by B. V. Larson
The automated delivery system was the size of a small ground car and had a distinctive, Marvin-tech look to it. When we approached it, a hand-shaped panel lit up and began to flash.
“Hmm.” I took off my glove and set my naked palm on it. The device was so cold it hurt to touch it. The thing beeped once, and then the probe opened clamshell doors on top, revealing a four-by-five array of pressure bottles the size of small fire extinguishers.
“What are they?” Hansen asked.
“When Marvin couldn’t come up with bug spray, I decided this was the next best thing.”
“You gonna keep me in suspense forever?”
I chuckled grimly. “Okay. These bottles contain silica-nanites.”
“Lithos?” he asked in alarm.
I could tell he wanted to add something like you’re crazy.
“Not Lithos, exactly,” I explained. “These things aren’t intelligent. They’re just the non-evolved nanites that make up Lithos beings. I had Marvin extract them and make sure they didn’t have the programming to form sentient creatures. These are just like what the Raptors used against the Macros on the worlds they took over.”
“So, even after all that railing against the stupidity and shortsightedness of the Raptors for releasing this plague upon the universe—you’re going to do it again—for your own purpose?”
His words made me uncomfortable, but I’d already rationalized my plan within my own mind. “I know it’s dangerous and shortsighted, but I don’t see any other way to make sure we wipe out the Demons.”
“Oh yeah?” Hansen balled his hands into fists with clearly growing anger. “What if you’re giving them a new toy to play with? A new tool for their arsenal? What if they direct silica-nanites to evolve into full Lithos under their control? Then the bugs will have two inimical races to attack us with.”
“It’s a risk I’ve decided to take, XO. Our allies, whatever their faults, must be given time to recover and rebuild, or next year’s attack will wipe them out, leaving nothing but these complacent Whales to fight off the Demons. Then we’ll have to go back up the ring chain to get away, dealing with all the dangers we thought we’d escaped. Do you want to go another round with the Cubics or the Raptors?”
“I get that, sir. But what I don’t get is why you think you have to unleash a biological weapon. Why can’t we count on surprise and military preparation to go in and wipe them out conventionally? If we can catch their ships without crews or ammo—and we have no evidence their AIs are good enough to fight us on their own—then we and a hundred fifty Whale warships should be able to kick their asses easily enough. If not, then we can deploy this stuff, but only if we have to.”
I began to pace the deck back and forth in front of the grounded probe, waving my hands for emphasis. “Surprise is everything,” I said, “Part of my surprise includes the use of these nanites. We have to prepare them and use them properly before the enemy figures out what we’re doing. If we hold them in reserve, they’ll be a weapon of retaliation after we’ve already lost the battle instead of something that will bring us victory. They’ll be like nukes in the old Cold War days, just something to threaten disaster, never to be used to actually win. Well, we need to win, win big, and win up front. That means we use the scary surprise first, before they’re ready.”
“I have to argue against this, Captain. I think it’s pushing the boundaries of what’s moral.”
“Moral?” I stopped and put my hands on my hips in disbelief. “You’re usually the one that wants to shoot first and ask questions later. I’ve been the one to advise restraint, to try to talk to each new alien race in hopes of making peace. Now I want to stick it to them, but you’re getting cold feet?”
Hansen’s voice rose, and he stepped toward me as if getting ready to bump chests. “It’s not shooting first that bothers me. I want to see the Demons wiped out as bad as you do, but bio-weapons are completely unpredictable. And I think you might be creating something worse.”
Right then I almost brought up the data Sakura had provided me and accused him of sabotaging my command. It seemed as if he’d gone right back to his knee-jerk opposition to my ideas, now that he and my chief engineer were on the outs. I wouldn’t have predicted this. I’d have thought he’d be happy to have the Elladan trophy-woman on his arm. After all, I was the one who’d made that possible.
Maybe he didn’t feel right about Sakura either. Maybe flaunting Cybele was a way to get back at her for the breakup.
Complicated crap like this was why shipboard relationships were discouraged in normal times.
I stepped forward, letting my irritation take over. “I don’t know where all this is coming from,” I said, putting my fist against the bigger man’s chest, “but right now I don’t need arguments from you. I need you to fall in line and back me up. We had a nice vacation, but now it’s time to step up our game and go kill some bad guys. Got it?”
Hansen’s face closed down. “Aye, aye, Captain sir. Whatever you say.” He turned on his heel and stalked off.
Dammit. I hadn’t handled that too well.
Putting Hansen out of my mind, I called Cornelius to get her weapons techs modifying some missiles to carry the silica-nanites. I didn’t tell her specifically what the payload would be; I only gave her the parameters of how the stuff would be dispensed, which was pretty simple. As long as the little bastards weren’t incinerated or otherwise destroyed on impact with their targets, they should spread and begin to do their jobs.
The next morning Farswimmer called. I hurried to the bridge to find him waiting. He appeared to be floating within the holotank. Aquatic species projected into our visual systems always looked ghostly and disembodied.
“Good news, I hope?” I said as I threw myself into my chair.
