All six human vessels were now tightly packed. On the plus side, they were devastating the alien fighter wing by coordinating their fire. But Thomas already knew from experience that the aliens cared little for their individual pilots. They were perfectly willing to sacrifice a few fighters, or even a few larger vessels, to achieve their objectives.
He looked at the missiles still tracking their way across to the alien cruisers. At about twelve seconds until impact, Thomas saw what he’d been expecting. The aliens hadn’t opened fire with their main cannons at all. Nor had they fired even a single defensive shot against the massive wave of oncoming missiles. But they didn’t need to. At nine seconds until impact, all three alien ships blinked away, vanishing into jump space.
There was a long pause in the action. The only things left on the hologram were the six human vessels and a swarm of angry alien fighters surrounding them. The Earth ships were hammering away at the fighters buzzing around them like gnats. In another few minutes, the last of them would be destroyed. Thomas looked up at the main screen, where communication between the ships was ongoing. The captains were all talking to one another. None of them seemed to understand what was going on. Thomas shook his head.
They had no idea how to fight the technology they were up against. They’d never had to deal with anything like this before. Another fifteen seconds went by.
Then space opened up, the view from the ship cameras a brilliant kaleidoscope of rioting colors. The flash lasted for the briefest moment before each camera winked out. On the hologram, the telemetry grew fuzzier. It was less precise, Thomas figured because the only remaining source was radar towers on the surface. All six human ships have been instantly obliterated by the particle waves generated when all three alien vessels emerged from jump space at point-blank range.
The human fleet destroyed, the aliens turned their attention to Mars itself. Interestingly enough, the orbiting cruisers didn’t seem to have any weapons capable of damaging the surface. Or if they did, they didn’t use them. That made Thomas wonder if the only weapons the ships were armed with were those particle beam guns he’d seen them used before. If correct, it was useful information to have.
But that didn’t stop their remaining fighters from diving into the thin atmosphere of Mars, targeting every active radar source they could find. One after another each source of data on the space above Mars winked out. Until finally there were no sources left.
Thomas was blind. He couldn’t see what was happening above Mars. The aliens could be doing anything up there. They could be systematically wiping out the human colony on the surface, departing without firing the shot, or something else entirely. There was no way to know without going there to see.
Which was probably precisely what the aliens had in mind.
Eleven
If Sam could have held her breath while waiting for the call to connect, she would have. As it was, she found herself wishing that she could hold her breath. Or drum her fingers on a desktop. Or bounce her knee up and down. Anything to let some of the tension and nervousness out.
But she was back in her fighter. It was the only place she could be sure of complete privacy when she made this call. The last thing Sam wanted was for someone to come wandering over in the middle of this particular discussion. Particularly Harald. He wouldn’t understand, and Sam didn’t want to hurt him.
The phone call connected. Her wait was over, but Sam found herself wanting to flee. She could hang up the phone right now. She didn’t have to do this.
Yes, she did. Not for anyone else’s sake. This call was for her. Somehow, Sam felt like this mattered. She wasn’t sure just how, or why. But she trusted her gut.
A face appeared in front of her. Well, that wasn’t quite right, either. Sam’s body was a Wasp fighter. So the image of her doppelgangers face didn’t literally appear in the air near the fighter. Instead, it appeared in the virtual space that was Sam’s home while she was residing within the small vessel, but not actively controlling it. It was like a miniature virtual world, where Sam could make herself at home.
She realized that she was staring dumbly at her other self and chuckled. Samantha - the other Sam - must have reached the same conclusion, because she broke into a smile as well.
“Sam! It’s good to hear from you. Are you back in the neighborhood? I know you been away,” Samantha said.
‘Away’ was one way of putting it. Sam had been on the outer reaches of the solar system for months. She figured Samantha had the security clearance to know that, and probably already did. But there was no sense putting too much sensitive information out in a transmission like this, no matter how secure the line was supposed to be.
“Close enough to have a conversation for a change,” Sam said. “Things have been hectic, and I don’t think they’re going to get better anytime soon. But we’re working on it. How are things down on earth?”
“About the same. Not as busy as you, I’ll bet. So, I’m sure this isn’t purely a social call. What’s up?” Samantha asked.
“Actually, it is a social call. I wanted to talk to someone that I could trust. If I can’t trust myself, then I’m in a lot of trouble, aren’t I?” Sam said.
“Oh! OK. What did you want to ask about?” Samantha asked.
Sam gave herself a moment to think about that question. Why was she calling? Was it to find out if Harald was right after all? No, there was more to it than that. It wasn’t one single question, but rather a whole bunch of questions, all interconnected.
“I guess I’m just worried about life. After this is all over, assuming we win, who am I then? What do I become?” Sam asked. “After all, I’m you. You’re me. Except… Not anymore. Not really.”
Samantha nodded back at her. “I know what you mean. It’s the little things that make the difference between us. You say things a different way sometimes. Your choices are just a bit off from what I might do in the same situation. It’s weird. But we’re not the same person now, even if we were at the beginning. We’ve diverged.”
