Alpha Centauri: The Return (T-Space Alpha Centauri Book 3)

by Alastair Mayer

  “Weapons ready,” he ordered, although they were already lying prone on the rock with rifles at hand.

  “Target?” Zhang Min asked.

  Lee had hoped to finish off the small mammoth, or at least put enough shots into its legs to immobilize it, and let the wolves have it. But it was moving around too much for his inexperienced shooters, and now one of the big bulls had moved into the line of fire. Damn.

  “We’ll have to take out the wolves. Wang Wei, start from the left. Zhang Min, the right. I’ll take center. Remember, single, aimed shots. Make them count. Keep ten rounds in reserve.” Lee wanted to make sure they had ammo left when they crossed the grassland, and if his people were counting their shots, it would force them to slow down and aim more carefully. Or so he hoped.

  “Ready?” He paused while they acknowledged. “At will, but make your shots count. No more than twenty rounds. Fire!”

  Lee had as his target a large wolf near the center of the pack, currently backing away slowly and snarling at a bull mammoth. He squeezed the trigger, hearing the sharp report and feeling the rifle buck slightly in his grip. Nothing. At seventy meters that was an easy shot, how had he missed? He aimed and fired again. The wolf flinched away from something but he hadn’t hit it. A quick glance to either side showed that neither Wang Wei nor Zhang Min were having any success either. What the hell?

  Then he realized. At only eighty percent gravity and a thinner atmosphere the weapons were sighted too high, his shots had gone over the wolf’s back. He shifted his aim to the bottom of the wolf’s chest—difficult to see because of the tall grass and the dire wolf’s own motion—and squeezed off the shot. The animal lurched sideways and yelped, a gout of blood splashing from perhaps halfway up its ribcage, but too far to the rear to have hit the heart or anything immediately lethal. Assuming, Lee thought, its internal organs were arranged anything like an Earth wolf’s.

  “Aim low,” he shouted to his compatriots. “The sights are adjusted for Earth.”

  He’d used three shots to wound one wolf. At least now he knew where to aim, but the beasts were still darting back and forth to harry the mammoths. A few of them were now looking in his direction, having heard either the shots or the crack of supersonic bullets overhead. He picked another target and fired. Another miss. Sixteen rounds left. He saw a wolf go down on the left. Wang had gotten a hit. He aimed and fired again, only to see his target whirl at the noise of the shot as the dirt geysered less than half a meter from it. Missed, damn it.

  He shifted his aim and squeezed off two rounds in rapid succession. At least one scored a hit, and the wolf went down rolling. Then it got up again and limped away three-legged, keeping its right foreleg off the ground. Their full metal jacketed military ammunition was designed to wound, unlike soft-point hunting rounds. Thirteen rounds. He’d used up almost half his shots. He picked another target and fired twice more to no effect. The animals were moving too much to get a good aim. He tried again. One of those might have grazed the animal’s back, from its reaction, but it ran off.

  Lee raised his head to survey the field. Wang Wei and Zhang Min had killed one each, and a couple of other wolves were limping away. Several others were watching the rock the men were on, having tracked the sound or noticing the muzzle flashes. They were spreading out, mammoths forgotten, eyes on the rock. An encircling motion.

  “Change fire! Concentrate on the wolves trying to encircle us. Let’s discourage them.”

  Lee picked one that had advanced to only thirty meters away, crawling through the grass and, Lee was sure, staring directly at him. He aimed carefully for what he could see of its chest, just beneath the lowered head, and fired, pausing to see the effect but ready to follow up with an immediate second shot. It wouldn’t be needed; the wolf’s muzzle and left eye cratered under the impact and the beast went down like a stone.

  Where was the next? He had nine rounds left until he was into his reserve.

  He wasted three of them trying to bring down a wolf which had switched from a crawl to a bounding charge, finally wounding it a few meters shy of their rock.

