That confused me. "What would you do with those? There are more than enough raw resources planetside."
Nick nodded and put his hand out. "Hold on, let her finish."
Merrie pulled at something in her vision. Our new home, the giant gas planet Elea, appeared on the holo projector in the center of the conference room table. The image showed the half-Earth-sized moon, Kito, in orbit. The camera pulled back and turned out toward space. At two million kilometers from the planet, a rendering showed the broken personnel transport that had been destroyed when Kroerak attacked.
"That's capital," Merrie said, with finality. "We capture that and bring it into synchronous orbit with Kito around Elea and we have an instant space station."
"What about all of the dead?" Mom asked, even while Merrie pulled at the transport and placed it in orbit. "There were over thirty thousand souls on those transports. Abasi will never go for that."
Ignoring Mom, Merrie pushed the video's viewport so they were looking down on the resting place of the remainder of the broken fleet. Any ships that could be made operational had already been removed a few stans back. What remained were mostly just scattered pieces left behind to commemorate a long-ago battle.
"The dead have all been removed," Merrie said. "There should be no remaining personal attachment. We also know the ruined personnel transport was never important enough to recover. To Silver's question, I propose we offer to return any remaining Felio corpses we find to Kito's surface."
"That's ridiculous. You'll never pull that off," Bish said, skeptically. "There's more than enough resource on Kito for everyone. We need engineers. I'm sure York can find housing for you. Right, Silver?"
"How would you capture the transport?" Nick asked, ignoring Bishop.
"The transport wouldn't be our first target. That would be," Merrie answered, turning to Bish and lifting her eyebrows as she pointed to the holographic image of an old Abasi battleship that had been sheared off just forward of midship. I'd seen Merrie underestimated often enough that I was anticipating whatever was coming, even though I had no idea what she had up her sleeve.
Bish picked up the bait and ran with it. "Abasi reclaimed all the ships they could. That thing isn't going anywhere."
"It would take a lot of fuel," Nick said.
"Nineteen tonnes, give or take," Merrie answered.
"That's worth two million credits," Bish spluttered.
"We'll supply the fuel, a Class-C replicator and transportation. In return we get thirty percent of your company," Nick said.
"I'll give up thirty-five, but my list is bigger," Merrie shot back.
"You can't seriously be considering this?" Bish continued to interrupt the conversation. "How are you sailing a ship that doesn't work? Where will you get all that fuel?"
"Kito," Merrie and Nick answered simultaneously.
"The cities we sailed over had piles of fuel left behind by the Felio," I explained. "The Abasi left behind ships that were broken beyond repair, but there are plenty of working engines in that boneyard. Merrie doesn't need to sail it back to the Tamu system. She just needs those big engines to bring the transport back."
"That'll take years." Bish once again stated the obvious.
"You'd be right if Elea wasn't orbiting Mhina's star," Merrie said. "We cut off half the trip if we can get the transport to this position in two-hundred days." The view shifted from broken ships to a top-down planetary orbital map.
"We're in. Make your plans, Merrie. We'll back your play as much as we can," I said. "But we might have a problem with the fuel."
Nick furiously typed and gestured at a virtual keyboard and display only he could see. "I know."
"What problem?" Merrie asked.
"We received a report from Intrepid. They intercepted a Musi freighter that was headed to Kito. Ada thinks it's likely there's been looting. That's why we sent the sloops ahead," I said.
Merrie sat back in her chair, her excitement deflating. "Looters? The wormhole hasn't been open for more than a few tendays."
"We don't know if it's a real problem," I said. "The sloops will arrive at Kito just before we transition to Mhina in twelve hours."
"Including Intrepid and excluding the Kroerak fleet, seventeen ships have transitioned through the Tamu-Mhina wormhole," Nick said. "I'm looking. Seven freighters sizeable enough to cause trouble. Oh, that's interesting. If all those ships were empty, we're talking significant theft."
"No one can enter a strong man's house," Hog said. "We need to prioritize defense because we'll have to fight off more than Musi once word gets out."
"We'll leave the sloops behind under Silver's command," Marny said. "The cities will no doubt have a defensive apparatus, but we shouldn't fool ourselves, they'll need repair. I agree with your priority, Hog, as long as getting Patty back in the restaurant business is still high on the list."
Marny's comment earned her a chuckle around the table and broke some of the tension that had been building.
"Nick, how are you finding this information?" I asked.
"House of the Bold is Abasi," Nick answered. "As such we have access to sensors in this part of the system. All I did was download their data-streams."
"You said something was interesting, what?" Marny asked. "I didn't like the sound of that."
"Fleet Afoot was the first non-Kroerak vessel through the wormhole," Nick answered. "It was only an hour behind the main fleet."
"We knew Munay had taken off to chase the Kroerak," I said. "That sure is ballsy. I wish I could have given him an Iskstar crystal."
"He'd never last against those odds," Nick said. "And neither will we. Kroerak are surely using the data they gathered from our two encounters and are coming up with some way to counter the Iskstar."
"I know. I guess I was hoping once we figured out where they are, we could get Abasi or someone else from the Confederation of Planets interested," I said.
