“It is, isn’t it?” Geary filed that away in his mental drop box holding clues to how the enigmas thought.

  “Five minutes until our leading elements are within range of the enigma ship,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

  Geary touched his comm controls. “All units in the Alliance fleet, this is Admiral Geary. No unit is to break formation to chase that enigma. That’s what they want, to disrupt our formation right before we jump. But if any ship gets close enough to have a chance of a hit, you are authorized to fire.”

  “We’ve got a couple of light cruisers that might get a shot in,” Desjani said, pointing to her display. “Garnet and Passata. They’re arming missiles.”

  “Three minutes until the enigma ship is within range,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

  “Fifteen minutes until we reach the jump point on our current vector,” Lieutenant Castries added.

  Geary sat, watching his display, waiting.

  “One minute until the enigma ship is within range of our nearest units to it,” Lieutenant Yuon said.

  “He wants us to waste missiles,” Desjani said. “How close do you think he’ll cut it?”

  “I think,” Geary said, “that if those two light cruisers hold off from firing at the first moment the enigma enters an engagement envelope, they might have a chance at a hit.”

  “You could call it,” Desjani said, gesturing to his controls. “Decide when they fire.”

  “I won’t,” Geary said. “That’s up to the commanding officers of those two light cruisers. They deserve the chance to make the call.”

  “The enigma ship is entering the extreme range firing envelope for Passata,” Lieutenant Yuon said, following that a couple of seconds later with “The enigma is now within the extreme firing range for a missile from Garnet.”

  “He’s probably really mad right now,” Desjani said, her chin resting on one hand as she gazed at her display. “He wants us to start a futile chase, he wants us to waste weapons trying to hit him, and we’re not playing along.”

  A few more seconds ticked by, the Alliance warships growing steadily closer to the enigma.

  “Passata and Garnet have fired specter missiles,” Lieutenant Yuon announced.

  Geary watched missiles leap from the light cruisers, accelerating toward the enigma, which was pivoting in space and lighting off at full acceleration. Had that maneuver begun before or after the cruisers fired? He couldn’t be sure, but the missile launch looked to have been timed very well. “What are the odds of hits?”

  “Five percent and seven percent,” Lieutenant Yuon reported.

  “That’s a lot better than zero,” Desjani said.

  There wasn’t anything else to do, so everyone watched the enigma ship racing away, steadily building velocity, while the two specters closed the distance at a slowly decreasing rate.

  “One of them is going to be really close,” Desjani said.

  “I think so,” Geary said. The specters were nearly at their maximum acceleration range, their propellant almost exhausted. When their thrust cut off the missiles would continue on the same velocity, but the enigma would continue accelerating and walk away from them.

  One specter detonated as its thrust cut off, followed a moment later by the second.

  “He felt that!” Lieutenant Yuon said, his voice jubilant. “The fragmentation and gases of the shock wave should’ve hit him.”

  The enigma ship did stagger under the blow. Its shields weren’t too badly impacted, though, and the ship suffered no damage.

  “Hurt his pride, I bet,” Desjani said with a grin.

  Geary, smiling, tapped his comm controls. “Garnet and Passata, this is Admiral Geary. Damn good shooting, you two. When we get to Lalotai we’ll probably encounter some targets that won’t run away, and you’ll get a chance at some kills. Keep up the good work.”

  “You just made the crews of two light cruisers very happy,” Desjani observed.

  “I make crews unhappy often enough,” Geary said. “I might as well take advantage of any chance to balance that out.”

  Six minutes later they jumped for Lalotai.

  * * *

  FIVE long days spent worrying and preparing later, the fleet left jump at Lalotai.

  Geary fought to clear the jump exit–induced fog from his brain, hearing alarms blaring that warned of nearby threats. He felt Dauntless twist under the push of her thrusters, her main propulsion kicking in to hurl her along a new vector as the automated maneuvering systems carried out the commands loaded into them earlier.

  As his vision cleared, Geary heard Dauntless’s collision warning alarm uttering its high-pitched cries of danger. He’d barely focused on his display when the collision alarm sounded a second time as Dauntless pitched over again when her thrusters fired once more.

  A heavy cruiser zipped by close enough for the collision alarm to scream a third time, there and gone again before Geary could even react, belated terror making him shudder in reaction as he heard Kommodor Bradamont in the observer seat at the back of the bridge gasp. “That’s within safety parameters?” he demanded of Desjani.

  “Yes!” she insisted. “This was your idea, Admiral! And it’s working! Look!”

  He managed to drag his gaze past the wild web of way-too-close vectors surrounding Dauntless, looking outside the hornet’s nest that the Alliance fleet was mimicking. A swarm of enigma warships were clustered in three areas around the fleet, breaking off attack runs and pulling back in frustration.

  “Seventy-seven enigma warships detected nearby,” Lieutenant Castries called out, her voice higher pitched than usual.

  “One of them’s coming in!” Lieutenant Yuon added.

  Geary stared as an enigma ship a little smaller than an Alliance heavy cruiser whipped toward the Alliance fleet and into the maze of ships. Even he had to admire how well the enigma maneuvered, somehow dancing a path between Alliance ships that themselves were often changing vectors. “He’ll never make it to the center of the formation.”

