Aashman looked surprised, then nodded slowly. “Well put, young lady. I bow to your great knowledge of Animal Ethology.”
Denise smiled happily, saw Jack watching and turned to tapping hurriedly on her panel linking her to Autonomous. As if she felt guilty about not immediately doing the propaganda vid he’d requested.
Jack turned back front and caught the attention of Hideyoshi. “Admiral, while we have two groups of enemy spaceships, the only group that can hurt us are the six surviving Hackmot ships. My plan is to follow them to the local asteroid belt, track them down, kill them, then return to planet Warm Lands and do our best to raise a ruckus among the people down there. Suggestions? Alternatives? Other options?”
The elderly man’s thin black eyebrows lifted slightly. His expression was one of professional focus. “This new Battle Plan sounds logical to me. We need to finish the job of cleansing this system of Hackmot carnivores. But we also need to be watchful for automated mine fields, orbital laser forts, Hunter-Killer torps and any other devices which the Hackmot may have seeded through this system. They might be dead, but their hardware can live on.”
Jack nodded. The man’s caution echoed his own worries. It was one reason he had not approached the orbitals of any of the other worlds in the system. They had been lucky to be attacked only by the Mikmang rockets, Hunter-Killer torps and the lone spaceship. “All captains, we head out now on the track of the Hackmot disk-ships that are heading into this asteroid belt. When we get there, stay alert to automated defenses!” He looked to Elaine. “Pilot, set our vector and transmit it to our ships by laser link time-lock.”
His tired looking sister nodded slowly. “Computing. In two minutes.”
“Max, take us out of here! I want to spend some time in the safety of grav-pull!”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Four and a half AU later, Jack and his fleet ships exited grav-pull drive. They had chosen a spot above the Omicron2 Eridani ecliptic so they could look ‘down’ on the asteroid belt that circled the orange-red star. Intensely black space filled the front screen, with the white streak of the Milky Way’s stars crossing the upper part of the screen. The images of the other ship captains formed a line of familiar faces. In the middle of the screen, they saw an enlarged portion of the asteroid belt. Thanks to the 30 meter wide Big Eye reflector scope that his lifemate had just deployed, the tiny, partially lit images of larger asteroids could be seen. Small ones on the size of fifty kilometers or less were visible only by tracking their motion over time. Or by use of the infrared interferometer that scanned the CCD images from the reflector.
“Nikola, where are they?”
“Somewhere in that circle,” she said, as a blue circle appeared in the center of the screen. It overlapped the space occupied by the asteroid belt. Only one large asteroid showed in it, an object the size of Vesta. Faint sparkles flickered here and there as small asteroids presented reflective faces to the distant star. But asteroids lacking ammonia, methane or other icy snows did not reflect anything. They absorbed what modest light the local star emitted. “Elaine, please scan that area with your Sensor array. Maybe we can pick up their infrared heat emissions. Or locate them by way of the G-band emissions put out by the shipboard gravity generated by their grav-pull drive.”
“Scanning,” Elaine said, her tone distracted as she focused on the readouts from her Pilot seat armrest panel. “Got them! Both infrared and G-band emissions located there,” she said, gesturing to the front screen. “But my array says there are seven such loci, not six. Jack?”
He saw that the seven emission spots were located next to one of the larger sparkles. Likely an asteroid of one hundred kilometers size. And one which had ammonia, methane and water ice snows on it, unlike the carbonaceous or rocky asteroids common in all asteroid belts. It seemed six of the emission sources clustered about the seventh source, which had a larger infrared glow than the other ships. “Nikola, can you enlarge that spot with your reflector?”
“Yes,” she said, sounding as distracted as Elaine. “Focusing in. Enlarging. Keeping the infrared and G-band overlays.”
“Captain Jack!” cried Elaine. “Those six spots are moving slightly, according to my infrared interferometer. And . . . yep, those are disk-ships.”
