Earthers
Page 37
The carrier captain noted that the admiral had given Oleg Tenard a minimalist order, but the commodore knew what she wanted. His Tridents took up positions much farther outward than the transports but in line with them and the planet. Then the Tridents emptied their fighters, which floated beside the warships. In time, he hoped to be as knowledgeable and competent.
“Apologies, Admiral,” the carrier captain said, “we weren’t given safe operating distances for the weapon.”
“No need to apologize, Captain, it’s not something that you’d find in an operations manual,” Lucia explained. “Consult the expansion rate of your sphere after release, determine the size of your target, and make a judgment.”
Jess sent privately to Lucia.
The captain consulted his gunner.
The lieutenant sent a diagram to her captain. It contained a cone that represented the spread of the rail gun’s sphere into the separate balls that comprised it. She placed a transport at ninety degrees to the cone’s expanding diameter.
That was the lieutenant’s wish too. Like most of those from Sol, they wanted to succeed and prove that Earth’s citizens deserved to be part of the galaxy of races.
The captain chose a point on the ship’s telemetry that employed his gunnery lieutenant’s calculation, and the pilot navigated to that position. The carrier’s bow was turned toward the distant transport.
“On station, Captain,” the pilot reported.
The captain glanced toward Lucia, seeking affirmation of his choice, but the admiral’s face was impassive. “Engage the rail gun,” he ordered.
The lieutenant sent a signal to the rail gun’s crew of the weapon’s impending activation.
From the gunner’s panel, the lieutenant activated the weapon. The carrier’s enormous rail bay was depressurized, and the twin belly hatches split open. The rail gun extended on a boom, and it rotated toward the designated target.
“Lasers have acquired the target’s bow, Captain,” the lieutenant reported.
“Fire one round,” the captain ordered.
“Round away,” the lieutenant replied. She’d been careful to keep her tone neutral and professional, but she couldn’t help the thrill that coursed through her. At Sol, she’d received virtual training on the rail gun, but this was the first time that she had actually fired the weapon.
Triggered by the bridge panel, a sphere accelerated to a fantastic velocity inside a cylinder by the push-pull effects of electromagnetics alongside the barrel. As the sphere exited the tube, the nanites holding the metal balls together dissociated. The weapon’s cylinder had imparted the sphere with a subtle spin, which gave the balls the impetus to slowly separate as they sped toward the target.
The bridge audience was quiet, awaiting the outcome.
“Contact, Captain,” the gunner reported. “The transport’s bow has been shredded. No explosion.”
“Admiral, under the circumstances, I’d like your advice about the other transports,” the captain requested.
“Certainly, Captain,” Lucia replied. “It’s that you should always trust the Colony to betray your judgment.”
Jess turned to regard Lucia, who stood at his side, but she kept her eyes forward. They were fixed on the holo-vid and the carrier captain. So, this is Lucia Bellardo, the war admiral, he thought.
The captain had hoped for something more specific, and he thought carefully about what Lucia meant. In the end, he decided to err on the side of caution.
Then the captain chose the next point on the ship’s telemetry, and the pilot navigated the carrier into position.
Lucia, Jess, and the assault leaders watched the captain’s choice in the holo-vid display with critical eyes.
“We’re in position for target two, Captain,” the pilot reported.
The captain and the gunnery lieutenant repeated their firing exercise, and the next sphere of metal balls was launched.
The gunner’s report was the same as the first. The transport’s bow was shredded to pieces, and there was no explosion.
The captain knew he was being tested by the admiral, and he was determined to measure up to her expectations. At Sol, he’d strived to get the carrier position, and he wasn’t about to fail and be sent home in disgrace. For each successive target, he carefully maintained the maximum distance.
Transports three and four were disposed in the same manner as the first two targets.
Briefly, the thought passed through the captain’s mind that he could close on the transports, and he laughed at the foolish thought. It might be quicker that way, but he had taken the admiral’s cautionary advice to heart.
“Round away,” the gunnery lieutenant reported, as the sphere of metal balls silently sped toward transport five.
