“How many?”
“One, as I said,” Thrax told her.
“You are certain of this?”
“Oh yes,” Thrax said. He wanted to ask if that was important. By now, he knew better than to do that.
“What happened to the Destroyer?”
“The reports are garbled,” Thrax said. “I would say Captain Maddox forced the Destroyer to maneuver into the Solar System’s star.”
“And that act demolished the Destroyer?”
“Of course,” Thrax said.
“No, no, no,” the Reigning Supreme said. “You do not understand the significance of the Destroyer. How could you? Only highly ranked Hive Master-class Swarm receive the Higher Knowledge.”
Thrax waited, yearning to obtain this knowledge. He thought back to what she could mean—
“Oh,” Thrax said. “You must be referring to the Destroyers used against the Swarm ages ago.”
The Reigning Supreme shrank away from Thrax to the best of her limited ability. “What do you know about that?” she whispered.
“The Builder told me,” Thrax said. “Ages ago, the Builders used captured Destroyers to battle the Swarm—”
“Enough,” she said. “That you know this Higher Knowledge—only the highest ranked Hive Master-class are aware of this ancient war. Not even the Assault Master knows. You must never speak of this to anyone lesser ranked than a Reigning Supreme.”
She stared at him as her fear slowly dissipated.
Thrax could feel the difference in her. She was thinking about eliminating him. Likely, the normative codes said she must. If he did not give her a reason why she should keep him alive—
“I possess many such pieces of ancient data,” Thrax said. “Of course, the Queen knew this,” he lied.
“She did?” the Reigning Supreme asked in amazement.
“Of course,” Thrax said. “She instructed me to tell you if there was any mention of Destroyers—”
“Hold Commander Thrax Ti Ix,” AX-29 said. “This seems fraudulent. Yet, how could you lie? You are only—”
The Reigning Supreme made a moaning sound as her bulk shook with something approaching fear. “This cannot be,” she whispered.
Thrax waited.
“You are a hybrid creature. You look like a soldier. The Queen gave you Technical Assistant rank. Yet, you truly have the thought-patterns of a highly ranked Hive Master. That means you are able to spout mistruths. I have taken everything you’ve said before this at face value. Now, I will have to check your words for possible lies. I cannot fathom that I’ve missed this.”
“Reigning Supreme,” Thrax said. “You are in a truly unique position. You are cut-off from the Imperium. You have a mere portion of your war fleet. You have faced cunning enemies and dastardly tactics. I believe the humans will practice bitter deceit against us. Even more, I believe they have secret weapons left.”
“Destroyers?” she asked in fear.
“Perhaps,” Thrax said. “Who can know at this point?”
“What is your point?” she asked.
“As a Reigning Supreme, duty summons you to use every Swarm facet to produce victory. I am a hybrid. This has been made abundantly clear to me. Yet, perhaps this is the moment the Imperium needs a hybrid such as me with advanced Builder knowledge. Use this fact instead of fighting against it. Instead of fearing me, discover new sources of insight to help your fleet obliterate the humans.”
“Your words are difficult,” AX-29 admitted. “Your sight causes loathing—”
“Yes, I know,” Thrax said, interrupting. “But you were chosen because of your wisdom. This is the time to implement your wisdom to its fullest.”
“How dare you attempt to instruct me.”
Thrax decided to go for broke. “I dare because I am a hybrid. Yet, now more than ever you need hybrid thinking to deliver you victory. Will you use it, Reigning Supreme? Or will you throw away your best chance at ultimate victory?”
AX-29 pondered that. She squirmed. She made vomiting noises as half-digested mush dribbled from her clackers.
“What is your suggestion?” she finally asked.
Thrax bobbed his head. “This time, you must use the jump ships,” he said. “As you enter the Laumer Point with the first scouts, you must send in the jump ships to attack any humans attempting to obliterate our vessels. That will be standard Star Watch tactics.”
“That is a clever move. Yes.”
“Let me lead the assault,” Thrax said.
