Alien Enigma (20 page)

"I get it," Doug said, excitement tingeing his voice. "You think we can either escape that way if the ship doesn't respond after we blow the defenses, or if it does, you can send us reinforcements to try holding them until the ship can land and help us. That might work better than a simple rebellion."

"Exactly. I'll pass the word to push on. Can you give me any landmarks, noises we might hear, anything like that when we're near the node? Beneath it, I mean?"

He thought a moment. Noise. "Once a day there's an automatic traverse of the main energy beam housing. A self-check, I suppose. Anyway, it makes a clicking noise for about six or seven minutes. Sort of like this,
tchik tchik tchik
, and it always does it mid-morning. I'll try to get a more exact timing but it won't help unless we can figure out a way for our groups to contact each other."

Clemmie was quiet for a minute or two but she pressed closer to him during the silence.

"Thinking?"

"Uh huh. The tunnels. I think we can direct someone to your area if you can draw me a map of your
Wah
in relation to your
Welshass's
living quarters or working areas."

"That I can do it but it'll have to wait until daylight, unless you have some way of producing more light in here. I'll need writing materials, too."

"I can't help with the light but I have a diary. I leave it out in plain sight to avoid an appearance of conspiracy. You can use a page from it to show me then I'll destroy it."

"Wonderful. Now if they just give us enough time in the morning for me to do it we'll be set. We can't do anything else until then."

"Nothing else?"

"Greedy," he said, the last word he uttered for a long while. But even while making love he knew whatever revolt they might manage to ferment was probably hopeless. There were probably tens of thousands of Sinchiks in the city despite the apparent decrease over the last year or two. Even if a ship managed to destroy the city's defenses, the humans would still be at their mercy, armed or not. The odds were simply too overwhelming to expect a revolt to be successful but if a ship did come, he was determined to try.

Chapter Fourteen: If Opportunity Presents

We have women in the military, but they don't put us in the front lines. They don't know if we can fight, if we can kill. I think we can. All the general has to do is walk over to the women and say, 'You see the enemy over there? They say you look fat in those uniforms.'

-
Elayne Boosler

"We're picking us a satellite signal, Captain," Lt. Jr. Grade Bogarty said from the com alcove in the control room. Two hours had passed since entering the
Alpha
star system, the designated name for the first of the next two systems Keane had decided to stop at, and only a half hour since an astronomy tech reported spotting the earthlike planet they were looking for.

"Is it just a signal or a loop?"

"Appears to be a signal to attract attention, then I believe it'll go into a loop, sir. PO Chou caught just the tail end of it, I think. If it's like the usual ones, it'll repeat in a few minutes."

"What did ...never mind. We'll wait. Put it on my screen in text mode when it comes up again."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Keane signaled for coffee and sipped at it while he waited. The control room was manned by the top officers as was usual when entering a new star system. He scanned the room and noted the tense expertise of the crew. During the course of the mission they had melded into a fine group, he thought, about as good as any he'd ever seen. And the man of steel, Major Rambling, reported his marines ready for whatever might come. Keane was sure they were. He had also worked out a system of air support for the marines, assuming that the ship was still viable and in a position to help. With the upgrade of his defenses the science team had managed, he was confident they could handle most of the contingencies dreamed up by the simulators.

His screen brightened and he began to read the recording from the satellite left in place by a Wannstead spaceship. It gave the ship's name, the time and date, and a brief description of the flora, fauna, atmosphere and major climates.
No sign of intelligent life noted after one week survey from orbit
, he read, nodding to himself. The recording went on to give the location of its next target world they were referring to as the
Beta
system, the same one
Doc Travis
would be heading for, and the last before Xanadu.

"Astrogator," he said in a slightly louder than normal voice.

"Sir!" Commander Manheimer responded.

"Make immediate preparations to come about and prepare a vector for the
Beta
system."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Com."

"Sir!" Bogarty responded immediately.

"Send the satellite recording to the log, to data storage, and to the
Santa Cruz.
Also send copies to the science department immediately and leave it uncoded for anyone who wishes to see it."

"Aye, aye, sir."

The exit point from the system on a vector leading to the next stop was in an unfavorable position. Seeing that it would be near half a day before arriving there, he decided to get some sleep first.

"XO, I'll be in my cabin. You have the next four hours of watch, then turn it over to the next officer in line and you get some rest."

"Yes, sir. I'll call you when we're ready."

"Thank you, XO."

Keane departed while chuckling silently to himself. He had almost wanted to see some action after all their preparations. Now there would be several more days of cruising and then another period of mounting tenseness as they awaited whatever might happen next time.

***

"All dressed up and no place to go," Cindy Cantrell complained as she began gathering her "battle rattle", all the accoutrements necessary for ground combat. She wanted to put it in order and get it out of the way for the next few days.

"Don't complain, XO," Major Rambling said, but smiled. "You may have to eat words like that later." They were the only two officers in the day room at present and the last to begin putting their gear away. Both of them had been too busy with the stand-down after no contact was made in the first of the two star systems before Xanadu. The ship had just exited the system and they could go into simulator training until the next one.

"All too true, sir. Even if we don't make contact at the next system, Xanadu's waiting on us. That promises to be a pretty good free for all."

"True enough. But you're not going to see it from the ground, at least not at first."

"Sir?" A startled expression crossed her face. It departed quickly, leaving a blank mask behind. A piece of armor she had been handling slipped free and dropped to the deck. She couldn't imagine what she had done, or had failed to do, that would cause her to be left behind during an initial assault.

He laughed. "You look like a puppy that's just been whapped for no reason at all. Relax, XO. You're going to be in the fight if we have one, just not at your usual position." It had become customary to refer to her as XO rather than as Captain, her rank, in order to avoid the heresy of being mistaken for the ship's Captain.

