Short Fiction Complete

by Fred Saberhagen

  The answer came into his earphones: “No sir, we’re on the red line now. Another kilometer per second and we’ll blow a power lamp, or worse. This is one heavy sun, and it’s got some dirty space around it.” The ship was running now on the same space-warping engines that carried it faster than light between the stars, but this deep within the huge gravitational well surrounding Meitner’s sun, the power that could be applied to them was severely restricted. The more so because here space was dirty, as the drive officer had said, meaning the interplanetary matter to be encountered within this system was comparatively dense. It boiled down to the fact that Liao had no hope of overtaking the two small vessels that fled ahead of him toward the planet. They, as it were, skimmed over shoals of particles that the dreadnought must plow through, flirted with reefs of drive-wrecking gravitational potential that it must approach more cautiously, and rode more lightly the waves of the solar wind that streamed outward as always from a sun.

  Now the minimum time in which the largest, nearest vessel might have replied to the dreadnought’s challenge had elapsed. No reply had been received. Liao ordered the challenge repeated continuously.

  The communications officer was speaking. “Answer from the planet, captain. It’s coming in code. I mean the simple standard dot-dash code, sir, like emergency signals. There’s a lot of noise around—maybe that’s the only way they can get a signal through.” Powerfully and crudely modulated dot-and-dash signals could carry intelligence through under conditions where more advanced forms of modulation were simply lost.

  Communications was on the ball; already, they had the decoded words flowing across a big screen on the bridge:

  DREADNOUGHT ARE WE EVER GLAD TO HEAR FROM YOU STOP ONE OF THE TWO LITTLE SHIPS CLOSING IN ON US MUST BE A BERSERKER STOP BETTER TRANSMIT TO US IN DOTDASH CODE STOP LOTS OF NOISE BECAUSE SUN IS FLARING AND WE COULDNT READ YOUR SIGNAL VERY WELL

  The letters abruptly stopped flowing across the screen. The voice of the communications officer said: “Big burst of noise, captain. Signals from the planet are going to be cut off entirely for a little while. This sun is a very active flare star. Just a moment, sir. Now we’re getting voice and video transmissions beamed to us from both small ships. But the signals from both ships are so garbled by noise we can’t make anything out of them.”

  “Beam back to them in dot-dash, tell them they’ll have to answer us that way. Repeat our warnings that they must identify themselves. And keep trying to find out what the ground wants to tell us.” The captain turned his head to look over at his second officer in the adjoining combat chair. “What’d you think of that, Miller? ‘One of the two little ships must be a berserker?’ ”

  Miller, by nature a somewhat morose man, only shook his head gloomily, and saved his speech to make a factual report. “Sir, I’ve been working on identifying the two active ships. The one nearest the planet is so small it seems to be nothing more than a lifeboat. Extrapolating backward from its present course and position indicates it may well have come from the third ship—the one that’s drifting—a couple of hours ago.

  “The second little ship is a true interstellar vessel; could be a one-man courier ship, or even somebody’s private yacht. Or a berserker, of course.” The enemy came in all shapes and sizes.

  Still no answer had been returned from the large, drifting ship, though the dreadnought was continuing to beam threatening messages to her, now in dot-dash code. Detection reported now that she was spinning slowly around her longest axis, consistent with the theory that she was some kind of derelict. Liao checked again on the state of communications with the planet, but they were still cut off by noise.

  “Here’s something, Captain. Dot-and-dash is coming in from the supposed courier. Standard code as before, coming at moderate manual speed.”

  Immediately, more letters began to flow across the number one screen on the bridge:

  I AM METION CHONGJIN COMMANDING THE ONE MAN COURIER ETRURIA EIGHT DAYS OUT OF ESTEEL STOP CANNOT TURN ASIDE I AM CARRYING VITAL DEFENSE COMPONENT FOR COLONY STOP LIFEBOAT APPROX 12 MILLION KM TO MY PORT AND AHEAD IS SAID BY GROUND TO BE CLAIMING TO BE THE SHIP CARRYING THE DEFENSE COMPONENT THEREFORE IT MUST REALLY BE A BERSERKER STOP IT WILL PROBABLY REACH COLONY AND BOMB OR BAM IT BEFORE I GET THERE SO YOU MUST DESTROY IT REPEAT DESTROY THE BERSERKER QUOTE LIFEBOAT UNQUOTE MOST URGENT THAT YOU HIT IT SOON END MESSAGE

  Miller made a faint whistling noise. “Sounds fairly convincing, chief.” During briefing back at base, three standard days ago, they had been informed of the fact that the colony on Meitner’s planet was awaiting shipment of a space inverter to complete and activate its defensive system of protective force-screens and beam-projecting weapons. Until the inverter could be brought from Esteel and installed, the colony was virtually defenseless; the dreadnought had been dispatched to offer it some interim protection.

