The Rev had no more power to spare, but another set of torps flared outward, circling toward the Elsin. Once more, the shields handled the flood of energy, and although the Rev had momentarily gained some, it was less than a fraction of an emkay.
In another two minutes, more torps flared toward the Elsin, and they too were shrugged aside.
Van wondered why Desoll didn’t use his own torps, but he had the feeling that the older commander knew very well what he was doing. Van just wished he understood what.
Another set of torps, followed immediately by two more, flashed toward the Elsin. This time, on the second set of detonations, the shields’ integrity indicators dipped slightly, but only slightly. Then the overtones of the Rev frigate’s drives became even more ragged, and the Elsin began to close more rapidly.
Van watched as Desoll began to flex the photon nets, much the way Van had in dealing with the unknown cruiser off Scandya.
Suddenly, Desoll contracted the nets and cut them momentarily, effectively launching the accumulated mass still in the nets and not fed to the fusactors straight at the faltering Rev.
Torp one away.
Van watched through the shipnet monitors, understanding exactly what was coming, knowing it would happen even as Desoll turned the Elsin away from the Rev frigate.
First, the compacted and charged gas and interstellar dust slammed into the Rev’s shields, with enough force that the shields went amber, almost red. Then the single torp struck.
Full shields, desensitizing.
The outer monitors all went blank, cut off by the damped shields.
After two minutes, Desoll released the shields.
Van blotted his steaming forehead with the back of his arm. He studied the EDI and the monitors. Outside of a slight rise in the ambient temperature, one that was almost undetectable, and certainly would be so in hours, if not minutes, there was no sign of the Revenant frigate.
Desoll blotted his own damp face. Do you understand?
Van did. We’re torp-limited, with the territory we cover. Each torp has to count. I’ve used something like the net trick myself. Not quite that way. He still wondered if the Rev’s destruction had been necessary, with the frigate’s screens and drives going.
“You’re wondering, aren’t you?” Desoll asked out loud. “Or you should be. Why I just didn’t avoid them?”
“I was,” Van admitted.
“What happens if they report that there’s a ship like the Elsin? Within weeks, they’ll start plotting where we’re headed. We might stand off a cruiser, and we’ve got the speed to escape a full battle cruiser or a dreadnought…but then what? Also, there’s the ethical problem. They destroyed one essentially unarmed courier that we know of, and possibly a number of other ships, to try to isolate Behai. And they would have kept doing it. A frigate carries about thirty torps. How many did they have left?”
“I counted ten.” Even Van didn’t like those implications.
“This way, the frigate vanishes. No one knows for sure what happened. The EDI records, if they even keep them at Behai orbit control, will show three different drive signatures in that area of the out-system, and they’re not that precise from their baseline.”
“So Rev intelligence, if there is any, will think that Keshmara sent a cruiser?”
“That’s the general idea. Either that, or they won’t know what actually happened, which would be even better.”
“Don’t they suspect…or won’t they?”
“Just how is an unarmed commercial ship going to take on and destroy a full Revenant frigate?” asked Desoll.
Van nodded slowly.
“Now, we can deliver the goods to Behai…”
“With all that accel, they’re all right?”
“They were packed to handle twenty gees. Minister Sahid knew there was a possibility of evasive maneuvers.”
Evasive maneuvers? Van choked back laughter, inappropriate as it was. Then he checked the systemwide EDI. There was no sign of any other warships, and only a few in-system vessels, clearly involving in belt mining or resource transportation. Behai was definitely a developing colony world.
“And this pays for IIS?” Van asked.
“It also helps keep the peace for the smaller systems, and we do it in several ways. This was just one way.”
“How does destroying a Rev corvette keep the peace? Couldn’t it just make things worse?”
“The destruction is only part of the effort. First, we don’t tell anyone. That means that the Revs can’t say much, because the corvette wasn’t supposed to be there. They have a reputation for that sort of thing, have had for centuries. Second, it creates uncertainty, because they don’t know how they lost the ship. Not for sure. Third, it helps the weaker systems remain independent, and the more diversity there is in the Arm, eventually, the better that is. Fourth, over time, it weakens the warlike systems. They have to account, one way or another, for ships and training costs and crews.”
“Wait…why is diversity important? Every time I’ve seen diversity conflicts in a culture, it leads to unrest and warfare.”
Desoll smiled. “You’re making an assumption that diverse systems and diversity within a culture are the same. Even so, do you think it’s a good idea that everyone be culturally pressed into the same mold?”
After his worries about Sulyn, Van had an answer, but he didn’t feel like voicing it. “But…how does IIS stay in business? Who pays for the torps and weapons. You can’t very well invoice Keshmara for those.”
“We just submit an invoice for transport costs—even so, our services are cost-effective. We also get a large portion of our revenues from retainers. No one retainer is that large, but spread over a hundred systems and more than a hundred years, they do add up, enough to support the small planetary offices and the two main offices. There’s the one in Cambria and a smaller one in Santonio. They come up with the business and information strategies. What we do is simple in theory. In practice, it gets harder. On any given world with an indigenous or local culture, we seek out organizations and businesses rooted in that culture, but especially those that are competing against—and losing to—larger
