At first Tom could hardly comprehend what he saw. The pits were filled with Gath bodies being burned. There were thousands of them. General Solokov shook his head sadly, “it’s about all we can do. The tunnels are filled with them; this installation alone, once it’s fully reduced, will result in 20,000 to 25,000 bodies, maybe many more. Most installations will just be sealed, but since we plan to use this one it has to be cleared.”
Adding, "since this was apparently the headquarters and command center, and is near New Athens, it has a lot of good space available."
Now Tom followed General Solokov down the low, broad corridor. He found it difficult not to keep his head bent, instinctively wanting to keep it a distance from the slightly over two meter high ceiling. The rooms and corridors of the underground installations were somewhat claustrophobic for a person of Tom's height, built as they were to the scale of the short, blocky Gath. Floors, walls, and ceilings were lined with a dark metal, interspersed with panels that emitted a dim, greenish light. When he first came in Tom felt compelled to touch the panels, expecting warmth, but there wasn't any. The lights gave off no heat; like the phosphorescence of a firefly. The air in the passages had been restored to surface-normal from the low-oxygen mix preferred by the Gath, so masks were no longer necessary. While it may have seemed like home to creatures who had lived underground for all their lives like the Gath, it made Tom long for the surface.
As they proceeded downward they met marines in full battle garb, facemasks hanging down on their chests, returning from the lower levels, or in some cases encountered fresh groups of marines headed down from the outside. Other workmen in coveralls drove carts filled with Gath bodies loaded from the lower levels headed for the surface.
Tom had never before been inside one of the Gath installations, and recognized how remarkable they really were. Large caverns contained equipment to modify and recycle the air to fit the lower oxygen levels for Gath use, some contained large distilleries for water purification, others contained hydroponic gardens for growing food supplies, while still others were filled with now-idle manufacturing equipment. Some large, high ceilinged chambers were crammed with crates of supplies left by the Gath. At the fringes, away from the main core, thousands of small rooms provided residences for the occupants. It was a complete, self-contained environment for the Gath.
Tom had been told by General Solokov this particular installation extended for over a kilometer in each direction, by far the largest they had found, and contained twelve levels, only ten of which had been cleared of Gath. From the number of residence rooms, and from body counts of the dead Gath, it was estimated this one facility had once housed a population of well over 50,000. As far as he could see, and this was verified by General Solokov, the underground cities allowed the Gath to take care of all their needs, except, he was told, the occasional trips to the surface to mine for raw materials.
This was the last of the major Gath installations that hadn't been fully reduced, and was located less than ten kilometers from the old colonial center of New Athens. Not only was it the last, but from its size was most likely the command center where the Gath planetary government had taken refuge. Now, before the last of the Gath here were destroyed, they wanted to make a final attempt to contact their leadership if it still existed.
Tom Ford had been assigned the task of attempting contact; which was why he was here. In the lowest level some Gath remained alive, and it was suspected they might be the remnants of their local government. Admiral Lundblad, while already on his way to Beta 3, felt the time might come when Gath intermediaries to contact the Beta 3 leadership would be useful, and for that reason he wanted the Gath leaders of Alpha 2 to be safeguarded if at all possible. If they could be captured they were to be transported to one of the motherships slated for later assignment to Beta 3.
Level by level the marines had worked their way down, wiping out all defenders on each level by use of the methods they had developed at the smaller installations. Here, since they wanted to preserve as much as possible for their own use, they avoided atomics and relied strictly on gas. As the marines gained control of one level, they just sealed off the next level and bored holes to pump gas under pressure to the level below. After a time entry was forced and that level occupied, the gas replaced with fresh air, and the step repeated for the next level, with teams of workers transporting the heavy bodies to the surface for disposal. Tom had seen earlier how that was done.
Now they had reached the tenth level, and the instrumentation showed two levels remained; much smaller than the previous ten. The level immediately below consisted of a single medium sized room, and below that several separate rooms of smaller size.
Reaching the end of the passageway the marines accompanying them stopped and lowered their boxes of equipment to the floor. A civilian technician opened the pack he was carrying and took out some equipment, placing it on the floor, making room for Tom to kneel next to him. Taking several cables from the pack Tom fastened them to the box, and fastened the other end to the hatchway leading to the next level.
Their computers had finally cracked the basics of the Gath language by recording all sounds from the few Gath they had succeeded in capturing, and had gained some insight into how the language operated, but up to now direct communication had been impossible. The humans couldn't speak, or even hear, at the low frequency levels of much of Gath speech, just as the Gath were unable to speak or hear at the higher range of human hearing. However, they had finally reached the point where enough of the Gath language was understood that by use of a rudimentary electronic translator they thought they could try communication.
This was their first attempt, and crude though the translator was, they hoped it was good enough to allow them to get their ideas across.
