Valence (Confluence Book 4)

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

  “Alan, and any other hands you can spare.”

  The entire Speroancora crew, including Jane, transferred to the Oblignatus to get the drones ready for dispersal, transfer the pods to the drones, and load them onto shuttlecraft. It was backbreaking physical labor and they worked around the clock until everything was set.

  And Alan had one more idea up his sleeve. Because the Swarm pod was so close, it likely could already see Vendal. It was going to take some theater to make the Swarm believe it was gone. He proposed detonating a series of really spectacular bombs around the planet, just as the particles were activated, that would hopefully make the Swarm believe that the planet had been destroyed. The hope was that they’d turn around and go home or find another target, preferably on an uninhabited planet.

  No one knew what level of cognition the Swarm operated under. But it seemed worth a try. The timing was going to have to be absolutely perfect for it to work.

  Between the two crewed ships, only eight had been trained to fly shuttlecraft. Each pilot delivered drones into the atmosphere over Vendal and came back for more until all were dispatched. Pio remotely moved the drones so that they were equally spaced planet wide. They kept their ships visible to the Swarm so it would look like the planet had been under attack. Alan created a series of big dirty bombs that would create a lot of debris and attached them to small blink drives.

  Jane spoke with Governor Panciklau after everything was in place and she was back aboard the Speroancora. Panciklau had his hat off, stiff white hair standing straight up in places, mashed and swirled by the hat in others. Velvety crimson crops swayed in the breeze behind him, belying the potential violence to come. His pale blue eyes were fierce with determination. His voice was gruff and commanding. “You have sacrificed something to us that you needed for your own defense. You don’t see that kind of generosity every day out there.” He gestured toward the sky. “No one else would come to our aid. If we’d had early warning, it might have been different.” He hung his head, composing himself. A large piece of farming machinery rumbled by behind him. Even with the impending threat, the people of Vendal kept working. “You’ve given us a great gift. You’ve given us a chance. I know I’ve no right to ask this, but I have one final request.”

  Jane frowned. “What is your request, Governor?”

  “I don’t know if your particles will work. I surely hope they do. But we don’t want you to stay here and fight and die for us. It’s not right. What we ask is that you get the Swarm’s attention and lead them away from here.”

  “But—”

  Panciklau spoke over her. “You leave. You leave the second those bombs are detonated. You make it look like you blew this world up and just flew away without a care in the world. Don’t worry about what happens to us. This isn’t your fight. It never was.”

  “What if it doesn’t work? We can save some people. There’s still time,” Jane pleaded.

  “Who would you save? Not me. I don’t deserve saving. And the rest… How do you pick one over the others? What kind of outrage would you incite if you picked up a miremon and nintergertehunt enclave and not a gaerwyn or pelimarian? The fallout from that politically would damage your reputation. You can’t afford that, Quasador Dux.”

  “What will be the fallout if I leave you?”

  “With all due respect, no one even knows you’re here.”

  Jane went quiet, thinking of what she could say to convince him to let her try.

  “We need you to draw them away. That’s all we ask. Just get them to change their course and then jump away. Nothing more.” He cut the connection with a gesture.

  The bridge was quiet as a tomb.

  “We need to start the process if this is going to work, Jane,” Alan said softly.

  Jane nodded. “Start the dehiscence sequence.”

  Alan tapped his console. “Dehiscence sequence initiated. Putting interior drone images up on-screen.”

  The viewscreen split into eight images, each showing the interior of a different drone filled with pligan pods.

  Pio said over the shared anipraxic link, “Drones are functioning within set parameters. We’ve lost only a few to malfunctions.”

  Huna chimed in. “Internal drone sensors indicate the pods are drying quickly, as expected.”

  On the screen Jane could see the pods changing in real time. The ends curled back and shimmering contents began to spill out.

  Huna said, “Dehiscence is nearly optimal.”

  Alan rapidly tapped and scrolled through data. “Pio, can you confirm that we’ve got similar figures all over the globe?”

  “Confirmed. Drying cycle is uniformly reaching completion.”

  Alan glanced at Jane.

