ARMS Helm's End: (Book 7)

by Stephen Arseneault

  "I'll notify you if I receive a hit."

  Harris walked into the lab with the others. Tawn was looking over Alex's shoulder as he worked over a test of a transducer.

  "This appears to be working perfectly here, but not on the bench."

  Tawn asked, "And the two setups are supposedly identical?"

  "Physically no. Electrically, yes."

  Gandy said, "The cable on this base unit wasn't plugged all the way in. I pushed it and heard a snap."

  The transducer was moved back and the test rerun, concluding with a positive result.

  Alex turned to face Gandy. "Who assembled the station?"

  "That part would be me."

  "Check and recheck, Mr. Boleman. Critical errors cost us time."

  "Yes, sir."

  Harris crossed his arms. "So it's good, then?"

  "It would appear so. The remaining eleven will be coming off the bench within the hour."

  "Can we get the bots to install this one so we can begin testing? We're expecting the Burrell to show up at Gondol any time now."

  Idiot opened a comm. "Mr. Gruberg, I began monitoring Gondol moments ago for the arrival of the Burrell."

  "And?"

  "And it would appear that Baxter Rumford and her fleet are parked in orbit there."

  "What? She's at Gondol?"

  "Yes. With the bulk of her fleet. I have the new sensor active. The Fargo is there with them, parked down on the surface at the entrance to the terraforming facility."

  "She went back to see what she could dig up. If that Burrell fleet shows, this could be bad. We don't want her doing peace negotiations with them. She'll just take their ships and start a new war. Wish we knew exactly when they were gonna show."

  "I may be able to determine that, sir. We know the direction they will be arriving from. Perhaps I can scan going back toward the edge of our space. That should give us an accurate number."

  "Do that and let us know."

  Harris turned back toward the others. "Let's get these finished. If she's there when they arrive, I want to see what her reaction is."

  Tawn said, "She may already know they're coming."

  "How?"

  "If she's down in that facility and talking to the AI down there, it would tell her if they were about to arrive."

  Harris took a deep breath. "My guess is she doesn't know or she just found that out. Otherwise she'd have the Fargo tucked away in the middle of that mass of ships."

  Idiot came over a comm. "Sir, the Burrell fleet is not yet within our boson space. I've scanned to the edge. If they are to arrive at the time given by the AI, they will arrive in twenty-six minutes, twelve seconds."

  "Alex? How many of these transducers will we have installed by that time?"

  "Seven of the twelve perhaps?"

  "And how stealthy will that make us?"

  "On a scale of one to ten, with the point-source we have used to track Baxter being a ten, I would say a two?"

  "Well, that sounds pretty good."

  Alex shook his head. "While far less likely to be discovered as compared to Miss Rumford, it is still a significant risk."

  Trish stepped up. "That bench for the transducers is small. What if we stick it in the Bangor's cabin while it's turning out the final units?"

  "They would still need installation."

  "So we prep the ship for them right now and we send a bot out with them to do the installation in Gondol space, before they get close."

  Harris asked, "Is that doable?"

  Alex tilted his head to one side. I don't see any significant drawbacks other than testing the randomness of the broadcasts. If the signal isn't properly broadcast, you run the risk of detection."

  Harris made the command decision. "Let's go with this option. We'll take Boomer with us to do the install."

  Tawn nodded. "I like it."

  — Chapter 10 —

  * * *

  The Bangor sat in space in the Gondol system. Boomer had finished installing the final transducer. There was no means available for testing if the system worked.

  Harris pushed the throttle forward. "Here we go. Switch that thing on. We'll see how close we can get before getting a reaction."

  Five minutes into the move, Tawn gestured toward the nav display. "There they are, the Burrell. Right on time. Came through wormholes. Bax's ships have seen them."

  "This isn't shaping up as a friendly greeting."

  "Wonder what they think of having forty thousand warships coming at them. Wait, they're slowing. I have the Fargo coming up from the surface. Wish we could listen in on their conversation."

