The major looked at her without blinking for a long moment. 'So you are saying that if we team up with her, we have a better chance at survival?'
She gave him another small smile, nodding her head. 'Exactly. Those things out there are hungry for antimatter. We know that they can sense it somehow. And we have more than tens of kilos of it here on Basalt. Just think what is waiting for us in the Lagrange points, Michael. We have experienced before how they use the points as well for their navigation.
And, yes, to answer your unasked question: I am now of the opinion that Angelito either unwittingly gave us the wrong system to go look at the breeding of the Urchins, or did so deliberaely, knowing that we would meet our demise.'
Michael furiously rubbed his scalp. 'I am getting too old for this shit! How do we get cosy with the chimera, Zawgyi?'
'I don't think that they are a chimera any more. I would say that the integration is complete. Patrick told me a few moments ago that the speech coming from the queen is speeding up. Says that at the current rate none of us will be able to converse with her in a few hours.'
She paused for a few seconds and looked down at her hands then continued. 'She is the one who suggested that we be enveloped by her. As soon as she enters the mesopause of this planet, which is about seventy-five kilometres above the surface, we need to be close to her. The male Urchins will not join her until she is at ninety kilometres, as they hate the possibility of being caught in the gravitational well, without a lot of the nice warm atmosphere like around a gas giant with a massive nuclear core. All my information says that the killers will not attack her until she is at the top of the thermosphere.'
Michael looked back at his screens. 'Patrick, have we a good visual on the queen?'
'Yes, major. We are currently fifty-five kilometres above and a few kilometres behind her and on an intercept course. We should be within metres of her in sixteen minutes. I am receiving instructions from Zawgyi on how to dock with her. Shall I proceed? We do not have a great deal of time.'
The major opened up everyone's comms links. 'All crew: we are going to dock with the queen. Anyone who can think of a very good reason why we should break away and try to get out of this system on our own, say it now.'
Marko noisily cleared his throat. 'I hate fucking Urchins!
Even those inhabited by parts of our friends.'
'I agree, Marko,' Michael said. 'Everyone remain at their posts. Weapons free. Engage only if we are in imminent danger. Patrick, take us in, please.'
They all felt the attitude of the frigate change as Patrick guided the ship down towards the Urchin queen who was climbing up towards true vacuum.
Marko, who with Veg, Fritz and Harry was still working on alternative weapons to fight off the killers, kept glancing up from the discussions and research they were doing to see the queen, looking streamlined, with her head segment furled and tucked in tight like a huge beautiful flower bud. The massive long tail even had all the tentacles and barbs folded down against it making as little resistance as possible.
'Wonder why she has everything so neatly tucked away?' Harry commented. 'Virtually no atmospheric drag up here.'
Fritz, sounding bored, answered: "Cause she is a neat old Urchin. 'It actually lowers her visual signature, conserves her inner heat ... or maybe she just likes it that way. Hey. How do the killers create body heat? Hold on. Don't answer, I will do it myself. Yeah, looking through the library and the other records. Oh. Now that is really interesting. Huh! They are nuclear. Hold big quantities of uranium 235 and water to moderate the reaction. Hey, Marko, have we still got all that silver onboard or did ya sell it off on the side?'
Marko shrugged. 'Ha! Why the hell would I sell it? Good shielding, but there is so much of it about it's no more than the price of iron. Hey! I say we fire silver pellets at slow speed into the killers and it shuts down their core reactions. They would either break off an attack to deal with the contamination, or freeze over a shortish time. Yeah, that would work. Also cadmium, but we only have small amounts of that. Big quantities of iridium though. Good trading metal. What do you think, Harry?'
Harry's eyebrows raised as he slowly nodded. 'Good idea. Worthwhile having it available as a weapon. How much per killer would be required to make it hurt, Fritz?'
'Yeah, 'bout seven kilo per shot would cool 'em down for long enough. Being a biologically controlled reactor they will have ways of dealing with contaminants like that but reckon it would make a difference. Take 'em out of the fight for at least a couple of hours.'
