As long as one of their missiles doesn’t get past us and hit the planet, he added silently. That could be devastating.
He wondered, idly, just what was going through his counterpart’s head. The opportunity to smash the remaining destroyers could not be missed, but they were dangerously exposed. A single battlecruiser would be more than enough to take out both cruisers, and the enemy CO had to assume that reinforcements were on the way. William was surprised they’d made no attempt to take out the StarCom. The old interstellar agreements not to destroy StarComs or interfere with navigational systems presumably no longer bothered the Theocrats. They were little more than terrorists now, and they knew it.
“Trojan One is going active . . . now,” Patti reported. A spike of energy appeared on the display, followed by two superdreadnoughts. “They’re shaping an intercept course towards the enemy.”
And let’s hope they believe the superdreadnoughts are real too, William thought. If they decide to exchange fire with drones . . . it might start them wondering what else could be an illusion.
The enemy ships seemed to flinch, just for a second, before altering course to widen the range between the superdreadnoughts and themselves. William had no doubt that the cruisers could outrun the superdreadnoughts, if they wished to do so. Even the most advanced superdreadnought in the galaxy couldn’t match a light cruiser’s acceleration curve. But . . . but what would they do? Would they assume they’d run into a trap? Or had a simple dose of bad luck? Or . . . would they think they might have been tricked?
They couldn’t hope to survive an engagement with real superdreadnoughts, he thought. But they’d realize they were being tricked the moment the superdreadnoughts failed to open fire.
“Captain!” Patti said. “They’re powering up their vortex generators.”
William glanced at the display, then took the plunge. “Pass tactical command to Captain Young,” he ordered. “And prepare to take us into hyperspace.”
“Aye, Captain,” Patti said. On the display, the enemy ships were turning away, moving with a stately elegance that belied their speed. “They’re opening vortexes now.”
“Take us into hyperspace,” William ordered. “Rig the ship for silent running.”
Dandelion shuddered as she opened a vortex and slid into hyperspace. The enemy ships were clearly visible on the display, already heading away from Asher Dales as fast as they could. They didn’t seem to have realized that they were being followed, although William knew they could merely be pretending to ignore him. They might well want to lure Dandelion into a trap.
And hyperspace makes it easy to ambush someone, William reminded himself. Experienced spacers knew better than to take anything for granted in the maelstrom. Or even to make their lives miserable by triggering an energy storm.
“Silent running engaged, sir,” Patti said. “Your orders?”
“Hold us at extreme range, but maintain the sensor lock,” William said. The enemy CO had clearly panicked. He’d had options when the fake superdreadnoughts had shown up, but he’d chosen to break off the engagement and run. There was a chance, a good chance, that he’d fly straight back to his base. “And prepare to follow them out of hyperspace if they try to throw us off.”
“Aye, sir.”
Tanya caught his attention. “How long are we going to be away from home?”
“I don’t know,” William admitted. She didn’t sound pleased, but he’d given her the chance to take a shuttle back home, before the engagement broke out. “We could be away for days or weeks. But if we can shadow them back to their base, we can whistle up a fleet of real superdreadnoughts. And then we can put an end to this once and for all.”
He leaned back in his command chair, knowing it wouldn’t be easy. The enemy might have realized that they were being followed. Even if they hadn’t, they would be fools not to take some basic precautions as they approached their base. William had been taught to be very careful, even when heading to a location everyone knew. The enemy commander would presumably have been taught the same lesson.
And we would have caught them by now if they hadn’t, William thought. The Royal Navy had certainly tried to shadow the enemy ships as they returned to their base. This time, it’s going to have to be different.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
TYRE
As parties went, Peter thought, it was singularly depressing.
He was, as a Duke, expected to host at least one social gathering every two months and attend a number of others. It wasn’t a duty he enjoyed. On one hand, inviting the wrong person could cause all sorts of drama; on the other, failing to attend the right party or attending the wrong party could be seen as an insult. His sister Candy might enjoy selecting the guests, arranging entertainment, and all the other duties that came with being the host, but Peter hated it. He much preferred quiet backroom discussions to pretending to make pleasant, and meaningless, conversations with his guests.
But the parties do have their uses, he told himself. He swept through the chamber, exchanging brief formalities with the guests. They give us a chance to gather everyone together without looking suspicious.
He winced inwardly as he caught the eye of a society dame who was already well on the way to drinking herself silly. The dress she wore was designed to draw the eye to her cleavage without quite revealing everything she had. But then, she had nothing else. Her family had cut her allowance years ago, even before the financial crisis had hit. She made a living by seducing someone, letting him take care of her for a while, then moving on to her next victim. Peter would have felt sorry for her if she hadn’t tried to seduce him in front of his father and wife.
And we probably
