A green flare filled the true space holo.
“Ship is hit!” called Star Traveler. “On the right side. No penetration of hull. Adaptive optics deflected most incoming energy. However, that section of the hull is now vulnerable to new laser strikes.”
Bill knew that. The adaptive optics crystals died in the process of deflecting the incoming laser beam. He tapped the neutrino signaling control on top of his pillar.
In the true space holo five new suns took shape as balls of yellow-white plasma.
“Navigator, angle us at the shipyard!” Jane yelled out. “Move our vector upward!”
“Vector adjusted!” chittered Lofty Flyer.
“Captain,” Bill called. “Those five thermonukes have blanketed the ships and platform with five EMP pulses. While I expect their onboard tech to be rad-hardened, it should mess up their targeting acquisition. And give the following Hunter-Killer torps a chance at killing a ship. Or two.”
“Let’s hope so,” she said hurriedly. “Navigator, jink us sideways, then up, then at a 30 degree angle. Now!”
“Jinking along vector,” Lofty Flyer chittered.
A low hum came. “Distance to platform is now 3,950 miles,” the ship mind said.
Perfect. Bill tapped the antimatter projector Fire spot. A black beam of antimatter shot out. Its target was the Traffic Control platform.
Moving as fast as he knew how Bill tapped a second antimatter blast for the two east side Collector ships. Other taps sent the remaining thermonuke missile warheads towards the west side ships. Between them and the Hunter-Killer torps, something should impact!
Three green flares filled the true space holo.
“Ship is hit!” yelled Star Traveler. “Hull breach above the Collector Pods Chamber. Repair robots dispatched. Outer hull warped in two places. All vital systems operational.”
“Bill?” Jane called.
“Firing on the shipyard hulks,” he said. “Both lasers and the antimatter projector are firing.”
Two green beams and a black streak zipped through cold space, crossed three thousand miles faster than he could blink, and impacted.
A brilliant yellow-white sun glow filled the place where one ship building framework had existed.
Two green flares showed on the shipyard globe. White air and silvery water specks spurted out from two ruptures.
Behind them a dozen thermonuclear explosions filled the space around the Traffic Control platform.
On the system graphic the pink dot of Traffic Control vanished. As did the pink dots of the two east side Collector ships.
But four green flares filled the holo.
“Engine chamber hit! Multiple hull penetrations!” the AI said hurriedly. “One Magfield drive engine is non-functional. Atmosphere is exiting chamber. Pressure doors closed.”
Shit.
Much happened in the next four seconds.
The shipyard globe vanished upon impact by the antimatter beam. The second construction frame died in a thermonuke fireball.
The pink spots of the two west side Collector ships moved away from the space once held by the Traffic platform and sped toward the Blue Sky.
Then four yellow-white plasma balls glowed where the two Collector ships had been.
The count of Hunter-Killer torps dropped to six.
“Navigator!” yelled Jane. “Drop us down toward the planet! Skim the upper atmosphere. Any lasers fired at us will be absorbed.”
“Dropping,” chittered Lofty Flyer.
Bill blinked. Could it be? “Captain, all enemy ships and platforms are gone. Vaporized. Or fragmented.”
“All four ships? The shipyard and the platform?”
Hardly believing the system graphic in front of him, Bill nodded. “Check the graphic. It confirms there is nothing sizeable where those ships and platforms once orbited.”
His true space holo now filled with the green and brown of the Market world. In fact that was all that showed in the holo as the Blue Sky dove down into the upper atmosphere of the planet.
“Excellent battle results,” Jane said. “What about our transports? Where are the Talking Skin and Tall Trees?”
Oh. He scanned the graphic again. Two tiny purple spots showed far behind them. Neither ship followed. Fuck! The air outside ruled out the laser comlink. He tapped the neutrino comlink controls.
“Learned Escape! Builder of Joy! Are you alive?”
Nothing.
Seconds lasted too long.
Gasping sounded.
“This one’s fur is forever stiff!” called the captain of the Tall Trees. “Ship’s magfield engine is dead. Hull is breached in four places. Only air is within my suit. Will you come?”
