Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) (29 page)

The Niktoren’s image disappeared.

“The two Niktoren ships are moving to a high elliptical orbit,” Elaine said. “They will not come closer to our fleet than 24,000 kilometers.”

Jack turned and sat in his Tech seat. Pulling his restraint straps over his vacsuit, he locked them. It was a habit he liked doing, even if outmoded by the constant one gee internal gravity afforded by the grav-pull drive. He looked to his allies on the front screen.

“Admiral Hideyoshi, I would ask that you bring the
Prince Otto von Bismarck
alongside the
Uhuru
. Captain Gareth, please bring your
Dragon
alongside too. Captain Ignacio my brother, please bring your
Badger
alongside. We need to confer. Which can be done in our Food Refectory. Will you join me for a drink and a steak?”

They all agreed, smiles on all faces, even the normally sober looking Hideyoshi.

“You were lucky, youngster,” called Maureen from her holo. “These Niktoren could have reacted to our sudden appearance as if we were a plague virus suddenly descending on them. The way the head hunters of New Guinea reacted when Christian missionaries arrived among them. I’m coming up but leaving the Battle Module on Auto-Track and Defend.”

“You are always welcome at our fleet conferences.” He looked over to his sister. “Elaine, feel free to get your Ignacio nicely drunk. But only after the conference with these Niktoren.”

She laughed, her tone one of happy relief. “Agreed! And be sure to wear your
boina
before Ignacio arrives. He is always alert to respect given to the Euskaldunak people.”

Jack knew that. It was the same with all his captains, whatever their national and cultural heritage. They were more than tools in his crusade. They were thinking, feeling and needing people. Some of them likely felt the emptiness of the space between the stars. Others perhaps were eager for the next First Contact. A few were happy to lend their fighting skills as needed. He stood up.

“I’m heading back to the cargohold. Gotta find some Tuborg, Heineken, Wittkerk, Spaten and Beerlao for these folks!”

“Hey!” called Max. “Can I shut off this fusion flare? I’m thirsty. And I need some of what you are heading to get!”

Jack grinned, looked back at the busy images of his fellow captains and waved to them. “Everyone, shut off your fusion flares. Go to Auto-Track and Defend. It looks like we will have some quiet time for awhile.”

Max tapped the Main Drive module that had lowered from the ceiling, unsnapped his restraint straps and stood up. Offering a hand to his lover Blodwen, he gave Jack a wink. “You lead. Blodwen and I will follow. Eventually.”

Jack walked past his buddy, Blodwen, Archibald and Cassie. His steps down the Spine hallway echoed softly against the ship walls. He hoped Nikola would put her scope to sleep and join him soon. There was no rule against a party before the main party!

♦   ♦   ♦

Jack raised a goblet of
pinot noir
wine. He caught the attention of Bulaken, who sat on a cushion across from the low table that lay between him, his allies and the two males and other two females of the Niktoren Council. Their room lay at the outer edge of the giant globe that was the station Dotil. Its rotation like a miniature Earth gave them all a comfortable one gee hold-down feeling. All the better to keep in his gut the Magun steak that the Mother had personally grilled for him over an open flame. He gave her a toothy smile.

“To food, drink and our alliance!”

She chuffed, which was the way the raccoon people laughed. “Agreed! To food, drink, our alliance and a safe return to our ships!”

Jack felt whoozy from the Niktoren beer, which surely had a 20 percent alcohol content. Still, his Niktoren guests all loved the Johnny Walker Black Label scotch he’d brought. The two males, whose names he’d heard and promptly forgot, were leaning against the tree pole of their seat, looking a bit buzzed. The other two females were making jokes with Hideyoshi and Ignacio, while Denise and Nikola were eagerly talking science with the male members of the Council. Gareth, who sat next to Maureen, was digging into his beefcow steak. The entire Niktoren group had exclaimed over the taste of the Black Angus steer meat. He sipped his wine, then put it down carefully on the red grained wood of the table.

“So. What have you to trade for the details of our antimatter weapon and our Alcubierre star drive?” he said, getting to the point of the four hours of merrymaking, visiting, eating and boozing.

Bulaken’s yellow eyes fixed on him. The blue pupils narrowed as she focused. “Your items are far in advance of what our Northern people have experimented with. However, we can refuel your ships with star fuel. Deuterium and helium-3 are stored here on this station.”

Jack nodded, which he had found meant the same among the Niktoren. “We accept the fuel. But our devices will allow you to defend your system against all Hunters of the Great Dark. And it will allow you to visit us in Sol system. And visit other alliance members as your explorers wish. Can you offer further items of value?”

Bulaken looked to her left. “Migdak!” she called to the nearer male. “Tell our new Home allies about your Magpulse Bomb.”

