Nebula

by Howard Marsh

  “That’s what I want to discuss next,” he replied. “You’re right, Brad. We’re banking mainly on success of the first two shots: the plasma cannon and EMP gun on Milo’s alien fighter. If those don’t do the job, we’ll be in deep shit, but we’ll still outnumber them, and I can get an additional twenty fighters here in nine minutes. We could still win the battle, but we’d take heavy casualties if that happens and if we have to go up against the battleship at full strength. But even if we didn’t wipe them out and took heavy losses ourselves, it would still give them cause to reevaluate the situation. Remember that our main objective is to get them to back away and spend time preparing for the biological attack. I don’t want to lose this battle, but if we can get them to delay enough for the plague to wipe them out, then we’ll have a strategic victory even if the battle here is lost.

  “OK, now for coordination. We can use the AFO team and the ops center as our combat information and tactical control center. We’ll all be on the same tactical network. Also, from what you told me, Harry and Yuri can merge their thoughts and senses with Igor’s and be virtually there in the robot ship when it goes into action. If that’s correct, we should be able to integrate the robot ship’s actions with the rest of the force.”

  Harry answered. “If I’m working with only one robot, the integration of thoughts and sensory perception is almost total, so you’re right on that. But you know that I’m not a fighter pilot, and I wouldn’t know how to use any of their tactical systems, so what would I do that could help?”

  Brad answered. “Igor already knows how to fly the ship and work the systems. I think that what Brendan is suggesting is that the connection of your brain with Igor’s will allow you to control the mission and coordinate with the other ships while Igor does all the flying and fighting.”

  “Exactly,” Haverford concurred.

  “I guess it could work,” Harry replied after thinking for a few seconds. “It is sort of like when I have a robot doing something but I don’t have to give it all the detailed instructions.”

  “That’s right,” Haverford said. “You don’t need to give Igor rudder orders, just keep on top of what it’s attempting to do and keep things moving in the right direction. That robot ship will be the last surprise that we can pull after the aliens see that we’ve taken control of the plasma cannon and fighter, so Igor may be able to wound or even take out the remaining cruisers. That’s your main mission. Don’t bother with any of the fighters. My guys can handle them. And make sure that Igor doesn’t revert to alien control.”

  “There’s another thing that you need to do,” Brad added, speaking to Harry and Yuri. “We expect the battle group to send the usual notification of its approach and request the acknowledgement and terminal guidance instructions. That has to be done from a sentry on Mars, but since Igor will be in the ship, one of you will have to make sure that the message originates from Igor and is relayed through the worker that will stay here with us. They need to continue to think that their sentries and other robots are still here.”

  “Harry is best to work with Igor during the battle,” Yuri said. “He has the most experience being inside a robot’s brain. So I can handle the worker and the relay between Igor and the battle group. What do you think, Harry?”

  “Yeah, that part sounds right. I shouldn’t have a problem with that on my end. My main worry is still that I’m not sure what I’ll need to do when the fight starts. I never did anything like that before.”

  “Don’t get too wound up over that,” Brad replied. “Igor has all the combat skills and training that you’ll need. Just keep the mission objectives managed to support our other ships. Igor’s brain will take care of the real time execution.”

  While Haverford finished with the details of the plan, Judith, Mikio, Doug, Milo, and the two sergeants from Haverford’s crew finished with their work outside. The sergeants stayed in the fighter and prepared it for takeoff, and the other four returned to the base.

  “Good news,” Milo reported as he emerged from the airlock and removed his helmet. “The flight controls are identical to what we found in the Roswell ship. I could fly that thing with my eyes closed. Olivetti and Morgan looked at the sensor and weapons controls and displays, and they agreed that they wouldn’t have any problems with them, and Judith says that the contraption that’s installed on top is definitely a type of EMP projector. Here she is now,” he said as Judith emerged from the airlock. “She can tell you herself.”

  “Right,” she said. “It’s definitely an EMP gun, and it looks like it packs a real punch. I see why they call it a world crippler. It could fry most of our things line-of-sight on Earth from nearly as far away as the Moon. If we’re going to use it on ships less than ten thousand kilometers away, I think that it will penetrate the hulls and any electromagnetic shields that they have. It should at least dump the memories and force a reboot of the systems and maybe even burn some of the circuits out.”

  “Do you know how to use it?” Brad asked.

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure I can work it. The controls are pretty simple, and they’re in an auxiliary panel in one of the weapons control stations that Olivetti and Morgan will use. The gun is rigidly fixed to the hull, so there’s no aiming control. Milo will just have to point it by steering the ship. There’s just a button to push to fire it, and there’s a lever next to the button that lets you adjust the power in the beam. The only other things are an on-off switch and two meters. One shows when the gun is charged and ready to fire, and the other shows the power setting for the burst. The aliens wired the gun into that auxiliary panel and used the standard controls and meters that were already there. It seems that they do a lot of plug-and-play customization and make it easy to do the hookups. We should do one or two test firings to make sure that I got it right. So when you give the word, we can get started and then move into position to meet the battle group.”

  “We?” Brad responded. “Are you suggesting that you go with them?”

