Engaging the Enemy (44 page)

“You're a coward!” Andreson said.

“You're an idiot,” Argelos said, his voice cold as frozen air. “I should never have agreed to your command.” On the screen, his ship's icon grew an orange triangle of delta vee, lengthening as he pushed his insystem drive to its capacity and it drew away from the formation.

“Captain?” Lee said, hands poised above his board.

“Go!” she said; Lee's hand moved and their ship surged ahead; in that instant she saw a line of incandescence streak the atmosphere below them—a ranging shot with a beam weapon as the enemy ships appeared out of a microjump, now only light-seconds distant. A moment later a white flare grew around
Cornet
as one of the enemy's beams hit its shields squarely. Their own shields flared slightly with backblow; then they were beyond that range.
Flower
's batteries launched at the attackers.

“No damage,” Hugh said. “Our shields are still one hundred percent.”

“Target acquisition, battery one,” Jon Gannett said in her earbug. “Permission to engage?”

“Engage,” Ky said. The ship shivered as their number one battery launched.

“Target acquisition, battery two!”

“Easy beam distance, Captain.”

“Engage battery two. Go ahead, beam, one discharge.” Again a slight shiver, but no dimming of lights or any sign that the massive power discharge had caused them any difficulty. On scan,
Flower
's missiles were almost to the enemy group; she watched them sparkle against powerful screens, not penetrating, or miss entirely.

“Lousy gunnery,” Jessy said. “Wrong fusing options, among other things. They'd better get out of there.”

But even as he spoke, multiple missiles hit
Cornet
's weakened shields, and its ansible link went dead.
Flower
killed acceleration, its lengthening wedge dropping to nothing, and swapped ends, bringing its forward-mounted beam weapon into play, stabbing out at the nearest enemy ship. That was a solid hit, but the enemy shields held.
Flower
had only one beam weapon, with a slow recharge rate; more flights of missiles left its batteries, but they were no more accurate than the first.
Cornet
continued to be pounded by missiles and then another beam; it burst open and most of its arms blew up with the ship. Now the enemy beam concentrated on
Flower.

Ky had no time to worry about
Cornet
as a pod of missiles probed their screens; none penetrated, but the telltales showed that it had been a near thing.

“One of ours got in,” Jessy said. “Second ship in the formation.”

“Damage estimate?”

“Impossible to say. Scan's getting messy.” It was, indeed; the overlaid symbols for courses of ships and courses of missiles, color-coded for relative velocity, crisscrossed the screen.

“How low d'you want to go?” Lee asked suddenly.

“As low as we can,” Ky said. “Just like we plotted before.” Those few hours, when she and Lee and Hugh and her weapons teams had discussed what could be done if someone attacked while they were pinned against a mass that prohibited an FTL jump. They hadn't expected to have to use those figures, not without going over them again. “Our best bet is to make them swing around with us, force them all into a stern chase; the more velocity we pick up, the faster we'll reach a jump radius on the other side, and that's really our only option.” If the enemy captains were smart enough, they'd hold back one group, but maybe they'd believe they had easy prey.

“
Bassoon
's with us,” he said. “And it looks like
Flower
's boosting at last.”

Another salvo flared against their shields without penetrating. “They want us to run,” Ky said. “They think they can pick us off singly.” She called to
Bassoon
and
Flower.
“Keep up with us,” she said. “Maintain ten-klick spacing.”

“I can't,” Andreson said. “We've got damage. We don't have full power on insystem, and we can't jump.” Her face was as cold and closed as ever. “Get them out, Vatta, if you can. Go find better partners. I did my best, and I'll get one of them before they get us, if it's the last thing I do.”

It would be the last thing she did, if she could do it. Andreson had never lacked courage, just skill and that indefinable instinct that made a good combat commander. “I know you did your best,” Ky said. “I'll do mine, Admiral.” That title was the only comfort she could give, as
Bassoon
edged nearer and
Flower
fell behind, with three ships now concentrating on her.