'I'll program the mills to start manufacturing the rounds,' Veg said. 'Low volume explosive charge at the centre to spread the material after it has punched through. Pity we do not have the time to make the outer casings iridium. Shatters nicely, that metal. Standard mortar cases will do. Nice dirty iron, anyway. Give me the specs of the distance from outer skin to inner core of the killers, please, so I can program up the rounds. Good thinking, Fritz. You might as well go through all the other base materials we have onboard to see what else we can use.'
Harry then asked the obvious question. 'Hey, boss, we have all this gear being readied. How are we going to use it, if we are tucked inside the Urchin?'
'Have a look for yourself, Harry. Forward cameras.'
They selected the camera displays from Basalt's forward cameras. The images showed Basalt slowly approaching a set of 'petals' that were opening on the outer part of the enormous flower-pod structure of the queen. Looking at other screens showing the space available to them, shaped to comfortably fit Basalt, Harry asked, 'Right, so am I to assume that the covers can be lifted giving us access to space?'
'That is correct,' Stephine told him.
'Yeah,' Marko said. 'All well and good, but aren't the response times from Zawgyi still pretty slow?'
Stephine answered that one. 'They are getting better. Lily is taking over communication with her now, so if there is anything you want to know, ask Lily.'
Over the next fifteen minutes, Basalt slid inside the pearl coloured area and the petals slowly folded down over the ship, partially sealing it in. Lily had made a request to Zawgyi that she leave a strip of Basalt exposed for the crew to deploy and use their astronomical drones along with a few of the heavily armed combat drones, the latter attached to the outer structure of Basalt not far from where Blackjack was.
Blackjack's voice sounded in Stephine's head. 'I am in contact with the creature, Stephine. Shall I initiate the transfer while everyone else's attention is fixated on being this close to a queen?'
'Yes. Initiate.'
The ship, using her waldos, surreptitiously lifted a long strip of skinlike material off her hull and placed it gently against the Urchin's nearest petal. The material quickly slipped into the surface of the petal and vanished.
Marko, who had been expecting Stephine to gift something to the Urchin queen, allowed himself a tiny smile, wondering what effect it would have on the evolving creature. 'It had already been infected with Fritz - the creation of the Haulers -and Nail -the creation of Marko and Topaz - and now a big chunk of octopoid tech courtesy of Stephine who, of course, was one of their creations. His reverie was broken by the major's voice.
'All crew: get the offensive weaponry that we can use against the killers to the airlocks and access-ways that are still available to us. Load everything onto combat drones; ifthere are not enough, then use the astronomical drones as weapon platforms. Looking at our projected flight path, we estimate that we have at least twelve hours before our first probable engagement with the killers. So let's get the weapons sorted, then a meal, and after that everyone is to get a few hours' sleep each on rotation.'
'I see that Marko and I are on meal roster,' Stephine asked. 'Is there anything that you would prefer?'
The major looked around as she climbed out of her first mate's command pod. 'Chicken vindaloo with Marko's flatbreads. Don't know why, but I have been thinking about it for the last few minutes. Can do?'
She laughed
and favoured him with a wide smile. 'For you, of course, Michael. And we shall follow it with a large fresh fruit salad.' Michael watched her walking away and wondered for the millionth time why she and Veg stayed with the crew on Basalt. He thought that maybe it was because they were always on the edge of some momentous event or other and that they liked it that way.
'Major.'
'Yes, Jasmine.'
'All combat drones are loaded, fuelled and attached to the outer hull with ready access to space. I have two astronomicals on tethers so we can see for ourselves what is happening around us. The Fast Movers have also been refuelled and are on standby on their launchers outside of the hull. I am now awaiting the mortars to be fixed to the last of the combat drones ... mixtures of antinuclear weapons and firework bombs. I have asked Lily to find out from Zawgyi if it would be possible to have a clear path forwards of Basalt's central linear accelerator so we can use that weapon as well for long range shots if need be.'
