Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (15 page)

“Anyone want a beer?” Jack asked.

♦   ♦   ♦

“Exiting from Alcubierre space-time drive,” Max called from the back of the Pilot Cabin. “We are 60 AU out from the star’s coordinates.”

Jack opened his eyes, shook off the light doze he had been in since joining everyone after a private breakfast with Nikola in their roomsuite, and focused on the front screen. Soot-black space filled it, along with thousands of stars and the white streak of stars that were the inner arms of the Milky Way. Ahead lay what appeared to be empty space. He looked to Elaine.

“Pilot, what does your Sensor panel say about the space ahead?”

She looked down at the panel that she had swung in from her left armrest. “Nothing. Which is not normal. Even empty space radiates heat at a few degrees Kelvin. And the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation fills all of space-time. Except for here. Although . . . look at the stars to the left, right, top and bottom. Some of them are fuzzy. Due to the gravitational lensing of their light on its way to our viewing spot. Hmmm.” She tapped on her panel. Up front appeared a split-screen plan view image of the galactic coordinate location of the Megurk star. Slowly there appeared a circle of solid blue. Nine red dots clustered near the outer edge of the blue. “The red dots are the ships of the fleet. The blue is the zone of absence of any kind of EMF radiation. Including x-rays, ultraviolet, gamma rays, random neutrons, stellar wind, everything!” Across the top of the screen there appeared the images of the eight other ship captains as their laser Come-Back signal integrated through Denise’s Comlink panel. Elaine looked his way, her expression puzzled. “Jack, I think that blue is the Isolation Globe. If so, it extends 50 AU out from the position of the Megurk star.”

Damn. Double Damn. Extreme damn
. It seemed the Arbitors really could isolate an entire star system. “Pilot, thank you.” He scanned the ship captain images that ran across the top of the screen. “Fleet captains, are your ships on Combat Alert?”

“On alert!” called Hideyoshi.

Gareth nodded swiftly. “The
Dragon
is ready.”

“Eager for it,” said Minna as their stern Finn gave him a rare smile.

Ignacio nodded abruptly, his black mustache moving as he spoke. “The
Badger
is ready to fight!”

Aashman, Kasun, Júlia and Akemi were equally ready. Jack checked the holo above his Tech panel. Maureen looked at him from within her helmet, her short black curls looking sweaty. Like everyone in the cabin and in the other ships, she wore a vacsuit thanks to the Combat Alert status of the fleet. She gave him a wink and a thumbs-up.

Will wonders never cease? Jack looked to his sister. “Elaine, transmit to Captain Minna the galactic coordinates for a position just outside that blue zone. Make sure there is at least 20,000 kilometers separation between that spot and the zone.”

During the trip out they had discussed his globe testing tactics. So Elaine just nodded and looked down at her panel. “NavTrack coordinates transmitted.”

Jack caught the steely blue eyes of the Finn. “Captain Minna, take the
Wolverine
to the edge of the Isolation Globe. By way of an Alcubierre jump. Stop at the position given you by Elaine. When you get there, open a neutrino AV comlink to us. I want to have a real time image of what happens when we send our Lander against that boundary zone.”

The woman whose loyalty to him had been proven multiple times gave him a salute. She looked left. “Alaric, put us into Alcubierre star drive for the coordinates given by Elaine.”

Above the front screen the woman’s image shimmered, grew jagged, then died as the gravitation lensing of the Alcubierre star drive cut her laser comlink signal. The same way the protective shield of the Arbitor ship had cut off every incoming energy beam. It was what happened when you created a mini-universe within the larger space-time modulus of known reality. Mentally he counted the seconds before the woman’s frigate-sized commerce raider ship reached the outer edge of the Isolation Globe. He sat back in his Tech station seat.

“Incoming AV signal via modulated neutrino transmission mode,” Denise called out in a firm voice.

“Put it up front.”

Tap-tapping sounded from behind him. “Going up front. Replacing the Schmidt true-light image. Elaine’s plan view of the Isolation Globe zone is moved to the right side.”

