Annihilation (Star Force Series)

by B. V. Larson

  “We do not object to occasional cooperative acts. We are not ungrateful for your aid in this recent misunderstanding. But we do not consider ourselves to be at war with the machines, nor do we accept a state of alliance with Star Force.”

  I heaved a sigh. I thought it might go this way. The Lobsters were ‘takers’, people who wanted whatever you could give them and always begged for more. They did precious little in return, however.

  “All right then,” I snapped. “We’ll be lifting off and shipping out within—ten hours. Glad we could be of service.”

  Another hesitation, then, “your service was appreciated. A continued presence on Yale might benefit both of us, in fact. May we propose—”

  “Sorry,” I said loudly and with perhaps a touch of relish, “no, we can’t spare these forces any longer. We’ll be moving back to our own borders. As non-alliance members, your neutrality must be respected. It’s in our charter.”

  The conversation soon ended after that. I could tell they weren’t going to budge and they’d wasted my time. I was glad to have saved billions of lives, but it had cost me time, resources and manpower for very little gain.

  Ten hours later I was back on my command ship. I headed immediately to the observation chamber, which had real windows that let out on the profundity that we call space. Yale hung there under my feet, and I examined it moodily in my shipboard uniform. Simple smart clothes were more comfortable than armor, but they felt flimsy after clanking on Yale for the last several days. I felt like I was walking around in pajamas.

  The storms hadn’t subsided yet on the moon below. There were white swirls dotting the atmosphere over slate-gray waters. The islands were still there, but rarely visible through the cloud layer. To me, they seemed like floating bones in the flood. It could have been my imagination, but they looked a little larger than they had a week earlier.

  Sandra came into the observatory to join me. I was surprised to see Alexa in her wake.

  “Hello, ladies,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve seen this view before. Quite fascinating to look down upon a world you were standing upon only hours ago.”

  “Especially when you helped tear it up,” Sandra said.

  “Oh no,” Alexa said, speaking up. She no longer seemed timid to me. I guess hanging around Sandra for days had given her some self-confidence. “You did the best you could, under the circumstances.”

  We all looked down at Yale for a quiet moment. I couldn’t see the tidal waves and the rains that I knew were lashing the planet along with sheets of lightning. Most worlds looked peaceful from the sky.

  “The techs told me the storms would go on for years,” I said. “This world will take time to heal, but there are still hundreds of billions of live lobsters in that ocean and they aren’t going to boil or go down a giant drain today. Star Force has accomplished its mission.”

  “I’d love to hear the details,” Alexa said. “We’ve watched the vids, but you only get so much from those. What was it really like down there, Colonel?”

  I looked at her and saw her eyes were bright with interest. I smiled.

  “You’re right,” I said. “Vids aren’t like being there.”

  “Alexa,” Sandra said with a new, cold note in her voice. “I think it’s time we left the Colonel to his strategic planning. He has to figure out his next move, and he prefers to be alone on such occasions.”

  I looked at her for a second in surprise, then I caught on. Sandra didn’t want me getting too close to this young lady. Not even for a conversation. I nodded, thinking perhaps she was right.

  “I’ll catch up with you two at dinner,” I said.

  Alexa looked disappointed, but Sandra ushered her out of the chamber successfully. I looked after them both, hoping Sandra wouldn’t get angry and take it out on Lieutenant Brighton. I couldn’t help but notice both ladies were attractive from every angle. In fact, it was something of a contest as to who had the best curves.

  That bothered me, for just a moment. It did seem that Alexa Brighton was uncommonly attractive. What were the odds that one of Earth’s best-looking female officers had suddenly become determined to defect to Star Force? Could she be a spy after all?

  I decided to pursue the matter with Sandra later. She knew the young lady better than I did, and she was in a much better position to judge the veracity of her story at this point than I was. Besides, I had the feeling I wasn’t going to be allowed close enough to the girl to ask her any probing questions.

  As all seemed quiet now in the Thor system, I decided to pull out. The Crustaceans weren’t joining up, so I figured they needed to feel left out. Maybe when they didn’t have our fleets protecting them, they might be in a more cooperative mood.

  We flew back to the Eden system at a stately pace. I debriefed Marvin and Sarin on the tactical details of the operation. We’d done fairly well, when all things were considered.

  “I want to thank you two for your expertise on this mission,” I told them. “Marvin, you were flying by the seat of your pants—uh, tentacles. I know conducting scientific experimentation and research under fire isn’t easy. There were a few screw-ups, but at the endpoint, we came out alive and so did the biotics we came to assist. That’s what counts in my book.”

  “I’m disturbed, however, Colonel,” Captain Sarin said. “The Crustaceans still aren’t fully accepting our help.”

  “I know, but I think they’ll come around eventually.”

  “At this point, they’re at war with the Macros. Don’t they know that?”

  “I think they do, but I also think they’ve managed to maintain a semi-neutral stance throughout this war. They assaulted us, but only with a few ships full of troops. They were attacked by the Macros, but only indirectly, by the draining of their oceans. I think they believe they can keep pulling tricks like this. And, they think it’s in their best interests to maintain a balance, because they are in a precarious position.”

