But they finally got their first look at an enemy ship. They were similar in size to Harbok ships, but the similarity ended there. The ships were shaped like arrow heads, narrow and sharp on the front, enlarging toward the aft end until they were several stories high. There were no fins or protuberances.
Language experts gathered all they could on transmissions from the surface and between ships, but there was little else to discover on this sad world. Everyone suspected that these creatures might once have been a thriving society, but now the Oort clearly dominated them.
Douglas gathered up his fleet and headed out. He waited another three months before jumping. Everyone jumped to a rendezvous point, the scouts came aboard, and they proceeded to the world at the end of the second line of vectors.
This time they discovered humans. They, too, had been taken over by the Oort. Great metropolises dotted the landscape, still in relatively good condition, and more machinery was in evidence. Air cars sped about, ships came and went sporadically, but the people themselves gave clear evidence of Oort’s domination. They found nothing in the way of entertainment, and the people went about whatever they were doing with little apparent interaction. It was another sad example of what became of great societies once the Oort took over. They came to calling these humans Oortmen.
Vast manufacturing facilities orbited the planet. Attached to these facilities, very large ships, on the order of prime ships, were under construction. Several completed ships were practicing maneuvers farther out in space. More ships of equal stature were inbound to the planet, their point of origin unknown. During the two months Douglas stayed in the system, these ships docked with those in orbit for days at a time, then left to return to wherever they had come from.
Douglas decided to follow them, but first, he badly wanted to study an Oort. A scout reported a single ship mining an asteroid with three people out on the surface wearing suits. Was this the opportunity he had been looking for?
They were far, far from Haldor and Ariall. If they were discovered, he believed the ramifications would be minor. Of more concern to him was keeping the Oort from infecting his ship. Ollie had said they swarmed. No one knew how they reproduced, but Douglas and Yarbo both envisioned the Oort exploding with babies that floated into the air of the ship, reaching all corners and infecting everyone.
Yarbo had not been idle during the voyage. He had expanded laboratory facilities that had been built for studying alien microorganisms into laboratories that could hold Oortmen. He equipped three empty rooms with negative air flow, he armored air filters, and he sealed up all entrances save one, an air lock with decontamination facilities.
Douglas decided to go for it. Five scouts took part in the operation. All crewmembers wore space suits, and they left the ships open to vacuum. They destroyed the miners’ ship, then they landed right next to three Oortmen on the surface of the asteroid. Nets went about them, and the captives were brought aboard one scout. That scout was brought to the prime ship, but it did not go aboard. The captives were tethered and hauled into a portable decontamination chamber beside the scout. The decontamination chamber was sterilized on the outside, then whisked away to the lab inside the prime ship. The three captives were released into the chamber built by Yarbo and left alone.
As for the scout, Yarbo insisted they take no chances. Douglas dispatched it without a crew toward their jump point far outside the system. He would destroy it there before his fleet jumped into hyperspace.
The operation took hours, and it did not go as cleanly as Douglas hoped. Soon after destroying the miners’ ship, other Oort ships turned in their direction. Douglas had no idea how the word got out, but the Oort knew they were there. His ships were too far inside the system to jump, so they headed out-system but in a direction away from their inbound course. A number of Oort ships headed toward them, including several big ones, though they did not seem organized. As days went by, they became organized, however, and a number of intercepts became possible.
Douglas did not want to fight, and he did not want his uncloaked ships to cloak, thereby divulging to the Oortmen that he had a cloaking capability. He angled his ships, five of them uncloaked and the rest cloaked, far above the plane of the ecliptic, leaving the trailing hordes with no possible intercepts. When they reached a comfortable jump point, much farther out than really necessary, the visible ships jumped. As soon as they did, the pursuers turned back. The Alliance ships under cloak changed their courses and continued outbound for another month before briefly dropping their cloaks and jumping.
Aboard Douglas’ prime ship, Yarbo fed and observed the captives. Several hours after capture, one removed his suit while the others watched. A little later, they too removed their suits. All of them were men, all of them were naked without the suits, and all of them carried Oort parasites about their shoulders. One sampled the food, but the others left it alone.
Within a day, nodules began forming on the Oort, and their human hosts became lethargic and stopped communicating among themselves. Yarbo had not yet attempted to communicate with them. The nodules increased in size and number until the bodies of the Oort were covered in bumps. Yarbo was very nervous about this as he was certain the bumps were new Oort.
The bumps stopped growing after a few hours. Yarbo spent days attempting to communicate with the creatures, but they ignored him.
When the ship jumped, the captives jerked, suggesting that they knew. A few days later, the Oort on their shoulders began changing color from a healthy brown to a dull gray. Hours later, the Oort and their hosts died. Suited An’Atee and the necessary equipment entered the chamber to begin the unpleasant work of dissecting the remains. Yarbo was particularly interested in learning how the Oort attached themselves to the humans and what mechanism they used to control their hosts.
