“Ooohh…,” Silva said, struggling in her restraints. “What the hell happened?”
“We all blacked out when we entered the wormhole,” Novak replied. “Some of us managed to get through better than others. Watson’s still unconscious, possible trauma. Let me know when you are ready to take back the helm. Bendix, full sensor scan. We need all the information we can gather.”
“Doing it,” the linguist replied. “Local space seems to have three planets, a brown dwarf sun, really cold. Barely a star at all, even a brown dwarf. There’s a wormhole exit, though, about half a million miles away. And a second, ten million miles further on. Can’t tell where they lead.” She frowned, then added, “I only had a one-month course on these sensors.”
“Communications traffic?” Novak asked, throwing controls.
“Nothing. Not a thing.” Frowning, Bendix asked, “Am I doing something wrong?”
Glancing at her console settings, Novak replied, “No, everything looks right to me. I’d say there isn’t anyone talking. Or if they are, they’re doing it in a way we can’t receive. I doubt anyone has used anything as old-fashioned as radio around here for ten million years and more.” With a smile on her face, she added, “Maybe that’s what the Folk were planning. Maybe they wanted to ask the old guy with the shotgun for some help.”
“Christ, I don’t think so,” Silva said, looking up at the sensors. “I’m getting readings, a billion miles distant. It’s an Exterminator ship. Not active, not at the moment. It’s just sitting there, out by the farthest planet from the star. They’re out here as well, a hundred thousand light years from home.” Shaking her head, she added, “Could they have transited the wormhole first?”
With a deep sigh, Novak replied, “That’s not it at all, Lieutenant. This is their home. This is where they come from.”
“They’re a galactic power?” Bendix asked. “How could that be possible?”
“Millions of years to construct a wormhole network that spans the entire galaxy, to build factories for the construction of their warships by the hundred, by the thousand, by the million. A billion stars to conquer, to subjugate, to rule.” Novak’s eyes widened, and said, “We must be on the outer edges of their dominion. The Folk carved a tunnel all the way to the core of their territory.”
Silva looked across at Bendix, and ordered, “Give me the gravitic sensor controls. I want to try and map these wormholes, see where they go.” Gesturing at the screen, she added, “One of those stars has a dozen beams linked to it. If there’s a capital, a homeworld, that’s where it must be.” Throwing controls, she nodded, and said, “The furthest wormhole takes us in that direction. It’s only fifty light-years away. Two, possibly three transits and we’re home.”
Bendix looked at the pilot in panic, and said, “Are you crazy? We need to get out of here, right now! I can’t even begin to imagine the sort of danger we might be facing right now, but…”
“Can’t you?” Novak asked. “You obviously don’t have much of an imagination, Doctor. I can think of a million ways we could be wiped off the map with the power they’ve got, but the Folk obviously thought this was worth the attempt. I can’t imagine how they discovered this place, but as soon as they did, they launched a wormhole probe to provide a pathway here.”
“We’ve only faced robotic intelligence thus far,” Silva added. “Maybe their masters are waiting just a few parsecs from here. Maybe we can talk to them, find some way to co-exist. It’s got to be worth a try. We don’t exactly have much to lose at this point.” With a smile, she continued, “Doctor, we came out here to do a job, and we’re going either complete our mission or die in the attempt, because if we don’t, we’re dead anyway.”
“I’ve got a lock on the wormhole,” Novak said. “We should be able to get home in less than a quarter of an hour. There’s no sign that the enemy ship is moving yet, but it might only be a matter of time. Lots of blind spots out there, so I wouldn’t rule out another wormhole hidden behind one of the moons.”
Taking a deep breath, Bendix replied, “I’m working on the sensor sweep now, Commander, but it’s going to take a while before we get everything we want…”
“We’ve already got everything we need, Doctor,” Novak interrupted. “The location of the enemy homeworld and a potential flight path to get us there. The rest is down to the Admiral. Lieutenant, bring us about, and take us home.”
