-14-
The hours slipped by slowly after the failed attack on Phobos. I wasn’t in the mood to relax having just witnessed the deaths of so many brave allied crews.
I found it odd at times that I could grieve for aliens. I mean, when back on Earth years ago, I might have stepped on things that resembled the Worms without a thought. But somehow fighting against a common enemy brings beings together. It had worked many times in the past on Earth, making cultural enemies into friends.
Maybe it was because of all the aliens I’d encountered, I liked the Worms the best. They were brave, intelligent and would rather die than quit fighting. I could appreciate that attitude, and so I’d started thinking of them as a different kind of human.
I watched as the aftermath of the battle faded. Nuclear clouds of debris dissipated and scraps of crushed ships floated away from Phobos’ seemingly impenetrable hide to drift in space. We followed in the wake of the unstoppable ship, heading toward the ring that led to Alpha Centauri.
Miklos cleared his throat. I glanced up at him. “What is it now, Commodore?”
“I was thinking, sir, that we should recall our fighters.”
I nodded. “Yes. Do it. There is no point to losing them as well.”
With a sigh of relief, Miklos ordered the squadrons to stand down.
Turning my attention to the rest of the system, I located Marvin where he was visiting the abandoned Gatre. The ship was off course and wasn’t going to hit the ring to Alpha Centauri, not anymore. The loss of power from the strike by Phobos had altered her course enough to cause her to miss her original destination after a long drifting journey across the Helios System.
“Is Marvin in radio contact with us?”
“Yes,” Captain Sarin said. “He has a ring set with him, in fact. We can talk to him in real time.”
“What? Why didn’t we use him for translations with the Worms, then?”
“He wasn’t answering at that time.”
“I see. Typical Marvin. Connect me, please. Let’s see if he answers the phone when I call him directly.”
I waited while a com officer did some magic, shunting our connections to bring Marvin’s voice into my ear.
“Hello, Colonel Riggs. If you could excuse me, I’m rather busy at the moment. There isn’t enough time to do a thorough analysis, so I’m having to—”
“Not so fast, Marvin. I know you’re up to something out there and right now I don’t really care what it is. But I do want you to apply your engines to Gatre. We can salvage her if we have time later. But not if she drifts off out of the star system.”
“Use my engines, sir? I don’t have sufficient thrust to brake this large of a craft. It would take…approximately four years of steady thrust to bring the Gatre to a full halt. Is that what you’re suggesting, Colonel?”
“No,” I said, realizing he was right. I sighed. “Listen, can you just steer the ship through the ring? Apply enough lateral thrust to put it back on course. That way, it can sail right into the Alpha Centauri system with us.”
He was quiet for a second. I wasn’t sure if that meant he was doing hard calculations, distracted by whatever the hell he was up to on that ship, or if he was trying to figure out some entirely new dodge. I waited impatiently…for about eight seconds.
“Well Marvin? What’s it going to be?”
“I can do that, Colonel. In fact, that idea presents some fascinating new possibilities.”
“I can’t wait. Riggs out.”
No sooner was I done talking to Marvin than Jasmine was at my side showing me something on her tablet. It looked like a series of boxes with pictures on them.
“What’s this? More Worm dialect?”
“It’s a transmission sir, from the Worms—from their command center on Helios. We think it’s idiomatic.”
I frowned at the images. There was a pair of warriors riding chariots side by side, followed by a picture of a moon or a planet, then two pictures of…little squiggles.
“What the hell are these last two things?”
“Um, Worm young, the computer says.”
“Worm young? They sent us a pictogram of comradery, a planet, and two symbols of baby Worms? What the heck does the computer think it means?”
“Like I said, the best brainbox thinks it’s an idiom of some kind. A saying that is not clear to us without cultural knowledge.”
“Great. Get Marvin back on the phone. I want him to take a look at this.”
“It is probably too late for that, sir,” she said, directing my attention to the holotank.
I looked up and saw we were about to pass through the ring that led from Helios to Alpha Centauri.
“Send it to him. Now!”
She grabbed the tablet from me and began tapping swiftly. A moment later I saw her hit the send button. A spinning wait symbol appeared.
Then the universe shuddered a little. I knew that feeling all too well. We were now in the Alpha Centauri system, while Marvin had been left behind in the Helios system.
“Did he get the message?” I asked, staring at her tablet. The wait icon had stopped spinning, but that didn’t always mean it worked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, ask him.”
“Do you want to stop jamming the rings, sir?”
I gritted my teeth. Doing so, even briefly, might let a signal get through from Phobos. I didn’t want the Blues to hear anything from Tolerance—hopefully, they never would again.
“No,” I said. “We’ll just have to wait until he comes through the ring riding on Gatre.”
She looked at me with furrowed brows. “What’s he doing back there on my ship? Do you know, Kyle? I don’t trust him. I want to disconnect his flight systems again the second he returns.”
“You’ll have to get in line for that,” I said. “And he probably knows it, so it might be awhile.”
