“Agreed!” roared the mindvoice of BattleMind, who’d been hovering on the edge of Matt’s mental communion. Usually the giant T’Chak dragon stayed out of their discussions unless there was destruction to be done. Not now. “Why waste time on this two-step attack? It seems inefficient.”
“Sneakiness,” Matt said still smiling mentally but adding a sense of firmness to his mindvoice. “BattleMind, we have aroused both Combat Command and Intelligence Command of this sector to attack us. That has not happened in millennia, according to the public Anarchate history. But there are fifteen other galactic sectors of the Anarchate. Are they taking any precautions against us? What of the Council of Sixteen? Are they directing Chai and Yorkel and other officials of this sector? Allowing me to sneak into the Intelligence space base allows me to attach some of Mata Hari’s limpet complinks to the node globes that make up this spacebase. As we did with the slaver ship in Morrigan system, then later in the first Alkalurops battle, we can scan the memory Cores of this base for such information. Or collect encrypted comlink chatter for later analysis by our AI comrades.”
Eliana threw back her black hair. “Screw sneakiness. I’m coming with you on Mata Hari when you enter that system! I’m your partner!”
“Me too,” grunted George, his facial expression one of grimness. “You will include me in the node search effort while you are in-system. I can do more than be a backup gun platform!”
“Include me,” said Sarah softly, her tense look now one of determination. “Chai and Yorkel destroyed the Memorial Pillar. It was my world’s honoring of our lost citizens. As you recall, Matt, I grew up knowing of their loss, then hearing about the pillar while in Commerce School. I should share your risks.”
Rafael, Toktaleen and Suzanne also moved to demand inclusion. “People!” Matt said loudly in mindvoice, his smile becoming the look of a Vigilante on a Hunt. It was a look that often kept aliens some distance from him. “I’m the Vigilante who pledged a geis obligation to protect worlds from harm, to provide some kind of justice, and to bring hope where there was none. This is my duty. It is my obligation. And, George, yes you will accompany me since I will need backup and more eyes than those possessed by Suit, Mata Hari and BattleMind. But the rest of you will stay with your ships. I need you to bring Hexagon Prime fleet to my personal location, while the Cohort leaders will bring Ocean Fleet into direct battle with Yorkel’s defense line of battleglobes. A lot can happen in short seconds and minutes. I need the combat smarts of each of you, especially Suzanne’s fleet maneuver innovations, in order to buy me time to grab Chai, secure intelligence and most of all, to rescue the slaver captives that will be located next to the space base.”
Suzanne’s hazel eyes showed puzzlement. “Matthew, why will the slaver ships be located close to the space base? Why not elsewhere in the system, or surrounded by the defending battleglobes?”
“Because Yorkel is a smart adversary,” he said, mentally replacing the Crab Nebula holo with one of the nine hundred habitat globes connected by access tubes that made up the space base of Sector 14 Intelligence. “See this image from the memory Core of that data crystal we recovered from the Intelligence Dome at SAO 47250? Before the Zeta Serpentis casino attack? It shows what the base looked like less than a year ago.”
“I see it,” said Suzanne impatiently. “A cluster of hundreds of white globes. So what? How does that affect Yorkel’s choices?”
Matt tried to relax in his glass chair. But his mental communion tenseness carried over and muscle relaxation did not happen. “Well, Suzanne, it affects Yorkel this way. The orange-yellow star that is CC93721 has no planets, just a ring of asteroids, gas and dust. And not long after the Crab Nebula’s giant star had its core collapse and became a Type Ib supernova in 1054 A.D., the Anarchate visited this region. They located CC93721 and decided it would make a fine base for Sector Intelligence due to its lack of planets. And due to the high radiation emitted by the Crab Pulsar that makes this a rarely visited locality. Yorkel knows the system’s layout as well as we do. So, I am betting he will place his battleglobes into defensive shells. With the slaver ships at the center of his defense shell, sitting beside the base. Thus forcing us to come to him in order to reach Chai and the captives.”
Eliana reached out a mental arm to touch Matt’s shoulder, conveying a sense of warmth, love and support. “But why do you need to go into the system with just Mata Hari and George? What do we gain?”
