His sharp eyes stared into hers, then he shifted his gaze to Cass. “What is it, Lieutenant?”
Gertie stood up and stepped away from the desk to join Emily.
“Sir,” Cass said, “remember the conversations we had on Ariall about the blue spires every Oort world has?”
“Yes.”
“Clearly, they’re an integral part of Oort life. Despite that very important fact, no one here has made any attempt to study them. Nor have I ever heard of the Harbok studying them on the planets that the Oort took over from them. Have you?”
“No. All in good time, Lieutenant.”
“No, sir. It’s not all in good time. It should be right now, but it’s not. We’re not studying them because the Oort are influencing our minds. They’re manipulating our thoughts to the point that we can’t even think about those blue spires without our minds sliding off to another subject.” He paused, then said, “Tell me your mind isn’t doing that right now, sir.”
To his credit, Douglas stayed silent. He blinked a few times, then directed his sharp, penetrating stare back into Cass’ eyes.
Cass took a deep breath and pressed on. “I want you to imagine yourself walking through the opening of one of those blue spires, sir. You’re on the ground, it’s towering over you . . .”
It took Douglas the full fifteen minutes of deep concentration to counter the Oort mind influence. When he broke through, he looked around the room as if he had just woken up. He held up a finger to prevent discussion while he considered the implications deeply.
When he spoke, it was almost in admiration of the Oort. “It’s so subtle that we don’t even know it’s happening. It’s like a gentle persuasion that sets in like a vise. No wonder they’ve been so successful.” He looked at Cass and asked, “How did you know?”
“Logic demands that we learn what goes on inside those spires, sir. When I realized my mind kept sliding off the issue, I became suspicious. Then it was just a matter of sticking with it like you did.”
“I want to get Danny Lester in here and watch while you take him through it,” Douglas said thoughtfully. “I can’t have the captain of my baseship under someone else’s control.”
Cass brought Captain Lester through the process, though for him it took longer for some reason. Were the Oort fighting back, Cass wondered as he pressed on? When Lester blinked in full awareness, Cass stepped back from him and passed the buck to Douglas.
Douglas gave Lester time to get his thoughts together before discussing a strategy. When Lester wondered aloud, “Do I even have a fighting ship anymore?” Douglas knew he was ready to move ahead.
“If you don’t, we have to get it back,” Douglas said. “This is no longer a science expedition, it’s a military conquest. We have to eliminate the threat.”
Cass started fidgeting as he leaned against a wall. Douglas noticed and asked, “What is it, Cass?”
As the junior officer, Cass was not comfortable counseling his superiors, but in this particular case, he knew he had to speak up. “Sirs,” he said, “might I suggest a broader perspective? Admiral Grayson is blockading several Oort worlds. He is, personally, stationed at Asval with most of the hierarchy of the Alliance. Asval has one spire that is far, far larger than any others we’ve seen. Whatever is inside that spire might be the very top of the Oort food chain. If it is, it might be more powerful than what we’re dealing with here. If there is such a creature, Admiral Grayson might already have succumbed, just like the original Harbok explorers did.”
To his credit, Grayson took no issue with accepting the advice of a junior officer. Looking at Lester, he said, “We could end up with a fight on our hands. We have to take people through Cass’ process one at a time, and we might not always succeed. We’d better start with the bridge and gunnery crews.”
When Lester nodded his agreement, Douglas turned back to Cass. “You and Emily are the only two line officers I can trust at the moment. Are your minds strong enough to get a fighter through to Grayson?”
“We have to try, sir, but we still haven’t answered the question of what’s inside those spires. I’d like to do that before facing a potentially stronger spire. I’ve thought it out, and I have a plan that won’t take long.”
“Your plan has to take into account that we’re at war. What is it?”
“Ground forces would have trouble forcing their way inside. They’d have to fight their way through all those aging Oort in the holding pens and maybe millions of baby Oort, all the while fighting against the mental persuasion of the Oort. Our exploration staff has a supply of drones. I think we can send a drone or two inside a spire without attracting too much attention.”
Douglas considered deeply before nodding. “I like your plan, but do you think you can actually control drones or even fly the ship when this creature is trying to manipulate your mind?”
“It’s a test, sir. You and Admiral Grayson need to know the results of the test before you can plan much further. If I can’t do it here against these small spires, how will we ever attack the big one?” When Douglas nodded, Cass added, “As a last resort, I believe the drones can be programmed to operate autonomously. If I fail to control them, I can put them on automatic. We’ll get visual and audio back from them either way.”
“If the Oort don’t shoot them down or jam the frequencies. They might shoot you down.”
“I’ve studied the surroundings of several spires in detail,” Cass said. “We’ve taken out most, but not all, of their spaceships. I see no evidence of defensive weapons installations. I might be wrong, but I get the feeling these creatures have never needed to defend themselves physically. This mind thing has been an invisible, and therefore unbeatable, weapon for as long as they’ve existed.”
“Don’t say unbeatable.”
“I hope it’s been unbeatable only because no one suspected its existence. Now that we know, we have to see how far we can press.”
