The tapping of the captain’s fingers on his armrest ceased. “Excellent news, Gunny,” Jacob said, his tone brighter than the low, somber tone of the last day as the knocked-out shark-heads were returned to the Park Room, the wasps to their Forest Room and Daisy and Hunter One taken to Med Hall. “I look forward to her return. Gunny, you may return to any duty assigned you by the chief.”
Jane put her armored arms behind her, moving to parade rest stance. “Sir?”
He waved at her. “Get a meal in the Mess Hall. Then hit your bunk. You’ve earned a rest.”
She saluted him. “Sir, departing as ordered.”
Richard saluted her back, then looked ahead at the front wallscreen. It was filled with the grayness of Alcubierre space-time. He moved his attention to the five holos that fronted his work station. The holos held images of the Dart hangar, a cross-section of the Lepanto with every Marine located within it by a blue dot, the inside of his quarters on Habitation Deck, a view of Engines Deck that showed engineers conducting diagnostic tests on the damaged Shinshonis, and Weapons Deck, with a view of the right front laser chamber and its crew, including Blackbourne. He had been pleased to by how well the native of East London had thrown his hunting knife, striking one seal and drawing a good blood flow. That man was a fighter born. More than a fighter was Daisy Stewart. He still had a hard time putting away the hallway video image that showed her jumping in front of the captain, being hit by a yellow bolt, then falling to the floor, the back of her dress burned away and most of her back showing black burns, red-bleeding flesh and the whiteness of exposed rib bones. The seriousness of her injury had worried him a lot. But Huáng and Lawrence had arrived quickly, loaded her on a repulsor gurney, then had taken her to Med Hall for treatment in a healing waters tank. That bit of 21st century medical miracles still amazed him, even though he had seen the tanks do wonders on Earth and earlier on the Lepanto. He felt glad she would return soon, in one piece. He hoped she would like learning of her addition to the squad as an honorary member. In truth the woman had done just what any Marine would do for another Marine. And her bravery was due some kind of recognition.
“Captain,” called Louise from Navigation. “Alcubierre exit will occur in 14 minutes, thirty-one seconds.”
“Good,” Jacob said, his lighter tone still present. “I’m looking forward to seeing a new star and new worlds.” Silence came, lasting five seconds. “Commander Branstead, have your xenolinguists made any progress on that seal-to-English dictionary? Any IDs of color patterns to words and actions?”
The Science Deck chief bit her lip as she stared ahead at the gray wallscreen. “Captain, we have matched up maybe seven or eight color patterns to specific actions, based on 24/7 vid monitoring of the walking seals. It is clear the color red indicates both danger and anger. But we are far from a basic dictionary of what specific color patterns mean.”
Richard felt empathy for the Australian science geek. Matching color patterns to English meanings was every bit as hard as matching wasp pheromones to English meanings. And her teams had had less time with the shark-heads than they’d had with the wasps. Maybe the Science engineers could reverse engineer one of the control panels his team had grabbed so it emitted color patterns in accordance with human inputs. If not, maybe the door entry color panels would be easier to decipher, since they clearly relied on perceiving a specific color pattern that meant ‘open’ or ‘close’. You don’t have a conversation with a door, leastwise not unless it was a ship AI like Melody.
“Send me the color patterns and meanings your people have deduced so far,” Jacob said. “Keep working on it. You’ve got four live ones, including one who is recovering from flesh wounds. That wounded one should display some different image patterns.”
“Sir, we are doing just that.” The brown-haired woman turned in her seat and looked back and up. “You can count on Science Deck to figure out a way to communicate with these new aliens.”
Jacob grunted. “I know I can. Just feeling impatient. At least here in the Food Enough system we will face aliens we understand.”
“Human leader,” called the translated voice of Hunter One. “There are matters relating to your arrival in our Swarm colony sky glow that must be discussed.”
“Oh? And what matters might those be?” Jacob said, his tone becoming tight, sharp and angry.
