The Cost of Victory (Crimson Worlds) Read online

  Dutton looked concerned. "You know I agree with that generally, but the war isn't over yet. Li wants Garret dead precisely because she doesn't think they can win as long as we have him. Do we really want to give that up?"

  "Yes, I know what Li is thinking. But I have my own set of scenarios. Tell me what you think of this. We send a rescue force to intercept Liang, but we make sure they don't get there until after he has engaged Garret's ships. Liang probably takes out the Cromwell and kills Garret, but we both know that depleted or not, the admiral's going to go down fighting. Liang's going to take losses, probably heavy ones. Wouldn't that be an amusing time for our rescue force to burst onto the scene, just in time to avenge their beloved admiral?"

  Dutton's face brightened slightly. "We'd take out a huge portion of the rest of the CAC fleet." He smiled. "And if Garret manages to fight his way out, it still looks like we backed him up and sent him help. Either way, Liang would still be hit by both forces."

  Stark was leaning back in his chair with a self-satisfied smile on his face. "So? What does the old master think?"

  Dutton paused, thinking. "I like it. Or rather, I want to like it. But I'm still a bit concerned about the prosecution of the war. If things go as planned, the CAC will be in bad shape for a while, but we still have to deal with the Caliphate. And you know the South Americans are going to be a factor too. We had a good run with General Santiago and his sabotaging their supply net, but now we're going to have to fight them. And it's not like we haven't suffered losses too. None of them have anyone who can face Garret, but without him, who knows? The odds are still too even to risk our big advantage."

  "You are, of course, familiar with our classified shipyards in the Wolf 359 system?

  "Of course." Dutton nodded quizzically.

  "What would you say if I told you I'd used some, shall we say, aggressive management tactics to encourage productivity?"

  Dutton snorted a short laugh. "I'd say it sounded like you."

  "Then what would you say if I told you the four Yorktowns under construction there will be ready to launch in 30 days and not a year?"

  The old man look startled. "What did you do? Roast them over a fire?"

  "Not too many of them." Stark grinned. "Just one, really. I needed the shipyard CEO to resign so I could quietly replace him. We discussed it down in Sub-Sector C. He whined a lot at first, but by the time we were done I think he understood my point. Too bad he died in a yachting accident right after he stepped down."

  "That was us?" Dutton looked a little annoyed. "You didn't tell me anything about this op."

  Stark sighed. "Look, Jack. I didn't mean to cut you out, but we need those ships, and I know you're a little soft on these political and corporate types."

  "Gavin, you need to be careful." Dutton looked at the younger man with concern. "These are powerful people. You can't treat them like Cogs. They have certain rights under our syst..."

  Stark put up his hand. "Relax, Jack. I haven't declared war on the political class; I just do my job. We need those ships, and to get them we needed someone kicking ass over there, not some inbred corporate magnate who thinks he has a birthright to take up space. The fat fuck was sitting in a suite at the Willard with three female acquaintances when my men picked him up. So what the hell was he doing in WashBalt when he was supposed to be out at Wolf 359 managing a vital 500 billion credit war contract?"

  Dutton sighed. "Fool. Do they think this war will win itself? And you replaced him with?"

  Gavin knew where the old man was going with this. "He's someone I found. Someone with more to gain than the imbecile he replaced."

  "I know you're ambitious, Gavin." Dutton leaned forward and looked at his companion intently. "Be careful. Don't make too many powerful enemies. The Political Class is protective of its position. If it got out that you'd disposed of a high-ranking Corporate to replace him with a nobody - and that's how they will see it - there's going to be hell to pay."

  Stark smiled. "Don't worry, my friend. I may have come from the wrong crowd, but I'm no crusader. I don't care where someone comes from if they serve my purpose. But we need those ships, and now we've got them. And Garret already arranged for field repairs and conversions on all the captured CAC and Caliphate ships in Gliese. For the first time in the war, we've got the clear advantage."

  "Which means we don't need Garret anymore?" Dutton looked grim, unsure.

