StarFight 3: Battlecry
Page 28
Jacob gave thanks he had let the wasp ship take the lead and become the first fleet ship to come in range of the manta ray ships. The enemy had slowed its forward thrusting to focus on Hunter’s ship. That had allowed his fleet to advance at a slower speed. He wanted to give the giant wasp ship plenty of time to suck in shark-head ships. Now, that separation distance was vanishing as the enemy drew closer. They were not moving at the maximum speed of one-tenth psol. Neither fleet was. Each approached the other at something close to the Earth escape velocity of 40,270 klicks an hour, or 11.2 kilometers a second. This was going to be a slow pas de deux ballet encounter of two ship fleets. It was not the ‘sit stationary and fire at each other’ formation of earlier on the edge of the star’s magnetosphere. Both sides wanted time to target and hit the other. It was not Jacob’s preferred tactic. He would have liked going at the enemy at one-tenth speed of light. But that would have allowed any survivors to rush past his ships and head for Food Enough. He could not allow that. The wasp civies had to be kept safe. So it was now down to a slow fight. Faster than Mach 5 jets by far since orbital escape was equal to Mach 33. But still slow by normal space flight speeds.
“Range is 10,043 klicks,” called Rosemary.
“Firing lasers,” grunted Oliver, his gloved hands moving over his control pillar.
“Wasp ships are firing lasers and lightning bolts,” called Rosemary again. “Fleet ships are firing back with lasers. Black balls incoming!”
He blinked. That was a surprise. But the range counter said they were within 8,000 klicks of the enemy. And those ships had been able to send balls out this far. As far as he could tell, the balls did not die until they touched something solid. His sensor holo showed scores of green missile dots closing with a shoal of white antimatter dots. Ahead, the scope image filled with white starlight as single missiles touched single black balls and collapsed their containment fields.
“Damn!” yelled Oliver. “The Smart Rocks passed right into the balls and they did not collapse. Looks like the shark-heads adjusted their solid matter thresholds.”
Not good. “Chesapeake, cluster your Smart Rocks into forty rock launchings. Let’s hope that works to collapse a field.”
“Adjusting Smart Rock cluster size,” called Rebecca.
The white dots in his sensor holo got fewer. But there were still scores of them that had survived that first launch of missiles and Smart Rocks. Now they began spiraling and moving apart, aiming for both the Chesapeake and the Lepanto.
“Launching more missiles!” cried Oliver. “We’ve got thirty left. Going to rapid fire from our silos.”
The range counter hit 6,192 klicks.
“We’re coming up!” yelled Joy. “You need help killing those balls! We need to be on your front line to do that!”
“Heading up also,” called Joan. “Our silo is launching.”
Jacob could not believe the actions of his two captains. The destroyer had just two tail silos. The frigate had a single one, rebuilt with tubing provided by Hunter Four’s fabrication globe while they had waited for the arrival of Hunter One. They could not rapid fire like his ship could.
“Human leader, we too are spitting out these metal tubes!” came from Support Hunter Twelve.
“We also,” came from Fifteen and Seventeen.
His range counter showed 5,712 kilometers and closing. Six wasp ships came toward him and his people.
Green laser beams shot through the scope image on his front wallscreen. Four beams from the Lepanto and the Chesapeake concentrated on a single manta ray ship.
It exploded in a flare of yellow-white light.
Yellow lightning bolts and green laser beams now shot forward from the three wasp ships behind his Battlestar, impaling another manta ray ship. That ship became a small star.
Four enemy left.
The Sea shot its red proton beam at a manta ray ship, punching a hole through the middle of its silvery body. Red beams from the Lepanto’s right flank proton node and from the left flank proton node of the Chesapeake joined the Sea’s beam.
A yellow-white star glowed in the blackness of the void.
Three left.
His situational counter hit 4,000 kilometers.
“Antimatter cannon, fire at M3!” he yelled to Linkletter.
A black beam of antimatter shot out from the Lepanto’s nose, striking a manta ray ship that was at 3,812 klicks.
It missed as the enemy ship spiraled to one side.
Sparkling black balls grew large in the scope image.
“We’re hit!” called Rebecca. “Both laser nodes gone! Shit!”