She studied him anew. Instead of loathing, a sense of shrewdness prevailed. “No,” she said. “The Assault Master will do that. You will stay here with me, hybrid. You will give me more unusual ideas. If the humans have a Destroyer…I am going to need even more cleverness than this.”
-6-
The last of the Swarm warships headed for the Epsilon 5 Laumer Point. As they did, the Assault Master joined the jump ships.
According to Thrax’s suggestion, the Reigning Supreme would first send through several scout ships.
“We must assume the humans have a Builder-like ability to see our actions,” Thrax told AX-29. “That is the most logical explanation for the massed missiles in the Tau Ceti System. According to my interrogations, the humans readied for us even before we reached the Oort cloud.”
“That is daunting news,” the Reigning Supreme agreed.
“We still defeated them, though.”
“With terrible losses,” she said.
“The humans will not have had such preparation time for this attack,” Thrax said. “That was why I suggested before that we attack at once.”
“You did not know those things before.”
“That is true…” Thrax said. “I retract my last statement.”
“You can maneuver mentally,” the Reigning Supreme said in wonder. “How did I fail to see this earlier?”
Thrax did not tell her that her bigotry had blinded her to the truth. He was still amazed at this fantastic turn of fortune. It told him that one must always strive. Only quitters truly lost. As long as one fought, one had a chance to turn things around. He would remember that and implement it later, if needed.
Sixty thousand plus warships took time to maneuver delicately. The lower-ranked assault leaders had worked out a careful schedule in order to push through as many warships in as short an amount of time as possible.
“Now,” Thrax told the Reigning Supreme, “we must sprint to the Solar System in an avalanche of attacks.”
The Reigning Supreme gave the order, and the first scout ships entered the Laumer Point.
***
On the other end of the wormhole in the Epsilon 5 System, Admiral Quinn’s patrol boats reported enemy ships appearing.
“In what number?” Quinn asked from her heavy cruiser flagship.
“They’re still coming, Admiral. No. It looks like they’ve stopped. I count twenty vessels. They came through in force.”
“No nukes to clear their way?” Quinn asked.
“Nothing, Admiral.”
“Excellent,” she said. “Maneuver the first mine and detonate it when in position.”
Near the Epsilon 5-Tau Ceti Laumer Point, a heavy mine maneuvered toward twenty drifting enemy heavy-cruiser-sized warships. The bugs aboard those vessels and possibly the electronics in the vessels were experiencing severe Jump Lag. Thus, there was no counter-fire against the approaching mine. It appeared as if this was going to be a textbook Jump Lag attack.
The heavy mine maneuvered inward…and detonated. The terrific thermonuclear explosion slammed against the Swarm ships. Several of the nearest tore apart. Others took hard blasts. Those enemy hulls proved tougher than expected, though.
A second mine moved in as some electronics began to wake up on the least damaged enemy ships.
The second thermonuclear detonation savaged more enemy vessels. Likely, it blinded all the awakening enemy sensors.
“Can this be for real, Admiral?” the chief patrol boat commande
r asked in glee.
“Don’t worry about that,” the admiral said. “Send in another mine. Let’s finish them off. Then start maneuvering more of your mines closer to the Laumer Point. I think the bugs are as dumb as stumps when it comes to wormhole travel.”
“Yes, sir,” the patrol boat commander said.
***
On the Tau Ceti side of the wormhole, more Swarm ships waited to enter the Laumer Point.
“Why hasn’t one of the scout ships returned to tell us about the conditions over there?” the Reigning Supreme asked in her command chamber.
“We should give them a little more time,” Thrax said.
“No. We must send through a stronger force to help them.”
“I would not advise that, Reigning Supreme.”
“Do not overstep your bounds, Commander. I can still send you to the crushers. I will drink your juices in delight in that case.”
Thrax stopped talking, deciding there was only so much he could do in this short of a time.
***
“Look at that, Admiral,” the patrol boat commander said over the comm line. “This time, forty enemy heavy cruisers have come through. The new ships are drifting in the debris of the old ones.”
