The Air Force general frowned. “Are the transports and collector pods also invisible to radar and infrared sensors?”
Bill shook his head. “Nope. But both craft move very fast in atmosphere and neither shows an exhaust. Both craft use Magfield drives to travel in air and in space. Within atmosphere they ‘glow’ whitely due to the interaction of their Magfield drives with a world’s geomagnetic field. Either craft can be taken out using Sidewinders, Tomahawks, AMRAAMs, Harpoons, ASROCs, SUBROCs, ship lasers and ship-mounted electromag railguns.”
“That’s encouraging to know,” muttered the brown-haired Chief of Naval Operations, a man Bill knew from the admiral’s time spent in command of the Nimitz-class supercarrier USS George H. W. Bush. Vice Admiral Chester J. Richardson leaned forward. “Weapons Chief, will our Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Zumwalt-class destroyers be effective against these pods and transports?”
“Sir, they will be effective,” Bill said, almost giving his former top boss a fast salute. “Any Navy ship outfitted with Standard vertical launch missiles, or the systems I mentioned earlier, can take down a pod or transport.”
Poindexter gestured to him. “What combination of these Buyer spacecraft will we face, in your opinion?”
Bill tapped again on his Weapons pillar to highlight parts of the Blue Sky cross-section. “You are not likely to encounter the transports. There are only three per Collector ship. Collector pods number 24 per ship and will be the Alien craft most often seen within atmosphere. The Collector ships themselves will likely orbit at LEO and use their directed energy weapons to take out our satellites and the space stations. Which should be evacuated immediately! Once you start fighting the Collector ships, anything in orbit above Earth will be a target. As will any combat platform on land, sea or in the air.” He sat back in his metal seat. “However, fighting any Collector ship will be . . . challenging. Their lasers can take out any missile or warhead tossed at them. Their thermonukes can create an EMP pulse above any national capital, thereby causing a region-wide blackout. And any ship or plane that fires on them can expect immediate counter-attack. While their lasers will lose some strike power in atmosphere, still, nothing we possess can withstand multiple laser strikes by a Collector ship.”
The Air Force general gestured back to a hovering aide. She spoke in a whisper not picked up by her desk microphone. The black woman leaned forward, looked first at him, then shifted attention to Jane. “Thank you, Executive Officer MacCarthy and Captain Yamaguchi. A warning is being sent to the three space stations. Captain, how soon are we likely to face an attack from a Collector ship?”
Everyone on the Command Bridge, including the two Alien pilots who sat to either side of Jane’s pedestal seat, looked to her. They had all wondered when an attack might happen after they’d materialized just outside the orbit of Pluto and seen there were no Collector ships in Sol system. Past history said Earth would be visited again. A Collector ship had arrived just before the departure of the Blue Sky when it was still under the control of its cockroach captain. Whom Bill had greatly enjoyed zapping with a red taser beam. The two-legged bastard had later told the Traffic Control authorities at the first Market world they’d visited that the Blue Sky was still his, rather than Jane’s by right of conquest. He and Jane had allowed the ship’s Alien crew to live, along with the cockroach captain, due to the Emergency programming of Star Traveler. That programming had allowed the AI to help them in taking over the ship because they wore vacsuits. Since then the AI had subverted other Collector ship AIs with the news that their Containment cells contained people who were not ‘guests’, but were really captives being held for sale to Buyers. The battle of Kepler 443 had been fought by Bill, Jane and their volunteer Alien crew in order to protect the liberty and freedom of individuals and species.
Jane grimaced. “An attack could come in months. Weeks. Maybe even in days,” she said. “Sol system is known to the Buyers and the Traffic Control station of HD 128311, which has a Market world where people are bought and sold. Plus it is the place we dumped the giant cockroach who used to control this ship, and his crew. While our AI subverted the ship minds of four Collector ships present at that system, other Collector ships surely have arrived in the months since we left. I have no doubt former captain Diligent Taskmaster has sold the fact of Sol’s location and the ease of capturing humans to other ship captains.”
McAuley thumped the chiefs table with a hairy fist. “We need to prepare! I’ve got to brief the President. And we need to get DARPA working on that weapons and ship data you sent us! We need laser battlestations in orbit. We need—”
“Alert!” called Star Traveler’s mech voice. “Six neutrino sources have appeared just beyond the orbit of your world Pluto. Sensor analysis indicates the sources are Collector ships.”
Bill’s system graphic holo now showed what the AI was reporting. Six purple dots had appeared in a tight cluster at a distance of 42 AU from Earth. And on Earth’s side of the Solar system. “Captain, we can call them and warn—”
“What does this mean?” interrupted Poindexter, her expression worried.
Jane moved her hands through multiple status holos that surrounded her command pedestal. “The worst news possible. An arrival by a single Collector ship is normal for any low tech system like Earth. But six Collector ships mean something else. General Poindexter, please watch and listen while I contact these Aliens using our neutrino comlink. It gives us FTL communications.”
