He gestured to the holo display, which showed the first squadron of destroyers entering the minefield. “Against that, the sacrifice of a few ships is nothing. Nothing! If I have to spend every ship in this fleet to destroy the Atlas, it will be worth it. We can build more ships, but if we kill the Atlas, we kill all of Victoria, now and forever!” He leaned close to her. “Do-you-understand?” he shouted into her face.
In his stateroom on the Dominion battleship Fortitude, Admiral Kaeser stared in horror. He had followed the battle through his hologram repeater, which his XO had either forgotten or been too polite to turn off. On the screen the destroyers slowly deepened the breach into the Vicky minefield, but at a terrible price. The rift was more than halfway through the minefield, but of the twenty destroyers that had gone in, only twelve remained. As he watched, another two flickered and disappeared, leaving only a red cross on the holo display to mark their destruction. A long, thick line of red crosses trailed behind, marking all of the other Dominion ships that had died trying to break through the minefield.
Sickened and furious, Admiral Kaeser strode rapidly to his stateroom door and punched the button to open the door.
Nothing happened.
He pounded the door with his fist. “Guard! Guard! Open this door!”
The door hissed open and a scared looking soldier stood there, hand on the butt of his pistol.
“Tell Captain Bauer I must speak to him immediately,” Kaeser ordered.
“But I have orders to-” the guard stammered.
“Do it!” Kaeser barked, but then, more softly, “Hurry, before we all run out of time. Hurry now, for everything you love and cherish, hurry.”
Chapter 67
Atlas Space Station
The alarm horns hooted incessantly, making it difficult to think. All throughout Atlas blast doors were dropping into place and sealing airtight. Hiram Brill stared at the holo display, trying hard to overcome his shock and the blaring alarms.
“Will somebody turn that damn thing off?” he shouted. Nobody heard him. He shook his head in frustration, then picked up a pen and threw it at his assistant, Nina, catching her in the head. She turned and glared at him. He pointed to the alarm horn and made a slashing motion across his throat. She nodded and bent over her computer and a moment later the horns made a last, low moaning sound and blessedly went silent. Hiram returned his attention to the holo display and the information coming in from the sensors spread throughout the minefield.
At first they thought the attack from the rear was simply another probing attack. The Ducks had probed continuously, looking for a flaw in the minefield pattern that might let them slip through. But then the sensors had revealed the number of Duck ships involved and Hiram realized that they had been caught flat footed. The Dominion force blocking the worm hole entrance to Refuge was a feint; the real attack was coming from behind as the Dominions used brute force to bull their way through the minefield. He shook his head. For the Ducks, it was a huge gamble, but it looked like it was working.
The utter ruthlessness of the attack shocked him. The ten Duck mine sweepers had carved a deep channel into the mine field before being destroyed. As he watched, the enemy frigates were cutting into it even deeper, but taking a terrific beating. A cold hand seemed to grab his heart. The Duck admiral, he realized, had just ordered forty ships to their deaths in order to break through to the Atlas, and the sensors revealed that several squadrons of enemy destroyers were lining up to take their turn.
“Nina, send a courier drone out to Admiral Douthat and tell her we are being attacked in force by the Ducks. Estimate at least eighty ships in the attack, maybe more. They are about a quarter way through the minefield. Then call Peter Murphy of the tugboat guild and tell him to haul mines from the front of the Atlas to the rear. Tell him not to thin out any one spot too much, but we need more fire power in our rear.”
He watched for a while longer, counting ships, noting the deepening breach into the minefield. On the holo display, the first squadron of Dominion destroyers moved forward into the breach. “Gandalf?” he called.
“ Commander Brill?”
“Analyze rate of penetration of the minefield by Dominion forces and assume that they will use all available ships to complete the penetration. Estimate how long before they achieve a total breach.”
“Dominion forces could complete penetration sometime between ninety five minutes and three hours and twenty minutes,” Gandalf replied in its usual soothing voice.
Hiram nodded to himself, all the while wanting to scream and run and hide. Admiral Douthat was hours away. The entire Queen’s Own and Black Watch were with her. The Queen was still on Atlas, more vulnerable every minute. The only option he had left was to somehow beef up the minefield and throw in the Coldstream Guards, who were outnumbered ten to one.
He walked back to his chair and sat down heavily, then made the call he did not want to make.
• • • • •
The Coldstream Guard waited nervously. They knew something was going on behind them in the rear of the minefield, but they didn’t know what. When Hiram Brill’s call came into the Bristol, Captain Rowe almost groaned. He knew where this was going. As Brill began to explain, Rowe decided it would be easier if all of the ships’ captains heard the message, so he conferenced them in.
“…just starting to send in their destroyers to increase the penetration of the minefield,” Brill was saying as Emily’s com screen filled with faces of the other captains. “At their current rate, unless we slow them down, they’ll breach the minefield in less than three hours, well before Admiral Douthat can get back here with reinforcements.”
Hiram looked older, Emily thought. Or tired. There were strain lines in his face and he looked gaunt.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Captain Rowe. Not that he didn’t already know.
“The Coldstream Guard has to deploy into the minefield and slow them down. Buy time. We are filling in the minefield as quickly as we can, but all that will do is buy us a few minutes, maybe an hour. You need to harass them, distract them, do whatever you can until Admiral Douthat gets back.”
“And once we do that, what’s our secondary mission?” asked Captain Fuller of the frigate Everest. Everyone chuckled. Emily liked Captain Fuller; she had what her mother used to refer to as ‘spunk.’ Of course, Everest was the only Coldstream Guard frigate left, all of the others had been destroyed.
“Atlas,” Rowe said. “I’ve got four cruisers, two of which are in bad shape. Seven destroyers, all with extensive damage, one of which should have been declared a yard job. I’ve got two cruisers from Third Fleet, both with understaffed crews and another destroyer, also hurting.”
“And you have the pride of the Coldstream Guard, the H.M.S. Everest,” Fuller reminded him.
“And the Everest,” Rowe acknowledged with a tired smile.
Hiram stared at him. “Captain,” he said bluntly, “You are all I’ve got.” He hesitated, then added, “Queen Anne says she will remain on the Atlas and that she has the greatest confidence in you.”
And there it was. They were the last line of protection for the Queen.
“Well, tell the Queen that we’d have a lot more confidence in her judgement if she’d put her ass on a fast ship and get the hell to Refuge,” Fuller said, her usual bravado missing. Emily waited for Rowe to chastise her, but he said nothing. Fuller had simply said what they were all thinking.