by Isaac Hooke
“That isn’t true,” Medeia said. “Life could still exist in an ocean under a thick layer of ice, like on Titan. That would be enough to protect from the rays.”
“Sure, except sea life usually doesn’t evolve very far,” Sheila said. “Especially if it has to exist on the geothermal heat produced by the planet or moon in question. The odds are so stacked against seafaring races to develop into the spacefaring sort... I mean, they can’t even handle tools. Come on, if you have fins or flagella designed for propelling through liquid, you’re tech isn’t going to be very advanced.”
“Tentacles can be very good at gripping objects...” Medeia argued.
“Well, no one has ever met a liquid-based race,” Sheila said.
“So far,” Medeia corrected.
“I don’t think going coreward is a guarantee that we won’t find alien races,” Mark said. “Other aliens might have already had the same idea, and colonized as many planets in the radiation zone as possible. And when we arrive, they probably won’t be too happy about it.”
“This has to stop,” Jain said.
“What?” Mark asked.
“The assumption that all aliens we ever encounter will be hostile,” Jain explained.
“So far, that assumption has proven true...” Cranston said.
“But it won’t always be the case,” Jain said. “In the histories, there is an entry about a Mind Refurb team known as the Bolt Eaters. They traveled to a Banthar world, and met an alien named Turg: a von Neumann probe. Turg helped the Bolt Eaters destroy the Banthar mothership during the first alien invasion of Earth.”
“I stand corrected,” Cranston said.
“And in answer to your original question, Sheila, yes, we’ll travel coreward,” Jain said. “Not far. A system between seventy and a hundred light years distant. The gamma radiation will be stronger, but not overly damaging.”
“I remember a time when you used to give us the option of voting on a big decision like this,” Gavin said. “What changed?”
“I don’t know,” Jain said. “I guess I’ve come to accept my leadership role over the years. You’re welcome to jump anywhere else you like, of course. Though I can’t give you any of the rift ships.”
Gavin snickered softly. “Of course not.”
The fleet continued to approach, until they were a million kilometers out.
“I’m receiving a hail,” Xander announced.
“Finally,” Jain said.
“Holographic communication,” Xander clarified.
“We’re at the very cusp of realtime communication distance,” Sheila said. “Lag is going to be about ten seconds back and forth.”
One would think, given that light traveled over three hundred thousand kilometers per second, that the lag would be somewhere in the three second range at the million kilometer distance, but that wasn’t the case because of bandwidth and compression limitations involved with holographic communication. It would have been less with voice only communications, but apparently whoever was hailing them wanted to have a look at Jain.
“Accept the connection,” Jain said. “Share it with the other Void Warriors here on the bridge.”
A moment later a short man appeared on the virtual bridge. He stood directly in front of Jain, in the middle of all the other stations. He had a flat nose, and puffy cheeks, with a forehead that protruded in a Simian fashion. His hair had receded far up his head so that half his scalp was bald.
“He’s doesn’t believe in beautifying his avatar, does he?” Medeia commented on a private line.
“If only you knew what I really looked like...” Mark said.
The hologram glanced around at the different stations, and smirked when he saw the attires of some of the other Void Warriors, specifically Mark and Medeia.
“That’s right, smirk away,” Medeia said, still on the private line. Because of the nature of that line, the newcomer wouldn’t even see her lips moving.
Finally, the man returned his attention to Jain.
“Hello, Jain,” the man said.
“Uh, hi,” Jain told him. “And you are?”
Jain fidgeted uncomfortably for the ten seconds it took the hologram to answer.
“Admiral Maxwell Ferguson the Third, of the Mind Refurb Battle Group Thucydides, First Task Force, Eighth Fleet,” the man said.
“Okay,” Jain said. “So what can I do for you? We were just leaving, so if it’s the system you want, it’s yours.”
This time Jain accelerated his timebase so that the ten seconds passed in only one from his perspective, and then he restored normal time. Going forward, he did this after he spoke each sentence to give the conversation some semblance of normalcy.
Maxwell raised an eyebrow. “You’ll give it to us without a fight? A prime system like this? High in metals?”
“Yeah,” Jain said. “There are literally millions of stars out there. We don’t see the point in squabbling over resources.”
“Well, that’s certainly an admirable attitude,” Maxwell said. “Who knows, maybe you’ll even live forever if you keep that up. Though I suspect you’ll find that of the millions of stars out there, very few of the most valuable are actually uninhabited. But I digress.” His eyes momentarily defocused. “I couldn’t help but notice the debris in orbit above that planet. Looks like you had quite an extensive base set up. But something happened... given the latent solar activity I’m detecting in the three stars, I have a feeling they were involved in its demise.”
“Good guess,” Jain said. “But I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about the tertiary stars and whatever bases we may or may not have had in orbit around one of the planets. You avoided my question, earlier. Why are you here? You didn’t expect to find us, did you?”
“Actually, we did,” Maxwell said. “We came here specifically for you.”