Tom put on one of the headsets and listened as the technician turned up the volume. Random English words mixed with gibberish came out as the machine detected the Gath rumbling from the other side of the hatchway, mixed with conversations of the marines from the level above carried through the solid structure, but nothing that would constitute a cohesive phrase. Tom instructed the marines above be ordered to remain silent, and with some adjustment by the technician more understandable words came through, but most of the sounds still translated as gibberish. At a sign from the technician, Tom began to speak into the mouthpiece, slowly repeating over and over the simple phrase, "we want to talk to the pair that is number one and two among you."
That the message was being heard by the Gath was clear; the sounds that had previously been coming through the translator from the other side ceased. At first there was no result, but each time the phrase was repeated its translation into Gath should become more accurate and complete.
In their quarters at the lower level of the complex Gath-Tuk-1 and Gath-Tuk-2 listened to the Gath pair that had been allowed to enter. It had been weeks since there had been any contact with the other Alpha 2 installations, and much longer than that since any word had been heard from their homeworld. Even now the aliens were fighting their way downward in this their final refuge, and within days, if not hours, it would all end.
It had all started badly when the aliens appeared unexpectedly to destroy their defenses on the moon. Then the speed with which their moon defenses were overcome was shocking. And everything they tried backfired, as an example their attempt to distract the enemy by attacking the islands.
Gath-Tuk-1 and 2 both felt a sense of defeat. When their predecessors had been called back to Gath they had been left in charge, and promoted to their present rank. That had given them formal responsibility for defending Alpha 2 from the aliens, and they had failed. Both they, and their entire clan, faced reduction is status. Their troops had fought well, but the alien forces always did the unexpected. If their troops launched an attack, the aliens would be gone. If they retreated to their defenses, the aliens would attack elsewhere. If they launched their ships to oppose the alien airships, they simply faded away, and they and t
he big ships in orbit destroyed their hangers so his ships couldn't land. They could no longer send out patrols, since they were hunted and killed by the Kraa packs.
The troops he had positioned on the surface to protect their underground installations were also decimated by fire from the huge ships in orbit. Even in these underground installations, where they thought they would be safe, the alien forces had succeeded in forcing their way downward level by level, using gas to wipe out the defenseless Gath troops. They, and the leadership on Gath, had seriously underestimated the aliens.
What to do now? The aliens were trying to talk to them, but the message was unclear. While only part of the message could be understood, it sounded like the aliens wanted to talk to him and Gath-Tuk-2. If that was really their message, why did they want to talk now? They were defeated and the aliens could easily destroy them and their few remaining troops. Well, there was nothing more to lose. If they wanted to talk, he didn't object, although he could see little reason for it.
Gath-Tuk-1 gave instructions to send a message agreeing to talk to the aliens, and he and Gath-Tuk 2 rose and lumbered to the corridor leading to the control room above.
Later that day . . . .
Tom and his team had set up a permanent installation near the bulkhead doors to the eleventh level which the Gath still occupied. The sensors for the translator had been improving its translation with each conversation, and with the linguists brought down to help, and the hardwired link to the surface tied into the transmission link to computers of the motherships, considerable progress had been made in fleshing out their understanding of how best to communicate their message and understand the response. They had reached the point where the 'cryptic' communications of earlier in the day had advanced to conversations that could now be reasonably well understood.
Part of the problem was making the Gath understand what they wanted. The Gath didn't understand the implications of making peace. On Alpha 2 they had simply destroyed, or tried to destroy, all undesirable life forms. That seemed to be the natural thing to do. Making a treaty with one of those undesirable life forms, and possible co-existence within a set of rules, was a new concept. But in time they understood what was involved.
The Gath at first insisted on staying in the main facility where they were presently located, but that was unacceptable; the colonists wanted it for their own use. Instead they were offered one of the smaller complexes further to the east where most of their survivors could be moved. There they could live out their lives as they liked as long as they made no attempt to expand; but the leaders themselves would be transported back to Beta 3 with the fleet. The Gath seemed receptive, but trust had not reached the point where the bulkhead door could be opened.
CHAPTER 9: Beta 3
(On Beta 3, late December, Alpha Year 52): The corridor was crowded with Gath hurrying to their assignments as Gath-1 and Gath-2 reached the conference room door, opened by the guard for their entrance. Inside the room, around the large table, sat the full council. Lumbering to the position left for them at the circular table, Gath 1 and 2 took their seats, the room remaining in almost complete silence. After a pause during which he spent studying the faces of the other Gath circling the table Gath-1 asked quietly for a summary of the latest information.
Without rising Gath-3 began reading from the papers in front of him, "most of the alien fleet at Tuk has left, and our sensors show it is headed here. We expect its arrival in about six months or less. We can’t project the exact date of arrival until they leave the acceleration phase. Since only ten of the fifteen ships are coming we presume some of our forces continue to fight."
Gath-1, snorted, before rumbling, "I know all that, idiot. What I want to know is how prepared are we? What of our defenses; how ready will they be when they arrive? How many attack ships to oppose them?"
