Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (32 page)

“Uh, I’m changing the front image to what my Big Eye can now show us.” Ahead the screen swiftly expanded to show five white planetary crescents scattered across the star’s ecliptic plane. Which lay below them. “The star is a G2V yellow dwarf, like Sol. As for planets, the inner two are Mercury small and too close to the star to be people occupied. Planet three is at the inner edge of the liquid water habitable zone at nine-tenths AU. Which makes it a likely Venus analog. Planet four lies at 1.2 AU. Its size is slightly larger than Earth, but it is the likely place for people to live. Planet five is a gas giant at 12 AU. And . . . ” a red cursor dot appeared on the true-light image, moving between planets four and five. “My infrared spectroscope says there is an asteroid belt between four and the gas giant.”

“Which explains these neutrino readouts,” Elaine said, tap-tapping her Sensor panel. A side screen went up to the right of the central image of system star and planets. On it were three white spots, scattered in an half-circle that ran along the orbital track of the asteroid belt. “Those are stationary neutrino sources. Their emissions match those from a . . . a fission power reactor!”

Jack saw something else. Planet four glowed with white spots as if it had a case of measles. “Elaine, planet four. What the heck is that? The neutrino emissions are too broad to be a fusion or fission reactor.”

“True.” She tapped again on her panel. Other emission sources suddenly showed, coming from the planet. “My Sensor panel reports 43 locations that are now emitting x-rays, neutrons, gamma rays and secondary re-radiation. In addition to weak neutrinos.” She looked to him, her expression sad. “Planet four is a radioactive cinder. Those 43 locations, on the side of the planet facing us, are thermonuclear fusion bomb strike points. Somehow, somewhen, after the Isolation Globe went up, the Megurk Hunters killed their home planet in all-out nuclear war.”

Jack’s mouth went dry. The thing that people of the last century had worried might happen during the Cold War, and which had happened in a few spots on Earth when Iran and Israel fought the Six Hour War, had come to pass on this world. “Any fusion pulse ships in the system? Any sign of Tech-level survival anywhere in the system?”

Elaine shook her head slowly. “No signs of artificial power generation, EMF broadcasting, nothing other than the antique fission reactor sites in three places in the asteroid belt. My guess is those are old uranium-fueled reactors that once supported asteroid habitats.” She paused, tapping her panel. “There are no radio, radar, lidar or maser emissions from those three spots. We would have to visit one or more of those locations to see if anyone still lives there. The reactor rods would emit neutrinos and gamma rays long after any living person passed away. So, either this system is entirely dead of all life, or it barely hangs on at those three spots.”

Jack wondered if chemosynthetic life lived in ice-clad oceans on some of the moons of the gas giant. As it did on Europa and Enceladus. But no reactor emissions showed from the outer gas giant. “We can come back here after our battle with the Arbitor. If there are survivors, we can offer what help we can.  At least now, any survivors can see the stars.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Nikola murmured from behind him. “What a curse! To be inside that black globe and the only light comes from their sun and from the light reflected by their fellow planets and asteroids!”

A true curse it had been. A curse that had killed a civilization. A curse that now looked like genocide. “Nikola, let’s head for the juvenile system at HD 128311. It’s listed in the Nasen star holo.”

“Sure.” She tap-tapped on her Astro panel. “Distance to HD 128311 from Sol is almost 54 light years. Distance from the Megurk system is 124.122 light years. Which amounts to a travel time of three days, two hours and 31 minutes.”

“No seconds?” he teased.

“Goofball!” She tapped again. “Coordinates sent to Elaine.”

Jack looked up at the images of his nine ship captains. “Unless someone has a reason for staying here, I propose we leave for this juvenile system. And make contact with them. Which will surely be reported by the Sentry probe that orbits every juvenile system. Questions? Issues?”

Minna frowned. “I do, Fleet Captain Jack. What are the chances there will be Hunters of the Great Dark camped out in the cometary belt of this system? The way they were in Sol systems? Perhaps we should arrive in Combat Alert mode.”

