StarFight 3: Battlecry

by T. Jackson King

  “Right.” Daisy gave mental thanks that Jacob was a fast learner. Maybe it came from playing chess since junior high. Maybe it came from his father the admiral always demanding more from him. Wherever it came from, his fast learning had allowed him to command the Lepanto and then the entire battle group during Earth’s first interstellar war with an alien species. Now, humanity faced a second hostile species. What they did here and later at Food Enough would likely set the stage for interstellar relations with aliens for a good long time. And Jacob carried the burden of his father’s orders that the Lepanto must seek both an armistice with the wasps and also pursue a mutually assured benefit arrangement where each species allowed the other to settle on worlds best suited for that species, even in existing colonies. Like how the admiral had allowed the wasps to settle on planet three in Kepler 10.

  “Will you be there with us, Daisy?”

  The way he said her name sent shivers down her back. “Of course I will. I’m your XO. But I intend to pilot Richard and his Marines out on their boarding of an invader ship fragment.”

  Jacob winced. “I know. I approved your request. Does not mean I have to like it. But piloting is what you do.”

  “Piloting is what I was born to do,” she corrected. “My Mom works at the astrophysics lab on Pluto. She was born a physics genius. Before I was sixteen I had flown single prop, multi-prop, cargo planes, jets and made a suborbital flight to earn my astronaut ranking. After the academy, I earned my spot as the admiral’s pilot for his LCA. I’m not giving it up.”

  Jacob smiled easily. “Nor should you,” he said, sounding amused. “But you are also a fine executive officer. There is no way I could be both captain of this ship and do what you do on my behalf. On behalf of all our crew.”

  Daisy felt warm at the compliment. But his mention of her XO duties reminded her of other matters.

  “I need to get back to the Bridge. We will be arriving close to the wasp engine fragment in a few minutes. I want to see off Richard.”

  Jacob gestured to her. “Go. Relieve Richard so he can hop onto the Chapultepec. I’ll be up after I eat something. I’m heading for the Mess Hall. The crew needs to see their captain looking relaxed and confident.”

  Daisy stood up. “They do. Especially after a deadly battle. See you later.” She headed for the titanium slidedoor exit. “Open door.”

  “Door opening for Lieutenant Daisy Stewart,” said Melody, her soprano sounding eager.

  Daisy stepped through the door, turned right up the Command Deck hallway and headed for the Bridge. She hoped the AI would not go personal on her. The last thing she needed was teasing by an AI that knew her records back to first grade and the time she had gone to the side of the schoolyard to pee, rather than ask the grumpy matron teacher for access to the school bathroom. She crossed her fingers. You could never tell with these new AIs and their human imitation modules . . .

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Pod Leader felt sadness at the imagery on the large front view lens. His two fellow sky floaters were dead, defeated by the four new land predator floaters. Those new floaters sped past the site where his pod-mates had hoped to attack the fleeing sky predators. The Dry Ones floater continued its journey out toward the edge of this sky glow’s magnetic field. Both the old enemy and this new one still lay two full rest cycles away, thanks to their far distance from the fourth world that swam around its yellow sky glow.

  “Defender Prime,” he color-signed in a mix of dry air colors and metallic reflecting plates. “Sign to me the nature of the battle we just witnessed. One predator sky floater swam into one of our sky floaters. Our other floater died under the touch of black beams like those in our black balls. What does this signify?”

  The male who lay next to his own water tank twisted his mouth tendrils, then tapped a mineral tool touchplate with his tendrils. Then he swung his tooth-filled head toward Pod Leader, his two front eyes fixing tightly on him.

  “Pod Leader, only one floater of the five out there fired the black beam of nothingness that destroys all solid matter,” the male said in a flow of yellow, orange, silver, orange and black colors that arranged themselves in unique sequences of color patterns on the flank facing him. “That may mean this weapon is not possessed by the other three new land predator intruders. We know from the battle above the world Green Water that the Dry One flyers do not possess the nothingness weapon. But of equal worry is the increased speed of swimming put forth by the four new intruders. They swam faster than our two pursuers, faster than any sky floater of the Pod. They used that speed to reduce their time of vulnerability.”

