They dove toward the pock-marked moon’s surface with the missiles still closing; they were now only a few ship-lengths behind. Jack estimated there were only a few seconds left before impact. A wave of relief hit him before he was fully cognizant of what had happened: the enemy weapons’ engines finally died out. They had run out of fuel. The sphere banked left, barely avoiding the planetoid’s surface; the powerless missiles, however, continued, detonating on impact. As the blinding explosions faded, Jack saw nothing more than a slowly spreading field of rocky debris.
The image faded and Jack found himself standing in the empty room; he was alone save for the macabre collection of scattered alien corpses. Disorientation took over. He had no idea where to go or what to do.
Alpha’s voice gave him a measure of comfort. “We should be safe for now.”
The idea of safety focused his thoughts and doubts. “But what about their ships? I don’t think they’re going to give up that quickly.”
“I agree. However, they won’t use the AGC to follow us.”
“Why? They’ve got us running.”
“They don’t seem to trust the conduits. Would you follow us through them?”
Jack was surprised that Alpha’s strategic analysis was ahead of him this time. He wondered if their naivety was already dissipating. “No, I wouldn’t either,” he answered.
“They will still follow, but in normal space,” Alpha said.
“How far did we jump?”
“Fifty light-years. But unfortunately that doesn’t give us much time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember how time is distorted when we go through the AGCs – it depends on the specific folds that we connect. Using your view of time, we just moved fifty years ahead. In other words, they left that star system in pursuit of us fifty years ago. Their engine technology is capable of accelerating to hyper-relativistic travel very quickly. We expect that they’ll be here in a couple of days at most.”
“Then what can we do now?”
“Send you and your crew home before they get here. At least that way, they’ll have no knowledge of Earth.”
Part 5: Retreat
Chapter 32 – July 29, 2124; 23:30:00
The small conference room was crowded and buzzed with the sound of a half-dozen hushed conversations. A general feeling of foreboding hung in the air, which Kurt blamed on the meeting being called so hastily; that, and the fact that Jack had insisted the whole crew be present. Nadya leaned close to his ear and asked, “Any idea what this is about?”
“No. He’s only been back for an hour, so I haven’t had a chance to speak with him. From what I heard, it took them several hours to heal his injuries; especially the wounds in his arm.”
“Any word on Devon?”
“None yet. I assume they’re still working on him. But...” Kurt stopped as the room went silent. Jack made his way to the center and started speaking in a subdued tone. “Alpha has informed me they could not try to revive Devon. His body was…was too severely damaged.”
Nausea and numbness shot through Kurt; Devon was too young for this. Nadya squeezed his hand, but he didn’t respond. His wanted to leave, to be anywhere but in this room listening to this news.
Jack continued, “There’s not much that I can say at this point that you don’t already know. I’ve listed in our official log that Lieutenant Devon Roberts was killed in action eight hours ago. We will have a memorial service in his honor.” There was a noticeable pause before Jack completed his thought, “I’ll post the time once we can arrange it.”
An uneasy silence followed as all eyes watched the captain. Jack just stood there, his hands on the table, staring down. “There is another reason why I wanted everyone here. Alpha has informed me that they can send us home...”
The room erupted into pandemonium, but Kurt barely noticed. Devon’s death dominated his thoughts; still, he thought Jack said ‘home.’ Hope crept into his mind, displacing some of the fatigue and pessimism that weighed on him. He looked to Nadya who was transfixed by the multitude of conversations. Doubt, though, reasserted itself. He wondered if he misunderstood, and had to shout so that Nadya could hear him. “Is he talking about Earth?”
“Yes. Thank God,” she answered as she moved closer to him.
“Quiet down!” Jack’s voice boomed. “There’s more to this.” It took a full minute for the silence to return, at which point Jack continued, “Alpha has offered to give us four small ships that’ll be able to take us the hundred-fourteen light-years from here to Earth. These will travel through normal space, not an AGC. However, it will be at hyper-relativistic speeds, so the trip will take only a little over a week from our reference frame.”
“What does that mean in terms of when we get there?” Don asked.
“In terms of the date, it will be early October, 2129; a little less than two months Earth-time after we arrived at Epsilon Eri.”
“So no more AGCs then, right?” Don asked.
“Yes. The conduit we just came through is the last completed one in this particular chain. The other one in this system was never finished. Ironically, Alpha told me that they started constructing it about six-thousand years ago to connect this system to Earth. However, one of their scouting teams stumbled on the Sumerians. Once they discovered that there was a written language and the beginnings of mathematics, they were convinced that we might develop into a technological race. At that point they chose to leave Earth alone.”
Nadya spoke up this time, “So they’re just giving us four ships then to go home?”
“Yes.”
“Then, when do we go?” she asked.
“It’s not a simple decision. We need to consider what we can accomplish here first. What I’m talking about is helping Alpha defeat this fleet...”
Kurt strained to hear what Jack was saying, but the cross-conversations grew too loud again. He pushed his way to the front in time to hear Don saying, “...are going right? We can’t just stay here.”
