Doom Star: Book 05 - Planet Wrecker (21 page)

“Why would the cyborgs launch such a thing?” Nadia asked.

“They’re aliens,” Marten said. “They want to eradicate humanity and populate the Solar System with themselves.”

“But they originated from humans,” Nadia said.

“It’s probably what makes them so deadly. If they were just machines—” he shrugged.

“It’s so cold, so ruthless.”

“Tan should have sent more ships with us,” Marten said. He took another sip. “But she couldn’t. What if the cyborgs have already launched another attack at Jupiter? There are hardly enough warships left as it is.”

“Maybe the cyborgs launched the ice-asteroid to focus our attention on it.”

“For what reason?” Marten asked.

“You’re the military man,” she said. “You tell me what else the cyborgs could do.”

Marten frowned at the screen. “What would you say if I ordered the
Spartacus
to change heading?”

“To where?” she asked.

“Neptune.”

Everyone in the command center looked up.

Marten was too engrossed in the screen to notice. “What if we went to Neptune and searched for Osadar’s ice hauler there?”

“What ship was that?” Nadia asked quietly.

Marten told her about the experimental ship.

“That’s interesting,” said Nadia. “But wouldn’t the cyborgs already have confiscated it and made it part of their Neptune Fleet?”

“Possibly,” he said.

“We should run from the asteroid and flee out of the Solar System?” asked the sensor-officer.

“What?” Marten asked. He turned around, and he noticed everyone hanging on his words. He scowled, stared into his coffee cup and shook his head. “It’s a stupid idea. You’re right,” he told Nadia. “The cyborgs would have already converted the ice hauler to their own use. This is the battle, and we’ll choose our ground and fight now.”

“Where exactly?” asked Nadia.

Marten slotted the coffee cup into a holder on his chair. “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” he said.

Thirteen days after the initial sighting of the ice-asteroid, Commodore Blackstone of the Mars Battlefleet received an emergency request to report to the bridge of the
Vladimir Lenin
.

He raced out of his quarters as he tucked in his shirt. While riding the lift, he buttoned his uniform. Fitting his cap on snuggly, he strode through the hatch. Commissar Kursk was already there by the map-module. She looked up, and there were lines in her face.

She’s getting older...no, she was already older. The strain is getting to her
.

“What is it?” Blackstone asked.

Kursk opened her mouth, but no words came. The look in her eyes….

Blackstone felt a cold pit in his stomach. Resolutely, he approached the map-module. Highlighted in red on the screen was a larger object. At least, it was larger than the original ice-asteroid.

“It’s a big one,” he said.

Kursk shook her head. “That isn’t just a single asteroid.”

He began to fiddle with the module’s controls.

“It’s an asteroid-cluster hundreds of thousands of kilometers behind the first asteroid,” Kursk said.

Blackstone nodded. He could see that by the readings.

“The cluster is moving faster, however,” she said. “The tacticians say the cluster will catch up with the first asteroid.”

“When?”

“It isn’t
when
but
where
. Oh, Joseph,” she said, using his first name. “This is horrible. It’s insane.”

He heard the bleakness in her voice. He saw it in the lines on her face.

“They’ll merge as the cluster nears Earth,” she said.

“Give me full magnification,” Blackstone said. On the map-module, he watched as the red-highlighted object became many asteroids in close formation. “How many are there?” he asked. This was worse than he’d expected.

“We’re working on it. There could be thousands.”

“What?” he said.

“There’s a possibility that some of those asteroids are really debris fields.”

Blackstone adjusted the controls, but couldn’t get any better images. Were they using the debris as a mass shield? He shook his head. The debris wasn’t as important as the bigger asteroids, many of them.

“They mean to wipe out every living thing on Earth,” Blackstone declared.

“The cyborgs are insane,” Kursk whispered. “They’re inhuman.”

“They’re aliens,” Blackstone said. He tried to envision what this all meant. “Did these objects originate in the Saturn System? Well?” he shouted.

