The Lost Swarm

by Vaughn Heppner

  Automatically, without conscious thought, Valerie deployed the darter’s stealth field.

  Ludendorff noticed, and gave the slightest nod of approval. “We must jump closer, to find out why the Swarm ship is here.”

  “Yeah,” Valerie said, with something new in her voice as she reverted to being a Star Watch officer, one on a dangerous but necessary mission.

  “We must do this without anyone spotting us,” he said.

  “I know that,” she said. “And we will.”

  -2-

  Twenty-three light-years away from Omicron Ceti, in the former Builder base system, the Agamemnon and five other star cruisers protected the carefully constructed and activated Far Tracker.

  Before deploying the Far Tracker, the six star cruisers had moved much farther out in the system, having reached its Oort cloud. They had left the burnt-out debris of the exploded Builder base and the continuing heavy concentrations of gamma and other hard radiation.

  The other six star cruisers of Drakos’s flotilla were scouting, hunting for Thrax’s new colony. None of the six had returned yet.

  The Far Tracker was a fascinating device of alien technology. Interestingly, it was not Builder or Builder-derived tech. This was of unknown alien origin, and it worked in a haphazard fashion. Strand had found it long ago and given it to the Throne World as part of his tech package when he’d ruled the New Men.

  The Far Tracker looked like a giant bone flower, spread several hundred meters wide as the power junction below on the “bone stem” vibrated with energy. The Far Tracker could “look” in a fashion using the teleporting principle. It did not see through the intervening space, but actually took a shot of the far place there in that instant. The split-second shot took much of the strange power, and it had to build up again to take a second, third or fourth look. Calibrating the far shot and getting the power source to match the calibration often took days. A few times, the operation worked in hours, and that made Lord Drakos happy. Most of the time, though, it was delayed.

  Drakos presently stood in a dimly lit chamber aboard the Agamemnon, examining the previous far shots. The glossy pictures looked like primitive X-ray transparencies of a person’s mouth and teeth. Drakos used a special spotting device. It acted much like a magnifying glass, although it was more than that.

  Each location on the picture that the magnifying device “saw” expanded, giving more detail. The spotter was also alien technology, the same tech that had given them the Far Tracker.

  Through the spotter, Drakos studied the darter, the Reynard, in a different system from its present location—although Drakos didn’t know that. While the darter’s stealth technology worked wonderfully against most sensor technologies, it stood out like a beacon to the alien Far Tracker. Drakos didn’t know why, nor did he care about the reason, just that it worked. It that way, the superior was far different from a Methuselah Man.

  Using the Far Tracker, they had been tracking the darter, following its path. Nar Falcon had already determined that the scout vessel belonged to Victory.

  The six star cruisers’ sensors had found nothing in the nearby annihilation of the ex-Builder base to believe that the Star Watch vessel had been destroyed in the blast. Somehow, Maddox and his crew had escaped the destruction before it happened.

  Drakos dearly wanted to know how Maddox had known to flee in time. He did not believe it was a coincidence, as Nar Falcon had tried to argue initially.

  The superior sighed, setting aside the magnifying spotter. He rubbed his eyes. It had been three weeks since the Builder base had exploded. Drakos had been growing increasingly anxious. This was the worst part of a hunt. When prey hid like this—

  A com crackled.

  Drakos whirled angrily. He had given strict orders that no one was to interrupt him while he was looking at the Far Shots. Here, though, someone had disobeyed him. He vowed that it would not happen a second time.

  “Yes?” he said into the com.

  “Nar Falcon here, lord,” the superior said. “We’ve found the darter’s new system.”

  “Yes, yes,” Drakos said, infected by Nar Falcon’s excitement. “What else have you spotted?”

  “A Swarm saucer-shaped ship, lord,” Nar Falcon said.

  “Yes!” Drakos hissed. “Yes, yes, yes, I’ve done it.”

  “You have, lord. Following the darter with the Far Tracker was a brilliant decision.”

  “It was. Now, begin tearing down the Far Tracker for transport.”