“We’re going to have to go through the wormhole again?” Bendix asked. “Last time…”
“This time, we know what we’re facing. Go through the medical kit again. Find the strongest relaxant we’ve got, and prepare four doses.” With a smile, she added, “We might as well make sure the Professor has some nice dreams.”
Chapter 12
Scott sat at the head of the conference table, watching his officers file into the room once more. All of them had seen the reports brought back by Commander Novak’s scouting expedition, all of them now had a concrete idea of just what they were potentially up against if they chose to continue with the mission as planned. Scott looked down at the readouts on the desk before him, still hardly able to comprehend the magnitude of the technological level they were going up against, developments that seemed fanciful, all but impossible to grasp, raw power that could wipe Earth from the face of creation with barely a thought.
And somehow, they had to beat it. Had to, if humanity was to survive.
Taking a deep breath, he began, “We all know why we’re here, so I’ll spare the preamble. Commander Novak, I hope you are recovered sufficiently from your transit to provide an engineering report. Can our fleet safely transit the wormhole, make it through in one piece?”
“Leonidas can, sir, but I’m not sure about the other ships. I’m afraid the Scout Destroyers would struggle with the structural loads, and Herodotus just doesn’t have the maneuverability. We’re going to have to go it alone, I’m afraid, sir.”
“We’re willing to make the attempt, Admiral,” Commander Ivanov replied. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we don’t want to be left out of this mission.”
“Wants and desires don’t have anything to do with it, I’m afraid,” Scott said, “though I certainly appreciate your enthusiasm for the mission. We’re going to split the fleet. Commander Cortez and Commander Sullivan will remain here at the wormhole to monitor the situation in this system. If you see anything you can’t handle, run for home on the double. Consider that a direct order. There’s no point dying for nothing. Commander Sullivan will head home immediately with Themistocles to report back what we’ve found so far.”
“Admiral, that’s a waste of time,” Sullivan protested. “By the time we get back to our space, the wormhole will no longer be usable.” Looking around, she said, “My people have been working on some engineering modifications…”
“Commander, don’t think you’re being given the easy option, because you certainly are not. It’s going to be a long, dangerous voyage and you will be without the protection you had for the flight out. I have faith and confidence in your ability to pull your mission off, but it’s not going to be straightforward, and there is considerable danger involved.”
“Sir,” Chen said, looking uncomfortable, “I’m forced at this point to suggest that we shouldn’t transit the wormhole. Maybe we’d be better heading home as a fleet, and preparing for some sort of survival mission. Another Omega Fleet, to replace the one that was destroyed.” Tapping a control, he brought up the projected images from the shuttle, and said, “Megastructures, black hole factories, terawatts of energy being thrown from star to star without a thought. A civilization so far advanced from ours that we can barely conceive what it could do. Admiral, we’re nothing more than ants to them. That much is obvious.”
“Then you want us to just give up?” Novak asked. “Lieutenant…”
“We’ve lost the race, Commander. We were late to the track. All we might be able to do is save a portion of our people for another day. All civilization
s fall, and maybe in another million years or so, our descendants might be able to return. There are options for sublight travel, perhaps the establishment of colonies in deep interstellar space, far from any wormhole, where even the Exterminators would struggle to reach.”
“Admiral, I hate to say it, but I’m forced to agree with Lieutenant Chen,” Rochford replied. “Looking at the data we’ve got back, I just don’t see what sort of military option we could possibly explore. They could destroy this ship in a second with barely a thought. Even without whatever unimaginable superweapons we’d be facing out there, there must be hundreds, thousands of Exterminator ships standing in the defense of their home system.”
“The Folk thought there was home, Captain,” Belinsky retorted. “Arguably, they sacrificed themselves so that some other race would have a chance to end the Exterminator threat forever. We’re not just talking about humanity now. These robotic maniacs represent a clear and present danger to all sentient life in the galaxy. I can’t imagine how many other races they have wiped out. Thousands. Millions, perhaps. None of them has ever had the chance we have right now to strike a blow against the monsters who are attempting to take control of our galaxy.”
