She frowned. "The thing is, they seem to have little loyalty or feeling toward the home worlds. That's if we're reading them right. In fact, all of them are ...well, they seem to be stoical and unfeeling now that we've beaten them. I want to say they're stupid but until we know more I think we shouldn't assume that of them. However, the term fits if you consider how they fought on the ground. It was more like ants boiling up from a disturbed mound rather than an intelligent defense of their settlement. In fact, their AIs, their robots, fought better than the Worms did, according to a few of the troops I spoke with. I can't say much more about that until we have more detail, though. In fact, sir, this is a very incomplete report. I'm sure Major Rambling and the intelligence officer will have much better brief for you in a few more days."
"Have you gotten to the reason why they were able to overcome the Wannstead and Chinese ships and not ours? Was it simply our shield and the fact that we were able to get close through our stealth systems?"
"I'm sorry, sir. We hadn't gotten that far when Major Rambling decided to send me up to brief you. I'm sure he and the intelligence staff will get with your own people and hash it out. If you want my own, completely unsubstantiated opinion, the defenses on Xanadu and their other settlements, if there are any, will be more substantial than here. Whether the Worms will fight any better is ...an unknown, I'd have to say."
"Mmm. That laser, or whatever the hell it was they hit our shield with, wasn't a toy by any means. Never mind, I'll get into that with the specialists. Let's move on. The settlement here looked largely unfinished from space. Was that your impression on the ground?"
"Yes, sir." She quickly brought up an overhead view taken from the second assault shuttle that had flown higher than the first. It showed a cleared circular area about five miles in diameter, presumably meant to be the outlines of a future city. "Luckily we didn't blow it all up. The weapon compound that had the plasma cannon was the only area seriously damaged, so a lot of the city in progress is still there."
"How come it wasn't completed? They sure as hell had weapons ready."
"The people from the Wannstead ship said the Worms had barely gotten started on this settlement when they arrived and were shot down. Presumably, the same thing happened to the Chinese so we can be fairly certain that defenses against other beings are one of the first things they set up in a new colony. If we compare the original recordings made by that first Wannstead ship, the place here was intended to pretty well duplicate the city on Xanadu. Oh, and we did hear that Xanadu is indeed a completed settlement now, and given how little we know so far, there may even be a couple more of their colonies in the cluster." She shrugged, giving evidence of how little real intelligence they had on the aliens so far.
"So, if I'm reading it right, they finish one city then move on and begin building another without even starting to develop the planet. Strange. I wonder if they're not trying to claim all the habitable planets in the cluster as rapidly as possible? It's something to look into."
"Yes sir. And there's another anomaly. When they are asked how something works, their defensive energy weapon they used against Doc Travis, for instance, they claim not to know."
"Do you think they're lying?"
She shrugged. "I have no idea, sir, nor does intelligence yet. But it's not just the large things. They claim not to know how the power supply of their city works either. All reasons for believing they may be stupid and rely on robots almost entirely for construction, but that really doesn't seem reasonable. Admittedly, we've only just begun to grill them, but Major Rambling thinks we're missing something. I do, too but I can't pin it down." She paused meditatively for a moment.
"Of course there are a lot of robots around and believe it or not, some continued right on working even while the fighting was going on. Others, though, joined the fighting. I believe most of the robots were destroyed but that's by no means certain. A few have been found that are simply inert, for some reason. Possibly our plasma pulses affect them. There may be more of them but we don't know. It's such a large area it would take more than our troops to thoroughly explore the place."
She looks troubled, he thought. But whatever it was, he figured it would come out eventually. Rambling had said he thought something was awry as well, so it wasn't just her. The robots bothered him, too. She showed him recordings of them hauling materials to mixers that turned out sheets of silvery material which was in turn stacked in ordered piles as if for later use. He remembered how some of the edifices in the original Wannstead survey of Xanadu were of that color.
"We'll find out what's going on, Cindy." He touched the control of the recording that had been fed back to Doc Travis during the fighting. It was jumbled and poor quality but he had picked out a few images he was interested in. "Look here. This is one of the male Worms, right?"
She grinned. "It's one of the two sexes, Captain. We don't know whether the browns are the males or the females. The former captives say they think they are males, but if they are it certainly isn't apparent."
"I'm not worried about it right now. Our bio specialists will pin it down. I was looking at the mouth parts. The chewing apparatus strikes me as multi-functional, making them omnivores, and their mandibles certainly indicate they are. Is that what your impression was?"
"They have what looks like some crop areas going in the central cleared area but we also found what looked to be a butcher shop."
"I saw it. Gruesome. Apparently they're cannibals, if we can use that term for them. We'll pass over it for now. What were their casualties? How many did you kill?"
"Several thousand, sir. Probably better than ten thousand. As noted, they weren't very good at ground combat. But what we did find was that they all fought. Even the little Worms got into it. I saw one of the little shits bite a chunk out of a private's foot after he passed it by. I felt bad because I initially wanted to shoot it dead and didn't-but it was only a child, sir."
