by Ian Miller
The settlers continued to retreat, according to instructions, then they received a piece of luck. To the west, a giant cloud of dust was approaching; one of the great Martian dust storms had arrived. There would be no pursuit from the ground.
* * *
In the cargo hold of the M'starn vessel, four figures were calmly opening the crate they had brought aboard. At the main engine end of the hold, the two guards who had also been forced to accompany the M'starn vessel were pinned to the wall by the acceleration of the M'starn vessel.
"Aren't you all glad that thanks to this relay the Actium can use this ship to give us inertial equalization, even at this range?" Gaius remarked as he pointed proudly at the strange anvil-like object he had previously fixed to a metal wall.
"I wouldn't travel without it," Harry bantered, "at least not by choice. I think I'll take their weapons, though."
"Throw them in the crate here," Gaius said, pointing to the open crate from which Marcellus was withdrawing a largish box with shoulder straps, which he then put on his back. "I have a weapon here for you."
"What's that?" Harry said, as he examined the unusual looking weapon.
"It fires darts," Natasha replied. "Developed by our own weapons development teams. You're the guinea pig that tests it out."
"Darts! The M'starn are hardly likely to be bothered by the pinprick of a dart, even if it's as fat as this. I think I'll stick with this," Harry said sourly, as he pulled back a captured beam weapon.
"You'll kill yourself with that," Gaius offered. "Remember the M'starn have the reflective armour. Those darts will travel slowly enough to penetrate it."
"So we prick them. What then? We need to kill them quickly."
"Then the dart fires a tiny crystal, far smaller than you could see, from its central chamber along this hollow needle," Natasha replied. "The crystal is strange matter, maintained by a stabilizing field in the dart. As it leaves the field at the end of the dart, it decays at it's normal rate, with an energy release equivalent to the odd stick of dynamite, and it sends a shower of pions, protons, and other decay products into the victim. All this happens in a billionth of a second, which may be fast enough for you."
"I don't suppose this thing is as dangerous to me as them?" Harry asked dubiously.
"That," Natasha beamed, "is what we're about to find out."
"Charming," Harry muttered.
"That's mark two," Natasha shrugged. "For the moment, merely strange."
"Let's cut the banter," Gaius interposed. "Those two guards have fainted, we're gaining altitude, so let's do something."
They walked quickly to the front of the storage area, then through the hatch. This section of the ship appeared to be a crew recreation and accommodation area, although, quite naturally since the ship was taking off, nobody was about. The area was thoroughly checked, then they moved forward. The next section housed much of the computing and life support systems. They moved quickly through that section, which was also unmanned. Then they reached an intersection; to the port and starboard side, two corridors led to two of the major weapons centres not operated from the flight deck. Gaius took the starboard side, Natasha and Harry the port side. Marcellus guarded the corridor intersection.
The corridor was featureless and provided no problem, until finally Harry and Natasha reached an open hatch. They crept in, and there, sitting in front of them, were two soldiers staring into screens. On one screen was a faint image of the fleeing settlers' vehicles. Natasha bounded catlike to the left, to the rear of the officer furthest from them. Harry raised his weapon and was about to call for a surrender when the nearest M'starn turned towards him, was momentarily frozen with surprise, then he reached for a weapon. As the claw-like hand darted across the console, Harry fired. The dart struck the M'starn officer, who at first seemed to laugh at the impudence, then his chest disintegrated. Yet the face glanced upwards and still laughed scornfully as the eyes returned to Harry. Harry understood; he dived to his left, just as a beam tore through the space in which he had been standing. He rolled on his shoulder, at the same time bringing his weapon to bear above and to the left of where he had been standing, in line with the M'starn stare. There, the third M'starn officer looked in surprise as the dart flew towards him. He tried in vain to avoid it, but the dart struck, and as the stream of pions tore through the body, its right side was flung back against the wall. The body twisted, and fell to the floor, the thick green liquid oozing out. Harry turned to see Natasha tugging at the third body which in death had its powerful claws wrapped around some control stick.
Just ahead of that intersection was another, where two corridors went up and down. Gaius took the upper corridor, Harry and Natasha the lower. At first Harry was completely stunned as he watched Gaius set off. Gaius simply walked up the wall on his right, then walked "up" one of the sides of the square column of space above him, walking as if the wall was a floor, his body at right angles to the wall. Then Natasha took his breath away by simply walking "around" the corner in front of him, and similarly walking "down" the shaft. He followed, and was almost sick as the whole visual effect swung around, so the wall appeared to be the floor. It was even stranger when they reached the hatch; the M'starn were seated at their scopes, projecting out at right angles from the "wall". The M'starn themselves were just as surprised, and Natasha disposed of each of them before they realized what had happened.
"Their inertial forces are supplied by their ship," Gaius explained later, "so they have floors defined by the ship. Our inertial equivalence is supplied independently, so we can define any wall as the floor, as we wish."
With the weapons systems secured, they moved forward, until they came to one further hatch, which was closed. Beside it was a screen, and a lens.
