“Wait until the CSP has been replenished,” the Admiral said. “That would be the worst moment for them to launch an attack.”
James had his doubts. He had thirty-six starfighters covering the flotilla already, with two more squadrons ready to launch at a moment’s notice. The aliens were badly outnumbered — and they had to know it. And that meant they should be reluctant to do anything that would bring them up against superior force. But if they were willing to fire on their own people, he asked himself, would they be willing to attack even when they were hopelessly outgunned?
“Admiral,” he said slowly, keying the channel so only the two of them could hear, “if we knew the Russians were escorting an alien flotilla though their territory, would we consider attacking it anyway?”
The Admiral frowned. “Probably not,” he said. “But it would depend on just how badly the Russians were skirting the treaties.”
James nodded. There were treaties governing humanity’s wars, with the most important one being a ban on fighting within the Sol System itself, but no one really expected the treaties to last for long if two major interstellar powers went to war. Back when it had seemed likely America would go to war with China, if he recalled correctly, there had been a great deal of debate over just what the Royal Navy should do if either of the nations used British-controlled tramlines. And that had assumed the Royal Navy didn’t join the Americans in war.
But if the Russians were escorting an alien fleet through their space… how would the rest of the human race react? Was it a form of armed neutrality or deliberate treason against humanity? If the War Faction’s monomaniacal approach to the war led them to view the other alien factions as treasonous, would they see themselves justified in attacking the other factions? There was no way to know.
We’d see it as treason, he thought, morbidly. We’d react very badly to a human nation aiding the aliens we saw as deadly enemies. And the aliens aren’t even capable of responding to different ideas, or even the concept we might not be beyond salvation…
“I think we must assume the War Faction will attack the other factions,” he said, slowly. “An alien civil war might be at hand.”
“That would depend on just how much firepower the disparate alien factions control,” the Admiral pointed out. “It could be a very short civil war.”
“If the War Faction controls all the ships,” James agreed. “We might have to defend the other alien factions against their enemies.”
“With only a handful of ships,” the Admiral said. “And we need to lose our shadows as quickly as possible.”
He paused. “I think I’ve had an idea,” he added. “But it will have to wait long enough for the aliens to get bored themselves.”
“Understood, Admiral,” James said. “All we can do now is wait.”
He settled back in his command chair and watched, grimly, as the CSP returned to the landing bay. Somewhat to his surprise, the alien starfighters made no attempt to lunge towards the carrier and attack. Instead, they just watched, dancing at the very edge of sensor range. They were distracting, he had to admit, but he was damned if he was allowing them to distract him too far. If someone was trying to sneak up on them…
“Stand down one third of the crew,” he ordered, once the CSP had completed its replenishment cycle. “Tell them to get some rest in the sleep machines, if available.”
“Aye, sir,” Commander Williams said. “But if we have to wake them early…”
“I know,” James said. Sleep machines worked well — very well. But if someone happened to be woken up too early they’d have terrible headaches. “If worst comes to worst, we will leave them in the machines until they complete their cycle.”
“Aye, sir,” Commander Williams said, again. “And will you be resting too?”
James shook his head. “Not yet,” he said, firmly. He would have to pass the bridge to her sooner or later, perhaps while having a quick nap himself in his office. But he wasn’t going to do that until the Admiral’s plan was ready to go. “Catch a nap yourself, if you can. You’ll have to take command soon enough.”
He told himself to relax, but it wasn’t easy. He’d been a naval officer long enough to know just how quickly a situation could move from controllable to utterly disastrous — and the aliens were deliberately trying to wear the crew down. It suggested they had more in mind than merely annoying the human flotilla…
… And he wanted to be ready for it when they finally sprang their surprise.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“This is a bold plan,” Kurt observed.
“But workable,” Rose said. “Or it would be, if we were confident in our pilots.”
Kurt studied her for a long moment. She looked… less stressed than himself, although he knew she wasn’t waiting nervously for another message from the blackmailers. Their silence bothered him more than he cared to admit. He wanted, desperately, to just have it come to an end, but he knew he had to wait. There was nothing else he could do.
And he wanted to take her back to his office and screw her senseless. He couldn’t do that either.
“I think they should be capable of doing it,” Kurt said. “The only problem will be keeping the aliens from realising what we’re doing until then.”
He paused as the pilots slowly filtered into the briefing compartment. Most of them looked tired, their edges already dulled by the constant alert. Four hours had passed since the alien starfighters had first shown themselves and nothing had changed, save for the pilots out covering the carrier against a sudden attack. If the aliens had wanted to wear down the human fleet, Kurt had to admit, it was working magnificently. And it wasn’t costing them anything more than a handful of exhausted pilots.
Unless they have managed to extend their fighter range significantly, he thought. We still haven’t found their damn carrier.
“All right, listen up,” he said, eying the pilots critically. As always, they seemed uncomfortably young and slapdash to be military officers. At some point, he told himself, they were probably going to have to discuss how best to wear a uniform with the survivors. “This is going to take some damn fancy flying.”
He ran through the briefing quickly, then studied them all carefully. “If you fuck this up, you will end up dead,” he said. The pilots sobered. Three of their friends were already dead, their bodies utterly beyond recovery. “If any of you want to back out, now is the time.”
No one said a word.
“Good,” Kurt said. “Man your planes!”
He turned back to look at Rose. “Watch our backs, ok?”
Rose nodded. “Of course,” she said, primly. “Isn’t that my job?”
“They’re still probing the edge of our sensor range,” Janelle said.
“Good,” Ted said. His one worry had been that the aliens would change their tactics before the humans were ready to launch their own operation. “Is Blackburn in position?”
“Aye, Admiral,” Janelle said. “And the remaining squadrons are launching now.”
Ted nodded. “Order the pilots to execute the first stage in” — he glanced at the display — “five minutes.”
He leaned back in his chair and waited while the seconds ticked away. Timing was everything, all the more so as no one was quite sure just how capable the alien sensors actually were. They were good, according to the analysts, but how good? The only real data he had came from how the aliens had reacted to the ECM drones. They’d rarely been fooled for long, yet they had been fooled.