The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan (30 page)

“
Amazon
has shut down her power core,” Lieutenant Castries said. The battleship was completely helpless now, a derelict doing a ponderous, uncontrolled tumble through space.

With the dark battle cruisers sweeping down and only minutes from firing, the wreck of the
Amazon
began volleying out escape pods as her surviving crew sought whatever tenuous safety the pods might offer.

Something in the Marine views distracted Geary for a moment. He moved one hand to close them out, then paused as he saw Marines moving into a large compartment filled with command equipment. The room resembled the primary command center on Ambaru Station at Varandal, but was even larger. Several individuals in generic civilian suits like those of the man and woman Geary had arrested at Ambaru were standing around, hands raised, except for one who was repeatedly and angrily swiping at what must be virtual controls in the air before her. She spun about and began berating the Marines. Even though Geary wasn’t listening to the exchange, he could tell the woman was trying to assert authority over the Marines. More Marines entered, along with Victoria Rione and Colonel Rico. Rione said something to the woman that caused her mouth to snap shut, then Rico ordered some of the Marines to restrain her.

He couldn’t spare the time to find out the details, but the frustration on the part of the suits’ leader and the purposeful way Marine hackers were moving to the facility’s command locations made it clear that the data destruction sought by the agents had not been achieved.

Realizing that it no longer mattered whether Victoria Rione found the critical information needed to restore access to the hypernet because fleeing and leaving the dark ships able to use the gate to attack Unity was not an option, Geary minimized the Marine windows and focused all attention on the clash of battle cruisers that was about to occur.

The dark ships flashed past the wreck of
Amazon
, pouring fire into the derelict. With
Amazon
’s power core shut down, the only way to destroy what was left of her was by an overwhelming number of blows that shattered her armor and hull. Ten dark battle cruisers had enough firepower to accomplish that.

Amazon
came apart under the merciless barrage, breaking into large and small pieces that spun away from each other.

Even though nearly every dark weapon was aimed at finishing off the battleship, shots from some of the smaller dark ships targeted the escape pods, knocking out or destroying several and certainly killing the men and women inside.

“Damn them.” Geary did not realize he had spoken those words aloud, but he knew that he wasn’t aiming his wrath at the cold minds of the dark ships but at the people who had programmed them and the people who had decided to trust in such weapons.

The dark battle cruisers had only seconds to enjoy their victory. Tulev did not attempt to clip a corner of the dark formation, instead smashing nearly straight up through one side of it, seven human-crewed battle cruisers against five automated dark ships.

Geary barely had time to register explosions before Tanya took Gamma One through the same portion of the dark battle cruiser formation, slashing downward.

Dauntless
rocked with hits but kept going.

He tried to focus on his display, tried to take in the results of the two attacks.

Geary heard Desjani breathe a single, despairing word. “No.”

Gamma Two, going through first, had taken the brunt of the enemy fire.

Leviathan
was gone, reduced to a stream of wreckage spreading out along her former vector.

“Good-bye, Kostya,” Desjani murmured. “Your war is over.”

Captain Parr’s voice sounded, but his image did not appear before Geary. “
Incredible
got shot to hell. We’ve lost practically all systems except maneuvering. That’s damaged. We can keep up for now, but that’s all we can do. Fire control and weapons are all off-line, life support barely functional, comms marginal, numerous hull penetrations.”

One battle cruiser destroyed, and one out of the fight.

Clouds of debris marked the fates of two of the dark battle cruisers. Another had taken a lot of hits but still appeared operational.

It took all of Geary’s effort to put aside thoughts of Captain Tulev and set up the next engagement. The battleships on both sides had been out of the last fight, but now Gamma Three and Four came together to sweep past just below and just above one of the dark formations containing six battleships.

In the wake of that engagement, a single dark battleship swerved away from its companions, moving erratically, then abruptly exploded.

But as Gamma Three maneuvered for its next turn, the battleship
Revenge
lurched off vector, broadcasting massive damage.

