“Translation enabled. Link accepted. Holo display appears.”
Filling her comlink holo was the snake-gorilla form of Death Leader. The blue-scaled cobra hood spread wide to either side of its triangular head. White eyes fixed on her. The wide mouth opened. A purple tongue swept over white canines. Behind it, the thick tail that resembled a Gila monster’s studded skin thumped loudly. Its four crewpersons did not raise their heads, such as they resembled heads. Clearly they chose to show subservience. Not her.
“Why do you bother me!” she yelled, spreading her arms wide. In the comlink holo her vulture image spread black wings to full extent.
“Did you just mate?” snarled the snake-gorilla, his bass deep voice echoing against the walls of her Command Bridge.
“None of your business!” she yelled again and leaned forward. Her vulture’s arching chest fluffed out.
The fleet commander raised a black-furred gorilla hand and pointed a finger at her. “You chose service to me. The time for resting and mating and such diversions is over! This fleet leaves in one hour for the Human star Sol.” He waved down at one of his crewpersons. “My Navigator is transmitting the star’s coordinates to you. Follow me and the rest of the fleet!”
“Follow you I will,” Jane said firmly, thinking fast. “I desire payment now of my Nokten crystal. A month has passed. Pay me before we leave!”
White teeth slammed shut in the monster’s gorilla-like mouth. It opened slowly. “You failed to sell any Captives to the Market world Buyers. Your loss is your fault. Your Nokten crystal will be delivered to you after you arrive at Sol.”
“Not good!” Jane screamed, making Bright Sparkle jump in her station seat. Wind Swift and Lofty Flyer turned their heads to look back at her. Even Chester looked startled. Bill didn’t. Her husband had come to know her amateur actor side. “It is 48 days to this Sol system. One and a half more months. Pay me now for the month I have spent here! Or I leave to sell my Captives elsewhere.”
Bill didn’t show any reaction. Nor did Chester. Her other crew members turned back to focus on their station holos. The giant gorilla tensed its huge shoulders. Then it snorted. “At least you know how to threaten. Maybe you will fight well at this Sol. I will dispatch a collector pod with your crystal. As I have been doing to my other ships. Their captains reacted much as you did.”
Jane felt relief sweep over her. She’d followed her instincts. And her memory of how this monster had behaved when they’d first arrived. This was only her fifth person-to-person encounter with it. Their interactions after her arrival had been limited to orders on where to move her ship, an inquiry on her fuel reserves and a demand for her combat videos. She’d sent one from the Mok star system. The walking cougars were deadly aggressors. Star Traveler had recorded a broadcast combat video of a space battle montage during her ship’s presence there as they returned two cougars to their home world. She knew better than to send this creature anything that hailed from Earth.
“I await my payment,” she said, pulling her arms inward to rest on her lap. Her vulture image showed black wings folding against her back. “Have your Navigator send me the departure signal. So we will arrive with the rest of this fleet.”
Death Leader growled something to one of his crew, then looked back to her. “The crystal pod is launched. Follow the movement directions of my Navigator! Every ship in this fleet must move outward until 900 miles separate each ship. That is to allow our safe arrival outside this star system. Obey!”
Jane gave thanks for her ship mind’s instant translation of Alien distance terms. She leaned forward, causing her vulture form to fluff its chest feathers. “Understood. How do we attack these Humans, if one of their ships is near our arrival point?”
“You attack when I order it!” growled Death Leader, his white eyes scanning her and seeing the nearby crew persons who had once served under the Linglo vulture. Those Library holos supplemented her Linglo vulture holo. “No ship fires until I order it. When we arrive at Sol, every ship will move close to me. Until we are each within 131 miles of each other. Once assembled, we will move inward at one-tenth lightspeed. We stop nowhere. Upon Earth arrival, we bombard the planet. Surely that is simple enough for a Linglo avian like you?”
Jane slammed her fists on her armrests, missing the control spots embedded in part of each armrest. In her comlink holo, her vulture image’s red eyes glowed brightly. The vulture’s chest-arms clenched talon-studded fists. “We avians know how to attack in space better than any ground-bound creature like you! We know all spatial dimensions intimately. You only know what you have studied!”