“Relatively good. The Elder Minds have given us leave to proceed with your plan, but they haven’t mandated participation by our entire race. Therefore, each ship’s crew will decide for themselves whether to join in the attack. Those that do not wish to attack will build defensive fortifications around the ring.”
“Volunteers only?” I was about to say that’s stupid, but I caught myself. “That’s suboptimal, Farswimmer, but I suppose it can’t be helped. How long until we know how they’ve voted?”
“Several hours. Perhaps a day.”
“Can you strongly advise those that choose to defend, not to begin overt preparations? I have to believe the Demons have stealth probes monitoring your planet, and if they see a bunch of fortifications going up near the ring, they might deduce that it’s open.”
“We’ve already thought of that, Captain. We will be subtle.”
“We? Does that mean you will be with the defensive contingent?”
“No, Captain. The translation software has obviously missed some nuance. This group-mind will be the coordinator of the attack fleet.”
“You’re in charge of the whole Whale fleet?”
“I thought you knew. It’s a hobby of ours. The private venture of one group of minds.”
“A private hobby?” I looked at his image, aghast.
“Of course. Surely you’ve calculated the possible resource output of our civilization and noticed that our fleet constitutes but a fraction of our potential.”
“I’d wondered. So your race has no, ah, official military force?”
“No one has ever been convinced of such a need. The Elder Minds are focused inward upon the great mysteries of life. They don’t believe any outside force is capable of significant damage to our civilization, and so they leave it to the curious to dabble in conflict.”
I wanted to tear out my hair. “Do you really think the Demons will give up once they have wiped out your space-going capability?”
“Your thinking would be considered radical among our population—but this group-mind tends to agree with you.”
Farswimmer formed a circle with his tentacles, a gesture I’d seen him use before. “Our forces will begin preparations, while taking c
are to hide our intentions from Demon observation. Farewell.”
Left staring at the dark holotank, I marveled. Despite the weirdness, Farswimmer’s cooperation relieved my mind immensely. We simply couldn’t attack the Demons without a goodly chunk of his ships to hunt down all the enemy forces and occupy the area around Tartarus until we’d stamped them out for good.
I’d deliberately not told Farswimmer about the silica-nanites, though. I didn’t want whatever passed for Whale morality complicating the situation. With no known exit, the Trinity system might be the end of the line for everyone under my command, the last opportunity to live decent lives and buy enough time to work on making it home.
That meant there were no second chances, and if I had to risk troublesome Lithos evolving later on, so be it.
-28-
“Everything’s set,” Hansen said, coming up behind me as I stared at the holotank tensely. I’d been staring more lately, trying to look at the Whale planetary system as if I were a watching Demon. It wasn’t easy to put myself into their mindset, but I scanned constantly for anything that might tip them off.
“Pass the word for battle stations,” I ordered in a calm voice. “Bradley, send the stealth probe through.”
“Probe released.”
Valiant came up to full readiness with a minimum of fuss. This wasn’t a surprise drill. The crew knew something was up, no matter how quiet I’d tried to keep the details, and they expected action soon.
Valiant and Stalker orbited half an hour out from the ring then parked there as if by chance. Around us floated the Whale attack fleet, about eighty ships. Another seventy would move in behind us to cover this side. I consoled myself with the knowledge that if we had to run, we’d have backup.
But I’d still much rather have had them all along on the assault.
The stealth probe we’d sent toward the ring used its repellers on low power to slide through. We watched as it reached that magic point of no return. One moment it was in our local space, and the next it vanished, instantly transported to the receiving ring.
Five long minutes later, after it had soaked up all the data it could with passive sensors, it returned and dumped everything it had gathered on a narrow channel.
The picture of Tartarus updated within the holotank, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Very little had changed since Marvin’s observations were made. The Demons worked industriously at building an even bigger fleet than before, but only about forty of the enemy ships were armed and crewed above the planet. They were apparently in the middle of training maneuvers.
“Signal Farswimmer to begin the course alterations,” I said.
My bridge crew turned to look at the holotank as a fast-moving train of rocky asteroids began to rise from below and ahead of us, each with a guidance package and repeller on it. Their low orbits were exactly counter to the ring’s influence, which meant that when they passed through, they would be traveling with enormous relative speed and energy.
The dark floating rocks spread out as they left Ketan behind, forming a complex pattern that directed itself at the ring. Each rock had its own course and target, precisely calculated to take into account all the variables of orbital mechanics and the ring transfer. Even so, it was going to be tricky.
“Are the missiles ready?” I asked Bradley.
“Ready, sir.”
“Have the AI take control. Valiant, fire them on their marks.”
“Releasing interlocks,” Valiant said. The Valiant AI had control of when the missiles launched since the timing had to be inhumanly precise.
“Missiles launching,” the ship’s brainbox said a few moments later. Thin green tracks began to curve outward from Valiant.
The plots matched themselves up with twelve of the speeding rocks on exact counter-courses, nose on. One by one, they smashed themselves into the guided asteroids.
But there were no warheads and little damage was done, because right before impact, they were programmed to burst and disperse their payloads of silica-nanites.
“Farswimmer is requesting a link,” Valiant said.
