Waking the Sleeping Giant: The First Terran Interstellar War 2 (Founding of the Federation Book 5)

by Chris Hechtl

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  “Sir, Captain Cooley is on the line for you,” Jasmine said.

  Jack looked up and then over to his main screen. He flicked a command out through his Wi-Fi link to open the channel. “Captain?” he asked, cocking his head. “What can I do for you?” he asked simply.

  “There is something we didn't consider when Jeeves netted that last dispatch ship,” the captain of Magellan replied.

  “And that is?”

  “The enemy has the jump point, and the support ships I left there have fallen back on point Baker. I set it up near the jump entrance to the hyperbridge network leading to Sol. The other two scouts don't know about it however.”

  “Okay …,” Jack drawled.

  “Not my point. My point is I know where point Baker is. No one else does. I'm going to take Magellan there and pick them up. I'll have them report back here,” the captain replied.

  Jack nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said. There was no way he could talk the captain out of his decision it seemed.

  “I'm glad you approve. We'll get underway in a few minutes. I'll be back with them as soon as I can.”

  “Are you bringing both or sending one to Sol? Most likely the enemy will call in reinforcements from all over. That includes any picket forces in the nearby colonies as well as that jump point. That's what they tried to do here after all.”

  “Agreed. I'll play it by ear. I don't want to send one ship back half full. We need that cargo here,” the captain said firmly.

  Jack nodded. “Understood. Good luck and safe sailing,” he said.

  “Well, I don't know about safe,” the captain replied with a brief smile. “But we'll be back. Count on it.”

  “We'll have the beer chilling,” Jack said with his own brief smile as he nodded and cut the channel.

  He sat back and thought about the future. He wasn't certain where things were going to lead with the enemy now bottled up in his backyard, but at least Sol was holding its own.

  Chapter 26

  Janus

  Only when the fleet herd arrived in the conquered colony did the Alpha bull sigh in relief. There was no sign of an enemy there waiting for him. He felt intensely drained and not just because of the losses in the battle. He had been forced to abandon half of his supporting ships and their escort, something no member of his herd had ever contemplated.

  If he didn't have his duty to lead the herd, he would have stepped down and committed suicide. But he knew no one else was prepared for the aliens either. One way or another he had to continue to shoulder the burden … at least until the home herd worlds sent a larger fleet to replace the tattered remnant of his own.

  And that was very unlikely to happen.

  The fleet herd support ships had done their usual best as they had passed through every star system along the way. Dreamer's herd had come up with new innovations that had been implemented. The easiest, the software, had been spread throughout the fleet once it was fully tested by the coders.

  Dreamer was becoming a thinker of grave importance to the herd, quite possibly becoming a great thinker worthy of being with the other thinkers. He couldn't spare the bull however; he needed him right where he was, taking apart what he had seen and what was in the alien database and applying it to their own technology.

  Even if he was getting a bit too full of himself and distracted at times, the herd leader mused. Take for instance his latest message. The bull had apparently seen something of importance in the planets they had passed. He had heard mutterings of it from the crew. He'd initially thought it a distraction from their latest loss. But it had forced him to consider what he'd seen along the way when he'd listened to the mutterings fully. They'd passed a planet in the neighboring star system that had been turning blue and green instead of the ice ball that the sensor techs insisted it had been. It was curious but not important at the moment, so he had dismissed the concern.

  As the fleet herd warily settled into orbit of the planet, he noted with approval the sight of shuttles moving up from the surface to begin resupplying the defenders. But all he could do was look down at the world, the precious blue and green world with its colonists, and wonder if he'd led them into a great trap. If he could he would march them back onto the ship, but it was long gone. Besides, they had fresh young that had been born on the planet. The colony ship was no longer large enough for the herd it had carried only a short time ago.

  His mind shied away from the problem for the moment. Instead, it turned to what the colony could supply him. With the colony there at his back, he was set for water, fuel, and provisions. Also, rocks for the rail gun turrets. The factory ship had been busy building the colony's infrastructure; he turned it to more important things. He needed all of his ships fully functional as quickly as possible and every innovation tested and spread throughout the fleet just as quickly.

  Dreamer needed to come up with new ideas and quickly he thought.

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  Dreamer had been too busy trying to deal with processing the data they had taken in and designing new hardware to initially pay attention to some of the mutterings from the sensor crew. It was only when he went to get clarification on some of the Terran parasite craft emissions did he overhear them talking about the planets that they had passed, most specifically the one in the adjacent star system.

  Curious, he looked over their shoulders and listened and watched as they compared the views of the planet from each pass. Some things he could attribute to their improved sensors causing variations but not all. The techs had a point.

  He ran his own check and frowned as he scanned the results. He went so far back as the original survey of the sector and then compared it to the sensor passes each time a herd ship had passed through the star system. Two of the star systems other than the alien colony world that had once been considered lifeless were showing tantalizing clues of change and potential life. The world close by was turning from an iceball into blue and green; that much was clear. Unfortunately, he didn't have clear spectrographic analysis work done on some of the passes, so he couldn't get a complete timeline of events. Given that the Terrans had found the other worlds in the sector and had colonized them … something peculiar was going on, something exciting.

