by J G Clements
As the klaxons went off everyone was ready to spring into action, but since it wasn’t a human ship, the humans just didn’t know where to spring. Jim ran over to Kor, telling him to ask the crew what was happening. Kor took only a second to hear from his Bridge crews. “Swarmers, a large group.” He listened more. “Sisk moving to intercept and Oddjob is active. We are going to launch our single-fighters.” By now, Jim had Sue, Tom and several of the Oddjob crew looking over his shoulder.
“Sue, we need to keep the Ambassadors here. It’s too risky for a skiff right now. Can you get them to the interior of the ship? Tom…are there single fighters here that we can use? Is there much difference in an Ant fighter instead of a Human one?”
It was Kor who interrupted. “My crew,” he seemed to be at a loss for words, “my species can man the fighters. You should also go with the Ambassadors.”
Jim took only a second to show Kor the error of his way. “Kor…we need Ants AND Humans fighting side by side. And I mean both species launched from this ship. It’s the best example we could ever show the Ambassadors. So how different are the one-man fighters on an Ant ship?”
Kor took a second to understand what Jim had understood instantly. Realizing the opportunity, he cooperated. “Close your suits and I will take you to them.” Jim and Tom were closing their faceplates, and were only a step behind Kor, who was two steps ahead of the entire human crew. The only one staying behind was Sue, and the look on her face could spit bullets. She didn’t have time to do anything more because forty humans were in pre-stampede mode.
It was Ag who saved the day. Asking the Ambassadors to come along with him, he’d take them to a secure location where they’d be safe. Everyone bought that, or at least had the sense not to debate it. As Sue led them, Ag was trying to make small talk, ‘how long have you been an alien’ and just stupid stuff like that. But overall, it was helpful and folks clustered around him. He even commented on some of their clothing, scarves particularly. Sue thought it was part of smalltalk, but Ag was hoping to acquire some Earth trinkets.
Sue got his attention and told him they should take the Ambassadors to the Bridge. He started to ask why, then got it entirely. “This way”. With that, an armored alien, Sue, and forty of Earth’s finest were heading into the bowels of the Tether.
Two decks below them, Kor was leading almost a dozen of the recruited humans and Jim to a launching bay. The men had their suits closed, but they were all wearing the light-weight pressure suits. The ones that were designed to take care of you in case of a hull breach, not the ones designed for combat. Still, with the atmosphere of the Ant ship, Kor’s voice reached him. “I will allow each of you to have a single-ship. I know Earth’s Ambassadors are important to you and I would be remiss in not letting you participate in their protection.” Kor was busy splitting his attention between them and talking into his hand-held comm., in a language none of the Humans understood.
The reality of what the Captain of the Tether was doing didn’t really occur to anyone, except maybe Jim. Though the Oddjob and Sisk would do everything it could to protect the Ambassadors, the Captain realized that letting the humans on his ship participate in the fight would give him political cover if things didn’t go well. Ants, like humans, can be political creatures.
Opening the door to the combat bay they saw probably over a hundred ships, all in states of activity. Kor made some hand signals to his crew, and even across inter-species relationships, the Humans knew the Ants did not want to give up ships. But they did, and as Jim was getting thirty seconds of instruction from Tom, he wondered how they would coordinate their tactics. An Ant reached into the cockpit from the other side, and adjusted some knobs, one of which was some sort of communication frequency. In a second, Jake was on the radio.
“All human pilots in Ant ships, you are rear guard, I say again, rear guard. We will send you vectors. Please stay in pairs.” Tom already sliding into his seat gave Jim the sign for “I’ll lead, you follow”. Jim had no choice but to nod, and the lid closed on his ship.
The Squid built all the fighters and the designs were identical between the Human ships and the Ants. For starters, you entered a ship while the pilot’s seat was facing backward. When the door closed, the seat and all the controls pivoted 180 to face forward. The controls were an integral part of the seat, and could be removed by a single large disconnect. It made diagnosis and maintenance a snap. The labels were all gibberish, but Tom had pointed to steering, thrust and fire controls. Thankfully, they really weren’t that different than the skiffs he’d been practicing on.