Despite the complexity of the operation to capture the Oort, it had been a failure. Very little had been learned about the Oort or their hosts. Worse, the Oort now knew that someone was searching for them.
Douglas had a decision to make. He had not discovered the home of the Oort, but he felt like it was time to return to Ariall, at least briefly, to disseminate what he had learned during the mission and to warn the Alliance that the Oort might be on the lookout for newcomers within their domain. Douglas and his fleet had been gone for six years, not at all outside the original parameters given to him for the mission, but a long time nevertheless.
In the end, temptation got the better of him. He decided to learn where the ships visiting the Oortmen were coming from. It would not take long. Between all the inbound and outbound ships, there should be one in view for at least brief periods of time even if they made only short jumps.
But it didn’t happen that way. No new ships came to the system they had just left, and the ships that were there stayed there.
Douglas decided to call it off. His fleet turned for Ariall, traveling quickly with their improved jump capabilities. A week into the voyage, they discovered a very large fleet of ships tracking away from the system of rat people. They went back into their tracking routine. After several days, it became apparent that this fleet was headed in the general direction of Harbok space. Douglas knew intuitively that another invasion was in the making, but to which world were these ships headed?
He dispatched a scout to Ariall with the news. He continued sending updates every two days, narrowing the destination of the horde even further. After two more weeks, he identified the target system as Hostrum, a Harbok world. He dispatched a final ship to Ariall with the news, while he prepared his fleet for battle.
When they reached the target world, Douglas saw that his ships were not needed. The message must have gotten through in time, because a massive fleet of Harbok and Alliance ships intercepted the Oort. The attack was a complete rout.
Douglas turned again for Ariall. When he dropped from hyperspace, numerous An’Atee ships patrolled the system. Greg was away, but he was expected back soon.
And it was soon.
A fleet of An’Atee ships materialized in space a few days behind Douglas. He slowed to allow Greg to come aboard.
A huge grin lit Greg’s face as he embraced Douglas. “Good work, sir,” he said.
Douglas, too, was grinning. “It’s been a remarkable voyage. We’re not done yet, but we made some headway. We’re just taking a short break.”
“A well-deserved break. You have no idea what you’ve done for the Alliance. I’ll brief you later, but first I’d like to thank your crews. Personally.”
“No problem. We won’t reach Ariall for weeks.”
Greg spent time on each of the prime ships. When they reached Ariall, Douglas, Gertie, and Greg assembled at Greg and Arlynn’s home. Grayson and Angie Tolland, just back from the battle for Hostrum, joined them. Arlynn was present, as were Kannick, Danaria, Jemara, and Ollie.
Emily, now 24 years old and an ensign with Grayson’s fleet, had graduated from the academy and had still not returned from the battle at Hostrum, though she was expected back soon.
Chapter Thirty
Douglas gave the group an unofficial briefing of his activities. The official briefing would take place before a larger group and would take days.
Greg could not contain his enthusiasm. During the past two years, Douglas had first sent the modified scout back to Ariall, then his baseship brought back the plans for maneuvering in hyperspace. The ability to see in hyperspace had already changed things dramatically for the Alliance. The last battle was a perfect example. Hostrum, primarily a farming world with few defenses, would have succumbed without the warning, and Lor Tas’val was keenly aware of this. He had begun openly questioning Greg about what it would mean to join the Alliance. Most Harbok were not yet in agreement with him, but this last attack by the Oort would convert more of them. Harbok admirals were nowhere near ready to relinquish control of their fleets, but Tas’val was working on them by rotating them through duty on Ariall and with Grayson.
Ollie had been promoted to ambassador, and he directed all Harbok interaction with the Alliance. He was not yet a member of the Alliance, and he would not be until Tas’val agreed to join, but he had become a respected leader for both sides.
“We’re on track, Douglas,” Greg said as he fiddled with the barbecue in his back yard.
“We haven’t found the Oort home world yet,” Douglas said. “We believe fighters are built on the first world we visited, and command ships come from the second. I imagine they have other facilities on other worlds as well. There is supposition that the crews even come from somewhere else, possibly the world we were tracking down when we decided to take a break.”
Ollie spoke up. “That information must be kept within a very small circle,” he said. “There will be no stopping my people from attacking these worlds if they learn where they are.”
“We can’t keep it from them forever. We’ve stationed your men among our fleets as observers. They’ll hear,” Greg said.
“I’ll deal with them,” Ollie said with a grim smile. “We want to take the war to the Oort, not the hosts the Oort have taken over, and we haven’t found where the Oort come from yet. Taking action at this time would not only warn them, it would make the job of tracking them down infinitely harder. You may have already tipped your hand,” he said, looking gravely to Douglas.
“I may have,” Douglas agreed. “It was a risk, and very possibly a mistake.”
“What have you learned about the Oort from your samples?” Ollie demanded.
“Not much that you and I care about. The scientists, on the other hand, have reams of data and are ecstatic, though Yarbo is disappointed that the creatures died. We have no concrete data on why they died. As near as we can tell, they were fine up until the jump. Yarbo is not one to speculate, but it was pretty apparent that until then they were quite healthy. The decline began immediately after the jump.”
