by Isaac Hooke
Like the missiles and energy bolts before them, many of the raptors targeted Jain.
“How’s are we holding up, Xander?” Jain said, observing his own damage readout as the words left his lips.
“We’re taking a beating,” Xander said. “Already we’ve lost several laser turrets on both the starboard and port side. And a few stingers. So far, the barracuda has escaped damage. I should note that several of the attacks have targeted our engines. So far, the armor is holding, but once they recharge their lasers, or rotate more banks to face us, we won’t survive the next round without suffering engine damage.”
“Hopefully they won’t have time for that!” Jain said.
More missiles and plasma bolts fired, the launch trajectories of these accounting for the combined gravity well produced by the black holes.
Gavin launched his three drones out to the side to intercept the missiles; the drones, designed with alien technology, fared well in the gravitationally intense environment, and spread apart with relative ease. They formed a wide force field that protected the entire starboard side of the Space Machinist fleet, which was where the majority of the attacks were coming from, and deflected or absorbed the explosions. He shifted the drones to the opposite side of the fleet before most of the remaining attacks could get through, and deflected most of them, too.
Unfortunately, there were a few that Gavin couldn’t stop, but since Jain was the intended target for most of them, Sheila decelerated slightly, placing the Wheelbarrow between the Talos and the attacks. Her energy shield flashed as she took the hits. When they were all gone, she accelerated back into her previous place in the formation.
“My shield is down to ten percent,” she announced.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Jain told her.
“Maybe,” Sheila said. “My protective instincts sometimes get the better of me.”
Some of the other Heracles vessels also had black hole cannons, and they fired dispersion bolts—it had taken them this long to obtain a firing solution. At the same time, the Conquest also finally oriented its own black hole cannon toward the rips in reality and unleashed dispersion bolts in rapid succession. The bolts came in from all sides, and in moments all of the black holes winked out.
“It’s too bad we weren’t able to take out their black hole weapons,” Gavin said. “Especially on the Conquest.”
“We would have if the nose had been facing us,” Jain said. “Doesn’t matter anyway. We got what we needed.”
It was true: Jain and his fleet already invoked the slingshot effect they were looking for, which gave them acceleration well beyond what they were ordinarily capable of.
They shot past the former barycenter where the holes had existed, and quickly approached their destination: the Daktor.
It was time to utilize the wildcard.
He remembered what Sheila had told him when he watched the Daktor fly behind the Conquest after she had first given Admiral Tagan control.
“I might not have deleted all my access codes to the Daktor,” Sheila had said over the private streaming line.
Jain had hidden a smile. “Good. Because I regret this already.”
Yes, Sheila hadn’t completely revoked her access to the Daktor.
“Do your thing, Sheila,” Jain ordered.
She had already disabled Tagan’s access: Jain knew, because according to the tactical display, the Daktor had already revolved its ring away from the battle in preparation for rift creation. On the feed from one of his external cameras, he watched as the ring lit up, and the familiar rays of blue light met in the center, forming in a single beam that traveled in front of it by ten kilometers. Without his access, Tagan wouldn’t be able to shut it down.
“Two minutes, people,” Jain said. “And we’re out of here.”
“Just took out the Conquest’s shield generator,” Cranston said. “Rip and tear time.”
Cranston released his hold on the Conquest’s hull and retracted his grappling hooks. He accelerated upward, heading for the Daktor like the Space Machinists.
But the Conquest instantly followed Cranston; the flagship also began orienting its intact starboard-side laser banks toward the fleeing vessel. It was obvious that Cranston wasn’t going to get away.
But then the Conquest tore apart. Medeia flickered into view, the sword section of her ship emerging from the wreckage.
Medeia had only intended to delay the Conquest by disabling the engines, so that Cranston would have time to rejoin the fleet.
“Oops,” Medeia said. “I hope I didn’t kill him.”
“You missed the AI core, according to my calculations,” Xander said. “Still, the admiral won’t be pleased when they wake him up.”
“You think?” Gavin said. “By destroying that ship, we’ve essentially branded ourselves outlaws.”
“It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Mark said. “You’re the one who never wanted to go back. Now you have your way.”
The other vessels had begun firing plasma and energy bolts at the Space Machinists. They also fired their lasers at the Daktor.
Sheila quickly positioned her vessel between those lasers and the incoming Daktor, using her weakened energy shield to absorb the blows. In a few moments her shields went down, but Gavin quickly rotated his three drones out to the side to act as a sort of shield for her. Enemy ships rearranged behind them to get a better shot at the Daktor.
“All right, it’s time for the finale,” Jain said. “Switch to Protection Pattern Alpha.”
The Space Machinists adjusted their positions and orientations so that they were flying very close to one another and forming almost a solid rectangular wall with their hulls. Their momentum still carried them quickly toward the Daktor, which their bodies protected.
An enemy ship created a black hole, but Mark quickly dispersed it as he flew past.
Jain kept an eye on his damage screen as he took plasma, missile, and laser impacts. So far Gavin had prevented any of the barracuda energy bolts from striking anyone, but his drones were quickly running low on the power they needed to keep the defense field active.
