HADRON Emergent

by Stephen Arseneault

  Johnny said, “Stark… has to be. He knew about it. Was only a matter of time before he began to make use of it. He came in to rescue his co-conspirator.”

  Mace replied, “Might be why they haven’t found him back on Earth. He’s copied our tech.”

  Johnny shook his head. “Great. That means his ass will be even harder to find once we finally go looking for him.”

  The Royal Fortune lifted into the heavens, soon breaking free of the gravitational pull of Promexa. As they sped toward open space, two Dedrus warships raced after them.

  “Somebody has our number!” said Jenny.

  Mace sat in the copilot’s chair. “I’ll hit them with a few wormholes. Maybe we get lucky and we slow them down.”

  The device was powered up, coordinates were entered, and Mace fired. The first two attempts just missed as the ships began evasive maneuvers. Out of instinct, and with wishful thinking, Mace pushed the joystick to one side in an attempt to make the wormhole opening follow the side-moving ship he had targeted. To his shock, the wormhole moved to the right, cutting a two centimeter hole through the forward hull of the attacking ship. At almost the same moment, after doing untold damage to the ship’s interior, an identical hole formed in the rear of the hull.

  Mace released the joystick he had taken hold of. “What just happened?”

  Johnny said, “You just pierced that ship. How’d you do that?”

  Mace shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of wished that wormhole to change directions and it did.”

  Johnny looked over the console. “You think the mods they made enabled that?”

  Mace grabbed the joystick. “Let’s find out.”

  Another portal was opened and then steered into one of the ships that followed. A second portal opening followed.

  Johnny said, “What about the diameter? Can we adjust that also?”

  The opening of the next wormhole spanned a meter in diameter. A hole of identical size formed on the target ship’s outer hull. The meter wide emptiness cut from the initial impact point on the front to an exit point on the rear. The affected ship dropped from the chase.

  Johnny said, “Can you make it bigger?”

  Mace shook his head. “That was max.”

  The second ship was quickly knocked from pursuit as a hole formed in its center, running the length of the ship.

  Jenny said, “Looks like we might finally have our weapon.”

  Jenny brought the shuttle to a stop. “Open one end on the surface of that sun. See if you can steer the other end into one of those ships.”

  Mace gathered and entered the coordinates. The wormhole would not open inside the intense gravity field of the sun. An attempt was made farther out, followed by moving it in close.

  A huge fireball appeared to travel through open space toward one of the Dedrus warships. After two attempts at maneuvering away from the fireball failed, the cruiser class warship was consumed in flame. The million degree heat incinerated everything in close proximity to the wormhole’s opening. A second fireball was opened and the second ship burned from the interior going outward.

  Johnny said, “That… was… awesome.”

  Jenny said, “We’ve got problems. That flashing light on your console… is the device overheating? We need to be able to jump home.”

  Mace replied, “Yes. It’s that same circuit Roge modified. Had we used that another time we might have burned it out. You said two problems?”

  Jenny nodded. “Those two shots used a quarter of our gatrellium. That weapon is a hog.”

  Mace said, “Take us away from this area. Once the circuit cools we’ll jump back to Gellos and have Jeff look it over.”

  Johnny was grinning. “You know what this means? It means we’re back in the game. Technically, we could open a wormhole from the sun around Gellos and fire on the enemy ships from there. All we need is a scout to tell us where to aim.”

  Jenny said, “Mace… if this works… this might solve all our problems. We could destroy any ship, anywhere, at any time. They would have no defense against us. We send Jasper’s teams out to scout and we just sit back and fry the enemy.

  Mace replied, “Circuit’s cool. Jump us back to Gellos.”

  The shuttle dropped through the atmosphere and landed inside the underground complex. Jeff Moskowitz and his team were waiting outside.

  As the ramp lowered, Jeff came running up. “Let me look at the unit.”

  Mace raised a hand. “Wait a sec. Let us get everyone out of your way first.”

  The Hoorka Queen and most of her war council walked down the ramp onto the stone floor of the shuttle bay.

