by Chris Hechtl
The captain raised a restraining hand. “Enough, Governor. I get it. Honestly, I do. I can't say I'm terribly happy about it, but I get it.”
“What we can do is offer you and your crew downtime here. When the snows really hit, we've got some nice cross country skiing. Unfortunately, there are few mountains here, but we've had a few people explore them for skiing and stuff too …”
“I'm not much of a ski person, but I guess we'll take what we can get. And maybe we can see about your housing problem. Find something to speed it up or something while my engineers do a full maintenance cycle.”
Cristi smiled in relief. “Thank you, Captain.”
“You can thank me with a decent steak and beer,” Captain Kendrick replied with a half-smile.
“Done,” Cristi replied with her own smile.
~~*^*~~
A massive energy discharge announced the arrival of sixty-four unknown ships in the Janus star system. The alien fleet recovered from hyperspace and immediately oriented on the planet.
The Alpha Fleet Herd Leader was the supreme commander of the fleet. As alpha it was his duty to determine the missions and parcel out the duties for the other defenders of the herd to follow. He stroked his beard as he considered his options carefully.
He had left the outer edge of the home herd worlds with eight task forces, nearly half of the southern fleet. Each task force had a battleship or battlecruiser as its flagship and two consort cruisers along with two dispatch boats and three support ships. Each ship had its own Alpha bull to lead the herd that crewed the vessel.
But it all came down to him and his decisions that made or broke the Fleet Herd and its mission he thought pensively.
“Sensor spore on the planet and in orbit of it. Something is in orbit, quite large. Possibly the prey encountered earlier?” the sensor technician asked, turning to the dais where the Alpha bull resided.
“Attend to your duties,” the Alpha bull rumbled as he gripped the hand rail.
“As you command,” the sensor tech said in disappointment. He had been thwarted in engaging with the alpha in order to learn more of his thoughts on the mission. He felt a minor cuff from behind. He winced obediently and rolled an eye to see the beta ship bull looking at him sternly. He exposed his throat briefly, then went back to work when the beta snorted and turned away.
~~*^*~~
Shirley was bored. The sensor tech had been assigned to pour through the ships’ logs from the past week to delete and make room in the database. It wasn't really necessary, but it beat just twiddling her thumbs. Before she deleted anything, she had to check it first however. She did so on autopilot, barely registering what she was looking at. She just so happened to notice the bright flashes on the outer edge of the solar system in one of the older recordings. She ran back the recordings and realized it was the arrival of more than one ship.
“It can't be,” Shirley murmured.
“Can't be what?” Bob the navigator asked. He was bored and struggling to get through a book he'd downloaded from the ship's library.
“Bob, take a look at this. If I'm right, a whole lot of ships just jumped into this star system,” Shirley said, leaning over to show him her screen.
Bob looked up in surprise. Toni was the only other person on the bridge; he turned in surprise as well. “What, you mean all at once?” Bob asked, clearly interested.
“Yeah,” Shirley replied, clearly confused. The ship's systems were down to basic maintenance levels. “What do we do?” she asked.
“Recheck that log and then run a diagnostic of the sensors. This happened yesterday?” Bob asked.
“No. The computer has it in the log as six days ago.”
“Six?” Bob asked. “And no one noticed then?”
“Apparently, not,” Shirley said.
“Send out a hail,” the navigator ordered. “Better late than never,” he said. “This place is turning into a regular truck stop,” he said.
~~*^*~~
“I don't see how anyone would have that many ships here. We only have what, a couple dozen starships? We being Sol,” Cristi said. “Where did these ships come from?”
“I don't know. I still think it is a parallax error. The computer is seeing things. One or more ships being seen as multiple ships. One or two I can see, but over sixty?” the captain said in disbelief. “No, it has to be some sort of sensor error,” she insisted.
“And if it isn't?”
“I don't see how it's possible,” the captain said stubbornly.
“Bear with me. We've got a couple dozen starships, but what, four or so in this sector? So over sixty? How can your sensors see sixty if there is only one? How is that even possible?” Bogi asked.
“Sixty-four by last count.”
“Can I …,” Bogi stopped herself when the captain held up her tablet. She frowned as she took it and then tapped at it as she familiarized herself with the controls. “Okay, this is odd. There are sixty-four, but the Santa Maria is seeing different sizes and masses. They are also spaced out differently, not like what you'd expect with a mirror problem. That makes no sense; wouldn't a mirror effect see the same style of ship? The same size and mass? And the same course? And those don't look like Terran-built ships. Besides, they haven't answered our hails, right?”
Cristi wrinkled her nose at those thoughtful questions. The first trickle of alarms was sounding off in her head. She hated that her sister had pointed them out to her.
“Not if the error is in the computers somewhere,” the captain grumbled.
“And look here, they are splitting up,” Bogi said, pointing to the plot.
“They are what?” the captain demanded, sitting up and taking the board back from Bogi hastily. She realized what she was seeing in an instant. The medium-sized ships had suddenly sped up and spread out to bracket the planet. They were the beaters, possibly the hounds. And her ship was the rabbit she thought in a sickening sense of insight.