  "Maybe we can. See if you can pull up the channel number from Bax's last conversation with us. If she got lazy and left it where it was, we might be able to decrypt their conversation."

  Tawn chuckled. "Doesn't matter. They’re hailing over a general comm. We can listen in without having to connect."

  An image of Bax appeared on one side of the display, three spotted Burrell gracing the other.

  Bax smiled. "Burrell, welcome to Human space. I am Baxter Rumford, Co-Emperor of the Maxter Empire, owner of this sector of the galaxy."

  Tawn chuckled. "The gall. She's already laid claim to us all."

  The Burrell in the middle spoke first. "I am Kaden, commander of this expedition. This system, as well as this sector, are claimed by the Burrell Alignment. I am thrilled to see that your people survived the transition to here."

  "Well, Commander, the forty thousand ships surrounding me say this space belongs to us. However, on that note, I would again like to welcome you to Maxter space. You will be treated as a welcome guest. And I hope our interactions here can lead to long-term friendly relations with your Alignment."

  The commander lifted his chin. "Perhaps we can begin with you relinquishing control of our facility so that we might effect repairs."

  Bax sat silent for several seconds. "The facility is ours, Commander. As are all the systems in the boson field that surrounds us."

  "I see. Would you be referring to the boson field we constructed on the planet Curriot and the relay station on Balimoor?"

  "I don't know, Curriot. We have a planet Midelon that broadcasts the boson field, making wormhole travel possible."

  "Your hostile stance does not bode well for a peaceful relation, Miss Rumford. You occupy our space, and demand recognition of your ownership. Would that be a true statement?"

  "As true as the forty thousand ships surrounding me say it is."

  Tawn grimaced. "She's not getting us off on the right foot. Might as well be declaring war on them right here and now."

  "She's taking a gamble they'll back down, giving her the early upper hand."

  The Burrell named Kaden leaned close to the officer seated beside him, whispering into their ear. The officer stood and hurried away.

  Tawn shook her head. "This is escalating already."

  Bax said, "Perhaps we need time to reach a more diplomatic solution here, Kaden. You brought this fleet to effect repairs on the facility below. I will graciously allow said work to begin while we discuss our current situation. Would you consider that offer so that we can possibly move forward in our discussions?"

  "You will allow these ships to pass without harm?"

  "All but your warships. Those will remain here as we talk over our options."

  "Very well. Captain Pila, send in the team. I want those generators back online in fifteen rotations."

  Seconds later, the Burrell ships, excluding the five warships, slipped past the stolen fleet and headed for the surface.

  Harris scowled. "Bad move by Kaden. She now has hostages."

  "He doesn't seem to care or to be intimidated. Unless those five ships are something super-special, I can't see this ending well for him. Oh crap. That was a broadcast he just sent out back toward Magion. I bet we have a fat Burrell fleet here in what, a hundred thirty-two days?"

  Harris nodded. "Sixty-six each way."

  Tawn sighed.
"I bet she could have just stayed away from here and let them do their work. They might not have been the wiser that we were even out here."

  Harris chuckled. "Really? You telling me if the roles were reversed you wouldn't check on the other species and other facilities you had out here?"

  "Yeah, I guess I would have."

  "Miss Rumford—"

  "That's Empress Rumford."

  "Good grief," Tawn said. "She's pushing it."

  "Empress… while the fleet you have surrounding you is impressive, I would like to state the Burrell have a dozen similarly sized fleets at our disposal. If you choose to contest this space, I will be forced to ask for that support."

  "Ask for assistance all you want. This is our territory and we'll defend it to the best of our ability. As to the repair of the terraforming facilities down on that planet, I'm certain we can work out a fair compensation agreement for your time and effort here. When the mission is complete, I will be asking your ships to leave my space. If you wish to return after that, I would be willing to allow a single diplomatic vessel in for peaceful trade discussions."

