by Andrew Beery
“Plant your butt in a seat, Commander, before you fall over,” I said. “Preferably Navigation,” I added.
“Chief, once you get her butt planted, I could use you on the Engineering station. Monitor the coupling between us and the Solomon.”
“Aye, Admiral. Can I ask why we are dragging the Solomon around with us?”
“It’s more the other way around. She has a working Skip Drive.”
“Brilliant idea, sir,” Kelson said.
“I wish I could take credit for it but it was Commander Ellison’s flash of brilliance.”
“Even more impressive,” Tanny added.
I turned to look at her.
“That sounded better in my head than it did out loud,” the Commander acknowledged, with a sheepish grin.
I would have said more but the bad guys were getting close to lining up a shot at us. I had been right. The moment the Defiant pulled away from the Artemis, the attackers lost interest in the derelict.
“The platforms are powering up weapons,” Arquat announced.
“Commander, give me 10% more on thrusters. Let’s see if we can’t screw up their aim.”
I vectored us to port thirty degrees. I would have gone further but I was still concerned about the coupling connecting us to the Solomon. Chief Kelson confirmed the couplings were holding but only just barely.
I was about to ask Tanny to see if she could tweak the control synchronization when all hell broke loose.
I saw a bright flash emit from all six of the attacking ships. The beams cut across our bow at about two hundred kilometers. Given our current speed, I had less than half a second to react. I vectored the ship down, and under, the beams. The sudden move pushed the couplings beyond their tolerance. Three of the struts ruptured completely and the fourth was barely keeping the ships connected. If I did anything other than travel in a straight line, and at a constant velocity, I risked losing the Solomon.
Sometimes you have to choose between multiple bad options. The key is to pick the option that provides the best opportunity to eventually recover from the bad situation you find yourself in. I made my choice.
“Tanny, kill power to the Solomon’s thrusters.”
“Sir, that will . . .”
“I know what it will do, Commander. Make it happen, NOW!”
“Aye, Admiral. Killing power to the Solomon’s thrusters.”
“The Solomon has broken its mooring and is drifting away,” Chief Kelson reported.
Tanny looked at me just a bit confused . . . and then, a glimmer of understanding lit her eyes. She nodded.
“Well played, Admiral. Hope from hopelessness.”
I changed course. This time, I took full advantage of the Defiant’s speed and agility. The bad guys fired at us two more times. In each case, I made a random course change the moment we saw their weapons going hot.
Having two more people on the bridge made a huge difference in what I could coax out of the Defiant in terms of performance.
Over the course of the next twenty minutes, I slowly guided the enemy vessels away from the crippled Artemis. We used a technique affectionately called ‘Crazy Ivan’ in which we randomly changed course and speed in order to throw off the bad guy’s targeting systems.
As we approached an asteroid field, the six pursuers fired another round. They missed but a number of asteroids took it on the chin. Needless to say, they didn’t fare well.
I expected the bad guys to continue to follow us, but they did something strange. They adjusted course drove head-first into the thickest part of asteroid field. Once there, they broke formation and began to hunt the largest of the rocks, like a group of sharks attacking a school of herring.
Now, you need to understand, the average distance between asteroids in your run-of-the-mill asteroid belt is just shy of a million kilometers. Even in the most densely populated areas of Earth’s asteroid belt, you would rarely see rocks get any closer than twenty kilometers from each other.
“They almost look like they’re feeding,” Tanny said.
“Their energy levels are rising,” Arquat added. “I believe the Commander is correct. They are ingesting matter and replenishing their energy stores. I would surmise that such activity is core to their functionality. They likely destroy small moons, or perhaps even entire planets, and consume the resulting rubble to fuel their continued operation.”
“If that’s the case,” Tanny interjected, “then why were they dormant when we arrived. There are plenty of rocks floating around this star system they could be eating.”
Arquat turned his head towards the Commander.
“It would be a mistake to anthropomorphize the motivations of these devices. They may not exist simply to feed and reproduce like so many organic systems do. It is highly probably they have a design objective completely divorced from how they subsist in order to carry out that objective.”
As we watched, the alien weapon platforms spread further and further apart as ‘food’ grew scarcer in the areas they were harvesting.
“Can we use this somehow?” I wondered out loud.
Chief Kelson leaned forward and tapped a few buttons on his console then shook his head.
“I was thinking they might be easier to attack while they’re not operating as a pack but neither our railgun nor our plasma beams would be powerful enough to even scratch their armor,” he said.
I nodded. Based on the Diaspora’s earlier encounter, I knew a direct assault was never going to work. But maybe, just maybe, we could coax these behemoths into doing the work for us.
“Arquat, give me an inventory of our nuclear arsenal.”
The AI shimmered into existence next to my command chair.
“The Defiant currently has ten fifty-kiloton devices designed for mining operations and two four-hundred kiloton missiles designed as offensive weaponry.”
“Three of the devices are regrouping,” Tanny reported. “Correction. Make that four of the devices are regrouping. They seem to be holding station and not resuming their pursuit. Have they given up?”
