Starship Liberator
Page 31
“Thank you, sir. I shall pass that on to the crew.”
Straker recalled Engels’ words, about how the crew—his crew—looked up to him. He had to start thinking like a ship’s captain and a unit commander, not just a mechsuiter, and part of that was making sure his people knew how much he valued them. “Chief Gurung…thanks. We’re damn lucky to have a man like you. Let me and the other officers know how we can help you, but I’m relying on you to keep the ship running and the crew steady.”
Gurung smiled broadly. “That’s what chiefs do, sir. I won’t let you down.”
“And Chief… you understand that there’s nothing above us out here, right? No chain of command, no regulations, no legal system, just us and the discipline we maintain. In fact, there’s no particular reason you should recognize my authority.”
Gurung shook his head and pointed a scolding finger. “Oh, yes sir, there is. You are the captain. A crew needs a captain, and vice versa. Otherwise we’re as bad as that disgusting mob we left behind. If you are not the captain, show me who is.”
“Well said. And every captain needs a good chief.” Straker looked over at Heiser. “And a good first sergeant.”
Heiser snorted. “You’re promoting me three ranks? I don’t even have any marines! …sir.”
“Chief, how many can you spare?”
The little man’s mouth puckered as if he’d sucked on a lemon. “I can give up Nazario and Redwolf, sir. Both of them were dirt soldiers. They’re also as dumb as a bucket of rocks. I’m afraid to let them touch anything.”
“Perfect,” Heiser said, rubbing his hands together theatrically. “I’ll whip them into shape.”
“Good,” Straker said. “You senior noncoms work together and keep the crew too busy to get into trouble. Lieutenant Engels is my second-in-command and Loco—Lieutenant Paloco—is next in line.”
“What about Lieutenant Zaxby?” asked Gurung, his face blanking. “The crew is quite unsure about him. There are rumors…”
“Zaxby had nothing to do with any human deaths. He was vital to our escape, in fact. And he’s absolutely critical for our survival right now.”
“But is he considered a line officer?”
Straker looked up at the overhead, thinking. “Not right now. Listen to what he says and do it if it makes sense. If you have a problem, come to me.”
Just then, the intercom chimed. “Captain to the bridge,” said Zaxby’s voice.
Chapter 30
The Starfish Nebula.
“What’s up, Zaxby?” Engels asked as she slipped through the narrow door to the bridge, beating the men there by taking a shortcut through the ship’s centerline railgun assembly, a pilot’s trick.
“I have opened the way into the asteroid,” Zaxby replied.
The octopoid had already taken the pilot’s seat, and Engels didn’t bother to dispute his right. If this really were a Ruxin facility, it would be better to have him at the controls. She slid into the ops position. “You sure there’s no automated defenses ready to blast us?”
“Reasonably sure. I have researched facilities such as this and know all the standard layouts and schemes.”
Engels gave him a wide-eyed look. She was learning that sometimes Zaxby’s exact phrasing hid lawyer-like pitfalls.
“Facilities such as this, but not this one?” she asked.
Straker came in then, followed by Loco. Engels held up a hand to silence them, still staring at Zaxby and waiting for an answer.
Zaxby shifted in his seat. “Obviously not,” he admitted. “This is an unknown facility. I have been gathering rumors of its existence for decades from any of my people I could speak with, hoping to extrapolate its position by a process of elimination.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone before?” Straker asked.
“I did not want to present rumors without proof. In fact, I was just getting ready to take some leave time and rent a sidespace-capable yacht to come here when we were captured.”
Straker smiled. “Lucky you didn’t, or you’d have led others right to it.”
“How the hell could you afford to rent a jump-capable yacht?” asked Loco.
“I’d been saving my pay for decades. In fact, I joined the Fleet specifically so I could learn piloting and ship operations.”
“That’s some dedication. Good job, Zax,” said Engels, trying to get the alien back on track. “Now, what’s inside?”
“Why don’t we look and find out?” Zaxby accelerated the ship smoothly and lined up on the end of the asteroid, now showing a tunnel barely big enough to fit the corvette.
“Um…” Engels strapped in as the ship entered the shaft and the screens went dark. “Can you see?”
“I can see quite well. Ah, but you cannot, with your limited vision. Adjust the screens, sensors, and illumination, please.”
“Right.” Engels set the displays to show all sensor returns in human visual wavelengths, while Loco activated landing lights and radar. On the main forward holoplate, the tunnel sprang into view. Zaxby seemed to be piloting the corvette down the exact middle at a leisurely pace.
Minutes later, the tunnel ended in an open space some twenty kilometers long and five wide, the hollow middle of the oblong asteroid. In the very center, illuminated by the corvette’s lights and radars, floated one of the oddest, ugliest ships Engels had ever seen.
It rivaled an orbital cargo tug in its ungainly appearance. Most warships were symmetrical, shaped like cylinders with rounded or pointed ends, the better to maneuver and to turn specific aspects to their enemies.
