"Yes, most surely, indeed true. I also like the Boron very much, Elena, but at the moment there's no place I'd like less to be than in Kingdom End."
"I can imagine how you feel," Elena said with a thoughtful smile. Then to his surprise she sat cross ankles in front of him. What did the warrior have in her mind?
"Tell me," she asked casually, "So that I don't have to die feeling stupid. There's one question I've been biting back for a long time. Can you tell me where the little Teladi girls are?"
"Tshhh?"
"Yes, everywhere there are merchants, businessmen, egg-brothers and grandfathers. Where are all the grandmothers, egg-sisters, wives, girl friends… and so on?"
"Tsshhh! I… Elena?" Nopileos was confused, put off his stroke and rattled. He twiddled his ear with the right hand. Elena recognised this as a sign how embarrassed Nopileos was and grinned. But she didn't even dream of letting it rest, it had been bothering her for long enough. "Yes, and there's your problem in distinguishing between human men and women…"
Nopileos still couldn't say a word. He looked to the side, then to the floor, and finally brought himself to give an answer.
"I, we, all, are all… all Teladi, we…"
"Yes?" Elena said expectantly. Nopileos was silent for some sezuras.
"All Teladi are female!" it finally gushed out of him and now it was Elena's turn to look confused. "Whaaaat?"
"Yes, it's hardly known within the Commonwealth, but that's a fact. There aren't Teladi of male gender any more. At least nobody has seen one of them for the last ten or fifteen dozen decazuras. But it's not a problem at all, we're able to manage quite happily without them. Even reproduction, laying eggs!"
Elena got over her surprise and started to giggle softly.
"Why do you laugh?" Nopileos demanded.
She shook her had, her black hair flying. "You don't look like women at all!"
"You also don't!" the Teladi countered.
Elena laughed even more. "No, really certainly not!"
"Tshhh! Are you now going to enter the shuttle and take off?"
Elena glanced over to the craft; Ban Danna and the others had arrived and stood waiting. She stood up and laid an appeasing arm over Nopileos' shoulders.
"Hey, Nopi! You aren't mad at me, are you?"
"No. You've just offended a little bit against my egg-pride, Elena."
"Sorry, I meant no harm. And there really aren't any male Teladi?"
"Possibly there may be some of them on a single planet, a lost, unknown place…"
Elena blinked and frowned. "Is it possibly called… Zura? Ianamus Zura?"
Nopileos jumped as if bitten by a snake, his forehead scale the palest she had ever seen.
"Tsshhhhh-hhhh! Whhhhere-do-How-can-you-knowww-thhat sssshhhtar warriorrr?"
His claws skittered against the asphalt, agitated.
"I've discovered its position," she said, turned round and went to the waiting shuttle.
"Goodbye Nopi!" she waved. The hatch sealed as the shuttle lifted off, leaving the stunned Saurian just standing there, unable to speak.
CHAPTER 42
Nathan, I doubt our plan will work. The machines will not let themselves be duped. Not this way.
Lt. Cmdr. Poul Vantera
Logbook of the Dragonfyre
Kyle tried to keep in mind that there was no guarantee for his safety or security, and that the shield and weapon upgrades should not make him over-confident. They were the best the Commonwealth had to offer and made the X almost as powerful as a Destroyer. The Xenon however, appeared to disagree with his assessment. As soon as the X entered an enemy sector it acquired a large escort of black ships, but they made no move to ram or open fire, as they had done in previous encounters. As the X left them in its speeding wake, another group ahead of his flight-path would pick him up, to be left once more in his wake.
Kyle wondered what they were thinking of his solo invasion. Did they already have an idea of his target? The production facility was still two jumps and some half a day distant, and possibly the Terraformers did not consider a single ship much of a threat. Still, it left unanswered the question as to why they were suddenly so gun-shy when up to now they'd missed no chance to disable or destroy the Shuttle?