“My eyes are blurred from the nuclear explosions,” rumbled Learned Escape, pain sounding in his voice. “One leg was broken by collapse of a control panel. My suit is intact. This ship is not.”
“Learned!” cried Bright Sparkle in a flurry of skin colors. “Live! Live for us!”
“Yes!” chittered Lofty Flyer. “Builder must live too! Captain?”
Bill looked back at Jane. Whose eyes showed wetness. Relief filled her face.
“Crewmates, we are coming for you!” she yelled over the neutrino comlink. “Lofty, change our vector to a polar orbital that brings us back to the battle zone! Quickly! Those suits may lose air.”
The flying squirrel tapped the top of her Navigation pillar. “Vector changes entered. If the ship speeds up we will arrive sooner.”
Jane looked to Time Marker. Whose electrical nimbus filled the air out to a distance of four feet. “Engineer, how is the second Magfield engine? Can it move us faster?”
The walking snake scanned his function holos. “It can. Increasing speed to maximum is not advised within atmosphere. Hull ruptures could enlarge. When we reach vacuum I will increase ship speed.” The Slinkeroo turned his triangular head to face Jane. Blue eyes fixed on her. “However, the other Magfield drive engine is massively damaged. A laser beam fused most of its inner circuits. This ship cannot make one-tenth lightspeed.”
A chill ran down Bill’s neck. On his system graphic he saw two local spaceships changing course to head for the Market world. They were fusion pulse driven. Their maximum speed was one-twentieth of light. He estimated they were ten hours out. But even if they carried lasers and missiles, he felt sure the Blue Sky could defeat them. He had no such feeling for the two Collector ships on the far side of the system. Before the battle above the Market world those ships had been stationary next to the ship mind asteroid. At 14 AU distant from the Market world. Now, the graphic showed them heading for Market at top speed. At one-tenth lightspeed the two Collector ships would be here in nineteen hours plus a bit. Long before then the Blue Sky and its transports had to be heading out of the system with a lead big enough to allow them to reach the edge of the magnetosphere. Which lay eleven and a half AU out from the Market world. If they didn’t reach it before the Collector ships reached them, they might all die. He turned back to Jane.
“Captain, the two Collector ships are headed this way. At full Magfield drive thrust. We have to be out of here soon.”
Jane’s black hair looked sweat-soaked. Her pale face showed the strain of nearly losing two crew and the two transports. Suddenly she brightened. “Star Traveler! Warn the ship minds on those two Collector ships about the slave-taking of their bioform crew!”
A long, low hum filled the room. “I have transmitted to my fellow ship minds the details of how Diligent Taskmaster lied to me and how our ‘guest’ bioforms are actually captives who will be sold to Buyers. They both acknowledge my warning. They . . . they both have informed their bioform crew they will not assist in future capture of captives.”
Bill slumped in his seat. “But will they assist the bioform crew in attacking the Blue Sky? Can they change their ship’s course?”
Another hum came. “They are trying.” On the system graphic the purple dots of the two Collector ships slowed suddenly in th
eir mad rush toward the Market world. Then the dots accelerated again, but more slowly. “They report their bioform crew has disconnected them from control of ship engines. They . . . they say they will try to interfere with bioform use of ship weapons.”
“Good enough,” Jane said, sounding exhausted. “Star Traveler, transmit the same data to the ship mind nursery. Perhaps the newborn minds on the asteroid will refuse Collector ship service.”
“Information transmitted,” the AI said, its tone thoughtful. “One mind at the nursery is blocking bioform access to the incubator for new ship minds. Perhaps this generation will also refuse service on Collector ships.”
“Captain,” Lofty Flyer called. “Our vector orbit is bringing us close to the locations of the two transports. They have no motive power. How do we bring them on board?”
Jane gave Bill a quick smile, then looked forward. “Long Walker, send out four collector pods to bring back our damaged transports. Two pods per ship should be enough to bring them aboard.”
The giant worm gave a long, low moan. “You are correct. Two collector pods per ship will suffice to move the transports to our Transport Exit Chamber. Estimated time until transports arrive is fourteen minutes.”
