“The Fleet is ready, O High Admiral,” said Sojatta’s Flag Lieutenant.
Sojatta inclined his head in a short nod. “We await the Word,” he replied, looking at Guardian Prophet Zutirra sitting beside him.
Zutirra smiled, reveling in his recent promotion. He was now the senior Prophet in the Fleet. Sojatta couldn’t make a move without his blessing.
At last. I have achieved my dream. And after we destroy the Goblins…I may fall into the line of succession for the role of Great Prophet.
“Destroy the Goblins,” intoned Zutirra. “It is the Word Ordained.”
“It is the Word Ordained,” repeated Sojatta. He motioned to his Flag Lieutenant. “Let us depart."
Slowly, but with ever increasing velocity, the Stree Fleet began to move out-system toward the mass limit. Ten separate groups made up the armada. Each group contained 150 warships - battlecruisers, cruisers, and destroyers. A total of 1,500 ships, moving in coordination, accelerated toward the mass limit where they would sink out and speed toward Stalingrad.
Enroute to Stree Prime
Corvette EDF Armidale
The Armidale was six days out from Stalingrad when the news came. Rita, Jim, Bonnie, Ollie, and Rachel were having coffee in the galley. Captain Stewart stepped in, his face dark. He paused before them, looking grim.
“What?” Jim asked before anyone else could react.
“The Stree have launched,” Stewart said.
Rita closed her eyes, grimacing.
“I hoped we’d have more time,” she said. She opened her eyes, staring at Bonnie. “That gives us only six days at Stree Prime before their fleet attacks Stalingrad. That’s not much time to accomplish anything.”
“Well. We’ll have to do what we can with the time we have available,” said Bonnie.
After a short silence, Jim spoke up. “We need to accelerate our plan a bit.”
“I don’t see how,” Rita said. “We’re already pushing it to the limit.”
“Then we have to push some more,” said Jim. “Our only hope of changing the outcome of the war is to infiltrate Stree command headquarters before the Stree fleet arrives at Stalingrad. So when we arrive at Stree Prime, we’ll have exactly six days to get that done.”
“Maybe more,” said Bonnie. “They may hover outside the Stalingrad system for a few days, getting themselves organized. Like the Ashkelon did at Dekanna.”
“But they won’t wait for long,” Rita interjected. “They know they’ve got the Goblins vastly outnumbered. They have no reason to delay.”
“Still. We may have six days when we arrive. Or we may have eight. Or even ten. We just don’t know,” Bonnie replied.
“But we have to assume worst case,” said Jim. “So we have to go into this with the assumption we’ll have six days from our arrival at Stree Prime to find some kind of leverage to blunt the Stree attack.”
Phoenix System
800 Lights from Stalingrad
The newly established colony on Phoenix lay in a long, broad horseshoe of a valley. Fifty miles in width and seventy miles long, the huge valley had a medium-size river to the east, running past the colony to the sea a dozen miles south of them. There was a flat, clear area in the middle of the valley perfect for building, outside of which blue-green alien trees climbed the foothills to the mountains on all three sides.
At the moment, ten shuttles were parked in a neat pattern in the center of the clear area. The shuttles had ferried the Humans from Transport One to the surface of the virgin planet, along with four million pounds of bots and materials. On both sides of the landing area were hundreds of large tents, their canvas already turning brown after five days on the surface.
On the east side of the camp, several hundred Humans were wrestling a water tank into position. Beside the water tank were two small buildings. At the top of each of the small square buildings, the roof seemed to be moving as if alive, as microbots finished construction of the water treatment plant.
A long, straight line ran east from the water treatment plant toward the river, where the colony would take in drinking water. A thousand Humans labored along that line, digging the ditch that would contain the water pipe. Some things microbots just couldn’t do as well as Humans.
