Running Leader’s fear was realized as first one battleglobe blew up, then a second, third and fourth in a pattern that paralleled the oncoming image of a fire-breathing reptile starship that emitted purple clouds of plasma from his purple-scaled snout. While the plasma globes traveled at just lightspeed, whatever weapon had just penetrated the Alcubierre Bubbles of four herd mates moved faster. In his mind he felt the local space-time begin to shimmer as the Alcubierre Drive module of his battleglobe reacted to his neurolink command.
“Move!” he cried to the fifteen other ship captains. “Change your vector line! And Translate away from here!”
Matt felt a touch of pleasure as his Stasis Beam swept over four battleglobes, giving each ship’s Command Core AI only one option. To obey the Anarchate prime directive that any battleglobe which lacked a living crew must destroy itself to prevent capture by a presumed enemy. After all, only a deadly enemy could somehow penetrate the normal EMF shields and 300 meter thick armor of a twelve kilometer-wide, Nova-class battleglobe. And such an enemy could not be allowed to learn battleglobe secrets or the coordinates of Anarchate worlds.
The remaining sixteen battleglobes shimmered with Translation startup fields.
“No!” he cried as he aimed the Stasis Beam at another four battleglobes.
Two blue-white matter-to-energy explosions spread across the black space formerly occupied by an Anarchate fleet. The remaining fourteen battleglobes vanished to reappear somewhere else. Where? There would be gravity wave pulses showing their emergence anywhere within three light years of the Hootnai system.
Sarah pulled Eliana’s combat suit into her Bridge, along with the purple geodesic dome of Altuna the AI. Her own ship AI Imperial overrode her ocean-time thoughts in an imperious sense that buffeted her mind with its force.
“Translation elsewhere is strongly advised! Multiple inbound Assault Asteroids, Supply Tubes and black hole clusters! Even with the Translation departure of enemy fleet, this space-time is too deadly to remain.”
“Agreed!” She used PET thought-images to order immediate Translation entry for her ship and her five battle allies. “We head three light years out! That is beyond planetary detection range. And Matt will join us soon!
Allowing her AI to control ship operations, Sarah left ocean-time, felt shaky beyond belief, then stepped out of her Interlock Pit to grab the unconscious naked woman who was being tractored over to an accel-couch by her suit’s Tactical CPU.
“I’ve got her, suit!”
“Releasing,” said the male voice of Eliana’s suit, a voice that sounded much like Matt’s baritone.
“Mistress,” called the purple globe of Altuna the AI. “May I assist you with my tractors? My . . . Eliana part was knocked out by the force of ship disintegration.”
“Yes,” Sarah said, moving back to allow the tender-sounding AI who resembled the black dragon shape of Matt’s BattleMind to control the placement of Eliana into a nearby accel-couch. “Radiation exposure? Will she live?”
“Yes,” murmured the tender voice of Altuna. “My Eliana component was shielded by her combat suit’s EMF field and armor layers. However, this new radiation is added to what she suffered during the Thuringia rescue of Matthew’s sister. She will show severe reddening of her skin. Her lack of skin color makes her especially vulnerable to radiation damage.”
“Her eyes? Will she see? And her ovaries? Can she still—”
“Normal function is indicated,” said Altuna as the purple globe neared the accel-couch in which it had deposited Eliana’s white body. “Vision and reproduction abilities were not damaged.”
How? she thought. Then spoke aloud her question. “How could she be that close to a multi-megaton thermonuke blast and not be internally damaged?”
“She was shielded,” said the purple globe as its hover on Nullgrav became shaky. “I interposed my physical body between her suit and the explosion source. My metal is hardened against gamma and x-rays while my local EMF field repels ionized and charged particles. But—”
The purple globe fell toward the gravplate deck of Bridge.
The fall was stopped by Imperial’s tractor beam. “Sarah my partner, Eliana’s AI Altuna has lost its Nullgrav hover ability. The hover module was burned out by radiation. And one fourth of its memory crystals have been randomized by gamma ray impacts on the side of its shell that faced the ship blast. May I help it recover awareness?”
“Of course!”
