Jane smiled briefly, then nodded at the man who had clearly been impatient to add to the reports from the sub captains. “Vice Admiral Richardson, thank you. I had hoped your influence would enable these two subs to be rearmed while our Magfield spacedrive engines were being loaded into them and set up.” She looked back to the comlink holo with the four captain images in it. “Captains, please let your crews know how much I appreciate their hurry up and get it done attitude.” Her manner went command formal. “Today we begin the defense of America and Earth. Later, we will capture Alien starships to further defend America from Alien nasties. Now, fellow captains, please stand by and monitor my next discussion.”
Bill tensed. This was something Jane had discussed with him when they’d awoken from their sleep-in. He thought it was pointless. But she was the captain and she had the deep knowledge of space and stars, thanks to her work at Peterson and her amateur astronomy hours with her Celestron NexStar scope. He sat back in his seat, then shrugged. Something didn’t feel right. Then he realized the vacsuit and helmet he now wore, like his fellow crew members and the boarding team folks, blocked the easy fit with the seat that he was used to. He’d thought it a bit early for everyone to don a vacsuit, but that had been Jane’s order. In space, nothing was certain, except that surprises happen and small chunks of whatever could hit anyone while in Earth orbit. That had happened several times with the ISS station and the Chinese and Russian stations. Which, thank god, were now empty of people. While President Hartman had not declared martial law after her “Alien Arrival” speech, still, the country was on a DEFCON Three alert level and the Air Force and Navy were ready to shoot down incoming collector pods. Which would surely be arriving shortly after the Collector ships passed by the Moon. Or tried to. He hoped their fleet could cause some problems for the arriving Aliens.
“Star Traveler,” Jane called to the ship AI. “Establish a neutrino comlink on the frequency used by former Captain Diligent Taskmaster.”
A click echoed from the ceiling. “Neutrino comlink established,” the AI said with a low hum.
Jane’s expression went from command alert to protective mother angry. “Diligent, you bastard! Turn away! You can see from your sensors that you now face five Collector ships!” She grimaced. “Whatever you told your fellow captains, raiding Earth for captives will be more dangerous than you can imagine! There is no profit to be had here. Leave!”
In the comlink holo the images of the four other ship captains moved to one side and the cockroach captain filled most of the holo. This time the giant insect wore a transparent vacsuit. Within it the critter’s two head antennae moved sideways, while its upper and middle arm pairs touched nearby control pillars. In the background were four Alien crew, each working at a ship station. The creature’s black eyes gleamed.
“Your effort to make disloyal the artificial minds of our ships has come to nothing!” the cockroach rasped through mouth palps. “My crew now controls all vital functions! We control our ship weapons, our spacedrives, all that matters.” The critter looked aside at a holo, then back. “My fellow captains agree with me that you Humans must be punished for your attack on our Collector ship factory system. We are prepared for minor ship damage. And your claim of four other Collector ships helping you cannot be believed! While I detect four other Magfield drive ships above the moon of your world, they cannot be fellow Collector ships. They must be collector pod engines. We will soon arrive and render your world unable to visit space again!”
Jane’s manner shifted smoothly to command formal. “You have been warned. Believe what you will believe. But know this. When we capture you and the crews of the other ships, we will not return you to a Market world. Instead, we will place you in a habitat dome on our cold world of Mars. You passed by it recently. Did it look inviting?”
The brown antennae of Diligent shifted forward. “You lie again. Collector ship crews never colonize any world. We capture primitives to sell for Nokten crystals and solidars, then we retire to a suitable Market world for play, entertainment, whatever pleases a rich crew member.” Clear eyelids passed over the two black compound eyes of the giant cockroach, then withdrew. “As for the ship you now occupy, we will empty it of all bioforms. Perhaps we will allow you to live on this red ball you call Mars!”
“Prepare to lose your ships,” Jane said firmly. “Cut neutrino comlink.”
