Escape 2: Fight the Aliens

by T. Jackson King

♦ ♦ ♦

  Their four ships arrived above Mars the next day. They assumed an areostationary orbit at 11,000 miles up, centered above the equatorial stretch of Valles Marineris. Bill looked at the giant canyon in the true space holo to his upper right, amazed at its depth and grandeur. Yesterday he’d asked Star Traveler for a private info lesson on the place. Turned out the canyon ran from west to east along the planet’s equator. At 2,500 miles long, the massive rift in the Martian crust stretched nearly a quarter of the way around Mars. And at four to six miles deep in places, its depth would partly shield the jail dome inmates from the Sun’s UV rays and small meteors. Which would allow the Aliens to live somewhat normal lives. Maybe they would even be visited by American USO entertainers in exchange for a ride on a spaceship? He looked to his left, where Chester now wore NWU Type 3 green camos as he sat at his Liaison station. The man looked very upbeat.

  “Chester, a good morning for you?”

  His new friend looked Bill’s way, his smooth-shaven face lightly tanned. A big smile came over it. “Yes! My wife Sharon loved the trip to orbit! She brought some family pics with her and personal items, but when I left her earlier she was talking excitedly with this ship’s AI over how to decorate our habitat rooms.” The stocky man paused, glanced back to where Jane sat atop the command pedestal, then back to Bill. “Your wife was a genius yesterday when she suggested we all invite up a spouse or partner, before we headed off into deep space. I’ve heard from the stay-at-home ships that lots of crew people are very happy. And your people on the three ships out there in orbit with us are also super pleased. While Navy work has often meant time away from family, it does not mean we love the separation.”

  Bill agreed with that. While his SEAL deployments had not lasted as long as Navy ship and sub tours, he’d spent enough time with regular Navy folks to understand the strain they felt by long, repeated deployments. “Understood. When Jane brought it up with me, I supported it totally. There were already three couples on this ship. Why not the same on the other ships?”

  “Exactly so,” Chester said in his low baritone. The man tapped his control pillar. “The Chapultepec Castle is sending over a transport loaded with tasered Alien crew. Frank says his pilot is ready to head down planet whenever you are.” He tapped his pillar a second time. “And the Seafloat has also dispatched one of her transports filled with tasered Aliens. According to the text messages from the two ships.”

  Bill checked his system graphic holo, saw the purple dots of the two transports heading their way from their ships, then saw a dozen collector pods leaving his ship for the canyon below. They were carrying the pieces of the jail dome. Repair robots were riding inside several pods. He looked back to the Chief of Naval Operations. “It will be an hour or so until the place is assembled and oxygen is pumped in.” He noticed in his comlink holo that his wife was watching him. “Jane, you wish to go down with me on our transport? To see off Diligent and the rest?”

  “Nope,” she said quickly. She tapped two control pillars in front of her six foot high seat. “I’m awaiting a report from Alicia on how well the new Magfield drive engine worked during the trip over here. The Pointe Du Hoc made ten percent lightspeed well enough. But I want to be sure all is operating fine with her, before we leave the Solar system.”

  “Makes sense.” He scanned his ship weapons holo, checked the status of all weapons, noted the Green Operational status of everything, then looked back over his right shoulder to where Learned Escape sat in his pilot seat near Jane’s pedestal. The man was color-casting something to Bright Sparkle, who spoke back the same way. Since no sound came from the speaker/vidcam units on their shoulders, it looked like a private chat. The Megun man noticed his look. He gave a human smile.

  “Executive Officer Bill, I’m just sharing with my partner there how much I look forward to visiting the surface of your red world,” Learned said from his unit as rainbow color bands and polychrome spots flittered over the surface of his bare skin. “I’ve worked with Long Walker to have our ten inmates moved to my transport Talking Skin. Earlier I visited their pods and tasered them. Hover bots are moving them.”

  Bill nodded. “Good. I will handle the move of Diligent Taskmaster from his cell to your transport. Uh, are the prisoners all wearing vacsuits?”