But what he didn’t count on was the kick. Even a skiff at full power is not a big deal, but as the catapault mechanism threw his ship out of the bay, the rockets fired before he cleared the mother ship’s hull. He fought a momentary sense of panic, thinking he was in over his head. Regaining control, he looked for what he hoped was Tom’s ship. Sidling up to it, he could see a human in the cockpit. Tom waved at him, then eased closer to Jim. Twenty feet separated them as they were already traveling several thousand kilometers an hour.
“Jim, can you hear me on the suit radio?” Jim was surprised that Tom’s radio could reach this far then realized how close he was.
“I Can. You are clear.” No time for chatter, Jim knew this was serious.
“Our destination is behind the main dogfight. We are assigned to get leakers, do you understand?” Jim did. Or at least he thought he did. “Great. You’re my wingman in this so you don’t fire unless I’m being fired upon. I will fire upon any leakers, and your job is to protect me.” He let that sink in. “Jim, when I am firing I have no defense. My weapon systems are engaged and my mind is busy. You need to keep looking for a second leaker who is going to engage with me. Your shot doesn’t have to be lethal. It just has to get him off me. Got it?”
Jim understood this perfectly. He was not to run off on his own personal dogfight, as tempting as that might be. “Got it. But I had wanted to make Ace today”. That brought the appropriate chuckle from Tom, and they accelerated toward the Oddjob. Despite the adrenalin, Jim’s mind was clear, clearer than he thought it should be. Like part of him was totally unengaged from everything around him. Some part of his brain was trying to figure out the probability of a Swarm hitting the first effort at humans meeting other races. Instead of thinking about that, he made a mental promise to explore that later.
On the Bridge of the Tether, the Ants were busy defending their ship. If not exactly coordinating their efforts with the Oddjob and Sisk, they were able to set a picket around themselves that didn’t hinder the only real Capital ship here, the Sisk. Unlike the Sisk, the Tether was not a ship designed for combat. Swarmers could do real damage to it if they were left unchecked for long. Despite their efforts, Jim saw the blinding flash of a couple of their fighters being destroyed by the beam weapons from the Swarmers. Kor must have seen it too, because after a few words with the actual captain of the Tether, he was tied into a command line from the Sisk. Besides translator, he was now acting as a fire control coordinator between the Ant ships and the Humans, something he found grimly amusing.
Across the glass panel, Sue and Ag were explaining to the Ambassadors what was happening on the tactical display. You didn’t need to understand much about tactics to see that a real dogfight was in progress, and the Ambassadors were appropriately quiet. One assistant was busy watching the Ants instead of the display, trying to make sense out of their duties. Sue would bet he wasn’t chosen for his language skills.
Jim had settled down with his ship, making small adjustments just to see how the ship responded. None of the small maneuvers he made caused a collision with Tom, so there was that. Tom had now started a large arc, making a circle several hundred kilometers from the Sisk. The active fighters were further out, mixing it up with the Swarm, and hopefully making a good account of themselves. The Sisk was integrating the Tether into its tactics, mostly due to Kor’s ability to speak both languages, and to the fact that the Tether
saw the Sisk as a capital ship.
It was over in less than thirty minutes, but in that time Tom shot down no less than four leakers. Two were already crippled and trying to do ramming runs, but two were intact and trying to get a beam weapon on the Oddjob. Jim got a chance to see first hand their tactics. They didn’t use wingmen, or any real formation. Rather, it truly was a Swarm of random trajectories, hoping to overwhelm a defensive posture. Jim had not fired his weapons, and Tom, veteran combat pilot he was, had a chore for him. “Jim, if you would like practice with your weapons, we’d like to atomize some of the carcasses. Its good to get the flotsam out of the way, and you get some practice. Up for it?”
He was, he really would like that. Then he realized he shouldn’t. “Tom, is it possible to turn the beam down? I don’t want to atomize the ships. I want to melt them into a ball of liquid water.” It took longer than it should for Tom to reply.
