"We could just leave with what data we have and let a diplomatic team return to establish contact."
To give her credit, Keane knew that would be the safest course of action and would guarantee that at least some intelligence regarding the aliens got back to Earth. On the other hand, his mission was to discover the reason behind the ships lost in the Bolt Cluster. He could return and give the reason as "Alien hostility" if he desired, and that would satisfy the wording of his mission. In his opinion, it would be a cop out, though. The admiralty, not to mention the President, wanted to know what in hell was going on in this cluster of stars. And he was the one who had to make the decision. There was an incongruity about the sophistication of the alien construction and their behavior that didn't make sense. He thought he needed more data before returning.
"While that might satisfy the bare essentials of our mission, I don't believe it would meet the full intent of what my superiors intended, Ms. Aguilara," he said. "With that in mind, I intend to take us on to our next scheduled stop and continue on our planned course until we find another of the Worm cities or arrive at Xanadu."
"If you feel you must, but may I ask how on earth you came up with the terminology for the aliens? They certainly aren't Worms in a biological sense, regardless of their appearance. I consider it derogatory."
"Since they've so far shown no desire to learn English, I doubt if it makes a difference ... but I'm sure the scientific community will take your objections into consideration should it come to interaction between them and us. In the meantime, the crew has already adopted 'Worm' as the preferred name for them and I doubt anything short of a direct order will change that now. Probably even an order wouldn't work." He noticed Sergeant Watkins hiding a smile behind his hand and knew how the man must feel. Of course, Aguilara hadn't had to face the swarming aliens when they were intent on killing any human in sight. "We need to move on. Major Rambling?"
"I can get a bombardment and air support plan worked out, sir. Whether you'll be able to use the bombardment from space will depend on what the defenses of the next city are like. After that, I'll have a number of different scenarios we may face and plans for each of them. I'm not in favor of ground combat unless we can get them bunched up into killing fields, though."
Aguilara blanched, along with a couple of other officers. It wasn't often they heard the marines speak so bluntly of tactics.
"How about the former captives? Have they given you any indication of how the Worms will react when we appear? Or rather, will those from a completed city act any differently than what we've seen so far?"
"They just don't know, sir. Remember, they were slaves, menials ...oh shit! Sorry, sir, there's something I just now remembered. When we were debriefing Merrilyn Meadows, one of the transferees from Xanadu, she told us they have a working underground resistance movement there!"
Keane's expression brightened. "Great! Did she say whether they had weapons? And what their numbers are? How well organized? How much intelligence they've gathered?"
"Whatever she knows, we'll find out quickly, sir. I'm sorry, it was just a passing thing at the time and we were all still coming down from combat. I'll get the information back to you. In fact ..."
Sergeant Watkins rose from his chair without being asked. "If you'll excuse me, sir?"
"Certainly."
"That puts a different aspect on the situation, sir," Cindy said. "We may want to think about locating the city from as far out in space as possible then landing some distance from it and sending a shuttle closer with infiltrators."
"We'd probably need some volunteers from the former captives," Rambling said. "We also might want to hold up on sending so many of them back with Santa Cruz. If they will volunteer, they could be a great help."
"See to it after this conference if you would, Major."
"Yes, sir."
"Now to another question for the science section. Ms. Aguilara, I sent you our recording of the parameters of the shot the Worms took at Doc Travis and asked to have it worked over thoroughly. Have you gotten an analysis back from your people yet on exactly what it was and how powerful it could be? Whether it was indeed a plasma cannon, as we've been assuming?"
"I've been concentrating on communicating with the few natives you captured, Captain. I'm afraid it's still in my files."
Keane's mouth tightened with anger. Before he could speak, Commander Mundahan offered an opinion.
"Sir, Commander Levy and I have analyzed it pretty thoroughly. To the extent of our knowledge, I should say. We weren't able to define the limits of its capabilities."
"Which is why I wanted a physicist to look into it," Keane said. "Suppose you two get with Professor Juenne right after we conclude here and see what you come up with? You might want to bring Lieutenant Jergens into the circle as well."
"Yes, sir. You'll have a report just as soon as possible." Keane laughed inside at the way Mundahan ignored the glare Aguilara gave her. It certainly wasn't her fault if the chief science officer had neglected her duty and the Captain was now bypassing her. It eased his anger at Aguilara somewhat.
"Captain Keane, may I make a suggestion?"
The officers all shifted their attention toward Senior Master Chief Thomas Berry, the Chief of Boat and senior enlisted man aboard Doc Travis. Ordinarily he was quiet and unobtrusive until asked a question, but was highly respected. He'd been serving in space aboard interstellar ships ever since Wannstead began manufacturing them. All the enlisted element and most of the junior officers regarded him as, if not God, then His designated naval prophet.
"Certainly you can make a suggestion, Senior Master Chief," Keane said immediately. He wasn't about to ignore anything the COB had to say.
