Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (8 page)

Behind the T-rex there moved two other Arbitors, who tended to control pedestals on the Command Deck of the Alien’s ship.

The yellow-scaled neck hood of the giant dino flared widely. Its red and yellow-scaled tail lifted and thumped the floor. It slammed its long jaws together in a snapping motion that echoed through the Pilot Cabin. The two red eyes, protected by ridges of red and yellow scales, looked beyond Jack to his crewmates. “You cheated in your encounter with the Rizen. They faced you with teeth and claws in the traditional Challenge to Combat at the one-on-one level. You blew up the meeting location, then used your primitive fusion drive to irradiate the Rizen ship. Have you Humans always cheated your way into eco-niche control?”

Jack felt a cold chill run up his neck. This Arbitor challenged the very reality of humanity as an apex predator. “Ask the two billion dead HikHikSot if we cheated. They attacked our home system twice. We defeated them twice. Then we invaded their home system and killed one of their two home planets. Their technology opposed our technology. But we humans were better fighters!”

The Arbitor opened its giant mouth, exposing long white teeth that resembled curved cutting knives. The pink tongue inside the mouth licked its lower canines. It coughed loudly, then partly closed the mouth of a true carnivore. It blinked slowly. “You do seem able to fight with technology. And the Rules of Engagement do not specify the means of the personal combat. Just that it happen so the juvenile species has a chance to prove whether it is predator or prey.” One of the Arbitor dinos at the rear of the chamber tossed a black ball toward MakMakGor. Who caught it with a taloned hand, laid it on the control pedestal in front of it, glanced at it, then focused a hungry look on Jack. “It seems you Humans come in two sexes, if the varied bioshapes of your crew are any indication. Which means your females produce tiny versions of your already small bodies. Do you eat your excess offspring? As we Arbitors do on our home world.”

Jack felt his heart hammer fast. His face flushed. Anger at the concept nearly overwhelmed him. He breathed fast, then recalled a story his grandpa had told him of how the Unity had begun negotiations early in the war. “Arbitor, I control my emotions, they do not control me.”

The giant dino blinked quickly, then again looked past Jack at his crew. “So it seems. Perhaps this violation encounter will be entertaining. You, Human Jack Munroe, are clearly the alpha male of your group. Who is your alpha female?”

Denise whispered in his ear over the vacsuit comlink. “The SETI translation also suggests ‘dominant’ or ‘leader’ in place of alpha.”

He gestured back to her. “ComChief, transfer the holo of Maureen that is above my Tech panel so there is a full-size holo of her standing beside me.”

“Working on it,” she said over the suit comlink.

In two seconds Maureen stood to Jack’s right. The woman shrugged her slim shoulders, her black leotard showing muscles where few women had them. Her holo image looked up at the motion-eye, then at the front screen. “Lot of meat there in that body. Would be good eating. Think we could spit its body over a live fire?”

Jack swallowed hard. “Depends on its size. If this Arbitor is as large as the old T-rex, we would need to slice it into thirds or fourths to get it over an open flame. Course, our swords could do that. As could our laser handguns. Do you claim the liver and its vitamins?”

Coughing as loud as a hurricane wind came over the neutrino comlink. On the screen the Arbitor’s mouth was wide open. Its upper body shook as it coughed in a sequence of loud gales. “Amusing! Oh, yes, you and your alpha female are indeed apex predators!”

Jack’s mouth felt dry. He always felt that way when on stage. And he was on stage before his Belter and Alliance allies, before his crew and on behalf of all humanity.
Damn
. “Good. Now that the preliminaries are done with, what is the specific nature of the claim of violation?”

The Arbitor touched the black globe that was socketed into its control pedestal. A holo took form to one side of the pedestal. It showed the yellow main sequence star of Tau Ceti and its seven planets. The view from the outer edge of the system showed the brown and white disk of comets and asteroids that ran from 10 AU out to 50 AU. The Arbitor’s two red eyes looked directly at Jack. “Human, the claim of a Rules of Engagement violation is this. You contacted the Melagun sextupeds before they reached their outermost planet with an occupied spaceship. And you failed to offer them a personal Challenge to Combat. As you Humans were offered in your Sol system. You repeated this violation of the rules at two other juvenile systems occupied by the BooMak and Niktoren peoples. What is your response?”