  Jasmine shook her head. “I don’t agree with them. They must commit. They’d be safer firmly on one side. This way, they could suffer great consequences.”

  “Arguably, they already have. History isn’t without precedence in this regard. Nations have been stuck between two military powers before and worked hard to maintain neutrality. Turkey in World War Two is an excellent example. Hitler wanted to invade, but could never find a good pretext for doing so. Russia was kept at bay as well on Turkey’s eastern front through careful diplomacy. A similar example would be Switzerland in the same time period.”

  “What about Poland?” Jasmine asked.

  I cleared my throat. “Yes, well, I didn’t say that every nation manages to maintain their neutrality when circled by wolves. Most fall. But maybe Crustacean history is different in this regard.”

  “It sounds like you approve of their position.”

  “I don’t. But I understand it. Maybe it’s an exercise in self-denial. In any case, I want to withdraw to put pressure on them.”

  “And if the Macros attack again while we’re out of reach?”

  I shrugged. “They probably won’t. And we’re watching. We’ll maintain the fleet at Welter Station. If the machines put a new fleet in the Thor system, we’ll fly out to meet them again.”

  Marvin, who’d been quiet throughout this exchange, ruffled his metal tentacles. Knowing he did this when he wanted attention, I turned to him.

  “Colonel Riggs,” he said. “The Crustaceans have made a critical error.”

  “I agree with you,” I said. “But how can we convince them of that?”

  “I don’t believe we’ll have to. They will figure it out on their own.”

  I frowned at him for a second, not quite sure what he meant.

  “I hope you’re right about them figuring out the situation,” I said. “We could use them as allies. I don’t think they’ll join us until they have no choice, however.”

  Another day and night passed. The following dawn my ships reached the ring and slipped through to the
far side, where the battle station stood vigilantly at the border.

  It was there that my life would take a turn for the worst.

  * * *

  The next day we awoke on Welter Station, and I started my usual morning routine. Sandra and I got reacquainted in the shower capsule, and I came out refreshed and ready for work.

  There was plenty to do. Miklos had left a raft of reports for me. The first news item on the list surprised me: General Kerr had left Eden-8. He’d said he couldn’t wait any longer, and couldn’t accept my proposals as stated. He was going to have to consult with the Emperor personally and get back to me.

  I wasn’t happy about it, but I figured I could understand it. I’d left him sitting around Shadowguard eating air-swimmers for a full week. Probably, he’d just gotten antsy.

  But I knew he didn’t have to fly all the way back to Earth to get word from Crow. He could have transmitted a message to communicate. It would have taken quite a while, but it would have been faster than flying back home.

  I shrugged, throwing the hard copy on my desk. I couldn’t expect to go from a state of war to a productive peace in a few days. Such talks always seemed to drag on, even if peace was in the interest of both parties.

  I downed a mug of real coffee and headed for the battle station’s bridge. We’d finally found lands where we could grow actual coffee beans on Eden-7, and the first crops had been harvested. The brew tasted a trifle bitter to me, but I was glad to leave the fake stuff behind forever.

  It was just before I reached the bridge that I got an unusual call. It was from Sandra, or at least that’s what the channel indicated.

  The unusual thing was that the red “urgent” flag was blinking beside the call on my com link. Sandra didn’t mark things down as urgent unless she meant business. I halted in the passageway and tapped at it, frowning.

  “What’s up, hon?” I asked.

  There was a moment of rustling. I frowned, and was about to repeat my words, when a voice spoke. It wasn’t Sandra’s voice.

  “There’s been an accident,” said the voice.

  It took me a second to recognize who it was. “Alexa? Is that you? What’s wrong?”

  “Could you come quickly? It’s Sandra, I’m using her com-link. She’s not responding. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

  “Where are you?”

  “We’re in the pool room, on Deck Nine.”

  I was already running. I was close to the lift, and I rode it impatiently down. Just in case something serious had happened, I contacted our medical people and ordered them to send a team down to the pool room.

  The pool room was possibly the only sport that the members of Star Force had invented among themselves. It wasn’t a game that normal humans could play, and even if they tried, it had to be played in low gravity. Our kind of “pool” did involve hard, colored balls, just like the traditional game. But the pool sticks were essentially baseball bats and the “pockets” were the other players. The goal of the game was to nail your fellow nanotized marine with a pool ball by bouncing it off the walls.

  The game often became dangerous. I could easily believe Sandra had been showing off and knocked herself out by firing pool balls on wild banking shots to impress Alexa. She was good at pool, possibly the best I’d ever seen, but everyone made mistakes sometimes.

  I was worried, but nothing could have prepared me for the scene that met me when I reached the pool room. Since it was the start of a new shift and technically “morning” aboard the battle station, no one else was around. People normally played our favorite violent sport in the evening after dinner.

  I pushed on the sealed door, and it swished open. I felt a little resistance, and I knew instantly what it was. I’d felt the dead weight of a body against a door before. I slipped inside and looked down at Sandra.

  She was a mess. A puddle of foam tinged with pinkish blood matted her hair and face. I knelt beside her, putting out a gentle hand onto her shoulder.

