Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (34 page)

She lifted a sandy brown eyebrow. Her pale blue eyes showed sardonic amusement. “I can do that. But if these Celabeen are as Tech capable as we are, recall that fusion drive ships can make twenty percent of lightspeed. Which means a 100,000 kilometer separation can be closed in less than a second. If the Celabeen ship captains choose to do so.”

Jack knew that. There were only two places with just two fusion ships nearby. He was betting on appearing close to the home world so that world’s ruler, Controller Full Belly, could hear his First Contact broadcast and perhaps keep the two Celabeen ships from attacking his fleet. “Thank you, Chief Astronomer.” He looked to Elaine. “Pilot, please share those coordinates with the rest of the fleet. Then set up your NavTrack for a vector aimed down at the world Tasty Meat. I will make my AV broadcast right after our arrival.” Jack nodded to the images of his fellow captains. “Fleet, let us assume the ball-in-ring formation, with our three Higgs ships forming the ring. We fire if fired upon! Any issues? If not—”

“Me,” Hideyoshi said bluntly. “Fleet Captain Jack, when we arrive do we do so in modified Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation? With our fusion drives firing towards the two Celabeen ships?”

Damn. He should have made that clear. Was his need to confront the Arbitor forcing him into rash action? “Yes, Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, all fleet ships should orient their ship drives toward the two Celabeen ships. Just in case they fire first.” He nodded at Maureen, who had looked ready to say the same thing. “Our ships have mobile beam and laser emitters. We can fire in between ship exhaust flares.” An idea hit him. “
Bismarck
and
Dragon
, please join the
Uhuru
in sweeping the space ahead of us with your Higgs Disruptor beam to clear away any minefields, torps or automated laser platforms. No need to take chances on what the near-orbital space of Tasty Meal might hold.”

Maureen nodded sharply, her gray eyes stark. “Exactly right! I will sweep with our Higgs, then use the antimatter and particle beams for ship targets.”

Jack felt better with the input from Hideyoshi and Maureen. “Good. Max, take the fleet inward!”

♦   ♦   ♦

They exited their Alcubierre space-time bubble just as Jack had requested. But surprise is part of reality. And surprise bit them.

“Laser hit!” cried Kasun from the
Leopard
. “Blipping!”

The rest of the fleet grav-pull jumped in unison with the
Leopard
, thanks to the laser time-lock link between their drives.

The jump removed them from the laser platform that had sat close to the inner moon Hungry Light, in exactly the spot they had chosen for their fleet arrival. Now, the grav-pull blip jump by the
Leopard
had moved them closer to the Celabeen home world. And to the two fusion ships orbiting it.

“Kasun!” Jack called as the fleet settled into its ball-in-wheel formation, this time with fusion exhaust flares facing toward the two fusion ships. Which now lay just 20,000 klicks from them, instead of five times that distance if they had stayed close to Hungry Light. “Status! Anyone hurt? Killed? Are you combat—”

“We are operational,” the native of Sri Lanka replied quickly. His front screen image showed two crewmates running out of the Pilot Cabin and into the ship’s central hallway, likely heading for wherever the laser had hit. “Strike was in our midship Lander hold. No one there. The hold is open to vacuum. My crew are moving to help the mechbots make sealant repairs. Don’t like losing water to space.”

A glance at the other captain images told Jack everyone else was operational and in full Combat Alert mode. Already the space around them was being swept with Higgs beams from Maureen’s Battle Module, the
Bismarck
and the
Dragon
. The Higgs ships had planned to do that on the first arrival. But the laser platform had lain behind them, closer to the moon. The platform’s IFF circuits clearly operated at lightspeed. For an automated device’s Auto-Track and Defend programs to work that well told Jack the fusion ships ahead would perform even better. If they chose to attack his fleet. Unsnapping his restraint locks, he reached down and grabbed Old Roy, stood up and took position in front of Maureen’s empty seat. “Denise! Put my image out on the news reporting AV signal! Elaine, see if your Sensor panel can locate this planetary capital of Controller Full Belly. Quickly!”