"Don't be sorry. Whatever their philosophy is, we'll have to deal with it. That slavery business bothers me the most, that and the unknown number of their cities in the cluster. And you said Merrilyn told you they didn't really need slaves?"
"Historically speaking, sir, slavery never pays off financially in the long run."
"True." He rubbed his chin. This was one aspect of an alien species he had never considered. "And you said there are more slaves at Xanadu?"
"Yes, sir, so they say. And also at the other settlements they think are being built. Children, too."
"Chil ...oh hell. I should have guessed, after hearing they kept slaves. The first Wannstead ship must've not been destroyed outright, either. And I guess the contraceptive implants ran out long ago for the women of child bearing age. Same for the men who had them. Damn."
She nodded agreement while he ran more footage of the recording, asking her questions about the layout of the barely begun city, and how and where the aliens had fought the marines. Eventually his questions played out and he realized he was keeping her just because he was enjoying the conversation, as well as the sight of her. She wasn't classically pretty but she did have an interesting face. Her auburn hair was collected loosely in back by the non-regulation ribbon at present. It went nicely with her light tan skin, probably the heritage of a recent Hispanic ancestor who, if she had also inherited the body shape from, was very well built.
"I guess that's all for now, Cindy. I appreciate you taking time to talk to me right after what must have been a rather grueling affair dirtside. Thank you."
"You're welcome, sir. Any time I can help, please call on me." She stood up, unconsciously displaying her petite figure for him.
"Thank you. Perhaps I will." His eyes met hers for a moment then tracked her as she left his cabin. Despite a heroic attempt to put her into the category of just another officer, he knew he failed. Regardless of his position, he admitted he was interested in her and that wouldn't do at all, not in a combat command with the hardest part of the mission still to go.
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.
-Gloria Steinem
"Were you trying to get out of marrying me, Bullet?" Barbara asked. She stood by his bedside in the hospital area of the dispensary, where those too hurt for outpatient status were treated.
"Uh. I'm sure marrying you would have been much more pleasant than being gut shot with a ball of plasma. Damn, that hurt like shit and it didn't even penetrate my armor."
She pulled up his smock. Her face blanched at the sight of the huge area of regenerating skin that covered his whole right side from groin almost to his neck.
"It looks worse than it is, or so the doc told me."
She shook her head. "I hope it goes away. Who'd want to marry a guy looking like that?" She touched his belly button.
"Ouch! I'm still sore. The doc told me I may have to have my spleen taken out."
"That doesn't sound good."
"No biggie. I can get another when we get back."
"You keep getting in the way of bullets, no pun, and you may not make it. I have to go." She leaned down and kissed him. "Get better. I have plans for you."
***
Rambling and First Sergeant Watkins were still wandering through the areas where most of the fighting had occurred. Bodies of the aliens still lay about here and there. No attempt was being made to bury them. Word had come from Keane that only a single day was being given to examine the place before being recalled.
"Dummies. Pure dummies," Watkins said, pointing his rifle at a heap of entangled Worms that had charged a marine position. "How can they build cities and be so dumb?"
"A puzzle, isn't it? Maybe they're just not used to opposition."
"They've managed to dispose of four of our ships, and one Chinese, so they have to be aware of us as a possible source of danger in the future, if not now. Of course, they are aliens and by definition aliens won't think the same way we do. I sent word back with the XO of how we felt. He makes the decisions, but from the way things turned out here I wouldn't be afraid to tackle one of their cities much closer to completion."
"Whoa, Top! Know how many Worms could live in a circular area with a diameter of five miles? And building underground as it looks like they were intending?"
"A million?"
"Something like that, give or take a few hundred thousand. And we have less than six hundred marines now. If you're serious about recommending we tackle a completed city I think we'd need to pound them from space, and then again with the assault shuttles, before tackling them on the ground. Those critters may be dumb but they don't quit, either."
"True enough, but I hate to think of leaving those poor bastards in captivity as slaves any longer than we have to, now that we know about them. And just walking through this place makes me wonder, what with the robots and how the Worms reacted to us, if maybe we're getting the wrong take." He pointed to a squat, grayish contraption with numerous flexible appendages that had been in the act of excavating and shoring up what would have eventually been an underground passageway. It was idle now, as if after the aliens were overcome it no longer had a purpose. "Those things worked during the fighting but as soon as it neared its end they all shut down. They must be simple AIs. On the other hand, a lot of the robots fought. Better than the Worms, when you get right down to it."
"And your point?"
"Just wondering, sir, which of them was in charge, the Worms or their machines?" He glanced toward the Major. Seeing the expression on his face he knew he'd given him food for thought and that whatever his conclusions were, they would find their way to Captain Keane.
