Star Swarm: The Chaos Wave Book One

by James Palmer

  Hamilton finished off his coffee. “Lt. Brackett thinks we should capture one so we can reverse engineer it. Maybe figure out a way to override its programming or communicate with it.”

  “An excellent idea,” said Drizda. “I’ll continue my researches, let you know when I find something.”

  “Why don’t you take a break?” said Hamilton. “You look exhausted. Hell, we all are.”

  Hamilton cocked his head to one side. “Yes?”

  Drizda started to ask what he meant, then she remembered the humans had implants in their inner ears that allowed instantaneous communications with other members of the crew. He was communicating with one of them now.

  “Roger that. I’m on my way.”

  Hamilton got up to leave. “That was Hudson. He’s located the swarm’s next likely target. Some kind of Draconi installation.”

  “Where?” said Drizda.

  “The Devlin system?” said Hamilton. “Pretty remote, even for you guys.”

  “There’s a reason for that,” said Drizda. “It’s the location of one of our subspace hatcheries.”

  “What?”

  “Thousands of Draconi eggs are stored there, waiting to hatch,” said Drizda. “We have to stop the swarm from destroying them.”

  Hamilton nodded. “I’ll tell Kuttner. Maybe now we can somebody at Fleet to listen to us and stop blaming this on the Draconi.”

  He left the room quickly, slamming the hatch closed behind him.

  Drizda returned her attention to the slate, all thoughts of how tired she was pushed from her mind. She had to find a way to stop the Swarm now. It was just such slow going. If she’d been back aboard the Talon, she would’ve had access to a full range of scientific equipment with a faster computer. But here… She marveled at how dilapidated the Onslaught was. It was a wonder the humans had almost won the war. But she couldn’t focus on that now. Her eyes fell on a line of text and suddenly something clicked into place in her mind. She remembered. The glyph for eating paired with the glyph for space.

  “Space Eaters,” she said aloud, testing out the phrase. Knowing the Progenitors, there was probably a whole range of nuance that she was missing, but that was the gist. The Progenitor’s Space Eaters had to be the von Neumann probes. She typed on the slate, telling it to search for those two glyphs only when used in combination in that particular order. She sat it down and let it do its work. Then she tapped a button the desk.

  “Hamilton,” said the Commander’s voice through a speaker hidden somewhere in the small room.

  “It’s Drizda,” she said. “I’ve found it.”

  “Good. I’ll tell the Captain.”

  She sat there and waited for the slate to compile her search. She clicked her teeth together excitedly, and knew that if her mouth had the ability to smile, she would be grinning from ear to ear, as the humans liked to say.

  Chapter 17

  Secret Meeting

  After their talk the day before, Leda hoped that Straker would let her in on his little secret. Instead he kept her busy shuffling papers and tending to completely innocuous matters. And all the while she could feel his eyes on her, even when he wasn’t around.

  She couldn’t get her conversation with Hamilton out of her head. What if everything he said was true? What if there were machines out there that could eat everything they encountered and make copies of themselves? And what if the Admiralty was covering it up? It made no sense. Why would they do such a thing? But she had never known Noah Hamilton to lie. He was many things, but liar was not among them. She owed it to him to take his word, at least for now.

  Leda kept her eyes on Straker too, which wasn’t that difficult. She kept his appointments, knew his movements. He was a very disciplined man, structured and routine. So far he had done nothing that struck Leda as out of the ordinary. On the surface, everything seemed above board, but that was what bothered her about it.

  Every day at 0300 hours he had nothing on his schedule for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of dead time, in the middle of the afternoon. At first it didn’t concern her, but now, after their bizarre meeting, after what Noah had told her, Leda decided she wanted to know what her boss was up to.

  For the past several weeks at that time she had seen him go into an empty conference room and lock the door for that twenty minutes. It was a strange place to take a break. Most people preferred to walk the gleaming promenade outside, enjoying the fresh air. Whatever Straker was up to in there, it was off the books, and something he didn’t want his assistant knowing about.

