Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

  "OK, then. Give me a feed for the tablet showing our alternate target circled. That should be clear and please them. Mr. Burris, use my name and transmit a fleet-wide request for volunteers to scout out the first choice. Make sure they understand that we think there may be a hazard there. I don't want to put anybody on the spot. If Roadrunner or Sharp Claws don't volunteer that's fine. I'll consider whether to use anyone else when we see our responses." Gordon showed the revised com tablet star field to the pickup.

  "I've alerted everybody we are altering our exit course. Revised numbers should be sent and acknowledged in about ten minutes," Brownie said.

  "All of ours volunteer as well as the Dart," Burris said.

  "No, I won't be responsible for that," Gordon said immediately. "They have people on board vital to establishing relations with our societies. No way will I risk them."

  "Your choice who then," Burris said.

  "We'll send the Sharp Claws," Gordon decided. "I'm coming back on the command circuit and tell them myself. I'm shutting down the feed of the Caterpillars' display and reducing it. They don't seem disposed to say any more."

  "Perhaps that's their custom," Lee said. "There's a lot to be said for shutting up once somebody agrees with you. Some idiots will talk until they kill the deal they just made."

  "Heh, good point," Gordon agreed. Captain Frost appeared on his regular display.

  "We've had some discussion. The Caterpillars want us to avoid the star we picked at first. There is some opinion they may be warning us to avoid a hazard," Gordon said, "but we are not children to be herded. You are near as fast as a courier and armed. I'd like to know what we are bypassing. Especially if it is a hazard at our back. If anyone doesn't want to go put them off on a shuttle and we'll take them aboard. Are you still game to go?"

  "Yes sir. I'm offering right now to transfer anyone who wants put off."

  "Very well. How are you on fuel?" Gordon asked.

  "We're at seventy-three percent. Good for two jumps maybe three if they're easy ones." Frost said. "I do have one question. What are your orders if the Caterpillars interfere with our run or jump, since they seem opposed to this?"

  "If they physically snatch you with those little tug-drones I'd let them do so. They have returned every ship they took aboard unharmed. I really wouldn't argue with them or alter course unless they actually fire on you. We have to draw the line somewhere," Gordon decided.

  "I wonder if they have any custom similar to our firing across the bow?" Frost said.

  "If you are still there after they fire on you, then I'd consider that a possibility," Gordon said.

  "So we can probably tell they are seriously shooting at us if we are dead?" Frost asked, amused.

  "Given their lead in tech, that probably states the case fairly well," Gordon agreed.

  "We still volunteer," Frost insisted. "Nobody is responding to the offer to put them off the ship for this, and I'm really curious as to what's in that system."

  "Thank you. So are we. You can time your run to jump as it pleases you. Ask Brownie for any data you are lacking. And good luck."

  "We shall hang back and not form up with you. Perhaps the Caterpillars won't figure out we are going to do a solo to the other system," Frost said. "See you over in the alternate target."

  * * *

  "Beginning movement in five minutes. First burn at three tenths of a G to sort out loose gear and people, then ramping up to seven tenths at the ten minute mark," Brownie warned. Everybody favored the gentler approach instead of the immediate high G burns they'd all used at the start of this voyage. That was a military habit and a busted crock or a sprained ankle leaving every system had convinced them it was counterproductive. Everybody slept better at a little less acceleration too. A well rested crew performed better.

  "Caterpillars are pacing us at a distance," Brownie added after they increased the boost.

  The fleet was a couple hours into their run before the Sharp Claws broke orbit behind them and followed. It wouldn't be immediately apparent they were aiming at the other star since they were in the same approximate direction. The main crew went off shift and off-shift crew took the bridge. Mid-shift the Caterpillars must have noticed the Sharp Claws was on a divergent course as they abruptly altered course. They also cut back their acceleration so the Sharp Claws would catch up.

  "They want to jump at the same time instead of getting ahead of them," Choi Eun-sook decided.