  Jane nodded.

  Alan said, “Triggering vibration and opening release ports.”

  On the screen the pods rumbled and the fine particles spilled out, filling the air with glittery dust which began to sift through small holes that opened in the drone casing.

  Jane leaned forward. “Let’s see Vendal on-screen.”

  Murrrsi tapped her console. “Vendal on-screen, Qua’dux.”

  The entirety of Vendal began to sparkle as the particulates in the atmosphere caught the light.

  Pio said, “Particle deployment complete.”

  “We’ve got good coverage!” Alan crowed.

  “Confirmed. Coverage is uniform,” Pio said.

  “Pods are empty. It’s time to blow the bombs and activate the Hiding protocol,” Alan said.

  Huna chimed in. “I can verify that is the case. We are ready for signaling.”

  Jane took a deep breath. “Blow the bombs.”

  Alan punched at his screen with one fingertip. “Bombs going ‘boom.’”

  One side of the large screen whited out, then continued to flare over and over. Alan had done his job enthusiastically.

  “Activate the Hiding protocol,” Jane ordered. Alan’s bombs continued to go off.

  “Activating,” Alan said.

  The drones were now giving off a signal that would polarize the suspended particles and broadcast an image over them, depicting the space on the exact opposite side of the planet.

  As they watched, Vendal disappeared.

  “Holy fuck. It actually worked!” Alan exclaimed.

  Feig said, “The fleet is taking minor damage from the bomb debris.”

  Alan looked sheepish. “I may have overdone the bombs. I wanted it to look like a planet was really blowing up.”

  “I’d say you did a convincing job of it,” Jane said. “All right, let’s honor Governor Panciklau’s request. We’ll draw them off. Way off. Let’s make sure they change course. Put us on a vector to intercept, full speed. Form up into a wedge formation. Every ship, continuous active scanning of the Swarm. Let’s get their attention and hold it.”

  The bridge was silent as they closed the gap.

  “In visual range now, Qua’dux,” Celui said.

  “On-screen, if you please,” Jane replied. It was about time she saw these creatures with her own eyes.

  “On-screen and magnifying, Qua’dux.”

  The viewscreen flickered, and the star field they’d been looking at was replaced with a churning column of black insects trailing a great distance away. Their abdomens glowed with a reddish light that reflected off their lustrous outer shells and their vacant alien compound eyes. They looked as sinister as their reputation. Jane recoiled, as did every member of her fleet via the anipraxis link.

  The command-and-control engram set that Brai had placed in her brain just after they’d met allowed her to assess the data streaming between herself and Brai and make quick decisions based on the collective knowledge and experience of every quasador dux that had gone before her on this ship and its namesake before. She knew that lasers and missiles from a single ship would do very little damage to an adult Confluos giganus, but it might make them angry enough to follow her.

  “Murrrsi, warm up the laser cannons and a
rm missiles.”

  “Aye, Qua’dux.”

  Jane stood and walked down to the viewscreen, examining the individuals at the tip of the Swarm pod’s spear. She pointed at one of the largest adults, then another as she spoke. “Lasers on this one. Two missiles on this one.”

  Murrrsi said, “Lasers and missiles ready.”

  “Fire.”

  Murrrsi bent over her console. “Firing now, Qua’dux. Missiles away.” She looked up at the viewscreen with hope in her eyes.

  Jane returned to the command chair. “Fleet, change course, bearing three-thirty mark twenty. Stay in formation. All ships, continue active scanning.” Now they would see if the Swarm would follow.

  It did.

  And more swiftly than she’d anticipated. None of her predecessors had ever attempted such a maneuver. She was traversing new territory here.

  All along the column, Swarm beetles flipped, and the burn that had been slowing them down in advance of landing on Vendal now pushed them toward Jane’s fleet.

  “Oh, you got their attention,” Alan called out. “They’re closing in fast.”

  Ron said, “We just took their meal ticket. They’re highly motivated.”

  The thrill of success and primal terror warred momentarily in Jane’s brain.

  Ei’Yin, one of the four crewless kuboderans, said, “The Scholaffecti is taking plasma damage. May I return fire?”

