“Blodwen, why the hell would amphibian-evolved people like these Booleans choose to live inland, far from the oceans and beaches?”
“Many reasons,” she said. “While amphibian in look and body shape, these Boolean have adapted to spending their lives on dry land. On Earth the ancestors of whales and porpoises were once land animals who went back to the sea. The reverse happened several times in the vertebrate evolution of animals on Earth.” She paused. Jack heard the sound of her tapping on her Sociology station panel. “These Booleans not only returned to the land of their home world, they built an industrial complex capable of putting ships into space. Which these praying mantis arthropods also did, judging by their fusion ships.”
“Understood. Any idea how much of the arthropod populace supports these rebels?”
She laughed. But it was not scornful. “If a third of that space academy class really did defect to the rebels, that may mean a third of these arthropods are rebels. On this world of TiktikPok and on that colony on a moon that orbits planet four.”
Well, he could hope that was the case. “Denise, do we know what these praying mantis arthropods call themselves?”
“Yes. Their species name is Bizzdaw,” she said. “They appear to be dryland arthropods that evolved in dense forests, then spread out to the savannahs, deserts and mountains of the world we now see on the screen.”
“Maureen, what is your analysis of this three-cornered fight between two groups of Bizzdaw and the Booleans?”
The darkly tanned woman looked up from her Fire Control panel in the Battle Module. She frowned. “I read the two thermonuke blasts at planet four, or GikgikHok, as a rebel ship firing on an Imperator ship. Or vice versa. The single thermonuke blast above the gas giant Tootag, at the sixth orbital, could be an attack on a Boolean ship. There are two fusion ships near that world. One or both of them could be rebel ships.”
Jack nodded. “So how do we know which fusion ships are rebels and which are loyal to this Imperator boss?”
She fixed gray eyes on him. “Go to the moon that orbits planet four. Kill the four Boolean ships orbiting that world. Then call down to the moon and ask to talk to the rebels.” She grinned. “Maybe offer them a steak and a bottle of your Johnny Walker Black Label as a bribe.”
Jack gave his veteran a Belter finger-talk gesture that he was sure she had seen often. “Well, that’s one option. I like it.” He looked up at the images of his allies. “Admiral Hideyoshi, think we can FTL jump to that fourth world and englobe the Boolean ships fast enough to kill them?”
“Yes. If we use our Higgs Disruptor beams.” The man’s formal manner was there, but with a professional overlay.
Jack winced at the thought of losing four grav-pull drives. Then he recalled something Archibald had told him while they were at the orbital station of the Melagun people, just above their world of Home. “Good idea, my admiral. We have 18 grav-pulls already salvaged from the battles in the systems of the Niktoren and ChikHo. Plus Archibald has figured out how to create a globe of Thorne Exotic Matter so we can build our own grav-pulls. So. We play it safe. We vaporize every damn Boolean ship with our Higgs Disruptors!”
Relief showed on the faces of most captains, including Hideyoshi. While one reason for liberating ‘subject people’ star systems had been the chance to salvage grav-pull drives from Hunter ships they killed, that rationale had been superseded by Archibald’s research effort with that Melagun scientist. He sighed. Perhaps they should have just vaporized the Gyklang ships in the ChikHo system. That would have left alive Aashman’s Sikh crewman and avoided the kidney puncture to Matthias along with the leg injury of Ignacio. From which his brother still limped, albeit with his wild abandon still intact. A choice he perhaps should have made. Well, his allies had not said a word of this to Jack. They were loyal, brave and willing to risk death for the freedom of humanity and the liberty of Alien peoples who chose to join their Freedom Alliance. Time for him to re-earn that loyalty.
“Max, send a laser time-lock to the Alcubierre drive of every fleet ship. I want us to jump in system, to where those four Boolean ships are clustered. Looks like they are on the side of the gas world that is opposite the rebel moon.”
His buddy grinned, gave Jack a thumbs-up sign and tapped hurriedly on his Alcubierre drive pedestal that stood between his seat and Denise. “Drive link-up locked in. Ready to activate the Alcubierre space-time manifold.”