  He wished to know more, but the fleet couldn't dally to find out. He put in a request to find out more but was bluntly rebuffed by the ship's Alpha bull. Reluctantly, he logged what he found and let the matter drop. He had to focus on the defense of the herd first.

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  Governor Cristi Schotte hunkered down in a kneeling crouch near the stream. It was getting harder and harder for her people to survive. They'd lost half of their people, the weakest tended to go first. She had nightmares of the children's deaths especially. Her face was gaunt and worn with fatigue. Her sisters and nephew Arjen were still alive but only barely. If hell had a place, surely the bastards who were taking their world were welcome to it.

  She watched with baleful eyes as the Neocat came back with his catch. The small domestic Neocats were mostly ignored by the aliens, as long as they didn't get into mischief. They'd learned to purloin only small things.

  She'd seen the birthings in the spring. The aliens had new calves to help spread themselves across her planet. She couldn't bring herself to want to kill the children, despite what the aliens had done to her people. Some even looked cute, romping and playing in the fields.

  The adults were a different matter. But she couldn't do much there either. The Taurens were getting wise to their traps and tricks. Their ammunition was also running out. Within another year or so, her people would be reduced to clubs and rocks.

  And the damning thing of all was that she couldn't do a damn thing about it.

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  The Alpha bull rushed through the repairs and shifted more resources to implement more of Dreamer's innovations. The Terrans had clearly used those to their advantage; just the outlandish idea of such small numbers being able to drive off his much large
r herd was proof of that! The herd needed to stop those losses, to find a way to hit back.

  Despite the lack of data on how effective the parting shot of robotic craft had been, he wanted and insisted on making more of the things. The herd had easily been resupplied with rounds for the rail guns from rocks in the star system. They were fully stocked, as were the supply ships, but the rail gun rounds were not the weapon that he both feared and coveted.

  One of the things that had put him off initially had been Dreamer's focus on the supply and support vessels. Only when he had seen some of the changes on the repair ships and support vessels and how they had improved efficiency in their work had he grudgingly approved the endeavor.

  For the factory ship, Dreamer's herd of tinkerers had increased the level of automation over the handbuilt lines. They had installed better software as well as more electronic support. He had heard that Dreamer had decided to go over to the captured alien ship to check the machine shops once more. He'd authorized the trip with the hopes of more benefits to the herd in the near future.

  In the meantime some of Dreamer's herd had inspired others in the crew. Upon arrival, one of the life support techs had taken the lessons of innovation and worked on his own idea. He had cajoled the growers into trying the Terran plants. The Alpha bull had heard about the outlandish experiment in the morning over his initial feed. Word was spreading throughout the fleet of the alien plants, and according to herd security, there had been an uptick in unauthorized visits to the growing section. The ship's Alpha bull had been all ready to pull the seeds as weeds, but the growers had physically stopped him, an unheard-of thing. Only when they had patiently explained that the Terran seeds not only grew faster but may produce better yields did he grudgingly allow the experiment to continue. There were reports that the Terran seeds required more nutrients and water, but that was to be expected if they were to grow as fast and as good as their proponents claimed.

  Improving the yields were good for the colony herd and the ship's herd. If the experiment was successful, the Alpha bull planned on authorizing the seeds to be cultivated and even shipped out on the next dispatch ship for the home herds. According to the ship's Alpha bull, the lead growers were researching and installing Terran hydroponic systems and other growing methods. He'd already seen a request for electronics to control the water systems, better filtration systems, and even sensors and microprocessors to monitor the health and mood of the plants.

  He shook his head and wondered how many alien concepts his people would continue to absorb and how it was changing them.

  And if it was for the better or worse.

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  Dreamer checked on the status of the captured alien colony ship. He needed more inspiration; he needed to know how the aliens dealt with certain things that were not explained in their database. He took the time to travel to the ship to explore.

  He was eager to get to the ship's maintenance shop. He remembered it from his previous brief tour and the video another engineering bull had recorded. The spaces on the ship were cramped just as he remembered.

  Inside the machine shop, he was surprised to encounter Broken Jaw escorting one of the Terrans. He paused to watch the prisoner at work.

  The prisoner kept giving him a sidelong look but then went back to whatever it was doing. He noticed it had clear protective lenses over its eyes. He nodded slowly and made a note. Safety was sometimes an issue with the herd; you never knew when you would lose an eye or digit, especially in engineering.

  He looked around and noted guard shields on some of the devices as well as colored basins made out of resin. He went over and looked within. One had metal shavings; another had resin shavings. He looked at the colors on the container and then the curious symbols. Why save such refuse? Were they using it for something … then it hit them. The herd melted down metals and resins, right? So why not reuse the cast-offs! He shook his head at such thoughts. They did it with debris from the ship after all! But for something so small?

  He frowned thoughtfully and then nodded. Such small things added up over time he realized.

  “You have them do the work?” Dreamer asked Broken Jaw.