Blackness filled the front screen. There were no stars to be seen. Unless one counted a few dozen silvery flickers that were incoming starlight. The flickers were photons that were spread out sideways by the gravitational lens of the globe’s giant Alcubierre field.

Above the screen Minna’s image appeared, courtesy of a neutrino signal through another dimension. The native of the asteroid 65 Cybele fixed on him. “Fleet Captain Jack, mission completed. Neutrino comlink established with your ComChief. View is directly ahead toward the projected star position.”

“Thank you.” Jack looked up at the ceiling. “Anonymous, are you ready to eject the Lander
Anneli Korhonen
?”

“Ready,” said the ship’s AI.

“Eject.” Well, he could be as tart as that damn algorithm!

“Ejecting.” A moment passed. “From Lander hold. Ship pressure back to normal.”

Hmmph
. “Orient the Lander toward the coordinates of the Megurk star. Verify presence of NavTrack program for FTL approach to star ahead, and subsequent shut off of Alcubierre star drive if target coordinates cannot be attained. Once done, activate Alcubierre drive pedestal.”

“Oriented. Verified. Activated.”

On the left side of the front screen there appeared the true-light image of the
Anneli Korhonen.
A rectangular box of white metal moved ahead of them on rear thrusters. Then it became a star-streaked globe. The globe shot ahead faster than Jack could blink.

“Counting down,” called Elaine. “Estimated time of contact with outer edge of Isolation Globe is—”

“Look!” cried Max.

“Oh goddess,” groaned Blodwen.

“Not good,” muttered Archibald.

Nikola and Cassie and Maureen said nothing.

Jack bit his lip.

A bright spot had appeared in the middle of the front screen. The brightness was not that of an icy comet reflecting distant starlight. Nor the brightness that came when a thruster fired. It was the brightness of an explosion. A big one.

“Anonymous, are you receiving any data from the Lander? By way of Minna’s neutrino link?” Jack asked, though he already knew the answer.

“No data. Explosion noted.”

“No shit,” growled Maureen, her holo expression murderous.

“My Sensor panel has analyzed the imagery from Minna’s ship,” Elaine said calmly. “It confirms an explosion at the projected point of contact with the Isolation Globe. Fourier spectroscopy confirms presence of metal, water, deuterium and helium-3 fusion isotopes at the projected contact point.”

Jack felt salty wetness on his lip. He unclenched his teeth. “Well, it looks as if the Isolation Globe does more than keep out FTL starships. It kills them.” He looked back to ruddy-haired Archibald. “Physicist, you got any idea what just happened?”

“Idea, no. Speculation, yes.”

“Spit it out!” Jack did not like it when someone forced him to probe, be it an AI or their brainy Brit.

“Well, Max and I think the Isolation Globe probe is powered by Dark Energy,” their particle physicist said calmly. “As we shared with you earlier. Perhaps there is a thin film of Dark Energy that lies on the outside of the globe. If so, contact with it could produce an explosion. My guess is that blast was equal to an antimatter-level blast, a total matter to energy conversion event.”

“It was,” Elaine said softly. “Radiative byproducts yield says the Lander died with the force of a three megaton thermonuke.”

Fuck
.

“But,” Nikola called from behind him, “the explosion could
not
be the result of contact with Dark Energy. That energy fills the entire cosmos to a density of 10
−30
grams per cubic centimeter. If it caused explosions every time normal matter encountered it, there would be nothing solid in the universe.” Her look was Woman Superior certain. He frowned at Archie, then Max.

“Well, you two are the number crunching brains in this crew! What the fuck caused that explosion?”

Max crossed hairy arms over his flat belly. A move that almost made his rad-tanned arms disappear against the black of his leotard. He was focused on his armrest Drive panel. As if the simple equations of deuterium/helium-3 fusion might explain what had just happened. He looked up with a grimace.

