HADRON Chaos

by Stephen Arseneault

  Jeff Moskowitz nodded. “Noted.”

  Mace rubbed his chin as the others looked on. “I take it you’re all waiting for me to make a decision?”

  Johnny laughed. “The kings need your guidance.”

  Mace rolled his mouth back and forth in thought for several seconds. “Let’s do this. Mr. Collins, how long will it take you to get those microwave cannons ready to move?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  Mace nodded. “Let’s get this rolling, then.”

  Mace stood as Humphrey Mallot said, “New ships are streaming through the rift. One moment… scouts are reporting another fleet of nine hundred ships.”

  Mace sat back in his chair. “Are they all cruisers?”

  “Most. It would appear there are some support ships mixed in there.”

  Jasper said, “That’s it, then. It looks like we wait for them here.”

  Mace shook his head in frustration. “How have your colony moves been going? Any way to close a couple more? The more of those microwave cannons we can consolidate in one place, the better off we’ll be.”

  Jasper scowled. “Still working on moving the ground-based stations from the last one. We’ve moved three colonies now. Those were our smallest, excluding the Phaleron colony which has one of our gatrellium mines. We’re still recovering twenty to thirty kilograms a day from that one.”

  “Any way to move the weapons and leave the mine open until the last minute?”

  Jasper tilted his head to one side. “I suppose those guns aren’t doing much good there anymore. I’ll get my people started on it immediately.”

  Humphrey said, “The Karthians are jumping. That’s both the fleet at the Zinka capital and the one at the rift. The destination is… Dunden Heap space.”

  A hail came into Stark from the Dunden emperor. “The Karthians are here. Will we be receiving any assistance?”

  Stark slowly shook his head. “As we’ve said before, our best chance against them is an all-out battle here at Divinia. I realize the enormity of what I suggest, but your fleet at least has a fighting chance if you join us here. We cannot protect your worlds.”

  The emperor looked down at the deck of his command ship for several seconds before turning to his fleet commander.

  “Order all ships to Divinia.”

  The officer returned a shocked expression. “Sir?”

  The emperor turned with a scowl. “We’ve lost, Commander Fless. As a species, we might as well take as many Karthians with us as we can.”

  Stark’s silhouette bowed. “Your selfless decision will be remembered, Your Eminence. Your ships will be welcome under my command. We will do all we can to defeat these savages.”

  The comm closed. Seconds later, the one hundred thirty-six cruisers of the Dunden Heap fleet joined with those of Malcom Stark. The destruction of the Dunden colonies continued for two days. A further jump to the Gorange capital of Nellivue had the Gorange scrambling to defend. Their great cities were deep underwater, making for a difficult assault from above. The one hundred sixty-seven cruisers of the Gorange fleet jumped through to Divinia.

  The Gorange commander opened a comm. “Our cities are under siege. As previously decided, our fleet is best utilized here. The Karthian ships cannot reach our people. Their lasers and plasma weapons will not penetrate our oceans. They will have to bring down soldiers, and those soldiers will be fighting in our seas where we have an extreme advantage.”

  Malcom Stark replied, “You are a species of honor, Commander Krog. I wish we had the means to offer assistance.”

  The commander nodded in appreciation. “We have abandoned the Fellonce and Lewitis colonies. Their seas were too shallow to defend. Our other nine are deep ocean worlds.”

  Mace joined the conversation. “Your assistance here at Divinia is greatly appreciated, Commander. If we can’t make this stand, the Karthians will have destroyed us all.”

  Jeff came over the comm excitedly. “Mr. Hardy! It works! We successfully formed a meter-wide wormhole, and then moved it from one location to another.”

  Mace asked, “So you can reproduce this weapon?”

  Jeff nodded. “And an additional bit of good news is the gatrellium cost. Our test apparatus opened a meter-wide wormhole and moved it forward for half a kilometer. The gatrellium consumed remained under a kilogram. I believe with a few tweaks we can reduce that amount by half.”

  Mace said, “Excellent work, Doc. When can we put it in production? And is the design ship-worthy?”

