“I have begun to believe your suspicion,” the Reigning Supreme said. “I think Thrax had a hand in the collapse of the hyper-spatial tube. I can almost believe this is a Builder plot. The Queen and her Council have long believed the Builders have departed our region of space. Now…now it appears they are playing a cunning hand against us. I will be very interested to see what Thrax will find on the planets.”
The Assault Leader—the new Assault Master—bobbed his head.
The feeders approached with dripping tubes. The Reigning Supreme’s clackers twitched. The new Assault Master backed away. Then, the feeders shoved the tubes into her mouth and began to pump mush into her bloated form.
As the Reigning Supreme ate, she wondered which of her lies would end up being the truth. She was playing Thrax and the new Assault Master against each other. She had told each what they wanted to hear. Twenty percent losses for only a few hundred enemy kills—that was horrifying.
In order to console herself, the Reigning Supreme continued to ingest more royal mush.
***
Thrax landed on Tau Ceti Prime and began collecting humans from various sources. The cityscapes smoked from the planetary bombardments while fires raged everywhere. Many of the human survivors were dragged from underground shelters.
Thrax, Vim and the others worked tirelessly. In a matter of a week, they had gathered enough. The interrogations began shortly thereafter, producing excellent results.
Thrax found a shipping center and downloaded shipping routes, soon having a detailed Laumer Point map of the various routes. He wrote reports regarding Star Watch, the Windsor League and the former Wahhabi Empire. It was quite possible he gained faster intelligence than any normative Swarm creature could have done.
Even while all that took place, he inspected the most promising industrial sites. Two weeks after the end of the Battle of Tau Ceti, new Swarm missiles came off an assembly line.
The influx of new missiles surprised the Reigning Supreme. She summoned Thrax to report to the command ship.
Before the Reigning Supreme and before the new Assault Master and his aides, Thrax showed them the wormhole route map.
“Show me Earth,” the Reigning Supreme said.
Thrax did so with a pointer.
“Three Laumer Point jumps away,” the Assault Master said thoughtfully. “The first Laumer Point leads to an uninhabited system, at least according to your intelligence report. The second Laumer Point will take us to this Alpha Centauri System and the third and last to the Solar System.”
“I suggest we make an immediate attack,” Thrax said.
The Assault Master moved his appendages in sudden agitation.
“You do not agree?” the Reigning Supreme asked him.
“This could be a clever trap,” the Assault Master said. “I have learned one thing from these humans. They are cunning.”
“They are desperate,” Thrax retorted. “They built up Tau Ceti for over a year, and we swept that aside with ease. This is the moment, Reigning Supreme. I have given you the path to victory.”
“I do not agree,” the Assault Master said, nettled. “Consider the possibilities. Surely, the humans expect a direct attack as we showed them here, our normative way. We lost twenty percent of our fleet this time. I suggest that is not sweeping them aside as Thrax so callously said.”
The Reigning Supreme silently agreed.
The Assault Master seemed to recognize that. He spoke more confidently. “If we lose another twenty percent in the empty system and another in the Alpha Centauri System and a final twenty percent in the Solar System—”
“Then we have achieved complete victory,” Thrax said, interrupting. “We will have won.”
“What is your hidden agenda in saying that?” the Assault Master asked. “I have studied your stellar map of the Commonwealth. They have vastly more star systems than these paltry four.”
“I realize that,” Thrax said. “What you seem unable to understand is that the humans are almost defenseless now. They hoped to stop us at Tau Ceti, building up as we traveled here. In some manner, they knew we were coming and this was their great and studied attempt. Need I remind you that their attempt failed? Now, we must simply do as ordered, destroying Earth, and we win the war. The mammals must defend Earth. As they do so, we will smash their last concentrations of ships. The rest will be mopping up operations. I have uncovered their weakness. I have given you victory, Reigning Supreme.”
“How can the mammals have known about our secret assault for so long?” the Reigning Supreme asked. “That is not logical.”
“I don’t understand that either,” Thrax said. “Yet, I suspect Captain Maddox had a hand in that.”
