We upped our deceleration to thirteen G’s. It would take ten minutes for us to reduce our closing velocity to zero. During that time the plot began to unravel. We counted twenty-seven destroyers still under power and only twenty-eight fighters. I ordered another launch, this time with three missiles per fighter and another three capital missiles per destroyer.
The mother ship was now just four minutes away from the capital missiles targeted on it, and we could see an immense amount of laser fire coming from it. The destroyers had a problem, as if they targeted on the missiles heading towards the mother ship, they left themselves vulnerable to the ones heading towards them.
I was astonished to see that in every single case they targeted on their mother ship’s missiles.
We began to see explosions as our missiles came into laser range of the destroyers. I had targeted the destroyers too late to take full advantage of their own targeting problem, but the results were still very good. Destroyers began to explode, one after another. Only three escaped. Meanwhile, the 65’s were down to less than a minute flight time to the mother ship.
I watched quietly as the exploding missiles marked a line of fire that terminated at the mother ship. Gigantic explosions erupted on its flanks. I asked the Dresdens to move in closer and take out the three remaining destroyers.
We counted fifty-two explosions before the mother ship erupted in an immense fireball. Five minutes later, a horde of missiles exploded the last three destroyers.
I cautioned everyone that we probably still had some enemy fighters alive. I sent two Dresdens after a drifting destroyer in the hope that we could capture it and at last get a view of our enemy. Every few moments, a missile would flash from a fighter rack and accelerate toward what might be a bug fighter. We weren’t taking any chances, and we had a wealth of missiles.
Carolyn said, “Sir, just before the bug ship exploded, it broadcast a message, using very high power. I suspect that it was directed towards the other bug flotilla. I estimate that it will take the message approximately six years to reach it.” I thanked her and asked that she take special care with that recording. It was the last one from this group, and might well be significant. The very fact that it had been sent revealed a great deal.
We spent two days combing the wreckage for any surviving fighter or destroyer. We found several fighters that were still more or less in one piece, and we towed those back to our carriers.
Finally, we now had biological remains of our enemy. It was indeed very alien to us, but instead of some fearsome creature with fangs and claws, we found a being that was physically larger than humans, with a weird soft, gelatinous, yet dry exterior. It breathed an atmosphere of oxygen and carbon dioxide, had four very thick, lower extremities, four approximations of arms with gripping appendages and a large structure on top. We kept them in their space suits for the time being. Our propaganda had been wrong: they weren’t bugs; they more resembled a combination of slug and octopus. Slugopus? Octoslug?
After the second day of search, I decided that we had found pretty much everything we needed. We accelerated away from the remains of our battle and toward home. I had already sent a Hawk on ahead of us with the news.
Even though we’d killed every single enemy ship, I still wanted us to head home via the circuitous route. Admiral Aaron was in command of the carriers and didn’t ask for my input, but he was just as cautious as I would have been.
Our Hawks led the way through the jumps. As usual, several of them jumped, then waited while their passive sensors looked for any sign of, well, anything. I had stipulated to the Hawk crews that from now on we would use a different route every time. When I was asked why, I asked back, “How many bug flotillas are there?” My questioner looked at me with barely masked exasperation for a moment, then his expression changed to a look of thoughtfulness. He said, “Ah, we know of five. I see your point sir.” Actually, he was senior to me in rank, but I was the commander of the attack elements.
It irritated me, how so many officers were so limited in their imagination. The past couple of decades had made a mess of my beloved Fleet. Fortunately, there remained enough competent people in it that we had a chance to resurrect it to something resembling its former abilities.
Although we had eliminated this enemy, or at least this portion of it, I was far from happy. For starters, we had just killed tens of thousands of beings. So many that we really had no idea, but reasonable speculation ran up through hundreds of thousands into the millions. No person with a soul could remain unmoved by this. We didn’t know or understand why, and I though we would never know why, but a lot of sentient beings were now dead because they ran into us. It bothered me, had always bothered me, why these beings reacted so violently, so remorselessly, so inarticulately. I didn’t think I’d like the answer, but I didn’t like not knowing the answer.
It also bothered me why these four flotillas were obviously not merely prepared for war, they were designed to wage war, while the fifth group, although equally armed, refrained from participating. We had never satisfied my burning desire to know where they came from, and more importantly, why? I felt, strongly felt, that we needed to know the answer to this question. I talked to my crew about this, and we came to the conclusion that the four groups we had just communicated with so violently were designed to escort that fifth group. The facts tended to support this theory, but if that was so, then the possibility existed that there was either yet another race out there, or these beings had been the losers in a civil war. We had to know. We had to be prepared.
We jumped into Lubya and found that we were expected. Admiral Chin ordered our ships to dock as quickly as possible and rearm. I liked the way he thought.
It took us nearly twelve hours to reach the inner system and slide into parking orbit. Hawks landed on moon base and were shuffled around to make room for two Dresdens, which this time around were landing directly on the moon base.