This one, however, looked like a fat groundcar tire with a thick axle running through the middle, one end twice as long as the other. Eight metal tentacles splayed on each end of this spindle, as if for grasping something that wasn’t there. The “tire” showed the lumpiness of sensors, drive field emitters, thrusters and weapons ports, arranged with no rhyme or reason Engels could see.
“What the hell is that?” she asked.
“I am certain it’s an Archerfish, usually just called an Archer,” Zaxby answered.
Straker stared at the monstrosity. “Archerfish?”
“The closest analogy in Earthan. Archerfish attack airborne creatures without leaving the water. Archer warships were some of the most effective my people ever commissioned. I’ve known of them my entire life, but the only one I ever saw was part of a museum.”
“You had time to visit museums?”
“You had your beaches and your rum and your sex, whether in or out of VR. We Ruxins love museums and libraries.”
“And sex,” said Loco.
“Yes, I admit, and sex. But only during the mating time, after a lovely stroll through a museum with the objects of my affection.”
“Objects, plural?” said Loco.
“I told you Ruxins have three genders.”
“Nice. Every encounter’s a threesome.”
“Of course. Much superior to any binary species.”
“Would you two knock it off?” Straker said. “Zaxby, tell me about this Archer of yours.”
Zaxby focused in closer and extended a tentacle toward the screen as a pointer. “Fusion engines. Thrusters. Missile tube. Laser. Sidespace engine. Underspace engine. Sen–”
Straker interrupted, “Underspace engine? What the hell is an underspace engine?”
“Isn’t it obvious? An engine that transfers the ship into underspace.”
“And just what the hell is underspace? I’ve never heard of underspace!”
“I have,” said Engels, remembering something she’d learned a while back. “Fleet vessels have underspace detectors, but they never detect anything that I know of. I asked a sensor tech once why that was, and she couldn’t tell me. Said they trained her to work the machinery and report, but everyone she knew thought it was obsolete tech.”
“Perhaps if your female will stop speaking, Captain, I could explain underspace properly.”
Engels sputtered, indignant. “I’m not�
� Well, okay, I guess I am, but you shouldn’t talk to me that way, Zaxby.”
“I fail to see how I should talk to you otherwise. Didn’t you tell me that our friendship should not affect our professional conduct during operations?”
“Doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk about it,” she said. “Aliens. Just when you think you know them…”
“Jerk: a contemptibly obnoxious person. If I were not a consummate professional, I might be hurt by your characterization. Now do you want the benefits of my copious knowledge, or shall I leave you to your amateurish anecdotes?”
“You ever want a head rub again?”
“I can rub my own head if need be.”
“I do that myself every now and then,” said Loco.
Engels blanched. “Ew.”
Straker held up an emphatic hand. “Everyone shut the hell up. Get on with it, Zaxby. Underspace…”
Zaxby mimicked a very human shrug. “Underspace is a dimensional set, just as sidespace is a dimensional set. However, while sidespace spreads out in all directions, allowing speedy travel by accessing a broad range of locations simultaneously and choosing a different exit point in normal space, underspace spreads only inward, though it is more convenient to think of it as downward.”
Loco’s brow furrowed. “Huh? Inward? Downward?”
Zaxby nodded happily. “Exactly.”
Straker said, “Look, none of us is a brainiac like you, Zaxby, but we understand how to travel through sidespace with a ship. What is underspace used for? What do you do with it, in practical terms?”
Zaxby made a sighing noise, as if putting up with such dense beings pained him. “In practical terms, the underspace engine moves the Archer into a different dimensional state, but doesn’t facilitate travel. It remains where it is or it can maneuver, congruent to normal space, but shifted downward into underspace, invisible to all but specialized detection.”
“Then it’s a cloaking device?” Loco asked.
“No, no, no! The ship actually vanishes from normal space and is compressed into underspace.”
“Compressed?” said Engels. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Along with the underspace engine, the Archer must use a specialized field to protect itself and its crew from the effects of underspace.”
“And if that field fails?”
“Then the ship and everything in it will freeze. Underspace as a whole remains very close to absolute zero temperature. If not protected by the field, all heat will quickly bleed away.”
“Why don’t they insulate the ship better?” asked Engels.
“Insulation is of no use because the heat is not lost through the skin of the ship. Rather, on an unshielded ship, underspace absorbs the motion, and therefore the heat, from every molecule simultaneously, just as gravity’s space-time curvature acts on every atom simultaneously in normal space. You cannot insulate against underspace any more than you can insulate against gravity.”
Straker began rubbing his hands as if beginning to see the possibilities. “So this ship can disappear at will into underspace. It can only be detected by specialized sensors, sensors that I bet only warships or scouts have, right?”
“That stands to reason,” Zaxby said. “Civilian ships would be unlikely to waste credits, mass, or power on underspace detectors.”
“And when in underspace, the Archer is impervious to ordinary weapons?”
“In most cases. Electromagnetics and beam weapons, kinetic energy and conventional explosives have little effect on underspace. Thermonuclear explosions carry over, but weakly, needing multiple direct hits on the Archer’s congruent location to do major damage.”