He checked the Gravidar repeatedly. The sector was quite busy, a lot of Xenon heading for the gate behind him, a steady trickle returning to Xenon space through the same gate, nothing too extraordinary.
After another four hours of overhauling and then out-distancing packs of Xenon escorts, the X-Shuttle approached the next jump-gate. Kyle contemplated the passage with mixed emotions – everything had gone too smoothly.
As the last discharges flickered blue reflections in his canopy, he scoped the new system on the Gravidar. It looked much the same as the previous sector, just with more blips trudging towards the gate he'd just transited. A second group of ships, spread out in a thin cordon, headed for the next sector ahead of him. They were, he guessed, his 'escort' and suggested the Xenon knew his course and had prepared. So far, so bad and the next big question was, what did the machines intend to do next?
The X was three quarters of the way to the next gate when all Xenon ships in range opened fire as if by a single command, beam weapons hosing energy all over the shuttle's shields.
"Battle alert!" Valerie calmly announced.
There was not much he could do against the sheer number of them. It would probably take them awhile to overload the big shield but they would succeed eventually. The Xenon wouldn't surmise, of course, that the X had a second generator as backup. Kyle activated his weapons and with Valerie calling out target vectors he tried to defend himself as the computer continued to attempt to fly them towards the gate while dodging attacks.
Within a few minutes the shields were approaching critical, a long way short of the jump-gate – too far to reach without protection. Without shields, would the Terraformers simply destroy him? It was difficult to believe. They'd probably target the drive and inadvertently cause a huge M/AM chain reaction. Kyle considered activating the second 125 MW shield but he was reluctant to reveal his single ace before he really had to.
"Nice knowing you Val," Kyle said overdramatically when the shield energy fell to below fifteen percent.
"Thank you Captain."
The first tongues of energy forced their way through the last of the shield and licked weakly at the hull. The impacts sent a thrill of adrenaline through Kyle and he snapped off a barrage at a black ship that knifed through his sights. With a shrill shriek from behind him the shield generator failed, leaving the X shuttle defenceless in the face of the attackers' fire javelins.
Kyle held his breath, poised to activate the back-up shielding.
Only the subdued hum of the drive broke the silence. No longer under fire Valerie resumed a straight course to the gate.
"What… what happened?"
"The Terraformers ceased fire, Captain."
"But why?"
"It appears they're not interested in destroying us."
"I was gambling on that, Val. But how are they going to stop us if not by force?"
The computer hesitated for a few moments. "Have a look at the Gravidar, Captain."
Kyle did as he was told. Five installations of unknown design but immense mass lay along his flight path. Packs of Xenon destroyers and fighters lined the route, funnelling the X inexorably towards them.
"I'm picking up a potential energy gradient centred on those structures and our course will take us right through the centre of the set-up." Valerie announced. "It's draining our energy at the precise rate to ensure all systems, including propulsion, life-support and the on-board computer will fail as we pass through them."
"Can I get a visual?"
The computer projected an angular, filigree structure comprised of interlocking buttresses. It was obviously immense. Kyle thought for a moment. The Terraformers were going to drain all the energy from the ship, but what would that achieve? The
X would continue on momentum at high velocity and once beyond the range of the dampening field would power up and escape.
Maybe that indicated the machines had developed some sort of boarding device fast enough to catch him? The Commonwealth had high-speed communications drones that were way faster than him. What if the Terraformers let a swarm of them loose, equipped with welders to cut through his hull? "Ugly thought." Kyle murmured. Valerie asked what he was driving at, and Kyle outlined his pessimistic scenario for her. After a few seconds calculations and extrapolations Valerie confirmed that this was one of the few options open to the Xenon and so it was a highly probable scenario.
"Valerie, isn't there anything we can do to stop the energy drain?"
"No, Captain. Nothing."
"How long will it take until the drive breaks down completely?"
"Twenty three minutes at the present rate Captain. I have already shut down some sub-systems to conserve energy."