  “No, but he will come close to us, I think,” Desjani said, her hand poised over the controls to order Dauntless’s weapons to fire.

  The enigma suddenly jogged left and up to avoid an Alliance destroyer at the same moment as Dauntless jogged down and right in accordance with the preplanned maneuvers.

  For a moment, the enigma warship was close, Dauntless’s weapons locked on it.

  “Tanya! No!”

  Geary watched in disbelief as the enigma jogged away again, abandoning its attempt to penetrate the Alliance formation, now simply trying to get clear.

  For her part, Desjani turned to glare at Bradamont. “Why the hell did you make me hesitate?” she demanded in a voice that would have frozen the blood of most people it was directed at.

  But Bradamont returned the glare. “Because I realized just in time how stupid it would be to cripple the maneuvering capability of a ship that was barely managing to avoid collisions with Alliance ships!”

  Geary suddenly got it. “It would have made at least one collision certain. Maybe multiple collisions.”

  “Ancestors save me,” Desjani said, her tone shifting to dread. “I could have killed a half-dozen Alliance warships. Why the hell didn’t you and I realize that and order our ships to avoid engaging the enigmas while this scramble is underway?”

  “Good question,” Geary said, quickly punching his own comm controls. “All units, do not fire at this time at any enigma warships among our own units. There’s too great a threat of collision if we damage them.” As if to emphasize his words the collision alarm wailed again while an Alliance battleship blundered past close enough to cause Lieutenant Yuon to gasp this time.

  “Thanks,” Desjani said to Bradamont before returning her entire focus to the situation.

  “The three groups of enigma warships seem to be watching for openings,” Lieutenant Castries said. “They’re poised for attack runs.”

  “Our ships are already starting to steady out and assume their places in the formation,” Geary said as much to himself as to anyone else. “There’s going to be a gap between the time the high-value units in the center steady out and the time when the rest of the formation assumes their positions around the center.”

  But the defenders were taking up position. The assault transports with their close-in defenses formed a globe around Boundless, just outside of them the four battleships of the Third Battleship Division—Warspite, Vengeance, Resolution, and Guardian—spacing themselves around the globe. It was only as his gaze lingered on Warspite for a moment that Geary remembered Roberto Duellos’s daughter was aboard her. He’d made the decision to assign Warspite to the final defense role solely because it fell out most easily in the maneuvers into this formation. But in so doing he’d placed Arwen Duellos in a dangerous position.

  The auxiliaries were dropping into place ahead of and behind Boundless, while all around the chaotic movement of destroyers, light and heavy cruisers, battle cruisers, and battleships was resolving into the planned squat egg shape, the lighter units grouped together in threes or fours, while the heavier ones were in groups of two. The result was a three-dimensional lattice with paths between the groups of escorts, but anything trying to use those paths would get hit from multiple angles again and again.

  The greatest danger was now, when the shape and vector of the formation were becoming apparent, but the escorts hadn’t yet all assumed position.

  “They’re coming in,” Lieutenant Castries said. “A group of twenty-nine enigmas above and off our port bow that’s aiming for Boundless. Another group of thirty-one enigmas is off our stern and below, and seems to be aiming for the rearmost auxiliaries. Combat systems are estimating Titan and Tanuki will be their primary targets. The final group of seventeen is far off to starboard of us, and also heading in for Boundless.”

  Normally, space engagements happened incredibly quickly once the two sides closed to firing range. At combined velocities of up to nearly point two light speed, automated systems fired during the tiny fraction of a second when the opposing sides were close enough. Human reflexes couldn’t begin to meet the reaction speed needed.

  But this time the enigma plans had been completely thrown off by the Alliance anthill maneuver. They’d been forced to draw back and come around again, most of them chasing the Alliance ships so the relative velocities were low enough for humans to decide which target to engage and when. The slower engagement speed also meant the enigma ships would be running terrible gauntlets on their way into the human formation as they tried to hit Boundless and the auxiliaries.

  Normally, also, anyone fighting in space used their force like the edge of a sword blade, the ships striking across a broad area. But with surprise lost, relative speeds low, and against the Alliance formation bristling with firepower, that would have simply resulted in rapid destruction of the attackers, so the enigmas had taken the only route that gave them a chance, lining up their ships in columns to strike like the points of daggers aiming for the center of the formation.

  The group of twenty-nine wove its way between Alliance escorts, taking fire from hell lance particle beams and impacts from specter missiles. The enigma ships on the edges staggered under the blows, first one and then more breaking apart or exploding or simply spinning away, unable to control their movement after their thrusters and propulsion were knocked out.

  But the enigma dagger kept on, led by a group of five massive warships. Clearly devoting most of their energy to keeping their shields up, the enigmas hurled some shots at the Alliance screening ships they were passing. The Alliance destroyer Bolo, unlucky enough to be within range of two of the big enigma warships as they passed, took enough hits for her shields to collapse and two particle beams to pass through the ship. Geary moved to order Bolo to pull back out of range, but the enigmas were already past the destroyer and could no longer target it.

