Marphissa stared intently, running the maneuvers through her mind. “It could work.”
“It will work,” Mercia insisted. “We all deal with momentum. It’s a major factor in how we maneuver. But battleships deal with it most of all because of our mass relative to our main propulsion. Hua can’t appreciate that because she lacks the experience. Her automated maneuvering systems will provide a textbook-perfect firing run on my battleship, but because they deal only with what is, and not with all the possible options I might employ, they will not warn her what will happen if I make that change in my vector in the last minutes before contact, and, most importantly, they will not warn her that when she tries in those last moments to shift her own vector and her own battleship’s facing to counter my actions, she will be fighting not just me, but also all of the mass and existing momentum of her own battleship. She won’t be able to succeed.”
“You’re saying there’s no risk?” Marphissa asked skeptically. “That this is a sure thing?”
“Of course there is risk!” Mercia replied. “This is war, not a game or simulation where we can order the umpire to make things come out as we please. Something could go wrong. Midway might take real, significant damage during the first engagement if the Syndicate gets lucky. Happy Hua could do something so stupid it is smart and totally messes up our plan. One of the sub-CEOs or executives on Happy Hua’s ship might spot the risk and warn her, and Happy Hua might listen to them, as unlikely as that is. I might misjudge the exact second to kill my main propulsion and miss my shot at Happy Hua’s battleship, or Worker Gilligan might short out all of my controls just as I need them.”
“I actually had a worker named Gilligan once,” Marphissa said. “He didn’t cause any disasters, but that was probably because everyone watched him constantly, expecting him to do something like that. Honore? What do you think?”
“I think it’s brilliant,” Bradamont said. “What are your cruisers and HuKs going to do while the battleships smash at each other on that first pass?”
Marphissa pondered that for a few seconds. “Happy Hua will concentrate her fire on Midway. All of her ships will be told to target our battleship as well because she knows that is by far the most important target, and she wants to inflict as much damage as possible before Midway runs for safety as she expects her to. Agreed? That should give us shots at taking out some of her cruisers and HuKs while they are firing on Midway.”
“Midway should fire back at the battleship on that first pass, though,” Bradamont said. “Since you’ll be using only the few weapons you intend to employ to further the impression that Midway is still barely operational. Seeing the few shots Midway fires bouncing off her battleship’s shields will enhance CEO Boucher’s feelings of her own invincibility this time around.”
“Yes,” Kapitan Mercia agreed, nodding. “That’s a good idea.”
“How did a sub-CEO with your kind of brains survive under the Syndicate?” Marphissa asked.
Mercia smiled. “There were a few times I nearly didn’t. But the supervisors who were unhappy with me never got around to reporting it.”
“Accidents?” Marphissa asked.
“Yes. It was sad.”
Bradamont eyed the two of them. “I never know when you people are joking.”
Marphissa didn’t reply, not wanting to discuss realities of Syndicate life that Bradamont found either incomprehensible or abhorrent. Instead, she went back to discussing the upcoming engagement. “Happy Hua’s flotilla is twenty-six light-minutes away and coming on fast on a direct intercept. We’re both going about point two light, so that would be an hour’s travel time left before contact. We’ll start braking in fifteen minutes. I want us down to point zero eight light speed when we encounter the Syndicate flotilla.”
“Point zero eight?” Mercia questioned. “You’re assuming that Happy Hua won’t brake?”
“I don’t think she will brake enough,” Marphissa said. “She gained some experience in our last fight. She knows she has to keep her relative velocity from being too fast when we meet or she won’t be able to hit us, and Happy Hua wants to hit us. But she’s also still inexperienced enough to think that going faster is better. So she’ll compromise and do neither well enough. My guess is that in this encounter she will get down a lot closer to point one light, but not all the way.”
“That’s a reasonable guess,” Bradamont said. “CEO Boucher probably also still underestimates how hard it is to make a battleship’s mass do what you want in a hurry. The Alliance usually tries to assign battleship commands to officers with a lot of previous experience on battleships, but occasionally they get someone without that experience who tries to make a battleship dance like a battle cruiser. It’s not pretty.”
Mercia eyed her. “You’re telling us about Alliance policies? How your fleet does things?”
“That’s one of the reasons Admiral Geary assigned me to Midway Star System,” Bradamont said.
“So I was told, but… yes, that’s a valid observation. CEO Boucher probably will underestimate the difficulty of making rapid changes to her battleship’s facing and vector. I saw that in a lot of new commanders.”
“All right,” Marphissa said, sensing the tension that had become apparent between Mercia and Bradamont. “Have we forgotten anything?”
“What will your formation be?” Bradamont asked.
“Standard box— Hell.” Marphissa laughed at herself. “The problem with defaults is that they become habitual. I think… Modified Diamond. Midway at the point.”
“At the point?” Mercia asked, surprised. “That is an unconventional arrangement. Probably not the best, either.”
“I know,” Marphissa said. “That’s why I think it would work. The Syndicate thinks we’re young fools, out of our depth. Why not look a little clumsy? It won’t hurt us. It’s not the best arrangement for protecting Midway, but since we’re only facing one other battleship, it won’t make any difference in terms of how much fire Midway takes.”
“True,” Mercia conceded, her eyes intent.
“Then we will prepare to execute the plan we discussed. I will call the vectors as we approach the Syndicate flotilla, but you, Kapitan Mercia, will independently adjust your final heading as you feel best to give the Syndicate what they think is a shot at your main propulsion. After the first engagement, I want a recommendation from you, Kapitan, on how wide to have Midway turn.”
Mercia nodded. “You will get it.”
“Are you comfortable with Captain Bradamont’s offering advice when she feels appropriate? She is discreet.”
“Then… yes, Kommodor.”
“I may not have much to offer in this engagement,” Bradamont said. “I have a lot less experience with battleship maneuvering than Kapitan Mercia, and that is what will count.”
“But you have already helped us plan the engagement,” Marphissa said. “Is there anything else?”
Mercia cleared her throat. “Kommodor, may I speak with you privately?”
Marphissa glanced at Bradamont, who nodded to her without any sign of discomfort, and left the conference room on the battleship.
Once they were alone, Freya Mercia gave Marphissa a serious look. “I wanted to be certain that something was out in the open. This is not a conversation that would have been held under the Syndicate, and so the matter might have festered and created problems.”