Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4)

by T. Jackson King

  “Accepted.” Jack would take the same precaution for any Alien ship that visited Earth, Mars, the Moon or an outer planets moon base. Thermonuke torps were too destructive to be allowed close to an inhabited world without an automated defense net such as Hilok described. “I will gather my fellow captains in our Lander Anneli Korhonen, along with some of my crew, and fly down to your compound. While the ships of my Pack have many weapons teeth, this is your Hunt territory, your Hunt star and your space to rule. We show respect to all Packs of the Nasen. Will you advise the other Packs that our visit is solely for Trade?”

  “I will,” Hilok said in a low snarl. “Besides your fellow captains, bring your Nikola. My mate Vanix wishes to meet and converse with a Human female who is cub expectant.”

  Not what he would normally do. Except they needed Nikola’s Astro expertise. A squeeze to his waist told him she wanted to meet this Vanix. “My lifemate Nikola is also eager to meet a fellow mother of cubs. We will arrive at Hunt Forever using our grav-pull drives. You and other Packs can observe our approach from the graviton emissions of our grav-pulls. Satisfactory?”

  The yellow eyes of Hilok quickly scanned the crew behind and near Jack, then fixed back on him. “Satisfactory. My family is eager to Trade with your family. My Pack relatives who live in our compound will join us in a number equal to the Humans you bring with you. Until you arrive.”

  “Until then.” He gestured to Denise to shut off the neutrino comlink.

  Nikola looked up at him, her expression concerned. “Did I do wrong in offering the Magpulse Bomb? I knew you and Max and Archie were unlikely to offer the Dark Matter info they gained from Atarksis.”

  Jack touched her cheek softly. “You did fine! The Magpulse Bomb is not as vital a weapon as our antimatter and Higgs Disruptor beamers. And these Nasen clearly know more about the Hunter system than we learned in our last visit.” He led the way back to their seats, ignoring Maureen’s scowl. “But when we arrive at their compound, stay behind me and Maureen. While you will wear your combat gear, Kevlar vest and sword, do not do any fighting! Maureen and I, and the other captains, will protect you.”

  She looked up from her Chief Astronomer seat as she relocked her seat restraint straps. Her look was Woman Superior. “Jack! Being preggy does not incapacitate any woman. We can swim, run, even fight to defend our children while pregnant. Just can’t take high gee accelerations. But you know that, having grown up in the Belt.”

  He did know it. Looking back, he caught the attention of their Sociologist. “Blodwen, I want you to come with us. With me, Maureen and Nikola. Everyone else should stay here on ship. Anyway, you can follow our visit by way of our vacsuit vidcams. We’ll clip them to our vests when we take off the suits.”

  Denise gave him a thoughtful nod. Elaine and Cassie both nodded their acceptance. Archibald gave a start and looked up from his yellow datapad. Which he had been working on during the neutrino chat-chat. The Brit nodded hurriedly. “Sure. Will give me and Max time to theorize on the nature of Dark Energy.”

  Blodwen rested her chin on her left fist, her curly blond hair making a golden halo for her narrow face. Pale green eyes watched him. “So we go down dressed for a fight? Like at Hot Blood?”

  Jack nodded. “Of course. You heard what I said to the Arbitor about prey weakness. We arrive as predators ready to eat anyone for lunch! We do not show weakness of any sort. Elsewise, we might tempt a Challenge from one of Hilok’s relatives.”

  “Quite so,” Denise said as she fiddled with the neutrino comlink pedestal, her gaze cast down. “We are apex predators come to meet social carnivores on their home turf. Neither side shows weakness. Strength shown leads to respect given. Which allows for Trade and an amiable visit. Right, Captain Jack?”

  “Right.” Why did their teen ask for his agreement to lessons she had shared with them all, based on her Animal Ethology studies? Was something bothering her? Something personal? He turned to their senior vet. “Maureen, are you ready to lead our group into dangerous territory?”

  “Of course!” The woman brushed away short black bangs from her forehead, giving him a wintry smile. “Though my military historian side says I will be listening to every word Nalik shares with our Nikola. Learning more about this interstellar Hunters of the Great Dark system is part of my duty as your Combat Commander.”

  “Good.” He looked up at the images of the other ship captains, then back over his shoulder to Max. “Drive Engineer, send the grav-pull activation signal to all fleet ships. Take us inward!”

