Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1) (19 page)

Denise half-smiled, glancing from him to Elaine and back. “Old Roy?”

“My Viking long sword. A two-handed monster that can penetrate most aluminum alloys. And it leaves a deep scar on steel. Understood?”

“Understood.” Denise looked down and continued her work of transmitting their recent confab over to the other ships of their fleet.

He hoped she did indeed understand. Facing a living opponent, face to face and within touching distance, was not easy. As he had found out years ago at one of Elaine’s Faire events on a nearby asteroid. And as he had learned when he killed the rockrat who’d tried to rape Cassandra, just six years ago. A flat steel blade did a fine job of penetrating an EVA suit. His memory of that encounter was sharp as yesterday’s coffee. You do not easily forget the sight of a man’s helmet going blood-red from the inside as the man spits out blood from a pierced gut. 

# # #

The image of comet 2004 VN112 in
Uhuru’s
Schmidt telescope showed as a bluish object that rotated rapidly around its diameter of 313 kilometers. It spun fairly rapidly, with a day of about six hours, according to the Astro chart at one side. Its surface showed water ice fractures thanks to rotational pressures. Jack looked from the front screen image to Elaine, whose Pilot station included an Astrophysics panel like that which Monique had once operated.

“Distance? Any sign of Alien presence?” he asked, wondering if their Main Drive shutdown just after passing beyond the 40 AU line had been excessive caution.

Elaine squinted at the Astro arm-panel that she had swung over her lap. “This comet is presently at 49 AU from Sol. We’re two AU out from it, approaching at 20 percent lightspeed, which means we reach it within 1.38 hours—unless we use our grav-pull drive to negate our inertia,” she said. “As for Aliens, well . . . yes! Check the comet’s north pole!”

Jack and everyone else watched as the front screen split into several images, the left-side one being a magnified view of the comet’s north pole. A gray blockhouse sat at the north pole. Two turnip-shaped spaceships rested beside the blockhouse on the surface crust. And—

“A ship!” cried Maureen, her short curls fluttering as she leaned forward. She pointed. “There! It’s transiting from pole to pole in a high orbit that maybe takes an hour to complete.”

The Alien ship did resemble a giant turnip, with its roundish globe sporting a pointy ‘root end’. But it was no vegetable. The root end was actually the nose of a neutral particle beamer, while at its opposite end sprouted four hydrogen-flouride laser projectors, each aimed to cover a different quadrant. They looked fixed in position. But Jack had no doubt that the opposite ends arms placement gave this ship a lot of offensive bite. Too bad they could not make out the animal design or coloration that adorned the hull. He taped the laser comlink that connected each ship of the fleet.

“Fellow captains, take a gander at our next combat objective,” he said, making sure the front screen vidimage went along with his AV signal. “Any suggestions for taking out both the blockhouse and the ships guarding it?”

Maureen grimaced at him, not liking that he sought other opinions when her own combat experience exceeded that of any other ship. But she understood about group dynamics. And politics. Maureen looked down at her lap panel and began setting up Attack options on it. He wondered if her decision to remote-direct her Battle Module from the Pilot cabin would have any effect on the ship’s combat effectiveness. Knowing Maureen, he knew better than to ask.

“My cousins and I alone can handle this target!” yelled Ignacio from the bridge of
Badger
. His mustache looked to have been recently oiled.

The front screen split into a third strip across its top, showing vidimages of each ship captain. All six captains showed in the strip. Captains Aashman Dasgupta of the
Mongoose
and Kasun Guardiya of the
Leopard
held silent, their attention on the relayed scope images. Captain Júlia Araujo of the
Caiman
looked directly at Jack.

“Captain Jack, we could all participate in this attack, with some ships taking out the base and landed ships, while others take out the orbiting ship,” Júlia said. “But I assume you prefer a more subtle approach. Yes?”

He grinned. A smart woman and a smart captain was this Brazilian. “Correct, Captain Júlia. Not so much subtle, as offering you new ships a first chance at combat with an Alien ship. While each of you have studied our Alien combat vidrecords, there is nothing quite like real combat to bring out the . . . real world elements of killing.”

