A Question of Faith: A Castle Federation Novella by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
Published: 2020-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

“Alcubierre emergences!”

Darius had been waiting for the report. Now he waited patiently for the expanding network of sensor probes and his tactical teams to tell him just what he was looking at.

“We’ve got eight emergence signatures,” Barre reported as the data flowed to her console and implant. “Engines are online; we’re looking at about eleven million tons apiece. Resolving volume as they close, but that sounds like neutronium-armor battleships to me.”

“And me,” Darius confirmed. “And the right number of ships to be Admiral von Santiago.”

“What do we do, sir?” Barre asked.

“What we have to,” he said calmly. “Formation Delta-Zulu-Nine on their approach vector. Maintain battle stations and get me an ETA for their arrival.”

“Understood.”

DZ-9 appeared straightforward enough, but its true purpose was to conceal Vagabond from the Imperium. For the opening salvos, at least, the rest of the Counter-Clockward Fleet would cover the new battleship from the enemy.

Even as Barre was passing his orders, Darius was running the timeline of von Santiago’s arrival. Something didn’t add up.

“Barre, take a look at this once the orders are passed,” he told her quietly, tossing what he was looking at onto the main display. It was timing. It was all timing.

She blinked away the coms and studied it.

“They would have arrived just in time to see us launch the Marines,” Barre noted. “Gives them quite the casus belli, sir. Whoever set this mess up for them did a damn good job.”

“Indeed,” Darius murmured, considering the situation. “I need the q-probe net adjusted as so,” he continued, sending her new layout. “Standard battle focus on the Imperials—but let’s keep our eyes on the asteroid belts. As we move out to intercept von Santiago, we become more vulnerable to an A-S ambush.”

“I don’t think anyone is foolish enough to thread the needle like that, sir,” she replied.

Taking a warp-space bubble within about ten light-minutes of a star or a couple of light-minutes of a planet or gas giant was dangerous. Activating one in that gravity shadow was effectively impossible, but you could take a ship into the shadow under the Alcubierre-Stetson drive.

It required a careful balance of power, gravity and navigation. Meeting the perfect requirements to do so without wrecking your ship was possible, but incredibly difficult—hence “threading the needle.”

“An in-system jump like that would be preprogrammed,” he noted. “You wouldn’t be jumping into the shadow of Iceni, just pushing the edge of Boudicca’s grav well. It would be safe enough.”

“Short-range jumps take days to get calculated. It wouldn’t be worth it,” she argued.

“Except they hit Defiant days ago and haven’t done anything since,” Darius countered. “That fleet has had days to program their jump. And if they’re coordinating with von Santiago, they knew where she’d come in from.”

“Even if they didn’t,” Barre admitted, “there was no reason to do anything fancy. Sir…what do we do?”

“Von Santiago’s sensor data is going to be pretty damning,” he told her. “She arrives at a planet that’s clearly been bombarded, with the fortresses wrecked and the capital burning—and then sees us drop Marines.

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