Only the Brave by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Publisher
Published: 2018-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

 Forrest sat in her office, trying to look over a series of personnel reports, attempting to drown herself in the comforting tedium of administrative trivia. Sometimes it could be effective, and sometimes it wasn’t. This was one of those times, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the battle that was to come. There was nothing she could do to influence events, not now, no ability to plan for the fighting until they saw exactly what they were up against.

 She only knew that they had to make the attempt, whatever the ultimate cost turned out to be. Too much was at stake to hold back, and they had every opportunity of striking a killer blow to the Guild, one that might end this war in a single battle. Rising from her chair, she walked over to the tactical display on the wall, looking at their entry vector into the system.

 Long-range sensors had picked up interdimensional traffic on a scale she’d rarely seen before. More than enough to mask their arrival. The system itself was a strange one, orbital space cluttered with the remains of a host of planets, disrupted by the arrival of the black hole into the system in the distant past, the same singularity that was slowly eating away at the brown dwarf star at the heart of the system.

 Five hundred years ago, this discovery would have been the scientific breakthrough of the century, scores of ships entering the system to examine the miraculous find, the first black hole within range of humanity. Instead, they were planning to use the gravitational anomaly as a weapon, to sneak into the system and get close enough to launch their attack without being detected. There were enough blind spots scattered around, and with a little creative piloting, Lincoln should be able to get inside without triggering the Guilder sensor web.

 Assuming that the data they had on the system was accurate, and that Lincoln’s gravimetric calculators were working as they should. And that the enemy hadn’t managed to cover the whole system, and had left open the gaps she was expecting. It was a strange place to mobilize a fleet, but that might have been the idea, to choose a spot that she wouldn’t have expected, to launch their surprise attack as they hoped.

 Or, of course, it could be a trap, and one that she had stepped right into.

 “Captain,” Kirkland’s voice said, echoing over the ceiling speaker. “Emergence in four minutes, ma’am. You asked to be notified.”

 “Indeed. All hands to battle stations, Commander. I’m on my way.”

 “Aye, ma’am.” There was an audible click, and Kirkland continued, “All hands, this is the Exec. Battle stations, battle stations. Prepare for hostile emergence. Fighters prepare for scramble on request. I repeat, scramble on request. Department heads report status to the bridge on the double. That is all.”

 Forrest walked out of her office, stepping onto the bridge, Kirkland standing to attention as she entered the room, before moving back to the tactical desk.

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