by Isaac Hooke
“Of course not,” Jonathan said. “The first thing they’ll do is send more probes to confirm we’ve really left, if not actual ships.”
“Assuming our scavenger friend hasn’t made a mess of the adjacent system,” Robert said.
“You’re giving that ship too much credit,” Jonathan said.
Robert extended his noise canceler around the captain.
“You still think it’s hiding in Vega 951, don’t you?” Robert asked.
“That’s my hunch, Commander,” Jonathan replied. “Though I’m not entirely sure what it’s waiting for.”
“Maybe it has friends arriving from the Elder galaxy,” Robert said.
“Who knows?” Jonathan said. “The Elder were supposed to close off that Slipstream to our galaxy after you returned. But maybe they haven’t. Maybe they’re waiting to see what we’re going to do to the colony before they decide.”
“I thought you weren’t worried about the ‘warning’ the Elder gave us.”
“Oh I am worried,” Jonathan said. “And if you believe otherwise, then I gave you the wrong impression. All I said was that because the warning is so very vague, we can’t let it influence our behavior. I still worry, though.”
“A healthy dose of worry never hurt anybody,” Robert said.
“Never thought I’d hear the words ‘healthy’ and ‘worry’ in the same sentence,” Jonathan quipped.
“Indeed,” Robert said. “You can see why I’m not a counselor.” He paused. “So if the scavenger is still in Vega 951, why does this system appear so empty?”
“I think it’s a Raakarr ruse,” Jonathan said.
In five days the telemetry drones completed their scans of the three terrestrials that orbited the nearby blue dwarf. The planets contained nothing of interest.
Four days later one of the telemetry drones detected a Raakarr shipyard on a moon of the second gas giant orbiting the yellow main sequence star. Or rather two shipyards, situated relatively close together on the surface.
In another five days, the previously launched kinetic kills took out the alien probes in front of the far Slipstream, 2-Karak.
“Lazur,” Jonathan told the comm officer. “Get in touch with Barrick. Ask him when Valor intends to transmit the false telemetry data from their reprogrammed probes, now that those other ones have been eliminated.”
“Sir,” Lazur announced a short while later. “Barrick is reporting that the Raakarr probes are transmitting the requested false telemetry data.”
Jonathan pursed his lips. “Ensign Lewis, can we confirm?”
“I’m detecting focused gamma ray beams from the repurposed Raakarr probes, yes,” Lewis said. “Targeting the farther Slipstream.”
“Now we see how our friends in Raakarr-2 handle it,” Jonathan said.
Nothing else happened over the next nine days; on the tenth day, the telemetry drones finally reached the far side of the main sequence star, as well as the second gas giant, completing their scans of the system. There were no other shipyards or any other vessels.
“Still think it’s a ruse?” Robert asked when the news came in.
“It’s damn peculiar, is what it is,” Jonathan said. “I’m supposed to believe the Raakarr already sent all the ships they could spare into Vega 951 to attack us?” He tapped in Barrick aboard the Talon. “Ask Valor what he thinks the Elk are up to here. Why isn’t there more of an Elk presence, other than those two shipyards? I need an alien perspective on this.”
Barrick replied a minute later. “Valor believes they’re amassing their forces in the next system, waiting for us.”
“Why?” Jonathan said. “Wouldn’t it make sense to keep harrying us?”
“Oh, he says they’ll continue to harry us,” Barrick answered. “But they’re going to keep most of their forces in reserve inside Raakarr-2.”
“Any estimates on how large those forces will be?” Jonathan asked.
“He previously gave an estimate of fifty ships to NAVCENT,” Barrick said. “But there is no telling how many the Elk have gathered to the system since. I suspect we’re going to need every last vessel we have.”
“Can’t his sleeper cells let us know?”
“Not without revealing their identities,” Barrick replied. “The undercover Zarafe can only receive data anonymously. The moment the operatives answer, the AIs aboard the different ships and installations will betray them.”
