Zero Hour (Expeditionary Force Book 5)

by Craig Alanson

  “Well, shit,” Skippy grumbled. “I hadn’t thought about that! Thanks for being such a ray of sunshine, Joe.”

  Adams’s lips formed a silent ‘O’ shape. “Ooh, that, that is a good point. Skippy, are there other types of conduits we could look for? The Thuranin don’t truly know what we are seeking, they only know what the thing on Barsoom looks like.”

  “There are other types of conduits, but that isn’t the problem. We don’t have many options for finding another conduit, Joe. Just the one option, and you didn’t even want to talk about that one.”

  “I still don’t want to talk about it, Skippy,” I cut him off hurriedly as Adams raised an eyebrow. “Not yet, Ok? We need to escape from the Thuranin task force before we have even one option. And that is really not an option anyway. Adams, pretend you didn’t hear that. That’s an order. We don’t need any distractions right now.”

  Sergeant Adams nodded, and if she wasn’t happy about my order, she hid it well. “Yes, S-”

  “Speaking of distractions, Joe, I just detected an enemy destroyer jumping in eight lightminutes away,” Skippy announced. The Thuranin were continuing to track and harass us, even though they seemed to be happy to wait until we approached a wormhole before pressing their attack.

  Standing up from my chair, I swallowed the last of the coffee and set the cup down next to the other discarded cups. “Sergeant,” I covered my mouth as my mouth gaped in a jaw-stretching yawn, “I’ll be on the bridge. Again.”

  Chapter Six

  We got away from that destroyer, and I pulled together Chotek and the senior staff so Adams could tell her theory of how the Thuranin had been waiting for us at Bravo. Everyone slapped their foreheads after they understood the Thuranin needed only logic and not magic to anticipate our arrival at Bravo, and even Chotek congratulated Adams on her intelligence. People were relieved to hear the Thuranin could not actually predict our movements, then I rained on the parade by mentioning that the Thuranin would be locking up all conduits in the sector now they knew someone was searching for them. Being a buzzkill wasn’t my intention, I just didn’t want people to get their hopes up. With us running for our lives, maybe I should have held my bad news for later.

  Six hours later, I was back in my office, avoiding coffee because all it did was make my mouth dry, the caffeine wasn’t helping me stay alert. “Joe, we are in trouble. Big trouble.”

  “I know that, Skippy,” I responded distractedly, focused on my laptop. The display mirrored the main bridge display, allowing me to fret over what the command crew was doing, without me hovering over their shoulders. At any moment, I knew, a cluster of dots could appear on the display, announcing the gamma ray bursts of Thuranin ships jumping in to hunt the Flying Dutchman. One corner of the display showed the progress of recharging the jump drive capacitors. We had enough reserve power for a modest jump right then. According to the timer, it would take seven hours to full charge our partially burned-out capacitors, and I knew that was never going to happen. No way could we hang dead in space for seven hours with an entire task force chasing us. “When are we ever not in trouble?”

  “No, I mean, we are in more trouble than you realize,” Skippy warned. “I just completed decrypting a transmission that I intercepted before our second-to-last jump. Sorry it took so long, this is a case where my reduced capacity directly affects my abilities. What I learned is extremely alarming; the Thuranin are calling in two additional task forces to pursue us.”

  “Two whole task forces?” I gasped. “Uh, how many ships is that?”

  “Sixty additional warships, at least. That doesn’t count support vessels. The Thuranin are taking this very, very seriously.”

  “Sixty more freakin’ ships to hunt us?”

  “At least sixty ships. The communication I intercepted was from Thuranin military command to the squadron we encountered; it indicates even more ships can be made available if needed. Tracking the Flying Dutchman is a top priority. Even worse-”

  “Wait. How can those little green MFers have sixty ships available?” I demanded. “The Jeraptha just gave the Thuranin a major ass-whipping! With our help.”

