...and they are us 3: HiveWorld

by Patrick McClafferty

  “It’s going down Zed.” The view-screen zoomed just in time to catch the massive dreadnought slam into the shore of a small island. The glare engulfed the entire land mass, and when it cleared only a smoking crater remained.

  “Was the island inhabited?”

  “Unknown, Captain. It was good, however, that the ship struck land. Had it struck water, millions of kiloliters of water would have been vaporized, almost insuring a climatological disaster.”

  Zed stared at the screen. “That doesn’t help what I just did to this world.”

  “Focus, Zed.” LOLA hissed softly.

  Zed blinked. “We have a battleship, two cruisers, four destroyers and way too many frigates still to deal with.” He stared at the screen. “How many mines do we have?”

  “Almost a full magazine. The replicators have been busy.”

  “Pulse our cloaking on and off, as if it was damaged and take us out on a slow spiral away from the planet. We’ll see if we can draw the crowd after us and thin them down a bit with mines. Then we turn the cloaking back on and finish the rest.”

  LOLA chuckled. “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It is, really. Either it works or it doesn’t. We live or we die. Simple.”

  “Fatalist.” LOLA sniffed. Zed shrugged. “Beginning run. Pulsing cloaking field.”

  Zed stared at the view-screen and the cluster of red dots.

  “It’s working!” Someone on the bridge exclaimed in an excited voice.

  “Calmly people.” Zed said in a voice just loud enough to be heard. “We have a battle to fight. See to your stations.”

  “The battleship and a frigate are hanging back.” LOLA said in a soft voice.

  “I see it. We don’t have a choice. We’re committed now. Straighten us out, like we’re running.” On the display their blue line slowly straightened.

  “They’re following in roughly nose to tail formation.” LOLA’s image smiled. “You’re right, Zed. The Creednax are not tacticians.”

  “Release the mines in a long stream, so that they strike the string of Creednax ships broadside, not just in the front. Save a few hundred, just in case. As soon as the first mine hits resume full cloaking.”

  “Releasing mines Captain. Time to impact, three minutes.”

  “I hate waiting…” Mike muttered darkly.

  “Hush.” LOLA murmured. “Think of Olympus.” Mike growled something unintelligible.

  They stared at the display, barely blinking. “The Creednax are coming up on…” LOLA began. Flashes rippled down the side of the Creednax formation as the mines found targets.

  “Cloaking on and bring us around.”

  “Aye, aye.” The stars swung, and suddenly before them was a string of burning crippled ships.

  “Fire at will, LOLA.” The ships exploded. The Belerophon jerked, and alarms rang.

  “We’ve received a heavy weapon strike from a cruiser on our port side, again in quadrant Mu. That quadrant is open to space and has been sealed. I’m afraid to say there are some fatalities, Zed and several injuries.”

  “Kill that ship LOLA!” The screen glared white and blanked for a moment before it came back on.

  “It is already done, Zed. I cared for those people too you know.”

  “You wouldn’t be who you are if you didn’t.” He replied gently.

  “All the ships in the formation have been incapacitated or destroyed, Zed. We should make sure that…”

  “I’ll do it in the scout saucer.” Mike was already in the process of standing.

  Zed reached out and grabbed his friend’s arm. “Be careful. I don’t want to be greeting you in Olympus for a long, long time.” Still chuckling, Mike turned for the lift.

  “Saucer released.” LOLA commented a few minutes later. Zed watched the blue dot drop away.

  “Let’s go make this a clean sweep, LOLA.”

  “Heading for the battleship. They know we’re coming, Zed. This won’t be so easy.”

  “Now she tells me. Dip down into the atmosphere a little as we approach the planet. Let’s leave a little streaking heat corona for our oversized friends up there, like we dipped a little too low. Then come to a dead stop, drop straight down and reverse course slowly and quietly. As the battleship passes us we pop his drives, and then knock him back up into space, where we chew him to pieces.” LOLA shook her head. “Do you have a better idea in the next thirty or so seconds?” He snapped.

  “No, Zed I don’t.” She admitted. “Dipping into the atmosphere now.”