Douglas nodded. “Very well. Take your drones. When they’ve done their job, I want to really test you. I want you to attack the spire.”
Cass gulped. “Yes, sir.”
* * * * *
Cass found Doctor Jamyl, the head of the exploration staff, and brought him through the same mind control training he had given the others. Still in shock at the gravity of the situation, Jamyl agreed to accompany Emily and Cass. Before launching from the baseship, he gave Cass a quick course on how to operate the drones in case he needed a backup operator. His final activity before launch was to program the drones to operate automatically when so commanded.
They wasted no time. Emily launched through a starboard launch tube and turned down toward the planet. Cass programmed a course to one of the spires he had inspected previously and sent it to her, then he sat back to observe Emily and Jamyl. Emily seemed focused, but as they entered atmosphere, Doctor Jamyl started fidgeting. Cass went to him and, through a series of questions, brought the man back into focus. He then went to Emily and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, beautiful. How you doing?” he asked softly.
She turned to him and flashed him a brief smile, then she brushed her lips across his. “I’m okay. Constantly reminding myself about the Oort persuasion helps. Anger helps even more.” She nodded toward the display. “Eight Oort ships are headed toward us, all of them coming from different directions. We’ll beat six of them, but we’ll have to defend ourselves from the other two.”
Cass studied the screen with a wrinkled brow. “I can’t tell what kind of ships they are. Can you?”
“I’ve been working with Doctor Yarbo to categorize them. To the best of our knowledge, these are atmosphere ships, not spaceships. I don’t know if they’re armed or not.”
Cass frowned. “I don’t think they’d send them if they weren’t armed. If you can’t keep your distance, we’ll leave and come back with a stronger force.”
“I have another idea. Why don’t we release the drones, then take on one single Oort and see what th
ey’re made of? We can always pull out, and we have the cloaking device if we need it.”
Cass put a hand behind her head and pulled her close enough for a real kiss. “Okay, but our minds might not be evaluating things correctly. We have no idea if they can put other ideas into our heads.”
“I’ll pull out at the first sign of trouble,” she said, nodding.
As they neared the spire, delusions of dread inundated them. All of them had second thoughts about continuing, but Cass kept up a constant dialogue to keep them focused, and Emily’s idea to use anger as a focal point became part of his mantra. As they neared the spire, Emily brought the ship to a stop while Doctor Jamyl launched two drones. As soon as they were clear, she headed away from the spire and directly toward the nearest oncoming ship. Cass manned the guns from the seat behind and to Emily’s right while Jamyl operated the drones from the engineer’s station.
A laser reached out from the oncoming Oort, but the shield deflected it. “I’m going up and over him, then I’ll come back from behind. You’re cleared to fire,” Emily called to Cass.
The shield took more hits during the pass, but Cass got through the Oort shield before Emily turned back. The Oort disintegrated in a fireball. Emily whooped.
“Don’t get cocky!” Cass called to her. “They’re getting better organized. I don’t think you’ll get another one-on-one.”
“Yes, sir,” Emily called back. “How are the drones doing?”
Cass swung around to find Jamyl gritting his teeth in frustration. He just could not bring himself to send the right steering commands to the drones. Every time the drones neared the opening into the spire, his fingers sent commands that caused them to veer away at the last moment.
“You have the guns, Emily,” Cass called as he left his seat to join Jamyl.
He leaned over Jamyl and took the drone controller. The moment he did, the gentle persuasion that had been lurking in his mind became an almost overpowering compulsion of dread. He knew that this was a very bad thing to do. Still, he gritted his teeth and stayed on the controller. He drove the drones through the opening and into the spire.
His breath caught in his throat as the full meaning of the image hit him. He climbed the drones toward the top of the spire, the visual from the drones penetrating through a fog that enveloped his mid. A creature—a beautiful, iridescent, blue blob that shimmered from within—rested on the ground in the center of the spire. Its surface expanded and contracted as if it was breathing, though he saw no mouth, eyes, or ears. Above it, two iridescent, diaphanous creatures that resembled jellyfish floated above the blob. One of them had an Oortman hanging in its tendrils. While he watched, it gently lowered the Oortman into the blob. The blob seemed to absorb the body into itself.
The pounding of the ship’s weapons brought him back to the reality of the ship. “Drones are in,” he called to Emily.
“I got it!” she cried in excitement. “One more down. I’m cloaking and heading to our next target.”
Cass abandoned the drones to their fate and resumed control of the guns.
The next spire was only a few minutes away, but it was a very, very long few minutes. Emily and Cass felt an overpowering compulsion of dread, just as Cass had felt at the drone control station. Doctor Jamyl actually cried out from the impact on his mind.
Emily hunched in her seat with her shoulders pulled up to her ears, but her hands and fingers never stopped doing her bidding. She and Cass blasted their way through a line of enemy ships and left them behind. When they reached the spire, she brought the ship to a hover. Cass, his vision tunneled and indistinct, fired repeatedly at the opening to the spire. He did not have a clear view of the insides of the spire, but he believed he was sending blasts of particle beams ricocheting into the body of the creature inside.