  Jeff nodded. “It is. We should have production drawings ready by tomorrow. I’ve already sent ahead the designs we know will not change. By the end of this week we should have our first dozen coming off the production line.”

  Mace’s smile began to fade. “The Karthians are at Nellivue. We probably don’t have a week. What else can you do for us?”

  Jeff replied, “Let us finish the tweaks here. Mr. Collins, if you’d like we can add this weapon to your arsenal on the Organ Cave.”

  Jasper nodded. “I like.”

  “And, Mace, we should be able to make modifications to the one on the Rogers at the same time. That at least gives us two. I don’t believe it possible to speed up the production of the others. We will already be cutting corners that we shouldn’t. There’s still a slight possibility that these weapons could malfunction. If that were to happen, the open wormhole would likely move through the ship. For that reason the weapon should be isolated in its own room, and placed as close to the forward hull as possible. It is also a directional weapon. The ship will have to be aimed in the direction you want the wormhole formed.”

  Mace asked, “How far can the wormhole be moved? And is it still created at a one kilometer distance?”

  Jeff rubbed his chin. “I suppose it could be kept open for as long as you want to supply gatrellium to it. And the one kilometer is an arbitrary number to begin with. That is a distance that we’re guaranteed to not have interference from a nearby mass—namely, us. If you wanted to begin the space-time fracture at say… fifty-thousand kilometers, I don’t see why that would be a problem.”

  “I’m assuming you could program in a few firing sequences for us. If I wanted to pass in a target and have the wormhole open near it and then move through the target for instance, would that be possible?”

  Jeff nodded. “I’ll have my people put something like that together, Mr. Hardy. A point-and-shoot interface would definitely make it easier to control.”

  Jeff moved on to continue his work. The Gorange warships joined the fleets at Divinia. All told, the Human-led armada totaled seven hundred forty ships, with two new Collins class vessels coming online every other day. The Karthian onslaught would soon be upon them.

  Chapter 19

  *

  Reports came in from the Gorange capital. Submerged cannon platforms that rose to the surface to fire kept the Karthian ships in high orbit. Bombardment from above had little to no effect on the Gorange defenses or cities. The ultra-deep oceans of Nellivue had the Karthians at a loss as to how to form an assault. Attempts to bring shuttles of soldiers down to the surface had failed miserably.

  A full day passed with no progress by the Karthians. The newly created wormhole weapon had been installed on the Organ Cave and was ready for a test.

  Jasper sat in his command chair, with the others connected over comm feeds. “I need a good test target.”

  Johnny said, “Why not target that Karthian station? You have its exact location. Do you need to have the Cave there to open the wormhole?”

  Jeff replied, “He will need to be within sensor range. The wormhole generator needs the direct feeds from the sensors to form the initial fracture.”

  Jasper said, “Jumping to Nellivue. Give me a sec… OK, I have the target on the sensors. Now it wants a destination. Am I limited on where that can be?”

  Jeff replied, “You should only need the coordinates, same as a normal wormhole.”

  Jasper tapped his fingers on the arm pad
of his chair before moving them to a small console. “OK, I have a destination target set. Let’s see how she fares.”

  Seconds later, a wormhole opened a kilometer away from the Karthian station. Million-degree plasma sailed through the meter-wide opening. The wormhole moved slowly toward the station, scorching the exterior armor as the heat overwhelmed the inertial shielding that was its major protection. The station pulled away as the outer layers of protective armor began to melt and burn.

  Mace asked, “Was that the Nellivue sun?”

  Jasper grinned. “It was. And all indications say that was a success. What I would like to know is, can that wormhole be moved at a faster pace?”

  Jeff replied, “The speed is limited at this time. We’re hoping to explore that once we have more time.”

  Jasper frowned. “This could be the weapon we need, but not if it moves that slow.”

  “Can’t we shove a nuke through there?” said Johnny. “Not one of the ships, but maybe a nuclear missile? Something they wouldn’t have time to react to?”