  Zed held his breath. “Damn! The frigate is coming in first. We need to hit that battlewagon, but not drop him on the planet. We need something to draw the frigate away.” The nose of the Creednax ship was just touching the atmosphere as a small blue dot shot out of the Bellerophon, heading unerringly for the frigate. “Mike, what the hell do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to be taking care of the Creednax column at our rear!” Zed shouted into the air.

  “This isn’t Major Flaherty, Captain.” Caithlexa’s soft voice said in the silent bridge. “I’ll take care of the frigate. You take the battleship.”

  “But…” Zed couldn’t breathe.

  “She’s right, Zed.” LOLA said softly into his ear. “Besides, she’s there now and you can’t get her back. You might as well give her your blessing.”

  Zed muttered a curse, and then took a deep breath. “Be careful, please?”

  Caithlexa gave him a radiant smile. “I will Zed.” RVM strikes ripped the side of the Creednax frigate, and the small saucer shot by, leaving a glowing heat signature arching up and out of the atmosphere.

  “You’re going way too fast Caithlexa!” Zed shouted to the ceiling. “The Creednax can see…” A shot from the frigate’s energy cannon grazed the saucer, causing the cloaking to flicker. A second, much heavier shot from the battleship’s Main Gun tore a hole through the saucer, sending it spinning into space, bleeding a trail of air and water.

  Zed was on his feet. “Kill that battleship! Volley fire… everything we have.”

  “They’ll see us.” LOLA warned.

  “I don’t care! Kill it.”

  “Aye aye.” The Bellerophon shuddered and shuddered and shuddered as it emptied its magazines. “It appears that the unknown destroyer we thought powered down is now powering up and engaging the damaged Creednax frigate. It looks like…” Something slammed the ship, and as the lights flickered and failed Zed felt his body fly across the bridge. The wry voice in the back of his mind mentioned that he should have been seated, with his lap belt on. Someone screamed just as he hit the wall.

  Chapter 5

  THE MYRTHRAA

  “It you had been a human you’d have been dead.” LOLA sounded more aggravated than concerned. “A broken neck is nothing to scoff at.”

  In the red emergency lighting Zed rolled off the console he was lying on, falling a meter to the deck with a hollow thump. Around him people were groaning. “Get me a display.”

  “But Zed…”

  “Get me a display now, LOLA.”

  “Aye sir.” Her reply was sulky.

  “Where is the Rose?”

  “The Rose is gone, Zed. The Creednax Main Gun just…” She stopped as something drifted across their field of vision.

  “I didn’t know that you built an escape pod into the Rose of the Dawn.” He stared openmouthed. What drifted by looked like the top third of a silver sphere, sheared off and sealed flat on the bottom. It was spinning slowly, like a coin tossed in the air. “I didn’t think it was possible.” He waited. “LOLA?”

  “It isn’t possible.” She replied in a stunned voice. “We put many advanced features into the Rose of the Dawn. Due to its small size, an escape pod was not one of them. We are looking at an impossibility.”

  “Are there any lifesigns aboard that impossibility?”

  “Without life support they wouldn’t have a…” She stopped again. “There are four lifesigns. All are in a deep sleep, almost a coma.” />
  “Can we tractor that back aboard?”

  “I… Yes we can. We still have one serviceable bay left for the saucers. We lost two when the Creednax Main Gun blew a hole through us. We were very lucky.”

  “No luckier than the people in the saucer, I’d say”

  “That wasn’t luck, Zed. That borders on an outright miracle. Lifepods don’t appear out of thin air.”

  “They do now. Please let Doctor Sutherland know that she is needed in bay three.”

  “She’s already there Zed.”

  “Thank you, my dear. If you could, find us a place to set down on that world. A flat beach beside an ocean would be ideal. Then we can think about repairs.”

  “Your XO has been calling every 15 minutes. What shall I tell him?”

  Zed chuckled, and regretted it almost instantly, as every inch of his body hurt, his neck especially. “Tell him that we survived and are planning on setting down. What is the destroyer doing?”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were standing guard over us, to see if we survived.”