“You’re doing what you have to do,” Desjani said, her voice steady, her eyes burning. “We’re taking out one of theirs for every one of ours we lose.”

He wanted to tell her that he didn’t know how much longer he could live with that kind of fighting but realized it did not matter. The odds that he would be living at all for more than a few additional hours appeared to be vanishingly small.

Victoria Rione’s image appeared before him. The battle had carried
Dauntless
more than three-quarters of a light-hour from the government facility, too far for a comfortable conversation under current conditions. She spoke without pausing for any replies from Geary, looking steadily forward, her voice as firm as her bearing. “Admiral, we have found files that confirm what Admiral Bloch told you. The Armageddon Option is real, and the most powerful so-called Defender Fleet ships do have the codes necessary to weaponize hypernet gates. At the moment we are locked out of all hypernet gate functions and are trying to access any of them that we can. We are still looking for any codes that might disable or divert the dark ships, without success. Every file on this facility is being copied on portable storage devices and also transferred directly to
Mistral
’s databases. We have discovered a large number of files pertaining to research on how to copy the Syndicate method of gate blocking, but any results were either never listed here or scorched-earth deleted from the systems before we reached this facility.

“We have found no command personnel and no researchers, contractors, or representatives. Records indicate the station had nearly four hundred people here before an emergency evacuation order was given. The remaining security personnel, who are all private contractors, have been disarmed and detained. The Marines have also freed a dozen prisoners from a high-security detention center, along with some medical personnel who stayed behind to look after the prisoners when the rest of the staff unsuccessfully tried to flee.

“We have discovered vast areas in the facility that have been untouched since construction. They contain equipment that is in working condition but decades obsolete. If the government had ever shown up here, they would have been in for some unpleasant surprises.”

Rione took a deep breath. “And we found my husband. The Marines are estimating they will be able to depart the facility in another hour,
but Commander Young on
Mistral
says they will need to be sure they can reach the protection of your ships before they leave the dock.”

He wondered why Rione had provided no details on her husband, why she didn’t look happy at having found him, but had no time to dwell on either issue.

“They haven’t found anything on the facility to help us,” Geary told Desjani. “They did find files that confirmed what Bloch told us.”

“The one time I wanted him to be lying, he wasn’t. Do we go get
Mistral
now?”

“It will be at least another hour before
Mistral
can get underway.”

Desjani frowned. “I just thought of something. You should tell
Mistral
to stay in that dock. She is safe there, safer than if she tries to rejoin us while the dark ships are conducting attack runs on us.”

“Good idea.” He called Commander Young. “Stay in the dock until we call you out. If none of our warships survive the action, we will have hopefully destroyed enough of the dark ships to allow
Mistral
to make her way home. The information and the people you carry must make it back to the Alliance.”

The dark ship formation with three surviving battle cruisers whipped by
Revenge
, inflicting a lot more damage but not shattering the massive battleship.

Captain Duellos, now in command of Gamma Two, caught those dark battle cruisers and tore one apart, but at the cost of
Implacable
taking so much damage that she had also lost maneuvering control and most of her weapons. “Power core unstable! Abandoning ship!” Commander Neeson sent. Escape pods leaped from
Implacable
as her crew sought safety.

The Dancers were harassing the larger dark battle cruiser formation, making rapid individual passes to pick off cruisers and destroyers. But they had lost five ships and were suffering increasing damage.

Implacable
, still racing through space, abruptly exploded as her power core blew. There was no way of telling yet how many of her crew
had made it off
Implacable
or whether Commander Neeson was among them.

Geary directed Desjani to hit the larger of the two dark battle cruiser formations again, the Alliance formation angling past one edge to knock out a couple of destroyers and inflict heavy damage on another dark battle cruiser. But in the process
Daring
and
Victorious
both took a lot of hits, and
Dauntless
suffered lesser but still-significant damage.

The battleships were coming around again, all of the dark ships concentrating on Gamma Four, while Gamma Three tried to swing over and down in time to support the other battleship formation. Geary wondered which Alliance warships would be lost or disabled this time, which men and women would die, as the beleaguered First Fleet fought what would likely be its final, remorseless battle.