"Sir, given that we now know that the Worms are keeping human prisoners, or slaves if what I heard is right, I believe we should stick to our schedule and stop at every place there might be a Worm colony." He paused for a moment, seeming to be lost in thought, then continued more slowly. "I don't know how I would be able to face the folks back home if it got out that we bypassed any place where space explorers, military or not, were being held against their will by aliens. Hell, sir, I don't know if I could face myself.
"I suspect most everyone in the ship would tell you exactly the same thing if asked, sir. Just the fact that we now know Xanadu has an underground tells us how bad conditions must be for them." He paused again for a moment then continued before anyone else had a chance to speak. "There have been times in our history when we in the military learned later that persons in high places made deliberate decisions to abandon captives in order to not upset applecarts. I think they were dead wrong then and I feel like we'd be wrong if we did that now, sir."
Keane ran the idea through his mind several times before answering. "Boats, you've presented a very cogent point. I can't say that I disagree with you at all." He scanned the faces at the table. "Comments, ladies and gentlemen?" Keane said quietly even though he had already come near to making up his mind to go along with the COB's suggestion. Now that the point had been brought up it shamed him not to have thought of it first. Even if it didn't go directly to the heart of the enigma, there would very possibly be additional intelligence to be gained before tackling Xanadu. Further, if any more captives could be rescued before arriving at Xanadu they, like the ones here, could probably offer much needed intelligence. And given the existence of an underground, they might be a big help in subduing the city of Xanadu as well. There were several more earth-like planets in the general direction of the Xanadu system. Checking them out wouldn't take all that much extra time.
Every one of his own thoughts, and a number he hadn't had, came out in the succeeding discussion, but in the end it was his decision to make. It was surprisingly easy.
"Gentlemen, ladies, Senior Master Chief Berry brought up a very cogent point. We'll do our best to rescue any captives before reaching Xanadu. I'd like you all to remember something, though. Just because we did well here doesn't mean we
have to get too jaunty. If we find a Worm city, I believe we can assume it is more or less the same as the one we just finished with. If we discover the remains of either of the other two Wannstead ships, we'll go in. Failing that, on to Xanadu."
The response to the Chief of Boat's idealistic thought was overwhelmingly favorable, even if it did mean changing the proposed personnel arrangements once again. All but the marines. The platoon from the Santa Cruz would still be moved to Doc Travis to augment their forces. An hour later, Keane adjourned the conference and the movement of personnel back and forth between the two ships began.
Chapter Thirteen: Million of the Bastards
The only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there aren't any space aliens. We can't be the best that creation has to offer. I pray we're not all there is. If so, we're in big trouble.
- Ellen DeGeneres
"Do you really think there's any hope of rescue or even escaping the city, Doug?" Clemmie asked. They were sitting together outside on one of the hard benches. It was early morning and mists kept the sunlight from being too bright. Morning was always the best time outdoors. It was strangely quiet for them to be in an open area so near the edge of the city. One would think that the numerous flying creatures inhabiting the area would be flitting around and that calls of ground dwellers could be heard. The opposite was true. The local fauna avoided the completed city. Doug suspected some sort of radiation or force field aggravated them enough to make them keep their distance but it was only a thought. He didn't really know.
Later on it would grow almost too hot to stand. On occasions when he was assigned an errand that took him outside during the afternoon he was always glad that he wasn't forced to work the crops. That was brutal labor. He thought the Sinchik robots could be taught the duties the humans were performing outside, and in fact some robots already did a lot of the field work. He had observed that there were several types of robots. Construction or agricultural robots appeared to be little more than AIs similar to ones used on Earth, although more advanced. There was also what he thought of as a general purpose robot, a thing that looked like a cart with tentacles ending in implements that were used to supervise humans or direct other robots and also do general work. And last were two similar types. One was half the height of a full grown Sinchik, very fast and had a number of manipulative arms. The other was larger, one and a half times the size of the smaller. Both were capable of conversation and had varied duties, including supervision of humans. The big difference was that the smaller gave the larger its orders, at least if his observations were correct. What it all meant he didn't know, although he had suspicions.
"Sure, I think we've got a chance, Clemmie, or I wouldn't be part of the underground. If we can gather a few more weapons we'd have enough to defend ourselves in the jungles. It's the damn power packs that stymie us. Once the power's depleted from the packs, we'd be helpless against the predators."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. Her lips parted as if about to say something but closed without speaking. He turned his head and kissed her briefly. In just a few short days he had grown very fond of her. Too much so, he knew, because they would soon be parted, with a chance they'd never see each other again.
"Damn them to hell and back. God, I hate the bastards. Dumb shits, but they hold the whip hand." Her voice rose then fell as the hopelessness of their situation settled back in her mind.
"Surely one of the nations on Earth is building better ships by now. Sooner or later they'll come back here." He said it with a firmness that he didn't know he really believed. Hope was all that they had, though, and he fully shared her opinion of the Sinchik aliens. He hated them too, but lately he had begun to wonder just how independent of the robots they were. He still thought they were the biggest problem, though, as did most of the captives. But the majority of them wanted nothing to do with the underground even though they were secretly in sympathy with it. They were just too scared to take part. That didn't bother him too much. He knew that most of humanity never had the will to revolt except under conditions more extreme than what they were suffering.
