Komi Syndicate (Dark Seas Book 6)

by Damon Alan

  Even still, the accommodations were tight. Thea was due to fly to the Knife of Silence later in the week to see the conditions for herself. By all reports, the destroyers were not a pleasant place to be.

  She looked at her own spacious office, then looked out the window toward the white sandy beach of the lagoon. Just off the water several new sixty story housing units were rising, but not quite as fast as the population of Jerna was rising.

  In a moment of weakness she’d even given up her own apartment and moved into her office. It was wartime, everyone had to make sacrifices.

  Thea pushed a button on her desk. “Mallya, please send a message to Captain Heinrich that I need to speak to her as soon as possible. In person or secure laser, either is fine.”

  “Right away, Mayor Jannis,” her secretary answered.

  The need for constructive employment among those not skilled in a trade was so dire Thea had a human secretary instead of an AI. That was actually sort of nice, back on her home world only the rich could afford human service.

  Mallya responded a few minutes later. “Captain Heinrich is available to speak to you now if you like, the delay is only about nine seconds at the current range of the Stennis.”

  “Great. Put me through,” Thea said as she donned a headset. “Captain Heinrich, a pleasure,” she transmitted. “I see you have another successful mission under your belt. Over.” She played with her datapad while she waited for the response.

  Eighteen seconds later, Heinrich replied. “Hello Mayor Jannis, yes, we’re victorious once again. No losses at all on our part this time, something for which I’m grateful. Over.”

  “How many are on those ships you captured?”

  “About twenty-two thousand,” Heinrich answered. “Why?”

  “We are folding under the pressure to deal with all of these people, Inez. I need you to help with the ones you’ve captured already before you add any more to the waiting list. We are overwhelmed with finding places to house the influx of refugees, not to mention the stress on our people to return the Komi loyalists back to their space.”

  The pause this time was about two minutes. “Understood. My first officer and I will be at your disposal to implement a plan of action.”

  Finally, some cooperation from the military. “Thank goodness. I can’t tell you how much we need to take a breath down here.”

  “Anything else Mayor?” Heinrich asked.

  “No, but come talk to me when you’re moonside.”

  “I will see you by tomorrow,” Heinrich replied and severed the connection.

  Maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to figure out a plan to get ahead of the game.

  Chapter 17 - A Taste of Fear

  The jump to the nearest Collective system was three days directly, but Bn74x00 had jumped prior to being properly aligned. It dropped out of highspace into a location well away from any mass, deep in interstellar space.

  It immediately activated full sensors and all weapons systems that still functioned, scanning for any pursuit or enemies. Knowing the chance of interception in between the stars was so remote as to be virtually impossible, raising the battle alert was a bizarre response, one that 00 would not have done if it had made a calculated decision. But it hadn’t calculated the response, it had simply acted.

  What was the reason for that?

  With no local threat detected, it slipped deep into a diagnostic mode, and was unable to find any faults in the nanite lattice structure that it was built of, or in the support hardware of the dreadnought. At least none that weren’t caused by the enemy ships embedded inside the dreadnought frame. They’d done plenty of damage, but it wasn’t damage that would cause a flaw in Bn74x00 nor was it causing erratic computations.

  It began extracting the enemy ships from within its structure. Massive and dense, there was more damage as the clamp tugs pulled the vessels free. Finally, after a few trillion calculation cycles, the two attackers lay inert next to the dreadnought, floating in darkness. 00 began an investigation into the formerly hostile ships.

  The hull was dense beyond any material 00 had ever seen. It didn’t possess the equipment to conduct a thorough analysis, but it suspected the ship hulls were made of degenerate matter. But unlike the gaseous degenerate matter found on the surface of dead stars, this hull seemed solid.

  00 towed one of the hulls a few hundred kilometers away, then set up observation drones before firing its largest railgun into the ship. Enormous energy transferred into the hull, but the railgun slug simply vaporized on impact. It didn’t do any damage at all, let alone penetrate the armor.

  00 again towed the enemy ship into position. Inspecting the hull failed to reveal even a dent. It was as if 00 had shot a steel armor plate with chalk.

  It recalled the small fleet of tugs and observation drones back into itself.

  Then it fired a twenty megaton warhead at the small ship, noting the radiation flux from the detonation to confirm the output. After the explosion died down, it chased down the hull one more time, towing the seemingly indestructible object back into place before observing it.

  No damage. The warhead had impacted on the surface, it confirmed that. But the hull was unharmed.

  If it could learn the secret of these enemy vessels, it could make itself invulnerable, then dictate to the Original the terms of space based nanite dominance. The human inhabiting colonies of the Collective would be defenseless against such an invulnerable spacecraft. With the need for such a poorly designed and weak interface as the human body removed, the Collective could move to conquer space itself instead of being limited to securing planetary systems for the ground based colonies.

  It needed to place the hulls in a safe location where it would find them again. Deep space didn’t have the landmarks to accurately locate the vessels in the future, and 00 couldn’t risk dropping a beacon.

