by Isaac Hooke
There was no reason to divert to the partially terraformed colony world—Ares wasn’t eclipsed by anything, and whenever the planet’s revolutions caused the dome colony and military bases to face the fleet, it was fairly obvious nothing was alive down there.
Four days into the journey, Jonathan got a call from the third watch ops station officer while he was reading in his stateroom.
“Captain,” the ops officer, Lieutenant (jg) Kylie Anderson, said. “We have contact.”
eight
Jonathan pulled on his khakis and hurried toward the bridge. He glanced at the tactical display on his aReal along the way.
A red dot had emerged from one of the planets roughly two million kilometers ahead and to the port side of the fleet. It was set to intercept the battle group in a million kilometers, about halfway to the outgoing Gate.
Jonathan was waiting for the order he knew was coming.
When he reached the bridge, Robert handed over command. On cue, Vice Admiral Levieson tapped in.
“Hello Jonathan,” Levieson said. “I take it you’ve noticed our interloper?”
“I have. Let me guess, you want the Raptor to attempt communications?”
“Excellent powers of clairvoyance,” Levieson replied. “There was some talk about withholding communications as per first contact procedures”—the vice admiral was referring to the belief among some xenologists that dispatching EM transmissions for the purposes of communications might be perceived as a hostile act by alien entities—”but it was decided the protocols don’t apply here, as this isn’t entirely a first contact situation. We’ve already attempted communications on all known bands. No response. Let’s see if the Raptor can do any better.”
Jonathan tapped in Barrick. “We need Valor to send a welcome message to that ship.”
A moment later Lieutenant (jg) Anderson reported the expected gamma wave transmission from the Raptor.
“Ops,” Jonathan said. “Give me a visual on that ship.”
The rotating image of the scavenger he had seen weeks ago during the captains’ conference overlaid his vision.
“Is this the same ship that attacked you in the Elder galaxy, Commander?” Jonathan asked his first officer.
“That’s the one,” Robert confirmed.
Jonathan thrummed his fingers on the armrest. He extended his noise canceler about Robert. “This one vessel took out every ship between here and Prius 3?”
“That would seem to be the case,” Robert replied.
“Why didn’t it eliminate the Callaway and the rest of Task Group 72.5 in the Elder galaxy then?” Jonathan asked. “If it took out a hundred ships between here and Prius 3, those five ships would have been nothing.”
“They might have been afraid,” Robert replied. “Unsure of our capabilities. When encountering a new space-faring species, you can never really tell what their defenses and armaments might be. Sure, you can guess I suppose. But you never really know until you engage them in combat.”
Jonathan nodded. “So they waited in the thermal wash of the Prius 3 star, watching, observing, gauging our abilities. And then when we did something to trigger them, they attacked.”
“Like destroying the Raakarr homeworld?” Robert asked.
“Something like that would probably do it,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan glanced at his tactical display. By then the gamma ray communications beam would have reached the enemy ship.
He repealed his noise canceler.
“Ops,” Jonathan said. “Have you detected a response of any kind yet?”
“No response has been tendered,” Anderson replied.
“Well,” Jonathan said. “Either they can’t understand us, or they don’t want to.”
“Probably the latter,” Robert said.
The admiral tapped in fleet-wide a few moments later.
“Captains,” Admiral Ford said. “We have contact with a target matching the description of the ‘scavenger’ vessel first identified in Prius 3. Our communication requests have been refused. The target is on an intercept course with our fleet. We have to assume their intentions are unfriendly. I’m transmitting new trajectory vectors now. Please forward them to your helmsmen and engage. I’ve scheduled an emergency conference at twenty hundred hours. See you all there.”
The captain relayed the new course vectors to Miko, who would see to it that the Raptor and those other ships under Jonathan’s command would receive them. On the tactical display, he watched the dotted line representing the course of the overall fleet update to give the red dot a wide berth. That only delayed the inevitable intersection of their trajectory with that of the enemy by a couple of hours.
In thirty minutes he was in his office adjacent to the bridge, and immersed in a virtual conference.
As usual, the admiral was on her feet at the head of the table. She paced back and forth, as she was wont to do before a battle. Her fatigues were buttoned up at the neck, just like Jonathan’s own. He never went into battle with his collar unbuttoned. Neither did she, apparently.
He was struck, as he often was, by her youthful appearance. She was seventy-five, but the rejuvenation treatments gave her the look of a thirty-year-old. She wore her thick strands of hair in a bob. Some might have called her beautiful, or at least handsome, though hers was a detached sort of beauty, something best admired from afar: if she sensed even a modicum of disrespect in you, toward her or her station, the chewing out would be painful. Jonathan had heard she liked to practice mixed martial arts, and apparently often sparred with members of her crew. If she had a bone to pick with someone aboard the same ship, he had a feeling she would invite them to the sparring mat for a firsthand taste of her disciplinary style.