A different alert sounded on Geary’s display, accompanied by an urgent pulsing highlighting the last object he had expected to be worried about in this star system or any other. The alien superbattleship captured from the Kicks. “What the hell is happening on
Invincible
?”

LIEUTENANT
Castries sounded even more baffled than Geary. “We are picking up indications that power sources are activating in multiple locations aboard
Invincible
.”

“
Multiple
locations?” Desjani demanded.

“Yes, Captain, I don’t—”

“
Invincible
has several power cores,” Geary said. “We weren’t sure why the Kicks designed it that way, but the engineers speculated it was because the ship was so huge that running power from any single location would have been harder than running multiple power sources. But those power cores were shut down! Every one of them was cold. Every piece of Kick equipment on that ship was shut down, deactivated, or disabled.”

“
Something
is reactivating the power cores,” Desjani said. “I assume that we’re ruling out the Kick ghosts?”

“The Dancers explained that to us. There’s no actual presence. Just an impression of a presence.”

“Then what else—?” Desjani began. “Ancestors save us. Did those maniacs fit
Invincible
out as a dark ship?”

“She doesn’t have any working propulsion,” Geary replied. “We destroyed her main propulsion drives when we captured her, and we can see that they haven’t been repaired or replaced. What good would it do—”

“Combat systems are activating aboard
Invincible
,” Lieutenant Yuon reported, sounding dazed. “According to what we’re picking up, it’s the Kick combat systems, not anything retrofitted from human sources. The targeting systems inside the ship and the few weapons that were still operational after we took
Invincible
are all coming online.”

“The tugs are powering up,” Lieutenant Castries said, disbelieving. “The heavy-hauling Alliance tugs mated to
Invincible
are activating their systems.”

“How far away is
Invincible
?” Desjani glared at her display. “Twenty light-minutes. How long does it take to power up one of the fleet’s heavy tugs?”

“Our data says fifteen minutes from standby to emergency movement,” Castries replied. “They were in standby.”

“Then
Invincible
is probably already underway! What the hell is going on? Those tugs were cold and empty,” Desjani insisted. “No crews aboard. Are the dark ships doing this somehow?”

More alerts sounded, more visual alerts highlighted the same area. “Propulsion on the Alliance tugs fastened to
Invincible
has lit off at full.
Invincible
is underway,” Lieutenant Yuon reported. “No life support is active on the tugs.”

“Admiral!” It was General Charban, his image speaking with rapid precision to ensure his words were clear. “We have a message from the Dancers. I won’t read the poetry, just the gist of it. They’re telling us they have ‘reawakened’ the Kick superbattleship and that it is now ‘our distraction.’”

“Distraction?” Geary asked, then suddenly understood. “Diversion. The Dancers remotely reactivated the Kick systems?”

“I assume that’s what they mean,” Charban replied.

“How the hell did they do that?” Desjani asked.

“I don’t know,” Geary replied. “I don’t know why, if they can do that, they didn’t mess with the Kick systems when we were together fighting the Kicks.”

“And they remotely activated Alliance systems,” Desjani added, pointing to the tugs. “They must have remotely overridden access codes and authorization requirements and safety interfaces on the tugs. And now they’ve remotely lit off the tugs’ propulsion and set a vector for them. The Dancers may be allies of ours, but when did they develop
that
capability?”

“Admiral,” Lieutenant Yuon announced, now breathless. “All of the dark ship formations are turning away.”

Geary switched his gaze back to the dark ship formations, blinking in surprise at his display where vectors on the dark ships had begun swinging wildly. “They were turning for more intercepts and attacks on our formations. Now they’re coming about as fast as they can onto other vectors.”

“All of those other vectors are in the same general . . . they’re heading for
Invincible
,” Desjani said, frowning as she studied her display. “I’m certain that’s how they’ll steady out. They are going after
Invincible
.”

