Jack felt his heart thud and his neck grow warm as emotions washed over him. He worried at the people injured on his fleet ships. He hoped that none of Ignacio’s cousins had been killed in the drive module strike. They could likely make repairs by transit to an uninhabited system, where ship mechbots could spend weeks making programmed repairs. But accepting Hilok’s offer of repairs by a Nasen ship repair dock would accelerate those repairs. And it might guarantee humanity at least one ally among the Hunters of the Great Dark. It was also a decision that only he could make, despite the pull of Maureen’s hand on his shoulder.
“Agreed, Pack Leader Hilok of the Northern Pack.” Jack stepped away from Maureen’s grip and stopped within arm reach of the taller being. “We humans make final our agreements by a touching of one hand to the hand of another. Will you make agreement the human way?” He held up his right hand, palm outward.
Hilok’s yellow eyes looked down at Jack’s hand, beyond him at Maureen and the nervous fellow captains, then back to him. “Your claws are small, Pack Leader Jack Munroe. But your Hunt blood smells strong to me! Let our two Hunt peoples be as Packs allied.” The Alien lifted his flexarm and placed his clawhand against Jack’s palm.
Excitement flooded through his mind. He had been guessing most of the time at the movements and words proper to a meeting of two predator species. But these Nasen were different from the other predators they had met. Their ships were not solo-focused, pursuing an each-to-their-own approach to Challenge combat. Instead, they cooperated as a group, or a pack, much the way the wolves of Earth cooperated. As did the humans of Earth. It seemed that in accepting Hilok’s offer of aid, he, his fleet and humanity had gained an ally among the Hunters of the Great Dark.
“Our Packs allied!” Jack said, then pulled his hand away as he stepped back. “We leave now to tend to our wounded and to seek what repairs are needed aboard our ships. When we are ready to transit to your repair habitat on planet six, I will call you on the neutrino comlink.” He noticed that Hilok’s daughter Nalik had come to stand beside her father. “By what name do you call your planet six?”
Hilok whinnied. Nalik leaned forward, her long carnivore head on level with Jack’s head. “We call that world Powerful. It resembles your planet Saturn. As you will see upon your arrival. Our repair habitat lies just beyond the outermost ring.”
“Jack,” called Nikola. “We have to get up and help Elaine and the others.”
“So we do.” He nodded to Nalik, then fixed on her father. “Hilok of the Northern Pack, may you enjoy your elk steaks, the combat games and the sauces we Traded. We humans leave now. We respect the Nasen and no anger will be shown to any Nasen ship or Pack member. Your Pack will be as if a member of our Pack.”
Turning, Jack nodded to the startled looks of his allies and gestured toward the exit hatch. “Time to rejoin our ships and take care of our people.”
He led the way, feeling sad at the damage to his fleet ships, worried about the people who might be suffering, and yet hopeful that this visit to the Nasen system had resulted in a positive surprise. Which reminded him of his duty. Jack touched his left shoulder comlink.
“Elaine, what’s the situation? How many hurt? Which ships were damaged, beyond the Badger?”
A pause and then his sister’s voice came through the comlink. “One dead, five wounded, all ships now air tight,” Elaine said, her voice full of sadness. “We lost Milpeades. He was in the Drive module when it was cut in half.”
“My cousin!” cried Ignacio, his swarthy face filling with sorrow.
Jack wrapped his arm around his Basque brother’s shoulder as the thirteen of them walked through the hatch and into the inner airlock. “My brother, we will bury your cousin upon a world of the HikHikSot. I pledge this to you. And his family will know that your cousin gave his life so that humanity would be safe long into the future.”
Ignacio sobbed, wiped his nose, then fixed Jack with a determined look. “We sons of Euskaldunak are used to suffering. It has been our destiny since before time began.” Over the comlink Jack heard Elaine crying softly. “But yes, I would lay my cousin to rest in soil that belongs to the monsters who killed him. And the taking of their world will be a joy to share with his family.”
Jack nodded. Together they donned their suits, entered their lander and flew upward to their ships, to the only homes among the stars that they knew. Homes that soon would be repaired. Homes that would then launch out on a vengeance flight against the HikHikSot.
