Starflake (T'aafhal Legacy Book 3)

by Doug Hoffman

  The computer's voice sounded across the ship. “Transition to alter-space in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...”

  The Earth ship vanished from 3-space, leaving behind a spreading cloud of debris and cooling plasma.

  Part Two

  The Enemy Of My Enemy

  Chapter 10

  Bridge, Peggy Sue II, Alter-space

  “Stand down from General Quarters,” Billy Ray ordered. “Navigation informs me that transit time will only be 138 minutes, does that agree with your calculations Dr. Ogawa?”

  “That is correct, Captain.” Mizuki continued, providing an explanation. “Though the distance between is quite far the masses of the two stars makes this transit a short one in terms of duration.”

  “Very well. Number One, we will return to General Quarters a half hour before emergence.”

  “Yes, Captain,” said Beth, feeling relieved now that they were safely in alter-space. “It seems we've managed to leave Aldebaran space in spite of last minute obstacles.”

  Bobby swiveled around in his chair at the helm. “We were never in any real danger. If the transit point had remained blocked we could have easily veered off and come around for another pass. In case you didn't notice the blockading ships couldn't maneuver for squat.”

  “I never doubted it, but for a minute there it was like we were in a real-life version of that old Asteroids game.”

  “Look at it as a live-fire exercise, Number One. Everyone got to participate—the main railguns, the torpedo crew, the particle cannon, the secondary X-ray batteries and even close support. The crew won't be as nervous the next time.”

  “Yes, Captain. No substitute for experience in an actual battle.”

  “So what are we heading into?”

  JT took that as an opening. He had been waiting for the opportunity to brief the Captain on conditions in the next star system. “Eudora—more properly Delta-1 Tauri A—is a K-type giant that masses 2.7 times Sol. It is 74 times as luminous as the Sun, and its angular diameter gives a radius of 11.8 solar. We should emerge into 3-space about 3.2 AU from the star.”

  “Are we expecting to find anything at Delta-1, planet wise?”

  “Probably not, Captain. Its companion, Delta-1 Tauri B, is a 12th magnitude star separated by not quite two minutes of arc from the primary, making it a minimum of 5200 AU away from Tauri A. It's a class M0 dwarf with an orbital period of at least 230,000 years, but most likely it's not gravitationally bound to the main star at all. However, lunar occultations of Tauri A have revealed a much closer star that orbits it. The binary is a dim 13th magnitude class M dwarf in an eccentric orbit with an average distance of around 1.8 AU.”

  “So there will probably be no planets in the habitable zone, given the close companion star,” added Mizuki. “Even if there are, the Hyades' age is estimated at 650 million years, consistent with the evolution of class K giants.”

  “Which means there has been little time for life to develop.”

  “Compared with 4.5 billion years on Earth, hai. Not impossible, but improbable.”

  Crew Mess

  A number of crewmembers were taking advantage of the order to stand down by grabbing a late breakfast in the mess. Among them were Lisa and Jay.

  “So how did you like your first action, Lisa?” the Aussie gunner's mate asked, plopping down next to the young woman.

  “We didn't end up dead, so I guess it went well.”

  Nearby, Tamara looked up from her coffee mug. “Not much of a battle, as such things go. If the hostiles were minions they weren't very advanced ones.”

  “Minions? You mean those little yellow, jellybean shaped guys from that old movie?”

  “No,” Jay laughed. “Tam means minions of the Dark Lords. You know, the mysterious evil creatures that live on rogue planets between the stars and hate all us warm life creatures.”

  “We're fighting boogeymen, who live in the dark between the stars?” Lisa looked skeptical, feeling that somehow she was the butt of a joke. After all, it was not unusual for the more senior crew to send a new crewman off to fetch some horizon line or a flux capacitor.

  “It's not a joke, Lisa. Most of the creatures we have come across have been hostile, and most of them seem to be aligned with the Dark Lords, one way or another.”

