The five ships abruptly quit accelerating. Their bright exhausts disappeared, and they drifted toward the alien ship and the ice giant behind it.
“Can you magnify the task force any more?” Jon asked.
“Yes indeed,” Da Vinci said.
Moments later, the five dark warships seemed to leap closer. Shortly thereafter, huge vents opened on the destroyer and the lead battleship. Each vessel ejected streams of tiny, prismatic crystals, most the size of a person’s fingernail. They were like tiny mirrors, but there were billions, even trillions, of them. This prismatic crystal field—called a P-Field—slowly grew before the task force.
A P-Field had several uses. The most common was acting as an anti-laser field. An enemy laser would lose strength as its ray refracted in the many prismatic crystals. Given enough wattage, a laser would melt and then consume the individual crystals one after another. That took time, however. Such a process was called “burning.” Once an enemy laser burst through a P-Field, it was called “a burn through.”
The P-Field acted as a pseudo force screen in terms of scattering laser beams. In real terms and despite almost frantic efforts, the Solar System humans had yet to develop force screens. Thus, when entering battle, a ship or group of ships built a P-Field between themselves and the enemy.
The P-Field could slow other types of beams as well, including particle beams, but the crystals were most particularly effective against lasers.
The secondary use of a P-Field was as camouflage. The crystals made an anti-sensor wall that was effective against all known ship-hunting systems. That allowed the ships behind a P-Field to rearrange themselves, possibly turn around and flee, or perform any other maneuver a clever commander could imagine using for hidden ships.
The rear admiral, by building the P-field, signaled her desire to get in close to the alien ship. She also in effect mandated an end to any acceleration. Otherwise, the ships would leave their P-Field behind, having wasted the ejected crystals.
While ships could store trillions of prismatic crystals, which seemed a limitless amount, the tanks held a finite supply. And it was doubtful that the battleships had replenished their stores since the Battle of Nereid against the Neptune System Navy.
The SLN ships soon finished spraying the crystals.
“That’s a shallow P-Field,” Gloria noted, confirming the ships’ limited supplies. “The aliens could burn through that in seconds.”
The Leonid Brezhnev had an advantageous view of the situation, having a side-shot of the task force and its P-field, and the alien vessel. The task force would have to spray crystals at ninety degrees from the present shallow field to block the Brezhnev’s teleoptic scope.
“Has the alien vessel reacted?” Jon asked.
Da Vinci adjusted his panel, twisting a dial. The scene leaped from the task force to the giant ship. Its exhaust burned brighter than before.
“Twenty gravities and climbing,” Da Vinci announced.
Gloria shook her head in astonishment.
Jon watched the massive hull, but he couldn’t spot any indication of readying weapons.
“Return to the task force,” he said.
Several moments later, the image changed yet again. As the three of them observed, the battleships began to unload missiles.
The SLN ships normally carried their missiles inside the various vessels like old-time submarines on Earth. That was different from the NSN, which had carried their drones and missiles on outer racks attached to the main ship hull.
They noted that the missiles did not accelerate, but maintained the same velocity as the ships they left. The number of missiles increased until flocks of them gathered at various points behind the P-Field.
“Interesting,” Gloria said.
Jon raised an eyebrow at her.
“The rear admiral’s plan seems obvious,” Gloria said. “She undoubtedly wishes to get as close to the alien vessel as possible. At the last moment, I suspect, she will launch everything at once in as wide a spread as possible. They will all charge the alien vessel in a saturation assault.”
For the next half-hour, the task force’s vessels and missiles continued preparations to do exactly that.
Gloria turned to Jon. “I’m impressed, and I no longer think the mothership carried fighters. They must have stocked the mothership with missiles. I count over one hundred now.”
“Chief, you’re going to want to see this.”
“Go ahead,” Jon told Da Vinci.
The scene changed. What might have been hangar bay doors, three that they could see, opened on the alien ship. A huge missile slid out of each, and the doors slowly closed.
Abruptly, the mighty ship began to veer upward in relation to the launched super-missiles. The alien vessel continued veering as it increased velocity.
The giant alien vessel could not turn on a dime, as the ancient saying went. It was already moving too fast in one direction. It turned in a shallow but steady curve, changing its heading the entire time. The aliens no longer charged toward the task force, but veered away, soon heading ninety degrees away toward the moon Triton.
As the ship reached that bearing, hot exhaust burned from each massive alien missile. They leapt on the screen, thrusting Gs at incredible gravities. As they did this, the alien missiles drifted apart from each other, although they continued to zero-in on the P-Field.
Jon and Gloria traded glances.
“I understand wanting to blast apart the P-Field with thermonuclear explosions,” Jon said. “But why veer away with the main ship?”
“The alien tactics baffle me,” Gloria admitted. “Yet, isn’t that how it should be? We should not expect what we would consider normal human tactics from them.”
“Is that right?” Da Vinci asked. “In any given situation, there are only so many optimal responses. In a mathematical formula, there is only one correct answer. If the aliens are smart—and these seem to be—we should be able to predict many of their actions, because that would be the only sensible thing to do.”
