“The orbital space around Thebes III is crammed with haulers of every description,” Bishop said. “Every missing vessel of ‘C’ Quadrant must be there. Shuttles are bringing them cargos hourly. More haulers are entering orbit, while the full ones blast off for an inner system Laumer-Point that takes them out of ‘C’ Quadrant. In other words, they’re heading into the Beyond.”
“The haulers might be high-tailing it to the Throne World,” Fletcher whispered.
“I deem that very possible,” Bishop said. “Or they could be heading to Parthia or Odin.”
Fletcher recalled those systems, independent planets, the first to feel the New Men’s wrath.
“The Patrol frigate also recorded mass readings from Thebes III’s surface,” Bishop said. “This is wonderful news, Admiral. The readings can only be one thing: the missing peoples of ‘C’ Quadrant.”
Fletcher stared at the third admiral. “Yes,” he said, finally. “That is good news. Wonderful news, as you say.”
“There’s one more item,” Bishop said. “The enemy’s main fleet is concentrated there. The frigate captain counted fifty-seven star cruisers.”
Fletcher felt himself go cold.
“We still badly outnumber them,” Bishop said.
Fletcher grunted.
“I know you’re weak,” the third admiral said. “I wouldn’t ask this unless it was critical. Firstly, let me say that I understand better your caution concerning the New Men. It is well founded. You also may be the only one among us who can pierce some of their traps. The Grand Fleet needs your cunning, old chum. And it needs your words. If you are able, we need you to talk to the commanders as you did the day you faced down the enemy’s decoy forces. The officers—the men, too—trust you, Admiral. I lack their trust. I’ve lost too many ships for that. Morale is dropping. This is the moment to maneuver our way into the Thebes System and stop whatever the New Men are doing. This is the time to annihilate their invasion armada.”
“Fifty-seven star cruisers are not so easy to annihilate,” Fletcher said.
“Nine of them have sustained damage,” Bishop said, “some of that heavy damage.”
“That will help,” Fletcher admitted.
“What do you say, sir?”
Fletcher raised an arm. It took some doing. He rubbed his gritty eyes. He could feel his body’s weakness striving to pull him back under.
“I am weak,” the admiral said. “I can’t give that talk yet, not in any meaningful way.”
“It would probably kill you to do something like that now,” the doctor said.
“Here’s what we can do,” Fletcher told the third admiral. “I want situational reports. I’ll look for their traps when I’m awake. But for the day-to-day running of the Grand Fleet, you will continue to issue the commands.”
Bishop appeared troubled.
“You think that makes you too much of a figurehead?”
The tall earl shook his head. “I have miscalculated. The New Men are better than I expected. I don’t want to lose our side any more fighting ships. I may have disgraced my family house.”
Fletcher became thoughtful. He had lost his nerve after facing the New Men. The Lord High Admiral had seen something in him and had pushed him back into the arena. Maybe he had been too hard on Bishop. Maybe he had just seen the earl’s grasping ways, unable to see the good in the man.
“We’re going to work together,” Fletcher whispered.
Bishop stared at him.
“You’re going to win glory for your house by rolling up your sleeves and facing the toughest opponents in the universe. I’ll work on recovering faster and thinking deeply on the enemy’s dispositions. But I need you, Third Admiral, to hold this fleet together by using all your political cunning and maneuvering of people.”
Slowly, Bishop nodded.
“I’ll save my speech to the men for later,” Fletcher whispered. He could feel himself slipping under. He had already stared slurring his words. “Is that a deal?” he mumbled.
“It is, old chum,” Bishop said.
“Then get started,” Fletcher said.
“Yes, sir,” the earl said, saluting smartly before heading for the exit.
-46-
The next six days proved hectic beyond anything Maddox had known. Without Ludendorff’s vast knowledge and cunning, the process would have taken considerably longer.
