Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9), Glynn Stewart [reading well .TXT] 📗

The Infinite force was spread out across a sphere at least three light-seconds wide. That expanded their visibility bubble, assuming they relayed sensor information to each other, to roughly five light-seconds.

It was the same stunt that their fleet was pulling with sensor drones and spreading out their own escorts. The Bucklers and their Laian equivalents weren’t out yet, but they would interface with the sensor drones to provide an extra two light-seconds of bubble—with the Bucklers at one light-second and the sensor drones at two—in which to engage incoming missiles reliably.

The issue was that if Morgan looked at the blockading fleet’s anomalies, there were clear layers of anomalies that showed the different ships and positions. There were no such layers in the anomaly she was seeing of the Infinite—which suggested a sphere of full-size bioforms three light-seconds across. One that was dense enough to cause problems with identifying individual creatures.

However Morgan cut those numbers, that was a lot of Infinite bioforms. The only real good news was that the anomaly scanner had lightspeed delays in hyperspace, too. They could see where the Infinite had been two hours before and estimate where they were now, but the Infinite wouldn’t see them until the light from their arrival reached the aliens.

And at a combined relative velocity of over ninety-three percent of lightspeed, they would very nearly be in range when that happened.

The drones arrived first, their anomalies glittering snow across Morgan’s displays as they descended on the Infinite swarm. Pincer Korodaun clearly believed in quantity over quality, as there were easily thousands of the robotic spacecraft zooming in on the Infinite fleet.

And if there had been any question that this group of Infinite knew everything Tan!Stalla had done to the last group of Infinite, it was answered the moment the probes came within a million kilometers of the outer perimeter.

From the main fleet’s range, they couldn’t pick out individual plasma bursts. They could barely resolve individual sensor probes, and they knew the courses those were supposed to follow—but Morgan could tell when hundreds of probes died.

The snow metaphor came back to her mind as the dusting of tiny anomalies melted away as the Infinite opened fire. The Laians had sent thousands forward…and thousands died.

“We’re not going to get detailed targeting data, sir,” Morgan told Tan!Stalla quietly. “They’ve worked out what we did last time, and they’re not going to let our drones get close enough to pick up data—let alone survive to return with it.”

She was reporting the obvious, but someone had to say it. What little battle plan they had had been predicated on being able to identify their targets. Now… Now they were going to be loosing their missiles effectively blind into a swarm a million kilometers across. The missiles’ tiny brains would have to identify targets and calculate vectors in the final moments of their flight.

They were designed for that, but it was still a big ask.

“Vector-change orders from the flag,” Nitik reported. “Passing them on to the rest of the fleet. We will reverse course along this vector at fifty-two light-seconds and let their velocity bring them into missile range.”

“We’ll stick with the Laians,” Tan!Stalla confirmed. “Those orders are confirmed.”

They had enough time still. Not a lot of time, but enough. Thirty seconds passed while the orders were distributed, then the fleet flipped in a smooth maneuver any parade ground would have been proud of.

Twelve seconds to completely reverse a velocity of point-six c. The interface drive had its limits, but it also had clear advantages over the enemy’s drive.

The combined fleet completed the maneuver at exactly fifty-two light-seconds from the estimated position of the Infinite fleet…and waited.

Instead of rushing toward each other, the blockaders were now moving away from the Infinite. A stern chase was a long chase—except that, in this case, the pursuers had a velocity edge of twenty-seven percent of lightspeed.

Because even when they were running away, Morgan reflected, relativity was still going to screw with them.

“Range,” Ashmore breathed, the word echoing across the silent bridge. “All ships engaging. Scatterplot Seventeen.”

At least the targeting-convention name was honest. They had no detailed information on the force represented by the anomaly they saw. All they had was its vector. The reduced maneuverability of the Infinite made them more vulnerable than interface-drive ships, but one-point-five percent of lightspeed per second was still enough to throw off targeting solutions.

And the blockading fleet didn’t even have targeting solutions.

What they did have was ten Laian war-dreadnoughts, each host to almost two thousand missile launchers, backed by fifty Laian cruisers, sixteen A!Tol superbattleships, sixteen A!Tol battleships, forty-eight A!Tol heavy cruisers and eight A!Tol destroyers.

If the cascade of sensor drones before had been a light dusting snowfall, the missile salvos were a blizzard, a solid block of icons that almost blocked the Infinite’s anomaly from view. For a moment, the fleet’s sheer firepower gave Morgan hope.

Hope she, of everyone on the bridge, knew had to be false.

“Anomaly contacts detected,” Ashmore said, his voice…wooden. Not flat. Not level. Not calm. Wooden, in the space beyond reasonable fear. “Estimate one million–plus missiles inbound.”

One. Million.

Morgan had to verify it for herself and swallowed a moment of fear as she saw the scans. This time, the Infinite anomaly was blacked out. There was no way they could derive anomalies for individual missiles…and she knew, having done the analysis, that this was still a light missile armament for the force the Infinite had sent out.

“New vector orders from the flag,” Nitik snapped. “All ships swing ninety degrees port and go to maximum sprint speed if we have it.”

“Do it,” Tan!Stalla barked.

Morgan felt Jean Villeneuve struggle beneath her. Even the point-six c they’d sustained to keep up with the Laians was above their rated cruise speed, but it wasn’t their full emergency sprint. That was point-six-five c…or twenty percent of lightspeed less than the hurricane of missiles coming their way.

Their vector change would get them clear of the Infinite, but it wouldn’t do so fast enough to