StarFight 3: Battlecry

by T. Jackson King

  She stood up quickly and saluted him. “Captain, I accept command!”

  He turned way and headed for the exit hatch. They had to walk down the Command Deck hallway to get to the gravlift tube that would drop them down to Habitation Deck. There was a taser and a semi-auto in his room, the old quarters of long-gone Captain Miglotti. This crowd could wait a few moments while he went in and grabbed them. It had become his policy to never go unarmed in the presence of hostile aliens. And the shark-heads were sure as Hades hostile!

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Richard stood outside the Park Room slidedoor, feeling better after having stepped into his new Shinshoni. The fit of the inner paddings, waste receptacles, exoskeleton sensor pads and his ammo-loaded backpack was good. As was the feel of his bare feet inside the suit’s magboots. Neither of the ladies nor the captain had made a comment as he stripped off his clothes and stepped naked into the suit, which José had brought him from the Dart hangar. He gestured to the corporal.

  “Mendoza, remain here and lock the door after we enter,” he said, his helmet mike picking up his words and transmitting them over the encrypted suit comlink. “I can handle the entry from here. And we’ve got troops inside.”

  The young man from San Antonio saluted him, the white armor of his own gauntlet rising up to the clear visor of his helmet. “Sir, yes sir. Will seal it up after you go in.”

  Richard tongued the helmet rim tab that activated the suit’s exterior speaker. He held it down for just a few seconds. Would not do to have his speech blast out the ears of the people he aimed to guard.

  “Captain, ladies, do the shields feel okay?”

  Each of them took a quick look at the steel plate that ran from their shoulders down to just above their knees. A similar plate covered their backs. The plates hung from leather shoulder straps. Velcro strips made tight their fit against his people. The front panel had a steel cable that hung from its bottom edge, touching the gray metal floor of the hallway. Once inside that cable would be in touch with the meadow soil. It would act as a flexible lightning rod, channeling any electric bolt downward into the soil. And it would shield the three of them from any burn-through like what had happened to the pig, to Hunter One and to Stewart’s back. There would be no second bolt. Any shark-head that fired a bolt would be blackened flesh, period. He didn’t like having dangerous aliens inside his ship. But it was orders. At least the wasps were gone to Thirteen’s ship. And now the Forest Room was available for ship crew. That had improved crew morale in the nearly two weeks since One had taken off to find help. But exposing three top officers to shark-heads was not helping his morale. He stepped forward, grabbed the steel bar that lay across newly welded door brackets, unsocketed the bar and lifted. The bar clattered to the floor. He reached out, put his gauntlets against the central seam of the slidedoor, and pushed sideways. Slowly the metal panels slid into the walls. Bright orange light shone down. He stepped inside, looking to the white armor of his troops.

  “Tim, Jane, I’m coming in. Followed by the captain, Commander Branstead and Lieutenant JG Antonova.”

  “What?” grumbled Tim over Richard’s helmet comlink.

  Both troops were facing the interior of the big rectangular room. As before, one arm was aimed outward and locked in position. But the other arm held the black tube of the rocket-launched taser. Based on the ancient RPG design, these rifles launched nodules that packed an electric wallop whenever they contacted anything. And hooks on the ends of the nodules made sure they did not bounce off, whether the target wore clothing or was naked, like the shark-heads. The range of the taser RPN was fifty yards. Plenty good for any spot in the Park Room. He waved back to the officers.

  “Captain, ladies, come in.” He tongued his helmet comlink control, switching channels. “Troops, be nice. The ladies are here to test out an English-to-shark-head translator. The captain is here ‘cause he’s the captain. Be sharp!”

  “Sir, yes sir!” called Jane.

  “Right,” said Tim.

  Richard’s helmet HUD vidpanels showed the three walking through the open slidedoor. Immediately after they stepped inside, the two panels of the slidedoor were pulled shut by José. They would not open until the corporal heard an order over his encrypted comlink. He shifted his attention forward. An eye blink brought down the targeting reticle over his right eye. Another blink enlarged the view seen by the scope on the right side of his helmet.

