CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Bill steeled himself for imminent combat as the enemy fleet approached to within two million miles of the other Earth fleet. Their ship covered 111,000 miles a minute at one percent of lightspeed. Course they could speed up to one-tenth lightspeed in just 12 seconds. Or jump vertical, sideways or down to their current vector with nary a pause. He’d learned those lessons during the ship battles at HD 128311 and Kepler 443. Now, he had to remember all he’d learned. While accepting his wife’s orders as if his life depended on it. Which it did.
“All captains,” Jane called over the open neutrino comlink that connected her with every ship and with a watching General Poindexter. “Time to assume battle formation. I want the seven Collector ships to form a ring around the subs, which will form the bulk of this flat plate arrangement. That way the subs can have some defensive cover from the more heavily armed ships. No need to reply back. Just move!”
In the system graphic holo on Bill’s left, he watched as the graphic showed them approaching the 2,900 mile wide bulk of Callisto. The other fleet moved quickly to assume the flat plate formation ordered by Jane. The formation hovered above the north pole of Callisto.
“Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned, send out some collector pods to circulate among the enemy fleet ships. Hold your position at the back of the ship ball,” Jane said. “I suspect pretty soon we—”
“Incoming neutrino signal from Death Leader,” their ship mind hummed from the ceiling.
“Accept,” Jane said tersely.
Bill’s comlink holo showed the snake-gorilla appearing to the left of Jane’s black-feathered vulture form. The black-furred gorilla body of the monster who led the enemy fleet showed thick muscles tensing in his shoulders, arms and stocky legs. The blue-scale hoods flared out. White eyes fixed on them.
“Fleet captains!” he snarled. “The Humans have brought all their spaceships to us! The smaller craft are underwater submersibles, my ship mind tells me. While they move on Magfield engines and are armed with lasers, none of them can match a Collector ship! Keep your antimatter projectors aimed forward. We will disintegrate these submersibles while our lasers disable the Human Collector ships. Fire when I fire!” The creature’s image disappeared.
In his comlink holo, Jane looked to Bill. “Weapons Chief, you are in command of our weapons. Hurt them!”
“I will,” Bill responded quickly.
“Everyone, all ships, all captains, just before we reach laser firing range for our other fleet, I will order the enemy ship minds to block weapons use,” Jane said. “Then Star Traveler will try to convert the seven ship minds not yet on our side to do the same. Be prepared for anything!”
Bill looked away from his Weapons holo. While his true space holo showed the dark ball of Callisto, its surface pockmarked by white impact craters and the reddish-brown of some highlands, the allied ships and subs were too small to show in the electro-optical scope image. But his system graphic holo showed every red dot sub and green dot human Collector ship. Names were affixed next to each red dot. He read them, more to keep his mind busy. Of the Trident subs, there were the USS Henry M. Jackson, USS Alabama, USS Alaska, USS Nevada, USS Tennessee, USS Pennsylvania, USS West Virginia, USS Kentucky, USS Maryland, USS Nebraska, USS Rhode Island, USS Maine, USS Wyoming and Joshua’s boomer USS Louisiana. They were fourteen super boomers, each outfitted with 24 Trident II D5 missiles. Each of those missiles carried 12 MIRVd W88 thermonuke warheads. The four Russian ships were the Typhoon-class boomer Dimitry Donskoy, with 20 R-39 SLBMs outfitted with 10 MIRVd warheads per missile, and the Borei-class subs Yuri Dolgorukiy, Alexsandr Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh. The Chinese Type 094 boomers were the Emperor Huang Ti and the Chairman Mao Zedong. Each of those subs carried 12 JL-2 SLBMs with four MIRV warheads per missile. Encircling them were the Collector ships USS Tangi Valley, USS Rolling Thunder, USS Takur Ghar, USS Seafloat, USS Pointe Du Hoc, USS Chapultepec Castle and the USS Manila Bay. It was a lot of firepower. But what of the mobile thermonuke minefields he had proposed to the JCS?
The true space holo suddenly glared with the yellow-white ball of a thermonuke blast.
