Star Swarm: The Chaos Wave Book One

by James Palmer

As the little warsprite turned and headed for the Artra system’s sun, Straker wondered if his plans would finally come to fruition. He wished he could stick around to see it through, but for now it was safer for him if he got out of the way. At least the Wave was coming. Nothing could stop that.

  Nothing.

  Chapter 40

  Communication

  “What the hell is that?” asked Hamilton as the Razor sped toward what was left of the Armitage.

  “It appears to be some sort of alien vessel,” said the Razor’s navigator. “I’ve never seen its like.”

  The ship was immense and strangely beautiful. Curves of dull gray metal spiraling up to a sharp point. There were no visible weapons, but Hamilton knew they were there.

  “It’s the Swarm probes,” said Drizda. “They’ve reconfigured into something else. Some kind of weapon.”

  “Straker,” said Hamilton, glancing at her. “Looks like he was successful in reprogramming them.”

  “We’ll see about that,” said Drizda. “Lt. Brackett, if you will kindly assist me.”

  Brackett stepped forward from where she’d been leaning against the bulkhead and joined Drizda at the communications console.

  “The ship has powerful ion engines,” said the navigator. “It’s leaving the system at an accelerated rate.”

  “Where is it going?” said Zarn.

  “The Q-gate.”

  Hamilton stepped forward, started to say something, then looked at Drizda. “It might be a good idea to put ourselves in between the Swarm ship and the Q-gate.”

  “Drizda nodded. “Navigator, do as he says.” She silently lamented the fact that she didn’t know his name, but there would be plenty of time for formal introductions later.

  “Yes, my Leader!”

  “Grand Leader Drizda,” said the communications officer. “We’re receiving a signal from the vicinity of the wreck of the Armitage. It’s weak, but—”

  “Open a channel,” Drizda said.

  “-to anyone within signal range, this is Lt. Leda Niles. I’m aboard a—I’m with one of the Swarm probes. We’re in a small fullerene sphere. Please help.

  “Can she hear us?” asked Hamilton.

  “It’s worth a try,” said Drizda. “Go ahead.”

  “Lt. Niles,” said Hamilton. “Leda. Can you hear me?”

  “N-Noah?”

  “Yeah. It’s me. We’ll come find you. Somehow. Just hang tight.”

  “I’m going to run out of air soon,” she said.

  “I know. Just hang on. Keep your comm open.”

  “Lt. Niles, this is Drizda of the Draconi Science Council and now captain of the Draconi vessel the Razor. I have been analyzing the Swarm’s song. You say you are with one of the probes now?”

  “Y-yes,” said Leda. “It was a damaged one we found a while ago. I helped it repair itself and it—”

  “Can you get it to sing for us?” said Drizda.

  “What?”

  “We believe the Swarm lost its original programming. The probe you’re with might contain their original instructions. I need it to make contact with the others.”

  “Understood. I’ll try.”

  They heard a series of strange, ethereal tones over the tightbeam, a soulful, discordant threnody as beautiful as it was alien.

  “Tones received,” said Lt. Brackett as she huddled next to the Razor’s communications officer. “Analyzing.”

  “What is that cacophonous noise?” growled Zarn.

  “That is language,” said Drizda. “Spoken throughout this sector of the galaxy when our ancestors were still hunting moka from the skies of our homeworld.”

  They listened for a few more seconds, then Drizda ordered the audio muted. The Razor’s computer was still analyzing the Probe’s signal, recording and analyzing it for structure and meaning. Drizda’s slate was resting on the communications panel, tied in with the ship’s systems.

  “I need coordinates on that tightbeam signal,” said Hamilton.

  Drizda nodded to the helmsman. “Do as he says.”

  The new Swarm ship was accelerating rapidly, and the Razor had to tax its engines just to keep up.

  “Leda is back there somewhere,” said Hamilton. “I can’t just leave her.”

  “I’m sorry, Commander,” said Drizda. “But we have to stop the Swarm. It is threatening our homeworld.”

