Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3)

by T. Jackson King

  “Weapons?” Jack called. “I see some square blocks lying beyond the six locations you mention.”

  The admiral nodded abruptly. “They are aerospatiale laser mounts. There are five of them, including the one next to the landing field. They are powered by a second fusion reactor lying between the academy and the field. Another fusion reactor is in the basement of the admin building. It provides power to all six occupied buildings.” The man’s words were swift, clear and to the point. An aspect of his ally that Jack had always valued. The Asian looked back to him. “Fleet Captain Jack, the personal AV frequency of Fleet Admiral Santiago Narváez is being transmitted now to your ComChief. Every Unity naval unit has access to that data. Along with encryption codes that allow for deciphering of laser transmitted orders.”

  Jack nodded his thanks. “What is the range of the laser mounts?”

  “Up to fifty kilometers altitude,” the admiral said. He looked aside, then back. “Weaponry Chief Lieutenant Marlena Lopez tells me the mounts are carbon dioxide powered lasers with punch-through power against any metal other than tungsten.”

  Jack reached up to rub his eyes. A movement stopped by his bubble helmet. Sighing, he reached down to the side of his seat and grabbed the water bottle he kept there. Lifting it he touched it to the feeder tube at his neck ring, sucked on the internal drink tube, then returned it to its holder. He scanned the images of the 32 captains and one admiral who made up the only grav-pull fleet in Sol system. Those ships could enforce his will against any point on Earth. But they were not enough to control the nine billion humans who lived under the tyranny of the Unity. Only free choice could do that. Which brought him to the next step, one he had been dreading. Keeping his focus on the enlarged true-light image of the academy buildings lying between Victoria and Wright valleys, he spoke.

  “Denise, send a Come-Back AV signal to the office of Admiral Narváez. And put him up on the front screen along with our true-light imagery.” He paused, wondering if he had forgotten anything. “Oh, share that signal and my comments with every fleet ship by way of our tightbeam laser links.”

  His ComChief whispered into her comlink panel pickups, telling its expert system what to do. “Signal sent. Response coming in now. Up front.”

  The Dry Valleys imagery moved to one side as the AV visual of a man standing behind his executive desk filled the right hand side of the cabin’s front screen. Above both images lay the small images of every ship captain, each of them giving quiet orders to their pilot or command deck crewmates. The standing man wore the dark blue formal uniform of the Unity Space Force, with medals, ribbons and a few tabs filling his left chest. Banishing the thought of how much the man resembled the image of an old World War II admiral, he began the ritual of Challenge, as the Aliens called it.

  “Fleet Admiral Santiago Narváez, your academy, landing field and the three spaceships docked at the field are under my weaponry,” Jack said bluntly. “Why should we not destroy you in response to your attack on our home at 253 Mathilde?”

  The clean-shaven man, who bore the looks of his Spanish Castilian heritage, fixed black eyes on him. “Fleet Captain Jack Munroe, you are expected. Leaving aside your destruction of Unity staff and structures in Brussels, Germany and Geneva, the direct answer is . . . your sister Cassandra Munroe. She is still alive. And we hold her inside our spaceship factory.”

  “Prove it!” Jack said too loudly, his heart beating too fast for what was in truth a military engagement of tactics versus strategy. “Let me speak to her. Otherwise I will assume you killed her, as you no doubt killed Bridge Lieutenant Howard Goldin, who came to you of his own free will.”

  A touch of humor showed on the man’s starkly drawn face. “Hardly a free will visitor. He came to steal the secret of our grav-pull drives. Which, sadly, take so long to create due to the Thorne Exotic Matter that we were only able to send five ships against you.” The man reached down a long, slim finger to touch a control panel on top of his desk. “Opening a channel to your sister. Inside our factory.”

  A third image suddenly appeared at the side of the front screen. Cassie!

  “Hello brother,” she said, her tone sounding defiant despite the blue bruises on her face, the redness along one side of her neck, and her position seated in a chair with accel straps locking her into place. Flanking her were four Unity Space Marines, each carrying a laser long rifle, the muzzle of each being pointed at Cassie’s head. Four lasers. Four muzzles. Pointing at one young woman who had insisted that loyalty to humanity had no age limit.