“Nikola is right. Archibald was just flapping his yap. He knows exactly what your Astro gal said.” The man took a deep breath when Blodwen put a hand on his shoulder. “We have never seen two Alcubierre space-time fields collide. Just solo fields for solo ships heading off in various directions. Maybe the explosion is a simple function of manifold incompatibility between one Alcubierre field and the warped space-time of another Alcubierre field.” His buddy gave a shrug. “Let’s see what happens when you shoot a torp at that boundary. Will be interesting to see if it acts the way the Arbitor field did. As in translating any incoming energy and matter to Elsewhere-Elsewhen.”

Jack didn’t like the answer. But he recalled a saying of his grandpa Ephraim to the effect that ‘honest ignorance can be remedied by facts or data. Stupidity cannot be removed since it is a choice of the person who chooses to ignore reality’. “Thank you, Max. And you too, Archibald.” He turned back and faced the front screen and the faces of his fellow ship captains. “This is why we came out here. To test this Isolation Globe. To see what happens. To figure out why it happens. All to the point of discovering a way to kill this Isolation thingie.” He tapped his Tech panel and called up the Weapons status reports. Including the geo-penetrators with explosive warheads that lay below the cabin in the ejection chamber. Then realized they were ten AU distant from the object of his anger. He looked up. “Captain Minna, please fire one of your torps at that globe. Disable its warhead. Let’s see if normal matter can pass that boundary.”

The Finn waved agreement. “Elie, do as the Fleet Captain says.” She looked down at her own Pilot panel, then up. She raised a blond eyebrow. “Torp fired. At 12 kilometers per second. It will take a bit before it arrives at the edge of the zone.”

Jack knew that. He reached down to the side of his seat and grabbed a squeeze bottle. Lifting it, he put the feeder nipple against the intake tube of his helmet ring. Mouthing the sip tube, he sucked. Cool booze filled his mouth. Europa Light Ale! His seat shook from a boot kicking it.

“No boozing on Combat Alert!” Nikola said over the comlink that connected every vacsuit to everyone else. And to Nikola’s neutrino comlink. “Your rule. Which you set before the First Sedna Battle. Right?”

“Right.” He held out the bottle of beer, then let it drop to the flood of the Pilot Cabin. “As my lifemate reminds me, we need sobriety for this job.”

The images of his fellow captains ranged from surprise among a few to smiles or chuckles among most. Hideyoshi, military professional that he was, only lifted a thin black eyebrow and looked to the side as a crewwoman brought him a yellow datapad.

Damn
. Being on stage was no fun. He focused on his Tech panel, tapping on a space combat simulation game. One of the favorites of Maureen. She was better at it than he was. But the game did reward non-standard choices. Which he was good at.
Hmmm
.

Minutes later a voice sounded in his helmet.

“Torp is within a hundred kilometers of the Isolation Globe zone,” Minna said tartly.

Was her tone a reproof? Well, the woman was a veteran drinker of
akvavit
. Maybe she was just jealous. “Observing,” Jack said. “Elaine, are your sensors tracking all EMF emissions from that neutrino AV link?”

She snorted. “Of course. As usual. And you still owe me and Ignacio a box of Cuban cigars!”

True. It was the wedding gift he had promised her. But not yet delivered. He had been overwhelmed during the four months since their return to Sol system. Still, a promise was a—

“Impact!” called Minna.

Nothing happened.

No explosion.

“Anonymous, are you still receiving the datastream signal from that torp?”

“No.”

Tart AIs are a bitch. “Explain. Beginning with datastream you received as of the verbal alert from Captain Minna, to the present.”

“Multiplex datastream was present before and during verbal alert from Captain Minna. Content was normal. Status of chemfuel engine, fuel levels, relative velocity—”

“Expedite. Describe function of datastream without details of content.”

“Hmmph.” Did he just hear an AI imitate Archibald’s favorite mode of reaction to lesser minds? “Datastream was steady and constant before, up to and after Captain Minna verbal alert. Signal persisted for 8.3271 seconds after her alert. At which point signal ceased. Torp function at present is unknown.”