Earth Song: Etude to War (46 page)

Part V

Chapter 50

May 10th, 534 AE

Outside the Remnants of the Planet K Star System, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier

At an age when most children were learning to crawl and imitate the sounds their parents made which would one day lead to speech, Lilith was having the basics of starship combat imprinted on her mind. How to maneuver an enemy ship with feints and diversions, ways to take advantage of gravity wells, and the delicate nuances of the Kaatan's myriad array of shields were just some of the things she understood before ever meeting her mother or father.

The powerful ship of the line was more a part of her body than a vessel, an extension of her will with which she could move between the stars, explore the universe, and kill.

The presence of potential enemies in her threat bubble sent a thrill up her spine, until she remembered she wasn't the Kaatan just then. She had been transformed into a cumbersome monstrosity because Pip was too afraid to fly the Ibeen.

As her sensors tasted the gravity waves of nearby space she considered her options. Outright flight was out of the question. She could perhaps push the Ibeen/Kaatan hybrid to 500 times the speed of light.

Regardless of whose ships were approaching, even the most sluggish alien warship would run them down in hours. A straight up fight was just as impractical for similar reasons. The Kaatan relied upon its agility as a large part of its tactical effectiveness.

For a moment she considered dropping below light speed and jettisoning the Ibeen then fighting it out. Then she thought of who was on that transport; thousands of her fellow humans at the least. Her parents at the most. The Kaatan may have raised her and made her into the ship's combat intelligence, but she'd come to feel love towards her mother and father. Had come to even begin and understand what that word meant.

The results were in. Seven ships were approaching, four were almost certainly the Mok-Tok she'd faced earlier (three destroyers and a fleet carrier), and three new ships. Like the Mok-Tok, they didn't fit perfectly into preexisting profiles. Close, but not perfect. They were T'Chillen ships. Two destroyers and a cruiser.

She only had one choice, and she didn't like it one bit. She needed a star system to fight in, and the one behind her had just exploded for unfathomable reasons. The nearest star was fourteen hours away at her current speed. Again, there was no choice. The engineering subsystems cried in alarm as she pushed their speed higher and higher. The tactics of space combat echoing from her mind.

“Space is vast,” spoke the ghosts of the People, “you cannot force an enemy to fight if they are capable of fleeing. Combat at supra-luminal speeds is more of chance than strategy.”

She couldn't see herself in the CIC where she floated. Had she been able, she would have seen her face harden into a predatory mask. She might be outnumbered and out gunned, but they didn't know what they were dealing with.

“I am a ship of the line,” she whispered into the darkened space. “Come to me now, and face your death.”

* * *

Lilith managed almost a half light-year before the first of the enemy ships pulled to within nominal weapons range. One of the T'Chillen destroyers unleashed several barrages of missiles while still well out of range. They spun out at several thousand times the speed of light, never getting closer than a hundred thousand kilometers. She ignored them.

The very act of locating a ship traveling at supra-luminal speeds was only a very advanced guessing game based on hints provided from gravity distortions that, by the time a ship’s sensors detected them, were already out of date.

Once the enemy ships began getting close Lilith started altering her course minutely every few seconds. Never the same direction or amount, and never at the same intervals. The changes were miniscule because of the ship’s momentum, but multiplied by their velocity it added up to hundreds of kilometers in seconds.

The seven enemy ships closed and began an intricate dance with their Ibeen/Kaatan adversary. The T'Chillen and Mok-Tok had the advantage of numbers as they used their sensors between themselves to try and triangulate the lumbering human's ship position, or what that position would be in a few seconds, and thus engage with a few well-placed missiles to that location.

A ship in supra-luminal speed was uniquely vulnerable should an explosion of sufficient power disrupt its gravitic field. The chaos that surrounded the ship had the potential to render it out of existence in a heartbeat.

Lilith's advantage was her ability to use the enemy’s numerical superiority against them. She was one, they were many. And in trying to position themselves around and before her they were forced to limit their own maneuvering.

A T'Chillen destroyer, the same one that had been so hasty as to open fire before it was prudent, maneuvered boldly directly into Lilith's path, and stabilized its flight. Of course its sensors’ accuracy were improved several fold, but it became a very easy target. Lilith didn't waste weaponry; she altered her flight path and increased momentum slightly. The Ibeen/Kaatan surged forward, and into the destroyer.

