Second Wave - 16
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
It took another twelve hours for us to close in on the Sunny fleet. We finally came to a relative stop in space, near a large, chaotic mass of tumbling rocks and water ice chunks. Their ships were scattered around the general area, although we couldn't see many of them. They had been maintaining what they considered were safe distances between their ships, in case the pursuing Pug force located them. From the Pug comm chatter and the miners’ long-distance mass-detectors, we saw that the Pug shuttles were slowly moving through the in-system side of the asteroid belt. This meant that they were scattered out about five light minutes from our position.
Whistle had been running the comm system and was very worried about the Pugs' pursuit. He eventually turned to me and told me, “Dere fives of them shuttles. Dey all got shooters mounted on them and we afraid they'll find us.”
Once I'd straightened out the number and confirmed that he meant there were only five, I was a little bit relieved. My next thought was to find out about the 'shooters.' I asked him what they were and how did they compare to the big anti-matter gun on our ship. He was starting to get the idea that I meant to fight and it was hard to get him to concentrate on finding out the answer. However, he finally got confirmation from one of the ore-hauler pilots that the Pugs' weapons weren't comparable to ours. Our large gun had been created specifically to bombard the Earth from space, in case we proved resistant to their initial modes of attack.
Two of the shuttles were armed with smaller anti-matter projectors – on the order of the familiar eraser-rifles – and the other three had plasma guns. I asked about those and found, to my surprise, that they were simply more powerful models of the tripod-mounted weapon I'd seen the Pugs use on Earth. I hadn't known what it was and in my naivety, I'd simply called it an electro-bolt gun. Of the two, though, I would far sooner face that than the anti-matter weapon. The plasma bolt would burn metal, but it would take several shots to cut through our hull, while the anti-matter weapon would be a one-shot killer if it hit a sensitive area of the FTL ship.
The Pugs had separated their shuttles widely around the inside of the asteroid belt, having little idea of exactly where the Sunnys were located. The shuttles didn't have the long-distance mass sensors that the mining craft did. Their primary purpose was to destroy planetary installations and to intimidate close-range targets. The Pugs had used them effectively to destroy primitive civilizations on at least two other planets that were now occupied by Pug-bears, but they'd never used them against other space-craft.
I knew that I wasn't a space combat expert, but I figured that I could come up with some sort of strategy that might give us an advantage. I asked Frazzle where the nearest shuttle was located and he immediately brought up a visual display that covered about a third of the asteroid belt, showing our location, the scattered mining craft, and a target about twenty light seconds away, heading towards a heavy cluster of asteroids on our side of the belt. The cluster it was headed for was close by astronomical standards, but still about five light seconds from our location.
I decided to view the asteroid belt as a clock face with the star at the center. This orientation, though strictly limited to two dimensions, gave me a slightly better perspective. If we were at twelve o'clock on the dial, the shuttle was moving towards the one o'clock mark. I directed Frazzle to calculate an intercept course with it so that we'd reach its approximate position as it approached the cluster of rocks.
His hands shook as he set up the course and then started the EmDrive. The ship rotated quickly and then moved off in the requisite direction. I powered up the weapon system and watched the display for any indication of the shuttle's mass. The detector on the weapon trigger was not as sensitive as the true long-distance ones. Frazzle kept me informed as we approached the shuttle. His display showed it easily, but he didn't think the shuttle had a corresponding capability. He indicated that we'd only have a problem when we got close. I hoped that he'd be pleasantly surprised. I was planning on our gun's longer range and I didn't intend to give the Pugs a chance.
The EmDrive didn't have a huge amount of acceleration, but it added up quickly, so it was only about fifteen minutes until I was able to see the Pugs' shuttle on my display. I wanted to get closer. I was nervous as anything, this being the critical test of the weapon system. I didn't want to chance missing. That would, at the minimum, give them an opportunity to call their fellows and spread the message about our presence.
We were still accelerating and as we got closer I asked Frazzle to shut the drive down. I judged we were moving fast enough and hoped that I hadn't waited too long. I didn't want to overshoot their position without getting off several shots.
Right in the middle of this tense point, Erin and the two guys came into the bridge and asked me what was going on. They'd been in a sleep period and had just come from eating breakfast. There wasn't any intercom system on the ship and I had judged that it would be fine if they weren't aware of what we were doing. My explanation was terse as I was distracted, “Fighting – don't bother me!”