The three smaller people—two men and one woman—were from the Kai-Kaus, the last surviving humans on the Dyson sphere. The three were the elders of approximately ten thousand humans left. During this time, Maddox had learned they were a technologically perceptive people, using Adok equipment. That meant they knew how to build and operate neutron and disruptor cannons and Adok shields. Their advanced weapons were all that stood in the way between them and annihilation from the endless Swarm hordes.
Port Admiral Hayes told Maddox what had happened to the flotilla in the Xerxes System. It was close to what the captain had expected. After many days of careful scouting, the flotilla had approached the Nexus. Just as had happened with Victory, a hyper-spatial tube had sucked them into the Dyson sphere system. There, the saucer-craft had indeed incapacitated the ships’ computer systems. Soon thereafter, gas canisters had attached to each Star Watch vessel, rendering the crews unconscious. After that, the port admiral couldn’t say what had happened. For weeks now, each of them had been in a separate glass cell.
The new lease on life caused everyone to work overtime with zeal.
During the first two days, the Kai-Kaus fought three major engagements against masses of Swarm soldiers on the sphere’s inner surface. The Swarm attacks never stopped. The last thousand Kai-Kaus died at their posts so the rest could escape into the substructure and the waiting spacecraft outside.
It was a bitter race loading people and high tech cargos onto Victory and the port admiral’s ships.
Ten thousand Kai-Kaus among the various spaceships meant Victory was near capacity for the first time under Star Watch’s control.
“It looks like Star Watch scientists won’t have to study you anymore,” Maddox told a revived Galyan on the bridge. “With the Kai-Kaus and their imports, we can start arming new starships with Adok technology as soon as we get back to Earth.”
“You are optimistic about defeating Commander Thrax Ti Ix here,” Galyan said.
“I’m hoping the bug’s lack of familiarity with its new ships will give us a winning edge.”
“The Swarm creature may have been studying the craft for some time.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” Maddox said.
“I am monitoring the sphere while we speak,” Galyan said. “I know the port admiral also has his people watching it. The problem is that the sphere’s mass is simply too much. Thrax Ti Ix could come out on the other side. He might already be out, advancing to do battle with hundreds of starships under his control.”
“I have a plan,” Maddox said.
“The disruptor cannon can destroy some of the Dyson sphere,” Galyan said. “That will not be enough to demolish the entire structure quickly enough to destroy the Swarm’s new space navy.”
“I never thought it would.”
“You cannot mean a stand up battle against them,” Galyan said. “We lack the numbers to defeat them.”
“True,” Maddox said.
“I admit to bafflement, Captain,” the AI said. “What is your plan?”
“You and I are going to defeat them,” Maddox said, “along with some stolen Builder tech to help us.”
“You should have already informed me of my part of the task.”
Maddox raised his right arm. A wristband blinked on it. He tapped the band. “Have you found it, Professor?”
A tiny screen showed a sweaty Ludendorff. “It’s in my possession, but this is…” The older man shook his head.
“I want you on Victory on the double, Professor,” Maddox said. “I don’t know how much longer we have. Can you be here in an hour?”
&
nbsp; “Make it two,” Ludendorff said.
“No, make it a half-hour.” The captain had noticed Valerie waving to him. She pointed at a screen. He nodded, seeing strange spaceships easing out of a vast opening in the sphere’s outer skin.
“Is the Swarm coming through?” Ludendorff asked from the wristband.
“Yes, Professor,” the captain said. “Our time has just run out. Get here as fast as you can.”
-47-
The Kai-Kaus were crammed aboard the two Bismarck-class battleships, the three Star Watch strike cruisers, five destroyers, two escorts, three supply vessels and Starship Victory. None of Kai-Kaus’ advanced technology had been fitted to the ships, although a chief technician was on each bridge to help the commanders. Together with the Kai-Kaus’ baggage, it made for an incredibly tight fit aboard each vessel.
The Leipzig and Vienna led the way toward the latest sphere opening. They were old battlewagons, heavy on the hull armor with heavy-mount lasers. They did not boast the latest wave harmonics shielding, one of the reasons the Lord High Admiral had sent them to the Xerxes System rather than “C” Quadrant to face the New Men.
