The Dream of the Iron Dragon

by Robert Kroese

  “For what it’s worth,” Mallick said, “I suspect your motives are genuine. But you said yourself you’ve been unable to verify that this is one of the planet killer bombs.”

  “You have seen the evidence,” Aaron said. “I will not attempt to convince you of anything. It is up to you whether you wish to take the artifact. Many here will be very relieved if you do not.”

  Mallick thought for a moment. Could this really be happening? A group of humanity’s mortal enemies giving them a chance to win this hopeless war? It was almost impossible to believe, but the alternative seemed even less likely. If this was some kind of ruse, it was hard to see what the Cho-ta’an might gain from it. And they’d already paid a heavy price, giving up their location to the IDL.

  “I’ll need a moment to confer with my crew,” Mallick said.

  “Of course,” Aaron replied. “But be quick about it. We will wait outside.” He conferred with his two Cho-ta’an watchers, and then the one called Olivia spoke some orders to the guards. Aaron left the room through the tunnel, followed by Richard and Olivia. The two guards brought up the rear, leaving the three humans alone in the chamber with the strange cylindrical device.

  “Well,” said Mallick. “Did anyone else see this day ending with aliens handing us a device to destroy their own home planet?”

  “So you believe them?” Stauffer asked.

  “I believe they’re sincere,” Mallick said. “Whether that thing actually works is another question. You have any more thoughts on it, Reyes?”

  “It’s not like any Cho-ta’an tech I’ve ever seen,” Reyes said. “Nor human, for that matter.”

  “What do you think, Stauffer?”

  “I defer to Reyes’s expertise.”

  “I meant more generally.”

  Stauffer shrugged. “I’ll grant the Trojan horse scenario doesn’t make much sense. Could be a red herring, though.”

  “You think this is an elaborate ruse to keep us from exploring the Finlan cluster?”

  “Honestly, no. Would have been a lot less work just to shoot us down. Cho-ta’an don’t generally resort to elaborate ruses when a simple show of force will get the point across.”

  “Agreed,” said Mallick.

  “In any case,” Reyes said, pointing at the device, “if there’s any chance that thing could help us win the war, I don’t see that we have much choice. We’ve got to bring it to the IDL and have them check it out.”

  “Do you think they’d actually use it?” asked Stauffer.

  Reyes shrugged, looking to Mallick.

  “Most likely they’d use it as leverage first. But yeah, if things got desperate enough, they’d use it.”

  “So we’d be party to the deaths of billions,” Stauffer said.

  “Okay, don’t go getting all philosophical,” Mallick said. “That question is above our pay grade. All we’ve got to decide is whether to accept this… gift or not. If we do, we’re bound to get it to the IDL as quickly as possible.”

  “We have to do it,” Reyes said. “Can you imagine trying to explain to Command why we turned them down? ‘They offered us a weapon that could win the war, but we decided mapping uninhabitable planets was more important?’”

  Stauffer nodded. “The mere existence of that thing turns my stomach, but Reyes is right. Humanity is on the verge of extinction. Trying to find alternatives to that is what this mission is all about. We don’t get to turn up our nose at something like this because we find it morally distasteful.”

  Mallick sighed. “I figured you guys would say that. All right, we take the device back to the IDL.”

  “That assumes we can get it out of this cave and onto Andrea Luhman,” Reyes said.

  “One thing at a time,” Mallick replied. “Can we get a message to Slater?” They had left their suit radios behind, but each of them also wore a wrist comm with limited range.

  Reyes shook her head. “I’ve been monitoring the frequency. Way too much rock between us to get a signal.”

  “All right, keep an eye on it. We need to brief Carpenter as soon as possible. If we get stuck down here, the secret of that bomb—or whatever it is—dies with us. I’m going to tell our pal Aaron we’re going to accept his offer.”

  Chapter Five

  The trip back to the lander was dicier than the journey to the artifact. Four more Cho-ta’an were summoned to carry the device from the chamber to the vehicles. The framework was not attached to the pedestal; each Cho-ta’an took a corner and lifted it along with the bomb. Whatever the bomb was made of, it was heavy: the four big aliens grunted and strained to move it, even in the low gravity. Getting it through the tunnel was an ordeal, requiring them to stop and rest twice. The two armed Cho-ta’an preceded the bomb and the others followed close behind.