Sam knew all that. She’d made the same observations more than once. At first, she thought she imagined it. After all, they were supposed to be the same person. Sam was the uploaded consciousness and memories of Samantha. By all rights, they ought to be identical.
But Sam had a lot of experiences while she was in Valhalla, not all of them good. Her time there had shaped her, molded her into something else. Just like Samantha’s experiences in the physical world had made her different from the moment Sam was uploaded.
“I’ve noticed that too. So, you’re saying I am my own person?” Sam asked.
“I think that goes without saying. There’s no way I could be a fighter jock,” Samantha said with a grin. “You are who you are. Be proud of that. We both came from good stock.”
Those last two words made Sam wince. She tried to hide it, but her double could see a virtual image of her face just like Sam had a vision of Samantha’s. The emotions were too raw to muffle them completely.
“What is it? What did I say?” Samantha asked.
How to answer this one? Sam desperately tried to think of a way to explain how she felt without coming off like an asshole. It wasn’t going to be easy.
But she didn’t need to explain. Sam saw understanding dawn in Samantha’s eyes before she could open her mouth to speak.
“Good stock. You’re worried about our parents, are you?” Samantha asked
“Are they? Our parents, I mean. They’re your parents. That doesn’t necessarily make them mine,” Sam said.
“Want me to get them on the phone right now? I can make this a three-way conversation with the flick of a button,” Samantha said. She raised her right index finger as if she was about to connect the call. Sam rushed to stop her.
“No! No, not yet, anyway. If you think they’d be okay talking to me, maybe we can set something up after all of this is done?”
“I don’t think it’ll be as big a problem as you seem to,” Samantha said
. “They’ll be a little weirded out, sure. But I think they’ll come around fast. They always have.”
That was true. Sam could remember it like it was yesterday. Everything any of their children had done, no matter how strange or bad, their parents had always stuck by them.
“Maybe after this is over, then,” Sam said. “I don’t want to burden them with the risk of losing me when they’ve never even met me. Once the fighting is over, we can talk again.”
“Sounds reasonable to me. So what else is on the agenda?” Samantha asked.
An alarm blared throughout the ship’s computer system, distracting Sam from whatever she was about to say. Something was up. Something big. Sam looked away to see what was going on in the ship. Her mental command opened a window into the ship systems. General quarters was being sounded. Either they were in a fight or about to be. Sam looked back at her double, whose eyes were wide.
“Sounds like you have to go. Be safe out there, okay?” Samantha asked.
“I’ll do my best,” Sam said.
“And Sam? Remember what I said. They’re going to be fine about you. Just wait and see. You do matter.”
With those words, Samantha closed the connection, leaving Sam alone to her thoughts and whatever new emergency was unfolding around her. She shook her head to clear it - another meaningless gesture left over from her life in a physical body but imprinted upon her consciousness nonetheless. Then with a small mental effort, Sam willed herself to lodge solidly within the Wasp’s frame. Its form became her body altogether. She was ready for whatever was coming.
Twelve
Thomas drummed his fingers on the armrest of his seat. He thought furiously as the seconds ticked by. Earth had set a pair of telescopes on duty to monitor the situation on Mars. They had a visual on the alien ships again, even if it was a quarter hour old. They were flitting about, never staying in one place very long. Nor were they moving in a predictable orbit. They danced around in an erratic pattern that the computer said was utterly random.
There were never any two ships close enough to one another that they could both be hit by the same Albucierre wave, either. The aliens knew precisely how to play this game. Even if the Intrepid got lucky and nailed one of the ships, the other two would be fine.
He went over their options. There were still six ships out by the gate - two dreadnoughts and four smaller vessels. A strike against a force of that size was out of the question. The three-ship fleet was intentional. It was just enough to be tempting, but not so much that it would feel overwhelming.
“It’s a trap,” his wife’s voice came from beside him. “You can see that, right?”
Thomas glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled. “Absolutely. But I might decide to spring it, anyway.”
“Why? I’m worried about the folks on Mars, too. But they’re dug in well. With luck, most of the people on the colony had time to get to deep shelters. God knows there’s enough of them,” Kel said.
Those shelters were leftovers from the war between Earth and Mars. Martian colonists had to prepare to defend themselves against a much more numerous opponent. Thom’s father had paid for the first deep shelters, massive caverns hollowed out of the bedrock. More had been constructed by the government afterward. They were designed to survive direct nuclear strikes, so even if the aliens resorted to kinetic bombardment anyone who’d managed to get inside them should be OK.
“True, but I’ve got something else in mind. I’d like to try to turn their trap around on them. See if I can spring it in a way that surprises them,” Thomas said. “Every enemy ship we can pick off will help.”
“Capacitors charged, sir,” Edwards said. “We have a full charge on the jump drive.”
That would be more than enough for what he had in mind. “Go get the fighters ready, Kel. We’re launching the instant we arrive.”
“Just like last time?”
“Hopefully without the early withdrawal. But you’ll have to keep at least one cruiser occupied. Think your pilots are up to it?”
“Better be, or I’ll be having words with them,” Kel replied. “Good luck, Thom.”