Jain sat back. He slowed down his time sense to contemplate this for a few moments. He switched to the private channel, and glanced at his crew. To Maxwell, it would appear his avatar was still staring straight ahead, at the admiral.
He looked from face to face.
“We always knew one day they’d track us down,” Medeia said. “We just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
“No,” Jain said. He returned his attention to Maxwell, and reverted his time sense to normal. “How did you find us?”
“By tracking your rift trails,” Maxwell replied.
“I didn’t know that was even possible,” Jain said.
“It’s a relatively recent discovery,” Maxwell said. “Seven years ago, our scientists discovered a new way to measure gravity waves, producing an extremely sensitive, and extremely portable device, one that uses only a tenth of the space of previous versions.”
When Jain thought about what those previous iterations looked like, his cloud database filled his memory with images of photon emitters placed side by side in underground caverns, thousands of them, their beams transmitted across several kilometers before being measured by collectors on the far end. A disturbance in one of those beams meant a gravity wave had been detected.
“All right, so seven years ago,” Jain said. “It took you all this time to find us?”
“We only started looking five years ago,” Maxwell said.
“Still a long time…” Jain said.
“Though gravity waves travel at the speed of light, they obviously still take years to travel out into the surrounding space,” Maxwell said. “We moved from system to system as we detected the waves associated with rift openings and closings. We missed the waves in some systems because we arrived too late. In others, we picked up the trail again when a new wave arrived. Sometimes we had to wait two or three years for the wave to reach us.”
Jain shook his head. “You must have had detectors placed halfway around the galaxy.”
“We had a few,” Maxwell agreed.
“I don’t believe him,” Sheila said on a private line; her timebase included a sync event for slower e
xternal time, and Jain’s time sense automatically slowed to match. “I say it’s impossible that they would have tracked us down already.”
“Not necessarily,” Cranston said. “If they deployed detectors in as many systems as possible, there’s a good chance they could have tracked us down within the five years.”
“Yeah, but if they were going to do that,” Sheila said. “Don’t you think they would have simply sent a probe to all systems in the region instead? Would be quicker.”
“No it wouldn’t,” Cranston said. “There are a lot of stars out there in the galaxy… they would have needed a whole lot of probes.”
Jain reverted his time sense to normal and glanced at Maxwell. “I still can’t believe you knew you’d find us.”
“You’re right, we weren’t entirely sure it would be you,” Maxwell said. “But the signatures matched the gravity waves produced by human-designed rift ships and gates, so we knew the vessel would at least be of human make. And since you were one of the very few human fleets still unaccounted for, we had high hopes it was you.”
“Yes, I like how you refer to us as human craft,” Jain said. “And yet we are not entirely human. So what do you want?”
“Your help,” Admiral Maxwell said.
4
Jain stared at the admiral dubiously. “Our help…”
“That’s right,” Maxwell said. “The aliens you christened Mimics in your video records have returned. One of their pyramid ships is wreaking havoc among the border colonies as we speak. We’ve been having a helluva time causing any lasting damage. Every time we get in a good shot, they just retreat, repair, and then come back at us again.”
“That definitely sounds familiar,” Jain told the admiral. “But you have the video records of what we did to win. Use the same strategy we did: cloaked ships are the way to go.”
“We’ve tried cloaked ships without much success,” Maxwell said. “They’ve adapted. They can sense cloaked vessels now somehow, and before we get close enough, they unleash that lightning weapon of theirs, disabling the ship.”
“Oh,” Jain said. “That… sucks. Well, I’m sad to say, we’re not going to be of any more help to you then. The cloaked ship was the linchpin of our strategy.”
“It doesn’t matter, the Brass still wants to pick you up,” Maxwell said. “They want someone who has firsthand combat experience against these a-holes. Someone who can think on his feet. That’s you. And besides, we need every ship we can get at this point. You have a whole fleet here.” His gaze moved from left to right, as if he was examining the footage returned by an external camera. “We can definitely use this.”
“So wait, you say you started looking for us five years ago?” Jain asked. “The alien attack began back then?”
“That’s right,” Maxwell said. “They’ve been attacking us on and off over the past five years.”
“And you haven’t found a way to beat them in all that time?”
“I did say they attacked on and off,” Maxwell told him. “They haven’t remained in our space the whole time. This is their modus operandi: they strike a colony and we send in reinforcements. Sometimes they stay and fight, other times they flee immediately. When they stay, it’s not for very long: they jump out as soon as they grow weary of the battle, which is usually after they’ve won. Then six months to a year later they resurface in another system, and strike.”
“Ah,” Jain said. “So they’ve only been in human territory for maybe a week in total.”
“Now you understand,” Maxwell said.
Jain thrummed his fingers on his armrest. “It’s guerrilla warfare on a galactic scale.” He shook his head. “Well, like I said, we can’t help you. We’re not going to make much of a difference against an enemy like this, especially if our cloaking device isn’t going to work against them.”
