Renegades (Expeditionary Force Book 7)

by Craig Alanson

  Expeditionary Force

  Book 6:

  Renegades

  Craig Alanson

  Text copyright © 2018 Craig Alanson

  All Rights Reserved

  Contact the author

  craigalanson@gmail.com

  Cover Design By:

  Patrick Callahan

  RPC2000_4@msn.com

  and

  Jeff Ross

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  CHAPTER ONE

  As our Frankenship limped toward the Ruhar data relay station, I squeezed my hands together to prevent from showing my anxiety in a more obvious fashion. It did not help that Major Desai was not in either of the pilot couches, instead two Chinese were handling the piloting. They were highly skilled, they had trained long and hard and demonstrated their competence, and they were not Desai. When I requested she fly the ship for this, our last stop before setting course straight for Earth, she flat-out refused in a polite, respectful but firm way. She was not always going to be aboard the Dutchman, and I had to show the other pilots that I had faith in them. No amount of argument would change her mind, not even when I reminded her the main reactor had shut down twice in the past five days, that the new computer system was having trouble realigning the drive coils after each jump, and there was a frustrating, intermittent glitch in the stealth field generators. Each time we suffered a glitch, Skippy assured me he had a handle on the problem, that the glitches were actually helping him to fine-tune the new AI that could run the ship for us. His attempts to assure me would have been more successful if we were making progress on getting the ship to run smoothly, but we were experiencing more problems, not less.

  So, I was not feeling super-duper confident as we approached a Ruhar relay station, outside an isolated star system that was the last place we planned to stop before going home. Finally, home. “You’re sure about this, Skippy?”

  “Yes, I am sure, Mister Worrywart,” the beer can’s peevish tone told me he was feeling frustrated too. “Sit in your chair and, I don’t know, play a game on your phone or something, leave the adults to do our jobs. We would already have the data if you hadn’t insisted on taking precautions that are totally not necessary.”

  He was right about that. Not about whether we needed to be extra careful, that was a judgment call. I had ordered us to jump in a full day away from the relay station, to give our balky reactor plenty of time to fully recharge the jump drive coils before we approached the station. If we encountered any unexpected problems, I wanted to be able to make several jumps even if the reactor was offline. “We’ve been away from Earth a long time; another day is not going to make a difference. All right, fine, go ahead, do your thing.”

  “Fine,” he huffed in a way that meant it was anything but fine.

  The data we needed was not anything classified or obscure, it should have been at the top of the message traffic priority chart. And it was. “Bingo!” Skippy exulted. “Got it! The situation on Paradise is a hot topic, lots of data I can skim right off the top. I will give you a summary while I keep digging, might as well collect all the data we can while we’re here.”

  “Good news?” I cringed as soon as I spoke, fearing I had jinxed us.

  “As you would say in your horrible Downeast accent, ‘Ayuh’. Good news indeed. The program of vaccinations and creating a supply of curative drugs is proceeding well, one–third of the human population has already been vaccinated. The Ruhar federal government is urging all the hamsters there to get the vaccine, and there is debate about making the vaccine available to all planets in their entire territory as a preventative measure. Of course, there is the usual cluster of looney-tunes who reject vaccines, although the same morons don’t have a problem with medical nanomachines swimming in their blood. Ah, hey, that’s how nature gets idiots out of the gene pool, right? Bottom line, Joe, humans on Paradise are safe, and travel restrictions are being eased to allow normal commerce to resume. Colonel Perkins and her Mavericks just arrived back on Paradise, their presence is reminding the Ruhar that a group of humans discovered the lizard bioweapon plot against the planet. And that a group of humans rescued a ship full of cadets. Public opinion on Paradise is shifting from viewing humans as a threat, to thinking are humans just as much victims of the Kristang as the Ruhar public is.”

  “That,” I sighed and shuddered with relief, wriggling in the chair to mask how my shoulders had shaken. “That is great news.” Beside my chair, Hans Chotek clapped his hands together with satisfaction, allowing a tight smile to crease his lips.