Suddenly, the sense of wrongness diminished sharply. It did not disappear, but after brief consideration, he concluded that there were lots more spires on the planet, and the blobs inside them were still influencing his thoughts. He guessed he had killed the creature inside this spire. He aimed the particle beams higher, and blue shards of the structure shattered and fell away, but the spire itself proved to be harder than expected.
“We’ve done enough,” he called to Emily.
“Heading home,” she replied. Moments later, she turned to him with relief showing in her features. “Do you feel the change?”
“I do! I wonder if the planetary mind no longer cares about us since we’re leaving?”
“We don’t know if one of them is in charge or if they all function as one mind.”
“That’s Douglas’ problem,” he replied, leaving his seat and crouching down beside her. “Nice job!”
She shot him a quick smile. “You too!” She glanced behind him and said, “You might want to check on Doctor Jamyl.”
Jamyl was on his hands and knees, struggling to stand up and failing. Cass helped him to a seat, then he advised the baseship to prepare for one wounded crewmember.
Douglas watched the video, relayed in real time from Cass’ ship. Professor Yarbo, Doctor Llambry, and Captain Lester watched with him. The drones lasted for ten minutes after the fighter left them. During that time, they observed another Oortman trudge into the spire. It looked like it was close to death. A floating jellyfish descended from above with its tendrils hanging down. The moment a tendril touched the Oortman, the human body spasmed once, then stood rigid. The jellyfish lifted it above the central blob and gently lowered it into the quivering mass. The body seemed to dissolve as it sunk into the creature.
* * * * *
When Cass and Emily returned, Douglas stared at them in silent contemplation. When he finally spoke, he said, “Danny Lester is working on converting his bridge crews and gunners. We’ll start on our prime ship captains next, then move to our fighter crews. At this moment, I probably do not have an effective fighting force.” He looked to Cass, then Emily, and said, “That’s my problem. I want you to take your message to Grayson. I suspect he’s clueless.”
Professor Yarbo spoke up. “Things are beginning to come together in my mind concerning the Oort. I speculate that the Oort resemble insect colonies in which there is almost always one individual in charge of each colony. If the other Oort worlds are colonies, there might be a single controlling mind on each world. It’s even possible that those controlling minds periodically return to the main world for assimilation into a central mind, an Overmind, thereby maintaining the whole civilization as a single colony.”
He took a deep breath and added, “I hesitate to speculate further, but I must. I believe Admiral Grayson is blockading the main Oort world, and that an Overmind resides in that single tall spire. If I’m right, its intelligence could be an agglomeration of everything the Oort have ever learned on every world they’ve ever occupied. Its powers of persuasion might be far stronger than what we’re experiencing here.”
Douglas stared daggers at Yarbo, though Yarbo was not the target of those daggers. It was Grayson. The man likely had no idea that he could become a new source of information and power to the Oort, just as the original Harbok explorers had. If the Oort pulled from him the secrets of fast ships and the snowflake weapon, they would have the tools to spread across the whole galaxy.
He shifted his gaze to Emily, then to Cass. “Put a crew together and take word to Grayson. I’m coming too, but not until I have an effective fighting force.”
He paused to consider, then added, “I sense a battle ahead, for us and for Grayson, a battle the likes of which we never contemplated. Our fleets cannot fall into the hands of the Oort under any circumstances. If they do, every civilization in the galaxy will pay the price.”
Yarbo spoke up. “Sir, they might already have our secrets. They might have been reading our minds all along.”
Douglas rubbed his jaw thoughtfully before saying, “I could just leave this system, I suppose. As soon as we’re in hyperspace, the compulsion will stop, and I can convert my crews quicker. H
owever, I’m not sure I want to do it that way. I want to defeat the compulsion, otherwise we won’t stand a chance against a stronger compulsion. To defeat it, my people have to learn to counter it while they’re under its influence. I can’t say how long I’ll need, but I have to stay here until I’m certain. It will probably take a few weeks.”
“Sir,” Cass said, “Keep in mind that you won’t convert everyone, or that they won’t stay converted. I thought I had converted Doctor Jamyl, but he could not counter the Oort’s commands. You might want to test your key people by attacking spires here before you join Admiral Grayson.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Cass and Emily raced for their quarters, though racing on a baseship consisted of flagging down the first sled that came along and programming in a priority destination. On the way, Cass alerted the duty crew to prepare for an immediate departure. Emily threw a few things into a bag, Cass did the same at his quarters, and they raced for the starboard launch bay.
A crew of five was already aboard, consisting of a Harbok captain, a Harbok gunner, an An’Atee copilot, an An’Atee engineer, and a gunner from Earth. After a few words from Cass, the captain let Emily take the ship out while Cass took the two Harbok to the lounge and attempted to convert them. His coaching did not succeed until he switched gears. When he informed them that they were on their way to fight the Oort, and that the Oort would probably overpower them with a mind weapon and win the battle, their anger pushed them through whatever barriers the Oort had set in place.
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