The gravitic drive created an unbelievably power field of a force even light respected. The amount of force it took to move a hundred thousand tons of mass at a hundred gravities is simply beyond the ability of most thinking beings to fully comprehend.

The two ships’ gravitic fields impacted and matched against each other to see which was stronger. The backlash pulverized the destroyer in a microsecond and the Ibeen's shields shunted the crushed remains aside as if it were a tiny asteroid in its path. Lilith didn't give all those lives a second’s thought.

The other enemy ships weren't as hasty as their comrade. They feinted, sensed, and let fly with missiles to test their enemy. With only fractions of a second before impact, Lilith was playing a deadly game of cat and mouse. A half an hour after the battle was joined, the first missile scored.

A sub-fusion ship-killer slammed into one of the Ibeen’s much weaker shields, splashing energy through the breach and into a globe. The blast shredding the superstructure and devastating the interior. It was only pure luck that that section was unoccupied.

Lilith snarled and fought the bio-feedback from the huge transport’s interface. It was a hundred times more profound than what she had experienced from damage to her own ship, and in an instant she understood what Pip had experienced. She also felt guilt at how she’d admonished him. The Ibeen wasn’t intended to have a biological controller and had never been modified to take that into account. She’d been an idiot to not consider that.

She’d have to make amends later because another wave of missiles were lancing in at her. The T’Chillen destroyers were not like the Mok-Tok. Where the latter were based primarily on energy weapons platforms, and thus of much less use in a supra-luminal battle, the former carried vast amounts of missiles. As she was finding out to her consternation. The fact that they were working together… that was another issue entirely, and did not bode well.

She continued a gradually spiraling pattern through space, altering course and speed at random intervals to make her beastly vessel combination a difficult target. Surrounded by a swarm of the enemy destroyers, it was nearly impossible to dodge all of the missiles and energy beams.

While she could ram through a ship foolish enough to get in her way, colliding with one to the side, or worse, getting in front of
their
gravitic drive would be just as lethal to her as it had been to the errant T'Chillen destroyer. The Ibeen and her Kaatan might be too large to be crushed into a tiny shape and shunted aside, in fact even the enemy cruiser might well die in a collision. However the result would still be the humans’ deaths and that was unacceptable.

In a minute another sub-fusion ship-killer scored a grazing hit, not penetrating the shields but further weakening them, and two particle beams scored direct hits. One beam on the Ibeen was absorbed by shields; the second actually managed to hit the Kaatan and was even less effective.

Busy dancing with the destroyers, Lilith temporarily lost track of the new cruiser, and it almost cost her their lives. A trio of anti-particle accelerator beams splashed across them. Luckily for her, two of the shots hit the Kaatan which easily dealt with the impacts, dissipating the energy through its massive capacitance banks. The rest of the barrage ripped into the Ibeen, causing even more damage.

The string of luck that kept the damage to unoccupied areas of the ship came to an end as Lilith watched the computer show in pixilated details the tiny figures of Ranger bodies blasted into space. She redoubled her evasive maneuvers, pushing the paired ships to their theoretical limits, and beyond.

She sent another precious spread of ship-killers splaying out to the sector of attack from the cruiser and was rewarded with not one, but two hits. The heavy T'Chillen capital ship fell away, not damaged but much more leery of the ship-killer missiles.

Lilith used the temporary lull to her best advantage, drastically altering course one last time. The enemy ships lagged behind, regrouping for another attack as she used the time to shore up her power reserves and dispatch a few precious repair bots into the ravaged Ibeen. Mostly she made headway.

Then, as the T'Chillen/Mok-Tok ships closed in once more, the navigational subsystem warned her that they'd reached her destination.

The Kaatan fell into the tiny star system far faster than was safe. Lilith had refused to slow them a fraction of a multiple as they raced for this place. As stars went, it wasn't much to speak of; a brown dwarf so dull and tiny as to be almost unnoticeable.

Two small gas giants rode deep inside the system, with a score of miniscule planetoids. What it did in ample abundance, was a humongous Oort cloud. While they'd take several more hours to reach the inner solar system, the Oort cloud was much closer.

Lilith reversed the terrible strain to slow the monstrous combination of vessels, fast. Inside the Ibeen everyone hung on as best they could, medics helping the injured and others watching each other with wild eyed fear, not knowing what was happening, only that they were still in mortal danger.