“How many ships can we expect to defect to our side when the admiral sends the order to activate the sleeper cells?” Jonathan asked.
“Valor says he has no way to know which ships have Zarafe aboard,” Barrick answered. “It was part of their anti-infiltration measures. Security by obscurity. No cell knows the locations of any other cell. There could be ten sleepers in the adjacent system. There could be none.”
“Sounds like an uncoordinated mess to me,” Jonathan commented. “Though it makes me wonder if we’ve already destroyed some sleeper cells in our previous battles. Given that Valor hasn’t been transmitting orders to activate them.”
“Actually he has,” Barrick said. “But you also have to keep in mind, commandeering a ship is a tall order. Some sleepers may have indeed been aboard vessels we fought, and attempted an uprising, but failed.”
“Interesting that I’m only learning of this now,” Jonathan said. “It would have been good to know before.”
“I thought you knew,” Barrick said.
Jonathan contacted Vice Admiral Levieson. “Did you know Valor has been attempting to activate sleeper cells aboard the Raakarr vessels in all of our previous encounters?”
“Yes, we knew that,” Levieson said.
“May I ask why I was not told?” Jonathan said. I’m just the one in command of the Talon, after all.
“My apologies, Captain,” Levieson said. “I probably should have informed you. In any case, it wouldn’t have changed anything, would it?”
“No, vice admiral.”
“There you go,” Levieson said.
“Are there any other important standing orders Valor or Wethersfield have that I should know about?” Jonathan asked.
“There are not. Vice admiral out.”
twenty
Jonathan received word shortly that Ford had split the battle group into three parts. The first battle unit, B1, was composed of thirty-four ships, including the Callaway and the members of Task Group 72.5, and set a direct course toward 2-Karak. B2, led by Captain Bane, contained twenty ships whose mission was to raze the shipyards orbiting the moon of the second gas giant. B3, the remaining twenty ships, stayed behind to guard the Builder that was constructing the return Gate.
Jonathan tapped in Levieson when he received the order. “Vice Admiral, may I ask why we’re not leaving the Talon with B3? If they stay here, they’ll be in a better position to warn the fleet in Vega 951 of any incoming attacks from 3-Vega.”
“The admiral wants the Talon with us at all times,” Levieson replied.
And that was the only explanation Jonathan could get out of the man. The unsaid undercurrent was obvious: we don’t entirely trust them. Probably a good idea not to.
B2 was two days away from the gas giant when Ensign Lewis announced: “Two enemy vessels just took flight from the shipyards.”
“Do we know the classes yet?” Jonathan asked.
“The heat signatures are consistent with a pyramid and a dart ship,” Lewis replied.
“Do we have a course yet?”
She paused. “Both ships are headed toward 2-Karak.” Lewis glanced at the captain. “They’re fleeing.”
“Bane has no choice but to let them go,” Robert said. “He’s still two days out. He’ll never catch them.”
For a few moments Jonathan watched the two ships retreat on his aReal.
“My question is,” Jonathan told Robert. “Where did they get the fuel to run their starships?”
“When we discovered a shipyard in the Elder galaxy,” Robert said. “We found evidence o
f a fuel cache: large metallic tanks, arranged beside the shipyard. I believe they were dropped from orbit... similar to how we drop booster rockets full of fuel when deploying mechs planet-side.”
“Did you take a sample of their fuel?” Jonathan said. “Was it geronium?”
“Unfortunately,” Robert replied. “The tanks were empty when we got there.”
“But the microbots were building a ship when you arrived?”
“They were,” Robert said. “But either they were simply building it for the sake of building, with no intention of launching it, or the more likely explanation is that they had already filled the reactors with the last of the fuel, and that was the final ship they intended to construct.”
“You didn’t detect geronium in the obliterated remains?”
“No,” Robert said. “Though if that was their fuel source, we should have, shouldn’t we? So I guess that rules out geronium as their fuel. When the United Systems explodes the crust of that colony world, they’re going to be sorely disappointed when they find out they can’t harvest anything.”