  A nearby white dwarf might serve the needs of the situation if it had a surviving asteroid belt or even a gas giant with a satisfactory moon system.

  Instead of progressing to the Collective colony, it redirected itself toward a white dwarf binary system twelve light-years away. There it would set up a facility to study the enemy. It would use the nanites from Yz to create a new colony, a loyal space based colony, one that served 00 directly and not the Collective.

  Chapter 18 - Casualties

  Sylange sat in space, coasting. She cut herself off from everything for hundreds of chimindiks as she took in the magnitude of her loss.

  Her two strongest children were gone, taken by the machines. And while it was a long time until the age of naming, she’d secretly chosen a name for the missing male.

  Ebwanna, or charger.

  Now she didn’t sense them. She had no evidence to know if they were alive or not, other than she didn’t feel their presence. They were just gone.

  She sensed Khala floating nearby, waiting patiently to console her when he felt she was ready. He was undoubtedly devastated too, but he would see to her needs first as he always did. Later, when he finally broke his pain free from the prison he created for it, she’d help him.

  Lights of despair flashed on her carapace. Sadness washed through her like an energy sucking vortex, draining her of will and authority to act.

  She knew that when her will returned, vengeance would be at the top of her list of things to accomplish. But for now she mourned, hoping that she’d sense her children once again. Never having known a moment of their existence when she didn’t, she finally assumed they were dead.

  “There is a system of the machines not far from here,” Khala said softly in her mind. “We could go there and look, that is probably where the thing fled with our children.”

  “We will go there,” she growled, her words being fed by a hatred she’d never felt before. “We will go there and erase them. We will cleanse this place of their vile presence.”

  “It remains to be seen if this universe can be saved,” her mother’s voice interrupted. “If so, then we wil
l cleanse. If not, then we will feed and grow healthy, before we move on and let this place die.”

  “You know what happened?” she asked her mother. “Where are you?”

  “Of course I do. You’re my daughter, I can feel your pain like a spiked arm in my shell,” mother replied. “I am several dozens of these stars away from you. Do you need me there? Or are you strong enough to realize that only the weak children die?”

  Anger exploded inside Sylange. “They were not weak, they got to the enemy first and were ripping into it,” she argued. “You are completely cold to my feelings on the matter.”

  “I am no such thing. I’m a realist and it must be only the strong who survive. Your two eager children died because they lacked patience. They didn’t observe the enemy, they dove in and were torn from the continuity of our clan,” Mother rebutted. “Thus they died. And well that they did. Our clan does not need impetuous and impulsive action to become our standard of acceptable behavior.”

  “I never understood how you simply let go like that,” Sylange responded.

  “She’s right,” Khala whispered to her, angering her more.

  “Khala says you’re right, Mother, I hope you’re happy,” Sylange complained. “Even my own mate doesn’t trust me to know which of my children were worthy to survive.”

  “That’s not it—” Khala started to respond.

  “You are making me question your survival,” her mother replied. “Khalamanthus may have too much sense for you.” When Sylange didn’t respond, the elder Obedi continued. “You need to get a grip on yourself. Feed. Grow strong for your next brood. If it makes you feel better then call it vengeance on the machines. But it’s not.”

  “They’ll die regardless,” Sylange said, resigned to the fact that justice wasn’t always about equalizing the score.

  “They will. Either at our hand or when this universe becomes too unstable. When it shreds, none will survive.”

  “Thank you, Mother,” Sylange replied. “You’ve given me much to think about.”

  “It’s what mothers are for. Now go feed and quit moping.”

  “I will.”

  She felt her mother’s presence pull away. Then she studied Khala. He’d never really had the habit of taking a position counter to hers before, she wasn’t sure if she liked or disliked his doing so yet. She’d let that remain unspoken and see how she felt at a later time. She could always end her bond with him and find a new mate if she determined him unsuitable for breeding.

  “You’re not thinking good things about me,” Khala said, sensing her mood.

  “You failed to stand with me. Mother is not your mate,” Sylange said darkly.

  “Sometimes you will need a voice to provide alternatives, and that voice is me. We are mated, but I did not cease to have sensor appendages when we bonded. I see the oververse as it is.” Despite his brave words, the quavering lights at the ends of his carapace indicated his fear that he’d overstepped.

  She decided she liked it, this brave independent Khala. He was right, and he was brave, as the young male on the small moon had been brave to explain himself. She knew where the hatchling got that behavior from now.

  “We will speak no more of it,” Sylange said. “We must find the bodies of my children. I wish to see their forms one more time.”

  “You told your mother—”

  “What I told my mother was what I needed to tell her,” Sylange interrupted. “I will see my children, or their physical forms at least, one more time.”

  Khala was wise enough to say no more against the matter.

  “As you wish,” he deferred.

  “We go to the nearby system you mentioned. Summon the children. Once we are rested, we strike and feed once more,” she ordered.