Richard felt the same. If Gunny had been injured as badly as Stewart had been hurt, due to the actions of Hunter One and his three wasp allies, he would be more than angry. He would be on the edge of pulling out his leather belt and having a go at whipping the yellow fur off of a large part of the giant wasp’s exterior. The thought brought a smile to his face, which he quickly erased.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jacob looked right to where the wasp rested on his bench. Its brown wings moved slowly, languidly, as if it had never been injured. As if it had no regrets for its attack on his Marines and the resulting escape of walking seals. The black and red striped mass of the giant wasp did not look as dangerous as it had been in the Park Room videos he had watched, later, after Daisy had been taken to the Med Hall. But the long black stinger on its butt, the stinger that it had used in an effort to kill the seals in the Park Room, that stinger reminded him he dealt with a dangerous and deadly alien. As proven by the loss of four ships and crew. Well, humans too were deadly and dangerous.
“Oh? And what matters might those be?”
The wasp’s two antennae leaned forward. Its triangular head turned towards Jacob. Its black mandible opened a bit. The five compound eyes above that mouth stared at him. The wings stopped moving.
“One matter is my departure. When this flying nest arrives at the edge of the sky light’s magnetic field, I wish to depart this nest for the nest of Hunter Thirteen,” it said in a flow of lemon, apple, cinnamon and dry earth odors. “My Servants and my Matron will go with me.”
The demand did not surprise him. But the timing of it did.
“Don’t you owe me and my guardian Marines an apology for your attack on them? Your actions led to the escape of some walking seals, your wet ones. That escape led to severe injury for my female coordinator of this nest.”
The antennae leaned back. The whistle of air going into the abdominal spiracles of the insect surprised him. That sharp intake must mean something.
“How little you understand of the Swarm,” One said in a flow of wetness, lemon, pepper and rocky scents. “It has always been our nature to kill any lifeform that attacks the Swarm. Your nests came to our colony despite our warning device. We took that to indicate a desire to capture our colony of Warmth,” the wasp said in a flush of harsh odors. “That was not your intent, I now understand.” It stopped speaking, which allowed Jacob to avoid sneezing. Movement of its antennae warned him he had best not inhale. “But we of the Swarm will always defend others of the Swarm. As happened above the world of Warmth when the wet ones arrived. The nest of Thirteen would have sacrificed itself in that defense, if not for the necessity of warning the rest of the Swarm of such killers of our larvae. You and your fellow nests defended Thirteen, an action which I will convey to our Primes. But departing the Forest Room chamber and making our effort to kill the wet ones you captured was . . . natural to any Swarmer. We could no more refrain from that attack than you humans could refrain from defending your colony of Valhalla.”
The whole Bridge stank of the long explanation given by Hunter One. Up front, Maggie, Rosemary and Oliver were sneezing softly. Akira, Louise and Andrew were squeezing their noses. Cassandra, Joaquin and Willard wore white air filters over their mouths and noses, something he now wished he had grabbed. His fingers trembled with the depth of his anger at the injuries done to Daisy. But his duty lay with all crew on the Lepanto. As deeply as he wanted to lash out and punish the wasp, such was not possible. Not if he were to follow the orders of his father the admiral.
“Perhaps any Swarmer would seek to attack the killers of Swarm larvae,” Jacob said slowly. “But you
took advantage of human friendliness to you. A friendliness that was not wise in view of your actions. If a human had done what you did on a human flying nest, that person would face imprisonment . . . or death for mutiny.”
The brown wings whirred fast. The wasp rose up from his bench.
“You will kill me!”
“No,” Jacob said. “I simply gave you an example of how serious your action was in human terms. You rebelled against my leadership. I would be sending you out of this nest right now, into the grayness of the alternate dimension, if the choice were mine alone.” There, maybe that would put the bastard back on his heels, or the wasp version of heels. “However, my leader of all our nests ordered me to bring you to Food Enough. He ordered me to transport the wounded nest of Hunter Seven. He also ordered me to pursue an agreement with the Swarm for an exchange of colony world locations and an end to our battles with each other.” He stopped talking and took a deep breath. His heart beat fast and his fingers trembled. It surprised him how deeply furious he felt over the injuries to Daisy that had been caused by Hunter One’s actions. “Your Swarm makes choices based on genetics and on instinct. So do we humans, sometimes. Upon our arrival outside the magnetosphere, you may depart in your air bubble for the nest of Thirteen. Take with you my leader’s proposal and advise me whether our nests may visit your world of Food Enough. My people fought to defend the nest of Thirteen. It would be . . . a friendly choice to allow my people a visit to the wilderness of Food Enough. Will that be possible?”