  “Certainly,” the color-banded man said, his tone casual rather than bothered by Bill’s inquiry about something so obvious. “And I’ve loaded several crates of food packets into the ship. It’s enough to sustain 30 bioforms for 30 days. I gather the three ships that remain behind will bring in replacement food, until the food crops take hold and grow enough to yield potatoes, corn, millet, grapes, tomatoes and such?”

  “One ship will come regularly,” Bill said. He checked his system graphics holo again, confirming that their four ships above Mars, and the three ships and a sub above Earth, were the only moving neutrino sources in Sol system. “Captain Jane, there is no sign of other Collector ships in the Solar system.”

  “Good. Very good,” she murmured as she scanned her own system graphic holo. “Learned Escape, after you move the prisoners into the jail dome, please count every vacsuit. I want to guarantee that no Alien will ever leave this dome, unless it is to give intelligence to someone from the CIA!”

  “Exact counting will be done,” Learned Escape said from his speaker/vidcam unit.

  The comlink holo suddenly changed. Three new faces partly filled it, pushing Jane’s image to the right side. Bill smiled when he saw who the faces were.

  “Captain Yamaguchi,” called Stefano from the Seafloat, his manner SEAL professional. “This ship has dispatched a transport to you. It carries the ten prisoners from our containment cells.”

  “Same for us,” called Frank. The big barrel of a man frowned, his thick black eyebrows nearly coming together. “Glad to get rid of our ten. Removes the temptation to feed them to vacuum. Though it was fun to taser zap them again!”

  “Good to hear your reports,” Jane said casually, her manner relaxed. Not having the Joint Chiefs of Staff watching a continuous video feed from their bridge had made them all feel more at ease. That attention had been switched to the three ships manned by Jake, Mack and Janice, and to Leonard’s sub. “While we are setting up the jail dome, you three do triple checks on all ship systems. Work with your AIs. Make sure all is ready for your first interstellar trip. Remember, while we four can talk among ourselves over the neutrino comlink during FTL, no ship can help another ship while in Alcubierre space-time modulus transit.”

  Alicia nodded quickly, her sandy-brown ponytail swinging freely. She, like everyone on the four ships, was out of her vacsuit and looking happier for the escape from the Alien tube suit. “I’m doing that here on Pointe. Starry Lights, my ship AI, seems very happy to have a crew on board who are not slave-takers.”

  Jane nodded slowly. “Alicia, you happy with your two new crew folks?”

  The Ranger gave a thumbs-up gesture. “Very happy! Got a Marine and an Air Force PJ. Both gals. They are impressive. They pump heavier weights than I do!”

  Jane grinned. “Glad to hear it. Frank? Your new crew working out?”

  “Yup,” said the former Marine Gunnery Sergeant. “My two guys are both Rangers. Both with plenty of battle experience. They are learning the Engines and Life Support jobs.”

  “Good.” His wife paused. “Stefano? How are your two new crew people? They coping with space?”

  Bill’s sniper-trained buddy gave a casual wave. “Happy to have them. Got a Marine and an Air Force Special Tactics. Man and woman respectively. They can’t believe they get private rooms, like officers. They both brought along their spouses. As did Cassandra and Bob. All is ship shape here on Seafloat.”

  “Good to hear that from you three. Your transports have arrived beside the Blue Sky.” She looked his way. “Bill? Time for you and Learned Escape to head out?”

  “Yes,” he said, standing up and grabbing his backpack. He already wore his .45 in a cowboy-type holst
er. Laser and taser tubes stuck out of the backpack. While he had full confidence in his pilot, in the transport and in the constant monitoring of Star Traveler, he did not believe in taking chances. Leastwise, not accidental chances. He was fine with thought-out gambles. Like the bridge entry he’d done. “Heading for Mars,” he said, gathering up Learned with a gesture and heading for the bridge entry door.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  The soil of Mars really was rusty-red. Plus brown, with a little yellow here and there, most of it looking sandy smooth. He stood inside the jail dome in his own vacsuit, having been preceded by the vacsuit clad form of Diligent Taskmaster the giant cockroach. Scattered over the dirt floor of the dome were 29 Alien bodies lying where they’d been deposited after the hover bots finished removing vacsuits. The two transports from Chapultepec and Seafloat were returning to their ships. Learned Escape stood just outside the airlock of the jail dome, a white tube taser in his vacsuited arms. He clearly took seriously the job of being backup to Bill. Ahead, Diligent stopped walking and turned around. A six foot tall giant cockroach stood before him. The Alien’s body had three sections. There were a reddish-brown head, a dark brown thorax middle segment and a pale brown abdomen. Two spindly legs supported him. Two pairs of arms sprouted from the midbody and the shoulder. Circular spiracles pushed against the creature’s clear vacsuit as he exhaled, then the suit skin moved inward as he inhaled. Atop his head, two curving brown antennae leaned forward within his globular helmet. Two black eyes fixed on him.

