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“I’ll take the Nano ship,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. “If it had a factory
aboard, there wouldn’t be any contest. But as our Nano ships aren’t equipped that
way, I’ll make the decision on the basis of maneuverability. I need the ship to reach
its position as fast as possible.”

“And what should the ship do at that point, Colonel? Blow itself up when the Macros
cruise by?”

“Not quite,” I said. “Select the last Nano ship to arrive in orbit. Order her crew
to exit the craft and join the battle station garrison. Then have them send the craft
to hover directly in front of the ring. The ship must have standing orders not to
fire or take any defensive action. If it gets hit, it is to simply stand there until
destroyed or ordered to return to the battle station. Are those instructions clear,
Captain?”

“Uh…I suppose so, sir.”

“Okay, relay that, then get ready for some really disturbing orders.”

There was a mild murmur going through the bridge now. I didn’t care. I didn’t have
time to care. If Jasmine was right, this was the chance of a lifetime.

“Orders relayed,” Sandra said.

My staff didn’t look happy. Possibly, they weren’t looking forward to more crazy instructions
from me.

“Now,” I said, “engage the self-destruct sequence on every mine out there at the ring.
I want everything within twenty thousand miles to blow itself up. Not ships, just
those half-smart mines.”

Miklos looked at me with bulging eyes. His mouth opened slightly, then closed again.
Finally, he said: “Yes sir.”

I was proud of him. I was proud of all of them. Sure, they were casting side glances
at me with incredulous expressions. But they were on-task. They weren’t arguing or
asking for clarifications. They were just following orders. I liked that.

Partly, I was testing them. I could have explained everything to them in detail, but
there wasn’t much time and I didn’t feel like fending off a lot of pointless questions
and arguments. To their credit, they trusted me enough to follow my orders. The only
slowdown involved a lot of worried looks and one-second hesitations. But they kept
moving.

“Captain Sarin, give me the overall tactical on-screen.”

I stared down into the blue-black glow, and the situation changed. Already, one of
our Nano ships had slipped away toward the ring. The crew was a cluster of tiny green
dots, which merged with the hulking battle station as I watched. The lone Nano ship
hurried toward the ring.

Over the next several minutes, thousands of mines flashed white and vanished near
the ring. At the same time, my fleet pulled up around the battle station and jockeyed
themselves into a rough formation encircling it.

“Now Jasmine,” I said, “are there any of our mines within twenty thousand miles of
that ring? Do a full scan. Include the mines we’re flying around Hel in a slingshot
pattern.”

“No sir. They’ve all popped themselves.”

“Good. How long until the first Macro ship is due to arrive?”

Miklos answered that one: “We lost contact with them when we pulled back our scouts,
but estimates range between eight and ten minutes, sir.”

I leaned back and nodded. “All right, that’s the best we can do. Here are the general
fleet orders: “No one is to fire anything without my order, or confirmed evidence
that the Macro fleet has fired upon them first. This is due to the fact that the Macros
have us now marked in their database as allied. If we fire upon them or take any other
aggressive action, they will put us back on the list scheduled for destruction. Relay
that to everyone in the fleet, Sandra.”

She did it, without a syllable of complaint. But when she was done, she looked at
me seriously. “How the hell did you pull this off, Kyle? And are you
sure
?”

I smiled. “The Blues did it for us. Jasmine figured it out. Since they’re allied with
the Macros, by telling them they’re allied with us, we’ve been marked down as friendly
too. At least…that’s the theory.”

“But what if the theory is wrong, sir?” Miklos asked.

“Then we’re screwed. But, that’s also why I’m flying the sacrificial Nano ship out
there. If they blow it, up it’s game-on. I want everyone to notice one critical thing:
they have yet to shower us with missiles. They’re barreling right into the Eden system,
without the covering plume of missiles they fired last time.”

My team stared and a few nodded. They looked worried, but willing. In some faces,
I saw a flicker of hope. They were starting to get it. The enemy might not fire a
shot. This battle may not happen at all.

Sandra looked up at me, “I have Welter requesting a private channel, sir.”

I’d left Welter in charge of the battle station. I knew he wouldn’t be happy about
letting the Macros fly away from that ring untouched.

I waved a gauntlet at Sandra, indicating she should open the channel.

“Colonel Riggs?” Welter asked. “With all due respect, sir. I do not understand my
new orders.”

“You are to stand down, Commander Welter. You are
not
to fire upon the enemy until I give the signal, or until you are taking verified
incoming fire from them. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, the best firing opportunity will be the moment they come through that ring.
If my railgun volley doesn’t meet them the second they appear, we’ll have given up
a golden chance to inflict maximum damage upon the enemy.”

“That’s just it, Welter. Right now, they are
not
the enemy. At least, they don’t think they are.”

“Has that been confirmed, Colonel?”

I looked at the clock Sarin had set up. “The theory will be confirmed or debunked
in about seventy-nine seconds. Hold your fire until we see what they do.”

I thought I heard him mutter something unpleasant, but then the channel closed itself.

I had a thought then. The Centaurs. “Sandra, connect me to Sloan’s assault group.”

A moment later Sloan was on the line. I’d increased his rank to that of Major after
the battle with the Imperial forces. His Centaurs had performed flawlessly.

“Major Sloan,” I said. “What is the disposition of your troops?”

“They’re hanging back as per your orders, Colonel. They don’t seem to like it much
though. They want to charge and get it all over with, I guess.”

I nodded. I’d had a lot of experience with the Centaur urge for violent self-sacrifice.
In battle, they often behaved like lemmings—well-armed, savage lemmings.

“Keep a tight leash on them, Sloan. I’m counting on you. Tell them not to worry, they’ll
get to fight the machines when the time comes.”