The metal balls struck the Colony ship’s bow, and telemetry recorded a blinding white flash.
Surprise was evident on the bridge crew’s faces, and they glanced toward their captain. In turn, the captain regarded Lucia, who tipped her head the barest amount.
The captain accepted the admiral’s approval with relief. She’d warned him about the Colony’s insidiousness, and he’d scrupulously followed her advice. Now, her warning had proven prescient.
Metal spheres were targeted against transports six and seven, and those ships were found to be passive targets.
When given the all-clear signal, Commodore Tenard ordered the Tridents and the travelers into the expanding debris fields to burn the chunks of metal and other material to ash.
“Commander, Admiral, we could use a little education,” the captain requested, indicating himself and his bridge crew.
“Captain, you and your crew performed well,” Lucia said, and the crew sat straighter. “You were careful and thorough. This time, the Colony didn’t claim your ship and the lives of the crew.”
The captain’s eyes turned toward Jess, who added, “It’s only supposition on my part, but my experience guides me, Captain. Six transports arrived here long ago and dropped twelve shuttles planetside. Then, not long ago, a seventh transport arrived. It hid among the others, launched two shuttles, and left the side hatches open to disguise its deadliness. Unlike the first six transports, this ship was lined with explosives, which were designed to tear the hull apart. It would have made an excellent shrapnel bomb.”
“That’s ... that’s an unexpected level of deviousness,” the gunnery lieutenant muttered.
“And there you have the Colony in one,” Tacnock commented. “Never take the insectoids for granted. Never expect them to do the same thing that they did before.”
The bridge crew regarde
d the veterans. Their thoughts had a common theme — how had the six individuals managed to survive numerous encounters with the insectoids? What the crew didn’t know was the number of lost lives who enabled the veterans to earn their knowledge and experience.
“Captain, do we have a status on the dome?” Lucia asked, choosing not to make the connection herself.
The captain linked to the commodore and requested the traveler on overwatch relay its telemetry to the carrier. The holo-vid displayed details of the activity within the dome.
“Energy weapons,” Homsaff commented in disgust. Her remark was echoed in kind with snarls and a grunt from the other assault leaders.
“The insectoids are using several gates,” Aputi noted. “This dome interests the Colony for its intersection with multiple worlds.”
“What does this type of weapon mean to the assault team?” the captain asked.
“They’re disruptors,” Sastisona replied. “Deadly to biologicals and able to shut down the shadows.”
“The team won’t be taking this dome,” Lucia said. “Our hope is that the SADEs will discover how to remotely lock out the gates within the domes.”
“Won’t that trap the insectoids inside those domes?” the pilot asked.
“Yes,” Jess replied, “but better that than having them use the dome network to enable their expansion.” Turning to Homsaff, he said, “The planet is yours. We’ll wait to hear your report about the downed shuttles.”
“Captain, place the carrier into orbit, please,” Homsaff requested. Then she signaled the Sylians and the Dischnya to prepare for launch. Her squad leaders, Simlan and Hessan, notified the Norsitchians.
Below decks, crew chiefs prepped the travelers for launch by loading groups of shadows aboard.
When the commodore’s ships finished the task of burning the debris, the travelers headed for a rendezvous with the carrier. There were two hundred twenty-five veterans and twenty-two hundred fifty shadows to drop planetside.
As expected, the Norsitchians would hunt in half brassards, groups of ten, with ten shadows per team to act as guards.
The pilots sought small islands of land on which to land the assault teams and begin the hunts.
Homsaff exited her traveler by leaping into knee-deep brackish water. She shuddered as the water splashed her suit.
Three shadows kept watch from the shuttle’s ramp, while Homsaff waded toward the downed shuttle. Half of the ship was submerged. When she neared the bow, she bunched her powerful hocked legs and leapt onto the upper metal surface.
Homsaff experienced a moment of relief at being free of the water. The Dischnya weren’t partial to deep water, which they defined as anything above ankle height. They couldn’t swim, and they didn’t care to learn.
