Free The Lost Stars by Jack Campbell

sure I didn’t send that message.
    Whatever else Malin might have said was interrupted by a call from the command center’s main room. “The enigmas are moving!”
    Iceni walked quickly out of the office, but Drakon held up a restraining hand to Malin when he moved to follow. It felt silly to rush to see something that had happened over four hours ago, especially when this offered a good opportunity for private conversation with Malin without attracting anyone’s notice. “There’s a possibility that you didn’t mention,” Drakon told Malin. “The chance that the President herself sent that tight-beam message, a prerecorded offer for a secret deal that cuts me out in every sense of the word.”
    Malin spoke carefully as he replied. “General, I have no information indicating that President Iceni has undertaken such a move. Nor would such a move make sense.”
    â€œI know, and I have too much respect for Iceni to think she doesn’t know that as well. But old habits die hard. How good is your information on what she’s doingnow?”
    â€œI feel confident that I would know if she was planning to move against you,sir.”
    â€œHmmm.” Drakon glanced toward the doorway leading into the command center. “That’s your assessment, or you have solid information?”
    â€œBoth, sir.” Malin sounded confident, assured, as if he knew all the angles.
    He sounded, in fact, like Morgan did at such times. Despite their immense dislike for each other, and despite being different in many ways, Malin and Morgan sometimes seemed disturbingly similar. “Keep your eyes open, anyway, and make sure you question everything you think you already know.”
    â€œYes, sir.” Malin smiled. “You have taught me that. It’s a good rule to follow in planning any operation.”
    â€œI learned it the hard way, Bran. Get going.”
    After Malin left, Drakon walked into the command center to join Iceni where she was watching the display. Even a ground forces soldier like him had no trouble seeing what was playing out. “The enigmas are moving to intercept Black Jack.”
    The two forces, Alliance and enigma, were hurtling together at velocities a ground forces officer had trouble grasping. More than point two light speed. Drakon did the math.
About sixty thousand kilometers every second. How can any human get their mind around that kind of speed? I’m used to dealing with an environment on the surface of planets, where a kilometer is a significant distance.
    Nor did ground forces rush together as these warships did. He knew the reasons for the ways that spacecraft fought. The ships could see each other across huge distances, yet the warship weapons had such short ranges relative to the vast reaches of space and the tremendous speed at which the spacecraft moved that warships had to get close to each other in order to fight. They could waltz around forever, avoiding contact, if one side didn’t want to fight and didn’t have to go to some specific objective such as a hypernet gate. “Forever” wasn’t all that long in this case, of course, being limited by the fuel and food supplies on the ships.
    I don’t like it.
Drakon felt his jaw tightening as he watched the two forces rushing into contact.
Space warfare is too mechanical. You never see the enemy as people, just as ships. They can fly all over space, across distances so great it takes hours for light itself to make the journey, but in the end they have to bash head to head. How can you really use tactics when the other side can see everything you do no matter how far away you are? When there’s nothing to hide behind and no way to conceal yourself? It all comes down to two groups of people running up to each other and hitting the other guys as hard as they
can.
    But then how did Black Jack blow away the mobile forces of the Syndicate Worlds in battle after