  Mace said, “Johnny, take them to the lounge. Get them some food and drink. Let them relax while we look this over.”

  Favia insisted on staying. “I must know what you are planning, Mr. Hardy.”

  Mace replied, “I’m planning on destroying every hostile ship out there if it’s possible. I’ll be starting with those at Earth and following up with clearing them away from Promexa. Then we move on to the UF and Karthian worlds if needed. Hopefully… long before we have to go to those lengths… the Dedrus will get the message and pull back on their own.”

  “My species would be willing to trade you whatever wealth you desire for such a weapon.”

  Mace chuckled. “Not for sale. Ever. In the wrong hands this could easily be the destroyer of worlds. I don’t think there ever needs to be more than one. And one may be too many. Just given what we’ve seen, it’s far too powerful.”

  Jeff came out a half hour later, scratching his head. “I don’t understand how that’s working. I mean… it’s supposed to work… but this is the first time it has.”

  Mace said, “I need two things from you, Doc. I need a method to keep that circuit cool. And I need a bigger gatrellium store. This thing gobbles up the gatrellium.”

  Jeff nodded as he looked up the ramp to the shuttle. “The store won’t be a problem. You’ll lose a bit of room, but I would guess you’d be more than happy to do so. The cooling is a different issue. That circuit is tightly enclosed. And it’s working. By opening up that enclosure we may risk losing the very thing that allows that to function. At best I believe we should cool the exterior of the enclosure. It won’t achieve what you desire, but it will allow faster use of the device.”

  Mace nodded. “OK. How long to outfit the new storage unit?”

  Jeff glanced upward in thought. “Two hours?”

  Mace placed his hand on Jeff’s shoulder. “Get to work on it, Doc. After that, we’ll start liberating our planet.”

  Jeff Moskowitz walked back up the ramp, giving orders to his team as he went. Jane walked across the stone tarmac with Zax and Fina running circles around her.

  Mace knelt down for a hug as the two hybrid Humans came running up. “Zax… your updates to our wormhole generator worked. It works better than ever.”

  Zax nodded. “It should. We reduced the ambient gravitational noise by 40 percent. You now have a stable threshold when the portal is open. The feedback Doc was getting should be non-existent.”

  Mace laughed. “OK. If you say so. All I know is that it works. It does everything we needed it for. And the next time you see Roge, you can give him my thanks as well.”

  Zax’s attention was suddenly diverted toward a taffa, the Gallos equivalent of Earth’s rat. It scurried from a far opening in the cave’s mouth toward the back where the living quarters and labs were located. In a flash the three-year-old sped off in pursuit of the now fleeing vermin. Fina was hot on his heels.

  Jane was smiling. “The two of them are like cats when it comes to those taffa. They have dozens already that they have been keeping in a pit back there. I just wish they had a little more fear of wildlife.”

  Mace said, “You heard about the great news on the device?”

  Jane nodded. “I did. When do we start making use of it?”

  “Doc needs a couple hours to increase the size of the fuel store. When you open that wo
rmhole a meter wide and move it around it really consumes the gatrellium.”

  Jane asked, “Can’t you keep it at the micro-wormhole size until contact with the target?”

  Mace replied, “That’s what I’d like to do, but so far we haven’t had the chance to try that. I’ll have to ask Doc, though. I’m not certain that little generator has the ability to resize built in.”

  Jasper Collins walked up. “We should move that device to the Cave. We need to protect it.”

  Mace looked back at the ship. “We can’t risk removing it from that hull. We don’t know how it works. Could be the shuttle’s surroundings are what enable it to function.”

  Jasper said, “Then we pull it and try it out. If it doesn’t work we put it back.”

  Mace shook his head. “Not gonna risk it. What I need from you now is scouting. Get your ships in position where you can feed us live coordinates. You spot ‘em, we’ll take them down.”

  Jasper scowled as he replied sarcastically, “Again you’re taking all the fun out of it. And you’ll be getting all the glory, I suppose.”