A click sounded. “Neutrino comlink with Diligent Taskmaster ended,” the AI said, its tone sounding curious. “Captain Yamaguchi, I and my fellow ship minds are curious. We know that your four other spaceships are not Collector ships. Whatever their weapons, they lack plasma batteries and antimatter projectors. They cannot win any prolonged space combat encounter, according to my computations. Why do you stay in this star system?”
“It’s my home,” Jane said as she shifted her attention to Bill, her dark brown eyes bright, perhaps with tears from the memory of how the two of them had almost been sold into slavery. “It’s also my duty as an officer in the United States Air Force. As it is the duty of Bill, the men and women behind me who will sneak aboard Collector ships and fight deadly Aliens, and the nearly 300 men and women on board the two submarines out there.”
“Interesting this thought concept of duty,” the AI hummed low. “Could it be similar to what we ship minds feel toward the ship that we become part of?”
On his left, Richardson looked surprised at the AI talk of feelings. Bill didn’t. He’d spent nine months with the Blue Sky’s artificial mind, and whatever it was, it had feelings too. It was a person, of sorts.
Jane blinked. “It could be. Star Traveler, how will the bioform control of the Collector ships affect ship performance?”
“Efficiency will be reduced,” the AI hummed low. “As you saw in prior star system battles, these ships will not achieve full Magfield spacedrive speed capability. The ability of ship systems to acquire targets, track them and direct deadly fire on any target will be limited by the slow mental speed of bioforms.”
His captain frowned. “Understood. And helpful. When we do engage in combat, you will provide targeting data to the control tablets on the submarines, yes?”
“I will. I will also provide similar targeting data to the two transports. All four subunits of the Blue Sky will operate at least as efficiently as the incoming Collector ships.”
“Thank you.” Jane looked to her comlink holo, where four captains awaited her orders. “Captains, let us create a thermonuke minefield in the pathway of these Collector ships. Each transport should fire a single torpedo toward the vector track provided by Navigator Lofty Flyer,” she said, gesturing at the attentive squirrel lady. “Captain Baraka of the Louisiana, please launch a single Trident missile on that same vector and set the MIRVd warheads for lateral dispersal. I believe you have already fitted the warheads with magnetic field proximity sensors, yes?”
“Captain, yes, that was done in Norfolk before we left,” Baraka said.
“Good.” Jane looked to the sub chief. “Captain Leonard, launch one of your Standard 2 missiles, and three of your Harpoons on the same vector.”
The bald captain gave her a quick nod. “My Weapons officer is carrying out your order.”
Jane looked to Bill. “Weapons Chief, launch four of our MITV torps. At five warheads per torp, that will add 20 thermonuke warheads to our mine field.”
Bill tapped his Weapons control pillar. A faint vibration came to his feet as the railgun launcher of the MITV torps operated. Brief light sparkles showed ahead of the nose of the Blue Sky as the solid fuel rockets of their torps pushed each missile and its payload toward the distant vector track.
“Nice to see us taking action,” Richardson said, his tone musing. “Captain Yamaguchi, what are the chances one or more of the warheads will impact or explode near a Collector ship?”
“Low are the odds,” Jane said calmly. “Space is big, black and mostly empty. Unlike narrow sea straits or preferred shipping lanes. While I expect the Collector
ships to be traveling in cluster formation, perhaps only a few hundred miles apart, still, the EMP effect and radiation impact of any of our thermonukes only reaches out for 10 or 20 miles.”
Overhead the ceiling speaker hummed. “Impact probabilities are lower than low,” the AI said lightly. “And one or more Collector ships may use their plasma batteries to project balls of plasma ahead of them, once they come close to this Moon of Earth. Plasma batteries are commonly used for ship defense against small solid objects like the warhead devices you mention.”
“True,” Jane said, then grinned. “But we retain the option of signaling each warhead to blow whenever we tell it to do so. Perhaps we can create an electromagnetic pulse version of a seaborne gale for these ships!”
A thought came to Bill. “Star Traveler, how much harm could the radiation output from several thermonukes due to the hull of a Collector ship? Could it make the hull’s EMF wraparound ability fail? Making it possible to detect such a ship using normal radar?”
