StarFight 3: Battlecry

by T. Jackson King

  Jacob sat back hard against his seat. “I never underestimate any alien. Including our absent Hunter One. Or Hunter Thirteen. All Ships, you heard this biocultural analysis. Remain at Alert Combat Ready. Follow us out when we head for Thirteen’s ship. Fleet captain out.”

  Acknowledgments came from Rebecca, Joy and Joan, whose images ran across the top of the wallscreen. Daisy respected each woman, as she respected Alicia, and liked Lori. Now, they all knew something about the invader aliens. What they didn’t know was voluminous. But with live aliens interacting in the Park Room, maybe Alicia’s xenolinguists would figure out some basic word-to-color analogies. That might require the help of the engineers from Engines Deck. And insight from the electrical engineers, fabrication analysts and geologists of Science Deck. The coordination of all those folks would begin with the deck chiefs. But it would be her duty to monitor that coordination and make sure everyone on all decks worked diligently on the common problem. While the weapons of the Earth fleet could kill walking seal starships, finding a way to end this new war required two-way communication. Humans were willing. Were these amphibious aliens willing?

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Rebecca watched as the two Darts returned to the Lepanto. It had been two hours since Jacob had sent them off to attach thermonukes to fragments likely to contain living aliens. She had been surprised by the demand of Hunter One, then even more surprised by the suggestion of O’Connor. The man reminded her of the chief of her own Marine group. That woman was tough as diamonds and an expert in small unit tactics who, like O’Connor, had served multiple overseas tours in hot spots, often rescuing diplomats or touristing Americans. She would have offered her own two Darts to aid in the work, but it was clear from the Lepanto transmission that O’Connor preferred to run the show his way. Much like how she wished to manage her own ship and crew. She scanned the front wallscreen. The images of Jacob, Joy and Joan ran along the top. Lower on the screen were multiple images. The system graphic showed the moving purple dots of the alien invaders. A situational image showed the seven powered up fragments and the two returning Darts. And a true space depiction in the middle held the system’s yellow star, now very small and looking lonely in a black vastness.

  “Navigation, how far is it to Thirteen’s ship? And how long will it take to get there?”

  The petite Chinese woman tapped her control pillar, looked at one of her holos, then spoke.

  “Four AU, sir,” Dolores said. “It will take five hours and seventeen minutes to get there, assuming transit at one-tenth lightspeed.”

  “Tactical, what’s the range to the invader fleet?”

  Howard copied Dolores’ actions.

  “Fifteen AU. The enemy fleet is 16 hours distant and moving at one-tenth lightspeed, sir.”

  Which meant they needed to get moving on their new nav track to Thirteen sooner than later. She had no wish to dodge black balls of antimatter. Once had been enough. For now. But no order to move out had come in. Which left her with housekeeping chores.

  “Weapons, how is the Fabrication shop coming on making new missile bodies for our dismounted warheads?”

  Astrid looked back, her blond braids swinging. “The shop has created seven missile bodies with motors and nav guidance modules, using laser molders and automated smelters,” she said, her narrow face looking anxious. “I’ve moved twelve missiles from Armory Three to secure storage beside our four silos. The new missile bodies are now in the armory being fitted with warheads. Sir.”

  Rebecca nodded. “Good. And you did right putting extra missiles next to the silos. But what is our raw metal and electronics modules status? How many more missiles can we build to replace those we will use against future black ball attacks?”

  The native of Trondheim winced. “Maybe ten more missiles, sir. To build more we would have to visit an asteroid field and deploy cutters, drillers and null gee smelters to acquire more raw metal. And rare earths for the electronics. Uh, we could use our two LCAs as last ditch defenses against mobile antimatter balls. Dolores could pilot them remotely. And so could Howard.”

  Rebecca knew that. Each of her Bridge station people were cross-trained in other functions. Each was dedicated. And each would do everything possible to fight and defend their ship. As she would. Which left only one more issue to think about while they waited for Jacob’s order.

  “Communications, any reply from the Aldertag to my message?”

  Meredith’s thin shoulders stiffened. “No sir, not yet. Shall I resend your digicom?”

