I didn’t hate you anymore.” The connection broke leaving Geary staring at the ghost memory of his grandnephew’s face.
He became aware that Captain Desjani was looking at him, wondering what his private conservation with the Repulse had involved. Geary spoke to her, trying to keep his voice flat and controlled. “Repulse is going to attempt to hold off the Syndic ships long enough for Titan to get to the jump point.”
Desjani hesitated, her eyes widening. “Sir, you should know, the commanding officer of Repulse is-”
“I know who he is.” Geary guessed his voice sounded rough, harsh, and had no idea how that would seem to the bridge crew of the Dauntless, and he didn’t really care at the moment.
Desjani stared at him for several seconds, then looked away.
Every minute after that seemed impossibly long, Geary watching Titan’s achingly slow progress and the vectors of the Syndic warships piling on speed as they closed the distance. The fastest Syndic ships had pushed their velocity up past.1 light and were still accelerating. “Isn’t there any way to make Titan go faster?” he finally snapped.
The others on the bridge exchanged glances, but no one answered. Despite his earlier determination to keep an eye on the big picture, Geary focused on the Repulse, knowing that what happened around her would determine the fate of other ships. The rest of the Alliance fleet was accelerating toward the jump point, limiting its speed to keep from leaving slower ships behind, but drawing steadily away from Repulse. The damaged battle cruiser had ceased accelerating, coasting along behind the rest of the fleet as if her propulsion systems were totally blown. She was almost forty-five light-seconds away from Dauntless now, and losing ground by the moment. Geary did a quick estimate in his head, figuring that by the time the Syndic pursuers reached Repulse, the badly damaged ship would be over a light-minute behind the rest of the fleet.
The wall once formed by the Syndic fleet had stretched into a sort of ragged cone, with the bulk of the Syndic ships back in the base, while the fastest ships had charged forward as quickly as they individually could, their tracks converging on an intercept with Titan. Geary saw the great opportunity the extended Syndic formation offered for a vicious counterblow, just the sort of opportunity a mythic commander like Black Jack Geary would surely take. But I know what would happen to my fleet after I blew away those leading Syndic ships and the rest of the Syndic fleet caught up to us, and I’m not the Black Jack Geary these people think I am.
Like members of a grand ballet corps sweeping together for a finale, the Syndic ships gracefully arced down toward Titan and the lone Alliance warship, Repulse, barring their path. Three Syndic Hunter-Killer ships that must have strained their drives to the utmost were in the lead as they tried to race past Repulse at better than.1 light speed, aiming directly for Titan and her escorts. Geary watched the battle on the display floating before him, knowing the events he was watching had already played out a minute earlier, seeing the shape of the Repulse slowly turning to face the pursuers. Too slowly. Her damaged main drives had apparently lost much of their maneuvering and acceleration capability, leaving Repulse unable to move with any speed.
According to Repulse’s last update, her propulsion system wasn’t that badly damaged. Why is she wallowing like that? Then Geary noticed the Syndic HuKs not altering course to further avoid Repulse and realized what his grandnephew was doing. He’s pretending to be in worse shape than he is. It’s his only ace, and he’s playing it very well. If only I’d had some time to get to know that man.
Repulse, swinging slowly and majestically up and around, barely managed to bring her main weapons to bear and fired her kinetic grapeshot, patterns of large metal ball bearings aimed to intercept the path of the oncoming HuKs. At the speed the HuKs were moving, relativistic effects would mean they’d have a distorted image of the outside universe, which together with the time-late lags caused by the distances involved meant the Syndic ships would lose vital time in seeing and responding to any threats.
Whether because they had too little warning time to react or simply chose to ignore the barrage, the HuKs swept directly into the grapeshot kill patterns, their leading shields sparkling with impacts as they absorbed the barrage. The Syndic warships surged onward, still fixated on the Titan. “No hits,” Geary commented tonelessly.
Captain Desjani shook her head. “There wasn’t much chance of one, but all those head-on strikes against the HuK shields by the kinetic rounds must’ve depleted the shields a great deal. The relative speed of the impacts was huge. They’ll have to shift a lot of power from the sides and rear to try to rebuild their front shields.”
“I see.” And now he did. Or rather, he was seeing what had happened over a minute ago. The HuKs sprinting past Repulse obviously weren’t worried about taking any more shots from the Alliance ship. But before the projected paths of the Syndic ships began to pass Repulse’s position, the battle cruiser had rolled with sudden speed and agility, changing aspect to bring her main batteries to bear on points the
