“They have a small pumped laser.” The calm contralto voice replied. “A rail-gun of some sort firing what I judge to be depleted uranium rounds, and an external rack of a dozen nuclear missiles of the five or six kiloton range.” Her voice was flat. “Without shields, they wouldn’t chip the paint on the saucer, although the nukes might make it glow a bit. My construction lasers are more powerful.”
“Can you disable the weapons, drive systems and communications?”
“Yes, but why? They aren’t powerful enough to worry about.” LOLA sounded puzzled.
“Ahhh, but the people inside are important.”
“I understand, Zed.” Flame traced its way down the hull of the HMS Gryphon as LOLA’s construction lasers struck, and Zed saw a scattering of debris. The high-gain communications antenna shuddered, and then drifted away in the general direction of Aldebaran. “Weapons, drives and communications are disabled.”
“Please remove the rack of nuclear missiles, LOLA. I don’t want those THINGS on my ship.” There was another brighter flicker and something large floated off the hull surrounded by a cloud of ship fragments.
“Missiles disconnected, Fleet Captain.”
“Thank you LOLA. Slap a tractor on the Gryphon, and tow it back to the Rose. You might as well recall the first scout. It’s served its purpose. Have it run parallel to us.”
“As you wish.”
“Who, what is LOLA?” That whisper came from Mila Carpenter.
Zed gave the woman a sympathetic smile. “LOLA is the Loquacious Octoplex Loyalty Adaptable Algorithm, the AI that runs the ship, and the auxiliaries.”
“And you are the Fleet Captain?”
“Actually.” LOLA interrupted. “He is a Sector Governor, who won’t give up command of a starship.”
Zed frowned at the air. “What do you mean sector? All I remember is the planet Cybele.”
“I’d like to remind the Fleet Captain that he accepted the surrender of both the planet Dramul and the planet Chamdar during the past recent actions. You tell the planetary presidents of both worlds what to do, and along with the planet Cybele, that makes you a sector governor.”
Zed sighed and changed the subject. He had been happy as a simple Flight Engineer on a garbage shuttle back in the good-old days. “Are the cloaking controls fixed on the Rose yet?”
“Yes Zed. The Rose is currently cloaked and floating over the dark side of the moon while we finish rescue operations at the Chinese lunar base. There are thirty survivors so far, and thanks to the efforts of our medical teams, all are supposed to fully recover. The base, however, is a write-off.”
“I understand. Well, let’s show our guests what they’re in for. Decloak the Rose please, LOLA.”
Mila let out a terrified little shriek, and Max exclaimed, “What the bloody hell is that thing?” as the Rose of the Dawn? appeared before them. Fully a kilometer long, the vessel looked more a living creature than something simply constructed. Her mottled blue/black hull reflected nothing, save the huge blue steel rose etched on the port side of her hull, the points of the metal thorns on the stem glittering in the starlight. She was still the most magnificent craft Zed had ever imagined.
“That, Captain Rivera,” LOLA sounded smug. “is the ogromnyy class Battleship Rose of the Dawn.” Before them the skin of the Rose seemed to ripple as it changed color to a dappled yellow/green pattern.
“It looks kind-of like a terrestrial cuttlefish, except much much bigger.” Max stared at the screen with a look of awe.
“It has a much bigger ocean to swim in, Captain.” LOLA replied solemnly.
“What are the trailing tentacles for, if you don’t mind my asking?” He leaned forward in his seat as much as he was able.
“The fins around the leading edge of the mantle, to use your reference to a cuttlefish, and the tentacles at the rear are sensor arrays. The designer of the ship obviously had a warped sense of humor. He must have been a Terran human. We are preparing to dock.”
The two saucers, pulling the incapacitated Gryphon, passed between the trailing tentacles as the clamshell hatch to the docking bay, looking almost exactly like the feeding beak of a cuttlefish, opened before them. Ahead, in the brightly lit hangar they could see maintenance teams waiting.
“But…” Max began, and Zed anticipated the man’s question.