  “At once, lord,” Nar Falcon said.

  There was an odd inflection in the superior’s voice that caused Drakos to incline his head. “Is there something else you wish to add?”

  “May I ask a question, lord?”

  “Concerning my order?”

  “I withdraw the request for permission, lord.”

  “No, no,” Drakos said, feeling in an expansive mood. They had found a Swarm ship. “Go ahead, ask your question.”

  “I mean no disrespect in asking it, lord.”

  “Ask, Nar Falcon. I have given you permission.”

  “I wonder if we should leave the Far Tracker here to pick it up later.”

  Drakos frowned as he considered the idea. The Far Tracker was unique tech, alien tech. Leaving it here in order to jump at once—

  “No,” Drakos said. “Dismantle the Far Tracker and put it back in the Agamemnon’s hold. We will proceed once you have accomplished that. Do not take too long.”

  “Yes, lord,” Nar Falcon said. “I hear and obey.”

  Drakos grinned. They had found a Swarm vessel, one that had likely survived Alpha Centauri A’s explosion. That meant he would likely find Commander Thrax Ti Ix. Maddox’s people were moving toward a meeting before him—

  Drakos’s chest expanded. It was time to get there and destroy the darter. Afterward…afterward, he would make contact with the Swarm creatures and give them a proposal they could not possibly refuse.

  -3-

  A day later, Valerie piloted the darter as it cruised well past the white dwarf of the binary, symbiotic star system, heading toward a Jupiter-sized gas giant. That gas giant orbited the two stars 15 AUs out from the white dwarf.

  The Swarm vessel they had originally spotted had jumped, and Valerie had not been able to pick it up on the sensors again. It had not, apparently, jumped to the Jupiter-sized gas giant or to any of the thirteen moons orbiting the planet. There was an Earth-sized rocky moon orbiting the gas giant, but the saucer-shaped ship had not jumped there.

  At least, I can’t see it, Valerie told herself.

  The darter used its stealth field and did not add thrust, using its present velocity to travel toward the gas giant.

  According to the sensors, the Earth-sized rocky moon had a dense atmosphere, although there was little oxygen present, about two percent. Mostly, the moon’s atmosphere was methane and chlorine. That would not sustain bugs. Besides, the moon would be freezing that far out from the two stars, the two heat sources.

  Some of Valerie’s initial enthusiasm at finding a Swarm vessel had waned. Thinking about that, she tugged at her metal collar. Ludendorff claimed they would race home to the Commonwealth and raise a fleet of Patrol ships to come back and finish off Commander Thrax for good. She didn’t believe him. Hadn’t Maddox told them at the briefing that Star Watch didn’t have enough available ships available to form a credible fleet? The collars meant Ludendorff had ulterior motives. She wished she knew what they were.

  She hadn’t been able to talk to Keith about it, either. For the last week, Ludendorff had refused to let them see each other. If she piloted, Keith remained in his room. If he piloted, she stayed in her room. She’d asked Ludendorff why he did that. He said it was a wise precaution on his part, but refused to say more.

  It was driving her crazy. She had always been a loner, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed being alone. Back in the old days, she had gone to dance halls and concerts, liking to be around people. Heck, if for no other reason, it
was why she liked libraries. She could read alone, but she wasn’t lonely.

  This aloneness in the darter, with only the puffed-up clownfish Ludendorff for company, had begun driving her nuts. She needed to see other faces. She wanted to talk to Keith and compare notes.

  Chill out, she silently told herself. She was doing Star Watch work again. Maybe the professor would try something cute later, but if she could find Thrax’s colony world for good, and help the Patrol destroy the marauding Swarm invaders, she would have done right sneaking aboard the darter in the beginning.

  Several hours passed as the darter maintained its heading toward the rocky moon. Valerie passed the time by studying each of the thirteen moons, using the darter’s powerful passive sensors.