  “Behind us!” Zhang Min cried. Lee turned his head to look. Two wolves had managed to sneak around to the rear, and were now rushing the easy, sloping side of the rock they were on.

  To hell with single shots, Lee decided, and thumbed his selector to three-round bursts. He fired a burst at the lead wolf, bringing it down as it started up the rock. On either side of him, Zhang Min and Wang Wei fired several quick single shots, and the second wolf went down. He turned back to the front. Six rounds until reserve.

  The wolves which had broken off from the main pack to investigate the shooters were either down or in retreat. One less thing to worry about. As Lee watched, the remaining wolves, still trying to harry the small mammoth, were being held at bay by a couple of bulls.

  A howl went up from one of the larger wolves. Not the snarling howl of attack, just a pure howl, as though baying at the moon. At the sound, the others broke off their attack and beat a retreat to the left, eventually disappearing into the long grass.

  “Cease firing,” Lee ordered.

  What the mammoths did next startled him. Very methodically, they approached each dead or wounded wolf, those which had been too wounded to join the retreat, and methodically stomped it flat. It made a cruel sense, Lee realized. A wolf merely playing dead wouldn’t get away, and it might discourage a repeat attack. It might even be merciful to the severely wounded ones.

  Not that he had planned to, but Lee made another mental note to himself. Don’t shoot at the mammoths.

  He set the selector to SAFE, pulled the magazine from his QBZ-95 and counted the rounds left. Fourteen, plus one in the chamber. One less than he’d thought, he must have missed one while firing. He replaced the magazine and

  “Wang Wei, Zhang Min. Ammo counts?”

  The other two did the same, safing their rifles and removing their magazines and counting the rounds.

  “Eleven, plus one in the chamber. Twelve,” said Wang Wei.

  “Down to ten, including one in the chamber,” added Zhang Min.

  So, thirty-seven rounds between the three of them. They still had to get back to the ship across nearly two kilometers of grassland, and somewhere out there was what was left of a pack of frustrated and hungry dire wolves. And it was getting dark. Interesting times.

  “All right. We need to make time. Let’s make the best of this. Take pictures and tissue samples from those two—” he gestured at the bodies of the wolves that had tried to sneak up behind them “—while I contact the ship.”

  But before doing that, as best as he could, he counted the wolf bodies between the rock and the herd of mammoths. The latter were done making floor rugs out of the bodies. It looked like seven or eight bodies forward, plus the two to the rear. That roughly tallied with what he remembered seeing during the fight, between their shots and the mammoths defense. That left six or seven still out there somewhere, perhaps two or three of them injured but mobile. Four or five healthy dire wolves, against the three of them with thirty-seven rounds between them. It had taken sixty-three rounds to kill perhaps seven wolves already. That would be amazingly effective if this had been an infantry action, but the wolves had been neither shooting back nor taking cover. At nine rounds per wolf, there’d be wolves left when they ran out of ammo. Worse, when hiking back they would no longer have the advantage of high ground.

  “Lee to Xinglong, report.”

  “Captain Lee, we are happy to hear from you. We thought we heard shooting. Nothing has changed on the ship.”

  “Good. We have driven off the wolves for now. At least six, perhaps seven of them still out there, a few of them wounded but mobile. We’re low on ammunition but not out. We’re heading back.”

  “Do you want us to come and meet you? We can bring
extra ammunition.”

  Lee considered that. It was tempting, but it put the others at risk unnecessarily. They weren’t combat troops.

  “Negative,” Lee said. “Stay with the ship. There are only three of you. I don’t want any less than groups of three outside, and I don’t want to leave the ship unattended.” He thought a moment more. Who was the best shot, other than himself? “Have Shufeng Bai prepare his weapon and stand by at the hatch. Tell him to adjust his sights for the gravity and atmosphere here. If we’re attacked en route, and if he has a clear shot, he can snipe at the wolves. Emphasis on clear shot, we don’t need any friendly fire.”

  “Clear shot, and adjust sights. I will convey the order.”