  Mace chuckled. “You can have all the glory if you want it. I’d be happy to tell everyone on Earth one day that Jasper Collins made this happen.”

  Jasper waved a hand. “Jasper Collins doesn’t really care about that. Just kill off those Dedrus ships and you’ll make me a happy man.”

  Jane said, “If you haven’t eaten you might want to take the opportunity to fill your belly. Once this starts, I have the feeling you’re gonna want to see it to the end. We’re talking thousands of ships.”

  Mace patted Jane on the shoulder. “Let me round up Jenny. You get Johnny. I’ll meet you in the dining hall.”

  Johnny chewed away at a nutrient bar. “I get tired of the taste of these, but never the convenience.”

  Jane replied, “Well, you need to stay on them. You’ve gained back ten pounds of the forty you lost. Only thing I see you doing differently is drinking the beer Tres’ been brewing.”

  Johnny grinned. “He’s turning out some good brew. I can’t help if it needs to be continuously tested for quality. Or that he selected me as his primary tester. After all, who on this planet is more qualified?”

  Jane sighed. “Just keep at it and we’re gonna have to let your battlesuit out.”

  Jenny said, “Jane, you should come with us when we go back out.”

  “I think I’d rather stay here. I can watch on a display while I keep an eye on my kids.”

  Jenny smiled. “Those two don’t seem to be tiring of their constant activity. Tres and Vanessa’s three are just calm, cool and collected. Kind of like what you would expect from young girls.”

  Jane huffed. “They’re no angels. They might be three years old, but their bodies say eight or nine and their brains say twenty. They hate it when I talk to them in my friendly-child voice. They want to be talked to as adults. The whole thing can sometimes be confusing.”

  Jenny said, “You give them love and firm guidance. That’s all any kid could ask for. Both will grow up to be good individuals.”

  “Just keep telling me that. I need the reinforcement.”

  Mace looked at Johnny. “You two ever discuss what you would do if this was all over? Would you stay here? Go back to Earth?”

  Johnny replied, “Earth. At least for a while. I’d like the kids to spend some time with kids their age… their intelligence age anyway. Out here they only have Tres and Vanessa’s three to interact with. Not that they’re bad in any way, I’d just like for them to have more experience when dealing with others. That, and I feel guilty they haven’t been able to enjoy the same childhood that we did. Would be great if they could ride a bike to a convenience store or build a fort in the woods. Play in a creek… you know, the things you treasured as a kid.”

  Mace laughed. “I know what you mean. When I was eight my friends and I dug a big hole in my friend’s backyard. His mom kept a hawk-eye watch on us from the kitchen window. Anyway, when we finished the hole, my friend Angus jumped in. We pulled a piece of plywood over the top of it and began covering it with dirt.

  “Angus’ mom saw us shoveling and counted kids. Seeing we were one short, she sprinted out into the yard screaming. She dove on her knees and began digging frantically with her hands. When she hit the plywood she looked up with a confused expression for only a moment before she cut loose yelling at us. It was one of those moments you always remember.”

  Johnny chuckled. “You had a friend named Angus?”

  Mace nodded. “He was beefy kid, too. We had to drop a ladder into the hole because the three of us didn’t have the horsepower to pull him out.”

  Johnny nodded. “An underground fort. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I bet that was the hangout after that.”

  Mace frowned. “She made us fill it in as soon as we had him out. Best fort we managed after that was an old refrigerator box.”

  “Are you two finished going down memory lane?” asked Jane.

  Johnny crossed his arms. “And what if we aren’t?”

  Jane pointed over his shoulder. “If you aren’t, then I guess you don’t want to hear what Doc has to say.”

  Jeff said, “The expanded store will be operational, filled, and ready for use in about twenty minutes. If you need me for anything else, I’ll be looking over the data from your logs. Maybe we’re missing something simple with the full-sized device.”

  “Just keep doing what you’re doing, Doc,” said Mace. “Having a single working unit should be all we need.”

  The meal continued as Jeff made his way back to his lab.