  Pod Leader blinked his four right side viewing eyes. “Can we defeat them when we catch up to them?”

  “We can,” Defender Prime signed in a sharp pattern of metallic color signs. “But we must increase the time of our battle engagement. Either the intruders must slow their sky floaters, or we must fly fast alongside them. That will allow our black balls of nothingness the chance to pursue these predators.”

  Pod Leader considered the color signs of Defender Prime. “But will our balls reach these intruders? You saw the small pieces sent off from their sky floaters that touched our balls. They caused the collapse of the hold-together fields that form our nothingness globes. Never have I seen a sky floater throw off pieces of itself.”

  “Pod Leader,” color-signed Sky Watcher from her tank beyond the defender. “My mineral devices have analyzed the imagery we received from the pod-mates on the floater that was rammed by a Dry Ones floater. The floater pieces are similar to the water balls we use to land next to shallow waters of Green Water. Yet they are smaller in size. And some nothingness balls died under assault from five four-groups of tiny rocks that moved like our black balls. Those groups each converged on a nothingness ball, collapsing the field.”

  This was not good color signs. His left side eyes sought out the half-submerged form of his Workings pod-mate. That one had gathered three touch-plates below her mouth tendrils. The tendrils moved so fast they were a blur. She was a female who had sworn off any role as a Birther, like the other females in his chamber. And she was older than he. Since he had taken control of their thirty sky floaters in the distant colony system, she had never failed to remind him of her expertise in the workings of all things that involved land, air, water and the dark dry void between sky glows.

  “Workings pod-mate, what color-sign do you detect from your watchings of these new land predators?” he signed in a mix of metallic color patterns.

  Her skin shifted color patterns from the mix that denoted intense thinking to patterns that conveyed her thoughts. He felt shock as the strength of her patterns grew sharp and bright in the dry air of his Swim Cove.

  “Pod Leader, these new predator intruders do not fear us. See the view lens?” she color-signed, adding a gesture from her right front walk-pad. “They pursue a fragment of the Dry Ones ship that rammed our sky floater. And the fleeing Dry Ones floater has slowed its swim speed. Clearly the Dry Ones floater that did not die in the battle above Green Water seeks to join with the four new intruders. And we cannot increase the swim speed of our sky floaters to a level that will allow us to meet these new enemies before they join with the Dry Ones floater.”

  The Workings female gave color sign to what he had feared. The distance out to where this battle had been fought was great. His twenty-five floaters had no ability to fly as fast as the four intruder floaters. The Pod could surely defeat and destroy these new intruders, but not soon. Would these intruders leave this sky glow before his pod-mates reached their new swim current? He did not know. But the Pod had never held back from killing land predators on Home Water. His pod-mates would follow him as he swam outward. But the new weapons of these intruders worried him. Briefly he wished each floater contained a mineral device able to shoot out electrical charges like any Pod member. But such had not been developed after the orange beams had been created. What value to naked electricity crossing the void when the orange beams would
kill every mineral device on the outer skin of a predator floater? Still, he wished Workings pod-mates had spent time to develop the tight beams of sky glow light similar to those shot forth by the flying Dry Ones and by these new intruders. Such light beams had cut deep into the hard skins of the two Pod floaters. And their range was greater than any weapon possessed by the Pod. Perhaps a good way to spend the next several rest cycles was to pressure the Workings female on how to create such light weapons.

  “Sky Watcher, continue our swim current outward to these new land predators,” he signed in a harsh pattern of orange, brown, red and silver colors. “My teeth ache to bite the outer skins of these intruders. My two hearts yearn to bring nothingness to these new predators. And we will! The sea always breaks apart the land. And so will we as we swim the dry void!”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Hunter One watched the forward perception imager on the Flight Chamber wall of the human flying nest. It showed a single smaller air bubble that had departed with some of the humans who wore white hard shells, led by the Fighter human who rested below the human leader who called himself Jacob the captain. Strange how these humans related to each other, using endless streams of vocal symbols to convey what a few puffs of pheromones conveyed among the Swarm. A second small air bubble came near the far side of the nest fragment.