Jack woke up. “Magpulse Bomb?”

The shorter male looked his way. “It was something we of the North developed during the last war with the Southern Tribe. It was put away when the war ended as being of no use.” Migdak’s mobile eyes scanned all the humans at the table. “Recently my young assistant, a Mother To Be of great technical promise, began working on it again.”

“What does it do?” Jack asked.

The Niktoren’s front ear pair flared outward in the Alien’s body sign of eagerness. “During the war we thought it would be useful to salvage the spaceships of the Southern Tribe, rather than simply destroy them with lasers or star blast missiles. We conceived of the Magpulse Bomb. Unlike the magfields that direct the fusion pulse exhaust of our ships, or the magcoil that generates the neutral particles used by our new beam weapon, this bomb sends out a magnetic impulse in one direction. Any ship contacted by the pulse loses all onboard controls. Circuits are burned, melted or wiped clean of the ability to work.”

“An EMP?” Maureen mused, looking his way

Jack nodded to Migdak. “She refers to the electromagnetic pulse radiation created by a star blast. That pulse goes out on a globular front, in all directions.”

Migdak nodded his furry head, front ears still flaring outward. “Your EMP has long been known to us from our use of star blasts as mining tools in the Inner Rock Belt. This is different. It makes use of interwoven coils of ceramic wire that have no resistance to electrical current. The coils surround an iron ball. The movement of the current within the coils creates a magnetic field that grows and grows. When the exit portal is opened on the bomb, the magfield shoots out in a straight line.” The Niktoren male sipped at a bottle of Tuborg beer, smacking his lips loudly. “Of course there is some spreading of the magpulse beam over long distances. But the beam stays powerful over a distance equal to three times the width of Nightglo.”

Jack blinked. That was a range of 5,000 kilometers or more. He liked the idea of having a weapon that would disable the spaceships of Hunters, leaving them intact for easy salvage of their grav-pull and Alcubierre drive pedestals. As for the Hunter crew, a tight group of ball bearings would ventilate their air, leaving the ship easy pickings for his fleet landers. He looked to the Mother Of All.

“Bulaken of the Northern Tribe, your sharing of this Magpulse Bomb with us would equal the value of the antimatter beam and Alcubierre star drive devices we possess.” He held up his right hand, fingers curled as if to claw at something. “Trade?”

The female held up her right hand, fingers curled with talons pointing toward him. “Trade!” She bumped his fist with her fist, then pulled it away. Shifting her mobile eyes to look at Nikola, she flared her ears in the curiosity gesture. “Your lifemate, is she with cub yet?”

Nikola choked on her beer. Then she looked his way, her sandy brown eyebrows lifted.

Jack’s mouth went dry. This was something they had talked about during the last interstellar trip when the star-to-star hops had been longer. “Not yet. But we hope to welcome a cub to our family after our return home to Earth and Sol system.”

Nikola smiled. A happy looking smile. He had made the commitment she had explored with him during their first trip.

Jack grabbed his wine goblet and swallowed the last of the red wine.

Negotiating with his lifemate was far more fun than negotiating with the Niktoren Mother Of All!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The fleet left grav-pull 40 AU north of the Epsilon Indi A ecliptic plane. It had been an interesting two weeks getting to know the Niktoren. In exchange for Max and Archibald helping them build an antimatter beamer and an Alcubierre drive pedestal, with the digital software to operate them, they had taken on board 25 Magpulse Bombs. One for each ship with the extras going to the
Bismarck
. Plus their deuterium and helium-3 tanks had been refilled from Niktoren stockpiles. The raccoon people had spent decades mining helium-3 from Nightglo and from the atmosphere of the gas giant Miklo, in the fourth planetary orbit. Jack felt pleased by the refueling, which not only provided fusion isotopes for their fusion pulse space drive but also the isotopes needed to run each ship’s Compact Fusion Reactor. He was ready to head off for 54 Piscium, a ‘subject people’ system ruled by the Gyklang predators, according to the Nasen star holo.

“Fleet Captain Jack,” called Gareth from the front screen.

He shook free the mental wanderings of the last few hours as they blip jumped out of the Niktoren system and focused on the commander of the Second Belter Fleet. “Yes, Captain Gareth. Can I help you?”

“More like I can help you.” The black-bearded Welshman gave him a wide grin. “Remember that unknown Alien ship cluster that we zapped? The one with the amphibian image? Well, my ship medoc has done some study of an intact carcass we salvaged from ship fragments. Want to see the AV imagery of this critter?”

Around Jack came the rustle of people shifting in their function seats. The routine of setting off on an FTL star trip was being interrupted by Gareth’s call. “Yes! I recall the image painted on the hull of that golden yellow globe ship. Transmit it please. Denise will share the imagery with the other fleet ships.”

