“Observatory,” she snapped out, not taking her eyes from the screen.
“Powell,” came the reply. “What have you got?”
“A comm laser, sir,” she replied. “Definitely human.”
Her words were cut off by the resumption of the alarms. Absentmindedly, she keyed them to silence.
“A second comm laser, sir. And a third!”
Within a minute there were a dozen of them.
“Any messages yet?”
“Not yet. Just carrier waves. However, I think it safe to say that the fleet has arrived to relieve us.”
“Sounds like the only explanation,” her boss replied. “However, let’s not get anyone’s hope up until we know for sure. Study the situation and when you have an official message, make the announcement.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Powell, out.”
“Observatory out,” Jennifer replied. She turned back to her work. The comm lasers remained strangely silent, although she remembered that no message would be started until the ships on the other end were sure their beams had fallen on Brinks Base.
Then, as she was beginning to suspect something was wrong, the screens began to display messages. The first was the time of transmission and the name of the ship – virtually all of them strange to her – then the standard fleet greetings announcing arrival. Finally, there were several personal messages appended to the transmissions, mostly to the captains of the two vessels that had stayed behind.
Discovering that she had been holding her breath, Jennifer exhaled loudly and keyed Brinks’ response to the flood of incoming messages. The response was impersonal, giving the arriving ships approach information and a synopsis of what had happened in their absence.
Her duty done, Jennifer sat back and marveled as the number of comm lasers announcing ship arrivals continued to climb. “My God,” she thought, “they’ve brought everything, including the kitchen sink.”
Her mood was considerably buoyed half an hour later when she was relieved by Eric Powell, who was himself amazed at the number of ships breaking out of superlight.
“It’s an invasion!” he muttered as he scanned all of the identifications.
“If so, it’s a happy one,” Jennifer responded.
“Do you know what this means?” Powell asked, straightening up from where he had been hunched over the monitors.
“I do indeed,” Jennifer said, jumping up and hugging him. “It means we get to go home. In a little over a year from now, I will be frolicking in the surf at Waikiki!”
#
Chapter Twenty Four
Dan Landon smiled to himself as he sat in the command chair of Starship Abraham Lincoln and contemplated the fact that he never wanted to be anywhere else. Two years in command of a shipyard had taught him that he much preferred flying starships to building them. Despite his distaste for the construction end of the business, he had done a sufficiently good job that he had been inducted into the Space Navy, promoted to Fleet Admiral, and given command of the second expedition to Broan Space.
“Honest Abe” was not itself a faux Broan design. While the New Mexico shipyard had been popping out fake Type Seven freighters, Type Two Transports, and Bulk Carriers, the Sahara shipyard had been building humanity’s first true interstellar warships.
The Lincoln was a blastship of the Luis Ramirez class, the second out of the cradle. Her armament consisted of lasers and particle beams powerful enough to melt another vessel at a thousand kilometers. Her magazines were stuffed with enough superlight missiles and warheads that she could raze a planet if need be.
There was nothing subtle about Dan Landon’s new command. Lincoln had been designed to take on the largest Broan ship of which humanity was aware. Hopefully, it would not come to that. The Lincoln’s current task was to remain out of sight and guard the Q-ships that would probe Broan worlds as the Ruptured Whale had probed Klys’kra’t. If everything went as planned, she would not show herself to the enemy for several years, and then only in the company of a hundred other vessels of equal or greater striking power.
“Honest Abe” had been constructed on the simple principle: that bigger is better. As such, she represented a calculated risk. Each behemoth in her class was three times larger than their Broan adversaries, making them much too large to fit through a stargate. When humanity finally acquired stargate technology, they hoped to build them large enough for blastships. Otherwise, the main human striking force would have to cross the vastness of intra-galactic space the hard way.
Landon’s elevation to Fleet Admiral had put him in command of eighty ships of all types. Most were Q-ships. The fleet had formed up in Earth orbit over two hectic weeks while final touches were put on the new constructs. They had launched en masse. When the fleet was well past the orbit of Neptune, they had disappeared into the blackness of superlight.
It is the nature of superlight travel that each ship must make the voyage essentially alone. Vessels moving faster than light had no way to detect or communicate with one another. The only chance for outside contact came when the ships dropped sublight once each week to take their bearings.
Routes and breakout times were rigidly controlled in the hope that the fleet could maintain some semblance of order. However, space is so large that it was rare to catch sight of even one other vessel during the hour spent observing the universe before returning to superlight flight.
Even during the final breakout, when some eighty ships entered the Hideout System in practically the same microsecond, no two vessels were close enough to see one another. After 7000 light-years in transit, the fleet was scattered over half of Hideout’s northern celestial hemisphere.
While they made their slow way from the outer Hideout system toward Brinks, Landon had one particularly nagging worry. It had been more than a year since he had been able to tally his flock. How many had made it the full distance?