Meanwhile, a shuttle docked with our Dresden with orders to transport Elian and I down to a meeting with the Admiral. I took along Carolyn and the chief, having come to feel they were part of me. The smart part. Elian simply shook his head at me.
We landed and were quickly escorted to the admiral. Numerous other officers were in his office or on the way to it, so after getting our hands shook, the admiral shooed us away, telling us to clean up, get a bite to eat and return in an hour.
We did as bid, and returned a few minutes early. The admiral moved the meeting to a larger room than originally planned and we sat down in comfortable seats in a semi circular arrangement.
Admiral Chin entered the room in his typically hurried manner and said, with little preamble, “Now that we’re all present and accounted for, I want a brief rundown on anything that happened after you sent your Hawk back to base with the report of the destruction of the last bug mother ship.”
I poked Elian in the side and he stood. “Sir, we spent approximately forty eight hours searching for remains. We recovered two fighters that had been badly damaged but not destroyed. We were not able to find any living beings, but we have the bodies of three beings that were on the fighters. We took the usual precautions on our return flight, being of the mind that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must continue to assume that we are at war.”
He sat down and the admiral said something quietly to one of his aides, who departed quickly. I assumed that had to do with the remains we brought back. He said, “Thank you, lieutenant Turner. I’d like to present Commodore Creighton, who has just arrived from Jupiter Base. She has some information on the search for the bug home world.”
The admiral sat down and Commodore Creighton stood. “Twenty one weeks ago we ordered three Survey ships to back track the bugs estimated course. These particular vessels are, if you do not know, quite fast as well as stealthy, and are capable of sustained voyages of longer than three months without refueling. Needless to say, they are pretty rare and horribly expensive. They made their first stop at prospec
tive bug world #1 and after skulking around, entered the inner system. They found no evidence of an advanced civilization, nor of the remains of same.”
She paused to take a drink of water and continued, “The second prospective bug world was reached after making some of the longest jumps ever made. They entered normal space approximately two hundred million kilometers outside of the Oort cloud, and closed very cautiously. Short story, no civilization or remains of one. The next world on their list was something like seven thousand light years further distant. They refueled and resumed their voyage. It took over three weeks of repeated jumps to travel that far. This was the longest voyage ever undertaken by a human crewed vessel – by a factor of five. They came in very quietly, and struck pay dirt. They found evidence of a highly developed civilization. They found no evidence of life. It had been completely destroyed, and quite recently, perhaps within a few thousand years. It appeared that the home planet was struck by multiple large asteroids, large enough to destroy the civilization. It is the consensus of virtually every expert on earth that those rocks were not launched by the beings who lived in that system. Any questions?”
A captain stood up and asked, “Is there any connection between that civilization and the bugs?” The commodore nodded her head and said, “Yes, the makeup of that planet’s atmosphere is virtually identical with the atmosphere our late enemy breathed. We have just confirmed that via the remains you have brought us.”
Elian stood after the captain sat down and asked, “So then, we have just destroyed a large number of survivors of a race of beings who fled their home world shortly before it was destroyed?” The commodore nodded, and said, “We believe that to be the case.”
He remained standing and asked, “Any information on the beings who apparently attacked them? Did we find evidence of another inhabited solar system near by?” She shook her head and said, “The survey ships reported that there were no signs of an advanced civilization within ten light years distance of that solar system. Actually, no signs at all. Due to time and technical constraints, our survey ships could not loiter in the area and had to return. At this time, we do not know who destroyed that planet.”
Elian asked, “Sir, has Fleet undertaken to explore this line of questioning?” The commodore nodded her head, smiling slightly for the first time, “Yes, lieutenant, Fleet is in fact undertaking to discover the answer to that very crucial question.”
Finally, Elian asked, “Has earthgov. made any decisions as to the remaining bug flotilla?”
She said, “No lieutenant, no decision has been made yet. However, I believe it is logical to assume that at some point we are going to have to attempt to communicate with the last known bug flotilla. I don’t know, but perhaps we can learn something about their home, their purpose. We don’t know with any degree of certainty that the remaining bugs came from the destroyed planet, although that is the consensus of most experts. Oh, one additional piece of information has come to light: Continued analysis of sensor data taken of the region of space in which the bug planet is located has revealed that at least eight and possibly as many as twelve different mother ships were launched at about the same time. By ‘same time’ is meant, within a time frame of perhaps twenty years. We do not know if all these expeditions launched from the same planet, but they all appeared in the same section at about the same time, traveling roughly in the same direction, generally towards our region of space. As ought to be obvious, locating traces of even such a large ship as the bugs mother ship is exceedingly difficult. We can only find them during their acceleration and deceleration phases, and those may have lasted a month or so out of a voyage of five or ten years. Additionally, when they arrived at a solar system, they often remained for many months to sometimes as much as a year or more before resuming their voyage. It is assumed that during their stopovers, they performed maintenance and repairs. Each mother ship took a different path so that there was never more than one ship within four or five light years. We can’t be certain, but that would be a logical course of action for a race whose goal was, or is, simple preservation. Fleet is still researching its sensor data, with special attention being paid to determining exactly how many mother ships were launched, and exactly where they went.”