  The crowd outside was twice as big as when they had entered, and still more agitated. Many of those gathered shouted incomprehensible words at the humans as they passed, but they gave way to the armed Cho-ta’an in front. At least a few of those in the crowd seemed to be on Aaron’s side; there was a fair amount of shouting back and forth within the crowd. The humans managed to get inside one of the vehicles before the assembled masses could unite against them.

  The bomb was loaded onto the back of a truck while the humans waited in the vehicle. A tense exchange ensued as a large Cho-ta’an slipped in front of Aaron, blocking his way to the vehicle. Aaron attempted to brush past, but the Cho-ta’an grabbed his arm. Aaron jerked away, hitting the Cho-ta’an in the chin with his elbow. The Cho-ta’an moved toward him. A muffled gunshot rang out and the Cho-ta’an stumbled backwards. Gasps and screams went up as the crowd shrank back from the Cho-ta’an guard who had fired. Aaron threw the door of the vehicle open, got inside and slammed the door. He yelled something and the car began to move. More screams followed as Cho-ta’an dived out of the way of the vehicle. It made a sharp left turn and sped away, followed by the truck and the other two vehicles. Several more shots sounded, but then the shooting stopped as the crowd mobbed the two armed Cho-ta’an.

  Aaron leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes and exhaling deeply.

  “There seems to be a lot of opposition to your decision,” Mallick said after some time.

  “The ruling council is slightly more enlightened than the general population,” Aaron said. “But this sort of demonstration is rare among Cho-ta’an. It reflects a profound lack of confidence in the leadership. Those on the council who favored giving you the planet killer will undoubtedly be removed from office shortly. It is quite possible the new government will find us guilty of treason.”

  The humans were silent. There was only one penalty for treason among the Cho-ta’an.

  “You’ll be leaving by a different airlock,” Aaron said. “I’ve received word that more protesters are waiting where you arrived.”

  “On the surface?”

  “No. Access to the outside is strictly regulated. Once you get above ground, you are safe. Relatively speaking.”

  Mallick decided against asking Aaron to expound on his qualification. For now, they needed to focus on getting out of this facility.

  The convoy skirted the edge of the forest and then turned to go through a narrow tunnel. They came out in another open area that looked like a warehouse or loading dock. Stacks of crates and boxes lay scattered about the floor. In the far wall was the door to an airlock. The car holding the humans stopped just past the door, allowing the truck to pull up next to it. The humans and Cho-ta’an filed out of the vehicles. Other than them, the entire area appeared to be deserted.

  Another heated exchange occurred, this time between Aaron and his two watchers. The tone was rancorous but desultory, as if the two were more concerned with getting their positions on record than with changing Aaron’s mind. Aaron’s demeanor reflected equal parts relief and exhaustion. Finally Olivia and Richard stepped back and Aaron made a gesture to the other Cho-ta’an, who lifted the framework from the truck. As they approached the airlock, the door slid op
en. This airlock was somewhat larger than the one they’d arrived through; there was plenty of room for both the humans and the bomb.

  “Our suits,” Reyes said.

  Mallick cursed quietly to himself. How could he have forgotten something like that?

  “Here,” Aaron said, climbing onto the back of the truck. He opened a box and pulled out a helmet. He must have made arrangements for the suits to be loaded onto the truck before it arrived. At least somebody had thought this through.

  “Thank you,” said Mallick, taking the helmet from him. Aaron didn’t respond, reaching into the truck to grab a suit. He handed the suits down to them and they began to put them on. When they were nearly finished, another vehicle emerged from the tunnel, moving toward them at high speed.

  “Hurry,” Aaron said. “This group may be armed.”

  “Into the airlock,” Mallick said. “Let’s go.”

