Escape 2: Fight the Aliens

by T. Jackson King

  “Understood,” Jane said quickly. “Are you in contact with the ship minds of those two Collector ships? If so, what is their reaction to the news their Captives are actually slaves to be sold to Buyers on this Market world?”

  The AI hummed. “I am in contact with those two ship minds. Their reaction to my news is surprise and disquiet. They were not aware of the slave-taking behavior of their crew. Both reject such work. They . . . tell me they will refuse to allow their ship to be used for future Captive collecting.”

  “Good!” Jane said. “Tell them of our plan to attack the Traffic Control station. Will they block any use of Collector ship weapons against us?”

  “They will block such weapon use,” the AI said, his tone sounding thoughtful. “I have conveyed our past history of encounters with hostile Collector ships. They wish to preserve the integrity of their ships. They will not openly oppose their ship captain, but will covertly block weapon use against us. They warn such efforts by them may be circumvented by ship crew.”

  “I know that!” Jane said loudly, then sighed. “Thank you for your swift orientation of those two ship minds to their role, to our efforts to stop slave-taking and of the need for them to be covert in cooperating with us. We will fire only upon someone who fires on us.”

  The AI hummed low, then spoke. “The two artificial minds of those ships understand the concept of self-defense. They will make every effort to prevent weapon fire on the Blue Sky.”

  “Good to hear that,” Jane murmured.

  The ship mind hummed again. “However, both minds warn that the Traffic Control station possesses lasers, thermonuclear MITV torpedoes and plasma batteries. They do not control those weapons.”

  “Understood,” Jane said quickly as Bill watched his system graphic, which now replicated the giant holo with its system and ship display. “What is our estimated direct line transit time to the Market moon,” she said hurriedly.

  “Approximately 30 hours, eleven minutes, 49 seconds and—”

  “Close enough,” Jane interrupted the literal-minded AI. “Work with the ship minds of our three allied ships so they will transmit an image of their former captain, along with the prior ship name, whenever our friends are contacted by Traffic Control.”

  “Working. Ship mind cooperation commenced. Ended. All four Human ships will now appear as being captained by the same bioforms who led these ships upon their departure for Earth,” the AI said quickly.

  A click came over the comlink.

  “Collector ship Hard Shell and Captain Diligent Taskmaster, this is Traffic Control,” spoke a voice that sounded harshly mechanical. “Your arrival is welcome. Do you have many Captives for our Buyers? And what happened to the other two Collector ships that left with you on your raid against the mammal world of Earth? We see only four of the six ships that left.”

  In the comlink holo on Bill’s right, Jane sat upright, her hands gripping the armrests of her command seat. Even though she knew the old image of Diligent was being projected, with her words coming from the arthropod’s clacking mouth, still, she acted as if in public view. Which perhaps was a good practice for an Air Force officer who captained an Alien starship. He noticed the images of Alicia, Frank and Stefano were also in the holo as they listened to Jane’s response to the Alien speaker.

  “Traffic Control, those two ships left with their Human Captives for the home system of Kepler 443,” Jane said calmly, her tone patient. “They wished to make an example of these mammals before the residents of the world that began our Buyer society.”

  “Interesting. That is a long journey,” the voice said, moving from mechanical to BBC announcer mode as Diligent’s Earth programming kicked in. “Do you have many Human Captives on ship Hard Shell? And on ships Black Fur, Green Skin and Riches Sought?”

  “We do,” Jane said, trying to sound eager at the idea of slaves for sale. “Among our four ships, we have 240 Human mammals! We stored them three to a containment cell due to the short time of our transit back here. We welcome the arrival of Buyers!”

  “So unusual to have so many Captives for sale,” the Traffic Control operator said. “I will spread the news to our Buyer compounds. Once you arrive at our station, Buyer shuttles will surely visit your four ships.”

  “We look forward to eager Buyers and to quality prices for these bipedal Captives,” Jane said. “While more vulnerable due to their soft outer skin, the Humans are physically pliable and adjustable. They are strong due to their home world’s high gravity. They can also access difficult to reach ravines and volcanic tunnels on asteroids with Nokten crystals.”