Elian sat down. It was now clear why we were in such a rush to rearm our ships. We’d just completed a battle, not necessarily a war
The meeting adjourned an hour later, and the four of us headed back to our temporary quarters. I had a large amount of message traffic from Admiral Lee so I waved to my crewmates and headed to my tiny two person quarters.
Admiral Lee’s correspondence was interesting. It seemed that we would receive the last of the refitted Dresdens within a week, along with a full load out of the new 67, which we had tested, as requested, with some success. The missile was more programmable than the one it would replace, had a greater range, and a bigger payload. I liked it a great deal, and it fit our Dresdens with no modifications necessary.
He talked at length about the federalization of the armaments company. He said that over one hundred officers of that corporation had been arrested, and more were to come. Evidence also pointed in the other direction, to Fleet, and numerous very painful investigations were underway. A handful of officers had already been relieved of their duties and were awaiting courts martial. Fleet was being shaken to its core, and not merely by the late, unlamented bugs. There was no way to know where the investigations would lead, or how many officers and enlisted would end up in prison.
In a separate, private message, the admiral congratulated me on my marriage, and had some very nice things to say about her father, who had been with us for the last battle.
Finally, he told me that Elian and I were to return to Jupiter Base as soon as possible. I was to bring along everyone I thought might be useful to our next assignment, which he failed completely to discuss. After rereading this passage, I realized that he was giving me a huge amount of leeway, of responsibility, and in the chilling words of Master Chief Kana, of rope.
I commed Elian and spoke with him briefly. It seemed that he was heading down to the planet for a date with an unknown female. I had a guess who. We were no longer members of the same flight crew, and Elian was wasting no time. He was still treading on very dangerous, well, not even ground. Quick sand perhaps. Carolyn was enlisted.
I spoke with the chief a few minutes later and told him that Admiral Lee wanted us to head back to earth ASAP. I added that I was to bring along an unspecified number of people with me, and asked him to put together a list. He asked, “Sir, it would help me greatly if you might give me a hint as to what unspecified duties these unspecified people will be tasked with accomplishing?”
I laughed and said, “Chief, have I ever had a clue? I would have told you if I knew anything specific, and my guess is that Admiral Lee may not have a particular task in mind. Assume that Admiral Lee will have us doing work on developing new craft, tactics or, I don’t know, a new improved doughnut. Well not that – he’s an expert on doughnuts. I want you and Carolyn, of course, and I have a few other people in mind, but I’d like you to draw up a list. Not, of course, right away. I assume you will be heading planetside for a refreshing beer or ten tonight. Tomorrow will be soon enough. Uh, 0800.”
The chief chuckled and said, “Sir, I’m heartily encouraged that you have placed so much responsibility in my unworthy hands. Am I correct in assuming that you will be sharing that shuttle with me?” I smiled into the handset and said, “I see that your advanced age has not diminished your intelligence down to an alarming level, Master Chief.” The chief said, “Thank you sir for that stirring endorsement. Anything else?” I said, “Not right this minute.”
I quickly changed into my one set of dress whites and still had to run to make the next shuttle downside. Inside, I discovered the chief in the company of a female marine. Color me surprised. We had never discussed the chief’s private life, I wouldn’t have dared bring it up, and I hadn’t known or even suspe
cted that he even had one. Here, however, was indisputable proof that the chief was something more than military. The marine was not young, but she was clearly a she. They were both dressed in immaculate dress uniforms, and it appeared that they knew each other fairly well.
The chief grinned at me, almost blushing in the process and said, “Sir, allow me to present Senior Chief Cadiz. Senior Chief, may I present to you Lieutenant Padilla. I have been attempting to keep the lieutenant here out of trouble, and I have to say, it’s a big job.”
Chief Kana was grinning from ear to ear, partly in embarrassment, mostly in pride. I shook her hand and smiled at her, “Senior Chief, it is a pleasure to meet you. Unfortunately, he is quite correct, but the fact that I am standing here is proof that he has been, to date, quite successful in his efforts.”
She grinned at me and said, “From what he has told me, sir, you are clearly capable of taking care of yourself, as well as the rest of your command, with the possible exception of REMF’s.” It was my turn to blush. I asked, “Chief, how is it that you two became acquainted? Did it have something to do with the lottery?”
Chief Kana answered, “Sir, I met the senior chief just a few hours ago, after we arrived in Lubya. She knew my wife, they served together years ago, but the chief and I never served on the same ship, and we were never in port at the same time.”
Hawk Seven (Flight of the Hawk) Page 48