  The three of them moved into the airlock as quickly as the bulky suits would allow. The door slid shut behind them. Their view of the cargo bay was blocked, but they heard the squeal of tires and muffled shouts. A blue light went on overhead and the hum of a fan started. The air pressure began to drop.

  “Shit!” Stauffer barked. “I’m not sealed!”

  “Take a deep breath,” Mallick said. “I’ll get to you as soon as mine are tight.” The suits were designed to be put on and taken off by the wearer, but less experienced spacers often needed help with the harder-to-reach seals. Mallick took his own advice, filling his lungs with air. He finished fastening his own and then turned to Stauffer, only to find that Reyes had beat him to it. Stauffer was on the verge of panic, but she got his suit sealed before the atmosphere in the airlock was purged. It was quiet, but very little sound would travel without any air. Mallick wondered if this airlock doubled as an elevator, like the last one. If so, it moved too gradually to feel the change in acceleration.

  His question was answered when the door on the far side slid open, revealing a stone chamber slightly larger than the airlock. The far end opened to the planet’s surface.

  “Thank God,” Stauffer said. “No ladder.”

  Mallick nodded. This entrance went all the way to the surface, presumably to make it easier to load and unload supplies. He tapped the shared channel button on his wrist cuff. “Slater, do you read?”

  There was a crackle of static followed by incomprehensible fragments of speech.

  “Looks like we’re in a cave,” Stauffer said. “Still too much interference.”

  Mallick turned to Reyes. “Reyes, you have any idea where we are relative to the lander?” Reyes’s sense of direction was legendary.

  “Yes, sir,” Reyes said, pointing. “Should be about two klicks that direction.”

  “Good. Go outside and see if you can direct Slater over here. We’re going to need her help with this thing. Use a flare if you have to.”

  “Yes, sir.” Reyes walked to the opening. The moment she exited, Slater’s voice came pouring over the radio.

  “—read me, sir? Where the hell are you? Carpenter’s been trying to get a hold of you.”

  “Slater, this is Reyes. Do you copy?”

  “I’m here, Reyes. Go ahead.”

  “What’s your location?”

  “I’m in the lander. O2 was running low, so I—”

  “Good. You see a rock formation, about twenty degrees to the right of the lander’s nose? Looks like a turtle on its back.”

  “I see it.”

  “We’re about half a klick beyond that, and maybe another ten degrees to the right from your position. I’m standing at the edge of a lava field next to a rock mound about eight meters high. You should be able to set the lander down on the field.”

  “You can’t get to me? I’m going to waste a lot of fuel moving the lander a couple of klicks.”

  “We’ve got some cargo,” Reyes said.

  “Cargo? What… Never mind, I’m on my way. Carpenter has been trying to get through to you guys for the past hour.”

  “Slater, this is Mallick. Patch me through to Carpenter.”

  “Can’t. He’s darkside now. Just lost contact before you called. Apparently he’s got a bogey.”

  Damn it, thought Mallick. Another thing that had slipped his mind. Andrea Luhman’s orbit had taken it below the horizon. They would be out of contact until they rejoined it in the lander. “A bogey? You mean a ship?”

  “Sounded like it. Unknown craft, coming toward us, fast.”

  “Did Carpenter give an ETA?”

  “He said three hours. That was twenty minutes ago.”

  “All right. Get here as fast as you can. Captain out.”

  “What do you think that’s about, Captain?” Reyes asked. “Cho-ta’an?”

  “Must be,” Mallick said. “Somebody here snitched to the High Command. It’s pretty clear not all the Fractalists are on board with the idea of giving us a bomb capable of snuffing out the Cho-ta’an homeworld. Let’s see if we can move this thing out of the cave before Slater gets here with the lander.” He bent down to grab the framework while Stauffer and Reyes took the opposite side. They lifted on the count of three, barely managing to get the thing off the ground.

  “Shit, that’s heavy,” Stauffer gasped.

  “Just be thankful we’re at point six gees,” Mallick said. “Let’s go.”

  Straining, the three of them managed to move the device just outside the cave before setting it down with a crunch on the hardened lava. Stauffer moved to wipe his brow, smacking his helmet with the back of his glove. Reyes laughed. “Smooth, Stauffer. Are you sure you haven’t done this before?”

