Jack tapped his Fire Control panel, aiming the dual railguns of the Uhuru at the fragments of the two Unity frigates. Each railgun was loaded with a barrel of steel ball bearings that would exit the railgun launcher at planetary escape velocity. “Ventilating the frigate fragments. We do not need living captives when their NavTrack computers will tell us what base they left from and who gave them the orders to attack us.” He looked up at the older man of Japanese heritage who had renounced his allegiance to the Unity Naval Command in favor of protecting Earth from Alien domination. “Admiral, I know your decryption codes are six months out of date. But can your ComChief figure a way to gain access to the NavTrack computers of those two dead frigates?”
On the front screen dozens of black holes suddenly showed on the dimly shinning hull fragments. Tiny whisps of white air and water joined the massive gas balls emitted earlier when each frigate was diced twice by Maureen’s neutral particle beam emitter. No ship fragment showed any kind of controlled movement. Now, anyone left alive in a vacsuit would join those who had died under the first energy beam attack.
Hideyoshi glanced aside at a repeater screen image that showed him Jack’s ventilation of the ship fragments. He nodded abruptly, then turned to Jack. The man’s clean-shaven face showed resolute determination. “It will be done. We will find a way to decrypt the access codes. Recall that the Bismarck is a heavy cruiser. Our Library computer retains the codes, and code variations, from twenty years of cruising for the Unity.” The man blinked dark eyes, then lifted one black eyebrow. “What about the grav-pull drives on the ship fragments? Do we salvage them?”
Jack smiled. “Yes, please. Your Lander Rudyard Kipling is roomy enough to take onboard the two drives. Plus their control panels. Will be interesting to see how their grav-pull control software compares to that reverse-engineered by Max.”
“Captain Jack!” called Elaine. “We have twenty inbound grav-pulse ships! Coming in from Mars, Pluto, Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Enceladus and other parts of Sol system. They . . .” she looked down at her Sensor panel. “Their origin points match our last records of Belter and Mars ships doing system patrol duty. They’re ours.” Within the bubble helmet she wore her long brown hair looked sweaty under her headband. But Elaine’s amber eyes showed relief.
He nodded slowly, mind spinning with multiple schemes on what to do next. “Pilot, thank you. ComChief, send a Fleet Activation signal to every ship by way of our neutrino pedestal. Tell them to rendezvous here at Mathilde. We have a fleet battle conference to set up.”
“Transmitting,” called Denise from behind Jack.
He heard her whispering into the pickup for the modulated neutrino pedestal that Max had salvaged from a Hackmot Alien ship. He also heard the sighs of relief from Blodwen, Archibald and Nikola at the cessation of active combat. If only his heart would stop hammering faster than he could think. And he needed a drink. Reaching down he grabbed a water tube, stuck its nipple against the intake slot of his helmet ring, took the ring’s tube in his mouth and sucked long and hard.
“Maureen!” he called to the holo of the woman with short black curls, hair fine wrinkles on her narrow face and a rad-tan like all Belters who’d grown up wearing a clear helmet atop their vacsuit. “Get the hell up here. I need current fleet status info from you. Plus your sneakiness!”
“Smart mouth youngling,” she muttered from the holo. “Heading up the Spine.”
“Fleet Captain Jack,” called Hideyoshi from the front screen. The man’s image now showed side by side with that of stocky Gareth, captain of the second Belter fleet and the current romancer of Maureen, their Belfast granny. “What do you plan for Earth?”
What indeed? “Well, I’m not going to hit them with asteroid strikes. Those nine billion people are enslaved by the Cooperative Consensus of the Communitarian Unity. But there are still riots going on from our broadcast of their last Dictat’s effort to put Sol under the control of social carnivore Aliens. And while the Unity Naval Command is clearly functional, I suspect there are some remnants of old nationalism that may welcome the chance to reassert local control. Maybe even the United States portion of the North American Cooperative.” He nodded to vacsuited Maureen as the woman entered from the Spine hallway and sat in her Combat station seat. She immediately began bringing up combat simulation holos that she had previously programmed. In her spare time. Jack refrained from grinning at the woman’s obsession with space combat maneuvers. That obsession had served them well during their recent interstellar roaming. “Admiral, I’m open to suggestions from every ship captain. Which makes for thirty voices at our conference. But . . . I think it wise to destroy all space launch sites on Earth. And to pay a termination visit to the Unity Civil Bureaucracy in Brussels and to the Unity Congress in Geneva. Beyond those steps, I’m open to everyone’s ideas.”