“Son of a …,” she rose from her chair abruptly, forcing a startled Bogi to step back.
“I've got to go. It looks real. It might be an invasion. Tell the shuttle to get ready to get to space now,” the captain said as she rushed out.
Bogi and Cristi watched her go and then turned to each other. “Did she just say an invasion?” Bogi asked, eyes wide.
“Yeah. I … think maybe we should take it seriously,” Cristi said. “How long until they get here again?”
“Four days,” Bogi said. “Give or take a day.”
Cristi picked up her phone. “I think we definitely need to do something. Now,” she said.
“Um …,” Bogi frowned.
“Get an alert out,” Cristi said. “We've got incoming unknown ships. They have been confirmed. No, I'm not joking!” she said. “Do I sound drunk to you?” she snarled, voice rising in pitch as she got angry. “No, I'm not sure what's happening, but it's not good. Captain Kendrick just took off out of my office like a scalded rabbit.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “Sound the emergency alert. We need to … do something.”
“We'll try to contact them. See what is going on,” Bogi suggested.
“Yeah that,” Cristi said, looking up and nodding slightly in gratitude to her sister. “In the meantime, we need to plan in case this goes south. We need to find some cover.”
“Right, cover,” Bogi murmured. “The planet is mostly flat. Where are we going to find that around here?” she said, wrinkling her nose.
~~*^*~~
Captain Kendrick took her shuttle up as quickly as she could get her crew back on board. As the shuttle rose from the planet, she ordered the ship's skeleton watch to get the ship prepped to run.
“Where? Skipper, we've got all those passengers and we're light on fuel …”
“I don't care where! Anywhere is better than here!” the captain insisted. “Get the drive and reactors warmed up.”
“Skipper, we've got enough fuel to make a couple jumps from the reserve. Where do
we go?”
“We'll worry about that once we're underway,” the captain said. “How long will it take?” she demanded.
“The engines will take a couple of hours. Reactor one is online now.”
“I said both reactors,” the captain snarled. “And all of the engines. I want us running as soon as we dock,” she growled. “What does the enemy ships plot look like now?”
“Enemy? Ma'am?”
“You heard me. They aren't answering hails, and they are spreading out in a net to catch us,” Captain Kendrick said coldly.
“Frack. Um … they are within three days of getting to the planet. But the medium ships aren't braking, ma'am.”
“That means they plan to overfly. Most likely they know we're going to try to run for it. Have navigation plot a course divergent to theirs.”
“Ma'am, that sort of course won't take us to where we want to go,” the watch officer said doggedly.
“We'll figure it out on the flip side. Don't argue with me, get her moving,” the captain ordered as the shuttle reached orbit. She could see the blinking lights of her command in the distance. “We've got you in sight,” she said, craning her neck to see the ship. “We'll be there shortly.”
“Aye aye, ma'am. We'll be expecting you.”
~~*^*~~
The Alpha Fleet Herd Leader grunted as he watched the main plot. He had detailed six consort cruisers to round up the fleeing enemy ship. The ship had been laggard in fleeing allowing them time to overhaul it.
The consort's ship Alpha bulls had strict orders to take the ship intact with little or no damage. He wanted and needed to capture the ship's databases, especially the all-important star maps. With those, the enemy herd's pastures would be open before the hooves of the people.
~~*^*~~
Captain Kendrick realized her ship wasn't going to get away when the six ships bracketed her ship. Each fired energy weapons that barely missed her ship. The energy weapons might be invisible to the naked eye, but they light up space like fireworks when seen through the ship's other sensors.
She cut the ship's engines and transmitted offers to surrender her ship. After a few anxious moments, the alien ships matched her ship's drift.
She watched terrified as one of the ships launched a shuttle. There was nothing she could do, nothing at all. At least the people on the planet had somewhere to hide.
“Ma'am, what do we do? More importantly, what will they do with us? With our passengers?” the XO asked anxiously.
“I don't know. I just don't know,” the captain murmured as she felt the clang of the shuttle docking harshly into her ship's flank.
~~*^*~~
It had taken precious time to get people to take the threat seriously and even more time to find a place to evacuate to. Arjen had done a bit of spelunking with Robin earlier in the summer for Robin's birthday; he'd hit on the idea of taking the people there to the caves at the base of the foothills southwest of Landing City.
Cristi had latched onto the idea like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline. She'd instantly ordered an evacuation of the cities and towns. That had kicked off another set of problems as people either refused to believe they were under threat or tried to take everything they could get their hands on. She'd hoped for an orderly evacuation. What she got was chaos.
They had few satellites in orbit; just a couple to provide some weather coverage and to bounce long-range communications from point A to point B on the planet or to ships in space. When the alien ships started taking them out, the news hit the population like a virtual bomb. Suddenly people abandoned anything they couldn't carry to get away from the homes they'd built.
Robin and Arjen led the exodus away from Landing City. Along the way, they sent off people to gather up the families in the homesteads and ranches nearby. Some lacked radios so had no idea initially what was going on.