  The first small air bubble punched its head into the outer hard shell of the propulsive device portion of Support Hunter Seven’s former flying nest. He felt surprise the humans would waste time and effort in pursuing this fragment. The speed of impact of Seven’s vessel with the invader flying nest surely meant anyone living in the rear portion would have flown against a metal wall the moment power was lost as the power blocks died in that impact. The fields that protected Swarmers from injury whenever a flying nest suddenly changed flight angle or speed could not have survived such a light-glowing impact. Perhaps these humans wished to capture more Swarmer devices. Or worse, perhaps they wished to obtain Swarmer bodies for cutting open. Learning that humans regularly cut open their dead in a process called dissection had made him seriously doubt the nature of these crippled land-walkers. The news such was done to determine the cause of death had meant little. Dead was dead. It gave off a pheromone, a necromone, that any Swarmer could smell. Why study the obvious?

  “Captain, we’ve found a large wasp survivor,” came the pheromone-translated words of the white-headed human who led the first flying bubble. “Suit imagery being sent your way. There are also three other wasps in this engine chamber. They all appear unconscious. But their bodies are intact.”

  Hunter One fixed his five eyes on the image conveyed by the Fighter. One side of the perception imager glowed with yellow-white light from the interior of Seven’s propulsive device chamber. Lying next to one of the support benches was a large Swarmer that he immediately recognized.

  “She is the Matron!” he said in a flush of amazed pheromones. “She carries the seed of Support Hunter Seven. Bring her here! She must reside in the Forest Room chamber.”

  “My people will bring here all those in that chamber who are intact,” came the translated acoustic symbols of the Jacob human.

  “Captain Renselaer,” came a scent-signal from the second water bubble. “Master Sergeant Lois Khan reporting from the LCA Annapolis of the Chesapeake. We are making entry on our side of the fragment. We heard what Chief O’Connor reported. We’ll look for other suvivors in the rooms and hallways on our side.”

  “Proceed,” the human named Jacob said, then turned to look at One. “My two groups of Marines will search hallways and chambers for other survivors. Clearly the inertial damper continued to work for this chamber.”

  One’s wings beat to high speed as he rose above his bench. “That is because there is a separate power block in the propulsive device chamber. Other chambers lack separate power. Only dead flesh will reside elsewhere. Warn your people of the terrible odor they face.”

  Sounds came from the Jacob human, followed by pheromone words. “My people wear spacesuits that do not allow them to smell anything. But they have devices with them that will detect any living Swarmer elsewhere in this fragment. Hunter One, why is this Matron so important?”

  His two antennae flared backward in astonishment at such a question. Then he reminded himself these were land-walkers, never able to fly through the sweet-smelling air by means of their own limbs. So they could not know the truth of the Swarm and the full role of every Matron on each flying nest.

  “A Matron contains within her eggs fertilized by the Hunter who leads her flying nest, and also eggs fertilized by Swarmers who exceed their genetic duty,” he said in a scent-cast of aggregation, primer, trail and territorial pheromones. “Support Hunter Seven fulfilled the duty of every Swarmer to first protect the nest and its larvae. His destruction of the invader nest is an image that all on Food Enough will welcome. His example will inspire every Swarmer to return here and kill every nest containing these terrible invaders. No Swarmer will rest or retreat from seeking vengeance for our dead larvae!”