“While I’m disinclined to believe that this one vessel eliminated all of the United Systems craft and bases between here and Prius 3,” the admiral said. “There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation at the moment. We’ll have to assume this vessel is extremely dangerous, and likely still armed to the teeth. Scans report no signs of damage. We are aware of two of her weapons. The first, the ‘disintegration bomb’—for lack of a better term—reported by the Callaway. The second, a concentrated gravitational wave, used to carve a hull piece from a former Builder belonging to the Callaway’s task unit. Our best guess is that the latter is a relatively short range weapon, and the former of the long range variety. The vessel very likely possesses other armaments... you’ve all seen the debris.”
She stopped pacing to run her gaze across the assembled captains. Then she sighed, rested her hands on the table, and leaned across the virtual cherrywood toward the gathered officers. “This is what we’re going to do.”
She explained her plan. It was good, Jonathan had to admit. The best they had, given the circumstances. And it was a bit of a leap of faith, too, given how big a part it gave the Raakarr to play.
“Are we certain our alien allies will follow through on their orders?” Captain Bane asked.
“If they don’t, this will be a very, very short alliance,” Ford said. “They’ll certainly be tempted to flee. Captain Dallas, it’s your job to see that they don’t.”
“I’ll keep them in line,” Jonathan said. “One way or another.”
Though he projected confidence, he knew that given the distances involved, it was doubtful he’d be able to threaten Valor with any real force. He would need another way to ensure obedience.
“Admiral,” Jonathan said. “I think it would be in our best interests for the Raptor to remain with the United Systems fleet at all times during the coming battle.”
The admiral nodded. “Good idea. Valor will be less liable to misbehave if he knows he has fifty-five laser banks targeting him. If there are no other suggestions, you are all dismissed.”
JONATHAN WAS CALLED to the bridge an hour before the planned flyby. He took his place at the Round Table. The first watch bridge crew was present.
He glanced at his tactical display. As expected, twenty
-four Raakarr vessels had pulled away from the main fleet. Traveling at their maximum speed, the Raakarr led by a hundred thousand kilometers. The display labeled them R2. The three laser ships with them had already separated into their five respective segments, spaced out a hundred thousand kilometers each in a long line toward the incoming target.
There was another unit of Raakarr, labeled R1, that had remained with the human fleet, H1. The Raptor was among them, of course, along with a Reach class, two dart ships, and two laser ships. The latter had also separated into five segments like those that were with R2, and had spread out to a range of five hundred thousand kilometers toward the enemy.
The plan was to make it seem like the human fleet was making a run for the Gate. And they were, essentially. If the target proved insurmountably difficult, they didn’t plan on staying in that system for very long. The problem was what they would do if the enemy decided to pursue them.
“The scavenger is coming within firing range of two of the lead laser segments,” Lewis said.
Jonathan nodded slowly. That meant the target was a hundred thousand kilometers from those lead segments, or roughly five hundred fifty thousand kilometers away from the center point of the two units R2 and H1, on the port side.
Jonathan saw white lines appear on his tactical display as the dart ships from both units fired their particle beams into the nearest laser segments, powering them. The segments in turn fired a concentrated beam that was boosted and repeated by the remaining four segments. The lines ended at the incoming target.
“The two laser ships have fired,” Lewis said.
When the lines faded, the red dot representing the target remained, of course. If that one ship had been able to take out all the fleets between here and Prius 3, it would be able to stand up to a few alien lasers.
“Tell me that did something,” Jonathan said.
“It did something,” Lewis replied. “I’m detecting multiple thermal leaks. The lasers breached their hull.”
“Good.”
Over the next three minutes, the lasers continued to fire. The scavenger never wavered from its incoming course.
“Captain,” Lewis said at the end of those three minutes. “You’re not going to believe this, but the thermal leakage on the enemy ship is remaining constant.”
“Constant, Ensign?” Jonathan said.
“Their hull seems to be healing,” she said. “The earlier impacts are closing over just as fast as the Raakarr can create new ones.”
“Nothing can repair damage that fast,” Robert said.
“Apparently, these aliens can,” Jonathan told the commander.
When the scavenger was thirty thousand kilometers from one of the lead laser segments, Lewis spoke up. “I’m detecting an extremely low frequency beam.”
“What sort of beam?”
“I’m not sure,” the ensign said. “I don’t think it’s a particle beam. It’s...”
“Well, what is it Ensign?” Jonathan said, unable to conceal the impatience from his voice.
“I believe it’s their gravitational wave weapon, sir,” Lewis said. “Though the frequency of the beam is different than the last time we encountered them, when they destroyed our Builder. I have no idea why... maybe they’re trying to account for the relatively long range.”
“What kind of damage is it doing?” Jonathan said. “Are they carving away a portion of the segment’s hull?”
“It doesn’t appear to be having any effect at the moment,” Lewis said. “The range must be too great. No, wait. According to the CDC, the edges of the lens segment appear indistinct. As if the entire hull is vibrating. Have a look at camera F33.”