“Who is this creature?” the Reigning Supreme asked.
“A human I fought at the Builder Dyson Sphere,” Thrax said.
The Reigning Supreme recoiled at the mention of a Builder. She eyed the hybrid anew, remembering that Thrax had grown up on a Dyson Sphere, trained by the Builder. Perhaps the Assault Master was correct. This could all be an elaborate Builder trap. How could she know the truth one way or another?
Maybe the Assault Master took her silence the wrong way. “I beg you, Reigning Supreme,” he said. “Give me twenty-one extra days to continue repairing our ships. Many have taken extensive damage. Twenty-one more days will see us substantially stronger.”
“Waiting that long is a mistake,” Thrax said. “We must hit the humans while they are reeling from the Tau Ceti fight.”
“What can the humans do in twenty-one extra days?” the Reigning Supreme asked.
“In truth,” Thrax said, “I don’t know. Every instinct tells me—”
“I have heard enough,” the Reigning Supreme said, interrupting him. “We will attack, as that is the Imperial norm. I will no longer deviate from standard strategy and tactics. We are the Swarm. We will survive by acting like Imperial servants. But, we will first wait twenty-one more days and finish the repairs to the most heavily damaged ships. In that time, we will also continue to replenish our missile stocks.”
She eyed them both.
“I have taken a little advice from each of you,” she explained, “and mixed it with the normative tactics. After the end of the twenty-one days, we will achieve glorious victory over the mammalian cowards who fled from the battlefield.”
-14-
As the Swarm engaged in further repairs, as the humans, new and old, engaged in bitter debates and arguments about what to do next, Starship Victory appeared in Earth orbit along with the alien Destroyer.
Those weren’t the only reinforcements to arrive. The New Man Darius brought five Vendel Juggernauts to the Solar System. They were filled with Vendels ready to assist Captain Maddox because of everything he’d done for them.
Meanwhile, the final Destroyer was no longer in the null space. Neither was the long-suffering Ska. They had yet to leave the strange realm through which they journeyed. Where they would appear…that was anyone’s guess.
PART III
THE EXTENDED BATTLE FOR EARTH
-1-
As the Kai-Kaus chief technicians and their many subordinates moved through the neutroium-hulled Destroyer, cataloging and realigning alien systems so Captain Maddox and company could use the craft in the coming battle, Sergeant Riker had a bad dream.
Riker was in his quarters aboard Victory. He slept fitfully, tossing and turning. He had been on an alien Destroyer before, and he’d hated the experience. The place had felt too alien, too evil and bizarre. Riker loved growing green things; flowers, carrots, bushes and trees. He loved something essential about them. Some said he had a green thumb.
But the Destroyer…whoever had fashioned it long ago—the Ska, he knew. Yes, the Ska as a species had a brown thumb. Everything they touched turned to shit.
Riker moaned in his sleep. He hated the Ska. He was a lover of life. They represented death. Having the taint of death on his person—
Riker’s eyes shot open. He
stared upward, not seeing anything in particular. Instead, he heard a call. It was distant thing. It was not a siren call that lured him. It was like an ogre roaring a challenge. However, since the creature making the roar was far, far away—
“It’s coming,” Riker said in a gruff voice, with his eyes still not seeing anything in particular.
The distant call sounded again, and it seemed closer than before. It seemed to be hurtling toward—
Riker sat upright in his bed. He shook his head several times. He blinked repeatedly.
“Oh,” he said, waking up, finding himself staring at nothing as he sat up in bed.
Riker rubbed his forehead. What had that been about? It couldn’t mean anything. If dreams were supposed to mean stuff, he would have done a thousand crazy and immoral things in his time.
Riker swung around so he could put his feet on the floor. He lurched upright, heading for the hatch.
***
Riker moved through the corridors, his naked feet slapping against the cold deck. He hadn’t passed anyone yet. Most of the crew was still on leave, on Earth.
Victory was closer to Mars, though. That’s where the Destroyer was too, three hundred kilometers away in space.
