by Isaac Hooke
“If they can bend space around their ship, it makes sense that they could bend it around nearby objects as well, up to a certain distance from their hull.”
“It might make sense to you, but not to me,” Jonathan said. “The power requirements would be quite immense, I would gather.”
“I would assume the same as well,” Robert said. “But if a species has the ability to construct Alcubierre Drives, you’d think they would have solved a lot of issues related to power as well.”
“Good point,” Jonathan said. “Though if they can bend space like you say, you’d think they’d be able to bend incoming lasers around them.”
“The problem with lasers is that they’re nearly instantaneous,” Robert said. “They need to have warning. Obviously they can’t be constantly bending space around them to form a shield, not if they want to move forward at the same time.”
“But if they’re utilizing dual classical-reactionless drive tech,” Jonathan said. “Couldn’t they switch to classic mode whenever they needed to apply a shield?”
Robert shrugged. “Obviously they haven’t solved every technical problem yet.”
“Maxwell, what do you think?” Jonathan said.
“I think the fleet is in serious trouble,” the Callaway’s AI replied.
“Ever insightful, as always,” Jonathan commented dryly.
“Fire another round of kinetic kills and nukes,” the admiral sent over the fleet comm. “Wide spread. Use the following firing solution.”
Jonathan forwarded the solution to Miko for implementation.
Once more the scavenger used its gravimetric beam to disrupt those nukes directly in its path, while employing its superior drives to evade the rest. It proceeded to scoop up several more mortars along the way, effectively forming a barrier in front of itself about two hundred meters from the forward section. Once more the scavenger was showing experience obviously gleaned from prior engagements by not including the missiles and nukes in that barrier—the proximity fuses would have detonated the weapons at that range.
“You have to wonder, why didn’t they come at us with a bunch of rocks already in place?” Miko asked. “Why scoop up our mortars during the advance?”
“That’s a good question,” Jonathan replied. “My guess is it comes back down to power requirements once again. It can’t be cheap to shove all those rocks along like that. They have to give their reactors a rest at some point.”
“Or it could be that they’re merely showing off,” Robert replied. “Watch, they’ll probably shoot those mortars right back at us at some point.”
When the scavenger reached the forty thousand kilometer mark from the fleet, the admiral ordered the Vipers to fire. Jonathan forwarded the firing solution to Miko.
Viper banks fired fleet-wide, as did the lasers on the Raakarr segments.
“Ops, tell me what we did,” Jonathan said.
“We combined our beams across the fleet,” Lewis said. “Forming eight distinct lines. We drilled through the mortar shield.”
“Fifty-five banks of Vipers would do that,” Robert said.
“We only scratched the surface of the ship on the other side, though,” Lewis said. “The Raakarr lasers also did some damage to the mortars, but they fired at slightly different spots than ours, and didn’t penetrate entirely.”
Jonathan nodded. It would be difficult for Barrick to translate the firing details to the Raakarr with any sort of accuracy.
“All ships, rotate one eighty degrees,” the admiral sent. “Let’s give our opposite banks a chance to fire.” When the ships had all maneuvered so that their starboard banks were facing the incoming vessel, she gave the order to unleash the Vipers again.
“Ops?” Jonathan asked after the weapons had fired.
“We shot through the bores in their mortar shield,” Lewis said. “Creating eight breaches in the ship. It doesn’t look like the lasers completely penetrated through to the other side, however. And as usual, the hull is already healing.”
At the twenty thousand kilometer mark, the fleet had recharged to eighty percent, and the admiral gave the order to fire again.
“Direct hit,” Lewis said. “We combined our beams once again, fired through the bores in the mortars. We’ve created eight penetrative breaches, right through to the other side of the craft. They’re still coming on strong.”
Once more the human vessels rotated to get in another volley from the opposite banks. The admiral had changed the beam dispersion by then, since they were that much closer to the enemy, with the beams capable of imparting more damage.