Matt loved her touch, her sympathy and her support. He needed it the way most lifeforms needed to breathe. He reached a mental arm over to hug her close, and offered her a genuine smile. “We gain specific knowledge of the location of each battleglobe, their numbers, the x-ray Picket Globe locations, the presence of any high-megawatt mining lasers similar to those Yorkel used before, and we may detect any new combat surprises.” Matt paused, drawing in the mental attention of Mata Hari and BattleMind. “My AI friends, while I can be a sneaky human in battle tactics, some aliens can be equally inventive. And dangerous. So scoping out the opposition before we attack is vital. Will our 507 warships be enough?”
“Enough!” sputtered George. He pulled at his thick black beard. “We have never faced more than forty battleglobes. We can take this installation.”
Matt nodded slowly, but then portrayed a new system holo for their mental perusal. “That was in the past. What if we now face a hundred battleglobes. Two hundred? More? The Anarchate records from the Intelligence Dome say Combat Command possesses 11,321 Nova-class battleglobes. Plus thousands more Courier ships, Supply Tubes and millions of offensive Remotes and sensors. So what do we face? We must know before we risk Ocean Fleet.”
Toktaleen the Brokeet pushed forward his mindsense. While his mind was encased in a globular yellow head with two eyes and two sensor antennae, the alien’s mind depth was deep. Which was perhaps why he had done so well in lightspeed neurolinking during the recent battle. Toktaleen clasped his upper arm pair over his thorax. “Allies, fellow bipeds, what Vigilante Dragoneaux warns about is very possible. Most citizens of the galaxy never even consider the idea that the Anarchate could disappear. Or be defeated. There is a reason for that. Their Central Nexus admin world has devices that destroy any unwelcome vessel which approaches to within a light year of the home star. Their organization into sixteen galactic sectors allows for efficient administration. And their refusal to interfere in planetary affairs allows them to reserve their combat forces for use against anyone who wishes to change the system. As we are attempting to do. This next battle will determine whether we survive to battle in the future. Or whether we will be overwhelmed and dispersed. Accurate intelligence is vital to the survival of Ocean Fleet. I support the Vigilante’s plan.”
A sense of gloom settled over the minds of his fellows, excepting the minds of Toktaleen and Flowering. He gave a mind shrug. “Hey, we’ve got the precog help of Eliana and Suzanne. We have starships with weaponry that beats the battleglobes. And we have space-time shields against all manner of weapons. We will win!”
Eliana gave him a half-smile and hugged him back. “With allies like this, we surely will overcome any opponent. But Matthew, be alert to any detection by Yorkel or the Intelligence nodes. And I think the fleet should practice to avoid kamikaze attacks by solo battleglobes. They’ve tried that tactic several times. If they cannot overload our Alcubierre shields, their only other option is to materialize in the normal space-time location of a dreadnought. So how short can we cut the time to enter Translation and escape?”
Mata Hari stood up, her persona that of the Spy in her late Victorian frilly white dress. She touched the pearl broach at her neck. Her dark eyes scanned them all. “I agree with Eliana. We need to cut our entry time into Translation down to nanoseconds.”
Suzanne looked puzzled. “But Mata Hari, if we enter the Intelligence system surrounded by Alcubierre fields, won’t the fields prevent any kamikaze attack from reaching our ship?”
BattleMind’s crocodile snout opened. “
Apparently not. When the Anarchate tried that tactic in the home system of my T’Chak masters, I inquired of the planetary database as to whether being surrounded by alternate space-times would protect us. They won’t. When in battle we exist in standard space-time. We are a normal space bubble enclosed in Alcubierre space-time. If an enemy sets its NavComputer for our exact coordinates and materializes where we exist within normal space-time, there will be a total destruction of both starships.”
Matt stood up in the mental meadow of their mind communion, now holding Eliana’s hand. The two of them walked over to the twelve foot tall giant dragon who was BattleMind. “Thank you, battlemate, for that information,” he said. “It makes constant movement off our entry vector all the more vital. And be assured, our two psychic ladies will offer tachlink warnings to anyone who is targeted. As they did recently.”