“Quite so,” muttered Maureen, her attention fixed on holo combat simulations that had comet 2004 VN112 as their focus.

Minna of the
Wolverine
jumped in. “Fine. Why not use a lion pack hunting variation! Where a female moves ahead of the prey, then jumps out in front, causing them to scatter back to where the rest of the pride lies in a half-circle, ready to pounce?”

Just what he had in mind. But Minna and Ignacio already had the Alien combat experience he wanted the others to experience. “Minna, excellent suggestion. However, I prefer that all four of the new ships participate in this lion pack tactic.” He looked at the upper four captains. “Captain Aashman, can you perform the ‘circle around the comet and spook the prey’ role? While Captains Akemi, Kasun and Júlia play the hidden pack role?”

“Spook?” The Hindu looked briefly puzzled, then behind him a younger man with a navy blue turban and a thick black beard spoke quickly. “Ah. As in frighten or upset. Yes. We of the
Mongoose
can play this role. I assume we stay at our current speed, to pass just beyond this comet, then use the grav-pull drive to kill our inertia and allow us to blip jump in on the blockhouse and two parked ships?”

“Yes,” Jack said, appreciating the calm expression of Minna as he appropriated her ideas. “The
Orca
,
Caiman
and
Leopard
, along with the rest of us, will now use the grav-pull drive to slow us down a bit so we all arrive on the Sol-side of comet 2004 VN112. Just before you blip jump into surprise mode.”

Ignacio grimaced, pulled at his mustache, then sighed. “Well, I see the point in offering our new partners the rights of first kill on this Alien carcass.”

Aashman smiled amiably. “Thank you, Captain Ignacio Aldecoa. Though since I am vegetarian, I am quite happy to share with you the ‘meat’ victuals!”

Jack grinned, Elaine and Denise and Max laughed, and even intense Maureen smiled a bit. Their combat commander glanced at him, then entered the AV chat talk. “Captains, the lion pack attack mode of Minna is a good way to perform a ‘distract and kill’ tactic. However, these ships are well armed. And that neutral particle beamer could really hurt any ship of ours. Captain Aashman, I suggest you approach the orbiting ship from its rear. The four lasers are nasty but they cannot slice through a ship.”

“Agreed,” Aashman said as, behind him, the Sikh crewman and three others who wore distinctive headgear moved to their own ship stations. The Hindu from Uttar Pradesh province peered owlishly at Jack. “I assume we will all maintain timelink via laser comlink? Until
Mongoose
moves to the attack?”

“Yes,” Jack said. “Thank you Captain Aashman. And Captain—”

“Yes?” Aashman returned attention to Jack.

“If need be I will detonate one of our thermonuke torps to rad-blind the orbiting ship if it appears close to fixing its neutral particle beam on you.”

The Hindu blinked. Then he slapped his chest with one arm in the traditional salute common in the Hindi army. “Your assurance is appreciated. But we too could be rad-scorched. Please use caution. Until we all arrive.”

The other captains disappeared from their front screen. Except for Captain Akemi of the
Orca
. Her oval rad-tanned face fixed on Jack. “
Shogun
Jack, in the future, I much prefer attacking these Aliens the way a pod of killer whales attack their prey. As a group that jointly maneuvers, surrounds and kills the prey.”

He had enjoyed the group confab at O’Neill’s Café, on 253 Mathilde. Including learning more about Akemi, who traced her family heritage from one of the last samurai families to be in service during the Showa era of Japanese history. One of her great-great-grandfathers had fought in Japan’s navy during the Battle of Tsushima Strait. A battle that had ended in defeat for the Imperial Russian Fleet, followed by a peace treaty in 1905 that gave Japan control of half of Kamchatka Peninsula. It was a high point in Japan’s cultural and military history. Following in that tradition, this petite woman had become a commerce raider of Unity shipping with a rep nearly as notable as Minna’s.

“Agreed, Captain Akemi, hunting as a pod or pack is best for us,” Jack said.