  “No need,” Rebecca told the Scottish woman as she looked up at the wallscreen and focused on the mature figure of Joan Sunderland. The gray-streaked blond was looking sideways, talking to her XO. Like Joy and Rebecca, the woman was focused on preparing her ship to change vector track and head outward to the edge of the magnetosphere and a rendezvous with Thirteen’s ship. Why hadn’t Joan responded to her encrypted digicom? Did she consider it a disloyal communication? Or was this seasoned ship commander simply biding her time for things to develop? As Rebecca was doing, if she admitted the truth to herself.

  She was willing to follow Jacob’s orders. She was willing to fight her ship against any attack from aliens, whether wasp or walking seal. What she was not happy with was the lack of guidance from the admiral. Who had yet to be informed of this new, deadly alien species. A chore that Joan would undertake after their arrival in the Food Enough system. After all, the Aldertag had to know the stellar coordinates of the wasp colony before it left for Kepler 10 and the admiral. Whether the admiral would then bring his Battlestar and fleet out to the wasp colony star, that remained to be seen. She just hoped that whatever action the admiral decided on, it happened before these new aliens followed her ship to Food Enough and initiated an attack on the four ships of the StarFight expedition. Four against twenty-five was not a good combat ratio, especially in view of how these black balls could change vector tracks and pursue a ship no matter how it jinked, slid and changed its vector.

  She was not afraid of fighting. But fighting a hopeless fight against an overwhelming enemy force did not appeal to her. Maybe Joy would welcome the challenge. Jacob certainly would accept such an unequal battle. But did Joan share her misgivings at such exposure of their fleet? Maybe the woman would contact her during the Alcubierre transit to Food Enough. She hoped so. Already she felt too alone, with Jason gone. He had loved her dreadlocks. And had appreciated her obsession with stellar astrophysics and navigation. The man had even suggested marriage, even if it resulted in him being assigned to another ship per Star Navy rules for married officers. Andrei, while talented and loyal, could not replace the man she had loved, the man who had enabled her to take over command of the Chesapeake as acting captain. Shaking her head, Rebecca told herself to put aside self-doubt and to focus on the task at hand. Which was to make tracks for the ship of Thirteen, enter Alcubierre space-time and arrive at a new star system with planets and wasps. That task she could handle.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Hours after the return of the Darts, Jacob examined the electro-optical scope image of Thirteen’s starship. It was a six-sided metal log with three weapons rings at the front, middle and rear. Two exhaust funnels shone brightly at the rear. The yellow and black streaks on the ship metal told him only that the wasps liked making their ship resemble a wasp. Its outward pointing front end told him nothing. There were millions of stars in that direction. Which star held the world Food Enough they had yet to learn. Time to make things happen. He looked right.

  “Hunter One, my flying nests need to know which sky light warms the world of Food Enough. Will Support Hunter Thirteen provide us with that location?”

  The large wasp fluttered his brown wings but did not rise from his bench. The alien seemed much calmer than when he had demanded transport to the alien ship fragments in order to kill any surviving aliens. The time spent by the creature in communication with the Matron wasp and three other wasps in the Forest Room had been lengthy, occupying th
e entire two hours it had taken Richard to emplace the warheads and return. Longer, actually, since it had been gone the five hours of their transit out to the magnetosphere. What had it spent seven hours doing? Sleeping like Richard and the other Marines had been doing during their transit outward? Whatever the answer, the wasp leader had returned upon their arrival close to the ship of Thirteen. Its two antennae leaned forward.

  “Support Hunter Thirteen,” it said to the translator block in a flow of mint, dry earth, lemon and wet smells. “Transmit the image of the sky glow of Food Enough. Include surrounding sky glows so the human leader can understand how to follow your flight path.”

  A fourth image appeared at the top of the wallscreen, joining the head shots of Joy, Joan and Rebecca. The triangular yellow head of the wasp ship captain, framed by black stripes down either side of its face, which ended at the sharp mandibles that were its mouth, twisted around so its five black eyes looked at Jacob. And his Bridge. Behind the leader were five Servants of similar color and shape, though Thirteen was the largest of the group.