Where were the others, the ones that had engaged Zavala? Would they reconstruct the pincer formation on different axes? She would have, but she had no idea how pirates thought about space war.

Their velocity increased steadily as they dove into the planet's gravity well, using it for additional acceleration. Now the enemy missiles burned out their engines before reaching them, and the enemy's beam weapons concentrated on
Flower.

Flower
blew just as they were about to pass out of line-of-sight around the planet's curve.

“They'll be on us in a bit,” Ky said. “Launch mines.”

“How many?”

“Half of what we have. We'll hold the other half for the ones on the other side.”

“That's…several hundred…”

“Better too many than too few,” Ky said. “If we get through this, we can buy more mines; if we get killed being cheap…” She spoke to Pettygrew on
Bassoon.
“Don't fall behind. There are some hazards back there now.”

“Doing our best,” Pettygrew said.

“Vatta, do you have a plan?” asked Argelos.
Sharra's Gift
showed weapons hot on scan, but she was still accelerating faster than
Vanguard.

“Are you with us?” Ky asked. “Or have you decided to go solo?”

“Solo against eight? No. My adviser's telling me the only chance is to link up with you, if you have a plan in mind.” A pause, then, “He doesn't.”

“I have an idea,” Ky said. “Drop back a little, and hold at about ten klicks off me, if you can. If they're smart, we'll meet four of them as we come out the back side of this maneuver. And if we're lucky, it'll be only four against three at that point. Damage?”

“None,” Argelos replied, and then Pettygrew.

“Fine, then. Ready for attack; fire the moment you have a firing solution, pour it on. They have calibrated microjumps, but they should be crossing our course on insystem drive; we may get some of them. Then we try to break through and get to jump radius. Be ready to jump the instant you can; don't wait for anyone else. We won't be at the mapped jump point, so just get out of range—”

“I can't calibrate short jumps,” Pettygrew said.

“Doesn't matter. If you get a few light-hours out, you'll be able to detect the jump point before they can find you again. Or do an uncalibrated jump out one light-year. There's not another star that close, and unlikely to be a large mass. Rendezvous—” Where should they go? Where would they not be expected to go…? “Ciudad,” she said. “We can tell them about Zavala's heroism.”

“We'll have to be lucky as well as good,” Argelos said, after a minute or two. “But my adviser said it's possible.”

His adviser, who hadn't come up with a plan of his own. Ky wondered again just who the adviser really was.

“We won't have much maneuvering ability on insystem at those velocities,” she reminded them. “But anything might help us avoid a beam, so we'll spiral around each other in an open formation, ten thousand klicks. Pettygrew, can your tactical computers handle that and the firing solutions?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Pettygrew said. He sounded steadier, almost confident.

“I can, too,” Argelos said.

“Then we should start now.” Moment by moment she talked them into the starting positions she wanted, and specified the diameter of the spirals.

“There goes one,” Jessy said suddenly as they completed their second circuit of the spiral. The first group of the enemy, three ships spaced evenly and one lagging, had appeared around the planet's limb on scan; one had encountered a mine, its shields flaring in response. “And another—” A second flare on scan. As the flares died, the ship icons reappeared, but now decelerating, opening a distance. “Aha. If they slow to worry about mines, they'll have to power up to get out of the well, where they are. Very good thinking, Captain.”

“I want them dead,” Ky said. Surely they'd hit some of the other mines; surely some of them had done damage…

“One down!” said Hugh. A flare surrounded the icon of the last ship in pursuit and did not die. Two of the pursuing ships had fallen farther behind.

“Lowest point,” Lee said. “We start coming up now…”

Ky watched the plot for a moment. They had gone very low indeed, inside the rings, much closer to the second smallest satellite than she liked, and Pettygrew would be closer still. But
Bassoon
would miss it, and now they were on their way out. Her stomach tightened. They should find the second group soon.

