Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. (35 page)

The enemy
weapons were a minute from impact as the second to the last volley from the
heavy cruiser attacked the alien formation.  There weren’t enough of them
according to Fleet doctrine, which called for numbers to overwhelm the
defenses.  Six of the missiles were taken out,  and only two got within
detonation range.  Both were near misses on a single ship, causing noticeable
damage, but not slowing her in the least.  A minute later the last volley came
in, and the enemy defenses took out five of them.  One was a direct hit on the
most damaged of the enemy vessels, the gigaton class warhead coming in with
considerable kinetic energy, and the million plus ton vessel converted to
plasma in an instant, before the hot gas was blown out even further by the
antimatter within the ship.  The two others struck at another vessel, resulting
in more near misses that, while damaging the vessel, did not seem to do enough
damage to stop the ship.  Ten seconds later it was apparent that the first
analysis had been wrong, as the vessel catastrophically translated out of
hyper, and out of the battle.

The enemy
weapons came in, and
New Potsdam
started cycling her hyper capable
counters as soon as they were within range.  At first she tried to engage all
the missiles, but the enemy weapons blasted them from space with their own
lasers.  She switched tactics after that first volley, concentrating on two of
the enemy weapons, two that were heading for liners.  By the fourth volley she
had achieved overwhelm, and the two enemy weapons were blotted from existence
by the counters.  The cruiser switched her targeting to the other two weapons
not targeting her, ignoring for the moment the two heading for her.  After a
volley of misses, and time running out, she switched everything to one of the
weapons.  Her lasers and close in weapons started blasting at the two targeting
her, taking out one.  The other dodged past the fire, to get within eight thousand
kilometers of the cruiser before a hit by two laser rings contacted it dead
center.  Its warhead breached, and eight thousand tons of matter came shooting
in a cloud toward the cruiser.  About a third struck at a closing velocity of
point two three light, the spray cutting through the tough hull and pushing the
heavy cruiser back at almost six hundred gravities for a fraction of a second.

Aboard the
cruiser the warning klaxons sounded as the ship was hit by a hammer blow. 
Inertial compensators went into emergency overload, but fifty gravities still
got through for one hundredth of a second.  Not enough to kill by itself, but
enough to injure limbs and spines.

“What’s our
condition?” yelled out Captain Mason as he struggled to get his wits about him
through his red blurred vision.  His link was showing severe casualties, and
major damage.  His ship had survived, but with the enemy closing that was not a
condition that would obtain over the next couple of minutes.

He looked over
at the tactical plot to see that only one of the enemy weapons survived, just
before it disappeared from the plot, along with the icon of the freighter it
was targeting.

*     *     *

Khrushchev sat
in her command chair on the flag bridge and watched the tactical holo as
Drake
slid through the tail end of the convoy. 
New Potsdam
was just ahead
and to port, and the enemy ships were closing in on the crippled heavy cruiser
with lasers blazing.

“Fire,” yelled
Captain Timofeyavich over the com, and the remaining laser ring of the battle cruiser
fired a full power blast into one of the enemy ships.  Immediately all four of
the enemy vessels changed vector for a moment, then brought the battle cruiser
under their combined fire.  Timofeyavich followed doctrine and kept his laser
targeted on the ship he was already engaging. 
Drake
shuddered as
transfer energy exploded into her bow and port side, blasting out armor and
tearing new holes in her hull.  And then came the hit they had all feared, and
the remaining laser ring lost all power.  At the same moment the ship they had
been engaging had had enough, and blew up in an explosion that tore her into
three large pieces, accompanied by millions of smaller ones.

“Requesting
permission to ram, Commodore,” said Timofeyavich over the com.

“Permission
denied,” said Khrushchev, staring at the viewer, which was giving her a split
view of the three surviving enemy ships.  She looked over at her Com Officer,
who looked back with fear in her eyes.  Without the laser they had no more
medium range firepower.  “Contact Mason.  Tell him to get any weapons he might
have back online.  Then tell
Mihn Quan
to come in, on my signal, with
all lasers blazing at any whatever targets are left.”

