by M. D. Cooper
“It feels so strange not to be doing anything,” Cheeky said from where she ‘stood’ next to Jessica. “We’re just watching while your children do all the work—your children that are just a few days old.”
Jessica nodded. “Every battle I’ve ever witnessed, I’ve been a part of. To stand by while my kids fight it….”
“You’re not standing by, Mom,” Kira said, turning to give a comforting smile from her console. “You’re supporting us. This is what you made us for. We won’t disappoint you.”
<’Made us for’,> Jessica said to Iris.
Jessica shook her head slowly.
Iris nodded in Jessica’s mind, exuding certainty,
Jessica gave a mental laugh.
Jessica couldn’t fault that logic, and was considering its implications as Trevor’s hand found hers.
“It must almost be time,” he said.
“Very nearly,” Jessica agreed.
Trevor sighed. “I wish they didn’t have to do this.”
Jessica looked up at her husband. “You were the one who was so insistent about this.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish it could turn out some other way. Still, I wouldn’t trade our time with them for anything.”
Jessica nodded, unable to find fault in that statement.
“Fire!” Tanis cried.
All at once, dozens of beams flared from Essy, and Aggie, neutrons degrading into degenerate matter poured through space at near-luminal speeds, slicing into the Orion ships—many of which had fallen into predictable jinking patterns as their ranks tightened.
One thousand Orion ships ceased to exist in the fifteen seconds it took for the beams to streak through the black, and the light from the events to reach the observers.
“Yes!” Troy cried as Tanis directed new beamfire, burning away more and more of the enemy vessels.
It was grim work. Over three-hundred thousand ships had come in through the insystem FTL point, vessels now being swept out of existence by her children’s punishing weapons.
Jessica wasn’t certain if it was too easy, or if the efficacy was from the skill her children possessed. Still, something seemed wrong.
“If there were so many ships arrayed around the system, why are they only attacking through the FTL jump point?” Jessica asked aloud.
“Maybe we tipped their hand and they attacked before they were ready,” Cargo suggested.
“Maybe,” Jessica mused. “It seems rash, though. Not the sort of thing I would expect this opponent to do. They had prepared long and hard for this; what they’re doing right now is a throwaway effort…”
“Do you think?” Cheeky asked.
“It’s a distraction!” Jessica called out. “Tanis, this is not the main attack. Something else is going on!”
“Terry,” Jessica called the young woman over from where she stood with Nance. “Cheeky was telling me about the great work you did with Finaeus detecting the stealthed ships.”
“She was?” Terry asked, looking surprised.
Cheeky nodded and Jessica continued. “You worked out some way to detect eddies in the super-heated hydrogen to find the positions of their stealth vessels. We’ve not seen any of those stealth vessels yet, so we have to assume they’re here.”
“Yeah, but that’s interstellar space,” Terry said. “We’re in the heliosphere…. Oh, you’re right! There’s no solar wind in this system. It’ll be filled with the interstellar hydrogen!”
Tanis must have been listening, because she was instantly beside them. “Terry, open your mind to me, explaining will take too long.”
Terry swallowed and nodded and a look of enlightenment came over Tanis’s face. “Got it!”
Nothing happened for several minutes, and then new ships began to appear in their visualization of the battlespace.
These new ships were nowhere near the rest of the Orion fleet. In fact, they were almost right on top of Star City, Jessica saw hundreds, no thousands of the ships on approach, some only one thousand kilometers from the shell of the city.
Her children managing the beams from Aggie redirected their fire from the main fleet to the now-visible stealth ships. Point defense beams also lanced out from Star City, delivering withering barrages of antimatter-powered proton beams.
The bulk of the stealth ships were gone in minutes, and Jessica’s breath caught as she thought of all the crews who were gone, their bodies—if bodies even remained—floating through the black.
Forty of the stealth ships managed to reach Star City, braking hard, and settling on the surface of the dyson sphere.