“Why did you let him run off?”
“I saved the wreckage of Gatre,” I said. I explained to her Marvin’s efforts to guide the ship through the ring after us.
She nodded thoughtfully. “That is a good move, actually. I’m impressed. But we could have just sent a destroyer to play tugboat.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but I have a feeling we’ll need every ship we have and more before this is over.”
Jasmine nodded, took her tablet back out of my hands and walked away. I watched her walk. It was a nice walk. It had been months since I’d been with a woman, and I was beginning to feel my eyes wander. Just how long was a guy supposed to mourn? It was a question I’d never been clear on. With my wife, who’d died many long years ago, I’d played it by ear. Essentially, that had meant going on zero dates for years. But somehow after my kids and died and the world had changed, I’d begun to feel free to do whatever I wanted.
It wasn’t a good kind of freedom, not really. It was more like the kind of freedom you might feel when you know you’re terminally ill. That “what the hell, why not, I’m screwed anyway” kind of freedom. But after losing Sandra, I wasn’t sure how I felt about anything.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out. Back to the here and now, I told myself sternly. Daydreaming about girls was a younger man’s game. I had a world to conquer—or rather, to liberate. That was more important than all my hopes, wishes and feelings put together.
I took stock of the fleet after the last of them wriggled through the ring. Four hundred ships or so. Was that going to be enough? I knew Crow had been pretty much totaled after I sent a Macro armada through for him to play with. But he’d also had time to build back up.
Miklos came to join me where I stood on the raised deck with the viewports. They weren’t actual glass, but they looked like glass. The difference was you could put your hand up to them and zoom in by stretching the amazingly clear image.
“It’s a lovely fleet, sir,” he said.
“Yes Commodore, it is.”
“I would hate to see it wasted.”
I looked at him. “Are you trying to annoy me again?”
He laughed. “No sir, that’s not my intent. I just don’t like to lose ships. You know, when I was a boy, I had a lot of fun building models from kits. I lined them up on shelves in perfect order and painted them for display. What kind of child were you?”
I thought about it and laughed.
“I was the kind that banged my toys together until they broke. Usually, I left them in the dirt overnight, or in the grass. Often, my dad would run them over with the lawnmower and curse about it. I did have some models, but the paintjobs were ratty. Come to think of it, I seem to remember blowing up a few of those every summer with firecrackers.”
Miklos nodded sagely. “I’m not terribly surprised.”
* * *
Alpha Centauri was a fairly empty system. The stars had a few dull worlds circling them, but they didn’t have much in the way of atmospheres or life. It was a stark contrast with the Eden System which overflowed with life, boasting seven organic worlds.
When we’d first encountered the Eden system, I’d been enthralled by its natural beauty. Rather than planets enshrouded in vicious gasses, six of the twenty-one planets were livable for humans. The seventh world to harbor life, we’d figured out over time, was Eden-11, the homeworld of the Blues.
Despite its emptiness, I felt a growing tension as we crossed into the star system. This was the last leg of the journey before we reached home.
Earth. It had been so long since I’d seen her! Years had passed. I could scarcely believe I’d spent so much time exiled in space.
I felt a strange mixture of emotions with every passing hour as we headed for the last ring. What was waiting for us on the far side? Are we bringing death and destruction, or freedom and peace? I didn’t really know. At lot of it depended on how Crow reacted, and if he could beat Phobos.
I spent much of my time studying the mammoth ship and the records of the attacks. We had a lot of data to crunch on now. From detailed vids and measurements, we were able to construct a good working model of its capabilities. Ranges, power outputs, acceleration—we knew it all now. Phobos was no longer a total mystery.
What we didn’t know was what the Imperials had built to face her. That represented my biggest dilemma. If I let Phobos plow into Crow’s fleet, was I doing the right thing? I had options. I could tell the Imperials how to fight the monster ship, sharing the intel we’d learned. That was a safer play as far as Earth was concerned. But would that make things too easy for Crow?
We’d worked out an independent attack plan for Phobos. Essentially, it required sustained waves to get to the ship and do damage. The first waves would be missiles, followed by fighters, then maybe assault ships. Every wave that came in could be taken out at once, but with a ten minute window of recharging time in between.
Attacking in waves meant Tolerance was going to have to make some hard choices. Did he ride out the missiles, then obliterate the ships? Or the other way around? Sending in small, targeted barrages was our best plan. We’d dig a hole with missiles pounding at the same point, if we had to. Eventually, there had to be a soft center in that big bastard somewhere, and I meant to dig until I found it.
But the Imperials didn’t know any of this yet. They were going to encounter something beyond their experience. I wanted it to damage them, but I didn’t want everyone to die.
My hand formed into a fist and flexed on the table. I was wracking my brain. What was the best way to play this? After a while, I knew the answer: I would have to play it by ear. There were simply too many unknowns. I was going to have to go in without a clear plan and make changes on the fly.
It was just the sort of non-strategy that drove Miklos crazy. For once, I didn’t blame him.