“How do warships fight a vessel like this, then?”
“Historically, they carried specialized missiles equipped with their own underspace engines, protective fields, and seeker heads. They would be fired into underspace to attack the undetected ships by homing on them. The combination of field intersection and kinetic collision could severely damage one of these vessels. It would be unlikely to survive more than a few such strikes. Sometimes only one was enough.”
“So it’s a stealth ship.”
“A what?” said Loco.
“You don’t read enough military history, Loco. Stealth technology was big on Old Earth in their wet navies—”
“—seawater again?” Loco demanded. “I’m bored already.”
“—yeah whatever, but some of our old vessels could submerge for defense and stealth, or even bend light to avoid radar detection and attack targets by surprise.”
“These Archers are our proudest military achievement,” Zaxby said.
“So why didn’t you share the tech with allies?” Engels asked.
“My government determined we couldn’t risk it falling into Hok hands. It was our only major advantage. Later, when we were losing anyway, it was too late. The few remaining ships fled to places like this, all but forgotten by those Ruxins like me who managed to reach the Hundred Worlds.”
Straker continued to move restlessly in the tiny space, repeatedly slapping his fist into his palm. “But you say they haven’t been used in a long time?”
“Over eighty years, I believe, since my homeworld fell. Once shipborne countermeasures became common, my people lost too many Archers, and their use was reduced to only a few reconnaissance craft. Eventually even those were decommissioned in favor of cheaper robotic probes. Unfortunately, these ships were our only combative advantage over the Hok. Without them, our home system was inevitably conquered.”
“How does it attack?” Straker asked.
“Our simplest weapons system is the float mine.”
“Explain that one...”
“The ship maneuvers to a place close to a target, but not inside it.”
“Inside it?” Straker asked in alarm. “How could it be inside it?”
“I’m using a crude analogy. There’s a point in normal space congruent to the Archer’s location. As the ship maneuvers within underspace, the point moves with it. That point can be anywhere, even inside solid matter.”
“And what happens when something materializes within solid matter?” Straker asked.
Zaxby rolled all four eyes. “It’s not materialization; it’s a simple emergence from underspace to normal space. If an object emerges into normal space inside a solid object, then the two sets of molecules tend to interact violently.”
“In practical terms?”
“Captain Straker, you seem to be over-focused on the practical. Can you not, even for one moment, appreciate the beauty of my people’s scientific and technological prowess without constantly debasing its glory with such venal questions?”
Straker growled, “I’m not totally sure what you said, but it sounded insulting. Don’t make me slap you around. Answer the question.”
“Your vulgar threats are unnecessary. I hate the Mutuality as much as you do.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Zaxby shifted to a posture of questioning amusement. “Why, it is obvious to anyone with a brain as large as mine that you wish to employ this amazing vessel to discomfit the Mutuality and their Hok military slaves in some nefarious manner.”
“If by all that blather you mean I want to get this ship working again and stick it to our enemies, then yes, you got it. Now keep explaining, and dumb it down to my level.”
“That would be an accomplishment indeed,” Zaxby replied with an air of longsuffering. “If an object in underspace emerges inside something in normal space, the heat generated is usually enough to melt and mix the two materials, but not enough to cause a spontaneous explosion unless volatile chemicals are involved. Depending on the kindling temperature of the substance, fire is quite likely.”
“So, not enough violence to destroy a warship.”
“Not by mere emerging, no. Float mines were traditionally equipped with fusion warheads.”
“So they would blow up a ship from the inside.”
“No, no, no! Nuclear detonation is a delicate process. Emerging inside solid material would cause the warhead to malfunction. Optimally, the float mine was deployed as close to the outside of the target as possible, set to detonate as soon as it achieved normal space. This was a matter requiring great skill and expertise. The best captains and crews became legends for destroying multiple enemies per cruise.”
Straker couldn’t keep a predator’s grin from spreading across his face. “Oh, baby, I can see the possibilities of this ship if we can get it working.”
“It is likely we can get it working,” Zaxby said. “My people’s engineering is impeccable, and this ship appears undamaged. It is also one of the largest, latest models. However, that is not to say it will be easy. There may be no fuel or power after all this time, and any fissionables within warheads will have degraded into uselessness.”
“Yeah, but I’m not thinking of going up against military vessels anyway. Not at first, if ever. But with this ship, we can do a lot of sneaky things, especially if they never think to look for us. Our best defense will be the fact that they’ve forgotten all about these ships.”
“It would make one hell of a freebooter,” Loco mused.
“Or a liberator,” Straker replied. “Zax, you said it has sidespace engines too?”
“Of course.”
“And while in underspace, it can maneuver?”
“Yes.”
“Does it have any other weapons besides those, um, float mines?”
“Later versions like this one carried missiles in order to stand off farther from their enemies, and mounted beam weapons for use against unarmed targets in order to conserve ammunition or allow for capture of freighters. Of course, as time went on, the Mutuality armed even their freighters and transports.”