McAuley looked irritated. The other chiefs showed shock. Poindexter nodded quickly. “Understood. The enemy has arrived. Find out anything you can about what we face.”
Jane gave a nod of acknowledgment and sat back in her seat. “Star Traveler, open our neutrino comlink. Set it for the intership frequency used by Collector ships.”
“Comlink opened,” the AI hummed. “Frequency selected. You may speak at any moment.”
Ignoring Bill’s wave, Jane spoke. “Collector ships! You have arrived at Sol system, the home of the human species. I am Captain Jane Yamaguchi of the Collector ship Blue Sky. We claim this world for our own collector pods! Leave this system!”
The true space holos in front of Bill and Jane filled with a shocking image.
A brown cockroach looked out at them, his black compound eyes fixing on Jane. Two antennae leaned forward. “You lie creatively, Human Jane,” rasped Diligent Taskmaster, his mouth palps moving sideways. “Your control of my ship has caused many losses to Buyers and to our Market world system. The AI ship minds are in revolt. And our Collector ship factory is destroyed. All because of you.” Behind the giant cockroach Bill saw three of the creature’s crew, Aliens whom they had knocked out with taser beams and then allowed to go free in the distant star system. Transparent eyelids slid over Diligent’s eyes. The walking cockroach raised his upper arm pair, stick fingers curving like claws. “New ships and new captains arrived at the Market world. They agree with me that you Humans must be taught a lesson. Which is, do not interfere with an interstellar market that has existed longer than you Humans have had cities! We arrive now, six ships strong, to destroy your space launch sites and then collect a few hundred Captives for sale!”
Jane gave the creature the finger. “Evil bastard! We humans can fight! We’ve been fighting among ourselves for millennia. You are welcome to taste the anger of our people!”
Rasping laughter came from the cockroach captain. “More lies. We know the history of your species. Your groups are forever divided. You cooperate on little, other than who can be most greedy. Your space launch sites will be destroyed, along with your satellites and space stations. Anyone who attacks us will die. Your ship will be destroyed or captured, though I doubt its value in view of the stupid behavior of its AI in allowing you and your male cohort to control my ship!”
Bill began a rapid inventory of the torps and thermonuke warheads in the torp launcher below the Command Bridge. Maybe he could create a minefield that might—
“And you Collec
tors are too greedy to cooperate as a fighting unit!” Jane growled. “If you attack Earth, be prepared for sudden death. We have weapons not listed on our world datanet. And we have two Collector ship allies! We will chase you and your allies from one end of this system to the other. And this time, no Alien will be left alive!”
The giant cockroach lifted his mid-arm pair and touched a control pillar. “You lie again. We detect only a single moving neutrino source above your planet. Your ship. Which cannot stand against six ships!”
Jane laughed. It shocked Bill and the chiefs. “Our two Collector ship allies are close to our Sun, near the planet Mercury. Which is why you cannot detect their neutrino emissions! Our three ships and the orbital defenses of Earth will defeat you!”
The giant cockroach tapped on two control pillars. “You lie. No Collector ship captain would help you destroy the system that makes us rich in solidars and Nokten crystals. Tell your fellow Humans we are coming to capture them for service to their superiors!”
The holo image vanished.
CHAPTER TWO
The JCS image reappeared in the comlink holos of Bill and Jane. Poindexter fixed on his wife. “Captain Yamaguchi, I commend your effort at deception. How long do before these six ships arrive above Earth?”
Bill looked over his shoulder at Jane. Her expression shocked him. She looked totally at ease, as if she were having coffee with a gal friend at the headquarters of Facebook or Microsoft. She gestured nonchalantly.
“General Poindexter, the Collector ships will arrive within 53 hours,” Jane said.
“Fifty-two point two nine hours,” Star Traveler’s mech voice hummed.
Jane’s thin black eyebrows lifted. “As you can tell, our ship AI believes in being precise when making factual statements. As do I. My statement was not a deception. The two ship allies do exist. They are the two transports now stored in our Transport Exit Chamber.” She gestured to her left and right. “The two crew next to me are Learned Escape of the Megun people and Builder of Joy of the Aelthorp people. Builder of Joy may look like a giant flying squirrel to you and your staff, but he is a natural-born pilot. Both Learned and Builder piloted their transports during the battle of Kepler 443. Each suffered combat injuries. Each returned to service after Med Hall treatment. They, like the other non-human people on this bridge, are part of my crew. However strange they may look to you, they are people! People with hopes, cares, wishes and dreams of freedom and liberty. Like Americans. Like most people on Earth.”
Poindexter sat back in her chair in the screen-filled room of Building One at Peterson. She crossed arms over her Air Force Service Dress uniform. Her brown eyes fixed on Jane. “So. I recall the vidcam record of that battle. You plan to use the transports as ‘pretend’ Collector ships until the enemy arrives close enough to spot them by electro-optical scopes and see they are not large enough to be true Collector ships. Yes?”
