“Holding back never won a battle,” Desjani stated approvingly, in the manner of someone quoting a lesson.
Geary was still mentally shaking his head at Desjani’s statement when a chime sounded to call attention to the display. He watched as the time-late data from the inhabited world scrolled by. Analysis of imagery and things like chemical by-products in the atmosphere indicated the world was still running an industrialized economy, but with signs of inactive facilities and apparently not as heavily populated as expected given the length of time humans had been settled there. That matched what he’d heard about those systems that had been bypassed by the hypernet system slowly dying on the vine. A score of objects orbited the world, seven tagged as cold and probably mothballed and two labeled as likely military installations. No military shipping was visible in the more than eight-hour-old picture.
“The installation on the fourth world is active and assessed military,” the reconnaissance watch reported. “Two minor combatants are active near the base as of forty-one minutes time- late.”
Geary jerked his head around and stared at the system display of the frozen planet. They still didn’t have anything like a real-time picture of the area near the Syndic base, but as of forty minutes ago there’d been two Syndic ships there. We arrived in system less than ten minutes ago, so they won’t see us for another half hour. By then, we’ll be a lot closer to them. “Is the identification of those Syndic ships accurate? We’re sure that’s what they are?”
Desjani frowned, probably taking the questioning of her ship’s displayed information personally. “The IDs on the ships near the base? Yes, Captain Geary. Type and Class ID is certain. Model is tentative.”
“I’ll be damned.” Desjani gave Geary a wondering look, so he pointed at the display. “We called those things nickel corvettes in my time.”
“Nickel?”
“Yeah. Like the coins. They’re useful, but they don’t last long if you need to use them. Those ships were half-obsolescent when I…” Geary let his words trail off, not sure how to refer to his apparent death in battle a century ago. “When I was last in combat,” he finally stated.
Desjani snorted in amazement. “I’ve never seen that class of ships before. I suppose those corvettes must’ve been left here because it was easier to leave them in the hands of the local Corvus authorities than it would’ve been to dispose of them.”
“Probably.” For a moment, Geary imagined himself at that Syndic base or on those ships as the Alliance fleet came pouring out of the jump point. If the age of those Syndic ships was any indication, this system didn’t even really qualify as a backwater in the war. Decades, at least, since Corvus had been involved in the Alliance-Syndicate Worlds war, aside from sending in taxes and doubtless occasional shipments of draft-age young adults. For a few more minutes or a few more hours, depending on where in the system they were, they’d still think they were a backwater. Then they’d finally begin to see the Alliance fleet arriving, ship after ship becoming visible as the light from their arrival finally reached the various Syndic watchers. And they wouldn’t believe it for a few minutes, would they? Wouldn’t believe that here was the war arriving, in sudden and overwhelming force.
The fleet communications circuit came to life. “Captain Geary, this is Commander Zeas on the Truculent. We’re within weapons range of an active radar emitter focused on the jump point.”
“This is Geary. Take it out.” He glanced at Desjani. “I know that’s just a navigational aid, but it’s probably sending contact reports to that base.”
“I concur,” she agreed. “Though the reports will be going at light speed, so they won’t get there before visual sightings of us can take place from the base.”
“Every couple of minutes helps. Is the base itself sending out any active sensor emissions?” Geary checked the display even as he asked, knowing the answer should be there somewhere.
“No, sir.” Desjani indicated the proper data fields. “Did you expect that?”
“No.” Geary almost bridled at the question, then found a moment’s amusement in it. “Even in my primitive time it was obvious that radar would take twice as long to spot something as a visual sensor would, since the radar pulse has to go and return while the light from the object only has to travel that distance once.” The difference in time was insignificant on a planet’s surface, but when the size of a battlefield was measured in light-hours it mattered a lot.
Desjani gulped visibly. “I didn’t mean any disrespect-”
“I know that. I also know I’m out of date in a lot of ways, so I’d rather you keep on assuming I don’t know something. We’re safer that way, and frankly, Captain, I trust you with knowledge of my fallibility.”
“Yes, sir.” Desjani grinned. “You already know the trust that I and my crew have in you.”
This time, Geary tried not to wince. Trying to change the topic, he nodded toward the display. “I wish this wouldn’t take so long. Too bad we can’t do faster-than-light microjumps inside star systems.”
“Yes. The waiting has always been the hardest part for me,” Desjani confessed. “We can see the enemy, we know where they are, but it’ll still be almost four and a half hours before we get close enough to that base on the fourth world to turn it into craters.”
A new voice answered her. “You could go faster.” Both Desjani and Geary turned to see that Co-President Rione had come onto the bridge of the Dauntless. Rione looked directly at Geary. “Couldn’t you?”
Geary shrugged, trying to ignore the disdainful expression he could see out of the corner of his eye on Desjani’s face. “We could. I don’t want to.”
“Why not?” Rione came forward and sat in an unoccupied seat designated for observers, strapping herself in with carefully precise movements.
“Because among other things, the ships of this fleet are already averaging point one light speed. We’re in normal space and subject to the rules there. That means the faster we go, the worse we’ll run into relativistic effects.” Rione eyed him, plainly awaiting elaboration and leaving Geary wondering yet again how much she really knew and how much she was testing him. “To put it in the simplest possible terms, our perspective of everything outside of this ship gets increasingly distorted the faster we go. At point one light, we can still figure out what we’re looking at with some accuracy. As we get closer to the speed of light, it gets harder to tell where everything really is. I’m having enough trouble now figuring out where the enemy is located and where their ships are going. The last thing I need is to have to wonder where my own ships are, too.”
Rione waved at the display. “I understood these presented images that compensated for relativistic effects when necessary.”
Captain Desjani, her ship’s honor apparently at stake once more, answered. “Madam Co-President, the systems can fairly accurately compensate for relativistic effects on this ship because they know what this ship is doing. For any other ship, the systems can only estimate from what it can observe. We’d get a time-late and distorted picture of the other ship, and the resulting corrections vary in accuracy. The image we get could differ significantly from where the other ship is actually located and from what its actual course and speed vectors are at any moment.”
Any further questions from Rione were forestalled by the communications watch. “Captain Desjani, we’ve received a challenge from Syndic defense forces in-system.”
Desjani looked at Geary, of course. He frowned at the display and the time. “That was quick. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that base on the fourth planet must only now be picking up visual on the first fleet ship coming out of the jump point.”
“Agreed.” Desjani swept her gaze across the bridge. “That signal must’ve come from a Syndic source about fifteen light-minutes out from the jump point. Find it,” she ordered her watch- standers.
It only took a few moments, thanks to the fact that the fleet was spread out so much. Using the bearings from which the Syndic signal had been received by different, widely separated ships, the source was easily localized. Full-spectrum sensors focused on the spot, finally picking out a small object. “It’s tiny,”