The cruiser captain had just lost ten people.
A vibration came to his boots from the pedestal he sat on.
“Left outrigger laser gone,” called Oliver.
That was Olivia and her crew of seven.
It hurt.
“Cannon, fire at M2!” he yelled.
A black beam of negative matter reached out and touched one of the three remaining manta ray ships. It became a yellow-white star.
“They’re flying away!” yelled Louise. “Moving south ecliptic. They’re already up to ten psol.”
“Enemy is out of weapons range,” called Rosemary.
Two manta ray ships would escape. He could accept that. Losing Olivia and seven crew was not okay. His gut clenched. His heart beat fast. A chill ran down his neck. Daisy was sorely injured. And he had lost eight crew. People he had eaten with in the Mess Hall. People he had played soccer with in Park Room, during Alcubierre transit. People who—
A new star appeared to the right of Rebecca’s ship. A captain’s image vanished from the line above the wallscreen.
“Aldertag got hit by five black balls,” said Louise, her voice shaking. “I loved her.”
His sensor holo showed only a dozen black balls left. They were still incoming but at some distance.
“Ships, go to ten psol,” Jacob yelled. “Let’s get the hell away from these black balls!”
“Increasing thrust,” called Maggie.
“Moving out,” called Joy. The hellbent to fight woman looked sad.
“Us too,” said Rebecca, her black face showing tears.
“Joining you,” came the translated words of Support Hunter Twelve.
The other two wasp captains joined in.
“We will change our flight angle and join you,” called Hunter One. “Cohort Ally, you killed the killers of our larvae. You have protected Food Enough. Our wings beat for you.”
Jacob did not care for the wasp expression of sympathy. He only wanted to escape the memory image of the Aldertag exploding.
Seventy-one people had died on it. Good people. Led by a good woman who had come forward at great risk to help defend his and Rebecca’s ships.
Damn it hurt.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Daisy stood beside Jacob as they floated in space in her LCA. He stood to her left in the pilot’s globe of the small ship. She stood next to her pilot seat. Though her left arm was still in a soft support matrix and held up by an old-fashioned sling, she felt okay. And it did not mess with doing what she loved. Which was piloting a spaceship.
Jacob’s sadness from the loss of Joan’s ship and the eight crew from the outrigger laser node had lasted the two days since her injury and the final battle against the shark-heads. Nothing she said to him had changed his mood. Instead, he had talked and related as if he were without feelings, almost like an AI. Except Melody showed more feelings than he did now. This trip in the LCA was her newest effort to lift his spirits.
“Jacob, look down there. Isn’t it beautiful?”
The clear helmet of his vacsuit moved. He looked through the clear quartz of her pilot’s window. Below them, below the downward pointing nose of her LCA, hung the blue, green and purple wonder of planet five. The world promised to humans by Hunter One and Matron Prime. Those two had gone on to a big confab in Hunter Four’s fabrication globe, as it orbited above the system’s s
ixth planet, the one the wasps called Food Enough. They had asked Jacob to come for a special wasp show of appreciation for what he, the fleet and everyone had done. Jacob had declined. So she had walked him to Hangar Four, pushed him into the ship’s airlock, strapped him in to the co-pilot’s seat and taken them out. It was a short haul from Food Enough to this new world.
“Jacob?”
He looked her way. His gray eyes were not dull, like they had been two days ago. But they were not bright with the liveliness she was used to seeing in him. He nodded.
“Yes, it is beautiful.”
His voice over her helmet comlink sounded blah. Not down. Not upbeat. Just blah. As if all his excitement at being the captain of a Battlestar and a fleet of Star Navy ships had vanished.
“Hey! I’m your partner.” She reached out, grabbed his arm, and lifted it to point at a strip of land that resembled Florida. A place she had visited once with her Mom, long ago. “Bet that peninsula has some great beaches! Wouldn’t you love to go swim there?”
His pale lips moved to a half-smile. “Not if there are giant critters down there, like the ones that attacked Hunter’s survey party.”
“Crap on that,” she said, jiggling his arm. “We’re humans. Nothing can take a bite out of us. We bite back better than anyone!”
His half-smile vanished. “At a cost.”