“And just what chance do we have, Professor?” Rochford replied, his voice calm, smooth. “What can we do to stop them, when we’re faced with power on this scale? Our weapons are next to useless…”
“That’s been the case all along, sir,” Novak said. “We’ve never had the means to face the Exterminators in conventional battle, and I doubt we ever will. That’s not how we’re going to beat them. We’ll beat them with guile, and we’ll beat them because we’re attacking from an avenue they won’t be expecting.” She nodded, then added, “There might even be a diplomatic solution, rather than a military one.”
“A diplomatic solution?” Silva asked. “Against that?”
“Someone or something associated with the Exterminators has attempted to make contact with me on two occasions now. Back in the alien system, and during the wormhole transit.”
“Both unrecorded, both unconfirmed, and the second time when you were on the brink of unconsciousness,” Rochford protested. “I’m sorry, Commander, but we can’t conceive…”
“Everything about this is beyond comprehension, Captain,” she protested. “Is it so strange to consider that there might be some intelligence in the Exterminator home system that might be willing to talk, to compromise? It’s not as though we have any alternative. I’m not sure whether or not there is anything we can do to stop them, even if we head through the wormhole, but given that we’re dead if we don’t, why not take the risk.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Commander,” Silva said, nodding. “It’s got to be worth a try.”
Looking at Rochford, Scott said, “The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that Commander Novak is quite right. We don’t have anything to lose. I’m not going to lie and tell you that I’ve got a battle plan in mind, because I don’t. Our actions in the coming days are going to be dependent on whatever we find when we begin our investigations on the far side of the wormhole. Our best assessments of the data retrieved by our shuttle suggest that it will be a little over a day before we reach the Exterminator home system.” Shaking his head, he added, “A day to travel a hundred thousand light years. It seems incredible, and I suppose that it is.”
“Could the wormhole be the spear of the stars, Professor?” Ivanov asked. He looked at the holoimage, and added, “Could the wormhole itself be used as a weapon, somehow?”
“I don’t see how, though your interpretation might be plausible,” Belinsky replied. He frowned, then added, “Though I had the sense from the description that there was more to it than that. The legend was quite clear that it was a means of destroying the Exterminators.” With a shrug, he continued, “A million years of distortion, of course, could easily have twisted the meaning of the text out of all recognition. There’s no way to be certain at this late date.”
“Technologically, they aren’t that far ahead of us,” Novak said. At the shocked expressions from the rest of the room, she added, “There’s nothing here that we haven’t already conceived. They’re outside our abilities to duplicate, yet, but in time, they won’t be. We could start work on a Dyson swarm right away, begin the construction of the satellites to harness all of the power from our own star, or from a dozen others, if we really wanted to. Interstellar laser cannons are practical, and we at least have an idea how the black holes are manufactured.”
“So they’re thousands of years ahead, not millions,” Rochford replied.
“No, sir, that’s not my meaning. I think they got to this level of technology eons ago, but then, for some reason, they stopped. The technology used to make those Exterminator warships could be twisted in a thousand different ways to make them a more effective weapon, but for some unimaginable reason they’ve chosen not to do so. I think they can’t. I think they don’t have the ability to innovate, not anymore.” With a smile, she added, “You’re going to find that they’re as astonished by the technological legacy they inherited as we are.”
“That’s not bad reasoning,” Silva said, “and it certainly gives us a better chance, especially if we are able to get a start on that technology for ourselves. Even if we can’t end the threat of the Exterminators during this action, there’s no reason why we can’t learn all manner of secrets that we can exploit later on, one way or another.”
“You’re guessing, Commander,” Rochford replied.
“I’m looking for opportunities, Captain,” Novak said. “That’s my job. To find exploitable opportunities. We might be facing the Wizard of Oz, and I think that it is more than time for us to take a peek behind the curtain.”
