Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (35 page)

That wasn’t fully true. He knew lots of Tech stuff. Practical Tech like what temp liquid oxygen is inside an air bottle. Or the ISP thrust of a vacsuit backpack thruster. Or that the standard mining laser strength is 14,000 joules per second.
Hmmph
. “Thank you Nikola. Denise?”

“Neutrino signal sent out,” she said calmly, as if Nikola’s help had not happened. “Uh, Captain Jack, what do we do if he does not answer?”

“We head home and wait for his ship to arrive outside Sol. Transfer Maureen’s holo image so it is beside me. As before,” he said. “Recall that this giant dino said we shouldn’t be an irritant? Well, I think it now knows we
are
an irritant. Based on the fact that this system’s Sentry probe has signaled an outside intrusion into this star system.”

“Working on the holo,” Denise said over her suit comlink.

In two seconds Maureen stood to Jack’s right. The woman shrugged her slim shoulders, her black leotard showing rippling muscles. Her holo image looked up at the motion-eye, then at the front screen. “Wonder if Big Dino has gained any weight. I still aim to roast one of its haunches over a live fire!”

“Jack,” called Blodwen from her seat behind Max. “You couldn’t be an irritant to anyone. Entertainment, yes. And your booze is really—”

“Response coming in!” called Denise. On the front screen, a new image took form.

As before Jack saw a giant dinosaur with the teeth of a great white shark, the tail of a stingray, the flaring neck hood of a black mamba snake and the red and yellow-scaled body of a
Tyrannosaurus rex
. A pair of small arms with taloned hands sprouted from its upper chest. Behind the T-rex there moved two other Arbitors, who tended to control pedestals on the Command Deck of the Alien’s ship. MakMakGor fixed two red eyes on them. The giant mouth opened.

“Human, you are an irritant,” he growled in a series of harsh snarls, loud snaps and long hisses. “My ship tells me you have intruded into the juvenile system of the Celabeen creatures. Why? You knew it would lead to Isolation of your system.”

Jack grimaced, showing his teeth. He waved Old Roy at the dino. “We humans changed our minds about your judgment. And your invulnerability. We have access to the sciences of eight civilizations! We will defeat you when you come to Sol!”

The yellow-scaled neck hood of the giant dino flared widely. Its barbed tail lifted and thumped the floor. It slammed its jaws together in a loud snap. The two red eyes, protected by ridges of red and yellow scales, inspected Jack. “Arrogant Hunters like you Humans have been dealt with before. By Isolation. As we will deal with you Humans.” It lowered one small arm to touch a control pedestal that reached to its chest.

“Wait!” Jack yelled. “We humans challenge you Arbitors to a final battle. Meet us above our comet Sedna! You know the location. It is the site of—”

“The former habitat of the HikHikSot Manager Menoma, who was intelligent enough to share all its Human observation data with us,” the giant dino said. Its barbed tail lifted up. The Arbitor opened his giant mouth, exposing two rows of long white teeth that resembled cutting knives. “Leave now, after this . . . encounter ends. So you can arrive before our ship arrives. Perhaps I will taste the flesh of your ship before I emplace the Isolation Globe beside your star!”

Jack gave the creature an obscene Belter finger-talk gesture. “My alpha female Maureen stands beside me! We both ache to taste
your
flesh!”

The creature paused before touching off their neutrino link. MakMakGor tilted its head to one side, inspecting Jack and Maureen and his crewmates as if they were curious bugs on a plate. “Arrogance comes natural to all predators. But survival is what matters. And you Humans will now be kept confined. The way you confine tiny animals you call pets.” It cough-spat. “Such a waste of protein! You should
eat
such creatures, not feed them.” It reached down.

“We will eat you!” Jack yelled just before the Arbitor’s image vanished.

“Well,” muttered Maureen from her holo, “I guess that dino will come to Sol now. I think we insulted its view of reality.”

