by Andrew Beery
***
The interior faceplate of Mike's encounter suit kept fogging over with condensation as the blowers struggled to keep up with his sweating. The wreckage near his escape pod was apparently a fragment of one of the floating cities that had been destroyed when these people had been attacked. There was nothing much useful in the pieces he could find but the workmanship was stunning. With each piece of wreckage he pulled off the pile he saw ever greater wonders.
Engraved in the metal were intricate drawings and geometric patterns that nested within one another. Whatever else the Buggers were, they were artists. He spent the better part of four hours sorting through the debris.
It was only after he had shifted the last piece and was looking around that he noticed that the flat surface he was standing on was indeed a trench, the sides of which were almost out of sight in the distance. In fact, now that he looked, there were parallel grooves in the surface for quite a distance. His encounter suit was good for another ten hours or so before he would need to head back to the escape pod for a recharge. He decided to take a couple of hours to head in the general direction of the grooves. Perhaps there would be additional debris that might prove useful. He wanted to check while he could. The wind was picking up and he was sure visibility might become an issue if he waited to explore until tomorrow.
***
Cat smiled to herself. As predicted the sudden appearance of a piece of alien technology the size of a Heshe weapons’ platform had quite an impact on the Buggers. The fact that WhimPy was a purely defensive platform could not have been known to the local indigenous population; but in fairness, Cat thought, she doubted the knowledge would have made a difference.
As soon as WhimPy popped into orbit around Kepler-47b the entire defense ring broke orbit and rushed the platform. WhimPy was like no ship they had ever encountered. It represented the current state-of-the-art in Heshe technology, having been recently upgraded by the last Heshe in this part of the galaxy.
As each of the attacking pods would approach the platform, the platform would fold space in such a way so as to reverse the momentum of the attacking craft. In essence, they just bounced off without ever being able to attach. WhimPy very carefully adjusted the bounce vectors to ensure no two craft ever struck one another.
After a few minutes the attacks stopped. The Admiral reported that movement was seen in the solar defensive ring. Large groups of ships sheared off from the main ring and headed on an intercept course for Kepler-47b.
***
"Everything all set?" Cat asked.
Rudy McQuin, the newly promoted captain of the Heidman-2 checked his board and nodded an affirmative from his command chair. He was monitoring the structural integrity field which was holding the fragile ship together.
The Commodore looked at Ensign Sanders who was at the engineering station, as well as Chief Wroblewski who was filling in at sensors. Both men gave her a thumb’s up. Finally she glanced at Sassi, the Ashkelon who was manning the communications station. Having no thumbs he was initially confused as to how to respond before he finally settled on a verbal response. "My board is green, Commodore."
"I have an all go from the rest of the ship," Rudy added.
"Very good," Cat said. "Let's get the hell out of here and leave these people alone."
"Amen," Rebecca Kirkland muttered softly from her seat at the environmental station. Cat smiled. Her enhanced hearing was the only reason she heard the comment.
"Sassi, signal all ships. Launch on my go."
"Aye, Ma'am," the large feathered moth acknowledged.
Cat opened her direct link to the WhimPy orbiting above. "23, are you ready?"
"Why certainly, Catherine. This should be fun. I have a favor to ask though."
"Go ahead," Cat answered.
"Once I deploy the jump gate and see your party out the door I'd like to cloak and keep an eye on this race for a time."
"We already have cloaked probes in orbit for that," Cat observed.
"True, but I fancied myself doing a little bit of gardening. This world has been ravaged. The green house effects caused by the recent activity will cause the atmospheric envelope on 47b to expand 6.2 percent over the next century or so. The increased drag on the two remaining moons will cause their orbits to decay. Once that happens there will be no home world for these people."
"What are you proposing?"
"Sometimes the best defense is a strong friend. I believe it should be possible to tweak the weather patterns on 47b to settle the dust, as it were, and reduce the greenhouse effect."
Cat opened a link to Admiral Faragon on the Yorktown. "Sir, 23 has detected a problem in the Kepler system. Recent activity has set in motion a series of events that will doom these people unless we take action. WhimPy would like permission to stay behind while cloaked and effect meteorological repairs on 47b."
The Admiral did not even pause before responding. "By all means. If we have the ability to help we must. Keeping cloaked is a high priority though. No sense stirring up the proverbial hornet's nest."
"Agreed, Sir."
"Take all appropriate action and get back with me. Faragon out."
"23, were you monitoring?"
"Of course."
"Do what you need to but send the Yorktown all pertinent data when you can."
"Already done. Deploying the jump gate now. You have six minutes."
The jump gate was a new innovation. A series of modified probes created a hyperfield portal that a non-jumpdrive enabled craft could travel through. In this case, the ships in question had limited jump capability and the gate would be used to open a portal closer to a strong gravity well then would otherwise be possible.
"Attention all ships... we are a go. Power up and make for jump point alpha at best possible speed. If for any reason you fall behind or cannot make it, WhimPy-23 is your backup target.''