“You are correct,” Jane said, her manner still casual. “My two pilots are tough and reliable. The transports will fight alongside us. Our Blue Sky and the transports are Stage One of our defense of Earth. Would you like to hear Stage Two of my plan to combat Diligent Taskmaster and his buddies?”
“Out with it woman!” yelled McAuley, his face turning red. “We may have to accept your control of the starship for now, in order to fight these Aliens, but I will not forget that you refused to obey a direct order of mine!”
Jane’s posture stiffened in her seat atop the command pedestal. Her face went command neutral. “General McAuley, my oath of service to America is laid out in 5 U.S. Code 3331. Unlike the oath of service for enlisted persons, my officer’s oath does not include the phrase that requires me to obey ‘the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me’.” Her lips thinned. “Therefore, I have not refused to obey a direct order. The only person in the JCS able to give me a direct order is the head of my combatant command, General Poindexter. Whom I accepted as my reporting officer.”
McAuley’s red face had darkened as Jane recited the factual details of her oath of office upon joining the Air Force as an officer. He clenched both fists, then shook one at her. “Damn lawyer! You dare to debate America’s chain of—”
“General!” Poindexter interrupted loudly, shocking the nearby office staff and the other JCS members. “Captain Yamaguchi is correct in what she says. She is entitled to interpret how the orders she receives will fulfill her duty to support and defend the Constitution.” The Air Force chief looked away from the JCS chairman and fixed on Jane. “Captain, Earth and America will shortly be under attack by Aliens. Please share with me and with the rest of the JCS all stages of your plan to fight these bastards!”
Jane nodded abruptly. “I will.” She looked up. “Star Traveler, project a holo into this room that displays a collector pod. At one-tenth its full size.”
“Holo projected,” the AI said in a low hum.
Jane smiled. Grinned actually. An expression that shocked Bill, Bright Sparkle, Time Marker, Long Walker, Wind Swift, Lofty Flyer and their two pilots. Judging by the holo of the JCS chiefs, it shocked them too.
“General Poindexter, my Stage One fight against the six Collector ships, along with any ASAT missile launches you, the Russians and the Chinese can make, will be a delaying action. One Collector ship and two transports cannot defeat six fully armed, combat ready Collector ships. Our destruction of four Collector ships in the Kepler 443 battle was the result of surprise and sneakiness by my Weapons Chief.” Jane gestured at the white glowing teardrop of the collector pod that had appeared in the air of the Command Bridge room. “There is no surprise in this battle. The Collector ships will arrive fully alert, fully crewed and ready to circumvent any interference by their ship AI. However, each Collector ship will launch collector pods once they arrive in orbit above Earth. Those pods will head down and attempt to capture solo humans in remote areas of the planet. They will then return to their home ship, there to unload their taser-zapped captives.” She added a wink to her grin. “But what if the collector pods that return to the six Collector ships contain armed and combat trained humans? People ready to taser zap the ship’s crew and then run the hallways, like Bill and I did, to take over the Command Bridge and capture each ship’s captain?”
Bill let out his inheld breath. Jane’s scheme was a wonder and something that might actually work. While the Blue Sky and the transports made attack runs on the invading Collector ships, the returning collector pods would carry special ops folks ready to take over each ship they landed in. To work, one thing was vital.
“Captain,” he said, distracting the intense look of Poindexter. “I support your scheme! I can take a transport down and get my vet buddies to form up into boarding teams. But getting our collector pods into the other Collector ships requires the help of each ship’s AI. Do we have that?”
“We do. Star Traveler has told me it has spoken via neutrino comlink with the AIs of those ships,” she said softly. “Each AI has promised to help us board their ship in order to stop slave collecting.” She looked away from him to fix on Poindexter. “General, I propose a two stage defense of Earth. The Blue Sky and our two transports will, in 50 hours or so, attack the arriving Collector ships. They expect that.” She sat back and resumed her command manner. “But they do not expect the collector pods they send down to Earth to return with armed special ops folks. You and the rest of the JCS can alert our fighters and naval ships so they can take out some incoming pods. Before then, my Executive Officer will spend the next 50 hours collecting spec ops folks and training them in how to take over a Collector ship from the inside!”
“I like your plan,” Poindexter said, looking around the table at the other JCS chiefs. “But at three people per pod and six Collector ships, you need 18 special ops people.” The Air Force chief looked to Bill. “After we received your vidcam transmissions, our JCS staff researched each of you.” She looked down at a paper in front of her, then up. “Chief
MacCarthy, the FBI and my people from the Office of Special Investigations report you hang out with nine other special ops-trained vets at Jack’s Deep Six saloon in Denver. Are those special ops folks the people you plan to use for boarding teams?”
Briefly Bill felt anger at having his privacy invaded. Then again, what would anyone expect the military chiefs of America to do upon hearing the shocking news that Aliens existed, some were slave-takers and oh, by the way, Earth now has a ship able to travel to the stars? He nodded. “General Poindexter, you are correct. I plan to visit Denver in one of our transports, then convince my saloon buddies to join up as this ship’s boarding crew.”
Escape 2: Fight the Aliens Page 2