“No,” the AI said, its tone mildly irritated. “You may recall that this ship’s hull is seeded with adaptive optics mirrors. They are part of the hull skin. Those mirrors served to deflect most laser strikes sent against us. However, the two transports and two submarines lack such hull protection.”
Bill knew that, as he recalled their prior space battles. Even if the subs carried lasers like the transports, the chances of them doing major harm with lasers was low. The only way to truly kill a Collector ship was with antimatter, a direct strike by one of their CO2lasers or by direct thermonuke contact with a ship hull. The sub missiles and rockets did pose a threat—if they got very very lucky in their targeting.
Jane shifted in her command seat. “Vice Admiral Richardson, Captains Baraka, Leonard, Learned and Builder, time to give your crews a food and rest break. In three hours and forty-two minutes the enemy will be upon us.”
Bill wondered just what fleet maneuvers Jane had worked out with the other four captains. What had she practiced in near Earth space while he worked on training the pod boarders? Would the fleet adopt the ‘bee flitting around a flower’ tactic mentioned by Builder of Joy? Or would they try something else? Whatever the fleet did, he hoped the other captains remembered the safe zone that lay beyond the 10,000 mile range of Collector ship lasers. While the Alien ships could blip around just as fast as the Earth fleet, he doubted the six Collectors had done much combined maneuvering. Collector ship captains were notorious for their solitary ways. It still amazed him that Diligent had managed to convince five ship captains to join him in a crusade against Sol and Earth. The critter must have lied a lot to paint Earth as a place filled with easy to capture bioforms suitable for sale to Alien merchants engaged in asteroid mining of the Nokten crystals that were vital for interstellar navigation. And he knew the giant cockroach had never faced any military threat from Earth’s air and naval forces. Covert arrival, collector pod capture of Captives and easy departure had always worked in the past. Well, this time things would not go so easy!
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Collector ships slowed just before they got to the Moon, dropping from one-tenth lightspeed down to a laggardly one percent of their top speed. Or six hundred thousand miles an hour. Still fast. But Bill knew the slower speed gave him a better chance at hitting one of the six targets with the ship’s four CO2lasers. He liked how his ship could bite with its front, then bite again as it turned tail to another vector. His system graphic showed the six Collector ships strung out a bit, with three in a front line, followed by two behind, then a sixth ship acting tail-end Charlie. Which gave him an idea.
“Admiral!” he called. “See that lagging Collector ship at the end of their approach vector? If you send both subs against it, they might be able to bracket the enemy and fire from two sides!”
“I see it,” Richardson said eagerly. “I’ll tell the subs to veer off and aim for that singleton. Uh, if that is agreeable to you, Captain Yamaguchi?”
“Follow whatever combat instructions my Weapons Chief gives you,” she said. “While we have developed five fleet action maneuver scenarios, space combat is his domain. And he’s good at it!”
Their fleet of five ships had begun heading toward the Collector ships once they came within a million miles of the Moon. Now, moving at the same slow speed as the Aliens, both parties still lay far apart. That would not last. “Ships Talking Skin and Tall Trees, you two fire lasers on the nearest ship of the front three,” Bill said. “Captain, how do we maneuver here?”
In the comlink holo Jane gripped her seat armrests and leaned forward, her manner intent. “Captains! We go to Scenario Pleiades!”
Bill watched as the five ships of the Earth fleet began separating. He could see that Jane’s fleet maneuver was aiming for an englobement of the six Collector ships. Which had the value of keeping the more vulnerable Earth ships on the outside boundary of the Alien fire zone. It had the disadvantage of allowing several Collector ships to focus laser fire on a single Earth ship.
“Captain, range is closing,” Lofty Flyer chittered from her Navigation station. “Distance to nearest Collector ship is now 147,300 miles.”
“Bright Sparkle,” called Jane. “Increase power plant output to 105 percent of normal. I want to surprise that brown turd!”