“Oh, I think they already know that,” Jonathan said. “The fleet has encountered several Raakarr shipyards already. Their scans would have revealed the same thing.”
“Then we’re only here for revenge?” Robert said.
“Apparently,” Jonathan replied. “Though NAVCENT calls it deterrence.”
B2 reached the moon two days later and proceeded to obliterate both shipyards. Meanwhile the recently constructed enemy vessels reached 2-Karak and departed, vanishing into the adjacent system.
When B1 was a few days out from 2-Karak, new alien probes appeared at the far Slipstream to replace those that were previously destroyed. The admiral had those eliminated, too.
B1 reached 2-Karak and took up a defensive position around it. They left an opening in their formation for the gamma rays containing the false telemetry information from the reprogrammed probes to pass by.
Levieson tapped in shortly thereafter. “Jonathan, we need the Talon to send a scout through to act as our eyes on the other side. We need to know if it’s safe for the Builder to begin construction.”
The Talon launched the probe, which employed its usual technique of decelerating so that it passed through the Slipstream for the shortest possible period of time.
“So what do we have?” Jonathan sent Barrick after the probe had returned.
“There are no vessels immediately nearby,” Barrick said. “But there are a couple of probes within a thousand kilometer radius, and a countermeasure device.”
“You said no vessels nearby? But there are vessels, then?”
“Yes,” Barrick said. “There are several different ship classes. Pyramid. Reach. Dart. Capital. Most of them are deployed above the colony. We’re counting sixty-two in total, dispersed throughout the system.”
Jonathan glanced at Robert.
“Seems like a reasonable amount,” the commander said.
“The closest ships are how far away?” Jonathan asked Barrick.
“There’s a flotilla of sixteen ships in orbit near a large asteroid,” Barrick said. “About three days away from the Slipstream endpoint. Otter says the two ships that fled earlier are among them.”
“All right, continue sending the probe back and forth between our systems,” Jonathan said. “And keep me apprised of the status of those vessels.”
“Will do,” Barrick replied.
Jonathan relayed the news to Levieson, then the second Builder moved forward and began constructing the outgoing Gate.
“This is interesting,” Ensign McNamara reported from the ops station on the second day.
“What’s that?” Jonathan replied from his office.
“Every few hours, I’m detecting a heat signature from the Slipstream, but it vanishes almost immediately. We’re talking milliseconds.”
Jonathan contacted the comm officer. “Tap me into Barrick.”
Barrick came on the line a moment later. “Yes, Captain?”
“Is the Talon detecting a fleeting heat signature emerging from 2-Karak every few hours?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes,” Barrick answered. “The signature matches a Raakarr probe. Valor believes the Elk are utilizing the same technique as us, decelerating their probes before passing through the Slipstream at a random location to ensure it enters the system for only the shortest amount of time, preventing us from targeting it.”
“Sneaky bastards. With those probes, they’re basically negating the false information we’re sending via your reprogrammed units. I’ll see if I can get permission for you to send some of the alien fighters through to eliminate them.”
Jonathan informed Levieson of the situation.
“Thank you, Jonathan,” the vice admiral replied.
“So, does the Talon have permission to send a few alien fighters across to destroy the waiting probes, given that the enemy is actively spying on us and interfering with the false data we’re sending?”
“What about the countermeasure device?” Levieson asked.
“The fighters will have to take it out, too, of course,” Jonathan said.
“I’ll take it up with the admiral.”
A few minutes later the vice admiral tapped in. “The Talon has permission to destroy the probes.”
Jonathan forwarded the news to Barrick.
On his tactical display, he watched as three alien fighters dispersed from their escort positions around the Talon and vanished inside the Slipstream. Ten minutes later only two emerged.
“Valor reports that the probes and countermeasure device on the other side have been destroyed,” Barrick transmitted.
“We lost a fighter?”
“The particle beam from the countermeasure took one out, yes,” Barrick replied.