Jonathan did as he was asked. He zoomed in on the lens segment. Sure enough, the Raakarr device had become very blurry around the edges. Before he could zoom in further, it broke apart entirely.
nine
What just happened?” Jonathan asked.
“The lens segment vibrated itself apart,” Lewis answered.
“And we were wondering which of their weapons was capable of causing debris,” Robert said. “Looks like we have our answer.”
“We do indeed,” Jonathan said, dismissing the video feed.
As the scavenger closed with the fleet, approaching from the port side, it fired its gravimetric beam every time it came to within thirty thousand kilometers of a laser segment, breaking said craft apart.
When the target reached a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers out from the main fleet, the admiral gave the order to fire mortars, followed by nukes and kinetic kills. The trajectories of the mortars were intended to herd the target into the succeeding nukes and missiles.
At the same time, the Raakarr ships in R2 rapidly decelerated. Given the current estimates of their new trajectory, as indicated by the dashed lines on the tactical display, R2 would initiate a flyby with the target just as H1 and R1 flew past in the opposite direction. A classic pincer attack.
“The Raakarr came through for us after all,” Robert said.
“So far...” Jonathan replied. “Keeping their leader close to our breasts is helping, I’m sure.” He glanced at the Raptor, which was nestled in formation not far from the Callaway.
Don’t betray us, Valor.
As the minutes ticked by, the target continued to close with the fleet from the port side. The mortars approached to forty thousand kilometers from the scavenger.
After another lens segment broke apart, Robert said: “They haven’t fired their disintegration bomb yet. Maybe they’ve exhausted their supply?”
“It’s possible,” Jonathan said. “But I believe they’re simply holding back. Why waste such a powerful bomb on something so easy to destroy as those laser segments? We’ve basically lined them up for the scavenger to destroy at its leisure. Also, keep in mind, they’ve had four systems to hone their tactics against us. Meanwhile, this is basically our first real encounter with it.”
“You’d think the Raakarr would have thrown a wrench into their plans,” Robert said. “Since the scavenger hasn’t encountered any of their vessels as of yet.”
Jonathan considered that. “We don’t really know who the Raakarr encountered in the Elder galaxy when they were there ahead of us, do we? Even though Valor claims they never saw any ships, do we really believe him?”
“I’m not sure we’re going to fully believe anything Valor says ever again,” Robert replied.
Those Raakarr laser segments that were beyond the thirty thousand kilometer range of the gravimetric weapon continued to fire on the scavenger. Not that the enemy seemed to be hurting: for every new bore the lasers inflicted, an old one sealed, according to the ops station.
“The Raakarr lasers are always targeting new areas,” Jonathan said. “You’d think we would have at least damaged some critical section by now. Or eliminated some of their crew.”
“Assuming they have crew, in the traditional sense of the word,” Robert said.
“AI manned?” Jonathan asked. “Or the equivalent?”
“Could be,” Robert replied.
Jonathan watched the mortars near the target on the tactical display.
“The scavenger is adjusting course to avoid the mortars,” Lewis said. “And heading directly for the ring of nukes and kinetic kills. Wait, it’s firing that gravimetric beam again. Aiming for a nuke.”
Jonathan saw one of the dots representing the nukes wink out. The red dot then slid upward and slightly backward on the Z plane.
“It’s moving out of the way of the remaining nukes,” Lewis said. She sounded confused. “I can’t believe this. It reversed course almost instantaneously, with no regard for its previous momentum or the laws of Newtonian physics, and then swung forward again, easily dodging past the remaining nukes and missiles.”
Miko looked at the captain. “Reactionless drive behavior.”
“Well that explains why it was so easily able to escape the Delta Vs when hiding so close to the Prius 3 star,” Jonathan said. He glance
d at Robert. “I seem to recall you speculating that these scavengers might have had Alcubierre Drives?”
“That was my speculation regarding the Elder vessel,” Robert said. “As for this scavenger, I only told you that its maneuvering was close to the classical threshold. But now we’ve seen they can indeed go beyond that threshold. On par with the Elder.”
“Speaking of the Elder,” the ensign said. “The CDC is detecting similar readings from this scavenger as those emitted by the Elder and their Möbius strip vessel. Weak gravity waves that denote the shrinking and expanding of space in front and behind them.”
“The CDC didn’t detect similar gravity waves when you previously encountered this ship?”
“No,” Lewis said.
Jonathan glanced at Robert. “Could be that the scavengers utilize a mix of Newtonian and reactionless tech.”
Robert nodded. “Saving the reactionless tech for when they really need it.”
Jonathan tapped in Levieson. “By now I’m sure you’ve determined that these aliens use some kind of Alcubierre Drives?”
“We have,” the vice admiral returned. “Thank you, Captain.” He quickly disconnected.
A bit rude, but Jonathan was usually quite succinct in his dealings with those captains under him in the midst of a battle, too.
“Captain,” Ensign Lewis said. “This is strange, but it appears one of our mortars is moving along in front of the vessel, matching its heading and speed.”
Jonathan glanced at Robert. “How is that possible?”