The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Leviathan

by Jack Campbell

  “They were ready to keep the war going if the worst happened,” Desjani said with grudging admiration. “Look at those orbits! This system is a mess. No wonder they didn’t put anything on the planets. Ah, look what else we found, Admiral.”

  He didn’t have to ask what she was referring to. The same symbol had appeared on his display. “Invincible. They did bring her here.”

  The alien superbattleship, much larger than any human warship, was hanging in its own orbit a few light-minutes from the dockyards. “Even those docks couldn’t hold something the size of that Kick ship,” Desjani commented. “Is this right? The ship is cold?”

  “Yes, Captain,” Lieutenant Yuon replied. “Our sensors aren’t picking up any signs of active power aboard Invincible, or any other activity. No heat being radiated. The ship is still completely shut down and apparently has no one aboard.”

  “What about those tugs?” Desjani asked. The many heavy-duty tugs that had been fastened about the hull of Invincible to move her from Varandal were still there, forming two rings about the alien battleship’s hull. “They’re cold, too?”

  “Just standby power, from what our sensors can see,” Yuon reported. “Aside from that, all systems inactive and life support not running. No indications of crews or caretakers present. The tugs appear to have been put into stand-down.”

  “They were supposed to be taking Invincible somewhere to study the Kick technology and try to learn more about the Kicks,” Desjani complained to Geary. “Instead, they just hauled her here and forgot about her!”

  “Maybe they had to shut down research efforts when the dark ships started causing problems,” Geary speculated.

  “If that’s the case, they didn’t shut down anything in a hurry. Everything about Invincible and those tugs reflects methodical deactivation.”

  “That’s so. And they parked Invincible a fair ways from anything else, as if they were afraid of the ship.” Geary felt a wry smile on his face. “Maybe they were afraid of the Kick ghosts.”

  “It would be nice to know the Kick ghosts spooked whichever human spooks have been busy at Unity Alternate,” Desjani commented, using the common slang term for undercover operatives. She looked over her display again. “But they’re all we’re picking up. No other shipping.”

  “There aren’t any dark ships here at all?” Geary asked, staring at his display with a mingled sense of relief and mild disappointment. It would have been nice to catch a small force of dark ships and wipe it out along with their support facilities.

  “We’re not seeing anything,” Yuon confirmed. “We can’t see inside the docks, though. All of them appear to have power active but no life support running.”

  “And those are a lot of big docks,” Desjani murmured.

  “Let’s take them out.” Geary felt a sense of revulsion as he looked at the dockyards and support facilities, apparently empty of life yet continuing to serve the needs of the dark ships. Automated facilities conducting automated war. They were the unfeeling personification of Captain Tulev’s argument against using AIs to control weapons.

  Geary called up the bombardment routine on his display and began designating the orbiting support facilities as targets. One very large structure orbiting at a distance from the support facilities looked like the place intended for the exiled government. He left that off the target list, then asked the system for firing solutions.

  A process that should have produced almost instantaneous results instead ground on for several seconds, then a minute, then kept going. “Captain Desjani, we seem to have a problem with part of the combat systems.”

  “What?” She leaned in, frowning, then entered commands into her own system. “It’s working. Trying to produce a solution. Why the hell—? Oh.”

  “What?” Geary echoed.

  “The interacting gravitational fields of the stars and the eccentric orbits. The bombardment routines can’t handle that. They can’t direct a precise shot across those kinds of distances under these conditions. We’ll have to get a lot closer to those facilities to launch rocks at them and be sure of hits.”

  “I guess that was another good reason to put Unity Alternate here,” Geary conceded. “How have they ensured that the facilities don’t get sucked into destructive orbits?”

  “There are propulsion systems on all of the facilities,” Lieutenant Yuon reported in surprised tones. “Not enough thrust for a lot of travel, but enough to adjust orbits in a big way—” He broke off as he realized the implications of that.

  “Oh, hell,” Desjani complained. “If they have automated maneuvering systems that powerful, they could spot an incoming bombardment and adjust orbit enough that our rocks would miss. It’s a good thing we didn’t launch. The rocks would have been wasted even if their trajectories had been accurate.”

  “How much did they spend building this stuff?” Lieutenant Castries asked in amazement.

  The hypernet gate had been constructed far enough from the two stars to be unaffected by their intertwining gravity fields. In this case, that meant an unusually long journey to the facilities orbiting the twin stars. “Almost seven light-hours,” Desjani observed. “We’ve got a long trip ahead. Do we have a good picture of that big facility that looks like it was intended as the command structure and seat of government?”

  “Life support and power are active,” Lieutenant Yuon said, peering at his data. “But only in the upper quarter of the structure. Everything below that is dark and cold. We’re not seeing any confirmation that the facility has anyone aboard it, though.”

  “You could keep a lot of people very comfortably in something the size of one-quarter of that facility,” Geary said. “We’re not picking up any comm traffic or other signals?”

  “No, sir. There is probably a local net running between the facility and those dockyards and support structures, but it would be using highly directional signals that we’re not in the right position to pick up.”