I shook my head. “My guess is they are waiting for their compatriots to finish refueling before resuming their attack. They seem to be powerful, but their programming is not especially adaptable. We would have had a much more difficulty evading them if they had split up and pursued us individually.”
“Let’s hope they don’t learn from their mistakes,” Kelson mumbled.
I could see the remaining two continue to hunt down rocks to eat. There was a grouping of larger asteroids near the closer of the two alien weapons. It would only be a few minutes before they became a part of its dinner.
I made a snap decision.
“Chief, head on down to the armory. Arquat, begin prepping our nukes for deployment and timed detonation. Let’s see if we can’t give our friends a case of indigestion.”
***
Less than ten minutes later, we had deposited half of our nukes on the rocks that we expected were about to become a part of an asteroid-eaters lunch.
They each had remotely controlled timers that would allow us to make sure the bombs were deep inside their massive maws before they detonated. We knew the bombs would have no effect on the neutronium hulls, but I was betting there were soft and gooey parts on the inside of those things that would not be nearly as resistant to things that went boom. Call it a hunch.
We backed away so that we wouldn’t find ourselves on the menu.
“Here he comes,” Chief Kelson, who had returned to the bridge, said from his Weapons station.
I watched the behemoth move up on the grouping of asteroids.
“Steady on the switch, Chief. Don’t hit it too soon. Arquat, magnify our view. I want to see it swallow the bait before we set the hook.”
The view screen zoomed in just as the first of the ‘baited’ asteroids was swallowed.
“NOW, CHIEF!”
Kelson triggered the timer. Now it was just a matter of waiting the thirty seconds for the bomb to detonate.
Arquat had placed a countdown timer of the holographic forward view screen.
A fraction of a second after the timer hit zero, there was a sudden brightening of the device’s fore and aft orifices. A moment later, the glow faded back to the deep electric blue we had become use to seeing.
“Anything?” I asked?
Arquat waved a hand and a secondary display appeared. It showed the cylinder just before, and just after, the detonation.
“Energy reading spiked when our nuclear device detonated. It then fell back down but remained zero-point two five percent higher than before the explosion.”
“What are you saying? Our bomb actually fed the thing?” I asked, with a sense of incredulity.
“It would appear so, Admiral,” the AI answered.
2100.1985.0622 Galactic Normalized Time
The Planet Eater designated Number Three was hungry. Its fuel reserves were nearly depleted. Strangely, the more it ate, the hungrier it got.
The enemy had proven evasive and pursuing it had consumed what little reserves Number Three had left. Thus, the need to feed. Unfortunately, the food in this region of space was scarce. Once a small planet had orbited here but vast portions had fallen into the fiery pit of the primary. What little remained had been consumed over the millennia by he and his brothers.
The long watch had exacted a price on this solar system, but such was the cost of victory.
Chapter 6: Feeding Time
“I need a decision, sir. That beastie is about to eat another of our nukes,” the Chief said.
“Admiral,” Tanny interjected. “We don’t know how much of that energy increase was due to our nuke and how much was due to increasing its fuel reserves.”
“Point taken, Commander. Chief, same drill as before, blow the nuke at thirty seconds and let’s monitor the results.”
We waited as before. The explosion caused the same brief flare and then faded back. Was it my imagination, or did the glow surrounding the forward-facing orifice seem dimmer?
We all turned to Arquat. He did something I rarely saw him do. He smiled.
“Energy output is down six tenths of a percent.”
I turned my head to look at Kelson.
“Tell me, Chief, that those two nukes were of the smaller variety.”
“Affirmative, Admiral. The larger one seems to be next on the menu.”
Tanny straightened suddenly in her seat. I could see her wince as she moved something that caused her pain.
“Admiral, we have a problem.”
“Just one?” I asked.
“A new one,” Tanny replied. “The other weapon has decided to go after the Solomon.”
“How soon until they are within firing range?”
“That’s the thing, sir. They’re already within range. I think they plan to eat it.”
“Do we still have a link to the Solomon’s navigational systems?”
Tanny checked her board. “There is some latency . . . maybe a quarter of a second . . . but yes.”
“Fair enough. Fire up the sub-lights and attempt to evade.”
“Evading now,” Tanny confirmed.
“There goes the larger nuke,” Chief Kelson said suddenly.
I had been distracted by the Solomon and missed the other enemy weapon swallowing our biggest bomb.
The explosion was markedly different from the first two. First, it was much brighter. When it faded, the blue glow was almost completely extinguished.
“Mister Arquat, give me some good news.”
“Energy output is now 5% of previous levels however it is starting to climb.”
I was going to have to discuss with my AI friend what I meant by ‘good news.’ This was at best a mixed bag. Before I could say anything else, the situation changed dramatically. And by dramatic, I mean the side of the alien weapon seemed to shatter, and then, explode outward.
“What the . . .”
“It appears there was a failure of the weapon’s antimatter containment field. The freed antimatter eroded the neutronium hull causing a catastrophic failure of the super structure as well,” Arquat reported.
