“Yes!” Hilok snorted loudly. He rose effortlessly to his feet, his long legs curving like a bow. “Follow. There is much to enjoy in our Clan compound. And perhaps your mother-to-be will share cub news with my mate Vanix.”
Jack, Nikola, Maureen and Blodwen all stood up. He felt relief that their encounter with the Nasen had gone so well. “Lead us to your plaza, leader of the Northern Pack. My Pack is now allied with your Pack.”
Loud snorts and grunts from behind told Jack he had just said the right thing.
Nikola winked at him. “For a male, you sometimes have good instincts!”
Jack had learned long ago to never debate a half-compliment given him by a female. Instead, he followed after their hosts, wondering at how the ferociousness of the Nasen co-existed with the natural beauty of their world Hunt Forever. It gave him much food for thought. Which did not feed his stomach.
“Hilok, do you Nasen have a stimulating drink? Something like the beer we humans make?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Forty AU north of Zeta Serpentis, the Uhuru and the other ships of the fleet gathered in preparation for the trip across 110 light years to the Megurk system. They had just exited their grav-pull drives, rejoining normal space-time, something Jack had heard Nikola refer to as Riemannian manifold space. A term that had something to do with Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Before his head could start to ache he inventoried the ship IDs as shown on the front screen. Its true-light image showed the black velvet of deep space with the white starry arm of the Milky Way low and to one side. Silvery metal sparkles were the fleet ships. A side split screen image showed Elaine’s Sensor panel ship IDs.
He tagged Hideyoshi’s heavy cruiser Bismarck. Next to it was Gareth’s ship Dragon. Clustered nearby were Ignacio’s Badger, Kasun’s Leopard, Aashman’s Mongoose, Júlia’s Caiman, Akemi’s Orca and Minna’s Wolverine. Plus the Uhuru. That made up the seven ships of his original Belter fleet. They were all ready to head out. But the meeting with the Nasen had brought forth an idea that needed tending to. Looking up at the strip of captain faces, he caught the eyes of Hideyoshi.
“Admiral, I recall that besides carrying ten extra thermonuke torps, your Bismarck’s Mech Shop also contains two backup Alcubierre drive pedestals. In case of need. Correct?”
The man lifted thin black eyebrows. “We do. The ship does. Why?”
Jack sat back in his Tech station seat and folded his hands together. He gave the man a smile. “Cause I need a ship with Alcubierre stardrive that is disposable. For my plan to assault the Isolation Globe with a ship traveling in Alcubierre mode. To test the globe’s ability to keep out such ships.” He looked aside to Maureen, who was absorbed with a combat simulation holo that flickered above her Combat station panel. “We can test the normal space exclusion by firing a torp against the globe perimeter. But I cannot spare a ship with people in it to test the Alcubierre exclusion. So. If you will ship over one of your backup Alcubierre pedestals, my good Archibald and Max will have two weeks to fit it to our Lander. Which can be remotely controlled to go into Alcubierre and head for the Isolation Globe that surrounds this Megurk system.”
“Interesting concept,” the older Asian said, his tone musing. He glanced aside. “Ensign O’Donnell, see to it that our Mech Shop loads an Alcubierre pedestal onto our Lander.” The ruler of the largest ship in Jack’s fleet faced him. “The Rudyard Kipling will rendezvous with your Lander hold airlock in ten minutes. You will handle the offloading? Or do I need to send some Marines to assist?”
Jack shook his head. “Not needed. I’m sure Archibald and my sister Cassie can unload the device from your Lander and move it to our Mech Shop. They’re not doing anything important right now.”
A chuckle and a harrumph sounded from behind him. Knowing who had chuckled, he gave a Belter finger-talk gesture over his shoulder, knowing Cassie would enjoy the concept. Hideyoshi showed a sudden smile. Perhaps the man had learned Belter finger-talk during his decades of space combat and system patrolling.
“Then it will be done. Is being done now.” The man crossed arms over the Mars red of his uniform, resting them on his modest belly. “Can the Bismarck assist you further?”