  “All right. Lee out.” He clicked off his omni and turned to the others, who had rejoined him after gathering their samples. “Ready to go?”

  “If we must,” said Zhang Min.

  “Would you rather spend the night here on the rock?” he asked her. The sun was already behind the clouds near the horizon, it was getting dark.

  “Uh, no. Let us be off then. I am looking forward to dinner back at the Xinglong.”

  “That’s the spirit. We move in leapfrog fashion. Zhang Min, you take the lead. I’ll be twenty paces behind you. Wang Wei guards the rear until I’m twenty paces out. I’ll signal. Then I watch the rear while Wang Wei comes to the front and twenty paces in front of Zhang Min. Then Zhang Min watches the rear while I advance, and so on. Everyone clear?”

  They nodded. “Clear.”

  “Weapons ready. Zhang Min, move out.”

  She descended the rock to the side, where it wasn’t as steep, then made her way forward, keeping clear of the dead wolves the mammoths had flattened and watching warily to her front and left, where the rest of the pack had run off. The mammoths were a good seventy or more meters off by now, back to grazing, but with the bulls now all on the perimeter.

  “Okay. Wang Wei, watch the rear.” Lee scrambled down the rock and, rifle at the ready, followed Zhang Min’s path forward. Foul odors of blood and intestinal contents wafted up from the crushed wolf corpses. A corner of Lee’s mind wondered at that, the smells were surprisingly Earth-like.

  At twenty paces, he called to Zhang Min.

  “Halt. Stand by.” He turned and waved to Wang. “Leapfrog.” As Wang Wei descended and followed his path, Lee scanned the area to the rear, watching and listening for anything that might be trying to sneak through the grass. So far, everything was clear and quiet.

  Wang Wei caught up to him. “All right,” Lee said, “advance twenty paces ahead of Zhang Min, then halt. Watch your front and sides.”

  “Of course.” Wang kept going. Lee ignored him and kept watching the rear.

  A short while later he heard Zhang Min call “Halt, leapfrog.” He scanned the rear a final time, turned to check that Zhang Min was now looking that way too, and double-timed past her and to the front of the line, where Wang Wei stood watching forward.

  “Okay, signal when I’m ten meters in front. And let’s double time the leapfrog from now on. I don’t want to be out here all night.”

  “Will do.”

  Lee moved forward another twenty paces and stopped at Wang Wei’s signal. Still watching forward, he raised his arm to signal Wang Wei, who called Zhang Min, who was now rearmost.

  It was simpler than it sounded. Lee was glad he didn’t have to try to write this up for a field manual, but it was similar to a standard infantry move. Not that he expected his scientists to remember much of their basic training.

  He heard Zhang Min’s footsteps double-timing up behind him. They nodded to each other as she passed, and she moved ahead. Lee glanced at the time on his omni, and muttered a curse at himself for forgetting to check the time when they left. He glanced back, then forwards. Still a long way to go, but so far, so good. Zhang Min halted, and Lee turned to signal Wang. At least the gravity here is lower, thought Lee. Even the scientists can keep up double time with their packs and weapons.

  Chapter 10: Court-Martial

  Lunar Quarantine Facility

  Drake’s side of the court-martial was held in the main conference room of the LQF, with its cameras and large screens. The judges—Admirals Carter, Howard, and Shankland—together with various court clerks and other personnel, were gathered in a similar conference room on Earth. With the quarantine still in effect, any witnesses from the Centauri mission were still on the Moon, available to be called if needed. Director Kemmerer and Major Keating were also present, as was Drake’s lawyer, Lt. Commander Cogley. The latter had arrived from Earth the day before, knowing that he would have to stay until the quarantine was lifted, but feeling it was important that Drake not be subject to the communications lag when discussing things with counsel.

  The proceedings were primarily regarding the loss, or apparent loss, of three ships under Commodore Drake’s command, but as Keating had suggested earlier, there were other charges. After the court was convened and the opening formalities completed, the disappearance of the Xīng Huā was the first matter.