Damn. What to do now? An idea hit her. It made her feel good. Maybe it would work for Jacob. Maybe he would feel what she now felt.
“Jacob, nobody has named that world down there. We are the first humans to see it. Soon we will be the first to walk on its meadows and beaches and mountains and swim in its seas. What shall we name it?”
He shrugged inside his vacsuit. “Leave that to the settlers.”
“No!” She pulled his arm until he faced her. Her man stood there, a few inches taller than her, his clean-shaven face somber, his eyes seeing her, but no emotion showing. “Hey, how about we call this world Sunderland?”
Surprise filled his face. Then his lips rose a bit. Rose more. Brightness shone from his eyes. A grin at last. Yes!
“I like that. I like it a lot.” He reached out and pulled her into a one-armed embrace. She joined him in looking down at the world that was such a beautiful copy of Earth. “Joan would like knowing that her last colony assignment was a new world. One to which colonists had yet to come. She was the protector of every colony world, you know, moving on to each new one. Calling this world Sunderland fits.”
Daisy sighed. “Wish we could scatter some of her ashes down there. But hey, when the colonists lay out their town site, how about you and I come back with a bronze statue of Joan. Tell them to put her statue in the middle of a park in their new town. And if they argue, we’ll use my LCA’s laser to burn a space in the park and put down the sucker ourselves!”
“Damn but you are wonderful!” He hugged her close. She hugged him close. Together they looked down at a wonderful world, a world that had come with a hard price. But a world for humans.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
T. Jackson King (Tom) is a professional archaeologist, journalist and retired Hippie. He learned early on to question authority and find answers for himself, thanks to reading lots of science fiction. He also worked at a radiocarbon dating laboratory at UC Riverside and UCLA. Tom attended college in Paris and Tokyo. He is a graduate of UCLA (M.A. 1976, archaeology) and the University of Tennessee (B.Sc. 1971, journalism). He has worked as an archaeologist in the American Southwest and has traveled widely in Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada, Mexico and the USA. Other jobs have included short order cook, hotel clerk, legal assistant, telephone order taker, investigative reporter and newspaper editor. He also survived the warped speech-talk of local politicians and escaped with his hide intact. Tom writes hard science fiction, anthropological scifi, dark fantasy/horror and contemporary fantasy/magic realism. Tom’s novels are SUPERGUY (2016), BATTLEGROUP (2016), BATTLESTAR (2016), DEFEAT THE ALIENS (2016), FIGHT THE ALIENS (2016), FIRST CONTACT (2015), ESCAPE FROM ALIENS (2015), ALIENS VS. HUMANS (2015), FREEDOM VS. ALIENS (2015), HUMANS VS. ALIENS (2015), GENECODE ILLEGAL (2014), EARTH VS. ALIENS (2014), ALIEN ASSASSIN (2014), THE MEMORY SINGER (2014), ANARCHATE VIGILANTE (2014), GALACTIC VIGILANTE (2013), NEBULA VIGILANTE (2013), SPEAKER TO ALIENS (2013), GALACTIC AVATAR (2013), STELLAR ASSASSIN (2013), STAR VIGILANTE (2012), THE GAEAN ENCHANTMENT (2012), LITTLE BROTHER’S WORLD (2010), ANCESTOR’S WORLD (1996, with A.C. Crispin), and RETREAD SHOP (1988, 2012). His short stories appeared in JUDGMENT DAY AND OTHER DREAMS (2009). His poetry appeared in MOTHER EARTH’S STRETCH MARKS (2009). Tom lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with his wife Sue. More information on Tom’s writings can be found at www.tjacksonking.com/.