'Good work, thanks, Jasmine. Hand control of everything over to Patrick and go grab a meal.' Michael let out a long sigh, ran his hands over his head. 'OK, Patrick. Let's hear the odds of our survival over the next few days.'
The AI took a long time to answer, but finally said, 'Not good, major. Not good at all. I give us a one in twenty chance of getting away intact. I agree with Stephine when she said we were being sent to the wrong system and I believe that that was deliberate. There are still plenty of factions who would like to see us all gone. Literally ... lost, never to return. But a five per cent chance is still not zero. It depends on what is waiting for us at the Lagrange points and how fast this Urchin queen can travel between those ju mp points.'
Michael looked down at his hands, wondering if he should share the information with the rest of the crew. 'Yeah, I figured as much. And, of course, if we were deliberately sent to the wrong place, Angelito would just lie about it and give whoever came looking for us the coordinates to the other system anyway, knowing that we would never be found.'
'I am afraid so, major. I never have liked Angelito. I always considered he was a person ill-suited to a position in the Haulers. But his family is one of high standing, with a long track record of service to the Administration, so I suppose anyone can get themselves in if they have enough money and influence.'
Michael stared glumly at his hands then suddenly brightened. 'All crew: did anybody give the coordinates of this system to someone outside of the crew, apart from discussions with Angelito?'
Stephine was sitting eating her meal between Marko and Veg but reached, unseen, and touched them both, making contact. 'I gave the details to my greater self when we were last in contact in the Storfisk system. The ship had another mission to perform, but was then going to come here to watch over us.'
Marko silently asked, 'How long till it gets here, Stephine?' 'Should be in the outermost part of the system in seven days
or so. Maybe we should make contingencies for us to take this crew and leave if the fight looks like it will go badly.'
Veg spoke in their minds. ' 'Itwould be wise, but how are we to explain to the others -apart from the ACEs, Lily and Jasmine -what we are, Stephine? 'Itwould be quite obvious, as you always recombine with the greater self even if it is only for a short few hours. 'Itwould be wiser to consider taking those who know of us and then taking the Soul Savers of the others. That way we could keep our identities secret, which is paramount.'
Marko answered: 'Perhaps we had better fight very hard so that that does not happen.'
Glint spoke out loud, answering the major's original question. 'Yes. I told the ACE eagle, Haast, of the Gjomvik carrier of the same name. He was keen to know about the Urchins and wanted to know where we were going to study them. Have I done something wrong? I trust Haast completely.'
The major hastily replied, 'No, no you have not done anything wrong, Glint. Quite the contrary. I just hope that Haast told others, that is all. In particular, the Hauler Rose Foxtrot who was in the system just as we were jumping out. What it does mean is that if things do not go the way we have planned, at least they will know where to look for us.'
Patrick cut into the conversation. 'The first of the suitor Urchins is about to come alongside the queen. The next will be in approximately fifteen minutes and the next one twenty minutes after that.'
The tethered astronomicals rose away from Basalt so that they could all see what was happening;
A few hundreds of metres away from where Basalt was safely and mostly enclosed, a similar enclosure opened up in the queen's structure. Tendrils raised up and grasped the male Urchin, as it tightly folded its head petals and the great, long barbed tail curved and tucked up under its head. The display on its outer surfaces had everyone watching in awe. The colours flashed and danced over every part of it as it was pulled down into the queen. The opened petals of the queen closed down against the male, sealing it against herself. A shudder could be felt throughout Basalt as the queen shook briefly then everything went quiet.
Stephine silently sent a message to Blackjack. 'Prepare stasis units for all crew members, excepting Lily, Marko, Jasmine and the ACEs. Also, calculate the most probable location that the greater me will emerge when the life-ship comes to this system, and constantly update yourself as to how to get to that place in the fastest possible way. What are you seeing within the queen?'
'The material that I gave her is doing its job. 'Itis as the library information said. The Urchin male's proto-mind has been assimilated and is giving a different flavour to the creature's overall partial sentience. The activity of what were the part minds of Nail and Fritz would have been overwhelmed if we had not given them more structure and backup. You could have had the crew send more nanotes to do the same job.'