"Wishing something doesn't make it real," Bish grumbled.
"I think Steward Bear has a meal ready for us," I said, working to avoid rolling my eyes at Bish's surly attitude. "Unless there's more business, this meeting is adjourned."
"I've never felt claustrophobic while sailing before," Ada admitted. "It feels like the walls are closing in around us."
"An unusual perspective," Jonathan said. "Indeed, the opposite is very much the case. Intrepid is surrounded by the complete absence of material. Do you believe it is that we have sailed for over thirty days without any visual references beyond the distant galaxies?"
"We've jumped through three invisible wormholes. Even the end-points have no substance to them, not even stray light or magnetic waves. Nothing," she said. "It's like we haven't even moved once we go through them."
"We have most definitely changed positions at quite a dramatic scale. Intrepid is four orders of magnitude further from the planet Zuri than Zuri is from your own Mars."
"I hate to burst your bubble, but there's something headed right at us at twenty meters per second," Tabby interrupted. "Looks like a big old asteroid. Maybe eighteen hundred tonnes."
"Where did that come from?" Ada asked.
"There's a line of them." With her finger, Tabby traced the distance between the first rock she'd spotted and the next, which was two kilometers away, ten percent smaller, and moving just a little faster. The AI, recognizing her pattern, located and connected forty additional asteroids of varying sizes, all moving in roughly the same direction and at the same speed.
"They're coming from that wormhole transition," Ada said. "It's like someone's throwing rocks at the transition point from the other side."
"It's not an overly sophisticated attack," Sendrei observed. "But if you get plugged by one of those, you'll know it."
"Check out that wormhole," Tabby said. "Vid sensors can actually pick it up. It's not invisible."
"Do you think the Kroerak are trying to cover their trail by throwing asteroids?" Ada asked, leaving Tabby's observation alone for the moment
.
"While in contact with the Kroerak noble, we discussed a number of Kroerak offensive strategies," Jonathan answered. "There is a particular species of semi-sentient, giant arachnids that mine asteroid belts. We discussed how these arachnids were forced to bombard a hostile moon for twenty days, bringing destruction upon a particularly recalcitrant species."
Tabby rolled her eyes at Jonathan. "Great. Rock throwing spiders?"
"Anything in your conversations suggest how Kroerak learned of these wormholes?" Ada asked. "It just doesn’t seem like Kroerak are that sophisticated."
"I'll tell you," Tabby interjected. "Just like they learned everything else. They stole the information from some other species and then beat their civilizations to a pulp."
"That's right," Sendrei added, lounging in a chair that swiveled to allow him immediate control of Intrepid's weapons system. "Kroerak don't have an original bone in their bodies. And before you correct me, Jonathan, I know they don't have bones. It's an idiom."
"The noble would not discuss space travel, although she was interested in fold-space. However, I would say we find Sendrei's description accurate." Jonathan gave a slight smile and raised his eyebrows. "A bone inside a Kroerak would either have been recently eaten or would very much be a new concept – and therefore original."
"See the humor I had to live with on that ship?" Sendrei complained. "That is what Jonathan finds funny."
"Sorry to break up the chat, but we're closing on the transition point," Tabby said. Her announcement caused the team to straighten in their chairs and start a flurry of small tasks. "Anyone want to guess why this wormhole is all pretty?"
Instead of the invisible transition points they'd been jumping through for so many ten-days, this endpoint was a swirl of colored lights caused by gasses interacting with the magnetic fields. Just as they closed to five thousand meters, the general distance considered safe for entering a wormhole, a new asteroid blooped through.
"If we're going, we should do it now," Tabby said. "We have about fifteen minutes before the next rock pops through."
"All hands, we're approaching transition," Ada finally announced. "As you know, we're likely chasing unicorns, but this next jump could place us into a hostile environment. The time to look sharp is now. Team leads, complete your scans of comm devices and report back when complete. We're going to be sailing quiet. Even though we have Iskstar weapons, Intrepid is in no position for the kind of combat we know Kroerak are capable of."
Sendrei sat up and swiveled his chair so he had access to fire-control. He'd drilled his crew for hours each day, providing structure and discipline, but his gunners were still rookies. They would require a lot more training before they could be trusted to independently assess and prioritize remote targets during battle.
"Fire-control is secure and weapons are hot," he added on tactical comms.
"Engineering is secure," Roby answered. "All systems are at one-hundred percent."
Ada waited until each of her leads reported in before sitting up straight in her chair and pulling her lap-belt firmly across her legs. "Engineering, engage low emissions mode. And helm, take us in."
"Transition in ten … nine …" Tabby started the countdown, her heart pounding in her chest in anticipation. Only through sheer force of will was she able to relax her grip as the countdown reached zero and she was beset with familiar wormhole sensations.
The disorientation cleared almost as soon as transition was complete. Recovery hadn't always been that quick, even after the surgical modifications and enhancements she'd received following the Battle for Colony-40. Tabby wondered if the difference was due to Iskstar. A red-warning light was her first indication of a problem and without hesitation, she veered Intrepid to port at ten degrees declination, dodging away from a massive, fifteen-hundred tonne object.