“Agreed.” Jack turned away from the motion-eye, walked over to his seat, laid Old Roy on the deck beside his chair, and sat down. Restraint straps automatically enclosed him and locked with a snap. He pulled his Tech panel over his lap. Where he once more saw Maureen’s holo. “Max, toss out a Predator Alert sat to orbit this comet. At least other Hunters will know we claim the Celabeen system as part of humanity’s Hunt territory.”

“Ejecting through the spysat ejector portal,” his buddy said. “You think the Celabeen will call us on the neutrino comlink? In the future?”

“Maybe,” Jack said, feeling eager to start their journey home. “Nikola, give Elaine the coordinates for Sedna. I look forward to getting there days before this Arbitor arrives!”

She laughed softly. “Coordinates sent. Distance is 54.1 light years. Travel time is about one and a half days, versus however many days it will take the Arbitor ship to arrive. Elaine?”

“Received,” said his sister, who as usual wore her yellow headband inside her helmet. Once again fresh flowers dangled over one ear. “Shared with the fleet. All ships are assuming the vector aimed at Sol. Max?”

Jack grinned to himself. While he could have given each of his people direct orders, he liked how they were speeding things up by doing the obvious. Behind him he heard the creak of Max’s leather seat as the man leaned forward to tap on the Alcubierre pedestal control surface. “Alcubierre stardrive activated! All fleet ship stardrives activated. Heading home!”

Jack sat back in his seat. While he missed the naive enthusiasm of Archibald, it was best for the super geek to remain on Zhāng’s ship, ready to fire its Dark Energy Projector at the Arbitor’s ship. When Jack gave the command. Anyway, he had fleet formation details to work out with Hideyoshi, Zhāng, Amitar, Gareth and the Alien captains of the ships from his eight Freedom Alliance allies. He wanted to capture the Arbitor’s ship the same way they had captured the Rizen ship long ago. Only this time they had a weapon better suited to that purpose than a clumsy drive flare aimed at a ship’s nose. He looked forward to his chats with his Niktoren ally.

♦   ♦   ♦

Nine days later Jack scanned the super fleet gathered in orbit above Sedna. There were his
Uhuru
and the six other ships of his First Belter Fleet. The Second Belter Fleet was there, headed by Gareth’s
Dragon
. It had ten ships, which included the newly arrived
Hawk
of Vigdis and the
Grizzly
of Helena, plus the
Eagle
and
Wolf
. The Third Belter fleet, formed during their absence, was headed by Heloise of the
Ferocious
. It counted ten fat spearhead ships with grav-pull drives. The final fleet was Hideyoshi’s Mars fleet of 17 ships, which contained the heavy cruiser
Bismarck
, the four destroyers
Zhukov
,
MacArthur
,
Nimitz
and
Yamamoto
, plus eight frigates and three corvettes. Plus their Freedom Alliance allies had each sent a ship, for a total of eight ships of wildly varied shapes. That amounted to 52 heavily armed spaceships eight of which carried Higgs Disruptors. Each fleet orbited the reddish-brown methane ices and melt basins of Sedna in their own group. But all were comlinked by way of laser Come-Back signals. And every ship also had a neutrino comlink pedestal. He looked up from the Contact Station dome on Sedna to the four rows of ship captain faces that took up the top portion of the front screen. Every ship captain was there, including the exotic Aliens of the Freedom Alliance. Captain Bulaken of the Niktoren ship
Sharp Teeth
opened her toothy mouth. Which gleamed whitely below the black face mask of her raccoon-like head.

“Fleet Captain Jack Munroe, when do we taste the flesh of this Arbitor?” she asked. “My males are eager to strangle this
magun
predator!”

Jack felt her impatience. The super fleet had been in orbit for two days now, ever since the ships of Vigdis and Helena had returned from their fruitless checking of two star systems that might have been the home star of the T-rex dinos. He wished he knew when the Arbitor ship would show up. The nine days since his neutrino challenge said the dino and his ship were at least 36 light years away from Sol. Course it could have been a hundred light years away. But it had left Tau Ceti after their first confrontation, and that star was just 12 light years away. “Captain Bulaken, my mouth also aches for the taste of this reptile who pretends to judge our people. But you and your ship will play a vital role once it arrives. Stay alert!”

