When we reached 4,000 kilometers the individual fighters could be counted. The computer quickly posted 8643 which we doubled to account for those on the opposite sides. Upon further inspection we could make out the slightest details of damage to one of the carriers. Some of the Drillers from an earlier mission had evidently found their mark.
Command then came in with new orders. Perform another micro-burst and keep our ship at the 2,000 kilometer range. We were to be the eyes and ears for Earth for the next ten months. Our trip out to Epsilon Eridani had taken only a month’s time. With the extended mission I suddenly felt a bit claustrophobic in our tiny ship.
We had food, we even had enough Sodium to easily sustain us at the current speed, but I wondered what we would do to occupy our minds. A ten month stakeout was not my idea of an adventure. But orders were orders and we were at war. Whatever sacrifice we had to make was trivial compared to the sacrifices that were coming.
My handler back at the base then came over the QE comm. He would be doing what he could to provide me with entertainment, instruction or with whatever digital offerings I sought. Movies, music and calls home would all be made available over the quantum link.
With calls home, any discussions related to our position or our mission were off limits and punishable by life imprisonment. We had no way of knowing if the aliens had cracked our own communications, but we knew for certain that if they had... they already understood English and would be on top of our plans.
For nine weeks we cruised along sending back data on our foes. Every 27 Earth minutes a set of fighters would depart from one of the carriers for a patrol around the fleet. Their patterns were repeated and predictable.
In the days of waiting and watching Shepard had continued to monitor our health status. The numbers had peaked and were now holding steady. I wondered if this was this our new norm. My IQ now tested at 146 and my vision at 20/8. The vision was the best a human could possibly have. A BGS readout also showed bone density growth of 26%. Even the food and filter packs were depleting at a slower rate than specified.
The freckles on my nose and the childhood chin scar were almost completely gone and my skin had a healthy glow that I had not seen since I was in my early teens. My hearing continued to improve as did my reactions to the flight simulations. My simulation kill ratio was now a solid 8-1 with my reaction times increasing two-fold.
I guessed that we were somewhere near the best a human could possibly be with all of our senses. With the improved health came improved confidence. With improved confidence came an increased willingness to fight. But sitting so close to the enemy without being able to pull the trigger was frustrating.
On day 248 to zero a new order came in on the QE comm. Command was sending a team of four Ghost ships out in an attempt to do battle with the fleet before they reached Earth. They were to approach at just above SOL and punch through the first four carriers while firing their coil guns.
The technique had worked to destroy a previous carrier and Command wanted to know if the aliens would be able to counter it. If the tactic worked and if it was then repeatable it could be a short battle with the result of the alien fleet being defeated before reaching Earth.
Command had locked in our speed and trajectory and the Ghost ships were fed the information before leaving Earth. Shepard and I watched patiently as the countdown timers on our holo-screens approached zero.
I had asked repeatedly to become a part of the assault only to be told that we were the eyes and ears because of my QE implant. Only two other such devices had been created and they could not take the chance of losing one of what was considered one of our most valuable advantages... instantaneous communications.
When the countdown timer reached 32 seconds two of the large carriers made an unexpected move. They lifted and moved off to the side of the fleet. The space surrounding the carriers was quickly flooded with fighters taking up long formations.
Our Ghost team was traveling above SOL giving us no way to contact them. As the timer reached zero two of the carriers first imploded in the front and seemingly rolled up until the rear of the ships exploded backwards in brilliant flashes. More than 2,000 fighters were instantly vaporized.
As the remaining ships began to scatter and fighters flooded the space around them a new timer popped up on our screens. We had six minutes before the next pass. Every fighter was launched and spread out in an ever widening perimeter.
The large saucer shaped ships and the remaining carriers then began moving in random directions while staying within the expanding fighter perimeter. Again there was silence as the timer ticked down to zero.
This time another carrier imploded in front and again rolled up until exploding out the rear. The other Ghosts had evidently missed in their attempts. The attack counter once again reset to six minutes. As we watched patiently the fighter perimeter grew until we were on the edge of their fighting force.
When the timer reached zero another carrier followed the same pattern as the earlier ones as it was torn apart from an unseen force. This time, one of the smaller saucer shaped ships, one that we termed a destroyer, suddenly imploded on one edge tearing a gigantic hole in its hull and pulling away almost a quarter of the ship.
The damaged Destroyer quickly left the fleet as it began to drop well below the speed of the others. The remaining 15,000 odd fighters were seemingly in a frenzy moving randomly in every direction. The attack timer once again reset to six minutes.
I could hear the chatter starting to pick up at Command as the excitement of destroying the fleet a ship at a time grew. I turned to Shepard and she too was sporting a wide grin. Could this be it? Would Earth and its billions of inhabitants be saved? Would man now be ready to move out and explore the universe? My adrenaline was peaking just as the next counter reached zero.
