Max, Elaine, Maureen and he laughed at their redhead’s reaction. Though tears showed on the young woman’s face, her comments were combat normal. All too normal.
“A cigar you will have!” he told her, looking back to the front screen and the ship scope’s reddish-brown image of Sedna that now occupied part of the screen. “And please, smoke it before this Menoma and any damned Alien we meet on Sedna!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
On board the Uhuru three hours passed with drinking, cigar smoking, curse sharing in Gaelic and in Polish, family memories shared and plenty of visits to the ship’s automated Food Refectory at midships. Sitting there at a table just large enough for the five of them, Jack scanned his crewmates as they ate steaks, gobbled green grapes, reduced the level of his Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch bottle and eyed a defrosted cheese cake that had streaks of black raspberry through it. High energy food it all was. And it was the best meal they had each had since leaving 253 Mathilde. The ship intercom bonged just above his head, its ceiling emitter placed just right for banging into it if you stood up wrong. He looked to Denise, who sat to his left.
“We’re all here. Who the hell is calling?”
Their young lady pulled at one red braid, sat back, then spoke to the device’s expert software. “Comlink, transfer AV sound and image to Food Refectory wall screen.”
Jack, a Maureen dressed in a tight leotard that did nothing to hid her slim good looks, a jumpsuited Max, Elaine in her wool body stocking and Denise all looked to the Refectory’s rear wall. The flat screen filled with an image they all knew.
“Hullo,” called the Afro-Hispanic face of Júlia Araujo. Behind the woman moved the three crew folks of her Caiman ship. “Captain Jack, we have a question that Akemi said you should decide.”
“Yes?”
Júlia gestured to her comlink person and a second image joined hers in the AV signal. It showed the Alien building at the north pole of comet 1999 DG8. “The blockhouse is still intact. It was not damaged in the recent battle, and ship debris missed it. What are your orders?”
Jack sat back in his sling chair, a support more comfortable than solid plastic or metal. “Destroy it. Use geo-penetrator rockets like we’ve done before. And record its destruction. I plan to have an AV disk imager attached to my suit when we enter the Alien hangout on Sedna, so I can share our battle history with the Aliens we encounter.”
The Brazilian woman smiled easily. “That was Captain Akemi’s guess. Does it matter to you which ship does the deed?”
What the? “Of course not. But why ask? If Caiman is closest in orbit, which our NavTrack last indicated, your ship could handle the matter.”
The woman who had started out as a maid to Governor Aranxis on Ceres Central, then attended the Unity Flight School on Deimos, after which she returned to the Asteroid Belt and became admired for her NavTrack computational abilities, that woman grinned wide. “Well, our ships have been debating over whether to have a competition among ourselves over who gets to take that shot. Steaks, booze, rare coffee beans and some fancy aquamarine gems have been tossed into the pot. Do you mind?”
Jack almost choked on the steak he was trying to swallow. “Mind? Hell no! Have at it!”
“We will!” Júlia said. The smile left her face as she turned formal. “Captain, our ships have scavenged three workable gravity-pull drives from the three disk-ship hulks. The hulks will shortly be deorbited. But we also recovered two Alien bodies, which Leopard’s medoc wishes to vacfreeze. Do you wish to see the images from Leopard’s body recovery?”
Everyone in the room stirred at this news. Maureen in particular looked interested. As did Max, Elaine and Denise. He gestured at the woman. “Captain Júlia, yes, please transmit the AV imagery. On a piggy-back to your signal.”
“Here’s the imagery,” she said, her Portugese-accented English sounding . . . bothered.
On the Food Refectory wall screen there appeared the rad-burned body of their newest Alien predator. Jack thought it looked ugly.
A Komodo dragon reptile it resembled, although its four limbs had evolved into two heavily muscled legs with splayed feet, and two red-scaled arms that ended in hands with five finger-claws. Two golden eyes sat atop the bulging head dome, while side indentations suggested ears of some sort. But it was the colorations of the middle and upper body that most stood out. Stripes of yellow, orange, red and black encircled its stocky body. While bipedal in basic form, it most resembled a torpedo ready to launch out and sink its yellow dragon teeth into whomever it attacked. Jack noted how Kasun’s two crewman were both dressed in EVA outfits as they stood to either side of the Alien so they could hold it upright in the one gee ship gravity of Leopard. If this Alien at all resembled the ground-bound lizards of Komodo Island, then its mouth secretions would be loaded with deadly bacteria and toxins.
