Jack licked his lips. Once more his mouth felt dry. Once more his heart beat too fast. Once more he doubted his ability to lead 18 starships into a confrontation with a reptilian Alien used to calling the shots and having every species bow before it. Damn! He had thought his on-stage anxiety had disappeared after their last star voyage. He felt a touch on his right shoulder.
“Here, my love. Your water bottle.”
Nikola. The woman who knew him better than he did himself. He reached up to his right shoulder, grabbed the soft plastic bottle in his right gauntlet, then stuck its feeder nipple against the intake slot of his helmet neck ring. Wrapping his lips about the water tube inside his helmet, he sucked. Ice-cold water that felt like a mythical mountain stream filled his mouth. He swallowed, sucked again, and swallowed.
“Thank you.” He paused, wondering what might lift the spirits of his crewmates. “Hey! Anyone want to head down to the Food Refectory and play a game of three dee Scrabble? I got close to beating Mizz Maureen last time!”
Laughs and chuckles came over the joint vacsuit audio that connected everyone in the cabin.
“Young man,” Maureen said in her trademark tough tone, “you only did so well last time cause your datapad had that touch-query link with Autonomous!”
“I deny it!” he said loudly, standing up and turning to the hatch leading into the long Spine hallway.
Nikola also stood up, but said not a word. She just shook her head, her brown ponytail jiggling a bit inside her helmet.
Elaine stood up and shook an admonishing finger at him. As if she believed Maureen’s accusation. Cassie winked at him, then poked at Archibald to move out of his seat more quickly. Blodwen ignored them all, engaged in a tight hug with Max that made Jack wonder if the two of them might spend the next eight hours in their private roomsuite. Denise patted Max on the shoulder as she passed them by, while Nikola pulled on his hand, breaking him out of his reverie.
“Get a move on!” she said, looking more beautiful covered up in a vacsuit than she had when naked seven days ago.
“I’m moving!”
Together they marched into the hallway, aiming for game time, for food, for drink and for the sharing normal among a crew of people who had risked their lives for each, who cared for or loved each other, and who were determined to ensure humanity’s freedom to roam the stars.
Jack felt a chill run up his neck as he realized, once more, what it meant to be a leader of people.
A great challenge they faced. But they would overcome this Arbitor. Somehow. Some way. Even if they had to travel to distant stars in order to decipher the secrets of this Arbitor, they would prevail. He knew that. It was what a good leader did for his people.
♦ ♦ ♦
The conference room inside the inner ring of the Refuge space station looked crowded to Jack. There was no central table in view of the different shapes of his Alien allies. Instead, they all sat, reclined or stood above floor mats. Plates of food, bowls of water and booze, and Alien versions of datapads lay in front of each attendee. While his human fleet allies sat to either side of him, their Freedom Alliance allies were opposite them.
Directly across from Jack was Benaxis the hippo, who reclined on six folded legs. The Alien’s six tentacle hands were grabbing bunches of almonds, which every Melagun loved. It was a Trade item Jack had brought in the Uhuru, along with elk and cow steaks, interactive combat video games, hot sauces from Louisiana and New Mexico, a few carved wood animal effigies and collections of sea shells. The captain of Polar Ice seemed quite relaxed.
To one side of Benaxis was the musk oxen form of Thoughtful/Progenitor, captain of the ship Green Grass. The BooMak also reclined on four folded legs. The two-minded Alien was sampling almonds, cashews, peanuts, grapes, mandarin oranges and other fruit of Earth using its five-segment manipulator tongue.
On the Melagun’s opposite side there reclined the twelve-legged, centipede-lobster form of Mother Prime, captain of the ship Star Marcher. Her two front pincer-arms were holding the water bowl close to her mouth palps so the invertebrate crustacean could sip from it. The Mikmang’s two pink eyes watched everyone as she drank.
Squatting next to Mother Prime was the bipedal form of Pack Defender Tok, captain of the ship Tall Tree. The eight foot tall prosimian’s short green fur glowed in the soft yellow light that was set to Melagun-normal level. The Nuuthot native was eating chunks of barbecued guinea pig, a treat prepared by Gareth, who was chatting with Tok in a low tone.