On each of the four corners of the central flat area were four large apartment blocks, just completed by the microbots. Each apartment block could provide housing for 1,500 Humans. A steady stream of people moved from the tents to the newly completed apartment blocks, dragging their meager belongs as they relocated from their temporary shelters to their new permanent homes.
In a large tent near the shuttle landing area, Mark Rodgers sat at a makeshift desk, glaring at his tablet.
“Dammit!” he cursed, staring at something on the display. He punched the tablet with his finger as if that would solve his problem.
“What?” asked Rick Moore, sitting near him at another makeshift desk.
“The damn net went down again. Why can’t we keep that thing up and running?”
Rick grinned at Mark. “Because we’re pioneers on a primitive planet?”
Mark grimaced. “You don’t have to remind me every time something goes wrong.”
Rick, smiling, reached for a walkie-talkie on his desk and punched the button.
“Luke? The net went down again. Can you check it out?”
A burst of static nearly obscured a reply, but Rick barely made out Luke’s acknowledgment.
“Luke’s on it, Mark. He’ll get it sorted.”
“Thanks, Rick,” said Mark. He stood up from his desk and stretched. “Since I can’t work, I’ll go walk around the camp.”
“Sure thing, Guv,” said Rick.
“And don’t call me Guv,” Mark spat, as he walked out the front of the tent. Behind him, Rick grinned even wider. Needling his new boss had become his third favorite activity - after working to save Humanity, and sleeping with Zoe DeLong. He and Zoe had fallen together on the sixteen-day trip out from Stalingrad. They made no secret about their relationship - and neither did any of the other hundreds of couples who had fallen together in this stressful time.
Outside, Mark walked north, toward the inland side of the colony - a colony they had named “Landing”. It wasn’t all that original, but the colonists had voted, and that was the name that had stuck. So Landing it was.
In the far distance, a rugged elevation rose, the apex of the natural horseshoe of mountains that enclosed the colony. The horseshoe of mountains formed a natural protective barrier for Landing, sheltering it from the somewhat harsher environment on the other side of the mountains.
On both sides of him - east and west - the open space of Landing gave way to alien blue forest. On the west side, within two miles the open area turned into jungle, one that got thicker and thicker for two dozen miles, until it thinned out as it began to rise toward the distant mountains forming the western side of the horseshoe.
On the east side of the colony, within three miles the open space ended and another blue forest began. This one was also thick, but despite its thickness it never turned into jungle. The land stayed flat for another fifteen miles, then began to rise gently. Twenty-five miles away, the gently rising land turned into more rugged foothills and rose rapidly toward the eastern side of the mountain horseshoe.
On the far east side of the open space, he saw the men erecting the water tank. Beside them, the water treatment plant was nearly complete, only the roof still showing movement by microbots.
Turning to the west, Mark saw apartment Block Five being assembled close at hand. They had completed the first four apartment blocks ahead of schedule and decided to go ahead with the next batch - Blocks Five through Eight.
Mark paused for a moment to watch. Sure enough, if you were very still and watched carefully, you could actually see the height of the walls increasing millimeter by millimeter as the microbots worked.
“Hey, boss,” said a voice. Mark turned to see Luke Powell coming up to him, walki
e-talkie in one hand. “We got the net sorted. You should be back online now.”
“Good. Thanks, Luke.” As Luke stopped beside him, they both turned to face the opposite direction, south. South was the ocean - it could not be seen from the colony, but it was there, just twelve miles away. The long, narrow area stretching before them, with the shuttles parked in it, would be set aside as a greensward.
“People are already calling this one Central Park too,” said Luke. “I guess that was inevitable.”
Mark nodded absent-mindedly. “A little touch of home, at least for the Americans. Any news from the scouting teams?”
“So far, nothing bad. Still no sign of any animal life. That matches up with what the Goblins told us. We’ve re-tested the vegetation and it doesn’t appear to be harmful in any way to Earth-based life - but at the same time, it’s not edible for us. We could actually eat it without harm, but we’d gain no nutrition from it. So again, that matches up with the Goblins’ initial report to us. So far so good.”