  “Yup. Good news all around. Another couple seconds and the download will be complete, mostly boring stuff you wouldn’t care about. Annnnd, Ok, got it. We can go. I’ll sort through the data and decrypt it while we’re going to Earth.”

  “Outstanding. Pilot, jump option Alpha.” Then, because those words were rather dull for such a momentous occasion, I clear my throat to get everyone’s attention. “Take us home.”

  It was my fault, all my fault. Not only was I walking around with a stupid smile on my face since we jumped away from the relay station, I also suggested to Chotek that we have a big celebration at dinner that night. The universe hated me, and decided I had exceeded my Allowable Happiness Limit. In my cabin, I was examining the dress uniform I planned to wear at dinner, when Skippy appeared on my bunk. “Hey, Joe,” he said as he adjusted his giant hat.

  “Hey Skippy, I mean, Your Lord Admiralship. Listen, I know you are not thrilled about going back to Earth, but-”

  “Joe, we need to talk.”

  Oh, crap. I put the uniform top back on a hanger and gave him my full attention. “Is this about you being worried that UNEF Command won’t be in a rush to send the Dutchman back out? We have almost sixty years before the gamma rays from that-”

  “No, this is not about the idiot decisions a high-ranking group of monkeys will make. It’s not even about the clock ticking until other species realize the wormhole near Earth is not entirely dormant. Joe, I have bad news.”

  “If this bad news is something like the champagne froze solid when you were draining that energy virus away from the ship, that is not funny. We don’t need champagne to have a party, I’d rather drink beer anyway.”

  “This is not about the party tonight, and it is no joke. You had better sit down.”

  “Uh,” his avatar was on the bunk and I didn’t want to sit on him, so he solved the problem by blinking out and reappearing on top of a cabinet, so I sat on the bed. “What is it?”

  “In the data we downloaded from the relay station was bad news, and I mean really, really bad news.”

  I glanced at
my zPhone. “You are just telling me about it now?”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault! I decrypted and read through all the classified data first, assuming that was where the important info would be. I was wrong, there wasn’t anything we care about in those boring files. When I skimmed through the data that was not encrypted, I found something very alarming. Remember I told you we needed to stop screwing with wormholes, because eventually the senior species would notice and get suspicious?”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah. The final straw may have been us breaking an Elder wormhole, or maybe that incident didn’t matter, maybe the Maxolhx were already alarmed enough by unusual wormhole behavior. Whatever. Joe, the Maxolhx have decided to send two ships to the wormhole near Earth, the one I shut down.”

  I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. All I could do was sit there, staring at the deck in shock.

  “What I found in the data is a message from the Ruhar federal government, to their fleet and to Ruhar star systems those Maxolhx ships may pass through along their flight path. The Rindhalu have requested, strongly requested, that those Maxolhx ships be given clear passage and not interfered with. If any Ruhar ships detect the Maxolhx task force, they are to report the sighting but not take any hostile action.”

  “The Rindhalu? Why, why would the spiders allow the Maxolhx to fly through their territory?”

  “Because the Maxolhx are so worried about what is happening to Elder wormholes, they suggested a joint mission with the Rindhalu. Two ships, one from each senior species, meeting at the far end of that wormhole and investigating it together. Then they would travel together to the Earth end, using a wormhole in Ruhar territory. The Rindhalu are concerned, but not concerned enough to get their lazy asses off the couch and do something about it. The Rindhalu will examine the data brought back by the Maxolhx, and decide then whether further action is needed.”

  Still, I couldn’t speak.

  “Joe? Joe, come on, say something.”

  “We’re doomed. Ok?!” I shouted as the stress overwhelmed me. “We’re doomed! We are totally, completely, finally screwed! Is that what you want me to say? Huh?”

