The weight of the Aristoxenos’ missiles was beyond the ability of any defensive battery to withstand, even that of another battleship. Semmes reacted in the only fashion that even hinted survival, slamming High Drive and plasma thrusters both to full power at right angles to the incoming salvo. The Bluecher’s frame warped visibly at the overload, but the acceleration took her almost out of the cone of predicted missile tracks.
The cruiser’s eight big plasma cannon concentrated on the segments at the near edge, that ones that were still potentially dangerous. Bolt for bolt the 15-cm guns had only half the punch of the battleship’s 8-inchers, but the Bluecher was cleared for action and her gunners were at a high state of training. The guns’ hammering reduced parts of the multi-ton missile segments into gas whose escape drove the remainder off at angles harmless to the cruiser.
Daniel knew precisely what acceleration the cruiser could manage in an emergency because he’d seen the Bluecher react to avoid the Commonwealth rockets. He predicted the direction of that acceleration by the angle he’d have chosen if he captained the Bluecher and the battleship was launching at him. The Princess Cecile’s last pair of missiles stabbed in unnoticed till the cruiser’s starboard turret desperately engaged a second before impact.
A segment struck the Bluecher’s bow as a cloud of gas still so dense that it crushed hull plating and carried away the leading dorsal, starboard and ventral antennas. Microseconds later another segment hit the stern squarely. The release of kinetic energy engulfed the last twenty meters of the vessel in a fireball which left only vacuum behind when it dissipated.
The Bluecher had been about to launch missiles when she was hit. Several left their tubes but tumbled; the computer which should’ve updated their courses until burn-out instead spasmed when the cruiser whipped sideways.
“Sissie Six to flagship,” Daniel said, adding the alert channel so that the corvette’s crew could listen to his transmission. They’d earned it, the good Lord knew! “Admiral, I suggest we cease fire until you offer the Bluecher a chance to surrender. Her captain is named Semmes, and I won’t willingly participate in the murder of a man so able. Sissie over.”
“Sir?” said Betts, turning toward Daniel but speaking over the command channel. The bridge was too noisy for unaided voice. “The battleship has to cease fire. The conveyors from her magazines to the launch tubes are all frozen. They just had what was in the tubes when they lifted from Todos Santos.”
“Sissie Six, this is Zanie Six,” said Admiral O’Quinn’s voice, wheezing noticeably. Both ships had visual capacity, but standard operating procedure in the RCN was voice only. In a battle, bandwidth could become too valuable a commodity to waste on frills. “You take their surrender, Leary. You knocked her out.”
O’Quinn snorted and went on, “Your missileer even launched our missiles, though I’m damned if I know how he got control of our system. I didn’t think that was possible! Over.”
Ah. Daniel hadn’t thought it was possible either, but obviously Adele had known better. Apparently she hadn’t been wasting her time while the Princess Cecile was moored adjacent to the battleship in San Juan harbor. That explained why the salvo had come so quickly. Daniel had expected minutes to pass before the Aristoxenos was ready to launch, even with Betts transferring solutions to the battleship’s attack board.
“Admiral,” Daniel said, “the Princess Cecile was only a target before your very welcome arrival. If you’ll take the credit for the victory which you’ve certainly earned, it’ll make my job easier when I talk to people back in Xenos about what the Republic owes you. As I most certainly will, over.”
There was a pause greater than transmission lag before O’Quinn responded, “By God, Leary, if I’d had half the respect for your father that I do for you, we wouldn’t be in this place now. Break. AFS Bluecher, this is Admiral O’Quinn, RCN. Do you surrender, or would you prefer to provide the target practice which I’ll admit my crew could use, over?”
Over the intercom alone Daniel said, “Personally, fellow Sissies, I’m just as glad they are here now.”