  All four shark-heads were basking on the sandy beach of the pond, acting as if they liked getting a sun tan from an orange sun imitating ceiling emitter. Their long tails rested in the water, with most of their bodies above the pond surface. That meant all four croc legs, the belly and gills were in air. They might be resting, but clearly they could launch into a run at any moment. The four shark-heads stared his way. Obviously their hearing was just as good in dry air as underwater. Four sets of black eyes watched him and his people.

  “Jane, Tim, spread out. Skirmish line as we advance.” He tongued his helmet comlink. “Captain, ladies, please follow behind us. Once we reach the pond, you can step around us and do your thing. And we’ll do our thing.”

  “Proceed,” the captain said, his words picked up by Richard’s suit mikes and repeated inside his helmet.

  Being on the right side of the line formed by his two troops, he stepped right a few meters, then began advancing. He held out both suit arms, aiming his flamethrower and shotgun arms forward. To his left, Tim and Jane did the same, but kept their RPN rifle aimed forward.

  Ahead, the colors on the skins of the four shark-heads changed. Red dots appeared. Patterns of gold, green, yellow, silver and purple raced over their skins. They lifted up on their legs, then walked slowly to the grassy edge of the beach sand, their green-colored heads still watching as six humans came toward them. The exit from the pond waters had been uniform, each shark-head moving in synchrony with every other shark-head. Again, he wondered if these creatures had a group mind.

  “Sir!” called Lori, who was holding a tablet in front of her camo shirt, according to one of his HUD vidpanels. “My sensor says there was a flare of magnetic field energy out at the pond. Way stronger than the normal background field of the ship.”

  “Interesting,” the captain said. “Is the mag field flare a single source? Or multiple sources?”

  “Multiple,” she said. “I count four sources. But the fields overlap a lot. Sir.”

  “Does that mean these shark-heads, uh, walking seals, generate their own personal magnetic field?”

  “It seems so,” Lori said, sounding thoughtful.

  “Do any Earth animals do that?”

  “Not self-generating.” She looked up as they came within thirty meters of the pond. “But several Earth animals have internal cells or nerves able to sense the planet’s magnetic field. Like the worm C. elegans. It’s called magnetoreception. Animals use it to figure out a map of their surroundings.”

  Richard came to a stop at twenty meters out from the pond. Tim and Jane copied him. Together they covered a frontline of ten meters.

  “Captain, you may step in front of us. When you do, we will move to either side so none of you will be hit by anything we fire at the shark-heads.”

  The captain, Alicia and Lori moved between him and his troops. Lori held her sensor tablet in front of her. Alicia held the square color vidpanel in front of her. The boss held his .45 in one hand and his taser handgun in the other, both pointed forward. The boss was closest to Richard, with Alicia to his left and Lori beyond, just this side of Jane.

  “Troops, flank them.”

  Jane and Tim moved left and forward, their arms and rifles aimed at the shark-heads. Richard moved to the right and forward. The three of them stopped when they were within ten meters of the aliens.

  Alicia stepped forward slowly, holding out the gray square of the alien color talker. Lori matched her step for step. So did the boss. The three of them stopped a meter behind him and his troops. Good. They would not be hit by c
ross-fire. He looked through his visor at the four shark-heads.

  Gray tendrils waved above the wide shark-like mouths of each critter. On the spine of each, eight eye mounds looked every which way. Some eyes looked to the rear, some to both sides and a few forward. Those spine eyes joined the front eye pair of each critter. The clawed front walking feet, which appeared to be evolved flippers, had dug into the brown sand of the beach soil. As had the rear pair of flipper feet. The thick, heavy tail lay in a furrow of sand. Clearly that furrow was the product of the two meter long tail dragging through the soil as each creature advanced to the upper rim of the beach slope. All four croc-like legs were fully extended, supporting each alien a meter above the beach. Their shark-heads were lifted up a bit more. They had a clear view of the meadow, his troops and the science geeks, while sheltering their bodies below the meadow rim. That position shielded most of each shark-head from the touch of any taser wire. Too smart by half.