“We drilled sixteen new bores into the mortar,” Lewis said. “And tunneled into the alien hull in sixteen new places. We didn’t penetrate through to the other side, however.”
“Captain Dallas,” Admiral Ford sent over the fleet-wide comm. “Tell R2 to unleash their particle beams.”
Jonathan glanced at the tactical map. R2 was in range, at fifteen thousand kilometers. He tapped in Barrick and relayed the order.
The Raakarr vessels in both R1 and R2 fired, combining their beams to boost the range, and completing the pincer attack. Because of their positioning, R2 was able to strike the enemy from the side, hitting it behind the shield formed by the clumped mortars that partially protected the scavenger from the human Vipers.
The red dot representing the target winked out.
“We’ve done it,” Lewis said, exhaling in relief. “The scavenger is gone.”
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Robert said. “We didn’t lose a single ship. I was expecting a lot worse, given what we’ve seen in the previous systems.”
“It was the Raakarr that made all the difference,” Jonathan said. “These scavengers had never engaged our allies in combat. They didn’t know what to expect, or the dangers. Without the Raakarr, I doubt we would have won so readily.”
“I agree,” Robert said.
“Wait,” Lewis said. “We haven’t won yet. Multiple objects are emerging from behind the clumped mortars.”
Jonathan glanced at the tactical display. Sure enough, several red dots had appeared. Fifteen in total.
“It was a diversion,” Jonathan said. “Misdirection, allowing them to sneak their bombs through.”
“A strange tactic,” Robert commented. “Sacrificing one’s self, and one’s ship, to divert attention from the real attack.”
“I’m not sure they meant to sacrifice themselves,” Jonathan said. “But whatever the case, it worked quite well. Miko, get our point defenses to target those objects. Fire lasers, too. And mortars. Do whatever it takes to prevent those damn things from reaching us.”
ten
Jonathan switched to the external camera facing the incoming projectiles and zoomed in. He saw several cigar shaped objects glistening in the light of the distant suns. Some of them obviously had a silver tint. Others, gold. They all had small rods of different sizes extending from the nose regions.
“Our Vipers aren’t having any effect,” Lewis said.
As he watched, the gold ones began to divide, and divide again. Soon, each of them had separated into sixteen smaller objects. All heading toward the fleet.
He glanced at the overhead map. Ten of the original fifteen had divided, so that there were now one hundred and sixty five projectiles heading toward the main fleet—the majority were colored gold, while only five were silver. They all moved in zigzag patterns, evading the mortars and slugs the individual ships in the battle group were firing.
“Get some nukes out there, Miko!” Jonathan said. “Clear a route through that mess. And tell the Raakarr to fire their particle beams at those bombs as soon as they’re able.”
Nukes and kinetic kills from other ships already began to detonate; the latter were relatively useless, but the former cleared large swathes of the incoming objects, both gold and silver alike. That was a relief: the alien weaponry wasn’t impervious to all of their attacks. But that it required nukes to take them out was troubling
, considering how limited the supply was. And unfortunately, the exploding warheads didn’t get all of the enemy objects, not with the distances involved, and the remaining projectiles continued inexorably forward.
The Callaway’s own nukes entered the fray, and cleared a partial path through those that were headed toward the ship. However, two of the enemy bombs penetrated the defensive line and made directly for the cruiser.
Jonathan sat up straighter. “Miko... target everything we have on those two! Helm, dive!”
He glanced at the other ships on the tactical display. Across the board, projectiles were slamming into the fleet. Those vessels hit by the golden fragments were severely damaged, sometimes splitting in two. Impacts by the silver projectiles, meanwhile, caused all-out disintegration.
Chaos erupted over the fleet comm: the line filled with the frantic, dying calls of captains whose ships were sinking.