  Hamilton sighed. He knew she was right. He was a soldier, and so was Leda. They both knew the sacrifice they might have to make for the greater good. But it still felt like a bad decision. Why did even one person have to die so others could live? He thought about Kuttner, about Admiral Sheldon, and all the others they had lost. How many more would die before this was over?

  “We’ve got it,” said Brackett. She was still unsure what to call Drizda now that she was in command of the Draconi vessel. “These appear to be earlier tones than the ones we were using. But there’s enough here to form a basic primer for communicating with them.”

  “Excellent,” said Drizda. “Let’s see if we can talk them out of their current course.”

  “Computer is extrapolating,” said Brackett. “Sending tones now.”

  At first nothing happened as the Razor slowly started to overtake the still accelerating Swarm ship. Hamilton looked at the viewer as the strange vessel drew closer.

  “Grand Leader Drizda,” said the navigator. “The Swarm vessel is slowing, decelerating.”

  Hamilton watched as pale blue braking jets along its length fired. “They’re listening. It’s working.”

  “Good,” said Drizda.

  “I’m letting the computer take over,” said Brackett. “They’re talking to each other now.”

  “Leader,” said Zarn. “The Swarm ship is coming about. Shall we take evasive action?”

  “No,” said Drizda. “I do not believe their intention is a hostile one.”

  Hamilton watched through the viewer as the ship began to fragment and break apart, each piece reconfiguring into the individual probes they were familiar with.

  “What did we say to it?” asked Hamilton.

  “I think the ship’s computer just reprogrammed them,” said Brackett. She listened through her cochlear implant as the ship received the Swarm tones and translated them. “They’re sending the tones for sorrow, regret, guilt. They’re apologizing for everything they’ve done.”

  Drizda sighed. It came out as a snake-like hiss. “Tell them we accept their apology.”

  “I’ll try,” said Brackett. The Razor’s communications officer helped her make sense of the Draconi controls as they sent what they hoped were the proper tones.

  “They’re answering back,” said Brackett. “They’re looking for something called Leader. They hear Leader but cannot find him. Where is Leader?”

  “The other probe aboard the Armitage,” said Hamilton. “Leda said it was connected to the ship’s power. That’s what Straker used to reprogram them.”

  “We had assumed they were some sort of distributed intelligence,” said Drizda. “But what if they’re more like an insect colony? With a queen.”

  Hamilton nodded. “The damage to Leader spread through the programming of the others. They lost their original purpose of exploration, and instead started aimlessly eating everything and multiplying.”

  Hamilton jumped up from where he sat near the navigation console. “Lieutenant, give them the coordinates for Leda’s comm. Tell them Leader is in danger.”

  “I’ll try,” said Brackett. “Sending now.”

  “Put on main viewer,” ordered Drizda.

  The cluster of probes undulated like a school of radiant fish, then moved away, sweeping back toward the cluster of debris that had been the Onslaught and the Armitage.

  “Follow them,” Drizda ordered, and the Razor moved in pursuit.

  “Please still be alive,” Hamilton muttered.

  Chapter 41

  Rescue

  Leda floated in darkness. The only light came from a pane
l on the side of the alien probe. She was cold, and the air was getting stuffy. Beside her the probe hummed and sang, and she wondered if it knew she was a biological lifeform that needed warmth and a breathable atmosphere. She also wondered if she could hold out long enough to be rescued, realizing she had probably just exchanged a quick, death for a slow one.

  The Swarm probe began singing more excitedly now. The tenuous neural connection they somehow shared sent waves of emotions to her, making her mind reel. What was it saying? There was an overwhelming feeling of recognition, safety, belonging. Home. Brothers.

  Leda smiled. The other Swarm probes. They had found them.

  Good old Noah Hamilton. He said he’d find and rescue her. He just never said how.

  There was a bump as the giant bucky-ball that enveloped them bumped up against something. She heard machinery drilling through the curved wall opposite her, heard movement. Fresh air soon filled the small space, and it was warm.