He had warned Duotat that its arrival in Sol system with a colony ship would cause Jack to attack the Home Range system of the HikHikSot. So it would be. And whether they lived or died in the effort, all humans would know that the Belters of Sol system had gone starfaring among the predators of the Great Dark. And that that starfaring had bought them safety from attack.
So he vowed.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
In orbit above the gas giant Powerful, Jack looked around the Mess Hall of Hideyoshi’s giant ship Bismarck. He’d known the ship held a crew of 230, but he had not appreciated how different other ship elements would be from the smaller Belter ships that ran with a crew of four. Or even the larger Uhuru, which needed only six crew. At most. Here, there were easily forty or fifty crew, all dressed in Mars red uniforms, eating a meal, drinking coffee, sipping ice tea or just playing a game of mahjong at one corner table. Everyone had noticed him when he’d walked in, but then they’d continued what they were doing. Which he appreciated after the last two weeks of spending most of his time among the Nasen carnivores. His back itched under his jumpsuit. Idly he wondered if his skin was beginning to change colors to match the red and yellow bands that encircled the long body of every Nasen.
“Thirsty?” called Hideyoshi from behind him.
Jack watched as the admiral came around from behind and sat down next to him. They used actual stools for food seating on the Bismarck, not the sling chairs in use on the Uhuru. “Had my ice tea already.” He gestured to the empty glass in front of him.
“Good.” The older man looked him up and down, then nodded slowly. “Looks like you survived the Nasen experience. I’m glad it was you and not me who had to arrange for the ship repairs at that dock of theirs.”
Jack knew it was not like Hideyoshi to make small talk. “Something wrong? Or something right?”
The Asian smiled slightly. “Something right. All our ship captains are gathered in my Admiral’s Mess room. Along with your Maureen, Nikola, Denise, Elaine and Blodwen. Shall we head there for our Tactical Conference?”
Grabbing his backpack, Jack stood up. “Lead on, my admiral. I’m looking forward to leaving this system and heading for Delta Boötis B. I’ve got a vow to keep.”
The man nodded his head. The black hair of which looked thinner and more recessive than the last time Jack had seen him without a helmet or admiral’s cap. That being the Trade visit on Hot Blood. A place of both good and bad memories. “Vows I understand,” Hideyoshi said as he led the way to the far end of the Mess Hall. “I made my own vow to the ashes of my parents when I placed them in the cenotaph memorial at Osaka.”
Jack thought he knew what that vow was. “To keep safe all of humanity?”
Hideyoshi reached out and tapped the open panel for the slide door giving entrance to his place. “Not quite. I vowed to do all in my power to protect humanity. Keeping oneself safe is up to each person. I joined your rebellion precisely because it gave me the best opportunity to protect humanity from these predator Aliens.”
Jack followed him into a room easily big enough for 30 people. Only twelve sat at the oval table in the middle of the room. At the far end was a wide wallscreen, which currently showed the red, orange and brown bands of the gas giant Powerful. To one side, standing beside an AutoChef device, stood a male crewman in Mars red. Hideyoshi sat down at the near end of the table. Jack walked past him to sit between Maureen and Nikola. He looked around.
“My people, welcome” Jack said. “This is o
ur final Tactical Conference before we leave Zeta Serpentis and head off for the HikHikSot home system.” He noticed how close Elaine sat to Ignacio, the two of them holding hands. But both looked somber. The funeral oration for Milpeades was just a day old. “Nikola has all the stellar details we need to know about that system. But I want to hear from Denise and Blodwen about the behavior we can expect to encounter there. And how this fleet might best guarantee no HikHikSot will ever again visit Sol system. Denise?”
The young redhead nodded, then looked around the table, her gaze taking in the older ship captains who were experienced commerce raiders. People used to figuring out problems and giving decisive orders.
“You all know that natural selection operates at the interstellar level. The Hunters of the Great Dark are social carnivores, like humans, who have found it beneficial to their survival to conquer subject peoples and then plant a colony on their home world. It’s cheaper than colonizing a raw world with no developed infrastructure. Such predator behavior spreads the genes of the conquering Alien, expands the protected territory of that species, and it provides access to resources and services that may be overloaded or in short supply in the Home Range system,” she said.