  “Hunter One, my Flight Servant has prepared the imagery. My Speaker To All now transmits the imagery to you. Advise if more is needed before my Servant for propulsive devices sends us into the gray nothing of the alternate dimension.”

  “Sir, imagery has arrived over the neutrino comlink,” called Andrew. “Going up.”

  The wallscreen images of system graphic, situational disposition, sensor display of incoming radiation and true space with the yellow star of Kepler 22 now got smaller as a fifth image filled the middle of the wallscreen. It showed black space with the tiny dots of dozens of stars. In the middle lay a yellow star. Overlaid on the true space image were four brown bars that surrounded the star, each bar aimed at the star. There was a north, south, east and west bar. It was a different way of indicating a target, compared to the human bulls-eye targeting motif. But it made clear which star out of dozens was the intended target of Thirteen.

  “Louise?” he said, not giving a damn for titles at the moment. “Can you identify that star? Does it match any star in our catalogue?”

  “Sir, a moment,” said the native of Seattle. “Yes!” she exclaimed as her control panel told her something. “Captain, that is the star Kepler 63. It is part of the Lyra constellation. Distance from Earth is 652 light years. It’s a G6 main sequence star. Surveys early this century documented a single gas giant in close orbit around this young, Sun-like star. Strangely, the planet is in a polar orbit to its star! That means its ecliptic plane could be at right angles to the star’s equatorial spin.”

  “Distance to the star?”

  “My instruments say it is 36.944 light years to Kepler 63’s magnetosphere.”

  That was a trip of a day and a half at standard Alcubierre stardrive speed. “Navigation, compute our vector track for Kepler 63. Once you have the exact angle and direction, transmit the settings to the other fleet ships.”

  “Captain, computing our track,” the red-haired woman said.

  Jacob watched as Louise tapped her control pillar, transmitted the course vector by neutrino comlink, then called to him. “Acting captain, I am ready to transmit the Alcubierre space-time stardrive activation signal.”

  “Good,” Jacob said. He looked to the right. “Hunter One, we do not need more data from Thirteen. He is free to depart. We will follow.”

  The wasp’s wings sped up. “Thirteen, fly away to Food Enough!” the alien said in a mix of pheromone scents that almost made Jacob sneeze.

  “Departing for the sky glow of Food Enough!” the other wasp replied in a flow of mint, lime and lemon scents.

  His image disappeared from the screen. The scope image showed his ship firing its fusion pulse thrusters to move outward. In seconds the long tongue of yellow-orange flame ceased. Then the starry space that framed the alien ship became distorted, warped, as if it were displayed on a fun house mirror. It wasn’t. Instead, its internal gravity generators were sending out massive flows of gravitons, flows strong enough the bend local space-time. With the result that space ahead of it contracted, while space behind it expanded. That warping of space-time sent the craft outward so fast Jacob did not see any movement. At one moment the ship was surrounded by curving space. Less than a nano-second later it was gone and local space-time had returned to normality. That departure would shortly be replicated by his four ships.

  “All Ships, permission to depart. We’ll meet you on the edge of Kepler 63.”

  Rebecca gave him a pale smile. “The Chesapeake has the coordinates. We’ve got your back. Heading out.”

  Joan gave him a salute. “Fleet captain, Aldertag has the coordinates. Oriented to new vector track. Leaving.”

  “Same for us,” called Joy, a big grin on her face. “Philippine Sea is oriented and ready to initiate space-time conversion. Have fun doing nothing!”

  Jacob almost laughed. But it was nearly true. In Alcubierre space-time transit there was nothing to do except eat, sleep, work your shift, read old email, play video games solo or as a wifi-linked group, look at old holos of friends and spouses, visit the new nature preserve that Yamamoto had created in the recycling room, and perhaps show up for Dance Night. There would be one, that he knew. People who had faced the possibility of death needed a chance to kick up their heels, get drunk, dance poorly, make love with someone and feel like they were safe from the unknown. And being in Alcubierre transit was as safe a place as one could find, short of a planetary surface. Time to get the Lepanto launched.

  “Engines, activate the Alcubierre stardrive. Prepare to initiate space-time bubble creation.