  “Ah, well, heh heh,” he chuckled nervously, “this is another case where the Law of Unintended Consequences is biting us in the ass. Yes, the Thuranin did get their butts kicked by the Jeraptha, and as you know, that caused problems on our last mission.” He meant the weakened state of the Jeraptha fleet had caused those little assholes to encourage the Kristang Fire Dragon clan to sweeten their offer to the Ruhar. That deal was for the Ruhar to send a ship to Earth, leaving us with no option but to spark a civil war between Kristang clans.

  “Yeah, I remember. I also remember you told us there would be no downside to us helping the Jeraptha against the Thuranin!”

  “Yes, that is why they are called unintended consequences. Duh. Damn, you are super dense sometimes.”

  I slapped my forehead and clenched a fist to suppress an urge to throw the beer can out an airlock. “What went wrong this time?”

  “Nothing new went wrong, it’s all the same crap, Joe. I won’t bore you with the details, a full strategic analysis from Thuranin Fleet Command is available on your laptop if you want to read it later. Basically, their recent losses have persuaded Thuranin leadership to reach a wide-ranging ceasefire with the Jeraptha. Thuranin ships have pulled back and surrendered key areas of this sector and the adjacent sector toward the rim of the galaxy. Giving up that territory has been deeply humiliating to the Thuranin and hurt their standing with the Maxolhx. The Jeraptha and Thuranin fleets have established a demilitarized zone along their new frontier, extending for almost three thousand lightyears. What all this means to us, Joe, is the Thuranin fleet currently is not engaged in offensive operations, and they have been able to concentrate their defense forces over a smaller area. While the mystery of a strange star carrier may have been a minor curiosity to a wartime fleet, we have now moved considerably up the Thuranin priority list.”

  “Why? Come on, the Thuranin have got to be frightened their ceasefire with the Jeraptha could collapse at any moment.”

  “No, they are not. The Thuranin have access to intelligence from the Maxolhx, so they know high-level officials in the Jeraptha government have wagered significant sums that the ceasefire will hold for at least seven months, counting in human time.”

  “Shit. Those beetles bet on whether they will cheat on their own freakin’ ceasefire agreement?”

  “Of course they did, that is juicy action no Jeraptha could resist. Technically, they are also wagering on whether the Thuranin will violate the agreement, but both sides know it is safe to assume the Thuranin fleet will not be capable of launching a major attack for a year or more. The bottom line is the Thuranin fleet is not greatly concerned about an imminent threat from the Jeraptha, so they have time for other activities. Like keeping the Kristang civil war from spreading too far. Repair and maintenance of their ships and orbital defense platforms. And chasing down the mystery of a rogue Thuranin star carrier.”

  “You mean iff we had not helped the Jeraptha kick their little green asses, the Thuranin would be too busy to be hunting us? We screwed ourselves again?”

  “Yup. Most likely, anyway. Joe, there are two reasons why the Thuranin are committing major resources to capture this ship. First, the Thuranin strongly suspect the Bosphuraq passed intel to the Jeraptha about the sneak attack on the Glark system, and that intel is why three Thuranin task forces were ambushed and destroyed. The Thuranin have been tracking reports of strange incidents involving a rogue star carrier that appears to be Thuranin in origin, and they have noted those incidents usually involve action against the interests of the Thuranin. After we got ambushed by that squadron of Thuranin destroyers during our second mission, I told you I intercepted communications in which the Thuranin accused the Kristang of hijacking a star carrier seventeen years ago. The Kristang denied the whole thing, of course, but the Thuranin were not convinced. Then as time went on
and the Thuranin continued to get vague reports of a rogue star carrier, their suspicions turned away from the Kristang, because it is extremely unlikely the lizards could keep a Thuranin starship flying for long without access to technical support and spare parts. The Thuranin now suspect the rogue star carrier was hijacked by the Bosphuraq, or is actually a disguised Bosphuraq ship. When the Thuranin brought their suspicions to the Maxolhx, the Bosphuraq dismissed the idea in very harsh language that left the Thuranin enraged.”

  “Their little green feelings got hurt?”

  “Very much. Don’t gloat about it, Joe. The Thuranin are very much pissed off and determined to prove the Bosphuraq are lying, particularly now that the defeats suffered by the Thuranin have weakened their position within the Maxolhx coalition.”

