Starfist: A World of Hurt (35 page)

"Let's get out of here." Dr. Kum's voice came from behind Bass. "We're done."

He turned around. One of the techs was starting the scoot, and Kum and the other tech were already on it. He grabbed Brightly by the shoulder and shoved him at the scoot. As they rode away, he looked back at the experiment. A seventy-five kilogram hog, watching the scoot depart, strained at a strong lead that anchored it to a tree trunk.

The hog stopped straining after a few moments and began to root around for something interesting to eat. It snorted and snuffled, spat out something it didn't like, then settled down and lay on its side, ribs rising and falling steadily with its breathing.

Nothing happened for three full minutes, and the hog seemed to be sleeping quietly.

Suddenly, it lifted its head and looked into the forest. Then its head jerked to the side and it looked in a different direction. It scrambled to its feet and faced the forest, leaning toward whatever had caught its attention, swiveling its head from side to side.

The Marines flinched--and a third of them went prone with their blasters in their shoulders--when a streamer of viscous, greenish fluid arced from the ground ten meters to the hog's right and splashed over its back and side. The hog jumped and twisted, squealing in pain, but before it could pull away, two more streamers struck home, staggering it. Its loud squeals were cut off when a gout of acid spattered on its face, covering its snout. The hog arched its back, as though it was about to buck, but went rigid for a moment before it thudded onto its side.

Nothing more happened for several minutes, then thin vines rose nearly half a meter into the air and flopped down onto the hog. A few dangling vines began rocking back and forth, as though a child not yet big enough to swing them was trying to. The dangling vines twisted and kinked, but soon reached the carcass, where they straightened and their ends fastened themselves to the hog's hide. Other movement was too slow to see with the naked eye, but later became evident in the time-lapse images: low-lying flora crept toward the carcass and punctured its skin with delicate shoots. In little more than an hour, the hog's body was covered by a living mat of fibers and vines.

They left the hog in place for a week while it was slowly devoured. They set up cameras closer to it, to record the plants' activities at closer range, but none of the close-in cameras lasted more than a half hour before being attacked by jets of acid from the vines and assaulted by what the scientists came to call "second wave" carnivores. The scientists and techs themselves moved in for occasional closer looks, but Charlie Bass refused to allow any of them to stay close for more than a minute or two, and enforced a one-hour interval between approaches to the forest edge.

The only mishap occurred when a local was too intent on a tendril that was slowly wriggling its way into a break in the hog's hide. When he refused to back away from the forest edge after being told to, he was hit by two streamers of acid before Marines could drag him out of range. He had to be evacuated for medical attention because he hadn't completely sealed his protective chameleons and a few drops of acid seeped through his shirt to eat at his belly.

After that, the scientists withdrew from the forest edge more quickly when Bass called,

"Time's up."

They stayed for a week, cataloging the numerous plants that directly fed on the carcass.

The leaves of some plants flopped onto the flesh and absorbed its fluids through osmosis; others injected tendrils into soft tissues; yet others drilled tendrils through bones to get at the marrow, or leached minerals from the bones.

Lieutenant Brightly and the other scientists and techs from the
Grandar Bay
would have spent months studying the flora of the valley, but Commodore Boreland decided they'd gathered enough information to pass on to the Office of the CNO and ordered them back to orbit. Brigadier Sturgeon was in full accord with Boreland, especially after Ensign Bass assured him the local scientists had developed sufficient respect for predatory plants to be allowed to continue their work without Marine security.

It was time for 34th FIST to go home.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The We're Here! invasion fleet, scattered over several light-minutes, emerged into Space-3 along the orbital plane, a couple of Astronomical Units out from Maugham's Station. The distance was beyond the incidental reach of most of the sensors of the planet's geosync satellite, which were faced in toward the planet anyway, and outside the observation cone of the outward facing sensors, which were aimed perpendicular to the orbital plane, the customary direction for starships to approach a planetary system. It was a reasonable direction from which to approach the pirate base. After all, Maugham's Station never detected the pirate vessels--unless, of course, the Maugham's Station government sponsored the pirates.

