“They don’t mind burning fuel cells like nobody’s business, do they?” Lieutenant Castries commented, then cast a hurried look at Captain Desjani as she realized she had spoken aloud. “I’m sorry, Captain.”
“It’s true,” Desjani replied. “Why do you think the dark ships are maneuvering in that fashion, Lieutenant?”
Castries hesitated as she thought through possible explanations. “There are a variety of profiles that our automated maneuvering systems are designed to adopt based on the situation,” she finally said. “Battle Priority profile places emphasis on completing maneuvers quickly and deemphasizes fuel cell usage levels because it focuses on achieving a quick, decisive victory. It appears that the dark ships are using Battle Priority as a default, perhaps because they see their ability to accelerate and maneuver better than our ships as a decisive advantage.”
“Not bad, Lieutenant,” Desjani said. “You are very likely correct. Where we modify our instructions to the maneuvering systems and sometimes override the automated preferences, the dark ships are forced to use purely automated controls that they may not question.” She looked back at Geary. “What are we going to do? Try to lure them into a lunge for Dauntless as we swing by again? It will be hard to set that up so we can get a decent number of hits, but we can try once more.”
“It’s too hard,” Geary said. “Time and numbers are not on our side. We can’t risk inconclusive firing passes, but if we cut a pass too close and get chewed up, we could lose this fight very quickly.”
“Maybe—”
“Hold on.”
Desjani ceased speaking instantly, turning a warning glare on the bridge watch-standers to ensure they also remained silent. Geary rarely cut her off, especially so abruptly. When he did, she knew it meant he was chasing an idea, something that was hanging on the edge of his consciousness but staying just out of sight.
The candle had offered a clue. Dodge aside from the enemy attacks. But battleships could not dodge battle cruisers. In order to set up conditions that would give him a chance to avoid getting hit too hard, Geary knew he would have to first inflict a major blow on the dark ships. But he couldn’t dodge and hit the dark ships hard. If only he could tear straight through the dark ship formation. But they would target Dauntless, they would aim every weapon at this battle cruiser, and—
Of course. They’ll aim at Dauntless. They’ll throw everything they’ve got at her. “I’m going to give them what they want,” Geary said. “A lot of clean shots at Dauntless.”
Desjani twisted her head rapidly to stare at him. “I’m waiting to hear the rest of the plan, Admiral.”
He pointed. “We go through here. The center of the dark ship formation. Not a glancing blow. We aim to go through them.”
Desjani nodded. “Then what, Admiral? Because the dark ships won’t plan any maneuvers if we come in aimed at that spot. They’ll know even if we make a last-second alteration of vector, we won’t be able to get clear of their weapons’ engagement envelopes.”
“Exactly. I want them targeted on Dauntless, and I want them waiting to get their shots. We’re going to refine what I told the heavy cruisers to do at Varandal.”
“Messing with the dark ships’ targeting priorities?”
“Exactly.” He indicated the other two formations of his fleet. “We’ll maneuver so that our battleship formations will be coming in at the same point in the dark ship formation, at the same time.”
“So our battleships can target the dark ships while they target Dauntless?” Desjani nodded again, her expression revealing no emotion. “It’s a smart plan. Which other ship will you be transferring to before that?”
“I’m staying aboard Dauntless.”
“No, you are not, Admiral! Because Dauntless will not survive that firing pass! There is no possible way, and you must survive. I recommend moving to Leviathan because Captain Tulev—”
“Tanya.” Geary pointed to his formations again. “The dark ships will target Dauntless. As long as Dauntless remains a priority target, they will not shift targets, and they will hold fire waiting to hit her. How long does it take our fire-control systems to reprioritize targets? About a second?”
“About that,” Desjani said. “Maybe a little longer. It depends on the complexity of the firing solutions and the relative velocity of the engagement.”
“My idea is to bring in our three formations so they intercept the dark ships as close to simultaneously as possible, but with the formation containing Dauntless a fraction of a second in the lead, and at the last possible moment accelerating our battleships so they switch lead with the battle cruisers, coming in a fraction of a second before Dauntless.”
She stared at him. “So the dark ships are holding their fire, waiting to hit Dauntless, while our battleships hit them a fraction of a second earlier?”
“Yes,” Geary said. “The dark ships don’t get their shots off because we hit them just before they fire.”
“Can you handle a maneuver like that?”
“No. But our maneuvering systems can, right? This is close to a straight-on intercept, without much deflection to worry about, and our three subformations are close together and moving along nearly the same vectors. Our automated maneuvering systems can make it work.” He paused. “I think it should work with the fire-control systems of the dark ships, which are identical to ours in every way that matters.”
“Why don’t we check on that?” Desjani gestured to Lieutenant Yuon. “Have Senior Chief Tarrani get in touch with me immediately.”
It took less than thirty seconds for Senior Chief Tarrani’s image to appear before Desjani. “Yes, Captain?”
“I’ve got a question about our fire-control systems, Senior Chief,” Desjani said. She explained Geary’s plan. “Can that work?”
Tarrani’s expression had shifted from puzzled to startled to admiring to considering. She took a few moments to answer. “Based on the way our fire-control systems work, Captain, the answer is yes. Keep the time differential down to less than a second, and the fire-control systems will not shift targets. They won’t change targeting priority based on that small an interval because recalculating time to fire and sending commands throughout the ship to shift weapon firing times takes just over one second. If we can cut the approaches of our three formations that fine, it will work. The dark ship fire-control systems will not reprioritize based on that small an interval.”
“You realize that you’re betting not just your butt but your life on that answer?” Desjani asked.
“Yes, Captain, I realize that. If you can make the maneuvering systems pull it off, then it will work. If it doesn’t work, it won’t be because I didn’t give you a good call on what the fire-control systems will do. It’ll be because the maneuvering systems screwed up their solutions.”
“I’ll see what Chief Busek says,” Desjani began.
“Uh, Captain, Chief Busek is pretty good, but she came up pretty fast because of the losses on her previous ships and those we took in engineering in the last year. Her experience is a bit limited,” Senior Chief Tarrani explained. “Yes, I’d ask her, but I’d also ask the person aboard the ship who has the most experience with maneuvering systems.”
“And that would be?” Desjani asked in the manner of someone who already suspected the answer.
“Master Chief Gioninni, Captain.”
“Naturally. Inform Master Chief Gioninni and Chief Busek that I need to hear from them immediately.”