  The Burrell commander stared quietly at the comm camera for almost a minute.

  Tawn said, "A second comm blast just went out."

  Bax placed her hands on her hips. "You have something you want to say, Commander?"

  "Yes. Captain Tiigs, raise the blast shields. All stations secure for battle."

  The Burrell ships moved into a vee formation, racing in toward the waiting Human fleet. Bax gave the order and the automated ships responded. A hundred ultra-powerful laser pulses flashed from the Burrell as they closed, burning bright as they made contact with the Hoya battlecruisers coming their way.

  Tawn pointed. "Whoa. Did you see that? Burned entirely through those ships."

  A second blast from the lasers saw an equally devastating amount of damage. With a counterattack, more than a thousand tungsten pellets found their way to the five Burrell ships. Their forward armor held steady, mostly. Several forward compartments on each of the five cruisers were exposed to the cold void of space.

  The Burrell ships turned, jumping almost instantly to a distance far outside rail cannon range. Making use of their wormhole generators, a new volley of laser pulses were sent through toward the Human fleet. Another hundred warships faltered as their insides were ravaged by fires from the savage heat of the lasers. Decks melted, the damage blooming outward until the entire interior was in flame.

  Three additional volleys came before the Human ships broke rank and scattered. The laser fire that followed heavily damaged another five ships before the Human fleet reached free space. Twenty thousand attackers jumped at once, firing their rail cannons only seconds later. Four of the five Burrell warships broke apart before the fifth managed a second jump to safety.

  But the automated ships were not done with their pursuit. Harris opened a wormhole and jumped in an attempt to follow the fight. Two additional hops through a portal to elsewhere saw the last of the Burrell warships shredded.

  Harris shook his head. "I hope she hasn't doomed us all. If the Burrell send in a fleet, they're gonna be gunning for Humans."

  "I don't get her decision making here. Why not establish peaceful relations with them first? This small fleet was obviously not coming in with hostile intent."

  A jump was made back to Gondol. Tawn and Harris watched and listened as the Fargo sat in high orbit. Bax continued a conversation with the remaining Burrell leader. Loxin was a civilian contractor whose company had been awarded the task of reconstructing the terraforming facility. He was now a captive of the Maxter Empire, with orders to continue his work or die. After several hours of observance, the Bangor left for home.

  Harris followed Tawn into Trish's lab. "Alex, we have big problems coming."

  "Did the transducers work?"

  "As far as we know. Now that we're back though, might be good for you to run some tests. Anyway, the Burrell showed. Bax essentially told them this was her space now and then went on to obliterate their warships."

  "Was she provoked?"

  Harris replied, "Not really. She said 'Hi, you're in our space.’ They said, 'No we’re not.’ She allowed their repair ships to head to the surface, then she opened up on them. They killed—I mean devastated—more than two hundred of those Hoya ships to their loss of five. They have a laser weapon that burns right through the entire ship."

  "And each cruiser had about twenty of those," Tawn added.

  "Any notice go out to the home fleet?"

  "Yes. From both them and the Burrell team down on the surface. Bax has ordered that team to get to work or be dead. I'd say any chance of early diplomacy with the Burrell has been set on fire and incinerated."

  Several weeks passed, with the Bangor testing out as invisible to sensors. Bax and the bulk of her force returned to the Retreat, followed by a full deployment on New Earth. Every bit of raw or scrap material that could be used for shipbuilding was being ferried to a now expanding shipyard at the Retreat. Back on Domicile, a second boson bomb had been detonated, again denying outsiders access to the capital world of the free colonies.

  Two weeks soon turned to two months, and then closed on four. Harris and Tawn made repeated trips to spy on Bax and her minions, creeping ever closer with each visit. Domicile continued to build, deploy, and detonate bosons hoping to forever keep their enemy at bay. Baxter Rumford, Empress of the Maxter Empire, took control of the remaining colonies, subjugating their inhabitants to work for her cause.