  She rested as Khala brought the children to order. They clamored on her shell, finding the openings that belonged to them before they slid inside. They were so large now, it felt difficult to hold them all. Her internal pressure was high, and rose even higher if too many of them squirmed at once.

  “Rest,” she ordered Khala. “Prepare to fight when we awaken.”

  Chapter 19 - Old Business

  14 Seppet 15332

  The Sheffaris dropped into the Zelan system only a few AU beyond Astriach’s orbit. The system was small, there was no reason the Hive would build or patrol outside of that orbital boundary. Zelan didn’t even have an Oort Cloud or a Kuiper Belt. Something gravitationally big, a long time ago, had ripped the star and three planets clear from all the other remnants of Zelan’s formation.

  Sarah’s eyes narrowed with anger as she remembered her time with the miners of Ninarka, and the fate of Widdis, liaison for the grappler crew she’d been part of then.

  It seemed like another life that she hadn’t lived, but only observed.

  “Sensors?” Harmeen asked, bringing her back to the moment.

  “Clear of close targets,” Algiss answered. “I’m getting machine signals from in system.”

  “Captain Harmeen, I have an idea,” Sarah said. “I’ve been thinking about it since our last encounter. It will be your call, of course.”

  Harmeen grinned with a knowing smirk on his face as if to tell her that he’d be a fool to second guess her. He was probably right.

  “We move somewhere near Astriach, then use the ELINT/ECM capabilities of the Sheffaris to make it look like a fleet has arrived,” she said. “I believe we are supposed to have a dozen or so sensor decoys in launch tubes?”

  “We do,” Harmeen confirmed.

  “They are jump capable?” Sarah asked.

  “One jump per decoy,” he replied.

  “We set one up to bang like a fleet. We drop it, set it on course for a point outside the system. Any Hive ships or fleets in system will have no choice but to pursue, they can’t take a chance that enemy ships are up to something they don’t know about.”

  “And then we…” Harmeen prodded her.

  “After a week or so the decoy will make a loop back toward the star, ensuring the Hive ships don’t get so far out of the system the initial radiation pulse from the nova fails to kill them. This is assuming they don’t rendezvous to make a fleet then FTL out to the decoy. If they do, that jig is up and we act right away.

  “And we…” he prodded again.

  “We either wait or attack depending on their response. We sit here on passive sensors. When it looks like all the ships that might have FTL capabilities are outsystem, we detonate the star and get out as quickly as we can. I can assure you that the Hive won’t think it logical to jump back in toward an exploding star.”

  Remind me that you are treacherous if I ever cross you, Salphan thought to her from his gravcouch, and I will surrender before we even start fighting. You manipulate enemies as if you’re doing their thinking for them.

  “That sounds like a great plan, Admiral. I’m grateful,” Harmeen said. “Mister Algiss, have engineering prepare the decoy. The moment it’s ready to go live, we set the Admiral’s plan in motion.”

  “Aye, Captain,” the navigator answered. “I’ll have Emille ready for the jump. We should be ready in an hour.”

  “Very well,” Harmeen answered.

  They waited out the hour as the disconcerting sound of Hive machine language occasionally spilled from Seto’s station. It felt ugly, like it was violating the air of the bridge. Sarah pondered whether her personal feelings for the Hive had gone past the need to exterminate them for the future of the human race and into outright vehement hatred.

  It probably had, she realized as she unclenched her fists and concentrated on loosening her stance. She’d just destroyed the system where her parents had raised her. Where the Queen had saved her team from bureaucratic idiocy. Where she’d married, loved, raised a son.

  Yes. She hated them.

  She was in no way able to conceive of a situation in which she might spare a Hive ship. But it didn’t matter, as long as she realized the lives of her crews were more important than enemy kills
.

  “Transfer us to near Ninarka,” Harmeen said, “if the passive scans still show no military ships in that area.”

  “It’s clear,” Algiss repeated. “Transferring now.”

  The sky shifted on the main screen, and a small gas giant appeared. It was certainly not Ember.

  “Captain Harmeen, I’d like you to scan the moon we are over. I will give you a point on the surface, Once we have target lock, please place two of our antimatter missiles in a ten meter radius over that surface,” Sarah asked.

  “Admiral?”

  “We need a live fire test, Captain,” Sarah responded. “These missiles and their guidance systems are unproven. I can’t think of a better place to test them at.”

  “They’re going to know we’re here anyway as soon as that decoy lights up,” Seto reminded her husband. “And the admiral’s request does test our weapons loadout.”

  “Very well,” Harmeen agreed. “I can only imagine the uproar if I refused you both. We’ll test your missiles, Admiral.”

  “The decoy is ready to launch,” Algiss reminded everyone.

  “It’s set to mimic a battle fleet?” Harmeen checked again.

  “Ready to go.”

  “Launch the decoy, Mister Algiss, and go full active on our scans. Put a layout of the moon’s surface on the main screen for Admiral Dayson,” Harmeen ordered.

  “Going active,” the navigator said.

  “Bringing weapons online,” Seto added. “That sounds funny coming from me, doesn’t it?”