Jack knew that. There were only two places with just two fusion ships nearby. He was betting on appearing close to the home world so that world’s ruler, Controller Full Belly, could hear his First Contact broadcast and perhaps keep the two Celabeen ships from attacking his fleet. “Thank you, Chief Astronomer.” He looked to Elaine. “Pilot, please share those coordinates with the rest of the fleet. Then set up your NavTrack for a vector aimed down at the world Tasty Meat. I will make my AV broadcast right after our arrival.” Jack nodded to the images of his fellow captains. “Fleet, let us assume the ball-in-ring formation, with our three Higgs ships forming the ring. We fire if fired upon! Any issues? If not—”
“Me,” Hideyoshi said bluntly. “Fleet Captain Jack, when we arrive do we do so in modified Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation? With our fusion drives firing towards the two Celabeen ships?”
Damn. He should have made that clear. Was his need to confront the Arbitor forcing him into rash action? “Yes, Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, all fleet ships should orient their ship drives toward the two Celabeen ships. Just in case they fire first.” He nodded at Maureen, who had looked ready to say the same thing. “Our ships have mobile beam and laser emitters. We can fire in between ship exhaust flares.” An idea hit him. “Bismarck and Dragon, please join the Uhuru in sweeping the space ahead of us with your Higgs Disruptor beam to clear away any minefields, torps or automated laser platforms. No need to take chances on what the near-orbital space of Tasty Meal might hold.”
Maureen nodded sharply, her gray eyes stark. “Exactly right! I will sweep with our Higgs, then use the antimatter and particle beams for ship targets.”
Jack felt better with the input from Hideyoshi and Maureen. “Good. Max, take the fleet inward!”
♦ ♦ ♦
They exited their Alcubierre space-time bubble just as Jack had requested. But surprise is part of reality. And surprise bit them.
“Laser hit!” cried Kasun from the Leopard. “Blipping!”
The rest of the fleet grav-pull jumped in unison with the Leopard, thanks to the laser time-lock link between their drives.
The jump removed them from the laser platform that had sat close to the inner moon Hungry Light, in exactly the spot they had chosen for their fleet arrival. Now, the grav-pull blip jump by the Leopard had moved them closer to the Celabeen home world. And to the two fusion ships orbiting it.
“Kasun!” Jack called as the fleet settled into its ball-in-wheel formation, this time with fusion exhaust flares facing toward the two fusion ships. Which now lay just 20,000 klicks from them, instead of five times that distance if they had stayed close to Hungry Light. “Status! Anyone hurt? Killed? Are you combat—”
“We are operational,” the native of Sri Lanka replied quickly. His front screen image showed two crewmates running out of the Pilot Cabin and into the ship’s central hallway, likely heading for wherever the laser had hit. “Strike was in our midship Lander hold. No one there. The hold is open to vacuum. My crew are moving to help the mechbots make sealant repairs. Don’t like losing water to space.”
A glance at the other captain images told Jack everyone else was operational and in full Combat Alert mode. Already the space around them was being swept with Higgs beams from Maureen’s Battle Module, the Bismarck and the Dragon. The Higgs ships had planned to do that on the first arrival. But the laser platform had lain behind them, closer to the moon. The platform’s IFF circuits clearly operated at lightspeed. For an automated device’s Auto-Track and Defend programs to work that well told Jack the fusion ships ahead would perform even better. If they chose to attack his fleet. Unsnapping his restraint locks, he reached down and grabbed Old Roy, stood up and took position in front of Maureen’s empty seat. “Denise! Put my image out on the news reporting AV signal! Elaine, see if your Sensor panel can locate this planetary capital of Controller Full Belly. Quickly!”
“Jack, you are live!” called Denise.
He raised his two-handed Viking sword and pointed it at the motion-eye above the front screen. “Greetings to Controller Full Belly and all Celabeen clans! My name is Jack Munroe. I am a survivor like none you have ever met! We call ourselves humans. We came to your system from our home star, where there are nine billion of us eager to eat meat with you!” Jack waved the sword. “We escaped your laser platform when it fired on us. We will destroy every Celabeen ship that attacks us! We are not a comet, nor are we a fighter in your Battle For Control. We are predators hungry for meat. But we honor Clan Mothers and your nurseries. So we give you this warning. Today we killed three ships of social carnivores who were hiding in the comets beyond your outermost planet.” Jack gestured back to Denise for her to transmit the battle AV vid. “They belong to something called the Hunters of the Great Dark. These Hunters wait for survivors like you to reach that outer planet, then they challenge your people to a fight to the death! If you Celabeen lose that fight, you are meat for the Hunter and become his servant!”