“We’re still working on it,” the sensor-officer said by her board.

Blackstone leaned against the map-module and found that he was breathing hard. Total annihilation of everything on Earth—the cyborgs meant to smash the most critical planet to Social Unity and the Highborn. This had to be from the cyborgs. The Highborn could have dropped the former farm habitats on Earth if they’d wished for planetary obliteration.

“Prepare a message for Supreme Commander Hawthorne,” he said.

“We already have,” Kursk said. “What are you going to add?”

Blackstone blinked at the red image on the screen. Had they spotted the asteroid cluster in time? With a start, he began adjusting the controls. There was no telling how little time they had to make the right moves. Weeks from now, the asteroids would approach Earth. If they were going to halt planetary extinction, they had to act now.

Supreme Commander Hawthorne swam laps in an Olympic-sized pool on the Third Level of New Baghdad. His long arms churned through the water as he fluttered-kicked. Back and forth through the clear water, stroke, stroke, breathe out, turn the head to the side and sip air. He let everything go as he swam through the chlorine-smelling water. The muscles worked and the heart pumped. This was better than stims and allowed him to sleep a solid five hours each night. These days, he couldn’t achieve more. He’d lurch awake in bed, his eyes would snap open and he’d be realize his mind was working over a tactical problem or a strategic conundrum. At that point, it was impossible to get back to sleep.

His fingertips brushed the edge of the pool. He curled his long body, turned and brought his feet around. As he began to push off, he heard a shout. The temptation to keep swimming was strong. This was the one time in the day when his problems slid away. Instead, he stopped and treaded in place. Water ran from his hair and he wiped his eyes.

“Sir,” said Captain Mune, “the cyborgs are trying to obliterate Earth.”

“What?”

Mune began to tell Hawthorne about the asteroids hurtling toward Earth.

At 8:31 P.M. that same evening, Supreme Commander Hawthorne began an emergency meeting of his Strategic Council. They met in the conference room on Level Three of New Baghdad. Director Juba-Ryder of Egyptian Sector joined Air Marshal Crowfoot of Earth-Air Defense, Security Specialist Cone, Field Marshal Mead of Missile Defense and Field Marshal Baines, Commander-in-Chief of Eurasian Defense.

***

From the Supreme Commander’s biocomp transcriptions, File #12:

The meeting opened with a presentation by Colonel Tong of Space Defense. He spoke in an otherwise silent room. Every eye watched the grainy pictures he presented slide by slide. Even Captain Mune watched, momentarily forgetting his preoccupation with protecting the Supreme Commander. Afterward, there were terse questions. Colonel Tong gave the best estimates. Impact time was predicted as minus forty-three days, a little over six weeks from now. Soon thereafter, the Supreme Commander began to speak
.

HAWTHORNE: It is difficult to grasp the magnitude of the situation before us. The historians tell us that once dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Then a comet or possibly a stray asteroid struck the Earth. The Age of the Reptile ended with vast hurricanes as hundreds of species perished in something worse than a nuclear winter.

The Jovian information we received about the cyborg assault there almost two years ago I consider critical. This moon Carme, it shows us the cyborgs attempted this once before.

MEAD: Indeed, this is a catastrophic situation. But I fail to grasp this certainty that the cyborgs initiated the attack.

HAWTHORNE: I consider the proof conclusive, but it doesn’t matter. The asteroids heading at these unnatural speeds for Earth are all that matters. We must deflect or destroy them.

MEAD: Indeed, the dedicated scanning that allowed us to find these anomalies, these so-called asteroids—

TONG: They are asteroids, sir. Some are debris fields. Some are ice like the first asteroid.

MEAD: Please do not interrupt me, Colonel.

JUBA-RYDER: Is there any possibility the Jovians have fabricated this evidence?

HAWTHORNE: I believe the primary evidence originated with the Planetary Union and then from our own Mars Battlefleet.