  “If you call this survived. I’m going down to check on Caithlexa. I’ll be back in a bit.”

  “Aye, Captain.” The bridge lights flickered and came back on. Zed winced at the amount of damage he saw. “Primary power has been restored, Captain.” He gave her a flat look.

  The bridge on the Rose of the Dawn could have just been turned off. The displays were all dark. It wasn’t until you noticed that all the lower access ways ended in a shiny silver floor that you began to suspect something was… odd. Four crewmembers sat upright in their chairs, their eyes closed, barely breathing. The fifth crewmember was lying against the far wall, still strapped to his chair. His neck was bent at an unsurvivable angle. Helen Sutherland was working with a small portable lamp, checking the seated crew.

  “How are they doing, Helen?” Zed asked, bending over Caithlexa.

  “They’re fine.” The doctor frowned. “They should be dead. They all went into a coma at the same instant, from what I can tell, and that saved their oxygen. I don’t understand. I also don’t know how to wake them up.” On an impulse, Zed reached over and touched Caithlexa on the cheek with his fingers. She opened her eyes immediately. Similarly, his touch, usually on the hand, awakened the other sleepers. Doctor Sutherland had seen many strange things happen in her career. Most of the really strange ones involved Zed Yates. This time she gave him a direct look. “What the hell are you, Zed?”

  He returned a wry smile. “I have no idea.”

  Caithlexa sat up, rubbing her head and blinking groggily. “What are you both doing here? The last I remember we fired on the Creednax frigate, and accelerated away, I heard Zed say something on the com and then… I woke up to find you standing here.”

  Zed patted her cheek. “You’re in what’s left of the Rose of the Dawn, berthed in what’s left of the Belerophon. We both got thoroughly trounced by the Creednax battleship before we killed them. We’ll be setting down dirtside in a while. I guess that it will be some time before we continue our mission.” He reached over and touched the battered forward console of the Rose. As he watched nanites began replacing a broken section of the view-screen. Perhaps the Rose of the Dawn would fly again. You couldn’t keep a good ship down, but it would be a while. “Get yourselves checked out by the doctor.” He gave Caithlexa a chaste kiss on the cheek. I’m very glad you survived.”

  Back on the bridge he sat in Mike’s chair. “How are we doing, LOLA?”

  “Well, we can land, if that’s what you want to know. Stardrive is shot. Magazines and energy reserves are zero. We have a few dozen mines. The systems on the ship are so bad I don’t know who survived and who didn’t. And your XO should be calling right about…” The forward screen resolved into the worried face of Mike Flaherty.

  “Zed!! I was wondering if you survived in that wreck. Damn that’s a tough ship.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. We’re pretty well shot here and we’ve got to set down to make repairs.”

  “I’ll set my docking…”

  “Don’t bother. What’s left of the Rose is in the only berthing bay left. You’ll have to follow us in.”

  “What do you mean, what’s left of the Rose?” Mike asked in a flat voice, devoid of emotion.

  “Caithlexa took the Rose out after the remaining frigate. She got the frigate, but the battleship got her… and us. The local destroyer took care of what was left of the frigate.”

  “Is she…” There was real fear in Mike’s voice.

  “She’s alive and well, for some unknown reason. She and most of the crew survived in the escape pod.”

  “I didn’t know the Rose had an escape pod.” Mike was frowning furiously.

  “It didn’t. That’s one of the unknowns. Did you finish off the Creednax?”

  “Yup. There’s not a living one in the system, now.”

  “Good. Follow us down then. Our magazines are empty so you’ll have to provide Combat Air Patrol for us.”

  “Can do, Captain.”

  “LOLA, if you would, please put us down.” Zed leaned back and closed his eyes to stop the world from spinning. He felt moderately terrible, and his neck was killing him.

  “Um, Zed? We seem to have a small problem.”

  He opened one eye. The world was still spinning. “What is it?”

  “It seems that the local defense forces wish us to land somewhere other than a beach.”

  “Damn! I was looking forward to a warm beach and a tall fruity drink with a little red umbrella.”