  Chapter 11

  *

  Jasper Collins ordered scout ships to locations where at least fifty Dedrus warships were deployed. The eleven remaining Collins class ships were soon returning live data feeds. Two were chased off after their comm micro-wormholes were detected, only to return to a new location.

  Jenny parked the Royal Fortune in high orbit above Gellos, just far enough out to manage opening a wormhole. Johnny stood looking over her shoulder at the console display.

  Mace said, “Are we ready to do this?”

  Johnny replied, “I’ve been ready for … wait, aren’t we exposing ourselves?”

  Jenny asked, “How so?”

  Johnny pointed at the coordinates on the display. “Anyone who scans our wormhole is gonna see coordinates for this star system. Shouldn’t we be using a different star for our origination point?”

  Mace nodded. “Good point. I’ll switch over to the Promexa star.”

  Johnny leaned in. “Are you sure we can do that? I mean… open a wormhole from that far off?”

  Mace replied, “According to Doc we can open one wherever we want, given of course that the farther away the more gatrellium we use. Kind of why I wanted to do it from here. But I agree, we don’t need to lead anyone back here.”

  Johnny pointed at the comm feeds coming in from Jasper’s ships. “What about those?”

  Jenny piped up. “Those are going to a remote ship and then to here.”

  “Isn’t that still a problem? Can’t they scan the wormhole and see the other wormhole? I can see where it works for jumping a ship around, but for comms where you’re chaining them together… I would think we’re exposing ourselves.”

  A check with Jeff Moskowitz confirmed Johnny’s fears. A jump was made to Earth space and a direct comm established with the Collins ship that was currently deployed as a scout.

  Coordinates for an active region of the sun were entered and a micro-wormhole opened. A tiny ball of superheated plasma shot from the destination end, four kilometers from a parked Dedrus ship. Before the pilot of the ship could move her, the glowing ball of plasma dashed in its direction.

  Upon impact with the hull, the wormhole opened to a meter in diameter. The superheated plasma melted through all decks, only diminishing as the wormhole exited the hull on the opposite side. The result was a ship whose interior was incinerated throughout all decks, leaving
a burned out, flaming hull.

  A second ship was quickly targeted and the wormhole returned to its micro-size for the chase. Again, before the ship’s pilot could react, the insides of his vessel were vaporized by the superheated plasma of Earth’s sun. Another four ships were struck before the Dedrus fleet became active. The next four ships to die spent their effort firing their weapons at the suspicious fireball chasing them. All perished with the same fiery death.

  “I am loving this,” said Johnny. “They don’t have a clue as to what’s happening. Some little fireball chasing them around, immune to their weapons. Their shields have no defense against it.”

  More than a thousand ships sat in high orbit above Earth. The entire fleet began to stir as efforts were made to stop the weapon of death. The carnage continued with another fifty ships flaming out before orders were given to disperse and pull back. Another fifty ships succumbed to the incredible heat before a new order was given. Without a clear enemy to fight, the ships in orbit above Earth began to jump away.

  Jenny said, “I have a location back in the Dedrus territories. What should we do?”

  Mace signaled the nearby Collins ship. “Follow them to their destination. We’ll set up for another run at them there. And keep your distance. We don’t want them zeroing in on our comm wormhole.”

  The Collins class cruiser made a jump to Dedrus space. The Royal Fortune followed. Ten minutes later the flaming ball of death reappeared. The Dedrus warships fought valiantly against their new nemesis, but to no avail. Each ship that was targeted met its fate, leaving nothing but a burned-out hull that moved in the last direction and at the final speed it had been ordered.

  The butchering of the Dedrus fleet continued for another hour with several hundred ships joining the unwinnable fight. The fleet again jumped to a new location. The Royal Fortune and her scout followed. Three hundred forty-seven ships perished before the Human-piloted shuttle began to run low on gatrellium fuel.

  Mace gave an order: “We’re heading back to Gellos to refuel. Keep position here. If the fleet jumps, follow it and signal us.”