The captain of the
Wolverine
had a good point. “Agreed. All ships, go to Combat Alert status just before we exit Alcubierre drive on the outskirts of this system. Minna, as for the chances, I think they are low. As we’ve seen, only a few juvenile systems have Hunters camped out, waiting for that outer planet contact.” He looked back to his lifemate. Whose long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She lifted sandy brown eyebrows. “Nikola, what do we know about this star system we are heading for? Planets, cometary belt, similar stuff.”

She tilted her head. “Was wondering if you might ask for the basics. The system has five planets in it, with two large Jupiter-like gas giants and one Earth-like planet at the second orbital position.” She looked down at her panel, then up. “Results of the Long Baseline Stellar Interferometer scan of this star documented an excess of infrared radiation at its outer edges, which suggests a cometary or debris disk. Plus the scan documented three additional planets, including the one lying in the inner habitable zone. The outermost planet five is small and thought to be Pluto-like. That’s all we have until we arrive there.”

Gareth raised a hand. “I suggest our three Higgs Disruptor ships go to an outer ring formation about the seven other ships. Just in case we detect gravitomagnetic sensors, laser platforms or automated torps upon our arrival.”

Jack liked that. “Agreed. The
Uhuru
will take polar position. The
Bismarck
and the
Dragon
will take position 120 degrees down from either of us. Everyone else, cluster in the middle of our ring. Comments, questions?”

Hideyoshi raised his gloved hand. The admiral’s expression was thoughtful. “Once we contact this juvenile system, there is no going back. The Arbitor will try to Isolate Sol. Fleet Captain Jack, how do we proceed?”

Jack liked that the man had not asked if he planned to back down. “Fleet Admiral Hideyoshi, I follow the advice of the Chinese strategist Tu Mu. Who said ‘If wise, a commander is able to recognize changing circumstances and to act expediently’.”

The Mars admiral smiled at the quote. Which, as a student of war, he must have studied at the Unity Naval Academy. “So true. But now the circumstances have changed in our favor. As Sun Tzu said, ‘Anciently the skillful warriors first made themselves invincible and awaited the enemy’s moment of vulnerability’.”

Jack doubted his fleets were invincible. But they did have the DE Projector. And they were able to move fast by routes and methods not expected by the Arbitor. Who likely assumed he would be met by the traditional thermonukes and energy weapons. “I prefer Sun Tzu’s combat strategy maxim. Which was ‘Now an army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness’.” He smiled. “We know our enemy’s weakness. We will pretend to be one thing while preparing to strike his weakness. Agreed?”

Hideyoshi nodded slowly. “Exactly so. As the Master also said, ‘all warfare is based on deception’. I think we are doing well in that area.”

Jack scanned the other captains. When no one else said anything, he looked back to Max. Who had been in a great mood since the return of Blodwen from her forced reporting to Vesta’s Academy of Sociology. “Hey, genius. Nikola has given Elaine the coordinates and my dear sister has oriented this ship and the fleet in the proper direction. You ready to tap the panel and make magic?”

“Of course.” His buddy put a hand over the control surface of the Alcubierre drive pedestal. Then he gave Jack a big grin. “I sure like zipping across interstellar space like a bee with a rocket up her tail!”

Everyone laughed, including the normally bland Asians among the fleet captains. Kasun, usually the quietness of the six other captains in the First Belter Fleet, actually chuckled. “I think the Lord Buddha would be entertained by the image of such a bee. I and my crewmates certainly are. My Drive Engineer reports we are in laser time-lock with good Max’s drive. Let us leave and meet these new people.”

Jack totally agreed. “Max, set her on fire!”