Jack had expected this. “How do you know we humans contacted any juvenile species before they reached their outer planet?”

The dino gave a quick snort. “As you should have learned from your Nasen Trade contact, every juvenile system in this star arm has a Sentry probe planted near their outermost planet. The probe records the moment when a neutrino-emitting spaceship arrives within a planetary diameter of the outer planet.” On the front screen the Arbitor holo changed to show first the BooMak star system, then the Niktoren system, then went back to Tau Ceti system. “When that happens, the probe emits a neutrino alert signal that goes out to every Hunt star.”

“We did not receive such a signal,” Maureen grumbled.

The dino glanced at her. “Then you did not ask the proper questions of your Nasen informants. They could have given you the proper neutrino signal frequency to receive such alerts.” The Arbitor looked back to Jack. “What matters is that a probe exists at the outer boundary of every juvenile system in the space you call Orion Arm. It alerts other Hunters when a juvenile species reaches the stage proper for a Challenge to Combat under the Rules of Engagement. It also alerts every Arbitor ship when an
outside
spaceship is detected coming into a juvenile system. As you Humans did here and in the systems of the BooMak and Niktoren. Do you admit this violation?”

Jack felt the weight of Old Roy and had a fleeting wish this confrontation was happening in person. Between him and the Arbitor. The two-handed sword was long enough to pierce the dino’s scales and slice into its heart. Course he might get squashed when its dying body fell on him.

“We deny the claim of violation. We did contact the Melagun, BooMak and Niktoren peoples before they reached their outer planets. But our contact was in keeping with the spirit of the Rules of Engagement.”

“Explain!” growled the giant dino.

Jack showed his teeth. “We plan to release these three peoples from our Hunt territory. So they can face a future Challenge to Combat by another Hunter of the Great Dark. We humans chose to contact these three peoples in order to help them prepare for such a challenge. Now, they know of the Hunters of the Great Dark. They know of the Rules of Engagement. And they are willing to fight for their right to travel among the stars!”

“Yes!” cried Benaxis in an infrasound rumble.

“We will fight any Hunter!” cried Bulaken of the North.

“Stampede them we will!” grunted Thoughtful/Progenitor.

Jack waited for the response of MakMakGor. Who had heard the AV words of his three Alliance allies over the neutrino comlink pickup. But a second dino came up to the T-rex, put its mouth close to its ear orifice and said something that did not transmit. The Arbitor arched its body upright almost as if it were going to jump into Jack’s Pilot Cabin, brushing the other dino to one side.

“No! You Humans cannot interpret the words of the Rules of Engagement!” it shouted through its sharp white teeth. “Our system is simple. No juvenile species is contacted by any Hunter until that species reaches its outermost planet! Upon contact by a Hunter, the juvenile species is offered a Challenge to Combat so it can prove whether it is a predator, or subject people prey for a true Hunter! You humans violated these rules!”

Jack gave thanks he was not in the same room with the dino Arbitor. He suspected that it had permanently bad breath, due to the meat fragments he could see lying between its teeth. “You oppose us because we are not carnivores like you!”

The giant dino lowered down, crossed its chest arms and glared at Jack and his crew. “You Humans are omnivores. We know that. Just as we know all human history as compiled by Menoma the Manager. Before he and his species lost their battle to claim your system as their Hunt territory.” It gestured dismissively. “We Arbitors accept any true predator, whether you are omnivore, carnivore or meat-loving herbivore like your BooMak partner. We accept Humans as a predator species. You have acted like a true Hunter in attacking the star systems of other Hunters so as to add them to your territory. We care not for such normal encounters. The Booleans lost the Bizzdaw system to you Humans. It is now part of your Hunt territory. But you Humans must comply with the Rules of the Great Dark. That is our judgment.”