  “Captain, do not go closer. They are out of the water. And they can move very fast, as we saw in their attack on my troops.”

  His HUD vidpanel showed the captain nodding. The man’s arms were rock steady. And his pistol aim was split. The .45 was pointed at the largest of the four shark-heads, while his taser was aimed at the next smallest shark-head. Clearly the captain recalled the videos of how the big mother had led the charge on Richard and his people.

  “Alicia,” the captain called, surprising Richard by his move to informality. “Do your thing with that gadget.”

  The stocky woman nodded. She touched the power-on button on the back of the color display panel. “Sir, I’m going to display images of some Earth amphibians to these walking seals.” Beyond her the tendrils above the mouths of each shark-head went stiff. “First is Ambystoma mexicanum, an axolotl.” She paused. “Next is Andrias japonicus, a type of salamander.” Another pause. “Third example is Periophthalmus barbarus, a mudskipper.”

  The Science chief now pointed one hand at the screen. “Amphibian. Our amphibians. Friendly they are.”

  Dozens of color patterns spread over the wet skins of the four creatures. Some patterns were the same, some were different. Was this amphib talk-talk? It had to be, based on what the two women had said during the Alcubierre transit.

  The color patterns finally became the same on all four shark-heads. The biggest one flexed his mouth tendrils. A low hoot came from the darkness inside his mouth. It was followed by new color patterns.

  “We the Pod. We are amphibians. We fight land eaters. You.”

  Alicia looked over to Jacob. “Captain, the translator module is doing the best it can.” She looked back to the big shark-head. Whose head had also looked toward the captain as she did. Now, the big one’s head looked back to the color display panel.

  “We are land eaters,” Alicia said, holding the panel toward the four shark-heads. “We value amphibians.” She looked to the captain. “I’m showing an aquarium with one of our marine biologists standing beside it.” She looked back. “We are friends to amphibians. Will Pod be friends to us?”

  A quick flare of multiple color patterns passed over the skins of the four in front of Richard. He ignored the patterns. He kept his focus on their feet and their tails. Talk by an adversary was cheap and often used to disguise their intent. The tensing of leg muscles preparatory to a rushing attack could not be hidden.

  “The Pod needs shallows for Podlings. The Pod claims wet worlds. Land eaters, sky flyers, must leave,” the big one said with a complex mix of color patterns. “We protect our Podlings.”

  Alicia gave a sigh. “Land eaters protect land younglings,” she said. “Sky flyers protect larvae. You leave here. All swimmers live in calm waters.”

  The big bastard shifted its head, fixing on the captain. “Leader, that one?”

  Alicia frowned. “Yes. He is our captain. He is our leader.”

  Color patterns flew across the skins of all four shark-heads. Leg muscles tensed. The long tails rose up. Then the legs and tails became untense.

  “Leader killed our water balls by ambush. Leader killed water ball pieces. Land eaters hurt Pod. Pod will hurt all land eaters.”

  Richard gave brief thanks that this chit-chat was not being broadcast to the Matron Prime or to Hunter One. The boss shark-head had just made clear that he hated humans more than he hated wasps. Forget the fact they had killed thousands of wasp civies. And then pursued the sole surviving wasp starship. It seemed this bossy amphibian had a fixation on killing the captain. Which was not going to happen. He stepped forward, aiming his flamethrower arm.

  “You hurt the captain, you die.”

  The biggest shark-head’s ten eyes moved in all directions. Clearly it saw and was tracking the position of everyone there. The three other shark-heads tensed their legs. On the other side of the crowd, Tim and Jane saw that. They stepped forward, one aiming his RPN rifle, the other aiming her flamethrower.

  Lori stepped over to Alicia. “Leader of amphibians, your body has a glow. Glows on all amphibian bodies. Why?”

  The question surprised him. As it did the boss bastard. It lowered its stance. The other three also lowered their bodies.

  “Glow is owned by every pod-mate. Glow speaks to other glow within water, outside water. Glow speaks from water globe to water globe. It is our life.”

  Lori nodded. “Land eaters have glow. Glow is inside land eaters. Can Pod share glows with land eaters? Can life be found for all?”