"It's a frakking rock! Moon-humping, rock-hucking spiders!" Tabby exclaimed, pushing Intrepid further into a spiral. "Why did you have to tell me about the spiders? I hate spiders!"
"Captain, I'm picking up planetary signatures and a twin star," Jonathan said.
Ada was more concerned about near space, but tore her focus from Tabby's viewscreen. She found it difficult to relinquish the pilot's chair. Tabby could handle it and she needed to focus on what would come next.
"Clear of the asteroid," Tabby said. "We seem to have come out in a belt. I bet those buggers saw us coming and sent a surprise our way. That asteroid was way too close and not on the same frequency as the previous twenty or so."
Ada's holo projector finished filling in near-space details. As the planets and stars resolved on the sensors, the unique characteristics of this particular wormhole became obvious. Within the circumstellar disc around the dual stars were millions and millions of asteroids. Noticeably, just beyond the wormhole, a completely clear swath of space stood out. Rock, dust and debris simply disappeared as the wormhole sent them through, starting them on an intergalactic voyage.
"I'm picking up no enemy ships," Sendrei said.
"There is a considerable amount of electromagnetic radiation being emitted from the fourth planet," Jonathan said.
"EM? Are they talking to us?" Ada asked.
"The source of the radiation is not consistent with communication," Jonathan said. "The band is too wide."
"What about the other planets?" Ada asked.
"There is one other celestial object suitable for sentient development," Jonathan said. "It is the moon of the fifth planet and is the origin of a weak and repetitive signal."
"Fourth planet is right," Tabby said. "My dream showed two warring nations on continents divided by oceans. Are you sure there aren't attacking Kroerak warships?"
"We're too far for our sensors," Jonathan said. "Initial indications suggest no life. Sentients would create considerably more EM range variation."
"I thought you said you were getting a signal from that moon," Tabby pushed back.
"You are correct," Jonathan said. "Its origin is most definitely sentient, although it is repetitious, at a period of eighty-minute intervals."
"Eighty minutes?" Ada asked. "We've only been in system for eight."
"The highly complex signal is transmitting on a multitude of frequencies. While we're not able to translate, the mechanism for reconstruction of the message is obvious," he answered.
"Tabby, what exactly did you see in your dream? Where were the Kroerak attacking from? Were they invading? Space battle? What?" Ada asked.
"I had the dream on several occasions," Tabby said. "I saw enough details that I was able to record the locations of each of those transition points we came through. The two nations on the fourth planet were different. Sometimes I saw what was happening from one side's view, sometimes from the other. These two nations were the same species, but they hated each other at their core. If the Kroerak hadn't shown up to take them out, they were ready to do the job themselves. I definitely got the feeling the conflicts were happening right now, though."
"The radiation from the fourth planet is consistent with nuclear weaponry as was popular with humanity in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries," Jonathan added.
"I thought you couldn't tell what it was," Tabby said, annoyed.
"We are receiving data in real time," Jonathan added. "We believe there is less than a five percent chance that sentient life continues on this planet."
"So this entire trip is for nothing," Tabby said.
"We have learned much on this trip already, Tabitha Masters," Jonathan said. "The discovery of a new type of wormhole is significant and has wide implications. Also, we have been discussing internally that it appears the sentient we refer to as Iskstar might not be temporally registered in the same way as other sentients we have found."
"Registered by what?" Tabby asked
"Temporally registered," Jonathan corrected. "Bound by time, in the same way as we are."
"You think they're time travelers?" Ada asked
"There is no evidence of this. Con
sider the following. My species operates typically in a silica media. Our speed – of what is generally and loosely referred to as thinking, or less flattering, computing – is on the order of a thousand to ten thousand times faster than human, Felio, or most warm blooded, carbon-based life. Within our conclave, we've held thousands of conversations in the space of this conversation I'm having with you just now. What if Iskstar thought was hundreds of times slower than humanity?" Jonathan asked.
"On Earth those are called sloths," Sendrei said. "It's hard to believe such a creature would be a worthy opponent of Kroerak."
"Your perception is modified by your own experience. Humans live one hundred standard years. Felio live closer to eighty standard years. In this amount of time, you are right. Iskstar would have difficulty reaching the level of sophisticated thought that would be equivalent to humanity."
"You're asking, what if Iskstar lived for centuries?" Sendrei’s eyes grew wide as comprehension set in.
"Or thousands of millennia," Jonathan answered.
Chapter 12
Fowl Stench
Mhina System, Hornblower
The massive gas planet, Elea, occupied the fourth orbital position around Mhina's star and it grew in Hornblower's armored glass as we approached. Even from a hundred thousand kilometers, the planet’s giant size was evident and I strained to locate the moon, Kito, that had just appeared from the planet's back side.
"What a sight," Marny said, her voice holding the same awe I felt as she took in the view.
"Captain, I have four ships on sensors," Stolzman reported from the helm. "It's Leaves and ITF. They're chasing those two freighters. Leaves looks like it's venting gas pretty badly."
We'd taken to shortening the sloop names, Shimmering Leaves and Ice Touched Fields, as they didn't exactly roll off our tongues.
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