“What’s to stop them from sweeping in and taking Earth?” Jack said with obvious frustration in his voice. “There’s nothing back home to stop them.”
“What are you talking about?” Don shouted. The room grew quiet to as he continued, “You want to stay?”
“It may be the only way that we can protect Earth.”
“Why would they even be interested in Earth?” Don asked. “We certainly don’t have any technology that they could want.”
“Plus, it’s doubtful that they even know where Earth is,” Palmer added.
“I think it would be trivial for them to track us if we went home. If they were able to access the data from the sphere they captured, they would already know about us. Remember, Alpha downloaded our ship’s entire library – I’m sure they shared the data.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Don said. “What do we have to offer? What would make us a target?” He didn’t give Jack a chance to respond, before providing his own answer, “Absolutely nothing! We’re too primitive. We’ve got nothing to offer any of these races, so we’ve got to leave while we can.”
“It’s more than that,” Jack shouted. “I’m worried that what we’re seeing here is much worse than we thought!”
“What do you mean?” Palmer asked in a level tone.
“Look at what enemy this enemy’s been doing – they’ve been systematically wiping out Alpha’s colonies. What we’re seeing may be analogous to the ethnic cleansing that happened in the twentieth century on Earth, but on an interstellar scale.” The room quieted, allowing Jack to continue without raising his voice, “It’s brutal but simple logic. If this enemy calculated that the risk of their own annihilation from another technical species was too great, then an obvious solution would be to eliminate any possible risk – that is, any technological race as soon as it was discovered. Acting first would ensure they have the ultimate advantage of surprise. Their tactics show they’ve got no interest in conquering or negotiating.
This is about extermination.”
The room went silent as Jack continued, “If this is the case, then Earth would definitely pose threat as well. We’re nothing to them right now, but in a few centuries we could certainly be a potential adversary. As a result, the logical move for them is to strike now, while we’re still weak. That’s why we need to do something here and now. Not taking any action is too big a gamble.”
“You’re right that we shouldn’t gamble – but staying here is the gamble,” Don shouted back.
“Captain,” Palmer said, “Our duty is first and foremost to Earth. Before anything else, we need to go back home and warn them. Helping these aliens in some impossible battle against an enemy that probably doesn’t even know about us is too big a risk.”
“We can stay here and send a message,” Jack said.
There was no immediate response to Jack’s challenge; the room was quiet, waiting to see what would happen. Despite his complete faith in Jack, Kurt didn’t like idea of staying. He couldn’t imagine what they could actually do to help. He caught a glimpse of Don saying something to Palmer; but they were too far away to hear.
Don finally spoke up, “I think that Alpha’s people can take care of themselves. Our staying here isn’t going to make a damned bit of difference.”
“Leaving things to them isn’t going to help us,” Jack shot back, “Right now it looks like they’re going to send us home, and then run as well.”
“Doesn’t that tell you something?” Don said as he slammed his hands down on the conference table.
“It tells me that there’ll be nothing standing between that enemy fleet and Earth.”
“Then what are you suggesting?” Palmer asked in a calmer tone.
“We convince them to make a stand. Here with us.”
“You saw what just happened to them,” Don said; his voice hoarse with exasperation. “And, they’re over a million years ahead of us! Don’t you realize how little we know compared to them or their enemy? There’s a reason they’re running. I mean, why the hell would they even listen to us? What could we even come up with that they haven’t thought of already?”
Kurt couldn’t tell if Don stopped because he was out of breath or if he thought he’d made his point. The problem was, the man made sense. He turned to face Nadya and said, “I don’t see what Jack thinks we can do here.”
She shot an accusing look back at him, but said nothing.
“I’ve given that a lot of thought,” Jack said loudly but calmly. “The key isn’t what they know or how much more advanced they are. It’s what they’re not capable of seeing. They’re just a scientific expedition...”
“So are we!” Don interjected.
The murmuring grew throughout the small room until Jack held up his hand. He waited patiently until he could be heard at a normal voice. “Neither they, nor their entire race has fought or even thought about fighting a battle in over a million years. By their own admission, they engineered aggression out of their race. We haven’t.”
“Do you really think being primitive is going to help?” Don said with sarcasm cutting though his voice.
“Not primitive,” Jack answered with continued calmness. “It’s a matter of understanding conflict and strategy. Think of it. They have and get whatever they want without any effort. It’s just handed to them via their technology. They have an endless supply of everything they need. They don’t need to plan, or create strategies. They don’t need to compete. This type of thought is completely alien to them. In fact, they’re so damned complacent that I’ve wondered if they’re truly alive.”
“Do you really think we could make any sort of difference here?” Palmer asked.
Jack turned to face him and answered with a hint of frustration, “Come on. You of all people should see it. The basic tenants of warfare haven’t changed for millennia on Earth. The weapons have, but the basic strategies haven’t. It goes back to the strategies and foresight taught to us in Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ and the game of chess. Arguably all military tactics stem from these.”
Don pushed toward Jack, and shouted, “So now you’re saying that the writings of a man whose armies used arrows and swords will save us?”