“Looks like a bipedal coral snake,” said Denise, although her freckles looked pale against her face.
“Damn that’s disgusting!” muttered Max from across the table.
“Agreed,” said Elaine, who looked to the adjacent image of Júlia. “Captain, any evidence on board the disk-ships of females? Or eggs? Or small offspring?”
“None,” said Júlia as she waved to her out of sight Comtech. The Alien Komodo dragon disappeared.
“Good,” said Maureen in a tone that suggested she would have personally shot any such survivors. “Júlia, how many crew on each ship? And any evidence on their bridge of a Comlink for ship-to-ship talk? Or maybe long distance talking?”
Jack folded his hands, giving thanks again for his luck in Maureen choosing to join their crusade early on. Her mind followed his worries on a one-to-one basis.
The Caiman’s ship-owner and captain bit her lower lip as she gave thought to the question. “Five Aliens per ship. And the bridge for each ship was identical. We took holo imagery of it, as your ships have done during prior encounters. The bridge layout was a low central pedestal with a round seat cushion, surrounded by four other round seat cushions. Each cushion was faced by control modules that seem to be similar to our touch panels, since we cannot see any screen images or switches. But the central pedestal also had two devices flanking the captain’s seat. One was a flat-topped pole thick as my thigh. The other resembled a round metal cake atop a square metal block. My Drive Engineer thinks the metal block is their engine controls. So, the solid pole could be some kind of comlink. Shall we salvage it? It will require a plasma torch to separate from the bridge’s floor.”
“Yes!” Jack thought about how the Komodo dragon disk-ship layout differed from the usual human arrangement of function stations arranged in parallel rows. Did it indicate a parent at the center, surrounded by adult offspring? A family flying each disk-ship? Whatever the arrangement meant, it was just one of many questions he had for this Menoma at Sedna. “Captain Júlia, thank you for an excellent job done on scavenging these hulks. Good luck on your ship winning the blockhouse demolition rights!”
The dark-skinned woman smiled big. From the background of her bridge came the sounds of Calypso music. “My crew and I are just happy we pulled a grav-pull drive onto our ship. As did Leopard and Mongoose. We will be ready to set vector for comet Sedna within a half hour. Other questions?”
“None,” said Jack, waving at the highly competent woman who had left three high-school aged kids on Mathilde to join his anti-Alien crusade. “Go share with your fellow captains. As I need to share with Captain Akemi.”
“Caiman out,” she said, her image vanishing from the Refectory wallscreen.
Maureen fixed her tough as steel gaze on Jack, rather than on the shot glass in front of her that still held some Johnny Walker Black Label. “Captain, you realize that Akemi’s choice to call you shogun means she expects you to behave as an ancient Japanese battle leader or daimyo?”
The sling-chair felt comfy in the one-gee of the Food Refectory. Around them Max, Denise and Elaine returned to eating their steak and greens dinner. He wondered just what Maureen meant
by her comment. “So? I am complimented by her shogun words. But I’m just a Belter Hopper guy whose grandpa taught him a few tricks.”
“Hardly,” Maureen said, her hair-fine wrinkles gathering into a friendly smile. “We have won every battle you’ve led us into. While we lost two good people, we have not lost any ships. And we Hunt well together. Anyway, my Military Historian side says we have been both lucky, and that there is more to this arrival of Alien social predators in Sol system than we yet know. So will we just attack Sedna with thermonukes, as I suspect Akemi expects you to do, or will we drop in on the Alien version of a gathering spot to learn more about this interstellar society of tiger-like predators?”
Everyone now looked at him, especially his sister Elaine. He let loose with a burp, which fooled no one. “Grandma Maureen, why do my choices have to be either-or? Or limited to two courses of action? Recall the mention by the Gyklang of colony ships parked in orbit about Sedna? Why are the females and offspring of each species parked there, rather than above their comet bases? And recall how this Menoma person is selling info on Earth and on this fleet’s actions? What does he get for doing that, beyond some baubles? As for destruction, we are only down two thermonukes, out of our inventory of twenty-eight. And while the torps are default set to explode at ten megatons, they have adjustment verniers that allow the yields to range from five to thirty megatons. Tell me, do you think a thirty megaton thermonuke would crack open the solid ice eggshell of Sedna, exposing the inner ocean waters to low Kelvin temps?”