“What are your
orders, Admiral?” asked Timofeyavich over the com.

“Here’s what
we’re going to do, Captain.”

*     *     *

The enemy was
hoping to get technology from this encounter, something they could look over
and duplicate.  The cruiser was coming back to life, and there was still the
fully functioning destroyer at the edge of laser range.  And the largest of the
warships, lying dead in space, theirs for the taking.  All of its laser rings
were dead, all with enough damage that it was apparent they wouldn’t be working
anytime soon.  Its electromagnetic field was down, making it an easy target,
and the only thing they could detect as functioning were its hyperfield
generators.  They might still have particle beams, but there was no evidence of
such.

The command
ship, or what had become the command ship after the destruction of so many
others, ordered the other two vessels to close with the large enemy.  From
there they would mesh their hyperfields and send boarders over.  The command
ship would stay within laser range and cover the boarding vessels from the
other ships, if they were foolish enough to come within range.

The pair of
million and a half ton ships slid up next to the battle cruiser, one on each
side, meshing their fields so the boarders could cross without actually going
into hyper.  Hatches opened on their sides and thousands of objects, from one
meter to four meters in length, flew out and swarmed toward the battle
cruiser.  Which was when
Drake
acted.

Three systems
were activated at the same time on the battle cruiser.  The electromag field
projectors spun up to full power in an instant.  There wasn’t time to inject
fresh cold plasma into the field, but it was still at ninety percent of its
maximum healthy strength.  Second, the particle beams, one to the port, two to
starboard, opened fire.  They hadn’t had time to spin their protons, or, in
this case, antiprotons, up to much speed, and the beams came out at a mere
point zero five light.  Which meant they still put kilograms of antimatter onto
each of the enemy ships in microseconds of firing.  The antimatter exploded as
it hit the matter of the enemy ship’s hull, blasting deep into the armor,
destroying machinery underneath and shocking the electronic systems of the
ships.

It was the third
system that was the killer, as three tubes on each side accelerated missiles
through them and into the ships sitting less than three hundred meters to each
side.  The missiles didn’t even have the time to engage their own grabber
units.  Each missile carried a mere one hundred megaton warhead, the smallest
unitary device available for the capital ship weapons.  As soon as they hit the
warheads, configured to shape charge mode, blasted their antimatter into the
bodies of the enemy vessels.  Most of the blast occurred on the surface, but
enough was pushed into the body of each ship to send blasts of hellish fire and
radiation through every part of each vessel.

The two enemy
ships were dead the instant they were hit. 
Drake
shook like a spiked
whale as the blast reached back to strike the battle cruiser. Klaxons sounded,
machinery under the hull was smashed, or flared into melting piles extruding
superhot vapor.

The crew had all
evacuated to the three central capsules of the ship, the cylinders that held
crew quarters, medical facilities, and all control functions of the vessel. 
Each capsule was protected by an additional meter of armor, and another meter
of water as both consumables storage and radiation protection.

The ship shook
like it was about to come apart as its grabbers shot it forward at emergency
acceleration, clearing the blast field in moments.  There were casualties,
mostly injuries, but they had destroyed the enemy ships and escaped with their
lives.

Mihn Quan
came
flying into laser range at the moment the missile warheads detonated, firing
all her own coherent light weapons at the remaining alien ship. 
New Potsdam
let loose with her one remaining ring, with all of two emitters powering
it.  The enemy ship could have probably weathered the attack, and destroyed
both ships, following that up with the destruction of
Drake, Endurance
,
and every ship in the convoy.  Its controller thought better of the
proposition, and the ship turned away and piled on the acceleration, going
above twelve hundred gravities and moving quickly out of range.

“We survived,”
said Captain Timofeyavich over the com, disbelief in his voice.

“We still have a
mission to perform,” said the Commodore, feeling weak as her system came down
from combat mode and the relief of survival swept through her.  “We still have
this convoy to deliver.” 
And by God, I intend to get the rest of these
ships to their destination.  And warn the Admiralty that we have another war on
our hands.