  The people faces and star images of the front screen grew blurred from gravitational lensing as the graviton-based gravity-pull drive pushed them down into the Zeta Serpentis system at eighty percent of lightspeed. They would arrive at Hilok’s world in 6.6 hours. Maybe he could get a nap in so we he felt ready to battle wits with social carnivores who were used to dominating every opponent.

  “Heading inward,” Max murmured.

  Jack smiled to himself. Before he got that nap he would say the one thing guaranteed to bring a smile to his crewmates.

  “Who wants the first beer?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The world of Hunt Forever was a blue and green wonder. White clouds drifted over three continents and five oceans. As the Uhuru took up the orbital vector indicated by Hilok’s maser signal, Jack drank in the view through the porthole to the left of his Tech station seat. It was gorgeous. A blue river cut through the twisting mountains of the world’s northernmost continent, making a deep cut in purple rock. With a sigh he looked away from the porthole to the front screen’s image, which arrived courtesy of the Schmidt scope’s CCD circuits. The screen’s daylight view was also a true-light image. But for him, seeing something directly with his own eyes was different than a view moderated by mirrors, circuits and the algorithms of the ship’s AI computer.

  Elaine looked to him from her Pilot station, past the empty seat of Maureen. His sister shared his excitement at once more encountering a living world. So different from the rocky asteroids of the Belt, a place without air, free-flowing water, trees, grass and tiny land critters. “Plenty of room for a habdome down there, yes?”

  He grinned, recalling the limited space in which he, his parents and his two sisters had grown up in. “Yup. And no need to check your air tanks for the gas pressures. Down below, you just open your mouth and breath. As if the air is endless.”

  “Which it is,” Max said, his tone jovial. “On a big place like a planet.”

  Ignoring for the moment the images of his fellow captains that ran in a strip above the true-light scene of Hunt Forever, he drank in wonder. Then duty hit him. “Anonymous, please expand the scope view until the compound of Hilok is visible.”

  “Visible in the organic spectrum?” the AI asked.

  What the? Jack had noticed the AI program had been getting more and more . . . innovative of late. As if it sought to ‘chat’ in the people mode. Rather than stay with the literal orders it knew from prior commands. “Yes, Anonymous, expand and continue displaying the scope imagery in the spectrum normal to humans.”

  “Complying. Done.”

  The functional, dry tone of the AI did not prepare them for the feeling of falling down faster than fast.

  “Anonymous!” cried Nikola from behind him. “Slow the enlargement! You know this is disorienting to organics.”

  The front screen image expansion slowed from what felt like a thousand klicks per second to something his eyes felt comfortable with. Jack had no doubt Nikola was even more sensitive due to her morning nausea.

  “This program is learning faster the limitations of organic beings,” the AI said.

  Blodwen laughed, as did Elaine, Cassie, Denise, Max and Archibald. Jack didn’t. He thought the AI’s reply sounded a bit too, too . . . arrogant? Impossible. “Well, now we know what a Nasen family compound looks like.”

  Filling the front screen was a complex of pale brown buildings arranged in several levels, with each building havin
g several floors, judging by the angle of their view. A Lander arrival pad glowed in ultraviolet atop the highest roomblock. Three plazas broke up the cluster of buildings. The ovals of aircars showed in two of the plazas. The third, which flanked the edge of the gorge, showed the green of trees and a blue ribbon of water cascading down from the arrival pad. A waterfall that ran down the side of a building!

  “Quite so,” Elaine said, tapping her Sensor panel. A split screen showed to the right of the compound image. Nearby orbital space filled it. Beyond the silvery sparkles of the fleet ships lay globes that resembled tiny worlds. “The globes are the weapons platforms. Five of them within a hundred klicks of us. Damn. These Nasen must have built thousands of them to have a defense web this dense!”

  “Agreed.” He unlocked his restraint straps and stood up, looking at the motion-eye. “Fellow captains, prepare to board our Lander once we arrive. In our absence, set your weapons panels on Auto-Track and Defend, but with a human link before any weapon fires!” A second split-screen from Elaine’s Sensor panel showed there were twelve grav-pull ships orbiting above, ahead, behind and below the fleet. Those ships had clearly been awaiting their arrival. “If something goes badly wrong, make an Alcubierre jump to outside the system and wait for contact by me or other survivors.”