“Ensign,” Jonathan told Lewis. “Keep an eye on that wormhole, and let me know if you continue to detect intermittent heat signatures.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Don’t trust Valor’s word?” Robert said.
“Never hurts to double-check,” Jonathan said.
Six hours later, in his quarters, he still hadn’t heard back from the ops station. He knew his standing order would have been passed on to Lewis’ relieving officer, but he got in touch with the ops station anyway. “Have we detected any heat signatures since the alien fighters reported back?”
“No,” the current ops station officer replied.
I suppose those fighters did the job after all.
Every few days, more alien probes took up positions on the other side. Jonathan obtained permission to send the alien fighters through every time. That continued for two weeks, until two dart ships decided to escort the latest batch of probes, and waited on the other side of the wormhole with their particle beams at the ready. At that point the practice stopped, as the admiral refused to risk the destruction of the fighters, and the intermittent heat signatures began to appear again.
Over the next five months, the fleet fended off three raids from 2-Karak. They had forewarning, thanks to the scouts, and had enough time to withdraw the Dammerung and the Builder, as well as temporarily tow away the Gate before each assault. They lost thirty warships in the attacks, so that as the Gates neared completion, they were down to forty-four vessels.
They also received reports from Vega 951, courtesy of Valor, that the fleet there had held off a large attack from 3-Vega. Barrick reported that reinforcements had arrived in Vega 951, replenishing the ranks of the fleet and boosting their number by another fifty warships.
The Return Gate to Vega 951 was finished first, and comm nodes were launched to reestablish communications with NAVCENT.
The admiral held a meeting of the captains shortly thereafter.
“I updated NAVCENT on our progress last night and heard back from them this morning. Our orders haven’t changed. The mission is still a go. More reinforcements are expected to arrive one week from today. I’ll be leaving behind forty of those ships to hold
Raakarr-1, and the rest will join us, so that by the time we pass through into Raakarr-2, we’ll have a hundred-plus ships in the fleet.
“We’re in good shape for our attack run on the colony. Thank you all for your patience so far. Seven months from now, if all goes well, the return Gate will be completed and we’ll be on our way back to United Systems space, victorious. With a foothold secured deep within Raakarr territory.”
“Maybe the enemy will finally begin answering our communication requests after that,” Captain Rodriguez said. “And some sort of peace treaty can be drawn up.”
“Whatever happens afterward is beyond the scope of our mission,” the admiral replied. “We’ll leave that to the hands of the negotiators and diplomats.”
As promised, a week later the United Systems reinforcements arrived, swelling their ranks to over a hundred and forty ships. Because of 2-Karak’s current orbital position, it took the reinforcements another week to reach the outgoing Slipstream and the Gate still under construction there.
The Gate to Raakarr-2 was completed over the next several days. By then, sixteen alien ships had gathered on the other side to defend the endpoint, according to the snapshots returned by the Talon.
Since lasers and particle beams couldn’t be fired into a Slipstream—the beams were dispersed and rendered ineffective by the unique properties of the wormholes—the fleet launched a barrage of mortars and nukes through the Gate instead. Advance vessels passed through shortly thereafter, with Vipers fully charged, and in moments all sixteen waiting ships were destroyed. The fleet lost only one vessel in the assault.
The remaining hundred ships designated for the mission passed through the Gate, leaving behind forty to guard Raakarr-1—twenty situated around each Gate.
Jonathan studied the new system upon emerging from the endpoint. It matched up with what the Talon had reported. There were four stars in total, forming two binaries. A blue giant and red main sequence formed the first binary, orbiting one another at a distance of one hundred million kilometers. Two yellow main sequence stars, separated by fifty million kilometers, composed the second binary. The binary pairs were currently separated by two hundred million kilometers, and revolved around a central barycenter that was slightly offset toward the yellow binary. He zoomed in on them in turn. In general, stars were never perfect spheres because of centrifugal force, but these four were more oval than usual, the flattening of the poles and the widening of the equator exaggerated because of the gravitational pull of their companions.