  At five minutes before the appointed time, Leda entered the empty conference room. It was dark, save for a few spot lights at the front of the room. There was a lectern facing rows of long tables equipped with holo emitters, as most of the meetings that occurred here weren’t physical, but conducted via tightbeam across light years of empty space.

  Leda chewed her bottom lip, pondering her next move. She settled on simply crawling under one of the tables. There was a risk she would get caught, but she could always tell Straker that she simply wanted to be more involved in whatever he was working on. It was risky, but it was a chance she was willing to take. She was an officer of the Fleet, sworn to uphold and protect the League of Worlds.

  She scrunched herself under the middle row of tables as comfortably as she could manage, and started to take shallow breaths as the door opened and Straker entered. She could smell his cigar smoke as he crossed over to the lectern. He tapped some control studs atop the lectern, and the spotlights went out, the holo emitters on the tables flickering to life. Leda heard the room’s tightbeam chime as a connection to somewhere was made. She peaked out between two chairs, focusing on the back of the room where four ghostly forms had appeared, their faces purposefully obscured in shadow.

  “Good afternoon,” said Straker warmly. “What is the news from the front?”

  “Things are coming to a head,” said one of the phantoms. His voice was distorted digitally. “We’re moving our warships near the border of Draconi space. Those damned lizards won’t know what hit ‘em.”

  “Good,” said Straker.

  “The Draconi will figure out something’s up before we’re ready to strike,” said another ghost, his voice similarly distorted. “And those infernal machines are eating our forces too.”

  “Please tell me you have a handle on them,” said the third figure.

  “Well,” said Straker. “It will take time. But we’re making huge progress with—”

  “We have another wrinkle as well,” said the fourth figure. The voice was altered, but Leda could tell she was female. A nimbus of grayish hair shown around the edges of the shadow obscuring her face.

  “Yes?” said the apparition next to her.

  “The Onslaught,” she said. “Captain Kuttner may have accidentally stumbled into our ruse. He was ordered to back off, but he disobeyed.”

  “Kuttner and his ship will not be a problem,” said Straker. “The Swarm will see to that.”

  “He’s done a bang-up job at evading them so far,” said the woman coldly. “We need assurances.”

  “I assure you all will go according to plan,” said Straker a bit testily. “By the time we declare war on the Draconi, no one will care how it started. And the Swarm will be ours to command. As I started to say earlier, the thing in Silo Six is teaching us much about the Swarm’s technology, its capabilities. By the time the Chaos Wave reaches League space, we’ll be able to stop it.”

  “You’d better be right,” said the first man. “In the meantime, you’d better start running some misinformation. Word about the Swarm has gotten out, and people are getting scared.”

  “As long as they continue to believe that it is a new Draconi weapon, that will only work to our advantage,” said Straker.

  “Keep us apprised,” said the woman.

  “I will.”

  One by one the phantasms winked out of existence, and the spots came back up. Straker puffed on his cigar as he left the r
oom, humming as he went.

  Leda sat there for a long moment. She wanted to make sure he didn’t see her leaving the conference room. Besides, her left leg was asleep. She climbed out from under the table and shook her leg awake, thinking about what had just transpired. Noah was right. There was a conspiracy to start another war with the dragons. And the Swarm, whatever it was, was a part of it. And Noah, Captain Kuttner, and the Onslaught was right in the middle of it.

  She had to get in touch with Hamilton somehow, let him know what she found out. But first she had to see what was in Silo Six.

  Chapter 18

  The Hatchery

  After two Q-gate jumps and three weeks of travel at almost one quarter the speed of light, the Onslaught arrived in the Devlin system. The Draconi hatchery was exactly where Drizda said it would be, in the L4 of a large rocky world, light from a yellow G class star bathing its large solar panels with enough energy to keep the eggs warm and safe inside the orbital facility. It was a dull gray structure, its two solar arrays stretching out from it like enormous wings.

  “Looks like we’re the first ones here,” said Kuttner, stifling a yawn. “Is this thing manned?”

  “No,” Captain,” said Drizda. “All systems are completely automated. A ship comes around to check on it every few of our weeks, and on hatching day to pick up the hatchlings.”