“Explain their tactics then?” Gloria said. “Why is the main ship veering away so sharply?”
Da Vinci appeared to consider the problem. “I have it,” he said. “The three missiles will eliminate the task force. Thus, the aliens are already heading to their next project.”
Gloria cocked her head as if processing the idea. “You may be right,” she said at last.
“I am right,” Da Vinci said, sounding surly.
The two groups were travelling toward each other. No doubt, the rear admiral had sent probes into the P-Field. Those probes would poke out from the outer edge of the field, using sensors to scan the enemy, beaming the information back to the battleships.
A “flock” of SLN missiles maneuvered away from the P-Field. Once in position, their engines ignited. The selected missiles accelerated toward the approaching alien missiles. The flock passed the P-Field in seconds as it headed at the enemy.
Time passed. Even close to a planetary body, the volume of space was vast compared to the speed of the various ordnances.
One alien missile continued to accelerate. The other two quit thrusting. The single missile quickly pulled ahead of its companions.
“One million kilometers,” Da Vinci announced.
“One million kilometers what?” asked Gloria. “You must state the number in relation to something. Otherwise, you’re making a meaningless statement.”
“The distance between the SLN missiles and the badass alien leader,” Da Vinci said.
Gloria nodded sharply. “Thank you.”
“Nine hundred thousand kilometers,” Da Vinci said later.
Nothing else had changed from earlier.
“Eight hundred thousand,” Da Vinci announced sometime after that.
“That’s the outer-limit, we believe, of the alien golden ray,” Jon said.
“You suspect ray-beaming missiles?” Gloria asked.
“I’m just saying,” Jon replied.
“Seven hundred thousand,” Da Vinci said in time.
“Any change to any of the missiles on either side?” Gloria asked.
Da Vinci shook his head.
“Six hundred thousand kilometers,” the Neptunian said later.
“Look,” Jon said. “The alien missile is expanding.”
“I’m zooming in for a closer look,” Da Vinci said.
Like some exotic, metallic flower, the warhead to the alien missile unfolded. It had strange metal protrusions constructed in such a way that they highlighted its extraterrestrial nature.
Bizarre,” Gloria said. “It almost hurts my mind looking at it.”
It did, in fact, seem to Jon like a mad artist’s rendering of an alien missile. The aesthetics were grotesque to the human eye. It was as if the aliens had grown the missile deep inside a gas giant amidst a swirling cauldron of otherness.
“Lights,” Da Vinci said.
Jon thought the better term might be “glowing.” Various blob-like structures glowed with energy. That energy seemed to radiate outward to other, independently extended warhead sections.
In a second of time, the grotesque missile shone with an ethereal radiance. It was breathtaking, mind numbing and painful to watch.
Jon wanted to speak, but his throat had closed. He could not even croak an order.
All at once, the shining radiance gathered together. Then, it shot out in a coherent beam that flashed to the “flock” of SLN missiles. The radiance sustained the beam, holding for a second, and then it quit.
Da Vinci pulled back the teleoptic view, giving them a wider angle and a distance shot.
The alien missile literally disintegrated as if eaten by acid. In seconds, the alien device was gone, the molecules cast into the stellar void.
“Magnify the others,” Jon said.
Just as Da Vinci brought the view up close, one of the SLN warheads exploded into a thermonuclear fireball.
Jon and Gloria turned away as the auxiliary station brightened incredibly. Fortunately, the teleoptic sensors had automatic dampeners, so the brightness was bearable to optic nerves.
Once the brightness dimmed down to normal, Jon looked up. He had splotches before his eyes and found it difficult to see anything.
“Nothing,” Gloria said dispiritedly. “They’re gone.”
Jon rubbed his eyes and looked again. The mentalist was right. The SLN missiles had vanished. This time, however, they spied debris—all that was left of the missiles heading for the alien devices.
Gloria turned breathlessly to Jon.
He could see in her eyes that she understood what had happened.
“The beam caused the warhead to ignite,” Gloria explained.
“How?”
Gloria snorted. “I have no idea how. The radiance, something, caused the warhead to switch on. If that particular warhead had failed, I suspect one of the others would have ignited.”
“Why didn’t the other warheads explode?” Jon asked.
“My guess would be that they didn’t have time. The first warhead destroyed the others.”
Jon absorbed the news. He pointed at the main screen. “There’re still two missiles left.”
“No!” Gloria said in horror, as she clapped a hand before her mouth. “The other two will do the same thing, but to the missiles beside the task force. That’s how the aliens are going to eliminate the battleships. They’re going to use the SLN missiles against them.
“Jon!” she said. “You have to warn the rear admiral. You have to tell them what’s about to happen.”
-9-
“I can’t do that,” Jon said. “Besides, the rear admiral must know what you do. She’s watching this just like we are. She’s not stupid.”
“What if she doesn’t know?” Gloria insisted. “Maybe the battleships can decelerate and retreat in time. You have to warn them. We can’t let the aliens butcher us one by one.”
Jon looked away. He couldn’t stand the imploring in Gloria’s eyes. He could see the rightness in her suggestion. But if he sent the message—
I need patience, Jon told himself. The mentalist wants me to play a bad hand. Despite her logic, she’s thinking emotionally.