“Impudent avian!” growled the snake-gorilla. Its red and black-streaked tail lifted up as it stood atop its own command pedestal. “My ship Fear Arrives has destroyed many spaceships of Captive species. I have eaten of their space-frozen corpses. As I will eat of these Humans. Follow me and obey. You will be paid another Nokten crystal upon arrival at this Sol system. Satisfied?”
“Satisfied,” Jane said calmly, unclenching her fists. In the comlink holo her image squatted back on its perch bar. “Your crystal pod has arrived. My hover bot retrieves my crystal. In one hour my ship Strikes Deep leaves with you for Sol star!”
The snake-gorilla blinked white eyes. “Your obedience ensures future profit. Departing.”
The holo of Death Leader vanished, leaving her shaking. She was not used to mindless threatening and posturing. Which seemed to be the snake-gorilla’s way of ensuring obedience by its crew and the other ships in its fleet. She had to mentally remind herself that every Alien aboard the 36 ships gathered at Kepler 62 came from a high tech society. The Aliens had advanced education. They were used to traveling in space. They were also used to being covert as they kidnapped innocent civilians from remote planetary locations. Likely few of them had faced any kind of space combat, despite the boasts of Death Leader. She suspected many of them, like Bright Sparkle and Learned Escape, had served in orbital complexes or been involved with other Alien species. The memory of the two color-banded near humans reminded her of their personal sacrifice. The two were a couple, yet now Learned served on a different ship. As was the case with Lofty Flyer and Builder of Joy. Those two Aelthorp flying squirrels were a life-mated couple also. Both couples had been apart for a month now. They would be apart for another 48 days during the Alcubierre space-time transit to the Solar system. More days would pass as the Blue Sky and its five allied ships followed the enemy fleet inward. Only after the final battle was fought near Jupiter could the couples be reunited. At least she had Bill close by. As Chester did with his wife Sharon. Wind Swift the silver-scaled kangaroo seemed not to mind the fact she was the only member of her Cheelan species on board the Blue Sky. Well, time to prepare for the long gray night of Alcubierre passage.
“Star Traveler, signal the captains of our allied ships. Time to coordinate our plans.”
“Signaling,” the AI hummed. “You do recall that our neutrino comlink works during Alcubierre passage? You and the other captains can speak with each other at any time during our transit to Sol.”
“I know that,” Jane said, feeling irritable at how often their ship AI felt the need to remind bioforms of their redundant habits. “Don’t give a damn what I can do in the future! Right now I need to talk to other captains. Put me through!”
As her comlink holo filled with the faces of Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned, she wondered how they and their crews would deal with the physical isolation of FTL star travel. Coming out here, they’d all been together. Spouses and saloon buddies and allied crew members. Now, after nearly four weeks apart, they faced 48 more days of limited human contact. Or non-human contact in the case of Learned’s ship. Well, that was war. And the combat to come. She and Bill and every other human on the ships were on active duty status. That put duty above all else. She grit her teeth, then purposefully put on her calm command face.
“Hi folks. We’re leaving for Sol in an hour. Hope you each got your Nokten crys
tal. We’ll need them for future ships we build so we can find our way among the stars. Is everyone doing okay?”
She listened as her people spoke. It helped, hearing their voices. Almost she felt as if she were not the one person in charge of the life or death of Earth. Almost.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
One hour short of leaving Alcubierre space-time for their arrival outside the orbit of Pluto, Bill felt the tension creep up on him as he sat at his Weapons station on the Command Bridge. Everyone was there. Bright Sparkle sat to his right at her Fusion Power station. Beyond her were Chester at the Engines station, Wind Swift the scaly kangaroo at Collector Pods and Lofty Flyer the squirrel lady at Navigation. Behind them all sat their captain and his wife. Jane, like all of them, now wore a tube suit. But she, like Bill and everyone else, had the clear globular helmet lifted off and resting against her back. They all preferred to breath normal ship air versus the sweat-tinged air produced by the tube suits. Soon, very soon, they would enter stage four of Jane’s plan to defend Earth. In less than the 53 hours it took for a ship to travel from beyond Pluto inward to Earth they must battle and defeat the enemy Collector ship fleet.
“Star Traveler,” called Jane as she looked up at the ceiling. “Send an encrypted neutrino signal to the captains of our five allied ships. Time for final coordination.”