“The hangar has both atmosphere and gravity. The main door that we passed through just inside the physical door is a containment field, which the ships may pass through, while still retaining atmosphere within the hangar. Like most systems in the ship, the clam shell hangar door is redundant, a design philosophy of which I heartily approve. Space is a stone-cold bitch my friends, and will kill you if she has half a chance.” They watched their saucer slide into a parking space between several deadly looking black delta wing fighters and another sleek saucer. Zed sighed in relief. “All out.” He slid out of the chair and stretched his back. “I can’t wait to go for a swim.”
“Swim?” Max and Mila said in unison. “On a starship?”
“Yup.” Zed replied with a small smile as he watched the ramp deploy. “LOLA projects a real-time view of space in the pool room, and it feels like you’re swimming among the stars.” He ignored whatever else the two astronauts might have said as Katherine met him half way up the ramp. Silently she took his hands.
“Did everything go as planned?” Her voice, a surprisingly low contralto for so young a woman, was husky.
After glancing back at the four behind him, he gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Just fine.” Arm around Kat’s waist he turned to where the HMS Gryphon was being gently lowered to the deck of the hangar by the Rose’s tractor. He glared at the battered spacecraft. “Let’s get the crew off that thing and dump it on the moon. Earth can pick it up if they want it, or the Chinese. We should greet our guests.” He and Katherine, with Mike and Alina all wearing midnight blue Terran Fleet uniforms stopped and looked up at a large viewing window in the hull. Faces were pressed to the inside of the glass. Zed looked up, crooked a finger and pointed to the deck in front of him. Behind the glass someone shook his head.
“If we negotiate, they might listen.” Max had come up beside him.
“I don’t have time for that. Dimitri and Larisa, please be ready. Try not to kill anybody. LOLA, where is the main hatch on this thing?”
There was a laugh from the air. “The main hatch is beneath the ship. It’s sitting on it.”
“Ahhh. LOLA, please remove a three meter hole from the side of the ship right in front of us.”
“That should get their attention.” The voice in the air said dryly. Beneath the Gryphon the deck of the Rose bulged upward until it touched the white hull of the Earthly spacecraft. Spreading across the white surface like oil on water, a three meter section of the hull suddenly sloughed away to disappear tracelessly into the deck of the Rose.
Zed stepped closer to the spacecraft. “You might as well come out now.” He called in a reasonable voice. “You aren’t going anywhere.” A heavyset man appeared in the doorway flanked by a man with a rifle. Zed whispered under his breath, and nanites swarmed up the guard. The man gasped as his rifle dissolved in his hands. “Now, shall we try that again? I could have had the nanites dissolve you just as easily.”
The big man, identified by Max as Captain Isaac Wright of Her Majestey’s Space Fleet, the pride of the United Kingdom, turned red. “We will not surrender and have you wrest the secrets of our planet from us.”
Zed frowned. “What secrets do you have that I could possibly want?”
Captain Wright appeared taken aback. “Why, the secrets of our planetary defense and our resources.”
Zed turned to Max. “Is he always such a pumped up pompous ass?”
The American astronaut rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.”
“Why are you flying with him then?” Zed couldn’t keep the curiosity out of his voice.
“It was the only way to get into space for an American. We h
ave to beg rides on whatever ships we can.”
Shaking his head, Zed turned back to the Gryphon. “So, you will resist us?”
“To the last breathe, of the last man.” Captain Wright assumed a heroic pose in the impromptu doorway. Beside him the guard shot him a pained look.
LOLA, how long would it take you to dissolve that entire ship?”
“Five minutes. I would have to remove the twin reactors to the construction bay for disassembly and reuse.”
“Then, by all means dissolve the ship and all their hand weapons. I don’t want any accidents.”
“Very good, Fleet Captain.” LOLA murmured in an approving tone. The HMS Gryphon seemed to settle through the deck. “I have additional security coming to the hangar.”