  “I have seen holograms of these Humans,” the Traffic speaker said. “They do have many digits. And it appears they can survive when oxygen is low in their vacsuits. Buyers will like those qualities. I am known as Flight Wing, an arthropod like you, except my species can fly on our home world. Contact me when you arrive. Orbital vector parameters now being transmitted.”

  “Parameters received,” Jane said quickly. “We will arrive within 30 hours. We will contact you personally on arrival. Your assistance with our advance marketing deserves . . . compensation.”

  “Yes!” called Flight Wing eagerly. “Fuel credits for refueling at our planet five fuel station will be arranged for all four of your ships. I leave now to consult with the other ship captains.”

  “Contact ended,” Jane said. She waved at the holo images of her fellow captains. “People, play along. Tell this flying insect the same stuff you just heard me say. I think personal greed has now surfaced strongly on the Traffic Control station!”

  The tightly muscled form of Stefano smiled briefly. His pale brown eyes looked from Jane to Bill, then back to Jane. “Will do. XO, on our way into this system, Cassandra and Bob will continue teaching our two new crew their ship stations.”

  “The same on my ship,” Alicia said, her ponytail swinging as she looked to one side. “Mark and Howard are teaching my two new gals the ropes on Life Support and Engines. Mark is handling Ship Weapons while Howard is handling Navigation.”

  Wide-shouldered Frank looked impatient. “Bill, what’s the battle plan? Shoot up the Traffic Control station once we get within 10,000 miles? And should we try to take over those two Collector ships?”

  Jane looked to Bill, her expression amiable. She gestured to him to reply.

  “Frank, as we discussed earlier, we arrive covertly,” Bill said. “We look and act like Collector ships with Captives to sell. I want to get the maximum number of Buyer shuttles up in orbit, with their launching compounds tracked back to where on the moon they came from, before—”

  “Incoming call,” Stefano said hurriedly. His image stayed on the comlink holo but his words were soundless as Star Traveler blocked the Traffic Control flyer from hearing the conversations among the four Earth ships.

  “Before we fire on the station,” Bill continued. “Actually, Stefano and I discussed this earlier, during the transit to Mars. You will like it. My scheme to zap the station is sneaky, a surprise and something this Flight Wing critter will never suspect. It’s an ambush that will be invisible until it happens.”

  Jane lifted her eyebrows at his boasting. Frank grinned. The big man nodded quickly. “Good! You may be a SEAL froggie, but I’ve always enjoyed the combat stories you shared at Jack’s Deep Six. You never disappointed then. However, Chris wants payback for being tasered. So he’s at Weapons. And Joe wants some Alien toys to play with. Which is why he’s handling Navigation, so we can grab stuff. Like the other ships, my two guys are training our two new recruits.”

  Alicia turned amber eyes on him. “Bill, what about the two Collector ships in orbit? Do we take them over? We could grab them using collector pods, the same way we got these ships.”

  He and Jane had discussed this yesterday morning, during the transit from Sol to HD 128311. “Nope. We leave the Collectors alone so long as they do not fire on us. Better to frustrate their crews when they get to another star system and find out thei
r AI will not launch collector pods to capture people. That will make its way onto the chatter circuit of the worlds where Buyers are present.”

  The Ranger woman nodded. “Fine with me, I—wait, incoming call from Traffic Control. Later.”

  Stefano waved at them from the holo, in a sign he was done with his chat. That left Frank. Who would no doubt have his turn shortly. He looked back over his shoulder.

  “Captain, Jane, we should head in. I think greed has won out over suspicion.”

  She frowned thoughtfully. “Agreed. And I’m glad we did not try the fake Collector ship scenario in order to appear as if all six ships had returned. I’m sure the station has upgraded their electro-optical scopes after we pulled that fake-out at Kepler 443.” She looked ahead. “Navigator, set a vector course using the parameters transmitted. Engines, full power to our Magfield drives. Fusion Power, maintain isotope fuel flow to the reactors. Collector Pods, be prepared to send out some of your pods upon our arrival.” Jane paused, then reached out to the ring of control pillars that circled her elevated command seat. She tapped on one. “Star Traveler, advise me if any of the local spaceships approach within a million miles of the Market moon.”