Chapter Twenty-seven

There’s no place like home. 
There’s no place like home.  There’s no place like home.

Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

FEBRUARY 12
^TH
, 1002.

“They’re glowing
again, ma’am,” reported the Sensor Officer to Captain Hasslehoff.

“I’ll be right
there,” she replied over the com, closing her flat comp and heading out of her
day cabin at a run.

She didn’t have
to ask what the officer was talking about. 
Challenger
was floating in
the air above one of Klassek’s oceans at this very moment, well within the
sphere enclosed by the outermost reach of the arms of the artifacts.  The
aliens who controlled them had not deigned to speak with them again, but she
was well aware of their instructions to stay close to the planet.  And since
they hadn’t been affected by its arrival, it was thought that the effect was
only manifested within the reach of those arms.

The Captain came
onto the bridge to find the entire watch staring at the viewer, where two
separate images were showing.  One was of the huge enemy station, dark now for
the first time in over a month, when the planet had arrived in this dimension. 
The other was a view of the nearest artifact arm, glowing bright as it had on
that day when they had pulled an entire world through the dimensions.  And
getting brighter by the moment.

“Here we go,”
shouted out the Tactical Officer as a queasy feeling hit the stomachs of
everyone aboard at the same time.  The purple space, the station above, all
started fading away, while another sky began to fade in, superimposing itself
over the other image.  There were stars in that sky, including one brighter
than normal one in the direction where the blue giant had been located.  With
almost a snap the one sky was gone and the other cleared, and they were back in
the dimension of normal space.

“Coms are coming
in from all directions, ma’am,” called out the Com Officer.  “It seems we’ve
caught the attention of every ship that had been hanging here, waiting for
something to happen.”  The officer hit a panel on his board and a face appeared
on the holo.

“Welcome home,
Challenger
,”
said Rear Admiral Nguyen van Hung.  “I’m sure you have a story to tell.”

“I need to speak
with you, Admiral,” said Hasslehoff, thinking about the information the aliens
had given her.  “Priority Alpha.”

“Understood,”
said the Admiral, nodding.  She had used the signal for most important, but
hadn’t added the qualifier
danger imminent
.  “Why don’t you bring your
ship back up here and make it a spaceship once again, then come aboard
Boudeuse
as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir,” said
the Captain with a smile at the flag officer’s choice of words.  “Helm.  Take
us out of here and into a medium insertion orbit.  Hangar deck.  Prepare a
shuttle for immediate departure as soon as we achieve orbit.”

There were
cheers and excited speech on the bridge, and over the intercom, a celebration
of relief that they had finally returned to normal space, and the rest of the
human race, or whatever other species they might belong to.  And she knew there
were celebrations going on throughout the rest of the force.  A ship, three
thousand crew, and a planet with over six billion intelligent beings had just
come back to the real world.  And in minutes she would be telling the Admiral
the news that their problems were just beginning.

*     *     *

Rear Admiral
Nguyen van Hung stared at the holo for over a minute after the presentation
ended.  The conference room was totally silent, the feeling of disbelief
palpable in the air.  He rubbed his eyes, then looked over at his Chief of
Staff, who looked like she had already digested the information and was ready
to get to work. 
The reason I asked for her in the first place
, thought
the Admiral.

“And they didn’t
communicate with you at all after this, recording?”

“No, sir,” said
Captain Hasslehoff.  “We continued to signal them throughout our stay in that
dimension, but they refused to initiate further contact.”

“And any idea what
this dimension was?”

“No, sir.  They
did not give me any hints as to where it was located, but obviously it touches
our space in some manner.”

“Any idea of
what these beings are?” asked the Admiral, looking over at Susan Lee.

“Anthropology
and sociology reports no record of any intelligent life form like this,” said
Lee, shaking her head.  “Biology reports no planets in our records containing
life forms that conform to their general body plan.  It would help if we had
some cell samples to go on.”