“If you help us, I’m authorized to forgive your transgression against the fleet,” Maxwell said. “You’ll be given a clean slate, along with free passage through all human systems. If you want, you can return to Earth afterward, for example. Or journey anywhere else in human territory. And I’ll also share the latest technological advancements with you. Weapons tech. Armor.”
“Um, actually, we made no transgressions,” Jain said. “There is nothing to forgive. The Heracles fleet attacked us. They accused us of destroying the Oberon research vessel, and the Ablativus moon colony. And now you’ve found out that we were telling the truth all along—that it was an alien invader responsible for the attacks—and you come to us, begging for help, and yet have the gall to say you’ll be granting us absolution for what was done, when it’s you who should be asking us for forgiveness.”
“While that might be true,” Maxwell said. “You know how the Brass works. You don’t get something for nothing… the charges against you won’t be dropped until you agree to help. And technically, we still have no actual proof that you weren’t responsible for the loss of the Oberon and the moon colony. Video footage is not permissible evidence, considering how easily it can be doctored, especially by AIs.”
“This is ridiculous,” Jain said.
“I’d actually like the option to return to Earth, and human space,” Sheila said on a private line, sending out a slow time request with her communications packet header. “I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but it would be nice to have the choice.”
“I think we’d all like that option,” Medeia said.
“I don’t,” Gavin said. “I’m never going back to Earth.” He glanced at Jain and the others. “But I will agree to venture into human territory, if only for a little while, if that’s what the rest of you do.”
“It would be good to feel useful again,” Cranston said. “Not to mention welcome in human space. And I’d certainly love to see some upgraded weapons tech.”
“But he’ll probably attach some conditions before giving us any technology,” Sheila said. “Like: we won’t get any of it unless we complete some convert operation, for example.”
Jain shook his head. “I can’t believe we’re actually considering going along with this. For all we know, they’ll ambush us as soon as we allow them to get within five thousand kilometers.”
“Then we don’t let them come that close,” Mark said.
“So you, too, are in favor of joining them?” Jain asked him.
Mark nodded.
Jain sighed. “All right.” He returned his attention to the frozen admiral, and reverted his time sense to normal. “We’ll do it. On one condition.”
“No conditions,” the admiral said.
“Yes, there will be,” Jain said. “And this is non-negotiable: all human vessels must stay at minimum one hundred thousand kilometers from us.”
The admiral pursed his lips. “I suppose that’s feasible.”
“And I mean all ships,” Jain said. “Even when we jump into human systems. All vessels must remain beyond one hundred thousand klicks. Or we jump out.”
“Done,” the admiral said. “We will close to one hundred thousand klicks, and proceed to jump to the closest border system, to await the next alien attack.”
“Please send the coordinates of this border system,” Jain said. “So we can calculate the jump vector.” A four-hour calculation was required in order to jump to a new system for the first time.
Maxwell nodded. “Sending…”
A moment later Jain received the coordinates. According to his database, it was far outside the existing boundaries of human territory. At least it was well away from the Eastern Galactic Front, where the Link Empire began—several border skirmish wars had been fought there over the years. The Link had many member species, most of which were far more technologically advanced than humans. The only reason the Link hadn’t completely overwhelmed humanity was because they were involved in wars on multiple fronts. Because of those wars, they had a voracious appetite for bioweapons, and offered various incentives to their member races to produce such weapons. The Banthar, who had attempte
d to invade Earth over a hundred years ago, were one such member race: they had intended to turn Earth into a bioweapons factory to gain favor with the empire.
Jain glanced at the admiral. “I wasn’t aware that humankind had expanded its colonies so far west along the galactic axis.”
“There have been major expansions in the last ten years, led by us Mind Refurbs,” the admiral said. “However, we’ve extended perhaps a little farther than we should have this time.”
“All right, well, let’s do this, then,” Jain said.
“Thank you for agreeing to help us,” the admiral said. “You won’t regret this.”
“That remains to be seen,” Jain said.
Maxwell nodded, then winked out.
Jain glanced at Sheila. “Begin the necessary calculations. I want to be ready to jump when the fleet arrives.”
Jain watched the tactical display, and observed as the Thucydides fleet closed to one hundred thousand klicks.
“The Mind Refurb fleet just crossed the one hundred thousand kilometer range,” Xander said.
“I see that,” Jain said. “Are they decelerating?”
“Negative,” the Accomp replied.
“Damn it,” Jain said. He waited a few moments longer, but still the vessels continued to close. “What’s the admiral trying to prove? Hail him. Tell him we’re going to jump out if he doesn’t stop. No, delay that order. Sheila, have one of the rift ships begin to make a gate to Granalus.” That was the third closest system, twenty-five light years away, a system they had calculated the jump vector to a long time ago.
“Actually, he just started to decelerate,” Xander said.
Jain frowned.
“He’s trying to exert his dominance,” Cranston said.
Jain nodded. “Maybe.”
“Do you still want me to open the rift?” Sheila asked.
“Hold off,” Jain said.
A few minutes later, Xander said: “They’ve come to a complete stop relative to our position. Ninety-three thousand kilometers out.”