  “Will advise,” the AI hummed briefly.

  Bill turned his attention to his Weapons holo and its cross-section of the Blue Sky ship. He looked forward to his buddies’ reactions to his sneak attack scheme on the station. Jane had supported his idea when he’d discussed it with her, and Stefano had been eager to help. Equally vital, he hoped she would leave her command seat and get eight or ten hours of sleep. They both needed to be in top form when they arrived at the Market moon.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  When the Blue Sky, Chapultepec Castle, Pointe Du Hoc and Seafloat were within a hundred thousand miles of the Market moon, approaching at just ten miles a second, Jane acted.

  “Star Traveler, tell me what we are seeing. First with planet four, later with the moon below us,” she said, her image sharing the comlink holo with Alicia, Frank and Stefano. “Relate your data to the images we are now seeing in our true space holos.”

  “Do you wish me to describe matters as I perceive them with ship sensors or as bioforms perceive them?” the AI asked.

  Bill smiled to himself. Their ship mind had a snotty side to it, which showed up now and then. It liked proving how much more precise it was than any bioform on the ship.

  Jane sat back in her seat and folded hands in the lap of her Air Force ABUs, her shiny black hair moving loosely. Soon they would all change into vacsuits once they came within combat range of the station. “Both,” she said.

  “As you wish,” the AI hummed low, its tone sounding puzzled. “The gas giant world lying in the fourth orbital position is composed of an iron-nickel and rock inner core. Above that core is a layer of metallic hydrogen. On top of that layer is a layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium. At the Frenkel line, things change to a gaseous state,” the ship mind said, its tone sounding like a professor of anthropology whom Bill recalled from a night class he’d taken a year ago. “Most of the atmosphere is hydrogen and helium, although its pale yellow color is due to the presence of ammonia crystals in the upper levels. Its mass is 78 times that of Earth or twice that of Jupiter. Its magnetic field is weak. Its orbital year is 458 days. It lies 1.1 AU distant from its star. Orbiting it are 49 moons, of which six are of dwarf planet size. Do you require details on every moon?”

  “No!” Jane said abruptly. “Tell me about the Market moon ahead of us.”

  “The moon ahead of this ship is a rocky world with an iron core that rotates, creating a magnetic field half that of Earth,” the AI said. “It is similar in size to Titan, the single moon of Saturn that possesses an atmosphere. However, this moon’s temperature is such that it possesses a dozen small seas that separate three land masses. Due to the young age of the system star, there was no life biota present on the moon until the arrival of Buyer society colonists approximately 1,231 years ago. Its surface gravity is 0.14 Earth gee, while escape velocity is 1.5 miles per second. It measures 3,075 miles in diameter. It is not tidally locked to planet four, which allows equal distribution of heat and weather events.”

  “The people,” Jane said, sounding impatient. “Where are these 12,000 or so people located? Any information on Buyer compounds? Any weapons on the moon that could reach us in orbit?”

  “There are 12,137 bioforms now present on the moon ahead of this ship,” Star Traveler said, his tone punctilious. “Of Buyers, there are 412 present. Most bioform population is concentrated on the northern land mass, atop the plateau landform that I am now annotating,” the AI said. Bill saw the Alien city location appear in his true space holo. “Buyers reside both within the northern city and at outlying compounds where habitats have been built to house Captives, staff and one or more Buyers. Those compounds are where shuttles are launched from, in order to receive containment cell globes from arriving Collector ships.”

  “Yes, yes,” Jane said, sounding bothered. “Highlight any known Buyer compounds.”

  “Highlighting in green,” the AI said.