Ships further out began jettisoning escape pods, an action Jessica did not blame them for.
“Seems like they have correctly estimated their chances of making it to Star City,” Trevor said quietly. “Why don’t the crews of the other ships that came through the dark layer do the same?”
Jessica considered it for a moment. “They must be piloted by NSAI—I’d bet there are no human crews on any of those ships.”
“Must be why it’s so easy to pick them off,” Kira said. “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“Yeah, just thousands of fish in a barrel the size of Star City,” Amanda replied. “Stay focused, Kira.”
“I am focused. I just took out nineteen ships with a single shot,” Kira replied archly.
“Kids…” Jessica said, unsure of what to add.
She hadn’t needed to finish her statement, both Amanda and Kira returned to their task, while Jessica sought out Yohan and Tanis, both of whom were standing at the back of the floating platform, staring down at Star City.
“Can they get through?” Jessica asked, referring to the forty ships on the surface.
“It’s a question of time,” Yohan said. “Aggie is beyond the horizon from them, so it can’t excise their ships. We do have internal defense batteries…”
“So, what you’re saying is, until Aggie is able to fire on them again, they can work at trying to get through the sphere?” Jessica asked. “Do you have defense drones at all?”
Tanis nodded. “We have atmospheric drones. If they get through the sphere we can fight them off, but they may drop bombs through the entrance and harm the Dreamers.”
“And they’ll target your towers,” Jessica said. “Since they’re in the only cities, they stand out.”
“They are attempting to breach one of the entrances,” Yohan said.
Their view of the sphere shifted, and Jessica could see five cruisers settled onto the scorched surface of Star City near the same entrance she had flown the Sexy through. Streams of soldiers were moving toward what appeared to be a small access point.
Beamfire lanced out from the access point, but it diminished as the Orion Guard soldiers massed.
“They’ll break through,” Tanis said with a shake of her head. “Mom, I need you and your team up there. You have combat skill that the automatons at our disposal do not. When you get close, we’ll pass control of the ‘bots to Iris,
Erin, and the other AIs. You have to keep Orion from breaching that access point. From there they could override the door controls and fly their cruisers into Star City.”
“I get the risk,” Jessica replied. “Send us out of The Dream.”
“Good luck,” Tanis whispered, and then Jessica and the crew were settling back onto the platform in Eleven’s tower.
“Anyone who wants to stay behind, may, but Trevor, Cargo, Cheeky, and Nance. You’re on the assault team with me.”
“I’ll come,” Terry said. “Though maybe I should stay on the ship. I’m not so good with guns.”
“You’re going to need me to help if they breach the sphere,” Finaeus said from where he leaned up against the entrance.
“I thought you weren’t in The Dream,” Misha said.
“Eleven here sent me a feed so I could watch. Certainly a handy way for humans and AIs to coordinate their strategy—if a bit slow for the AIs.”
Jessica was already halfway across the platform by the time Finaeus finished speaking. “You’re a weird one, Finaeus. Won’t come in The Dream to protect your noggin, but you’ll come into a firefight.”
Finaeus shrugged as he fell in behind her. “What can I say? I like to be the master of my own destiny.”
“What about you, Misha?” Cargo asked. “You coming?”
Misha sighed. “And just when I was getting used to being the ship’s cook.”
* * * * *
Sabrina flew the ship up to the dock on the inside of Star City’s shell while the rest of the crew donned their armor in the hidden armory.
“We’re going to break into two fireteams, just like we’ve trained in the past. Finaeus, you’re with Trevor and I. Cheeky, Misha, and Nance, you’re with Cargo. Remember, out there your team-leader’s word is law. You respond instantly, and you take out all targets with extreme prejudice.”
“Relax, Jess,” Cheeky said. “This isn’t our first fight.”
Jessica shook her head and placed a hand on Cheeky’s shoulder. “It is against what are likely to be Orion’s best troops. Let’s just not make it our last. Remember. Objective is to take and hold the two control stations for the shell’s doors.”