  “Thank you,” Leda murmured.

  Leda felt the sphere being tugged in one direction.

  You safe. Home safe. The probe sent.

  They were jostled about as the fullerene sphere bounced around once more, Leda slamming into the probe more than once. Suddenly their weightlessness vanished, and they fell to the curved floor, the probe almost toppling over. It held itself upright on a set of undulating mechanical tentacles.

  A small shaft of light appeared in the top of the sphere and slowly expanded as the skin of the bucky-ball vanished back into its constituent atoms. In moments she was left huddling on the floor of a strange alien vessel, the air hot and humid.

  A squad of perplexed Draconi warriors stared down at her. They looked as if Leda had just hatched from one of their eggs. Hamilton stood behind them next to a female Draconi with a fresh scar on the right side of her face.

  Hamilton came over and extended his hand. She took it and he hauled her up.

  “I am glad to see you,” said Leda, glancing around. “Where the hell am I?”

  “You’re aboard a Draconi ship called the Razor,” said Hamilton. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. Right now we have a war to stop.”

  Leda glanced at Drizda, who was staring over her left shoulder. She turned to see the Swarm probe resting on its manipulators, humming softly.

  “How did you communicate with it?” Drizda asked.

  “I don’t know,” Leda said. “It just touched me, and…” She scratched at her right temple, causing Drizda to glance at it.

  “Look,” said the Draconi. “Subcutaneous circuitry.”

  “What?” Leda touched the itchy spot. She couldn’t feel anything other than the incessant itch.

  “Yeah,” said Hamilton. “It must have created some kind of nano-scale neural connection in your brain.”

  “Well,” said Leda. “That’s not the strangest thing I’ve heard today.” She glanced sidelong at the probe. “It wants to go home, rejoin the others.”

  Drizda nodded. “Everyone back to the command deck. When we’re clear, open the shuttle bay.”

  “Yes, Grand Leader,” one of the reptilian officers growled.

  Leda turned to look at the probe one last time. “Thank you again,” she said quietly before following Hamilton and the group of Draconi out of the shuttle bay.

  “Did you really just hijack a Draconi vessel?” Leda whispered to Hamilton as they returned to the command deck.

  “Not exactly,” he said. “Like I said, long story.”

  “No doubt.”

  They walked a few more steps. Led couldn’t believe how hot and humid it was aboard the ship. It was worse than being cooped up in that sphere.

  “Where’s Straker?” Hamilton asked.

  “I don’t know. He might be dead, but he might have managed to escape before the Armitage blew apart.”

  Hamilton nodded grimly. “We’ll worry about him later.”

  “He could still have some followers out there,” said Leda. “And that’s not all. I-I saw the Chaos Wave.”

  “You what?”

  “The probe showed me what happened to the world of its creators. That’s a long story too, but suffice it to say, the Chaos Wave is real, and it’s coming.”

  Hamilton sighed. “I was afraid of that. Well, at least we’ll have advance warning this time.”

  As they entered the command deck, Leda wondered if that advance warning would be enough to stop them.

  The Swarm was still clustered in the main viewer, pulsing in unison as if a single living organism. It was quite beautiful. “The Swarm is sending us a message,” said Lt. Brackett. “They are sorry for what they have done, and have been restored to their true purpose. They wish to go in peace.” Brackett looked at Hamilton and Drizda. “At least that’s the gist of what they said.”

  “Well,” said Hamilton, “we can’t very well put them on trial for murder. They were malfunctioning machines.”

  “We have enough to worry about without them,” said Drizda. “And they cannot help us any longer. Tell them they can go.”

  Brackett sent the message. “They promise to never harm our interests,” she said after a long moment. “But they are curious about us. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them.”

  “Yes,” said Leda. The neural connection was still there, but it was fading, weakened by the great distance between her and the original probe. “I think they’ve atoned as best they could.”

  They watched as the Swarm departed the system on gets of charged particles. Hamilton wondered if he would cross paths with them again.