  “Ok, the Thuranin have good reasons to capture this ship. We knew that already. We will jump away and keep running, keep clear of Thuranin ships. No different from what we have been doing since we boarded this ship,” I said unhappily, kind of amazed that I could be talking so calmly about a cruel species of advanced beings who would love to tear my ship apart. Had I faced so many terrible threats that I was now numb to them? “Why do you now say we are in big trouble?”

  “Because of the second reason the Thuranin are using a significant part of the fleet to hunt us. The Maxolhx asked them to.”

  “What? Shit! When did that happen?”

  “Shortly after the Thuranin accused the Bosphuraq of passing intel to the Jeraptha. The Maxolhx never thought the Bosphuraq were involved; they think the failure of the Thuranin attempted sneak attack on Glark was due to poor communication security by the Thuranin. Unfortunately for us, in the data provided by the Thuranin for their claim against the Bosphuraq, they included details of reports about a rogue star carrier. And that got the attention of the Maxolhx. Remember I told you we had to be careful about screwing with wormholes, because eventually someone was going to notice?”

  “Oh, shit.” I could feel blood draining from my face.

  “Yeah, ‘oh shit’ is an appropriate response. So far, the Maxolhx have not connected anomalous wormhole behavior with humans, or Earth. They are not yet suspicious, merely alarmed and curious that wormholes were acting strangely. But now that they have matched up their data about odd wormhole behavior with the Thuranin data about a rogue star carrier, the Maxolhx are beginning to get suspicious.”

  “That is bad news,” I swallowed hard because I was feeling a twinge of upset stomach, and that wasn’t because I drank too much coffee.

  “Bad news indeed. It is very bad news for us right now, because the Maxolhx have offered to help the Thuranin capture this ship. Joe,” his avatar gestured to my laptop display, which now showed a star map, with a yellow banana icon for the Flying Dutchman in the center. “There are only four Elder wormholes within our theoretical range, and one of those is so far away,” one wormhole icon in the display glowed red, “that I would most likely hit Zero Hour before we got there, assuming nothing aboard the ship breaks after that many jumps. So, really we have only three wormholes to choose from. What the Maxolhx have offered to do, and what they have ordered the Bosphuraq to assist with, is to blockade two of the wormholes.” Two wormhole icons now blinked purple.

  “Wait,” I said skeptically, “they can do that?”

  “They can-”

  “I remember way back, maybe before we boarded the Dutchman, I asked whether wormholes had battle stations in front of them, to control access.”

  “Yes, you suggested something stupid like a Death Star.”

  “That’s not the point, Skippy. You told me it is impossible to block access to a wormhole, because they jump around.”

  “Blockading a wormhole is possible, but very difficult. To continuously cover all endpoints requires a large fleet of ships; no single ship can jump far or fast enough to keep up with the wormhole’s movements. Even with a fleet of ships, a blockade is a short-term action; the ships wear out quickly from constantly jumping to their next assigned position in the blockade. In this case, the Maxolhx and Bosphuraq are dedicating a large number of ships to blockade two of those wormholes temporarily. Really, all they want to do is make it more difficult for us to go through those wormholes, so we will try going through the other wormhole instead. The two wormholes blockaded by the Maxolhx lead toward Bosphuraq territory close to the Rindhalu coalition, and the Maxolhx are afraid we might get away in that direction. The other wormhole leads deeper into Thuranin territory, which is where we actually want to go, but they don’t know that.”

  “The Maxolhx are trying to herd us toward the Thuranin, so the Thuranin can trap us and capture the ship. Got it. Damn. Ok, will we be able to sneak through that other wormhole, or do the Thuranin have that one blockaded also?”

  “They don’t have it blockaded yet. The message stated the Thuranin are rushing to get fleet assets in position for a partial blockade of the wormhole, but their ships are scattered. If we change course now to head straight toward that wormhole at maximum speed, we have a chance to go through before they can block our path. Don’t ask me to calculate the odds; I don’t have enough data.”