“And if we violate your rules?” Maureen said, her tone venomous.

The giant dino tilted its head to one side, inspecting Jack and Maureen and his crewmates as if they were curious bugs on a plate. “Then your star system will be Isolated. As we have Isolated 14 star systems over the 3,0000 cycles of the existence of our system. Ours is a system that works. It makes a place for every spacegoing species. Our rules are simple. Comply or suffer Isolation.”

“What if we destroy you first?” Jack said, pointing Old Roy at the dino.

“That cannot be done,” MakMakGor said, his tone a low roar.

“Gareth, now!”

Jack watched a third screen image from the spysat that showed their fleet and the Arbitor ship.

A yellow beam shot out from the
Dragon
.

It impacted on the Arbitor ship.

Rather, it struck a shimmering black ball that had englobed the Alien ship.

“Fuck!” yelled Maureen from her holo image.

Jack felt his heart sink. If the Higgs Disruptor beam had no effect on this shield, what would?

“Maureen, hit it with both your antimatter and particle beams!”

A black thread and a blue beam shot out from the
Uhuru’s
Battle Module.

They too sank into the black globe that glittered with silvery stars.

“Jack!” yelled Max. “Look! That’s gravitational lensing around that globe! But . . . it’s not the grav-pull lensing. It’s more like an Alcubierre drive shell lensing.”

The central image of the T-rex had not changed. It still stood there, watching them. Its two red eyes blinked. “You cannot harm us. Nothing of your universe can harm us. Do you accept my judgment?”

“How many star systems do you Arbitors control?” Jack asked hurriedly as a new idea struck him. “And where is your Hunt star? If you do not control other star systems, like the 113 Hunters known to date, then you have no right to judge any Hunter of the Great Dark!”

A light chuffing sound came from the dino’s cavernous mouth. “Your persistence is entertaining. We Arbitors do control other star systems. We control subject peoples. We have done so for hundreds of cycles. But we are not stupid enough to give you a . . . a route map to our home star.”

He grimaced. “You talk to us even with your shield up. How is that possible?”

Chuffing came from the two dinos in the background. MakMakGor gestured casually with one black taloned hand. “Recall that our neutrino communications pass through another dimension in order to give every species communications not limited by the speed of light in your universe.”

He’d known that. But it had been something to ask as he churned through options. “Denise! Shut off the audio part of my signal to that Arbitor.”

“Done,” she said, sounding a bit breathless.

“Minna, Ignacio and Hideyoshi, close with the rest of us to within 3,000 kilometers of the Arbitor ship. Just inside laser range. Encircle that ship at three spots separated by 120 degrees.” He looked up at the images of his Alliance allies. “Pack Defender Tok, put your ship
Tall Tree
next to Hideyoshi’s
Bismarck
. Mother Prime, put your ship
Star Marcher
next to Minna’s
Wolverine
. Guide Benaxis, put your ship
Polar Ice
beside Ignacio’s
Badger
. Prepare to fire your lasers, but on varying frequencies, on my command!”

In seconds the fleet had blip jumped to within laser range of the Arbitor ship. The six ships he had called out took position at the three encircling angles. He gestured back to Denise to resume his audio over the neutrino comlink.

The giant dino stepped forward, filling most of the screen with its giant head. White teeth, a yellow-scaled neck hood and two red eyes fixed on Jack. The carnivore mouth opened. “You Humans have passed through two of the three stages of Violation. First was denial. Second was defiance. The final stage is acceptance. Do you accept my judgment? Will you never again contact another juvenile species until the Sentry probe alerts you to compete for it with other Hunters of the Great Dark?”

Jack let Old Roy drop to the deck. He held both gauntleted hands out in a classic surrender gesture. “We accept. If we cannot destroy your ship, and roast your carcass over a fire, we must comply with your judgment.”

The giant Alien blinked slowly. “You will not fire on me again?”