“Jon,” Gloria pleaded.
He hardened himself as he used to do in the old days back in the tunnels. The first few times he’d broken a man’s bones, Jon had found himself in turmoil. His mentor, Red Gilbert, must have seen the squeamishness in his eyes back then. Gilbert had told him how to turn his heart into granite.
“Don’t think of them as human, Jonny Boy. They’re marks, fools, stepping-stones. They knew the score going in. I’ve seen a horde of them. Know what they’ll do if they get the drop on you?”
Jon had shaken his head while gripping a bone-breaker with manic strength.
“I’ve seen one of the marks weep like a plague victim. First, he blubbered about his sick mother. Then he wept about the vig being too steep. Lucky Thomas got soft that day. Told the fool he could pay him later that night. Well, later that night Lucky sent his bodyguard home ‘cause the man had a bad cold. That happened to be me. Lucky didn’t want to catch what I had. So, he went to visit the weeper as the ceiling lights dimmed. The weeper had gotten some of his friends together. They jumped Lucky, tripping him in a back alley. They used his own bone-breaker to beat in his skull and take his collection money. Lucky died a day later. I know the story’s true because I caught up with the weeper. He tried the same thing on me. I killed the trickster before I lost my wits like Lucky.
“This is the point, Jonny Boy. Don’t get soft. Do what you gotta. Play the percentages, see?”
Jon regarded the mentalist in the auxiliary control room. “The rear admiral is doing her part,” he said stiffly. “We’re going to do ours.”
Gloria studied him, and it seemed as if she was really seeing him for the first time. She seemed to absorb what she saw. Her mouth kept changing shape. Finally, she nodded.
“Your colonel chose wisely,” she said. “Too bad your First Sergeant couldn’t see you now. Maybe he wouldn’t understand, though. I suspect this Sergeant Stark is a simple man. There is tungsten in your spine. You have the coldness of true intellect.”
She peered down at her hands. “The best mentalists have that. I…lack the proper hardness. You’ve already seen I’m too emotional. It is a great failing among mentalists.” She looked up, smiling sadly. “Sending me along with the task force was an act of subtle rebellion on the Sect’s part.”
Jon focused on the main screen.
The two alien missiles once more accelerated toward the P-Field. The SLN warships and missiles behind the prismatic-crystal field continued to drift toward Neptune.
In that moment, Jon felt a bubbling certainty within himself. He would take the colonel’s place. He would lead the regiment to victory. He would defeat these genocidal aliens. He would have to use every skill, every trick against them. First, though, he had to recognize possibilities when they appeared. He had to burn out any softness in himself and look at reality with a cold mind.
The heady feeling lasted until the next alien missile advanced ahead of its partner. Like the earlier missile, this one unfolded like a grotesque flower. It, too, glowed with energy. Just like before, an eerie-colored beam speared toward the SLN missiles and ships.
The eerie beam reached the P-Field. It refracted in the trillions of tiny crystals, and created a large shimmering blanket of multicolored alien light. The alien missile continued beaming, and the P-Field glittered. None of the strange light reached behind the prismatic crystals to the missiles and ships behind it.
Finally, the alien missile disintegrated just as the first one had done.
“Interesting,” Gloria said. “The aliens aren’t invincible after all. They can fail. It appears they can also miscalculate. That’s wonderful news.”
The last alien missile adjusted its heading. After the side-jets quit, the main thruster burned with greater gravities.
; The last alien missile no longer headed directly at the task force, but veered away, traveling for a location ninety degrees from the front of the P-Field.
“You know what it’s doing, right?” Gloria asked.
“It’s trying to bypass the P-Field,” Jon said. “After it does, it will no doubt rotate and beam the exposed task force from the side.”
“It’s the logical maneuver.”
The rear admiral must have come to the same conclusion. Several SLN missiles changed heading behind the P-Field and accelerated hard. The missiles sped away, the exhaust lengthening behind them. Because the missiles already possessed velocity in the direction of Neptune, they moved at a forty-five degree angle. In time, the SLN missiles would move in behind the angling alien missile by thousands, possibly tens of thousands of kilometers. Given a large enough thermonuclear blast radius, they might be able to knock down the last alien device in time.
That was the essence of the battle now. It was a matter of time, distances, velocities, and blast and beam ranges.
As the minutes ticked away, turning into a half-hour and then longer still, Jon’s eyes became tired from staring at the same image for so long. Gloria sat cross-legged on the floor. They watched the unfolding contest. The alien missile moved compared to the task force and human-constructed missiles.
Later, even though the last alien missile was far away from the P-Field, it was finally about to move into the line-of-sight of the task force.
“The rear admiral has to detonate the warheads now,” Gloria said.
Jon shook his head.
“What are you seeing that I’m not?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t know this for a fact,” Jon said. “But I think the rear admiral wants the alien missile to be as vulnerable as possible first.”
Gloria bent her head in thought. She looked up half a minute later. “Do you mean once the alien missile unfolds itself for firing?”
Jon nodded.
“Yes,” Gloria said. “I believe you’re right.”
Cybership Page 12