Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (18 page)

"Defensive fire from the Caterpillars, lots of something small on radar. They will hit before the Greasers cycle," Aristotle said.

The Caterpillar ship was silhouetted with nuclear fire on the other side, and the ports went almost black to block the flash.

"They either hit the incoming or made them fail-fuse," Captain Fenton reported. "Second hit from Greaser. There's the
Retribution
's hit too. Four holes through them and they still just released a second salvo."

"Caterpillars replying," Brownie said.

The same scenario played out with the missiles inbound for the plate detonating at a distance. They couldn't tell if they were the defensive missiles exploding or if they made the offensive ones burst.

"Six Greasers shots absorbed," Fenton counted. "Any of our little ships would just be
gone
. They can absorb an unbelievable amount of damage."

"They're not shooting at our ships," Lee said, obviously mystified.

"You can't
see
a Greaser beam," Thor said. "They may not understand what's happening. The Caterpillars are obviously a threat they know. They may think the Caterpillars are doing it."

"Those warheads went off within range for an X-head!" Brownie said. "I think all they have is conventional nukes," he said, all excited.

Lee looked at Gordon and he was totally unsurprised.

The plate and the Caterpillars exchanged another flight of missiles and neither scored a hit.

"
Retribution
.
William.
One X-head from each of you. Set the steerable beams forward and take them from both ends. Set them off at an angle so one missile doesn't take the other out." Gordon ordered calmly. He didn't even raise his voice.

"Missile away," Aristotle called and Fenton echoed. Calm was infectious. They both sounded like Gordon. "Detonation in minus three minutes," Aristotle told them.

"Plate and Caterpillar just shot
one
missile each," Brownie reported.

"They're both running low on missiles," Gordon said. "We did right to end this before our guy ate one, but I was hoping to avoid showing them what we can do."

The Greasers cycled again, blasting two more holes through the plate with as little effect as before.

Both alien's single missiles and counter missiles flashed again accomplishing nothing.

The two X-head missiles turned in and aligned on the long axis of the plate far beyond the range the aliens had fired at each other. They detonated in a fireball much less impressive than the ones the aliens were throwing. However the main beam from each and five secondary beams transversed the plate from each end. What wasn't vaporized outright was blown to confetti around twelve simultaneous X-ray beams.

The ship was so huge actual chunks of it survived and were driven away on the expanding shock wave. Some of the pieces were even a couple meters long. The flash dwarfed the previous detonations and when the expanding ball of plasma cooled sufficiently to not radiate in the visible spectrum there wasn't a ship to be seen. There was only an expanding cloud of debris on radar.

"Perhaps one would have sufficed," Gordon said in a subdued voice.

"I did the same thing with the Biters," Captain Frost reminded him. "You want to throw everything at the threat in front of you, and it's hard to hold back. I'm not sure I could restrain myself from shooting two missiles at something that
big
," he admitted.

Gordon was still in shock despite the Captain Frost's attempt at comforting him. It was a horrible thing to destroy such a mighty ship in a heartbeat.

The surviving great ship released a smaller vessel. Something they'd never seen before. It was bigger than a shuttle but smaller than their fast courier the
Road Runner
. It eased away from all of them with uncharacteristic caution, given how fast the Caterpillars usually moved. It didn't pile on the acceleration until it was well away, and then quickly ramped up to near forty G on an obvious run to jump.

"They wanted to be sure we didn't think it was a missile," Thor said.

Gordon looked up sharply, but it was Lee who spoke.

"No, I wish that's all it was. They were moving slowly because they weren't sure we would
let
them send a report home about what happened here. Gordon
tried
to stop the plate without disclosing what our missiles can do, but it wasn't working. Their commander, whoever fights their ship, saw that. He wasn't sure we'd permit the knowledge to be sent to the other Caterpillars just what they are dealing with. I'm sure he's still in shock at the reversal, since he thought
he
was protecting
us
."

"It would be
crazy
to fire on their messenger after saving them," Thor objected.