'Yes, I could have, Blackjack, but I want this creature to survive without too much more influence from humanity.'
'I understand.'
'The next male is about to be assimilated,' Patrick reported, 'closely followed by the other. It would appear that a sense of urgency is now taking hold. Also I see that another six males are accelerating towards Zawgyi.'
The crew could not see the next two males being taken into the queen as they were out of sight of the tethered astronomicals.
'Zawgyi is becoming more aggressive in her attitude,' Jasmine said. 'She is using the antimatter from the assimilated males and is accelerating. The other males are expending vast amounts of energy to catch up. Looks like three will make it.'
As they watched, the three massive creatures dived down onto the head of the queen, spreading themselves out against her and grasping the outer petals' edges, pulling themselves down tightly. One had parts of itself very close to Basalt's enclosure. Tendrils from its tail slid over and started to touch and explore Basalt's outer structures. Just as the major was about to yell a warning to everyone, the tendrils suddenly disappeared.
'Jasmine? What happened?' the major asked.
'I think that Zawgyi gave it a warning. However, we shall have to be watchf ul. Zawgyi is promising to take the breeding material from these three, but not for a while yet. Let's just hope that they keep themselves to themselves.'
'All crew: hope everyone is fed, rested and ready for the first fight. If you are not already at it, you have five minutes to be at your battle stations. Jasmine, have we a cleared space in front of the ship, so that we can use the main linear accelerators?'
'I am sorry, major. Not as yet. They started to pull apart, but then stopped moving. I have prompted the queen again, but it would seem that I am being ignored. I am not sure what to do?'
Stephine immediately broke in to say, 'I would keep in mind that she is probably in a state of flux. As each male arrived, she shuddered. I can only liken it to part of the mating cycle. Her eggs are probably now fertilised. I would dearly like to know what the remaining three males will do if their sperm pouches are not taken soon. I wonder if we should not leave her in peace, and watch what happens with this first encounter.'
&
nbsp; Hauler Rose Foxtrot Nineteen
Interstellar Space
'Daisuke, Wardah, I believe that we have a problem. I gave the most up-to-date information to Angelito about a small planet orbiting a nice little star that had very few Urchin queens on the surface, in its oceans. According to Glint, we have another set of coordinates, which I believe are another star system just over two light years from the quiet one. However, Angelito being in whatever wrecked state of mind he is in, did not respond to my questions before we broke orbit to start the jumps out. I wonder if it is because of the fact that our Tengu is onboard, distracting him.'
Rose paused for a second as if gathering her thoughts, but the standard humans both knew that the Hauler was creating the break for a little dramatic effect.
'However, I also know that Basalt and, in particular, Michael Longbow and the angel, Stephine, are very intelligent and had promised that they would be on Storfisk for the celebrations. So we know the maximum distance they would have travelled to achieve their research and get back in time. The problem is that if they are still alive, or even if they have uploaded their Soul Savers into a life-continuation hardshell, we still have four star systems to look at and a very short period of time before we must return to Storfisk to take care of the predators.' Daisuke looked across at his beautif ul partner and reached over to hold her hand. 'So we are to split into four search and rescue groups, Rose? If we are, we need to take heavy firepower with us. We know how deeply unpleasant the killers are when the queens are rising and their quest for the richest food is high.'
The Hauler's proxy looked across the table at them, gave them a tiny smile and agreed. 'Yes. The attack craf t are ready. The necessary equipment is onboard each of them. I am asking the Tengu leader, Andreas Bierwage, to take command of one of the Thorn carriers. He is splitting his force into four and they are currently transferring their equipment and craf t into the three Thorns. You leave as soon as we go through the local interstellar Lagrange point, Wardah. Daisuke, you will go to your assigned system at the next jump after that, which will only be a matter of hours later. Commander Bierwage and I will diverge at the next jump point af ter that one. You both know what to do if you find Basalt. If you do not, then go straight back to Storfisk and sort those bloody predators out. Leave Angelito to me.'
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