“To the dark ships,
Invincible
must look like a huge threat even though she is nearly weaponless,” Geary said. “A literally huge threat. It must take priority over any other target as far as the dark ship AIs are concerned. A diversion. The Dancers gave us a diversion, something to get the dark ships off our backs for a short period.”

“A more-than-short period,” Desjani replied. “The dark ships are also about twenty light-minutes from
Invincible
, which is moving away from all of us. Just because of the distance involved, it will take the dark ships probably about an hour and a half to catch
Invincible
and more time to destroy her.”

That sank in.
Invincible
was not simply a distraction. She would
also be a sacrifice. “Ancestors forgive us. The knowledge that ship holds, the things we could have learned from it . . .”

“One more crime to lay at the feet of the idiots responsible for this,” Desjani said in a low, angry voice. “May the living stars give those criminals the fates they deserve. What will we do with the time that the Dancers and
Invincible
are giving us?”

“Save some lives, at least for now.” Geary gave orders, diverting scores of warships to collect and recover escape pods from the Alliance battleships, battle cruisers, cruisers, and destroyers that had been put out of action or destroyed. “As soon as we have recovered everyone, we’re going to rejoin
Mistral
and head for the outer reaches of the star system. Another jump point is going to appear eventually. We can’t use it, because we can’t leave any dark ships active to attack the Alliance. But
Mistral
can.”

Desjani gazed at him, then nodded somberly. “
Mistral
has to get back. You may have to order some of the Marines aboard
Mistral
to hold a gun to Commander Young’s head to get her to leave the rest of us, though.”

He had a momentary image of what the rest of her life would be like for Commander Young, ordered to leave the rest, forced to leave the rest, but doomed to be forever remembered as the only one who had left Unity Alternate, the only one whose ship had survived the desperate battle at Unity Alternate. Geary was appalled as he realized that he would be ordering Young to a living nightmare that many would consider a fate worse than death. He wondered how long she could live with that, how long she would live with that.

But he knew he would have to order her to do it.

Geary called
Mistral
. “Commander Young, the fleet will be repositioning to the vicinity of the orbital governmental facility. You have one hour and ten minutes from the time of this transmission before we get there. Be ready to leave the dock and accompany the fleet at that time. Do not, repeat do not, leave anyone aboard that facility.”

The formations of the First Fleet, already rendered somewhat ragged by the combat losses they had sustained, had dissolved into a mass of individual ships darting about to collect escape pods and rescue the occupants. He did not have to supervise that. The fleet’s automated systems had no trouble figuring out which ship was best positioned to pick up which escape pod, could track when a ship had recovered as many survivors as that ship could safely carry, and could recommend to each commanding officer what to do next.

“It’s ironic,” Geary said as he watched the process. “Our automated systems are making it possible to recover all of the survivors as quickly and efficiently as we can. A lot of men and women will owe their rescue to that. But other automated systems destroyed their ships in the first place and will kill those men and women later if they can.”

“It’s just a matter of whether you’re ordering what to do based on what the systems say, or if they’re ordering you what to do whether you like it or not,” Desjani said. “There isn’t anything complicated about that.”

“There shouldn’t be,” Geary agreed.

The survivor recovery completed, Geary ordered his ships back into their formations, leaving the discarded escape pods drifting in space, and directed every warship to head back toward the government facility.

The dark ships were still swooping down on
Invincible
. The immense alien superbattleship was moving slowly away from the pursuing dark ships, plodding along under the thrust of the rows of fleet tugs that provided only a fraction of the power that
Invincible
’s main propulsion units once employed.

Geary felt an odd sense of sorrow at the sight. Not the huge regret that the knowledge represented by the captured alien ship would be lost but sadness at watching the massive ship sacrifice itself to give the Alliance fleet a little time that might make all the difference in being able to destroy the last dark ship before the last Alliance ship. In its willingness to be destroyed for the sake of the human warships, the
alien craft itself felt more human, more a living thing, than the dark ships with their AIs designed to mimic human thought processes.