The Daktor and the beam of energy in front of it was coming up fast. Jain checked his timing and adjusted his speed so that he wouldn’t race by the destination too early.
“Separate!” Jain ordered.
They left formation, forming the side-by-side line of vessels that would be needed to fit through the rift.
His hull continued to be battered by the Dominators and Piranhas. He lost more weapons. The armor over one engine was almost completely gone. The Daktor began to take hits again.
And then the rift opened up: that familiar unfolding of nebular gases erupted from the end of the beam. The purple ring expanded outward rapidly just as Jain reached the wormhole. He passed through underneath the beam, his ventral side barely clearing the purple perimeter below.
Behind him, the other ships passed through; the Daktor had also begun accelerating, and when the last of the Space Machinists was through, the Daktor applied emergency acceleration and hurtled through.
Two Dominators were right behind it and they unleashed a barrage as the rift slammed shut. A final volley of plasma bolts and missiles struck the Space Machinists. The Daktor took a crippling blow—a portion of its gate shattered.
A black hole suddenly opened up in the center of the group as a creation bolt had swept into their midst unnoticed.
Mark managed to swing around in time and fired a dispersion bolt, negating the hole.
“Well, that was fun,” Mark commented. “We should do this every day.”
22
Jain and the others immediately deployed their repair swarms and set about mending the damage they’d suffered in the escape. They also each lent a portion of their swarms to the Daktor, to help speed its repair.
“Also, Xander, keep scanning the immediate area,” Jain said.
“You’re worried one of their cloaked ships got through?” Xander ask
ed.
“Good guess,” Jain said.
“It would be worse if it was a cloaked teleporter ship,” Medeia said.
“Ships can’t teleport through rifts, though,” Cranston said.
“I’m not saying any of their ships did,” Medeia said. “Only that, it’s possible they teleported to the rift, and passed through before it closed.”
They were in Andreas IV, one of the neighboring systems Sheila had the rift ship precompute ahead of time. Jain hadn’t wanted to return to Andreas V, in case the aliens decided to use that place as a base of operations. The last thing he needed was to arrive in a system only to find himself surrounded by none-too-happy aliens.
The system was unique in that it had a lone star, rather than the binaries like most in the stellar neighborhood. The spectral lines indicated the metallicity of the star was high, which was a good sign, because it meant there was a good chance there would be metals in the different celestial bodies orbiting it, which was why Jain had chosen the system as his bug-out site in the first place.
The star had six inner terrestrial planets, and two gas giants in the outer system. It was completely uncolonized, with no gates leading out. Orbiting one of the inner planets was an old Russian probe that occasionally emitted a signal ping to let everyone know it was still there.
Jain had the Space Machinists set a course for the sixth inner planet, which was a little larger than Earth, and also had a moon roughly the same size as the planet itself. Xander had detected what seemed to be large quantities of frozen water on the surface of the planet, as well as some frozen nitrogen, while the moon registered high in metals, so between the two, they were the perfect combination the fleet needed to restock.
None of them detected any cloaked ships, but Jain still had Xander constantly scanning the area, to be on the safe side.
A few hours later, before they arrived at the planet, Xander announced: “I just detected the familiar neutrino burst and gravitational wave combination associated with rifts opening.”
“Where was it?” Jain asked.
“The far side of the system, between the two gas giants,” Xander said. “Given the time it took the neutrinos to travel here, the rift had to have opened thirty minutes after our arrival.”
“They sent a probe to track us?” Jain said.
“That would be my guess,” Xander said. “Our light and thermal signatures wouldn’t have yet reached that area of space when the probe arrived, so I’m assuming the probe is still in the system. It would have seen us by now, of course. When the rift opens again, it will return, and report its findings.”
“They’re obviously sending probes to all the nearby systems,” Sheila said.
“They would have had to go back to retrieve more rift gates, or ships,” Gavin said. They would have all had precomputed destinations.
Jain nodded. “We’ve definitely pissed them off. Earth is off limits to us, I’m afraid. Well, I’m not going to stop anyone who wants to return, of course. Though unless you want to find yourself tried before a court martial, that probably isn’t the best idea.”
The Space Machinists reached the planet and wedged themselves in a geostationary orbit between the moon and the planet so that the moon was blocking their locations, when viewed from the perspective of the spy rift that had opened.
They’d probably already been spotted, of course. Still, Jain had to try.
He left a stealth probe in orbit above the pole of the moon to act as a scout, so the fleet wouldn’t miss any signals from the occluded area of space.
Now that they were close to the planet, they confirmed that it was covered in frozen water, with the polar icecaps made of nitrogen. A few probes sent to the moon confirmed its metal content as well. The Space Machinists launched transports containing miners to both the planet and moon and set about restocking their elements.
Two hours later Xander announced: “I just detected a rift opening up in the same area, between the two gas giants.”
“So the probe has just returned to its masters…” Mark commented.
“Not now, but two hours ago,” Medeia told him. “It took two hours for the light to reach us.”