Minna of the blond braids and steely blue gaze raised a finger. “Understood. You’ve shared this with us before. Along with those weird animal behaviors that most of us never knew about. My bottom line is still the same—how can we both defeat these HikHikSot and also convince them to never again bother Sol system?”
Denise’s freckles got redder. “Thank you, Captain Minna. I will try to do as you request.” The young woman tapped her datapad, then gestured at the back wallscreen. “Here’s Sol system and the places where we had battles. We humans are engaged in the application of the competitive exclusion principle. Or Gause’s Law. Which is to make sure no other species intrudes into our living territory. To date we’ve done that by making it too expensive for the intruding Aliens to continue their conquest efforts in Sol system. We’ve cost them ships, people and resources. None of which they have regained. Most of the predator Aliens left in their colony ships and will never return.” She paused, tapped her datapad, then gestured again. “Here is a display of the stars, predators and subject peoples lying within two hundred light years of Sol. The HikHikSot system is off to the right. Its star is blinking.” Their redhead looked away from the wallscreen, her expression calm. “Animal ethology teaches us that species subject to competitive pressure will first contract their foraging territory, then retreat to the Home Range. Some species, like the Golden-Winged Sunbird of Earth, will abandon a territory when the cost of keeping it outweighs the resources it gains from keeping it.” She paused, gathering in the attention of everyone. “We need to apply what is called operant conditioning to the HikHikSot. According to the researcher B. F. Skinner, if you expose an animal to a behavior that results in either rewards, or penalties, often enough, that animal will automatically adopt the new behavior. Without thinking about it.” She gestured at the stellar map. “In short, we keep attacking every outpost of the HikHikSot. Eventually they will associate the appearance of a human spaceship with pain. And with loss of resources. Thereafter no HikHikSot will go wherever a human ship has been sighted or reported. Clear enough?”
Black-haired Kasun sighed. “We Sinhala have had experience with that operant principle in the last century, when our local Tamils attacked us. They are Hindus while we are Buddhists. Both groups needed the same living territory. Our military on Sri Lanka defeated them often enough that they stopped attacking us. Or trying to go beyond their Tamil-majority areas.” The tall, slim man looked around the table. “It seems the non-violence taught by our Lord Buddha has no value when the stars are ruled by social carnivore predators.”
Jack sympathized with the man. He and other Belters much preferred to be left alone by the Unity authority of Earth. But the Unity would not leave the Asteroid Belt alone. Which led to the First Belter War. Earth’s blindness to the operation of natural selection at the interstellar level had led to the Second Belter War. And the Unity’s loss of power over Sol system. “Denise, I gather from you that this operant conditioning means we do not have to overthrow the group that now rules HikHikSot society?”
“Correct, Fleet Captain Jack,” she said, showing him a happy smile. “While culture and flexible learning guide most chosen behaviors of intelligent animals, we still respond to stimuli at the unconscious level. Operant conditioning relies on the documented fact that specialized structures within any animal brain attach rewarding or punishing sensations to certain experiences.” She smiled. But it was a hungry predator smile. “We need to condition the HikHikSot to the point that the mere image of a human will cause them to run away from us. And to avoid any part of space where we operate.”
“I like this approach,” said Júlia of the Caiman. The stocky woman whose dark Afro-Hispanic skin shone under the ceiling lights of the Admiral’s Mess, looked around the table. “With some Aliens, like these Nasen, and the Nuuthot and Mikmang we liberated, talking does some good. Logic will apply to the decisions of such people. But as we all saw in the response of Duotat, on the colony ship, these HikHikSot are fixated on claiming Sol as part of their territory.” She gestured to the wallscreen. “Well, I am damned determined that we will not become HikHikSot colony number twenty-two!”
Gareth nodded agreement, his expression somber and serious. Aashman too nodded endorsement of Júlia’s statement. Down the line it went, from Minna to Hideyoshi to Akemi to Ignacio to Nikola, Blodwen, Elaine and Maureen. Everyone endorsed the operant conditioning approach suggested by Denise.
Jack looked down the table to rad-tanned Blodwen of the dark green eyes. “Dragon lady, can you offer any Sociology insights to what Denise has shared?”