In moments it was over. Twelve United Systems ships had been destroyed. Another five severely damaged. Eight more suffered from impacts that ranged from minor to moderate. The Raakarr with the human fleet fared little better. Their particle beams hadn’t recharged soon enough to fire, and thus weren’t able to destroy any of the incoming objects. The two laser ships with R1 were gone, and one of the dart ships was missing a wing. Meanwhile the members of R2 had maintained no damage whatsoever because of the positioning afforded by their outflanking maneuver.
The Callaway was among the more fortunate of the human vessels, and had escaped unscathed. Jonathan joined the other intact warships in collecting the survivors and lifepods from the wreckages of the gold impacts. A few crew members from ships struck by the silver disintegration bombs had managed to board lifepods before their vessels atomized, and those were collected, too.
Three of the crippled United Systems ships had to be abandoned, as they suffered debilitating engine damage that would take months to repair. There crews were dispersed among the remainder of the fleet. The other two severely damaged ships were able to limp onward, engaging in repairs while under way, along with the eight that were less damaged. Some of them had weapons systems that were completely offline. Others had problems with hydroponics and waste disposal systems. Jonathan was glad he wasn’t aboard the latter vessels.
As for the Raakarr, the dart ship that lost a wing was evacuated and then destroyed. Meanwhile the Raptor had suffered minor damage to one of its stilts, and the associated particle beam was offline while undergoing repairs.
Fifteen United Systems ships lost. Three Raakarr vessels. In all, a terrible cost to take down one scavenger.
That left forty United Systems craft versus twenty-seven Raakarr. The odds were becoming more favorable for the Raakarr, should they decide to turn against their human allies. Though the human fleet still outnumbered the aliens, it wasn’t by a comfortable margin, not by far.
The admiral held a captain’s conference the next day after all survivors had been gathered.
“We won,” Admiral Ford said. “Due to your steadfast dedication, and your adherence to orders. I salute you. The threat to our galaxy has been eliminated. Unfortunately, we’re still out of contact with Earth, and unsure of what lies ahead. Who can say how deep that scavenger ship had penetrated before returning here? We can only hope this was the last system, and in the next we will find a large force of amassed warships waiting to defend against its intrusion.”
“And yet, this begs the question,” Captain Rail said. “Why were we able to eliminate it, relatively easily at that, when the other fleets between here and Prius 3 could not?”
“I would hardly call our victory easy,” Captain Rodriguez said. “We paid the price of eighteen ships to stand here today. If that’s how much it costs to eliminate one of them, just be glad no more came to our space.”
“But that’s my point,” Rail said. “Though we paid a high cost, we won. Why were the other fleets unable to do so?”
“First of all,” Captain Bane interjected. “We had the advantage of numbers. None of the other fleets possessed anywhere near our eighty-plus ships. If they had all come together in Delta Avalon or Anvil Rappel to stage a combined defensive, they might have come close, but we’ve seen no evidence of that. The scavenger won against them simply because they were spread too thin. But you know, now that I think about it, I’m willing to bet that the respective fleets never really even stood their ground. The captains had probably all seen the transmissions from Prius 3, and knew exactly how powerful this new enemy was. They realized they’d have to come together to stand any chance. So when the scavenger entered their respective systems, a few ships probably remained behind to stall them, while the remainder fled. And as Admiral Ford suggested, we’ll probably find them all amassed in the next system, with reinforcements joining their ranks from Earth.”
“It’s an interesting theory,” Rail said. “Though whether true or not, I guess we’ll find out shortly.”
“Another factor to consider in our expedient victory,” Jonathan said. “Is that we had the Raakarr with us. Those aliens made all the difference, I think. The scavenger simply didn’t know how to deal with them.”
Admiral Ford nodded slowly. “Well whatever the case, we did win. That fact is irrefutable. And whatever awaits us in Gliese 581, we will prevail. I have faith in every last one of you.”
And so the battle group headed inexorably toward the next Gate. Not that they had any choice, given that there was no return Gate to Delta Avalon.
eleven
When the fleet reached the Gate to Gliese 581, the Raptor pulled ahead. The pyramid ship approached the bright, manmade ring that encircled the distortion in space-time and launched two probes.