  There were thirteen of them altogether, the smallest the size of Luna. It was unusual seeing such large moons around one—

  A red blip flashed on her board. Valerie’s throat tightened. The blip flashed again. She manipulated her board. She muttered a curse. Enemy sensors had swept over the darter.

  Valerie did nothing for just a moment. Where did the sensor sweeps originate?

  She bent forward and manipulated the panel, finally pinpointing the location. It was a sensor station on the smallest, Luna-sized moon. Did the station aim at the darter on purpose, or was this a random sweep?

  The hatch slid up, and Ludendorff rushed into the piloting chamber. He threw himself into the second seat and his fingers blurred across his panel.

  “You should have told me,” he said.

  “Why? You’ve wired the ship to tell you.”

  He glanced at her before manipulating his board once more.

  “Well?” she asked, leaning back in her seat.

  “Well what?” he demanded. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you—?”

  A klaxon blared.

  Ludendorff cursed.

  Valerie snapped forward, her fingers flying now. “A more aggressive sensor has fixed our location,” she said.

  “I can see that very well, thank you.”

  “We’ll know soon enough if there are more Swarm ships here or not.”

  “We want to know that without getting captured,” Ludendorff declared.

  “Maybe it’s time to get Keith.”

  He turned to her. “Why? What can he do that we can’t?”

  “He’s the best pilot.”

  “Best fighter jock, maybe,” Ludendorff said. “This is a spaceship, a scout-ship. If we have to act like a fighter, then we’ve probably already lost.”

  Another klaxon blared.

  “Interesting,” Valerie said. “Look.” She pointed at one of her screens.

  Ludendorff leaned her way. Then, he struck an armrest and shot to his feet. The old fellow began to pace, scowling and shaking his head.

  Valerie looked at the screen. Three large missiles had blasted off from the Luna-sized moon. The missiles headed this way, ten AUs away at present. The missiles wouldn’t reach the darter for days, if that. So obviously, they were not in immediate danger—

  Ludendorff stopped pacing to stare at her. “The Swarm has spotted the darter. We have to leave the system.”

  “Is that reasonable? We have days before the missiles reach us.”

  “We’re heading back to the Commonwealth right now.”

  Valerie glanced at him. “We have to warn Maddox first. Then, we have to ask him for instructions.”

  “Negative. I’ve given you my orders.”

  “There’s another problem you might not have considered all the way through,” she said. “What have we found, exactly? One saucer-shaped vessel, a sensor installation and three long-range missiles. We haven’t yet found Thrax’s new colony world.”

  “What do you call the rocky world out there?”

  “If you mean the Earth-sized moon, I would call it a possibility. We need more data before we rush off.”

  “You’re for staying, then?”

  “For another day, at least.”

  Ludendorff ran a hand through his thick white hair. “You’re forgetting that Thrax has one hundred and sixty star-drive-jump capable ships. He had that many when he fled Alpha Centauri, anyway. The missiles are accelerating and will take days to reach us, depending on how much and how quickly they accelerate. Before then, enemy Swarm vessels might be surrounding us, using their star-drive to surprise us. Do you want Thrax to capture you?”

  “Of course, I do,” she half-snapped.

  “What? Oh,” Ludendorff said. “That is hyperbole.”

  “Look, I’m just saying we don’t know enough yet. I vote we use the fold or the star drive, take a closer look at the two most interesting moons and then run like mad, back for Victory.”

  “We must warn the Lord High Admiral.”

  “That’s right,” Valerie said. “That means using the long-range Builder com device aboard Victory. We have to get a call out as soon as possible to give High Command time to gather a fleet. Remember, Star Watch is spread out everywhere. Scraping together enough ships to make a fleet large enough to face the Swarm and the New Men—”

  “I just had a thought,” Ludendorff said, interrupting as he tapped his chin.

  “What now?”

  “Maybe this is a grand bluff, or a diversion.”

  “What? How do you figure that?”

  “Think about it.”

  “I’m asking you, Professor.”

