Antares Crucible

by Warwick Gibson

  When they finally came to the end of the interconnected caverns, it was a relatively easy matter to break through to the surface. Roberto enlarged an old water channel that led out onto the mountain slopes. It was a simple matter to dig through the side of the cavern where the rock was fractured and crumbly.

  When he had finished, Celia confessed that she was satisfied with their way out. She stepped through the gap, and looked down the wooded sides of the mountain to the sharp brown line where the desert began. Roberto passed on the instruction to join them, and the pilots and their new mounts started to move out through the opening in the mountainside.

  “Once the Valkrethi are out here,” said Celia, “we can fly them back to the convoy on the other side of the desert. It will be quickest if we go sub-orbital. I hope the new pilots can handle a trip by the Valkrethi to the edge of space.

  “I think we can call our little reconnaissance mission into the cave system a success,” she added to Roberto, who was standing beside her. “Is everyone out of the caves yet?”

  Roberto nodded his massive Valkrethi head.

  “Then we’d better get this first batch back to the freighters. Let’s run through the orbital flight sequence for the new pilots,” she said.

  The team made two trips to Maka’H’Rosh that morning, and another group of pilots joined them in the afternoon. Work on repairing the freighters was soaking up most of Cagill’s available personnel, but Celia’s enlarged team worked tirelessly on. In the end close to a hundred Valkrethi stood about the freighters by the end of the second day, waiting for the transports to be made ready for the trip to the Solar System.

  The Pellukech in the area were eventually located by one of the shuttles. Celia got word to the chief of the tribe the research team had visited on their first visit to Orouth. She invited him and his people, and other tribes in the area, to come and see what the freighters were doing.

  Word of the strange beings who rode great ships in the sky – and commanded their own personal karrich – had spread throughout the tribes after their first visit to the planet. Arrangements were soon made to keep the local Pellukech safe when the freighters finally lifted off with the Valkrethi aboard.

  The legend of the karrich riders received an unintentional boost on the second to last day. A number of chiefs had banded together, and plucked up the courage to come and see the convoy.

  It would have taken them a great deal of courage to approach the convoy of stranded freighters, which were to them mythical beasts out of ancient legend. Celia was impressed by their bravery. She watched from Cagill’s bridge as the party of tall, thin tribesmen, in long robes, dismounted from the reptilian camels they had ridden to the site.

  At the same time another fifteen Valkrethi landed some distance from the convoy, and started their walk in to join the ranks of the others, arrayed in the dunes behind the freighters. Celia saw the tribesmen draw back from the sight, and some of the chiefs’ attendants retreated a dozen or more steps. She smiled. It was all a bit much for people at a medieval level of civilization.

  A shadow fell on the Valkrethi walking in, and Celia looked up to see a karrich soar past some distance overhead. Whether the recently arrived Valkrethi had landed too close to its home, if it had one, or for some other reason, it was not pleased.

  Drawing back great sheets of leathery wings it plummeted toward the Valkrethi, and managed to strike one that was off balance, in mid-step, and sit it on its backside. There was a round of ragged cheers and catcalls on the open channel. The Valkrethi had hurt nothing but its pride, and it scrambled up and trotted forward to take its position in the formation once again.

  Not content with this, the karrich labored back into the air, and banked around for another run at them. Andre was bringing this group of Valkrethi in, and he saw the winged creature start its second pass. He stepped out to one side, and waited while the karrich lined up on this new, more solitary target.

  Dropping to his knees, he let the karrich swoop overhead, its talons clicking at thin air as it screeched its extreme displeasure. He remained kneeling, and the karrich wheeled abruptly right and dropped straight on top of him, making no mistake of its prey this time.

  Andre’s powerful Valkrethi arm shot out and grabbed it by the neck, and he sat it bodily on the sand. Its teeth clacked busily together, while it tried to swallow, and Andre forced it down into a crouching position. With its wings spread in a defensive shield, it looked much like a huge, frightened chicken.