Nodding, Scott replied, “I agree. I want all non-essential personnel transferred to Herodotus right away. That’s to be completed within the hour, whereupon we will immediately begin our transit. Commander, I hope you’ve got some ideas about how to make it a smoother ride.”
“Not really, sir,” she said. “I don’t see what we can do mechanically, but I’d recommend that everyone not critical to the flight be under sedation for the transit, and that we double up on helm officers for the duration of the passage. The entry interface is the tough part. After that, it gets easy.”
“Until we run into an enemy civilization so far ahead of us that…,” Rochford began, before shaking his head. “If we had more time to analyze the data, sir, we’d have a better chance of putting together some sort of a plan, and perhaps find a way to make our passage easier. I don’t like the idea of emerging deep inside Exterminator territory with the crew in the midst of chemical Nirvana.”
“In an ideal world, Captain, we’d wait for a week before making this attempt, but we don’t have that kind of time,” Scott said. “We have no idea what might be happening back home, and I don’t want to be sitting out here staring into the void while an Exterminator fleet lays waste to Earth. Not to mention the Exterminator ship on the far side. It’s only a matter of time before they begin to move.”
“Not only that,” Novak added, “but the longer we wait, the harder the transit is going to be. Our best guess suggests that we’ll have only four or five weeks before the wormhole will be impossible to traverse at all, but in terms of our physical ability to withstand the strains of the transfer, we might have far less time than that. A week, potentially.”
“That doesn’t give us long to bring down a civilization that has survived for eons,” Silva quipped.
“It will take as long as it needs to take, Lieutenant,” Scott replied. “Let’s not kid ourselves, people. This is a one-way mission. The odds of any of us surviving to make it back to Earth are remote at best, and if we’re simply stranded on the far side of the galaxy, then I think we should consider ourselves extremely fortunate.”
Frowning, Belinsky said, “I don’t think we would be exactly stranded, Admiral. The Exterminators have managed to make their way to Earth from their base out
there, which means there must be a stable wormhole link between our worlds and theirs. It might just take a little longer to get back.”
“What sort of timescale were you thinking about, Professor?” Chen asked.
“Oh, perhaps forty or fifty years, Lieutenant,” Belinsky replied. “While there’s life, there’s hope.”
“The motto for this entire expedition, Professor,” Scott said. “Or as close to one as we’re likely to get. We’ve got a lot of work to do before the transit, and I want all hands prepared and ready to go. In sixty minutes from now, I want us to be on our way to the next phase of our mission. To those remaining behind, I wish the best of luck and a safe voyage home. And don’t give up on us for a while. We’ve lived through battle with these beasts before. We can do it again.”
“Speaking for those of us remaining, Admiral,” Cortez said, “I think I can safely say that we all wish you both good luck and good hunting.”
“Thank you, Commander. We’ll see you when we get back. Dismissed, everyone.” The officers rose as one, stood to attention, then walked out of the room, only Rochford remaining in his chair, looking warily at Scott. As the last of the others left, he said, “Go on, Clyde, get it out of your system.”
“You realize just how crazy all of this sounds, I hope? We’re heading off into the absolute unknown, with a battle plan that consists of a series of hunches, guesses and prayers, to face a technology so far in advance of our known that they could destroy us without ever quite realizing that they had done it. Under any other circumstances, you’d be sitting here protesting this decision as well.”
“True enough,” Scott said. “The fact of the matter is that we are desperate. We’re running out of time, running out of ideas, and running out of hope. Our mission was one of sheer desperation, in all honesty. We had no idea what we were going to find when we got out here, and we had no firm idea how we would exploit anything we did stumble across. All we know is that we’ve got no alternative other than to see what we can do with the hand that the Folk have dealt us. Professor Belinsky is right. They wouldn’t have opened up an easy avenue of invasion unless they thought that something could be done with it, some stratagem that might yet save us all.”
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