  "Yes, Ms. Choi. I'm a bit surprised they haven't called on this new communicator," Botrel the off-shift commander said, waving at the added equipment. "Whatever is in that system they were going to avoid it too, but now they are accompanying our comrades. If there is danger there then it is remarkable they changed course. I hope they are both safe."

  "Well they must have knowledge of the system to warn us off. That implies whatever danger might be there is survivable," Choi reasoned.

  "Yes, or they could have such good remote sensing they are aware of it from here. One does wonder if they have jump drones?" Botrel speculated further. "All we've seen are those small tug vehicles, and they would seen to be very limited. I'm just as happy they seem calm about it. If it precipitated a great deal of drama I'd have to decide if it was cause to awaken Gordon. That's something I avoid."

  "Oh yes... I'd want exploding spaceships and blood on the deck before I'd do that," Choi agreed.

  * * *

  The rest of their shift passed without significant event. Toward the end there was a message from the Sharp Claws. Captain Frost awakening to his shift simply said: "Well... We have an escort."

  Gordon didn't blink at the news and resumed his seat with a pleasant, "Thank you, Mr. Botrel."

  The Sharp Claws started but accelerated faster than their leisurely seven tenths G and jumped out at almost the same time. They were far enough removed the wave front of that event didn't reach them before they were gone.

  The star field blinked into a new configuration when they jumped, but it was subtle. There weren't that many stars both close and very bright in their view field. The target star close in front of them was bright yellow and had a huge companion planet orbiting close to the star. Close enough Gordon would have to have a very good reason to send any of his ships down so close to look at it.

  "No artificial chatter," Brownie said very quickly. "Clear sky."

  "Ping the system hard then," Gordon said. "Use the Retribution system to do it."

  "Aye, sir. Done. Our own radar showing nothing close yet. We have a disk visible on the other side of the star. It has to be fairly far out because that big planet will have swept the inner system clear of any smaller objects," Brownie said.

  "Let's do a slow lateral burn to see what's behind the star," Gordon decided. "Take us to the side towards the star the Sharp Claws is visiting so they can rendezvous easier with us."

  "Aye, sending instructions to the fleet to do that," Brownie obeyed.

  "Do you think there's any chance there is something more accessible outside the inner zone that giant was swept empty?" Gordon asked. "Perhaps some belts of minor planets?"

  "No way we'll see them optically," Brownie said. "We'll know in a few hours when the ping from the Retribution echoes back to us." Gordon knew that. Was he making nervous chatter? Brownie wondered. And if he was, why was he that nervous? He trusted Gordon's instincts.

  Brownie called the burn and the fleet performed it together with practiced precision. Nothing happened for long enough they started thinking about shift end and getting some sleep.

  "I know we don't need it right now. We have resources from the brown dwarfs we never imagined to exploit, but it's a shame the entire wealth of the inner system is locked up in such a inaccessible hunk so close to the star," Lee said.

  "I'm sure by the time we need it we'll have robots that can survive the heat," Thor speculated.

  "Maybe we'll be able to economically synthesize heavier elements before we need to mine such inhospitable places," Gordon su
ggested. "Or separate them from low concentrations."

  "I was thinking more like propelling a big asteroid into it and busting it up," Lee admitted. "Hit it hard enough at the right angle and the chunks would be raised into higher orbits too."

  "I hope not," Brownie said. "Somebody would use it for a weapon eventually."

  "I wouldn't use it on a populated world," Lee objected.

  "You wouldn't," Brownie agreed. "I can imagine the races we met using something like that on the Biters if they continued to raid them. Trouble is, I don't know that the Biters have it in them to reform. They may be hardwired with aggressive behavior too deeply to change."

  "If anything can scare them into moderation the Caterpillars should do it," Lee said. "What in the world were they thinking to fire on strangers in kilometer long spaceships?"

  "That's what I mean," Brownie said. "They don't think, they emote and react like a territorial animal. They have to think to build ships and have a civilization, but apparently they don't apply it to social situations so well... Entry burst!" he interrupted himself. "That's the right area to be from the alternative target we skipped, and likely to be the Caterpillars because it is a huge emission."