The ship information graphics on the virtual display next to his command seat were filled with red and yellow markers indicating degrees of damage suffered by his warships, amidst too few greens that indicated ships without significant damage. The diversion provided by
Invincible
would buy a few hours, but what his fleet needed was six months in a major repair facility with a lot of docks.

The sort of facility, in fact, they had been forced to destroy here.

“We’ve got a little time,” Geary told Desjani. “I’m going to hold a senior officer conference.”

She ensured the privacy fields were activated, then Geary called his top officers, their images in their command seats on the bridges of their ships appearing around him. Captain Duellos. Captain Jane Geary. Captain Badaya. Captain Desjani in person. Captain Armus. The sight of those officers brought back with full force the fact that Captain Tulev should have been among them and was not.

Geary took a second to compose himself, to ensure his voice did not falter, before he spoke. “You all know the situation we are in. I would like to know your thoughts and your recommendations.”

Duellos replied in an uncharacteristically grave voice. “As was recently pointed out by a very fine officer who is no longer among us, we only have one option remaining. Fight to the last.”

“That’s right,” Badaya said. “To the last ship, to the last man or woman. Maybe we can’t wipe out the dark ships completely, but we can ensure that none of their battle cruisers and battleships survive this fight.”

“None of ours will either,” Armus said as if that were a matter not of sorrow but of inevitability. “But no one will be able to say we did not die with honor. No one will be able to accuse us of not doing our duty. We will be welcomed by our ancestors.”

“The last charge of the Gearys,” Jane said with the ghost of a smile.
“I never thought I’d be part of Black Jack’s real last stand. It doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would.”

“No one else has any other options to suggest?” Geary said.

Desjani shrugged. “We can’t wipe out the dark ships without paying a very high price. There are too many of them, they have too much firepower, they can maneuver better than we can, and the AIs running them aren’t your equal, but they are close enough to that given those other advantages the dark ships have.”

“It’s not like we could reposition through the hypernet gate, even if it weren’t blocked,” Badaya pointed out.

After being awakened from a century in survival sleep, it had taken Geary a while to understand why Badaya phrased it that way. After a century of war, with little hope of victory and in the face of ongoing awful losses, the Alliance fleet had clung fiercely to its pride, never talking about retreating but only about repositioning. The Alliance fleet might die fighting, it might “reposition” at other times, but it never “retreated.” Geary realized that that attitude, which these officers had all grown up with, made it easier for them to contemplate a last battle at this moment. As Desjani had reminded him, they had all expected to die long before this.

Duellos nodded in agreement with Badaya. “We can’t let the dark ships have access to the hypernet so they can carry out that Armageddon Option. They won’t leave as long as we’re still here fighting them, so we must stay and fight, even if we didn’t have to.”

“That’s true,” Geary said.

“Although,” Badaya added, “part of me wouldn’t mind leading these human-made monsters to Unity so they could carry out their Armageddon on those who created them.”

“A lot of innocent people would die as well,” Jane Geary said. “Otherwise, I’d agree with you.”

“All right,” Geary said. “We are going to undertake one detour.” He explained about his intentions with
Mistral
. “If the Marines have
found the means to unblock the hypernet gate, we can send
Mistral
to safety using that, but I’m going to assume we’ll have to try to avoid action until a jump point appears that
Mistral
can use.”

“There are going to be a lot of unhappy people on
Mistral
,” Armus observed dourly.

“They have to do their duty, just as we are doing ours,” Desjani said.

“I’m not arguing that. I’m just glad I’m not the commanding officer of
Mistral
.”

“Thank you,” Geary said. “I am honored to have served with you, and with every man and woman in this fleet. Captain Geary, there is one more issue we should discuss alone.” The images of the other captains vanished, leaving Jane Geary watching him expectantly. She made no comment about Tanya also still being present, for which Geary was grateful. “When Admiral Bloch communicated with us, he claimed to know that your brother Michael was still alive and where he was. He offered to trade that knowledge for our rescuing him from his flagship.”

Jane Geary inhaled sharply, then laughed. “Admiral Bloch would say anything to try to save his life. He’s lying.”