The Ion War

by Colin Kapp

  The success of this escape method did not promise to be great. He expected, each second, to be taken out of space by some well directed fire of larger calibre, but for some reason the attack was not continued, and he soon had put a useful distance between himself and the two ships. It was only then that he had the opportunity to try and analyze what had taken place. He had expected a senior security officer to come aboard to take possession of himself and Absolute€”he had based his escape plan on it. What he had not planned on was the gas capsule. The point worried him: an escort Shipman having the authority to use one was absolutely contrary to what he knew of Terran military discipline. Something about the whole episode was terribly wrong.

  His suspicions were increased by the pinnace itself: the controls had come so automatically to his hands that in the anxiety of his flight he had not noticed that the instrument boards were laid out according to accepted Hub conventions, not those of the mother planet. With the awful idea dawning on him that he might have foiled a Hub espionage operation he turned in alarm to the scanners to review the situation he had left behind. Any thoughts he might have had of returning to the mystery ship which had intercepted the carrier were instantly destroyed: the vessel was already making remarkable progress towards tachyon-space entry-velocity.

  The reason for the mystery ship's hasty departure became immediately obvious€”and was also a threat to Dam's own safety: three Terran corvettes of the Solar Patrol were streaking towards the fleeing vessel. Whether or not they caught it before it could enter tachyon space it was certain that very soon they would turn their attentions to the pinnace. Dam watched with stilled breath, willing them to maintain their present course, which was at right-angles to his own; if they did so for a sufficient length of time he might drop out of scanner range. The pinnace would be very difficult to re-locate once lost.

  He began to turn his attention to the pinnace itself. He soon realized that he was in possession of no ordinary craft. The vessel had no armaments, yet despite its diminutive size it was beautifully equipped, its facilities even including a limited tachyon space capability with energy reserves sufficient for a couple of average jump phases. What it lacked was a computing facility sufficient to calculate drop-out point of such a jump. It was a facility which could not have been included in such a small craft, and presumably the jump calculations were normally supplied by data transfer-link from the pinnace's parent ship. The point prompted Dam to try the data-link in the vague hope that the connection was still functioning, but the display showed nothing but the random static of Sol's own broadcast radiation.

  In the moment of agonized indecision during the escape from the carrier he had obeyed Absolute's precept that one of them must escape even if it meant leaving the other to perish or remain in captivity. Dam knew that the onus was very much upon him to reach the Hub with all possible speed in order to warn the resistance movement of Terra's breakthrough in para-ion techniques. Against the need for speed, however, had to be set the necessity of avoiding capture or destruction by the Terrans, else the sacrifice of Absolute would have been wasted. For this reason Dam was forced to think the unthinkable, to consider, if the need arose, taking a blind leap through tachyon space simply to escape the Terran ships behind him. It was a desperate last resort measure, and one he fervently hoped would not become necessary.

  Events, however, took the decision out of his hands. At the very last moment before it would have gone beyond scanning range, one of the Terran corvettes peeled away from its companion ships and turned in Dam's direction. Already possessed of superior velocity, and having engines a thousand times more powerful than those of the pinnace, it bore towards him like a dark angel, and there was no doubting its ability to overrun the little craft, nor uncertainty about the destructive nature of its mission. Dam watched aghast as the little flotilla of homing missiles speared ahead of the terrible avenger. The premature flare of one of the missles was his final warning: with no time to take even a rough heading towards the direction of the Hub, he threw the pinnace into a despairing leap into tachyon space for which no dropout point had been present.

  It was a very rough entry. His craft had barely achieved entry velocity and his unfamiliarity with the miniature control panel as well as the lack of computer trimming had comspired to tunnel the ship through the light barrier at a very bad phase-angle. Fearfully, he felt the ship being caught in the grip of the elements of trans-relativity as the power meters swung sickeningly and the gallant little vessel fought to escape the daunting dead hand of Einsteinian physics and reach the universe beyond.

  Then, by some miracle, the marvellous little pinnace was floating free in the theoretical infinity called tachyon space. In the large spacecraft in which Dam normally served, tachyon space conditions were regarded as a physical abstraction, and actual observations were rare. By contrast, the broad view-ports of the pinnace afforded no chance to avoid the multiple paradoxes of light and shade which characterized the alter-universe in which he was immersed, and for the first time in his space career Dam experienced the wonder and perplexity known to the early pioneers when they first penetrated the light barrier into the realms beyond.

  Dam's main reaction was one of immediate relief, because for the moment he was relatively safe from attack. The corvette which had been pursuing him was unlikely to follow through into tachyon space, because few captains would dare to enter the region without a carefully pre-calculated dropout point. Furthermore, although there were Terran patrols actually operating within the tachyon domain, the restraints of trans-light physics were such that they were unable to alter speed to intercept without suffering severe penalties from time-dilation effects on their return to normal space. The most the tachyon patrols could do was to signal his position and probable drop-out co-ordinates to a normal-space patrol; they could not actively menace him while he remained in the inverse region.