Rudy McQuin leaned forward in his command chair. "You heard the Commodore, Mr. Sanders. Best possible speed."
"Aye, Captain," the ensign acknowledged.
***
Forward scouts monitoring the alien incursion reported five ships had exited the atmosphere of the nest host and vanished through what the super-mind now knew to be a hyperfold in space-time. The massive ship which defended their exit disappeared soon thereafter.
The massive ship had been cause for quite a bit of concern. Its behavior, while illogical, had been strangely predictable. The massive intellect that was the super-mind analyzed the pattern of behavior and formulated a means of attacking using that predictability. Should the ship reappear the plan would be put in motion.
***
Admiral Bud Faragon stood by the door to the main hangar on the GCP Yorktown. The Dante and Honey Dipper were positioning themselves to enter the aft loading bay but the Heidman-2, now a fraction of the size of its former self, was still too large to fit any but the largest of the Yorktown's bays.
As the door swished open the Admiral could not help but beam a smile at the young woman who was even now saluting him.
"Permission to come onboard, Sir!" Cat said sharply.
"It's your boat Commodore. I've just been keeping your seat warm."
"Nice to know, Sir. I must say,despite the dings and dents while I was gone she looks to be in good shape. If you will allow me a moment I would like to stop by Lieutenant Andrew's duty station. It was her fiancéthat was killed on the planet."
The Admiral nodded. He had been expecting just such a request.
***
Lieutenant Andrews was a willowy blond who was a shift manager in the forward mess hall. A ship the size of the Yorktown had three such mess halls but the forward was by far the largest.
When Cat entered the facility there was an immediate hush until she said‘As you were’ and had the ship's AI Cal echo it to everyone in the mess hall. The lieutenant was in her office working through some inventory reports. The recent damage to the ship had adversely impacted ships stores. Most of the hydr
oponics had been flash frozen by the cold of space. New supplies had been ferried in by shuttle but there was still the matter of reconciling the deliveries against the actual stores.
Lieutenant Andrews came to attention the moment Cat entered the small space.
"For goodness sake, sit Cindy," Cat said. She and the lieutenant had known each other since Rebecca Kirkland had requested her as a sous chef for the captain's mess. The young woman was as skilled with a skillet as she was with a spreadsheet. Cooks and captains shared a special relationship on starships and despite Cat's subsequent promotion to commodore she was still the captain of this ship and she cherished the few relationships that could extend beyond rank. That was part of what made the current conversation so difficult.
"I suppose you know why I'm here," Cat said softly as she sat down next to the other woman. The lieutenant had a brave face on but the moisture in her eyes betrayed the emotions that ran just below the surface.
"Matty," was the one word answer.
Cat reached a hand to cover Cindy's. She had learned there were never any words that could be offered that were as effective as a simple human touch.
"I wish I could tell you his death had meaning, but it was a stupid accident. He was exploring outside the shuttle crash site and slipped down a ravine. The pressure was too great for his encounter suit. The atmosphere was highly corrosive. In all likelihood he died within a fraction of a second of falling."
"Why would God take a man like Matty, Ma'am? He... we... had so much to live for."
Cat looked at the young woman for a moment before answering in the only way she could. "There are some questions for which there will never be answers. Matty died serving his ship and trying to secure our safety. He was under orders to stay in sight of the shuttle but visibility was very limited; he wandered just a few feet too far. He was a good man and a good officer."
Cindy wiped a loose tear before answering. "Ma'am, I know you didn't need to come down here. We weren't even married yet. I appreciate it."
"I knew you loved him and he loved you. Pain is often one of the last testimonies we have of the love we feel for others. I would just encourage you not to make it the last feeling. I think we both know Matty wouldn't have wanted that."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Cat started to stand up.
"Ma'am?"
Cat paused for her to continue.
"Matty didn't have any family left at home. He was a survivor from the Mars colony. Would it be permitted for me to receive his memorial flag?"
"That order was given the moment I set foot on the Yorktown. You'll also find you have already been assigned his 'lieutenant' survivor benefits. If I recall you have a niece named Claire that Matty was fond of. She wants to go into robotics at Carnegie Mellon University if I remember correctly. Perhaps you could setup a scholarship in his name for her?"
Lieutenant Andrews beamed. "Yes, Ma'am! The Matthews Memorial Fund. He would love that, and so would I."
Cat smiled and patted the young Lieutenant's arm as she left.
Chapter Fourteen - Sol System...
The next few hours went by in a flash for Captain Mike Jeffries. After only a few minutes of walking he began to see something in the distance. Its size must be truly massive as he had since then been walking for hours. The height of the section he was rapidly approaching was easily double the height of a human skyscraper. There appeared to be the remnants of a glass dome covering portions of the structure.