She scanned the crew as they seated their helmets and selected weapons off the rack. “Iris will run the automatons protecting our team, and Erin will run the ones on Cargo’s. Hank, Piya, help out where you can, keep drones going and update targeting. Everyone comes back in one piece. You hear?”
“Yes.”
“Uhuh.”
“Got it.”
“Sure thing.”
We need some sort of cry like the Marines have, Jessica thought as crew checked maneuverability and seals on each other’s armor.
Jessica led the way out of the hold and toward the main bay. The door was wide open, and she stood at the edge, peering down at the mountains on North America’s west coast one hundred kilometers below.
Jessica nodded.
The view of the vast world below was suddenly occluded by the grey surface of the landing platform, and a moment later Sabrina had settled down.
On the far side of the platform, a doorway slid open, and Jessica led her fireteam to it while Cargo guided his to the far side of the platform.
Cargo snorted over the Link.
Jessica nodded. That much was obvious from the feeds coming in from the automatons. The Orion Guard troops must be following EM signatures, or maybe they had some scan data from other ships that had visited Star City. Either way, they were heading almost directly toward Jessica’s target.
Neither Trevor nor Finaeus responded, but Jessica knew what they had to be thinking. Lifts were great places to get trapped and killed.
Still, Yohan’s feeds showed no enemies nearby, making the lift a risk Jessica was willing to take.
They rode it in silence, rising a kilometer though Star City’s shell. Jessica took the time to double check the charge cylinder on her electron rifle, and the action on her projectile rifle. She hadn’t brought any pulse weapons. If she fired a round, it was intended to be lethal.
She latched both rifles on her back, and pulled her kinetic repeater free from the hooks on her chest plate. The weapon fired small sabot rounds that contained their own propellant, as well as more standard projectile shells.
Jessica could tell from the feeds—and the ineffectiveness of the automatons—that the Orion Guard soldiers were well-armored and she would likely only fire the sabot rounds if she wanted to take out targets.
Trevor hauled himself onto the level at the top of the lift doors, and then Jessica helped Finaeus through the narrow space before the two men reached down and pulled her up.
Jessica pointed down the corridor to where the blueprints showed a maintenance shaft that rose up to the level with the control center.
Trevor led the way, his heavy repeater held low and ready. Finaeus followed, a lighter rifle in hand, though he had the same repeater on his back as well.
Jessica hadn’t seen him fight since that day they’d first met on Kruger Station, but given the skill he had demonstrated that day, she wasn’t worried about him—though Sera would be pissed if they spent over a quarter century bringing Finaeus to New Canaan, only to have him die on the way.
An explosion thundered behind them, and Jessica turned to see the lift fall away, dropping to the bottom of its shaft.
Jessica nodded and turned back to the
maintenance shaft.
Iris fed probes in, confirming that it was clear. The nanobots reached the control center’s level and slipped around the panel’s edges.
She watched as her man-mountain carefully eased himself through the opening—which was barely big enough—before she followed Finaeus down the hall.
Jessica shook her head. How did those OG bastards get so far so fast?
Jessica helped Finaeus gently pull the maintenance shaft cover off, and set it on the deck before she climbed into the narrow space.
She went in head first, staring down the five-hundred-meter drop, gripping the handholds tightly, but not so tightly that her powered armor would rip them off.
Slowly, she backed up the shaft rising feet first. A vision came to mind of the Orion soldiers opening the panel above and shooting her in the ass. What an inglorious way that would be to go.
Below her, Finaeus climbed into the shaft, following her up head first. They moved as quickly and quietly as possible until the panel was between them, Jessica above it, and Finaeus below.
The nanoprobes showed that many of the Orion soldiers had passed through the corridor, but there were still fifteen present. Not to mention the rest would hot-foot it back once the fighting started.