“And,” Denise interjected, “it follows the ‘mobbing’ style of group defense that is  practiced by squirrels against a snake.”

Akemi’s straight-line lips curved slightly. “So we are learning, Denise, thanks to your sharing of your ship’s discussion of Alien motivation and counter-attack options. But also as you noted, we must greatly increase the cost of attacking Sol system before these social predators will depart.” She paused, fixing her intense look back on Jack. “Which leads to an issue that has puzzled me, my
shogun
. You and your crew have not seen any sign of females or offspring, either in vidcasts or in your inspection of defeated ships. At least during the Rizen, Yiplak and Nasen encounters. Why not?”

Jack had wondered about that very fact during their stay at Mathilde. It was an issue not covered in any of the digitexts on evolutionary biology or natural selection. Nor did he recall any mention by Hortie of a social predator that traveled long distances without its mate and offspring. “Good point. If we wish to raise the cost of predation on us, killing the spouses, offspring and families of your enemy is a proven tactic. At least, proven during the mass bombing raids of World War II. Denise, you got any ideas?”

Maureen and Elaine had both shifted their attention from attack and NavTrack planning to Akemi’s chat with Jack. Now they, and Max he noted, were all looking at Denise. Who pulled at one red braid. “No ideas. There is no data on such a social predator pattern. I do have a hope.”

“A hope?” asked Jack.

She nodded abruptly. “Yes. The hope that we may learn more once we arrive at this Sedna watering hole. If other Aliens are there, beyond the three we’ve battled, perhaps they will tell us. Or sell the data to us. Captain Jack, I think there will be a use for the ‘trade goods’ you insisted we carry aboard
Uhuru
.”

He smiled. Maureen had given him verbal razor burn over his decision to include in their cargo hold digidisks of whale songs and parrot chatter, interactive video combat games, preserved octopi trophies, DVDs of Earth’s tropical reefs and jungles, elk meat, cow steaks, and unique gems found in the asteroids. “Good to hear you think so, Denise.” He looked back to the front screen and Akemi. “Captain Akemi, we have an upcoming battle at 2004 VN112 and perhaps later at 1999 DG8. Let us focus now on battle prep. And spysat ejection on arrival. But later, when we arrive at Sedna, I suspect that we will all have need of our trade goods. And need for personal blade weapons like your
katana
. Agreed?”

Akemi gave him a deep bow. “Agreed, my
shogun
. Now, to battle.” Her image vanished from the front screen.

Around him sounded the breathing of his crewmates. It filled the Pilot cabin. And it reminded him that their upcoming battles were no video game with pretend danger. Three times before they had faced direct, personal violence. Now, a fourth encounter approached. And he recalled an ancient war phrase . . .

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.”—Helmuth Von Moltke the Elder.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Their attack on comet 2004 VN112 began as Jack had planned. As shown by an ejected spysat, the
Mongoose
suddenly appeared above the north pole of the comet after several grav-pull blip jumps killed their inertia and moved them into attack range. The other three lion pack ships,
Orca
,
Caiman
and
Leopard
, arrived almost simultaneously, but on the opposite side of the comet, out of straight line view of the blockhouse. Jack’s
Uhuru
, along with
Badger
and
Wolverine
, had also killed their inertia with a blip jump so they could arrive out of direct sight of the blockhouse and the two parked spaceships. Even though grav-pull graviton pulses pass through any matter, he suspected the gravitomagnetic sensors of these new Aliens were focused on the ship which their radar and neutrino emission detectors could see—the
Mongoose
.

Unfortunately, the fleet’s arrival at the giant comet coincided with the arrival of the third Alien ship on the Sol-side of the comet. The arrival of the three lion pack ambush ships drew its attention to
them
, rather than to the arrival of
Mongoose
on the far side of the comet. As Jack had worried, his lion pack tactic was now unraveling into two separate battles, with the orbiting turnip ship blip jumping toward the three ambush ships while the two parked turnip ships now lifted on grav-pull to engage the
Mongoose
.