The wind continued to pick up at an alarming rate. At some point he realized the wind direction and pressure was working against him and that he was not going to be able to make it back to the escape pod. His only choice was going to be proceeding on towards the wreckage of the massive floating city, with the hope that he could find shelter and perhaps a working power source for his encounter suit. With any luck he could ride out the storm and still have enough water and air to make it back to the pod to his food supply.
As he approached the city wreckage he began to wonder if he would find a way in. The crash had created numerous breaches in the hull but most seemed to be too high to reach. He checked his power reserves. He had a little over three hours left. Once his power failed he would be at the mercy of the stronger gravity. In addition, his air purification system would shut down and his backup chemical CO2 scrubbers would only last him an hour or so.
He kept his suit on full power while walking but every time he stopped to rest he scaled back the gravity shielding to preserve as much energy as possible.
After an additional forty-five minutes of exploration around the edge of the structure he encountered a fissure in the bedrock. It was sizable, and presented him with a choice: continue around the structure and look for an opening or explore the fissure in the hopes he could locate a rent below that would allow him access. Ultimately he decided to 'take the low road,' if only for a change of pace and to get out of the ever increasing wind. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision.
About twenty feet into the fissure he located exactly what he had been looking for. It appeared to be an oblong window frame in which the glass-like material had shattered. He kicked at the window with his foot. Nothing happened. He decided this was likely to be his best entry point so he dialed up the power to his suit's servos and kicked again. The glass gave ever so slightly. He was killing his power reserves but he continued to kick. After four attempts the window gave in and with a massive popping sound the glass shattered and imploded. It was then that Mike realized that this section of the structure had managed to maintain air pressure.
This had several immediate implications... some good and some bad. If some of the structures still maintained air pressure then there might be pockets of breathable air. Unfortunately it might also mean he had just killed some survivors if they were depending on the air in this pocket. Enough people had already died. He would proceed with added caution from this point forward.
***
The hive super-mind tweaked entry vectors for a couple hundred exotic matter solar miners. Most responded to the course corrections. However, a handful of the pilots had either succumbed to the radiation or advanced age and were not responding. No matter. Projections showed this group would at last provide enough of the material needed for the hyperfold star drives to bring the first one hundred iron-nickel asteroid weapons online. The super-mind decided this would be sufficient for the first part of its plan.
When it had broken into the GCP Yorktown'scomputer the super-mind had secured the jump coordinates of each of the GCP members’ star systems. After reviewing the relative merits of each potential target the initial targeting decision was confirmed. Sol would serve as the testbed for its eradication project.
Each of the kinetic weapons would be jumped to a point within the Kepler-47 star system, where the gravity well of the primary could accelerate the asteroids towards the star, adding a tremendous amount of kinetic energy in the process. Just prior to entering the sun's corona the asteroids would be jumped into the Sol system on an intercept course for Earth. The jump point would be just inside Earth's lunar orbit so there would be no time to respond to or flee the onslaught.
***
Cat swung her racket with just enough force to cause the 'adaptive impact' Spalding to graze the forward wall of the court. This forced her opponent, Admiral Bud Faragon, to rush forward and scramble to reach for his next shot. Cat's Heshe enhanced reflexes made the match unfair in the extreme but it was a part of the Admiral's character to cherish an impossible challenge. The racquetball they were using was based on a new design that actively and intelligently changed its response characteristics based on the person hitting it.
This had become popular, as the various races within the GCP had vastly different physical characteristics and yet they enjoyed playing sports together. The adaptive nature of these new creations by the Spalding Company allowed the physical differences between the various races to be minimized. It also allowed the Admiral to have a modicum of a chanc
e against his opponent. In truth, if Cat had not deliberately downgraded her response times by a full 60 percent even this small chance would have not existed.
It had been four weeks since the events at Kepler-47. There had been an extensive after-action review in which an attempt was made to codify the lessons learned from the encounter. A new set of rules were in place for entering a star system for the first time.
Ships would remain cloaked until it was determined that the system was either unpopulated or a decision was made to make first contact. No longer would alien artifacts be brought onboard a ship until an assessment could be made of said artifacts potential threat to the ship. Finally, computer security would be mediated by a Heshe encryption layer that hopefully would prevent a repeat of the breach that occurred within the Yorktown's computer core.
Quite a bit of effort had been put into attempting to determine what impact the knowledge stolen by the Kepler Buggers, or KayBees as they were now generally called, was going to have on both the KayBees and their interactions with other races. Unfortunately, the result of that analysis was not promising.
One bright spot was Rasta-Tckner’s decision to stay with the crew of the Yorktown. It seemed he had little to look forward to in his home system. Until the super-mind released control of his people there was really very little to go home to.
The KayBee situation presented the GCP with a number of seminal questions. Was it the GCP's responsibility to attempt to undo the damage done to a people by the Uruk? Was the threat posed by the unrestricted and unauthorized theft of dangerous technology worth pursuing? Was there a need, as Rasta-Tckner was urging, to actively seek the disruption of the hive collective super-mind?