"By that time we may be dead and gone. Besides, look what happened to the ship that came after us."
"Yeah." He knew all too well. It had been shot down and crashed, with less than half the crew surviving, and many who had only been hurt were put to death afterwards. There hadn't been another starship since, not that anyone knew of. "But, Clemmie, it did come, even after ours was lost. It tells us they are still trying, even if it has been so many years."
"Don't listen to me, Doug. If I didn't have hope I wouldn't be talking rebellion. It's good we were able to make contact, too. It gives us both a better chance for when the time comes to escape-or maybe even sacrifice ourselves for the freedom of others." Clemmie's eyes watered up and a tear fell down her cheek. "That's why I just blurted out the password to you. I was becoming so depressed that I really didn't give a damn. I just wanted to do anything that might help change our circumstances."
He held her tighter and said, "There're things worse than death, Sweetheart, but I'm not giving up without a fight. I just hope we manage to see each other again before it happens!"
***
"Sir, Lieutenant Wannstead and Professor Harriette Juenne are here," CPO Mura announced.
Keane looked up from his desk in the captain's day cabin. "Thank you, Wanna. Send them in please."
Keane knew the young nerdy looking physicist concealed a mind of major stature to be selected for this mission. Her long blond hair was rolled into a bun and although she wore civilian clothes, they were practical and not flashy. She seemed like an actor out of an old 2000 prep school movie. She had to be very good even if her countenance did suggest she should still be in High School, or college at most. Why she wore thick glasses when she could have had the free Navy laser eyesic correction seemed odd, but physicists were a strange breed. Dunaway, his XO, was the only physicist Keane considered 'normal', but he was as cool as a cucumber and tough as titanium nails. Probably the smartest one on the ship except for Harriette, who was elegantly walking into the room carrying her TekPad. Wannstead was empty handed.
"Brian, Professor. Thank you for coming." He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. "Would you like some refreshments?"
"Coffee would be fine, thank you," Harriette said. Her voice was confident and her manner assured. He mentally added a good few years to her age.
"Coffee's good sir," Wannstead agreed.
A moment later, after Mura had served them and withdrawn, Keane leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. "Who wants to start?" he asked.
"Go ahead, Harriette," Wannstead said, gesturing with an open palm.
"Alright. I can elaborate on this in more detail later, Captain. As you're aware, Brian and I were only recently advised of your request."
He nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"The energy beam that hit our ship, or shield, rather, appears to have been essentially a high energy laser - but there was a peculiarity to it. It shouldn't have been as powerful as it was, considering the distance it traveled and the amount of atmosphere it traversed. Somehow they managed to keep it contained into a tight coherent beam and prevent the attenuation you'd normally see in a laser over that distance, especially traveling through atmosphere. It wouldn't have taken much more to burn through our shield according to Lt. Jergens. I agree with his analysis. According to the readings we recorded while the laser was firing in timed pulses, each succeeding pulse was more powerful than the last. If that increase had continued, or if we hadn't destroyed or damaged it at the source, it would have overcome our shield."
"How much more energetic could it have become? Is there any way of telling?"
She shrugged. "I can't say for sure since I don't know how it was accomplished to begin with. The Doc Travis's rail gun and plasma pulser wiped out the whole area. All we picked up were scraps of a new alloy with peculiar properties. Very high ela
sticity combined with extreme strength. Think of super strong rubber metal. We have nothing like it. As for the energy of the weapon, it's all speculation."
Keane was not interested in new metals. The enemy weapon was the big problem. "Harriette, can you please speculate on how much more powerful the pulses would have become?"
"Well ...just based on the first few hits, and taking into consideration really low atmospheric attenuation, another twenty to thirty per cent in yield would have been sufficient to break through our magnetospheric shield."
Keane frowned. "The reason lasers are so powerful is that they don't attenuate. The light is coherent and doesn't spread. And the increase in energy ...that's not like a normal laser, is it?"
"Doesn't spread much, Captain. There's a difference. And no, lasers usually contain about the same amount of energy, assuming the pump remains the same. Generally, you can't increase that without damaging the emitting source. However, it appears that the Worms have managed. What we saw was probably the result of the laser obtaining more pumping energy as the source of its power came on line and was then increased. How much more energy the weapon could have drawn is unknown. In practical terms, it means we need to take down the source very quickly after the energy weapon begins firing on us."
"Um, yes. Go on." It wasn't sounding good so far.
She shifted her gaze to Wannstead.
"Sir, it's not all bad news. We've been talking to Fred ...to Lt. Jergens, that is, and he thinks he can enhance the shield, at least temporarily. And Harriette has a couple of ideas that I think will work."
"Tell me." Keane motioned with his hand for them to continue.
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