The early middle-aged woman touched her white blouse, which bore the red dragon of Cymry on it. She smiled softly, then became intensely focused. “Endorse I all that Denise has said. We sociologists share much in common with animal ethologists when it comes to understanding the social behavior of animals. Especially intelligent animals.” She looked at the wallscreen’s depiction of stars, subject peoples and predator Home Ranges within a 400 light year circle. “We can strengthen this operant conditioning, perhaps, if we encourage other Hunters of the Great Dark to attack and take over some of the subject people star systems now ruled by the HikHikSot.” She looked away and to Jack. “Fleet Captain, perhaps you could make such a suggestion to Hilok of the Northern Pack? It strikes me that these javelin in a ring ships of theirs, which operate by way of neurolink mind-talk, could be very effective in taking over some HikHikSot systems. Thus adding to the pressure on them to modify their behavior toward humans.”
Denise smiled. “A side effect of this is that HikHikSot culture will develop a new optimal trait, as predicted by optimality theory.”
Maureen grunted. “What new trait?”
Their ComChief’s pale face darkened. “The trait that survival equals avoidance of humans.”
Jack liked that. As he did the unconscious effect of operant conditioning. Now all they had to do was to apply the conditioning. “Blodwen, I will indeed make that suggestion to Hilok. It makes Pack sense after all. Why not just take over a subject people system already used to predator domination? It takes less effort than conquering an intelligent species with no prior conditioning to accept predator dominance.” He looked aside to Nikola. “Chief Astronomer, can you offer us some guidance on the nature of the HikHikSot Home Range system?”
His lifemate, who had been listening closely to the statements of Denise and Blodwen, nodded abruptly. Her expression changed to the businesslike scientist demeanor he’d seen often at Charon. “Yes,” she said, tapping her own yellow datapad. “Here is an overhead plan view of the Delta Boötis B star system, based on the stellar records provided to me by Nilak of the Nasen.” Planetary layouts were not Jack’s first preference for the moment. Getting Nikola alone for a private personal conference befor
e everyone boarded their ship and moved into fleet formation was better. Jacks sighed and looked to the wallscreen. “As you can see, there are eight planets in this system. Planets three and four are inhabited with dense populations. The inner two planets lie outside the habitable zone, while the four outer planets are gas worlds of various sizes. An asteroid belt lies between planets two and three.” She paused. “Like every other system we’ve studied or visited, there is a Kuiper Belt of icy comets lying beyond the outermost planet, with a larger Oort cloud of comets and dwarf worlds lying even farther out.” She looked to Jack. “Details on the numbers and locations of grav-pull drives, moving neutrino sources, automated defense systems and such will have to await our arrival outside the system. Once I can deploy my giant reflector, and Elaine can activate her Sensor panel, that soon can we know the true nature of what we will face.”
Jack licked his lips. Dry again. Maybe he should start carrying a water squeeze bottle everywhere he went. He looked left to Maureen. “Combat Commander, what are your thoughts on the kind of defense and offense we will encounter when we seek entry to the HikHikSot system?”
“Trouble. Lots of it,” the woman said, her tone guttural. She said a Gaelic word that meant nothing to Jack, though it caused Gareth to look more alert. “They will have everything the Hackmot had in place around Omicron2 Eridani. And likely more, given the 21 subject people systems they rule.” She sighed, tapped her own datapad, and gestured at the wallscreen. A tabular list had replaced Nikola’s stellar system layout. “Laser platforms, neutral particle beam forts, self-guiding mine fields, maser spysats, Hunter-Killer torps and likely other weapons we have not yet encountered.” Their Irish grandmother looked around the table, her expression veteran serious. “On the positive side, every fleet ship is repaired, fully armed with lasers, antimatter and neutral particle beamers, with a single thermonuke per ship, plus we have Dragon’s Higgs Disruptor beam that has a variable footprint for total disintegration.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I really like the Higgs weapon. Its use does not leave any rad emission that could reveal our position to an enemy. And its range of ten thousand klicks matches our max neutral particle beam range.” She fixed on the Dragon’s boss. “Captain Gareth, any chance Archibald can convert another fleet ship’s particle accelerator to emit these Higgs boson thingies? Maybe with the help of Matthias Binder?”
Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Page 23
