Antares Crucible

by Warwick Gibson

  “I’d like to try a little psychology on the Buccra,” continued Cordez. “Which assumes, of course, that they think like we do. The Javelins have been instructed to fly an intercept course onto the route we expect the warships to take on their way back to the Invardii city.

  “My hope is this will unsettle them, and they will leave Rok’H’Rok earlier than they had planned.”

  If that was the case, ParapSanni would be most appreciative indeed!

  Another massive explosion showed him the warships were still testing the surface of the moon for weaknesses. They were looking for anything that would lead them to the Sumerian centers inside.

  Cordez signed off, and ParapSanni mulled over what he had heard. The Sumerian warships, and a scattering of motherships, wouldn’t arrive until almost night time on Rok’H’Rok. When they did arrive they would have the advantage of numbers, but very little else. Cordez’ Javelins should arrive before then, but if his intercept course strategy worked, the Buccra might be leaving sooner than that.

  On the screen in front of him, the main spaceport had been reduced to rubble at the bottom of a gaping hole in the mountains, and it had already been sealed off from the maglev system. The mining centers had been comprehensively destroyed, and it was only a matter of time before the deeper installations on the moon were under attack.

  As always, the Sumerian would show that they could endure.

  Several star systems away, Ayman case was leading Cordez’ promised Javelin force on an oblique course that would pass by the seat of Sumerian government along its way.

  “Stardrive signatures activating around Rok’H’Rok,” said the long-range sensors officer, and Ayman felt a brief surge of adrenaline. It looked like the plan to force the Buccra off the mineral moon was working. The Buccra had lost a few ships during the last encounter with the Alliance, and that had taught them not to take the Javelins lightly.

  The two forces were now on an intercept path, but if the Buccra stayed in stardrive when they met in an hour or so, the Javelins wouldn’t be able to touch them. Ayman, though, would bet money the Buccra intended to accept the challenge and drop into normal space, where the two forces could meet.

  He knew the Hud pilots would be apprehensive about the coming engagement. Things were different now. They had learned to pilot the Javelins with the safety net of the Druanii shields present, but the shields had been removed. They had been sacrificed for the greatly improved weapons the Javelins now carried.

  It had been a hard decision for Ayman to make, but the pilots had a better chance of survival without the shields. They would fly knowing their ability to maneuver the Javelins was the only thing that stood between them and a Buccra weapons blast.

  A little over an hour later the Javelins dropped out of the gray, grainy nothingness of stardrive. The Buccra were nearby, and the Javelins were challenging the Buccra to meet them in normal space.

  Ayman found himself too restless to sit in his chair on the bridge, and walked around the various stations, waiting for information to come in.

  “Entry points forming,” said the navs officer on his left. Case turned quickly, and was back in his chair in seconds.

  “Prepare to engage. Repeat, prepare to engage!” he ordered tersely over the open channel. The Javelins swooped away on all sides, like the birds of prey they were, giving themselves room to attack at speed.

  The Buccra warships materialized, all 21 of them, and the Javelins fell on them with savage joy.

  CHAPTER 26

  ________________

  Ayman Case watched as the first engagements of the conflict unfolded. The Hud pilots were faster, and the Buccra warships were hit again and again. Chunks were ripped off their arches, and holes appeared in the more imposing forward and aft sections. The changes to their weapons were allowing them to hit harder than ever before.

  But the damage repaired itself, and in turn the Buccra doggedly tracked the Javelins, every so often striking one with their more powerful energy blasts. Two Javelins retired damaged from the fight, and then one blew up right in front of Case, detonating into a soundless ball of fire.

  Ayman called the Javelins off. They were lacking teamwork, that much was clear. Multiple hits at the same time might just overwhelm the enemy warships, but a team approach would have to wait for another day. Some of the Druanii suggestions had been tested in the attack, but there were still more changes to come. Perhaps the Javelins would fare better when everything was in place.

  Ayman ordered a strike by sub space missiles, and watched apprehensively as close to fifty sub space pulses leaped into existence, connecting the Javelins to the enemy warships along paths of strange, refracted light trails. Something danced along the paths of light, and then the missiles exploded half way to the warships.

  Ayman felt his heart sink. He had been told it was unlikely the sub space missiles would work a second time against the Buccra, but it was disappointing to see it for himself, all the same.

  He was ready to give the order to leave the area. It felt like they were running away with their tails between their legs. He consoled himself with the thought the Alliance had forced the Buccra off Rok’H’Rok, and that would leave the Sumerian government still functional.

  There will be another time, he growled sharply, and gave the ‘return to base’ command.

  The Javelins turned away from the fight, and winked out of existence in one long, rapid sequence. When they returned to base there was an unusually long time when there were no active missions. It gave off-duty staff at Prometheus a chance to relax.

  The research team were gathered in one of the main social centers in the huge research complex. They were all off duty, but that didn’t stop them discussing work – if it was interesting enough.

  “Well, where’s the evidence they died out?” said Roberto, waving something in a glass that was an odd shade of blue, and steamed gently. “Bones,” he said assertively, “the Rothii had bones you know. Even after 200 thousand years there would still be forensic evidence.”

