'They've learned nothing in five hundred years, she said. 'They genuinely believe we're just a bunch of decadent animals who got lucky on the technology front. We are the classical immovable object in their way, and all they do is crack what passes for a head against us. They don't try to learn or adapt.
'This fleet is proof they have tried to think round the problem, Kylee, the first tactical officer argued. 'They saw what they needed to overcome us, and they set out to obtain it. That's adaptive.
'They set out to steal it, Toi said.
'Negotiating an allegiance is hardly stealing.
'I don't believe they could do that. They found the leftovers of a post-physical, and bootstrapped themselves up a whole weapons-level.
'Even that's pretty adaptive.
The argument had been just about continuous. The four of them had completely different positions, not that it interfered with their tasks. Although Lucian was slightly concerned about Gieovan, the second tactical officer, whose solution to the whole Ocisen problem was unpleasantly crude. He would be allying himself directly to the Accelerators at download, Lucian decided, if not the Isolationists or possibly the more radical Darwinists. For a moment, he did worry about confronting the fleet with Gieovan's hand on the trigger of their formidable arsenal. But none of them ever allowed their personal views to affect their professionalism. He was confident they'd deliver the result Admiral Kazimir had tasked them with.
For eighteen hours they'd flown beside the Ocisen fleet in stealth mode, and monitored the alien warships. To Lucian's huge relief, they were all Ocisen.
'Unless they've got stealth, Kylee pointed out after the first hour.
'You can't stealth a continuous wormhole drive, Gieovan countered. 'In any case, you can only minimalize the hyperdrive emission and damp down its distortion effect. You're never truly stealthed to a top-level sensor array. Detection and concealment technology are a constant race for superiority.
'But we're not registering anything? Lucian asked.
'No, captain, Gieovan. 'We could use more active scanning, of course, but that would give us away.
'Let's not make this any more difficult. Continue monitoring their communications. We need to identify the command ship.
The Ocisen fleet hierarchy was of course a replica of their imperial structure, with the Emperor's nest having ultimate authority. Individual captains had very little leeway. Consequently the communication traffic reflected that, with one ship issuing orders to everyone else. There was no cross-ship chatter.
Once they'd identified the command ship beyond any doubt, Lucian called Admiral Kazimir and received authorization for the interception.
'Knock them out of ftl, Kazimir said, 'and deliver our warning. They are to turn around or every ship will be disabled.
'I'm not quite sure we can achieve that, Lucian said. 'The Yenisey packs a hell of a punch, but there's over two and a half thousand ships out there, including nine hundred Starslayers. If even twenty of them combine, they can get through our shields.
'Lucian, I could never countenance disabling the fleet in deep space, not when they're already so far past the Empire's boundary. They simply don't have the ships nor resources to mount a viable rescue operation. The crews would perish. That is not something I wish to have on my conscience, nor that of any of my officers. No, today is simply a reminder of our technological superiority. I suspect it will have to be repeated several times until they realize they cannot physically achieve their goal.
'Understood, sir, Lucian said with some relief.
The four of them settled on their couches in the main cabin, and merged with the smartcore. It gave them a perceptual viewpoint from the front of the fuselage. Yenisey curved away beneath them, the main hull was a fat cylinder eighty metres long, with a conical nose section. Midships sprouted three radial fins supporting bulbous weapons nacelles, each of which curved down to a sharp point. A uniform luminous blue representation of hyperspace flowed around them, as though they were some yacht sailing an ocean.
Lucian was fed senses that revealed flaws in the blueness, a constellation of dark splinters surrounded by a green haze of exotic energy: the Ocisen warships. He directed the Yenisey until it was holding station a kilometre away from the command ship.
'Are we ready? he asked quietly.
'Yes, sir, Kylee replied.
'Excellent. Gieovan, you have fire authority as of now. Keep scanning for any anomalous activity — just in case. Toi, I want total systems availability, high-status. He scanned the Ocisen ship. It was two hundred and fifty metres long, a fat ovoid shape, with thin edges like curving wings. The hull was rough, strewn with irregular lumps, as if it had somehow become encrusted with barnacles during its flight. Although the scan couldn't perceive its colour, he knew it would be a dull metallic shade, dappled by furry green patches. All Ocisen starships were like that after they developed their semi-organic extrusion technology.
'Pull it out, he told Kylee.
The Yenisey's energy manipulators produced wildly fluctuating waveforms that intersected the exotic energy cascading fluidly around the Starslayer. Instabilities immediately started to skitter along its wormhole. Kylee analysed the modifier effects which the warship's drive exerted in an attempt to regain control, and simply overwhelmed them with the raw power available to the Yenisey's systems. The rest of the fleet shot away from them as the wormhole's pseudofabric broke down. Within a second they had vanished into the blueness.
Spacetime reasserted itself, swamping the blueness with infinite black. Stars shone with unwavering intensity. Eight hundred metres away, the massive Ocisen warship started a laborious tumble. Its protective force fields flickered dangerously as uncontained energy pulses swept out from the ruined drive.
'Attention Ocisen ship, Lucian broadcast. 'This is the Greater Commonwealth Navy ship Yenisey. You are hereby ordered to turn your fleet around and return to—
'Oh, shit, Gieovan gulped.
A smooth spherical starship appeared from nowhere a kilometre ahead of the Starslayer. Its force fields were impenetrable. The Yenisey couldn't even get an accurate quantum signature scan to determine what kind of drive it used.
'Admiral, Lucian called urgently. 'We can't—
The unknown ship fired.
'What the fuck was that! Gore yelled as the secure link abruptly vanished.
Kazimir took a second to review the TD link data, he was so surprised. His tactical staff had produced a number of scenarios, mostly incorporating the Ocisens utilizing weapons technology they'd procured from a more advanced species. This hadn't been a remote consideration.
'I don't recognize that design at all, Ilanthe said. 'Do we have any spherical ship on the Navy's intelligence registry?
'There are some species that utilize a sphere, Kazimir said slowly as his u-shadow supplied their most highly classified data. 'But we don't list anything that can disable the River-class star ships quite that quickly.