Comets streaked by only kilometers away, the enemy ships closing in fast. Lilith bared her teeth as she spread her hands and accessed the gravitic planer drive control, overriding the automated systems and spreading the normally pinpoint field target before them. Drive efficiency fell off to an almost negligible level, shaking the ships violently and slowing them like a bullet plowing into water.

The remaining destroyers flared their courses to avoid the insanely slowing Ibeen, just as the powerful gravity field Lilith had created pulled hundreds of nearby comets from their ancient sleep and hurled them to the stern.

The destroyers flew into a veritable shotgun blast of kilometer sized hunks of ice and iron. Three of the four surviving destroyers were vaporized, leaving only one T'Chillen destroyer, the cruiser, and the fleet carrier lagging far behind.

“Now the odds are better,” Lilith said into her dark CIC. With a wave of her hands, temporary moorings severed and the Kaatan spun free. Before the enemy could even consider a renewed attack, the powerful old ship of the line fell on them in a blaze of energy weapons and missiles.

On the Ibeen, Pip's eyes grew wide in shock as he realized they'd been cast loose. “Lilith, damn it what the—”

“I have placed you on a safe parabolic course into the solar system,” a text only message appeared on the screen of the improvised CIC. “You will enter an eccentric orbit without intervention. I will deal with the remaining enemy units and return. I trust you can handle that much?”

“Bitch,” he wanted to reply, but he knew it was a message left before she detached and went to war once more. So once again, he was in command of the ravaged Ibeen as if fell below light speed and plummeted into the star system.

He tried not to think about how many millions of comets must be flashing around the Oort cloud, any one of which could turn the nearly undefended Ibeen into an ever-expanding cloud of gas and debris.

With more reluctance than he thought he was capable of, Pip plugged into the network controller of the Ibeen and accessed the helm.

One of the destroyers was torn apart by a trio of ship-killers before it could react, Lilith dancing the now free Kaatan between the other surviving destroyer and the much larger cruiser.

With thousands of comets nearby and able to fully maneuver at the much slower speeds, the Kaatan was a dancing killer. Both enemies fired at her constantly, missing with every missile and energy beam but managing to hit each other twice.

In a panic the last destroyer tried to disengage. Lilith obliged it by sending another wave of ship-killers up his stern. The pilot did its best to evade, only one of the racing missiles scoring a hit. It was the comet the destroyer slammed into that crushed its hull and turned it into a debris cloud. And then there was one.

Chapter 51

May 11th, 534 AE

Unidentified Star System, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier

Pip monitored the Ibeen's course and plotted it into the brown dwarf star system. True to her ability, Lilith set them a course completely free of obstacles that would eventually place them in orbit thirty AU from the primary.

As they fell toward the ancient star, he turned part of his mind to seeing how repairs on the Ibeen were proceeding and the status of his passengers. And then, because that took so little of his attention, he couldn't help but think about the star back at Planet K.

“I did it,” he whispered in the darkened sphere.

“I did it,” he said over and over. Equal parts of exhilaration and horror filled his being and a shudder ran up his spine.

“Pip, are we okay?” asked Minu from somewhere on the monstrous ship.

“Lilith cut us loose,” he replied. “She's mauling the bad guys right now.”

He watched on the minimal battlespace as the last destroyer met its doom and shook his head. She was truly a deadly thing. Should have named her Shiva, he thought as the Kaatan squared off against the sole remaining ship, the T'Chillen cruiser.

Lilith traded energy weapons fire against the T'Chillen cruiser, a blocky monstrosity ten times her size, for several minutes, luring it away from the nearly defenseless Ibeen. The Kaatan had firepower and maneuverability, the T'Chillen mass and defenses. Pip was so busy enjoying the show that he didn't notice the squadron of Mok-Tok fighters until they were practically on him.

The Ibeen's automated defenses redirected the shields in time to handle the pair of sub-fusion ship-killer missiles that slammed into her stern, only barely. Even only partly connected to the electronic nerve center of the massive starship Pip reeled and contorted in pain.

After the spasm passed, he grabbed the padded sides of the tiny CIC and screamed in frustration. His hand reached for the connection that would link his brain with the computer of the Ibeen, and stopped, unable to take it and do what he knew he must do. Another shock rocked the ship and warnings of impending shield failure flashed on the virtual display.

“I can't,” he sobbed and pulled his hand away. And in his soul he knew the truth. He couldn't subject himself to the danger, even to save himself and all his friends. He was a coward.

“Pip, what the fuck!?” Minu yelled at him from the entrance to command center.