“Jack, you are live!” called Denise.

He raised his two-handed Viking sword and pointed it at the motion-eye above the front screen. “Greetings to Controller Full Belly and all Celabeen clans! My name is Jack Munroe. I am a survivor like none you have ever met! We call ourselves humans. We came to your system from our home star, where there are nine billion of us eager to eat meat with you!” Jack waved the sword. “We escaped your laser platform when it fired on us. We will destroy every Celabeen ship that attacks us! We are not a comet, nor are we a fighter in your Battle For Control. We are predators hungry for meat. But we honor Clan Mothers and your nurseries. So we give you this warning. Today we killed three ships of social carnivores who were hiding in the comets beyond your outermost planet.” Jack gestured back to Denise for her to transmit the battle AV vid. “They belong to something called the Hunters of the Great Dark. These Hunters wait for survivors like you to reach that outer planet, then they challenge your people to a fight to the death! If you Celabeen lose that fight, you are meat for the Hunter and become his servant!”

“Jack,” called Elaine, “both fusion ships have gone to fusion thrust. But at one percent of light. Still, they’ll be here quickly.”

He knew that. “Controller Full Belly! Tell your starfire ships to avoid us or they will be eaten by me and my pack! You have a chance to grab the greatest asset for the survival of the Celabeen people if you talk to us! But if you attack, we will eat your ships. Then we will leave your system alone, prey to the Hunters of the Great Dark!”

“Fusion ships will arrive within three seconds,” Elaine said.

“Pinwheel Plasma Torch exhaust flares are aimed their way,” Max called sharply. “I’m tightening our exhaust flare to make it hotter. But that antimatter beam of theirs can cut through our exhaust flares if they keep firing it long enough!”

“Hot Belly!” yelled Jack as he waved his sword. “This metal sword is the first claw of our people! We survived comet and asteroid bombardments of our home world. We fought many Battles for Control among our own clans. We have the black beam and other weapons more powerful than that! We—”

“Incoming antimatter beam!” yelled Elaine.

“Bastards!” yelled Maureen from the holo behind him. “Let them eat this!”

A yellow spear beam shot out from the
Uhuru
toward the spike-like ship that had fired the antimatter beam at the fleet. The yellow spear contacted the black and gold striped ship. Its hull immediately expanded outward like a balloon. Then the ship’s metal became millions of shiny particles as its molecules and atoms came apart.

Jack grimaced at the use of their Higgs Disruptor beam. But maybe it would have an effect.

“The second ship is firing!” called Elaine.

The black streak of the Celabeen ship’s antimatter beam hit the exhaust flares of the
Uhuru
,
Bismarck
,
Dragon
,
Nimitz
and the six other Belter fleet ships. Those flares reached out 70 kilometers with starhot gas. The incoming beam swept into the incandescent flare gases, biting at them with total disintegration. Its incoming speed dropped from lightspeed to visually slow as it became a battle between the fusion plasmas of the fleet and the total matter-to-energy annihilation effects of the incoming antimatter.

“The AM beam is within 20 kilometers!” cried Blodwen from the back.

That did it for Jack. “Fleet! Max! Blip jump us out of range. Back to the moon Hungry Light. And Gareth, kill that fucking laser platform as soon as we arrive!”

The image of the oncoming Celabeen ship grew jagged, then hazy. Before his ship moved on a direct vector line for the nearby moon, Jack thought he saw the spike ship cut off its AM beam and alter its course downward, away from them. He blinked and the screen was clear. They had arrived within 10,000 klicks of the moon. On the front screen he saw the
Dragon
shoot a yellow Higgs beam toward the moon. The beam intercepted an incoming green HF laser slash, turning it to incoherent photons. In less than a blink the Higgs beam hit the distant platform, expanded it and turned it into a cloud of subatomic particles.

