The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(68)

“Why is that interesting?” Marce asked.

“It means they’re not using their engines right now,” Sherrill said. “Constant engine use would mean constant acceleration. Instead they’re just using inertia to coast.”

“Their engines could be damaged,” Marce said.

“Could be.”

“Or they just aren’t in a rush,” Gamis said.

“Maybe,” Sherrill said. “But we accelerated into the shoal on the way here. I know that was the captain’s plan on the way back. These Flow shoals are on a clock”—she looked over at Marce—“and your predictions on how long they could be open could be wrong. No offense.”

“None taken,” Marce said.

“Captain Laure didn’t want to stay here a minute longer than she had to. We would have accelerated all the way back, as fast as we could.” Sherrill pointed to the dot, representing the ship. “If these people aren’t stupid, they would be doing the same thing. So there’s a reason they’re not.”

“It’s a lot to suppose on,” Gamis said.

“But it’s not a bad supposition,” Marce said. “If the engines are damaged, then the Bransid got some hits in. They’re limping home.”

“But they are still planning to go home,” Hanton said. “Which means their field generator is still functional.”

“As long as their engines don’t give out,” Sherrill said. “In which case they won’t have power for the field generator.”

“Monsieur Chenevert,” Marce said, turning to the apparition.

Who smiled. “I was wondering when you would remember I was here, Lord Marce.”

“Can we overtake this ship?”

“Their path takes them past Dalasysla Prime. If we stay where we are, we’ll be behind the planet when that happens. But of course there’s no reason we have to stay where we are now. The Auvergne’s engines and power systems are fully functional at this point.” Chenevert nodded toward the command screen, which blanked out, surprising Hanton, and then reappeared with a new image, charting an intercept course.

“If they don’t accelerate, we can intercept them in ten hours,” Chenevert said. “If they do accelerate, that changes things, but if their specs are similar to what you’ve given me for the Bransid, then we intercept them in eighteen hours at the latest. Well before they reach the Flow shoal.”

“And then we blast the shit out of them,” Gamis said. “Do what they did to the Bransid.”

Chenevert looked over to Marce. “Is that your intention, Lord Marce?”

“No,” Marce said.

“What?” Gamis was pissed at this. “These fuckers just killed our crew, sir. Returning the favor seems just about fair.”

Marce shook his head. “Dead isn’t useful.”

“I don’t understand.”

Marce looked over to Chenevert. “But you do, I hope.”

“I think I do, Lord Marce,” Chenevert said.

“Can it be managed?”

“It depends on what shape their ship is in and what I can figure out about it from my scans and visualizations. I have to warn you that means we’ll have to get close.”

“Define ‘close.’”

“You won’t like it if I do.”

*

“I think they know we’re here,” Hanton said as the ship launched a pair of missiles at the Auvergne a thousand klicks out.

Sherrill looked at the visualization of the missiles from the Auvergne’s sensors as they streaked toward them. “Those look like beehives,” she said. “They’ve got multiple warheads in them. They’ll break open just before they hit.”

“That’s rude,” Chenevert said, and waited for the missiles to get within a hundred klicks before lancing them with his beam weapons. They vaporized soundlessly in the void.

“Your beams are coherent a hundred klicks out,” Hanton said.

“That’s what I want this other ship to believe, yes,” he said. “I don’t expect that our friends in that ship launched those missiles with the belief that they were going to hit us with them. They wanted to know how and when we would respond. And now they think they know.”

“You’ve done this before.”

“I told you that I’ve had practice being chased.”

“How far out are they actually effective?” Marce asked.

“Not this far,” Chenevert said. He popped up a visualization of the ship they were pursuing on the command screen. From slightly less than a thousand kilometers away, the ship was a mostly indistinct wedge. The Auvergne was coming at it from an above angle, relative to Dalasysla system’s ecliptic plane. Death from above, thought Marce.

“Any thoughts on this ship?” Chenevert asked.

“It looks like a Farthing-class ship,” Sherrill said, after a minute.

“I’m afraid that means nothing to me,” Chenevert said.

“It’s an interceptor ship,” Sherrill said. “Small crew, fast, relatively heavily armed. It’s designed to engage pirate and smuggler ships. And by ‘engage’ I mean destroy.”

“So there’s no doubt what it was here to do,” Marce said.