"No, it might have been an ugly
necessity
if we had reason not to trust them," Gordon said. "If the survival of our races were in the balance I'd have fired on the Caterpillars too, if I had doubts. As I said, everything about them has said they are honorable beings. I hope I'm right. I bet
everything
for
all
of us on it. Not just the fleet. We Derf and the Humans, Hinth, Badgers, Bills, Sasquatch, Cats. Even the Biters, though they'd never thank us. All our civilizations hung in the balance with that courier departing. If the Caterpillars were anything like the Biters, but with those big fast ships, it might have been the only safe thing to do. We can outshoot them, but there is no way we could conduct a war against them. They would always be a step ahead of us simply by having faster communications, and they could simply never let us close enough to fire on them once they knew our range."

"You do realize you are calmly explaining why you didn't commit mass murder on the open channel to the Badgers and Bills?" Thor asked.

"They can see I
didn't
shoot," Gordon said. "That's the key point here. Not to pretend I'm something different and would never consider shooting. They'd be fools to think that. We are demonstrating moral qualities to them just like the Caterpillars did. But with the advantage of better translation.

"Lee gets it. That was an unintended test. You need a
lot
more experience, but your instincts are good. I do intend to train you for command," he promised.

Lee didn't thank him, which might have seemed arrogant, but she reached in her com holder and got the piece of paper Gordon had given her. She passed it back without looking at it. Gordon grinned big and dug her note out. He crumbled both in his true hand without looking at it, and fed them in the waste slot.

Thor just looked stricken and ground his teeth silently. He was pretty sure they said the same thing, but he'd never
know
, and they'd never tell him.

Chapter 13

"I want to be gone from this place," Gordon said. "Brownie, pick a target star. Form the fleet up again to do another slow comfortable burn to jump. Let's see if the Caterpillars warn us off again. I hope there aren't a whole bunch of stars the direction we want to go infected with those plates."

"What about the Caterpillars?" Thor asked.

Gordon lifted an eyebrow. "What
about
them?" he threw back.

"They were willing to
ram
that plate if that's what it took to stop it. It seems like we should try to talk to them about it," Thor said.

"We can't suddenly talk to them. I have no desire to hang around the scene of my crime trying to learn to hoot. It's not like we did when there is a planet and we have to stay there to talk to the natives.
They're
not suddenly talkative," Gordon pointed out, waving his hand at the special com gear. "They could be sending us pictures and trying to make sense of it if they wanted. I suspect they're rather
rattled
and not in a mood to say something stupid to the aliens who just unpleasantly surprised them. They've been keeping up with us just fine. If they still want to tag along they will. I don't seem to get a vote on it. You may feel all warm and fuzzy with them for trying to protect us but I'd be even more impressed if they knew what they were doing. I'm a bit peeved with them actually."

Thor looked at him distressed. It was obvious he didn't understand Gordon's attitude.

Gordon looked at Lee like he was going to have her comment on it. She had a carefully neutral expression that said she didn't
want
to. Perhaps that would insult Thor, Gordon decided. You can't turn everything into an impromptu lesson. Just because life did it he didn't always have to help it along.

"What would have happened if the Caterpillars had just stood back and watched when the
Sharp Claws
entered the other system?" Gordon asked.

"Well, that big plate was waiting along the entry line. I'm starting to think the Caterpillars and whoever these plate people are have much better remote sensing than we do. Or maybe small jump drones. What are the chances they'd be right on the entry vector?" Thor asked.

"Yes, Thor, probably. But what would Captain Frost have
done
?" Gordon insisted.

"He'd have kept that lateral burn up and avoided running into them. If the idiots shot at him he undoubtedly didn't have to be told to go in at battle stations with everybody suited up. He
knew
it was a high risk entry. I expect he'd have put an X-head into them as soon as they launched. He's got defensive systems. I didn't see them throwing anything we couldn't handle. I expect he'd have blown them to hell just like we did. Only question is if he's have restrained himself to one X-head after he felt he felt so strongly that he wasted a double launch on the Biters before."