Now that was more along the lines of what I meant by ‘good news.’ Sadly, I knew that there were five more bad guys out there and one of them was chasing our ride home.
“Arquat, keep half an eye on our four friends. Let me know if they react to the loss of their brother.”
I turned my attention back to the weapon that was pursuing the Solomon.
“Status on your problem, Commander.”
“The Solomon is losing ground sir. She just doesn’t have the thrust to outrun her pursuer.”
“I’m open to ideas, people.”
“We still have a number of nukes left including a big one,” Kelson offered.
“Run the numbers, Chief. Our big boy is a missile. Is it fast enough to get between the Solomon and our friend out there?”
“Already run, sir and the answer is yes . . . just barely.”
“Make it so, Chief.”
Chief Kelson began to work his board. “Helm, bring us to heading one-oh-two mark eight. Maximum acceleration,” he barked, a moment later.
“Aye, Chief,” Tanny acknowledged. If she was perturbed by taking orders from a lower-ranking individual, she didn’t show it.
“Coming to course one-oh-two mark eight. Accelerating at twenty-six g’s”
A moment later, the Chief fired our only nuclear missile. With any luck, the behemoth chasing the Solomon would swallow it and join its compatriot in the great beyond, where good little weapon platforms go when they die.
The next five minutes were some of the longest of my life. When things finally started to happen, they all happened at once.
“The four in formation are moving again,” Arquat reported.
“Who are they targeting?”
“Indeterminate. They could be aligning to target us or the Artemis. Alternately, they could be getting positioned to make a run for Paradise.”
“Admiral, the weapon targeting the Solomon is increasing speed. It will overtake the Solomon in two minutes,” Tanny reported.
“How soon before our missile is in position?”
Chief Kelson shook his head. “It won’t be, Admiral. By the time it gets to where it needed to be, the target will have already moved past.”
I sat back in my seat. In less than two minutes, our ride home was going to be destroyed. By any definition, this was not a good thing. I had learned a hard lesson a number of years ago.
Sometimes success was defined not by what you could do to avoid a bad situation, but by what you could accomplish despite the bad situation.
We weren’t going to save the Solomon but maybe its loss could provide some benefit.
“Arquat, what happens if the drive field fails on a Skip Drive?”
“The secondary exotic matter containment field shunts antimatter into Skip Space where it is rendered harmless.”
“And if the exotic matter containment field collapses first?”
The AI looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“You intend to use the Solomon as a bomb.”
I smiled. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
I turned my gaze back to the forward view screen.
“Commander, kill the Solomon’s engines. Arquat, rig her exotic matter containment field to drop thirty seconds after she’s swallowed.
“Maybe we can’t save the Solomon but, by God, we can take one of those buggers out with her!”
“Sir, our four friends are powering up their weapons. We seem to be the target.”
“Ok, folks, round two. Evasive maneuvers.”
“Starting evasive maneuvers,” the Commander confirmed. “Can we assume you have a plan, sir?”
“Absolutely,” I answered, with a smile.
“Care to enlighten us?”
“As soon as I come up with something, I’ll let you know.”
“I feel better already,” Kelson said, from th
e Weapons console.
“Arquat . . . what’s the status of the Solomon?”
Rather than answering me verbally, the ship’s resident AI split the forward view screen into two halves. The right side showed our pursuers. The left side showed the Solomon entering the massive maw of the alien weapon.
A few seconds later, fissures that glowed red appeared over the entire surface of the craft. A few seconds after that, the entire thing vessel was engulfed in a blinding white explosion. Whereas the first ship had remained largely intact after it had been killed, this second ship was utterly destroyed.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time to enjoy our victory. The four remaining weapon platforms were now actively pursuing us. They adopted a new strategy. Rather than synchronizing the firing their antiproton weapons, they now fired sequentially.
They almost caught us the first time they did this because the moment we evaded the first blast, Tanny stopped her Crazy Ivan maneuvers. The second and third shots came within ten and two kilometers, respectively. In other words, in the vastness of space, they skinned the paint off our hull.
Tanny was now forced to actively evade and make random course changes almost constantly. It would have been exhausting even if she had not been among the walking wounded.
After about five minutes of this, I took over at Helm. We were going to have to spell each other if we were going to survive.
I knew that evasion was not a long-term strategy. Eventually, we frail humans would need to sleep. Arquat might be able to carry the load but even then, we would eventually run out of food and fuel. The alien weapons were able to refuel from available resources. We were not so lucky.
“The alien weapons are breaking off their attack,” Kelson announced, unexpectedly. “They may need to refuel again,” he suggested.
I suspected he was right. The number of shots they had each taken at us were roughly the same as they had taken before the first pit stop they had made. It was possible they had some type of internal mechanism that triggered the refueling while they still had enough resources to pursue the asteroids they consumed.
“Arquat, signal the Artemis. Let them know we are heading to their position to pick them up.”
“Signaling now,” the AI confirmed.