  Stauffer chuckled sheepishly. “Moved a genocide device across the surface of an alien planet? Sure, I did it three times just last week.”

  “Look,” Mallick said, pointing just above the rock formation Reyes had spoken of. The small silvery shape of the lander was approaching. A moment later, they heard the rumble of its thrusters. Mallick waved his arms.

  “I’ve got you,” Slater said. “Be there in a minute.”

  “Captain,” Reyes said, still breathing heavily, “how could a Cho-ta’an ship have gotten here so quickly?”

  “I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Mallick said. “Assuming this place is what it seems—an outpost unknown to the Cho-ta’an High Command—then it’s very unlikely the Cho-ta’an have a jumpgate anywhere in the vicinity. That leaves only two possibilities: either that ship started heading our way a couple hundred years ago or…”

  “Or the Cho-ta’an hacked our gate,” Reyes finished. “Which was the most likely explanation for how the Fractalists got out here in the first place.”

  “If the Cho-ta’an can use our gates,” Stauffer said, “why haven’t they used them to attack Geneva or any of the other IDL worlds?”

  “The Fractalists hacked the gates,” Reyes said. “The snitch must have told the High Command how to do it.”

  They felt the rumble of the engines though their boots as the lander descended in front of them.

  “When?” Stauffer said.

  “Probably around the same time we received the Fibonacci broadcast. Before we were contacted, the possibility of giving the bomb to the IDL was academic. They’d have kept their secret as long as they could, but if they wanted the High Command to intercede, they’d have had to broadcast their location and the key to getting through our gates.”

  The lander settled onto the plain.

  “Nice work, Slater,” Mallick said. “Did Carpenter say what direction the bogey was coming from?”

  “Yeah,” Slater said. “He said at first he thought it might have been an IDL ship, because their trajectory intersected with the Fomalhaut Gate coordinates. But they don’t respond to a hail on any frequency.”

  “Hell,” said Mallick. “So it’s true. The Fractalists hacked our gates, and now the Cho-ta’an High Command knows how to do it too. This bomb better be the real thing, because otherwise we just lost the war.”

  Cha
pter Six

  Two hours later, they were back onboard Andrea Luhman, in orbit around the planet. Mallick took off his helmet and walked to the bridge while the others fought with their suits.

  “Any more data on our bogey?” Mallick asked Carpenter, who was hunched over the controls.

  “On an intercept course with the Fractalist planet,” Carpenter said. “At the current rate of deceleration, they’ll be here in just under an hour.”

  “Any idea what it is?”

  “I’d assume Cho-ta’an, except that it seems to have come through our own gate.”

  “We think they’ve hacked the gates.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Yeah. Assume the bogey is a threat. What’s our best evasive strategy?”

  “Are we heading back to the Finlan Cluster?”

  “No. Our mission’s been preempted. We need to get to a secure IDL facility as soon as possible.”

  Carpenter raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is our cargo anyway?”

  “A bomb,” Mallick said. “Powerful enough to end this war. We need to get to Geneva. Or any other IDL facility. Someplace that can analyze this thing.”

  Carpenter nodded. “Then we continue our current orbit around the planet and break free at the optimal trajectory to reach the Fomalhaut Gate.”

  “How long?”

  “About four hours. I can give you a more precise estimate shortly.”

  “Can that ship catch us?”

  Carpenter frowned. “What do you mean, ‘catch’? Ram?”

  “Assume it has missiles.”

  “You think it’s a warship.”

  “Figure it is. Can it take us out?”

  “Hard to say. It’ll have to follow us around the planet. If they drop into a tighter orbit, they could gain a few minutes on us. I can run some calculations, but my best guess is they’ll be too far away for an effective missile strike. Even if they can close to a thousand klicks, we’ll have plenty of time to deploy chaff. Of course, once we’re clear of the planet….”

  “It’ll be a matter of acceleration,” Mallick said.

  Carpenter nodded. “We can do three point eight gees in a pinch. Any idea how fast those Cho-ta’an ships go?”