The admiral showed his usual restraint, allowing no emotion to show on his face. And rarely in his voice. “Reasonable. This violation of the vote by the Unity Congress to give up any effort to control Sol system must be punished severely.”
“I say kill them all!” growled Maureen, one gloved hand slamming against the armrest of her seat.
Jack smiled. The bloodthirstiness of the woman who’d known his Grandfather Ephraim during the First Belter Rebellion in 2072 was unchanged even now, twenty-six years later. “Good Maureen, your tactical advice is always welcome. As it will be at our upcoming fleet battle conference. And afterwards on any ship I command.”
The trim, slim woman glanced at him from within her bubble helmet. She gave him a wintry smile. “I have no doubt you will be deadly enough, youngster. Not after the object lessons we gave the HikHikSot. Loved your fragmenting and deorbiting of their moon. Made for lovely fireworks.”
Jack looked away. Killing half a world’s population was not what he would consider as a ‘lovely’ event. But it had been necessary to implant in the deadly Aliens the operant conditioning lesson that they should always run away from any human or human ship. Instinctively. If they wished to live another day. He nodded at Hideyoshi and Gareth.
“My friends, thank you for your service today. Admiral, please bring your ship into the Dock Cavern. We need to use your Admiral’s Mess room for our meeting.” He looked to his Welsh ally. “Captain Gareth, please put your ship in orbit to guard against further Unity attacks. Then join us in your Lander.” Jack unlocked the restraint straps of his seat and stood up. He looked to the rear and caught the gray eyes of his gruff, honest and sardonic buddy. “Drive Engineer, please stay onboard, join up with the Dragon and keep the Uhuru’s Battle Module on Auto-Track and Defend mode. The rest of you, join me in our Lander. We need to get back to the Dock Cavern to reassure the Citizens Council of Mathilde that we will protect our home no matter who or what attacks!”
“Will do!” Max said, though he looked disappointed at not being able to join their meal and conference in the Dock Cavern.
Jack’s lifemate Nikola stood up, her sandy brown eyebrows bunching up as she frowned. “How many will we have to kill this time?”
“Lots!” grunted Maureen over the vacsuit comlink that connected everyone aboard the Uhuru.
Red-haired Denise and Blodwen both stood up to join him, Elaine and Nikola. To his right their chief physicist Archibald Wheeler was unsnapping his seat restraints. The man’s shock of unruly reddish-brown hair framed a worried look. “I hate the idea of attacking Earth.”
Jack led the way through the Pilot Cabin’s hatch and into the long Spine hallway that ran the length of their ship. “Me too. Like all of us, I’ve got relatives still living on Earth. But we have to teach this Unity Congress a final lesson. They are not in control of Sol system! And they will never again run the lives of freedom-loving peoples.”
Once again his days of living a normal life had come to an end. It had been barely two weeks since they had returned from their interstellar jaunt to the star systems occupied by the Nuuthot, Mikmang, Nasen and HikHikSot Aliens. He and his fellow cap
tains had been planning to leave on a second deep space trek to find allies for their fight against the predatory Hunters of the Great Dark. Humans alone could not overturn an ancient galactic system that said only predators could travel star-to-star, with conquered ‘herbivore’ peoples becoming slaves and tasty meals for those interstellar cannibals.
Now, it seemed they had to ‘tame’ Earth before they could head out to liberate Alien peoples ruled by social carnivore Aliens. He grit his teeth. Tame Earth he would!
CHAPTER TWO
Jack followed Hideyoshi into the Admiral’s Mess on the Bismarck, a room easily big enough for 30 people. Thirty ship captains plus most of his crew sat at the oval table in the middle of the room. At the far end was a large wallscreen, which currently showed the true-light image of a blue and white Earth, with the Moon at one side. To their left, standing beside an AutoChef device, stood a female crewman in Mars red. Hideyoshi sat down at the near end of the table. Jack walked past him to sit between Maureen and Nikola. He looked at his one ally with formal military training.