  “Yes, return fire at will,” Jane answered. “All ships disengage active scanning.”

  “I’ve got a visual on a bug attempting to land on the Lumenfuga,” Ron said.

  “Confirmed,” said Do’Nii, the kuboderan on the Lumenfuga.

  “Lumenfuga, break formation and take evasive action,” Jane commanded.

  She had miscalculated. She needed help getting them out of this situation and connected privately with Ron. “We’ve bitten off more than we can chew. Recommendations?”

  Ron replied, his mental presence calm but concerned, “We can’t outrun them. We can try coordinating firepower and picking off individuals. But that might backfire if they turn back toward Vendal.”

  Jane gritted her teeth. “All ships break formation, but maintain general heading. Let’s put some distance between us to maneuver. Ei’Brai will assist with coordination. Take orders directly from him unless otherwise specified.”

  “Brai,” Jane said, just to him, “get creative.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “That bug is dogging Lumenfuga,” Ron said.

  “Show me the fleet on-screen,” Jane said. Celui put a feed up instantly from the aft of the Speroancora. They were still in a roughly arrow-shaped formation, but more spread out, with the Speroancora at the tip. She had little tactical knowledge and was feeling that lack now. The Sectilius simply didn’t engage in these sorts of activities unless their hand was forced.

  She was just a linguist.

  The Corgnomon and the Scholaffecti were closest to the Lumenfuga. “Ei’Tial and Ei’Yin, synchronize fire on the bug on Lumenfuga’s back. Train your lasers and fire missiles. Keep firing. If you can’t get a good angle that avoids collateral damage to the Lumenfuga, hold fire.”

  “Two bogeys flanking the Spero and closing in,” Alan called out.

  Jane looked up at the screen, looking for some kind of way out. They had to do something the bugs wouldn’t expect and get out of there. They couldn’t win this fight. They just had to survive to fight another day.

  Panic streamed from Ei’Rew of the Decuscien. “Multiple plasma hits! Hull breach!” Brai, Pio, and several other kuboderan officers blanketed Ei’Rew with calm.

  The Speroancora shuddered.

  “Contact,” Feig said.

  Ouvaq whimpered.

  Jane stared at the tactical display. Two bugs that had been pursuing Pio suddenly turned to join the assault on the Decuscien. The Oblignatus was clear.

  Jane swallowed. “Oblignatus, spool up your wormhole drive. Confirm when the drive is ready.”

  Every kuboderan made a wordless cry of dismay.

  “Aye,” Ron said.

  “On my mark, every ship—except Oblignatus—disengage engines and employ reverse thrust for a count of ten aepar. At ten, reengage engines and set course for a new vector. We will converge, in standard wormhole sequence, on the wormhole produced by Oblignatus.”

  Brai said, “It is not recommended to open a wormhole so near a gravity well.”

  Jane took a steadying breath. “I know. We’re out of options. We can do this.”

  Pio began the calculations. Jane felt every kuboderan in the fleet lending her mental support. The calculations were far more complex this close to a planet.

  Jane’s heart thudded in her throat. This was a huge risk. Closer to a gravity well, a wormhole had an increased chance of losing symmetry. Losing symmetry would mean that the laws of physics could warp in unpredictable ways. They might come out on the other side of the galaxy, or they might simply disappear the way some early warp-science pioneers had. Theoretically they could become displaced in time, or the wormhole could collapse before they could traverse it, leaving them trapped with the Swarm where they would surely die trying to fight them off.

  She hoped they’d at least convinced the pod that Vendal was gone.

  “Murrrsi, continue tracking the Swarm pod’s movements until the last possible second. I want a report on the other side.”

  “Aye, Qua’dux.”

  “It’s a good plan, Jane,” Ron said.

  Jane couldn’t respond. She refused to concentrate on anything but getting them out of this. This was on her.