They had ten minutes to pass before they went super-light. “Yes. Can you spare me some of that Nasen booze you Traded for? When my crew and I got back to our Lander I heard you had acquired several barrels of it. Is it beer? Gin? Bourbon? Saki? Some other—”
“Delightful it is,” Hideyoshi interrupted with a half-smile. “I gained six barrels of what the Nasen call Sharp Roar. What will you Trade me for one of my barrels?”
Damn. “Uh, how about one of the yellow diamonds I got on our last star trip?”
“Done!” The normally phlegmatic admiral seemed greatly amused by Jack’s eagerness for a new booze to enjoy.
“Jack,” called Elaine, “the Kipling just docked to our Lander airlock.”
Behind him he heard the sounds of Archibald and Cassie unlocking their restraint straps and heading for the airlock. He gave a mock salute to his benefactor. “Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, I will pay you for your generosity upon our arrival at the Megurk system.”
The man gave him a sardonic smile. “That works. Since we will have to wait until then for me to send you the barrel of Sharp Roar that you so desire!”
Double damn. The man was right. Unless he were to ask for a second trip by the Kipling. Which would be excessive. Anyway, their Refectory cooler was well-stocked with Europa Light Ale, Tuborg, Heineken, Sapporo, Tsingtao, Suntory and Asahi Super Dry. Along with plenty of Johnny Walker Black Label scotch in his roomsuite. And only Nikola had the access code to their rooms. “Very true. Guess I will survive the next two weeks drinking what we have on board. But thank you for the Alcubierre drive pedestal.”
“Ichi ban,” Hideyoshi said, knowing that was the limit of Jack’s knowledge of conversational Japanese. The man looked down at his NavTrack panel. “Ah. The Kipling has returned. The Bismarck can depart upon the activation signal from your Drive Engineer.”
“Thank you, admiral, for your assistance.” Turning away from the front screen, Jack looked back to Nikola. Who sat at her Chief Astronomer’s station, restraint straps over her shoulders and with hands held just above the Astro panel she had pulled over her lap. Wearing a yellow headband like the one worn by Elaine, she tapped on the panel as she stared intensely at a sidearm screen that showed stellar locations within a galactic coordinate system. Beyond her sat Denise, with Max seated further back at his Drive Engineer post. His buddy held his own hands above the Alcubierre drive control panel, his gray eyes twinkling with bemusement. Nearby sat thoughtful Blodwen. Archibald and Cassie entered from the Spine hallway and sat at their stations. Which brought him back around to nearby Nikola and Maureen. Eight other people crewed the Uhuru. People who had become family to him.
“Proceed,” he said to his lifemate.
Nikola looked over to Elaine at her Pilot station. “Ready to enter the coordinates for Megurk system?”
“Yes.” Elaine rubbed her narrow chin. “We are all facing towards the direction of galactic rotation. The other ships are in laser comlink with my station. Give me the numbers.”
Nikola looked down at her Astro panel. “Galactic coordinates for Megurk relative to Zeta Serpentis are minus 5.17 light years away from galactic center, plus 26.1 toward galactic rotation and minus 72.5 light years below the equatorial plane of the galaxy. Straight-line distance to Megurk is 110 light years. Relative to Zeta’s position.” She tapped on her panel. “These numbers will bring us to the outer edge of the Megurk system, at 60 AU out from the star’s recorded position. I’m assuming that is far enough out to avoid contact with the Isolation Globe.”
Denise looked to their Chief Astronomer. “Time in transit?”
Nikola raised an eyebrow. “Twenty-seven days.”
“Good!” said Blodwen as she leaned forward against her seat straps, her pale green eyes looking over Max’s shoulder. “
That’s enough time for me and Max to prepare our surprise.”
Surprise? Jack wondered just what the Welsh woman was planning with his buddy. Whose nonchalant manner told him nothing. He looked over to Elaine, whose attention seemed to be focused a bit too intently on her Sensor panel. “Pilot, you ready to get yours and Ignacio’s interstellar romance on the road?”
Elaine grinned broadly. “Nikola, I’ve entered those numbers and laser-linked them to the other ships. My NavTrack computer says we are properly oriented. Time for Max to activate our stardrive?”
“Sis,” Jack called to Elaine, unable to resist the chance to poke her once more. “Are we in laser time-lock link with our fleet ships?”