Maureen smiled slowly. “Oh. Oh my. I do love your sneakiness. Your grandpa Ephraim would have loved to have had your help during the Battle of Kirkwood Gap!”
“He told me a lot about the prior battles, before he died while ramming that Unity frigate. And the locations of three thermonuke stockpiles are not the only Belter Rebellion secrets he shared with me.”
Maureen now looked envious. “Care to share some of those secrets?”
“Not yet. Maybe later.” Jack shrugged. “Meanwhile, I need to talk to Akemi. So, let’s finish up this meal. We’ve got a trek of fifteen AU to arrive at comet Sedna, which now orbits Sol at 78 AU.”
Max stood up, one hand uplifted with a tumbler of Scotch in it. “A toast! A toast to Jack, our leader and a predator unlike any these Aliens have ever met!”
Jack sighed. Then flopped out of his sling-chair to hold his own Scotch up in salute. “Three cheers for humanity!”
Everyone drank to that. And everyone knew that a deadly moment of truth approached.
Jack had sidestepped Maureen’s questions about battle tactics because, in truth, he operated more by instinct than by set plans. The intense reading he had done about humans as social predators said that a key adaptation in allowing humans to dominate Earth had been the human ability to adapt quickly to rapidly changing environments. A second key adaptation had been the ability to talk, communicate and scheme with other humans to make richer the spoils to be had from taking over someone else’s eco-niche. He suspected these newly arrived Aliens had abilities similar to those of humans. But they also had a salutary weakness. Unlike humans, the Aliens had yet to create an alliance of multiple Alien species to act in unison against humanity. Humans had done that often in their history. As they were doing now by joining together into Akemi’s killer whale pod. He could not help but wonder if Alien social predators were never vegetarians, but always meat eaters. If so, his freezer crates of elk and cow steaks would be a fine trade item. And a useful tool for distraction as he and his fellow captains marched into Sedna’s meeting place.
As Jack’s fleet drew within one AU of Sedna, his ship’s scope showed them what no human had ever before seen. Before them appeared a giant comet that was planet-like in roundness, red as Mars in its surface color, and with low basins separated by crusty ridges all across its Sol-illuminated surface. The front screen also held the AV images of his six fellow captains in a strip across the screen top. The rest of the screen showed the scope’s live light imagery, and anything else Jack, Denise, Max or Elaine chose to throw up on it. Maureen’s holo glowed just above Jack’s Tech panel, but she too saw what they saw by way of a repeater signal to her Battle Module station.
“Elaine, put up our fleet positions on the screen.”
“Yes, Captain,” she said, tapping her NavTrack computer panel.
An overhead plan view of this part of deep space showed now, with Sedna in the upper portion, while his seven ships showed below the planetoid as red dots. Their fleet position matched what he and Akemi had agreed on. The Uhuru held center position within a ring formed by the other six ships of the Belter fleet. The front half-arc was formed by three ships, while three other ships formed the rear arc. The fleet arrangement guaranteed they could detect and fire on any approaching ship or ships.
“Good.” He glanced over at his sister, who now wore a green jumpsuit over her bodystocking. “Tell me, and the other captains, about Sedna. Geo, spatial, ecological, the whole bit.”
Elaine gave him a half-smile, then gestured at the reddish-brown ball that occupied most of the front screen. “Comet 90377 Sedna was found in 2003. Its diameter is 1,041 kilometers. Its day is ten hours. Its surface temp is 38 Kelvin. Its gravity is twice that of Ceres, or six percent of Earth. Its surface composition is 7 percent carbon, 10 percent solid nitrogen, 26 percent methanol, 33 percent methane ice and 24 percent Triton-type tholins. Or hydrocarbon sludge. Tholins are organic molecules created by intense UV irradiation from Sol. On early planets, it is thought tholins may have been the first microbial food for heterotrophic microorganisms before autotrophy evolved. In short, tholins are thought to be the organic food for the earliest bacterial lifeforms on Earth. And elsewhere.” She paused as Max slapped his forehead, as if her biotalk gave him a headache. “Anyway, what we see here is likely to be a ‘crust’ overlying a liquid water ocean created by radioactive decay of the rocky inner core of this dwarf planet. The haze you can see at the planet’s horizon may be a nitrogen haze, since Sedna is near its closest approach to Sol, or perihelion.”
