Marphissa quickly ran some data through her display, using one hand to draw vectors through the images of planets and ships. “If the enigmas have come in at the same place you saw that one ship…” She shook her head. “The Syndicate battle cruisers can outrun them and jump back to Palau. The others won’t make it.”
“Are we close enough to intervene?” Iceni asked. She paused for a moment to let her words sink in before adding more. “They may be Syndicate, but they’re people like us, or like we used to be.”
Kontos nodded, smiling. “If we can hit the enigmas while they are engaging the Syndicate flotilla, we might be able to inflict enough damage to ensure victory.”
“See if we can do it,” Marphissa said.
“Kommodor?” The senior watch specialist gestured toward her display. “The Syndicate flotilla changed vector again.”
Everyone focused on their displays, waiting to see what the Syndicate flotilla had done hours before. “They’re coming back around,” Mercia said, puzzled.
“Back onto their original vectors,” Kontos confirmed. “They are heading for the planet again.”
Marphissa felt a heaviness inside. “The CEO commanding that flotilla did the math. They know the troop transports can’t get away, so they’re going to land the ground forces on the planet to give them a chance.”
“And the battle cruisers will stay with their comrades and fight the enigmas together.” Kontos was smiling again, his enthusiasm and admiration for the Syndicate flotilla’s actions obvious. “Kommodor, we must help them.”
“They are still the enemy,” Marphissa reminded him. “As much as a quarter of the men and women aboard those units may be snakes. Remember what Syndicate mobile forces did to Kane.”
“I have not forgotten,” Kontos said, the smile and admiration disappearing from his face. “But, still, in this they are doing the right thing.”
“They are,” Marphissa conceded. “I would like to know why the snakes are permitting it. Work up a vector toward that planet. We don’t know yet where the Syndicate ships will go once they have dropped off the ground forces, so we will head for that world so we can also drop off our ground forces before proceeding into battle with the enigmas.” She would have to call Colonel Rogero and tell him that, and did not for a moment imagine that he would be thrilled by the news.
“Here is your vector, Kommodor,” Kontos said a few seconds later. “Assuming you wish to limit our velocity to point two light speed?”
She felt an urge to check with Iceni, but decided this was as good a time as any to see if the president had meant it when she granted Marphissa full control over the mobile forces. “Yes. I don’t want to go any faster until I know more about what the enigmas are doing. We should see them within a couple more hours and at least be able to tell if they were also heading straight for that planet as of several hours ago.”
Marphissa forced herself to study Kontos’s proposed vector, taking her time to look it over. The urge to act quickly, to maneuver now, was a human one, but very mistaken in space. Just because you could see the enemy did not mean that the enemy was a threat. In fact, the enemy might be days away from being able to engage your forces. But still the instincts passed down to Marphissa from primitive humans hunting on the plains and forests and tundra of Old Earth insisted that she must act immediately against an enemy that could be seen.
“Good,” she finally said. “All units in Midway Offensive Flotilla, immediate execute, come starboard five seven degrees, down zero six degrees, accelerate to point two light speed.”
Pele swung around under the push of her thrusters, nimble and fast, then waited as the other warships matched the movement. The HuKs and the light cruisers moved almost as quickly as the battle cruiser, the heavy cruisers were noticeably slower, the troop transports were about as agile as the heavy cruisers, and the battleship Midway’s thrusters brought the vast mass of that warship around with ponderous deliberation.
With everyone lined up in the right direction and main propulsion lit off on every warship, Pele and the other warships keeping their acceleration slow enough to match that of Midway, the flotilla dove into Iwa Star System, heading for the orbit of the planet where humans and enigmas would soon clash again to determine the fate of everyone in this region of space.
Chapter Thirteen
“Madam President, what can I say to the Syndicate forces?” Marphissa asked.
Iceni was sitting back, her lower face covered by one hand as she thought. Finally she answered, her eyes meeting Marphissa’s. “I should say this to them. I will send a broadcast to the Syndicate flotilla that we may be enemies to each other, but we can work together to defeat the enigmas. I will say that we are willing to suspend hostilities against Syndicate forces until the aliens are defeated.”
She paused, waiting for Marphissa’s reaction.
“That is… pragmatic,” Marphissa said. “They might accept it. I do not think they would believe any offer that did not obviously benefit both our force and their flotilla. What about the enigma base? Will you tell them of that?”
Iceni brooded over that question for several seconds more, then nodded. “Yes. Those Syndicate ground forces may be massacred before we can get there to help them, but I will not let that happen without at least trying to warn them. I’ll transmit from Midway, Kommodor. If I receive any reply from the Syndicate forces, I will ensure you are aware of it.”
It took another two hours, as they watched the hours-old movements of the Syndicate flotilla toward an unseen enemy, before the light showing the enigma ships finally reached the Midway flotilla.
“There they are,” Kontos said as a new set of symbols appeared on the displays accompanied by an urgent alert sound.
“Forty-four of them,” Marphissa said. The largest of the enigma warships was larger than human heavy cruisers but significantly smaller than human battle cruisers or battleships. But there were a lot more enigma warships than there were human warships. “Seeing those numbers, I’m even more surprised that the snakes in that Syndicate flotilla haven’t ordered the battle cruisers to run and leave the rest to their fates.”
“It will be very hard for them to win,” Kontos conceded.
“Kapitan,” Marphissa said patiently, “it is impossible for the Syndicate flotilla to win. They are choosing to die here. I do not understand that. You know how the snakes think. There is nothing here that they would consider worth the sacrifice of those two battle cruisers in addition to the other warships in that flotilla.”
“They would abandon the ground forces to their fates,” Kontos agreed. “Perhaps the snakes have firm orders to stop the enigmas from taking this star system, and would face death from the Syndicate even if they escaped from Iwa.”
“That is possible,” Marphissa agreed. She was looking at her display, where the vectors from the two human flotillas and those of the alien armada were now visible and made obvious an unpleasant future. “We can’t get to them in time to help. Not if they hold to what they’re doing.”
“They won’t even know we’re here for another hour,” Kontos said. “And they won’t receive the president’s message until then, either. They don’t yet know any alternative exists.”
Marphissa pressed her back against her seat, glaring at her display. Another hour before the Syndicate warships finally saw that the Midway flotilla had arrived, then almost another three hours before she saw what they did with that information. And about another twelve hours of travel at point two light speed after that before this flotilla neared the planet where the Syndicate ground forces were probably landing at this moment. “The enigmas were coming straight for that planet’s orbit as well, and as we guessed the Syndicate flotilla was heading to meet them.” The long, long curved tracks of the two forces met a light hour from the planet. “The enigmas and the Syndicate flotilla will engage each other while we’re still too far away to do anything but watch what happened hours earlier.”