Jack caught the attention of six vital people. “Captain Vigdis of the Hawk, Captain Heloise of the Ferocious, Captain Gareth of the Dragon, Captain Forsyth of the Zhukov, Captain Amitar of the MacArthur and Admiral Hideyoshi of the Bismarck, you hold the fate of this final invasion in your hands. Fire your Higgs beams at full strength with a hundred kilometer footprint at the far end of your beam.”
“D’accord,” said Heloise, her manner French formal.
“Happy to do so,” Forsyth said, a grin on his Aussie face.
“Committed we are,” said Vigdis, her blond hair pulled into a ponytail.
“Ready to fire,” Amitar said, her manner as professional as Hideyoshi’s. Which made sense. Like him she was a graduate of the South Pole Naval Academy, someone with years at the helm of her destroyer.
Gareth grinned, his black beard spreading widely. “Delighted to kill those seal bastards!”
“As you command, my fleet captain,” said Hideyoshi, whose face showed resolute firmness under his helmet.
“Thank you. All ships, we leave now!”
The front screen went blurry, then jagged, then lost all imagery as Max moved the Uhuru into the Alcubierre space-time bubble that became a manifold within the larger space-time of their universe. They sped in-system at four light years per day. Which meant they would arrive above planet four in just minutes.
“Thank you, my brother,” Elaine said softly.
A hand touched his shoulder. “You lead. We support,” Nikola said, her tone upbeat.
Jack blinked fast. His heart beat rapidly. His neck felt wet. And his mouth was too dry. He grabbed the water bottle and put it against the intake tube of his helmet ring. He sucked hard. Icy cold water filled his mouth. Swallowing, he swore to himself that Nikola would become the Mom she had long hoped to be. A top astronomer and Dark Matter researcher she was. But she was also a woman who wanted a family. With him.
Silently he gave thanks to the Odd Gods of the universe for his lifemate, his sisters, his parents, his crew and his ship allies. Whatever happened from here on out, he knew he had become the man his grandpa Ephraim had raised him to be.
♦ ♦ ♦
A gas giant half the size of Saturn filled the front screen. Yellow, orange and red bands crossed its massive face. Between it and his fleet lay four Boolean ships. Each ship was a golden yellow globe. Laser mounts showed in an equatorial ring. Jack noticed a particle beam emitter at the globe’s north pole. It looked fixed in place. Between the north pole and the equator was painted the image of a white-fanged seal with two eyes. It matched the AV image of the beater Alien. And the corpse recovered from a wrecked ship in an earlier system. Distance to the four Boolean ships was nine thousand kilometers, according to Elaine’s Sensor display at one side of the screen.
Six yellow beams speared out.
The four ships shone brightly. Their golden hulls seemed to expand outward, as if pulled by a magnet. Then they came apart, opening ship interiors to a vacuum so cold it was beyond frigid. Death cold it was.
But that ship fragmentation did not last. Every piece of metal, Boolean seal-octopus, water, air, fusion reactor and electronics became a haze of disassociated particles as the strong nuclear force that held electrons, neutrons, protons, hadrons, fermions and quarks in close association vanished. The Higgs Field that relied on Higgs bosons to give every particle mass and the ability to attach to each other had vanished. No mass meant no gravity. At least within the embrace of the yellow beams.
Four white clouds occupied the space that had once been occupied by fou
r Boolean spaceships.
“Destruction complete,” Hideyoshi said calmly.
So it was. “Max, set up a time-lock laser link to the grav-pull drives of the fleet. Let’s go visit that rebel moon. But keep us distant from the two fusion ships until we know whose side they are on.”
“Activating. Going to grav-pull.”
The front screen image of the world GikgikHok went hazy, then jagged as gravitational lensing distorted the reflected sunlight. The faces of his fellow captains also became hazy as the laser comlink lost coherence. He scanned his Tech panel for ship systems status. They were all green, including the new starboard laser pod that had been welded onto the sheared off section by engineers from Bismarck, with help from the ChikHo microgee engineers. With a shock he realized he was not thirsty. On stage he was. Leading his fleet and his people he was. But somehow, somewhen, his stage fright had disappeared.