Nothing happened. No explosions. No indications of an attack other than the mega-ship firing off its gravity weapon in two seemingly random bursts. The timer once again reset to six minutes and continued its countdown.
At the next zero the mega-ship again fired its gravity weapon twice and again there was no further indication of destruction. Twice more we watched as the timer hit zero and reset and twice more there was no indication of attack.
Ghost 446 then came on the comm after dropping below SOL. The alien mega-ship had nearly pinpointed their incoming trajectory and had fired upon them as they approached their targets. Its gravity weapon was far more powerful than what we had encountered previously, giving it the ability to reach out 20,000 kilometers or more.
Command quickly reasoned that the outlying fighter swarm had been used to detect the faster-than-light ships before they struck allowing the mega-ship to best our attack strategy. Ghost 446 was now limping home on one ring and damaged sensors.
Shepard then gave me more bad news. We were essentially trapped in our current position only 2,000 kilometers from the mega-ship. With the range of its gravity weapon being deadly at 20,000 kilometers or more we could not chance even a micro-burst without risking death.
We had managed to destroy four carriers and damage a destroyer. Fighter numbers had been reduced by more than 2,000. We had lost three crews and their vessels but everyone considered the skirmish a huge victory for man. The crews would be mourned just as the soldiers who had died in battle before them. Freedom came with a price.
For the next week we moved silently along with the fleet gathering intel. The alien ships and their utility robots were busily at work repairing their damaged ships. In the short time since the battle the destroyer had managed to effect repairs enough that it once again moved at speed with the fleet.
I sat practicing my simulation scenarios when alerts began to pop up on my holo-screen. The fleet had altered course slightly and the mega-ship was now moving slowly in our direction. We were still well within the range of its gravity weapon and as such we had no choice but to sit quietly as the mega-ship came closer.
At 200 kilometers the mega-ship fi
lled our holo-screens. The exterior was smooth and very much unlike the other ships in the fleet. The carriers were long dark and rectangular and were covered down each side with external hangar bays. The smaller saucer ships were also of a dark gray exterior and were covered with box like structures and piping.
The smooth exterior of the mega-ship was gold in color and the green glow of the rim made it look out of place among the other alien craft. As we drew closer we could see that the green glow was coming from inside the ship. The rim of the mega-ship was transparent.
At five kilometers our sensors were able to see movement inside the transparent windows. Small dark spots were occasionally moving across the interior. Shepard remarked that they had the appearance of transports or trains of some sort. The Tacticians and Battle Planners at home were no doubt working feverishly to categorize and possibly exploit every new bit of information we gathered.
The great ship continued to approach and the distance closed to 100 meters, then 50 meters, then ten. I braced for an impact that did not come. Our systems momentarily shut down our sensors and covered them completely with the active skin. We then passed through the hard transparent outer shell of the alien craft.
When the sensors came back online we were inside the alien mega-ship floating in water our sensors determined was a saline solution, we were floating in brightly lit green seawater. The active skin worked well within the water absorbing it as we came in contact and expelling it on the other side. We moved through the solution as if never being there.
Our holo-screens then began to fill with moving targets which all registered as unknown. The waters of the outer shell were close to a kilometer in depth heading towards the interior of the ship. An alert went off warning of a collision. The camera view showed a long train of box-like structures being pulled by a type of submarine locomotive.
I again instinctively braced for an impact. A bead of sweat formed on my forehead and rolled down into my left eye as my stress levels rose. An impact never came. The train was absorbed and expelled by the active skin just like any other form of matter. As the 150 or so cars passed through us we could see into the interiors of each car.
Some were packed with small boxes and some large. Some were transporting mechanical devices. When the next 30 cars of the train passed through we could see the same squid-like creatures we had seen on Alvin riding on-board.
When the final car passed the train continued on its way as if nothing had happened. Our scientists were still baffled by the active skin and by how it actually worked. It was almost as though we were moved into another dimension while still having visual access to our own.
Even with my increased IQ it was tough to comprehend what was happening. It was just something that we had to accept. Shepard had reasoned previously that we should look at it no differently than gravity itself. It was beyond our comprehension, but it was there and we should make every effort to make use of it. So, we did.
As we continued to move through the ships on-board ocean we soon began to close on the first of the interior walls. Squids were moving about on small powered craft. Some pulled small trailers while others only carried more squids.
Shepard aimed a mic at one of the transport craft and had the computer translate their conversation as the camera panned along with them. The conversation was broken because of our limited understanding of their language, but it was clear that they were discussing some maintenance activity going on within the ship.
Shepard then switched to another transport that was heading towards us. The squids were discussing a meal. The transport moved close to the interior wall where a door opened and the transport proceeded inside. Numerous other sub trains and small transports passed around and through us as we continued our drift towards the interior wall.