“Sir, they’re coming through,” Jasmine said.

I stared at the screen. The first red contacts appeared. They rapidly glowed and brightened
as the brainboxes took their sensor data and depicted them with increasing accuracy.
Dashed lines appeared, showing the enemy flight path. They were moving more slowly
than they usually did, and they were changing direction even as they came through
the ring.

“They are going to sail right by us,” Sandra said aloud.

I could see she was right. The ships were following a sweeping curve that glided very
near the station.

“Everyone, hold your fire,” I said. “That’s an order. Have they shot anything yet?
Answer me, people.”

Jasmine, Sandra and Miklos each met my gaze with a shake of the head. I dared to take
a deep breath.

“They’re going for it, people,” I said. “It’s all up to us not to blow it at this
point. I don’t want anyone to do so much as light up a campfire out there. Do you
all hear me?”

Many heads nodded.

“Should we talk to them, Colonel?” Sandra asked.

“Hell no,” I said. “Not unless they demand that we do so. Hold tight everyone. Pretend
a big bear is walking around outside our tent. If we all just huddle inside, it will
probably go away.”

More and more ships appeared at the ring. They were pouring through now. The clicker
Jasmine had set up flickered into the two hundreds…then hit three hundred.

Something on the screen began to blink. I frowned, while Sandra worked her console
and pressed her headset to her ear.

“Kyle, it’s Major Sloan requesting an urgent channel.”

“Put him through on speaker,” I said.

“Colonel? Sir, it’s the Centaurs. They’re losing it.”

“What are you talking about, Major Sloan? I gave you orders. They were not to move
until I gave the word.”

“I know sir, I told them that. They gave me some speech about honor and took off.
They’re deploying from the transports. They’ve got those skateboards on their feet,
and they’re heading out into space.”

I cursed for a few precious seconds. “How many of them have gone AWOL?”

“Uh,” Sloan hesitated for a long second. “As far as I can tell, Colonel—all of them.
They’re all attacking the Macro fleet.”

“Damn it!” I shouted.

-35-

“Open the primary command channel. Get Welter on the line. Commander Welter are you
listening in? We have a situation.”

“Yes sir, I heard Major Sloan. I request permission to fire my railgun batteries.
All of them are still tracking targets and their barrels are loaded.”

“No, hold your fire. I want you to talk to your laser crews. Get them to aim at the
Centaurs. You will not fire yet, however. You will hold your fire until I get back
to you.”

There was a moment of silence. “You’re ordering me to shoot our own allied troops
in the back?”

“No, I have not given you any such order, Commander Welter. I’m ordering you to
target
units that are disobeying orders. I’m going to talk to them first, before shooting.
We have some time, as they won’t reach the enemy ships for another sixteen minutes.”

Jasmine raised her hand. I looked at her. “I’m updating that estimate now,” she said,
tapping at her screen. “The Macros have their course laid in and are accelerating.
They are moving toward our line and will pass us at a high speed. The attacking Centaurs
will collide with them in eleven minutes, sir.”

“Try to retrieve them, Sloan,” I said. “And connect me with their command council.
Now.”

There was a delay in making the connection, and I felt every second of it in pound
in my mind like a headache. How could those damned space goats be so stupid? They
were undisciplined, barbaric troops. I recalled tales of old battles, especially those
in medieval times, when kings had lost control of their knights and they’d run off
to get themselves killed. In modern battles, Centaurs were my knights. They definitely
had minds of their own.

“Maybe we should take advantage of this situation, Colonel,” Miklos said. “The Macros
could be hit all at once by our Centaur troops. Our forces will be in there before
they can react to shoot them down. Thousands of flying bombs crashing into their ships
at once.”

I drew my lips into a tight line. “I know what you’re saying, and I’m tempted,” I
said. “But look at the Macro line. They’re still streaming in through the ring. There
are too many ships, and they’re in too close. Sure, we’d blow the hell out of a lot
of them in that opening surprise attack. But the battle station is out of position
now, as are the gunships. We’ve lost that period of time where we can concentrate
all our fire into their teeth.”

Miklos shrugged. “I agree. But if we’re going to end up fighting them, we might as
well take whatever advantage we can get.”

“I’ll take it under advisement. Sandra, are the Centaurs ready to talk to me yet?”

“They are on the channel, sir.”

“Hello and greetings from every patch of blue sky, waving green blade of grass and
ruffling scrap of fur,” I said loudly, and not without bitterness.

As usual, my sarcasm was lost upon the Centaurs. “Thank you for saluting us on this
day of glory and blood,” they said.

“Brave herds,” I said. “You’re bravery is unquestionable and legendary. Today, however,
is not the day for fighting. I would ask that you obey your commanders and return
to your berths within the transport ships.”

“The enemy is at hand. They have taken the field under the light of our sun, and it
would be dishonorable not to gallop out to meet them. Can you not feel the blood raging
in your heart and mind? Do you not hate these invaders as we do?”

“Yes,” I said, “of course we do. But we seek to attack when the advantage is ours.
Victory in battle goes to the most cunning, to the clearest of mind.”

There was a pause. I got the feeling they were passing this concept around. In the
end, they rejected it. “You speak with the sound of droppings striking lifeless stones.
We’re stunned to hear your words, and request clarification. It cannot be that dishonor
has gripped your brave heart. If you fear, think of the wind, for the wind has no
fear, and is everlasting.”

I made a growling, groaning sound of frustration. I wanted to grab my own head with
my hands, but I knew my hair would get caught in the joints of my gauntlets and be
pulled out. I did it anyway as I tried to think a way out of this situation. As I’d
expected, a hundred or so hairs were ripped out. They clung to my gauntlets as I pulled
them away and looked at them. What was I going to do?