Sarah sat down on the padded arm of Eliana’s accel-couch. Exhaustion from ocean-time linkage hit her like a tidal wave. But she refused to lose awareness. When a fellow human and their AI partner had both suffered injury in the fight against cloneslavery, Sarah would not allow herself the balm of passing out until they were all safe. Including Matthew.
# # #
Matt’s eyes filled with tears even as he stayed in ocean-time linkage with Sarah’s mind, the minds of Mata Hari and BattleMind, and his Hexagon Prime co-pilots. Who deserved his attention before he crawled away to block his emotions from leaking into their joint mind communion.
Four seconds, 542 milliseconds, 12 nanoseconds, 36 picoseconds and 71 femtoseconds.
“George!” he called to his black-bearded battlemate, whose grey eyes fixed on Matt even as the six of them hovered in the mental Park habitat of his memory. “Please take care of leading the fleet upon our departure from Translation. We all need to check our ships for needed repairs even as we stay alert for any gravity wave pulses that signal pursuit by this Dolmat fleet captain!”
Suzanne’s face bloomed into their shared mind communion. Her blue eyes showed red circles. The Swede’s mind emotion was overwhelming.
“Eliana will live! And see. And have children some day,” she murmured as her gaze went distant briefly. “She will show a reddish rad burn for a few days.” Then her mental attention locked onto Matt.
“Matthew, that was crazy going after the Anarchate fleet with your shields down! You could have been destroyed!”
He knew that. He also knew that he only wanted to put the fear of an eternity of pain into the mind of this Dolmat fleet captain. A fleet leader who was even more inventive and more dangerous than the former Sector Captain Yorkel. Even now his stone cold mind fought the surge of “Revenge” emotion. An emotion that he knew each of his human allies felt and perhaps shared.
“You are right,” he said, feeling distant from everyone and everything.
“Damn it Matt!” screamed Sarah into his mind. “Your lifemate Eliana is hurt! But she will recover! When she does, she will need a functioning husband! And future father of the children she so desperately wants!” The brown-haired Greek woman who knew a thing or two about life surprises looked at him angrily. “Don’t you dare give in to self-pity!”
She was right too. “Thank you, Sarah. Thank you for rescuing Eliana and our ally Altuna. Thank you for bringing me back to the duty I owe to others, beyond my own geis obsession.”
Toktaleen inserted his golden chitin globe-head into the shared mind communion. “Emotions are normal when a spouse is nearly lost. I knew this emotion when my spouse and infant were captured by the cloneslavers. Before Matthew rescued us. We have rescued Eliana and Altuna. Now we need to hold a Battle Council to plan our next attack against the Anarchate.”
What? Matt blinked with mental surprise. Then he realized the Brokeet of three brain lobes was reminding him of his duty as the commander of a war. A war that involved injuries, losses, intense danger and growing counter-attacks by Anarchate forces. He sighed.
“You are correct, good Toktaleen.” Matt scanned the mental community of his fleet allies. Suzanne’s red eyes were clearing. Ben the Aussie tipped back his bush hat, as one might do when prepared to defy the harsh sun on a desert Walkabout. George of the stocky frame and wrestler’s muscles stood like a marble pillar at the edge of the mind circle. Rafael, father of four and husband to red-haired Rebecca, showed Hispanic calmness as his gaze fixed on Matt. And good Sarah, she of the
blue-eyed gaze that had never faltered in the moments after the destruction of Eliana’s ship, she was out of ocean-time but remained in council via her tachlink module, her mood one of patience.
“After we emerge from Translation just outside this system, and do what needs to be done for Eliana, Altuna and our ships, we head for the Orion Nebula,” Matt said. “To system CC32415.”
“To do what?” asked the Spy persona of Mata Hari, echoing the interest of every ship AI.
“To destroy the naval shipyard in that system’s protoplanetary disk. To destroy the space factories that are making these Black Hole launchers and Alcubierre Bubble projectors. And to destroy any Anarchate fleet remnants that are foolish enough to return to the last naval shipyard remaining in Orion Arm.”
“Yes!” cried everyone in mind communion. All seven of them cried their support.
Including Matt the Vigilante.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Charlotte watched her brother Matthew as he joined her and Mom for a leafy green salad on the grassy meadow next to the small blue pond that occupied the center of the Park habitat. Matt had been solemn and quiet after the six second battle against Anarchate warships that led to the destruction of Eliana’s starship, her rescue and the shock of new weapons wielded by the Anarchate fleet.