  Dam's respite, however, was short-lived; he found to his dismay that his power reserves had already fallen below the danger margin. This was a consequence of entering tachyon space with insufficient velocity; a similar energy penalty would be paid during the drop-out maneuver back to normal space. A quick calculation showed him that unless he dropped out of tachyon space immediately, he would return to normal space with virtually no motive power available. Although the communications and life-support systems had their own auxiliary power supplies, he would be stranded far from the ship lanes and without the capacity for even limited sub-light travel. Therefore, even though his tachyon flight had been of considerably less duration than he had considered safe, he flung the craft into the drop-out mode and waited anxiously to see just where he would arrive.

  Immediately Dam had a dramatic example of one of the reasons why blind emergence from tachyon space was an occupation for fools and those smitten with a death-wish. He dropped not into unoccupied space, as he had expected, but into the centre of a massive concentration of warcraft in parking orbit around a planet he was reasonably certain was Venus. He broke into a cold sweat at the thought of what might have happened had his drop-out point actually been inside the planet's bulk, and he could have wept with frustration at finding that he had not fled the Solar System, but had actually penetrated more deeply into it!

  There was, however, no time for emotional concerns. He had re-entered normal space with all of his original tachyon space entry velocity, and was plunging planetwards in a powered flight intensified by the planet's own gravitational attraction. He had to use virtually all the remains of his drive energy just to curve his course and bring him finally back to a safe orbital situation. Unfortunately this brought him too close to the massed fleet for his meteoric arrival to remain unnoticed. There he was forced to sit, with no further chance of escape, while inquisitive little lifecraft emerged from one of the warcraft to investigate this strange new arrival in their midst.

  CHAPTER XXV

  The first man to recover from the gas was the crewman who had thrown the capsule in a vain atte
mpt to stop the para-ion warrior's charge. Realizing he had made a gross error, he had used his last instant of fading consciousness to insert filter tubes into his nostrils, thus receiving a minimum of exposure to the gas. His re-awakening had come only shortly after Dam's blast-off, and his first action on rewaking had been to treat Absolute and his comrades to similar filters, and to ensure their mouths were closed. Then he strove to summon assistance from the Starbucket over the radio link.

  Euken Tor, in charge of the Z-ship, however, already had his own share of problems. He was under Liam's orders to avoid the Starbucket's capture or destruction at all costs, and already streaking into weapon range were three of the deadly corvettes of the Solar Patrol. If Euken had had a second pinnace available he would certainly have attempted a rescue even at such a precariously late time, but he had already seen his sole pinnace jet rapidly behind the mother-ship's hull and known, sickly, that there was totally insufficient time to get a crew into space suits and make the crossing between the ships the hard way. He found himself with no alternative but to abandon Liam and his party and put the Starbucket into crash-flight to try and escape the corvettes.

  Liam Liam woke up cursing, partly from the side effects of the knockout gas, and partly because he already knew the pinnace was lost. He struggled drunkenly to his feet just in time to hear Euken Tor's regretful signing-off over the radio link. His comprehension of the situation was immediate, and was swiftly followed by a shrewd assessment of what routes to survival still lay open to them. The members of the carrier's crew, including the captain and several officers, were still unconscious on the deck around him. Without the slightest trace of hesitation Liam drew his electron pistol and killed them all where they lay. Their deaths were a pointed reminder that the only advantage he possessed was the element of surprise, assuming he could get his own sleeping shipmen back into action fast enough.

  Fortunately the insertion of filters into their nostrils had been sufficiently swift to isolate them from all but the initial dose, and the remainder of the gas was already being picked up by the ship's ventilation system. A few hard slaps across the face sufficed to awaken most of Liam's men swiftly, and even Absolute finally responded to a rough shaking.

  "What the hell's happened?" she asked.

  "Chaos, you understand? Your boyfriend took off with the pinnace, and Euken Tor has had to make a hasty retreat in the Starbucket. Our only chance is to seize control of this carrier. I want you in para-ion identity€”fast."

  "It can't be done, Liam!" She looked at him regretfully. "They sabotaged my control unit, else I'd probably have gone out through that lock with Lover. You and your damn disguises! Don't you know it's you he's gone looking for?"

  "Later I shall explain why I do not ambush Terran ships using my own name. How many crew does this vessel carry?"

  "About seventy men."

  "That's only ten to one against; we've got a fighting chance. We have stun grenades and handfighting experience they probably don't possess." Liam released her bonds, took a spare electron pistol from his pocket, and thrust the weapon into her hands. "Whenever you see a Terran, shoot to kill. We can't afford prisoners, you understand?"

  He called his men together for a quick conference, then they scattered hastily to take up firing positions. Incredibily, news of what had taken place around the space-lock had not yet been communicated to the rest of the ship, and so the precious advantage of surprise still remained on the attackers' side. Liam lobbed the first stun grenade down a main passage, and they all ducked back out of sight as the pico-pulse stung the air around them. Then they followed through fast, killing fallen men as they reached them, and having only a brief battle with the bemused crewmen who had survived the initial blast. Soon the whole deck level was theirs.

