The Lost Fleet: Courageous

As he had feared, Syndic Formation Bravo had taken up position about twenty light-minutes astern of the Alliance fleet. Close enough to watch and pounce if necessary, far enough off that the Syndic flotilla could accelerate away if the Alliance ships turned to try to bring it to battle.

The only good thing about the current situation was that at least he was regaining a little combat strength for once instead of just having it slowly whittled away. Warrior, Orion, and Majestic had finally completed enough repairs to regain a level of combat capability that would let them serve as escorts for the auxiliaries if necessary. Entrusting the fates of the invaluable auxiliaries to three ships with the shaky records of those battleships would be a major leap of faith, but the spirit of their crews needed to be fixed as badly as the ships themselves had.

By the end of the first day it was clear enough that Syndic Flotilla Delta, the massive strike force that had arrived through the hypernet gate, was indeed coming after the Alliance fleet full-bore. “Point one five light,” Desjani remarked. “Edging up toward point two light.”

Normally there would be a bright side to even that bad news. At that velocity, relativistic distortion easily created minor errors in how a ship’s sensors viewed the outside universe. Across the huge distances that Syndic Flotilla Delta was covering, even a tiny error could produce a big difference. Unfortunately in this case, Flotilla Bravo hanging just astern of the Alliance fleet and matching its velocity of point one light could provide accurate information to Flotilla Delta.

“They’ll definitely get to us before we reach the jump point for Ixion,” Desjani continued. “It’s a long haul, but they’re coming on hard, and that Flotilla Bravo is letting them know when we try to fool them at long distance.”

“They’ll intercept us only a couple of hours before the jump point,” Geary noted. He didn’t add what they both knew, that those could be a very long couple of hours.

“And that’s if we and everyone else continues on our current tracks. When we engage the Syndics coming out of the Ixion jump point, it will throw all of these projections off.” Desjani leaned back, closing her eyes for a moment. “Sir, it may not be wise to engage Flotilla Delta, even though it doesn’t look like we’ll have an option.”

That was a change, Desjani counseling caution. “You think so?” Geary asked, wondering what her reasoning was.

“We’re not in the best position for a fight with a force that big,” Desjani explained. “I’m sure you’ve seen that already, but it took me longer. If we could eliminate Flotilla Bravo as a threat before Flotilla Delta intercepts us, it will make a big difference, but unless that flotilla from Ixion comes in just right, I don’t see that happening.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“I knew it.” Desjani nodded firmly and opened her eyes again, gazing at him. “We need to fight these Syndics on our terms. You’ve said that many times. Seeing Paladin die a day ago…well, suddenly it seemed I was seeing fleets and fleets of Alliance warships doing the same thing for decade after decade, throwing away themselves and their crews. I mean, it’s honorable and it’s brave, but it hasn’t been accomplishing much, has it?”

“No.” Geary twisted his mouth. “Sometimes the braver course of action is to avoid a fight.”

“Because others will accuse you of being scared?” Desjani’s face hardened. “Yes. But then I’ve been accused of other things lately. We’re going to jump for Ixion as soon as we can, right, sir?”

“Yeah. If I can get there without fighting Flotilla Delta, I’m going to do it.”

“Good.” Having shocked Geary by endorsing discretion in battle, Desjani now grinned. “We’ll kill more of them if we fight them when and where we want to.”

As bottom lines went, it had the virtues of simplicity and truth. “Right.”

“HOW about Seruta?” Rione asked, her eyes on the star display in Geary’s stateroom. “If we dodge that way-”

Geary shook his head, and she stopped speaking. “The biggest problem with that is that the jump point for Seruta is closer to Syndic Flotilla Delta. They’d intercept us earlier, and we’d have a longer fight to get through to the jump point.” He gazed at the star. “Lesser but still significant problems are that we don’t know what the Syndics have at Seruta, and the captured star system guides we have say Seruta is a very old and very poor system. No planets at all, just thin clouds of asteroids orbiting a dying red star, and not much in the way of good metals in the asteroids. All the Syndics ever had there was an emergency station that was shut down a long time back. We might find some nasty Syndic surprises at Seruta, and we know we wouldn’t find any of the resources we need there.”

Rione slumped back, frowning. “We just keep heading for the jump point for Ixion? Even knowing that the Syndics will catch us before we reach it?”

“I’ll try some maneuvers to keep them from closing with us.”