The man’s brown eyes twinkled in the light of the
Dragon’s
Pilot Cabin. “Transmitting.” The older man shifted his gaze from Jack to Maureen, who sat at ease in her Combat station seat. “Milady, you grow younger by the light year!”

Maureen gave her lover a wintry smile. “I’ve heard words like that since before you were born! No need to hear them again. But your beard is handsome.”

Elaine laughed softly. Denise hiccupped. Nikola gave an ‘awww’ reaction. Blodwen, seated behind Max as usual, chuckled loudly. As did Cassie. Or was his sister’s reaction a chortle? Whichever, the romantic moment between his two older veterans was interrupted by the appearance of new imagery in the middle of the screen.

“Damn that’s ugly!” said Archibald.

Jack could only agree.

The unknown Hunter species was a biped that resembled a seal, but with two arms and two legs instead of flippers. Its conical head, though, had a ring of eight sucker-tipped tentacles around it. Its mouth was beak-like, similar to that of an octopus. The creature’s hands were small and three fingered, the tentacles were long, sinuous and reached down to the creature’s thick waist. While the seal breathed air, its two brown eyes were large and able to see well in murky water. Its skin was black, smooth and covered in short fine hairs. Although it had no tail, the legs ended in feet that were well-shaped to kick it through the water at high speed, with the tentacles reaching forward to grasp fleeing fish. Like a squid. While it may have evolved as a creature of the swamps, estuaries and sea coves, it had spent enough time on land to make tools, use fire and create a mech culture able to send ships into space. Albeit ships with water-filled corridors, as Jack recalled from the attack imagery shared earlier by Gareth.

He compared the image of the seal Alien to the forms of two crew women who stood beside it, holding it up by its narrow shoulders. One was Angelique Vincent, Gareth’s Combat Commander. The other must be his female medoc, Ailette Coulomb. Both were of French heritage, but they had grown up in the Belt. Like Gareth and every other Belter ship captain and crew. He nodded slowly.

“That thing looks as tall as Angelique,” Jack said musingly. “I would not want to meet it at sunset beside a beach.”

“Nor me,” muttered Cassie from the back.

Jack looked back to Denise and Blodwen. “You two seen enough? We have the vidrecord in the Library database. Along with any analysis done by Doc Ailette.”

Their Sociologist seemed honestly interested in the creature held up by Gareth’s crew. But Denise shivered, her freckles going pale at the sight.

“May the Mother Goddess keep such as these far from us,” Denise said fervently.

Blodwen shook her blond curls, then shrugged. “I’m fascinated by the implications of how a water-loving species became industrial and then interstellar in its range. Clearly it had enough meat protein to make large its brain.”

Jack turned back to the front screen and his ally. “Captain Gareth, thank you. I think.” Jack’s mouth felt dry. He reached down to the side of his seat and grabbed his water bottle. “I thought the Mikmang invertebrates were weird. But this amphibian thing is even more strange. Thank you for salvaging it and saving a carcass for the Mathilde astrobiology researchers. I think you just found the source of a few new Ph.D. dissertations.”

The man chuckled, then tapped his Tech panel, cutting out the seal Alien imagery. “Likely so. The
Dragon
is in good shape and ready to go to Alcubierre manifold space-time.”

That reminded Jack of what the other ship captains, watching the interplay between him and Gareth, were also awaiting. He looked over his shoulder to his slim, blue-eyed lifemate. Who pulled her gaze away from the front screen to meet his.

“Chief Astronomer, can you get this show on the road? We have a ‘subject people’ to liberate.”

Her mood turned professional and serious. “Yes. As Elaine would tell you, all fleet ships are now facing east toward the direction of galactic rotation. Our target system is 54 Piscium, or HD 3651. It is located 36.1 light years from Earth. But our trip from Epsilon Indi A to Piscium will be shorter. Just 26.901 light years.” She looked down, tapped her Astro panel hurriedly, then looked to their pilot.

“Elaine, I’ve just sent you the galactic coordinates for 54 Piscium, which is located further below the galactic plane than Indi is. It is also further ahead along the galactic rotation direction.” She looked to Jack. “I’ve set us to arrive at 40 AU north of the system’s ecliptic plane, since this place is under the domination of the Gyklang Hunter species, according to the Nasen holo. We fought them in Sol system as you may recall. Okay?”

Jack gave her a thumbs-up, then turned around, sat back, strapped himself in and nodded at the other captains of the fleet. “I remember. Especially that last battle in the hall on Sedna.” Tangling with a giant bear predator was not his first choice of an enemy. “As my Chief Astronomer has noted, we are heading to a Hunter-run system. Even though these Gyklang panda-grizzlies have run the system for less than 200 years, we must assume they will have defensive forces in the system. As before when arriving at hostile systems, we will don helmets, vacsuits and have ship weapons systems at the ready when we exit Alcubierre.” He paused, then remembered what else he had to ask. “Nikola, give us the astro details on 54 Piscium. The star, the planets and how long our trip will take. Please.”