  Next table over, Kato Kwan, a corporal in second squad and an old-timer, responded. “Those slime-balls who were blocking our course were probably freelancers. Real minions tend to be a bit more problematic.”

  “And you know this how, Mate?”

  “I know this because I have seen most everything we've had to tangle with since we first left Earth, you Aussie bonehead. From cyborg spiders and hairy crickets to flying batacudas and spiny beavers, and I can tell you the blockaders weren't shit compared to real minions.”

  “Word, Kato,” added Vinny DeSilva, another Marine veteran. “Nice of the galaxy to break you newbies in easy.”

  Lisa's apetite suddenly vanished. “This is not filling me with confidence guys.”

  “Ignore those wankers, Lisa. Like I said, the Skipper knows his stuff, those aliens were no problem at all.”

  “Never said he didn't, dude,” Vinny replied. “Just that, as space battles go, this last one was pretty tame. Blasting things with railguns and energy weapons from 10,000 klicks away is a walk in the park compared with getting up close and personal with ET.”

  “And you've done this—engaged in combat with aliens—multiple times? Do you Marines go looking for trouble?”

  “Not really, trouble pretty much seems to know where to find us, Lisa.”

  “Bloody Jarheads, all you do is wander around on strange planets in your armored suits and blow things up. Now Tam and me, we were on that ant planet in the shuttle with Lt. Hoenig. We shot down three alien fighters who were about to nuke these ground pounders into oblivion.”

  Vinny snorted. “Whatever, Crocodile Dundee. It still took boots on the ground to rescue Dr. Ogawa.”

  “Everybody cool your beans. If previous voyages have been any indication, there will be plenty of opportunity to prove how badassed you all are.” Kato might have said more but he was interrupted by the grating call of the klaxon, calling the crew to General Quarters in preparation for emergence.

  The Chief burst through the forward door and yelled. “Stand to yous deck apes, ya think this is a pleasure cruise?”

  Everyone scrambled, shoving half emptied trays into the disposal slots and running for their action stations.

  Bridge, Emergence at Eudora

  “Let's look sharp people,” the First Officer told the Bridge crew. She was again standing at her normal station, to the right of the Captain's command chair. Behind her the science and sensor stations were ready, manned by Mizuki, JT, and Aput. Forward and several steps down was the helm where Bobby and Frank Hoenig manned the console, with gunner's mates on their weapons consoles to either side. In front of them all was the ship's conical nose, still a sanity preserving gray.

  “Thank you, Number One. Given the bushwhackers we found at the other end of the alter-space transit line, there's an off chance that more varmints could be waiting for us on this end. Mr. Aput, if you notice anything suspicious before we emerge sing out.” The advanced T'aafhal based sensors could actually pick up the presence of gravitonic drives prior to the shift from alter-space to normal 3-space.

  “I smell no prey so far, Captain.”

  “Very well. We will go immediately to full shields, weapons at the ready. Cmdr. Danner, move us off the transit trajectory as soon as she'll answer the helm.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain. The computer has control for emergence.”

  The voice of the Peggy Sue sounded across the bridge and over the ship's intercom. “Emergence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

  The bow of the ship turned transparent, revealing another large orange star, much like Aldebaran. The view shifted almost instantly as Bobby carried out the Captain's order to alter course following emergence.

  JT's instruments activ
ely scanned the electromagnetic spectrum, looking for signs that other ships were about. One of the advantages that a ship emerging from alter-space has is the time it takes for signs of its presence to propagate through 3-space. The spray of particles and gamma rays that mark its arrival are constrained by Einstein's universal speed limit—they cannot travel faster than light. Conversely, any objects already in the system can be observed from the radiation they emit or that reflects off them. Though such signals suffered from propagation delay they are detectable everywhere in the system.

  “Not picking up any ships near by, Captain. But I've got a better reading on the class M companion star—the orbital eccentricity is pretty pronounced, the distance between it and the primary varies from 1.0 AU to 2.5 AU.” From the Peggy Sue's vantage point both stars could be seen clearly, the massive orange K type and its much smaller red dwarf companion.