“They didn’t
allow us on their ship, Captain Lee,” said Hasslehoff.  “If they would have
allowed it, I would have gone myself.  But they only allowed the probe aboard,
and we didn’t get it back.”

“Any chance
they’re related to the Ancients in our part of the Arm?” asked one of the other
officers present.  The Ancients were a species who had once occupied a good
portion of the Perseus Arm.  In fact, they had once occupied many of the worlds
of the Supersystem where the New Terran Empire now made its capital.  They had
bootstrapped many of the species in the region to spaceflight, and were rumored
to have been capable of some really fantastic technological feats.

“We have
pictures of the Ancients,” said Lee, shaking her head.  “They were a completely
different life form than these beings.”

“If those really
are pictures of them,” said the officer.  “The Ancients, I mean.”

“We have
verification from both the Brakakak and the Crakista that the images we have of
the Ancients do in fact match their own recordings of the beings,” said Lee. 
“And even the Ancients weren’t capable of transporting an entire planet to some
new dimension of space.  Or harnessing the power of the supernova, like they
seem to have had done with those artifacts they placed around
Big Bastard
.”

“I think we need
to move on to the more important topic, at least more important for the here
and now.”  The Admiral nodded to one of the ratings in the room, and the holo
came back to life, showing the region of space that the aliens had highlighted
as containing the machine kingdom they had warned
Challenger
about.  “We
need to do something about, our mess, didn’t they say?”

“They did seem
to feel that these machine intelligences originated with us,” said Hasslehoff,
closing her eyes and shaking her head.  “I didn’t think that any of them got
away.”

“And if we
didn’t know they got away, they made a clean escape,” said Lee, looking at the
holo.  “And who can say how advanced they have become in that time.”

“The aliens
seemed to feel that the machines lacked imaginations, because they didn’t have
quantum brains, like organics,” said Hasslehoff.  “The machines are capable of
copying, even advancing well understood concepts, but they lack the ability to
come up with new ideas.  The Eureka effect, the Gestalt of the quantum brain.”

Quantum
computers had been a dream of artificial intelligence for many generations. 
Unfortunately, the breakthrough always seemed to be right around the corner. 
Or maybe fortunately.

“First thing we
need to do is to get word to higher command,” said Nguyen, pulling up a
schematic list of the forces under his current control.  “We have four couriers
in system.  I want one sent immediately back to Command base.  From there they
can inform the Empire, and especially the Emperor, about our situation out
here.  Two of the others will head to
Bolthole
, one by the direct route,
one around this space.  It is imperative that Admiral Gonzales know what kind
of neighbors she has, and prepares accordingly.”

“You think they
know where
Bolthole
is, sir?” asked Commander Bergland, the intelligence
specialist.

“We’ve been
sending convoys through that space for almost a year now,” said Nguyen, giving
the woman a cold look.  “They’ve been tracking our vessels every trip, unless I
miss my guess.  What do you think?”

The Intelligence
Officer returned an abashed smile and looked away, while Nguyen turned his
attention back to his Chief of Staff.  “We need to leave a force in this system
to defend it.  Damned if we went to all this trouble just so we could lose them
all to murder machines.”

“And my
infantry?” asked Major General Wittmore.  “And the Marines?”

“We’ll drop all
the ground troops off with enough supplies to carry them through for six
months.  They really won’t do us much good in ship to ship combat, and could
really bolster the defense of the planet.  I’ll leave a couple of battle
cruisers, a heavy cruiser and a half dozen destroyers to guard the system
space.  I want the rest of our ships ready to leave within the hour.  We’re
heading for
Bolthole. 
And Gertrude,” he said, looking at Hasslehoff. 
“I’ll want you and
Challenger
to stay as one of the two battle
cruisers.  You’ve had enough adventure for the time being. I’m brevetting you
to commodore for now.”

“Thank you,
sir.”

“And I have
something to talk with you and General Wittmore about before we foray off into
the unknown.  This changes everything, and I think we’re going to have to reach
an understanding with these people, right now.”

