Free Extremis by Charles E. Gannon, Steve White Page B

on to Suwa as you suggest.”
    “I do suggest that, Holodah’kri . I also suggest that we make haste slowly. Just because they have insufficient force to defend the warp point does not mean that they have insufficient force to inflict major damage on us here.”
    “Well, if so, why haven’t they used it? And why have they not stayed in the swift reaches of space beyond this…this Desai limit.”
    “That is what I am pondering, Holodah’kri . It may be that, by engaging us within the limit, they wish to keep our newest, fastest ships slowed to half of their maximum speed. This will work to buy more time for their comrades to withdraw from Raiden. Or there may be a trap hidden in the pattern of their current deployment. I am particularly troubled that they have not only put all their forces inside the Desai limit, but have now retreated so far back into it that they are near both the planet and the other side of the limit.”
    “Is this world—Beaumont—a great military power?”
    “No. It has a small population and minimal industry. Our scans confirm this human data as correct. But worlds can be dangerous in other ways.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “The gravitic forces near a planet can further degrade the efficiency of reactionless drives, particularly large ones.”
    “This is to our advantage. At last we will be able to send forth our flocks of fighters and overwhelm them.”
    “So it would seem—and this is precisely why I am not quick to take that action.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Because if we can see the tactical implications of the enemy position, the griarfeksh commander can certainly see it, too. My question becomes: Given the ground it has chosen, what plans is the griarfeksh commander trying to hatch that I do not see?”
    Urkhot’s lesser tentacle tips switched fitfully. (Impatience.) “Admiral, even in war, things often are simply as they seem. You have said it yourself: the enemy wishes to extend this engagement. Perhaps, in order to do so, they have had to put themselves in a position where they are more vulnerable to our fighters—which they have yet to see us employ in numbers. This could be their oversight…or simply the choice they made between two imperfect alternatives.”
    (Consensus.) “This could, of course, be exactly what we are witnessing, Holodah’kri . But so far, caution has—”
    “—has made you suspect in the eyes of the Council,” interrupted Urkhot with a pulse of (remonstrance). “Decisive action now might do much to restore Torhok’s opinion of you.”
    And there it was—a direct threat, indicating how Urkhot’s report might influence Narrok’s future command of the Fleet. But if Narrok was going to bow to that influence, Urkhot would need to become more insistent—and direct—in his urgings: much more direct.
    “ Holodah’kri , are you saying that you convey Torhok’s direct and explicit wishes in this matter?”
    Urkhot’s selnarm retracted for a moment, then flexed forth again (hauteur:) “I know his mind, and his opinions, well enough, Admiral. And it would be his opinion—”
    “To attack? Regardless of the uncertainties?”
    “Of course to attack! You have assessed the risks and the advantages as much as you may. Further delay reveals only a lack of resolve, perhaps even an insufficient ardor to ensure the safety and future of our race.”
    “So Torhok would wish me to attack at this moment?”
    “Yes, of course. Have I not made this plain enough?”
    (Compliance, calm.) “Plain enough, Holodah’kri ,” affirmed Narrok, who, with a selnarmic flick, instructed the computer to make ten recordings of their exchange, make them code-access only, and hide three of them as distributed data-packets throughout the system’s active memory, reassemblable only if summoned together by a twenty-digit cipher of his own creation. Then he turned back to his bridge personnel. “Ops Prime.”
    “Admiral?”
    “Summon Fleet Second Mretlak back to the