“Exiting grav-pull,” Max said loudly.
The moon Nootok occupied the middle of the true-light image received by Nikola’s Schmidt scope. Looking to be the size of Venus, the moon was white-clouded, with a dense atmosphere. Brown land showed below the clouds, with green clusters showing near the equator. Giant ice caps cover the north and south poles. Three small seas too small to be called oceans separated four land continents. Two continents were centered on the warmer equator, while the other two were near the polar regions. City lights showed in fourteen spots across the four continents. Two conical fusion drive ships orbited above the eastern horizon. They were 200,000 klicks distant, according to Elaine’s Sensor scan at the right of the true-light image.
“Denise, put me on AV broadcast on the channel used by the city news report,” Jack said. “Rebels they may be, but everyone wants to hear the news from home. And be ready to transmit a side AV image of our recent destruction of the Boolean ships.”
“Done. Your words will be transmitted in the Bizzdaw language. Go ahead.”
He unlocked his restraint straps and stood up. He left Old Roy on the floor beside his seat. “Bizzdaw people of the moon Nootok, I am Jack Munroe, guide for the human biped people you see behind me. And for our fleet of 23 spaceships. We come from the world of Earth, which orbits the star Sol, at a distance of 40 light years.” He gestured to Denise to transmit the battle vidrecord. “Just now we fought and destroyed four ships of your Boolean occupiers. We understand some of you on this moon resist the Boolean occupation with force. As other Bizzdaw do on the continent of Green Forest on your home world of TiktikPok. We humans defeated carnivore predators who tried to conquer our system. We offer you help in your battle against the Booleans. Or we will leave your system if asked to do so. Please reply.”
“Jack,” called Elaine. “The fusion ships are moving to place themselves between us and the moon. But they are keeping to their orbital vector.”
“Damn,” grumbled Maureen from the holo beside his seat.
“Patience Combat Commander.” Jack wondered how long it would take for a Bizzdaw rebel or rebels to respond. “There are still 15 Boolean ships in this system. You will have your target practice.”
“Incoming AV signal! From a city on the equatorial continent,” called Denise. “Going up front.”
The image of the white-clouded moon moved to one side as the screen’s middle filled with the incoming AV broadcast.
Four Bizzdaw arthropods stood facing him. Two were taller than the other two. They stood inside a red-painted room with no windows. Their brown exoskeletons shone under a yellow light. The compound eyes of each praying mantis arthropod fixed on him. Chitin-toothed mouths opened. Words were spoken by one of them.
“We are the Socitors,” said the tall Bizzdaw on the far right. “We oppose the Imperator because his clan accepts the rulership of the Boolean animals. Two of our ships orbit above us, providing protection to our people. Why do you contact us?”
Jack sighed. Now it began. “We humans oppose the galactic society of carnivore predators who rule subject peoples. We oppose the eating of subject peoples. We destroyed the Gyklang occupation of a star system not far from your star. See this imagery of our battle against the Gyklang.” He gestured to Denise to broadcast the vidrecord of their battles in the ChikHo system. “We are prepared to destroy every Boolean ship in your system. But we need your guidance as to which fusion drive ship belongs to your Socitor cause, and which to the Imperator. While you must replace this Imperator yourself, we are willing to return your system to Bizzdaw control. And perhaps to trade some of our technology for your fuels, water, food and other supplies we use in our star-to-star journeys.”
The four Bizzdaw moved into a cluster, talking softly among themselves. The tallest one faced Jack. “My clan calls me True Friend. If you destroy the Boolean inertia-free ships, we can lead our people on TiktikPok to throw off the Imperator’s clan. But our lives have taught us that nothing is free. There is always a price to pay. What is your price for driving out the Booleans?”