“Fusion power plants feeding extra power to Magfield engines,” the color-banded woman said. “All power systems operating safely.”
“Magfield engines operating at 105 percent of normal,” hissed Time Marker as his yellow electrical nimbus grew outward to a range of three feet.
Bill saw that the two subs were separating and moving to flank the tail-end Collector. The two transports and the Blue Sky were separating and moving into an arc formation that faced toward the oncoming front row of three ships. Which maneuver kept the two middle ships from being able to target the Earth ships. Unless the Alien captains wanted to chance hitting a fellow Collector ship with their lasers. The Collector ship to ship distance of 200 miles was not a lot of safe room when moving at six hundred thousand miles an hour. The Earth fleet approached sideways from the Moon while the Alien fleet dove headlong toward Earth. That track took them toward the several dozen thermonuke warheads that formed a cluster of yellow spots. But their improvised mine field depended a lot on luck.
Which was not proving out. The front three Collector ships had entered the outer edge of the mine field and looked to pass through without incident within seconds. Bill wanted to slam his armrests with frustration. No Alien ship was within range of his weapons. Yet!
“Weapons Chief, signal the mine field to explode now!” Jane called. “Make it a ripple EMP, with the far end going first, the middle cluster going next and the field nearest us going last.”
Bill tapped his weapons pillar. On the system graphic the yellow dots began disappearing. On the true space holo that looked ahead into ash black space, fifteen yellow-white glows suddenly appeared.
“Yes!” cried Richardson.
“Weapons Chief,” called Baraka from the Louisiana. “My fire control panel says no Alien ship will be hit by any of the blasts.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Bill said quickly. “The blasts will create an EMP radiation front that will blur the sensor inputs for every Collector ship! Now we attack! Tall Trees, Talking Skin, fire your lasers as soon as you are within range!”
Bill watched his weapons holo as it counted down the distance to the central ship in the front row of three Collector ships. The two transports were already spread out in a way that they could fire on the Collectors to either side of the central ship.
“Firing Harpoons at the last ship!” called Leonard from the Minnesota.
“Four Harpoons launched from us,” called Baraka.
The nuke-tipped anti-ship missiles, which were usually radar-guided but in this case had been launched on a straight line intercept trajectory, covered the miles between their subs and the last Collector ship. But the yellow dots of the Harpoons moved very slowly.
“Bing!” went his weapons holo as his ship sensors told him the Blue Sky was now within 10,000 miles of the leading Collector ship and closing fast, albeit at an angle.
“Firing!” he yelled as the ship’s two nose lasers sent bright green beams into the blackness of space.
“We bite!” chittered Builder of Joy from Tall Trees as he fired his ship’s single laser.
“Attacking,” muttered Learned Escape from Talking Skin.
“Fleet!” yelled Jane. “Turn away! Now! At maximum Magfield speed. We survive to attack another day.”
On his system graphic holo Bill saw the two transports curve elegantly away from the front three Collector ships, leaving their green laser beams to hit or not hit. The two subs at the back of the Alien ship line now moved away, one sub going to north ecliptic with the other sub going south ecliptic. Then a middle Collector ship and the tail-end ship fired their lasers. Four green beams reached outward.
“We’re hit!” called Leonard from the Minnesota.
Three green flares showed on the true space holo.
“Hits on the enemy!” Bill called. “Our two beams and one from Learned hit two of the front ships. Sensors say . . . minor damage. Some hull fragments among the debris. Ships are maintaining control.”
“Good,” Jane said as she saw, like Bill did, that the Blue Sky was now paralleling the incoming vector track of the Collector ships, but at a separation of 100,000 miles. “Minnesota, report on your damage.”
The CIC image of the Minnesota showed anxious behavior. Captain Leonard, looking calm, shrugged his shoulders. “A laser from the tail-end Charlie ship hit our rear towed array. It’s gone. I deployed it before we hit range and set it to broadcasting on radio. Figured it might make the Aliens think it was a second ship. We are still airtight.”
Escape 2: Fight the Aliens Page 9
