Alarm of War, Book II: The Other Side of Fear (33 page)

              Nodding to herself, she called to Toby Partridge.  “Get me Commander Skiffington on the
Fes,
and tie in the Owl closest to the Duck frigates
.”
  The connection was made in a moment.

              “You have Commander Skiffington of the
Fes
and Captain Ayala Perl of the
Fish Owl,”
Toby told her.

              “Grant, what is your ETA on the Duck frigates or destroyers?” she asked abruptly.

              “Fourteen minutes to missile range on the frigates,” Grant said forcefully, “fifteen to missile range on the destroyers.  But I would have been closer if you-“

              Emily cut him off.  “Captain Perl, if you accelerate hard, how long before you could do an active sensor scan of the new Duck ships?”

              Captain Perl narrowed her eyes.  “An
active
scan?  You mean drop stealth?”  She sounded shocked.  For an Owl, stealth was life.

              Emily nodded.  “Yes, Captain.  Time is of the essence.  How soon can you get a solid scan on the Duck ships?”

              Perl looked like she had tasted something sour, but dutifully checked her displays and said something to her pilot, then turned back.  “At high speed, we can pass over their entire line of ships within five minutes.  But at that distance we could get perfectly good passive scans without the need to further give away our location.”

              Emily shook her head.  “I need to know if they are using drones to decoy us, Captain.  If you are close enough to use optics with a
very high degree of certainty,
I’ll accept that, but otherwise use active scanners, then bug out. Captain Perl, commence your sensor run now.”  Emily turned to Skiffington.  “Grant, take your Wing up to the ten minute line and hold there until I give you specific attack orders.”

* * * *

              Captain Perl of the
Fish Owl
watched their acceleration climb as the little ship turned onto a course that would take them one thousand miles over the line of Dominion reinforcements moving against the
Lionheart.
  They were running with only passive sensors, using them to fix the location of the Dominions.  Now, though, that was about to change.  She turned to her XO.

              “Billy, I’ve been an Owl captain for five years and I’ve never given this order before, but I guess there is a first time for everything.”  She took a deep breath.  “Commence active sensors.  Continuous sweeps until I say otherwise.  And as soon as you get data, send it to the
Rabat.
  Don’t wait for my order or even try to analyze, just send it.”

              Bill Holcomb looked at her a little wide-eyed, but nodded.  “This is going to be very interesting,” he said.

              Perl snorted.  “Oh, yes, ‘interesting’ is the word for it.”

              “We’ll be over them in one minute, skipper,” the Sensors Officer warned.

              Perl watched the clock.  After thirty seconds, she said: “Commence active scanning now!”  And to the pilot:  “Keep accelerating, Cindy!  I don’t think the Ducks are going to be very happy with us.”

              “Missile launch!  Two incoming missiles!  No, make it four!”  Holcomb’s voice sounded a little squeaky, Perl thought.  “Passing over the frigates and coming up on the destroyers.  More missiles after us.”

              “Mildred, initiate full anti-missile protocol,” Perl ordered.  Instantly a series of vibrations were felt as the AI launched chaff, jammers and decoy drones.

              “Passing the destroyers,” Holcomb reported.  “Or I should say,
the
destroyer.  Good data from the sensors; only one destroyer down there.”

              “Get it to the
Rabat!”

             
“Done, Captain,”  Holcomb assured her.  He studied his sensor display.  “Passing the cruisers, now.   They’re ignoring us, bigger fish to fry, I guess.”  He typed in a final command.  “All data sent to
Rabat
and receipt acknowledged.”

              “Cindy, full stealth and get us out of here!” Perl barked.  The
Fish Owl
banked hard to a new course ninety degrees off their line of direction and the acceleration reduced.

              Captain Perl sat back in her chair and blew out a long breath.  She thought of her little granddaughter on Cornwall.  Four years old and cute as a button.  She prayed to the Gods of Our Mothers that Jessica was still alive.  She vowed then that if she survived this battle and this damn foolish war, she would go back to Cornwall and find her daughter and granddaughter and never, never leave their side again.

* * * *

              Emily called Grant Skiffington first.  “Grant, the sensors show two cruisers, one destroyer and no – repeat – no frigates.  Send in your Wing.  Concentrate on the cruisers.  Good hunting!”  Then she switched frequencies to Captain Eder.

              “
Lionheart,
this is
Rabat.
  Owl scan shows two cruisers, one destroyer and zero frigates. 
Fes
Wing is moving in on cruisers.  Acknowledge.”

              On the
Lionfish
, Captain Eder nodded in relief.  Two Duck cruisers were hard enough, but add in a task force of destroyers and frigates and it didn’t bear thinking about.  As it was, the sides were about even, with Eder holding a slight advantage in power and the Ducks holding the edge in mobility.  At least, that is, without the gunboats.

              But Eder had the gunboats and he intended to make good use of them.

              He studied the holo display, which showed the two enemy cruisers still trying to penetrate the chaff and jammers to get a clear fix on
Lionheart
and
Wellington. 
“Helm, keep us moving in a gentle curve away from the asteroid belt and any more reinforcements they might come up with.  Keep us just outside of their missile range.  There is an ugly rumor that their rate of acceleration is faster than ours, so once they’re clear, be prepared for some hard maneuvering.”  He looked at the display once more.  Somewhere back there, lost in the clutter, was a Wing of gunboats.  The Duck cruisers thought they had spoofed him and were making him run. 

They’d learn the truth of it soon enough.

* * * *

On the far side of the Battle of Siegestor,  Hiram Brill waited anxiously for the clock to tick off ten minutes.  At eight minutes Murphy called.

“We have number six in position.  A little bigger than I’d like, but it’ll have to do.”

