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Authors: Jack Campbell

The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught (45 page)

BOOK: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught

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Usually, she waited silently while he concentrated on the right feel, the right moments for when to execute changes in vectors, but this time it was Desjani who was issuing those orders for the task force while Geary watched the battle cruisers veer away from the rest of the fleet and decelerate at a rate that pushed him painfully back against his seat and caused the structure of
Dauntless
to groan in protest. Despite the temptation to watch Desjani’s work, to make sure she was doing it as well as possible, he had to let her do the job he had given her while he kept an eye on the rest of the fleet, slowing much more gradually and curving on a slightly wider course, which would intercept the asteroid farther along its orbit and close to an hour after the battle cruisers reached their objective. Geary also watched the aliens, though it would be half an hour before their warships saw the light from the fleet’s maneuvers and realized what the fleet was doing.

Wincing at the effort of moving under the forces leaking past the inertial dampers, he called General Carabali. “I want to know the moment you hear or see anything from the scouts.”

“Should be coming in any second now, Admiral.” Carabali paused. “Status report. Linking to you, sir.”

A secondary display popped into existence to one side of Geary. On it, the asteroid rotated with cumbersome dignity, its surface now pocked with many more symbols representing not just the positions of the Marine scouts but also all of the alien relays, antennas, sensors, and other devices the Marines had been able to locate. Some of the symbols marking the alien equipment flashed red, indicating that disabling charges planted by the Marines had destroyed them, while other symbols pulsed yellow to indicate the equipment was being jammed.

Also visible was a large and cunningly concealed airlock detected by the scouts, which led inside the asteroid. “Request permission to proceed with entry,” Carabali said.

“Permission granted. Why do I count only twenty-nine Marines?”

“I’ve just been informed that the scout unit leader believes one suit failed to brake velocity enough and overshot the asteroid,” Carabali said tonelessly.

Ancestors preserve us.
Geary activated another circuit. “Eleventh Light Cruiser Squadron, Twenty-third and Thirty-second Destroyer Squadrons, detach from fleet formation immediately, proceed to attempt intercept and pickup with one Marine scout who is believed to have overshot the asteroid.”

Carabali let out a breath. “Thank you, Admiral. My scouts will be blowing the airlock any moment now.”

Geary took a moment to take a long, calming breath himself, thinking of that lone Marine plummeting through space, life support slowly being expended. “Whether we can manage an intercept is going to depend on how much that Marine’s velocity was slowed, General. If that scout kept going at four thousand kilometers an hour, we may not be able to get there in time.”

“If the enigma warships go after the ships you sent—”

“I doubt that will happen, General, once the aliens realize that we’re cracking open their human cage.”

Desjani sent another order. “Immediate execute, all units in Task Force Lima reduce braking velocity to point nine maximum.”

The strain on Geary eased a bit, and he could have sworn he heard the structure of
Dauntless
also sigh with relief. He spared a glance at the display, where the path of the battle cruisers arced toward the asteroid, the time to intercept constantly backing off as the ships slowed their velocity.

“Marines are inside,” Carabali reported. “Possible booby-trap triggers identified. They’ll have to neutralize before proceeding.”

Damn. “We don’t have much room for delay, General.”

“Understood, Admiral.”

“Immediate execute, all units in Task Force Lima reduce braking velocity to point eight maximum,” Desjani ordered.

Sixteen minutes after Desjani gave her first order, and after several more adjustments to their braking, the battle cruisers slid to a halt relative to the asteroid, surrounding it. “All shuttles launch,” Desjani commanded.

From every battle cruiser, shuttles rocketed out, heading for the asteroid. Each carried a few Marine engineers loaded with breaching equipment and other gear, some medical personnel, a fleet engineer to identify any alien equipment that could be looted in the time available, and empty seats for the human prisoners who would hopefully be found within the asteroid. “Five minutes to first shuttle docking at that airlock,” Desjani told Geary.

“General Carabali,” Geary began.

“They’re past the traps,” Carabali announced. “Passing empty compartments. Equipment. Another airlock. Traps visible on this side. Estimated time to disarm two minutes.”

Desjani had her eyes on the alien warships. “We slowed down, they didn’t. They’ll see the light from our maneuvers in another ten minutes.”

Geary nodded. “I guess that’s when we find out if there’s still a way for the aliens to blow up this asteroid.” He eyed the main body of the fleet, still braking, the distance between it and the task force growing by the second. He didn’t need to run maneuvering calculations to know that he couldn’t turn those ships around and get them back here in time to make any difference. “It looks like it’ll be sixteen battle cruisers versus thirty-five alien warships.”

“Piece of cake,” Desjani remarked.

The main body’s formation was stretching oddly, though. Geary highlighted that area and saw that
Dreadnaught
was braking harder than ordered,
Dependable
and
Conqueror
matching her attempt to slow down. “Captain Geary, you’re overstressing your main propulsion units. Ease off and remain with the fleet.”

Desjani had noticed and shook her head. “She’s trying to keep those battleships close enough to support us. They
can’t
brake that fast.”

“And she should know that.”

He took another look at the light cruisers and destroyers still accelerating toward the area where the Marine might be. “General, if you can order that scout to light off a beacon, it would help.”

“Already done, Admiral. The scout should have already received that order, but we’ve seen no response, so he might still be in a slowed metabolism state. We just sent a remote activation command to the beacon.”

“Distress beacon picked up,” Lieutenant Castries reported.

