In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V-ARC (20 page)

“Don’t be absurd,” Mercier scoffed. “Besides, if he was, why turn off the stealthing? Unless you think it might have failed.”

“No,” Charles said firmly, looking over at the tactical display. Mercier was right: if the
Ellipsis
’s stealthing hadn’t been on earlier, the
Derfflinger
’s sensors would have spotted it long ago. So why turn it off now?

Unless Tyler
wanted
Rabenstrange to see him.

A hard knot settled into Charles’s stomach as he looked at the display with new eyes. There was no way Tyler could have known exactly which approach vector Rabenstrange would come in on. But what he
could
do was quietly move the
Ellipsis
to a particular point, and then time his appearance from stealth in order to nudge the
Derfflinger
onto a pursuit vector.

A carefully prepared pursuit vector…

“Tell me something,” he murmured to Mercier, looking back at his reader. “That tender we brought to Karavani to fix any damage the
Ellipsis
might sustain in that raid. It was a general supply/repair/ammunition ship, right?”

“Correct,” Mercier said.

“Loaded with a typical grab-bag of weaponry?”

“Again, yes,” Mercier said. “What are you—?”

“Including a selection of laser-head mines?”

For a moment Mercier just stared dumfounded at Charles. Then, the corners of his lip twitched. “Excellent,” he said. “Well done, Captain.”

“You think so?” Charles bit out, fighting to hold onto his temper. “Let me set you straight. It may not matter to you whether or not you die today. But if Tyler succeeds in luring us into a minefield, the whole plan will die right here and now.”

“What are you talking about?” Mercier asked, frowning. “Destroying the
Derfflinger
would be perfect.”

“No, it would be disastrous,” Charles retorted, gazing intently down at the reader, knowing that every
Totenkopf
eye was on them. He had to make this look good. “Think it through. The
Ellipsis
has to be seen coming out of a wormhole—well, Tyler’s screwed that part up already. But never mind. More importantly, he has to be seen in Manty uniform, he has to challenge Rabenstrange with Manty claims to the system,
and
he has to inflict some serious damage before supposedly popping back down the rabbit hole. All of that requires
that he leave some actual survivors.
”

Mercier’s expression abruptly changed. “Oh, hell,” he murmured. “But there would still be escape pods, right?”

“After a bunch of mines have delivered a down-the-throat X-ray laser barrage?” Charles asked. “You tell me. Besides, a few random engine room or medic staff survivors would be useless—they won’t have seen any of the show we’ve worked so hard to set up. Whatever else happens, the command deck has
got
to survive intact, or this whole thing will have been for nothing.”

Mercier swore viciously. “Damn him to hell,” he muttered. “What do we do?”

“We get off this vector as fast as we can,” Charles said grimly, pointing to a random part of the reader’s display. “Here—we’ve just discovered indications that the wormhole terminus is on a vector about ten degrees starboard of us.
That’s
what we really want to go look at, not some random marauding Manty ship. Think you can convince Rabenstrange of that?”

“Why me?” Mercier countered. “You’re the one he likes.”

“No, I’m the one he doesn’t trust,” Charles countered, thrusting the reader into his hands. “It has to be you.”

“He’s not going to believe me,” Mercier insisted, his voice starting to sound a little ragged as he took the reader. “What do I show him for proof? A random page from—what is that?—
A Study in Scarlet
?”

“It’s overlay-encrypted,” Charles explained patiently. “That’s all you have to say—I gave him that same spiel a couple of days ago. Now
go.
”

For a moment Mercier gazed at the reader in silence. “Fine,” he said. “Wait here. I’ll take care of it.”

He headed toward the command chair. The two
Totenkopfs
standing guard there moved to cut off his approach, stopped at a word from Rabenstrange and allowed him to pass. Mercier stepped to the admiral’s side, and for a minute they spoke together in voices too low for Charles to hear. Rabenstrange nodded, and as Mercier walked away he turned to Captain Preis and murmured new orders.

“Well?” Charles asked as Mercier returned.

“He agrees that three vessels will be able to herd the Manty ship more efficiently than one,” Mercier said calmly. “So he’s going to take my suggestion and move the two LACs into flanking positions outside our wedge.”