“Matt, will Eliana come back onboard this ship?”
Her brother blinked quickly. Then he looked up from his food plate. “Yes,” he said softly, his reddish cheeks turning darker than Polynesian normal. “Sarah is tending to her. And Eliana’s onboard nanoDocs are chelating out radiation-damaged cells. Fortunately she did not inhale any radioactive particles.”
Their Mom looked up from her lettuce, tomato and sliced cucumber salad, her chopsticks laid to one side. “Matthew, you’re hurting. I see that. Why? Eliana is alive and coming here to be with you.”
Her brother’s broad shoulders tensed under his yukata robe. His neck muscles showed long tendons reaching down from his clamped jaw to his collar bones. And a hint of wetness showed in his eyes. He was her brother. A grown up brother. But also a man, an adult man, with life experiences she was only beginning to understand. Like the death before his eyes of his first lover, Helen Trinh. His expression seemed to echo that memory pain. Along with something else. Something she thought might belong to the leader of a wolf pack.
“Yes, she is alive, Mom,” he said slowly, with a neutral voice tone. “But she was hurt and put into danger by my choice. As commander of this fleet. My decision to enter combat even with foreknowledge of the fact the Dolmat fleet captain had guessed we would attack that system, that decision was mine. And it hurt Eliana.”
Charlotte noticed how her brother, unlike herself and her Mom, did not sniffle, did not have a good sisterly cry, and did not reach out to hug them like any woman would hug a sister who’d suffered pain and heartbreak. He was not like them. And the strength of determination that she remembered from when he’d been a sixteen year-old who resented their father Benoit’s control of their lives, that strength was now the size of a mountain. Or maybe a neutron star. She smiled his way.
“Hey, brother, it’s right to be ticked off at the Anarchate baddies.”
Matthew’s expression showed surprise at her young sister tone. His cheekbone skin loosened, almost as if he were about to smile. But he didn’t.
“Ticked off is not quite an adequate adjective. Dear sister.” Her brother dropped his chopsticks onto the salad plate that he had barely touched. “Furious begins my mood.”
Charlotte nodded briefly, her gaze fixing on the stoic tightness of her brother. “What will complete your mood?”
“The total destruction of the Anarchate control structure. And every instrument of their oppression.”
Airmed O’Davoren sat with her newfound lover Balor O’Leary as they watched the surveillance audiovisual record of the inquiries being made by the Anarchate spy Rak alk-thorn. She reached out to hold Balor’s hand, feeling the strength of a man who had raised a family of five children with the aid of his wife Melody, then coped with her death from a blood poisoning that their nanoDocs and MedDoc automatons could not cure. She had been alone too long as a widow with no children. Their party-making during the Thank You party for Matthew Dragoneaux in the city’s central park had led to night walks under the large moon that hovered close to Morrigan. Concerts they shared. Meals they enjoyed together. Love-making had brought both of them into a bonded closeness that felt like it would last. She hoped so.
“That black bastard has interviewed every Rathfriland captive, including young Maeve, and two-thirds of the Omega Casino refugees,” grunted Balor as he squeezed her hand. He turned to her, his weather-creased face showing an intensity that reflected what he’d said to Matt about them both being honor-bound to sacrifice their lives for the good of Morrigan’s people. “Do we kill him, bribe him or give him a false lead?”
Airmed recalled the two tachlink reports the Meligun bear had transmitted to its master Sytoon, a Loglan crab amphibian who seemed convinced that a human world was helping Matthew. Which of course Morrigan was. But their world could not survive being quarantined from trading with the rest of the Anarchate. They had need for too many specialty devices made only in the Anarchate. And while she felt tempted to try a bribe, she knew the Meligun bears were notorious for being ‘correct’ in their behavior as one of the Ancient species that specialized in galaxy-wide banking. A pile of Standards would not sway this spy.