Nikola’s scope image finished enlarging. With a resolution power greater than the James Webb orbital scope of Earth, their position a half AU above the belt allowed her reflector to give shape to objects as small as 100 meters. Jack saw the round disk shapes of Hackmot ships, with one image tilted on its side so as to show the two particle beamers at the north and south poles of the ship. The seventh infrared/true-light image was much larger than any disk-ship. It was cigar-shaped and a full kilometer long.
“That looks like a colony ship,” Denise said, giving word to his thoughts.
“It is,” Archibald said from the rear, his Brit accent sounding tense. “It matches the shape and size of the colony ships we encountered at Sedna. But why is it here? The Hackmot leader said they have controlled this system for twelve hundred years.”
“Captain Jack,” called Blodwen.
He tore his eyes away from the front screen and looked back to Blodwen Llywelyn. The blond seemed eager for his attention. “Yes Blodwen. What can you add to what we are seeing?”
“It’s a colony ship that was built to colonize a new star system,” she said in her usual no-nonsense manner. “Recall those colony ships in orbit above Sedna, just waiting for one Alien species to ‘win’ the right to claim Earth as part of their Hunt territory? Well, I suspect these Hackmot have been using Mikmang resources and fuel from the gas worlds to construct this ship so they could send it to another system with intelligent people. The Greek colony cities in Asia Minor and in Italy sent off colonizing expeditions that supplemented colonists sent out by the Achaean city states. Why not the same within the interstellar predator culture?”
Why not indeed. But the fact the Hackmot ships were staying next to the colony ship, rather than blipping out to his fleet’s position as revealed by the grav pulses of their arrival, made him suspicious. Jack looked to the Mars admiral. “Hideyoshi, you see what I see. It appears all it would take to kill those ships is to blip jump into that area. But my gut tells me there is more to this ship clustering than we see. Your thoughts?”
The Asian looked aside at his repeater screen that carried Nikola’s scope image and Elaine’s sensor overlay, then faced him. “Fleet Captain Jack, I share your concern. If this is indeed a colony ship with thousands of Hackmot already in Cold Sleep capsules, they will protect this area even more ferociously than their Kuiper Belt area. As I can see your Maureen also thinks, judging by her combat simulation holo.” The man paused, his expression going thoughtful. “Our ship losses there had to be due to the bad luck of arriving in an area ‘salted’ with the laser platforms and maser spysats. But going into that part of the asteroid belt is likely to be the same as diving into a wasp’s nest, to use an ancient phrasing.”
The Belter term was “landing on an outgassing rock ball.” There was a reason most Belters stayed away from asteroids covered in methane, ammonia and water ice snows. Or anyplace covered in ice. Cryovolcanic eruptions could happen at any time. And you did not wish to be in an EVA suit when an eruption spurted out a hundred kilometers into space, taking you with it.
“My shogun,” called Akemi from the Orca. “Why not blip jump half-way there, exit grav-pull, and launch some thermonukes set to detonate when they get close to any infrared source? That would take care of the disk-ships.”
“Good tactic,” Jack told the woman whose combat instincts were second to none. “But if there is an orbital mine field surrounding those ships, the torps could get killed before they hit a Hackmot ship. Also, this fleet has used up most of our thermonukes.” He looked back to Hideyoshi. “Admiral, we started out with four thermonukes per ship, or 36 total. Does Bismarck have any left?” He scanned the other ship captain images. “Everyone else, what is your thermonu
ke status?”
“We have two thermonukes left,” Hideyoshi said somberly.
In minutes the Come-Back laser link that put every ship of the fleet into a common comlink brought in the depressing news.
“We have just twelve thermonukes left,” he summarized. “We need to hold onto them if possible. For future encounters.” Jack looked at Maureen, who sat between him and Elaine. The woman shrugged.
“It’s a tight battle no matter what. We gotta go get them. They know we’re coming. They will be prepared. Which is why I’m doing this simulation of our Fire Control options,” she said, looking back down at her holo.
Jack looked up at his fellow captains. “So. How do we take out those seven ships without losing more fleet ships?”
“Armed Landers,” called Ignacio from the rear of the Pilot Cabin.