“Complying. Signals sent. Responses incoming. Do you wish—”
“Yes!” Jane said grumpily. “Put their true images into the comlink holo we all see.”
“Holo images displayed,” hummed briefly their ship mind, sounding to Bill as if it wanted to argue. Or complain. Or show its displeasure at Jane’s interruption. Amazing how lifelike the AI was becoming. Repeated exposure to sneaky and tempermental bioforms like him and the other folks must be an irresistible influence.
“Captain, hello,” called the soft measured voice of Stefano as Bill’s fellow SEAL now appeared in his station’s comlink holo. The view from Stefano’s ship Neil C. Roberts included his two saloon buddies, Bob and Cassandra, who were operating the Weapons and Navigation stations. The holo images of Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned Escape joined Stefano’s image.
“Captain, we are ready to emerge,” Alicia said, her sandy-colored ponytail flaring a bit as the Ranger vet moved her head.
In the holo, Frank lifted his thick black eyebrows. “Captain of the fleet, what gives?” asked the Marine Special Operations vet. His wide shoulders stiffened as he leaned forward a bit.
“Captain?” queried Joe, his blue eyes looking younger than his 51 chrono years. The Coast Guard vet looked eager to do something.
“Captain, I greet you,” spoke the speaker/vidcam unit on Learned Escape’s left shoulder. The color-banded man wore a tube suit, like all of the ship captains now answering Jane’s hail. The perfectly muscled man blinked green eyes. Beyond him Bill saw Time Marker and Long Walker at their Weapons and Navigation stations.
Jane, wearing her NWU Type III camos under her tube suit, looked amazingly calm despite her sharpness with Star Traveler. Her image in Bill’s comlink holo reminded him once again how much a natural leader she was. People had called Bill a good leader of a team when he’d been the one leading fellow SEALs on a mission. But Jane had a quiet confidence and assurance that seemed natural. He knew she worked at showing that kind of command presence. But clearly there was a lot of natural talent there. Which she now used to serve the mission.
“Captains, here’s my final update on the ship minds who have agreed to block weapons use against us, when the battle starts,” she said, her meso-soprano voice sounding as assured as she looked. “We left Kepler 62 with 15 agreeing to block weapons use. Now, thanks to neutrino chats during our 48 day trip back home, we have four more—”
“Five,” interrupted the humming voice of Star Traveler. “Another ship mind has now told me she will also block weapons use during any battle in Sol system.”
His wife’s dark brown eyes stayed at ease, not going into a squint or a frown at the AI’s interruption. “Thank you, Star Traveler. Captains, this means 20 of the 30 Collector ships that have captains loyal to Death Leader will be weaponless for two to three hours, whenever battle happens. Of the remaining ten ships, three are managed by AIs who don’t give a damn what bioforms do with the ships. That leaves seven ship minds who could come over to our side, once I order our AI to openly approach them. So, when battle happens, we will face at least three aggressors and possibly ten.” She smiled easily, her oval face looking more beautiful than Bill could remember. “Which means we will be outnumbered from the start. Course, none of you have ever faced combat situations where you were outnumbered, right?”
Every ship captain laughed or chuckled in their own manner at Jane’s tease. They were all combat veterans, including Learned who had spent years training young Megun youth how to sneak up on giant dinos that ate any lifeform that made noise. Jane rubbed at her small perky nose, then calmly laid her arms down on her command seat’s armrests. Her expression became command serious, levity having been allowed for a brief moment.
