Six Bits (5 page)

The claws of all six of his feet were kneading the fabric of his “saddle-seat.” Kinjie turned towards his operations officer. "Have any of our ships shifted or produced any significant EM radiation in the last hour?"

"No sir."

Kinjie turned again, "Communications! Red alarm messages, all ships, ‘At least one human ship in system. Do
not
think it’s aware of us. No shifting. Run quiet. Watch on all passive systems. Await further orders.’"

"Operations?"

"Yes sir?"             

"Start locating transfers for two possible actions. One, all ships shift out system to safe rendezvous. Two, all ships shift to saturate area of human ship's probable location.” 

Damn, damn, damn, damn… how could we have such bad luck?
Kinjie thought to himself. His left head-hand sank down to scratch the feeding orifice on the top of his carapace as he pondered the options for a while. They couldn't leave a rich system like this just because it was populated with a humaniform race and a single human ship had shown up. Eradication of the primitive humaniforms and other DNA based life-forms on the planet wouldn't be difficult and
one
humaniform cruiser certainly couldn't frighten a krane light carrier and her escorts. But—and this was a big but—if the human Federation
already
knew about the humaniforms here and this was a regular visit or part of a larger force he could be in deep diplomatic trouble.

Well, there was nothing to do except wait for the human to move and thus show its head-hand.

BRIDGE—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—5.2 AU FROM SOL

0850 EST

Feeling refreshed from his little nap, Leis said, "Well Mr. Swayze, what have you got for me?"

"Sir, Lieutenant Snellen has developed 2-D visual images and audio signals from P3. There don't seem to be any 3-D transmissions, though not all signal types have been successfully analyzed as yet. Sir, the visuals show humaniforms! The chest cavities are quite large as you might expect for a world with such a thin atmosphere. From the appearance of the images, the DNA-based life on this world has evolved familiar appearing species that fill similar ecological niches to those back in our home worlds. Many species were probably dropped off by earlier DNA star travelers. The medic says, however, that the humaniforms and some primates appear to be so similar to us that he would bet that P3 was colonized 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, just before the collapse.”

"P3?"

"Yes sir. According to orbital analysis there’s a small planet, P1, hidden behind the sun, so we've shifted all the P numbers up accordingly."

Swayze glanced back at the holo, "P3 is the only one from which we've detected any evidence of technology and that includes its large moon. P3 has an abundance of artificial satellites, many of which seem to be used for communications. Very few of the satellites, however, are large enough that they are likely to be occupied. It seems almost certain that they haven’t rediscovered Vinzearian physics or shift technology. The satellites were probably launched with old-style rocket technology.”

Swayze gestured at the blown up image of P3 in the back corner of the main holo. "P3 has a
lot
of water and several major landmasses. It seems to have a large number of different languages.

“A disproportionate amount of 2-D with accompanying audio comes from this landmass—he lit it up—that they call ‘North America.’ Because a large part of the 2-D from there is for entertainment, it’s been relatively easy for the 'puters to analyze the language they speak there, called English.  The computer’s translation algorithm is already up to 5,000 words.

“P3 doesn’t appear to have established a planet-wide government. Instead we believe there are at least 20 and perhaps several hundred separate governments. The government of the North American landmass appears to be a democracy and, judging from the amount of criticism leveled at it by the press, not very repressive.” He glanced uncomfortably at Leis, “Um, we've picked up one 2-D image of what appeared to be a nuclear explosion."

Leis gave him a grim look, but only said, “Go ahead.”

"The system is incredibly rich. Both P2 and P4 could probably be made livable. Except for its thin atmosphere, P3 is almost perfect. The belt of asteroids is likely heavy in metals and a
huge
bonus is P3's satellite." Ticking on his fingers, "It's already bordering the temperate zone, it’s
close
to a livable planet and it’s
very
large for a moon."

"Well, Mr. Swayze, what are your recommendations?"