Riker moved robotically as if hardly aware of what he was doing. He rounded a corner—
“What in blazes are you doing, man?”
Riker kept walking.
“Sergeant,” Ludendorff called. “What’s wrong with you?”
The voice finally penetrated Riker’s senses. He stopped, turned around and regarded the open-mouthed professor.
“I think it’s coming,” Riker said.
“Never mind about that,” Ludendorff said. “Why are you wandering around the ship in your underwear?”
Riker frowned and moved his head as if rusted. He looked down at himself and found that Ludendorff was right. He wore tighty-whiteys and nothing else.
“My dear, boy,” Ludendorff said, “don’t you know that those went out of style hundreds of years ago? They hug your junk much too tightly. It shows a repressed nature to wear such ridiculously binding clothing around your privates. You certainly don’t want one of the fairer crewmembers seeing you like that. She’ll tell others and none of them will want to test your mettle under the covers. You’re sabotaging yourself, my boy. If you’re going to be outrageous, better to wander around in the buff. That will get tongues wagging, but in the right direction. Some of the women will believe—”
“Shut up!” Riker shouted, grabbing his head as if the professor’s words hurt him. “Shut up and let me think. I can’t think.”
“I see,” Ludendorff said, who seemed not to have taken the slightest offense at the outburst. Instead, the Methuselah Man studied the sergeant as if seeing him for the first time.
“What did you say before?” Ludendorff asked.
“I can’t remember now.”
“Wasn’t it: ‘It’s coming?’”
Riker nodded as understanding swirled in his eyes. “What do you think that means?”
Ludendorff snorted. “I would think that obvious even to an outmoded individual like yourself. You must be referring to the Ska. What else could have caused this…?” Ludendorff waved a hand.
Riker kept blinking as if his mind had gone into auto mode.
“Galyan,” Ludendorff called.
The AI holoimage appeared a moment later.
“Galyan,” Ludendorff said. “Why don’t—”
“Professor,” Galyan said, interrupting. “Why is Sergeant Riker only wearing underwear? Isn’t that odd?”
“Do you see what I mean?” Ludendorff asked Riker. “Even Galyan finds the tighty-whiteys obscene. It’s time for a change of style, my boy.”
Riker seemed to find it harder to think the longer he stood there.
“This is decidedly odd behavior for the sergeant,” Galyan said. “According to my analysis, it indicates a deeply troubled mind.”
“Ah, yes,” Ludendorff said. “Galyan, I want you to play back the sergeant’s passage through the corridors as far back as you can.”
“Will that help to solve his strange behavior?” Galyan asked.
“That’s the hope,” Ludendorff said.
Two seconds later, Galyan produced a holoimage of Riker moving down the corridors. Ludendorff moved closer to the holo-recording, studying it.
“Can you play any audio?” the professor asked Galyan.
The AI did so. At certain times, the others could hear Riker’s slapping feet.
“Notice his eyes,” Ludendorff said. “They’re glazed over.” He turned to Riker. “Do you know what caused this?”
Riker shook his head.
“Where were you headed?”
“I…I was—I’m looking for Maddox. I have to warn him that it’s coming. I could feel…”
“Yes, yes,” Ludendorff said. “What could you feel?”
“A brown thumb,” Riker said.
“As opposed to a green thumb, perhaps?” asked Ludendorff.
“Yes,” Riker said, as he snapped his fingers. “I dreamed of death, approaching death, a killer, a—”
“A Destroyer,” Ludendorff said in a hardening voice. “You knew the captain was in danger before against the Visionary on the Fisher world. This must have something to do with the Ska, and possibly with the Visionary or Spacers, as well. Yes. Go find Maddox.”
Ludendorff turned around.
“Where are you going?” Riker asked.
“This is Dana’s area of expertise,” the professor said. “I want her to hear and see this. I have a feeling your dream is vitally important.”
-2-
Captain Maddox stood beside Ludendorff in an observation room. On the other side of a two-way mirror, Riker lay on a couch in dim quarters. The sergeant wore his uniform, although he did not presently wear any boots or socks.