  “Hi Cassie. We’re back.”

  “Don’t trade anything for me!” she said harshly, her black eyelashes fluttering over hazel eyes. “I’ve refused food and water. Soon they will only control a body. Please understand.”

  His lips felt dry again. His heart hammered. Sweat covered the back of his neck. “Understood, sister mine. Elaine is here. She says hello too. Don’t give up! We will—”

  The image vanished. Admiral Narváez fixed on Jack. “She is a stubborn person. She refused to tell us anything about your Alcubierre star drive or your antimatter weapon or even this Higgs Disruptor that somehow kills gravity.” The Unity admiral gave Jack a hungry wolf look. “Course, she probably knows nothing of those matters. But my interrogation people had to make certain. I’m sure you understand.”

  Jack nodded abruptly. “I understand. She stays alive so long as I do not attack your precious grav-pull factory.” He looked above the man’s image. “Fleet Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, please enter this discussion. Perhaps you can convince this martinet of where the true danger to Earth lies.”

  Narváez looked startled as Hideyoshi’s image joined Jack’s in the AV feed down to the academy.

  “My brother,” Hideyoshi began, his manner that of a former academy classmate who had graduated shortly after Narváez had taken command of the academy. “My brother, the threat from these Aliens is real.” Minamoto grimaced. “Sol system was being attacked by predatory Aliens. It sounds crazy, but I have seen other AV records of Munroe and his people. Especially the record of this Manager Menoma who said interstellar society is arranged into predatory, star traveling peoples who claim ownership of systems occupied by herbivore peoples. And in the star systems of Epsilon Eridani and Omicron2 Eridani I have seen what these predators do to herbivore peoples.” Minamoto sighed. “Either humanity shows it is a predator people able to defend our home territory of Sol system, or we will come under the control of these predator Aliens. And believe me, in this case the predatory ‘look’ of these Aliens who resemble Earth’s keystone predators is no accident. These Aliens betray the result of natural selection operating on interstellar scales.”

  The Spanish admiral blinked, stood back from his desk, then frowned. “You violated your oath to the Unity! You disgraced your honor. No graduate of this academy has ever—”

  “Think!” Hideyoshi interrupted the man’s angry reply. “I joined the Unity Space Forces to protect humanity from lawlessness and violence. I fought in the First Belter Rebellion. And I ignored Brussels’ orders to me to kill all captured POWs. An order that you know violates the Rules of War and the early Geneva Conventions. Which apply even now, in a time of danger to all of humanity. I took a new oath to protect humanity from these Aliens. Will you do the same? And join us in this righteous fight?”

  Narváez grimaced, looked uncertain and licked his lips. Jack wondered if the man felt as torn between two duties as Jack now felt torn between his duty to family and his duty to his fleet comrades. The man shook his head. “No! Bring your cruiser back to Unity control and I can arrange for a lifting of all charges against you and your crew. Join the only Earth government that ended war on this planet! Come back to us!”

  Hideyoshi sighed, then looked to Jack. “I tried. The heavy cruiser Prince Otto von Bismarck and all the ships of our Mars fleet stand ready to follow your orders, Fleet Captain Jack Munroe.”

  The enemy officer flushed with fury. Jack raised his hand. �
��Admiral Narváez, you have three minutes to evacuate all staff and students from the academy buildings. I suggest you move them through the tunnel to the landing field. Oh, if our infrared sensors show any evidence of people moving from the field toward your academy, then your factory will join our strike targets.”

  “You dare threaten me!” the man screamed. “I am a fleet admiral! With forty years of space service! You are just a pirate too stupid to—”

  “Two minutes forty seconds. And I do hope you stay behind.” He looked back to Denise. “Shut off the Come-Back signal.”

  “Signal off,” Denise said softly.

  “Jack,” called Elaine. “What are you going to do?”

  “Destroy them all. Except for the factory,” he said. “As Blodwen said during the conference, we have to kill off these old dinosaurs in the hope that younger officers and leaders will arise on Earth. People who will choose to join us in freedom, rather than claim control over peoples who have fought all their lives for the freedom to be who they choose to be!”