“Of course!” she said, giving him a finger flip that meant nothing good in Belter finger-talk. “Anyway, that link will disappear once we enter our own Alcubierre space-time bubble.” She looked back at Max, who was tap-tapping on his Alcubierre drive panel. “Drive Engineer, any time now.”
“Alcubierre stardrive activated. Signal sent to all ships. Reactor One is feeding power to its module.” Max looked Jack’s way and grinned widely. “Blodwen and I think interstellar romances are just fine!” The man from Lodz gestured ahead. “We’re heading out again. Look at the starfield! It’s shrinking!”
Jack turned back to watch the front screen with its image of local space. The images of his fleet captains disappeared as the laser link bent due to the gravitational lensing that was one part of an Alcubierre stardrive. He recalled that the Alcubierre drive squeezed space in front of them and expanded it to their rear, causing their ship, lying within a drive shell bubble, to jump forward at a speed that quickly exceeded classical lightspeed. But since their ship existed in a warped space-time bubble, they were not subject to the usual gravitational, time and length distortions that Einstein’s Special Relativity said happened when a physical object came close to the speed of light. True, they could not see beyond the bubble shell. But in return for being cut off from normal space-time, their ship and the eight other ships of the fleet were now moving at a speed equal to four light years per day. Fast by any standards.
“Anyone want a beer?” Jack asked.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Exiting from Alcubierre space-time drive,” Max called from the back of the Pilot Cabin. “We are 60 AU out from the star’s coordinates.”
Jack opened his eyes, shook off the light doze he had been in since joining everyone after a private breakfast with Nikola in their roomsuite, and focused on the front screen. Soot-black space filled it, along with thousands of stars and the white streak of stars that were the inner arms of the Milky Way. Ahead lay what appeared to be empty space. He looked to Elaine.
“Pilot, what does your Sensor panel say about the space ahead?”
She looked down at the panel that she had swung in from her left armrest. “Nothing. Which is not normal. Even empty space radiates heat at a few degrees Kelvin. And the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation fills all of space-time. Except for here. Although . . . look at the stars to the left, right, top and bottom. Some of them are fuzzy. Due to the gravitational lensing of their light on its way to our viewing spot. Hmmm.” She tapped on her panel. Up front appeared a split-screen plan view image of the galactic coordinate location of the Megurk star. Slowly there appeared a circle of solid blue. Nine red dots clustered near the outer edge of the blue. “The red dots are the ships of the fleet. The blue is the zone of absence of any kind of EMF radiation. Including x-rays, ultraviolet, gamma rays, random neutrons, stellar wind, everything!” Across the top of the screen there appeared the images of the eight other ship captains as their laser Come-Back signal integrated through Denise’s Comlink panel. Elaine looked his way, her expression puzzled. “Jack, I think that blue is the Isolation Globe. If so, it extends 50 AU out from the position of the Megurk star.”
Damn. Double Damn. Extreme damn. It seemed the Arbitors really could isolate an entire star system. “Pilot, thank you.” He scanned the ship captain images that ran across the top of the screen. “Fleet captains, are your ships on Combat Alert?”
“On alert!” called Hideyoshi.
Gareth nodded swiftly. “The Dragon is ready.”
“Eager for it,” said Minna as their stern Finn gave him a rare smile.
Ignacio nodded abruptly, his black mustache moving as he spoke. “The Badger is ready to fight!”
Aashman, Kasun, Júlia and Akemi were equally ready. Jack checked the holo above his Tech panel. Maureen looked at him from within her helmet, her short black curls looking sweaty. Like everyone in the cabin and in the other ships, she wore a vacsuit thanks to the Combat Alert status of the fleet. She gave him a wink and a thumbs-up.
Will wonders never cease? Jack looked to his sister. “Elaine, transmit to Captain Minna the galactic coordinates for a position just outside that blue zone. Make sure there is at least 20,000 kilometers separation between that spot and the zone.”
During the trip out they had discussed his globe testing tactics. So Elaine just nodded and looked down at her panel. “NavTrack coordinates transmitted.”