  Acknowledgments sounded from the executive officers of each ship. Jack turned and caught the attention of Nikola and Blodwen. “Shall we three join Maureen in the Lander hold? Our combat outfits and weapons will be in airlock ready room.”

  “Follow us, my love,” Nikola said, her tone sweet as she left her seat and headed for the Spine hallway hatch. “Women have always led the way for our species.”

  “So true!” chuckled Blodwen as she fell in behind Nikola.

  Which left last place for him. Passing by Max, he thought he detected a gleam of amusement in the man’s gray eyes. “Hey! You’re spoiling Blodwen!”

  “And you are not doing the same with your Nikola?” his buddy called after him.

  Jack ignored the jibe and followed after the women. Anyway, the tight fit of the leotards gave him a pleasant view of both ladies.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Jack brought the Anneli Korhonen down on its chemfuel thrusters, setting the boxy contraption down in the middle of the arrival pad on top of the waterfall building. One gee gravity grabbed at him as he let go the flight controls panel.

  “Shogun Jack, we are all ready,” said Akemi from behind, where she like the others sat on benches that ran along both sides of the Lander interior. She peered at him through her clear bubble helmet. “Your orders?”

  “We move together,” he said over his vacsuit comlink. “Like a pack of hungry wolves.”

  “Exactly right,” growled Maureen as she stood up from her Navigator seat next to Jack. She stomped back to the cargo hold of the Lander.

  Jack tapped the NavTrack panel to engine shutdown and ecofield-maintenance. The control module’s display screens shut off, leaving only a few manual buttons and switches to say the metal block did anything. The Lander videye and uplink function he left on for uploading real-time imagery to his crewmates and the other fleet ships. Through the cabin’s window of optical quartz he saw a small dome with a dark door opening in it. That was the only feature on the otherwise empty arrival pad. He looked back at his fellow captains and Maureen as they stood, still wearing vacsuits and helmets. He scanned the faces of everyone present. “Maureen, Nikola, Blodwen, Hideyoshi, Gareth, Minna, Ignacio, Akemi, Júlia, Aashman and Kasun, we are a wolf pack visiting a new Hunt territory. We move as a unit. We act as a unit. And Maureen and I are the alpha female and male leaders of this pack. Every moment we are here, we are Hunters on the Hunt!”

  Petite Akemi bowed to him. “My shogun, when you give orders, we obey. Though I do look forward to meeting this Nasen mother.”

  Jack appreciated Akemi’s simple statement. “Captain Akemi, you bring honor to your clan. And I’m sure Hilok’s mate is eager to meet other females.” He gestured. “Before we head out, do a buddy check on each other. Help your neighbor remove their vacsuit and helmet. Make sure your weapons are tight, food and water are in carrybags, comlink tabs active. Nikola?”

  His lifemate looked to him from where she stood among the others. “Yes?”

  He unzipped the front of his vacsuit and twisted off his helmet. After stepping out of the suit, he put both on a nearby bench. “Uh, please check my weapons harness and supply bag.”

  She grinned. “We did this up in our airlock. When we put on our vacsuits. But extra checks don’t hurt.” Jack pulled his attention away from the woman he loved. Looking around he inventoried the combat outfits and weapons carried by each of them.

  Jack noticed that Gareth, while dressed in a brown shipsuit with Kevlar vest fitted to his wide chest, had a slim steel sword hanging from his hip. He recalled the man saying it was modeled after the Dyrnwyn, the magical flaming sword of the Welsh hero Rhydderch Hael. He looked beyond the native of Wales, fixing on his other battlemates.

  Hideyoshi, short, pudgy and barrel-chested, also wore a Kevlar vest over the bullet-resistant pad that fronted his red bodysuit. Unlike other captains he wore shoulder pads, knee pads and shin guards, but none of them resembled football gear. These were painted black and shone steel bright. Jack recalled ancient Japanese wood block prints that portrayed daimyo lords dressed similarly.

  Akemi had on a black ninja-style bodystocking. Like him and everyone else she wore a Kevlar vest to protect against claws and knives. Her katana sword hung at her left side, secured by a cotton belt that supported a dozen throwing stars.