As the fleet began its slow assembly, Admiral of the Starry Heavens Sativa Orange received the message from Captain Main of the deep space tug
Annie
about the arrival of the Confederation Navy's Mandalay-class Amphibious Landing Ship, Force, the CNSS

Grandar Bay,
and her embarked Confederation Marine Corps Fleet Initial Strike Team. The admiral had exclaimed, "We're going to land and wipe out the Confederation's little pirate den. Think they can mess with We're Here!, do they!"

Neither the
Broken Missouri
nor the
Heavenly Mary
was orbiting at the geosync position opposite Maugham's Station's lone satellite. Based on the
Broken Missouri's
vector when she left Maugham's Station, Captain Main believed that she was back at the Rock.

Likewise, the
Heavenly Mary
had left on a vector that could take her back where she'd come from--wherever that was.

Four days standard after the amphibious landing force arrived in the evirons of Maugham's Station, the ships' captains again assembled in the wardroom of the
Goin'on
to be addressed by their commander. Again, two captains stood back to front in close physical contact. Their neighbors, though fully aware of the intimacy of their contact, ostentatiously ignored them; except for Captain Main, who hadn't been present at the previous assembly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Admiral Orange began, once more standing partly in the wardroom's hatch and partly in the passageway outside it, "the Confederation Navy pirates are ignorant of our presence, and we are going to use that ignorance to our advantage. The fleet will divide into three task forces for the assault. The assault will commence twelve hours standard, after the return of either the
Broken Missouri
or the
Heavenly Mary.
" Behind him, Vice Admiral Toke, the We're Here! navy's chief of operations, displayed a chart, which most of the assembled captains couldn't see at all because of its position in the passageway, and none could see completely because Admiral Orange stood in the way.

"Task Force One, code named 'Toke' and under command of Vice Admiral Toke, will consist of the dreadnought
Groovy
and both Freemont-class light cruisers, along with the destroyer escorts. Task Force Toke will board and take command of the CNSS
Grandar
Bay.

"Task Force Two, code named 'Head' and commanded by Captain Head--who for the duration of this operation will be an acting commodore--will consist of the three Mallory-class destroyers." To his rear, Toke flipped over another chart. "Task Force Head's mission is to destroy the Confederation Navy string-of-pearls satellites and take possession of Maugham's Station's geosync.

"Task Force Three, code named 'Crashpad' and commanded by Rear Admiral Crashpad, will consist of the four auxiliary assault-landing ships, infantry, and the heavy cruiser
Goin'on.
" Admiral Toke displayed a third chart that nobody could completely see.

"The
Goin'on
will initiate the attack by boarding and securing the pirate ship as soon as she settles into orbit. As soon as the string-of-pearls is secured, the two Mallorys that have embarked naval infantry will join Task Force Crashpad, which will then launch a combat assault planetfall and take the pirate base.

"I will initially be with Task Force Crashpad.

"Are there any questions?" Without waiting to see if there were, Admiral Orange stepped back out of the hatch, knocking over the easel holding the charts Toke had tried to display.

Orange shot a glare at his N3. "I hope you aren't so clumsy when you take the
Grandar Bay,
"

he snarled. He marched down the passageway to his cabin and disappeared into it.

The captains remained standing, looking expectantly at the commanders of the task forces to tell them where to assemble for their briefings. Or, failing that, to tell them when to expect orders. Vice Admiral Toke, Rear Admiral Crashpad, and acting Commodore Head, for their part, stood in the passageway, looking at each other uncertainly. Except for the three charts Toke had been instructed to prepare for Admiral Orange's briefing, none of them had heard anything about the assault plan before the breifing and none of them had the foggiest notion of what they were supposed to do next.

Captain Main was the one who broke the silence.

"Adm'ral," she growled. "D'any o' ya have plans, or do ya want us to help ya make some?"