  "Are they in past the Retribution's radar ping?" Gordon asked.

  "No, their entry burst and the ping will cross each other. They entered before the Retribution emitted that ping out and they should be seeing it now or in a few seconds. I don't have an accurate enough distance to locate them within better than a couple light minutes. They entered awfully deep and fast, even for them. They sure didn't stay long at that other star."

  "Tell everybody no more active radar until I give then an all clear," Gordon ordered.

  "Message sent," Brownie confirmed, "but I'm pretty sure they didn't enter inside our wave front."

  "Understood, I have other concerns," Gordon said.

  "Wow! Big entry," Brownie said. "That is outside our wave front! We'll see what it paints, and unfortunately they'll see us. Somebody overjumped the Caterpillars hard on a vector a bit away from us. Maybe another Caterpillar ship?" Brownie guessed. "Or maybe a couple of them doing a hot synchronized entry?"

  "I wonder if Caterpillars have factions?" Lee thought out loud. "Might one Caterpillar be hostile to another? And how could we tell one from another?"

  "Nope, the new guy just sent out a whole bunch of frequency shifting radar. It's nothing like what we've seen the Caterpillars using," Brownie informed them. "No hooting audio either. The Caterpillars don't seem to be braking at all. In fact they may still be accelerating. That would suggest to me they are being pursued. OK, they are maneuvering hard laterally to bypass the other ship."

  "The Caterpillars will still see us with their radar return in better detail, but just not as fast as they saw our radar hot," Lee said. “They both know we are here."

  "Given the angle and their velocity insystem the second ship won't see us in any great detail. Even then not for several hours. Then they will have a long braking burn and need significant time if they wish to come back to us," Gordon said, analyzing the whole situation. "We have time to move."

  "You anticipated this!" Brownie accused Gordon. He knew Gordon was a brilliant tactician, but this amazed him. The second big entry had totally surprised him, but Gordon anticipated it.

  Gordon shrugged. "Seemed obvious they were being chased to show up this fast. I'm just sorry we didn't have a few hours where we were hidden. I tried."

  "Are we going to run to jump and get out of this system?" Thor asked.

  "I see no advantage to that," Gordon said. "If they can even think about chasing a Caterpillar ship we aren't going to outrun it. Being chased from behind is not a desirable position. The more so when you don't have data on their capabilities or psychology. Running seems to trigger pursuit responses in some organisms, and we may display confidence and give them pause to stand our ground. Besides, we have room to maneuver here and no bodies close to complicate things. I'm curious what the new ship is like, what sort of size and shape? We won't know that until after our shift ends."

  "What of the Sharp Claws?" Lee asked. "What do you think happened to them?"

  "I believe they shall turn up, and hopefully help explain this to us," Gordon said.

  Lee was glad he didn't think them destroyed, but was afraid to ask more.

  "They are accelerating!" Brownie said surprised. "They're going to pass awfully close to the star too. A whole lot closer than we could think about doing."

  "They're going to slingshot around the star and come back to us, aren't they?" Thor asked.

  "I hope so. I'm encouraged they haven't run off and left us to deal with this vessel. I suspect it is bad news and they knew somehow it was in the other system. This is outside their normal territory so all I can imagine is they have some terrific remote sensing or jump capable spy drones. We're past shift end and making the alternate crew wait to take the bridge. May I suggest we go get our rest now? If I have the right of it and they return to this side of the system tomorrow we'll be happy of it."

  Chapter 12

  "My mind wouldn't stop racing, trying to figure out what could be chasing the Caterpillars. I had to turn on the sleep-inducer," Lee complained. "I hate that thing. If I dream, I don't remember it, and when I wake up it's always a jolt." She brought an extra after breakfast cup of coffee along to the bridge and looked like she needed it.

  "Be glad it works at all for you," Thor said. "They've tried every variation to make it work for Derf and the results were not pretty. Nobody will try out any of the new programs now for any amount of money."

