Annihilation (Star Force Series) (45 page)

Sitting there, sipping my coffee and wincing with each bitter swig, I went over my long relationship with Sandra in my mind. It had been turbulent and exciting. I wasn’t yet able to comprehend how life would be without her.

At length, my mind came around to the subject of the unexpected offer I’d received from Kate Swanson. The doctor’s cabin was quite near the wardroom, and I figured she was probably in it at the moment. Medical was empty now that our single critical patient had been given a one-way ticket to the hot, white star that irradiated
Gatre’s
hull.

I had sensed earlier that Kate might be entertaining ideas about forming a relationship with me, but I hadn’t been sure. After the proposal she’d delivered at the funeral, she’d left no doubt in my mind.

Her suggestion of companionship seemed a little crass in retrospect. After all, Sandra’s body had barely cleared the funeral tube before the woman had made her play. She was a fine-looking lady, and the fact we were close to the same age held some appeal to me. She was sophisticated, educated and experienced. A person of substance.

But I told myself I didn’t want any pity-sex, if that was what had been on her mind. At least, not on this terrible day…

-38-

Our fighters didn’t make it there in time to intercept the enemy missiles. We considered firing missiles of our own to form a force-wall against the enemy barrage. But the physics of the situation were against us. In space, even a nuclear warhead does not form a large region of destruction. Firstly, because there was no air to push together into a moving shockwave, and secondly, because space was incredibly large. The enemy missiles were simply too far apart for us to kill more than a handful of them before they reached the water-moons. I made the hard call, deciding I would rather shoot at the enemy ships in close battle than waste the ordnance now.

When I returned to the bridge, everyone seemed more tense than when I’d left. I stepped up to the tactical consoles, and Ensigns melted away to make room for me. I was wearing battle armor now, and Kwon was still following me around. The staffers gave us sidelong stares.

“Can someone give me a sitrep?” I asked.

Captain Sarin turned to me. “Both fleets are converging on the gas giant and her flock of moons. We’re decelerating hard, as are the Macros.”

“How about turning off the engines, coming about and coasting in?” I asked.

She hesitated. “We thought of that, sir. But the idea has been rejected.”

My eyebrows rose high. “Who did the rejecting?”

Miklos, who was on my viewscreen as a headshot, shook his head vigorously and leaned forward. His nose loomed into the camera alarmingly.

 “I did sir,” he said. “We could coast in and arrive earlier, but we’d have to fight the entire battle in one flyby if we did it that way. Due to our high velocity and inertia, we can’t just do a U-turn. We’ll have to zoom past the enemy and do a long turn-around to come back into range again.”

“I know that,” I said. “The question is what we can do to them in a single pass. Can you guarantee me we can visit enough destruction on the Macros to stop them from giving the Crustaceans a deathblow?”

“In short,” Miklos replied, “the answer is no. We can’t do it. Their ships are as tough as they’ve always been.”

“What about the fighters?” I asked. “They can decelerate much faster than the bigger ships can. Let’s get them in there and let them harass the enemy, up-close and personal.”

“We can’t do that Colonel,” he said, then he hesitated. “Let me amend that. It would be an unwise use of a limited resource. In fact, I suggest we recall the squadrons we’ve sent already.”

“Explain.”

“They can’t stop the missile barrage,” he said. “We know that now. They—”

“I want to know why that happened, too. Give it to me, we have time.”

Miklos’ eyes traveled toward Jasmine, who met them. There was a tiny, unspoken communication. I could see it happening, despite the screens and the relative distance between them. I hated these moments when my officers tried to manipulate me. I had to fight to stay calm. I assured myself I’d get to the bottom of whatever scheme they had in mind and make my own decisions. I knew my staff, even at the highest levels, thought I was a loose cannon. Perhaps, they were even correct in some instances, I’ll give them that. But as the overall commander of Star Force, I wanted to be in the loop at all times. It was my job, and it was their jobs to present the facts clearly and completely.

“Very well,” I said loudly, “since you have no clear objections, I’m going to order—”

“Please sir,” Miklos interrupted. “Let me explain.”

I tried to cross my metal-encased arms. I was annoyed when I realized the movement was impossible. This new battle armor was too thick to permit it. Sparks flew from my gauntlets and bracers for a moment, then I gave up and let them drop back to my sides. This did nothing to improve my mood. I stared intently at Miklos’ image on my screen.

“The situation has changed slightly. Our optical systems have now pinpointed the enemy target. It is Princeton.”

I frowned. “Princeton? All the missiles are going there? They’re all headed for one moon?”

“Yes sir,” he said. “That is problematic for us. As you know, it is difficult to tell the exact flight path of a missile from this distance. They can retarget and shift. But now, due to their extreme velocity, they are past the point of no return. They can’t shift their goal and hit anything else of value, not even if they want to. They’re simply moving too fast to change course with the remaining time and fuel they have.”

I nodded, studying the tactical layout. “Let me guess, Princeton is the farthest moon from our fleet. The easiest target for them to hit. But why just that world? This is a huge barrage—surely they could knock out whatever military capacity the single world has with far less.”

Another glance was exchanged between Sarin and Miklos. Again, I tried to ignore it.

“We don’t think that’s their plan,” Captain Sarin said. I turned to her and I saw a haunted look in her eyes.

I frowned. “Not their plan? What then—ah…”

I understood, suddenly. The implications were horrifying. The Macros had no intention of disabling the Crustacean military. They weren’t planning to invade at all. They were here to kill the population.

I swallowed and stared at the screens. “We can’t stop their missiles, and they’re all targeting one planet. What are our damage estimates? How many civilian deaths?”