  “Commodore Drake, what orders did you give regarding the Xīng Huā, in regard to transit into the Alpha Centauri system?”

  “I gave coordinates for a rendezvous target of one AU from the system barycenter, then at ten second intervals to warp to the designated position,” Drake replied. This had been gone over many times before, but this was for the court record. “The Heinlein went first, then the Xīng Huā, and so in in prearranged sequence.”

  “Why that position,” the prosecuting attorney asked, “some sixteen and nineteen AU from your mission objectives?”

  “Objection,” Cogley spoke before Drake could answer. “Commodore Drake’s mission objectives were not the stars themselves, but the suspected Earth-like planets orbiting them.”

  “So noted. I amend my inaccuracy, but the question remains. Why that position?”

  This time Cogley let Drake answer. “Analysis has shown that orbits beyond three AU from either star are unstable. It was unlikely that any significant hazards to navigation—” Cogley had coached him to use that phrasing “—lay in that area. It was considered a safe zone.”

  “And what happened when you arrived there?”

  Drake walked them through the events, from concern when the Xīng Huā delayed reporting in, to the negative reports from the ships that had followed Xīng Huā into warp, to the long search and finally detection of a gamma ray pulse at the outer edge of the system.

  “Where about, relative to your position?”

  “Approximately twenty astronomical units back towards Sol.”

  “And yet the unstable orbit region extends to seventy AU in that system, so even that area should have been clear, is that right?”

  “Unstable doesn’t necessarily mean empty. Something could have drifted in from the system’s Oort cloud but not stayed there.”

  “In which case, your initial target could also have had such debris in it, couldn’t it?”

  “Objection. Commodore Drake’s actions in that regard are not in question. No other ships were lost by collision, the area was deemed safe for navigation.”

  Admiral Howard spoke up. “Objection sustained. Counselor, please focus on the matter at hand.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Commodore, what were your actions when you realized the Xīng Huā had been lost?”

  “I consulted with the experts in my crew as to the probable cause. The consensus was that the ship had struck an object while in warp, and the resulting energy release had destroyed it.”

  “Did you go back and search for survivors?”

  “I did not.”

  “Why not?”

  “After an explosion of that magnitude, it was unlikely there would be any survivors. There was also a risk to the other ships and crew under my comman
d. Explosion debris from the Xīng Huā and whatever it had collided with made it inadvisable to go back under warp, and to go back to the area with standard thrusters would have taken days to weeks.”

  “Did you take any other action with regard to the Xīng Huā?”

  “I noted the position and the orbital parameters as we determined them, in case we or someone else returned to look for the debris.”

  “Thank you, no further questions.” He addressed Cogley, “your witness.”

  “Thank you,” Cogley said. “Commodore Drake, was any further analysis of the data regarding the Xīng Huā taken?”

  “Objection. That has no bearing on the actual loss of the ship.”

  “On the contrary, sirs. The only evidence that the Xīng Huā was actually lost lies in the data recorded of that explosion and whatever debris was left. The defense has a right to examine all the evidence.”

  “Objection overruled, the counsel is correct.” Then, in an aside, the admiral added, “These proceedings are sealed, right?” That was confirmed. “The witness may answer the question. Proceed.”

  “Yes. The mission’s chief astrophysicist, Greg Vukovich, did further analysis.”

  “And what were his findings?”

  “Objection, hearsay. If the defense wants Vukovich’s findings on record, they can call him as a witness.”

  On the screen, Admirals Howard and Shankland looked at each other and seemed to sigh. Drake couldn’t be certain, but it looked like Carter rolled his eyes.

  “Sustained. Counselor, much as we would all like these proceedings to be conducted speedily, the prosecution has a point.”

  “Very well, sir. In the interest of speediness, I have just one further question for Commodore Drake on the matter of the Xīng Huā at this time.”

  “Very well, ask your question.”