  "What did it do?" Lee demanded.

  "There's plenty of complicated professional reports on the web fraction if you want to read it. In simple layman's terms it left all the subjects just a bit twitchy. Scientists don't like broadly judgmental terms like crazy, but for all practical purposes that's how it left them. A bit paranoid or obsessive compulsive, and very slow to wear off, even with some help."

  "How could you tell with some people?" Gordon asked.

  "Well that's always a problem," Thor admitted. Then he did a slow scanning eye sweep side to side that left Lee gasping for air she laughed so hard. Thor simply looked hurt as if he didn't get it.

  "I laid awake a while thinking on it too," Gordon admitted. "I'm convinced of just a few solid facts. I think the Caterpillars are perhaps the most principled of the races we've met. They have acted with integrity from the very first meeting when they had no idea who or what was aboard the Sharp Claws. When they ran into them while pursuing a Biter ship they made a very quick decision to cease fire on the Sharp Claws without a firm identification. Certainly before it became evident to them other Biters were aggressively pursuing the Sharp Claws. Tactically they were in a very dangerous situation and could have excused themselves for assuming everybody in similar sized ships were enemies in common. They put themselves at risk by giving the Sharp Claws a window to fire on them.

  "Now that we have a radar return on this new ship we know it is even bigger than the Caterpillars' ship. It's as long but almost half again as wide with significant structures sticking up from the plate shape. But we have almost no knowledge of their behavior beyond seeing them in pursuit of the Caterpillars. We have no idea what happened in the other system so we would be presuming a lot to assume the Caterpillars are innocent and the other aggressive at this point.

  “The Caterpillars saw the Sharp Claws use their Greaser on a Biter ship, but from an extreme angle. I'm not certain if they understood what sort of weapon was being used. They were passing almost head on right after entry and had other things holding their attention. They probably just saw the Bitter ship break up and no idea how. I have yet to see evidence of them possessing beam weapons, and we know almost nothing about the missiles they command destructed, because we didn't see them perform on a target."

  "You mostly stated facts to support your one real conclusion that they are principled," Brownie said. "I don't mean to be
critical, but you tend to assume if you tick off all the facts we'll come to the same conclusions as you. We don't. You think like a tactician. You skip the intermediate steps and come straight to the conclusion. It's sort of like when Mr. Burris gave Eddie sudden inspiration on how the brown dwarves might be formed. It was obvious to Burris even though Ernie had the superior technical knowledge, because just having the facts didn't mean he had the insight to integrate them. So humor us and expound a bit more on what else this should tell us."

  Gordon looked a surprised at that then frowned in concentration. If Derf could blush he'd likely have done so at the praise. He was more used to Thor giving him a hard time.

  "I'll expand on it. I certainly don't have a comprehensive vision sufficiently broad to expound on it. When I say they are principled I mean in a way that we understand. It's in a way of which I personally approve. It fits my... style. They know very little about us but tried to warn us off visiting the alternate target. Why? Some people I know would grab snacks and sit back to watch the show – unconcerned about the fate of strangers. We have traded with them a little. Are they keeping us exclusive for their own uses and advantage from a rival in trade, or saving us from something hostile to lesser races?

  "Even their treatment of the Biters is measured. Once they were fired on first they could be excused if they didn't take any chances and blasted any Biter ship on sight. Instead they have captured a few, may they have the joy of that, because I doubt they will have any reasonable discussion with them. But they tried. They will have seen what sort of weapons the Biters have on the captured ships and I fear this may give them a false impression."

  "How so?" Lee asked.

  "They have no idea how long we've known each other. They may assume we are all on very similar technological levels since they found us together. They are more advanced in drives and manipulating gravity, but so are the Badgers with gravity. There is so much public information available about weapons it will be impossible to hide it from the Badgers and Bills. If they want, they will have the same sort of weapons we do in maybe ten years. But the Caterpillars don't know that process hasn't had time to work out. They found us all in an improbable and temporary state.