“We need a crop planted, and quick,” said Mark.
“Yes, sir. Working on it. In fact, the last two shuttle runs brought down seed and root stock.” Luke pointed to the east, toward a distant field that had several hundred people working in it. “Turgenev’s people are prepping the first fields now. He said they’ll start planting some of the fast-growing crops tomorrow. With any luck at all, we’ll have our first emergency food crop ready in 45 days, and a second, larger one in about three months.”
Mark shot a sideways look at Luke. He had already briefed Luke about Turgenev. “Keep your eye on him. I know something’s up with him. He’s got allies somewhere, but I don’t know where yet. But at some point, they’ll try to put a knife in our backs. Be ready for it.”
Luke nodded. “Wilco, Boss. We’ll watch him like a hawk.”
39 AU from Stree Prime
Corvette EDF Armidale
“Do you think this will work?” asked Rita.
“I have no idea,” said Jim. “Tika says it will. But we won’t know until you’re on the ground.”
Rita gave a half-smile.
“Or not,” she said.
Jim grimaced. It was the best he could do under the circumstances.
“OK. Let’s do it. I’ll see you when I see you,” Rita said.
And with that, she lay back into the padded contours of the bunk where her android body would remain, inert, for the duration of this first mission.
Her eyes closed. Jim had been holding her hand. He felt one last squeeze. Then she moved her hand to her breast, laid it down there, and went limp.
And with that, Rita wasn’t in that body anymore. Now it was just an empty shell, waiting her return.
If she returns.
Jim knew where she was now. The love of his life was now resident in a tiny caterpillar three inches long, housed in a carrier rocket only three feet in length. A rocket that was mounted to a hardpoint on the side of the Armidale, along with two other rockets containing Rachel and Tika.
The love of his life was about to be launched into Stree space.
Jim knew he wouldn’t be able to see anything else from Rita’s cabin. He walked back to the bridge. He took a jump seat behind Captain Stewart and watched the rest of the operation on the large screen at the front.
Staring at the three tiny rockets mounted on the outside hull of the corvette, Jim started to worry. Beads of sweat formed on his brow. The magnitude of the risk for Rita and her two companions had finally fully registered in his mind.
Thinking about it beforehand had been one thing; watching the actual event was like a punch in the gut.
This was it. His wife was going to be dropped onto an enemy base.
With a whine, the tDrive engaged and the screen went blank for less than one second - to be exact, 696 milliseconds.
And the Armidale surfaced in the Stree system, 15 AU from the central star. They were directly behind a large gas giant, one with dozens of thick rings. To Jim, it looked remarkably like Saturn in the Sol System. But it was far indeed from Saturn. 3,275 light years, to be exact.
With a clunk that could be felt through the hull, the three tiny rockets were released from the corvette, along with a much larger item - an item disguised to look like just another big space rock.
Jim had only an instant to watch as the three tiny rockets floated in space, free of all attachment to the corvette, alongside the much larger fake asteroid. Then with a whine, the tDrive engaged again and they were gone, back out to their hiding place in the outer system.
The Armidale was once again back in the outer Kuiper Belt, 3.75 billion miles from the little moon called Tosong that orbited the ringed planet. Back at Tosong, it was now all up to Rita, Tika and Rachel.
Far from the love of his life, Jim felt the sweat start on his brow. He hated the feeling of being out of control, of not being able to protect Rita. Even though Rita was now a Goblin - more than capable of taking care of herself - it was a feeling he could never overcome.
Chapter Sixteen
Stree System
Moon Tosong - Listening Station #14
Rita had practiced being resident in the tiny caterpillar infiltration device a half-dozen times. She thought she had it down pat. But this was the real thing. It was different from the practice sessions.
A mistake now meant her life.