Hiram took a breath.  “Tugs on rock Number One, start your attack run!  Tugs on Number Two, you are in the batter’s box.” 
Please God, let this work,
he thought fervently.

The first two tugs activated their tractor beams and accelerated forward, dragging the one hundred ton chunk of rock and ice behind them. The rock was nowhere near the mass of the cruisers and battleships they usually moved, but on the other hand they didn’t try to play “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” with a battleship either. The beacon locked to the bottom of the Dominion shipyard gave them the location, but instead of heading straight for it they lifted up, climbing sharply over the top of the asteroid field and dragging their asteroid along behind them.  A combat patrol of gunships took up position on either side of them and several more raced a few hundred miles in front, scouring the area for any enemy ships that might interfere.   So far they hadn’t seen anything, but they had all heard the report of the incoming frigate and rode with their fingers on their missile launch button.

The tugs continued their climb, then Mildred chimed to let them know it was time and they arced over into a steep descent until they unknowingly mimicked dive bombers from World War II.  Their sensors picked up the enormous bulk of Siegestor.  They factored in its forward speed, lined up the direction of their dive and then cut their tractor beams to release the rock.  The pilots jammed their thrusters into emergency power and slammed the throttles forward, lifting once more into a climb and clearing the path for the tumbling, jagged-edged rock that now sped along its ballistic trajectory.  One of the gunships positioned itself thirty miles behind the asteroid, its cameras locked onto it and sent the image back to the
Haifa.

Hiram stared at the holo display.  He could see the bulk of Siegestor as it moved ponderously forward, and he could see the spinning, tumbling asteroid as it plummeted downward.  Avi Yaffe came and sat down beside him, eyes glued to the screen, saying nothing.

“I think it’s going to hit,” Hiram said in a low voice, willing it to be so.  They could see hurried glimpses of other asteroids flashing past their rock as it sped towards the Dominion shipyard.  If even one of them struck the rock, it might be enough to push it off course.  Hiram watched as the rock continued its course – the display made it look like it was falling toward the Siegestor – and got closer.  Siegestor began to grow larger and larger and the angle elongated so that they could more clearly see the rock was overtaking the shipyard from the rear, not simply dropping straight down onto it.

Then, almost imperceptibly, Siegestor seemed to move slightly to the right, sliding ever so slowly out of the rock’s careening path.  Beside Hiram, Avi Yaffe groaned aloud.  Siegestor seemed to move a bit further to the right, then further still.  Then the rock was by it and the gunship zoomed the camera out a little, allowing them to see the rock plunging deeper and deeper into the asteroid field below the Dominion shipyard.

A clean miss.

              He gritted his teeth, then activated the comm.   “Tugs on Number Two, start your attack run!  Tugs on Three, get ready!”

* * * *

The captain of the Dominion cruiser,
Swift Justice,
had dropped below the chaff cloud full of jammers and lethal mines.  He immediately launched a reconnaissance drone to seek out the Vicky battleship and cruiser, then opened up a communication line to the Security Coordinator on the Siegestor.  The officer who replied to his signal was the Admiral in charge of Siegestor’s security, and he was furious.

“
Swift Justice,
where have you been?  We’ve been calling you for the last hour!” he thundered.

The
Swift Justice’s
captain frowned.   What was this?  “Sir, I am in the midst of a battle with a Victorian battleship and a cruiser.  Their jammers prevented me from receiving your signal.  We cannot match their fire power, can you send me reinforcements?”

“You fool, they are a diversion!  Siegestor is under attack!  They are using tugboats to make kinetic strikes with asteroids.  Break off immediately and attack the Vicky tugs at these coordinates.  I am scrambling every ship we have.  Get back here now!”

“But, Sir, let me alert the
Duty First
and
Fist
; they’re still under jamming and if I can get them we can-“

“No!  Obey your orders, Captain!  Full military speed!  Leave immediately.  I’ll send a drone to the other ships to tell them.  Acknowledge your orders!”

The captain of the
Swift Justice
muttered under his breath.  By the time the Admiral found the other ships it would be too late.  Well, he would send a comm drone into the chaff cloud to broadcast the message, that was the best he could do.

* * * *

The
Fes
gunboats reported in.  “Commander, we’ve still got one Duck cruiser and a destroyer in the chaff cloud, but the other one is bugging out. Must be pulling 150 Gs. What do you want us to do?”

Grant Skiffington looked at the display.  The second cruiser was clearly running for it, accelerating madly for the asteroid field and probably stressing its inertia compensator to the breaking point.  It was out of the fight.  But the other Duck warships were a perfect target, moving slowly and as of yet unaware of the approaching gunboats.  

“Stick to the plan,” he ordered.”  “Go after the destroyer and the cruiser.”

“Roger that!” the gunboat pilot said happily.  The display showed sixty gunboats form a crescent moon formation and dive into the chaff cloud.

As it turned out, the gunboats caught the Duck cruiser and destroyer just as they emerged from the chaff cloud. The problem was that the gunboats pretty much blundered into them, like a man bumping into his opponent in a very dark alleyway.  The destroyer had its anti-missile defenses set on automatic and when the gunboats emerged from the cloud, they immediately triggered them.  Missiles, lasers and rail guns leapt into action before the gunboats could achieve a target lock.  Three gunboats simply disintegrated under the close-range fire, five more went into frantic evasive action and collided with each other.  The other gunboats scrambled back out of immediate range with squad leaders screaming at them:  “Shoot back, goddammit, shoot back!”  Two dozen more gunboats emerged from the chaff cloud, locked on the destroyer and fired everything they had.  The destroyer’s anti-missile defenses fell silent as the ship, torn open and vented to space in too many places to count, began a slow end-over-end roll and drifted out of the battle.