“No, Damn it! What I’m saying is that the understanding and analysis of conflict transcends time and technology. It’s a branch of thought and philosophy that we understand and have applied throughout history. We use it in business and economics; we use it in politics. And, yes, we’ve used it in armed conflict. They haven’t and have no experience with it.
“Sun Tzu said, know your enemy, respect his strengths and understand his weaknesses. Use deception. Take advantage of their hubris. These are all things that we can do that Alpha’s people haven’t thought of. More importantly, it’s something that the enemy won’t be expecting. I’d be willing to bet that Alpha can provide us with whatever tools we need to do this. Plus, from what we’ve seen, it looks like their technology is even more advanced than this enemy’s.”
The room was silent. Don was fuming, waiting for someone to speak up in support of him. Jack stood quietly too, letting everyone digest what was just said. Though Kurt didn’t know if he agreed with Jack, he couldn’t let his friend just hang out there like this. In the back of his mind, though, he was worried that Jack might be letting a desire to avenge Devon’s death cloud his judgement. It only took a second to purge that thought. He looked around once more before speaking up, “This enemy … they’re arrogant. Couldn’t we lay a trap of some sort?” He instantly regretted his action as all eyes shifted to him. No one said anything, though, which made him feel obligated to explain himself. “When I was on Alpha’s ship, I watched their soldiers act like they were hunting; like Alpha’s people were nothing more than prey and unable to fight back. I watched them simply walk into rooms without taking any cover, without any hint of defense, and just open fire.”
“Kurt, we’re not soldiers,” a voice from behind said softly.
Another voice called out, “What’re you talking about?”
Kurt spun around and answered hesitantly, “They aren’t expecting a fight.”
“That was my conclusion too,” Jack said. “When I was on their ship, Alpha showed me an orbital view of the battle. What I saw matched what Kurt saw. The enemy ships didn’t expect a fight. They approached the whole thing as if they were flushing out their prey and going in for the kill.”
“Sir,” Palmer said, “I think we need to take a step back from this.”
Jack answered him with a simple challenge, “Then what do you suggest?”
“Alpha’s ship just escaped one of their attacks. Don’t you think they’ll take that into account next time?” Palmer asked.
“Running for your life and setting up an ambush are two very different things. They may take an extra step or two to prevent an escape. But, they won’t be expecting an offensive move.”
“Are you talking about laying traps and then heading home?” Nadya asked.
“For the most part, yes,” Jack answered. “There’s no way we could even try to engage them in battle. We don’t have the ships or weaponry. If all goes well, most of you will head home once the traps are set. A few of us will stay behind with one of their ships to see this thing through. We’ll follow after that.”
Kurt had to admit that Jack’s statement gave him some sense of relief. Though he was pretty sure he’d be one of the ones staying behind with Jack, he was equally sure that he could get Nadya on one of the ships heading home first.
“It’s still too risky,” Don said. “Our best chance for survival is to go now; not wait to the last minute.”
Before there was a chance for the debate to continue, Kurt jumped back in, “They don’t use the AGCs, right?”
“Correct,” Jack answered.
“Then they’ll come in at high speed like we did at Epsilon Eri with the Magellan. Their engines will be pointing towards us as they decelerate. That’s when they’ll be vulnerable. It’ll be toug
h for them to see anything happening in front of them. The question is, what can we do?”
“Wait a minute,” Don interjected. “You’re assuming that we’re staying. I don’t see us having made that decision.”
“It’s better than running away right now,” Kurt shot back.
“You’re talking about this as if we were even close to being on an equal footing with these aliens,” Don replied. “You’re just fooling yourselves; this is nothing more than suicide.”
“Don,” Jack said in a measured tone, “I need you to give me something to work with. The way I see it, this is our best bet to protect ourselves and Earth. Show me something I missed.”
“Something you missed? You’ve built your whole damned argument on the assumption that they’re going to go to Earth. I don’t see any realistic basis for that.”
“Don, if we stay and I’m wrong, then maybe we’ve unnecessarily put ourselves in harm’s way. If we run and you’re wrong, then we will have squandered our best chance at defending Earth. How sure are you that you’re right?”
“Captain,” Palmer said, “I think you underestimate what can be accomplished by acting as reconnaissance and bringing the knowledge we’ve gathered about this enemy back home. We could accomplish even more if we can bring some of Alpha’s technology with us.”
“And how much of a defense do you think we could muster in the few days we’d have before their fleet arrived at Earth? Even with some of their tech, I don’t think much. We need Alpha with us to do this. The time and place to defeat them is here and now with Alpha’s ship at our side.”
With a deceptively calm tone, Palmer replied, “Captain may I remind you that our mission orders are very clear about how we were to proceed if we encountered superior, hostile forces at Eri-D. We were tasked with gathering tactical data and immediately returning to Earth with that data: no exceptions. We have that tactical data.”
“You don’t need to remind me – I was involved in writing those directives!” Jack said sharply. “What we’ve encountered is far beyond the scope of anything we could imagine when we wrote those orders.”
Prelude to Extinction Page 37