I again had the urge to brace myself as we began to move through the wall. The exterior sensors once again shutdown as each of them passed through the thick material of the wall itself. Once inside it was a bit disappointing as the interior rooms were nothing but storage.
As we passed through the final wall we again emerged into another interior ocean. Again the far wall of the ocean was nearly a kilometer away. There were no large sub trains within this ocean, it was instead crowded with the small transports. There were also many individual squids swimming about.
Midway into the ocean there was a floating structure made of the transparent material that lined the outside of the ship. The structure was covered with small transparent tubes and had numerous squids swimming up to it and then away.
The squids would attach their mouth to a tube for several seconds and then release before moving to another tube. Several seconds later they would detach and continue on their way. Shepard did a quick zoom with a camera and identified the first tube to have some type of shrimp floating through it when a squid attached. They were having lunch.
When the squid connected to the next tube it was evident that materials were moving from the squid back into the structure. The structure was nothing more than a floating lunch-wagon with restrooms.
With the QE comm the information we were gathering was being seen instantly by Command back at home. Much of it would not be useful during battle, but the more we knew and understood our enemy the better chance we had of not only defeating them, but of making contact and being able to reason with them.
Perhaps the entire war could be prevented or a truce negotiated. We would be willing to share our resources in exchange for peace and perhaps new technologies. And if the reason for the alien attacks were for their survival we would probably be willing to lend a hand. If anything, humans as a whole were a benevolent minded species... even after the devastating attacks we had suffered.
When we passed through the next wall the storage areas were filled with what appeared to be the same mini assault subs that had destroyed our Driller on Alvin. The computer counted thousands upon thousands of them. I got a sudden chill as I thought about an invasion of our oceans and what that would mean to our shipping.
The majority of our goods were still transported around the globe on mega-container ships. Even though plane flights had become inexpensive with the advent of Sodium fusion, large scale shipping on the oceans continued to have an economic advantage. If the squids controlled the oceans they could shut down and disrupt large parts of our economies.
I then had a sudden urge to start blasting the great ship from the inside out. What damage could we do by loosing all of our Drillers at once, as well as damage from our BHD and coil guns? We were on the inside where their powerful gravity weapon would likely do no harm.
I floated the idea to Command and was told to sit tight. All options were being considered. I gave Shepard the go-ahead to ready the Drillers in case new orders came down. She was already a step ahead of me.
As we passed through the next wall we came into an ocean area that was only 500 meters in depth. It was teaming with what were likely thousands of tiny squid. We were floating through the alien's nursery. I looked on in wonder at the tiny green six tentacled offspring of our enemy.
I began to wonder if the aliens had any traits that we would normally consider human. Were they greedy, arrogant or spiteful at times? Did they have compassion for their fellow squids? Were there family units? I was left wondering if what we termed human nature was instead more likely universal concepts of most sentient beings.
Shepard then called my attention to our aft video sensor. It was teaming with the small creatures. As we continued to move the same phenomenon happened to each of the sensors until we had no view of our surroundings. Were the tiny creatures somehow able to see our sensors? Command was abuzz with chatter and authorization came back quickly for us to do a micro-burst out of there if I felt it necessary.
I began a brief discussion with Shepard on her thoughts when the mega-ship once again dramatically changed course. This time it dropped its speed to one half SOL. In an instant we were outside of the mega-ship and moving away at millions of ki
lometers per hour. Within seconds we were beyond the mega-ship's kill zone. I wondered if we would later regret not having taken action when we had the chance.
The new speed pushed back the fleet’s estimated arrival time by two months. The Tacticians had come to the conclusion that the aliens needed to slow to effect repairs on their damaged destroyer. I had a different theory. We had been detected and they had slowed in an attempt to figure out just what we were.
Shepard had been going over the ships specifications and came back with what she thought might be the answer. The electronics of our sensors put out a 25kHz hum, but the amplitude was not considered detectable. At 12 feet away even our most sensitive microphones were unable to detect its presence.
Our engineers had not taken into account the effects of being in water where that 25kHz tone could easily be transmitted over a much longer distance. The infant squids had evidently picked up on it. It probably was only a matter of time before other sensors on-board the mega-ship would have been able to detect us.
Command considered it a minor victory that the aliens had slowed as two months would allow more pilots to be trained and more coil guns to be added to our defense. The new estimates would place 4,100 Defenders and 16 Ghosts in service by the time the fleet arrived.
For a month we floated along observing the aliens from a distance. The time seemed endless and monotonous. I began to doubt our chances. How ready was Earth for this invasion? Did the people know of the size of the fleet? Or of its power?
As we cruised along awaiting new direction, I was given the chance for a call home to speak with my family. My Grandfather answered and was in good spirits. But his voice sounded notably weaker and I could tell that age was taking its inevitable toll. I wished that I could somehow take him for a ride at 2412 SOL where the green glow could heal his aging body. It was a wish that I knew I would probably never be granted.
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