  Andre lifted his hand away, and the karrich’s head bobbed even lower in trepidation. He reached out and stroked its long, scaly head. It froze in position, and he stepped to one side, in the manner of a tourist posing for an opportunity photo.

  The open channel erupted in cheers, and the tribesmen began waving their arms and jabbering furiously in their high-pitched Pellukech tongue. Celia smiled. An extraordinary story had just been born, and the living legend of the strangers from beyond the stars had expanded once again.

  The last of the Valkrethi were brought over later that day, and Maka’H’Rosh was closed off at the spot where Celia and Roberto had forced a way out of the caverns under the mountain. With all the Valkrethi now present, the task of storing them in the freighters began. Several of the freighters had needed extensive repairs, but all now passed a series of stringent pre-flight checks..

  The takeoff from the planet was perfectly orchestrated. The eight freighters rose from the desert in unison. The convoy then settled into orbit around Orouth, leaving nothing behind except a few karrich disoriented by the sight of the freighters passing, and a small herd of reptilian camels stampeding across gravel plains to the east.

  “Time to go home,” said Cagill, giving the navs officer a countdown for a simultaneous entry into stardrive. Moments later all eight freighters had disappeared into the gray nothingness of stardrive.

  ‘Home’ was Prometheus for Cagill now. It had become home for most of them during the years of training, and the shared experience of having their backs to the wall in battle. Perhaps Earth would become home once again when this was all over, but a perpetual state of war readiness had dramatically changed how they saw life.

  CHAPTER 20

  ________________

  Finch was thinking. He had some hard decisions to make, and timing was everything. Cagill was on his way back from Orouth with the last of the Valkrethi, and the Druanii had come on board with Cordez’ plans. They would be there for the attack on the Invardii city inside the super giant star Antares. But the Druanii involvement had brought new responsibilities for the Alliance.

  Cordez had been asked to protect the Orion planet. It was all in accord with the ancient treaties between the Invardii and the Druanii, apparently, and now the Alliance had to show their commitment to those treaties. The situation was certainly changing rapidly these days!

  There were a great many unknowns in Finch’s preparations to take Alliance forces to the Orion planet, but he’d done his best. Cagill would be leading the forces, as soon as he got back, and there would be no rest for the Air Marshall. He would be out of one star ship, and into another, and gone.

  Finch was toying with the idea of going with him. It was decidedly improper protocol. He was theoretically too ‘valuable’ to be risked at the front line, but a leader who had lost touch with his troops could also be a danger to the whole war effort.

  Finch cleared the idea with Cordez – who surprisingly made little objection – and then sent a sub space message to Cagill that he was going to have a passenger on the trip to the Orion planet.

  The Alliance forces waited two more days before the contingent of Valkrethi arrived back from Orouth, with Finch chaffing at the delay it was causing. If the Invardii got a head start there might be nothing left to protect by the time the Alliance forces arrived.

  That wasn’t supposed to happen, under the treaty, but then some sort of Druanii associated force was supposed to be there protecting the planet under the treaty also. Fin
ch didn’t know what the legal ramifications of it all were.

  Over a hundred Javelins would accompany the modified ships that were carrying the Valkrethi. The Sumerians were providing only 50 of their warships, but a generous half of their remaining 30 motherships. Whatever the task force found when they arrived at the Orion planet, the firepower they carried would have to do.

  The journey to the fringes of the galaxy was going to take a long time, even longer than it did to travel half way across the Spiral Arm to Orouth. Haste was everything, and the Alliance forces left as soon as Cagill was back and the modified ships had their Valkrethi aboard.

  Finch had joined Cagill on the bridge of his modified Javelin. Cagill had recently promoted Ayman Case to overall commander of the Alliance forces, and now concentrated on leading the Valkrethi. It had always suited him to be where the action was.

  Finch began to prioritize the work he would be able to get through during the long ten days to the Orion planet. He barely had the list clear in his mind, and written down in his electronic notebook, when Cagill’s navs officer yelped in a very undisciplined way, and frantically put a connection through to engineering.