  “Sandra honey? What did you do?”

  I heard a sob. I turned, and saw Alexa. She stood behind the door, trembling. She had a hand to her face, and the other at her side.

  “What the hell happened?” I demanded.

  She shook her head, and didn’t answer. I could see she was in a highly emotional state. I turned back to Sandra, and reached down to caress her hair. She was a fallen flower to me. I felt my own emotions surging.

  I saw Sandra’s eyes then. That was when I felt cold fear hit me. They were open, staring…blank. Up until that point, it hadn’t occurred to me that she was actually dead.

  My hand left her cheek and went up to my com link. I planned to open a channel to medical and order them to get their butts up there, pronto. We could cure practically anything, even death, but she could be out of commission for months if they didn’t get her under emergency care right now.

  I felt for her pulse, but there wasn’t any. I looked for other vital signs and found nothing.

  My mind was filling with memories. It was impossible to stop the flood. When I’d first met Sandra, she’d died soon after. She’d fallen into the cold, cold ocean. I’d gotten my ship, Alamo, to fish her out and repair her body that fateful day. Later, when battling with Macros, she’d been seriously injured again. In a coma for a long time, she’d been called a “turnip” by my charming medical staff. But she’d come out of that one too. It was such a twisted joke if she could have been taken out in a pool room accident now—

  Alexa said something behind me at that moment, while I stared down at my dying lady love. She whispered: “Sorry.”

  That was all I needed. I didn’t have to see her, and I couldn’t really, because I didn’t have time to turn my head and see what she was up to. Instead, I threw my arm back behind myself and made a sweeping motion, as if hurling something.

  My body is unlike any human known to me. My bone and muscle density is, in fact, inhuman. My flailing arm had unspeakable power in it, even when I wasn’t in armor, and even when I wasn’t in a good stance to deliver a blow.

  I struck her. I heard a cracking sound, and felt her lift from the floor and go flying. Alexa sailed a good twenty feet to the far wall and smashed into it. Something reflective fell from her hand and tinkled on the floor.

  I rose up on the balls of my feet and advanced. My fists were at my side. I was breathing hard, ready to fight.

  But the fight was already over. She was unconscious—and possibly dead. At her side was a silvery needle attached to a rubber bulb. Liquid dribbled out from the tip onto the floor.

  Paranoid, I felt my back with my hands. Had she managed to scratch me with that thing—whatever it was? I’d been poisoned before and it wasn’t fun.

  As far as I could tell, she hadn’t managed to jab me with the needle. When the medics arrived, I explained the situation as quickly as I could and screamed for Marvin to get down here and perform an analysis on the liquid in the rubber bulb.

  When I was certain both women were getting the best of care, I headed up to the bridge. I wanted to get to the bottom of this assassination attempt.

  I reminded myself as I sat in my command chair that this time it had been more than an attempt, as Sandra was technically dead. Normally, I would have stayed at her side in the infirmary, but I knew that every second lost might be critical.

  I also knew who my prime suspect was in this case: the amazing, vanishing, General Kerr.

  -26-

  I seethed with emotions and was barely able to sit on my command chair. Both armrests were seriously damaged, due to my hammering and cursing.

  The staff was staying quiet. Word had gotten out about the attack and no one wanted to approach me right now. I shouted for Miklos until someone went and got him. He stepped up, standing at attention.

  “Are you aware an imperial assassin was in our midst for over a week, undetected?” I demanded. “This is your command territory, Commodore. Security is part of your duties. I’m holding you responsible.”


  “I’m sorry, sir. I hope Sandra will recover.”

  “You have some explaining to do,” I told him. “When I left, I put you and your carrier on duty at Helios ring. If you were there now, you could chase down Kerr. He’s running and has reached the Helios system by this time.”

  Miklos looked concerned. “The carrier itself is still there, sir,” he said. “But I don’t think that ship could catch the General in any case. Recall your removal of several of the ship’s engines…”

  “Don’t try to put this off on me!” I shouted.

  I shook my head and took a deep breath. All around me, everyone else had frozen again. I suspected they were waiting to see if I had another violent outburst. I tried to calm down, but didn’t entirely succeed.

  “I was suckered,” I said. “This entire thing from Earth—this sham about peace talks…Kerr just wanted to come out here and kill us.”

  Bravely, Captain Sarin approached me. I was surprised to see her aboard the battle station.

  “You are away from your post, Captain,” I growled at her. “Why have you left your carrier?”

  “I heard about what happened,” she said quietly. “I wanted to see if I could help.”

  I barely listened to her. I wasn’t looking at any of them.

  “Last time Crow sent some newsy to sucker us with her charms,” I said. “This time he sent an old acquaintance and worked the knife again. This time, he drew blood. Why am I such a fool?”

  “What do you mean, sir?” Miklos asked.

  I focused my eyes on him. “Isn’t it obvious?” I asked. “Crow is clearly behind these last two attempts on my life. But there have been many in the past. Remember the first, the young Asian girl he’d just hired? Or the Dutch commandos after that? I blamed Major Barrera for those plays, but now I think it went higher up. Barrera and the rest of them were all working for Crow.”