  Ignacio wore short pants and a red wool shirt under his Kevlar vest. A Roman short sword hung from his revolver gun belt. The man now donned his boina. His clan brother grinned as he saw Jack’s own boina on his head. The man gave him a thumbs-up. Jack returned the gesture, even as Nikola ducked to check out his fanny pack.

  Aashman’s lanky frame was covered in a short dhoti and a black Kevlar vest over his white cotton overshirt. The Hindu wore spike-gloves on both hands. The steel spikes reached out a good five centimeters. Like Ignacio, he also wore a gun belt with a Teflon-coated revolver.

  Júlia, dressed in loose pants and a brown wool overshirt under her Kevlar vest, wore soft capybara skin boots. She carried a scythe-sword. She seemed preoccupied with inspecting the insides of her backpack.

  Kasun wore a black Kevlar vest over his classical Sinhala clothing of a white cotton long shirt with a sarong below his waist. Open-toed slippers buffered his feet from the cold of the metal floor. His personal weapon was a stave with a curved steel blade on the upper end. The man smiled at Jack.

  “Do you think we will need to use our personal weapons? Against these Nasen?”

  Jack shook his head. “I doubt it. But you’re a Belter. You’re just being prepared. Like the rest of us.” He looked to Minna.

  The woman’s two blond braids were pulled to the back of her head. Petite and pale despite her rad-tan, she wore a fluffy blouse embroidered with Spring flowers. Her Kevlar vest covered most of the embroidery. Her long pants were of brown cotton with lacing at the shins. At her waist hung her long steel sword with wide blood runnel, both edges sharpened, a curved crossbar and a round pommel. It resembled some of the early Viking swords that Jack had researched.

  An elbow jabbed his ribs. He turned to see Nikola pulling her long brown hair into a pony tail. She gave him an innocent look. “Yes?” he said.

  She frowned. “Dammit! Are all men such one track-minded types? Smell anything?”

  Oh. He had noticed a minty odor but had not expected her to wear perfume. “Yes, I do. And you do smell delicious my dear!” He scanned her combat outfit, noting the Kevlar vest, laser handgun on her left hip and Roman short sword on her right hip. “That sword does look nice on you. Why, you could scare any Alien into the ninth dimension!”

  Nikola rolled her eyes up, then looked past him at Blodwen. “Hey girl, hope you’ve had better luck train
ing Max to look beyond his Alcubierre drive module!”

  The Welsh girl wore a green leotard with a Kevlar vest on top. At her waist hung a slim steel sword of Roman design. Her leotard showed the image of a bright red dragon. Her eyes lit up when she noticed his look. “Captain Jack, you saw this last time we met the Nasen. It’s the Welsh battle dragon, or the Y Ddraig Goch. It is the symbol of we Cymry.”

  Black-bearded Gareth, standing beside Blodwen, smiled at her comments. “She is a true lass of the rocky lands. I was sorry to lose her from my crew.”

  Jack nodded to the captain of the Dragon. “Your loss was our great gain. And Max’s delight.”

  “You gonna check me out, youngling?”

  He turned to face his elder and mentor, mistress Maureen O’Dowd of Éire. Jack grinned.

  “Yup, you look hot! Plan to have a good time with someone I know?”

  “Watch it!” Then the woman, who always looked twenty years younger than her 78 chrono-age, gave him a grin. “My private life is private!” She nodded to Nikola. “But you’re doing well on the compliment training. Good luck on training him to bribe you with jewels and perfume!”

  Nikola laughed. His ship captains and Blodwen joined that laughter.

  In truth Maureen looked murderous. She wore a Kevlar vest over her green wool bodystocking, and carried two Smith and Wesson revolvers on her gun belt, one on each hip. Plus she carried a Viking sword on her back. A steel-pointed javelin spear crossed the sword and was snugged into its own scabbard. Hunting knives adorned each thigh, brown leather straps holding them in place. She looked the part of an alpha female who would always cover his back.

  Jack shrugged, feeling his backpack and how Old Roy rode in the scabbard across his back. As Nikola had confirmed, he too wore a Kevlar vest over his chest, with a .45 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver hanging from his right hip. Speedloader clips of bullets hung from his left hip. Steel throwing knives were strapped to each shin. After checking out Nikola’s outfit and weapons, he tapped on his shoulder comlink. “Elaine, you picking us up? You seeing what we see? Over our vidcam tabs?”