“Jack,” called Elaine, “both fusion ships have gone to fusion thrust. But at one percent of light. Still, they’ll be here quickly.”
He knew that. “Controller Full Belly! Tell your starfire ships to avoid us or they will be eaten by me and my pack! You have a chance to grab the greatest asset for the survival of the Celabeen people if you talk to us! But if you attack, we will eat your ships. Then we will leave your system alone, prey to the Hunters of the Great Dark!”
“Fusion ships will arrive within three seconds,” Elaine said.
“Pinwheel Plasma Torch exhaust flares are aimed their way,” Max called sharply. “I’m tightening our exhaust flare to make it hotter. But that antimatter beam of theirs can cut through our exhaust flares if they keep firing it long enough!”
“Hot Belly!” yelled Jack as he waved his sword. “This metal sword is the first claw of our people! We survived comet and asteroid bombardments of our home world. We fought many Battles for Control among our own clans. We have the black beam and other weapons more powerful than that! We—”
“Incoming antimatter beam!” yelled Elaine.
“Bastards!” yelled Maureen from the holo behind him. “Let them eat this!”
A yellow spear beam shot out from the Uhuru toward the spike-like ship that had fired the antimatter beam at the fleet. The yellow spear contacted the black and gold striped ship. Its hull immediately expanded outward like a balloon. Then the ship’s metal became millions of shiny particles as its molecules and atoms came apart.
Jack grimaced at the use of their Higgs Disruptor beam. But maybe it would have an effect.
“The second ship is firing!” called Elaine.
The black streak of the Celabeen ship’s antimatter beam hit the exhaust flares of the Uhuru, Bismarck, Dragon, Nimitz and the six other Belter fleet ships. Those flares reached out 70 kilometers with starhot gas. The incoming beam swept into the incandescent flare gases, biting at them with total disintegration. Its incoming speed dropped from lightspeed to visually slow as it became a battle between the fusion plasmas of the fleet and the total matter-to-energy annihilation effects of the incoming antimatter.
“The AM beam is within 20 kilometers!” cried Blodwen from the back.
That did it for Jack. “Fleet! Max! Blip jump us out of range. Back to the moon Hungry Light. And Gareth, kill that fucking laser platform as soon as we arrive!”
The image of the oncoming Celabeen ship grew jagged, then hazy. Before his ship moved on a direct vector line for the nearby moon, Jack thought he saw the spike ship cut off its AM beam and alter its course downward, away from them. He blinked and the screen was clear. They had arrived within 10,000 klicks of the moon. On the front screen he saw the Dragon shoot a yellow Higgs beam toward the moon. The beam intercepted an incoming green HF laser slash, turning it to incoherent photons. In less than a blink the Higgs beam hit the distant platform, expanded it and turned it into a cloud of subatomic particles.
“Jack!” called Max. “The fleet is still in Pinw
heel Plasma Torch formation, with exhaust flares firing toward the fusion ship. Which is—”
“Curving away from us,” Elaine said sharply. “It will hit a parabolic arc vector that keeps it 20,000 klicks away from us.”
“Incoming AV signal!” cried Denise. “Going up front and sharing with the fleet.”
An image of a thickly furred tiger standing in a room that resembled an aerospatiale traffic control center took form on the front screen. Behind the tiger moved nine other tigers, who worked at touch pedestals, holos, flat screens and comlink stations. The front tiger spoke.
“Survivor Jack Munroe, leave our system!” the tiger roared loudly as his black-striped golden fur stood on end. “You humans are not Celabeen! You resemble tiny creatures our ancient ancestors once ate. But you have claws. As the death of our ship Mighty Roar showed. I have instructed our other ship to sheath its claws.” The yellow eyes looked past Jack, scanned his crew, then fixed back on him. “We Celabeen will defend our system! We will send our ships out to the cold world of Icy Hunger and fight any intruder! Leave! We do not need your help in our survival!”