“Get your mines into position,” the admiral said. “We’re going to assume the bugs aren’t going to learn any time soon, but will just push through massive amounts of reinforcements. This could be our golden opportunity.”
“Yes, Admiral,” the patrol boat commander said.
Shortly, twin thermonuclear explosions, one on each end of the drifting Swarm ships, struck the enemy vessels. The results were predictable: more enemy hulls shattered. Those farther away from the blasts took less damage.
A few short minutes rectified the oversight as another mine detonated, and the formerly intact enemy warships joined the growing debris in space.
“Sir,” the patrol boat commander said. “I just had a brainstorm. Would you like to hear it?”
“I would,” Admiral Quinn said.
“We should reverse the process on the bugs. Usually, the enemy sends a few nukes through to clear the path. They must be on the other side en masse. Let’s send a few nukes onto their side and blow them to bits.”
“That is an excellent suggestion, Commander. Make it so.”
“You bet, sir,” the patrol boat commander said.
***
The Reigning Supreme was in her command quarters, watching screens that showed the Laumer Point.
“I am getting frustrated,” she told Thrax. “Why haven’t—”
The great bulk leaned forward as the Reigning Supreme stared at a screen. “What just came out of the Laumer Point? That does not look like a Swarm scout. It has a most odd shape—”
A vast white explosion occurred as a heavy cobalt bomb shredded the nearby Swarm vessels waiting to enter the Laumer Point.
“What is happening?” the Reigning Supreme shouted.
“The humans are clever indeed,” Thrax said bitterly. “They are sending nuclear bombs through the Laumer Point at us.”
“You should have thought of that.”
“Have any of your assault leaders recognized the problem as quickly as I have?” Thrax asked defensively.
“No,” the Reigning Supreme admitted. “What should I do?”
“Unleash the Assault Master and his jump ships now,” Thrax said. “We have waited too long. Draw the main fleet back from the Laumer Point. More enemy bombs will surely come through.”
“Those are excellent suggestions,” AX-29 said.
“Oh,” Thrax added. “Make sure the Assault Master does not jump too near the Epsilon 5 Laumer Point. He will have to shrug off the sleeping sickness before his ships can fight. He does not want to give the enemy easy kills.”
“Contact him,” the Reigning Supreme said. “Give him those instructions.”
Thrax scuttled to a comm unit and began to do just that.
***
Admiral Quinn jumped up from her command chair in shock. “Give me a close up of that,” she told her sensors officer.
A moment later, she viewed drifting saucer-shaped vessels. They were two million kilometers from the Laumer Point.
“How many are there?” she snapped.
“One hundred and eighty-seven,” the sensors officer said.
Quinn absorbed that. She had nine heavy cruisers, lots of mines and a willingness to fight to the death if she had too. This was a volunteer assignment. Everyone knew the score about the war.
“Use the black-ice-coated mines,” she said at last. “Accelerate them for now while the enemy is caught in Jump Lag. Let the mines drift as their sensors come online. We want to catch those bastards by surprise.”
“Admiral,” communications said. “More Swarm heavy cruisers are coming through the Laumer Point.”
“Let’s keep giving them hell while we can,” she said. “The odds are going to turn against us soon enough.”
***
It took several days to move the entire Swarm Fleet through the cleared Laumer Point. Sixty thousand plus vessels was a lot of ships to move through such a narrow aperture.
The Assault Master’s jump ships took 69 losses altogether. The scout vessels on both sides of the wormhole took 567 losses from various explosions. In return, they had destroyed nine scout-sized enemy ships and eleven escape-pod-sized vessels.
“The first were heavy cruisers,” Thrax told the assembled war council. “The last vessels were called patrol boats.”
The Reigning Supreme, the Assault Master and various assault leaders were in attendance.