An exhausted Cristi got to the cave mouth just as they felt the first tremor. She turned to see bright flashes in the darkening sky on the eastern horizon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky but then there was a rush of wind.
“They're bombing the towns!” Rachel said, rushing up to her with a radio in her hands. “People are seeing it all over!”
Cristi looked to her, then heard a scream as people saw another flash. “Move people, get inside. Go as deep as you can,” Cristi ordered, waving them on urgently. “Animals last,” she ordered.
“We don't have many weapons. Just a few hunting rifles,” Bogi murmured, coming up behind the two sisters. She saw another flash and then wiped at her face. Cristi turned to see tears streaming down her sister's face. She turned back to see bolts of horizontal lightening split the night sky all over the horizon. A bright one fell right where Landing City was.
Operative word a distant corner of her mind thought. Was.
She cleared her throat when she realized it was just her, her sisters, and a few other people left watching the spectacle. “Come on,” she said roughly, voice fighting to remain even. “They might be tracking our heat signatures, but we've got to try to hide and save what we can.”
“What's the point? We'll starve in the winter,” Rachel said bitterly.
“Hey! Don't talk like that! We survived the machines; we can survive this! We'll figure something out. Don't fall to pieces,” Cristi scolded. She poked her sister and then nodded her chin to their children and grandchildren. “For their sake if for no one else,” She murmured.
Rachel looked on for a moment and then nodded once.
~~*^*~~
The Alpha bull leader nodded as he stroked his beard. He made a notation of approval and commendation in the records of the consort ships for their capture of the alien ship. With it, they would be able to take it apart to see how it functioned.
More importantly, it had the alien's databases. The initial reports stated that the frail, odd-looking aliens didn't put up any resistance. The ship was fully functional. Decoding the star charts would take time, but it would be time well spent. It would be a prize of unquestionable value to the herd.
He was excited that they'd found the planet at all. The ship was not the same that had fled the scout earlier he realized. Its mass readings were far in excess of that unknown ship. Perhaps it had been a scout as well?
“Fleet Herd Leader, the bombardment of the planet goes as planned. All major population centers have been destroyed. The bombardment director requests permission to switch to secondary targets,” a communications technician asked.
“Very well. Secondary population centers. They must have more than an eighth of buildings however!” the Alpha bull said firmly.
“So ordered, Fleet Herd Leader,” the communication's tech replied with a nod.
The Alpha bull snorted and then turned back to contemplating the world below. It seemed flat, just as the herd preferred it.
And now it belonged to the herd he thought.
~~*^*~~
Cristi spent an anxious sleepless night with everyone crammed into the caves. Robin nipped out near dawn and found another cave complex nearby. While she was distracted trying to arrange a method of dealing with waste, he took a group of volunteers to the cave to check it out.
She could have killed him for being so reckless, but she knew his mother had first dibs. If looks could kill, she could tell Bogi was sorely tempted. Robin made certain to stay out of his mother's sight for hours after his report to let her cool off her anxious temper.
The additional caves and the cover of the trees around them and their current temporary home were a good thing, Cristi reminded herself. The trees would obstruct any visuals of people moving. Heat, however, was a scary thing; she knew thermals would give them away.
She organized a watch to keep an eye on the outside and then had a few people at a time head over to the other cave complex to relieve pressure in their current home.
While she did that, she sicced Rachel on running an inventory and Bogi and Arjen on finding water. Arjen reported back in an hour that running
water had been found, which was a blessing. Rachel's report was a bit scarier however. In their last-minute haste to get out of the city, many people had dropped food and excess clothing to speed themselves up.
When the winds picked up, Cristi wasn't the only one to shiver.
Chapter 9
It took eight days for the technicians to figure out how to access the alien databases. They told stories of using styluses and probes to type at the alien-access devices. Fortunately, they'd found a graphic interface with a touch screen that had allowed them to speed up the process. Efforts to decode and understand the alien language was secondary to finding their all-important star charts and navigational database.
Within hours of finding the files, they had begun to access images in the files in order to decode them. The data was not in base eight math so it was harder to understand. Their telemetry was not to the same standards of the herd. However, a technician pointed out that some things were constant, like the speed of light. Once those were translated the conversion of the files became easier.
The Alpha bull knew that his technicians were poorly suited to process and decode the alien language. One of the technicians who had inspected the ship pointed out that it was a passenger carrier. The alien herd was in stasis pods. The captives were seemingly in shock over their captivity. They continued to communicate with each other and attempted communication with the herd defenders assigned to guard them.
On the first eighth of the following week a technician reported something that at first didn't make sense. It puzzled the Alpha bull as he ruminated his morning feed until he caught on to the significance of the claim. Disbelief sparkled through him at the idea that the alien species hadn't encountered other species before but were using the hyperbridges.
“How is that possible? They do not pay the Ancient's toll for the privilege?” the Beta Fleet Herd Leader demanded.
“Apparently not. It does make one wonder how and why it is possible given how zealously they guard their ownership of the network,” the Gamma Fleet Herd Leader said thoughtfully.