  “All right. Let’s see if anyone will answer us.” He made sure his uniform looked decent, straightened in his seat, then keyed the broadcast comm circuit. “Anyone in this star system, anyone occupying any of the facilities of Unity Alternate, this is Admiral Geary of the Alliance fleet. We are here on orders of the Alliance government to occupy and neutralize these facilities. If anyone is in need of rescue or evacuation, we will assist you. Anyone working on the facilities must accept the authority of the Alliance government and also prepare for evacuation. Contact me and provide your status as soon as possible. The First Fleet of the Alliance is on its way to your orbital location. To the honor of our ancestors, Geary, out.”

  It would take at least fourteen hours for any replies to come in, and he had no intention of waiting around the hypernet gate until that happened. “All units in First Fleet, come starboard—” He stopped abruptly. “Wait one.”

  “What’s the matter?” Desjani asked.

  “Starboard. Port,” Geary said. “Toward the star or away from the star. Which star?”

  “Oh. It’s a close binary.” She smiled ruefully. “We haven’t had that problem in systems with one star, have we?”

  Geary tapped his fingers impatiently as he thought. “It’s all arbitrary anyway. We say one way is up and the other down.” He activated his comms again. “This is Admiral Geary. The brighter star in this system is designated Alpha and the other star is designated Beta. All maneuvering commands and fleet navigational settings will treat Alpha as the reference star. All units in First Fleet, come starboard zero seven degrees, down one zero degrees at time two five. Accelerate to point two light speed.” He was not going to waste time getting this job done.

  The ships of the Alliance formation pivoted around Dauntless, the cylinder shape reorienting along the long-curving path that would bring the fleet near the orbiting facilities.

  “Thirty-eight hours until we reach the orbiting facilitie
s,” Lieutenant Castries said.

  “We might as well relax.” Geary activated comms again. “All units in First Fleet, stand down from battle alert.”

  Desjani glanced at him. “You’re not relaxing, I notice. Is it for the same reason I’m not?”

  “What’s your reason?” Geary asked.

  “This situation stinks. We have never encountered the entire force of dark ships at once. They have always apparently left some of their ships here at their base. If nothing else, some of the dark ships we damaged at Bhavan should still be here, and even if they were concealed in the docks, we would be able to pick up indications that repair work was being conducted inside some of those docks.”

  “Yeah,” Geary agreed. “That’s my reason, too. I thought we would at least encounter a guard force of some kind.”

  “If they are still thinking like you, if the AIs haven’t modified their thinking and rationalized things enough to deviate a lot from what Black Jack would do, are there any conditions under which you would leave your base totally undefended like this?”

  Geary considered that question, then shook his head. “No. We did take the entire First Fleet here, but Varandal isn’t defenseless. They’ve got some of their own ships. Nothing big, but something, and they have all of the fixed star system defenses. Plus, Varandal isn’t our only base. Losing it would be a tragedy, but it wouldn’t cripple us.”

  “So, where are the dark ships?”

  “I don’t know. All we can do is what we set out to do,” Geary said. “Then get back to Varandal and find out what the dark ships are doing right now.”

  —

  AFTER forcing himself to leave the bridge so he wouldn’t exhaust himself and look nervous to everyone on watch, which would both be bad things, Geary walked through the passageways of Dauntless for a while, talking to crew members and judging their moods. Before the fight at Bhavan, most had been confident, almost cheerful, certain of another victory. Since Bhavan, a grimness had settled on them, a determination to win tempered by knowledge that victory might be dearly bought. As Geary talked to the sailors, though, he saw that for the moment worries about the dark ships had been overridden by fascination with being in a close binary star system. For all the star systems many of these sailors had visited, this was the first time they had seen two stars so close together.

  The exercise had the desired effect of wearing him out, and Geary was able to sleep for a few hours until rudely awakened by a call from Tanya. “There is something you should take a look at,” she said. “Not urgent, but serious.”

  “Show me.” The star display in Geary’s stateroom came to life. He got off his bunk and walked over to gaze at the images of this star system.

  Desjani’s voice was somber. “Here. I’m highlighting it.”

  He sat down as an area of the display brightened to emphasize details there. “Debris?”

  “Yes. It took a while to spot it and analyze it because of how much junk is drifting around between those two stars. The interacting gravity fields must keep causing collisions between rocks jarred out of what would otherwise be stable orbits.”

  Geary tapped the debris symbol and studied the information that popped up. “It wasn’t a warship?”

  “No. Based on the composition of the debris, it wasn’t a freighter, either. There’s no sign of cargo or the remains of cargo.”

  That left only one chilling possibility. “A passenger ship.”

  “Yes.” Desjani made a face. “Maybe a regular shift change by the people who worked here. Maybe an attempt to get out of here when the dark ships slipped their leashes. From the dispersion of the debris, it happened about a month ago.”

  “Is this the only debris field we’ve detected?”

  “So far,” she said. “It’s still a few hours before we could expect any answer from anyone on the facilities and find out whether there is anyone left, and whether they’re scared to death, or whether they are so fixated on following orders that they are still prepared to fight to the death.”

  “At the moment, I’m unhappy enough to let the Marines accommodate anyone here who wants to fight to the death,” Geary said. “Is there anything else new?”

