The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan Read Online Free PDF Page A

for electronic warfare techniques like intrusion, jamming, and interference. The equipment employedhad changed considerably since the term was first introduced, but the basic concepts for sabotaging and confusing enemy comms and sensors still applied.
    “How could he understand the threat if the software is deleting anything that might clue him in?” Desjani asked.
    “Could there be Syndic meegees at work here? Or is this all the work of our own meegees?”
    She laughed. “The lines blurred on that so long ago that no one knows. Our people weaponize some code, their people find it and mess with it a little and shoot it back at us, then we rework what they did and fire it at them, and who the hell knows where most of it came from anymore? There are more viruses on our systems than there are viruses in our bodies, and the ones in our computer systems keep evolving a lot faster.”
    “All right,” Geary said. “But Timbale had the right idea. I’ll detach
Hammer
to carry my information to him.”
    Her eyes were on her display. “She won’t get there in time.”
    The dark ships were only ten hours’ travel time away from the hypernet gate as they held their velocity at point two light speed. Two light-hours’ distance. Roughly two billion kilometers. It was a very, very large distance. But in this case, it wasn’t nearly large enough. From where Geary’s ships were, the destroyer
Hammer
would take nearly seven hours to reach Admiral Timbale at the vast orbiting complex named Ambaru Station. A message sent from Ambaru to the two destroyers guarding the hypernet gate would take four hours to reach them. Even if Timbale sent that order immediately, it would get there an hour too late.
    Geary sat morosely on the bridge of
Dauntless
as he watched the inevitable taking place, the dark ships getting closer and closer to the oblivious destroyers at the hypernet gate. The only good thing was the number of his own ships here, battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers, who were calling in to acknowledge having downloaded thesoftware fix, usually accompanied by startled questions as to what the dark ships were and what were they doing at Varandal.
    But with the dark ships only five hours’ travel time from the hypernet gate, Geary frowned as a sudden thought came to him. “Tanya.”
    She was still on the bridge as well, of course, looking totally unruffled by the hours spent up here. “Yes, Admiral?”
    “Suppose I were commanding those dark ships—”
    “As best we know, the artificial-intelligence routines running them are based on what you’ve done,” she pointed out.
    “Exactly.” Geary pointed at his display. “I know I’m being pursued. I know that if I flee through the hypernet gate, I will reveal the place where my base is located, allowing the enemy to attack it and cut off my entire fleet at the knees. What do I do?”
    Desjani frowned as well. “You? You sure as hell don’t use the gate. Not you.”
    “No.” Geary sat up straighter, glaring at his display. “I realize that I can’t get away without betraying the rest of my fleet, so I have to stay here, and since that means being destroyed, I have to do whatever damage I can here before all of my ships are lost.”
    She stared at him, then focused on her display, hands flying as she tested courses and actions. “Ancestors preserve us. They’re going to go for Ambaru, aren’t they?”
    “Yes. If we keep charging after them, and they turn aside from the hypernet gate at the last moment and head for Ambaru, we won’t even see the maneuver for nearly three hours. My battle cruisers won’t be positioned to be able to intercept them before they reach the station and blow apart the central command-and-control node for this star system.”
    “Why not just throw some rocks at it?” Desjani demanded, using the fleet nickname for kinetic bombardment projectiles, which really were little more than smoothed hunks of metal. “No one