“We’re ready to initiate, Captain,” came the call over the com. “All crew have reported in to their secure stations.”
Which meant they had all reached ships more than a light minute away from the Exterminator. To stay aboard the Exterminator while it was in operation meant death, since it generated the most powerful magnetic field known to humans, and there was no conceivable form of shielding that would protect anyone on the device.
“Then we’re ready to go,” said Tamamurta. “Sending the signal, now.”
The Exterminator switched on, projecting its magnetic field through the surface of the star, digging deeper as the field increased in strength. It took several minutes for the field to reach full strength. Soon after the surface of the star was reacting to the probe of the magnetic field, churning the core, increasing the fusion.
“Estimating flares in eleven minutes,” shouted out one of the officers running the sensors in the battle cruiser’s command bridge.
That matched what the engineering captain had predicted from previous trials. A couple of hours and we’ll be through here, he thought. And then we can move on to the next one, and the one after that. It seemed like an endless task.
The admiral had wanted him, or someone, to develop something that was more efficient than this huge device that sucked up so many resources. He didn’t see how. He had stretched theory in the development of this thing. He didn’t really see how they could stretch it further. It would be up to someone a hell of a lot smarter than he was, and since he was rated a high genius, that person would have to be among the most brilliant ever.
And now Admiral Montgomery had found out that the Machines were spreading into other systems, building supermetal and antimatter production facilities. Every one of those systems could be expanded into major industrial bases. And any that still had any kind of memory core, and a population of nanites, could rebuild the Machines, no matter what the Empire did to the rest of them. Enough nanites could form their own memory core, or they could use a crystalline structure that wouldn’t be able to work on its own, but could definitely work with enough nanites to infiltrate it.
An impossible task, he thought again. The only way they could kill them all would be to make sure all the macro examples of the Machines were vaporized, and then cause some sort of megaflare that would permeate all of local space for hundreds of light years in every direction.
He thought of gamma ray bursts, the enormous energy releases of a super or hypernova that turned into a rapidly spinning black hole or neutron star. That wouldn’t work, mainly due to the fact that the Empire didn’t have the means of creating a supernova, much less a hypernova, and probably never would. Plus, there were two problems with gamma ray bursts. First off, they could only travel at light speed, just like any other radiation, so covering an area a hundred light years radius would take a century. And not only would it be deadly to unshielded circuits. It could also be extremely dangerous to living things. It would wipe life off of worlds within tens of light years, and totally disrupt the ecologies of those further out. Maybe something to do with hyperspace, thought the engineer, wondering if that would be a productive line of inquiry. If only…
“Captain Tamamurta,” called out a voice on the com. “Outer picket ships are picking up vessels moving toward the system in hyper. Machine ships, and they’re signaling that there are a lot of them.”
Tamamurta felt the shiver of panic running through him. He had a force of thirty ships total, four battle cruisers, ten heavy and light cruisers, the rest destroyers. All they had thought would be needed to shepherd the Exterminator to its targets and protect it from small machine patrols, all they had ever thought they would run into. If this was a Machine battle force, they might be in for some trouble. He didn’t doubt his force would be able to get away if they started boosting for the other side of the star’s hyper limit, especially since it would take several hours for the enemy to move from detection range to the barrier. But they couldn’t haul the Exterminator that far at a very high rate of acceleration. They might lose it, and there was no way in hell he was going to abandon it.
“What do you want to do, sir?” asked the chief technician from the other side of the control room.
“Keep processing the star. I want this thing set off. At least we can get this system cleared, no matter what they do.”
“Commodore Borislav is on the com, sir.”
Borislav was in charge of the covering force, although Tamamurta had been given overall command of the mission, the directive coming directly from Admiral Bednarczyk. Which didn’t mean the commodore wouldn’t try to pull rank over a mere captain if she thought it necessary.
And she probably will, if I know her. “Put her on the com.”
“You heard, Captain?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I think we’ll still have time to detonate the flare from this star.”
“You’re sure? I’m estimating that we need to unass this place now, if we want to get away.”
“And if we unass this place now, we lose the device. And you know how the admiral will feel about that.”
Tamamurta knew he had taken the proper tact as soon as he saw the woman’s face. She knew what she wanted to do, save her command from action with a superior force. But she also knew what holy hell Bednarczyk would raise if their only device was lost.
The first flare rose from the surface of the star, followed moments later by another. Neither were all that large as far as solar flares went, which meant they were still enormous, but not large enough. In the next minutes that changed, as flares the size of which this star wouldn’t experience more than once in thousands of years were rising into space, still dropping back into the photosphere for the most past, though some of the plasma was rising up and away.