  On the second level they failed to stun more than a third of the attendant crew, but fortunately very few of the remainder had immediate access to weapons, and the confrontation was mercifully brief though untidy. Approaching the third and fourth levels they were more cautious, and had only unconscious men to dispose of. It was only on the fifth and last level that a serious resistance developed, but even this was finally overcome by the bloody-minded desperation of the Hub invaders.

  Then suddenly the carnage was over and Liam's tired and sweating group found themselves in undisputed control of the whole mother-ship. Even before they attended to the bodies of their victims they had to get the carrier under way and well clear of the Solar system. All the men Liam had brought with him were highly trained shipmen, many of them former officers, and they expertly divided the ship-control chores between them, each racing to handle his assignment and each contriving to handle a job normally the task of several men.

  Calling for Absolute to assist him, Liam headed for the bridge, and as soon as he was assured of the power and the handling ability he swung the carrier through a broad arc to bring it to a heading approximately towards the Hub. Then he gunned the engines to build up tachyon space entry velocity, and bent to the task of setting the course co-ordinates needed to take them into and out of the initial jumps. It was several hours later, when the first jump had been safely entered and most of the former crew had been heaved into the space-disposal chutes, that Linc Maalham called from the communications room.

  "Liam, I've managed to establish contact with the Starbucket. They've escaped the Patrol and Euken wants to know where to make rendezvous."

  "I've decided to stay on this ship. There are too many advantages in remaining aboard. There's a serviceable paraforming ship on the ramps below, and a second mother-ship will be more than useful when Wing Ai's building program starts producing. Tell Euken to head for base, we'll join him there. Have him arrange for Wing Ai's laboratories to be standing by to explore the latest developments in para-ion, which we're bringing with us. I think we've achieved the breakthrough we needed, you understand?"

  "Understood, Chief! Message on its way."

  Despite the under-manning, the carrier continued successfully on its way. Occasional reference to the Starbucket gave them the co-ordinates to avoid the great ship-chains, and by the end of the seventh leap they were well within the Hub sector, soon to be home. Even while coping with the workload of four communications men, Linc Maalham had found time to apply his electronic talents to the repair of Absolute's paraforming pulse unit. The sabotage of the controls had been undertaken by somebody with no great technical knowledge, and the internal damage had been massive rather than selective. By utilizing pieces from all the spares, Linc had contrived to build one new unit from the undamaged parts, but he was working without circuit schematics or a full knowledge of the instrument's function. His eyes were doubtful as he brought it to Liam and Absolute for a test.

  "We can't afford to lose you, you understand?" said Liam to Absolute. "What happens to you if Linc has his circuits incorrect?"

  Absolute was speculative. "A failure to transpose me into para-ion identity would only leave us precisely where we are. But if I make the transition and it fails to bring me out of it again, then we've really got problems."

  Liam was decisive. "Then it's a risk we daren't take. We'll have to let Wing Ai's lab check it out theoretically first."

  He broke off as Linc, summoned by an automatic alarm, doubled away to the communications room. He returned a few minutes later, nearly out of breath.

  "Liam, an urgent message from Starbucket. Hub Intelligence reports a new punitive fleet heading out from Sol towards the Hub."

  "Destination?"

  "They're not sure yet. The information hasn't been transmitted, so they're probably sailing under sealed orders. Intelligence is trying to get a series of triangulations on the fleet so they can calculate where it's heading. They suggest, from the number of ships involved, that they might be preparing to attack one of the major worlds. But here's the interesting bit€”the Terran fleet has called for a follow-up of a paraformer carrier and para-ion crew to join them in orbit."

  "The Devil they have!"
Liam's face lit with a smile of ever increasing dimensions and ugliness. "Get Starbucket to patch me a communications channel through to base, Linc. When that paraformer carrier hits space I want her eliminated €” very quietly. As for the Terran warfleet, it will have a para-ion team, though not quite the one they were expecting. And make contact with Wing Ai. We've got to make rendezvous to bring our other paraforming ship on to the ramps here and get a full complement of men aboard. If even one ship of that fleet ever reaches home again it'll be because we haven't been trying, you understand?"

  "Understand, Chief!"

  Linc's attention was suddenly diverted to Absolute, who had reached across the desk and was holding the paraforming pulse control in her hand. He watched with fascination as she deliberately pressed the actuator button on the untested instrument. Her transition into para-ion identity was immediate, and she spun and leaped easily in front of the startled men in order to demonstrate the advantages and mobility of the new para-ion technique. Then followed the moment of truth. Her hand hesitated above the button as she considered the terrible predicament in which she had placed herself if the unit failed to work. She pressed€”and a wave of relief possessed them all; her return to normality was as precise and immediate as her exit had been.

  Liam Liam mopped his brow thankfully. "I appreciate why you did that, Absolute, but I'd already told you not to take the risk."

  "Sorry, Liam, but I had to know if it still worked."

  "Then let me explain€”if you intend to work with me, there's a subject you've to learn to apply to yourself. It's called discipline, you understand?"