  "It means we can do without him." Stark's voice was superficially decisive, but Dutton knew him well enough to sense the uncertainty. He was gambling. "If Li An and Admiral Liang want to rid us of Garret and serve us up most of the rest of the CAC fleet in the process, I think we need to let her." He paused. "I know Garret would be helpful in winning the war, but do we really want him to have even more stature? What would a few more victories do? You know we're going to have problems with the colonies after the war. Have you considered what would happen if Garret sided with them?"

  Dutton swallowed the last of his Scotch and got up to refill his glass. "The whole navy might follow him. Or at least a good part of it." He paused, his glass in one hand, the crystal flask in the other. "It's dangerous either way."

  "War is dangerous business. But we need to make decisions based on logic and strength, not fear." His eyes narrowed and he looked right at Dutton. "But I want you with me on this. If you don't agree, I'll scrub my plan and we'll warn Garret and change his flight plan."

  Dutton paused, making a soft noise as he blew air out his mouth. "I'm with you. If you think it's the right move, I'm behind you." He paused again, started to say something, and then stopped, putting the flask down on the table.

  "What is it?"

  The old man sighed again. "I'm just worried that Li An's got something else up her sleeve. Something we're missing. She's a tough adversary. Don't underestimate her, Gavin."

  Stark leaned forward. "I know." He continued with a touch of uncertainty. "But we don't have any intel on anything else. If she's got something coming, she's done a hell of a job keeping it under wraps."

  The two were silent for a minute. Finally Stark spoke. "So what do you say? What's your final opinion?"

  Dutton put the newly filled glass to his lips and drained it in one gulp. "Do it."

  Chapter 9

  AS Cromwell

  Flagship, Task Force Tecumseh

  AD Leonis System, en Route to TZ Arietis Warp Gate

  "What the hell are they doing here?" Garret scolded himself for the surprised outburst. Normally he was very circumspect in front of his crews. "I want full data as soon as possible, Lieutenant Simon."

  "Yes, sir." Simon's voice was strained. They hadn't expected to encounter any enemy presence here, two transits deep in Alliance space. They are definitely CAC scanner buoys, sir. We've picked up two of them so far. Already transmitting." A brief pause. "I may have a third....and a fourth. They seem to be deployed in their standard pattern"

  "Very well." Garret's mind was racing - why are there CAC forces in this system? "Let's get the computer working on projected fleet locations based on buoy patterns. They know where we are; we need to know where they are."

  "Admiral, we have located eight total scanners. The buoy distribution strongly suggests they were expecting a transit from our entry warp gate." Lieutenant Commander Barton was one of Garret's tactical analysts. Barton was the best at what she did; she breathed, ate, and drank spatial patterns. "Computer analysis confirms. Heaviest concentration appears to be along vectors consistent with an anticipated target transiting from AB Doradus on course for the TZ Arietis warp gate." She looked up from the screens her eyes had been fixed on and over to Garret. "They knew we were coming. I'm sure of it, sir."

  "Nelson, compute a course change for the fleet." Garret paused for a few seconds, considering where to go. We can't keep our original course, he thought, but what to do? "I want a vector change toward the primary. Calculate a slingshot course around AD Leonis to bring us back to the TZ Arietis gate at high velocity." In
stead of moving straight toward the exit warp gate, Garret was going to head for the star, using its gravity to help his ships make an abrupt vector change back toward their destination. Hopefully the enemy, who was probably waiting along the direct route to the TZ Arietis warp gate, would think he was heading for another exit and try to pursue. At the very least, it would take his ships away from the course most likely seeded with enemy detection devices. They knew he was here, and they knew what he had, but he was damned if they were going to watch his every step.

  Garret sat in his command chair, his face grim. He hated running from a fight, but his ships had almost no missiles - they'd be at a huge disadvantage in a battle until they could resupply. He also knew he was unlikely to get out of the system without a battle. In the end he had to get through the TZ Arietis warp gate, and the enemy knew that too. Hopefully they'd deployed well in-system, but if they were near the warp gate, none of his maneuvering would matter.

  " Commander Barton, all ships are to launch probes. You are to assign search sectors to all vessels. I want to know where the enemy is, and I want to know now."