“We’ve just received a message from Commodore Chung, Captain,” said Commodore Borislav, her holographic face appearing again in the air in front of the engineer. “He reports that he’s on the tail of the enemy force, and will be doing a pass by attack before they reach us.”
Commodore Jassiah Chung was in charge of a small but powerful hyper VII force, cut loose on his own to find and destroy Machine groups. His hyper VII battleship King Louis XII, one of the fastest and best defended ships in the region, was his flag, and more than a match for any Machine vessel short of a planet killer.
“Will he be able to stop them?”
“Probably not,” said the commodore. “They’re larger than his force, but he should be able to whittle them down a bit. And he’ll be able to enter the system an hour or so after they do.”
So all we have to do is hold out for an hour, thought the engineer. Which might be easier said than done, if they launched a swarm of missiles at the Exterminator.
All he could do now was concentrate on the task at hand, making sure everything went according to plan as they kept stirring up the star.
“We’re getting some big ones now, sir,” said the chief tech. “Everything going according to schedule.”
Tamamurta was tempted for a few moments to do something to speed the process up. There was still some reserve built into the process, about ten percent. He could get everything going ten minutes ahead of time if he pushed the device to its limits. But did he dare.
“Increase power by two percent,” he ordered, meeting the stares of the control staff. “Just do it.”
The chief nodded, turning back to his board and pushing the power levers forward incrementally. It didn’t seem to make any difference, as the flares continued to rise along the predicted path for minutes.
“Raise it another two percent.”
This time the chief did it without question, though his shoulders tightened in response to the stress.
Thirty seconds later another flare rose among the many, this one almost double the size of the one before. It was followed in less than a minute by dozens more, the size growing by the moment.
“It’s going to blow,” yelled out the chief tech,
not in horror, but in triumph. There was no way they were going to blow up the star. What they could accomplish was limited by the power of the device, but mostly by the size of the star, which didn’t lend itself to explosions like novas and their bigger brothers, supernovas.
Without warning it happened. Not quite the level of nova, the bubble of plasma blasted from the surface of the star was still impressive, more energy than could be released by a hundred thousand ship killer warheads, though not as concentrated. The plasma was off, heading out to interact with all the objects in the system, killing any unshielded electronics.
“Power it down,” ordered the captain.
The chief pulled the power levers back, controlling the device at a distance. It took thirty seconds for the signal to reach the device, while several bubbles rose and ejected, sending more plasma out into the system. Quadrillions of tons of plasma, seemingly enormous to the ants who looked on the mass of the star from their infinitesimal point of view. To the star it was nothing, not even a trillionth of its mass, and it soon settled back down to its normal state, with some added agitation that would last a few weeks before dying out.
“Get ready to move the Exterminator,” ordered the engineer.
“Will we have the time, sir?” asked the captain of the battle cruiser over the com.
She’s worried about her own ship and crew, thought Tamamurta. He didn’t blame her, but he had the device to worry about.
“You and the other ships will mate up with the Exterminator, Captain. And you will move the it to the other side of the star before the Machines get here. Am I loud and clear?”
“Understood,” she said, not bothering to add an honorific sir onto the end. The engineer might be her superior by order, by not by rank.
It took almost a half an hour for the battle cruisers to match orbits and mate with the device, too close to the star for comfort. And, though they would normally start by boosting away from the star, this time they continued around it only light seconds from the photosphere. It took another half an hour to get around the star, soaking up heat the entire way. Once there they backed off another fifteen light seconds, allowing them to radiate most of the heat away, though they would remain over baseline for quite some time.
We’re safe, for the moment, thought Tamamurta, looking at the plot that showed the enemy transitioning back into normal space. Not as large a force, thanks to Commodore Chung, they still outnumbered his escort force three to one, and outmassed them by more than four. The ships would come under fire any moment, and while his device was safe from direct long-range fire, the enemy would still see where they had been two hours before, and know where they had gone. If they got past all of the other ships they would find and destroy the Exterminator.
Tamamurta considered his situation. He could hold the four battle cruisers close as a last defense, not allowing them to aid their fellows with their greater firepower. Or he could start them on their way toward the barrier and hope to escape. They would come under fire before they could make it, and the Exterminator made a big target with not much in the way of intrinsic defense. Or he could let them go back around the star and join in the battle. They might not be enough to win it on their own, but they could help the force hold on until Chung arrive to add his firepower to the mix.
“I think the device will be safe here on its own for some time, Commodore,” Tamamurta relayed to Borislav, on the other side of the star with the rest of her command. “I believe you can use these battle cruisers.”
“Yes. Yes, I can. And you will be?”
“On one of the battle cruisers. I don’t think I’m needed on the device, and I think you might be able to use me.” Tamamurta had no illusions about his abilities. He was one of the best engineers in the Fleet, and would be an asset to any ship involved in battle.