Death Leader reappeared in the comlink holo. “Fire on the small bodies lying between us and the Human ships! They are not rocks. They are nuclear—”
“My ship has lost one Magfield engine,” interrupted a green praying mantis.
The snake-gorilla clenched both fists. “Idiot! Tell your ship mind to plot every such nuclear rock in front of you. Then destroy any in your path! All captains, do the same!”
Bill checked his system graphic holo. They were still 700,000 miles out from contact with the other fleet. He checked the Collector ship dot that had sustained a melted Magfield engine from the thermonuke mine. It matched the ship run by the AI Melody. He wondered how efficient the music-loving ship mind would be in targeting the mines?
Green streaks of laser fire shot out from the ten Collector ships at the front of the ship ball that enclosed Death Leader’s ship. Dozens of such streaks ended in yellow flares. Then one ship fired its antimatter projector. The black beam shot straight ahead, then began covering space in a tight spiral pattern, moving out from the center to a wider footprint. Their ship ball was just 693 miles wide, thanks to every Collector ship being within 131 miles of another ship. Soon two other ships fired antimatter beams in the spiral pattern. Several hundred yellow flares showed briefly as negative matter encountered positive matter and created a total conversion of matter to energy.
Bill grimaced. So much for his minefield. But at least the president’s order had been obeyed and the tiny mobile mines had been dispersed by his fellow warriors once the approach vector of the enemy fleet had become apparent. Now, it was just five minutes until the enemy fleet reached the 10,000 mile range of shipboard lasers. When would his wife—
“Star Traveler! Tell our allied ship minds to block weapons use!” Jane yelled from behind him. “Share your mind with the seven ship minds not yet contacted,” she said more softly. “Convince them to block weapons use on their ships. Repeat my promise to keep all ship minds alive!”
“Complying. Contacting,” the AI hummed. “Two ship minds have agreed to block weapons use on the understanding we will spare their lives. The 22 ship minds now blocking weapons use have a green dash beside their purple dot in everyone’s system graphic.”
Bill saw that as his graphic imagery changed. That left the three ‘don’t give a damn’ ships marked with red dashes. But now, five more ships gained a red dash. Crap.
“Allied ships!” Jane called firmly. “Fire antimatter beams at the engine spaces of enemy ships!”
Bill tapped his control pillar top, targeting a Collector ship that lay 131 miles to the far left of the Blue Sky. Another tap and their antimatter projector fired.
In space, death is always waiting.
Bill’s targeted ship lost the rear third of its length in a yellow-white fireball of total matter-to-energy conversion.
The sight hurt his eyes even with the automatic damping of the true space holo.
To their right, the five Collector ships they had captured from the enemy now fired black beams at nearby Collector ships.
Five more yellow-white fireballs glared ahead of them, resembling new-born stars.
“Yes!” he yelled, his fingers moving again to acquire a target 260 miles away.
“Disperse!” screamed Death Leader in the comlink holo.
He tapped the AM projector. A black beam shot out. It hit the rear of an enemy ship that lay 600 miles away.
To his right three more bright stars shone in the utter blackness of deep space.
Two beams missed their targets, according to his Weapons targeting panel.
Ten enemy ships removed as a threat to Earth. But 20 more were spreading outward like thistle pods ejected from the mother plant. Already the acceleration of those ships was approaching one-tenth lightspeed.
“Lofty Flyer!” Bill called to their Naviga
tor. “Shift vector angle to 43, 52, 17!”
The enemy ship he was targeting was 3,221 miles away. Its Magfield engines clawed at the magnetic field of Jupiter, using its huge magnetosphere field to help with its acceleration. Other enemy ships did the same, striving to reach beyond the 4,000 mile range of a Collector ship’s antimatter projector.
“Vector shifted!” chittered the flying squirrel woman.
“Got another one!” called Stefano from the Neil C. Roberts.
Bill tapped his AM projector.
A second yellow-white sun joined Stefano’s newborn star.
“All enemy ships are now beyond antimatter targeting range,” Star Traveler hummed.