On finding out that we were going into combat, they came over to my station and hovered around behind me, adding the stress of an audience to my nervousness. It all worked out, though. As the shuttle's marker slid towards us, I touched the screen, designating it with the targeting laser. A few seconds later, the shuttle-craft made an abrupt turn and headed in our direction. That laser had gotten their attention and they were coming to check it out. The only effect their turn had was to head them directly into our anti-matter pulse. Shortly after they turned, their mass disappeared from my screen and Frazzle let out a kind of yell, “You dissolved dem! I, I, I sad, but, but happy too!”
He was torn about the situation and I could sense a great disturbance in his mental aura. He certainly recognized the danger they posed to us and he was relieved that it was gone, but he still regretted the necessity of destroying them.
“OK, Frazzle, we're going to turn the ship to intercept the next shuttle,” I hoped that he wouldn't balk at this and I reinforced it with a reassuring mental projection. However, he'd been forced to do disagreeable things by the Pug-bears before and, while reluctant, he turned the ship in the direction that the long-distance detector indicated. The next shuttle was about five light-minutes away, counter-clockwise around the asteroid belt. It was almost directly in the center of the belt and we needed to move quickly to reach it in a reasonable time. The EmDrive proved capable, although we were going far faster than I judged safe considering the navigation hazards posed by dust and rocks.
The deflector shield got a work-out. There was a nearly constant stream of dust bouncing off of it, creating a glowing plasma from the impact. The glow spread out from the edges of the shield area and trailed off at the periphery of visibility offered by the bridge windows. Frazzle turned to me and said, “Das fast as we should go in dust.”
It looked like it would be about thirty minutes before we reached a reasonable distance from the second shuttle, so I told the others to watch and get me if anything happened. I was hungry and I'd determined to take a short break to get some food.
Erin came with me back to the cafeteria. She hadn't bothered me since I'd ignored her invitation. On the other hand, she'd acted as if she were a little hurt. I got the impression that she wasn't used to rejection, her being the rejector rather than the rejectee was more the rule in her experience.
“That was great, Dec!” she enthused. “You shot them down with no problem! How many more are there?”
“There are four more enemy shuttle-craft in this system according to the Sunnys. I'm hoping that we can get them cleared out with no trouble. Our gun out-ranges theirs and I don't think that guy even knew we were there until he sensed our targeting laser.”
“What will you do then?” She'd changed her perspective on the situation, tacitly admitting the fact that I was in command. I didn't know if she'd done it intentionally to let me know that she'd abdicated her attempted control or if she was unconsciously adjusting.
“I've been planning with the Sunnys and I believe that our best tactic will be to try and free the ones on the planet. They don't have much hope for their population to survive much longer. From what we heard from the miners, the Pug-bears have been greatly increasing in number and the feral ones have been eating as many of the Sunnys as they can catch,” I explained. This was a sensitive subject, given her apparent devotion to the Pug-bear in Denver, but she accepted my statement with no quibbling.
“How can you free them?” In that way, at least, she reminded me of Liz. Direct and to the point.
“I've got an idea. I haven't been able to tell the Sunnys about it as yet. I'm not sure how they'll react, given their aversion to violence. I think I can sell it to them as a possible solution that will give their people a chance without the necessity of a direct attack on the Pug-bears.”
“What do you mean, ‘a direct attack?'” She was puzzled. By now we were sitting on the floor in front of the bank of food machines and I was eating. The Sunnys did have seats in the room, but they were far too small for us. I thought that I'd have to have Whistle do something about that if I eventually had the opportunity.
“It's complicated...” I paused, thinking how best to explain. “The Pug-bears lay eggs that hatch into a spider-like form. The spiders are wild predators that will kill anything they can get. They grow up to be wild Pug-bears with no intelligence. However, if they eat a certain parasite egg, it lodges in their brain and their skulls grow. The parasite merges with their brain in some way and that makes them intelligent.”
She interrupted, “Like the one in Denver. I understand. Are the intelligent ones friendly?”
“No, far from it. The intelligent ones are all dead set on taking over the universe and killing every other form of life they find. The one you have in Denver is the only one I've heard of that cooperates with humans in any way.”
“Well, it kills prisoners, too, so maybe it isn't as friendly as I thought it was...” she said.
