Valiant

“We’re still getting a count. Roughly nine hundred fleet personnel and eighteen Marines. Captain Cresida insisted on most of them going to Furious, Implacable, and the heavy cruisers with the formation even though the battleships wanted some. Captain Casia did intercept a few shuttle loads for Conqueror.” Carabali’s tone made it clear that she didn’t consider it the Marines’ job to straighten out disputes among fleet officers. “Apparently other Alliance prisoners were taken to other Syndic ships while we were gone from Lakota, so there are more somewhere in this star system. Merchant ships pressed into service as prisoner haulers, according to the ones we liberated. Any chance we can get them?”

“Not much, and getting less by the second.” The Syndic pursuit force could appear at any moment, and the more time that passed, the more likely it would show up very soon. “We only overran two Syndic merchant ships near us, and both were full of supplies. There are a couple dozen more merchant ships visible in this star system, but they’re out of our reach, and we can’t tell what they’re carrying. Since we haven’t spotted any labor camps in this star system with Alliance personnel in them, our personnel taken prisoner might have been on other ships that quickly left this star system.”

“I understand, sir. We’re preparing to pull out of Audacious,” Colonel Carabali reported. “What do we do with what’s left of the ship?”

Geary grimaced. As much as he wanted to save that ship, what remained of Audacious couldn’t possibly defend itself, couldn’t possibly keep up with the fleet, couldn’t be towed without hazarding the rest of the fleet, and probably couldn’t be repaired at all even in the best shipyard imaginable. A brave warship now faced only one possible fate, the scrap-yard. And there wasn’t any sense in letting the Syndics have that metal. “Can we blow her power core?”

“Yes, sir. It’s plenty strong enough to do the job.”

“Then set it for overload in six hours and get out of there.”

Six hours should be plenty of time. He couldn’t imagine any circumstances under which the Alliance fleet would have more time than that to hang around the Casualty Flotilla.

“Wait!” That was Rione, leaning in to speak to Geary, her face intent. “Hold off on deciding to destroy Audacious that way.”

Geary sighed and spoke to the Marine again. “Belay that. Don’t set her for overload yet. Hold on a moment.” Then he turned to face Rione. “Why not blow up Audacious? Why let the Syndics have her back?”

“I’m not suggesting giving that ship back to the Syndics,” Rione replied coldly. “There are a great many Syndic warships in pursuit of us, and we could use any available weapon to balance the odds. Rig the ship so it will explode not at a set time but when the Syndics reoccupy it.”

He couldn’t avoid a grimace at the thought. Still, as distasteful as booby traps were, they were acceptable weapons in cases like this. Then another thought came on the heels of that. “Maybe we should rig all of the ships to explode their power cores when the Syndics reoccupy them.”

Desjani, overhearing, twisted her mouth in an annoyed expression. “Too bad that won’t hurt them until our battle in this system is over.”

“Well, yeah,” Geary agreed, “but it’s not like we can…” His voice trailed off, and he gave Desjani a startled look.

Her eyes widened. “All of those abandoned Syndic warships with functioning power cores. If we can rig the Syndic ships to explode when we want them to-”

“Like mines?”

“Exactly like mines! Huge mines set for proximity detonations! We’d just have to lure the Syndic pursuit force close enough to the Casualty Flotilla.”

“That’d be one hell of a minefield. Can we make it work?” he asked Desjani.

She spun to face her engineering watch-stander. “Lieutenant Nicodeom, give me an assessment of whether or not we can rig an abandoned Syndic warship to function like a mine, exploding its power core when a target enters an engagement envelope.”

The engineering lieutenant looked surprised, then thoughtful. “The easiest way to do it would probably be to use a mine fuse rigged to the power-core control systems. It’d take some work, Captain, because they’d have to adjust the smart fuse’s programming to reflect the estimated kill radius of the power core, factor in the time delay for bringing each ship’s core to overload, run some control cables, and work out the interfaces with Syndic core control systems. ”

“Where are the resources in the fleet to do that?” Desjani demanded.

“The best weapons engineers in the fleet are on the auxiliaries, Captain. That’s also where we’d get the mine fuses. You’d have to get the auxiliaries to the Syndic ship you wanted rigged with the fuse or else use shuttles to ferry personnel and gear from the auxiliaries to the Syndic ship.”

Desjani’s smile grew so broad it threatened to split her face. “Did you hear all of that, sir?”