  He took a step back on the cabinet. I noticed that the back of his hat disappeared into the bulkhead, he must not have programmed it to act like it was a real, solid hat. “Sorry, Joe. What I want you to say is that you will dream up some monkey-brained idea to fix the problem, and everything will be fine.”

  “Well, I can’t! Not this time. Not again, Goddammit! I can’t do it, I,” my voice broke and trailed off to a whisper. “I can’t do it. Not this time. Not again.” I broke down crying, and I am not ashamed to say it. Everything the Merry Band of Pirates had accomplished had been for nothing. Worse, our actions to protect our home world from minor threats like the Kristang had attracted the attention of the biggest bad guys in the galaxy. It was our fault, my fault.

  Skippy had either taken seriously my talks about empathy, or he was embarrassed about me sitting on my bunk sobbing, because he was quiet until I could talk again. “Give me a minute,” I muttered and went to the tiny sink to splash water on my face. In the mirror, I stared at myself and all I could think was thank God we were going to Earth, because I could step aside and let someone else handle this problem. It had to be someone else, because clearly all I ever accomplished was getting us out of one mess and into an even bigger mess. Humanity needed a long-term plan, and Hans Chotek was right, I reacted to crises instead of acting out a long-term strategy.

  Long-term.

  Going to Earth.

  Oh, shit. Did we have time to do anything?

  “Skippy,” I flung the towel into the sink. “How long until those Maxolhx ships reach the near end of the wormhole?”

  “I do not know that, Joe, the file did not contain details of their flight plan.”

  “Crap, then-”

  “However, I do know the Maxolhx are not expected to even launch the mission for another month. They want to collect data from other, more accessible wormholes before traveling all the way to Earth. That makes sense, it would suck to go all that distance and realize they don’t know what to look for. They want to create a baseline for wormhole behavior, so they can compare the Earth wormhole to others that have acted in an anomalous fashion. That, uh, means they acted strangely.”

  “I know what an ‘anomaly’ is, Skippy. Can they do it?”

  “Do what? Travel to Earth without using an Elder wormhole? Yes, they can. It won’t take as long as that Thuranin surveyor ship was going to need, but it won’t be quick either. The Maxolhx are used to operating in areas where their ships can rely on extensive servicing facilities. For the isolated journey to Earth, their ships will need to be self-sufficient, that will require modifying something like a light cruiser.”

  “Thanks, that was good info, but that was not my question. I meant, can the Maxolhx get the, what did you call it? Baseline measurements, from wormholes you screwed with?”

  “Hmm, no, actually. That is a good question, Joe, I should have thought of that myself. No, they can’t, but they don’t know that yet. By now, any wormholes I screwed with along the way have fully returned to their normal settings and behaviors. Except, hmm. This could be a problem. Remember I told you that I noticed wormholes I screwed with had a slightly less stable connection to the network, and even other wormholes in the local area are also less stable?”

  “Yeah,” I stared at the ceiling to recall what he had told me. “You said that’s why we can’t keep screwing with the same wormholes over and over, even though their locations are convenient to us. Something about possibly triggering a shift across the network?”

  “Exactly. Now that I think about it, the disruption of the network connection should repair itself on a logarithmic timeline, but sensitive instruments like the Maxolhx have might be able to detect the residual effects, even now. I am sure the Maxolhx will bring their best full-spectrum sensor technology to the effort. Hmmmm. Damn, Joe, it is good that you asked that question. Once again, I find myself being shamed by an ignorant monkey.”

  “Uh huh. You’re not just saying that because you know I feel like crap right now?”

  “Why would I do that?” His avatar’s eyes were open wide in puzzlement.

  I shook my head. “No, uh, no reason.”

  “Ooh! Ooh! Is this an empathy thing?”

  “Ya think?”

  “Ohhhhkay, Ok. Um, let me think of some comforting bullshit to tell you. Joe, everything will be all right. And, um, imagine I said whatever other meaningless platitudes people say at a time like this. Do you feel better now?”