“I know how space works,” Mark said dryly.
Medeia raised an eyebrow. “Do you? Sometimes I wonder.”
“All right captains, focus,” Jain said. “We keep doing what we’re doing.”
“You think we’ll have the gate repaired in time?” Medeia said. “Before they return?”
Jain glanced at Sheila, who shook her head.
There was nothing they could do at that point, except continue to repair their ships, and restock the elements those repairs consumed. Not to mention replenish their propellant, missile, and demolition charge supplies.
Only an hour passed before Xander spoke again. “I’m detecting another rift, same location. Nineteen ships have arrived. It’s the Heracles fleet, I believe.”
“Minus their admiral,” Gavin said.
“I’m sure they’ve shoved his AI core into one of the other Dominators,” Jain said. “He’s no doubt leading the charge even now.”
Mark sat back in his virtual seat and put his hands behind his head as if relaxing.
“Well you seem strangely calm, given the situation,” Medeia said.
“Emotion suppression,” Mark said with a grin. “Gotta love being a machine.”
“Are you detecting any gates, or rift ships with them?” Jain asked his Accomp.
“No,” Xander said. “But they have at least one rift ship with them, cloaked and ready to jump out for reinforcements.”
“Heading?” Jain asked.
“A moment,” Xander said. “Their positional information isn’t available yet.” Two minutes later he glanced up. “They’re headed toward this planet.”
Jain nodded. “They know we’re here, of course.”
“Because of a cloaked ship in our midst?” Xander asked.
“No,” Jain said. “We would have detected the radio emissions if there was a cloaked ship. They know our general location because of their probe. For the moment, we’re still hidden from their view.” He glanced at Sheila. “I want you to land the Daktor on the moon.” Since the celestial satellite had no atmosphere, it was relatively easy to deploy the vessel there. “We’ll stow it in a crater and deactivate it so the Heracles fleet doesn’t pick it up on the thermal band when they arrive. Meanwhile, I want repairs to continue right up until the moment the fleet arrives, at which point I want the drones to hide underneath the rift ship and deactivate.”
“I’ll get on it,” Sheila said.
It took half an hour for the Daktor to land and shutdown. The repair drones accompanied it all the way down. The supply logistics for the repair metals became easier, at least for that ship, because the mining units could drop off their supplies directly to the smelters aboard the Daktor for processing, rather than requiring transports to lift them into orbit first.
Xander spoke up. “The probe in polar orbit just received a holographic message from the Heracles fleet. Would you like me to play it?”
“Do so,” Jain said.
The holographic image of Commander Prescott appeared standing before Jain and the other avatars. Prescott managed to make it seem like he was still high in the stands of the virtual amphitheater because of the way he tilted up his aristocratic chin and looked down his bold nose at Jain.
“I know you have a repeater in orbit of the moon,” Prescott said. “I know you can read me. This is the only warning I’m giving you. If you surrender now, there’s a chance the Mind Refurbs who follow you won’t be prosecuted, as they were simply following orders. You, however, will be shutdown of course, and there’s nothing I can do about that. You destroyed the flagship of an admiral.” He paused. “Think of the members of your fleet. Put their wellbeing above your own. Don’t force them to go down with you.”
The image winked out.
The Heracles fleet was too far away for realtime co
mmunication, so Jain glanced at Xander and said: “Prepare to send reply.”
“Ready,” Xander said.
Jain straightened, and looked straight ahead. “Record.” He paused, then: “Where is Admiral Tagan? I’d like to speak with him, not an underling.” He glanced at Xander. “Stop, and send message.”
“Sent,” Xander told him.
“Hoping to buy time?” Cranston asked.
“That and, I want to make sure the admiral is all right,” Jain answered.
“So do I,” Medeia said.
A while later, Xander announced: “I have an answer.”
Jain glanced the Accomp. “Let’s hear it.”
Prescott’s avatar appeared once more.
“You can’t speak to Admiral Tagan,” Prescott said. “You destroyed his AI core, along with his ship. This is your last chance to cooperate.”
Prescott’s avatar winked out.
Jain glanced at Medeia.
She shook her head. “That’s impossible. I was careful to impact well away from his core location.”
“Could a fragment from one of the affected decks have worked its way to the AI core when the ship split apart?” Jain pressed her.
Medeia frowned. “I don’t think so. The core is in a heavily armored area. It would have had to take a direct hit. Either that, or something else disabled the core. Maybe a software virus.”
“Or that lightning weapon we saw the aliens use...” Gavin said.
“Now, now,” Sheila said. “Don’t be going and spreading conspiracy theories.”
“Well this is just great,” Cranston said. “Now we’re dealing with the underling who hates us maybe more than the master ever did.”
“Maybe we can use that,” Jain said.
“What, his hate?” Cranston asked.
Jain nodded. “If he doesn’t tamp down his emotion settings for the coming battle, we can taunt him, perhaps coax him into making a mistake, and to committing his ships to a fatal attack run.”
“Like tricking him into smashing into the planet or something?” Cranston pressed.
