True Allegiance: Book 3 of the Halberd Series by John Spearman

Author:John Spearman [Spearman, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-24T05:00:00+00:00

23

With time running out, the Commonwealth fleet scrambled to set up a new missile gauntlet, using the stocks of Vulcan missiles on the ships. Each of the battlecruisers contributed 800 and the dreadnoughts 1,000. Each ship was left with 200 missiles. Jonah checked and double-checked the astrographic figures to determine as precisely as possible where the Chinese fleet would enter normal space if they dropped out of hyper thirty light-minutes early. The gauntlet created was narrower than the one at the regular corridor exit, and the missiles were not as well dispersed.

Flight time for the array of 4,400 Vulcan missiles would be roughly 34 seconds if the Chinese fleet exited precisely where the astrographic calculations indicated. Due to the margin of error in the calculations, Jonah did not dare to put them any closer. Each salvo of defense missiles from the Chinese would destroy 1,500 missiles. At 34 seconds, the last 1,400 missiles would detonate, one second after the Chinese’ third salvo of defense missiles. With such a brief time for the defense missiles to reach them, some Vulcans might survive to unleash their deadly x-ray lasers.

Once the Commonwealth fleet offloaded the missiles, it proceeded further into deep space. The fleet stopped and turned back, accelerating to match the 0.23c speed at which the Chinese fleet would be traveling when it returned to normal space, thirty light-minutes short of the normal corridor exit. There was no time to spare.

With two hours remaining, Jonah went to his office and called Amy. It was mid-morning for her on Lutetia in the city of New Paris. When she answered, she held up her finger for him to wait, got up, and closed the door of the office she was using.

“Hey, baby,” she greeted him when she sat back down, “normally, you just send me a lame text before you get in trouble.”

“Hey,” Jonah protested, “you said yourself that I was better in Patagonia.”

“Okay, okay,” she agreed dismissively.

“So,” he started, after taking a deep breath, “here I am again.”

Amy waited while Jonah struggled to find the words for what he wanted to say.

“We’re as well-prepared as we’re going to be,” he explained, “but it’s still going to be… crap… this is hard for me. I focus on what I can do, and I take things as they unfold and what happens, happens. It’s how I’ve dealt with it and…but now, it’s not just me. You’re a part of me, and I owe you—”

“Jonah,” Amy interrupted, placing her fingers on the screen as her eyes welled with tears, “I love you. I love that you’re trying to reassure me. Don’t worry about the things you can’t control. Do what you do, take things as they come, and be who you are.”

“Okay,” Jonah said uncertainly.

“This was a really bad idea…you calling me,” Amy remarked. “Let’s go back to your lame text messages from now on, okay?”

“Okay. I love you, Amy.”

“I love you, Jonah.” She closed the connection.

Jonah took a minute or two to recollect himself. He put on his ship suit, then left his quarters.

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