Hunter One settled back down onto the bench. His wings moved only a little. His antennae spread wide in a gesture Jacob had never before seen.
“Your defense of Thirteen will be made know to all Swarmers who fly above Warmth and who control the flying nests that defend our colony,” One said in a rush of dry earth, cool mint and cinnamon scents. “Your proposals will be given to our Primes by me. I will travel to our next colony system, either with Thirteen or by use of another flying nest that hovers within the system of Food Enough. Later I will return with the scent thoughts of my Primes on your proposals.” The wasp’s antennae leaned forward. “As for visiting Food Enough, I must consult with the Hunter who controls the fabrication globe that flies above our colony. He will be the leader of all Swarmers in this system. It will be up to him to decide whether a visit to our colony is possible.”
“Seven minutes until emergence,” called Louise.
“Understood. Were there other matters you wished to discuss?”
The giant wasp reached out with his thorax arms to touch the pheromone translator block in front of him, as if to reassure himself of something. “There are. In your defense of Thirteen your nests use small flying nests to cause the black balls to explode before they could reach you. The Swarm had not built such devices. We rely on a world’s pull-down strength for the deposit of our particle disruption seeds. It is clear the wet ones weapon requires a change in Swarmer methods. Will you give me one of these missiles for review by our fabrication globe? They will make copies of such small devices, which can then be carried by any flying nest within this system.”
Damn. This request was something he had not expected. “Yes, I will loan you one of our missiles for copying by your engineers. But there will be a cost to you for my generosity.”
“What cost?” One said in a rush of lemon, apple, orange and wet odors.
Jacob smiled, then made his face neutral. There was no way this wasp or any other wasp knew enough about humans to read body expressions. “Your fabricators must provide my nests with half the copies they make. Your people will keep half. My people will keep half. As you note, the devices are essential to protecting our flying nests from the black balls of antimatter.”
“Damn right,” muttered Richard from below.
The wings of One whirred faster. He rose a foot above his bench. “Agreed. But if we understood the workings of this missile device, our fabrication would be swifter. Can you assist?”
He should have expected this. Hunter One was a master leader of other Swarmers, as shown by his captaincy of the giant wasp ship that had used gravity plates to create a black hole effect that had almost killed the Lepanto.
“I can assist,” Jacob said, thinking fast about the implications of the wasp’s request. “I will send my Weapons leader, Chief Warrant Officer Bannister, with you when you leave on your air bubble. His people will attach a missile to the outside of your bubble. Our missiles are too large to fit inside your transport.”
“Your weapons human will be welcome inside my air bubble,” One said, his odors further filling the Bridge with odors so strong Jacob could barely stand to breath.
“Three minutes,” Louise said tartly.
Behind him came the hiss of the entry hatch opening. He looked back. It was Daisy!
♦ ♦ ♦
Daisy sneezed loudly as she walked into the rank odors of Swarmer speech. It was clear Hunter One had been declaiming for some time. She doubted it was to apologize for his attack on Richard and his Marines. Doing her best to walk with calmness and confidence, she gave thanks that her last clean Type I blue and gray camos outfit of cap, shirt and slacks was pressed. Her bars rested on each shoulder, along with campaign ribbons over her left breast. Her name tag was pinned just above the pocket on her right breast. And her black shoes were shined to a glow. She hoped she looked as professional as she needed to feel. Stopping below Jacob, she looked up and saluted.
“Executive Officer Stewart reporting for duty, sir!”
Jacob’s face was a strange mix of surprise, relief, hope and worry. All of which vanished as he raised his right hand and returned her salute.
“Welcome back, XO! I thought the doc was not going to release you for a half hour or more.”