Vice Admiral Toke, after seeing the other task force commanders look away from her, realized that as the senior officer present, she was the one who had to answer Main's question. She cleared her throat before she spoke. "Ah, yes, ah, Captain Main. That's an excellent idea. The captains for Task Force Toke, please remain in the wardroom. The captains for Task Force Head, assemble at the fore end of the passageway, and Task Force Crashpad at the aft end. You and your respective commanders will immediately commence drawing up plans for your phases of the operation." She moved the easel out of the way so the captains for Task Forces Head and Crashpad could get by, and looked expectantly into the wardroom.

"Adm'ral," Captain Main said before anybody could leave, "some of us captains ain't bin assigned to task forces. Wha'da we do?"

Toke blinked a couple of times. Oh yes, she realized, the supply ships and tugs hadn't been assigned to task forces.

"Ah, Captain Main, ah, I think for the time being, ah, until further disposition the, ah, remaining ships will form Task Force Four, code named 'Main.' If you would be so good as to assemble your captains someplace out of the way and begin drawing up plans..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't know what to tell Captain Main and the captains of her "task force" what to plan, and she hoped Admiral Orange wouldn't get furious when he found out a

"Task Force Main" had been formed without his permission.

Captain Main hesitated for a moment; she was to command a task force? She was a mere ensign. Not only did all three of the supply ship captains outrank her, but one of the other tug captains was also senior to her. She looked at them. They all looked away.

"Aargh," Captain Main finally said. The order for her to be in command had been given by a vice admiral. Who was she or the other captains to question her? "Ya heard the man. Le's go find a place we can figure out what we're doin'." She bulled her way through the assembled captains, and the other captains of Task Force Main meekly followed in her wake.

Successful combat commanders strive to plan for the unexpected so they can seize any opportunity that arises--or at least so they don't get caught in a situation where they can't respond effectively to enemy action. They do this because they know full well that their plan, no matter how detailed and how good, probably won't work at all once the first shot is fired.

Sometimes events totally obliviate the original plan even before the first shot is fired. What it boils down to is, generals (and admirals) don't often win battles with the brilliance of their plans, but they can most assuredly lose them.

As for the plan devised by Admiral of the Starry Heavens Sativa Orange, well...

"Admiral? Admiral, sir." Commander Moon Happiness, captain of the
Goin'on,
stepped closer when Admiral Orange didn't respond to his urgent voice and shook his shoulder.

"Admiral, wake up, sir. We have a situation, sir." He shook the admiral's shoulder more vigorously. "Sir?"

Lieutenant Shroom, the
Goin'on's
doctor, rushed into the cabin and shouldered Happiness aside. "Sorry, sir," he said rapidly, "but he insisted on a sedative. You can't wake him that way." The doctor opened the top of the admiral's sleep shirt and exposed his shoulder. "I have to give him a stimulant," he explained. He quickly applied an injector pad to the admiral's bare shoulder, then stepped back.

Happiness didn't need the hint, he'd already stepped away from the admiral's bunk.

In a few seconds the stimulant reached the admiral's bloodstream. When it did, he abruptly sat up, flailing his arms about and shouting incoherently. After a moment he realized where he was and who was present. He fixed Happiness and Shroom with a baleful stare and roared, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Sir, we have a situation," Happiness said.

"We most certainly do, Captain!" Admiral Orange said threateningly.

"Sir, the
Grandar Bay
is retrieving her string-of-pearls."

"You think a maintenance problem on an enemy ship is a good enough reason to wake me up?" he bellowed incredulously.

"Sir, it looks like she's preparing to leave orbit."

"What? Why didn't anybody warn me of this?" The admiral swung his legs over the side of the bunk and stood, looking around for his uniform.

"Sir, we had no advance warning. I came to wake you as soon as we detected what she was doing."

"Have either of the pirate ships returned?" Admiral Orange asked. He spotted his uniform and began pulling on the trousers and tunic over his sleep clothes.

"Nossir. We don't expect the
Broken Missouri
for another week standard." Happiness didn't bother to mention that they didn't have enough information to know when to expect the
Heavenly Mary
to return.