Behind the two bruisers came the strike cruisers. The rest of the flotilla stayed at a Luna-like distance from the sphere. They had spread out, watching the sphere for other openings. It seemed likely to everyone, especially the Kai-Kaus technicians, that the first Swarm move was a deception. The first gambit usually was, they said.
“Come on,” Maddox said. The ancient Adok vessel was midway between Hayes’ battlewagons and the others.
The captain hadn’t expected Thrax Ti Ix to move so quickly. He’d hoped the logistics problem would give the Swarm commander nightmares. He’d also hoped the hybrid bug didn’t have many space commanders yet. It looked as if Maddox had been wrong on both counts.
“There, sir,” Valerie said. She tapped her board.
On the main screen, Maddox saw another hatch open on the sphere. A shuttle blasted out of there. That was Ludendorff with Keith piloting. They were the last humans on the Dyson sphere, not counting any final Kai-Kaus volunteers who had survived on the inner surface.
As the shuttle raced for Victory, Swarm craft continued to slide out of the huge opening, the place the battleships maneuvered to.
“I see seven enemy ships so far,” Valerie said. “They’re big, too.”
Maddox nodded. The seven craft were saucer-shaped with a massive ball in the center. Each had a little more mass than a Star Watch cruiser. That meant the Swarm already had an equal tonnage of spaceships outside the sphere as Star Watch did.
Heavy beams lanced from the Leipzig and Vienna.
Maddox sat forward on the command chair, with his right hand bunched into a fist. He waited, waited—
A cheer erupted from the lieutenant and the Kai-Kaus technician on the bridge. She was a slight woman wearing an elaborate uniform with outrageous collars that almost hid her elfin chin. Her name was Lady Shana, and she had a Mohawk like the Native American tribe of that name. She wore gloves with tiny tools in the fingertips and had proven herself a technical wizardess so far.
Valerie and Lady Shana cheered because the lasers struck Swarm hulls. Either the saucers didn’t have shields or Swarm soldiers didn’t know how to turn them on yet.
The Leipzig and Vienna pounded the first saucer, burning away hull armor so giant globules wobbled away into space.
The Swarm craft fired back with particle beams. They combined on the Leipzig, brightening the shield to a cherry color. The Kai-Kaus techs had helped in one endeavor there, able to quicken the energy bleed-off from the shield. That allowed the Leipzig to absorb a greater amount of energy before the shield faded to brown.
At that point, the first targeted saucer blew apart in a mass of metal, water, squirming Swarm creatures and expanding air. Heat and gamma rays also radiated outward.
The other Swarm craft stopped firing.
The two battlewagons picked a new target, starting on the next saucer.
That’s when the enemy craft showed their true power. The ball parts glowed radiantly and the ships began to move with incredible velocity. The six saucers charged the two battlewagons. In doing so, they made room for more Swarm craft to burst out of the sphere opening.
Maddox shook his head. He didn’t like this.
Port Admiral Hayes must have disapproved as well. One of the strike cruisers eased forward, launching a salvo of antimatter missiles.
The minutes ticked away as the battleships destroyed another two saucers. The first wave survivors began firing the particle beams again. That’s when the antimatter missiles ended the fight, blowing the rest of the saucers in chain-reaction annihilations.
By that time, though, another seven saucers had renewed the process.
“The Swarm commander is baiting us,” Lady Shana said. She had a translator to help her communicate with them.
“Why do you say that?” Maddox asked.
“This is a ruse,” she said. “The real attack is gathering elsewhere.”
“I suspect you’re right,” Maddox said. “What do you suggest we do?”
Lady Shana grew tight-faced. “We must kill the creatures while we can. Once we can’t, we die. That is the only philosophy in battle.”
Maddox nodded.
After the fifth saucer assault of seven perished to heavy lasers and antimatter missiles, Keith brought the professor onto Victory.
Maddox hurried to Galyan’s AI core chamber. As he did, Valerie appeared on his wristband comm.