  “They know the ship. We tried to get them to teach the thinkers and tinkers assigned to the ship but they more or less failed,” the heavyset Tauren replied indifferently. “Their machinery is too small for our hands,” he said, holding up his free hand and flexing his fingers.

  Dreamer turned to a nearby machine and frowned. He went over and examined the readings and the buttons and knobs. Not only were they small, but they were in the alien language. His idea of using the machines to help support the fleet vanished in that instance.

  But, even though they couldn't use them as is, it didn't mean they couldn't figure out a way to copy what they could to the support ships. And obviously the Terrans could use their own equipment … his eyes widened as another thought occurred to him.

  “This is a colony ship, correct?” he demanded, turning to Broken Jaw.

  “Yes,” the other Tauren drawled as if to a slow-witted or stunned individual.

  “Then they have more equipment in storage intended for the colony, right? I need to see a list. An inventory …,” Dreamer said urgently.

  “I can pull one up. Can you wait until I return the female to the prison area?”

  Dreamer paused to look at the female. “Female?”

  “Yes. This one is their ship's Alpha. She is a female,” Broken Jaw explained patiently as the female in question went to a machine and checked on its progress.

  “That is …,” Dreamer shook himself. “Aliens,” he said.

  “Exactly.”

  “She is allowed access to the ship's computer network?”

  “Yes. They know if they do anything malicious the sleepers will suffer,” the security bull rumbled menacingly.

  “Ah, but we can use their computers. We can then plug into that equipment as well,” Dreamer said as he thought of something else to add to his list. “But I need to see that inventory quickly,” he said.

  “This one is nearly finished. I'll bring her back when she is. Continue your tour until she is done,” Broken Jaw stated.

  “All right,” Dreamer replied with a reluctant nod.

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  Captain Lauren Kendrick grimaced as she finished with the grinder. She'd managed to make a few things on it for her, Bob, and the other survivors, but nothing that would guarantee them a chance at getting their ship back. And even if they did, where would they go? There was an entire alien fleet outside she knew.

  “Okay, let's try it again,” She muttered to her keeper as she indicated the part she'd ground down. She'd had to weld the parts together since they didn't have a replacement. She wasn't certain if the weld would hold.

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  The arrival of reinforcements plus a second colony ship came as a mixed blessing to the Alpha bull. The reinforcements came in the form of a newly-fashioned lesser defender and two cruisers as well as a pair of dispatch ships and three supporting vessels. The reinforcements came with missives from the home herd world's fleet leaders. Many were peevish demands for clarification on the strategic situation and explanations on why he had failed and fallen back. Others were demands that he rip out the unauthorized changes to his ships.

  He ignored them and issued orders for the new ships to get with Dreamer's herd and input as many changes as possible as quickly as they could. He then turned his attention to contemplate the bigger problem—the massive colony ship, the factory ship, and their two cruiser escorts.

  He almost moaned in despair at the ship. It was low on fuel; it would need to be refueled of course. He realized pressure was bad to colonize the world and that the dispatch ships he had sent had missed the colony ship in transit. He couldn't allow the ship to unload its impatient cargo of families however.

  He had the colony ship resupplied and planned to send it back without unloading its passengers. The colonists were bewildered; the
y wanted out of the confines of the ship to the beautiful blue and green world tantalizingly close to them. Security had trouble dealing with potential riots. When the threat was made clear to the population though, they were fearful. The stink of fear permeated in the ship for days.

  While the crew labored to resupply the colony vessel and her escort, he ordered her cargo of machining equipment to be unloaded. He intended to keep the reinforcements and the factory ship. He further issued orders to strip all but one escort from the colony ship. He wanted to pack in more passengers but he couldn't. The ship's life support was already at its maximum.

  After an eight of days in orbit, he sent the colony ship back with a copy of Dreamer's most recent designs and reports as well as samples and video of the other changes in the fleet. Let the herd leaders stew on that, he mused.

  Now, if Dreamer could only get their own thinkers and tinkers in the star system onboard, they might stand a chance he thought grimly.

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  Dreamer gnashed his teeth as he tried again to explain his latest plan. It wasn't easy; he wanted to reach out and strangle the inbred thinkers and tinkers. They were old and set in their ways; that was part of the problem. They had seen the alien ship and thought it quaint and had taken a few ideas for themselves. He had dived into everything no matter how seemingly trivial and tried to apply it to their fleet.

  “But, you don't understand. None of this has been tested! It is alien!” a thinker grumbled.

  “It has been tested by the aliens. It works for them,” Dreamer replied tightly, patience near its limit. “The more we argue, the less time we have to prepare!” he bellowed.

  The thinker stared at him at his loss of temper. “You are not truly one of us no matter what the fleet Alpha bull says,” the thinker said mulishly.

  “Thank you,” Dreamer replied. “You scholars train for years. I have been learning off the hoof here in the field, applying what I know and what I learn in real time. Tinkers have been doing that for ages,” he growled. “Tell me, when was the last time you tried to fix something without the right parts?” he demanded.