  At the Retreat, every effort to enable the processor bench to once again produce cores for the bots failed miserably. The nearly seventy thousand bots in service were busily expanding the shipyard and turning out ships. During the fight with the Burrell, only a handful of Banshees had been lost. Being small and agile made them a difficult target.

  Tawn looked on from her copilot's seat as she snacked on an MRE. "Can't believe how efficient she is at getting things done. A few months and she's adding a hundred Banshees a day to her fleet."

  "Yeah, but she can't build any more cores. She has a limit."

  "True, but she can take a core from each of those bots to stick in a ship. Before long she'll have seventy thousand Banshees along with her thirty thousand Hoya cruisers. That's a force to be reckoned with, even with how powerful the Burrell lasers are."

  "And she still has an ace up her sleeve."

  "What's that?"

  "The boson. She sets one of those off and she freezes them in place."

  "That's assuming they need that field. Remember, they came across space by generating their own."

  Harris chuckled. "You know, between our two half-brains, we can sometimes have a whole one."

  "Or... between my whole brain and your no brain we can always have a whole brain."

  "Sure."

  Trish walked into the lab. "We have two hundred twelve bots now, and more than two thousand cores that are just waiting. We need more material. Bax still blocking us from New Earth?"

  "Last scan she was," Tawn replied.

  "Where else can we get what we need?"

  "I was just thinking about that." A comm was opened to Idiot. "We have several battlefields out there where thousands of ships were destroyed. I'd like to send the Hailstorm out with two hundred of our bots to collected debris. What can we do that will allow them to gather materials out in space? Jet packs or something?"

  "One moment... the principle behind our gravity drives and onboard gravity systems can be miniaturized and focused into a beam. Equipping a bot with a device that will emit this beam would allow them to pull a mass toward them. Two hundred bots, secured to the deck and working in an open bay, could collect debris as the ship flies slowly past."

  "And how long before we can have two hundred of these devices ready?"

  "One moment... we have the materials available. I now have a design ready. Nine days… four hours… six minutes."

  Harris nodded. "Make it happen. That's your new
top priority."

  "Six days… three hours… twenty-seven minutes."

  "What?"

  "For the completion of the devices."

  "I thought you just said nine days?"

  "That was the estimate before it was made a top priority."

  Harris turned to face Tawn. "Sometimes I just know he's doing that to piss me off."

  "You taught him well."

  The six days passed in a flash. The Hailstorm was retrieved and two hundred bots sent out for debris collection. An emphasis was placed on recovering materials needed to build more bots. Harris made his way to the confined Burrell on the Grindle.

  "Milos, how you holding up over here?"

  "Would have preferred to be placed back in stasis."

  "I guess we should do that now. But let me hit you with a question or two as we walk. Just looking for your opinion."

  "Please feel free to ask."

  "Do you consider this planet and the space surrounding us to be Burrell space?"

  "Well... I guess I would. Yes."

  "How about all the space the boson field encompasses? Still Burrell space?"

  "We were first to claim it and have facilities here, so yes, I suppose. What is it you are really asking?"

  "If the Frizoid came in and occupied this space, would it be considered Frizoid space?"

  "I suppose."

  "And if Humans controlled it, would it be considered Human space?"

  "Certainly... to Humans. In the eyes of the Burrell this will always be Burrell space until such time as ownership is transferred or given to someone else, which I don't believe has ever been done. Was there a point to these questions?"

  "Not really. Was just wondering if your people still claimed this space as their own."

  "Ownership is reliant on control. Whoever controls this space is the immediate owner. If that ownership is disputed, you’d best be prepared to defend that control."

  "Got it. That was all. "You ready for stasis?"

  "I am."

  "Lean your head back and I'll send you under so you're not wasting any more of your life."

  "That would be preferred. Thank you."

  The stasis process was complete a few minutes later.