Per the mission schedule, she waited thirty minutes in radio silence after the Armidale departed back to the outer system. She scanned the environment with passive sensors, noting her two companions floating nearby. Slightly farther away, the much larger support package also floated silently.
There were millions of rocks and moons making up the rings of the Saturn-like planet. The Armidale had placed them several hundred thousand miles from the nearest ring; precisely in the path of a moon that would soon be coming around the planet in its orbit. The location was plausible for a few stray rocks that might have escaped the nearby ring through some gravitational perturbation.
Finally the required thirty minutes of radio silence expired without event, and Rita called to her companions on low-power RF.
Rita watched on her sensors as the support package fired a tiny ion rocket to boost away, out of the path of the moon that would soon be coming around the arc of the planet. The support package would move to a safe place several thousand klicks away, where it would wait until called.
And with that, the three fired their own tiny rockets to adjust their orbits slightly. When they were happy with their positions, they powered down and waited.
And waited some more. They had a five hour wait before the largest moon of the gas giant caught up to them.
Rita inserted a wait loop in her timing clock and went to sleep for four hours. When she awoke, her passive sensors showed the large moon directly behind them, coming up on their position. It would just miss plowing into them - but it would pass close enough to capture them in its gravity. The three of them would be sucked into a rapidly decaying trajectory, sending them crashing to the surface of the moon.
They were back on radio silence now. Rita longed to talk to her companions, ask if they were alright. But she didn’t dare.
Because on the near side of the rapidly approaching moon was a Stree observation post. It was one of many in the Stree system, always watching for Goblins - the entities the Stree hated and feared above all else.
And three Goblins were about to pay them a visit.
Phoenix System
“It’s a minor setback,” Cerutti said. “Not to worry.”
“Minor setback?” Kim spat, angry. “Y
ou said you would take over the Security Team! But Rodgers gave that to Powell instead! And Bob Hardy is second in command! Now what?”
Cerutti leaned back and shook his head at Kim, smiling.
“So impatient! Kim, how did you become successful in the streets of Seoul if you are so impatient?”
“There I just pulled out my knife and the people did what I said,” Kim replied angrily.
“Ah. Yes, of course. But this is not Seoul, and pulling out a knife on Luke Powell is only going to get you gutted like a fish. I hope you understand that.”
Kim glared at Cerutti. Before he could respond again, Turgenev interrupted. “But at least you got in the Security Force,” he said to Cerutti.
“Yes. I’m third in command. And soon enough, Hardy will meet with an unexpected accident. And then I’ll be second in command. And after that…well, let’s just say a new colony is a dangerous place.”
Kim interrupted. “No! That takes too long! We must take over before the people get organized! While they are still on one foot from everything that has happened!”
“I agree,” said Turgenev. “I suggest we make our move immediately. As soon as possible. Otherwise, more transport ships will arrive. We must seize power now!”
Cerutti looked troubled. “I don’t know. I think that might be moving too fast. I’d rather play it slow, stick with our original plan. Work our way into position, rather than take over by brute force.”
“Bullshit,” said Kim. “These people are so shell-shocked, they’re like cattle. There’s no point in waiting; we take over now.”
Cerutti saw Turgenev looking at him appraisingly. Suddenly a cold feeling ran down Cerutti’s spine. He knew that look. He had seen it before.
That was the look that meant, agree or die. Turgenev and Kim had already decided. Either he would go along, or he would have a sudden accident.
“I agree,” he said, his mouth dry. “We’ll start the takeover as soon as possible.”
Stree System
Moon Tosong - Listening Station #14
A few minutes after the moon caught up to them, Rita and her two companions were descending rapidly toward the surface. To any casual observer, it would appear that a few small rocks had come off the nearby ring of the gas giant, gotten caught in the moon’s gravity well, and were about to smash into the surface. A common, everyday occurrence. One that should raise no eyebrows on the Stree observation station, even if they somehow managed to detect it.
Remnants: Broken Galaxy Book Five Page 11