Jonathan watched the indicators representing the probes on his tactical display. The pair had begun decelerating as they neared the wormhole, as per the admiral’s orders. She didn’t want those probes to appear longer than a few microseconds in the adjacent system, just in case the expected United Systems destroyers and nukes at the endpoint attacked the unidentified objects.
On the display, the probes touched the wormhole and then immediately began accelerating back toward the Raptor. Jonathan wasn’t even sure if they had passed through.
“Looks a bit deceptive, doesn’t it?” Robert said. “Makes you wonder if Valor actually sent the probes through.”
“He sent them,” Jonathan said. “He has no reason to lie at this point. He’s just as fully invested in humanity as we are in him.”
“Or so he has led us to believe,” Robert said. “Never forget the treachery that led to the destruction of the Elk homeworld.”
“I don’t intend to,” Jonathan said. “One of the United Systems greatest infamies? One that I knowingly took part in? I won’t ever forget.”
Barrick tapped in. “Captain Dallas, we have the results from the snapshot.”
“Speak, Barrick,” Jonathan said, extending the comm feed to his first officer, and Miko.
“You’re not going to like this,” Barrick said. “But there are no amassed units. No reinforcements. Instead, we’re seeing signs of a one-sided attack. Complete and total obliteration of United Systems property, once again.”
Jonathan couldn’t believe it. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“No, Captain,” Barrick said. “The sole colonized world in Gliese 581, the pleasure planet Rius, has had its habitation domes shattered. In the upper atmosphere, the wreckages of starships and defense platforms descend in different decaying orbits, slowly burning up. More debris is scattered throughout the system: mining colonies, and the mercenary ships hired to defend them. There are no vessels, United Systems or otherwise, intact anywhere. And of the six Slipstreams, only the one that eventually leads to Earth still has a Gate in place. The rest have vanished. There is no return Gate to Beta Ursae Majoris.”
Jonathan informed the vice admiral and then he sat back to think.
Gliese 581 was a bit of an oddity in that it had six Slipstreams. The first and second led to
Sino-Korean space, the third and fourth to Franco-Italian space, and the last two United Systems space: Beta Ursae Majoris and Sirius—Earth was two jumps away via the latter. Those six wormholes made Gliese 581 a trade hub of sorts, as they opened up routes with the Sino-Koreans on the one side and the Franco-Italians on the other.
The space station Europa, in orbit above Rius, had been a famous port of call for space-faring merchants. Banks and lenders had opened hundreds of branches aboard the station; because of that, deals could be conducted for vast quantities of goods and financed on the spot, and then when the negotiating was done, the participants could descend to the planet and celebrate, availing themselves to all the illicit pleasures Rius provided.
Jonathan activated his noise canceler around Robert and Miko.
“Why is the system so quiet?” Jonathan said. “Reinforcements should have at least come from the Franco-Italians, or even the Sino-Koreans. Assuming that the Gates on the other side haven’t been destroyed.”
“Maybe reinforcements already came,” Robert said. “And the Raptor is reporting the aftermath of that.”
“Could Valor or Barrick be lying?” Miko said.
“Why would either of them lie now?” Jonathan said. “When they’ve told us the truth up until this point?”
“Remember what we talked about,” Robert said. “The treachery against the Elk homeworld...”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Jonathan said. “Even so, lying doesn’t make all that much sense at this point. I’m going to assume they’re telling the truth.”
“Well, here’s something else to consider,” Miko said. “The systems beyond all six Slipstreams might look exactly like what we’ve already seen. Consider for a moment, what if every human colony has been destroyed, regardless of their government or nationality. Sino-Korean. Franco-Italian. Russian. All gone. Maybe even Earth is gone...”
“It would be a disaster beyond comparison,” Jonathan said, not believing it. “Nothing in human history would even come close. We’d have to look at prehistory for an example—the extinction of the dinosaurs.”