TONG: That is correct, sir.

JUBA-RYDER: I find it suspicious that this—what are they called again, these Jovian warships?

TONG: Do you mean the Meteor-ship
Spartacus
?

JUBA-RYDER: Thank you. The meteor-ship’s approach to Mars is very suspicious, seeing as it occurs at the same time as these asteroids.

HAWTHORNE: I believe some of the
Spartacus’s
scanning data helped the Battlefleet discover the asteroid-cluster. Maybe as important, their sharing of information concerning the cyborg assault on Jupiter gave us reason to scan so thoroughly. I trust the Jovians in this. They fought off the cyborgs and have good reason to fear another attack.

JUBA-RYDER: The Jovians have a treacherous history.

HAWTHORNE: That is inconsequential now. Together with the sharing of information, the donation of the meteor-ship was an act of good faith. Its position may be of use to us.

MEAD: Respectfully, sir, it is too far out for that.

HAWTHORNE: (shakes his head) It isn’t only a matter of distance but of speed. They have built up enough velocity to enter the fight.

MEAD: I don’t understand that reference, sir. What fight?

HAWTHORNE: Weren’t you listening to Colonel Tong’s address? The cyborgs converted Carme to a weapon’s platform. We must assume the cyborgs have employed the same tactic again. My Social Unity Loyalists, this is a grim situation. The evidence is direct and solid. We face extinction on Earth unless we can deflect or destroy these asteroids. I am ordering Commodore Blackstone to head out to engage the asteroids.

MEAD: Colonel, didn’t you say the battleships couldn’t reach them?

TONG: (glances at Hawthorne) I did not say
cannot
, but they risk annihilation, and it’s doubtful they could stop such a mass.

HAWTHORNE: They must strike the asteroids by launching missiles and using their lasers for long-distance fire. Perhaps as importantly, they will gain critical data on the enemy. There is a negative to this, however. Moving the battleships leaves Mars vulnerable. But at this point, we have no choice and must risk it.

MEAD: What of the Fifth Fleet between Venus and Earth?

HAWTHORNE: This is our last fleet other than the warships at Mars. Fifth Fleet contains two battleships, a missile-ship and some secondary vessels. The warships are reportedly in poor condition and the crews are listless. But they are Social Unity fighters and are armed.

MEAD: Can they intercept the asteroids in time?

TONG: Conditionally, yes.

MEAD: What is the condition?

TONG: The presence of the
Julius Caesar
and the
Genghis Khan
in Earth orbit.

HAWTHORNE: (Pauses, and glances at each of the participants in turn) Now we come to the heart of the matter. The cyborgs are attempting to obliterate Earth. The evidence to my mind is conclusive. The cyborgs mean to crush Social Unity and the Highborn. We must face the facts, as grim as they are. If we consider the islands of Earth and the surrounding territorial waters, the Highborn control a greater surface area of the planet than we do. They cannot wish total annihilation here. Otherwise, they could have already rained the drifting habitats onto the planet.

MEAD: (laughs) The Doom Stars can crush the asteroids for us. Why didn’t we see it before? Our problem is solved.

TONG: May I speak, Supreme Commander?

HAWTHORNE: (nods)

TONG: The asteroid tonnage en route suggests the cyborgs can outfight the Doom Stars.

MEAD: How did you arrive at this conclusion?

TONG: It is logical given the cyborg armament history on Carme and the number of asteroids or tonnage en route to Earth.

MEAD: These are not known,
absolute
facts.

TONG: No sir, you are correct. The asteroid tonnage is an estimate. It may be off as much as fifty percent either way. Yet given—

CONE: We must call a truce with the Highborn.

JUBA-RYDER: (stares angrily) Those are seditious words. Supreme Commander, I urge you to enforce your edict of November Third. Anyone suggesting surrender or accommodation with the enemy is to be summarily shot on sight. Your bionic captain could take Cone outside to perform the action.