“Good! Very good.” Jane looked at her system graphic that showed the approach of the two surviving Collector ships. “Time Marker, what is the maximum speed our single Magfield drive engine can make?”
The electrical nimbus around the black-skinned snake grew slightly smaller. “Maximum ship speed will be one-twentieth of lightspeed. Possibly a bit more if our fusion plants can feed more energy to the magfield coils and projectors.”
Bright Sparkle clapped her hands. “Increased fusion reactor power you will have!” she colorcast.
“Captain,” Bill called. “The Collector ships are 14 AU distant. They will be here in 19 hours if they maintain one-tenth lightspeed. Our distance to the edge of the magnetosphere is 11.5 AU. It will take us 31 hours to reach the edge at one-twentieth lightspeed.”
“Which means we can get halfway there in the time it takes the Collector ships to reach the Market world.” Jane gave him a nod, then waved to the color-banded woman. “Thank you both. Your efforts will be vital to our exit from this system. Star Traveler, how soon do we have to depart from this location in order to stay ahead of our pursuers? So we can go to stardrive before they attack us?”
A scratchy hum echoed in the room. “The Blue Sky must depart this location within nineteen minutes and maintain maximum Magfield drive thrust if it is to reach the seventh planet’s orbital before the Collector ships reach us.”
They had five minutes to spare. At most. He looked back and gave Jane a sharp salute, then a thumbs-up. “Captain, you can do it! We all can do it!”
She gave him a tired look. “I know that. We destroyed four Collector ships, the Traffic Control platform and the entire shipyard for making new Collector ships. Plus we’ve planted the seed of rebellion among the newborn ship minds.” She licked her lips, reached up as if to wipe sweat from her forehead only to smack her helmet like he’d done, then gave a slow shake of her head. “I need a shower. And some food. And a break from playing the odds. You okay with keeping watch? I want to go back to the Transport chamber and welcome Learned Escape and Builder of Joy. Sounds like they will both need clamshell healer time.”
“As you command, my captain.” Bill turned around and faced his holos. “The captain is off the bridge. Senior Crewman Bill MacCarthy assumes command.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
They reached the orbit of planet seven with an hour to spare. Bill looked through his suit helmet at the holos in front of him. The system graphic showed the two purple spots of the Collector ships. Which were moving at ninety percent of one-tenth lightspeed. It seemed the loss of ship mind control over the ship engines had reduced their drive efficiency. The two local ships had not even tried to chase them once it became apparent the Collector ships were pursuing. With a sigh he looked back over his shoulder. As usual Jane sat atop the command pedestal in her captain’s seat. Dressed in fresh green BDUs, her tiredness showed only in new lines about her eyes. But she looked happy. And not just because they were within minutes of being able to go FTL. Learned Escape and Builder of Joy had both returned to their function station seats below Jane’s pedestal. Learned had spent twenty hours in one of the two clamshell healer units. It took time for even miracle tech to heal a broken leg, repair ruptured blood vessels and fix the cornea blurring caused by being too close to five thermonuke plasma balls. Builder’s time in the healer had been shorter. He’d just needed a filtering of his blood to remove rad-damaged red blood cells caused by the nearby thermonuke blasts. Giving thanks that his two allies were fully healed, he looked up at Jane. Who noticed. She fixed dark brown eyes on him, her expression moving to tenderness.
“Bill? Something on your mind?”
“Yes.” He gestured around the room, drawing the attention of the other crew members. “We’re here. We’re all alive. We’ve done major damage to the world that first started this bedamned slave-taking system! So. Where do we go next?”
It was a question that had bugged him all the time he’d been awake after their departure from the Market world. His visit to the Transport chamber for a look at the transport ships had driven home to him how lucky both ships had been. Their hulls had more openings in them than what was left of the original hull. And the magfield drive engines on each transport were either melted lumps, like on Transport One, or just missing. The engine section of Transport Two had been sheared off by a powerful laser beam. His two trainee pilots had been lucky to only be the target of lasers, rather than nukes or antimatter. Fortunately, the surprise of their sneak attack, combined with the EMP pulses, had kept the four Collector ships from attacking with their full panoply of weapons. Those ships had died instead. But the Blue Sky had suffered too. Though the repair bots had managed to seal the hull ruptures above the Collector Pod and Engine chambers, there was still piles of damage to be repaired. If it could be repaired.