  She sniffled. “How long will Cassie live?”

  “Maybe long enough for us to rescue her. Maureen will be joining our rescue effort. You and Denise and Blodwen now control the Uhuru. Cross-link to the Battle Module and use its weapons against the academy,” he said. Jack fixed on the admiral and captains who now gave him their sole attention. “My allies, let us use our antimatter beams to kill those laser mounts and the six academy buildings.” He looked to Elaine, whose narrow chin quivered with emotion. “Give us the countdown.”

  She nodded jerkily, touching her Sensor panel. “One minute, twelve seconds. Eleven seconds. Ten seconds—”

  Jack looked back at his lifemate Nikola, whose pale blue eyes shone with sympathy for his plight. He looked beyond her to Max. “My buddy, will you join me in a Lander assault on that factory building? We will be able to land without danger, once their radar, maser, lidar and laser mounts are destroyed. There’s a blizzard coming in from the Ross Ice Shelf. It will give us cover as we come in. And I doubt they will have lookouts on the hangar roof with infrared goggles. They’ll be too busy handling the inflow of three hundred students and faculty.”

  His Polish comrade crossed muscular arms, lifted his thick black eyebrows and grinned. “How many do we take with us? Beyond you, me and Maureen?”

  “Me!” yelled Ignacio from the front screen. Jack looked back to the cabin’s front. His black-mustached Basque brother held his boina beret in both hands. “Pick me up! You are of my clan. And I would fight beside you in memory of my two dead cousins.”

  Jack winced. The man’s claim was too real to ignore. “Put on your combat outfit. With pistol and sword. We’ll pick you up in our lander.”

  “Fleet Captain!” called Hideyoshi. Jack switched from Ignacio’s face to focus on the man who had stood up to his former academy mentor.

  “Yes?”

  “The Bismarck crew includes a platoon of fifteen space marines. They are trained in special ops and covert insertions.” The man’s oval face showed the strain of his effort to assist in assaulting his former academy. “They know the terrain. They know the tunnels. And there are three thermoplastic skylights on the roof of that factory that can be broken through as they rappel down from your Lander. Pick them up before you head down. Please.”

  Jack licked his lips. He had always admired Hideyoshi’s devotion to duty and the strength of character it had taken for the man to renounce his old Unity oath in favor of joining Jack’s anti-Alien crusade. The man had lost crewmates in their attack on the HikHikSot. Yet his loyalty to Jack and his Belter fleets had never wavered.

  “Agreed. And thank you. Max, Maureen and I will board the Anneli Korhonen shortly, just after our antimatter strikes hit the academy buildings. We will dock at your midbody airlock. My ally, do you . . . do you wish to join us in our assault?”

  The man’s stern look wavered, then became a pale smile. “Would like to. But cannot. When the fleet’s leader, you, is away from his ship, then my duty is to remain with the fleet and keep it safe from attack by others.” The man’s black eyes blinked slowly. “Your order, you recall. Right after we left the Nasen system.”

  “Twenty seconds,” came Elaine’s shaky voice.

  “Thank you. All fleet control is yours once I leave the Uhuru.” Jack unsnapped his seat restraint locks and stood up. He reached down and squeezed the vacsuited shoulder of Nikola, nodded to Elaine and Denise, then joined Max at the hatch entry to the Spine hallway. While Archibald had heard and watched everything silently from his rear cabin seat, Blodwen now showed tears in her pale green eyes as her lover went into danger with Jack. “Welsh lass, I’ll bring him back safe. I promise.”

  The two of them stepped through the hatch and into the Spine hallway, heading for the Lander hold. “Max, let’s pick up our pistols, swords, vests and backpacks from our rooms. We can shed our vacsuits once we enter Earth’s air. There are enviro-suits and weather protective face masks with full-range EMF sensors in the lander airlock. You looking forward to arriving like a ninja from the stars?”

  The man from Lodz chuckled. “Could be worse. It’s better than the red dotted underwear that Blodwen thinks is cute!”

  Jack knew better than to say anything about the clothing tastes of the man’s partner. “You handle the engines on the lander. I’ll handle the NavTrack module. Maureen will co-pilot and handle the lander’s lasers. Even with fifteen marines on board, our lander can hover on its belly jets long enough for us to rappel down to the roof!”