"This is where we have difficulties," Gaius remarked. "We have to cross the area behind the forward entrance hatch, where there are usually two rather unpleasant hazards. The first is a cluster of heat beams for sterilizing unwanted bacteria; these can produce temperatures of up to five hundred degrees. The second is that they can evacuate the section. We shall wait here while Marcellus goes through and opens the forward hatch to the flight deck for us."
"At once, Gaius," Marcellus said, and he stepped forward.
"Wait!" Natasha called anxiously. "There must be some other way."
"This is by far the best way," Gaius said flatly. "Please, Marcellus."
"I don't believe it," Natasha cried out, as Marcellus was nearly through the hatch. "Marcellus, come back!" But Marcellus chose not to hear her, and he closed the hatch firmly.
"We'll watch on this screen," Gaius said, as he fiddled with some controls.
"Gaius, how can you be so callous," Natasha cried.
"What do you mean?"
"You're just risking his life, and then sitting back to watch. It's like sending men to the lions. That might have been all right in your time, but –"
"Trust me, Natasha," Gaius said. "Watch!"
On the screen, some lights glowed, then suddenly every light object moved towards the hatch at a very high speed. But Marcellus walked towards the hatch as if nothing had happened.
"What happened?" Natasha asked in surprise.
"I knew what I was doing," Gaius admonished her. "I sent Marcellus because he alone is totally suited for the job."
"Suitable? You mean, junior!"
"Not at all," Gaius replied irritably. "Surely you've realized he is what you call an android?"
"An android?" Natasha gasped. "But he looks so human!"
"He is a Companion," Gaius explained, with almost a touch of surprise that an explanation was required, "so he has to look human. Apart from a cosmetic layer on top, his skin is made of a titanium alloy, several millimeters thick, and apart from long-term lubrication problems, he would actually work better in a vacuum. See, he has reached the hatch, and now he will open it. The officers on the flight deck now have two choices. They can close the main hatch and restore life support, or they themselv
es will die as their air is vented into space."
"I'm sorry," Natasha mumbled. "Damn it! I'm always apologizing with you."
"Surely you could trust me not to simply, how did you put it, send my friend to the lions?" Gaius chastised her.
"You could have told me what he was," Natasha said angrily.
"I thought you'd worked it out," Gaius shrugged. "Didn't it strike you as odd that while we three were struggling with the weight of that crate, Marcellus was on his own at the other end, and not even straining?"
"I guess I didn't think," Natasha said, in embarrassment, then, to change the topic, "Marcellus's opening the door. What will the M'starn do?"
As it happened, the M'starn officers chose to die, or did not have the time to restore the life support after they became aware that Marcellus could open the hatch. As Gaius remarked later, they would never have believed a human could have sufficient strength to force the door open, even once the locking mechanism was broken. In their arrogance, they may well have overlooked the fact that no human could stand in a vacuum attempting to open the door. Whatever the reason, when Marcellus reached the flight deck, all the M'starn were dead. Marcellus quickly closed the main hatch, restored the life support systems, and through the intercom system invited the party to the flight deck.
When they arrived, Marcellus was fitting a device to the main control power line.
"Harry, Natasha, this strange looking item is a translator," Gaius explained. "We're going to have to leave you two to fly this craft back to Earth. The translator will tell you what the various M'starn terms are in English, and more than that, if you ask it what to do to achieve some flight objective, it can communicate with the ship and tell you what to do next. However, the major decisions are yours. I would suggest a direct flight to Earth, which is the bright object over there, between Aldebaran and Maia. Get the ship to recognize the target, and choose an optimal navigation path, with a final objective of being in some orbit that you should choose. Try to avoid selecting that other bright one over there, because that's Jupiter. And before we go, we'd better lock you in to the inertial equalization system here, and give you some gravity substitute while we're gone. Do you think you can manage?"
"We'll manage," Natasha said.
"Given time," Harry added, with somewhat less confidence.
"Try to stay out of fights," Gaius advised, "but if you can't help it and bluffing doesn't work, and remember the translator can send messages in M'starn, then you'll have to make the best use of the weapons systems you have."
"Where're you going?" Harry asked
"The M'starn would not send one battle-cruiser when there's a ship like the Actium around. I've sent everything else we've got to distract whatever they've sent, so you can get away with this ship. But the Ranhynn ships are rather weak, and without command the Actium is vulnerable so the sooner I get back to the Actium, the better. There's a shuttle at the docking bay, so, well, good luck." With that, he and Marcellus turned and left the flight deck.
"Well, Lieutenant," Natasha smiled grimly, "someone has to work out how to work the translator. It doesn't seem to have much in the way of controls."
"Try asking me to do something," the translator said.
"I might have guessed," Natasha laughed. "How do we select a destination?"
"The screen on the right will give an orrery. Use the light pen, and state when you select the target."
"May I?" Harry asked.
"I guess you're closest," Natasha smiled.
Harry picked up the light pen, and selected the Earth. Then he announced that he wanted the planet, not the Moon, and he wished to enter an equatorial orbit at five hundred kilometers from the planet, in the sense of the Earth's rotation. He paused, then announced that he wished to emphasize stealth rather than speed.