Jack looked back at his Basque brother. “What? None of the Landers have grav-pull capability. And while we outfitted them with lasers at Mathilde, those are minor weapons considering what we might face down there. Orbital mine fields, automated particle beam forts, laser platforms, and Hunter-Killer torpedoes are all likely. As Hideyoshi warned before we arrived here.”
Ignacio unlocked his seat restraints and stood up. “We Basque fear no enemy! We Euskaldunak have always been outnumbered! Launch me in this ship’s Lander alongside those thermonukes and I will laser kill any device in our way!”
“Ignacio!” cried Elaine, her expression pained. “No! That is suicidal. We must . . . we must all survive to fight future battles. As Jack has just said.”
“Captain Jack,” called Kasun from the Leopard. The man sat in the front of that ship’s Pilot Cabin, with his four crew people arranged behind him at various function seats.
Jack met the Sri Lankan’s calm gaze. Ever since joining his anti-Alien crusade, the man’s ship had shown itself to be stealthy and fast-moving in all their battles to date. “Yes, Captain Kasun. You have an idea?”
The middle-aged man fixed his brown eyes on Jack and smiled slowly. “A few ideas. Our last Buddhist emperor, Ashoka of India, was a fine military tactician. Before he gave up violence on behalf of the state. Ashoka, from what I’ve read in my studies, always took the most direct battle option possible. His armies went forward rather than sideways. And they went fast, often surprising opponents before they were ready.” The man paused, folded his hands together atop his black leotard, and turned from smiling to somber intensity. “We can do the same. Our grav-pull drives move us at a speed equal to eighty percent of lightspeed. We retain that momentum even after we come out of grav-pull, unless we tell the drive to ‘emerge’ at stationary status. Why can’t we blip jump down on an intercept vector aimed at those six ships, exit grav-pull at a range of fifty thousand klicks, take in true-light data on disk-ship positions, then have Captain Gareth’s ship precede us with his Higgs Disruptor beam clearing the way ahead?”
Jack liked the man’s idea. The Higgs beam would vaporize any mines, laser platforms, orbital forts or torps that lay along its footprint. Which might be enlarged. He looked back to Max. “Drive Engineer, can you and Archibald enlarge the Higgs Disruptor beam footprint? From a kilometer width at ten thousand kilometers range to three or four kilometers?” He noticed how everyone in the cabin had become very focused on Kasun’s proposal and his question. “If you can, then our fleet can follow Gareth’s ship like beads on a string, firing our lasers, neutral particle beams and antimatter beams as we draw within range of the disk-ships.”
“Yes!” said Elaine, sounding relieved at the prospect that Ignacio would not go venturing out in the Uhuru’s Lander.
Jack turned away from Max to his Chief Astronomer. “Nikola, if we take a straight-line vector like Kasun suggests, what lies beyond this ship cluster? Would we hit an asteroid after we pass through this target area?”
The woman looked down at her seat armrest Astro panel, squinted, then looked up. Her pale blue eyes fixed on him. “The scope does not show anything lying beyond the disk-ship cluster. Realize that most asteroid belts are empty space.” Her brown cheeks darkened. “Uh, sorry. Everyone of you people are Belters. So you know that. Anyway, my scope cannot resolve anything smaller than a hundred meters. But hey, why not go to grav-pull blip jump right after we pass through the disk-ship cluster? We can come out a half AU below the plane of ecliptic. Which should be as clear of mines and other offensive devices as the space we are now in.”
“It can be done,” Max said as he turned away from whispered consultations with Archibald. “Just a matter of adjusting the Control software. We can transmit the new software to the Dragon for use by their Combat Commander. She can ask us any questions she may have.”
Jack turned back to face Hideyoshi and the other ship captains. “Captain Kasun, thank you! Your Ashoka was a genius.” The man and his crew all smiled. “Captain Gareth, are you willing to take the lead in this near-lightspeed charge into the Valley of Death?”
The Welshman gave Jack a wry grin at Jack’s use of an ancient battle phrase. “Hardly that bad. While we will be subject to Auto-Track energy beam fire from the disk-ships once we emerge from grav-pull, we will be exposed to such fire for just one second. Another second to pass beyond the target zone and we can go back to grav-pull like Nikola said.” The stocky man looked to his left. “Angelique? You okay with this Higgs upgrade plan?”