  “Activating,” called Akira. “Ready to initiate.”

  “Navigation, cross-link your post to Engines.”

  “My post is cross-linked,” Louise said. “Confirmed by my pillar.”

  “Engines, do you confirm receipt of vector coordinates?”

  “Yes sir,” called Akira. “Coordinates received. Ready to depart normal space-time.”

  “Engines, initiate Alcubierre stardrive transition.”

  “Activating,” Akira said as her gloved hands danced over the top of her control pillar.

  Jacob watched as the front wallscreen went from a mix of images to a sudden wash of gray.

  That was it. There was no vibration, no howl of engines, nothing. The Alcubierre stardrive was a solid state microelectronic wonder combined with a gravity generator that warped space ahead and expanded space to their rear. That expanding space pushed the Lepanto and the other three ships of the fleet out into deep space at a velocity beyond imagining. The stellar navigation course he’d taken said the ships would cover 25 light years per day. Which they had done, reliably, both on the trip out from Earth and the trip here from Kepler 10.

  “We’re on our way,” Jacob said. “All ships, change ship status to Alert Alcubierre Transition. You have permission to move ship weapons to standby status.”

  Responses came in by way of the neutrino comlink that connected the Battlestar with the other three ships. He let out a sigh.

  “Captain,” called Maggie from Power. “Can we all please get the hell out of these stinky vacsuits!”

  He laughed. It had been awhile since the last time he’d laughed. It felt good.

  “All personnel, you are free to remove vacsuits. Verify weapons moved to standby. Mess Hall, prepare for a rush. All deck chiefs, set a priority list for your staff to take relief breaks, eat a meal and get some rest,” Jacob said. “Ship is now back to routine shifts.”

  From overhead came a sound of static.

  “My human, are you now free to play a game of chess with me?” called Melody.

  He blinked. Then hoped he was not blushing. The ship’s AI was getting more and more personal with him. Almost as if he were her date. Or whatever an AI envisioned as intimacy. That thought sent a chill down his neck. It was Daisy he loved, not an all-seeing, all-knowing, blabber-mouth of an AI!

  “Perhaps after I eat.” Jacob looked
down. “XO, would you like to join me for a meal in the Mess Hall?”

  Daisy looked up to him, her expression becoming tender as she realized they would have personal time together, even if they were surrounded by crew. The tight curls of her blue-black hair shone in the light of the Bridge. Her strong shoulders shifted under her vacsuit as she stood up and faced him. Her sharp nose lifted. Her brown eyes watched him. “Sir, yes, I would be glad to join you for a meal!” She proceeded to strip off her vacsuit, stuffing it into the storage slot in the back of her seat.

  He stood up, stripped off his own vacsuit, stored it, then stepped down the side of the pedestal that held his elevated captain’s seat. Telling himself to not stare at Daisy’ full breasts as they pushed out the front of her blue and gray camo shirt, he focused instead on the lieutenant’s bars on her shoulder pads.

  “Good. I’m hungry.” Jacob looked right to where Alicia sat, watching the interplay between the two of them, her pink lips slightly curved in a knowing smile. “Commander, you have the Bridge!”

  She stood up and saluted him, her expression turning command formal. “Sir! I accept command of the Bridge!”

  He returned her salute. Jacob nodded to Daisy, turned and headed for the exit hatch. He gave a quick smile to Lori and Carlos, giving thanks his friends were willing to sit at the back of the Bridge and be available in case of need. The vector track to Kepler 63 was well known, so Carlos did not have to put his stellar navigation talents to work mentally computing a course for the Lepanto. Such might be needed once they arrived at Kepler 63. But now, his Navigation Deck friend could sit next to his girlfriend Lori and observe as the ship sped through gray space-time. He wished the best for them. Relationships formed during deep space voyages sometimes did not last upon return home. Sometimes they did, as he had learned in talks with Rebecca as she dealt with the grief of losing Jason. He hoped the love bond between Maggie and Akira would last. Just as he hoped the dating of Kenji with his Korean girlfriend would become deeper. Quincy was still searching. Hopefully his friends would find the happiness and joy he had found with Daisy.