PRAISE FOR T. JACKSON KING’S BOOKS
EARTH VS. ALIENS
“This story is the best space opera I've read in many years. The author knows his Mammalian Behavior. If we’re lucky it’ll become a movie soon. Many of the ideas are BRAND NEW and I loved the adaptability of people in the story line. AWESOME!!”—Phil W. King, Amazon
“It’s good space opera. I liked the story and wanted to know what happened next. The characters are interesting and culturally diverse. The underlying theme is that humans are part of nature and nature is red of tooth and claw. Therefore, humans are naturally violent, which fortunately makes them a match for the predators from space.”—Frank C. Hemingway, Amazon
STAR VIGILANTE
“For a fast-paced adventure with cool tech, choose Star Vigilante. This is the story of three outsiders. Can three outsiders bond together to save Eliana's planet from eco-destruction at the hands of a ruthless mining enterprise?” –Bonnie Gordon, Los Alamos Daily Post
STELLAR ASSASSIN
“T. Jackson King’s Stellar Assassin is an ambitious science fiction epic that sings! Filled with totally alien lifeforms, one lonely human, an archaeologist named Al Lancaster must find his way through trade guilds, political maneuvering and indentured servitude, while trying to reconcile his new career as an assassin with his deeply-held belief in the teachings of Buddha. . . This is a huge, colorful, complicated world with complex characters, outstanding dialogue, believable motivations, wonderful high-tech battle sequences and, on occasion, a real heart-stringer . . . This is an almost perfectly edited novel as well, which is a bonus. This is a wonderful novel, written by a wonderful author . . .Bravo! Five Stars!” –Linell Jeppsen, Amazon
LITTLE BROTHER’S WORLD
“If you’re sensing a whiff of Andre Norton or Robert A. Heinlein, you’re not mistaken . . . The influence is certainly there, but Little Brother’s World is no mere imitation of Star Man’s Son or Citizen of the Galaxy. Rather, it takes the sensibility of those sorts of books and makes of it something fresh and new. T. Jackson King is doing his part to further the great conversation of science fiction; it’ll be interesting to see where he goes next.”–Don Sakers, Analog
“When I’m turning a friend on to a good writer I’ve just discovered, I'll often say something like, “Give him ten pages and you’ll never be able to put him down.” Once in a long while, I'll say, “Give him five pages.” It took T. Jackson King exactly one sentence to set his hook so deep in me that I finished LITTLE BROTHER’S WORLD in a single sitting, and I’ll be thinking about that vivid world for a long time to come. The last writer I can recall with the courage to make a protagonist out of someone as profoundly Different as Little Brother was James Tiptree Jr., with her remarkable debut novel UP THE WALLS OF THE WORLD. I think Mr. King has met that challenge even more successfully. His own writing DNA borrows genes from writers as diverse as Tiptree, Heinlein, Norton, Zelazny, Sturgeon, Pohl, and Doctorow, and splices them together very effectively.” –Spider Robinson, Hugo, Nebula and Campbell Award winner
“Little Brother's World is a sci-fi novel where Genetic Engineering exists. . . It contains enough details and enough thrills to make the book buyers/readers grab it and settle in for an afternoon read. The book is wel
l-written and had a well-defined plot . . . I never found a boring part in the story. It was fast-paced and kept me entertained all throughout. The characters are fascinating and likeable too. This book made me realize about a possible outcome, when finally science and technology wins over traditional ones. . . All in all, Little Brother’s World is another sci-fi novel from T. Jackson King that is both exciting, thrilling and fun. Full of suspense, adventure, romance, secrets, conspiracies, this book would take you in a roller-coaster ride.” –Abby Flores, Bookshelf Confessions
THE MEMORY SINGER
“A coming of age story reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein or Alexei Panshin. Jax [the main character] is a fun character, and her world is compelling. The social patterns of Ship life are fascinating, and the Alish’Tak [the main alien species] are sufficiently alien to make for a fairly complex book. Very enjoyable.”—Don Sakers, Analog Science Fiction
“Author T. Jackson King brings his polished writing style, his knowledge of science fiction ‘hardware,’ and his believable aliens to his latest novel The Memory Singer. But all this is merely backdrop to the adventures of Jax Cochrane, a smart, rebellious teen who wants more from life than the confines of a generational starship. There are worlds of humans and aliens out there. When headstrong Jax decides that it’s time to discover and explore them, nothing can hold back this defiant teen. You’ll want to accompany this young woman . . in this fine coming-of-age story.”—Jean Kilczer, Amazon
RETREAD SHOP
“Engaging alien characters, a likable protagonist, and a vividly realized world make King’s first sf novel a good purchase for sf collections.”–Library Journal
“A very pleasant tour through the author’s inventive mind, and an above average story as well.”–Science Fiction Chronicle