Dreadnaught

“I know,” Geary said. “That’s why you’re going to be calling the maneuvers when the battle cruisers brake to match orbit with the asteroid.” She gave him a startled look that transitioned to a grin as Geary continued. “I’m pretty good at that kind of thing, but you’re better when it comes to maneuvering battle cruisers. You’re better than anyone else in the fleet.”

“Yes,” Desjani agreed. “Yes, I am.”

“As well as being unusually modest for a battle cruiser captain.”

“That, too.” Desjani switched her gaze back to her display, where she was working simulations of the charge to the asteroid. “Oh, this is going to be good.”

THE Marine scouts should have landed over eight hours ago. They had orders to activate the jammers, scramblers, and disabling charges at exactly zero four forty, when the fleet would be passing nearest to the asteroid’s orbit on the fleet’s return toward the jump point.

Aside from the asteroid itself, the nearest alien presence or surveillance devices they had been able to spot were the warships, which had stayed lurking a light hour behind and to the starboard side of the Alliance fleet, matching every human maneuver an hour after it was made. But in the last day, as the human fleet’s path approached the orbit of the asteroid and this time drew closer to the asteroid itself, those alien warships had slowly closed the distance until they were only half a light hour away from the fleet.

Now it was zero four thirty eight. The asteroid was forty-five light seconds away, a mere thirteen million, five hundred thousand kilometers. At point one light speed, the human ships could cover that distance in about seven and a half minutes. But it wouldn’t do much good to reach the asteroid traveling that fast since the human ships would then shoot past, unable to match speed with the asteroid. The “charge” would actually involve slowing down at a rate that would take the least time and yet leave the battle cruisers exactly matching the asteroid’s velocity when they reached it. Only the battle cruisers had enough propulsion capability to brake their velocity that quickly, and they had to start immediately, or even they might overshoot their target, but they also had to avoid braking too fast and taking longer than necessary to reach the asteroid when every second counted.

Which was where Tanya Desjani came in.

Geary took a deep breath, then sent the orders. “Task Force Lima, detach and maneuver per orders from Captain Desjani on Dauntless. All other units, come starboard zero four five degrees, down zero two degrees, and begin braking to point zero two light speed at time four zero.”

Desjani was sending her own commands the moment Geary finished. “All units in Task Force Lima, immediate execute come starboard four six degrees, down zero two degrees, begin braking velocity at maximum.”

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?”