By the time security arrived seventy three men and women were sitting on the hangar deck, shocked looks on their collective faces. Behind them and unnoticed, two ungainly lumps that were the reactors slid silently across the floor and through the hangar door.
Captain Wright struggled to his feet, and with a wild look in his eyes rushed Zed, hands outstretched. Dimitri and Larisa raised their weapons, but Zed stopped them.
“No, my friends. I’ll handle this.” He stood looking bored as Wright wrapped his thick hands around Zed’s neck and squeezed. Zed looked him in the face and yawned. Nanite bioenhancements guaranteed that nothing the Gryphon Captain could do with his hands would in the least injure the Fleet Captain. Isaac Wright was turning purple, flecks of foam forming at the corners of his mouth. Zed slapped the man once, across his right cheek with the sound of a pistol shot. Wright spun, dropped, and didn’t move. Zed looked up at the other seventy two men and women, and brushed an imaginary piece of lint from his uniform. “Well now.” He looked at the expectant, fearful faces. “I am Fleet Captain Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates, or Zed for short. I was born in New York City. Welcome to the Terran Fleet Ship Rose of the Dawn. You will not be hurt.” He looked down at Captain Wright. “Unless you act stupidly.” Someone laughed. “As I said to Captain Wright, I’m not interested in your so-called secrets. What I am interested in is information about the alien incursion your world had a short time ago.”
“It was a tough fight, but we destroyed the blighter.” A short man with a heavy Yorkshire accent muttered.
“Did you know that there was a second enemy ship that escaped, and probably went for help?”
“What???” The man’s mouth hung open.
“I thought not.” Zed looked up at the fierce security detail who had just entered the hangar, and turned to Dimitri and Larisa. “Please take half the security guards and escort these folks to the dining hall for a good meal. LOLA can find accommodations for them afterward. The other half of your security team can wait here for the last shuttle of Chinese survivors. Sort them out to the dining hall or sick bay or rooms as you see fit. I’ll speak with everyone tomorrow.” He winked at the big Russian security officer. “Thank you Dimitri.”
“Da, Kapitan Flota.” The man’s face seemed chiseled from stone, but there was a sparkle in his dark eyes.
Chapter Two
VOLUNTEERS
Forty eight Chinese scientists, engineers and a scattering of family members; all that remained of 243 people, and 72 astronauts from Her Majestey’s Space Fleet, seemed to fill the modest auditorium aboard the Rose. On the stage in front of them sat Zed, Katherine, Mike Flaherty and Alina DeThomaso from NASA, and Ian Sutherland, survivor and former leader of the scientists stationed at the doomed Europa Base. Several security officers stood unobtrusively in the wings, watching.
Zed stood, and the low buzz of talk faded. “Some of you know this already. My name is Fleet Captain Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates. I’m know as Zed, for obvious reasons.” There was a titter of laughter. “You are all aboard the Terran Fleet Ship Rose of the Dawn, currently in lunar orbit on the dark side of the moon.” He waited for the buzz of talk to die down again. It was apparent that the majority of the Chinese survivors understood English.
A tall Chinese man stood slowly. Thin and wiry, his short hair was shot with gray at the temples, and his left arm was in a sling. He was one of only a few injured Chinese survivors, most being either fine, or dead. “My name is Zhou Méng.” His voice held a cultured Oxford accent. “I suppose that I am the senior surviving staff member of the Jīnsè límíng.”
“I’m sorry for the loss of the Golden Dawn.” Zed replied slowly. “And all those who perished there. The Creednax are not known for their respect for scientific endeavor, or for life.”
“That is who attacked us?” All eyes were focused on Zed now.