“Admiral Minamoto, please advise me on the number and affiliation of ships in orbit about Mathilde, or in our Dock Cavern,” he said, gripping his hands together to stop the nerve tremors that he always felt before a big gathering of people.
The man who had been born in Japan, then had gone on to graduate decades ago from the South Pole Naval Academy on Earth, pursed his lips. “Fleet Captain Jack, as you ordered, all three fleets are now concentrated at 253 Mathilde. My Mars fleet includes the heavy cruiser Bismarck, four destroyers, eight frigates and three corvettes. Fleet Commander Zhāng Dingbang,” he said, nodding to a slim Asian woman sitting at the far end of the table, “convinced the three frigates formerly guarding Ceres Central to join our Mars fleet. And during our interstellar absence she arranged for our Mars engineers to outfit every ship with neutrino comlinks and antimatter beamers in addition to their usual weaponry.” He paused, looking around the table. “Captain Gareth Davies’ fleet includes ten Belter commerce raiders, led by his ship Dragon. Those ships are close to frigates in size.” The man brushed back his black hair, the hairline of which seemed to recede further after each space battle. “Which leaves your first Belter fleet of seven ships, including the Uhuru. Which is of a size that matches our destroyers. We therefore possess a total of 33 combat ready ships.”
“At a minimum,” interrupted Maureen, her tone assertive. “Within this Dock Cavern are three globular cargo transports, one of which was outfitted with a grav-pull drive so it could resupply the colonies on Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, Titan and Charon. Plus there are three other commerce raiders here whose captains prefer hiring out to Ceres Central business interests.”
Jack knew well the strength of the Prime mercantile families on Ceres. He nodded, then fixed on the black-bearded Welshman. “Captain Gareth, did your assistant Helena Antonov manage any upgrades to your fleet during our absence?”
Gareth gestured to the Slav woman who sat with him and his group of eight other Belter captains. “Yes. She can provide the details.”
Antonov, whose face was a mix of Central Asian features that included slanted eyes and sharp cheeks, gave him a wry smile. “Fleet Captain Jack, our Mathilde engineers managed to outfit every Second Belter Fleet ship with neutrino comlinks, including my Grizzly. And two more ships are outfitted with Higgs Disruptors. They are Hawk and Ferocious,” she said, nodding to the women captains of the two commerce raider ships.
“Fleet Captain Jack,” called Hideyoshi.
“Yes?” he said, wondering what else his ally could add.
The stocky man gave him a restrained smile. “Speaking of other armaments newly added, Fleet Commander Zhāng had our Deimos engineers rework the particle accelerators on two of the stay at home Mars ships. To convert them to Higgs Disruptor beamers. They are the destroyers General Douglas MacArthur and Marshal Georgy Zhukov.” The admiral gestured to a middle-aged woman and older man who were the captains of the upgraded ships.
“Thank you,” Jack said, scanning the faces of the women and men who had earlier fought with him in the Second Sedna Battle, then had guarded Earth and Sol system while he sought to subvert predator rule over subject peoples. “I gather that means each of our 33 ships now possesses FTL neutrino comlinks and antimatter beamers, in addition to the prior weapons platforms of particle beamers and lasers. Excepting those six ships converted to Higgs beamers. How many fleet ships have been fitted with Alcubierre drive shell star drives?”
Hideyoshi held up five fingers. Gareth held up four. Which, when added to the seven ships of his fleet meant about half of the three fleets could make FTL jumps in and out of Sol system. So be it. “Fellow captains,” he said, catching the eyes of those ship captains who had stayed behind while his fleet, Bismarck and Dragon had gone star roaming, “this attack on Mathilde by Earth grav-pull ships is only the first attack in their effort to reclaim control of Sol system. Which control their Unity Congress voted to abandon, five months ago. Is there a new Dictat in charge on Earth? And does anyone have any idea on how the hell Earth learned of our base on Mathilde?”
“There is a new Dictat on Earth,” said Blodwen Llywelyn from next to Hideyoshi. The lanky Welsh woman crossed bony arms atop the metal table and fixed Jack with an intense look. “He is Lykourgos Deimos Katsaros, a banker who owns all Greek sea shipping and most of its space cargo vessels. While he grew up as a Democratic Socialist in common European mode, his election to the European Parliament twenty years ago brought him a hunger for power. Which he exercised as the Speaker of the Unity Congress. When we killed Dictat Maathias he moved to fill the Dictat seat per the rules of that congress. He is now their Assembly Leader.”