  “Not really new. I’ve been noticing something odd about the Dancers,” Desjani said.

  “You mean something odd that we haven’t seen already?” Geary asked.

  “All right, yes, something new that’s odd.” She indicated her display. “Normally, we get into a star system, and the Dancers start flying around, going wherever they want and flying rings around each other and any other ships. But ever since we arrived here, the Dancers have stayed in that formation and stayed close to us.”

  “That is odd.” Geary looked at the Dancer ships on his display. They were still in their smaller cylindrical formation, and they were indeed maintaining the same position relative to the Alliance formation. He called down to the compartment holding the special comm equipment, patching in Desjani to the call. “Hello, General. We’ve got another question for you.”

  “Thank you,” Charban said, sounding almost sincere.

  “The Dancers have been staying close to us since arriving at Unity Alternate instead of running off and, well, dancing around the star system. Can you find out if they are nervous or something?”

  “That’s interesting. The Dancers haven’t volunteered any such feelings, but that is unusual behavior for them,” Charban agreed. “I’ll ask. They did just offer something that I think refers to Invincible. The lieutenants and I were discussing it before sending it on.”

  “They aren’t staking a claim to Invincible, are they?” Geary asked. “When we captured it, the Dancers agreed that the Kick warship would be our property.”

  “No, it’s not a claim. Here’s what they sent—

  “Herd creatures build big,

  “Make ship the herd always there,

  “To be not alone,” Charban recited.

  “The herd always there?” Geary asked. “Are they saying there are still Kicks aboard that ship? How could that be possible? We went over every cubic centimeter inside that hull.”

  “I don’t think it’s a reference to Kicks still being on Invincible,” Charban said. “Lieutenant Iger noted the use of present tense, but also the clear reference to herd, which would mean a lot of Kicks. Unless they are physically buried in the structure of the hull, I don’t see how that could be.”

  “Wait a minute.” Geary looked toward the depiction of Invincible, remembering his visit aboard her. “People do feel Kicks aboard that ship. I felt them. Like a herd of ghosts everywhere you went. It was incredibly unnerving. If you weren’t part of a large group of people, the sensation could become too much to endure. Even those Syndic special forces that tried to capture or destroy Invincible couldn’t handle it.”

  Charban looked suddenly surprised. “To be not alone,” he quoted. “Admiral, it’s that simple. The ghosts are a deliberate design feature. However the Kicks manage to create that sensation, it ensures that no matter where any Kick was on that ship, even if they were the only Kick in that area, they would still feel as if they were surrounded by the herd.”

  “You’re kidding.” But the more Geary thought about it, the more sense it made. “It’s not a defense against invaders. It’s a defense against isolation or loneliness for creatures that have to feel surrounded by their comrades at all times.”

  “It’s strange, isn’t it?” Charban said. “Humans alone in a place can become worried about ghosts, can become frightened because they are alone, because we are also social creatures. Imagine how a Kick would feel, a creature raised to always be surrounded by its herd, if it were truly alone somewhere? We can understand that. It’s the first thing about the Kicks that we can both understand and empathize with.”

  “It probably won’t be adequate grounds for peaceful coexistence,” Desjani pointed
out.

  “No,” Charban agreed. “It is hard to empathize too much with creatures who regard genocide of any potentially competing species as the natural order of things.”

  “Especially since the Kicks appear to believe that just about every other species is competition,” Geary said. “You know, maybe the Dancers know something about Kick technology. They certainly know more about the Kicks than we do. Once we deal with the dark ships, maybe the Dancers can help us figure out how the gear works on Invincible.”

  Charban made a face. “Rendering a technical manual into poetry is a challenge probably beyond our skill level, Admiral. At least, it has been so far. I don’t think we can successfully tackle something like The Ballad of the Resonating Quark or The Tuning of the Bipolar Oscillator. Perhaps a check of the fleet will find one of your engineers is an accomplished and talented songwriter. That’s who we will need for that job.”

  “An engineer who is also a songwriter?” Desjani asked sarcastically. “That ought to be easy to find.”

  “Not so hard as you might think, Captain,” Charban said. “There is an intimate connection between engineering and music. Think of designing or building a musical instrument. It is an exercise in engineering, in stresses and forces, in structures and materials, vibrations and resonances.”

  “I never thought of it that way,” she confessed. “For now, I think you should focus on the Admiral’s question about whether the Dancers are nervous. Unity Alternate has me nervous. It’s too quiet here.”

  “I agree,” Charban said. “I’m ground force, not space, but even I feel that this is going too easy.”

  —

  SIXTEEN hours after they had arrived at Unity Alternate, and with twenty-two hours to go before they reached the region where the orbiting facilities were located, a message arrived.

  Geary watched a trim man in a nondescript suit speak with calm precision. “Your presence here is not authorized. You are directed to leave this star system immediately. Your act of trespass on official government property has already been recorded and will be forwarded to appropriate authorities for action. You are directed to say nothing about this star system until you are contacted by a duly authorized representative of the government. If you continue to approach these Alliance government facilities, which are off-limits to all unauthorized travelers, we will be forced to take any necessary actions, up to and including use of deadly force.”