The Niktoren, who wore a green
chiton
shirt open at the sides for ease of breathing, turned one chameleon-like mobile eye away from viewing Jack to something off screen. “Shift change. It always requires a female to supervise. We remain alert!” The Niktoren walked out of the motion-eye view, leaving Jack to observe a small Command Deck outfitted with only three control pedestals.

“Jack,” called Hideyoshi.

The man’s informal use of just his first name made him look up to the top row of images. The first name use went against standard naval ship protocol. But the red-clad crew behind the man were seated at their function pedestals, or moving to consult in person with someone else. Like Jack, his people, and everyone else on every ship, the crew of the
Prince Otto Von Bismarck
wore red and white-striped vacsuits with bubble helmets. Things might be quiet now, but they were still in Combat Alert status. “Yes, Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto. Can I assist you?”

The man’s black eyes peered intently at Jack. “You shared with us your plan for using the Niktoren ship at our last fleet battle conference. However, the
Bismarck
contains the same weapons it does. As do each of our destroyers. And your own ship, which in size equals our destroyers, also carries such weapons.” The man paused, his manner stiffly formal. “It seems safest for all such ships to fire their weapons on the Arbitor ship, once its shield is down.”

Jack understood the man’s point. “Admiral Hideyoshi, be at peace. My plan is to allow the Niktorens to fire their weapon first, followed by our fleet ships firing the same weapons.” He smiled, then gestured to Maureen, who sat to his right with her Combat panel active above her vacsuited lap. “Combat Commander Maureen would never allow me to use less than maximum force against the Arbitor! But allowing the Niktoren to fire first is a political decision. I want the Freedom Alliance members to feel part of our joint effort. And as you know, assignments have been given to ships for targeting of the north and south pole neutral particle beam emitters, and the equatorial laser mounts. Others will handle any torps launched against us.”

The man nodded his head. His receding hairline left a pink dome showing under the man’s helmet. His thin black eyebrows lifted slightly. “Ah. Politics. It does have a way of intruding into battle considerations.”

“Quite so,” Jack said. “But you and your Marines are an integral part of this post-shield operation. I am counting on them.”

The older man pursed his rad-tanned lips. “They are ready. They have done multiple Insert and Extraction simulations in our Practice Hall. Their weapons are loaded, ready and nearby. As is the special weapon you requested.”

“Good!” While the man’s use of his first name was non-standard, Jack thought his Mars ally was just feeling anxious. Like everyone else. Including his Basque buddy Ignacio and his Finn killer hawk Minna. Above the screen, petite, black-haired Akemi was slowly running a sharpening stone across the edge of her seven hundred year-old
katana koto
sword. He had no doubt that her
katana
, Minna’s Suontaka sword and Gareth’s sword
Dyrnwyn
would pierce the red scales of the Arbitor’s hide. Getting close enough to do that was the challenge.

“Alert!” called Elaine from her station. “Sensor panel says there is a new graviton source 43,000 klicks above us. It matches the Sensor pattern of the Arbitor ship from Tau Ceti.” She tapped on her Sensor panel. A plan view schematic of Sedna and the space about it now appeared to the right of the true-light image of the comet. The view showed 52 dots scattered across this side of Sedna and a single dot lying further out. Whether by accident or intention, the new ship’s location matched the orbital location of the Hunter colony ships from the First Battle of Sedna.

“Shit!” Maureen popped out of her seat and began running down the Spine hallway to get to her Battle Module combat station.

“Crap,” muttered Nikola from behind him.

“Double crap,” said Cassie.

“Dragons!” cursed Blodwen from behind Max.

“No signal yet,” Denise said, already in her ComChief mode.

“Time to go?” called Max.

Now it began
. “All ships! We will blip jump out to this new ship’s position. Drive Engineer Max will activate our grav-pull drive and also your drive, by way of time-lock. Recall the formation arrangements we practiced two days ago!” He looked back. “Max take us to within nine thousand klicks of that bastard!”