A young woman came into the range of the motion-eye vidscreen on Gareth’s ship. She had the rad-tanned face of a lifelong Belter. He’d gotten to know Angelique Vincent during their fleet upgrade and rearming work on Mathilde. The young woman spoke in Belter short-speak overlaid with a French accent. Like Jack, Elaine, Maureen, Max and every other Belter, when you lived part of your life in a vacsuit you did not waste air on long speeches. The woman, who seemed barely older than Denise, gave him a sharp nod.
“Can do. Liked vaporization effect of current Higgs setting. Willing. When upgrade?” she said bluntly and briefly.
“One hour,” Max said, his tone confident. “Keep current Control software in side pocket. Will allow back-forth jumps. Good?”
“Good,” Angelique said, looking aside to Gareth. “Heading for Battle Nodule. Will adjust Higgs. Ready to kill enemies.”
Jack watched the short, slim woman turn away from Gareth’s motion-eye, stalk past three crew people in the man’s Pilot Cabin, and disappear down the Dragon’s central Spine hallway. She reminded him of his sister Cassie. Which thought put him into worry mode about her safety on an Earth undergoing widespread riots. Had she been caught by the security police? Had she and Howard been admitted to the naval base that was building grav-pull ships? Was she in touch—
“Jack?” called Maureen.
He blinked, pulling his mind away from worries light years distant. “Yes, Combat Commander.”
The woman gave him a wintry smile. “We can take them out. And Captain Akemi has transferred a thermonuke torp to us. Vital question is . . . do we vaporize the disk-ships with antimatter, or leave them in pieces for grav-pull drive salvaging?”
“In pieces,” Jack said.
“And?”
“All ships will fire their antimatter beams at the colony ship as we pass by.” He looked up at the other ship captains. “The six of us with neutral particle beamers will fire at the disk-ships. One of us per one of them. Cut ‘em in half. Let our ball bearings ventilate the fragments. Admiral Hideyoshi,” he said, fixing on the somber Asian. “Eject one of your thermonuke torps against that colony ship. Aim for the tail section. The Uhuru will shoot our last thermonuke at the nose section. The antimatter beam fire can concentrate on the middle of the ship. Between two 50 megaton thermonukes going off just before hull contact and seven incoming antimatter beams, I think we will achieve massive destruction of the colony ship.”
Maureen nodded slowly, tapping in adjustments to her Tactical holo. “Plus we fire a few railgun blasts at the disk-ships and colony ship. Impacting them at 150,000 miles a second will do some damage for sure.”
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Jack leaned back in his Tech seat. “In one hour we go to grav-pull blip jump. We will arrive on target within five minutes. Be sure to set your Fire Control to Auto-Track. We’ll have less than one second before we sweep past them.”
Everyone set to work. Except for his ComChief. Who perhaps needed a reminder. “Denise? Made any progress on that overthrow-the-Mikmang-March-Leaders vidcast?”
The woman turned her attention from watching Maureen’s Tactical holo to focus on him. “Yes, Captain Jack. The half hour we spent getting out here allowed me time to work with Anonymous. Seems there is a minor dissident movement among the Mikmang that is centered in the central mountain range of the other large continent. They call themselves Rock Marchers.” She smiled, her green eyes glowing with her sense of discovery. “These Mikmang cannot march at the same speed and pacing as those living on the flatlands. It’s given them a sense of separate identity. They also live near one of that world’s rocket launch facilities. I suspect they will hear our words with some eagerness.”
Once more he felt amazed at the devotion of the people who shared the cabin and the Uhuru with him. Max had always done anything he’d asked. But to now see Denise, Elaine, Nikola, Archibald, Ignacio, Blodwen, Aashman and Maureen all pulling together to solve this deadly challenge, well, it seemed to say his headlong pursuit of these social carnivore Aliens was the right choice. For him. For the fleet. For all of humanity.
Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Page 15