Dana sat beside the sergeant on a chair. She had an open notebook and a pen on her lap. She spoke quietly to Riker, having already administered a special drug to him.
“You’re not saying much,” Ludendorff said quietly.
Maddox didn’t reply or look at the professor. He’d been speaking with Mary O’Hara earlier. She’d shown him the last images from Tau Ceti as found by the Builder Scanner.
The majority of the Swarm Fleet had moved near the Laumer Point to Epsilon 5, an empty system that led, among other paths, to the Alpha Centauri System. That was the fastest route to Earth. The implication from the Swarm Fleet’s location was they knew what they were doing concerning wormhole routes.
O’Hara had shown him other things, as well. He’d seen Tau Ceti Prime and some of the renewed industrial output there. The Swarm worked astonishingly quickly. Of course, that made sense with millions of Swarm workers working overtime on the surface. He’d also seen repair ships fixing heavily damaged Swarm vessels.
There had been one other interesting holo-vid, a recording. It had shown three cloaked star cruisers. O’Hara had shown Maddox the stasis field in operation. The New Men had captured a bug ship, jumping to a different place with it. If Golden Ural knew about the operation, the New Man had not shared it with Star Watch yet.
Those and other worries had Maddox preoccupied. This incident with Riker—
“I say, my boy,” Ludendorff said. He shook Maddox’s right forearm. “Are you listening to me?”
Maddox turned abruptly, snatching his forearm out of the professor’s grasp. He did not like people touching him, except for Meta.
“I’m not diseased,” Ludendorff said.
Maddox gave him a curt nod.
“Yes, yes, I know. You have strange phobias. I suppose that goes with your…”
Maddox’s eyes had begun to smolder.
“With your many responsibilities,” Ludendorff said, undoubtedly changing what he’d been about to say concerning Maddox’s hybrid nature.
The two of them fell silent as Dana began questioning Riker. The sergeant twisted about on the couch and kept repeat
ing, “It’s coming.”
Dana tried to dig deeper. It didn’t help. Finally, Riker’s eyes snapped open as he glared at the doctor.
“It’s coming!” the sergeant shouted, with spittle flying from his lips. “Don’t you get it? It’s coming! It’s going to kill us all! There’s nothing we can do! It’s—”
Dana moved in, trying to press a hypo against his side. Riker lashed out, hitting her wrist with his bionic arm. Dana’s arm swung back as something cracked. She whitened, swaying, seeming ready to faint.
Ludendorff headed to the hatch.
Maddox beat him to it. He flung open the hatch. “Sergeant,” he said sternly.
Riker turned haunted eyes on him. “It’s coming,” the sergeant said in a pleading tone. “Why won’t anyone listen to me?”
“Come with me,” Maddox said.
Riker seemed as if he was about to flare up again. Finally, he nodded. “Something is seriously wrong with me, isn’t it, sir?”
“Maybe,” Maddox said.
“Please,” Riker said. “Don’t lie to me.”
“Yes. Something is wrong with you.”
“Is there a cure for this…taint?” Riker asked.
“I don’t know,” Maddox admitted. “If there is, I’m going to find it.”
Riker nodded again, but it seemed a hopeless gesture.
By that time, medics had arrived, taking a shaken Dana with them. She cradled her broken wrist and seemed afraid to look at Riker as she departed.
“I want my old life back,” Riker said.
“I think the entire Commonwealth wants its old life back,” Maddox said.
“Why is this happening?” Riker asked.
“Because we’re alive,” Maddox said. “As long as we’re alive, we’re going to have problems. That is the nature of life, a constant struggle for survival.”
“Begging your pardon, sir,” Riker said, “but that sounds like a New Man philosophy.”
“Perhaps it is.”
Riker stared at him, finally nodding once more. “I wish I could tell you more.”
“Don’t worry about it, Sergeant. We’ve always won through in the end.”
The Lost Earth (Lost Starship Series Book 7) Page 25