“Jack!” called Max. “The fleet is still in Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation, with exhaust flares firing toward the fusion ship. Which is—”

“Curving away from us,” Elaine said sharply. “It will hit a parabolic arc vector that keeps it 20,000 klicks away from us.”

“Incoming AV signal!” cried Denise. “Going up front and sharing with the fleet.”

An image of a thickly furred tiger standing in a room that resembled an aerospatiale traffic control center took form on the front screen. Behind the tiger moved nine other tigers, who worked at touch pedestals, holos, flat screens and comlink stations. The front tiger spoke.

“Survivor Jack Munroe, leave our system!” the tiger roared loudly as his black-striped golden fur stood on end. “You humans are not Celabeen! You resemble tiny creatures our ancient ancestors once ate. But you have claws. As the death of our ship
Mighty Roar
showed. I have instructed our other ship to sheath its claws.” The yellow eyes looked past Jack, scanned his crew, then fixed back on him. “We Celabeen will defend our system! We will send our ships out to the cold world of Icy Hunger and fight any intruder! Leave! We do not need your help in our survival!”

So be it. “Controller Bull Belly, my pack will leave your system shortly. We are full after eating the ships of the Yiplak Hunters.” He waved back to his buddy. “My Drive Engineer is sending you the equations and schematics for building a modulated neutrino communicator. It can connect you instantly to our world far far away. Our channel frequency is being sent also. If you Celabeen wish to make Trade with us humans for other Tech devices, for things we each value, then call us! We leave now!” He turned to catch Max’s attention. “Neutrino stuff sent?”

The man stopped tapping on his armchair panel. Which connected with Denise’s comlink panel. “Sent. Where do we go now?”

“Out to the comet where we killed the Yiplak ships. There to call the Arbitor.” Jack turned around. He swept his sword in an arc. “Controller! We humans survived attack by many Hunters of the Great Dark! We killed them all! Then we went to the home star system of the worst attacker and killed one of their planets.” He grimaced, showing his teeth as best he could. “We may appear small, with tiny claws. But our bite is sharp enough to eat whole star systems. Call us if you Celabeen ever wish to learn how to become better survivors!” He gestured to Denise. The incoming image vanished. “Max, take us all to Alcubierre. Put us above that comet. I have a conversation that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Jack welcomed the true-light image of black space, bright stars and the reddish-brown comet below them. Maybe all the jumping in and out of stardrive was making his anxious. Though doing it to avoid sending out a graviton signal was a trick he’d come up with during their first interstellar trip. First things first though.

“Kasun, how is your ship and your crew?” he asked the man as soon as his image appeared in the strip above the front screen.

The man with wavy black hair, swarthy skin and a frequent look of distraction gave him a reassuring wave. “Everyone here is in fine shape. The laser hull cuts are sealed. Our Lander was damaged. One of its thrusters was cut off. No fuel leaks. We are ready to confront the Arbitor!”

“Excellent.” Jack scanned his other captains. “Fleet, is everyone in good shape? Right after my chat with the Arbitor we will jump back to Sol. There to rendezvous with the ships of our Freedom Alliance allies. And with the Belter and Mars fleets. Our return arrival spot is Sedna.”

Hideyoshi gave him a swift salute. “The
Bismarck
stands ready to fight at any location and any time assigned to it.”

“The
Nimitz
is also eager for battle,” Zhāng said as, behind her, red uniformed crew worked at their function stations.

The rest of his fleet captains made similar assurances. Jack unsnapped his restraint locks, grabbed Old Roy and stood in front of Maureen’s empty seat. But she watched him from the holo above his Tech station seat. “Denise, call Arbitor MakMakGor. On the wavelength of helium’s mass cubed.”

“Uh, Jack, I’ve not had time to—”

“It is 4.002602 amu cubed,” Nikola said softly over the vacsuit comlink they all relied on until the end of Combat Alert. “Jack doesn’t know this stuff either. He relies on me to make him appear Tech smart!”