  “Other Collector ships will finish what we began,” the Alien rasped over the vacsuit comlink.

  Bill kept his taser tube pointed directly at the critter’s middle, which was hard shelled exoskeleton. He shook his head. “No they won’t. We have seven Collector ships now. We will build more. And tomorrow, when we reach the outer edge of our system’s magnetosphere, we will head for HD 128311. Our four ships will destroy the Traffic Control station, kill any Collector ships orbiting above the moon, then laser zap the Buyer compounds on the moon’s surface.” He paused, noticing how still lay all the bodies of the 29 other Aliens who were scattered across the bare soil inside the dome. “We will broadcast a video of your jail here, the condition of your allies, and warn that any Collector ship that comes to Earth will end up just like you. Think that will discourage your fellow Collectors?”

  The arrogant crèche master curled his pencil-like fingers into four fists. “Mammal! All such as you deserve to be captured for service on mining asteroids.”

  Bill gestured at four nearby Aliens. One resembled a green-skinned praying mantis. Beside it lay a six-legged sausage-like Alien with armor plate skin. Beyond those two was a two-legged vulture with black wings, a pair of chest-arms, a yellow beak and two red eyes. Closer to him and Diligent was a black-furred, four-armed critter who resembled a giant grizzly bear. “Those are your former crew. Captured once more. Do you think they will forgive you for putting them in this dry, barren landscape?” He pointed beyond the clear walls of the dome to the rocky central ridge that ran down the Ius Chasma, and the nearby debris slopes that flowed from the south side of the canyon.

  The two antennae flared back. “I am their captain! They will do whatever I tell them.”

  “Oh?” Bill said, hoping Jane was enjoying the sound and vid image being transmitted to orbit by his vacsuit’s tiny vidcam. “What about the five other captains who lost their ships, thanks to your crazy idea about teaching a lesson to us humans? I think ship captains who wake up here, with no spaceship in sight, will be unhappy with you.”

  “Leave me!” Diligent rasped. “You are a mammal. All you humans are mammals. We arthropods of the Hard Shell species will become your masters. We have the time.”

  Bill understood the Alien’s point. The Buyer, Market and Collector ship society had existed in this part of the Orion Arm for thousands of years. It would not fall over and disappear just because he and his shipmates had killed their Collector ship factory. New factories would be built. And any human who showed up on one of the 61 Market worlds was bound to be killed, or put into forced labor by a Buyer. So it had been for ages. So of course this giant cockroach thought the future would continue as in the past. He stepped back, heading for the airlock’s inner hatch.

  “So do we humans have the time. And our history says we adapt to any danger, any predator, any change in climate or food,” he said, reaching back with his free hand to tap the Open function for the hatch. “Maybe humanity will become the masters of all 413 worlds with Buyers!”

  The giant insect jumped toward him, covering half the distance in a single bound. Four arms were outstretched, with horn-tipped fingers reaching for his helmet. He tapped the end of the taser tube, sending a coherent red beam into the thorax of his first and most deadly enemy. Diligent’s black eyes lost their luster of awareness. The jump ended in a trembling, shaking fall to the dry soil of Mars. The Alien lay face down, his body and limbs shaking like twigs in a tornado. Keeping his taser aimed at the vacsuited creature, he walked up to Diligent, bent down and removed the vacsuit from the trembling body of the Alien insect. Standing up he put a boot toe under Diligent’s abdomen, and flipped him over onto his hard shell back. That position allowed the cockroach to breath air rather than dust through his front spiracle holes. As he had promised to Star Traveler and the other ship AIs, the former crews were still alive. So they would remain for whatever might be the rest of their natural lifespan. Holding the Alien’s vacsuit, he backpeddled to the open airlock hatch, glanced over his shoulder, saw Learned Escape inside the airlock and already heading to support him.