Charles felt his mouth drop open. “
What?
”

“You were concerned that the
Derfflinger
might die with all aboard,” Mercier reminded him. “A group of mines facing a superdreadnought and two LACs will certainly ignore the smaller ships, which means there will now be at least two LACs’ worth of survivors. And since Tyler will be delivering his message on broadcast instead of tight beam, they’ll see and thus be able to report everything.” Giving Charles a tight smile, he walked away.

Charles stared after him, his pulse thudding in his throat. So the
Derfflinger
would be destroyed, Rabenstrange would be killed, and the Emperor would declare war within hours of hearing the news. All nice and neat and made to order.

Never mind that Mercier himself would die along with everyone else. From his point of view, this was indeed the ideal solution.
True Believer
…

“You all right?”

Charles started. With his brain and gut tied in knots, he hadn’t even noticed Weiss’s arrival. “No, I’m not,” he said, trying desperately to get his brain on line again. Rabenstrange might not listen to him, but he would certainly listen to Weiss. “I can’t shake the feeling that we’re in danger.”

“We’re a warship,” Weiss said dryly. “We’re allowed to be in danger.”

“Not like this,” Charles insisted. “There’s something wrong here. I can feel it.”

“Relax,
Herr
Navarre,” Weiss said, an edge of amusement to his grimness. “We’re a superdreadnought. They’re a heavy cruiser. There’s very little they can do to trouble us unless we get careless.”

“I know,” Charles said. “It’s just…listen, did you read the report of Honor Harrington’s escape from the Peep prison planet?”

“I read what the Manties released,” Weiss said, frowning. “Plus the extra material Imperial Intelligence was able to get. Why?”

“I keep thinking about the way she hit that incoming Peep task force, the attack that got her the rest of the transport capability she needed to get the prisoners out,” Charles said. “As I understand it, she basically slid up between the two halves of the force on her thrusters, and since she didn’t have her wedge up and blazing she was able to sneak into energy range before they even spotted her.”

“Mainly because the Peeps were being sloppy and not doing proper scans,” Weiss said slowly. “But I see your point. You think there’s an ambush waiting out there that the cruiser is trying to draw us into?”

“I don’t know,” Charles said, feeling sweat gathering beneath his collar as he carefully walked his delicate line. He couldn’t have the
Derfflinger
destroyed, but he also couldn’t have Rabenstrange break off the pursuit completely. “All I know is that something about this is popping red flags like crazy.”

“Let me talk to the
Herr
Herzog,” Weiss said. He smiled faintly. “The fact that Charles Navarre is actually concerned—about anything—is all by itself worth bringing to his attention.”

He left Charles’s side and moved over to the command chair. This time, the
Totenkopfs
didn’t need to be told to let him through. For a moment he and Rabenstrange conversed, again too quietly for Charles to listen in. Then, with a nod, Weiss stepped away.

Again, Rabenstrange spoke to the flag captain, who nodded and stepped over to the communications station. As he finished, Rabenstrange swiveled around, caught Charles’s eye, and gestured him forward. Suppressing a grimace, Charles obeyed.

“My cryptologists have been looking over the data chip you gave them,” Rabenstrange commented as Charles arrived beside him. “So far, they haven’t been able to find the overlay code you spoke of.”

“I’m not really surprised, My Lord,” Charles said. “As I mentioned, my life out here depends on no one figuring out they have an investigative journalist looking over their shoulders. If you’d like, I’d be happy to decode a copy of the references for you.”

“Perhaps later.” Rabenstrange nodded toward the screen and the starscape in front of them. “I understand you’re concerned that we’re flying into an ambush. Any particular reason why?”

“Not really, My Lord,” Charles said, painfully aware of the two watchful Marines standing bare centimeters away from him. “But in my line of work, you learn not to ignore your gut feelings.”

“And yet that same gut tells you that Manticore might actually be foolish enough to precipitate a war with the Empire while still fighting for her life against Haven?”

Charles shrugged. “I know it sounds insane, My Lord,” he conceded. “But politicians sometimes do insane things. Who knows what the Manties might do in response to a perceived threat against their legitimate security concerns?”