She tapped on her panel. “The target star is a K0V orange star of the main sequence. It is orbited by a brown dwarf failed star at a distance of 476 AU. While early surveys of the system found only a large gas giant and small rocky world orbiting close to the star, and outside the liquid water zone, later surveys by the Long Baseline Stellar Interferometer recorded four more worlds. Planet three is an Earth-sized world at 0.68 AU, and is inside the habitable zone. Planet four is a smaller Mars-size world that orbits at 0.8 AU, at the outer edge of the hab zone. Then there is a skimpy asteroid belt at two AU. Beyond that are two gas worlds. Planet five at five AU is the size of Neptune while planet six at ten AU is the size of Saturn. Infrared surveys document a thin cometary disk at 15 to 35 AU.” She paused, her panel tapping loud to Jack’s ears. “Transit time will be 6.75 days.”

“Elaine, share the coordinates with the fleet,” he said, striving to show his allies a calm, professional demeanor. Like that always shown by Hideyoshi. Whose black gaze looked sympathetic, as if the man understood Jack’s worries.

“Transmitted. NavTrack coordinates laid in,” she said, her tone eager.

Well, he too was eager. While there would be danger at this new system, there would also be surprises. The nature of the local Aliens and the danger from the Gyklang Hunters were mysteries they would solve. And the culture of the new ‘subject peoples’ was something he was coming to anticipate. The Melagun, BooMak and Niktoren peoples had all been different. They were far more than just omnivore, herbivore and carnivore people. They were lifeforms who reflected the nature of their star system, their world and their own unique evolutionary history. A fact he was coming to understand better, thanks to the teachings of Denise and Blodwen. Another lesson now loomed.

“Max, activate the Alcubierre. Get us on the star road.”

“Activating,” came the deep voice of his buddy. “Transiting to Alcubierre space-time manifold.”

The faces of his allied captains, the stars, the sweep of the Milky way, they all went jagged, then disappeared as their stardrive enclosed the
Uhuru
in a bubble of space-time.

Together they sped out into the wide empty spaces between the stars.

♦   ♦   ♦

They left the Alcubierre space-time manifold at 40 AU north of the third planet’s orbital track. Which gave them a great view down at the planets, asteroids and cometary disk of the 54 Piscium system. The orange star glowed brightly to one side of the true-light stellar image. The tiny half-disks of the six planets were barely visible, though that would improve once Nikola deployed her Big Eye reflector scope. Meanwhile, it was time to find out just how many Gyklang ships were patrolling the system, and how many local ships might be moving about under the supervision of the Hunters. As the images of his fellow captains took form in a strip at the top of the front screen, a sensor image took shape on the right side of the screen.

“Sensor feed displayed,” Elaine said as she worked her Sensor panel. “Fleet ships are red dots. Other grav-pull ships are yellow dots. Fusion ships are green dots. And neutrino emission sources are white. Looks like the Gyklang have heard about our battles with the HikHikSot and other Hunters.”

Jack could only agree. He counted 27 grav-pull ships within the system. Seven were spaced about the outer edge of the cometary disk at 35 AU as obvious sentinels and challengers to any entry into the system by way of its Kuiper Belt. The other 20 ships, though, were tightly clustered about planets three and four. The local fusion ships, however, were moving from planet three outward past planet four to the asteroid belt at two AU, and returning. He counted five ships making that run. Another two fusion ships were in orbit about the Neptune-sized gas giant at the fifth orbital at five AU, most likely mining its atmosphere for fusion isotopes. He waved at the images of the watching captains and Hideyoshi, then looked at the holo image of Maureen. Seated at her Fire Control panel in the Battle Module at the tail-end of the
Uhuru
.

“Combat Commander, what do you think we are facing here?”

She tapped at her panel, gave a nod, then looked to him. “Everything we’ve ever faced elsewhere. While there is no way for any species to put weapons in a shell around their entire system, I expect to find them at the outer edge of the cometary disk, about planets three and four and wherever there is mining in the asteroid belt. I would expect to find Hunter-Killer torps on random-walk vectors that patrol the travel lines between each planet and the belt. The Earth-like planet at the third orbital will have layered defenses that include laser platforms, stealthed spysats, sensors, thermonuke Hunter-Killer torps and mobile mine fields.” She shrugged. “While our Higgs Disruptor beams can clear anything material from our vector path, still, some of these weapons operate at light speeds. Like our lasers, particle beams and antimatter emitters. We could be hit before we even know there is an enemy nearby.”