  Laao was giving orders to Armament to lock the C-plus cannon of the main battery onto the lifeboat. “But fire only on my command.” Turning back to the second, he said: “Yes, fairly convincing. But the berserkers might have found out somehow that the space inverter was being rushed here. They might even have intercepted and taken over the courier carrying it. We can’t see who we’re talking to on that ship or hear his voice. It might have been a berserker machine that just tapped out that message to us.

  The communications officer was on again. “Bridge, we have the first coded reply from the lifeboat coming in now. Here it comes on your screen.”

  WE ARE HENRI SAKAI AND WINIFRED ISPAHAN CARRYING THE DEFENSE MATERIAL NAMELY SPACE INVERTER THEY NEED ON THE PLANET STOP OUR SHIP THE WILHELMINA FROM ESTEEL WAS SHOT UP BY THE BERSERKER TWO DAYS AGO WHEN IT ALMOST CAUGHT US STOP THE BERSERKER OR ANOTHER ONE IS HERE NOW ABOUT 11 MILLION KM TO OUR STARBOARD AND A LITTLE BEHIND US STOP YOU MUST KEEP IT FROM GETTING TO US OR TO THE PLANET WHERE MAYBE IT COULD RAM THE DOME END MESSAGE

  “Communications,” the captain snapped, “how is this coming through? I mean, does this also seem like someone sending manual code?”

  “No sir, this is very rapid and regular. But if you mean, captain, does that prove they’re not human, it doesn’t. In a lifeboat the transmitter often has a voice-to-code converter built in.”

  “And conversely, a berserker could send slowly and somewhat irregularly, like a man, if it wanted to. Thank you.” The captain pondered in silence for a little while.

  “Sir,” Miller suggested, “maybe we’d better order both small ships to stop, until we can overtake and board them.”

  The captain turned his head to look at him steadily, but remained silent.

  Miller, slightly flustered, took thought and then corrected himself. “Now I see the problem more fully, sir. You can’t do that. If one of them is really carrying the space inverter, you don’t dare delay him for a minute. A berserker fleet may materialize in-system here at any moment, and is virtually certain to arrive within the next six to eight hours. Our ship alone won’t be able to do more than hit and run when that happens. Our fleet can’t get here for another day. The colony will never survive the interval without its space inverter installed.”

  “Right. Even if I sent a fast launch ahead to board and inspect those ships, the delay would be too much to risk. And that’s not all, Second. Tell me this. Is this conceivably just some misunderstanding? Could both of those ships really be manned by human beings?”

  “Not a chance,” the second answered promptly. “They both claim to be carrying the space inverter, and that can’t be true. Those things just aren’t ordered or built in duplicate or triplicate, and they both claim to be bringing it from the planet Esteel. The next question is, can both of our little targets be berserkers, trying to psych us into letting one of them get through? I’ll keep trying to reach the ground, see if they can shed any more light on this.”

  “Good going.”

  In their earphones communications said: “Here’s more from the ship that calls itself Itruria, bridge.”

  “Put it right on our
screen.”

  REPEAT COLONY SAYS LIFEBOAT IS ALSO CLAIMING TO BE THE HUMAN ONE STOP IT MUST BE A BERSERKER IMPERATIVE STOP YOU STOP THEM STOP WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO TO PROVE IM HUMAN STOP REPEAT MY NAME IS METION CHONGJIN STOP IM ALONE ON BOARD HERE STOP WIFE AND KIDS AT HOME ON ESTEEL IF THAT MEANS ANYTHING TO YOU STOP REPEAT HOW CAN I PROVE TO YOU IM HUMAN END MESSAGE

  “Easy,” Captain Liao muttered to himself. “Father a human child. Compose a decent symphony. In the next forty minutes or so.” That was approximately the time left before at least one of the ships would be able to reach the planet. Liao’s mind was racing to formulate possible tests, but getting nowhere. Berserkers had awesome powers, not only as physical fighting machines, but as computers. He was not certain that a battery of psychologists with several days to work would be able to say with certainty whether it was a living man or a lying Berserker that answered their questions in dot-dash.