  “We’re getting impossible figures up here,” he said urgently. “The orscantium decay efficiency has passed 150 percent, and it’s still climbing!” He ran another diagnostic process, and couldn’t believe those results either. “The stardrive engines are entering theoretical quantum breakdown phase,” he said to Cagill.

  “Over-ride,” said Cagill sharply, but the look on the officer’s face told him that he had tried that and it wasn’t working.

  “Main screen,” ordered Cagill suddenly, and everyone on the bridge found themselves looking out on a very different sort of stardrive effect. The gray nothingness they were used to had been replaced by shimmering bands of light, delicate hues that chased each other across the screen.

  Cagill opened a link to his chief engineer, and found the engineer looking at the same image on the engine room screen.

  “Quantum breakdown effects,” said the chief engineer in awe. The breakdown of the normal quantum processes into impossibly small steps had been theorized, but never seen. No ship had ever gone that fast.

  “Engine efficiency passing 200 percent,” said the navs officer, and Cagill turned back to his link to the engine room.

  “When does the hull’s structural integrity start to break down under these conditions?” he asked.

  “Well, theoretically, much earlier than this,” said the chief engineer, looking very worried indeed.

  Finch started to relax. He turned to Cagill and gave him a reassuring smile. Then he told the Air Marshall what he was thinking.

  The Druanii had intervened, he said. It had to be them, and they could at least have warned him what they were going to do!

  “Engine efficiency stabilizing at 210 percent,” said the navs officer.

  Finch did a quick calculation. The efficiency of the stardrive engines had a logarithmic, not linear, effect in the inertial world. An increase to 210 percent was . . . over 100 times faster than their normal traveling speed. That would reduce the ten days to . . . a little over two hours.

  He sat stunned by the figures in front of him. It was hard to fathom technology that could be capable of this.

  He put through a stand down order for the crews. They weren’t to touch anything. Finch was, in effect, letting the Druanii run the ship. He opened ship-wide comms, and told the crew to stop worrying, and enjoy the ride.

  After his announcement to the crew, he and Cagill started to plan the emergence of Alliance forces into the skies over the Orion homeland. An event that was now less than two hours away!

  The modified Javelins carrying the Valkrethi came out of stardrive on the edge of a nondescript system about a feeble yellow sun. The Sumerian warships, and the main contingent of Javelins, had already arrived and were establishing positions within the system. The motherships would take a little longer to arrive.

  The Orion planet was the only one in the habitable zone around its sun, and two gas giants much further out completed the short list of planets. Several smaller planetary bodies orbited inside the habitable zone, and they were soon confirmed as asteroids captured by the yellow sun. Their orbits would decay over the coming millennia until they eventually collided with the yellow orb that drew them in.

  Cagill called up the Orion planet on the overhead screens as soon as the Javelins arrived. A small brown and orange ball filled the center of the screen. From this distance it looked every bit a desert world, something devoid of life. There was no indication that water was present anywhere on it.

  “We have to give this place a name,” said Cagill, looking at the first detailed maps of the planet as they were delivered to him by his navs officer. “How about Desolata?”

  Finch laughed. “I don’t think the Orion have a name for their planet,” he said, “which does seem odd, but they got the sector right. They’re smack in the middle of the Orion constellation as we would see it from Earth. The Druanii must have named them for that, which is an interesting fact.

  “How about Refugia,” he offered. “A place where the Druanii thought their charges would be safe from the Invardii.”

  “Aah,” murmured Cagill, “I see what you mean. A sanctuary. We’ll call it Sanctus then.”

  Finch murmured his agreement.

  Cagill made a forward-flicking motion with his left hand, and his tactical officer took them closer to the planet, leaving the rest of the Javelins and their Valkrethi cargoes to set up a base further out.

