The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (21 page)

Their current size suggests they are going to employ the annihilation wave modality of attack.  If we hit them with a strategically placed SJ round now, we will force the survivors to scatter. We may even get lucky and hit their command and control. Either way, they will be forced to take time to reorganize."

"Time which Earth could certainly use." the Admiral agreed. "Very well Captain... You have my blessing to deploy phase one."

"Thank you, Sir, I'm going to jump the Yorktown to a hundred and seventy five AU on a line-of-sight towards the invasion fleet. We'll be close enough to see what happens, but far enough away to avoid the fireworks."

"Good hunting, Captain. Faragon out."

Cat cut the link to Orbital One. She turned to face Lt. Calwalski. "Helm, make ready for jump."

"Heading, Ma'am?"

Cat consulted Cal her AI... “Adjust jump to 175 AU, 5% off the plane of the ecliptic at 343.2"

"Roger that, Ma'am.  175 AU, 5% off the plane of the ecliptic, 343.2. Course laid in and ready."

"Ken, how long before all systems are operational?"

"Another two hours Captain."

"Any reason you can think of for waiting?"

“Negative Captain… we should do this.”

"Ben?"

"Regrettably none that I can think of... It is, in the words of your people, time to take the dog out"

Cat looked at her newest friend for a moment before she said in a soft but firm voice... "Helm... jump"

***

The Yorktown arrived on target about 15 AU closer to the sun than the massing D’lralu fleet. Because of the speed of light, it would be a little over 2 hours before the invaders saw the Yorktown.

Cat immediately deployed to advanced stealth probes. The first held an entangled quantum communicator that would allow a real-time view of the D’lralu fleet without the several hour delay. The second probe was a suicide jumper or “SJ” round that would open a brief gateway to the galactic core with devastating results for it and any ships within a 0.5 AU vicinity.

"Both probes are in place, Captain." Ken said. "Do we trigger the SJ?"

"What's the status of the D'lralu fleet?"

"Seventy five hundred and climbing." Ben reported.

"Seventy five hundred... How many will be in the blast radius? How many people am I about to kill?"

Ben looked at the Captain. The part of him that had been built to emulate her father connected with her anguish. The captain was many things, but a cold-blooded killer she was not. "Cat..." he began but she held up her hand to silence him. She knew that these deaths were balanced against the uninvited destruction of her entire race.

"Signal the SJ... And may God forgive me"

The probe with the quantum entangled communicator relayed the signal to the SJ device. It took three seconds for the first probe to signal the second. It immediately committed suicide by jumping into the galactic core... This process took an additional 0.3 seconds to occur. Less than three and a half seconds after Cat's order, tens of thousands of sentient life forms simply ceased to exist. Little did she know how this harsh and unavoidable fact would continue to haunt her for millennia.

Even though the link between the two points in space time was only open for the briefest fraction of a second, the energies transferred shattered the fabric of space in this region. Not only were over two thousand of the First's ships immediately destroyed, but a full three thousand more were exposed to massive and completely lethal doses of radiation.

Because of the disruption of space-time, the remaining fleet, of which there were apparently several thousand, found themselves jumping, not to their intended destinations but often tens of AU further into deep space.

***

The First of the First spat up blood. Its coppery tang coated his tongue. Somehow these humans had a weapon of immense power. He was filled with a sense of dread that far exceeded the decimation of his fleet. If he could not turn this battle around, the cost to his race would be annihilation at the hands of the Masters. These humans would usurp the D'lralu's proper place in the universe. This was a fate he could not allow.

His ship had been spared an immediate death but he knew, from what the medical team had shared with him and his senior staff, that he and most of his fleet were already dead. Victims of the massive gamma ray pulse that had enveloped his fleet. There would be the coughing up of blood, the cramps, the loss of fur and eventually the loss of rational thought followed by death. Any that did manage to survive would be sterile and prone to numerous cancers.

He quickly ordered his remaining ships to disperse. If these humans had more of those hell bombs he did not want his forces so concentrated. His effective strength was now cut in half, but he was more determined than ever to destroy these humans.

As soon as he had his remaining ships organized, they would begin to bombard these humans into oblivion. The First smiled. It was a grotesque sight with the blood staining his muzzle. These humans had unwittingly given him another weapon. He ordered each ship which was crewed by the living dead to pay heed to a new command directive. They were to accelerate to .4c, and target each of the three inner planets in the habitable zone. The impact of a single one of these ships, would release enough energy to completely sterilize the target world. There would be hundreds per world. The remaining ships were to rain nuclear terror on any remote outposts they discovered in the outer planets. He would not survive this battle, but his people would survive, and his pups would sing of their father's glorious death in defense of the D'lralu people.