“Put him on the main screen. Leave the holotank as is.”
A moment later the Whale appeared. “Captain, what’s the nature of the payloads your ship delivered to the asteroids?”
“Sorry I didn’t tell you before, Farswimmer, but I wanted to ensure complete secrecy,” I half-lied. “The rocks now are infested with silicate life forms we call Lithos. They are capable of spreading throughout rock and soil such as one might find on the surface of rocky planets. They will self-organize and attempt to immobilize or contain anything they encounter, especially metal or organic life.”
“We never discussed such weaponry. These Lithos sound dangerous.”
“They may render rocky planets uninhabitable, but are no threat to gas-giant dwellers such as you. They can easily be sanitized from metallic ships. They need masses of rocky material to inhabit.”
Farswimmer seemed to be thinking for a moment. “We understand. As we’re not an expansive, colonizing race, these nanites are unlikely to cause us distress. Thank you for informing us.”
He disappeared from the link, and I sighed with relief. That was the one moment when my plan could have gone wrong—if the Whales had raised some objection. As it was, things were looking good.
I shouldn’t have been so optimistic. Whenever I think things are going too well, they probably are.
“I’m receiving an ansible transmission from Marvin,” Valiant said.
“Put it on speaker.”
Marvin’s voice was agitated. “Captain Riggs, a Slab has appeared near the ring that connects to the Cubics’ system.”
I glanced at the holotank. The AI anticipated my needs and expanded the view to include the entire Trinity system, but I didn’t see anything near that ring.
“You will not see the Slab yet due to the lightspeed delay,” Marvin went on.
Of course. The ansible gave instant communication, but visual confirmation of the Slab would come several light-hours later.
“It appears to have seen me and is moving toward me, despite my cloaking device. I have therefore deactivated stealth. I’m retreating as fast as I am able—but I’m unlikely to escape.”
“Why the hell were you hanging around there anyway, Marvin?”
“That ring is the only exit from this system. If something went terribly wrong with the attack upon Tartarus, I wanted to preserve myself.”
“Well, this time your cowardice hasn’t worked out.”
“Cowardice? Are frontline scouts cowards? If I were not here, you would have no warning of the Slab’s presence.”
I sighed. “Since we can’t do anything about the Slab, that hardly matters does it?”
“Your reasoning is flawed.”
“Whatever. Let’s talk about the Slab. Have you got any idea why it showed up?”
“Two possibilities occur to me. First, my presence near the ring may have triggered it to investigate. Secondly—”
Frowning, I adjusted the signal. “Marvin? What’s the second possibility, Marvin?”
“The channel has closed, sir,” Valiant said.
“Dammit. That robot is always playing hide-and-seek, pretending to have communication problems and the like.”
The communications officer worked steadily for several minutes to no avail.
“The ansible can’t connect,” she said, giving up at last.
“Dammit. I wonder if that Slab ate Marvin,” I commented aloud.
“Good riddance,” I heard one of the watchstanders mutter.
I thought about reprimanding the junior officer, but I didn’t bother. Marvin was irritating and deceptive. He might have made the whole thing up just so he didn’t have to talk to me right now. It was hard to tell what was what out in deep space.
The rocks we’d tossed toward the ring closed in and began to vanish.
“Signal the Whales to advance their first wave,” I said.
Farswimmer had allowed me to be the battle’s overall coordinator. The Whale attack fleet now accelerated to place themselves behind the rock swarm. I resisted the urge to send the stealth probe through once more. The spy machine’s peeping presence was the only thing that might tip off the enemy now. Our maneuvering ships were so far from Tartarus in normal space that it would take more than a day for even a speed-of-light warning to reach them.
I nodded at Hansen, and he took his place at the controls. “Let’s go,” I said, and our two ships moved in behind the Whales.
As we were still half an hour from ring transit, building up speed from a dead stop, I had plenty of time to visit the armory. Once I’d suited up, I clomped back to the bridge and sat myself in front of the holotank, faceplate open. No one looked askance at the armor. I think they all thought I wouldn’t be able to resist rushing off to help with any marine action. In reality, I wanted to be sure no assassin would have an easy shot at me. Knocking out a commander at the start of a critical battle would be a coup for anyone trying to interfere with my plans.
Long minutes passed after the rocks flashed into the ring and disappeared. We released several more probes—but this time, they didn’t come back to report.
There was a grim silence on the bridge. I forced myself not to pace.
“The Whale fleet is almost at the point of no return,” Bradley commented.
I looked at him, but he didn’t look back. He was hinting that maybe I should call them back, that maybe there was a trap or some unforeseen disaster going on beyond the ring.
“Good,” I said. “Tell the Whales I wish them luck.”
No one spoke as the Whale fleet trundled into the ring and, one by one, transited. Thirty seconds later, we did the same.
Everyone’s gut was in a knot by that time. We didn’t know what we’d find, but we didn’t have long to wait to find out. Something hit the hull.
“What was that? Update those sensors!”
“Debris, sir. Unknown origin.”
I gritted my teeth. I could taste disaster. I didn’t dare make eye-contact with anyone on the bridge.