Geary did a quick mental check of the position of the beacon and its movement relative to the cruisers and destroyers. “That Marine did slow a lot before his suit’s braking equipment failed. I think they can manage a recovery.”

“Someone owes a few thanks to their ancestors,” Desjani remarked.

“We’re past the airlock,” Carabali reported. “Another airlock, sealed, no traps. Blowing it now.”

“They’re moving,” Desjani announced.

“Alien warships accelerating onto intercept with our current position,” Lieutenant Yuon cried.

“We can hear you, Lieutenant,” Desjani said sharply. “All units in Task Force Lima, recover returning shuttles nearest to you without regard for home base.” She shrugged. “That should save a few minutes on the recovery,” she said to Geary.

He nodded absently, most of his attention shifting rapidly from the main body of the fleet to the progress of the Marines to the shuttles to the alien warships and back again and again. “We have roughly an hour before those warships get here.”

“Past final barrier,” Carabali reported. “Entering large open area, multiple structures arrayed along sides of the asteroid. It’s a town, all right. Humans sighted. Some are running toward our people, and some are running away.”

“First shuttle docking, dropping off passengers.”

“Initial estimates of human prisoners exceeds one hundred.”

“Power inside asteroid has failed. Cause unknown. Deploying portable lighting.”

“Enigma warships are fifty minutes from intercept.”

“Light cruiser
Kusari
reports estimated time to recovery of Marine scout is one hour, forty minutes.”

“Liberated prisoners being assembled, report that many of their number are
hiding
and barricading themselves inside their dwellings.”

Geary resisted the urge to slap his forehead in exasperation. The reaction by these isolated, imprisoned people was understandable even if stupid. “Permission granted to break down barricades, doors, walls, or any other private structure as necessary to recover humans without delay.”

Carabali seemed more annoyed than angry. “Request permission to use incapacitating agents if necessary to disable resisting humans.”

“Granted. We’re running out of time fast, General.”

“Admiral,” Captain Smythe said, “my engineers report that scans reveal the alien equipment on the asteroid is riddled with explosive devices. Trying to pull out any of it might well trigger self-destruct mechanisms unless we take the time to deactivate all possible means of activation.”

“How much time?” Geary demanded.

Smythe paused for only a moment. “At least an hour.”

“We don’t have an hour. Have your engineers do the best scans they can of the inside and outside of that equipment, then get them back on the shuttles. They’ve got twenty minutes.”

“First shuttle lifting from asteroid with thirty prisoners aboard,” Castries called.

“They must be packing them in tight,” Desjani muttered.

“Admiral!” It was the chief medical officer. “I’ve been evaluating what we can tell about the prisoners. They need to be medically isolated
immediately
and held there until they’re scanned for any biological or artificial threat.”

“Notify the ship’s doctors on each battle cruiser,” Geary snapped. “Have them inform their captains and ensure that’s done.”

“Twenty-five minutes until enigma warships achieve intercept of asteroid.”

“Sir, one of the alien warships has peeled off and seems to aiming for the Marine scout awaiting recovery.”

He would have to leave that to the light cruisers and destroyers. They didn’t need to be told that they needed to get that Marine before the alien warship did.

“Ration bar?” Desjani asked.

“No, thanks. Not hungry.”

“We’ve got half the shuttles recovered,” she added. “The other half are waiting on the let’s-hide-from-our-rescuers idiots that the Marines are prying out of their holes.”

“Twenty minutes to alien intercept.”

“Admiral, we’ve got equipment starting to blow inside that asteroid,” Carabali reported. “Cause unknown. Maybe dead-man circuits that activate after a certain period out of communication.”

“How long until you have the last humans out of there?” Geary shot back.

“Unknown. Still searching, Admiral.”

“You’ve got fifteen minutes, General.”

“Yes, sir.”

Desjani was sending orders. “Captain Duellos, your shuttle docks are full. Accelerate your battle cruisers toward the enemy and engage to buy us time and even the odds.”

“On our way,” Duellos responded. On the display,
Inspire
,
Formidable
,
Brilliant
, and
Implacable
began moving away from the asteroid, angling toward the alien warships.

“Good call,” Geary said. “There’s no sense in those battle cruisers waiting here if they can’t take on any more shuttles. I should have thought of that.”

“You’re busy,” Desjani said, “and you gave me the responsibility for this part. But I would appreciate it if you would goose the Marines, so we can get the rest of those shuttles aboard before the aliens get here.”

“Pulling out,” Carabali reported. “We can’t be certain we got everyone, but the asteroid is coming apart inside, and the interior is depressurizing, so anyone we don’t have is going to be dead before we could find them. There must be dead-man circuits everywhere.”

“Understood,” Geary said. “Get your people out of there. How many prisoners have we recovered?”

“Three hundred thirty-three.”

“What?”

“Three hundred thirty-three,” Carabali repeated. “Yes, sir. It’s weird. Maybe it means something.” She focused elsewhere. “Now! I want every Marine out of there now! If those fleet engineers drag their feet, knock them out and haul them along!”

Small detonations rocked the surface of the asteroid, throwing out fragments that soared into space out of the weak gravitational pull, atmosphere venting in many places into the vacuum of space. Geary checked the main display. Six minutes until the alien warships reached them. “It’s going to be very tight.”

Desjani nodded. “Captain Tulev, get your division under way and engage the enemy.”

“Understood,” Tulev replied.
Leviathan
,
Dragon
,
Steadfast
, and
Valiant
began accelerating toward the oncoming enemy.

“Captain, our dock is full. Sealing it now.”

BOOK: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught

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