  Jeff replied, “That station is impervious to nuclear explosions. They don’t carry the impact in space as they do in atmosphere. The nuke’s primary function out in the void is the gamma radiation they expel, and the station is well shielded. As to a nuclear missile… I suppose that would work. It would need to be in flight and a wormhole opened in front of it for it to fly through. They would still have a moment’s opportunity to destroy it. My guess is it would only work once or twice before they began to vaporize them as they came through.”

  Mace asked, “Specifically, what are you working on right now with regard to this?”

  “The stability issue I spoke of before. Our focus is to address the factors surrounding that possibility. I expect that may take some time.”

  Mace nodded. “I’d like you to switch gears. Focus on moving that wormhole at a faster pace. We just saw where that is a critical need.”

  Jeff winced. “I would think removing the potential for killing yourself was a critical need as well, but if you insist, we’ll take your guidance.”

  “I insist.”

  Jasper said, “You make this work and I’ll build a ten story monument to you right here on Divinia. Doc Moskowitz, the scientist who saved us all. I can see that written on the base in meter-high letters.”

  Jeff half smiled. “While flattering, totally unnecessary. My contributions are no more meaningful than yours.”

  Jasper nodded. “Fine then, I’ll build us both monuments.”

  Mace cut in: “Doc, I’m sure you’re eager to get back to your work. How are the updates to the Rogers coming?”

  Jeff replied, “The Rogers should be ready in a few hours. The team will let you know when it’s complete.”

  The comm closed.

  Jasper said, “Well, at least in the meantime I have something to play with. Let’s see how many of those cruisers we can catch off-guard.”

  Jasper typed away on his console. The image of a Karthian cruiser appeared. A meter-wide wormhole was opened to the Nellivue sun and a jet of ultra-hot plasma streamed through. The cruiser quickly turned to move away as a heavy black scorch mark ran down the side of the ship.

  Jasper said, “I could sit here and do this all day.”

  Johnny gestured toward the display. “If we get more ships with these weapons, maybe we could open five wormholes in a circle or something where we could catch them no matter which way they turned.”

  Liam replied, “Right now they only need to back up as the pilot of the station did. Word will be passed around to the other pilots.”

  Jasper continued to target Karthian cruisers for most of an hour. By the time the hour was up, the entire Karthian fleet was continuously on the move and changing course. No further damage was being done.

  Johnny said, “Now you’re just being a pest.”

  Jasper replied, “If that’s all I get, I’ll take it. I’m a distraction, which keeps some of their focus off the Gorange.”

  A giant wormhole opened just above the Nellivue atmosphere. A rush of solar plasma streamed through, burning brightly as it fell toward the ocean’s surface. A massive cloud of steam arose as the seawater boiled off, expanding rapidly, covering a hundred square kilometers in only a few seconds. The wormhole remained open for only a second before the extreme heat caused its collapse.

  Humphrey said, “I think we have a problem, Mr. Hardy. That steam cloud is superheated. Calculations say it could raise the ocean temperature in that region by as much as a half degree. They do that a few more times and Nellivue’s oceans will see irreversible damage. That may allow the Karthians to destroy their primary food sources. A couple degrees difference could completely interrupt their food chain. If it’s like Earth, you kill the plankton and you kill the fish that feed on plankton as well, and then the fish that feed on them.”

  Jasper said, “We have a lock on the ship that created that wormhole. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Mace said, “Hold up, if you know which ship that is, we don’t need to destroy it, we need to take its gatrellium. It must have a massive store if they can afford to burn the gatrellium it took to open that large a portal.”

  Jasper replied, “Boarding party?”

  Mace nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Jasper smiled. “They were foolish enough to send that ship out on its own. We’ll handle this one. I have the crews here that are ready.”

  The comm closed before Mace could reply. Seconds later, a new comm opened with a sensor feed from the Organ Cave. Humphrey Mallot pushed it to the display wall.

  “Wow, sir, they have the ship in a grapple already.”

  “How long before the closest ship is within range?”

  “Seven minutes.”

  “Can they get aboard during that time?”

  Humphrey nodded. “Looks as though they’re already aboard. And Mr. Collins is leading the charge.”