  I switched my laptop display back to show the bridge feed; the little indicator in the corner showed we needed another sixty three minutes of charging the capacitors before we could jump. “Ok,” I sighed, feeling my stomach churning. “I’ll talk with Chotek.”

  Faced with the awful facts, Chotek agreed to change plans and run for the other wormhole. Because our altered course was not detected by the pursuing Thuranin ships for nearly a whole day, Skippy had time to partially retune the jump drive, and our entire crew got seven solid hours of sleep. Seven hours wasn’t enough to make up for the sleep we’d lost, but, damn, I felt tremendously better. After flying across lightyears, we jumped in six lightminutes from the spot where the wormhole was scheduled to emerge. That distance was chosen by Skippy because it was far enough away to protect us from immediate danger, if there were Thuranin ships guarding the wormhole, and close enough for us to scan the area relatively quickly. Because the gamma ray burst of our inbound jump acted like a beacon to give away our position to any ships in the area, there was no additional risk in our using active sensors, so we powered up the sensor array and sent powerful pulses to sweep the entire area. If a ship or multiple ships were parked in front of the wormhole, we could not risk attempting to go through. The greatest danger to us was if ships were hanging stealthily in space a short distance away from the wormhole, ready to perform a short jump timed for them to arrive as soon as the wormhole emerged. Due to the physics involved, the Flying Dutchman would be briefly defenseless and nearly blind after emerging from a jump, so we had to be certain the area was clear before committing ourselves to a final jump in front of the wormhole. The wormhole was scheduled to shift position and emerge within twenty four minutes, and we had the Dutchman moving at high speed through normal space, in the direction that would take us through the wormhole quickly even without the normal-space engines providing additional thrust. If we could successfully jump in near the wormhole, our momentum would carry us through the Elder wormhole and we would come through the other end eight hundred lightyears away, even if enemy weapons fire disabled our limping star carrier.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough security for either Hans Chotek or myself. If the Dutchman was disabled, enemy ships could follow us through the wormhole and easily capture us, and we could not take that risk. The self-destruct nukes were warmed up and ready to give a final, futile gesture of defiance to enemy ships if they got too close; kind of a multimegaton middle finger salute.

  My original idea had been for us to jump in so far from the wormhole that our gamma rays would not reach the wormhole until after it had shut down and moved to the next position along its endless route. I wanted us to perform another jump just before the wormhole shut down, so we could go through and have the wormhole shut down behind us before enemy ships would react and follow us. Skippy had shot d
own that idea, explaining that the time a wormhole shuts down can vary by up to eighty one seconds. Just before a wormhole shuts down, it sends out a pulse to warn ships away, but we would not be able to predict when the wormhole would blink out on us. If we jumped in and the wormhole had already closed, we could very well be trapped in an enemy damping field. Then I had the genius idea to time our jump so that we popped into position just before the wormhole opened, giving enemy ships no time to react before we zipped on through. Unfortunately, Skippy shot down that idea by reminding me that we could not predict exactly where the wormhole would emerge. To avoid damaging the fabric of spacetime, or some nerdy technical shit like that Skippy tried to explain until he lost patience with me, wormholes shift their positions slightly each time they emerge. The shift is not a large distance, but it is a change significant enough that we had to wait for the wormhole to emerge before we could plot a short jump to take us in front of its event horizon. Finally, we could not jump in too close to an open, active wormhole; its event horizon creates a sort of damping field to prevent a ship’s inbound jump wormhole from interfering with the ancient Elder construct. All these safety features built into the wormhole network were no doubt necessary, and explained how the network had functioned without maintenance for millions of years. But in my opinion, the Elders had made the stupid things a lot less user friendly than they could be. If the Elders ever read the scathing review I left on Yelp, they might decide to fix some of their customer service issues.

  Or not.

  “Damn it, Joe. I just got return pulses from two ships out there,” Skippy declared unhappily. “Jump option Echo,” he suggested.

  “Wait.” I saw the two angry red dots glowing on the main bridge display; they were not in front of where the wormhole would be. Our sensor pulses had swept the area where the wormhole would emerge and it was clear. “Why can’t we-”