Their final ally was Bulaken of the North, a Mother of All who captained the ship Sharp Teeth. The Niktoren was eating shellfish from the seas of the Melagun world Home. The shellfish were consumed raw, like a true carnivore. The raccoon-like Alien also sat cross-legged and focused on ripping out the clam-like flesh with her talon fingers. But her two mobile eyes looked in opposite directions as she ate, inspecting the entire room as if it might hold a predator hidden away behind one of the woven drapes that covered the metal walls.
Jack put down his plate, finished with the meatballs and spaghetti prepared by his sister Cassie. Who had learned to cook Italian style as part of her cover identity. He raised his shot glass of Johnny Walker Black Label scotch, enjoying the amber color of the 12 year-old blended whiskey. He held it out.
“Friends, allies,” he said, hoping the SETI translation of his words carried out by a laser comlink from Anonymous would sound correct in the native language each Alien heard through a speaker pod attached to ear or cranial orifice. “Let us drink to the Freedom Alliance! May we always come to the aid of any member!”
The five Aliens raised a glass or bowl of their own as his Belter captains and his crewmates did the same. Nikola held a glass of watered down red wine, but Jack did not care. She was his lifemate, she loved him, they had a baby coming and each of the Alien captains had congratulated them on the baby to be. Benaxis, moving slowly due to the low gravity of the inner ring of the Refuge, held out a glass of red wine using one of the tentacle hands that ringed his neck. The flat white teeth of the hippo’s wide mouth parted as he spoke.
“To the Freedom Alliance!” he said in low infrasound.
Each Alien said similar words, joined by toasts in Gaelic, Welsh, Japanese, Hindi, Sinhalese, Portugese, Finn, Basque and Belter English from his crewmates.
Bulaken fixed both chameleon-like eyes on him. “Fleet Captain Jack, how soon do we attack this Arbitor? I would taste its flesh, though the neutrino broadcasts you shared with us make it seem this creature lies beyond our reach.”
Jack blinked, momentarily confused. His left ear heard the barks and yelps of the Niktoren tree-dweller, while his right ear heard the translated words thanks to the ear bud translator he wore. Like everyone else at this meeting.
“We depart for the Arbitor ship right after we leave this conference,” he said, putting down his shot glass. “My Drive Engineer Max will send you a laser time-lock so we will each engage our grav-pull space drives at the same time. Thereby allowing us to arrive at the edge of the Outer Rock Fields as a group.” Jack scanned his fellow ship captains, then his Alien allies. “You have each seen the two neutrino conversations that I had seven days ago. You have viewed the Nasen star holo with comments by my lifemate Nikola. This Arbitor poses a threat to the Freedom Alliance. It opposes our effort to contact juvenile people with a warning about the Hunters of the Great Dark. When we arrive near its ship, each of you will be in laser Come-Back link with my ship so you can see and hear what I say this Arbitor, and what it says to me.” He paused, wondering at the inner thoughts of his new allies, people he had spent only a few weeks with in prior star voyages. “Your response to my call for help is exactly what Alliance members must do for each other. But when we arrive, allow me to speak first. If I choose to attack the Arbitor ship, that will be done by the ship Dragon, under the command of my ally Gareth.” He gestured to the Welshman. “We shall see if this ship is truly invulnerable to weapons fire. We will learn what this Arbitor wants us humans to
do. And whatever it demands, I will agree to it. For a short while. Until we can discover a way to defeat its defenses, or to overwhelm this Isolation Globe it holds as a threat to all self-aware people!”
Alien versions of cheering sounded. Claps and yells of support came from his human allies. But a clicking came from the pincer-claws of Mother Prime as the ground-hugging crustacean’s two pairs of yellow antennae bent forward. “So we march in unison with you humans,” she said in a rush of clicks, pops and rasps. “But will opposition to this Arbitor endanger our home systems? Will it isolate our home system if it decides you humans violated the Rules of Engagement? We Mikmang still rejoice at our liberation from the domination of the Hackmot reptiles. But should we prepare to fight this Arbitor in our home system?”