  You know what, I did feel better. Not because of anything he said, but because I imagined myself wringing his little neck. “Yeah, that was super helpful, thank you.”

  “Score!” The avatar jumped and mimed giving someone a high five. “Ha! This empathy thing is easy. I don’t know why everyone makes a big deal about it. You know what, the fact that the Maxolhx could detect disruptions in wormhole connections could actually be good for us, I mean for you monkeys. If the Maxolhx find lots of interesting data from examining wormholes I adjusted, they might delay the mission to Earth, so they have more time to collect and analyze the data.”

  “Huh. That might be good, give us more time to prepare.”

  “Prepare how?” He took off his ridiculous hat and scratched his shiny spherical head. “Paint a big target on Earth to make it easier for the Maxolhx to destroy your planet?”

  “That’s not-”

  “Oops, sorry, that was insensitive. You actually like that miserable mudball. Hmm, I guess you could prepare for a big blow-out ‘Coming Extinction’ party. Maybe Hallmark has a set of balloons for a party like that.”

  I gave him a single-finger gesture, and it was not saying he was Number One. “I meant, prepare to destroy those ships before they get to Earth.”

  “Hahahahaha! As if! Oooh, that’s a good one. Monkeys destroy a pair of Maxolhx cruisers, hee hee.”

&nb
sp; “Two weeks ago, you told me that in a contest between the universe and a bunch of monkeys, the universe is totally screwed.”

  “Oh, that. Yeah, I was mostly just bullshitting to make you feel better. See, I tried empathy back then, and now it has totally backfired on both of us.”

  Silently, I bonked my head on the cabinet next to my bunk. “How about we drop the subject of what to do about the Maxolhx for now?”

  “Since any such talk is an utter waste of time, I would love to drop that subject.”

  “Great.” I stood up and rolled my shoulders to get blood pumping. In a couple minutes, I needed to crush Hans Chotek’s spirit by telling him the bad news. He was going to blame me, and what bothered me was, he would be right to blame me. On our second mission, I dreamed up the idea of Skippy screwing with Elder wormholes by changing their connections, and I never considered the consequences. Another example of my short-term thinking. “The Maxolhx suggested a joint mission with the Rindhalu? It was their idea? They weren’t required to do that by some old treaty?”

  “There is no such treaty. The Maxolhx even suggested a Rindhalu representative might travel aboard one of their ships, after the Rindhalu declined to send a ship to participate. The Rindhalu turned that down immediately, they do not trust the Maxolhx at all.”

  “So, the Maxolhx made the offer, hoping the spiders would say no?”

  “Nope. Those rotten kitties wanted a spider to come with them, because they want access to knowledge the Maxolhx do not have. If the Maxolhx can’t figure out what is wrong with the wormhole network, they hope the Rindhalu understand the data.”

  The idea of bitter enemies actually offering to cooperate made me shake my head in wonder. “Explain one thing to me; why would the Rindhalu not join the Maxolhx mission to investigate the wormhole near Earth? Any potential problem with the Elder wormhole network has to get the spiders worried big-time. The Rindhalu cannot possibly be that freakin’ lazy.”

  “Well, they are remarkably lazy. But you’re right, laziness is not the only reason they declined the offer. They are insufferably arrogant, Joe. The Rindhalu were alone in the galaxy for a long time before the Maxolhx developed technology for spaceflight. The spiders still view the Maxolhx as primitive young punks who were lucky to get their hands on Elder technology they could use as weapons. Without those Elder devices, the Rindhalu would have stomped the Maxolhx back into the Stone Age when the kitties attacked. By now, the Maxolhx have stolen or copied crucial Rindhalu technology, so the spiders do not have a huge advantage. The simple answer is, in their ancient arrogance, the Rindhalu believe they know pretty much everything there is to know about the wormhole network. Whatever they do not know, they think the Maxolhx will not be able to understand, so they see a mission to investigate the wormhole near Earth as a waste of time.”