I realized that its influence over her mind was gradually fading. It was, after all, an inexperienced member of its race that had received its symbiont, but not any of the racial knowledge that was normally imparted by older members of its species. It was unaware of the species' plan for universal dominance and it was mostly unaware of the techniques for dominating other sapients' minds, making things up as it gained experience.
“Erin, I think that you're probably right about it,” I met her eyes. That was a mistake. She reached out and took my hand. “Look,” I said, as I showed her my left hand. The ring that Liz had placed on my finger had been obvious the entire time, but now I held it out for her inspection.
“I'm married. I mean, I consider you a friend, but...” I kind of trailed off. I hate it that I'm congenitally unable to deal with these sorts of situations.
“That's OK, Dec,” she slowly let go, “I understand, but... you know we're a long way from home here and we might never get back.”
“True,” her statement didn't seem to call for anything else.
“Just remember that I'm your friend,” she said quietly, looking hard directly into my eyes. I just nodded in response.
I thought, belatedly, of the plan I'd started to explain. “Oh, here's what I was going to say before. The Pug-bears' eggs do best in dry climates. I've seen them hatch in moist environments,” I was thinking of the nest in Carlsbad Caverns, “but most of them rot before hatching if the humidity is too high. The Sunnys' planet that we're headed for has a belt of desert around the equator that provides the perfect place for the Pug-bears' eggs to hatch. I've got the idea that we can tow a water-ice comet to their planet and drop it into the desert area. That should greatly increase the humidity and keep the eggs from hatching. The net effect should be higher humidity, fewer Pug-bears and, I hope, a climate that the water-loving Sunnys will like.”
She looked dubious, “Can we tow a comet? And, if we can, how are we going to locate one?”
I started to explain, but Frank poked his head through the door and said, “We're getting close. You'd better come and shoot this one pretty quick.”
That broke that discussion up. We ran back through the transporter and I arranged myself in front of the weapon system. I was almost too late. Time had flown by as I talked to Erin. As I adjusted the joystick and scrolled the video display until the shuttle was in the center, I mentally chastised myself for getting so involved in trying to explain my actions to her. We were closer than I'd planned and the shuttle-craft had obviously sensed us. It was turning our way and accelerating on an intercept vector.
As I locked the laser designator on the enemy, Frazzle exclaimed and pointed at his display which was flashing red. I glanced out the bridge window and saw a glowing ball of energy in the near distance. It was rapidly growing larger. Before I'd had a chance to even think, it flashed past. We were obviously in range of their plasma cannon and had they not been so anxious to get off a shot, they might have hit us with that one.
In response, my fingers tightened and our weapon fired. It was guided by the computer system and couldn't miss at that distance. It would take a few moments for the pulse to strike them, but I was already marking a second kill on my slate.
The proximity detector suddenly registered the absence of their mass. It had been a hit. I looked at Frank and Erin and mopped my brow, “That was closer than I'd like!”
“What?” they both asked. Neither had seen the plasma bolt go by.
“They took a shot at us and it was close,” I responded. “It's my fault, I shouldn't have taken so much time eating.”
Erin looked embarrassed since she knew that I'd spent most of my time talking to her, but she didn't say anything.
Frank, on the other hand, just smiled and said, “Well, they didn't hit us. You got them and that's all that counts. I learned in football that the only thing that counts is getting the ball over the goal line. Close isn't worth talking about.”
I appreciated his viewpoint. It actually made me feel better.
As we were talking, Frazzle was listening in while he was monitoring the long-distance mass detectors. After Frank had spoken, he turned to me and said, “De others must'a got a message. Deys all coming in our direction.”
I turned back to my display and didn't see anything, so I got up and stood behind the command chair. Frazzle's display was more elaborate and much more comprehensive than the limited weapons display. Using his, I was able to see the three remaining shuttle-craft. They were located at widely separated points near the in-system side of the belt, but they were all heading towards us. I realized that I'd have to change my tactics. There would be no more sneak-up and shoot them when they didn't expect it. I had to figure out a way to combat them all at once.
Frazzle was doing some calculations and said, “Deys gonna arrive at about the same time. At least one of dem will have anti-matter weapon.”
He was correct. I didn't know what the first shuttle was armed with; it hadn't had an opportunity to show us what it had, but the second had definitely been armed with a plasma weapon. That left a minimum of one shuttle with anti-matter – possibly two. This was going to get interesting and not in a good way, either.