“Jim, I’d say your message was garbled or you are having breathing difficulties. You really just want to melt them?”
“Affirmative.”
Tom was a veteran combat pilot. He didn’t always need to understand the orders, just carry them out. “Ok, set your beam to pulse, probably 5% on, and 95% off. It’ll put less energy into the shots so we’ll see what happens. You want to tell me why you want to do this?”
“A chemistry experiment.”
“Copy that. Jim-88 is doing chemistry experiments in deep space.” A pause. “Where’d you go to school again?” Jim didn’t answer. Instead, he did line up a shot and tried to melt the ship. Tom’s guess on beam intensity was pretty good. The beam had the melting effect but didn’t vaporize very much. It seemed to help that the hulk itself was tumbling. In a few minutes, there was a perfectly round shining ball of water that was quickly cooling.
“Tom, I need Jake to order this done to as many other ships as possible, especially intact ones.” Tom was an excellent pilot and a good judge of people. He repeatedly clicked his com unit to the Tether, hoping to annoy an operator enough to put Kor on. Instead it was Ag.
“Hello Earther? Is there a problem?” It took Tom a few seconds to explain what Jim wanted, then it took Kor almost no time to explain it to Jake who instantly had it figured out. Instead of being retrieved, intact and healthy single-ships were given defroster duty. Though combat had lasted less than thirty minutes, it would be over four hours before everyone was retrieved, with the skiffs all taking one-liter samples of floating balls of water, along with a rough measurement of their diameter.
Back on the Tether, there was discussion about aborting the Ambassadorial meetings, but it was actually the Ambassadors who insisted that it continue. But because the rest of the Ambassadors were still on the OddJob, and most of the skiffs were busy sampling water and retrieving fighters, the presentation on the Tether was postponed for several hours.
During that time, Sue witnessed an interesting event. The British Ambassador, an elderly gentleman who was exceedingly polite, managed to corral Kor. He insisted on being taken to see the ‘real’ Captain of the Ant ship, and it was clear he was adamant. Kor called him, and he came thru the connecter into the Human side. Taking the Ant Captain’s hand with absolutely no hesitation, the British Ambassador offered condolences from the King and from the people of England for the loss of Sentient life in the recent battle. Kor, not a human, was taken aback at the sentiments of the Ambassador. When he explained to the Ant Captain what the Ambassador was saying, the Captain seemed to have a similar reaction.
The Ant Captain made it clear to Kor that he would like the Ambassador to wait here for a bit. Re-entering to the Ant side, he returned in a few minutes and presented the Ambassador with an odd looking object. Holding it in his hand, the Ambassador didn’t understand what it was. Kor explained that it was the ‘mourning pin’ or ‘mourning brooch’ for one of the Ants killed in the battle. It was customary to wear it for a period of time after an untimely death.
Examining it more closely, Kor showed him how the pin or brooch could be twisted should someone die a ‘normal’ death, but how it was left in the current shape for an ‘untimely’ death. Every Ant warrior carried one. Nodding that he understood, the Ambassador asked Kor to pin it onto him. Though the Captain didn’t speak English and only followed what was happening by watching the Human, he was clearly touched as the Ambassador had it pinned on his chest. Though afraid to take the Human’s hand, the Captain held his claw out, and the Ambassador took it. They shook, slow and solemn. Bowing, the Captain then left to return to his crew. Sue had watched the whole proceeding, and was moved by what she saw. Well, at least one country saw that the aliens were people. Good.
Jim landed back on the Tether, and after the Ants showed him how to open the door, he was helped out. It wasn’t clear what Ant protocol was, but the three Ants assisting him each offered him a claw, and he solemnly shook them. The last one then made a motion on where he was to go. Through the door, and there was Tom. “There are five active skiffs gathering water samples, so we aren’t ferrying any more Ambassadors until some of the skiffs are done. Any chance you want to share?”