  Max patted his belly. “Good. I’ve got a few extra kilos that need to be shed. And this ground assault should help!”

  Jack smiled. While he did not need to lose weight, he did look forward to visiting Earth. And its horrible weather. The vacuum of space was a reliable environment. You lost vacsuit integrity, you lost your air. Your blood boiled briefly. Your eyeballs bulged. Then your body froze solid almost before you could realize it.

  On Earth, the weather did not kill. At first. It just made you suffer endlessly, wishing you were dead. Or so he had read in the accounts shared by his Belter friends who had visited Earth. Jack had never done so in his entire life. Now he would visit the planet of humanity’s birth. In the midst of a raging snow blizzard, hundred kilometer an hour winds and the smoking embers of buildings and laser mounts. So be it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Lander Anneli Korhonen descended through Earth’s upper atmosphere in a spiraling descent that soon placed them a mile above the two dry valleys that flanked the South Pole Naval Academy. A rare blizzard had moved in from the Ross Sea, pushing snow into the Dry Valleys faster than the landscape’s dry soil could absorb it or sublimate the crystals into vapor. Or so his onboard expert told him.

  “It’s called katabatic winds,” Maureen said from her seat beside him in the Pilot Cabin of the lander. “Normally all water, ice and snow evaporates before it can reach the desert floor of these valleys. This storm is rare. But fortunate for us. It will force people to stay inside the factory building.”

  “Thank you, Combat Commander. You are a fount of wisdom.”

  Chuckles sounded over his enviro-suit’s comlink tab. He recognized Max’s gruff tone and Ignacio’s dry rasp. Among the fifteen marine voices he detected the dry tone of Lieutenant Andy Mabry, a man whose family heritage went back to the Texas of old America. Mabry had twenty years in as a space marine special ops leader, a fact which he’d learned during the man’s chatting with Maureen.

  Jack tapped the NavTrack panel into slowing the lander’s descent, using belly jets that were not as loud as the howl of the blizzard wind outside. It was blowing at 100 kilometers an hour, pushing the white snowflakes down and then across the flaming wreckage that had once been the academy. Small yellow explosions spotted the landscape here and there as propane gas tanks thrown out by the initial matter-to-antimatter blasts now split open from sudden exposure to temperatures of minus 20 degrees centigrade. He gave thanks it was daytime ra
ther than night. At least the face masks each of them wore warmed the air they breathed, while giving them vision into the infrared, UV and low light conditions now prevailing in the middle of the blizzard.

  The NavTrack panel beeped. “Ship hovering ten meters above target location,” said the dry tone of the panel’s expert system.

  “Maintain hover relative to current GPS location. Respond only to the my voice print or that of Maureen O’Dowd,” Jack said.

  “Accepted,” the machine voice said.

  He unlocked the seat’s restraint straps and stood up, nearly bumping into Maureen as she did the same.

  “I go ahead of you, youngster!” she growled. “I’m your personal guard and don’t you forget it.”

  Jack knew better than to argue with the woman. Instead, he followed her into the lander’s cargo hold where Ignacio, Max, Lieutenant Mabry and fourteen space marines of both genders were standing and moving toward the midbody airlock of the lander. Each marine was attaching a rappelling rope to one of the ceiling hooks that were just outside of the inner airlock hatch. He had told the lander’s Eco-computer to allow the opening of the outer hatch without the closing of the inner hatch. It had not been a happy computer. The lander was designed for space, not for helitack style disbursement of people aiming to make a silent rappel down to a building roof, where they would use a soundless diamond saw to cut multiple openings in the central skylight. After which they would drop in on their rappelling cords. He had argued with Mabry that he and Maureen should be the first people down on the roof. The man had calmly pointed out that his people were trained to do what Jack, Maureen, Max and Ignacio had only practiced doing while on Mathilde. During their break time between games of soccer. Jack had accepted the man’s point, but made clear that he and his people would be the first to drop through the skylight. He owed it to his sister to be the first rescuer she might see. Even if she then died at the hands of nearby guards.