Nothing happened.
"Now what's wrong?" Harry grumbled.
"The instructions were adequate," the translator said in a flat tone, "but you need to inform the ship when to start."
"Execute instructions!" Natasha said formally.
"The ship is responding," the translator said.
"Please maintain continuous scanning for other ships," Natasha ordered.
"Done!"
The great ship swung around, and according to the screens, was making progress. Harry asked for the velocity and acceleration to be translated, and he was surprised to hear they were currently travelling at forty g, but this would be increased, and they would be in orbit around the Earth in a day.
"Just as well," Harry muttered. "We forgot to bring food."
"There is food suitable for you," the translator stated, "but it is in containers with specific M'starn labels. The screen on your left will show the writing together with an English translation. That will be followed by a plan of the ship, with lights indicating the location."
"Lansfeld, see what you can find, then you'd better get some sleep," the Commissioner said. "We must maintain watches, say six on, six off. I'll take the first one, starting after the food is consumed."
"Yes, Ma'am," Harry said, and turned to the screen. Back to following orders, which was just as well, he thought. Harry had suddenly realized that being closer to his commander had made him unreasonably familiar.
* * *
The M'starn had sent four further battle cruisers, and these were in geostationary orbits above Mars. Lucilla Claudia's ship, the three Ranhynn vessels, and an Ulsian scout ship from the local Ulsian settlement had approached Mars from exactly the opposite side, so the M'starn could not detect them. The Ulsian scout ship had landed on Phobos, camouflaged itself, and was circling towards the M'starn. At the agreed time, which was confirmed from a signal bounced off Deimos, the ships sped around the planet, skimming the outer atmosphere, and headed straight for the M'starn. The element of surprise worked. The Romulus headed straight toward the vessel at the extreme right, and fired all pulse cannon from what was later decided to have been perhaps too great a distance. Sheets of the side of the M'starn vessel were peeled off, but it had not sustained fatal damage, and it quickly engaged in an evasive move. The other four vessels concentrated on the nearest enemy vessel and the giant battle cruiser, with its more vulnerable rear section exposed, shed jets of metal vapour from around the motor section. The damage was severe, and it immediately engaged maximum acceleration towards its home base. At this point, the Ulsian patrol ship quickly evaded back towards Phobos, and from what followed it appeared as if the M'starn had not realized it was there for they ignored it. Once it landed on Phobos, its chameleon-like camouflage made it almost impossible to detect from a distance.
The remaining two black battle cruisers turned towards Lucilla. She immediately began to twist and turn, to dart up and down, forwards and back, left and right. The great black ships could not easily follow, but equally, Lucilla's weapons could make little impact on the enemy. This engagement by itself was inconclusive, neither ship being able to penetrate the other's defences for sufficient time to do any damage, but it effectively took Lucilla out of the battle. The remaining battle cruiser, while wounded, drove straight at the three Ranhynn vessels, which gave them a problem. If they split, the M'starn ship would easily destroy at least one of them, and unless the remaining two fled, they would be picked off in turn. However, if they kept together, the M'starn ship, with its many weapons centres, would gradually defeat the three Ranhynn ships by attrition. If they could not keep this battle cruiser occupied, at three to one odds Lucilla's ship would most likely be destroyed. There was no alternative but to stay, and they darted in like gnats, twisting and turning, but their weaponry was too light, and the damage they could do seemed insignificant. From time to time a black ship shed small incandescent sheets of metal, but these were mainly from regions previously damaged. Gradually, piece by piece, the Ranhynn ships began to shut down functions, their manoeuvres became less agile, and the rate at which sheets of metal were lost increased. Immediate destruction was partly averted when a partial dephas
ing lock was secured on one of the battle cruisers from the ship on Phobos; suddenly the M'starn thought they were under attack from a new fleet and took evasive action. The Ranhynn achieved a little breathing space, and their weapons even managed to do some damage to the rear of the M'starn vessel.
But the battle was quickly re-joined, and two of the Ranhynn suffered such severe damage that their ability to manoeuvre was so reduced that their total destruction seemed unavoidable. Lucilla tried to bring her ship around so that she could distract the M'starn vessel, but that manoeuvre had to be averted as her own opponents began working to her rear.
"Abandon us," the Ranhynn leader called. "Save yourself. We are lost."
"Consider yourselves found!" Gaius called, as the concentrated fire of the Actium's pulse cannon tore into the ship harassing the Ranhynn. Sheets of metal flew, then suddenly there was a strange explosion from within the ship, and it became incandescent. The M'starn then realized their advantage had disappeared, and the two ships disengaged from Lucilla and turned towards Mars. They too skimmed the atmosphere before heading out into deep space.
"Pursue?" Marcellus asked quietly.
"Lucilla! Damage?"
"One third of my shielding damaged, pulse cannon fully operational, but the dephasing units are now only capable of partial lock," came the reply. "Damage to the motor area superficial, but there is asymmetry in the fields that reduces safe drive availability."
"No pursuit," Gaius said, as he turned to Marcellus. "I can't leave Lucilla and these three near hulks unprotected."