  “I think that’s best,” Judith answered. “I can work that EMP gun and let the other two handle the ship’s normal weapons. There’s going to be a lot to do in a very short time, and I’d be just as good at that job as they would be. Milo will have to do all the aiming of the ship, but that shouldn’t be hard for him. My back-of-the-envelope calculation says that the main lobe of the beam will spread at about three or four degrees and should cover a lot of area when it’s ten thousand kilometers away. The sidelobes also should be pretty strong out to about ten or twenty degrees, so there may be enough power in them to take down electronics in a lot of ships that don’t get the full blast. My job will be easy. All I need to do is turn it on, push a button, and monitor the charge/discharge meter to see when I can fire the next shot. Olivetti and Morgan will have a bigger job to aim and fire at the moving targets.”

  “OK,” Brad said and then turned to Haverford. “Do you agree, Brendan?”

  “If it’s OK with Olivetti and Morgan, it’s OK with me.”

  “We already discussed it,” Judith replied. “They’re happy with it. They want to be able to concentrate on the ship’s other weapons. It has two plasma cannons and four x-ray machine guns, and they want to be able to use them to best advantage. They also suggested that you assign two other weapons operators to handle two of the machine guns.”

  “Done,” Haverford answered. “I’ll tell two of my other weapons people to get onboard. We planned for something like this. Now, what about the danger areas around that EMP cannon when you fire? I want to make sure that we keep all our ships out of it.”

  Judith answered, “It looks like the rear axis, plus or minus about 45 to 60 degrees, should be safe. They have a good shield there, about the same as the shield between the gun and the ship, so I think that it’s probably a pretty good null. If your shields were full up, you might be able to get within about 30 or 40 degrees of the main beam, but that’s just a guess. The really safe area is the one that’s to the rear, like I said. I’d def
initely avoid anything outside that safe area until we know more about the weapon and how our shields can hold up against it.”

  “OK,” Haverford said. “I’ll plan the attack to keep in the safe region whenever you fire. The first shot will be clear of any of our ships, but you may get a second or third shot while we’re engaging them. I need Milo to keep us informed of the orientation of his ship and cue us if you’re having him aim for firing.”

  “Roger,” Milo replied. “All of that will be automatically broadcast on our tactical network, so it should show up in the tactical displays like the normal keep-out regions.”

  As Milo finished, Doug and Mikio came through the inner door to the airlock and were taking their helmets off, ready for their turn to report. Doug spoke for both of them. “We’re good to go with the cannon. We can control from pretty far off, well beyond that ridge in back of the alien bunker. That should give us enough protection to survive a direct attack on the gun, and if what Judith says about the EMP gun is right, we may be able to get off a few shots before they can recover enough to hit us. The cannon may even be able to survive the whole battle if the aliens decide to run instead of reboot and fight where they are.”

  “Good point,” Haverford replied. “If my fighters can attack while they’re still partly disabled from the EMP strike, we might be able to drive them off. Can that plasma cannon of yours take them out at long range?”

  “We think so,” Mikio answered, turning to Judith for confirmation. “We think that it’s lethal out to at least a few hundred thousand kilometers, maybe even more, depending on the strength of their shields.”

  Judith nodded her agreement. “I looked at the electronics and the power source when we were out there before. It launches a really huge burst of plasma, and the beam is very narrow. If you hit one of our ships at three or four hundred thousand kilometers, it would peel the hull right off.”

  “How easy is it to aim and fire?” Brad asked.

  “Piece of cake,” Mikio replied. “The hand-held device connects to a pair of glasses that create a retina scan, so you get a good field of view with ability to zoom in and aim by just looking at the target. The glasses also track eye motion, and all you need to do with the hand-held control is a bit of fine correction before pushing the button. Fortunately, the aliens’ eyes and vision processes are almost exactly like ours. It must be some sort of evolutionary optimization for the types of things that both we and they normally do. The glasses work with our eyes well enough for us to be able to use them, but I have to admit that a few hours with them would give anyone a big headache.”

  Doug agreed. “We both tried the glasses and hand-held device, and either of us would be able to do the job. But Mikio is right about getting a headache. I wouldn’t want to have those glasses on for more than five or ten minutes.”

  Haverford was already factoring this information into the plan. “When you see a good target and are sure that you won’t hit one of us, let us know. You won’t be on the tactical data net, so you’ll have to use the voice radio and tell us which enemy ship you’re aiming at. Give us time to get a good distance away before you fire.”

  Doug added that they wouldn’t need to use voice communications. “The alien fire control device already has all the data to compute the danger volume in front of the cannon, out to about one million kilometers. It was in the alien’s data format, but we hooked that computer up to a coordinate translator to convert the information into standard solar navigation coordinates, and we fed that into our portable computer. Now we can link into the AFO ops center to put our fire control data onto the tactical net. Everyone on the net will see the danger zones before we fire, and we’ll also see what ships are in our field of fire. It shouldn’t be too hard to avoid killing our own ships.”

  “OK,” Haverford continued. “So this is the execution plan. Brad will give us the ready signal and then count down three-two-one-fire. The plasma and EMP cannons will fire at that command. Milo already informed me that it takes a bit less than a second for him to swing the fighter from its assigned orientation to point at the battleship, so he will start at the count of one.