The Machine force opened fire on the Imperial ships they could detect as soon as they acquired. The Imperial ships that had been targeted fired back as soon as they detected the missiles heading their way. Borislav’s flagship, the only one in the force with a wormhole, let loose a stream of preaccelerated missiles, following with another every thirty seconds until the launchers feeding her portal were empty. Meanwhile, the ships the Machines could see were running for whatever cover they could find, asteroids and moons in the outer system. Some would make it, some wouldn’t, and they all continued to fire as they maneuvered.
When the four battle cruisers came around the star the Machines opened fire on them, sending thousands of their new, smaller, better accelerating weapons at the humans. The battle cruisers started to fire back, and soon space was filled with the plots of missiles going back and forth, all at least hours away from contact.
A half an hour after the last preaccelerated missiles left the tubes of the one wormhole launcher, more were ready, and she went through another firing evolution. And over again, taking advantage of everything it could put out. Three hours from the opening salvo the first of the preaccelerated missiles struck, getting a trio of kills and inflicting damage on some other vessels. Thirty seconds later the next group came in, but the Machines were better prepared, and only lost a single vessel. Some of the later strikes accomplished nothing, others took out more ships, but they slowly whittled the enemy force down.
Six hours into the fight the first signals from the flare reached the Machines, which immediately began to boost for the star at their maximum acceleration.
They know what we have here, thought Tamamurta, looking at the plot. They might not know the exact location of the Exterminator, but they knew it wasn’t in sight, and they knew it must be in hiding. And since it hadn’t had the time to get away from the star, it had to be on the other side. They would get to it and destroy it if they had their way. It was a prime target, and taking it out would disrupt the plans of the humans. Their survival meant nothing compared to the mission, and they would brush aside everything in their way.
“They’re after the Exterminator, ma’am,” said Tamamurta into the com, his words sent over by the Klassekian com tech aboard the battle cruiser. “We have to stop them.”
“I’ll give it my best try, Captain,” said Borislav, her words coming through the com tech. “But my best try might not be enough.”
Tamamurta cursed under his breath. He knew the force would give its all, all that could be asked of it. But they wouldn’t be making suicide attacks on the Machines. They would fight a battle that would risk their lives, but wouldn’t throw them away intentionally. The engineer almost wished they had the same motivations as the Machines, which would do whatever was needed to fulfill their mission. He amended that thought as soon as it registered. Humankind had wanted that kind of warrior back all those centuries before, and that was why the Machines were here in the first place.
“We’re picking up Chung on approach,” said Borislav. “He’s stair stepping through hyper. ETA at the barrier, two hours.”
And Chung would bring another five wormholes with him, and the launch capabilities that brought. It would be a close thing, but it might work. And Tamamurta started thinking about his request to Bednarczyk, that the Exterminator always have a battle force around it. He wasn’t sure how she would respond, since the fleet was already stretched to near breaking. But if she wanted the device to continue in operation, she needed to do something.
* * *
“Entering normal space in one minute, sir,” called out the task group navigator over the com.
“I want every wormhole launcher firing on the enemy as soon as we see the stars,” ordered Commodore Jassiah Chung, sitting in the command chair of the flag bridge of the King Louis XII. “We can assess and reacquire after that first launch, but I don’t want to waste any time.” And Leticia might not have any to waste, he thought.
The enemy force still heavily outnumbered the combined squadrons of both commodores. The only real advantage they had was the wormhole launchers, six of them between them. The Machines still couldn’t pick up the incoming missiles
until they were within light seconds, so they were the best weapons the humans had to hit the fast reacting vessels.
“Normal space, now,” called out the helmsman from the command bridge.
The nausea hit moments before stars filled the space around the battleship. Within a second the first load of wormhole missiles were on their way. Chung had to admit that the weapons officer was on the ball, and hadn’t let nausea or disorientation affect him. Acknowledgment came back within seconds that the other four wormholes had launched, and one hundred and fifty missiles were speeding at point nine-five light at the enemy ships. They would overtake them within forty minutes and go into the attack.
The enemy force was still together, just as Boroslav’s people had reported. Still, it was good to see for oneself.
“Launch until they’re empty, Commander,” he ordered his task group tactical officer. “And start launching the standard missiles as well. I think we might need them on target as soon as possible.”
The enemy was starting to launch on his force as well. Only problem was, their weapons had to overcome the momentum and velocity they were carrying into the system. His weapons were carrying the point three velocity they had come out of hyper with, and were accelerating at ten thousand gravities, versus the eight thousand of the new Machine missiles. He was sure he could destroy the Machine force. The question was, could he save the other force and the flare causing device before they were taken out.
Exodus: Machine War: Book 4: Retribution Page 23