Gath-3 looked nervously around before responding, "about 120 of the weapons platforms are ready now, and in six months we will have 60 more. The hangers won't be fully ready until late next fall, but we should be able to at least land attack ships on most within six months. However the equipment for refueling and rearming won't be fully ready. And we'll have over 5,000 attack ships ready to launch from the planet hangers."
Gath-1 looked at Gath-3 for several moments before responding. Then, "what good is it to land the ships if they can't be refueled or rearmed? Do you take me for a fool? Just say only the weapons platforms will be ready!"
Looking around the table, "is that number of weapons platforms and ships enough?"
Gath-3 raised his head and looked directly at Gath-1, "certainly. They bring only ten big ships, which can contain no more than 1-2 thousand of their fighting ships; many less than we have. Also, we have learned much about their ships, and ours are now much better that those we had on Tuk; and even those were better than the aliens had. With our superiority in ships and our weapons platforms we should be able to drive any of their ships away that we don't succeeding in destroying. And even if some survive, when they land troops they can't reach us here."
"And just why do you think we can destroy their motherships now? On Tuk we had no success at all."
Gath-3 nodded uncertainly, "they are very powerful; more powerful than anything we have. But we believe we can overwhelm them with our numbers.
Gath-1 just sat quietly for several minutes, before responding, "I hope you're right this time; but we underestimated the aliens before. If they didn't think they could win, why would they come?"
The meeting continued for several hours as the council reviewed how the aliens had managed to succeed on Alpha 2. They could be expected to do again what was successful before.
The Stockholm, early January, Alpha Year 53 . .
The high acceleration engines had been turned off the previous week, and now they were in the low acceleration provided by the ION-Plasma engines, which allowed normal activities to again begin. Faud and Gertrude Foley walked slowly down the aisle between the two rows of technicians assembling monitor satellites, occasionally stopping to observe a procedure. Small and simple to manufacture, by the time they reached Beta 3 they would have thousands ready to deploy, each connected to the central computers in the motherships, forming a network that could detect surface activity anywhere on the planet.
The planning taskforce had soon reached a basic conclusion; the tactics used on Alpha 2, whether successful or not, had to be changed for Beta 3. But one thing could not change; the goal to deny the Gath the ability to leave their burrows and their ships the ability to leave their hangers; the opposing numbers were too great to defeat. On Alpha 2 it had required ground troops to complete the task, an approach not usable on Beta 3; not only would troops be hindered by the heavy gravity, a period of decompression would be required on return to the motherships.
For Beta 3 small nuclear tipped missiles had been designed for launch from either mother or attack ships that could reach the surface in minutes after notification by a monitoring satellite, giving the Gath little time to react. If successful the hangers could be sealed before significant numbers of ships could be launched and stop most of those from landing later.
But for success the motherships had to survive Gath assaults long enough to allow time to implant the satellites and activate the monitoring network. And they had little doubt that first battle would be massive.
CHAPTER 10: Blockade
(June 25, Alpha Year 53): Admiral Lundblad, Vice Admiral Honecker, and their staff officers sat around the table in the control room of the Stockholm watching the building Gath fleet. All motherships had now reached final orbit and begun to deploy both their shield platforms and monitoring satellites. Here they would stay for now, far above the Gath fleet below. None of their attack ships had been launched, although all were manned and at the ready.
The use of shield platforms for the motherships was an innovation not tried on Alpha 2. Containing only power sources for the shields and some engine power for maneuvering under control of the mothersh
ips, the platforms were simple to construct, requiring no life support systems, but allowed motherships to operate unshielded whenever laser fire was called for.
The number of Gath ships circling below numbered in the thousands, but seemed intent on defending the planet and not on attacking the motherships. Now, if they would hold off for just a little longer, deployment of platforms and satellites would be complete; they would have won the initial gamble. The real break was there was no sign the over 150 Gath satellite hangers were operational. However, their sensors indicated all the nearly two hundred Gath weapons platforms were armed, but so far they had remained inactive.
Faud shook his head in amazement, glancing over at Admiral Lundblad, “stupid,” he said, “just stupid. How can they allow us to get in position like this without opposition? And waste their ships' fuel by just circling around; any reasonable commander would either attack immediately, or hold their launch until they intended to use them.”
Admiral Lundblad glanced over at Vice Admiral Honecker and chuckled, “well - they are; maybe they'll let us win this after all.”
Faud watched as first the Osaka, followed by the Kiev and the Bismark, deployed their shield platforms. It would take about three orbits before the ships were able to complete all adjustments, but even this initial orbit allowed both defensive and offensive operations to begin if necessary. But if the Gath held off they would wait until all shield platforms were in place, and the monitor satellites were in place and had time to complete their sign-in to the net and complete an initial surface mapping before starting the assault.
The Final Act: Book III: The Settlement Chronicals Page 12