“After our arrival outside the orbit of Pluto, we six will follow every order given by Death Leader,” she said softly. “We will close up as he has ordered. But keep your ships at the back of the enemy ship cluster and in the outer group of ships. Do not let any enemy ship occupy a position that puts you between them and Death Leader’s ship.” She looked aside at her system graphics holo, which showed the Solar system, its planets, its moons, the Asteroid Belt and the Earth-Moon group. “We take no offensive action until we arrive at the orbit of Jupiter, when I will order our friendly ship minds to block weapons use. That is when we start the battle by firing on the engine portion of our targeted enemy ship.” She tapped on her control pillar that lay between her and the ring of holos surrounding her elevated command seat. “I’m transmitting to you a three dee cross-section of the Blue Sky. The exact location of the room containing Star Traveler’s mind units is indicated. Note that the location is in the front one-tenth of this ship. Which is the same location for every Collector ship ever built.” Bill scanned quickly an image he already carried in his mind. Every thousand-foot long Collector ship was shaped like a stretched out teardrop, with the Magfield spacedrive engines at the conical end of that shape, while the Command Bridge, captain and AI occupied the front bulge of the teardrop. The stardrive lay in the middle of the ship. “My first battle command is that no one will fire on the part of an enemy Collector ship that contains its ship mind. Period. You can destroy the back half of any Collector ship. With the pressure walls and hallway hatches, such a wounded ship will still have one or two fusion power plants operating, an operational stardrive, and access to the front lasers, spine and belly plasma batteries and its antimatter projector. While still deadly, any ship without engines cannot harm Earth. Focus on attacking any ship that is still engine mobile.” She paused. “Questions?”
“I have one,” called Joe from the USS Moberly. “Where will the seven Collector ships we left behind be when we enter Sol system? Are we going to be a combined fleet, or two fleets moving under one command?”
Jane nodded. “Good point. Before we left for Kepler 62 I asked General Poindexter to keep most Collector ships out near Jupiter. That world orbits about five AU out from the Sun. We arrive beyond Pluto at about 42 AU. Which means we have to travel 37 AU in order to reach Jupiter.” She paused and tapped again on her control pillar. “I’ve adjusted the Solar system graphic to show our transit route. It’s going to take us 46 hours—”
“Forty-six point six nine zero three hours,” Star Traveler interrupted.
“To get to Jupiter’s orbit,” Jane continued, no hint of irritation showing in her face. “I’ve had our ship mind project today’s positions for all planets based on where those worlds were when we left Sol.” Jane tapped again on her pillar. “As you can see, our route inward will take us past Neptune, to Jupiter and eventually to Earth. Those three are all lined up with our entry point. The other wor
lds are either on the opposite side of the Sun, or located well ahead or behind Earth’s current position. So any Collector ship above Earth, Mars, in the Asteroid Belt or elsewhere should be able to get to Jupiter before we do. Which means we can launch a pincer attack on the enemy fleet.” She looked ahead. “Vice Admiral Chester knows something about multi-ship maneuvers. He has shared his experiences with me.”
Bill saw that Pluto lay on the far side of the Sun from their arrival point. That pleased him. It meant the lookout station dome would not be available for target practice by the enemy fleet. As for Joe’s issue, it did appear their 13 Collector ships would operate as two fleets moving toward the enemy that would lie between them. He hoped plenty of boomer subs would arrive with the incoming Collectors. While lacking the heavy weaponry of a Collector ship, boomers carried enough nuke-tipped missiles to distract enemy gunners. Some of those nuke warheads had been converted to x-ray laser firing warheads. And their lasers had the same 10,000 mile reach as the CO2 lasers on the Blue Sky.
“Sounds good,” Frank commented from the USS Fallujah. “I assume we attack first with our antimatter projectors?”
“Exactly,” Jane said, still looking command focused. “Our lasers can be deflected when fired at an angle to a ship’s hull. The adaptive optics seeded into the ship’s flexmetal skin make it hard for a laser to penetrate. Unless the strike is vertical to the ship hull. Then a cut-through happens.”
“Captain,” called Alicia, the scar on her right cheek darkening as she flushed. “We’ve all studied the combat holos from the fights at HD 128311, Kepler 443 and near our Moon. It seems to me if two or more ships concentrate their laser beams on the same spot of an enemy ship, cut-through will happen. Yes?”
Jane nodded again. “Good point. I agree with you. Have your ship minds be in constant contact with Star Traveler. That way each of you will see which ship is being targeted by someone’s lasers. The targeted ship and aim spot will show instantly on your system graphic holo. But six pairs of lasers shooting at one ship is redundant.” She turned thoughtful. “Let’s do this three by three. The AIs will coordinate laser fire by the Blue Sky, Neil C. Roberts and Musan, while the Harken, Moberly and Fallujah will be a separate laser firing combine. Each ship’s Weapons Chief will see what his group of ships is aiming or firing at. Other issues?”
Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens Page 16