Nelly had added that bit of realistic artistry.
The other three corvettes of PatRon 10 drifted in a very loose formation around the Wasp, following the general orbit of the jump point. Their defenses also were deployed to make them look like rocks when observed from the nearby jump point.
In the back of Kris’s head a children’s song kept repeating itself annoyingly. “I’m just a little rock asteroid, pay no attention to me.” The words of the ditty were wrong; she didn’t remember how the melody went. But somehow it all fit the situation she found herself in.
While PatRon 10 drifted a scant twelve thousand klicks from the jump point, the eight battleships marched and countermarched in a line some eighty thousand klicks away from where they expected the alien ships to appear. That was close to maximum effective range for the 18- and 16-inch lasers of the battleships. Hopefully, whatever battle lasers the aliens had wouldn’t be all that better at that range.
With any luck, they’d be a lot worse.
In a short while, they’d know.
The Hermes was stationed at the jump point. It was just deploying the periscope. Kris adjusted her Weapons station to get that feed when it produced the first glimpse of what was taking place in the next system.
Kris’s gasp was joined by many others.
The view was of the rear end of the mother ship, so huge it had to be seen to be believed. A hundred (Nelly counted them) monstrous rocket engines blasted away, decelerating the alien ship as it finished its breaking maneuver and came to rest at the jump point. The sight of the roiling engines filled the view, leaving hardly a rim of black space around it.
The picture winked out as the visual periscope was withdrawn and an electromagnetic sensor took its place.
“Do we have an analysis of those engines?” Kris asked.
“Bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” the chief said. “I’d give my right arm to run a spectrum analysis of what’s coming out of those engines.”
“What’s on your mind, Chief?”
“It might tell us where they got their reaction mass. Also, it might tell us how good they are at recycling. If they’re dumping all their trash and sewage in their reaction mass, then they’re going to need to plunder a planet more often than if they’re green.”
“I don’t think they really care,” Captain Drago said. “Talk to me about what you do know, Chief.”
“There’s an extra huge reactor behind each of those hundred rocket engines, feeding plasma directly into them. There are another several hundred or so reactors, just as huge, distributed along the length and breadth of that monster. What is it, four thousand kilometers long?”
“Something like that,” Kris said.
“Along the surface of that thing there are thousands and thousands of reactors. Maybe tens of thousands of reactors. Smaller, but big. Battleship-size reactors in the tens of thousands.”
“That’s the fleet of big ships Commander Taussig warned us about.”
“Is it too late for us to run away,” the chief almost whimpered.
“Yes, Chief, it’s too late. We either talk or fight. No running,” Kris said. But the feelings in her gut were no different from those the chief must be feeling.
What have I gotten us into?
The time for second thoughts was past. “Battle line. Turn toward the jump. Accelerate toward it, then, on my order flip ship,” she commanded.
The battleships had been ignoring normal orbital ballistics and instead had marched and countermarched eighty thousand klicks from the jump. Sometimes Admiral Krätz was in the lead, then they reversed course, and Admiral Kōta had the honors. Since no one complained, Kris guessed it was working.
As luck would have it, Krätz was currently in the lead. At his order, the battleships did a right turn, in column, and accelerated toward the jump.
Kris watched her board as all the information coming in from the Hermes’s probe reported on the mother ship. It seemed to be just about dead in space, several hundred klicks from the jump. Ponderously, it began to twist in space to bring its bow head on to the jump. The view that they got of its length and width was enough to make a brave man cry.
“I’ve got several of the smaller reactors jacking up power,” Chief Beni announced.
“That would be the scout ships,” Kris said. “So, she is going to send a few scouts through before she comes herself. Chief, I would dearly like to know how many of those huge scout ships we’re going to face.
“Admiral Krätz, would you please flip your battleships and begin decelerating at one-half gee toward the jump,” Kris gently ordered.
“It is done,” the Greenfeld admiral answered.
“Hermes, you may depart the jump.”
“Moving, Commodore,” Lieutenant Song answered.
The tiny courier ship jetted away from the jump, then cut all power and flipped ship, pointing her small silhouette back at the jump point. Then she did something that no courier ships had ever done before. She deployed a tiny Smart MetalTM shield and did her best imitation of a rock.
It wasn’t very thick, but it did cover all her nose . . . and gave her the look of just another asteroid, only this one was clearly headed harmlessly away from the jump.
To give the Hermes even that small a shield, they’d scrounged all the scraps of Smart MetalTM in the fleet. They’d pinched a kilogram off each of the corvettes’ shields. But a large chunk of that shield came from Kris’s new shoes.
Abby had groaned as she plopped the new pair of sparkling high heels down on the wardroom table two mornings back. “You paid a pretty penny for those shoes, Your Highness.”
“And that’s important just now why?” Kris asked.
“You’re all the time complaining about how your ball shoes hurt and why can’t someone come up with a stylish shoe that isn’t torture.”
“I think every woman who’s lived for the last five hundred years has made that complaint,” Penny said.
“Well, these shoes are Smart MetalTM,” Abby crowed. “If you’re dancing or showing off, they’re stylish. You sitting down, or maybe running for your life, and they’re sensible pumps. Just tell Nelly, and it’s done.”
“Why didn’t you get me a pair of these earlier?” Kris yelped.
“These very shoes are the first sale ever made by the new company, woman. I get them just for you, and what do I get, you giving me lip and demanding to know why I didn’t get them for you yesterday.”
“I don’t think we’ll be going to many dances in the next week,” Penny pointed out.
“But the Hermes does need a shield to hide behind,” Kris agreed. “Turn them in. We need to hide the Hermes a whole lot more than my feet need to be comfortable at the next dance.”
“Assuming they throw a victory ball for us,” Abby said dryly.
So the Hermes now drifted away from the jump. She hid behind her shield’s camouflage and closed down every electronic device on board, making like a hole in space just like the other ships of PatRon 10.
For what seemed like forever, nothing happened. The battleships closed to sixty thousand klicks from the jump and continued breaking. Kris didn’t want them much closer.
But she very much wanted them to look like they were breaking toward the jump when they encountered the hostile aliens.
Kris wanted a lot of things. It didn’t look like the gods of war were going to give her any of them.