Behind, flare after flare showed where the pursuers kept running into mines. None was quite powerful enough to cause damage, but each hit on the shields cost them power, and they could not afford even an instant with the shields down, an instant in which to fire their own beam weapons. They fell farther behind, not yet negligible, but not an immediate threat. The immediate threat was ahead of them, four ships armed and dangerous and eager to kill.

Ky felt in herself the same eagerness. She had told her companions to make a run for it; she intended to make a run for it herself, but…she wanted a solid kill, something more satisfying than having the damaged pirate run into a mine.

When the first enemy ship appeared on scan, she grinned. Scan lag was negligible, less than a half second; Jessy had target acquisition instantly, and as quickly he attacked. The beam lanced out, visible only on scan until it touched the enemy's shield, which flared. “Keep it on,” she said.

“Got it,” Jessy said. “We're bleeding charge, though.”

Every fraction of a second the beam held, that ship could not lower shields to use its own beam, and she was closing to missile range. Recharge would take time. She had three other ships to worry about. What was the right balance? “Recharge at thirty.” Ten seconds, fifteen, twenty, each as long as a lifetime. The flare brightened as the enemy's shields resisted the beam, then disappeared from scan, to be replaced an instant later by the larger flare of a ship's disintegration. Ky grinned at Jessy. “Good hunting.”

“Shields up,” Jessy said.

A second ship appeared, and a moment later a third. These had been following the same course as the first, higher in the well, and they launched barrages at her, as she did at them.
Bassoon
and
Sharra's Gift
also launched as Ky had instructed, widening the bracket she had established. On acutely opposing courses, they passed each other without incident, missiles on their way and not yet arrived, shields tight, beams—if they had beams—inactive. Ky kept an eye on her own ship's recharge. She had to save some capacity for the other ships, the fourth of this group and the survivors of the other, which if they reached jump radius could come after her charges in calibrated microjumps.

The fourth enemy ship appeared, lagging with intent, farther out from the planet, very close to jump radius. Missiles launched now would have a stern chase, and almost certainly fall short.
Vanguard
's beam charge was only up to 68 percent. Converted to seconds of full power, that wasn't enough to blow the enemy ship or delay its attack as her group passed. If she pulled shield charge…dangerous as that was…yes. But it could be fatal. Her skin felt hot; she felt no fear, but keen awareness of the others on the ship, the people her mistakes could kill. “Random pulses,” she said. “Worry them, see if that's enough.”

Suddenly
Bassoon
's shields flared; the enemy had struck at the smallest ship, though it was more heavily armed than
Sharra's Gift.
They'd done that before, attacking
Cornet
first. The same ship? Or the same tactics, dictated by the same mind?

“Full on,” Ky said. He raised a warning eyebrow; she shook her head. “We have to get his attention off
Bassoon.
Make him close up.”

“We may run out of power…” Already their beam had touched the enemy, whose shields flared, then steadied, though the power of its beam dropped by a third.

“We'll use shield charge,” Ky said. “Drop the shields.” He gave her a startled look. “They can't get us with missiles now,” she said. “And he'll have to button up if we go to full power and hold it.”

He nodded, lips compressed. Their own beam strengthened to maximum power as the shields went down, no longer fragmented by the need to pulse in time with shield vibrations; the enemy's shields expanded on the scan. Five seconds…ten.
Bassoon
's icon now showed no attack stressing its shields. No responsive beam stabbed out at them, but Ky knew this would last only as long as their full power held full on the enemy. If they lost lock, or their beam failed, they would be unprotected.

“What d'you think you're doing?” Argelos, calling from
Sharra's Gift,
sounded anything but calm. “Did you take damage?”

“No,” Ky said. “I'm inflicting it. Keep going.”

“But if you—”

“I'm aware of the risks,” Ky said. “Both ways. Be sure your spiral doesn't cross the beam path.” It shouldn't, unless he changed course.

“I—oh. Yes.”

On scan, the enemy's shields showed the first warning flutter. Suddenly their icon showed the brilliant turquoise vee of maximum deceleration; before Ky could open her mouth to warn Jessy, he had compensated. Their beam maintained its target lock.