  Kuttner nodded.

  “Looks pretty quiet,” said Hamilton. “I hope we didn’t get this wrong, and the Swarm is attacking somewhere else.”

  “Sir,” said Hudson. “We’ve got incoming, bearing two zero zero mark four.”

  “The Swarm?”

  “Negative. It’s a ship. Draconi. Raptor class.”

  “That’s not an egg ship,” said Drizda. “It’s an attack cruiser.”

  “On screen,” Kuttner ordered.

  The hatchery disappeared, replaced by a tiny dark spec illuminated by the sun. It was getting larger by the moment.

  “They must have been patrolling the area and detected us,” said Hamilton. “And we’re not exactly where we’re supposed to be. We’ll have a hard time explaining this one.”

  “But explain it we will,” said Kuttner. “Brackett, open a channel to that ship.”

  “Aye, sir,” said Lt. Brackett. After a moment she said, “Connection established.”

  Kuttner turned to Drizda. “You talk to them. They’re your people, after all.”

  “But Captain,” she said, “I am clanless. They will not listen.”

  “You’ve got to make them listen,” said Kuttner. “Come on. Do it. Think of the hatchlings.”

  “Draconi vessel,” she said. “This is Drizda of the Science Academy. This vessel means the hatchery no harm. We—”

  “I know that name,” snarled the voice on the other end. “You bring shame upon the Science Academy and our people, Clanless. What are you doing aboard a mammal ship?”

  “They rescued me,” she said. “I have been tracking a grave threat to both our peoples.”

  “The hatchery is no threat,” the voice barked. “It is sacrilege to bring the mammals here! You offend the Egg Mother with this trespass.”

  “The hatchery is a target,” said Drizda. “We are glad you are here. We could use your help.”

  “The Talon will offer no help to a clanless dzzt and a bunch of mammals. Leave this place or die.”

  “What did he call you?” asked Hamilton.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “They’ve primed their weapons,” said Lt. Cade.

  Kuttner sighed. “Makes you wish those blasted machines would actually show up, doesn’t it? Battle stations.”

  “We’ve got more incoming,” said Hudson. “Thirty degrees off the plane of the ecliptic. It’s them, sir. It’s the Swarm.”

  “They’re coming in hot,” said Gunner Cade, warming up his targeting matrix. “There’s thousands of them.”

  “Captain of the Talon,” said Kuttner. “This is Captain Henry Kuttner of the LS Onslaught. We are both about to be attacked by a swarm of alien probes that can eat your entire ship. Please take evasive—”

  The Onslaught shook as an ion beam struck it, activating warning klaxons all over the vessel.

  “Damage report,” said Hamilton.

  “Hull breach on decks seven through nine,” said Brackett. “Defense field down to twenty percent capacity.”

  “Another couple of hits like that and they’ve got us,” said Hamilton.

  Kuttner nodded. “Hudson, put us between the Swarm and the hatchery as best you can. Drizda, I need you to transmit everything we’ve collected so far on the Swarm to the Talon. If that doesn’t make them listen to reason, nothing will.”

  Drizda moved to Lt. Brackett’s workstation, slate in hand. Hamilton sat down beside Kuttner.

  “Information sent,” said Drizda.

  “Good. Now get to work on that Swarm secret weapon.”

  “You think this will work?” asked Hamilton.

  “Seeing as it’s the only thing we’ve got,” said Kuttner, “It had better.”

  “The Draconi vessel is holding off,” said Cade.

  “They are reviewing that info packet we sent,” said Kuttner. “Keep eyes on the Swarm.”

  “Swarm cluster is coming in fast,” said Hudson. “Individual bodies starting to break off into smaller groups. They’re coming after all of us.”

  “Get our capacitors up and running on full power,” said Kuttner. “Gunner Cade, any luck with the main gun?”

  “She’s back on line, sir,” said Cade proudly.

  “Good,” said Kuttner. He didn’t know what good the Onslaught’s central rail gun would do, and he didn’t even know if they’d need it. But he felt better knowing it was operable.