*     *     *

“But, we were
saved by the Gods,” said First Councilman Rizzit Contena, sitting behind his
desk and looking at the humans through his four eyes, all as wide as they could
go.  “The Ancient Aliens, whatever they are.  And now you say we are in danger
again.”

“Potential
danger,” said Captain Gertrude Hasslehoff, who had gotten to know the First
Councilman as well as any of the Imperials from her time spent on his planet in
the other dimension.  “They may not come here.  We may be able to stop them
before they get this far, or they may show no interest in coming here in the
first place.  They may run again.”

“But you don’t
think so.”

“Not if they
have expanded into this much space,” said Hasslehoff, shaking her head.  “That
shows that they have expanded and entrenched themselves, and I don’t think they
are going to go without a fight.”

“Now understand,
First Councilman,” said General Wittmore, the system commander as far as the
Imperials were concerned.  “We will try to get them on the defensive as soon as
we can.  And, as they have no beef with you, they probably have no reason to
come here.”

“Except that you
are here,” countered Contena, pointing one of his right side tentacles at the
Major General.  “And that may draw them here.”

“Or they may
come here, whether we are here or not,” said Wittmore.  “After all, we are just
about to stir up the hornet’s nest.”  Seeing the confusion on the Klassekian’s
face the General explained.  “A really nasty insect form from Old Earth, that
attacks in mass when disturbed.  But the point is, we don’t know if they will
come here or not.  What we do know is that they are within fifty light years of
here, which, at our level of technology, is very close indeed.  Less than a
week.  The smart move is to act as if they are coming, and prepare defenses.”

“Of which we
have none,” shouted Contena, waving his tentacles in the air.  “We’ve seen how
easily you defeated our systems, and they should have tech almost as good. 
Right?”

We will help
you,” said Hasslehoff, wishing not for the first time that she had more ships
in the system.  Admiral Nguyen had left with most of their hulls.  He had split
his hyper VII craft into seven scouting teams, and sent them on a course into
the space they thought was controlled by the machines.  They had the speed to
possibly escape.  And every hyper VI vessel he took was heading toward
Bolthole
. 
That system was just that important, even more so than the one she was in.

“I know you had
talked about helping us progress,” said the First Councilman, his tentacles
enclosing his head in a gesture of tension.  “But that quickly?”

“It’s time you
grew up,” said Wittmore, giving the alien a steady look.  “And that means a
united world government.”

I could wish
I had a more diplomatic commander
, thought Hasslehoff.  But she had what
she had, and he was in charge due to his rank.

“With Tsarzor in
charge?” asked the First Councilman in a doubting tone.

“We sure don’t
want it to be Honish, so that leaves you.  Of course, we will give you whatever
support you need to impose this government, and we would prefer that it be some
form of republic or parliamentary form.  And, of course, you will become a
protectorate of the Empire.”

Rizzit looked up
at that, his eyes narrowing in the way of his species, pinching in from the
sides.  “And if we don’t wish to become a protectorate.”

“I’m afraid you
have no choice, at the moment,” said the General.

From the stare
that the Klassekian was giving them, Hasslehoff was glad they were in their
battle armor, and that they had a platoon of Marines on call from the shuttle.

“There will, of
course, be a plebiscite,” said the Captain, thinking of how many times that
of
course
had slipped into the conversation.  “After you are organized,
educated and brought through this current crisis.”

“Which could
take centuries,” hissed the First Councilman.  “If it ever really occurs.”

The General made
a throwing away gesture with his hand.  “It doesn’t really matter what you want
at this time.  We need you organized and contributing to the defense of this
region, at least until this threat is dealt with.  After that, you can go your
own way, if you want, or become part of our Empire.”

“Look, First
Councilman,” said Hasslehoff, seeing the anger in that alien face.  “You’ve
talked with Lt. J’rrantar, and seen the interactions of the Gryphon Petty
Officer Hi’tarris with your astronauts.  Their species have done very well
within the Empire.  And so can yours.  You can enjoy a prosperity and
technology you would take a thousand years or more on your own to achieve. 
Longer life, medical miracles, the stars.  Think about that.”