  Mace stood. “You’re kidding! Why would he risk himself?”

  Johnny laughed. “If you don’t know the answer to that by now…”

  Mace frowned. “I know the answer—he’s a crotchety old fool. Mr. Mallot, do we have the feed from his helmet?”

  “Patching it through.”

  The image on the display jerked violently as Jasper bulldozed his way down a hall firing his plasma rifle full tilt. Explosions rocked the Karthian ship as the intruders penetrated all the way to the room that held the gatrellium store. A Targarian soldier took aim at the generator.

  Jasper grabbed his rifle. “Hold on.”

  Jasper Collins walked across the room to a console, where he entered coordinates. A sizable wormhole opened a kilometer in front of the two entangled ships.

  Humphrey said, “We have a wormhole opening.”

  Mace asked, “Where?”

  “Here.”

  Jasper gave the order to move, and the Organ Cave plowed forward with the Karthian ship still attached. Seconds later the two ships were sitting in Targarian space near Divinia.

  Jasper blasted the generator with his rifle before rejoining his troops in the hallway, pushing hard forward until the bridge was reached and the Karthian commander surrendered.

  The remaining Karthian crew was escorted from the ship.

  Jasper came over the comm. “The ship is secure. We got just over a ton of gatrellium. They were preparing to open that flare wormhole another half dozen times.”

  “Well done,” said Mace, “but you really shouldn’t risk yourself over a raid like this. We need you here when that fleet comes this way.”

  Jasper smirked. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same. The raid was a success. We’re now trying to determine if we can spot the other ships that open these wide portals. Could be a quick windfall of gatrellium for us, and it would keep that station where it’s at until they get a new ship out there.”

  Johnny said, “I do like that idea.”

  Mace nodded. “Keep us informed.”

  F
ifteen minutes later, a second large wormhole opened above Nellivue and another mass of solar plasma rushed through. As before, the plasma illuminated the atmosphere before making contact with a region of the great oceans of the Gorange capital planet. A massive cloud of steam shot halfway to orbit, spreading out like a shockwave, soon covering another area of more than a thousand square kilometers.

  Humphrey said, “Mr. Hardy, global surface temperature is up a full five degrees. Atmospheric up twenty-two. Another strike like that and the Gorange will begin to feel the effect down deep.”

  Mace opened a comm to the Gorange commander. “Commander Krog, is there anything we can do?”

  The translators kicked in as the Gorange commander spoke through the saltwater that surrounded him in his bridge. “I fear I must return our fleet to Nellivue to protect against further attacks. Other than fighting alongside us, I know of nothing I could ask, and I know that is not something you can provide while still protecting your own people. These are difficult times, Mr. Hardy. It appears our strategy has failed and we are now forced to sacrifice ourselves to try to save our people.”

  Mace bowed his head. “I thank you for the assistance you and your people have given, Commander. If you figure out a way for us to help, please ask.”

  Wormholes were opened and the Gorange fleet moved through. The Karthian cruiser that had delivered the previous solar flare, and its four escorts, were caught off guard and quickly dispatched. Half the Karthian fleet came in response, chasing the Gorange commander and his ships from the area. A third portal ship was moved in, and again a portion of a massive solar flare was redirected down into the atmosphere of Nellivue. The result was another massive steam cloud and a rapid rise in surface temperatures. Reports from the Gorange indicated a deep ocean temperature rise of nearly half a degree over the course of a few hours. The Karthians were determined to have their victory.

  Two additional plasma clouds were redirected before Humphrey turned with a stunning revelation. “Mr. Hardy, I think the solar flare weapon may be losing its effectiveness.”

  “How so?”

  “The initial blasts have thrown a tremendous amount of water vapor into the atmosphere. The latest plasma was directed into one of those steam clouds. It seems most of that heat is now being absorbed in the high atmosphere or reflecting back into space. I’ve run a couple calculations, and frankly, it appears the amount of plasma reaching the ocean surface has decreased by an order of magnitude. My projections say that amount of decrease will happen again shortly, rendering that strategy almost useless as a weapon.