She lowered her hand, then moved to parade rest with both hands before her back. “Sir, I convinced Doctor Huáng that I was more fully recovered than she realized. When I heard over the All Ships that we were approaching emergence, I told her my place was here, on the Bridge, to assist as needed.”
“Then take your seat,” Jacob said slowly, resting both hands on the armrests of his seat.
The holos that floated in front of him partly obscured her view of Jacob, but he seemed trim, healthy and strong as ever. Later they could talk. She sat down. While in her quarters she had viewed the Park Room and hallway videos, catching up on what happened before, during and after their confrontation with the seals. She was glad none of the Marines had been hurt, just knocked down. A check of a live vidcam image from Park Room showed the seals being guarded by two Marines in Shinshonis, who each carried a rifle-like weapon in their gauntlets. The weapon was the rocket-propelled taser launcher she had heard about from the doc. She shook her head, telling memories to go back into hiding.
Daisy tapped an armrest control patch and took a glance at the holos that sprang to life in front of her. There was sensor holo that showed only gray nothingness, the Lepanto cross-section, an empty true space holo and a situational holo that showed the four green dots of their fleet as their ships moved through Alcubierre space-time. A fifth holo was the one allocated to receiving neutrino comlink messages from the other ships. It held a blinking yellow alert symbol. She tapped the patch to activate the message that was incoming. Its rush of imagery told her this was the kind of good news everyone needed to hear.
“Captain! The spysat we left behind with the seal ship fragments has transmitted!” She tapped a left armrest control patch. “Its imagery is going up on the front screen. Looks like the thermonukes killed some seals!”
“Outstanding,” Jacob said.
“One minute,” Louise called out.
Dismissing their exit from Alcubierre as a routine thing, Daisy focused on the imagery that filled the middle of the front wallscreen.
Seven silvery frags tumbled in the far distance, following the outbound vector track that the original seal ship had taken as it pursued the ship of Thirteen. The frags were hundreds of kilometers away from
the spysat, which was outfitted with a neutrino com signaler, full sensor array and the ability to change its orientation in space. Its infrared sensor had kept its vidcams aimed toward the cluster of ship frags that still held air, warmth and walking seal survivors. Now, five silvery manta ray ships approached the five largest fragments, which included the two wing sections. The imagery now split into two parts. On the left was the silver glint of the true space image, while on the right were seven red glows that showed an infrared view of the seven warm fragments. Five very warm glows now touched up against five of the frags. In seconds the tumbling of the frags stopped.
“Melody, filter this image for extreme brightness,” she said quickly.
“Filtering,” the AI replied.
Five orange-yellow stars now filled the true light image, resembling the Sun as seen at high noon on Earth. From Colorado Springs, even, where the elevation gave a sharper view of humanity’s home star.
“Wow,” mumbled Willard. “Three megaton nukes put out a lot of light!”
“And rads,” called Oliver.
“The manta ray ship glows are gone from the infrared,” Rosemary said.
“And only twenty are now left,” Jacob said softly, his baritone filling the Bridge despite the softness of his words.
“The Swarm gives thanks to you humans,” Hunter One said with a flow of sharp cinnamon.
“Emergence,” called Louise.
The rest of the wallscreen filled with blackness that held hundreds of unblinking star glows. The white swath of the Milky Way filled the lower right of the image. A small but bright yellow star filled the center of the true space image.
“Tactical,” called Jacob. “What are the nearby neutrino signatures?”
“Sir, ahead nine hundred klicks is a neutrino glow that matches the thruster emissions of Thirteen’s ship,” Rosemary said. “Uh, yes! The Chesapeake has now arrived off to our right. The Aldertag and the Philippine Sea are off to our left. All four of us are in line with this system’s ecliptic plane. Uh, one moment.” The Irish woman tapped her control pillar. A system graphic image took form to the right of the wallscreen. “Sir! There are four neutrino signatures in orbit above planet six. Three of them match wasp ship thruster profiles. The fourth matches to their type of fusion reactor. Might be a space station or big sat.”
StarFight 3: Battlecry Page 20