Fleet protocol called for Landon to wait 30 days before searching for stragglers. If any ships failed to appear by the deadline, he would launch a pair of Type Seven freighters to backtrack their route. Starships that experienced engine problems had orders to make for one of a dozen designated star systems in which to seek refuge. The Type Sevens would stop for three days in each of these refuges to scan for laser and radio emissions. Any ship that made it to a refuge sun had a slightly better than even chance of being detected and rescued, assuming they retained the ability to communicate. However, if they broke down in interstellar space and were unable to make the designated systems, they were irretrievably lost. There would be no way to find them in the vastness that lay between Sol and Hideout.
To Dan Landon’s immense relief, when everyone checked in, he discovered that his whole flock had successfully made the voyage.
#
“Admiral, welcome to Brinks Base,” Captain Hans Heinrich, base commander, said as he saluted. “Are we glad to see you!”
“I’ll bet you are,” Landon replied.
“Yes, sir. We were beginning to worry that you had forgotten us.”
“Not for a minute, Captain. We just had a lot to do before we could come back.”
“I see that, sir. I’ve never seen so many starships in my life. And there doesn’t seem to be a familiar name in the bunch.”
“No, they were all constructed over the past two years. We’ve got the shipyards programmed and the pipeline flowing. There will be a lot more where they came from. I suspect you will get command of something bigger when you get home. We owe you and your people a great deal for sticking it out here.”
“I hope you will have time to tell them yourself, Admiral.”
“I’ll make a point of it. How long do you think will be required to brief my people on what you have learned?”
“About ten minutes, sir. We will talk very, very quickly!”
Landon laughed. “I take it you are anxious to space for home.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m afraid we are going to have to ke
ep you a bit longer, Hans. However, we won’t make it longer than we have to.”
“If you will come this way, Admiral, I’ll introduce you to my staff and give you a rundown on what we have been doing.”
“Lead on, Captain.”
As the two officers shuffled their way through Brinks Base, the only way to move quickly in the moon’s one-quarter gee, they passed a woman with a toddler in tow and a baby on her hip. She wore the uniform of a ship’s botanist. Landon smiled and nodded.
“Well, I can see one thing you have been doing!”
Heinrich nodded. “There is that, sir. We have had quite a little population explosion here on base.”
#
A dozen officers awaited them in what Landon remembered to be the base commissary. In his absence, it had taken on the ambience of someone’s oversize living room. As they entered, the officers drawn up in double file snapped to attention. Captain Heinrich began the introductions.
“Admiral, my second in command. Captain Gareth Cardozo, of Vaterland.”
“Captain Cardozo.”
“Commander Marcos Severance, my executive officer. And Commander Jonas Barksdale, Captain Cardozo’s exec.”
“Commanders.”
“Lieutenant Jennifer Mullins, Astrogation and one of our base astronomers.”
“Lieutenant Mullins,” Landon said, nodding. “We are going to want to talk to you later.”
“Yes, sir. I’m ready.”
Heinrich continued down the line, introducing each officer in turn. Landon nodded and shook their hands. Having finished the introductions, Landon stood back and looked at each of them in turn before speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank all of you for your service. It has been long, lonely, and difficult. However, let me assure you that it has been worth it.
“My fleet and I have arrived to perform various reconnaissance missions within the Sovereignty and to obtain information vital to our war effort. We will perform these missions based on the information you have obtained in our absence. Rest assured that you have all of humanity behind you, and that you will receive a hero’s welcome when you return home.
“Please let your people know that it is my wish to get you into space within the week. That should give you enough time to pack your belongings, say your goodbyes, and to attend the blowout bash I am throwing for you.
“Also, let them know we have brought news recordings and summaries so that you can catch up on events Earthside… the important things — who is sleeping with who in Hollywood and what the latest fashions are like.”
The small joke received a polite laugh.
“Very well, don’t let me detain you. You are dismissed back to your duties or to your quarters. Lieutenant Mullins, please stay for a moment.”
The assembled officers filed out and disappeared in both directions along the corridor.
“Relax, Jennifer,” Landon said as he turned toward the lieutenant.
Her posture dissolved into a relaxed stand. “Good of you to remember me, sir.”
“How could I forget? You were one of my best astrogator trainees aboard Magellan.”
“I’m glad to hear that, sir.”
“I want to hear of your observations of the Sovereignty. How many additional star systems have you located?”
“Five, sir. One just a month ago.”
“Five? How does that equate with our initial projections?”
“Lower than projected sir; but considering how big space is, a respectable number.”
Landon nodded. “Any hard data on these systems?”
“A couple of them seem to have quite a lot of stargate traffic, judging by the number of gravity waves emanating from them. Also, there is one thing you should know.”
“What is that, Jennifer?”
“Four of the five are located back the way you just came. If these are representative of how Broan space is laid out, you may have just flown through the heart of the Broan Sovereignty.”
