The Black Gate (The Messenger #11) - J.N. Chaney Page 0,107
a database of common sounds, or impulses. And if we can’t map it out, let’s at least see if we can find a way of disrupting it,” Dash said.
“Consider it done.”
Dash settled himself in for the flight home. The trial had been a success, and they’d learned even more valuable information about the Deepers. The Polaris took some damage, but Sentinel took a report from the mech’s AI. It wasn’t anything that couldn’t be repaired in a day or two in the shop.
If only every mission went so right.
23
Optimism bubbled through the Command Center. It was nice, Dash thought, considering some of the dour, almost desperate discussions that had happened in the cavernous space.
“In summary, it looks pretty good,” Dash said, scanning the assembled officers. Everyone from Leira, down to individual commanders of capital ship squadrons, destroyer flotillas, and fighter wings, had been gathered. Lomas had her senior command staff present as well. “Stinger works, the virus works, and we’ve started to crack how the Deepers communicate among themselves, including their unique brand of tech. Custodian, what term have we settled on?”
“Organo-synthetic technology.”
“Easy to say and remember. We really are becoming professional soldiers. As to their process, we’re pretty sure we know how they do it, but we haven’t worked out all the details.”
“This is all great,” Benzel said, “but we’re still missing one thing.”
“What’s that?” Dash asked.
“Something to actually do with all this new info, and these new Stingers and such,” he replied, crossing his arms. “It’s all very interesting and stands to be really useful the next time the Deepers attack us. But don’t we want to take the fight to them?”
Dash smiled. “We do. And we will. Custodian, want to unveil our final bit of news?”
The main display changed from the imagery of the Deeper ship stricken by the Stinger virus, to a star chart. The location of the Forge, the various elements of the fleet, and all of the major Rimworld League installations and deployments were shown, but it was a bright red icon that drew everyone’s eye.
“That,” Dash said, pointing, “is a Deeper base. Thanks to some clever detective work, Custodian, Sentinel, and the other AIs were able to put together a pretty clear strategic picture.”
“Detective work?” Amy said. “Now I’m imagining Custodian with a really big magnifying glass.”
Leira looked puzzled. “Why?”
“From an Old Earth book I read. Apparently, before there were scanners, you needed really big magnifying glasses to examine stuff.”
“I’m not sure that’s really true,” Conover replied.
“Actually, what intrigues me more is that you seem to have some idea of Custodian as a person, if you envision him carrying around a magnifying glass,” Leira said.
Amy shrugged. “I do. Kind of rugged, really smart, good looking—”
Conover turned to her. “Wait, what?”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s all strictly platonic,” Amy said, smiling.
Chuckles rose from the crowd, then Custodian spoke.
“I find Amy’s imagined depiction of me, as a person, to be quite insightful on her part.”
Dash raised his hands. “People, can we focus on the fact we have a Deeper base to attack, please?” He gave Amy a sidelong look, though. “Better looking than me?”
“Oh, no, of course not, Dash.”
Dash joined in the laughter this time. And then he and the others got down to the far less enjoyable business of battle plans.
24
Dash did a final once-over of the combined Cygnus Realm-Rimworld League fleet. The latter amounted to only two usable squadrons of ships, including a battleship, three heavy cruisers, and a half-dozen lighter vessels. That was all they’d been able to upgrade with Unseen weaponry, defenses, and command-and-control network nodes. Still, it turned the League from junior partners of limited capability to something more like an actual ally. They formed their own task force and would act as the combined fleet reserve.
The rest of the fleet had been divided into three wings, each built around one of the carriers, plus a Sabertooth-class command cruiser. The remaining squadrons had been allocated among them, although weighted toward Benzel’s Blue Wing, which would take the fleet’s center and strike hard and fast at the main objective: the Deeper base itself.
Dash turned his attention back to the tactical data gleaned from the base. It squatted between two of the big teardrop shapes of the type they’d encountered before—what they’d taken to calling anchorlets, since they seemed to fill a similar role to the Cygnus Realm’s Anchors—all of them swinging in a wide orbit around a blue giant star. The base itself was essentially an anchorlet writ large, the same shape