  “Cremation,” said Jeneen, a little uncertainly.

  “All at the same time?” said Roberto, then paused. “Possible I suppose. Still going to leave X tonnes of calcium laced with trace elements somewhere, and we’ve found nothing.”

  “Your theory the Rothii up and left on a 180 thousand light year journey is a damn sight less plausible,” said Andre. “Even with stardrive, that’s going to take . . . er,” he began. “A little over 150 years,” finished Jeneen for him.

  “Stop showing off,” said Andre, and lifted her legs off the cushions beside him, so he could spank her bottom. There was a brief tussle and she removed his glass and set it out of his reach.

  “You’ve had enough,” she said, firmly.

  Andre subsided, muttering about the hardships and unfairness of married life. When he wasn’t looking Jeneen flicked a small can out of her pocket and sprayed a little detox into his drink, before handing it back to him. Within a minute or two he was complaining about his head clearing. He looked suspiciously around at the research team, who were all trying to contain their laughter.

  “Run it by us again,” said Celia, looking questioningly at Roberto.

  “Well, it’s their positional system,” said Roberto, “the one that allows the Rothii to give the coordinates of planets, and points in space, navigational stuff like that.

  “The system makes sense – all simple polar coordinates – but every so often in their records there’s an extra number at the end of a coordinate, one that initially seemed to be completely random. But after seeing it repeated enough times, I’ve come to believe it’s a marker for another galaxy.”

  A number of eyebrows were suddenly raised.

  “If the markers are meant to list other galaxies by distance from our galaxy, the one they traveled to is the Large Magellanic Cloud. It’s the second closest galaxy to us, so that makes sense if you’re planning such an extraordinary jump across space.”

 
; “But far enough away from our galaxy, where the Invardii had spread across the core of the galaxy, and were putting pressure on the Rothii borders,” finished Celia.

  The others nodded thoughtfully.

  “There were stories too, dawn-of-time myths I thought at first, about a ‘paradise’ in a place not of the Rothii world. Nothing the archives talked about directly, but these stories became part of the Rothii culture. They were still being mentioned in the archives right up to the time they vanished.

  “Maybe the ‘not of the Rothii world’ phrase was a way of saying their destination was in another galaxy. Maybe they didn’t mention their plans directly because they thought the Invardii might find out what they had in mind. Anyway, I think they’d been traveling to the Large Magellanic Cloud for centuries, maybe millennia, before they went there as a whole civilization.”

  “If any of this is true,” said Andre doubtfully.

  “Let’s hope they had more luck in the Large Magellanic Cloud,” said Celia. “I like the fact they were the only one of the three races to keep to their original DNA, and not hybridize with anything and everything, like the other two.”

  “I hope they didn’t find another bunch of self-obsessed, destructive slag-spawn like the Invardii when they got there,” said Andre, to nods of agreement.

  A new voice joined the conversation.

  “If you’re right, Roberto, why didn’t they ever come back?” said Sallyanne, who had come over with Eden to join the group.

  “Resources,” said Celia, “It could have taken them a hundred thousand years to build up the resources to jump a whole civilization to another galaxy. Since then they may not have built up their reserves to the point they can afford to come back in any force. Still, don’t forget the drones we’ve seen. The Invardii and the Druanii have them. There could be Rothii drones watching us right now.”

  This was met by a combination of splutterings from some of them, and nervous laughter from the others.

  “Wherever they’ve gone, they did relocate us to Earth so we could try and break the cycle of conflict in the Spiral Arm,” finished Celia. “We haven’t finished that little job for them yet.”

  There was silence at this.

  “Is the research team going to be included in the assault on the city at Antares?” said Andre quietly. “The Alliance will need every experienced Valkrethi pilot it’s got.”

  “No idea,” said Celia. “Technically we’re not military, and they could try to keep us out of the fighting.”

  “After all we’ve done,” said Jeneen heatedly. “Sometimes we’ve solved problems for them when the military types couldn’t!”

  There were nods of agreement.

  “Still,” said Andre, “if we do go in as part of the attacking forces, I say we go in together. If I’m going to buy it in the front line then I want Jeneen with me.”

  Jeneen took his hand. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said softly.

  Roberto looked at Celia. She was fighting to hold back tears.

  “Of course,” he said, taking her hand as well.

  “I’ve always wanted to join you all and fly a Valkrethi,” said Sallyanne, the disappointment evident in her voice.

  “Well, I can’t go, and I’ve got no intention of learning how to fly one of the damn things, so you’re staying here with me!” said Eden. Which was perhaps the most forceful statement any of them had heard from the quiet engineer.

  “I think I’ve been told,” said Sallyanne behind her hand, in a stage whisper. She didn’t look at all displeased that Eden had taken a stand in their relationship.

  In another part of the room, Kanuk, Leana and Battrod had assembled with a number of their squadron leaders. These three were still very young, by Earth standards, to be Javelin pilots. Yet they were already commanders of large formations.