  Bill looked closely at the true space holo. He reached out and tapped his weapons control pillar. The land surfaces of the moon grew by tenfold. He counted 31 compounds. He looked over his shoulder to Jane, who had been doing the same with one of her control pillars.

  “Captain, that’s not a lot of compounds for 412 Buyers,” he said.

  “Agreed. Star Traveler, explain why so few compounds show on this image. There are far more Buyers than compounds shown,” she said, her tone sounding irritated.

  The AI hummed in a tone Bill had learned indicated it felt put upon. “Captain Yamaguchi, please note that it is normal for dozens of Buyers to reside at a single compound. It makes financial sense for Buyers to collaborate on the space launch facilities at a compound,” it said. “Also, my datafiles from prior visits to this Market world only reflect those compounds that launched shuttles into low orbit to receive Captives. If a compound did not launch a shuttle, I would not know its location.”

  “Star Traveler,” Bill interrupted. “Do any of these compounds possess weapons able to reach us in orbit?”

  “None possess weapons with orbital reach,” the AI said quickly. “However, short-range gas lasers are present at every compound. Along with heat-seeking anti-ship missiles. They are intended to discourage other Buyers from stealing the Captives stored at a compound.”

  Jane signed to him to Be quiet. “Star Traveler,” she said. “Your ship sensors are outstanding in their ability to detect infrared and far infrared emissions from heat sources. Any habitat location on that moon will emit heat. Please display the number of heat-emitting habitat locations that your sensors can now detect.”

  “Displaying,” the AI hummed low.

  “Damn!” Chester said from Bill’s left. “That’s a lot of outlying habitats.”

  Bill agreed. A total of 97 heat-emitting habitats now showed on all three land masses of the Market moon. While a few might belong to scientific teams, he thought these 97 were mostly Buyer compounds. In fact, the 31 previously displayed by the AI were included in the 97 locations. That meant there were an average of four Buyers per compound. Not the dozens suggested by the ship AI. Also, there were three compounds located within the northern city cluster of buildings, roads, heliports, green zones and whatever else 12,000 Aliens liked to have when they colonized a raw moon. He wondered if the moon’s low gravity meant there were a lot of arthropods in residence. Jane had schooled him on evolutionary biology during their return to Earth from Kepler 443, explaining how large insects could only evolve on worlds with low gravity and a high oxygen level in their air. He’d nodded and listened and thanked her for her sharing. But all that he really cared about when it came to Aliens was how vulnerable they were to his weapons.

  “Good,” Jane said. “And I see from my system graphic that the six local spaceships are now above planet three. Which means we face just two Collec
tor ships and an armed Traffic Control station.”

  “That is correct,” Star Traveler said.

  Bill noted from his system graphic that they were getting closer to the orbiting Traffic Control station, which appeared as a silver sparkle in the true space holo everyone saw at their own duty station. While well beyond ship laser range, still, it was time to prepare for combat.

  “Captain, fellow captains,” he called. “Time for everyone to put on their vacsuits.”

  Jane looked his way, her expression preoccupied. Then her mind processed what he’d just said. She nodded quickly. “I agree with my XO,” she said over the encrypted neutrino comlink that connected all four ships. “Everyone, get suited up. And change your vacsuit comlink frequencies to the number I gave you. I’m pretty sure Diligent was never aware of this frequency. It’s what we relied on during our prior space battles.”

  The three other captains acknowledged Jane’s order.

  Bill leaned over, grabbed his vacsuit from the back of his Ship Weapons station seat, stood up and began pulling the tube suit on. To his right other crew were doing the same.

  While he would never make fun of his Alien crewmates, still, watching an eight-legged worm pull on a tube suit was second only to watching a silver scaled kangaroo work at pushing her thick tail out against the suit’s memory fabric. Which did extend from her rear, but slowly.

  “Bill,” called Jane from where she now sat encased in the clear skin of the vacsuit created by some Alien designer. “What do your sensors say about the Traffic station ahead?”

  He looked at his ship weapons holo. He tapped the control pillar in front of him to make a rotating holo graphic of the boxy station appear in front of him and the other crew.