***

Ken had the bridge. The Captain had gone to the chapel after the attack. Ken could only imagine the demons she had to deal with. Ben had gone with her and would, Ken knew, sit vigil outside the chapel's door.

He checked the holographic readouts. The remaining D'lralu were systematically moving into a sphere surrounding the Sol system. Given how slowly they were able to calculate jump coordinates, it would likely take weeks to complete the reconfiguration. Unfortunately they were already so far spread out, that SJ rounds were no longer going to be effective against more than one or two at a time. Given that they were still facing upwards of five thousand vessels this was not an especially attractive option.

When Ken saw his Captain again a few hours later she was back to her old self. It wasn't that she had forgotten what happened but rather a tacit acknowledgment on her part that what had happened was necessary.   What wasn't necessary was needless suffering.

Several dozen of the D'lralu vessels, which had escaped destruction, were never-the-less dead in space. Sensors indicated minimal life signs on a few of the vessels. The speculation was that these crews were gravely ill from radiation poisoning. Ben confirmed the D'lralu had very limited options for treating radiation injuries.  

Cat consulted with medical and xenobiology. There would be very little either team could do for the D'lralu without using medical nanites. The problem was, the most adaptive nanites they had, were based on simplified Heshe designs intended for human use. Cal was consulted and although it was thought that the nanites could be adapted, they would need more information. The decision was made to board one of the vessels and attempt to secure a sample of radiation damaged tissue to compare with normal D'lralu tissues from Ben's organic components. Once this was done a repair profile could be created.

The ship they selected was, according to Ben, a light cruiser. Cat, Thais, Dr. Riley, three red shirted security guards and of course Ben comprised the boarding party. Ken had argued that the Captain's place was safely on the bridge, but Cat absently bent a steel wrench in half and the argument ended as quickly as it began.

"Once the shuttle has cleared the shields I want them back up, ASAP. I also want an emergency jump laid in and ready to go the second you need it" Cat said to her First Officer.

"Understood, Captain... Let me remind you these are enemy combatants with no reason to trust you... Don't assume just because you're trying to help that they won't try to kill you anyway."

"Trust me Ken... These buggers have killed me twice already... I won't forget."

"You know how strange that sounds..." Ken said while looking at Cat. He turned his head to look at the Chief Engineer... "You know how strange that sounds, right?"

The shuttle cleared the bay doors and immediately micro jumped to the light cruiser. Unlike human vessels the D'lralu ship was not symmetrical across 360 degrees. The D'lralu compensated for the lack of symmetry, by generating a massive hyper field that encompassed the entire asymmetrical craft in a symmetrical field. Thais and Ken had wanted to send a team to look at the D'lralu's power generation systems, but Cat nixed the idea. The goal was to help the survivors and potentially earn their trust.

Cat looked at the image of the hull on the forward view screen. "I wonder how one gets inside of one of those things?" The team had plasma torches, but she was hoping to avoid those, because breaching a ship that way was both time consuming and dangerous with the potential for explosive decompression.

Ben leaned forward, pointed with one of his oddly elongated paws... "There... See that little nub... It's darker than the surrounding hull plating... That's a near field communication module. Send the right signal, which is unique for each ship, and the cargo bay will open right up..."

"So..." Cat said... "All we need is the right signal."

In an effort to adopt human customs, Ben gave her his version of wolfish grin... Seeing it, Cat could understand why the D'lralu viewed it as a sign of aggression. Somehow the canine face was not built for smiling. Ben followed up his grin with a single word "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Thais prompted.

"Unless you have the universal codes known only to the First of the First... Codes I have."

"Wouldn't they have changed those years ago?" Cat asked.

"Unlikely, there is only one First of the First at any one time, and the codes are never shared as a matter of cultural taboo."

Thais suddenly said "The hanger doors are opening."

"You?" Cat asked Ben.

"Useful thing that Heshe encounter unit built into my chassis" he said with a wink. "Does a great job with near field communications."

Cat nodded to Thais... "Take us in... carefully" she added.

"Aye Captain" the Brazilian engineer acknowledged.

The hanger bay was remarkable in the obvious similarities between human and D'lralu designs. Of course much of a design flows from function as was certainly the case here.

"Ben does your encounter unit allow you to interface with any of their internal systems?"

"Yes... I would imagine yours will too... Is there some reason you are not trying, Captain?"

"Right now the crew of this ship are non-combatants. If we are successful I want to have acted in a way that fosters trust and cooperation. You are D'lralu so your accessing their systems for the purpose of saving them seems a less egregious approach."

"Strange logic in view of their purpose in being here in the first place."

"Never the less... It is the honorable way to proceed..."

"That I can understand... The ship's AI reports there are minimal life signs just down that corridor on the right."

"Epstein, Franklin, you two take point, pointers only... We've killed enough today."