Jack wished his grandpa Ephraim could have been here now, to hear this ancient statement of social reality. “True Friend, we invite your people to join our Freedom Alliance. It is a grouping of people who say all people, whether omnivore, herbivore or carnivore, should be free to travel among the stars. So we work against the Hunters of the Great Dark, who claim only carnivore predators may travel star-to-star.” Jack saw the two smaller arthropod people making complex gestures with their upper and middle griparms. “Your females will not lose younglings newly hatched from your eggs to the hunger of the Boolean animals. Nor will any Bizzdaw be beaten by a Boolean. We plan to destroy the Boolean colony on Green Forest. Is this acceptable to you?”
“Yes!” buzzed a shorter Bizzdaw. “We Mothers have long sought freedom from this terrible practice of eating our younglings. Destroy the Boolean ships. Kill their colony. And all Bizzdaw everywhere in this system will join with you Humans in this Freedom Alliance!”
True Friend folded his upper griparms together, in a sign Jack took to be agreement with the female’s statement. “So how do we tell which spaceship is a Socitor ship and which an Imperator ship?”
The four Bizzdaw arthropods buzzed among themselves. The female stepped forward on her lower leg pair. “That is simple to do. Every Imperator ship is warmer than any Socitor ship.” She blinked black compound eyes. “We Socitors are used to living in colder environments. Which is why we founded the colony on this moon. It is too cold for the Imperator clan and those Bizzdaw who love the heat of our equatorial continent. Every Imperator ship will be twenty percent warmer than our ships, which you can see easily. Put your sensors on our ships and you will know which are Socitor and which are Imperator.”
“Easily done,” Elaine said. “The two ships below us are infrared radiating at an internal temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or 21 centigrade. The Imperator ships must be nearly 85 degrees inside. We can tell which is which long before we are in weapons range.”
“Thank you True Friend and Mother,” Jack said. “Please send word to your Socitor friends on TiktikPok and in orbit above Tootag of our efforts. Advise them to keep distant from our ship clan. They will be safe that way.”
“We will send the message,” True Friend said. “Return when you can. While you are soft-skinned like the Booleans, you have two arms like our upper arm pair, and legs with feet like our lower pair. You are dry land evolved. Our people will not confuse you with the Boolean water creatures.”
Jack smiled. Strange how evolution brought bioform changes that both separated people and also brought them together. “We will return. But now we leave to destroy the Boolean ships.”
The Socitor AV signal vanished, leaving the image of the moon to float in the front screen. Jack looked up at his allies. “Fleet, we will Alcubierre jump to the home world of these Bizzdaw. That way we can surprise the nine Boolean ships that now orbit above it. Let our Higgs Disruptor ships fire first!”
Every captain smiled or gave a sign of agreement. Hideyoshi nodded calmly. B
ut his normally stiff manner had loosened. It seemed the Mars admiral liked the results of Jack’s human-to-Alien negotiations. “Fleet Captain Jack, the Bismarck and every ship of Mars are ready to attack!”
He waved acknowledgment, then looked back to Max. “Drive Engineer, put us all into Alcubierre. And take us to a spot above the north pole of the world TiktikPok. That will give us clear line-of-sight to the nine ships in orbit about that world.”
“Activating. Entering Alcubierre space-time manifold,” Max said, his manner engineer calm. “Exit in three minutes.”
Jack turned, sat in his Tech seat, locked his straps, pulled his Tech panel over his lap and activated the Tactical Display. He tapped on the Fire Control for the two laser pods of the Uhuru. While the Higgs ships should be able to kill every Boolean ship, there were also six fusion ships in orbit above the home world. Some or all of them were likely Imperator ships. Which might attack his fleet when they saw their Boolean masters being turned into clouds of white dust. He grinned at the holo of Maureen.
“Hey, grandma! You ready to pop some rivets on those Imperator ships?”
The woman scowled at him. “Watch your tongue, youngling! And leave the fighting to me. I’ve got a score to settle with these interstellar cannibals!”
Was that a sign his Belfast veteran wanted revenge for the damage to Gareth’s ship? No matter to him, so long as she fought.
“Bet you I can fire our lasers faster than you can activate your particle and antimatter beams!”
Anger filled her gray eyes. Briefly. Then she shook a gloved finger at him. “Nice try. Now learn from your elders!”
And learn he did.
Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Page 27