  Chapter 42

  To the Stars

  Commander Noah Hamilton smoothed the front of his crisp, new uniform and stared up at the alien building. It was gray and formidable, topped with narrow spires capped with curving talons. The emblem of the Egg Mother decorated the wide space above the arch that straddled the entrance. It had been there for six standard months, and he still didn’t think he would ever get used to it. Then again, he didn’t think the Draconi would ever get used to it either, as they were not the kind to set up embassies on alien worlds, walking among his kind as equals instead of conquerors.

  Hamilton took it as a good sign. Times were changing, and if the Draconi could change, then certainly his species could as well. But he wasn’t there to gawk at alien architecture. He was there to see an old friend.

  “Drizda,” he called across the wide avenue as he converged on their agreed-upon rendezvous point.

  The lean reptilian figure turned at the sound and waved as Hamilton moved through a small crowd of uniformed men and woman toward her. She was wearing a gold sash over her crimson uniform and a predator’s smile.

  “Hello, Commander,” she said. “It has been a long time.”

  “Too long,” agreed Hamilton. “But it’s not Commander anymore. It’s Captain.”

  He pointed at the epaulets pinned to his collar.

  She clicked her teeth approvingly. “Congratulations. Captain.”

  “I see you got a promotion as well,” he said. “What’s with the sash?”

  “I am the League’s Head Science Liaison,” she said, stumbling a bit on that last word. “I have also been reinstated with my clan.” She turned her head to the left, touching the fresh tattoo there.

  “Wonderful,” said Hamilton.

  “My controversial work is being reevaluated. It will take many cycles to change their minds. But it is a beginning. What of you?”

  “They gave me my own command. I’m shipping out on the Zelazny within the hour.” He pointed toward the huge beanstalk near the fleet yards that would take him into orbit, where a shuttle would carry him to the brand new Quasar class rail gun ship currently in high orbit over the planet.

  Drizda’s vestigial wings fluttered slightly. “Captain Kuttner would be proud.”

  “Yes, I rather think that he would,” said Hamilton. He was going to miss the old man. He still hadn’t been able to open the bottle Kuttner had given him and drink a toast
to the old man’s memory. Things had gone non-stop since the battle of Artra, which had more or less ended in a draw. Between the two of them, Hamilton and Drizda had been able to tightbeam enough admirals and Draconi grand leaders to call a temporary truce until they could figure out what was going on. It helped their cause a great deal that Grand Leader Koro of the Talon, whom they had helped offload the eggs from the deep space hatchery and escape the Swarm, finally showed up to the party. Koro’s testimony was pivotal in calling off the battle. There were still some minor skirmishes in other parts of League space, fires that would take several standard months to put out. Meanwhile, their real enemy was fast approaching. If they could convince the powers that be of that fact.

  “I hope our two peoples can continue to work together,” he said.

  “As do I.”

  “Well,” said Hamilton, consulting his wrist slate. “I need to shove off. I’ve got a new ship to shake down.”

  “Where will you go?” said Drizda.

  “Well, for starters, we’re going to Citadel to meet with the Admiralty. They still have a lot of questions about what the probe showed Leda concerning the Chaos Wave. From there, who knows? It would be nice to do some exploring, now that the war is over Especially if some alien menace is on its way here.”

  Drizda nodded. “Perhaps my kind should do the same.”

  “Well, I could use a good science officer.”

  Drizda clicked her teeth. “Thank you, but I cannot resign my post. My people need me here.”

  Hamilton smiled. “Look me up if you change your mind.”

  “Be careful out there, Noah Hamilton.”

  “I will.”

  Hamilton trotted off. He was already running behind, and it wouldn’t look good for a new ship’s captain to be late, especially since he still had one last stop to make.

  Leda met him at the door of her barracks, resplendent in her white and gold dress uniform. Hamilton thought they looked like matching penguins.

  “You ready to go?”

  She sighed deeply. “As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ve been dirtside too long. It’ll be nice to get the stars under my feet again.”