"What will I be doing? Sir?"

"You're going to be handling the most important job of all so far as we marines go, Cindy. With possibly tens of thousands of Worms on Xanadu, or even more, and those nasty energy weapons backing them up, not to mention the robots, we expect to be outnumbered as much as a thousand to one in an exposed situation. That's besides all the Worms inhabiting the city where our people are trapped. If we have to fight, we're going to need air cover to stand any chance at all. Beginning now, I want you to start working with Commander Mundahan and Captain Keane so you can call down support from the ship when we need it. With the prospective odds so prohibitive, and with the power the ship can wreak, I don't trust anyone but you with the job. I don't want someone accidentally frying our asses dirtside."

"Damn. If that's a compliment, sir, thank you, but I wish you had said something sooner. I'll be starting from scratch."

"I should have," he apologized. "Chalk it up to inexperience with this sort of thing. Fighting aliens, I mean."

She twisted her lips in a wry smile. "Have you already spoken to the Captain and Commander?"

"Yes. I talked to him right after he left the control room." He glanced at his thumb watch. "He'll be expecting you in his day cabin two hours from now."

A picture of Keane formed in her mind. The square jaw and dark hair with attractive graying at the temples and his big, well-muscled form. She knew he was active in the gym and while she hadn't sparred with him, she had seen him work out with one of the marine platoon sergeants. He was good, although not quite up to the sergeant's standard. At first she had intended to debate the assignment with Rambling but perhaps it wouldn't be all that bad. All she had to worry about was keeping her mind on business.

***

Keane was having similar thoughts. He had agreed readily with Rambling when he requested an air controller to work with the ship's weapons officer. It sounded like a very good idea although it had never been tried before. Marine units usually had their own dedicated air support. The new assault shuttles could help by remaining in the area after they dropped their troops, but they were necessarily limited in the amount of weaponry they carried. They had been designed as troop carriers before being armed as well as possible. They couldn't possibly provide the kind of weapons support
Doc Travis
could, though. And then the Major told him who his choice for FAC was.

"Your XO? But won't you need her for yourself during ground fighting?"

"Ordinarily, yes, sir. But this promises to be fighting on a scale we haven't seen before. That's if we fight at all, of course."

"True. We can't automatically expect the inhabitants of Xanadu or whatever we find on Beta to act the same as the ones of the other city, but I'd suggest it's a damn good bet."

"Oh yes, Captain. We'll prepare for it. Which is exactly why I want Cindy in the control room. She knows our vernacular, the terms we use during combat. I'd like to have her in direct contact with every platoon I put on the ground. And in the meantime, she will need to work with your weapons officer. Commander Mundahan, isn't it?"

Keane nodded.

"Commander Mundahan will have to give her a short course on the ship's weapons, the power level, accuracy, areas of potential destruction of each, what's needed if the Worms are dug in, how to avoid blue casualties, and all the other things she doesn't know right now."

"I hope she's a quick learner."

"She is, sir."

"Good. June is a good teacher. I've seen how she works with the petty officers and junior officers. When would you like to get started?"

"The sooner the better, sir."

"Then there's no time like the present. Let's begin the training today. Would fourteen hundred do?"

"Yes, sir. Where?"

"My day cabin to begin with."

"Great. Thank you sir." Rambling stood up to leave.

"I think June will need to work with the shuttle pilots as well."

"Good thought, sir. I'll get on it."

Once Rambling had departed, Keane had called engineering and asked for a quick revamp of one of the extra control room workstations
Wannstead Industries
had so providentially provided the
Doc Travis
. He found it surprisingly easy to visualize Cindy Cantrell there dressed in combat fatigues, at least until a battle stations alarm was called. After that everyone went into environmental suits.

***

"Air cover from a starship? That's a new one," Platoon Sergeant Martinez noted. Ordinarily the marines sent out with military starships were more of a contingency force for unexpected circumstances on planets already settled or to protect scientific staffs exploring worlds just discovered. "Don't think I've ever heard of supporting troops on the ground like that." Martinez, Sun Lee and Jeeta Suharto, the three platoon sergeants of A Company, were in the senior NCO dayroom discussing forthcoming possibilities of a big fight. A very big one. The platoon sergeants of B Company and Headquarters were doing the same thing elsewhere. Once each had plans worked out they intended to combine the best aspects of all of them.

"You haven't heard of it," Sun Lee declared positively. "Look, let's bring the layout of a Worm city as we understand it now up on a simulator, then see if
we
think defensive and offensive operations using the ship will work as well as the officers say it will. I guess we'd better allow for the assault shuttles to be included as backup and for fine work, the real up close fire support."

Suharto rubbed his hand through his short black hair. It was beginning to be streaked with gray. "The Chink's right. It hasn't been done before. Hell, I don't think it's ever been put into a simulator, much less planned for. Starships are for fighting in space, if they fight at all."

"No time like the present to see how it works," Martinez said. "I'll start plugging in some data if one of you guys will make the coffee."

"I'll get it," Lee said. "Wogs can't make coffee worth a shit." He grinned at Suharto, displaying a shiny gold eyetooth.

"That's a woman's job," Suharto said dismissively.

"Better not let the XO hear you say that. You'll be a private in the ranks again."

"She won't hear me. Anyone want some jerky while we're playing games?"

"Bring me some," Martinez said without looking away from one of the monitors the dayroom was equipped with. It was a large, three dimensional screen with enough background built into the corresponding memory to make its graphics flow easily back and forth and to different views as he entered new data drawn from Mundahan's downloads to the simulator.

"Better put the heavy weapons platoon in there, Julio," Suharto said. "We may need them, too."

"If we fight, we'll need every fucking thing we got."