  Time passed. Hurtling through silence and near-emptiness at many kilometers per second, the ships very slowly changed the positions of their symbols in the huge holographic presentation on the bridge.

  “Now more from the Wilhelmina’s lifeboat, captain.”

  “Run that on the top of the screen, will you, and put any more that comes in from Etruria on the bottom.”

  HENRI AND WINIFRED HERE STOP COLONY TELLS US OTHER SHIP IS CLAIMING TO BE FROM ESTEEL CARRYING DEFENSE COMPONENTS AND REQUESTING LANDING INSTRUCTIONS STOP IT MUST BE LYING STOP IT MUST BE A BERSERKER STOP MAYBE THE SAME ONE THAT ATTACKED OUR SHIP TWO DAYS AGO . . .

  The message ran on and despite some irrelevancies and redundancies it outlined a story. The Wilhelmina (if the story was to be believed) had been on an interstellar cruise, carrying a number of young people on some kind of student exchange voyage or postgraduate trip. Somewhere on the outskirts of the solar system that contained the heavily industrialized planet Esteel, a courier ship bound out for Meitner’s had approached and hailed the Wilhelmina, had in fact commandeered her to complete the courier’s mission. Berserkers were in pursuit of the courier and had already damaged her extensively.

  . . . AND WE WERE ON OUR WAY HERE WITH THE INVERTER WHEN ONE OF THE BERSERKERS ALMOST CAUGHT UP AGAIN TWO STANDARD DAYS AGO STOP WILHELMINA WAS BADLY SHOT UP THEN CREW ALL KILLED STOP WE ARE ONLY TWO LEFT ALIVE STOP TWO HISTORY STUDENTS STOP WE HAD TERRIBLE PROBLEMS ASTROGATING HERE BUT MADE IT STOP LIVING IN LIFEBOAT AND WORKING RIDDLED SHIP IN SPACESUITS STOP YOU CANT STOP US NOW AFTER ALL WEVE BEEN THROUGH STOP YOU MUST DESTROY THE BERSERKER SHIP STOP WE WILL REACH PLANET BEFORE IT DOES I THINK BUT IT WILL BE ABLE TO HIT THE DOME BEFORE THE SPACE INVERTER CAN BE INSTALLED STOP WE ARE GOING TO KEEP SENDING UNTIL YOU ARE CONVINCED WERE HUMAN . . .

  The message from the lifeboat went on, somewhat more repetitiously now. And at the same time, on the bottom of the screen, more words from Etruria flowed in:

  IVE TRIED TO CATCH THE BERSERKER LIFEBOAT AND SHOOT IT DOWN BUT I CANT STOP ITS UP TO YOU TO STOP IT STOP WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO TO PROVE IM HUMAN . . .

  The second officer sighed lightly to himself, wondering if, after all, he really wanted his own command.

  “Communications, beam this out,” the captain was ordering. “Tell them both to keep talking and give us their life histories. Birth, family, education, the works. Tell them both they’d better make it good if they want to live.” On buttons on the arm of his chair he punched out an order for tea, and a moment later it came to him there through a little door, hot in a capped cup with drinking tube attached. “I’ve got an idea, Second. You study the background this so-called Esteeler spaceman Metion Chongjin gives us. Think up someplace you might have known him. We’ll introduce you to him as an old friend, see how he copes.”

  “Good idea, chief.”

  “Communications here again, bridge. We’ve finally gotten another clear answer back from the ground. It’s coining through now. We’ll put it in the middle of your number one screen.”

  . . . IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION NO THEY CANT BOTH BE BERSERKERS STOP AN HOUR AGO THERE WAS A BRIEF LETUP IN THE NOISE AND WE GOT ONE CLEAR LOOK AT A HUMAN MALE FACE ALIVE AND TALKING COGENTLY ANSWERING OUR QUESTIONS STOP NO POSSIBILITY THAT WAS A BERSERKER BUT UNFORTUNATELY BOTH SUSPECT SHIPS WERE SENDING ON THE SAME FREQ AND WE DONT KNOW FROM WHICH ONE THAT VOICE AND PICTURE CAME BUT WE DO KNOW THAT ONE OF THEM IS HUMAN . . .

  “Damnation, how they’ve botched things up. Why didn’t they ask the two men to describe themselves, and see which description fit what they saw?”