Swayze was expecting this question. The captain considered it an important part of officers’ training to demand decision recommendations from his staff before issuing his own commands. Woe be upon the officer who made a recommendation which the captain considered to be reckless or ill considered. However,
not having
a recommendation was considered to be almost as bad. "Sir, as the krane are actively surveying this region, it's only a matter of time before they find this fertile system. As in the Saltan incident they are not likely to view the destruction of humaniforms not affiliated with the Federation as a violation of the current treaty and in fact would probably rapidly proceed with sterilization of P3 so that they could begin repopulating with LSA life-forms."

Mention of the Saltan homeworld produced leaden stomachs all over the bridge. Most of the crew had lived through Exceltor’s inability to prevent the deaths of millions of sentients during the kranes’ sterilization of that planet.

At least we arrived here in plenty of time,
Leis thought.

Swayze continued, "I would recommend making a command decision that the Federation
will
wish to protect these people and that in order to do so it will need to enter into a treaty with them. The most rapid way to accomplish this goal would be for us to establish contact with one of the governments on P3, and then immediately return to Avajan with a small group of their diplomats. Fleet could then dispatch a group to provide protection to P3 during the negotiations."

"Agreed," Leis said.

Swayze glanced at his screens, "Sir, the accumulators have stored enough energy for a shift to P3 with a backup shift of 7 light months. I recommend that we use a shift I’ve had positioned behind that big moon. We’d shift in at a velocity which will bring us almost immediately out of the moon’s shadow in a high speed flyby cometary orbit. During the flyby we should use passive sensors to more closely inspect and evaluate P3. At some point during that orbit we can open a small port to the surface in order to make contact and pick up a diplomat. That orbit will also give us time to complete charging the accumulators for a shift to Avajan. If we need to shift unseen so as not to frighten the general populace, we can just wait until we arrive back behind their moon before departing."

Leis gave him a warm smile, "Excellent, Mr. Swayze. Prepare your plan for execution, proceed when ready." He turned towards the communications team, "Lieutenant Snellen. Have you located the head of government of this North America?"

Like finding the proverbial grain of sand,
she thought to herself
.
"Sir, there seem to be several countries in North America, but the most populous is known as the United States and the head of its government is usually located in one building. The 'puter is currently trying to pinpoint its location."

BRIDGE—KRANE FLAGSHIP—LIGHT CARRIER XAJION—EARTH ORBIT

0855 EST

Kinjie spun his saddle-seat and raised his heads to examine the intruder on his bridge.
Diplomats!
He thought with fury. He couldn't understand why the empire had seen fit to load him with such unwanted baggage. Even worse to give this
degenerate
titular control of a simple military mission to sterilize a DNA planet. Just because there were a few DNA humaniforms on it, the empire sends a diplomat "in case of political problems.” Now, even worse, merely twelve hours into the actual mission, Federation humans had arrived to provide a situation that
could
be construed as a diplomatic problem.

Quell's cilia were writhing above his fully extended heads and a scritching sound came from under him where his footclaws kneaded the steel deckplates. "
Why
wasn't I informed of the human ship's arrival?"

"I was waiting to collect more information"

"And now that you have?"

"The human ship arrived two hours and 15 minutes ago. We picked up the arrival one hour and 45 minutes ago because it arrived at a point 30 light minutes from the nearest flickership. No further human ships have arrived and it has not moved. Thus it’s probably alone and currently carrying out analysis."

"And why didn’t you attack it at once?"

"Because, I felt it wise to wait to determine whether it
was
accompanied and whether it would proceed directly to P3 suggesting previous knowledge of these humaniforms.” Kinjie continued frostily, “I might point out that either of these two possibilities could have presented you with considerable diplomatic difficulty."

Quell regarded him but did not appear chastened. "Yes, well, what if this human ship immediately shifts back to Federation space with its findings?"