Jack caught the steely blue eyes of the Finn. “Captain Minna, take the Wolverine to the edge of the Isolation Globe. By way of an Alcubierre jump. Stop at the position given you by Elaine. When you get there, open a neutrino AV comlink to us. I want to have a real time image of what happens when we send our Lander against that boundary zone.”
The woman whose loyalty to him had been proven multiple times gave him a salute. She looked left. “Alaric, put us into Alcubierre star drive for the coordinates given by Elaine.”
Above the front screen the woman’s image shimmered, grew jagged, then died as the gravitation lensing of the Alcubierre star drive cut her laser comlink signal. The same way the protective shield of the Arbitor ship had cut off every incoming energy beam. It was what happened when you created a mini-universe within the larger space-time modulus of known reality. Mentally he counted the seconds before the woman’s frigate-sized commerce raider ship reached the outer edge of the Isolation Globe. He sat back in his Tech station seat.
“Incoming AV signal via modulated neutrino transmission mode,” Denise called out in a firm voice.
“Put it up front.”
Tap-tapping sounded from behind him. “Going up front. Replacing the Schmidt true-light image. Elaine’s plan view of the Isolation Globe zone is moved to the right side.”
Blackness filled the front screen. There were no stars to be seen. Unless one counted a few dozen silvery flickers that were incoming starlight. The flickers were photons that were spread out sideways by the gravitational lens of the globe’s giant Alcubierre field.
Above the screen Minna’s image appeared, courtesy of a neutrino signal through another dimension. The native of the asteroid 65 Cybele fixed on him. “Fleet Captain Jack, mission completed. Neutrino comlink established with your ComChief. View is directly ahead toward the projected star position.”
“Thank you.” Jack looked up at the ceiling. “Anonymous, are you ready to eject the Lander Anneli Korhonen?”
“Ready,” said the ship’s AI.
“Eject.” Well, he could be as tart as that damn algorithm!
“Ejecting.” A moment passed. “From Lander hold. Ship pressure back to normal.”
Hmmph. “Orient the Lander toward the coordinates of the Megurk star. Verify presence of NavTrack program for FTL approach to star ahead, and subsequent shut off of Alcubierre star drive if target coordinates cannot be attained. Once done, activate Alcubierre drive pedestal.”
“Oriented. Verified. Activated.”
On the left side of the front screen there appeared the true-light image of the Anneli Korhonen. A rectangular box of white metal moved ahead of them on rear thrusters. Then it became a star-streaked globe. The globe shot ahead faster than Jack could blink.
“Counting down,” called Elaine. “Estimated time of contact with outer edge of Isolation Globe is—”
“Lo
ok!” cried Max.
“Oh goddess,” groaned Blodwen.
“Not good,” muttered Archibald.
Nikola and Cassie and Maureen said nothing.
Jack bit his lip.
A bright spot had appeared in the middle of the front screen. The brightness was not that of an icy comet reflecting distant starlight. Nor the brightness that came when a thruster fired. It was the brightness of an explosion. A big one.
“Anonymous, are you receiving any data from the Lander? By way of Minna’s neutrino link?” Jack asked, though he already knew the answer.
“No data. Explosion noted.”
“No shit,” growled Maureen, her holo expression murderous.
“My Sensor panel has analyzed the imagery from Minna’s ship,” Elaine said calmly. “It confirms an explosion at the projected point of contact with the Isolation Globe. Fourier spectroscopy confirms presence of metal, water, deuterium and helium-3 fusion isotopes at the projected contact point.”
Jack felt salty wetness on his lip. He unclenched his teeth. “Well, it looks as if the Isolation Globe does more than keep out FTL starships. It kills them.” He looked back to ruddy-haired Archibald. “Physicist, you got any idea what just happened?”
“Idea, no. Speculation, yes.”
“Spit it out!” Jack did not like it when someone forced him to probe, be it an AI or their brainy Brit.
“Well, Max and I think the Isolation Globe probe is powered by Dark Energy,” their particle physicist said calmly. “As we shared with you earlier. Perhaps there is a thin film of Dark Energy that lies on the outside of the globe. If so, contact with it could produce an explosion. My guess is that blast was equal to an antimatter-level blast, a total matter to energy conversion event.”
Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) Page 11