“Yes.” He looked at the rapt audience. “Perhaps it is time I told you the story of how I and you came to be here.” He tried to smile. “Somewhat over a year ago I was working as a Flight Engineer on the SPace And Mining Corporation, SPAM, shuttle 7651 Rose of the Dawn, when we found a derelict ship floating in the asteroid field. We thought the ship was dead, but it was only damaged, and sleeping. It woke while I was aboard, and continued off on its primary mission, which just happened to be 25,000 years out of date and over a thousand light years away, but there was no reasoning with the computer. After the ship repaired itself it began to head out-system. On the way we picked up a distress call from the International Space Federation Europa Base. It seems that they had been struck by several meteors and were hemorrhaging air. We stopped and rescued those that were still alive. Unfortunately, the ship was still headed outsystem, and we all found ourselves on a very long journey, involved in an ancient war we didn’t start and didn’t want. As it turns out, the real enemy was a remorseless and relentless insect like race known as the Creednax, who move from spiral arm to spiral arm in a galaxy consuming all planetary resources, living or otherwise, in their path.” Zed stared into the air unseeing, and next to him Katherine reached over and touched his arm. He gave her a sad smile. “We fought the Creednax, and…” His voice choked up.
LOLA’s voice came out of the air. “And we won.” Her voice was soft but carrying. “We won because Zed came up with a reckless, suicidal, insane plan to defeat the Creednax. It almost cost him, Katherine Johansen, the young woman who sits next to him, and me our lives. It did cost many others their lives. We destroyed thousands of Creednax ships and the world they came from, but it wasn’t until months later that we found out that the world we destroyed was only a forward operating base for the Creednax swarm. We set their advance back by decades, if not centuries, but we didn’t stop them.”
“And now we find them here, attacking our own homeworld.” Zed continued. “Two lightly armed Creednax scout ships attacked Earth, and one was destroyed. The other went for help. The Creednax know where Earth is now, and the only way to save it is for us to chase that scout down and stop it. This isn’t a political gambit. I gain nothing but a homeworld to call my own. You gain nothing but your lives, and the lives of everyone else on your planet. The Rose of the Dawn is running with a skeleton crew and we can’t fight his battle alone. Will you help me fight the Creednax? Are you willing to stop being Chinese, or British, or French or German, or American? Are you willing to become instead, like the rest of us, Terrans, and a part of the Terran Fleet?”
The room exploded in sound. Zed stood waiting, his hands behind his back and finally things began to quiet down. “I ask for volunteers.” He said quietly. “Those who do not wish to participate will be returned to Earth, to do what you can there.”
He took a deep breath and looked around the room. T
he Chinese seemed to be gathered in a group, chatting furiously in Mandarin. He turned to the crew of the Gryphon. “Captain Wright is in the sick bay under sedation.” He said with a straight face. “Who is your second in command?” A slim woman with brown hair and brown eyes stepped forward. She might even be pretty, Zed thought with a mental sigh, if she’d only smile.
“I suppose I am.” Her voice was a clear unwavering mezzo-soprano. “I am Commander Abigale Smythe the First Officer of the HMS Gryphon.”
“It’s nice to meet you Abigale. So, what will it be?”
“If we stay, would you keep us as a unit?” There was a hopeful note in her question.
“No. If you stay you all turn in your uniforms, and take an oath to support the Terran Fleet. When we get back to Earthspace, if we get back, anyone who so choses may return to Earth. Don’t get the idea that you will sign up and try to commandeer the ship for Earth purposes. This ship is controlled and run by LOLA, through a neural link.” He looked up to find almost the entire Chinese delegation listening intently. He shrugged. “There are no controls in the bridge, and no way for you to control this ship. The same thing applies to the shuttles and scouts. The fighters are manually operated, but their range is limited. It would be tough luck to steal a fighter only to find yourself out of gas and floating in space several dozen light years from home.” He saw the woman shudder. “To run the ship you will need a neural implant, and that will mean that LOLA can in effect read your mind, twenty four seven.”
The short man with the Yorkshire accent stepped forward. “Listen te the man Abbey. He dissolved our ship around us. If we have te fight these bloody Creednax things I’d rather do it in a ship like this.” He patted a nearby bulkhead and looked at Zed. “I’m Billie Clarke yer honor. Leading rating and drive systems apprentice. I’ll take a job.”
“Did you know that your two reactors were out of balance and would have blown within an AU?”
...and they are us Homecoming Page 2