Jack winced. This news meant the man now in charge of Earth’s Unity government had guided the adoption of the Sol system control abandon legislation months ago. Legislation which had now been violated a second time, if one counted the earlier effort by Dictat Maathias to get the HikHikSot colony ship to take control of Sol system. “What have the official Earth AV broadcasts said about the results of the Second Sedna Battle? And our recent broadcast of the Nuuthot primates being eaten by the Krisot avian Aliens?”
The blond Sociologist bit her lower lip. “AV broadcasts of the last two weeks have asserted that Earth should join the interstellar society of predator aliens as a ‘subject people’ since we are new to interstellar travel. Dictat Katsaros said in one morning interview show that he was certain he could convince predatory Aliens to not demand a flesh-ransom from Earth.”
“Bastard!” yelled Maureen from his right side. “Jack, how soon do we kill this Communitarian idiot?”
How soon indeed? He wished, briefly, for the counsel of Autarch Viktoria Goncalves of the Moon and People’s Minister Ying Lo-pak of Mars. Those two knew something about politics. A matter which he had always avoided during his anthropologist training on Vesta. Jack fixed on the woman Hideyoshi had left in charge of the Mars fleet. “Fleet Commander Zhāng, what did you learn of Earth’s behavior beyond its atmosphere during our interstellar absence? Any efforts to subvert Brazilian leadership on the Moon? Or Chinese rule on Mars?”
The middle-aged woman, who showed a mild rad-tan from her decades of service in the Unity Space Force, leaned forward from the opposite end of the table. “The Unity Security Services have been too busy putting down local rebellions and major riots across Earth during the months you were gone. They have not made any moves against the leadership of the Moon and Mars. However, our links to Unity spysats in orbit above Earth have revealed their deployment of automated mine fields in low Earth orbit. There may also be stealthed Hunter-Killer thermonuke torps in orbit.” She looked at Hideyoshi, Gareth and the other captains, then back to Jack. “It seems someone did not like you orbiting above Geneva with a small asteroid ready to drop on the Unity Congress.”
Jack sat back in the flexible plastic chair that had padded armrests. The news was not a surprise. He had expected some defensive reaction
by Geneva to his earlier threat to kill Dictat Maathias by way of orbital bombardment. What had surprised him was the five ship attack on Mathilde, coming as it did after the Second Sedna Battle which had resulted in the destruction of the HikHikSot colony ship and most of the twenty attack ships brought to Sol to enforce the effort of the cheetah-leopard Aliens to claim Sol system as part of their Hunt territory. Well, he had made certain no HikHikSot would ever again come within sensing distance of a human.
“Denise,” he said, looking to his ComChief. “You are our Animal Ethologist and Behavioral Ecologist. Any ideas on how to ‘tame’ Earth bureaucrats? So they give up trying to retake control of humanity?”
The nineteen year-old pulled at one red braid, looked around the table at people older than herself, then fixed on him. Her look was more mature than her years. Clearly she had moved beyond her focus on adventures in space as her reason to serve with his fleet. She gave him a shy smile. “Your Nikola is right. You really do prefer for other folks to take the first steps in floating ideas.”
Jack glanced aside to his lifemate, whose manner had been scientist serious since they had exited their Lander and entered the Bismarck as it floated inside the Dock Cavern. Her brown cheeks grew dark as if flushing. “Don’t look at me. Denise makes her own choices. As any woman should.”
He looked back to the woman who had spent the early part of their last interstellar trip working to generate an Alien language decoding program from a SETI linguistic analysis algorithm. Hard work she was not afraid of. Nor of teasing the boss. “Well? Ways to tame the Earth bureaucracy?”
She sighed. “Kill them. Kill them all. As an object lesson to the younger bureaucrats in Brussels and Geneva who will take their places. All animals act in habitual ways learned while growing to maturity. Humans are also animals, even if very smart ones.” She blinked jade green eyes. “This repeat of their attempt to make an alliance with predator Aliens says to me they are too fixed in their ways to change. So trying to ‘tame’ them is pointless. But their sudden deaths might ‘tame’ their replacements.”
Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Page 2