Slowly, reports from other teams trickled to Homsaff and the carrier.
The land masses, such as they existed, were shallow, choked with vegetation, and made soggy underfoot by the water that seeped through the ground.
The veterans found it nearly impossible to hunt, not the least because the shadows couldn’t navigate the crossings between islands. They’d have quickly been submerged and mired in the ooze below.
However, the foul terrain was the least of the team’s worries. To protect the assault members, the shadows were constantly firing lasers at the local denizens.
The astonished bridge crew exchanged glances, as the veterans laughed, chittered, or growled.
When Jess saw the captain’s perplexed expression, he said, “The Colony chose the wrong planet to land on, Captain. If their shuttles didn’t fall over and trap them because of the planet’s primordial state, then they slid out of their ships into an extremely inhospitable world. I doubt an adult lasted more than a cycle down below.”
“What about the sentient race who is supposed to be here?” the captain asked. “There’s a dome. I thought that meant that the Messinants uplifted a species.”
“Sometimes the Messinants failed,” Tacnock said, “and sometimes they quit before finishing their work.”
As the call went out to the fleet’s travelers to pick up the veterans and the shadows, Jess perused his priority list. He updated the present location in the controller’s database and marked the next systems.
When Jess received affirmatives, he signaled Lucia and the other assault leaders to collect their gear. They’d be making for the Rêveur and then the outpost.
Lucia spoke privately to the captain.
36: Dreams of Colors
Alex stayed in the refresher for longer than usual. His sleep had been disturbed. The colors had returned. They were more vivid than usual, and they stayed longer.
Renée joined Alex. Approaching him quietly from behind, she wrapped her arms around his chest. With this gesture, her hands had never been able to touch.
“Why are you thinking about the Ollassa?” Renée murmured into Alex’s broad back. She felt the mass of his muscles twitch, and she opened her arms, as he turned around.
“Say that again,” Alex requested. He didn’t actually need that. His implant had her voice recording, but he wanted to hear her explain the question.
“The colors,” Renée said, “those in your dreams.”
Long ago, Alex and Renée had achieved a unique linking between their implants. Alex could dream, but his implants didn’t record them.
However, while Renée slept, she often received Alex’s dreams, and her implant recorded them just as they would any sending from him. Most dreams were innocuous, and she deleted them. Others were haunting, and she’d help him unravel their meanings.
The dream of colors had been present in Alex’s sleep for a while. Renée thought the display was an innocent collection of images. She rarely gave the sequence a second thought, when she erased them in the morning.
But the colors had persisted and intensified in frequency. That’s when Renée knew the dream wasn’t a passing one. It had meaning, and it was time to confront it.
Renée had woken, heard Alex in the refresher, and played her recording. She relaxed her mind, let the sequence play, and sought connections. When she identified the colors, she leapt from the bed and hurried to join Alex.
“The colors,” Renée repeated. “Citron, flame, indigo, scarlet, teal, umber, melon, mist, and the others.”
When Renée succinctly identified the colors, Alex groaned. The answer had been right there. Admittedly, color identification wasn’t his forte. He’d have sooner called one of the colors reddish blue than scarlet.
“I didn’t see it,” Alex admitted.
“It’s all rig
ht, my love,” Renée said, hugging him. “What do they mean?”
“I don’t know,” Alex replied. “Did you record anything else?”
“No, just the color sequence,” Renée replied. “Maybe you’re waiting for another piece of the puzzle.”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d make a special plea to the stars that they send more information soon,” Alex said, chuckling. Then he dropped his chin on Renée’s head, and his arms enfolded her.
* * * * *
The Rêveur transited into the Pyrean system.
“Two carriers,” Lucia remarked, while she packed her bags.
“We could each take one,” Jess offered. “It would accelerate the engagement schedule.”
“I’ll take the Ormand,” Lucia said. The security crew member, who the carrier had been named after, was a Méridien who’d served aboard her Trident, the Judgment. “Which assault leader do you want?”