Rabenstrange snorted, a gentle, thoughtful sound. “Interesting that you should put it that way,” he murmured, his voice that of someone drifting into memory. “Several years ago I sat in my quarters aboard this very ship with a rising young Manty officer. I remember saying those exact words to her: ‘No one can predict where competing ambition and completely legitimate security concerns will lead interstellar powers.’ ”

“Perhaps one of those tipping points has been reached,” Charles offered. “Perhaps
Herr
Mercier is right, that the Star Kingdom of that long-past conversation no longer exists.”

“Perhaps,” Rabenstrange said. “We shall soon see.”

*
   
*
   
*

“The
Derfflinger
is approaching the mine field,” the
Ellipsis
’s sensor officer reported. “Still bearing true.”

“Acknowledged,” Tyler said, smiling in satisfaction and anticipation. At the
Derfflinger
’s current speed and acceleration, Rabenstrange would have perhaps twenty seconds between the time the mines activated, lighting off their drives and heading directly toward the superdreadnought, and the point where their laser heads burst into a searing torrent of X-rays and flooded the ship with death.

A death that would be as complete as it was awesome. The
Derfflinger
was coming straight into the field, which meant the mines’ energy bursts wouldn’t even have to expend any of their energy cutting through the ship’s sidewalls. They would have a clear shot straight down the Andermani’s throat.

Tyler gave a little snort of contempt. And those twenty seconds would be just enough time for Rabenstrange to see that death coming, and to realize it was his blundering that had killed his ship and his crew. “Still bearing true?” he asked, just to make sure.

“Yes, sir,” the sensor officer said, peering closely at one of his displays. “But the LACs have altered position. They’ve moved from flanking points to a lead-and-tail configuration: one ahead and slightly above the
Derfflinger,
the other astern and beneath.”

Tyler snorted again, but this time it was a snort of contempt. So Rabenstrange had finally started to wonder if this was too easy, and had sent his LACs ahead and behind to take the brunt of any sneak attack that might be lurking along his path. So much for any propaganda that the Empire’s leaders actually cared about the lives of their subjects. Rabenstrange had sent the LACs’ crews out to die in his place, probably without even a second thought.

But it would do him no good. The mines weren’t especially smart, but they weren’t stupid, either. Their computers would have no trouble picking out the better target and locking onto it. All Rabenstrange would accomplish by putting the LACs out there would be to leave a few witnesses behind.

Which was all to the good, of course.
Someone
had to survive to take back word of the attack, along with a recording of the speech Citizen Charles had written for Tyler to deliver. After all, New Berlin had to know who exactly to declare war on.
 

He took a final look around his bridge, taking in the Manty equipment and Manty uniforms all around him, preparing to deliver his message with full Manty arrogance. The Emperor would know, all right.

And by the time the
Ellipsis
arrived back at Haven for its heroes’ welcome, the Star Kingdom would be in a two-front war even they couldn’t possibly win.

“Ninety seconds to minefield,” the sensor officer announced.

“Acknowledged,” Tyler said. Smiling again, he settled back to watch the show.

*
   
*
   
*

Charles was standing silently beside Weiss, gazing across the bridge and wondering what death would feel like, when the tactical display abruptly exploded into activity. “Mines!” the tactical officer snapped. “
Many
mines, one point three million klicks, bearing zero-zero-two, zero-one-zero!”

Charles caught his breath, staring at the swarm of wedges arrowing straight toward the
Derfflinger
’s bow. So that was it. He’d been right, all the way. Tyler had sprung his trap, and there was no way Rabenstrange or anyone else would be able to react before the terrible energies of those mines slashed through its open throat, killing and destroying everything in their path.

“Acceleration zero,” Captain Preis called, his voice calm and even.

“No!” Charles barked reflexively. Killing the
Derfflinger
’s forward acceleration was exactly the
wrong
thing to do. Preis had to use that acceleration to twist the ship sideways, to try to put as much of sidewalls as possible between them and the approaching laser heads. “Captain—”

He broke off as Weiss grabbed his arm. “Wait,” the other said, his voice as calm as Preis’s.