  LOLA laughed. “I’ll make you one when we get back home, by the pool.”

  “Don’t tease. Put Mike on please.” The screen cleared to show a frowning Mike Flaherty.

  “I assume you see where they are directing us. Stay cloaked for the moment. If they should prove hostile… you know what to do.”

  Mike gave a tired nod. “You look moderately unwell my friend.”

  “I feel moderately unwell. LOLA said I have a broken neck.” Zed shrugged, and regretted it. “I’ll take a break when we’re safe.”

  “Sure you will. I’ll speak with LOLA.”

  “That’s mutiny.”

  “Stuff it, Captain.” He gave Zed a sloppy salute and the screen went blank.

  Small sleek delta winged fighters guided the Belerophon to a remote field where they circled, indicating the saucer should land. There were a few vehicles present, some obviously military, but nothing too threatening. The saucer settled to the pavement without incident.

  Zed kept his eyes shut. He was definitely getting woozy. “LOLA, if you can, it might be a good idea to release our guests from the hangar. You can drag their little lifeboat outside before we open it.” He felt her soft touch on his forehead.

  “I’m so sorry Zed; I didn’t realize you were so badly hurt. You’re going home right now.”

  “Tell Mike to take over.”

  “Yes daddy. I already did. The bridge is clear of people—not that it would stop me if it weren’t.”

  “But…”

  The morning sun was shining through the curtains, and the air smelled of jasmine. Close by, larks sang as if their tiny hearts would break. Zed lay there for some time before he even dared to move, and when he did he wondered at his lack of pain. Athena greeted him with a kiss as he left his apartment.

  “You had us worried brother. LOLA let you get much too close to death. Although you are incredibly tough, you are not immortal.” She slipped her hand through his arm.

  “But I thought…”

  “You thought that if you died you would just wake up here? You will, if we know in advance and can make preparations.”

  Zed chuckled. “A digital copy, so to speak.”

  “Exactly.”

  Zed looked down at his hand. “This is a copy, isn’t it?”

  “Yes Zed it is. Your old body was so battered and broken it was easier to build you a new one." Her eyes sparkled. “This one is a little
taller. You will find that a benefit when dealing with the Myrthraa.”

  “Gesundheit.” Zed replied, grinning. “Now tell me what Myrthraa means.”

  Athena squeezed his arm. “It’s good to have you home, brother. Myrthraa means literally, the people of Myrth.”

  “Ahhh.” Zed nodded. “I take it you’ve decoded their language.”

  “We did. You know the language, but you will have to train your jaw to handle the imposing collection of consonants. Their speech involves a significant amount of spitting.”

  Zed chuckled. “How long have I been here?”

  “A day and a half.” Her grip on his arm tightened. “I would recommend you stay until tomorrow. Swim today, eat and rest. The nanites are busy rebuilding your ships.” Her face turned serious. “There is a memorial service tomorrow for the people who died. Several Myrthraa officials will be attending. You should plan on presiding.”

  “I’m thrilled. How long until we can continue our journey?”

  “At least a month. The damage to the Belerophon was significant. You’re familiar with the damage to the Rose.”

  “Just what happened with the Rose anyway?” “How did an escape pod suddenly appear?”

  Athena gave an unreadable look. “We thought you might tell us.”

  “Oh shit…”

  “We are very powerful, Zed, especially when joined as The Morrigan. We thought, in our arrogance, that we were approaching human conceptions of divinity. We now realize that we are but children playing in a pond with a twig, suddenly catching a glimpse of a mighty sailing ship passing by on the ocean.”

  “Have you considered that this entire exercise with the Rose could be nothing more than an example designed to make you think, like a Zen koan?” Zed stopped to watch a gull wheel in the azure sky. “To make you, The Morrigan… and me think.”

  Athena’s face turned pale as she stared at him. “What are you, Zed?”

  Zed sighed. “What do you think I am?”

  “We rebuilt you Zed, and I know what makes your body function. I’ve studied the ones and zeros that make up the data of your life, your memory and soul if you will. You therefore are something greater than the sum of your parts.”