“We lost 639 ships and destroyed 9 major enemy vessels and 11 minor vessels for a total kill of 20 ships,” the Assault Master said. “Given the nature of Laumer Points and the possibilities, we achieved a grand success, a mere 32 to l loss ratio.”
“Yes,” the Reigning Supreme said. “I am pleased. After the struggle in the Tau Ceti System, I expected much more from the humans.”
She eyed Thrax speculatively. “Maybe the humans are not as dangerous as I feared.”
“The correct usage of the independent jump ships saved you grievous casualties,” Thrax pointed out. “My suggestion that you send the jump ships a distance away from the Laumer Point likely saved you that fleet. However, I would like to point out that losing 69 jump ships out of 200 was a much graver loss than the 567 scout ships. The jump ships are unique for us and intensely valuable, out of proportion to their minuscule numbers.”
“I take strenuous objection to your slurs against my command decisions,” the massive and nearly immobile Assault Master said.
“You should not have lost any jump ships,” Thrax told him. “I certainly would not have lost any if I had commanded them.”
“That is a preposterous boast,” the Assault Master said. “Reigning Supreme, I implore you.”
AX-29 eyed Thrax. “I see what you are attempting to do, Commander. You wish to gain glory through leading the jump ships and will thus say anything to gain command status. Is advisory status so repugnant to you?”
“Not at all,” Thrax lied. “It has been a fantastic honor to serve you in whatever capacity you deem wise.”
“Then let me hear no more about you leading any ships,” she said. “You are going to remain on the command ship, Thrax. I have decided that you are very clever, too clever by far to let you out of my sight.”
“Reigning Supreme?” asked Thrax.
“We attained a marvel,” she said. “We broke through into the empty star system with ease. The humans could have saturated the system with missiles. They did not, and thus, we took negligible losses.”
“Because they lack such quantity of missiles,” Thrax said. “As I keep trying to tell you, they used the bulk of their missiles in the Tau Ceti System.”
“That still seems too impossible to believe,” the Reigning Supreme said. “The humans could have filled Epsilon 5 with these black-ice-coated mines. They practically let us i
nto this system. Consider, foul surprises have plagued our mission at every step. I expect more to come. Each time we believe something, the opposite happens. No. We will approach the next Laumer Point with great caution. The humans are devious beyond any race we’ve ever faced.”
“Reigning Supreme—”
“Silence, Thrax,” she said. “I am forming the next phase strategy. I have watched you. I have watched our new Assault Master. Now, I am taking matters into my own pincers. This…last surprise… this poorly defended Laumer Point…means something awful likely waits for us in the Alpha Centauri System. The humans want us to believe we can waltz right in. We will devise a few clever ruses of our own this time.”
Thrax, the Assault Master and the other Hive Master-class insects bobbed their heads in agreement.
“For the moment, the fleet will move cautiously toward the next Laumer Point,” the Reigning Supreme said. “Then, I will decide what to do next.”
-7-
Captain Maddox marched through Star Watch HQ on Pluto. He was headed to the office of the Lord High Admiral.
It was a smart idea for Cook to stay near the Builder Scanner. It meant he could order the scanner to look anywhere, instantly. With a Builder communicator, Cook could speak to specially selected representatives. They could pass on his orders, and thereby give humanity a great advantage in knowing what the enemy was doing as he did it in real time.
This was greater than the advantage of Ultra in World War II on Earth long ago. Back in that day, the Allied side could intercept German messages, but the Germans had still surprised the Allies. They did so by keeping important orders off the encrypted machines and only giving such orders by face-to-face messengers. Thus, the Germans had totally surprised the Allies with the Battle of the Bulge attack.
Maddox had been wondering lately how refined the Builder Scanner could focus. Could the scanner see through walls as it were? The only thing better than seeing what the enemy was doing…was listening in to his planning sessions.
Maddox entered the Lord High Admiral’s outer officer as the secretary looked up from her desk.
“Captain,” Cook shouted from his inner office. The door was open. “Do come in, young man.”
The Lost Earth (Lost Starship Series Book 7) Page 27