“Which means they’ll be going too fast when we reach them, since we’re heading straight for an intercept with the dark battle cruisers,” Desjani agreed. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” she called in a louder voice to the watch-standers. “What is the first rule of combat maneuvering?”
“Never take your ship to the limit of her capabilities unless you absolutely have to,” Lieutenants Yuon and Castries chorused in reply.
“Because?”
“Once you take your ship to her limits,” the lieutenants said, “the ship has nothing else to give if you need it.”
“Exactly.” Desjani indicated her display with a dismissive gesture. “Those dark battle cruisers based their approach on the maximum deceleration they could endure, which means they can’t slow down any faster now that we are closing on them.” She lowered her voice to speak only to Geary. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to hit them as they pass us.”
“No.” He was sizing up the situation. The dark battleships were behind his formations, but accelerating at a better rate than his own battleships could achieve, especially with Fearless limping along. The repeated attempts at firing passes had kept Geary’s units fairly close to the dark ships as distances in space went, so the dark battleships were not that far away and closing on the Alliance warships. Even if Fearless got one of her off-line main propulsion units working, Geary wouldn’t be able to avoid them for long.
The dark battle cruisers would slide helplessly past the Alliance formation at a combined closing speed of point two five light, too fast to hope for any significant number of hits. But as Desjani had noted, Geary’s ships wouldn’t be able to hit the dark battle cruisers, either. After that, both the dark battleships and the dark battle cruisers would be right behind Geary’s own formations.
“If we try to reduce speed to engage the dark battle cruisers, they’ll just evade us, and the lower velocity will allow the dark battleships to catch us faster,” Geary said between teeth clenched with frustration.
Desjani shook her head, looking pained. “Admiral, I’ve got nothing.”
“We’ve got one chance,” he said, speaking slowly to allow his thoughts to form. “Now we’re going slower than they are. We can turn inside them, or at least match them since they can maneuver tighter than us under equal conditions.”
“They’ve got enough superiority now to hammer us in any encounter,” Desjani said.
“If they get within firing range.”
Her anguish changed to surprise. “Now we’re going to avoid closing with them?”
“Yes. It’s not a tactic I’ve used before, so it will take them by surprise,” Geary said. It would surprise the dark ships the first time, and maybe the second time as well. But after that…
The dark battle cruisers whipped past the Alliance formations at a distance of five light-seconds, far too distant to engage even if the relative velocity hadn’t been so high. On Geary’s display, the projected track of the dark battle cruisers showed them braking steadily and hard until past their own battleships. He did not expect them to maneuver in that way, though.
“Dark battle cruiser formation is turning,” Lieutenant Yuon said.
The dark battle cruisers and their accompanying heavy cruisers and destroyers were bending their path through space, their main propulsion still blasting at full power, heading down. The projected path of the dark battle cruisers on Geary’s display bent and bent some more, shifting into a wide, wide turn that would bring the enemy ships back toward Geary’s formation.
He knew that everyone was waiting, nervously, to know what he would do, so Geary touched his comm controls. “First Fleet, the enemy believes that our options have been eliminated and we cannot avoid meeting them at their advantage. My intention is to frustrate their plans and force them into a variety of maneuvers until we can once again hit them at our advantage. I need the best from everyone. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”
The tension on the bridge of Dauntless relaxed considerably. He imagined the same thing was happening on every Alliance ship. The men and women of this fleet trusted him, had confidence in him, had seen him beat the odds time and again. They did not doubt he could do it once more.
He had such doubts growing inside him, but he could not admit to them, could not give in to them, could not allow them to distract him from his efforts to somehow turn this fight around.
Another call, this time to only one ship. “Captain Ulrickson, what is the status of your repair efforts?”
Captain Ulrickson looked as if he had aged a few years since their last conversation. “Fearless will be ready to maneuver with the rest of the fleet,” he said.
“Good,” Geary replied. There wasn’t any sense in warning Ulrickson what would happen if Fearless wasn’t ready and could not keep up with the other warships. Ulrickson already knew the consequences. Neither he nor his crew needed any additional motivation.
Incredible had managed to get her propulsion damage fixed, but Geary’s other damaged warships were still trying to get necessary repairs accomplished in time to make a difference.
The dark ships were closing in, the battleships directly behind and the battle cruisers looping toward Geary’s formations from below.
“I have to maneuver in five minutes,” Geary murmured to Desjani.
“Fearless knows what has to happen,” she whispered back. “We’ve all been through this many times. Those of us who survived it, that is.”
“That doesn’t make it any easier.”
“It’s not supposed to be easy,” she said. “Be glad you’re not on Fearless.”
“Hold on.” He had three formations. The dark ships considered Dauntless to be their priority target. They wouldn’t be fooled easily again into disregarding other threats, but they had shown a pattern of concentrating against their chosen targets. “There’s something I can try.”
His hands raced across his display, setting up options and trying them out. “I need to make it look to the dark ships like I screwed up and left them an opening.”
Geary issued commands. Tango Three, the Alliance formation containing Fearless, pivoted their bows so they pointed beneath the oncoming enemy and began braking their velocity at a moderate rate. Fearless was able to keep up as Tango Three slid beneath the track of the dark battleships.
The other Alliance battleship formation, Tango Two, pointed their bows above the approaching dark battleships and began both braking slightly and rising above the projected path of the enemy.
At the same time, Tango One, the formation containing Dauntless and the other Alliance battle cruisers, began looping upward in a long turn that would bring them down behind the current track of the dark battleships.
“Admiral—!” Lieutenant Castries began in horrified tones.
Desjani stopped her with a single gesture. “I believe Admiral Geary knows exactly what you’re worried about.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I did it on purpose.”
The situation that had moved a lieutenant to want to tell an admiral he had messed up was not too hard to spot. The movements of Tango Two formation, sliding above its previous track, and Tango One, climbing faster above and beyond Tango Two, were aligning both formations along a single arc.
“I want the dark ships to see my ‘mistake,’” Geary explained to Castries. “It’s going to look like a perfect chance for their battleships to swing upward along an arc that will first let them hit our battleships in Tango Two, then continue on to hit our battle cruisers in Tango One.”