  “The leading ships are larger than any enigma warships we’ve encountered before,” Lieutenant Yuon said. “Combat systems are estimating they carry heavy shields and armor forward, as well as heavy armament.”

  “The enigmas decided to make their own battleships,” Desjani said, watching the attack. She was keeping her frustration mostly hidden as she watched other ships engage the enemy. “Not as big as ours, and more maneuverable, but same concept.”

  The large group of enigmas coming up the rear were overtaking the Alliance warships, and taking heavy fire as they came.

  The smallest enigma group was trying to weave a path past the escorts, but had already lost two ships.

  Geary took a long look at his display, getting a good feeling for the relative movement of the enigmas. He didn’t have to let them maintain the initiative while the Alliance ships stayed on fixed vectors. He tabbed one large enigma group alpha, tabbed the second bravo, and the third and smallest delta, his designations immediately being shared across the fleet’s sensor network.

  Only then did he touch his comm controls. “This is Admiral Geary. First Battle Cruiser Division, break formation and intercept enigma group alpha. Second Battle Cruiser Division, break formation and intercept enigma group bravo. Third Battle Cruiser Division, break formation and intercept enigma group delta. Go get them. Geary, out.”

  Desjani let out a brief yelp of joy before she hit her own comm controls. “Daring, Victorious, and Intemperate, maneuver independently to nail these guys. Watch your safety margins around the friendly ships still holding formation.” Her other hand went to her maneuvering controls. “I am assuming direct maneuvering control,” Desjani announced to the bridge crew.

  As Geary and the others on the bridge hastily rechecked their safety harnesses, Dauntless slewed over and down under Desjani’s commands to her thrusters, her main propulsion lighting off with a jolt that hurled the battle cruiser toward an intercept with the enigma force that had started out with twenty-nine warships. Already down to twenty, the survivors were still forging onward, protected behind the moving wall formed by the five enigma battleships.

  Waiting for them were the battleships of the Third Division.

  Commander Plant, who came across as deceptively cheerful and easygoing, was renowned for the deadly ferocity with which she employed the vast armament carried by Warspite. “Make way for Warspite” was as much a warning as it was the ship’s unofficial motto. She’d shifted Warspite’s position slightly to place her ship directly between the oncoming enigmas and Boundless, and pivoted the ship to face the enemy bow on. The battleship Vengeance, located “above” Boundless, swung out a bit to also better engage the enigmas, while the battleship Resolution, “beneath” Boundless, had taken up a similar position. Of the four battleships tasked with close defense of Boundless, only Guardian wasn’t lining up to engage, because Guardian had to remain on the opposite side of Boundless to protect against the much smaller enigma force coming in from that side.

  The edges of the enigma dagger formation were still being shredded by the interlacing fire of the Alliance ships they were having to race past, but the five new enigma “battleships” appeared unscathed, their shields flaring from hits but holding, their armor as yet untouched.

  “Daring,” Desjani sent. “Let’s get the one closest to us. Victorious and Intemperate, take out the one on the opposite side. Let’s see how these guys like null fields.”

  The four battle cruisers were diving almost straight “down” at the enigmas, their main propulsion cutting off as they reached the best firing vectors, thrusters firing along the sides to make minor adjustments, every weapon locked on. Alliance ships in the formation flashed by on all sides as the battle cruisers steadied on their firing run.

  The charge of the battle cruisers only took a few seconds. Geary wondered if the enigmas noticed the battle cruisers coming down on them, if they had time to debate what to do, or if the enigmas were totally focused on trying to reach their target and determined to ignore anything that might distract them from that goal.

  Dauntless flashed close by her target, specter missiles leaping out to hammer the enigma battleship’s shields, followed by hell lances, and the solid ball bearings that were called grapeshot and were used only against the closest targets. Last of all, timed for the moment of closest approach, the even shorter-range null field projector created its deadly cloud. Within that cloud, atomic bonds failed, molecules coming apart. A massive gap appeared on the side of the enigma warship, as if an invisible monster had taken a huge bite out of it.

  Dauntless shook as return fire from the enigmas slammed into her shields, then she was past the enemy and beginning to curve up and around for a second attack run.

  An instant later, Daring went past the enigma as well, her null field tearing another enormous bite out of the enemy ship.

  The enigma battleship reeled from the tremendous amount of damage it had suffered, unable to adjust course properly because of all the thrusters that had been destroyed where the null fields had struck. The battleship’s forward and side shields collapsed, leaving it exposed to the barrage of Alliance fire from all sides. Veering out to one side and up, the battleship abruptly exploded.

  On the other side of the enigma formation, Victorious and Intemperate had wreaked similar havoc on the enigma battleship there, which rolled out of control into the path of another enigma ship, both of them vanishing into dust from the force of the collision at the speeds they were going.

  That left three enigma battleships racing toward Boundless as they led the enigma charge. With fewer primary targets to concentrate on, the Alliance fire tore at the enigma shields, finally creating spot failures just as the enigmas reached the final defense line where Warspite waited.

  Warspite unleashed every weapon she had at the center enigma battleship, every weapon timed to hit at the same moment.