  “This is communications again, bridge. They may have tried asking that, sir, for all we know. We’ve lost contact with the ground again now, even on code. I guess the solar wind is heating up. Conditions in the ionosphere down there must be pretty fierce. Anyway, here’s a little more from the Etruria:

  WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO TO PROVE IM HUMAN STOP RECITE POETRY STOP MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB STOP SAY PRAYERS I NEVER MEMORIZED ANY OF THEM STOP OKAY I GIVE UP STOP SHOOT US BOTH DOWN THEN END MESSAGE.

  The second officer thumped a fist on the arm of his massive chair. “A berserker would say that, knowing that its fleet was coming, and the colony would be defenseless if we stopped the space inverter from getting to it.”

  Liao shrugged, and helped himself to a massive slug of tea. “But a human might say that, too, being willing to die to give the colony a few more hours of life. A human might hope that given a few more hours some miracle might come along, like the human fleet getting here first after all. I’m afraid that statement didn’t prove a thing.”

  “I . . . guess it didn’t.”

  After another good slug of tea, Liao put in a call to astrogation.

  “Chief astrogator here, sir.”

  “Barbara, have you been listening in on this? Good. Tell me, could those two supposed history students, probably knowing little science or technology, have brought that ship in here? Specifically, could they have astrogated for two days, maybe fifty or sixty light years, without getting lost? I suppose the ship’s autopilot was knocked out. They said they were living in the lifeboat and working the damaged ship in spacesuits.”

  “Captain, I’ve been pondering that claim, too, and I just don’t know. I can’t say definitely that it would be impossible. If we knew just how badly that ship was damaged, what they had to work with, we could make a better guess.”

  The captain looked back at his situation hologram. The apparently inert hulk that he had been told was the Wilhelmina was considerably closer now, lying as it did almost in Hamilcar Barca’s path toward Meitner’s planet. The dreadnought was going to pass fairly near the other ship within the next few minutes. “As to that, maybe we can find out something. Keep listening in, Barbara.” Turning to the second officer, Liao ordered: “You’re going to be taking over the bridge shortly, Miller. I want us to match velocities with that supposed hulk ahead, and then I’m going over to her, in hopes of learning something.”

  “It might be booby-trapped, Captain.”

  “Then we’ll have an answer, won’t we? But I don’t expect an answer will be found that easily. Also, get me a reading on exactly how much time we have left to decide which ship we’re going to fire on.”

  “I’ve already had the computers going on that, sir. As of now, thirty-two and a quarter minutes. Then the lifeboat will either be down in atmosphere or around on the other side of the planet, and out of effective range in either case. The courier will take a little longer to get out of effective range, but . . . “He gestured helplessly.

  “The courier being slower won’t help us. We have to decide in thirty-two minutes.”

  “Chief, I just had an idea. Since the lifeboat is closer to the planet, if it was the berserker, wouldn’t it have tried before we got here to head off the courier from the planet . . . oh. No good. No offensive weapons on the lifeboat.”

  “Right, except perhaps it has one bloody big bomb, meant for the colony, while the courier ship doubtless has some light armament, enough to deal with the lifeboat if it got in range. Still nothi
ng proven, either way.”

  In another minute the silent ship ahead was close enough for telescopes on the dreadnought to pick out her name by starlight. It was Wilhelmina, all right, emblazoned near one end of her cigarlike shape. The dreadnought matched velocities with her smoothly, and held position a couple of kilometers off. Just before getting into a launch with a squad of armed marines to go over and inspect her, Liao checked back with the bridge to see if anything was new.

  “Better hear this before you go,” Miller told him. “I just introduced myself to Chongjin as an old buddy. This is his reply, quote: ‘I honestly don’t remember your name if I ever knew it, stop. If this was a test I guess I passed. Hurrah. Now get on with it and stop that berserker on the lifeboat . . .’ and then the signal faded out again. Chief, our communication problems are getting steadily worse. If we’re going to say anything more to either of those ships we’d better send it soon.”

  “How many minutes left, Second?”

  “Just eighteen, sir.”

  “Don’t waste any of ‘em. The ship is yours.”

  “I relieve you, sir.”

  No signs of either life or berserker activity were apparent on the Wilhelmina as the launch crossed the space separating her from the dreadnought and docked, with a gentle clang of magnetic grapples. Now Liao could see that the reported damage was certainly a fact. Holes several meters in diameter had been torn in Wilhelmina‘s outer hull. Conditions inside could hardly be good.

  Leaving one man with the launch, Liao led the rest of his small party in through one of the blasted holes, swimming weightlessly, propelling themselves by whatever they could grip. He had briefed the men to look for something, anything, that would prove or disprove the contention that humans had driven this ship for the last two days since she had been damaged.