  Fortunately they were also old enough in the ways of command to know when they could relax discipline with their flight crews, like now, and show the people around them a little appreciation.

  “Including the last group of trainees, there’s almost a thousand of us here at Prometheus,” Battrod was saying to the others, “and that’s left quite a shortage of young people to do the everyday work on Hud.

  “Spread over all the villages it’s only two or three per village, but a lot of us from Shellport took up the challenge. I guess we were at the center of things, and could see this was a battle for freedom, for Hud and for all the planets in the Alliance.

  “When I talk to Hudnee and Habna, and sometimes Menon, they always tell us to hurry up and get these problems sorted out, and come home.”

  There was a ripple of laughter at the way it seemed so simple to the folk back on Hud, and yet it was so difficult here. The difference was the pilots could see what they were up against.

  “What are these new weapons the engineers are building into the Javelins?” said the pilot on Battrod’s right.

  “No idea,” said Battrod. “I just know they’ll be better, more powerful, and able to do more damage. What we need to worry about is getting enough time in the Javelins to get used to them. Our lives depend on knowing our ships. There won’t be time to think about what we’re doing once we start the final attack.”

  “Is there really a giant Invardii city inside a star?” said another voice. The Hud pilots knew as much as anyone else in Prometheus about what was happening, but they didn’t have the science background to understand it. Things that were everyday to others sometimes seemed an impossibility to them.

  “Don’t worry,” said Kanuk, not wanting to get too far into that discussion. “We’ll be fighting out in space, not in the sun itself. On top of that, the Javelins will be getting a reflective coating to deal with the heat, and it’s not a very hot sun anyway.”

  “The main thing to remember,” said Battrod, taking over the discussion, “is that there will be ships from other planets helping us. And we have experience. Most of us have been up against the Reaper ships, or seen the Invardii flagships in action. We’ve all seen the Buccra warships by now too.

  “Cagill’s not expecting anything new from our enemies during the attack on the Invardii city, but our allies will be helping us. We’ll have to be careful to identify them, particularly since we don’t yet know what their ships look like.

  “I know it’s common sense, but I’ll say it anyway. Fire only on ships you recognize as hostile. Don’t fire on something just because it’s new to you. Got it?”

  There was a chorus of assents.

  The noise level at one end of the long room dropped for a moment, and then resumed again. Cordez, Finch, and a couple of the departmental heads took seats in a secluded corner. Cordez took orders for drinks from the others and made his way to the long, open counter.

  Finch finished a conversation he was having with John MacEwart, and left the corner to make a tour of the room. He called people by name where he knew them, and took time to meet new people when he didn’t.

  There were thousands of individuals at Prometheus now, but it was impressive the number he knew something about. He approached the Hud pilots, and every one of them leaped to their feet, snapping a rigid salute. He controlled his impulse to smile at their enthusiasm, and motioned them back into their seats.

  It was some time later when he finally made his way back to his starting corner, but the Hud pilots had been left in no doubt how important they were to the battle against Invardii oppression, and how important they were to Finch personally. That was a message Finch and Cordez were sending out on every occasion they could these days. In this case it would work its way down to every single one of the Hud pilots.

  When the Alliance went to war, everyone involved knew how essential they were to the effort. They knew they were part of a team.

  CHAPTER 27

  ________________

  Kalken’s command flagship sat squarely in front of the great Invardii city. Both of them were inside the swollen red star Kalken knew as Bajen, or homesta
r. The command flagship was busy coordinating every movement of every Invardii ship within the Antares system. Bathed in the fires of the red super giant, its cooling systems worked steadily to keep its hull temperature down to a level that was still enough to melt most metals.

  Kalken-ar-wuyr was on duty in the middle of the great sphere of the command center, at the center of the flagship. It was a position befitting her now ultimate status within the Invardii cell. She had finally cloned her child, with random DNA changes so it would have its own personality of course.

  She had also brought the Buccra into the fight against the rock dwellers and their detested Dark Ships. With the credits from these achievements she now had a level of status unsurpassed anywhere in the Invardii cell. It had led to her being appointed the ultimate authority in matters of defense for the Invardii city.

  Hundreds of Invardii, in their active form, were at work around the curved walls of the great sphere. From her central position she looked out on the scattered figures bathed in orange flame that were bringing her every wish to fruition.

  The extensive factories in the lower levels of the city were all at full production, turning out Reaper ships as fast as they could. Two shipyards, including one that had been extensively damaged by the Dark Ships but was now largely repaired, were the only other sources of warships for the Invardii defenses.

  Kalken’s plasma field changed to a darker, angrier orange as she thought of the fourteen shipyards the city mind had ordered to be built. That had been when the new cell first came to the Spiral Arm, and it was such a short time ago. The rock dwellers had found ways to destroy so much . . . it was unbearable!

  She hastily corrected her internal chemistry, until her plasma field brightened again. She had motivation enough to protect the great city just behind the flagship, and to destroy the rock dwellers. She need not store up more hatred and loathing of the races who would oppose Invardii supremacy.