“We give him a false lead,” she said, offering Balor a brief smile, then leaning forward to pour herself a glass of ice water from the antique Waterford crystal pitcher. She sat back and leaned against Balor’s strong shoulder. “We know Matthew’s entire combat history from his rescue of planet Halcyon from the Halicene Conglomerate to the Small Magellanic Galaxy to their recent battle with that Anarchate fleet in NGC 6397. We give this spy a place to go find Matt’s hideout.”
Balor’s face crinkled as he smiled. It was a smile that had persevered through love, grown-up children, loss and the demands of training a planetary militia. “Ah. And just where would that be?”
Airmed smiled, then winked playfully. “A place he and his fleet have already been that is unknown to the Anarchate. Star HD 86523, in the Vela domain. It’s a B3V main sequence white star,” she said, pulling back as Balor tried to tickle her ribs. “Balor! This is serious! This star hosts a gas giant with an atmospheric refining station for pulling out fusion fuel isotopes. Matt’s Ocean Fleet went there after the Vela system battle where they destroyed the Anarchate naval shipyard.”
Balor’s playful smile turned thoughtful. He sat back as he saw the implications. “There is enough left over debris from refueling and minor ship repairs on those T’Chak warships to convince the Anarchate this is where Matt hangs out between battles. Except it lacks an Earth-like world.”
She nodded patiently. “Which is why it is perfect! Any Anarchate fleet that visits there will see the ship refueling residue, then leave a Courier with a Bethe Inducer to make the star go nova as soon as it detects gravity wave pulses from incoming starships.”
Balor rubbed his short grey hair, then held out his hand. She handed him the half-full glass of water. “Thank you, my dear.” He sipped. “Shall I drop a reference to this star as a Matthew refueling stop that someone did not erase from the civil archive database?”
“No. Feed the existing suspicion of this bear that we ‘know something’ about Matt,” she said. Accepting the empty water glass she put it on the foot table and sat back on the soft couch, turning to face her co-conspirator. “Put a mention of the star name and use as a refueling spot in my governor’s personal archive. With a backdoor entry that a spy like Rak alk-thorn will surely discover as he makes his fifth attempt to break into my personal archive.”
Balor chuckled. A deep, hearty, honest chuckle. “Excellent! I knew there were more reasons I fell for you, good Airmed, than your insatiable body.”
She reached out and began to unbutton
his calico shirt. “Yes, I have brains too, my love. Speaking of which, send that Maeve girl on a Scouting camp-out far from her home. She worships Matthew for his rescue of her from the slaver ship captain. She has seen his T’Chak ship. And I’ve heard she has told girlfriends that she wants to join his crusade against cloneslavery.”
Balor nodded, then leaned forward to kiss her softly. “It will be taken care of, my lovely. Both matters. Now, will you shut off that damned ceiling monitor eye? I do not wish to entertain any late night visitors to your office.”
Airmed laughed her young girl laugh. Then the older part of her passed a hand over the monitor control tab on the couch. After that, all their limbs became nicely entangled.
Sytoon rested in his office’s water basin as it hovered on Nullgrav just above the office floor. Before him glowed a live hologram of his spy Rak alk-thorn, who seemed very excited about something. The biped’s narrow ears pointed straight up while its two pairs of arms clawed at its several tool harnesses. The black claws left white abrasion streaks on the harnesses. The former assistant to Commander Chai pointed its datapad at the holo receptor on its side of an FTL conversation between planet Morrigan and Sytoon’s habitat on the small world that circled star CC3478 in Sagittarius-Carina Arm.
“High Commander! Excellent news!” The hairy biped’s blocky head inclined toward Sytoon. “The visit of the renegade Human to this world left a record of his fleet’s refueling and repair base! Here, I’m sending the star’s sigil name, Human reference title and location near the Vela naval base which was destroyed many Belizel months ago.”
Sytoon moved a pincer over a side holo pedestal, which produced a three dee spatial image that measured hundreds of light cycles in size. In the holo center hung a blue-white main sequence star of class B3V. It contained a large gas giant, an asteroid belt and a small rocky world that was airless and close enough to the giant star to show a molten surface. No habitable world was present in the system. The gas giant was icon-tagged as having an atmospheric refueling station in the upper atmosphere. Inhaling a long flow of salty water, he asked the obvious questions of the eager Meligun.
Anarchate Vigilante (Vigilante Series 4) Page 24