  Cade took aim with the ship’s array of ion cannons, taking pot shots at the Swarm machines as they moved in closer to the Draconi hatchery. He got a few, but more latched onto the structure, beginning to consume it, breaking down the metal atom by atom.

  The Razor suddenly came about, moving toward the hatchery, its own weapons trained on the Swarm machines.

  “Tightbeam channel from the Talon,” said Lt. Brackett.

  “On screen.”

  The leering visage of the Talon’s captain appeared. She was virtually identical to Drizda, save for a faint yellow stripe that run up her snout and the various sigils of rank and clan tattooed on her scaly skin. “I am Grand Leader Koro,” she said. “We have reviewed your data and find it…troubling. You do us a great honor by defending our young. What would you have me do?”

  Kuttner leaned back in his chair, surprised the Dragons were finally listening to reason.

  Hamilton leaned forward. “This is Commander Hamilton. What we need to do now is survive this Swarm attack. We will help you offload your eggs and get to a safe system. Then you must tell your people that this entire quadrant is in danger. And there are factions within our own government who want to use this to ignite another war with you.”

  The Draconi captain snarled, tongue darting from her mouth. “We have heard rumors of such talk within our own government as well, human.”

  Hamilton and Kuttner looked at each other. “This is bigger than we thought,” said Hamilton.

  “Understood, Grand Leader,” said Kuttner. “We’ll try to keep those things off of you while you remove your eggs. I’m afraid there’s not much we can do once the Swarm start eating.”

  The Draconi nodded, and the screen winked out.

  Kuttner stood and looked toward the communications console. “What have you got for us, Drizda? Please tell me the Progenitors had a weapon against the Swarm.”

  “Not exactly,” she said.

  Chapter 19

  The Thing in Silo Six

  Silo Six was an underground structure deep beneath the surface of Marta, the League’s administration world. It was accessed from a nondescript beige building, one of several dozen spread out over the Fleet yards. Leda walked toward it as she had hundreds
of times, though this time it was with a heavy heart. The sun shone brightly in Marta’s pink sky, and people moved all about in their various errands, oblivious to the danger that was possibly headed their way. In the distance was Marta’s spaceport, where dozens of ships arrived and departed every day, most of them military, but some commercial.

  But Leda had no time to watch ships streaking off into space. Today what she wanted lay below her feet.

  She stepped up to the building’s one entrance, showing her ID badge to the black plastic security scanner mounted next to the door. She then gave it her thumbprint and stared into the retina scanner. The door opened with a heavy click, and she stepped inside.

  The room was empty, save for an elevator. She stepped into it and pressed the only button, down.

  Leda hadn’t been down here in years. Not because Special Projects was something she wasn’t cleared for, but because their work never crossed her docket. The elevator door opened and she found herself standing in a vast circular room with walls of dull gray metal. The space was filled with plastic crates of various sizes, all with top secret coded number designations stenciled on their sides. The contents of most of them were above her pay grade, but Leda hoped she could nevertheless find whatever Straker had referred to in his secret meeting less than an hour ago.

  She walked through the maze of crates, grateful that no one else was down here. Silo Six was mainly used for storage, which made her wonder why Straker would have placed an active project here. Her eyes glanced at the crates, noting warily the radioactive and biohazard glyphs displayed on some of them, until she neared the center of the room, which was dominated by a low hum. As she stepped around a large crate Leda noticed a faint blue glow.

  There it was, in the dead center of the room. Leda stepped up to it. It was suspended inside a powerful electromagnetic field. Bio stasis and contagion protocols were also in effect, but Leda suspected she knew the real reason for the field. A strange machine or probe of obvious alien design floated inside the field, which was being emitted from a white round dais that rose up from the floor. The thing was damaged, and looked as if it had been in space for a very long time, its surface heavily pitted from micrometeorite impacts. It was about eight feet long, with a cylindrical body. Rows of long, metal appendages circled the bottom, though some of them were damaged or missing. The top was capped with a mushroom-shaped disk, probably some sort of sensor array.