  “Anything smaller than a star on your scope, Mr. Taylor?”

  JT smiled sheepishly, but after all he was an astronomy geek.

  “Nothing within 5 AU, Sir. The eccentric binary would have a tendency to eject or swallow any small objects close in.”

  “Captain, I'm picking up a scent farther out.”

  “Yes, Mr. Aput? A ship perhaps, or a planetary mass?”

  “Not sure, Sir. It's bigger than a ship but smaller than a planet. And it's about 50 AU out.”

  “That's farther than Pluto at aphelion,” JT commented. “Roughly seven and a half billion kilometers. I'm targeting it with the large optical scope.”

  “Put it on the forward display.”

  The view of the system's suns was obscured, replaced by a view of what at first appeared to be empty space. Then an object came into focus, not much more than a fuzzy dot. It grew in size as JT altered the magnification of the ship's largest telescope, becoming brighter, more star like.

  “What is it?” Beth asked, peering at the image hanging in air in front of them. “That far out from the star it could be some kind of Dark Lord ship.”

  “I don't know but there is some gravitonic activity coming from that location in 3-space. I don't think it's a drive, more like repulsors or deck gravity.” Aput's instruments were better at detecting massive objects, like planets and stars, than small ones. That and the sharp gravitational gradients caused by a ship's gravitonic drive and shields.

  “It may not actually be in orbit, I don't have enough data on its course yet to know for sure, but if it's in a circular orbit it would take 215 years to go once around Eudora,” added JT.

  “Captain?”

  “Yes, Peggy Sue?”

  “I'm picking up some very weak signals that appear to be guidance and docking guides, similar to the signals we encountered at the Space Mushroom.” The Space Mushroom was the first alien space station Earthlings encountered, an antimatter collection and refueling station that almost caused the destruction of the original Peggy Sue.

  “Well crap.” Billy Ray squinted hard at the apparition on the forward display. “Whatever it is we need to find out if it poses any threat.”

  “We could just make the next transit to the Pleiades,” Beth suggested.

  “Never a good idea to leave a possible hostile force in yer rear, Number One. Cmdr. Danner, plot us a course to that thing, whatever it is. No great hurry, we burned enough D attacking the bushwhackers at Aldebaran.”

  “If we accelerate to one percent c it will take us just over a month.”

  “Hmm, that's a mite more leisurely than I had in mind, Sailing Master.”

  “If we go to two percent c we can be there in just under fifteen days, though it will quadruple the fuel burn.” Bobby was starting to become nervous about the rate they were running through their deuterium supply. “Still, that will burn only fifteen percent of what we used during the trip around Aldebaran.”

  “Do it, Cmdr. Danner.”

  “Aye, Sir. Altering course now.”

  “Well, at least the Gunny will be happy,” the First Officer remarked. “She just gained a fortnight to finish training the new Marines.”

  Chapter 11

  Starflake

  For fourteen and a half days, the Peggy Sue traveled across the star system, heading away from Eudora and toward the anomalous object its sensors had detected. After coasting at two percent of the speed of light for almost two weeks, the ship decelerated at 20G for a third of a day, its velocity relative to its objective dropped to almost nothing. With their target less than 100,000 kilometers away, it was close enough for the large telescope to provide a clear image.

  “What in God's great amazing universe is that?”

  “I don't know, Captain,” said JT as he manipulated the optical telescope view on the forward display. “It's either a large space station or the biggest snowflake I've ever seen.”

  The object ahead did, indeed, look like a snowflake—crystalline spires, the longest more than fifteen kilometers in length, extending radially from a spiky center. As it slowly rotated glints of the distant orange star it orbited flashed off transparent arms, faceted like cut diamond.

  “It looks like a gigantic Christmas tree ornament, like an immense... starflake,” Beth said in wonder, reflections of stars sparkling off its crystal spires.

  “Starflake? Yes, Number One, that's a good name for it, but what is it?”