Suzanne drew his attention with the intensity of her thought. She nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Matt, I think I see why you have to scope out the Intelligence system by yourself. Sun Tzu said it—Now war is based on deception. Move when it is advantageous and create changes in the situation by dispersal and concentration of forces. Right?”
“Right.” It was a wonder how accepting the shift of Eliana and Suzanne into full-fledged battlemates had brought him to see how he could, sometimes, move beyond the solo action mode he’d been used to as a Vigilante. “Thank you for your understanding. For everyone’s understanding. Your arrival with Ocean Fleet, armed with the exact positions of the battleglobes, will shock Yorkel. As will our numbers. He expects seven Dreadnoughts. We are 507 now. Onward to battle!”
The eight shipminds and seven humans who made up Hexagon Prime left mental communion, leaving Matt feeling cold, alone and . . . determined.
Determined for the memory of Helen Sayinga Trinh. For the memory of his sisters Charlotte, Melody, Janine and Sally. For the memory of his parents Kristen and Benoit. And for all the future lives who would not be born into pain-imprinted cloneslavery, he would succeed. In this upcoming spy entry. In the future battle. In freeing the rest of the galaxy of this abomination called cloneslavery.
Or he would die trying.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Skyree of the Solink fixed his attention on the infrared images of local space-time, his curiosity aroused by the sudden eruption of hundreds of gravity wave pulses from the nearby supernova nebula. The gravity wave pulses were fed to his station in the Astronomy node of Sector 14 Intelligence since High Commander Brrzeet did not believe the supernova region held no threat. Why not more star explosions? And it was true the neutron star which exploded long cycles ago did emit deadly radiation pulses. Had this nebula activity been detected by other stations near his? Were there any developments in the ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray, radio and far infrared frequencies that would explain this phenomenon? Normally he watched for gravity waves emitted by ships arriving just outside the heliopause of the local star. But this sudden eruption of very weak gravity pulses from within a radiation deadly area of the Cloud of Warning was a mystery. Still, any anomalies within nearby space had to be reported. He waved a wing-hand over the nearby Alert pedestal.
“Commander Heguun, I have detected weak gravity wave pulses from within the nearby supernova nebula.”
A holo image of his Dolmat supervisor appeared before his work perch. The armored hide of the herbivore rippled with irritation. “That cannot be, young avian of a Newcomer species. Check your sensors. No starship with lifeforms aboard would ever enter the synchrotron radiation zone of the nebula. They would all die within moments.”
“You are correct, flight leader.” Skyree was a graduate of the High Perch Academy of Astrophysics on his homeworld of Brisk Winds. He had qualified to enlist in Combat Command due to his dogged work ethic, his lack of a life mate and his willingness to work anywhere in the galaxy. And the Anarchate needed scientists able to advise the administrators of naval, commercial and intelligence bases. So he had come to be one of the few avian-evolved beings working at the Sector 14 Intelligence base. But his innate sense of multiple dimensions that came with the evolution of the Solink species made him look at matters with a degree of insight lacking in ground-evolved species. “However, in the thousand cycles since this base was established, there has been no detection of gravity wave pulses from within the nearby nebula. Nor from other nearby stars. What could be causing this disturbance, since ship crew would be killed by the blue inner zone?”
The four-legged form of Heguun shook his blocky head and spread his two scaly forearms wide, as if exasperated. “My young assistant, the pulses cannot be from starships. The zone’s temperature ranges up to 18,000 heat-temps, the magnetic field produces electrons traveling at one-half lightspeed, the synchrotron radiation emitted by the pulses of the pulsar equal 75,000 times that emitted by our local star, and the uncharged x-rays and gamma rays emitted by the neutron star at its center would pass through any ship’s radiation shield.” The Dolmat’s voice moved from exasperation to a tutorial tone. “Skyree of the Solink, your species is a Newcomer one, still new to the ancient variables of the galaxy. These weak pulses could be caused by the spinning pulsar’s ejection of hypercondensed matter that now spreads through the inner zone. Like grains tossed to a flock of birds. Such dense matter ejections would produce gravity waves. And matter ejections have been recorded for other supernova pulsars.”
