“Which brings us to Yellow Bicycle,” she concluded. “If the Drifters wish to prevent the UPA from expanding our trade routes through the Ra Sector into the Apophis and Hathor Sectors and beyond…they will want us to continue our conflict with the Kozun. Doing so would pin down at least two potential threats to their economic primacy.”
“You think they’re going to use the peace conference as a trap?” Henry asked.
“Admiral Kosigan thinks so, and he managed to get Yellow Bicycle through High Command,” Hamilton told him. “We’re losing Battlecruiser Group Lioness shortly. Her recall orders are already on their way. She’s to return to Base Fallout and join Admiral Xinyi’s command.”
Xinyi nodded confirmation of that. Lioness and her escorts had replaced the battered Raven at La-Tar, standing guard over the UPA’s new ally as the Kozun probed the border.
Now that Raven was back online, recalling her made sense. She’d never been formally assigned to the Initiative.
“Lioness’s status, posted outside the UPA but not part of the Peacekeeper Initiative, appears to have been part of the inspiration for Yellow Bicycle,” Hamilton continued. “We’re not being reinforced, but a carrier group is en route to the Zion System.
“Those ships are being accompanied by a significant logistic detachment and will avoid all contact with inhabited worlds…but will position themselves one skip away from the peace conference,” the Admiral concluded. “Ambassador Todorovich will send her update drones home via the system they are waiting in, and if the Drifters do anything to take advantage of the situation, a fleet carrier and two battlecruisers will be in position to skip to her rescue.”
Henry pursed his lips as he considered the situation. A full carrier group was a powerful force, one capable of engaging entire squadrons of Kenmiri dreadnoughts. If the Drifters didn’t know it was there, the three capital ships and almost two hundred fighters of that group would overwhelm them.
Being a full skip away, though, meant at least a twenty-four-hour turnaround. The Icosaspace Traversal System wasn’t a short-range faster-than-light drive. It could only usefully jump between stars. If the right kinds of stars were in play, the skip length could be as low as eight hours, but they were unlikely to find a link quite so convenient.
“Timing could be tricky,” he warned.
“I know that,” Hamilton agreed. “So does Admiral Kosigan, but it’s the best we can do. We can’t hide a carrier group in the same star system as the conference, after all.”
“I presume Ambassador Todorovich will be attending the conference aboard Raven?” Admiral Xinyi asked.
“That depends on what she negotiates with the Kozun,” Henry admitted. He would prefer to escort the ambassador himself, but he was biased—both in that he believed she’d be safest aboard Raven and in that he wanted to see Todorovich again.
She was a good friend and sounding board, and he missed her.
“Details of the plan will get sorted as we move forward,” Hamilton said. “One key component to all of this is that Carrier Group Scorpius will not be assigned to the Peacekeeper Initiative. The Initiative officers on the scene, whoever they end up being, will operate independently from Commodore Barrie and Rear Admiral Cheung Jian Chin.”
Henry swallowed his emotional reaction to hearing just who their support was going to be. The separation of authority would be important, he supposed, if they put him and Scorpius’s captain in the same star system.
Commodore Peter Barrie, after all, was his ex-husband.
Chapter Six
Henry was pulled into Hamilton’s office when the meeting was over, fresh steaming coffees already waiting on the desk as the doors sealed behind them.
“You going to be trouble?” she asked bluntly.
“Because Peter is in command of my backup?” Henry said. “No. I’m not fond of the idea of calling my ex-husband for help, but I know my damned job, ser.”
“I know. Needed to make sure.” She grunted. “I’m glad to have Scorpius, even with that. A fleet carrier is a fleet carrier right now, but both of her battlecruisers are Corvid-class.”
Raven’s class of battlecruiser remained the newest and most powerful ships in the UPSF’s inventory. A fleet carrier was still more dangerous, but the basic design for the big ships hadn’t changed since early in the war. Their upgrades had been focused on their fighter wings.
The Corvids, on the other hand, incorporated everything the UPSF had learned in seventeen long years of war.
“Three Corvids and a fleet carrier should handle whatever the Drifters or Kozun throw at us, ser,” Henry agreed.
“You’ll be getting an eyes-only technical briefing for you and your chief engineer before you leave the system,” Hamilton told him. “We snuck some upgrades into Raven’s repairs, ones we’re trying to keep quiet.”
“From who?” Henry asked. They’d have to tell Song if they’d made changes to his ship—and he suspected his engineer was going to pissed if they’d snuck changes in without telling her. He wasn’t entirely happy himself!
“Everyone,” his superior said with a laugh. “They’re not officially approved yet. A bunch of my people went through the data Song gave us and had a bunch of different ideas on counteracting the disruptor warheads.
“You’ve got fifty more resettable breakers in the grav-shield projector setup than you had before. The shield will fail in smaller sections and be turned back on more easily—and you have more spare projectors as well.
“Heat and power limits mean you can’t run a much more powerful shield than you had before, but it should stand up to the disruptor warheads more effectively.” Hamilton waved a hand in the air as she drank her coffee. “The briefing will explain it better than I can; my eyes glazed over when they made their presentation.”
“You ordered my ship modified in secret based on something you didn’t understand?” Henry asked sharply.
“I understand what it does just fine, thank you,” she snapped. “The technical details aren’t truly relevant to me…or you, for that matter.”
“Fair, ser,” he conceded.
“You said Raven is ready to go,” she continued. “How quickly?”
“Twenty-four hours or less, depending on support,” Henry said instantly. “Orders?”
“Paperwork will follow,” Hamilton told him. “I’m sending you back to La-Tar. That’s where Todorovich is sending her drones right now, and I do want you on hand once we know the terms of the gathering.”
“Plus, we want a battlecruiser in La-Tar in case the Hierarchy gets clever.”
“Plus, we want a battlecruiser in La-Tar in case the Hierarchy gets clever,” she agreed. “You’re keeping two of Lioness’s destroyers. They are being handed over to us permanently. They’re Tyrannosaurs, not new ships, but they’re effective enough.”
“I wish we’d kept Lexington,” Henry said.
“We barely had the carrier for a week,” Hamilton said with a snort. “Escort carrier or not, Command wants the carriers home and saving fuel, not gallivanting around the Ra Sector, burning cash.”