She instantly took in the situation. The screens showing the marauding fighters, the ever growing list of damage, the ship shuddering like a tuck being ravaged by a kloth, and the incriminating cerebral linkage cable floating… untouched. “We're being torn to pieces, do something!”

“I can't,” he said and turned part away. In the zero gravity of the CIC his tears wouldn't run down his cheeks, they just floated over his eyes and made shimmering lenses.

Minu's slap resounded off the close walls and sprayed unshed tears against white padding.

“Damn you,” she spat, shaking with rage. “Not you too!” Then with a shuddering crash, the world seemed to explode.

* * *

Lilith was unaware of the sweat that pooled on her skin in a bright sheen as her hands flew inside the virtual interface, controlling combat actions of her Kaatan even as her mind handled a myriad of other functions without her conscious thought. She'd pounded the T'Chillen cruiser mercilessly for several minutes, only being hit herself a handful of times, and only doing moderate damage to her enemy.

Unlike her first battle against T'Chillen warships, this one was a more suitable adversary. Closer in size and more maneuverable. And like the other ships she'd faced today, it was not thousands of years old. This was a new ship, or nearly new. All of its systems were functioning and well-tuned.

The only thing she noted that was wrong was how the vessel was being handled. The ship's master was almost hesitant in its mastery. Delayed. Maybe uncertain? If that other ship’s master just pushed their advantage Lilith could be forced to give ground, maybe even yield the field of battle. There was little doubt that they feared her, and that made Lilith confident.

She'd used her consumables at a horrendous rate, so now she shifted to energy weapons. The much slower sub-light duel made for accurate fire now, and she outgunned the enemy who continued to let fly with a furious pace of missile salvo after salvo.

She swatted them all from the sky with her close-in-defense lasers, but also knew the enemy could keep this up for hours. While she had dozens of missiles, the cruiser likely had thousands.

Unlike the first T'Chillen ships, this cruiser was nimble enough to keep her from punching through an individual shield and doing serious damage. A number of its shields were compromised, and this pilot was competently protecting those weak spots. Still she fought to get at them and scored a few hits through the weak spots. The cruiser finally showed signs of damage and went more on the defensive. She was about to push her advantage when she saw the Mok-Tok fighters sweep down on the Ibeen.

Lilith disengaged with the damaged T'Chillen cruiser and swept around, pushing the Kaatan hard to close the distance as the Mok-Tok fighters dumped a flurry of missiles into the hulking transport. Its shields flashed out like exploding lightbulbs one after another until a pair of the missiles swept in unopposed to detonate against the hull of the transport.

Two blew gaping holes in a pair of the spherical hull modules, one amazingly slid through the superstructure without impacting anything, and the last one hit the central needle-like spine of the ship. The explosion tore the ship in half, the forward cluster of balls arced away from the rear section that stayed mainly on course.

“No, damn it!” Lilith screamed as she raced to intercept. The distance was too much. The fighters were now coming around, preparing to go for the kill. The larger rear section of the Ibeen was still under power, but appeared uncontrolled.

Pip was not responding to her hails. Her heart fell in agony as she realized she was about to watch her entire family die.

Her sensors warned of another ship as it suddenly decelerated into the midst of the combat box. She was about to employ weapons against it, then stopped. It hadn’t dropped out of supra-luminal speed, it had arrived via a tactical jump!

The new ship was huge by any standard. Easily as big as a T’Chillen dreadnought in length, though not nearly as wide of beam. She instantly recognized most of the components. The central hub of an Ibeen, with drive and a huge power plant amidships. Instead of big cargo balls, it carried two dozen Kaatan class vessels. They were wider and thicker, but still unmistakably Kaatan.

As Lilith watched, six of these ‘super Kaatan’, as she was thinking of them, disengaged from the mother ship and instantly set upon the Mok-Tok fighters. In only moments they swept the sky clean of the fighters in a blaze of energy weapons.

The carrier changed vectors and pushed away from the star, making a run for a light speed getaway. And like that it was over. The super Kaatan re-docked, another tactical portal appeared and the big ship was gone before she even thought to try and contact it.

Lilith came about, looking for the T’Chillen cruiser to finish it off just as that ship unleashed a swarm of decoy beacons. In an instant, she was almost blind.

“What was that all about?” she wondered, as she sat in shock in the dark aftermath of the battle. Part of her mind worked to look for the enemy as she considered developments. Who else had access to the technology of the People? Now she better understood how her mom felt.