A new return appeared on the Gravidar, a ship, fast and still accelerating towards the structure. Valerie calculated the two ships would meet just short of the energy-draining set-up. Compared to the mass of a Xenon fighter it was rather slight. Kyle was sure its job was to take over his ship and he searched for inspiration.
The trap was simple, maybe too simple. He tried adjusting his heading to miss the installations but the Xenon fighters crowding his course sent warning energy bolts sizzling close to his unshielded hull. Of course he could activate his reserve shield and escape temporarily but it would fail when his energy was completely drained. Okay, he couldn't change course. How about…?
"Valerie, would it be possible for us to change course just before the drive fails?"
"Of course, Captain."
"Can you calculate the energy drain that precisely?"
"Certainly, Captain. It is no problem."
"I want you to modify the trajectory exactly before the systems cut, so that the X will fall around that energy funnel."
Valerie confirmed.
"I'm assuming they will not open fire when we are not out of energy", Kyle explained.
"Human intuition is beyond me and always will be. Nevertheless I find it fascinating."
"Didn't I tell you there's a deep poet in you," Kyle grinned.
Valerie said nothing and the minutes passed by, the five energy-leeching stations swelling to become objects visible with the naked eye. One by one the lights on the system status display changed from green to red. Finally Valerie deactivated life-support leaving only the drive, inertial compensators and minimal computing active. Still energy drained away, at an accelerating rate.
The small, fast Xenon craft Kyle had observed earlier swept over the X. The stations loomed, looking close enough to touch. With Valerie's speech circuits all but powered down, Kyle received no warning of the course change, just a violent kick to the kidneys as the dampeners were out. His fingers instinctively dug into the armrests and as the shuttle hurled towards one of the five filigree installations, power failed completely, plunging the shuttle into – darkness and silence.
With eyes opened wide, Kyle could only watch as the installation towered before him, filling his vision. They were going to collide. Valerie had miscalculated the course change and there was nothing he could do!
"Good-night." Kyle murmured. His voice echoed strangely in the dark, silent cockpit.
The X scraped the full length of a strut, filling the cockpit with a ghastly metal screech that set his teeth on edge. Kyle put his hands in front of his face and screamed.
A few seconds later, finding himself still alive, he put them down. Valerie's calculations had been correct to the millimetre. There was a flash from behind and for a second the shuttle shook, wreathed in flame, then the system status lights began to blink, orange, red, and finally green. The inertia compensators came on-line followed by the Podkletnov Aggregates and his stomach lurched as gravity returned. Finally the drive snarled to life.
"Valerie?"
"I'm here, Captain. Should I activate the spare shield generator?"
"Do it!"
He caught the activation flash from the corner of his eyes. "Rear camera Valerie, let's see what happened."
The view confirmed what he'd surmised from a quick glance at the Gravidar. Following his unexpected and sharp course change the Xenon pursuit ship had automatically followed and smashed straight into the installation, which was now just a burning wreck. It seemed the remaining four stations couldn't keep up the energy drain on their own; maybe they needed recalibrating or something. However, X and Kyle had escaped in one piece, and the Terraformer were now in a confused state of chaos. It wouldn't last long – so, best get going while the going's good.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Kyle corrected his trajectory for the distant jump-gate, skimming past a Terraformer fleet. They didn't open fire and the Gravidar showed the Xenon ships milling about as if they didn't know how to respond to these unexpected developments. Weird. Modern computers like Valerie were much more sophisticated than the Terraformer AI kernels, but Kyle found it odd that they had not evolved into individual intelligences in the five hundred years of their independence. After all, they'd developed a great deal of amazing technologies and tactics in that time!
It took two hours to reach the next gate and in the meantime the Xenon got their act back together enough to resume their sniping attacks. This time they did not have enough forces pre-positioned to tax his shields, they had simply not anticipated their trap failing. This time, he didn't return fire and waited until the X was on the threshold of the gate to another nameless sector.
"Valerie, is the package ready for delivery?"