  The big one moved its head. Its wide mouth opened a bit. A low hoot sounded. “You move air. We move air. At shoreline, land and water meet. You wish to meet? To share air?”

  Damn. Antonova had gotten the critter to talk about negotiations.

  The captain nodded to Lori. Who looked to Alicia. Who nodded agreement.

  “Yes, we choose to share air,” Lori said. “We choose to meet at shoreline. Today we start. Tomorrow we come again. But Pod air globes swim to bite us. Can leader stop biting for air talk?”

  More color patterns flashed among the four shark-heads. The red dots receded on all of them. They were still there, but not as large as before. The big one flared a pattern.

  “Pod air globes swam here to claim shallows for Podlings. Pod air globes may swim offshore for air talk. Must share colors with Pod Leader. Will land eater bring me to view lens for air talk?”

  Alicia and Lori looked to the captain. Richard did not. He stayed focused on the legs and tails of the four shark-heads.

  “Alicia, prepare a water tank big enough for this walking seal leader,” Jacob said. “I will decide later whether to bring it to the Bridge for a parley with its people. Can you crosslink that translator panel to our wallscreen?”

  “Yes sir.”

  The captain nodded, then turned to face the four shark-heads.

  “We land eaters leave. Pod may swim and eat as you wish. Food is provided. Stay here. No violence. Air talk may be allowed with your Pod Leader.”

  Color patterns flared over the skins of the four shark-heads. Three of them scooted backward, submerging themselves in the pond. The big one scooted back until his tail was in the water.

  “We swim. We eat. We stay here. No violence. We await air talk.”

  The creature turned its heavily muscled body and thrust its wide head into the pond waters. A splash by its tail threw a curtain of water over everyone.

  “Damn. Now I’ve got to change my uniform!” said Lori.

  Alicia laughed. “Better than being shocked senseless. Come. We’ve made a start. Maybe there is a chance for an armistice, before the final battle.”

  Richard watched the submerged shark-heads as the three officers walked back to the slidedoor. Tim and Jane also held position. “José, open the door. Then close and lock it. We’re on guard for a while.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Richard walked backward slowly, keeping his visor focused on the pond and the giant alien walking seals. Shark-heads! he reminded himself forcefully. Tim and Jane copied his movements.<
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  He did not trust the big bastard in charge of this crowd. The creature had led the escape attempt, an effort that it had planned well before the wasps showed up. These aliens were the enemy. Deadly enemies. It would be foolish to forget that. Hopefully the captain would bear that in mind when they arrived in the asteroid belt and set up whatever ambush the boss had in mind. Talking with a deadly enemy was best done when a lot of them were dead, and the survivors were wounded and on their backs. With melted rifles and lasers. And no way to escape. So he had learned on Earth. Hopefully the captain had learned the same lesson by now.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Jacob watched as Hunter One’s giant ship rounded the mass of the Ceres-type asteroid that he had chosen for the ambush site. Nearby floated Chesapeake, Philippine Sea and Aldertag, plus the three wasp fighter ships. Below them was the star-illuminated surface of a world that was round, composed of mostly water ice on the outside with a rocky core, and spots where outgassing of brine salts had occurred, leaving white dots on the silica-rich surface. Science Deck astrogeologists had been ecstatic at their arrival beside the 910-kilometer wide asteroid. He cared not for their excitement. What mattered to him most was that his ships could adopt a battle formation that would be shielded from the view of the incoming manta ray ships. His ships were on the sun-side of the asteroid. The enemy was coming in from the dark, outward-facing side of the ball of rock and ice. The shark-heads of course knew they were here. There is no way to block neutrino emissions from fusion reactors and thruster fusion containment fields. They would know there were seven starships here, now eight with the arrival of Hunter One’s ship. But they would not know his battle formation until they rounded the asteroid, as the wasp ship now finished doing. But he would know their approaching battle formation, thanks to a few dozen spysats he had dispersed on the other side of the big ball and along the vector track the enemy was now taking to reach him. There was good value in choosing the ambush site, versus being surprised by an unknown enemy.