***
"Steel, the Captain wants us to examine the robots, so I need your team to bring two of those inactive ones into a secure area of engineering. Also, bring along the intact CPUs of a couple of the ones that joined the fighting. We're going to have Jergen's team open both types up and see if he can figure out what makes them tick," Dunaway said from the command chair in the control room. Keane was resting and had ordered him to prepare the ship for departure. An earlier discussion with Keane and specialists had convinced the Captain that studying the robots might help explain the alien enigma. It had become clear from interrogations that either the captured Worms were lying, stupid, or both. It would be hard for memory chips or microprocessors to lie, assuming these robots were similar to human design. Something had to be controlling them, and the data was surely stored somewhere.
"Yes sir, I'll see that it's taken care of." Major Rambling gave the order to the First Sergeant, telling him to hurry. They were already loading up to depart.
***
Major Rambling, Cindy Cantrell and First Sergeant Watkins, who was acting as Sergeant Major for the shortened battalion, were part of the focus of the conference Keane had called after the last of the marines and scientists had been lifted from the planet-but a couple of other matters were on the agenda first. Doc Travis was still in orbit but would certainly leave soon. The question was, where to? Captain Whittaker of the Santa Cruz was attending the meeting through intership com. His face and torso were holographically displayed on a special seat at one end of the conference table. The others were seated along both sides with Keane at the head. Carafes of coffee and tea had been distributed and snack foods were available from platters. Each officer and noncom had their TekPads in front of them, their food and/or drink to the side.
Keane rapped the table with his knuckles and the quiet undertone of several conversations that had been taking place died away almost immediately.
"Let's get started," he said. "First, Captain Whittaker, are you satisfied with the way you were able to record the affairs of the expedition to Sleepy?"
"Sleepy, sir? Is that the official name now?"
"Yes, it's official."
"Yes sir, I was well satisfied with what we got. The records are being assembled into a coherent whole right now since we got feeds from numerous sources. The marines and your scientists were also very helpful when we asked for details."
"Good. We'll follow the same procedure at our next objective. Speaking provisionally, you may want to leave some volunteers here to obtain further scientific data and pick them up on your way back. That will depend upon how things go next time. If it works out as planned, there will be no problem, of course. If for some reason Doc Travis is unable to complete its mission at our next stop you may have to make the decision to bypass anyone left on Sleepy and head directly to Earth. Make certain your volunteers know that getting such intelligence as we already have back to Earth will be your first priority."
Whittaker nodded. "The curiosity of scientists knows no bounds, sir. I'm sure I'll have sufficient volunteers no matter the circumstances. What little time they've been able to spend on uh, Sleepy, has merely whetted their appetite. There are a number of marvels down there, even for an alien city just beginning its construction phase."
"Fine. One marvel you won't be examining is their mining operations, though. A lot of it may be underground and there are those idled transport ships. I'm going to order the transports destroyed and the mines caved in with rail guns. Now that we've settled that, you need to make provisions for taking a couple of the aliens back with you. It seems that our physiological needs are fairly similar but there is plenty of their food stuff lying around so you can stock up on it. You're also to take most of the former human captives back with you. If that leaves you short on living quarters you can send your platoon of marines over to us. In fact, I believe that is a good idea regardless. Objections, anyone?"
"The marines currently with us are rather put out at having been only observers so far, Captain. I'm sure they won't object," Whittaker said with a chuckle.
"Alright, consider it done. We'll begin making all these switches immediately after this conference but it will be the shuttles from Doc Travis that perform the work. Your ship, Captain Whittaker, is not to land on any planet at all. We can't take chances with i
t. You have a single shuttle you can use to pick up your people on Sleepy if it works out that way, but you are not to land your ship. One way or another we have to get all this intelligence back to Earth. We know now why ships disappeared in this cluster, but they don't yet. Furthermore, we know very little of the Worms and what drives them, how their society works, where their original home is and what they're up to out here, nor where their robots fit into the picture. It's still pretty much of an enigma. We'll get as much data as we can at the next stop and send it home with Santa Cruz. Is everyone clear on our intentions so far?"
Nods of assent greeted his question.
"Next item, and I need all the input possible here. According to the intelligence we've gathered so far, the next alien city, if there is one before we hit Xanadu, will be in a more complete state. Can we conquer it with the personnel and weapons we have on hand, and if so, how? Bear in mind a city of this size with a fulfilled population might number as high as a million."
"We can't do it without a substantial preliminary bombardment and continuing air cover from both the ship and assault shuttles, sir," Rambling stated flatly.
"I agree," Cindy said.
"As do I," Sergeant Watkins assented.
"Is it necessary to conquer them?" Sherry Aguilara, chief of the civilian scientific community on board, and thus Keane's science adviser, asked. "Destroying their mining operations is bad enough." The severe set of her features said very plainly that she didn't care for the idea at all.
"Ms. Aguilara, our ship was fired on without warning and very nearly destroyed by the defenses of a largely unfinished alien city. They have either destroyed or captured four other ships over the years. They have been keeping humans as slaves. Furthermore, none of its inhabitants showed the least sign of wanting to make friendly contact nor did they show any sign of a surrender reflex during the ground fighting. Unless you have a better idea, I see no recourse."
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