Jack could tell from the body language of his five Alien allies that all of them wondered the same thing. “No, your home system should be safe so long as you comply with the Rules of the Great Dark. Which say you belong to the Hunt territory of humanity. If Sol becomes Isolated, a colony of humans will still claim you. Thereby protecting you from attack by Hunters of the Great Dark.” He looked round the gathered people. “Know this everyone. Whatever this Arbitor says or does, I will oppose its efforts to prevent other star peoples from traveling star to star. I will fight with all my weapons. I will seek out its home system and threaten the survival of these giant reptiles, as we did with the HikHikSot. Humans never give up!”
“Damn right!” growled Maureen from his right.
Minna leaned forward. “We humans know how to resist over the long-term. My homeland of Suomi was occupied by the nearby Russians for decades. Still, we resisted. We fought. And when the chance for independence came, we took it!”
“As did we Hindus in the part of Earth we call India,” murmured Aashman, who picked at a vegetarian plate of greens, fruit, nuts and golden honey. “The greatest power on Earth occupied us for a century. Eventually we threw them off. If we must accept Arbitor control for a time, we humans will accept it. Until we can revolt!”
Benaxis stood up. He stomped the metal floor with a front foot. “Yes! We members of the Melagun Protection Force have sworn to defend our home world from comets, asteroids and Alien pests from beyond the stars. We will never stop fighting!”
Jack stood up. “Thank you my allies! Now, let us go to our ships and join our crews. We leave for this Arbitor and his ship once Max transmits the grav-pull activation signal. And let us all wear vacsuits in preparation for combat. Though I prefer to talk and learn first, before we do any fighting.”
“Not the Badger!” yelled Ignacio from where he stood next to Elaine, holding her hand. “We Euskal-Herria fight first, then talk! It has always been so for us.”
Elaine frowned at his brother’s impetuousness. But surely she had learned by now that there was no way of stopping a combat charge by her Basque lifemate. Or by the man’s cousins. And now that Ignacio was fully recovered from his leg wound, and his cousins had tried out the Higgs Disruptor emitter newly added to their frigate-sized ship, Jack was only worried by their ability to follow orders.
He smiled at Nikola as she rose up from her squat, then waved goodbye to the Alien allies who had made their first interstellar trip in response to Max’s neutrino call for this meeting of the Freedom Alliance. They were strange-looking, but they were real persons, like his own people. Each species wanted to survive, to protect their world, to protect their homes and offspring and each of them was willing to give their life if that protected their home. He could not ask for more.
Turning, he led his crewmates out of the room and down a hallway toward the central tube where most of their ships had tied up to loading dock hatches. All except Hideyoshi’s Bismarck, which at 400 meters long was far too large to fit inside the Melagun arrival tube. That tube was the central hub of three rings arranged in concentric mode, with greater gravity the further out one went. The outermost ring spun fast enough to generate three gees. A comfy grav level for the native Melagun hippos. Well, that was normal for them. What was normal for everyone else was the grav-field they set within each ship, using the grav-pull generator that moved a ship in direct line vectors without regard for inertia. Much the way a bee darts from one flower petal to another.
The sixteen ships of the combined fleets would soon dart outward like a ball of buzzing bees, heading for a spot lying 50 AU out from the yellow glow of the star Tau Ceti. He hoped their arrival would give the Arbitor pause in whatever threats it might make. Facing the combat starships of six species including humanity should make any Alien cautious. He hoped so. Because for once he was going to have to follow his sister’s Spy mode of pretending to agree, pretending to comply, all the while scoping out the strengths of the enemy in a search for a single deadly weakness!
CHAPTER FIVE
The combined fleets arrived close to the Arbitor ship position at the outer edge of Tau Ceti’s cometary disk. In seconds Denise had established the laser Come-Back link to all ships, with the images of each captain running across the top of the front screen. The fleet ships assumed a formation of two rings centered on the Uhuru, with the Belter and Mars ships in the first ring, followed by the five Alliance and three Melagun ships in the outer ring. His ship shook briefly as Max ejected a spysat on a lateral vector. Shortly that spysat would provide imagery of their group plus the Arbitor ship. Which lay 9,000 kilometers distant, at the far range of their antimatter and Higgs weapons systems. Resembling two red pyramids joined base to base, the Arbitor craft hung motionless in space. Jack looked to his Pilot.
“Sister, what can you tell me about that ship out there?”
