But against the dark ships, this time it had been a seemingly endless succession of attacks, counterattacks, evasions, and lunges. One set of fast maneuvers after another, constantly straining ships and their crews.
Motivated by a sudden concern, Geary called up data on fuel cell status for his warships. “Most of our destroyers are down to thirty-five percent on their fuel cells,” he told Desjani.
“That’s not surprising,” she grumbled. “We’ve been jerking around the entire fleet time and time again.”
But the dark ships had been pushing themselves even harder.
Geary, who had decided at some point just to strive to keep from being beaten badly, felt a sudden glimmer of hope. The dark ships had definitely been programmed for tactics. Specifically his tactics. And Lieutenant Castries had already noted that the dark ships appeared to be using Battle Priority profile on their maneuvering solutions.
Had anyone programmed the dark ships for logistics concerns?
The ships that had hit Indras and then Atalia had used up their entire supply of bombardment projectiles, holding none back for emergencies. That implied a lack of attention to the expendable weapon supply aspect of logistics. Did the dark ships also not pay enough attention to other aspects of logistics?
And was Dr. Nasr right about what would happen if the dark ships hit a firm limit in their programming that they had not previously rationalized their way around?
Could he manage to avoid a decisive encounter for enough more time to find out?
He bent grimly to the task, avoiding each new lunge by the dark ships and attempting new attacks by his own warships, which were always frustrated. Another pass… another… six formations comprising hundreds of warships twisting and spinning through the vastness of space, each seeking the fraction of a second of advantage that it would need to inflict major damage on one of the other formations.
His commanding officers and crews continued to follow Geary’s orders, continued to believe that he would find a way out of this, while he prayed that he and his ships would hold out long enough.
The moment he had dreaded finally came, after nearly twenty hours of continuous combat maneuvering.
Tango Two had been forced to nearly kill its velocity to dodge a firing pass from a dark battleship formation. Now, its warships pointing straight up and main propulsion back on full, Tango Two was trying to regain speed, while Geary tried to bring the other two Alliance formations to its aid.
But the dark battle cruisers had seen the opportunity and were pouring maximum thrust from their propulsion, as was the other dark battleship formation, and Tango Two simply did not have enough velocity to avoid their charges and did not have the time to build up that velocity.
Captain Jane Geary on Dreadnaught called in, her expression that of someone facing the end. “We will make them pay, Admiral. Avenge us.”
“I will.” He had already probably lost Michael Geary, and now Jane would die as well. Because of his decisions, both of the grandchildren of his brother dead. Because they were Gearys and forced to follow in the footsteps of Black Jack.
“The dark battle cruisers are still coming around,” Lieutenant Castries said, sounding puzzled.
“Take another look,” Desjani said.
“Captain, they have passed the point at which they should have held to their vector to hit Tango Two.”
Geary and Desjani both sat up straighter, eyes going to the places on their displays where the dark battle cruisers were represented.
“What are they doing?” Desjani asked in disbelief.
“They’re still coming about, Captain,” Lieutenant Castries said, sounding as baffled as her commanding officer. “So are the dark battleships. They’ve also passed the vector for intercepting Tango Two.”
“So is the third dark ship formation,” Geary said. “Look.”
“Where are they going?” Desjani demanded. “Tell me where they’re going!”
Her lieutenants exchanged helpless glances.
“They’re finally steadying out,” Geary said. “Where is that—? Where does that vector lead?”
“Away from our formations,” Desjani said. “Why would they spend twenty straight hours trying to tear us apart and suddenly head off like that? Could Admiral Bloch have suddenly regained some control of them? Did some software routine activate that caused them to stop fighting us?”
“I think it’s software,” Geary said. “Something the dark ships did not see coming.”
“Captain,” Castries said, “the three dark ship formations are all steadying onto vectors for the jump point for Montan.”
“Montan?” Desjani stared at her display as if an explanation for the inexplicable could be found there. “What could they want at Montan?”
“It’s the nearest jump point from where we are now in this star system,” Castries pointed out. “Aside from that, the only major feature at Montan is a hypernet gate, Captain. Montan is one of the fallback star systems if Varandal had fallen to the Syndics, so it had a gate installed to allow rapid shifting of defensive forces.”
“A hypernet gate?” Desjani turned a baffled gaze on Geary. “They’re trying to get back to their base? Are they running away from us?”
“It looks like it,” he said, fighting off an immense weariness and afraid to believe that his hope had really manifested.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, Admiral, that’s pretty damned miraculous for someone who claims not to have any ins with the living stars.”
“There’s no miracle involved,” Geary said. “The dark ships are programmed for tactics, not logistics. You’ve all seen how hard they’ve pushed their maneuvers, which has also burned their fuel cells at a very high rate. Look at our own fuel cell status. Look at our destroyers.”
Desjani checked the data. “Our destroyers are low. Fifteen percent on average. That’s not surprising after all the dancing we did at maximum thrust over the last twenty hours. You think the dark ships broke off because of low fuel cell reserves?”
“I know they did,” he said, unable to keep the triumph and elation out of his voice as the dark ships continued to head for the jump point for Montan. “Some of their ships, maybe all of their destroyers, must have gone as low as ten percent fuel cell reserves. What do fleet regulations say about that?”
Lieutenant Yuon, who had probably been studying just those regulations for his fleet promotion standards, answered quickly. “Any formation containing warships reaching ten percent fuel cell reserves must disengage and refuel immediately.”
“No exceptions, right?” Geary said.
“No exceptions, sir,” Yuon agreed.
“Why would they pay attention to that?” Desjani demanded. “The dark ships shot up all of the shipping in this star system, they attacked Ambaru, they attacked Atalia, they attacked us. Why would they obey what fleet regulations say about fuel cell levels?”
“Dr. Nasr said the dark ships must have two ways of thinking. A set of firm instructions on what to do and what not to do, and a flexible set of programs intended to mimic human thought processes. Those flexible programs might well have allowed the dark ships to rationalize their way past limits they have encountered in the past. But Dr. Nasr said that if the dark ships ran into a new, firm prohibition, they would have a problem with it since they hadn’t yet rationalized their way past it. They would have to obey that rigid instruction until they worked around it.”
“Ancestors save us,” Desjani said. “I guess maybe our ancestors did save us.”
“They told me,” Geary blurted out, too tired and excited to hide it. “With a candle flame. Dodge and keep dodging. Don’t get caught.”
“I keep telling you to listen to them,” Desjani said. “So you saw that the dark ships were burning their fuel cells a lot faster than we were and just hoped they would run low enough before we did, and hoped that Dr. Nasr was right?”