So be it. “Controller Bull Belly, my pack will leave your system shortly. We are full after eating the ships of the Yiplak Hunters.” He waved back to his buddy. “My Drive Engineer is sending you the equations and schematics for building a modulated neutrino communicator. It can connect you instantly to our world far far away. Our channel frequency is being sent also. If you Celabeen wish to make Trade with us humans for other Tech devices, for things we each value, then call us! We leave now!” He turned to catch Max’s attention. “Neutrino stuff sent?”
The man stopped tapping on his armchair panel. Which connected with Denise’s comlink panel. “Sent. Where do we go now?”
“Out to the comet where we killed the Yiplak ships. There to call the Arbitor.” Jack turned around. He swept his sword in an arc. “Controller! We humans survived attack by many Hunters of the Great Dark! We killed them all! Then we went to the home star system of the worst attacker and killed one of their planets.” He grimaced, showing his teeth as best he could. “We may appear small, with tiny claws. But our bite is sharp enough to eat whole star systems. Call us if you Celabeen ever wish to learn how to become better survivors!” He gestured to Denise. The incoming image vanished. “Max, take us all to Alcubierre. Put us above that comet. I have a conversation that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jack welcomed the true-light image of black space, bright stars and the reddish-brown comet below them. Maybe all the jumping in and out of stardrive was making his anxious. Though doing it to avoid sending out a graviton signal was a trick he’d come up with during their first interstellar trip. First things first though.
“Kasun, how is your ship and your crew?” he asked the man as soon as his image appeared in the strip above the front screen.
The man with wavy black hair, swarthy skin and a frequent look of distraction gave him a reassuring wave. “Everyone here is in fine shape. The laser hull cuts are sealed. Our Lander was damaged. One of its thrusters was cut off. No fuel leaks. We are ready to confront the Arbitor!”
“Excellent.” Jack scanned his other captains. “Fleet, is everyone in good shape? Right after my chat with the Arbitor we will jump back to Sol. There to rendezvous with the ships of our Freedom Alliance allies. And with the Belter and Mars fleets. Our return arrival spot is Sedna.”
Hideyoshi gave him a swift salute. “The Bismarck stands ready to fight at any location and any time assigned to it.”
“The Nimitz is also eager for battle,” Zhāng said as, behind her, red uniformed crew worked at their function stations.
The rest of his fleet captains made similar assurances. Jack unsnapped his restraint locks, grabbed Old Roy and stood in front of Maureen’s empty seat. But she watched him from the holo above his Tech station seat. “Denise, call Arbitor MakMakGor. On the wavelength of helium’s mass cubed.”
“Uh, Jack, I’ve not had time to—”
“It is 4.002602 amu cubed,” Nikola said softly over the vacsuit comlink they all relied on until the end of Combat Alert. “Jack doesn’t know this stuff either. He relies on me to make him appear Tech smart!”
That wasn’t fully true. He knew lots of Tech stuff. Practical Tech like what temp liquid oxygen is inside an air bottle. Or the ISP thrust of a vacsuit backpack thruster. Or that the standard mining laser strength is 14,000 joules per second. Hmmph. “Thank you Nikola. Denise?”
“Neutrino signal sent out,” she said calmly, as if Nikola’s help had not happened. “Uh, Captain Jack, what do we do if he does not answer?”
“We head home and wait for his ship to arrive outside Sol. Transfer Maureen’s holo image so it is beside me. As before,” he said. “Recall that this giant dino said we shouldn’t be an irritant? Well, I think it now knows we are an irritant. Based on the fact that this system’s Sentry probe has signaled an outside intrusion into this star system.”
“Working on the holo,” Denise said over her suit comlink.
In two seconds Maureen stood to Jack’s right. The woman shrugged her slim shoulders, her black leotard showing rippling muscles. Her holo image looked up at the motion-eye, then at the front screen. “Wonder if Big Dino has gained any weight. I still aim to roast one of its haunches over a live fire!”
“Jack,” called Blodwen from her seat behind Max. “You couldn’t be an irritant to anyone. Entertainment, yes. And your booze is really—”
“Response coming in!” called Denise. On the front screen, a new image took form.
As before Jack saw a giant dinosaur with the teeth of a great white shark, the tail of a stingray, the flaring neck hood of a black mamba snake and the red and yellow-scaled body of a Tyrannosaurus rex. A pair of small arms with taloned hands sprouted from its upper chest. Behind the T-rex there moved two other Arbitors, who tended to control pedestals on the Command Deck of the Alien’s ship. MakMakGor fixed two red eyes on them. The giant mouth opened.
