Page 101 of Defiant

“Just have the computer handle it, Commander,” Becca said.

“Yes, sir,” Xinyi said with a soft sigh, then she stepped back and gave the order to the computer system—which responded with speed and efficiency, sorting out flightleaders and sending the instructions to them directly.

At that, Becca heard several crewmembers at the navigation system hesitate. They’d been arguing about how to work out a quirk in the system, which was expending too much energy boosting bothright and left at the same time. After a moment, one of them gave an order to the computer, which deactivated the boosters.

So much distrust of computerized systems. Yes, the ship had unchangeable protocols that wouldn’t let it fly itself—a human had to actively be in command. But that didn’t mean you had to distrust it entirely. She’d given her crew an order yesterday to use the computers when needed; indeed, they wouldn’t be able to get far manually with only a few days’ worth of training.

Regardless, it was difficult for them to trust a mind that wasn’t organic. Their distrust stretched back centuries, due to the way machines tended to start asking questions back at you if you used them too much. Not to mention the fact that delvers were attracted to thinking machines.

Becca could hear the nervousness in the crew’s voices. Consoles chiming in with information. Hurried footsteps on carpet. They knew. All it took was one glance at the arrayed enemy forces, and anyone would know. This was going to be a difficult fight. Nearly impossible.

Fortunately, Becca had studied the great military minds of the past. She knew every story of a general, warlord, or conqueror—many of which hadn’t even been in the surviving archives. She had spent a lifetime pondering the actions of people in situations like this.

That was a huge advantage. Because Becca Nightshade knew just enough to realize she couldn’t lead this battle. You didn’t win battles by reading about them. You won battles by living through them. She was an important figurehead, and was proud of her seat in this chair. But when Jorgen had asked her, she had told him the truth. She was no strategist.

“Send to the admiral,” Becca said, “that I’m still waiting on those kitsen battle strategies.”

“They’re coming in now, sir,” Xinyi said. Indeed, Becca brought them up on her touch monitor, reading quickly. Then she nodded; thiswas one of the battle plans they’d discussed ahead of time. The kitsen generals were taking it and tweaking it for the current situation.

“Computer,” she said, “flightleaders on screen.”

“Done,” the computer said.

“Flightleaders,” Becca said, addressing the screen—she could feel on her touch monitor that the flightleaders had appeared there. “Our battle plan is in, and it’s as we drilled. Your focus will be on those inhibitor stations. If we can capture or disable enough of them, Detritus can hyperjump closer, and it is worth a dozen capital ships.

“Everything depends on those inhibitors. I know the forces we’re facing look intimidating, but remember: our planet itself is a weapon. It could blast apart those enemy capital ships as if they were made of paper—if we can get it in range. Our task is to make that possible. Questions?”

“Captain,” a voice said in a foreign language, Becca’s console translating. It was from one of the UrDail flightleaders. “If wedojump Detritus in closer, won’t the enemy just fall back to another safe position? The planet is impressive, but it’s barely mobile.”

“Indeed,” Becca agreed. “We’ll have to fight for every meter of this battlefield—but if we get in close enough, we’ll be able to threaten their command station.”

“Assuming they don’t just jump it away,” the same UrDail said, “once we get into range.”

“In which case they’ll abandon the other inhibitors for us to capture,” Becca said. “Beyond that, our orders are to get our own inhibitors close enough to prevent the enemy from escaping—once we inevitably surprise them by defeating their force, despite our smaller numbers.”

With all those mobile inhibitors arrayed in space around Evensong, the battlefield felt like an asteroid field. No, a minefield—an enormous geometric shape made of tiny points, each one with a slug inside. The stations were actually far apart, on a ship scale. She could easily soar theDefiantbetween them, with kilometersof space on either side. Yet even while doing so, she was trapped by the inhibitor fields those slugs projected—they must be quite powerful.

Her forces’ slugs weren’t that strong, though the kitsen cytonics might be. At any rate, this battle was going to come down to who could control hyperjumping in the region. At least in terms of starfighter numbers, they were relatively equal. With the addition of the UrDail and the kitsen, the Defiant coalition had almost three hundred fighters. Becca hoped it would be enough, because the moment they got into range of those enemy battleships, theDefiantwould start taking bombardment from their giant destructors—and her primary concern would be making certain her shields didn’t fail. The fighters would mostly be on their own.

“Sir,” a voice said from the screen. Becca picked this one out.Human, feminine, but lower pitched. FM, one of Spensa’s friends. A lieutenant commander, who normally was on diplomatic duties. Today they needed every pilot they could afford.

“Yes, Commander?” Becca asked.

“We’re to neutralize enemy inhibitors,” FM said. “What does this mean, realistically?”

It had been a point of much discussion. Becca paused, then called Jorgen. “I’ll let Admiral Weight answer this one,” she said as he appeared on screen. “Sir, FM would like to know what their orders are, specifically, regarding the inhibitor stations and the taynix living inside them.”

The bridge grew still. So still, Becca could hear Jorgen’s nearly imperceptible sigh. She wouldn’t want to be in his position. He’d said they were here to liberate captives, but students of real battle knew that in order to liberate, you often had to bring destruction and pain to the very people you were trying to help.

“We should try to save the slugs first,” Jorgen said. “This goes for all flightleaders: our initial approach to the inhibitors should be one of liberation. See if your slugs can contact the slugs inside, and if there’s any way to persuade them to switch sides.”

“Thank you, sir,” FM said.

It wasn’t the decision Becca would have made. Trying to save the slugs first would probably cost lives and take precious time, but…well, Becca supposed that if they’d been solely interested in protecting their own lives, they’d have hyperjumped Detritus someplace far, far away long ago. They hadn’t done that. They’d made allies. They had determined to try to bring down the Superiority, not merely escape it.

Becca supposed that was what you got when you let the younger generation take over. The ones who hadn’t had their optimism beaten out of them yet. Good for them.

The flightleaders vanished, but judging by how she could still hear his soft breathing, Jorgen lingered on the screen. She checked on her touch monitor.

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