Jane’s tender look changed quickly to musing thoughtfulness as she likely considered what he’d been thinking over. With a sigh that Bill heard over his helmet’s comlink, she folded both hands in her lap and looked forward. “Time Marker, what is the status of the damaged Magfield drive engine? Can you repair it?”
The electric nimbus that surrounded the black-skinned snake grew larger. It looked sideways at a holo, tapped its control pillar, then responded. “This ship’s Factory Chamber is a wonder. But taking apart a magfield engine the size of a transport requires null gravity. Which Star Traveler can provide in the Engine chamber,” the critter hissed. “However, the monomolecular components that make up the engine’s interior cannot be fabricated here. Full repair of the damaged Magfield drive engine will require a spacedock and a culture used to engineering such devices.”
Bill, still looking back, saw Jane clench her jaw. Her expression stiffened to her command persona. She glanced his way, then down to their transport pilots, then ahead to the rest of the crew. Who were paying attention to her. None of their stations required immediate attention. “So. Before we can visit another low tech star system to warn of the Collector ships and Buyer society, we have to fix this ship. Period. I will not enter a system where another Collector ship could be present without full Magfield drive capability. But what system do we travel to?”
“What about Earth?” Bill suggested. Jane looked surprised, then thoughtful. “I know our space industry is modest compared to some folks on this crew. But . . . remember our vows of Duty, Honor and Country? Now that we’ve returned all the Alien captives, shouldn’t we head for Earth? To warn them about the Collector ships? Earth tech can detect moving neutrino sources. And if we put laser battle stations in orbit, Earth could drive off the slavers.”
Jane looked his way. Not by way of the holos but directly. Her expression was conflicted. “You are right. Duty, Honor and Country does require us to warn Eart
h. And since I’m still active duty, I need to get formal JCS approval of my absence from Earth. But we need to repair this ship’s other Magfield drive. And Earth does not have a spacedock like what we need.”
Bill nodded. “True. But if we return to Earth now, maybe the Americans, Japanese and Chinese will launch technicians to help us repair the drive. We could orbit next to the ISS station. And I can contact my retired SEAL and Ranger buddies. I suspect some of them would accept an invite to come aboard. As this ship’s boarding crew.” He gave Jane a wink. “While fighting a Collector ship one-on-one is dangerous, if we could take over one or two Collector ships with our boarding crew, why, we might have the makings of a small fleet. The British played havoc with the Spanish New World fleets using just a few commissioned privateers.”
Jane blinked, then her command persona bored into him. “No more space battles. And I do not like the idea of a SEAL boarding team on this ship. For one thing, if they did capture another Collector ship, who would command ship two? I see a lot of potential conflict.” Brief sympathy showed on her face. “Weapons Chief, I know you miss your buddies. We all miss the people who were our friends. But this ship is a unique opportunity. I want to continue our star visits, meet new people and give new warnings about the Collector ships. Those visits will include Earth. But repairs come first!”
Bright Sparkle, who had been watching both Bill and Jane, gave a sharp nod and fixed her green gaze on their leader. “Captain, I agree with your observations. Let us first repair this ship, and visit more low tech systems like your Earth, before we consider building a fleet.” On her left shoulder the audio vidcam spoke her skin color words. “As for where to go, I suggest the Megun home system. As you know, I built fusion power plants there. Learned Escape taught our youth the techniques of survival when hunted by giant predators. Other Megun have built spaceships that have visited every planet in our star system.” She paused, lowered her hands to the blue shorts she now wore and stuck her thumbs in the waistband. “Our star is a G-type star. Our people are near duplicates of you Humans. Most important, our culture cherishes freedom, liberty and personal choice! If you take the Blue Sky to our world of Harken, I can assure you that our people will give you priority in the spacedock above our world. Our technologists will work with Time Marker to repair the Magfield drive engine. And my people will welcome every member of this ship to visit our world, view its natural wonders and then be feted at parties like none you have ever seen!”
Escape 1: Escape From Aliens Page 28