  Sounds came from other humans on the Flight Chamber. Hunter One ignored those sounds. What mattered most was the knowledge that Seven’s Matron had survived. She was the only Matron to survive from the many flying nests he had led to this new sky light. Her eggs, and the example set by Seven and his Servants, were a vital primer pheromone that all Swarmers, including the Primes on Home Nest, had to scent. Within her lay the genetic pattern for a new variation of Hunters who would be needed by the Swarm to deal with strangely shaped invaders like the land-walking humans and this new group who had dropped glow-rocks onto his larvae, Servants and Fighters. Truly it was time for a new genetic pattern to grow strong among the Swarm.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Rebecca entered the conference room in the former quarters of Admiral Johanson, following behind Joy and Joan. Jacob sat the end of the table near to the Food Alcove, his gray eyes watching all of them. She took a seat at the middle of the table. To her right were Joy and Joan, then Jacob. Across from her sat Daisy. Between the XO and Jacob sat Alicia with her staffer Lori Antonova. The sound of footsteps from the room’s slidedoor caused her to look left. A tall Japanese-looking woman now walked in, scanned them all, then moved to sit beside Daisy.

  Jacob smiled. “Everyone, let me introduce Lieutenant Jane Yamamoto, chief of my Life Support deck. She is here at my request.” The young man who had led her ship and every other ship in the fight of their lives when the wasps attacked them after killing each ship’s captain and XO, that young man now looked around the table, his smile moving to a thoughtful intensity. “There’s a reason you all are here. One of those reasons is the fact of the wasp survivors recovered by Chief Warrant Officer O’Connor. The chief and his people are conveying those four wasp survivors to the Forest Room, where I assume they will take up residence in the ground nest dug by prior wasp residents. I’m sure Hunter One will have a fine time flying around with them, once they recover consciousness.” He paused, reached out to the Lazy Susan plate in the middle of the table, and grabbed a moisture-beaded can of IPA ale. He flipped open its top. “But first, before we start our dinner meal, everyone help yourself to a drink. There’s ice tea, hot tea, various craft beers, water and juices.”

  Joy, who like everyone wore blue and gray camos, looked Rebecca’s way and lifted blond eyebrows. “You want something?”

  Rebecca told herself to seek inner calmness in the manner taught her by her aikido master. Centering herself had been the key to overcoming the shock of her captain’s death, then realizing it was up to her to go to his cabin, break open the man’s safe, extract the ship status change code, and arrive on the bridge of the Chesapeake with the key and her determination to make right the disaster that had happened. She gave a nod. “Ice tea, please.”

  Joy nodded, grabbed the pitcher off the Lazy Susan as other folks grabbed beer cans, juice cartons or the hot tea pitcher. The former chief of the Philippine Sea’s Weapons Deck poured golden
brown tea into a plex glass and pushed it toward Rebecca. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks,” she said, grabbing the cold glass and lifting it for a sip.

  Only while she sipped did she look around the table at the people gathered there. Why was Jacob holding this meeting? Why weren’t there other Lepanto deck chiefs present? Was this an event where blame would be handed out for something related to the recent space battle? Or was it about the vector change of all four ships, which had looped around and were following along the track of the escaping wasp ship? Which vector would bring to the tumbling fragments of the invader ship that had been rammed by Seven’s ship. While she appreciated Jacob’s leadership to date, and the novel formations he had ordered in this system and later in Kepler 10 when the new wasp fleet led by Hunter Prime had shown up, still, he was twenty years younger than herself. He had never been a deck chief, let alone the captain of a ship like the frigate Aldertag commanded by Joan. Or a heavy cruiser like the Chesapeake. Joan was a woman whose solid manner was a lesson to anyone in how to command with confidence and with professionalism. Across from her Daisy caught her gaze. The young mixed-race woman gave her a wink, then looked left to Jacob.

  “Captain, is it time to call in Kenji? Or wait awhile?”

  Jacob looked to Daisy, his manner alert and attentive. His entire manner betrayed his love for the young woman pilot and his reliance on her. Rebecca recognized that look. No doubt it resembled the looks she had shared with Jason, whenever they met formally during a captain’s All Decks conference, or informally in her deck chief’s quarters. A Reform Jew from New York, Jason had always asked about her family, her relatives, how she was feeling. The man had never made demands on her. Which was one reason she fell in love with him four years ago. While he was an excellent lover, it had been his inner calmness and his superb attention to his work as chief of the right flank proton node that had made her fall for him. She had a soft spot for confident, attractive men who felt at ease next to a woman who managed people, including other men. She missed Jason badly. At least she still had Andrei.