Skyree held tight to his temper. Comparing any member of his species to a flock of unthinking avians was a deadly insult. But his supervisor was ground-bound and not used to thinking of data in three dimensions. “Your points are well-made, Commander Hegunn. These signals could be naturally produced emissions that we have not detected before. Thank you for your guidance.”
The armored face of his supervisor relaxed, a change that indicated approval. “And your alertness to a local anomaly near to this base is highly regarded by me. And by my supervisor High Commander Brrzeet. Be assured, your diligence will be rewarded.”
The holo blinked out. Skyree glanced around the node, inventorying the fourteen other lifeforms who shared duty stations with him. His infrared vision indicated only those near to him showed an increase in body temp suggestive of interest, amusement or whatever passed for attention among the seven species with whom he shared the node. He pulled closer his wings so his wing-hands could interact with the sensor beams that filled the space before his work perch. He would keep watch on the nearby nebula, but more vital than local astrophysics was the Alert rumor that said the base would come under attack by a ground-hugging biped of the Newcomer species Human. Or that was the explanation given for the sudden arrival of more than a hundred battleglobes in the inner reaches of this system. Perhaps the battleglobes would have better luck at hunting targets than he had in convincing a supervisor of his scientific abilities.
Eliana had never believed in the theology of Hell, or Hades, Sheol, Tarturus, Xibalba, Avici, Naraka or a dark Underworld where souls suffered for supposed sins. Or so said her study of ancient Earth religions. In truth, her world of Halcyon had its troubles of coexistence between humans and the native Direndl tree-dwellers. There were the power games played by her brothers Konstantinos and Ioannis. There had been the attempt by the Halicene Conglomerate to turn her planet into a strip-mined ball of rock. All of that had not made her believe in a place like what she now perceived through Altuna’s ship senses, her own optical neurolinking with the AI’s mind, and with the tachlink-communicated facts of the place where she, Matt, Suzanne, and all the ships of Ocean Fleet now existed. Or, rather, sheltered from the fires of the place into which they had arrived after Translation exit.
The fires outside were not just those of intense x-rays, gamma rays, radio and ultraviolet. Fires are thought of as small. The Crab Nebula outside her starship, the place that engulfed the fleet, was 11 light years filled with blue, red, purple and yellow light flames given off by the nebula’s ionized filaments. But their position lay deep inside, within the blue zone created by t
he pulsar rotation of the inner neutron star. That rotation generated a super-magnetic field that filled space with powerful synchrotron radiation. And that field was the product of the pulsar, winking on and off at thirty times a second. While the radiation pulses were concentrated into two polar flares, other superflares erupted from the star’s surface. Those flares filled the entire nebula with a whirlwind of x-rays and gamma rays that would have cooked any living being as if they inhabited a giant microwave oven. Assuming they were exposed to local space conditions.
In her mind she had counted the twenty-three nanoseconds it had taken from Altuna’s arrival in the normal space-time of the nebula to the raising of the six Alcubierre space-time shields. The several hundred sensors and small Remotes sent out by her ship in that short time were the source of what she viewed in her mind, and on the ship’s front holosphere. “Altuna, you and the other AIs were fast in raising our shields. How . . . how much radiation did we organics experience? Before you raised shields?”
The large male T’Chak dragon that was ‘her’ AI battlemate filled her mind with a tiny part of its attention as it saw to millions of data inputs from the ship. A sense of humor sparkled within those thoughts. “Not enough to harm your future life-bearing potential. But an amount equal to a full year’s exposure under the Sol home star of humanity is what you experienced.” The dragon flapped its black wings slowly, its attention cast to the other ships in the fleet. “No organic lifeform could exist here for longer than a few minutes. The radiation damage would overwhelm all your organic systems and cause total life failure.”
“Matt? Is Matt—oh, I sense him as being fine. Thank my precog and tachlink mindsenses for that!”
Suzanne blossomed into her mind. Her expression was one of relief and happiness to mindtouch once more. “Eliana! So glad I could leave ocean-time and relink with you. And with the rest of Hexagon Prime. My George is fine, as I gather is your Matthew. Any word from the fleet Cohort leaders of any trouble from the AI-only starships?”
Galactic Vigilante (Vigilante Series 3) Page 25