“When was it closest to Sol?” asked Captain Kasun of the Leopard.
“In 2076, when it was at 76 AU. It’s been outbound on a parabolic orbit since then. Sedna will only head back to Sol once it reaches an aphelion distance of 937 AU,” Elaine said. “Its year is 11,400 Earth years. More questions?”
“Yes,” called the Orca’s Akemi. “Does your scope detect any Alien spaceships in orbit or near Sedna?”
“Yes,” Elaine said grimly. “Appearing now on the side panel plan view of this space.” Jack blinked as 41 yellow dots showed up on the side screen. ““Filter spectrophotomery says most ships are made from a steel alloy. Fourier spectroscopy says some of the alloys are titanium-steel, while others are tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, rhenium and tantalum alloys. Some have ceramic or carborundum overlays. In short, the ship hulls are highly heat resistant and very hard.”
“Elaine,” Max called. “The Alien ships appear to be in two clusters. One cluster of twelve ships are clumped on Sedna’s far side at a hundred thousand klicks. The remaining 29 ships are orbiting Sedna at altitudes ranging from a hundred klicks out to three thousand. All are in an equatorial plane relative to Sedna.”
“Maybe Sedna is an Alien food mart like the ancient Walmart group?” joked Denise.
“Hardly,” Maureen said loudly from her holo. “Elaine, the outer clump of ships. Are they bigger than the inner clump? You know what I’m wondering.”
His sister tapped her Astro keyboard, then nodded slowly. “Yes, they are. From ten to twenty times the size of the lower orbit ships. Which range up to Bismarck in size and likely tonnage. You think those outer ships are the colony ships mentioned by the Gyklang captain?”
“I do,” Maureen said softly, looking at Jack from within her holo.
It was time. “Elaine, do you detect any laserfax, maser or EMF signals from Sedna?”
“None. And it would take eight minutes, nineteen secon
ds for a radio signal to travel one way to us. Perhaps we need to be closer before we are contacted?”
All very possible. “Time to find out. Fleet, make blip jump vector for an equatorial orbit above Sedna at, say, four thousand kilometers. We will stop on the Sol side of Sedna, at that altitude, in our current formation. Captain Akemi, your Orca is lead ship in our forward arc. Will you initiate the laser comlink timelock for grav-pull accel?”
“Yes, my shogun,” the black-haired woman said as her top of the screen image looked to one side of her bridge. “Yamamoto, initiate gravity-pull drive on my count of five. Ichi, ni, san, shi, go!”
Light blurred on the front screen and out through the Pilot cabin’s side portholes. Star images bent, shifted, steadied, then repeated as multiple blip jumps became nearly continuous. Jack had never directly measured the time-distance speed of blip jumps. He just knew them to be very, very fast. Locally, they were instantaneous. For longer distances like this one AU jaunt, it would take ten minutes to arrive above Sedna, compared to the 41 minutes it would take at their normal twenty percent of lightspeed using their fusion pulse drive. Blip jump was close to lightspeed, but not there. He looked at Maureen’s holo.
“Combat Commander, prepare for immediate combat upon our arrival in orbit. While I do not expect to be fired upon, I wish our battle readiness to be clear to anyone watching our arrival!”
“As you command! One HF laser pod will aim groundward, with the other aimed outward. Our dual railguns are even now taking in barrel loads of ball bearings. I’ve got one thermonuke torp in the spysat ejector slot. And my neutral particle beam whiptail is now motion active, ready to strike in any direction!”
Jack nodded his appreciation, then looked back to Denise. “ComChief, please have our radio and AV set to receive Charon Standard Channel Four. But also be alert to any maser or laserfax emissions that may come our way.”
“Anything I can do, boss?” called Max.
Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1) Page 17