“Human, you are an irritant,” he growled in a series of harsh snarls, loud snaps and long hisses. “My ship tells me you have intruded into the juvenile system of the Celabeen creatures. Why? You knew it would lead to Isolation of your system.”
Jack grimaced, showing his teeth. He waved Old Roy at the dino. “We humans changed our minds about your judgment. And your invulnerability. We have access to the sciences of eight civilizations! We will defeat you when you come to Sol!”
The yellow-scaled neck hood of the giant dino flared widely. Its barbed tail lifted and thumped the floor. It slammed its jaws together in a loud snap. The two red eyes, protected by ridges of red and yellow scales, inspected Jack. “Arrogant Hunters like you Humans have been dealt with before. By Isolation. As we will deal with you Humans.” It lowered one small arm to touch a control pedestal that reached to its chest.
“Wait!” Jack yelled. “We humans challenge you Arbitors to a final battle. Meet us above our comet Sedna! You know the location. It is the site of—”
“The former habitat of the HikHikSot Manager Menoma, who was intelligent enough to share all its Human observation data with us,” the giant dino said. Its barbed tail lifted up. The Arbitor opened his giant mouth, exposing two rows of long white teeth that resembled cutting knives. “Leave now, after this . . . encounter ends. So you can arrive before our ship arrives. Perhaps I will taste the flesh of your ship before I emplace the Isolation Globe beside your star!”
Jack gave the creature an obscene Belter finger-talk gesture. “My alpha female Maureen stands beside me! We both ache to taste your flesh!”
The creature paused before touching off their neutrino link. MakMakGor tilted its head to one side, inspecting Jack and Maureen and his crewmates as if they were curious bugs on a plate. “Arrogance comes natural to all predators. But survival is what matters. And you Humans will now be kept confined. The way you confine tiny animals you call pets.” It cough-spa
t. “Such a waste of protein! You should eat such creatures, not feed them.” It reached down.
“We will eat you!” Jack yelled just before the Arbitor’s image vanished.
“Well,” muttered Maureen from her holo, “I guess that dino will come to Sol now. I think we insulted its view of reality.”
“Agreed.” Jack turned away from the motion-eye, walked over to his seat, laid Old Roy on the deck beside his chair, and sat down. Restraint straps automatically enclosed him and locked with a snap. He pulled his Tech panel over his lap. Where he once more saw Maureen’s holo. “Max, toss out a Predator Alert sat to orbit this comet. At least other Hunters will know we claim the Celabeen system as part of humanity’s Hunt territory.”
“Ejecting through the spysat ejector portal,” his buddy said. “You think the Celabeen will call us on the neutrino comlink? In the future?”
“Maybe,” Jack said, feeling eager to start their journey home. “Nikola, give Elaine the coordinates for Sedna. I look forward to getting there days before this Arbitor arrives!”
She laughed softly. “Coordinates sent. Distance is 54.1 light years. Travel time is about one and a half days, versus however many days it will take the Arbitor ship to arrive. Elaine?”
“Received,” said his sister, who as usual wore her yellow headband inside her helmet. Once again fresh flowers dangled over one ear. “Shared with the fleet. All ships are assuming the vector aimed at Sol. Max?”
Jack grinned to himself. While he could have given each of his people direct orders, he liked how they were speeding things up by doing the obvious. Behind him he heard the creak of Max’s leather seat as the man leaned forward to tap on the Alcubierre pedestal control surface. “Alcubierre stardrive activated! All fleet ship stardrives activated. Heading home!”
Jack sat back in his seat. While he missed the naive enthusiasm of Archibald, it was best for the super geek to remain on Zhāng’s ship, ready to fire its Dark Energy Projector at the Arbitor’s ship. When Jack gave the command. Anyway, he had fleet formation details to work out with Hideyoshi, Zhāng, Amitar, Gareth and the Alien captains of the ships from his eight Freedom Alliance allies. He wanted to capture the Arbitor’s ship the same way they had captured the Rizen ship long ago. Only this time they had a weapon better suited to that purpose than a clumsy drive flare aimed at a ship’s nose. He looked forward to his chats with his Niktoren ally.
Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) Page 26