  “Stay in the airlock,” he said over the comlink. “I’m not in any danger. And I liked that the bastard gave me an excuse to taser zap him one more time!”

  “Ahhh,” the Megun said, his green eyes looking beyond Bill at the fallen form of Diligent. “Too bad. I too would have liked the chance for a final taser shot. Recall that the creature beyond took me captive in my home system. Being unable to color-speak, being non-aware until I awoke in that terrible cell, those were horrors no Megun had ever before felt!”

  The inner hatch closed before them, shutting off the view of the 30 Aliens who had invaded Sol system. He turned and patted Learned on his vacsuited right shoulder. “Sorry. Maybe you will have a chance to taser some live Collectors in the Market world system.”

  “Perhaps,” his color-banded friend said as he turned and tapped the Open spot for the outer hatch. “I like better your plan for a covert entry into HD 128311! That is a very Megun-way to approach a deadly enemy.”

  Bill liked the idea of sneaking into the Market world system. He liked ambush combat. He liked springing a deadly surprise. He especially liked seeing his enemy respond with confusion, incoherence and ineffectiveness. Now was the time to head for interstellar space and to begin the process of removing a threat to America and to humanity!

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Three days later they arrived at the outer edge of the magnetosphere of system HD 128311. Bill and Chester and Sparkle and the holo images of their three ship captain allies looked avidly at the giant holo that filled the front of the Command Bridge. Jane had told Star Traveler to create a holo that showed everything they needed to know about the system. That was plenty.

  An orange globe flamed brightly in the middle of the holo. Above it and below it were six white dots scattered about the star. Barely visible red spots moved in the holo. Jane sighed. “Star Traveler, change from a true space image to a graphic depiction of the system. Orient the system’s plane of ecliptic so it faces me, with the star at the center. Adjust planetary orbital distances so that the outermost part of the system is still visible. Put in the AU distances as you did on our first arrival here. This holo should display the planets, asteroids and ships known to be present in this system. Overlay the orbital distance at which water will be liquid on a planetary surface. Make that zone green.”

  “Adjusting,” the AI said. “Does this depiction satisfy?”
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  “Nice!” Bill whispered. “That is really outstanding!”

  “It is, isn’t it?” Jane murmured softly.

  In front of them hung six planets of varying sizes, their orbits centered on the orange star at the center. Planets one and two lay close to the star and on its far side. A swath of green overlapped planets three and four, which lay on their side of the star. Between planets three and four, an asteroid belt showed as a scatter of orange dots. Planet five, a gas giant, lay just beyond the water zone at half way around the system. Planet six, a gas world similar to Uranus, looked lonely, lying five times further out from the star than the inner five planets. It was close enough to the Blue Sky to show as a blue disk. Between planets three and four there moved six red dots, coming and going between the two planets that lay within the liquid water zone. Worse, two purple dots showed next to the Market moon that orbited planet four.

  The AI hummed low. “Like most star systems there is an outer belt of comets that orbit the star. Your Earth astronomers call it the Kuiper Belt.”

  “Exactly so,” Jane said softly. “I recall you saying on our last visit that planets four and five were similar in size to our Saturn and Jupiter. How about the Market moon that orbits planet four. Any change in its condition?”

  “No change in the Market moon condition,” the AI said patiently. “As before, the moon has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, expanses of liquid water and is listed as the Market world for this system. Two Collector ships now orbit above the Market moon. Its distance from this ship is 20 AU.”

  Bill looked back over his shoulder. Jane was staring intently at the holo. “Star Traveler, you should have received neutrino updates from the Traffic Control station above that moon,” she said quickly. “Describe that data.”

  “The updates have been received. The Market world contains 12,137 bioforms of various species. There are 412 Buyers present in that population,” the AI said calmly and patiently. “As for the Buyer system itself, at present there are 61 Market worlds and 842,257 Buyers resident at 413 stars. Collector ship totals are now 83, including the two below. And our presence has been detected by the monitor probes lying in the outer reaches of this system. Traffic Control will contact us shortly.”