  “I know, I know,” he said. “I’m the genius. I’m the one who can see farther and deeper than anyone else can. Why do I always expect my brilliance to rub off on others? This wish is a failing on my part.” He faced Valerie squarely. “It is hard, sometimes, to be the lone genius.”

  “I’m crying for you,” Valerie said sarcastically. “But I’ll tell you what. I can cry harder if you take off this damned collar.”

  “You’re a dreadful bore, do you know that? You’re a monomaniac like the captain. Why can’t you look at the big picture for once?”

  “You were saying something about a diversion?”

  “Humph. I’m not sure I want to say now.”

  Valerie shook her head. What a spoiled child he seemed.

  “None of that,” Ludendorff said. “I won’t have anyone looking down on me when I’m obviously the one in control.”

  “Do you know how childish that sounds?”

  “Now, I certainly won’t tell you.”

  “And again. It doesn’t matter—I’ve already figured it out, genius. Your diversion idea means the New Men are not splintered into hardliner and softliner factions, but that they’ve been playing a long-term game with us. We call. Star Watch scrapes together a fleet, heading out into the Beyond, and the main New Man fleet moves in, ravaging the under-defended Commonwealth.”

  Ludendorff raised his bushy white eyebrows. “That’s quite astute, Lieutenant. Perhaps the captain has been holding you back. I’m beginning to think you should stay at headquarters on the Lord High Admiral’s strategic staff.”

  Despite the compliment coming from Ludendorff, Valerie actually felt a glow inside. She’d always done well tactically. Why not strategically as well?

  “I don’t get it, professor. Sometimes you’re great. Sometimes you’re the worst shit in the world. Why can’t you just pick one method so a person can figure out if you’re good or bad?”

  “Because I don’t conform to your simple standards,” the professor said. “I’m much more complicated than that. It comes from being so wise and from living for so long.”

  She nodded and couldn’t believe that she did. “Maybe you have a point.”

  “I most certainly do.”

  “Look, Professor, we have to jump and take a closer look. We came in the darter to get a job done. Now, let’s do it, and maybe the others won’t hate you as much.”

  “I don’t care about them.”

  Valerie heard something in the Methuselah Man’s voice that caused her not to believe what he’d just said. She was beginning to think that maybe the old so
d did care, sometimes anyway, what others thought about him. Why had he come on the darter, and why had he put these collars around them?

  Ludendorff had turned his back to her.

  Valerie’s fingers itched. She yearned to jump up and charge him, clubbing him over the head. Then, while he was out—

  The klaxon suddenly rang so loudly that Valerie had to clap her hands over her ears. She glanced at the board. To her horror, she saw ships appearing nearby—within one hundred thousand kilometers of the Reynard. She kept scanning, expecting to see saucer-shaped ships. Instead, six, triangular star cruisers were out there.

  Lord Drakos had found them somehow.

  -4-

  “The darter is defective,” Ludendorff shouted. The Methuselah Man slid into the pilot chair, activating the fold mechanism. “This isn’t an experimental stealth ship, but a beacon vessel. How is it everyone sees us?”

  “You don’t know? I thought you were a genius.” Valerie turned off the klaxon while sitting in the second seat. “Get Keith up here.”

  “I’m quite capable of handling this myself, thank you.”

  “You don’t get it, do you? That’s not how Captain Maddox operates.”

  “Why would I give a fig how that pompous half-breed does anything?”

  “Don’t call him that. You should respect the man who’s pulled your fat out of the fire so many times.”

  “Bah!” Ludendorff spat. “What do you know? I’ve pulled his fat—a stupid metaphor—out of the fire more times than I can count.”

  They stared at each other.

  “You’d better not say it,” he warned.

  Valerie might have smiled. She shook her head instead.

  “We’re folding,” Ludendorff said.

  The darter folded two AUs away from the appearing star cruisers, doing so while Jump Lag still gripped the enemy starships.

  Once Valerie raised her head, she asked, “How does this little hop help us?”

  “It gives me time to set a star-drive jump. We have to get far away from the star cruisers.”

  “But if they can jump after us, tracking us down…?”