“Yes?” the captain asked.
“I’m patching the Port Admiral though to you, sir.”
The tiny screen wavered for a second. Then, Port Admiral Hayes appeared, an older man with sunken eyes.
“I’m running low on antimatter missiles,” Hayes said, promptly. “The Leipzig has already blown a laser coil. We can’t keep this up for long.”
“What else do you suggest, sir?” Maddox asked.
“How far are you with your plan?”
“I hope to start testing it soon, sir.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Fight until you can’t, sir.”
“Yes?”
“If the enemy is still around after that, we die.”
The port admiral stared at him. “Yes, Captain, that we will. Good luck, son.”
“Yes, sir, to you too,” Maddox said.
The screen wavered once more, going blank.
Maddox broke into a sprint. This was going to be tight, and he had no doubt the saucer ships were a Swarm feint as Lady Shana had suggested. That was okay, though, because they still had some time. As long as they had wriggle room, and Victory, he might be able to save the human race from this unsuspected menace. He wasn’t as sanguine about saving the Kai-Kaus and Victory. They had to do this right the first time, because he didn’t think Thrax Ti Ix was going to give them another.
***
Professor Ludendorff, Lady Shana and Maddox working as a go-for attempted to install a Builder AI box into Galyan’s computing core.
“I still do not see how this will aid us,” Galyan said, watching from the hatch. For whatever reason the Adoks had decided long ago, a holoimage could not enter its own AI core.
“It’s easy, Galyan, at least in theory,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff and Lady Shana carefully made adjustments with tools Maddox had no idea how they operated. The captain was trusting Ludendorff, which might have future repercussions. He hoped the professor had too much on his mind to worry about subterfuge for later.
Once or twice, the professor eyed the captain speculatively. Maddox hoped it was his imagination. He hoped Ludendorff wasn’t putting a new backdoor into Galyan. Did the professor think this was as wild a longshot as Galyan did?
“Do you remember what you did in Greenland?” Maddox asked the AI.
“Do you mean in my taking over the system’s computers?” Galyan asked.
“Exactly,” Maddox said.
“I’m hoping with this box installed you’ll have more understanding concerning Builder tech. Maybe just as important, you’ll be able to appear on the Dyson sphere as a holoimage.”
“I suspect you’re right,” Galyan said. “How will that help us?”
“I’m going to piggyback on you,” Maddox said.
“That is impossible. You are flesh and blood.”
“The professor is rigging it so my engrams can go over as a program.”
“You are going to make a copy of yourself?”
“No,” Maddox said. The very idea made him queasy. “The professor will put a brain amplifier on my head. That will energize a temporary engram program that can piggyback with you onto the Dyson sphere.”
“For what reason?” Galyan asked.
“I’m going to seek out the Builder one more time and keep him occupied.”
“That is a dubious proposal,” Galyan said. “By your account, he or it is unstable.”
“Commander Thrax Ti Ix is going to win, Galyan.”
“Then why are we fighting?” the AI asked.
“Thrax is going to win unless we can figure out a way to destroy the Dyson sphere in one giant orgy of destruction,” Maddox said. “While I’m distracting the Builder, you’re going to figure out how to blow the whole sphere.”
“That is not rational, Captain. We lack sufficient firepower to destroy a sphere of a star system’s worth of mass.”
“You’re not listening,” Maddox said. “You’re going to use the sphere’s systems, blowing up every circuit and engine in one instant of time.”
“That will work?” Galyan asked.
“I don’t know. Will it?”
“I am analyzing,” Galyan said. The holoimage froze with his eyelids fluttering. The eyes snapped open an instant later. “That is an ingenious plan, Captain. If it works, it could cause a vast explosion, destroying everything on the sphere.”
“We need more than that,” Maddox said. “We have to destroy the sphere in such a way that all the debris, the system mass of it, blows inward at Thrax Ti Ix’s fleet.”
“Captain,” Galyan said. “That is pure genius, if of an evil sort.”
The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) Page 35