Then she turned and pushed off, soaring through the microgravity toward the exit door. Thom watched her go, wishing her the same. He hated having her up there with him. It was bad enough that he had to risk his own life. Risking both their lives when they had a child waiting for them down on Earth felt irresponsible. But she’d been right. Kel was the best they had at what she did. He needed her out there if they were going to have any shot at all.
“Tell all decks to secure for a jump,” Thomas said.
“Aye, sir,” Edwards replied.
“Helm, I need you to plot me a double jump. It’s going to be tricky. You up for some on-the-fly math?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, sir.” The young man seated at the ship’s controls seemed nervous, but his voice was steady.
“Good enough,” Thomas replied. He already had the first jump coordinate ready and sent it to the navigation computer.
The aliens were darting around randomly, but they were still orbiting at close range to the planet below them. Thomas probably wouldn’t hit any of them with a particle wave from his jump exit. But he could land the Intrepid damned close to them. That would do.
There was one more thing that might be able to help them. One other thread Thomas could tug on. He opened up a communication line from his seat and sent an encrypted string of text via a scrambled laser beam. The message was only a few words. “Ready yet? Need is getting desperate.”
He wasn’t sure if they’d be able to reply before he had to jump out, but it was worth waiting a few more seconds just in case. This was his last ace, but it was one that could turn the tides of the upcoming battle entirely in his favor.
The response came rapidly, just a few seconds after he sent the message: “Not yet. Working round the clock.”
Thom pursed his lips and shook his shoulders, trying to loosen the knots frustration and worry were leaving there. No secret weapon for this fight, anyway. Maybe they’d be able to finish it soon, though. If he could just keep things together a little longer… At least Thomas was able to go into battle knowing that even if the worst happened, humanity still had one more line of defense it could pull out of a hat.
“All right, we’re go for jump. Bring us in,” Thomas said.
There was a flicker of movement as the ship entered jump-space. It warped directly toward Mars, folding space ahead of the vessel and opening it wider behind. The effect was something like shooting a watermelon seed between your fingers if that somehow also narrowed the distance the seed had to travel. It wasn’t going to be a long transition. The Intrepid was effectively moving at ten times the speed of light. In theory, the drive could do a lot better than that, but Thomas didn’t want to push the engines to the breaking point. Less than two minutes for a trip which would have taken days for an ordinary ship. That felt like more than enough.
Thom tapped his console, opening a connection to Keladry. “All fighters launch as soon as we arrive. Target the nearest alien ship and blow the hell out of it.”
“We’re on it. Good hunting yourself,” Kel replied.
The waiting was always hard. Thomas forced his mind to stillness. Getting worked up did no one any good. Besides, a few more seconds and they’d arrive above Mars. Then this battle would begin in earnest. He watched the last seconds tick away.
At precisely the same moment the timer reached zero, the Intrepid exploded back out into real-space. A furious riot of colors spread out ahead of her bow, particles blasting free from the ship with all their pent-up energy.
But as he’d feared, they were nowhere near close enough to any of the alien ships to destroy them. They were near the outer edge of the alien formation, though. Only one cruiser was really close.
“Fighters launch!” Thomas said. “Edwards, engage that nearby ship with guns and missiles.”
“Aye, sir! Tracking - locked - firing!”
The Intrepid was armed with a great many missile batteries, but also with a quartet of high-powered railguns. The cannonlike devices spat massive chunks of iron down their barrels, accelerating them to high speed with magnetism. The Intrepid came slowly about, aiming down to the right as she unleashed a hail of fire on the enemy ship at point blank range.
“Got that math yet?” Thom asked the helmsman.
“Working on it, sir!”
“Work faster,” Thom replied. “CAG, all our birds away?”
“Sending the last flight out in ten seconds,” Kel replied. Her fighters must have lit out rapid-fire if she’d gotten so many free of the ship in so short a time. Excellent.
“Engage that near ship. We’ve got the other two,” Thomas said.
“Roger,” Kel replied and left the radio link.
“Got those coordinates,” the helmsman said. He was turned about in his seat. Melrose, was that his name? No, it was Melson. Ensign Melson; how could he have forgotten that?
Easily, unfortunately. A good chunk of the Intrepid’s crew had died in the first invasion, routing the original alien forces. He’d had to replace half the crew. These new people were good, Thom was sure. They wouldn’t be on board the flagship otherwise. But it was still hard to get used to all the fresh faces.
“Execute second jump,” Thomas said.
Thirteen
“Alpha flight, stick close,” Sam said. Harald’s group of fighters was still understrength. They’d replaced or repaired all the damaged craft. Getting new pilots up to speed took more time. Sure, they could upload a basic flight skill-set to each new volunteer. But nothing replaced actual hands-on experience in a fighter out in space. Harald had two newbies who’d passed his tests, but he was still down two other spots.
“We’re right with you,” Harald replied.
The Ghost Squadron quickly broke away from the Keladry’s squadron of regular pilots. They could only accelerate at a few gravities. Sam’s people were pushing ten, and could probably manage a little more in a pinch.
Ghost Squadron Page 5