Fuck! He knew that. But the enemy was still within gas laser range. And Chester, thank the gods, had revved up their Magfield engines as he saw the enemy ships rapidly speeding up, outward and away from the covert enemies that had infiltrated the snake-gorilla’s fleet. Worse, the eight purple dot with red dash ships that included the snake-gorilla’s ship were now firing back at Jane’s fleet with their tail lasers.
Green beams shot past the Blue Sky and four other allied ships. But two green streaks impacted on the front nose of the Fallujah.
“Hull penetration,” called Frank over the open comlink signal. “Chris is firing back. Builder of Joy is taking us sideways and in a random walk pattern. We’re still pursuing!”
Bill saw that Lofty Flyer had also put their pursuit vector on a random walk spiral so the enemy could not count on a target following a predictable course line.
Course the remaining 18 enemy ships were doing the same as they sped faster to reach a distance of 10,000 miles from the Blue Sky and its five ship allies. At least the 10 with friendly AIs were not firing any weapon on them. A new image showed in his comlink holo.
“Captains!” screamed Death Leader, white spittle flying from his giant mouth. “Your ship minds are blocking weapons! Kill them to regain control! Put demolition balls against the back of your captain’s habitat room and explode them. The AI will die. But you and your crew can regain control of your ship. And fight against these miserable Humans!”
“Damn,” Jane muttered from behind Bill as he fired his two nose lasers at the jinking dot of an enemy Collector ship. “Star Traveler, can that really happen? Can a ship mind be killed that way?”
“It can,” the AI hummed quickly, its tone sounding shocked.
“We are 13 live Collector ships plus our subs,” she said quickly. “Tell the friendly ship minds on the fleeing ships, and on the unmoving ships, they are free to return weapons control whenever they detect explosives being placed in the captain’s habitat!”
“Complying.” A long pause lasted. “The captains on the ten fleeing ships with friendly AIs are debating with their crew. Some wish to destroy the AI of their ship. Some disagree, saying they will soon reach a weapons safe distance from us.” Another pause happened. “Six ship captains have ordered their crews to emplace bypass circuits on the weapons controls. All six are working on this. Those ships will have full weapons control in two point three eight hours.”
“But their ship minds will still be alive,” Jane said hurriedly. “What about—”
“Four ship captains are now putting explosives against the wall that separates the ship mind room from the captain’s habitat space,” the AI interrupted. “Those ship minds are announcing the removal of weapons use control by themselves.”
Bill fired again at the rear of a fleeing Collector ship just as the enemy ship reached 9,981 miles from them. Since the Blue Sky and the enemy ship were now moving at one-tenth lightspeed, that kept the target within range. His fire was joined by green lasers fired from the two allied ships in his combined-firing group.
A red flare showed in the true space holo. He checked his Weapons fire control panel.
“A hit and penetration of a fuel chamber,” Bill called out.
“But we now have 12 enemy ships with full weapons use. They are turning back toward us,” Jane said. “All ships! Prepare for attack.”
“One ship mind is now dead,” Star Traveler hummed. “Three ship minds on the explosives threatening ships still live.”
Bill looked to his system graphic holo. His fleet and the enemy fleet were heading sideways away from Callisto, moving outward and toward Earth. The 12 enemy ships with the vaporized engine spaces lay far to their rear, their inertia leaving them on track to fly by Callisto and then continue outward and way from Jupiter. At least the vector track of those 12 did not pass through Ganymede, Europa, Io or the further out moons. But the vector track did pass through the outer third ring of dust that lay close to Saturn. Those ships would pass within 90 miles of the tiny moon Amalthea. Then it was open sailing at one-tenth lightspeed. Which meant those disabled ships could be recovered after the battle was over.
“Jake!” called Jane. “Bring your fleet in close to the backside of the 12 enemy ships. Maybe we can still do our pincer maneuver!”
“Coming,” the SEAL replied.
Bill saw that Lofty Flyer had now reversed their vector approach, sending them away at one-tenth lightspeed. That put the 12 weapons capable enemy ships between their six ships and the seven Collector ships led by Jake. The subs managed by Joshua, Paul, Dimitry and Shengli now joined Jake’s advance. That made it 29 ships on Jake’s side, six ships on Jane’s side and the 12 enemy ships in between. The comlink holo to his right, which had shown only Jane, again filled with the black-furred form of Death Leader.