  “Look at that,” said Cagill, pointing to a low, flat building the navs officer had located. The officer had magnified the building and put it up on the overhead screen. Finch watched as the ship’s sensors probed the building, and the area around and under it. Pipelines began to show up, emerging from deep underground and running away from the site. They ran just under the surface, and disappeared into the nearby mountains.

  “That’s how the Orion survive,” said Cagill. “Water from aquifers. The Druanii must have set this up for them when they transferred them here from their home planet.”

  “I haven’t seen any other evidence of technology,” said Finch, “so their needs must be minimal. In fact, I recall Subthree saying they didn’t like technology at all. It made them uneasy.”

  Cagill grunted. He was looking at a readout from his comms officer.

  “I think we’ve got company,” he said flatly. “Fifty or so exit signals starting to build up this side of the gas giants.”

  Finch had been expecting this. The Druanii would have made a point of getting the Alliance forces to Sanctus first, but he knew the Invardii and their accompanying Buccra warships wouldn’t be far behind.

  “I think we can say that ‘possession is nine-tenths of the law’,” he said grimly.

  Cagill nodded. The two leaders – one of the research project at Prometheus, and the other of its military forces – had developed a healthy respect for each other over their time together. They had also discovered a similar interest in language and its use. Something said succinctly was appreciated by them both.

  A sizable force of Buccra warships emerged into normal space not far from the Orion planet, followed by a small contingent of Reaper ships.

  “The Invardii are making sure they’re not the first into action,” said Finch dryly.

  Cagill was busy broadcasting a previously prepared declaration of Orion neutrality, under the Invardii-Druanii treaties governing Druanii protectorates. The Prometheus language team had used the same old, formal language that the Invardii had used when they first entered the Spiral Arm, and claimed the binary system – HK42 on Human star charts – from the Sumerians.

  The incoming warships slowed, and held their positions for some time. It seemed they might respect the Alliance claims under the treaties. Cagill ordered his command Javelin to rejoin the Valkrethi-carrying Javelins a little further from the Orion planet.

  Th
ere was a brief incoming comms burst, and the comms officer brought Cagill a simple message that acknowledged the right of the Orion to exist as a Druanii-sanctioned planetary system..

  “Hard to believe that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’,” said Cagill.

  “Touché,” said Finch appreciatively.

  Another message chattered across the comms officer’s console. At Cagill’s instigation it was translated so those on the bridge could understand it, then broadcast so all could hear it.

  “Disclose coordinates of Druanii bases,” it commanded imperiously.

  So, thought Finch, we’re worth talking to now are we? Last time we were beneath contempt, too minor for you to notice. Learned a little respect have we?

  “Coordinates of Druanii bases are unknown to us,” replied Cagill, his words translated and sent back to the Invardii ships. “Disclosure is also not required under Invardii-Druanii treaties.”

  “You are irrelevant under Invardii-Druanii treaties,” came the cold reply. “Disclose coordinates of all Druanii locations or you will die.”

  “Well, I was hoping for a more positive outcome,” muttered Cagill under his breath.

  Whether things went well or not, they were committed to defending the Orion system. They were also buying time for Cordez to find a way to deal with the Invardii city inside Antares.

  Cagill took a deep breath. They weren’t going to be backing down.

  “If Invardii choose today to die, we accept the challenge,” he said, and lifted his hand, thumb and fingers together, making an ‘O’ signal. His comms officer sent an ‘independent action imminent’ signal to every vessel in the Alliance fleet.

  The response from the Buccra was immediate, and hostile.

  The enemy warships split into two forces, one peeling off and making for the main body of Javelins and Sumerian warships. These were further out by the gas giants, where they were guarding the motherships. A smaller force headed for the Valkrethi-carrying Javelins near Sanctus.

  “Godsdammit slag-spawn have double-crossed us!” roared Cagill to Finch, incensed at the turn of events. “Take over here while I launch my Valkrethi,” he added as he disappeared at a run toward the large, central bay that housed the sophisticated machine. Finch nodded.