"Yes, Captain."
He nodded satisfied
The jump was trouble free and painless as usual. The Gravidar showed a huge number of Xenon ships racing implacably towards him. Kyle realised they wouldn't make it in time. Long before their incoming spacecraft would arrive to stop him he'd be over the target production facility laying his egg – two eggs in fact.
The facility was huge – bigger than anything he'd seen in the Commonwealth or back home and it had a powerful shield. The first anti-matter missile in the cargo bay launch tube would take care of it. It was composed of 50% antimatter and 50% normal matter. The second was wholly anti-matter. Even if the Xenon managed to shoot it down an anti-matter cloud would engulf the structure. Provided the first bomb took down the shields the Terraformers could do nothing except watch their precious facility transformed into a fireball. At which point he'd high-tail it back to Argon Prime – whether he would succeed in getting there was an entirely different matter.
"Target will be in weapons range within ten minutes," Valerie announced.
Kyle checked the Gravidar again. It would be close; a large Xenon fleet would arrive in time to catch him as he looped back towards the jump-gate that had let him in here. They'd not be happy puppies, and had they held any sense of emotion, they would be looking for vengeance. There was enough of them to make him worry he might not make it, but he didn't hesitate. It was the mission that counted; everything else was secondary.
Valerie magnified the target. It was a gigantic monolith, dark and threatening, with shields so powerful they distorted the stars like a reflection in a breeze-stroked lake. For the first time Kyle saw several huge gun turrets, each barrel he realised anxiously, was tracking him, waiting to open fire the second he entered range.
"Valerie, launch Egg One, max velocity."
"Captain, we still need 1:22 minutes to reach the optimal launching point."
"I know, but the Terraformers are going to roast me if I don't keep out of those turrets' way!"
Kyle heard a slight whirr from the rear when the cargo bay opened and the warhead launched. Then its M/AM drive ignited and the solid signal on the Gravidar stretched to a fading blurred line as it shot away.
"Launch confirmed," Valerie said. "Detonation in 17 seconds."
"Cockpit transparency to zero Vale
rie."
Valerie obeyed, and darkness fell in the cockpit as the canopy darkened to black.
"Detonation in 10 seconds."
Kyle watched on the displays, as the energy capacity of the shields dropped by several percent in a single second; a dead sure sign that the large cannons had now started firing – and had achieved a few hits. The ship shuddered and the shield energy bar dropped a few percent. It rocked again. 93 percent.
"Detonation in 5 seconds. 4 - 3 - 2 – 1…"
The ferocious glow of the explosion forced its way through the cockpit flash protection, creating an eerie orange twilight. Kyle instinctively braced himself against the shockwave but none came – the explosion annihilated all matter, converting it to a storm of unleashed energy that even at this range ripped another few percent from his shields.
"Launch Egg Two now!"
"Captain…"
"Do we always have to discuss my orders?"
"No, Captain. But we can't be sure if the energy shield of the reproduction facility really has failed."
"Even if it's still up we don't have any other option but to launch and skedaddle. Do it!"
"I understand, Captain. We will reach the optimal launching point in…"
"Do it now, do it now for crying out loud!"
Again he heard the slight whirr of the launch bay doors opening and saw the blurred flash on the Gravidar.
"Detonation in 12 seconds."
The Xenon fleet was close now, they'd arrive moments after the explosion, leaving him no time to loop away and escape. But maybe he could confuse them. "Valerie - set course for the gate behind that cloud of Xenon. Go straight through them, full speed, now!"
Kyle felt the effect in his stomach as the compensators strained to absorb the inertia of the sudden course change and acceleration.
"Detonation in five seconds. 4 - 3 - 2 – 1…"
Again the burnt orange flash illuminated the cockpit, this time it took longer to fade away and his shield energy dropped precipitously to 81%. He ordered Valerie to fade the cockpit windows back to transparency, cautiously.
The computer complied, without any discussion.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 33