  "Yes, sir." Barton leaned over her station, working out plotting solutions. The probes were small drones, equipped with massive thrust capability and sophisticated scanners. A solar system is a massive volume, and a spaceship, even a kilometer-long battleship, is infinitesimally small in that great empty vastness. Shipboard scanners had limited effective tracking range, depending on the power output of the vessels to be detected. If they were blasting at full thrust they could be located from a considerable distance, but if they were on low power, laying in wait, it was a different matter.

  A defender typically utilizes a matrix of scanners pre-deployed around each warp gate, providing information on the composition of incoming forces. The attacker, lacking an equivalent data feed, relies on his intel on the system and the knowledge that a fixed target, such as an inhabited world, tends to compel the defensive forces to remain within a predictable range of locations. However in a situation like this, an ambush or a meeting engagement, knowledge of the enemy's whereabouts and force composition is a massive advantage. Garret had to assume his adversary knew where he was and what ships he had, while he had no idea what was waiting in the system.

  "Probes launching now, sir." Barton's voice was a little harried; she had rushed to prepare the plotting solutions as quickly as possible. The tactical AIs prepared a starting point, and could mathematically calculate the most effective plan in a purely spatial sense. But there was intuition to this as well, and a skilled tactical officer could almost divine the location to search for an enemy in a way a computer could not. "All drones set for maximum thrust."

  Garret glanced toward Barton. "Thank you, commander. You prepared that plot with commendable speed." Garret wasn't one who particularly craved praise, and he had to keep reminding himself that his staff, like most people, did. His team was a finely honed blade, and he wanted to keep them that way. "Report any contacts immediately." He leaned back, quietly staring at the main screen, currently displaying the schematic of this normally uninteresting system. Who the hell are you, he thought, and where are you lurking out there? And how did you know we would be here?

  Liang sat in his own command chair considering his next moves. The data on Garret's forces matched the information Li An had provided him. He wondered how she had gotten such precise intel; her order of battle and timing had both been almost exact. Everything was perfect. Except Augustus Garret.

  Liang had expected Garret to proceed on a straight line course to the TZ Arietis warp gate, but instead his forces had made an abrupt course change. "Garret is a sorcerer. How can he always know what is coming?" Liang spoke under his breath, for no one's ears but his own. He could feel the sweaty clamminess on the back of his neck. If Garret escaped, Liang knew he was finished. He wouldn't even be able to kill himself, because Li An would target her retribution on his family. God, that woman is evil, he thought. I must not fail.

  He watched the final update on Garret's force as it moved out of range of his last scanner buoy. "I want the enemy's course adjustment analyzed immediately. Have the computer generate likely courses based on the observed data." Liang was a competent commander, but he completely lacked the intuition and gut instincts that made an admiral like Garret so formidable.

  "Admiral Liang, sir." Commander Deng was Liang's operations officer. "Is it possible they are changing course for the 111 Tauri warp gate?"

  Liang considered the idea. He could only assume that Garret had detected his scanner buoys and was reacting accordingly. Still, even if he knew there was a threat, he couldn't know what or where yet. Liang's forces were dark, sitting motionless 30 light minutes from Garret's presumed exit warp gate. There was no way he could have picked them up.

  "111 Tauri is a dead end." Liang was skeptical. "If he is heading there he is planning to go dark and hide in the system." That doesn't sound like Garret, he thought. If he goes in there we can blockade him at the warp gate, and he's got no way to resupply. "I do not believe Admiral Garret will flee like that. He would be cut off with no means of resupply."

  "He knows we cannot stay here indefinitely, sir." Deng's voice wavered slightly. He wasn't disagreeing with the admiral exactly, but he was pressing his point more aggressively than CAC officers usually did with such highly ranked officers. "He may feel he can outwait us."