  While they waited for the drive to spool, Brai put the fleet through bizarre machinations to evade and throw off the bugs. Ei’Tial and Ei’Yin had managed to dislodge the solitary bug on the Lumenfuga by firing on it. Now Brai ordered the Lumenfuga and the Corgnomon to flank the Decusian closely, leaving just enough clearance for Decusian to roll on its lengthwise axis while maintaining course and velocity.

  Do’Nii was less experienced and balked at moving in so near to another ship, but Brai coaxed him through it. Decusian rotated. Through the anipraxic link with the Decusian’s Ei’Rew, Jane heard the Decusian groan, protesting the strange maneuvers. These ships were not made to move like this, especially at this velocity, but Brai knew them well. He pushed Decusian to the farthest threshold but not beyond. It worked. Three Swarm beetles were thrown clear of Decusian.

  Meanwhile, Brai changed course again and again, narrowly evading the second beetle that was trying to land on the Speroancora. It shadowed the ship mercilessly until it managed to land. Brai opened a cargo bay door beneath it. The rush of the venting atmosphere knocked it away. The second bug would be harder.

  “May I have your consent to utilize one of your blink drives, Alan?” Brai asked.

  Alan made eye contact with Jane. “Hell yeah,” he said vehemently.

  Brai continued to orchestrate the fleet’s evasive maneuvers while he simultaneously powered up a blink drive in a cargo hold. Jane watched him carefully calculating then, decisively, he activated the drive. A split second later the last Swarm beetle burst away from Speroancora’s hull in a million pieces.

  It was working. They were holding their own.

  She praised Brai privately. Given free rein, he was all she could want in an officer.

  “Confirmed. The Oblignatus’s jump drive is ready,” Ron said.

  “Open the wormhole,” Jane said. Then, “Mark!”

  The Speroancora vibrated violently and Jane was thrown forward against her straps. She silently counted to ten along with the rest of the fleet as the reverse thrust worked against their forward momentum to slow them dramatically.

  The bugs, unprepared for this tactic, flew out in front of them.

  Then the engines reengaged and each ship veered away on wild arcs toward the wormhole, just as Brai had plotted out for them. Jane watched as the Oblignatus slipped through. Then Corgnomon, the Lumenfuga, the Decuscien, and the Scholaffect
i. All five of her charges were safely through.

  The wormhole was open before the Speroancora, a swirling matrix of space-time and gravity. It would lead to a haven from this chaos.

  Jane held her breath.

  They jumped.

  48

  February 2, 2031

  THE ALL-CREW assembly took place in an empty cargo hold. A platform had been constructed at one end, dominated by a podium featuring a large Earth United crest and a row of chairs behind. Big screens lined the wall behind the platform, and projectors had been set into the ceiling.

  The rest of the fleet was about to find out what Zara had learned just a few days before, when she’d translated the speeches Compton had given her. Nearly every member of the Aegis’s crew had been pulled off a long shift of system checks, drills, and simulations to listen to the brass speak.

  When her group got the signal that it was time, she followed the command staff, most of whose shoulders displayed high ranks within the Earth United military, onto the platform and stood in front of the seat she’d been assigned.

  Brigadier General Mark Walsh, the commanding officer of the Aegis, strode in shortly after that. The entire room came to attention. Walsh took his place behind the podium, followed closely by Tom Compton, who stood slightly behind Walsh and to one side. This was her first glimpse of Walsh, the man who had commanded the Providence. Like Compton, he hadn’t aged much since that expedition. Zara fidgeted slightly and she was suddenly filled with a feeling of intense pride to be serving with them. To have contributed to them getting to this place.

  Walsh stood surveying the crowd as the lights dimmed. Behind them, in Mensententia, the words At Ease flashed on the screens. Then General Gordon Bonham, the former NASA administrator who was serving as the current coordinator of the Earth United fleet, filled the screens. Everyone on the platform turned sideways to look up at the projection. Bonham looked grim. As he began to speak in English, Zara’s translation of his speech in Mensententia displayed prominently near the bottom of the screens.

  “The time has come for us to call you to action. You’ve been trained well. You are the best of Earth.” His eyes shifted away from the camera and he gestured to someone off-screen. Bonham disappeared. A series of images of the solar system from different vantage points began to play.