“What does that tell him?”
“You told us there’s evidence pointing to the fact that the Oort communicate telepathically. This adds credence to that supposition. They may have to remain in contact with some stronger controlling mind. It’s pure speculation, but three things jump out at us. First, the moment we captured the Oortmen, the rest of the ships in the system knew we were there. Our captives’ suits did not have radios with that kind of range. Second, when the jump severed their connection with the planet, the Oort died, as did their hosts. Third, we found no speech mechanism within the Oort bodies. Yarbo and Nessaka are looking for alternative explanations for what happened, but they haven’t come up with any yet. Those Oortmen seemed perfectly healthy before we jumped.”
“If they communicate telepathically, I wonder what they might have learned about us?” Ollie asked.
“Not a lot. They know our general shape, though they never saw any of us without suits on, and they saw the outsides of our ships. They might know we are not Harbok, but only if they noted our size. The room they were in had one-way vision only. Unless they could read our minds, they got nothing once they were in the habitat.”
“Could they have read your minds?” Ollie asked in horror.
“There’s no way to tell,” Douglas said. “None of us felt anything peculiar, and it’s not how the creatures communicate with their hosts. We suspect it’s an Oort to Oort link only.”
“How do they communicate with their hosts?” Ollie asked.
Sensitive to how Ollie’s family had fallen to the Oort, Douglas chose his words carefully. “They connect to the spinal cord and brain with millions of nerve tendrils. The scientists can probably give you a better explanation.”
“I find it sad that once the Oort die, so does their host. It does not bode well for others under their control if we ever find a way to disconnect them.”
No one had anything to say on that score.
Grayson’s eyes took on a faraway look. “They’re decent fighters but not great fighters,” he said, “and the worlds they take over deteriorate over time despite higher individual productivity. I wonder if we’re dealing with a bunch of creatures more similar to bees or ants than to us. Could they be controlled by a queen somewhere?”
“An interesting observation,” Douglas said. “Yarbo jumped on that one right away. There’s absolutely no evidence either way, but it’s hard to imagine such creatures as these ever getting into space on their own. If they are hive creatures, we need to identify and capture one of the queens. We don’t have a clue how to go about doing so. I’m wondering if we should bring a bigger fleet with us on our next voyage. We might be able to probe a little harder.”
Ollie coughed into his fist, his eyes glittering in anguish at Douglas. Softly, at least softly for a Harbok, he said, “You must not remove this menace from the galaxy without Harbok help.”
Douglas nodded his understanding. “You have definitely earned the right to do that, whatever ‘that’ ends up being. Moreover, you’ve earned the right to participate in the chase. I would welcome a contingent of Harbok scientists and officers on my next voyage, provided we get the right people. I can’t have them going off on their own, and they’ll have to agree to submit to my command.”
Ollie looked grateful. “I’ll see to it. As an act of good will, it would carry a lot of weight. How much time do I have?”
Douglas looked at Greg who shrugged his shoulders without replying, leaving the decision to Douglas. “I’m thinking a few months,” Douglas said. “My people deserve a break, and some of us have to shift back to my baseship. I’ve been told it’s been modified to keep up with my prime ships. And, I need to think about what we’re going to do next. We have a lot of options. If you’d like, we can stop off at Haldor on the way to pick up some of your people.”
“Not Haldor,” Ollie stated with finality. “We’re abandoning Haldor. It no longer serves a useful purpose. With your new ability to warn us, it won’t matter what worlds the Oort choose to attack. Alliance fleets will be waiting for them.”
Douglas and Grayson both raised their eyebrows. �
��There’s a lot of space out there,” Grayson noted. “Is it possible to guard against attack from any direction?”
“Not yet, but Greg’s scientists assure me it will be soon.”
“You said Alliance fleets,” Douglas said carefully. “Do you consider the Harbok part of the organization?”
“No, but in addition to our treaty of cooperation with the An’Atee, the Lor signed a memorandum of understanding with the Alliance. Grayson is already practicing maneuvers and tactics with our Harbok forces.”
Greg added, “We’re designing ships that will hold mixed crews, Douglas. It might not work, in which case we’ll think of something else, but by the time you return from your next voyage, don’t be surprised to see Harbok, An’Atee and sailors from Earth working together aboard ships.”
“And what’s going on with Earth?” Douglas asked.
“Progress is slow there. We sent a contingent of An’Atee scientists to Earth. They’re blending in nicely, and they’ve given away a few ‘discoveries’ that will improve life on the planet. A couple of crop modifications have been introduced, as have some ideas on more efficient energy production. That’s all for now. We’ve been instructed to let things settle down for a while.”
“Who’s in charge?”
“The same group Dave started with, though it’s grown. By the way, we’ve sent enough ships that I consider Earth completely defended. Time is not as critical now, so we’re letting them set their own path to the stars.”
Genesis Page 32
