Daniel must have thought the same thing, because he was working with the concentration of a demon on plotting their escape into the Matrix.
CHAPTER 30
The Goldenfels was rigged for landing, her sails furled and her antennas telescoped and folded. Daniel’s first thought was to drop into the Matrix immediately and set the sails there; many astrogators couldn’t track another ship after it left sidereal space, and some wouldn’t even try.
The Alliance had more than its share of able captains, however. If the Bluecher was commanded by one of them, the heavy cruiser would appear within seconds of when the Goldenfels shifted back into normal space the first time. Daniel found it wise to assume that his enemy was just as competent as he was.
“Woetjans, both watches,” Daniel ordered. He hated to send riggers out while the ship was accelerating, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. “Rig the maincourses of Dorsal A and Starboard A, both at 29 degrees starboard inclination. Move it, spacers!”
The riggers were spread through the ship doing damage control, but at least they were suited up. Woetjans would have the sails set within minutes, giving the Goldenfels maneuvering way from the moment it entered the Matrix. The Bluecher had Fleet-standard optical pickups, as good as those of the RCN, but nobody at 400,000 miles could tell an angle of twenty-nine degrees from thirty-one or twenty-seven. That was a wide enough variation that the heavy cruiser would have to quarter the region instead of landing directly on top of her wallowing prey, and only the very best astrogators could hope to follow a trail through the Matrix that was hours old.
There were pirate captains who managed the trick regularly, of course. It would’ve been child’s play for Uncle Stacey, and Lieutenant Daniel Leary had managed it also. If the Bluecher had a commander of that quality, the Goldenfels wasn’t going to escape—and she wasn’t going to fight a successful battle against a heavy cruiser.
Daniel smiled as his fingers hammered additional calculations into his computer. Which didn’t mean that they wouldn’t fight. When he had leisure he’d check the status of the Goldenfels’ weaponry, not that he expected to like what he learned.
Adele inserted another text at the bottom of his display:
The Bluecher’s commander is Capt. Rafael Semmes. Do you wish details of his service?
“Thank you, Adele,” Daniel said on his two-way link. He continued to type; he wasn’t familiar with this region. He’d studied the return to the rendezvous with the Princess Cecile, but he didn’t want to head back directly in case they were pursued. “The identification is sufficient. I’m aware of the gentleman.”
Now he was quite sure they’d be pursued. Daniel didn’t remember the name of every Alliance officer he’d heard in passing, but when Oliver Semmes mentioned at the funeral that he and his brother Rafael had met Uncle Stacey while they were serving under the great Captain Lorenz—that Daniel had remembered. Lorenz gave the officers under him the opportunity to become first-class astrogators—
And if they failed to do so, Lorenz railroaded them out of the Fleet. Rafael Semmes had survived.
Well, perhaps Daniel would get lucky with a missile. And the Goldenfels mounted heavy guns as well. Maybe there was a way.
A red legend flashed onto Daniel’s display:
SA Main set.
Adele had relayed the signal from Woetjans on the hull and highlighted it.
As soon as the dorsal sail was—
Another legend, this time a message from Pasternak:
Reaction mass tanks at 47%. Switch to High Drive?
Adele must be filtering all his communications. It wasn’t RCN policy, but it was the right thing now with Adele Mundy making the choices and not enough time to do half of what had to be done. . . .
Ordinarily a ship switched from plasma thrusters to its much more efficient High Drive as soon as it rose out of an atmosphere. Though Gehenna was a large satellite, its atmosphere was thin enough to be called hard vacuum for most purposes, but the limited power available from the jury-rigged High Drive and the present desperate need made Daniel hesitate.
Woetjans signalled DA Main set.