“Human female!” the snake-gorilla screamed. “I am coming for you! No one who deceives a Mokden survives that deceit!”
Jane laughed, shocking Bill. “Stupid primate! You had a month to discover my deception. You failed! And I used that time to win over most ship minds on your ships. They did not like the news that your ‘guests’ were really Captives. Nor did they like the idea of being used to capture more people.”
Muscles moved in the blue-scaled face of the snake-gorilla. As it stood, it lifted both heavily-muscled arms and shook clenched fists at Jane. “Female! Our Mokden females know how to submit. When I catch your ship, I will come aboard and eat of your carcass!”
Jane smiled, then gave the creature her middle finger. “Among humans, this gesture advises you to screw yourself. Which you have already achieved. Twelve of your ships cannot move. Your remaining weapons-active ships are fewer than my combined fleets. If you surrender now, perhaps we will let you live in our prison dome on Mars.” She tapped her right armrest. “See this image? It already contains Diligent Taskmaster and the captains and crews of the six ships that attacked Earth. They are vicious, like you. When you join them, will you eat of their bodies, or they eat of yours?”
“You will die!” The creature turned its triangular head and looked down. “Increase speed now!”
“But our engines will melt!” cried a crewperson who resembled a teddy bear.
“Increase now! Or I kill you!” screamed Death Leader.
“Captain,” called Chester from his Engines station. “Death Leader’s ship Fear Arrives has sped up to 11 percent of lightspeed. Most of his other ships are doing the same. He will overtake us.”
Bill triple-checked the CO2 nose lasers of the Blue Sky. The lasers, the four shots remaining in his antimatter reservoir and the plasma batteries on their spine and belly were all able to shoot toward the oncoming enemy fleet. The same armaments were still active on the ships of Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned. As they were on the seven Collector ships led by Jake and his captains. The subs added 22 deadly lasers and hundreds of thermonuke warheads to the mix. Who would reach target range first?
“Bright Sparkle,” called Jane. “Increase power output from our fusion reactors. Chester, use that power to take us up to 11 percent of lightspeed!”
The color-banded woman on Bill’s right tapped her control pillar. “Fusion power output increased by six percent!”
“Speeding up,” muttered Chester, his low baritone sounding tense
. “That Alien is right, though. We could lose one or both Magfield drives if we maintain this speed too long.”
“I know,” Jane said, her tone command intense. “But their 12 ships outnumber our six. We have to buy time for the other fleet to reach target range.”
Bill had a sudden idea. He tapped his Weapons fire control panel. His feet felt the vibration of weapons launch.
“Captain! I’m firing all our MITV torps at the enemy ships. That’s 14 torps, each outfitted with five thermonuke warheads. We can create a minefield between us and them!”
“Yes!” Jane said quickly. “Ship captains! Fire your MITV torps. Add to Bill’s warhead minefield. Hurry!”
“Firing,” called Joe from the Moberly.
“Also firing,” husked Frank from the Fallujah. “Hull penetration is sealed. We are back to being airtight.”
“Launching torps,” cried Alicia from the Musan, sounding Ranger eager.
“Torps launching,” spoke Learned from the Harken.
“Doing the same,” softly said Stefano from the Neil C. Roberts.
Bill’s system graphic now filled with a dozen red dots representing the first salvo of MITV torps from the maglev railgun launcher that lay below the Command Bridge of his ship. More red dots joined them. Each ship had 14 torps. Soon, there would be 84 torps speeding back toward the oncoming enemy fleet. The torp nose cones would fly away and launch five thermonuke warheads, each warhead carrying the power of three megatons of thermonuclear disaster. While Death Leader’s 12 ships would surely detect and destroy many of them, they might not get all 420 warheads. While none of the torps could reverse their one-tenth lightspeed travel away from the enemy, the enemy’s approach at eleven percent lightspeed would bring their ships into range of warheads fitted with magnetic field sensors. Bill hoped three or four of them would detonate and damage a nearby Collector ship. That might happen if a Collector ship hull came within two miles of the plasma fireball of one of the torp warheads.
Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens Page 19