Elaine squinted at her armrest Sensor panel. “Synthetic aperture millimeter radar says the ship measures 240 meters from north pole apex to south pole apex. Width is the same. Filter spectrophotomery says the ship is made of a steel alloy. Fourier spectroscopy says the steel alloy is titanium-steel, with traces of tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, rhenium and tantalum. In short, the ship hull is tough and intended to resist most gas lasers and solid projectiles.” She tapped her panel, causing the true-light image of the ship to move to one side of the front screen. To the right there glowed an infrared octagon, with ultraviolet, microwave, neutrino, graviton and x-ray emissions showing at distinct locations on the hull. “As you can see, it reflects the distant light of Tau Ceti and our radar probing has not been blocked by this shield of theirs.”
A holo took shape above his Tech panel as Maureen checked in from the Battle Module at the rear of the Uhuru. She scowled. “It has weaponry mounts at both apexes and at the equator where the two pyramid bases meet. Neutral particle beam emitters are at the apexes, while I see laser nodes at the four equatorial corners of the ship.” She looked down at her Fire Control panel. “While there are portholes in the northern half, there are multiple half-domes on the southern half. Those could be antimatter beam mounts and exits for torps and railguns.”
Jack could see all that Elaine and Maureen described. The ship, which was a bit larger than the Uhuru, did not show any fusion pulse exhaust funnel. Course with a grav-pull drive and Alcubierre stardrive, the Arbitor did not need an old-fashioned fusion drive. He pushed the Tech panel and its holo to the side and reached down to the floor beside his seat. Gripping Old Roy, he stood up and stepped over in front of Maureen’s empty seat. Holding the Viking sword in both hands, he began the dance of deception.
“ComChief Denise, send my image and words to the Arbitor ship through our neutrino comlink. But share the AV of me and any response with our allies over the laser Come-Back signal.”
“Signaling,” she said from behind him.
“Arbitor MakMakGor, I am the human Jack Munroe. You demanded I respond to your claim of a violation of the Rules of Engagement, on behalf of my fellow humans.” He pointed Old Roy’s steel tip at the motion-eye above the front screen. “We humans deny your claim! And our allies from five other stars join us in demanding your departure from human Hunt territory!”
Facing Jack was a giant creature with the teeth of a great white shark, the tail of a stingray, the flaring neck hood of a black mamba snake and the two-legged body of a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur. Red and yellow scales covered its hide. A pair of small arms with taloned hands sprouted from its upper chest. It fixed two red eyes on them. The giant mouth opened.
“Human, you are a miserable looking predator,” it growled in a language of harsh snarls, loud snaps and long hisses. “You lack sharp teeth. Your manipulators lack claws or talons. You are small. And your skin lacks the colors of a true predator.” A loud snort came from the creature’s long carnivore head. “You resemble the food prey my ancestors once hunted on our home world. How did you manage to defeat the many true Hunters who awaited your arrival at your outermost planet?”
Jack grimaced, showing his teeth. He waved Old Roy in an arc. “With tools such as this sword we became the apex predator of our world Earth! No carnivore could defeat us! No creature larger than us or smaller with poison fangs ever survived our arrival in their eco-niche!” He laid the cold steel of Old Roy atop his vacsuited left shoulder. “Your kind died on our world 65 million years ago. My mammal ancestors evolved to become the top predators. Surely you have heard how we defeated the HikHikSot, Gyklang, Hackmot, Rizen, Krisot and Yiplak Hunters in battles among the comets of our star system. We have moved into the Great Dark and have laid claim to stars and subject peoples ruled by other Hunters, like the Booleans. No Hunter of the Great Dark has ever defeated us!”
Behind the T-rex there moved two other Arbitors, who tended to control pedestals on the Command Deck of the Alien’s ship.
The yellow-scaled neck hood of the giant dino flared widely. Its red and yellow-scaled tail lifted and thumped the floor. It slammed its long jaws together in a snapping motion that echoed through the Pilot Cabin. The two red eyes, protected by ridges of red and yellow scales, looked beyond Jack to his crewmates. “You cheated in your encounter with the Rizen. They faced you with teeth and claws in the traditional Challenge to Combat at the one-on-one level. You blew up the meeting location, then used your primitive fusion drive to irradiate the Rizen ship. Have you Humans always cheated your way into eco-niche control?”
Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) Page 5