“All of them, sir,” Captain Sarin said. “Nothing will survive. Much of the ocean will be blown to vapor. The crust might even crack open, if they strike with enough fusion warheads along a single fault line, here…”

She went on for another minute or so, detailing how billions upon billions were doomed to die. An entire world teeming with life was about to be extinguished and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I tuned Sarin’s voice out, as the finer points didn’t matter.

“Get the Crustacean High Command on the line, will you?” I asked when she had finished.

It took longer than it should have, but soon I had someone who identified themselves as a “Research Coordinator” on the line. It was a male this time, and as far as I could determine, his name was
Nagog
. Marvin did the translating, and I did the talking.

“Coordinator Nagog,” I said, “it is a sad day, and I have grim news for your people.”

“Please keep your comments terse and to the point, human,” said Nagog. “I’m involved in a variety of projects at the moment.”

“I can well imagine. Are you aware of the approaching fleet and its intentions?”

“Of course.”

“Have you got a battle plan to meet the enemy?”

“We have plans to meet all our enemies. Your actions will be repaid a thousand fold. Your young will boil in their nests tomorrow, as surely as ours will today.”

I frowned. “Perhaps there is some kind of misunderstanding. Our fleet is coming to help you against the Macros. We will fight a great battle in your space to defend you. Do you understand our intentions?”

There was a hesitation. “We will meet all our foes with equal ferocity.”

“That’s just my point. It may look like we are on an attack course against your worlds, but we aren’t. Don’t waste any resources shooting at us. The Macros have launched their missiles, and they are all headed for you, not for us. We will destroy the machines for you, but we’re requesting your aid to do so. As far as I’m concerned, Star Force is allied with the Crustacean people.”

“We can’t accept an alliance on a permanent basis.”

I rolled my eyes. These people were impossibly difficult to deal with. They were facing their own destruction as a people, and still wanted to maintain neutrality.

“All right then, how about we ally for the next twenty hours? After that, we’ll break it off. Is that temporary enough for you?”

Another hesitation ensued, this one was longer than the first. At long last, the Crustacean returned to the phone.

“We would like to address the process. It is not being adhered to. Proper protocols have been established, and shall not be breached unless—”

“Unless what?” I demanded suddenly in exasperation. “Is this not enough of a circumstance for you to break your bureaucratic vows?”

“There are no such ‘vows’, as you term them,” Nagog said huffily. “But we will accept your offer of a short term peace. Any violation of these terms will—”

“Yeah, right,” I said, “good luck to you too. Just aim your guns at the machines, not us, and we’ll do the same. Riggs out.”

Captain Sarin turned to me reproachfully when the connection closed. “We should coordinate with them more closely than that.”

I threw up two gauntleted hands. “What am I supposed to do? It took me ten minutes just to get them to agree not to shoot at us while we defend their worlds for them. I’m not going to waste another minute trying to tell them how to best use their own defenses, whatever they are. These people are impossible to deal with. It’s all about procedure and protocol. I’m surprised some predator didn’t eat them all a million years ago.”

Jasmine looked at me with her lips pursed in disapproval. I turned my full attention back to the screens.

“All right,” I said, “I’m trying to look at and get the sense of their grand strategy.”

“Whose?” Captain Sarin asked.

“The Macros. I mean, let’s look at this from their point of view. First, they tried to kill a planet full of lobsters by draining it.”

“Half of them are still alive.”

I nodded. “Only because we interfered. But in any case, their next move was to send in a fleet. They don’t have any invasion ships, so their goals lean toward extermination, rather than subjugation. They fired a huge number of missiles, all targeting a single world. Those Crustaceans are pretty much cooked now. That leaves us Harvard and what’s left of Yale.”

“What are you getting at, sir?”

“Where are their ships headed? What do the optics say?”

She brought up the report, and I examined it. The data was clear and undeniable.

“The entire fleet is heading for Harvard,” she said, glaring at the trajectory. “I suppose they could change it…”

“But they won’t,” I said. “They haven’t changed a thing since they started. Their intentions are very clear. They’ve managed to kill one and a half worlds. The main body of the fleet will kill another. All that will be left is the half of Yale’s population that we managed to keep alive.”

Captain Sarin looked at me in pain. “They mean to kill them all.”

“Yes,” I said. “Exactly. The question is: can we stop them?”

“I don’t see how,” she said.

“Have you recalled the fighters yet?” I asked suddenly.

“Yes sir. They’re still decelerating, but—”

“I’ve got new orders for them. We’re flying out there at flank-speed. We’ve got to hit them as fast as we can, but only when they’re over Harvard.”

“What are you saying, sir?”

“You heard me, come about and stop decelerating. Prepare to launch more fighters.”

“How many fighters?”

“All of them. We have to get to Harvard before the Macros do. They’re going to erase the Crustaceans, Jasmine. They’re going to remove them from their homeworlds. Every last lobster will die if we don’t get out there and fight with them.”

I began stripping off my heavy armor. Inside, I was wearing a smart flight suit. The cloth smoothed itself out like unfolding paper once it was free of the armor.

Jasmine watched me do this with eyes that were big and dark. Her face was lit-up from below with blue light from the screens.

“You’re going with them, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.

I gave her a thin smile. “You know me too well.”

I left the bridge and marched down the central passageway. I took a lift to the launch bays. Before I got there, the klaxons were sounding. I wondered if I would ever hear the battle cry of a big ship like this again.

What I was doing was pretty crazy, and I knew it. But I was acting on a hunch. I’d done it before, and if this one panned out, I planned to do it again.