  Deng was a good officer, and Liang tended to take his advice seriously. But he just couldn't believe Garret was going to turn tail go dark in a dead end system. And it wasn't Deng who would end up being dissected by Li An's inquisitors. "No, Admiral Garret is not going to run and hide. One way or another, he is planning to go through the TZ Arietis gate. This is an evasive maneuver, and nothing more." He stood up and stared at the large viewscreen, which displayed the plot of Garret's ships as they left the range of the scanner buoys. "All ships are to power up immediately." He turned to face Deng. "Plot a course back to the TZ Arietis warp gate. I want the fleet to assume an intercept position directly in front of the gate. Prepare a spread of probes positioned out from the gate extending our detection range." I'm not taking your bait, Liang thought. You are still planning to go to TZ Arietis, and I'm going to be right here waiting for you.

  "Dammit, they are getting smarter." Garret had intended to speak quietly to himself, though his words came out louder than he'd expected. The task force had used the gravity of the AD Leonis primary to slingshot around and change its vector, allowing it to approach the exit warp gate with far greater velocity than would otherwise have been possible. It was a complex maneuver for an entire fleet, and only Garret's crack team could have managed it. But in the end it was just a fancy way of rushing toward the warp gate right through anything that stood in the way.

  The first spread of probes had found the enemy positioned along the straight line course Garret's force would have taken had they not stumbled on the enemy scanner buoys. They'd been sitting motionless on minimal power, so the probes missed them at first, but then they powered up and began to exert thrust. Suddenly, five of Garret's drones were transmitting a steady flow of information - location, force composition, thrust direction.

  Garret now knew he faced a substantial CAC task force. The enemy outnumbered him, but not by so much that he'd run from the fight. If he had missiles and bombers that is, which he didn't. There was no way he could take on a superior force with almost no missiles. His ships would be ravaged by unanswered volleys before they were in energy weapon range. The only option was to race them to the warp gate. His slingshot maneuver had him coming in at a much greater velocity than the enemy, but he also had farther to go. It was going to be a close race, but he was going to lose it. He'd hoped the enemy commander would chase him in-system, but his adversary didn't take the bait.

  Now he was going to have to go right through the CAC force at high velocity and take whatever they dished out. The inevitable missile barrage was going to hurt, even more so because his ships were p
acked tightly together. At this velocity they were going to have a limited ability to quickly change vectors, and his formation was constrained by the need to insure that all his ships would pass through the transit horizon of the warp gate. Any ships that missed the gate would be left alone in the system and, presumably, hunted down and destroyed by the enemy fleet.

  He was still troubled at the enemy presence in the system. There was no strategic reason for them to be here. He couldn't imagine how they could have known that his force was coming this way - his departure had been a closely guarded secret. All communications and travel to and from Gliese had been suspended to insure that his fleet would be well away before any leaks could occur.

  "Sir, the enemy forces have reached their position. They have decelerated to nearly a dead stop, directly across our path to the warp gate." Simon's voice was tense and labored. They were all on edge, he knew...and it wasn't easy to speak at all with the g forces they were currently experiencing.

  Garret was frustrated. He was accustomed to having the initiative in a combat situation, and his crews were used to it too. But this time he was most definitely reacting, choosing the least-bad strategy since there really weren't any good options.

  "Understood, lieutenant." He took a deep breath and exhaled...not an easy thing to do at this level of acceleration. "All ships are to continue in accordance with the thrust plan." Garret had ordered the fleet AI to generate a plan to allow for maximum thrust until transit. All ships directly on a line for the warp gate would thrust full the entire time. Vessels further on the flanks of the formation would alter their thrust angles to reposition their vectors for warp gate insertion. They'd have a lot of ships going through very close to each other, but Garret didn't see any other options. As usual, none of this was by the "book," but he thought it was the best way to save his people.

  "I want all ships on full defensive alert. All crews are to focus on anti-missile defense." Even his heavy batteries would be targeted on incoming missiles. They weren't terribly effective for that kind of fire, but Garret wanted anything he could get. "Full damage control procedures." For the most part these orders were designed to make his people feel engaged. The fleet was accelerating at 10g, and the crews were pretty much stuck in their couches, uncomfortable and sluggish. But it helped if they felt they were accomplishing something. Their course was highly predictable, but there was no way around that...not if they were going to get through the warp gate.