Landon frowned. “Now that is a sobering thought, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
#
The party was laid on for the fifth day after the fleet began transporting supplies and equipment down to Sutton’s surface. With so many newcomers in the base, the party would essentially take place just about everywhere.
Mark and Lisa had come down from New Hope II the day before to organize the transfer of scientific information. They were sleeping on the floor in the library since every other bed in the base was occupied, many by more than one person. After four years of the same old faces, the original inhabitants of the base were anxious to make the acquaintance of their replacements. Several temporary relationships were consummated in that 120 hours.
When they arrived at the mess compartment, where the party was centered, they encountered an interesting dichotomy. The space had been divided into two separate social functions. On the starboard side sat various single crewmembers of the departing ships, invariably surrounded by newly arrived spacers. Surrounding the male departees were mixed male and female groups, usually talking shop. Around the female crewmembers were clustered all male galleries.
“I don’t think I’ve seen that many horny females in one place in my entire life,” Mark whispered as he scanned the crowd.
“What about the men?” she whispered back.
“Not even close to a record for the men,” he responded. The jibe earned him an elbow to the ribs.
On the port side of the compartment, a completely different party was in progress. Here could be found the married couples from the two fleets. They were seated on chairs, cushions, or the bare floor A number of women from the relief fleet were holding the babies of departing fleet members, cooing to them and trying to get them to laugh. The older children seemed shy, understandable since they had just been descended upon by five times the population they had been born into. The sight of so many unfamiliar faces must have been frightening to a three-year-old.
“Which side do you want to join?” Lisa asked.
Mark, having been married just over two years, nonetheless knew the response required of him. “Let’s join the married folks.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t want to hang on every word of that blonde bombshell in the corner?”
“Not me,” he replied, only half insincerely. “I’ve caught my limit and I’m happy.”
“Good answer,” she replied.
They joined the couples and soon Lisa was cooing to a baby not six months old.
“Steve Simms,” the baby’s father said, holding out his hand.
“Mark Rykand,” Mark replied.
“I know who you are, Lieutenant. I remember you from the first expedition. You’re the one who got everyone stirred up.”
“I did at that,” Mark agreed. He gestured widely with his hand, taking in the bacchanal in front of him. “Who would have thought of this scene that day we returned from Klys’kra’t with our tails between our legs?”
“It’s hard to believe, all right,” the other sighed. “At times I thought this day would never come. Can’t say I’m looking forward to the voyage home, I’ll tell you that. Another year in vacuum and I may lose it.”
“It’s hard,” Mark agreed. “This is the third time I’ve made the transit. It seems as though I’ve spent half my life between Earth and Brinks Base. It will be better when we figure out the stargates.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Simms said. “In fact, I’ve been thinking about it for most of four years. Are we still planning on stealing a gate from the Broa?”
“We’ll have to,” Mark replied. “They are trying to develop stargates on our own back on Earth, but with us a year from Earth, even if they succeed, we won’t know it.”
“It’s liable to rile the Broa up when we do.”
“I know it. Unfortunately, we don’t have much choice. Without stargates, the logistics just don’t work.”
Simms nodded. “Have you considered that there may still
be gates in abandoned star systems?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Look, Lieutenant, my job was to catalog that shit pot full of data you brought back. Captain Heinrich thought it would give us a clue as to where to point our telescopes to see if we could detect the emissions of a Broan world.”
“A good plan. Did you detect any worlds?”
“A couple of probables, but without gravity waves we really can’t be sure. Still, I’ve spent a lot of time with the Voldar’ik data, and found several references to worlds that have been destroyed by the Broa. Do you suppose they went to the trouble of dismantling the gates after destroying those systems, Lieutenant?”
“I don’t know,” Mark replied, suddenly intrigued. A system with a dead planet and a stargate was something he had never considered. It might make sense for the Broa to leave a gate in such systems. There would be salvage and mining operations, possibly survivors to enslave and cart off. Besides, how did one get the last stargate out of a system anyway? You could jump in without a stargate, but you couldn’t jump out.
If such a gate disappeared, the Broa might never notice the loss. Even if they did, they would be faced with nothing more than a mystery. A little careful preparation might even convince them that the gate had fallen victim to a natural disaster – a wayward asteroid, for instance.
“An intriguing thought, Mr. Simms,” Mark replied. “I will report it to the admiral and make sure he knows who thought up the idea.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
#
Chapter Twenty Five
Hideout, the star, was just peeking over the horizon as Construction Specialist Grant Papadelous aimed his big cutting laser at a gray outcropping of lava and switched on the power. His goggles instantly darkened as the bright, violet laser spot formed on the surface and immediately began vaporizing the rock. A heavy incandescent plume fountained skyward as the spot disappeared into a glowing, 5-cm diameter hole.
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