  Mizuki, entranced by the view, ignored her instruments as she gazed upon the object. “Given the regular geometry, the symmetrical arrangement of the spires in three dimensions, I would guess that it is some form of construct.”

  “It could be a living creature, or a colony of creatures,” Bobby suggested, drawing on his imagination and vast knowledge of science fiction. “Something like the Crystal Entity from STNG.”

  “What?” said the three other partners simultaneously.

  “The Crystal Entity. It was a powerful, spaceborne creature characterized by a crystalline structure that resembled a large snowflake, sort of like that thing out there.”

  “And yer basing this on Star Trek?”

  “Yeah, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Supposedly, the Entity functioned as a giant electromagnetic collector and converted organic matter into energy. It stripped whole planets, devouring everything, including animals and vegetation, right down to bacteria.”

  Mizuki shook her head. It was usually left to her to reign in her husband's flights of fancy. Not that his imaginative suggestions were unhelpful, often they were, but other times not so much. “We already ran into something like that back on Paradise, except it was black and stringy, not a crystalline starflake.”

  “That doesn't mean this thing isn't some kind of living, interstellar scourge.”

  “No, Bobby, it doesn't. But this object is showing signs of gravitonic fields, bio-compatible internal temperatures, and antimatter energy conversion.”

  “Meaning what, Dr. Ogawa?” The Captain was glad Mizuki was returning the conversation to the realm of science instead of science fiction.

  “Meaning it appears to be a space station, that or a very large ship that is dead in space.”

  “And it is broadcasting navigation signals?”

  “That is correct, Captain.”

  “Well people. I'd say that this warrants a closer inspection.” Billy Ray leaned back in the command chair. A space station meant new aliens and the possibility of new alien technology. A smile spread slowly across his face—he smelled profit.

  “The Entity responded to and sent out graviton emissions,” Bobby added, a slightly hurt tone to his voice. “We will look really silly if it absorbs our life-force.”

  “So we'll sidle up to it real careful like, pardner. Let's go see what yonder starflake is up to.”

  Polar Bear Quarters

  The forward bulkhead in the polar bear quarters contained a large holographic display that was usually slaved to the main bridge display. Aput was on the bridge and Siku in the CIC, but both Aurora and Inuksuk were in quarters, relaxing on the ice. On the display was the Starflake, my
sterious and ethereal.

  “What is that thing?” asked Inuksuk. The big male was not noted for his inquisitive nature so his statement surprised Aurora.

  “The humans are calling it the Starflake, which probably means they have no idea what it really is. They tend to think that if you name something you gain some understanding of it.”

  “Might be a ship.”

  “Could be. There are weirder things floating around the galaxy. It might be a space station—we've found a number of space stations in the past, though none that looked like that.”

  As the two bears talked the ship drew closer to the gigantic crystalline structure. Smaller spires became clear, sprouting from between the fourteen main spars. Closer in, gossamer arks curved gracefully between the spires, diaphanous ribbons not quite connecting one to another.

  “You think we will be boarding it?” the male bear asked.

  “Was Curious George a monkey?”

  “Heh heh heh, I thought you didn't make primate jokes.”

  “Not a joke, fact. Humans are naturally curious, like all primates,” Aurora corrected. “Besides, I don't think that the Gunny was running our paws off for nothing.”

  “I gotta admit that the primates were getting more... effective at trying to take me down during practice. The little devils are sneaky and they don't give up.”

  “Not a bad combination if you want to conquer the galaxy.”

  “And you have no problems with H. sapiens ruling over everything and everyone?”

  “They're not the worst I've ever seen. Besides, I'm sort of excited to be along for the ride.”

  Inuksuk made a non-committal rumble.

  “It looks so much like an ice crystal, I wonder if it has reasonable temperatures inside?”

  “Arctic temps and a breathable atmosphere would make it a great place for some shore leave. Throw in something to hunt and call it home.”

  The she-bear stared at the strange object with renewed interest. Contemplative silence descended until both bears' comm pips chirped. It was the Gunny.