  “Igor’s ship should also move into position at the count of one and commence firing when Brad gives the signal. The four gunners on Milo’s fighter can also begin firing at that time. Harry, you need to make sure that Igor stays out of the danger zone for either of the big guns when they’re preparing to fire. And keep him out of the way of my fighters. After his first shots, he should concentrate on finishing off any of the wounded enemy.”

  Harry noted the subtle difference in the way that Haverford now referred to Igor as he instead of it. He reflected on how his own relationship with the robots was developing, almost as if they were intelligent beings rather than machines. But this was a distraction, and he returned his full attention to what Haverford was saying.

  “I’ll launch Squadron Alpha, my twenty ships on Phobos, at the count of one and engage the remaining ships in the battle group. Our first priority is the heavy cruiser if it’s still alive, and the second priority is the two light cruisers. Each of my fighters already has its assignment. We’ll sweep in fast and get out fast. Then Squadron Bravo, the five from Deimos, will sweep in. We’ll continue to rotate in and out like that until the job is done.

  “The EMP and plasma cannons and Igor’s robot ship can fire at will, but they need to deconflict with my fighters. Use the tactical net to plan and execute everything, and when in doubt, hold fire until you’re sure that my guys are clear.

  “Any questions? I want to make sure that we don’t go shooting at each other. It’s going to get pretty busy and crowded.”

  No one responded, so Haverford gave the final orders to get into position for the arrival of the alien battle group. Then he went back to his fighter and assumed duty as pilot, replacing Milo, who now had another job to do. He flew to Phobos where he joined the eleven other fighters that were already in place.

  Judith, Milo, Doug, and Mikio put their helmets back on and filed, two at a time, through the airlock and to their duty stations on the alien fighter and at the plasma cannon.

  When Judith and Milo entered the fighter, they saw that the four tactical systems operators that Haverford had assigned to the fighter were already there and had taken positions at their stations. Milo made quick introductions. “Folks, this is Judith Glass, our electronics expert. She’ll work that big gun on top of the ship. Judith, these two are Sergeant Lois DeLong and Corporal Harvey Brown. They’ll work the machine guns. You already know Paul and John,” he said, pointing to Paul Olivetti and John Morgan. “This gun crew is the best in the fleet.” DeLong and Brown waved hello but stayed at their stations. Judith went to hers and sat down in front of the controls for the EMP cannon. She noticed that the seats were a bit tight since the aliens were much smaller than humans, but they were roomy enough for the short time that she figured they’d need to be seated.

  “Better strap in,” Milo said. “When the shit hits the fan, we can’t be sure that the artificial gravity will hold, so we don’t want anyone flying around.” Fortunately, the harnesses were adjustable and had a lot of extra slack, much more than any alien, even the biggest and fattest of them, would need. Milo explained that the aliens seemed to have very bulky space suits that they wore for combat. It was probably to help them survive in the extremely hostile environment of space if their ship sustained catastrophic damage. Since the Nebula space suits were intended for work on Mars and for only short times outside an atmosphere, the smaller size allowed the six humans to secure themselves in the alien seats without too much problem or discomfort.

  While all the others were getting ready at their battle stations, Harry and Yuri went back to the interface station and put their headsets on. They immediately connected with Igor and the worker, both of which were standing near the plasma cannon. Harry focused his attention on integrating thoughts and perceptions only with Igor’s artificial brain. He didn’t want to have any distr
actions when the fight started. Yuri connected with the worker, but he maintained some attention to Igor as well so that he could be prepared to help Harry if that became necessary.

  When Harry was comfortable with the integration of his own brain and senses with Igor’s he began the task of working with Igor as the robot moved into its ship and prepared for the mission. To Harry, it seemed as if he were actually inside the robot and could sense everything that its sensors picked up. He could read its robotic thoughts and its plans for actions as they developed. This would be almost a complete integration of the two of them as long as Igor was still on Mars, but once the ship left, the time delay in the link between the interface box and the robot would eliminate the real time interactions and would give Harry a delayed picture of what Igor was doing and preparing to do. Harry knew that would happen, and he might have been more concerned if he needed to control Igor in a more real time fashion. But Brad and Haverford were right. All that he’d need to do was to make sure that Igor’s planned actions were in line with what was happening with the rest of the Nebula forces. All the real time actions would be controlled by Igor, and the robot did know how to fly a ship and use its sensors and weapons.

  Yuri’s job was easier than Harry’s. His main requirement was to use the worker robot as a relay between Igor and the battle group and to do anything that was needed to help Doug and Mikio, who would be outside and exposed to potential danger during the battle.

  Doug and Mikio got into position behind the ridge near the alien bunker and then called back to ops to ask that the worker robot be positioned near the plasma cannon so that it could help if anything went wrong while they prepared for the first shot at the battleship. Then, when the shooting started, the worker should get out of the immediate area near the gun and move to another safe place where it could be called upon for further tasks as needed. Yuri replied that he’d take care of that and that he’d be the controller for that robot. They established a radio subnet between the three of them to coordinate things.