As the Wanderer followed the rest of the fleet into normal space Jess felt something inside relax. They were here. The battle was about to start. Somehow the fragile alliances Admiral North’s fleet was made of had held. This was their chance to end the threat of an unending wave of Limited once and for all.
Thirty seconds later and he was a knot of tension again. Dozens… no hundreds of shuttles had launched from all over the fleet, and from the few comms the Wanderer had been able to pull out of the roar of messages none of it was planned.
Some ships hadn’t launched any shuttles but they seemed to be the targets for the shuttles which had launched. It made no sense at all. Was there a fight going on within the fleet? Was this a coup? What did it mean for the coordinated assault against the Limited fleet?
The roar suddenly dropped to silence as an override was applied. A moment later Admiral North’s voice blasted out… demanding to know what was happening. No… more than that… demanding to know what was happening and demanding the answer from Dash and Sal.
The message from Admiral North actually came later than Sal had expected. It seemed the members of the Church had managed to conceal the fact she and Roberto were on the shuttle for some time. That was good. The further they could get from the Spindrift before things kicked off the better.
But now they’d been located and the Admiral was demanding to know what the hell was going on, though his language was far more colourful than that. Sal had to smile at the fact he took nearly a full minute to finish asking what the hell they thought they were doing, time that allowed their shuttle to get even further away.
The admiral did finish asking the question though. Sal turned toward Roberto, who smiled encouragingly. She dug down deep into the strength that Unity had once given her and the power that she now felt as part of the Church of Unity, then she opened the channel and began to explain.
Dash smiled as he listened to Sal. She was explaining perfectly, putting all the passion and reason at her disposal into telling Admiral North why it was inevitable that the Church of Unity had to step aside from this fight and find their own path.
But it was a video comm and Dash could see the Admiral was not being swayed by the arguments. Instead he was looking more and more agitated, his face going a worrying shade of red and a vein trembling above his right eye.
Dash was certain there would be an explosion when Sal finished speaking, and he was determined to protect her against it. When she finished speaking he would step in. He would take any flak and protect Sal from the furious response he was sure was coming.
Jess listened in disbelief as Sal laid out the reasons for the Church of Unity taking some of the fleet and leaving right before the battle. He listened but he couldn’t believe she was doing it, and especially that she was doing it now.
If she felt this way then why didn’t she take action before they got to the battle itself? The only timing that might possibly have been worse was splitting the fleet once the firing had started.
Hundreds of shuttles were still in motion but some had reached their destinations, and the destinations for the rest were clear. Some were even returning to their original ship, though on autopilot without their crew who were so desperately needed.
Admiral North’s complexion was growing redder by the moment. Jess could almost feel the explosion that was building as Sal spoke. He could well understand why – the sudden exodus was changing things from a likely victory to a dicey victory, and that was assuming the remaining ships didn’t panic or run before the fight even started.
He turned in the pilot’s chair, glancing back at Ali. Clay was no longer on the flight deck, having already headed for his fighter so he could be ready to launch at a moment’s notice if something went wrong.
“Should I fire on them?” Jess asked.
“On the shuttles or the ships that are going to leave us?”
“I don’t know. Both maybe.”
Ali sighed and shook her head.
“What good would it do? Those ships aren’t going to fight for us, not really, even if you do. Most likely they’d put on a half-hearted show and then run even if you could get them to stop leaving now.”
“It might stop other ships from following them!”
“Is that really who you want to be? Someone who fires on ships that won’t attack the targets he wants them to? I don’t believe it is. That’s not the Jess I fell in love with.”
“Damn it! No! Absolutely not. It’s just… damn it, why now?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t change it. Whatever the reason, this is what we have to work with. Maybe Admiral North will convince a few of the ships to stay once he gets the chance to reply.”
“If not he might destroy a few of those ships just with his yelling!”
“As long as he doesn’t start shooting at them too.”
“Hell,” said Jess. “He might do. He looks pissed off enough.”
“Well we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t.”
“And by we…”
“I mean you, yes!” replied Ali, smiling sweetly.
“Great. As if fighting the Limited fleet wasn’t enough of a challenge!”
Sal finished speaking. Admiral North replied almost immediately. Dash had been so prepared for a tirade against Sal and the Church that he was caught out when the attack came his way.
“Dash,” snapped Admiral North, his voice even more gravelly than normal. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I know you feel you need to stand by Sal but people here need you. I need you!”
Dash just stared for a few moments, caught flat footed, then he found his voice.
“I’m sorry Admiral,” he replied. “This is where I need to be. I’ve done a huge amount to prepare the fleet. You know that. The fleet will be fine, especially with you leading the fight.”
“What about the ships you’re stealing away? How are we supposed to cope without them? You’re taking away our best chance of winning this battle!”
“Sal explained why we’re doing this, and I agree with her. You’ll win without us. I know you will.”
The next five sentences from the Admiral were nothing but swearwords and anatomical suggestions. Dash felt them washing off his shoulders, and the remaining guilt he’d been feeling evaporate too. This was the right thing to do, and he had no regrets over doing it. He’d done his bit time after time for more years than he cared to count, and now it was time to do what was right for him, or more precisely for him and Sal.
He glanced at the scanner and saw that they were almost at their target ship, yet he didn’t even know its name. He could see it was an ex-Imperial frigate but no more than that. The lack of knowledge, the lack of needing to plan, was amazingly refreshing.
Admiral North reached the end of one invective filled sentence and took a deep breath to start on the next, but instead he gasped as if he was having trouble pulling in air. He gasped again, two or three times, and his face turned even redder than it had before. Then his eyes went wide and he collapsed, disappearing from view of the camera.
“What the hell…” shouted Dash. “Admiral? Admiral! Admiral North, are you alright?”
Moments later a medic ran into view, before leaning down and disappearing too. Dash waited impatiently even as he felt the shuttle settle down on the deck of its target ship. Finally the medic stood up, but his face looked shocked and Dash’s heart was already falling. The Medic shook his head, then turned to speak to someone out of view of the camera.
“He’s… he’s dead. Admiral North is dead!”