No one corrected him to say neither the grav-pull nor the Alcubierre space drives emitted flames. They understood his enthusiasm matched their own. Especially now that they all knew humanity had a weapon able to kill an Isolation Globe. And also kill the Arbitor’s ship’s protective field, most likely. Jack sat back in his seat as the front screen images went jagged, then hazy, then disappeared. They were on their way to freedom and liberation.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

They came out of Alcubierre drive at 50 AU north of the orange star HD 128311. Nobody attacked them. No lasers hit them. Nothing blew up. All ten ships of the fleet arrived together, still in their ball in a ring formation. The front screen showed a tiny orange dot at the center of the screen. Surrounding it were a mix of stars of all colors. It looked as if someone had poked holes in the ash blanket of deep space. The white swath of the Milky Way gleamed to the lower left of the image. Suddenly a Sensor image took form to the right side of the true-light scope image. It showed an overhead view of the system, with infrared, ultraviolent, graviton, neutrino, gamma ray, radio wave and other EMF sources scattered across the sensor image. Five rings popped into existence over the Sensor sources, with tiny orange dots showing the locations of the five planets that made up the system. Above both images was a strip showing the helmeted images of his nine allies.

“Grav-pull ships!” Elaine said loudly. She tapped her panel and three silvery graviton sources began blinking beyond the planet five orbital. “In the system’s cometary belt. That cluster is just a few million kilometers away from the outermost planet!”

“So it seems,” Jack said as he scanned the Sensor image that looked down on the ecliptic plane of the system. “I count twelve fusion drive ships moving between planets two and three, with stationary neutrino spots on planet two. And midways between two and three.”

“Jack! You’re doing my job.” Elaine said tartly. She tapped and a tabular list appeared to the right side of the Sensor image. “Fusion ships are green dots. Grav-pull ships are silver. Neutrino sources are white. Uh, there is an asteroid belt between planets two and three, based on strong infrared emissions. Weaker infrared signals confirm an outer cometary belt similar to Sol’s Kuiper Belt. Strong lidar, maser, microwave and AV emissions are coming from planet two. Nikola?”

Jack kept his eyes on the true-light image. Which now expanded greatly to show the white crescents of the system’s five planets. The brilliant light of the orange star was filtered to be low. His lifemate stopped tapping on her Astro panel.

“Big Eye is out and pulling in the image before you,” she said. “The planetary basics are simple. Planet one lies at one-quarter AU out from the star and is tidally locked. Much like Mercury, which its size resembles. Year is 90 days. Planet two, though, orbits at six-tenths AU, just inside the inner edge of the habitable zone. Its year is 310 days. Its atmospheric spectrograph has lots of water vapor, which likely means oceans. Infrared says it has two moons. There’s an asteroid belt beyond it.” She tap-tapped. “Planet three lies at 1.1 AU. It’s a gas giant with a diameter equal to Jupiter but with a mass nearly twice our Jove. Its year is 458 days. While three’s orbit is eccentric by thirty percent, it lies at the outer edge of the hab zone. Far enough out so it does not push planet two out of its orbit.” She paused, tapped again. “Planet four is located at 1.76 AU, way outside the hab zone. It is another gas giant of Jupiter’s size but with three times its mass. Its year is 928 days. Its orbital eccentricity is just 12 percent. Uh, planets three and four are locked in a 2:1 orbital resonance.”

“Which means what?” asked Denise, her tone spritely.

“It means these two gas giants are locked in complimentary orbits, where four takes exactly twice as long to make one orbit of the star as three takes.” Nikola sniffed. “Planet five orbits at 5.4 AU. It takes 12 years to make one circuit of the star. It seems to be a dwarf planet that is a remnant of the protoplanetary formation disk.”

Max chuckled. “I won’t ask what a protoplanetary disk is.”

“Amateurs!” Nikola muttered in a tone that made Jack wonder if her low back was aching from the weight of the growing baby. “The home star is a K0V main sequence star. It’s about three-fourths the size of Sol, but puts out just one-fourth of its radiation. Hence the need for planets to be closer to be livable.” She tapped quickly. “While early this century it was thought to be only a half billion years old, later analysis of its chromosphere gives a likely age of two billion years.”