"And after you just saw what two X-heads do to a plate what difference would that make?"

Thor looked a little sheepish. "There might have been a few bigger chunks of junk."

"Exactly. They really didn't need to snatch the
Sharp Claws
under hard acceleration. I suspect that's a risky maneuver all by itself. Their captain is probably running all the ways it could have gone bad through his mind now, and thanking any gods they have he didn't screw up. Not the least possibility being that Frost could have easily reduced the Caterpillars’ ship to an expanding cloud of scrap if he wasn't in the mood to be
snatched
. I'm glad we discussed the possibility ahead of time. Now that we've had this little demonstration, what do you want to bet they'll revert to asking
very
politely if they want us to enter their hangar again?"

Thor snorted. "No bet," he agreed. "They are probably like a fellow who rescued a snake off the road before it got squished, and then found out it is the deadly venomous sort."

"You're seeing it," Gordon nodded, satisfied.

"Caterpillars maneuvering," Brownie said, but didn't sound alarmed. "Very slow, just like the courier they sent out. I don't think they are on a run to jump."

The action terminated their discussion and everyone looked at their screens to see what the big ship was doing.

"They accelerated very briefly and are slowing down already," Brownie said mystified. "And there are some small craft now, maybe the little tug things."

"They'd chasing down some of the pieces of the plate," Lee said.

"They must not know much about the other aliens or their ships, or they wouldn't bother. I doubt they have ever captured one or they'd know more already that this will tell them," Brownie said.

"Why don't we delay enough to do a little junk collecting too?" Lee asked.

"Do you think there is enough left to learn anything?" Gordon asked.

"You never know. There might be pieces of circuit board or electronic components. If they build anything like us, pieces of something pretty solid like a reactor wall or drive chamber might be identifiable. Just seeing what alloys they use could be worthwhile," Brownie suggested.

"If we can't figure them out we can put it on a blanket and trade it to the Caterpillars," Lee said.

Gordon looked amused at that. "Alright, Brownie, previous orders rescinded. Divide up the sectors radiating from the site, staying well away from where the Caterpillars are working and have the ships with shuttles match velocity with the receding junk. Ask for volunteers to recover specimens in suits. Tell them there will be bonuses and souvenirs for the workers. Especially if they find something we can learn from or swap to the Caterpillars."

"Aye, organizing it now," Brownie agreed.

* * *

This piece of junk was dark. Ming Lee's radar showed it about fifty meters away and it was clearly rotating. Every time he saw it rotate on radar he saw a glint of starlight off it too. The star wasn't that bright. Maybe about like the sun from a bit out past Mars. He wasn't about to grab onto the junk by hand and get yanked all over. It looked ragged so it might have sharp edges or other hazards.

The line he trailed went in the back of a simple tube mechanism. It was meant to recover dead or disabled people in suits, but it worked fine for junk too. A fine net was folded into wad at the bottom of a slight cone, on top of a double spring. It had a counter weight and friction brake enclosed in the rear of the tube. The cords on the edge of the round net were covered with barbed fabric and after an uncoated band the rear of the net had loops.

When Ming Lee was about ten meters away he didn't think he could miss, and pulled the trigger. The tube barely moved in his hands, the counterbalancing system almost canceling the reaction out. The fine net didn't weigh much more than a hundred grams anyway. It spread very cleanly into a disk and then the center pulled ahead slightly; it looked very much like a jellyfish pumping water.

The center touched the junk like the top of a bell and snagged on it. If it hadn't been rotating it would wrapped smoothly around the target and enclosed it like a sack. It still enclosed it, but lop-sided with most of the net bunched up on one side. When it was rolled up in a ball it started winding the line around itself until it took up what little slack it had. By then Ming had let go of the launcher tube and the ball of netting climbed up the line like a yo-yo returning up a string. When it hit the tube it threw it off enough it stopped winding line around itself, but it had already converted its angular momentum to motion toward the shuttle.