“Soon.” Jim had to get in touch with Phil-36 and ask about trace metal analysis. He located him on the Sisk, apparently falling in love with large fusion generators. He caught the same skiff most of the Human pilots had used, and was back on the Sisk within minutes. Phil met him outside the hanger while he explained what he wanted, but probably skipped over the reason why. Phil said all it needed was a few drops of sample from each ship, and that would be plenty. After a few minutes exchanging ideas, Phil said if he wanted to absolutely certain, they should take three or four samples from different locations on a single intact but melted Swarm. Jim didn’t follow.
“Look, Jim: You are looking for variability from ship to ship, right? Taking several samples from a single ship but in different locations will give you some idea of what sort of natural variation we are expecting. I agree that melting the entire ship probably makes the samples uniform, but this way you know how uniform.”
A few seconds on the com to Jake, and he approved a skiff to try to get multiple samples from a single melted Swarm. Turning back to Phil, “How long for analysis?”
“I’ll do fast injection today and depending on the levels, you might have a first-pass answer by tomorrow. If I have to inject samples manually all night, a little longer. Satisfied, he thanked him and left. After attending a debriefing with the pilots, and getting pats on the back for not beaming Tom’s craft, Jim found himself in his cabin, alone. He really wanted the results from the analysis, but now he had time to mull over his over problem: Did the Swarm somehow know they’d be here, or did they just get lucky? Laying on his back, hands behind his head, he took that thought and examined it. From as many angles as possible.
Chapter 14. Analysis.
Ceres Report: As long as I keep myself anchored to the surface, I can dig pretty effectively. The material I’m digging still has mass, but with the low gravity, once you get the dirt in motion it stays in motion. It also means you can throw the dirt pretty far.
In less than a week, I was able to dig a trench fifty feet long by twenty wide and twenty deep. I put a ramp at one end and I’m hoping to put one of my inflatable tents in there. Shaped like a sausage, its a long tube that hopefully I can turn into extra living quarters.
With the chore completed of melting Swarm ships, and sampling them, the skiffs were freed up to bring the rest of the Ambassadors over to the Tether. The Ambassadors who had the ring-side seats on the Tether were quickly filling in the ones who hadn’t seen what happened with the Swarm. Sue realized it would have been nice if the Ambassadors on the Oddjob had been taken to the Bridge to see first hand what had happened. Except of course the Bridge wasn’t that big. Mollified, she let that thought go.
Now gathered in the reception room, Ants on one side and Humans on the other, everyone milled around with their refreshments. Though no expert on Ant behavior, Sue thought they seemed subdued. Ag
seemed to sense her thought, and quietly explained that their Captain threatened them with half-rations…apparently an important threat…if they messed anything up. Sue had a laugh, and Ag seemed pleased he cheered her up.
Kor and Ag were on the Human side, and were really the hosts of the gathering. Waiting, Kor seemed tuned to the amount of chatter and activity going on, and as it began to naturally die down, he took that opportunity to call it to order. Everyone took their seats and Kor mounted a small podium. Without further delay, the meeting was convened.
“Thank you for coming. My name is Kor and I have been chosen to represent my race to the Humans of Earth.” His segmented neck made it easy to bow his head toward the Humans. He pointed to Ag and introduced him as well. Ag stood, bowed stiffly, his thick hide making the ‘stiffly’ the only way he could bow, then sat back down. “I know you have been told about the Swarm, and today you actually saw how true that is.” He waited for that to sink in then plunged ahead. “My people have been under attack for over two hundred years, and the Beetles,” he seemed comfortable using the slang term”, for much longer.”
With that, he launched into a lecture, using a video monitor to show scenes from the Ant homeworld, then explain how they now have foodworlds, raftcities and raftfarms. He showed them videos of attacks, with the dates across the bottom in English. It showed planet-buster meteors being destroyed, and it showed Swarms attacking the raftcities. “Once, we had three foodworlds that we thought were safe, and did not defend them adequately.” He stood back and showed the meteor striking a foodworld, then fast-forwarded the video to show its fate. “The damage to the ecosystem wiped out the crops that we had planted. With the dust in the atmosphere, the world became useless to us. But they were not satisfied.” Next, he showed Swarms attacking several of the raftcities, and even had cockpit footage from an Ant fighter ship.
