The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [119]
‘ … would be more advantageous to all concerned. I repeat, Commander, we are here to offer all and any assistance to the benefit of the Darien colony.’
‘I’m afraid that we must insist on a process of verification, Admiral Olarevic,’ said Ash. ‘We have a sensor probe in orbit around that gas giant. If you set course for it, we can easily verify your idents.’
The Vox Humana admiral gave a stiff nod. ‘Very well, Commander, we shall do as you suggest.’
Abruptly her image vanished from the screen.
‘Why is Ash having problems IDing their ship?’ Greg said.
‘He’s not,’ said Berg. ‘It’s the Imisil – they’re saying that such a generous offer of military assistance is atypical for the Vox Humana, who are usually rigorously neutral when it comes to conflicts involving Hegemony interest.’
‘So they’re here to either play some spoiler, disruptive role,’ Greg said, ‘or something’s happened to force them to actively support us because it’s in their interest. I’ve no idea what that could be but I’m pretty sure that you know more about the Vox Humana than I do.’
Berg shrugged. ‘I can’t say much, Mr Cameron, except to say that the Imisil are right about Vox H neutrality … ’
‘Sir, long-range sensors are picking up energy weapon emissions from the vicinity of the outer gas giant.’
In the next moment, the face of the Vox Humana admiral reappeared on the viewport overlay, as well as in Greg’s holopanel.
‘We are under attack!’ she said. ‘Did you plan this, Commander? Did you?’
In the other inset Ash’s face was affronted yet restrained.
‘Admiral, I give you my word that we have nothing to do with this. Have you identified the attackers yet?’
‘ … four … five, no six Ezgara destroyers. They did not show up on any scans but it seems that they came at us from concealments on one of the gas giant’s moons … ’
Greg noticed that Berg had suddenly become more focused on the Vox Humana admiral.
‘Six destroyers,’ the Tygran muttered. ‘That’s almost two-thirds of the fleet.’
‘Why would they commit such a high proportion?’ Greg said.
Berg gave a sour smile. ‘The “why” is tied up with the “who” – only Becker would browbeat the commanderies and the Bund into backing such a plan. But even six of our ships could not prevail against eighteen Vox H vessels, so this has to be a tactical move.’ Berg shrugged. ‘I’m sure Ash can see this and has a better idea of what’s going on.’
At this point the Vox Humana admiral had turned aside to deal with urgent matters, while the channel stayed open. Then new datastreams began filling sidebar columns which unfolded into a 3D schematic of the hostile engagement.
‘That’s the feed from the probe near the gas giant,’ said Berg, who then frowned. ‘What’s it called, the gas giant?’
‘Hmm? – eh, Kronos … but listen, why would your marshal lead his ships into a fight when he’s outnumbered three to one? What kind of strategy is that?’
Berg frowned. ‘No, it’s a tactical move in support of a strategy, but what is it? … wait, did you see that? Raker, replay last sixty seconds of probe data.’
On the screens the 3D model of the vicinity of the gas giant Kronos showed the trajectory trails of various ships, with fading tags denoting weapon fire. Suddenly Berg froze the playback and zoomed in on the shadow side of one of the gas giant’s moons where a solitary tag had appeared.
‘Hyperdrive activated,’ Berg said, pointing at the tag.
Before Greg could reply, a priority message frame popped up over the playback, with Ash looking grimly out from it.
‘Attention, all vessels – it appears that we have a seventh Ezgara warship in the area. It was spotted by our probe nearly three minutes ago when it broke from cover behind one of the gas giant’s moons. It then almost immediately made a hyperspace jump – we are assuming that it was a microjump to somewhere else