Kinjie stared at the diplomat for a moment, then decided to bury him in analysis. "Analysis of its shift-flash has been carried out by a flickership which was situated farther from its arrival site and had time to align a telescope on the arrival site prior to arrival of the light wave-front. Its shift-ring diameter of about seven meters suggests a human cruiser. Spectral analysis indicates it’s using General Superconductor Products’ shift-rings. Those rings are usually associated with high quality construction at the shipyards at Lissholm or Taynome. Shift-ring reflection analysis of the cruiser body itself leads us to believe it is probably the Humaniform Federation cruiser Exceltor. Flash brilliance indicates it just made a ‘zeroing in jump from about 0.1 light years out. Assuming a Federation warship’s usual one percent jump error, the original jump was ten light years. We know the humans’ accumulator charge rates are poor. Their storage rates only give them about 60,000 additional discharge megawatts every hour,
and
their capacities are relatively low. So, unless it sat out there at 0.1 lights and fully recharged its accumulators, it won't have enough charge on board for a ten light year return shift for at least 8 more hours."

Kinjie thought Quell had had a hard time following his explanation, but the diplomat didn’t admit it. Instead, he said, "What’s your plan then?"

Kinjie decided to
keep
telling the diplomat more than he probably wanted to know or could comprehend. “Unfortunately our surveillance records indicate that Exceltor is recently under the command of a Captain Leis. He has a well-founded reputation for causing us trouble completely out of proportion to his resources. This has however, resulted in excessively rapid promotion and he is relatively new to the command of cruisers. In addition, he
cannot
know we’re here in this system since we hadn’t had any shift activity for the hour before his arrival, and he arrived less than one light hour from our farthest position. I see this as a prime opportunity to rid ourselves of an annoying commander, a Federation cruiser, and an entire world full of humaniforms in one simple operation."

Quell’s head-hands paused their motions and his footclaws stopped grating on the deck. Kinjie thought the sudden immobility was likely due to hidden excitement over the possibility of such a coup. Kinjie continued, "I expect that Leis’ plan will be to move to P3 orbit and try to make diplomatic contact with the retrogressed humaniforms there. As we’re already in orbit about P3 we should have the advantage of surprise and we will be able to destroy him without difficulty."

"But you have only the one ship in P3 orbit! The others are at P2 and 4! If he’s
lucky
he might destroy us!"

"He has a cruiser! Xajion is a light carrier! We have the advantage of surprise!” Kinjie gave Quell a disparaging look, “We’ll destroy him, don’t worry. In any event, as soon as we see his incoming shift-flash, we’ll message the two destroyers and they’ll immediately shift here as well, then it’ll be three on one."

Quell's cilia relaxed. Grudging respect for the well-known Commander Kinjie won over his anger. His heads dropped a little from their fully extended positions. "What if he does nothing but wait to shift back to Federation territory?"

"If he does nothing for the next six hours we’ll shift to his location and destroy him there."

"Why not do that now?"

"Because,” Kinjie said with a contemptuous wave of his left head-hand, “we’re at
least
fifteen minutes behind on his activities. If he had a high velocity on transfer, or if he made a shift during the last fifteen minutes, we could arrive to find nothing
and
lose the advantage of surprise.” He stared Quell down, “Warfare is
my
business. Surprise is the most powerful weapon we have in shift warfare. If you know where your enemy is going, and even better are waiting there for him, you have gripped him by his reproductive organs."

Quell said nothing for about twenty seconds, then, "Very well, I’ll wait with you."

Excretions!
Kinjie thought. "I’ll tolerate your interference and follow your recommendations
until
battle is joined. Once a fight begins,
I’ll
be in command and I’ll brook no interference."

After a moment, Quell grudgingly said, "Agreed."

BRIDGE—HUMANIFORM CRUISER EXCELTOR—5.2 AU FROM SOL

0900 EST

"Captain. We’re ready to execute."

"Thank you Mr. Swayze."

Leis contemplated his words for a moment so as to sound more assured and “in command,” then murmured, "‘Puter, all hands… All hands, we’re shifting to a location behind P3's moon. The humaniform population there will be eclipsed and won’t see our shift-flash. They don’t appear to have Vinzearian physics and so no form of shift technology. Nonetheless they do have other forms of sophisticated technology
including
nuclear weapons. I'll advise you all to remember the Latus incident ... a lack of shift technology does
not
make them ignorant savages and the fact that they are DNA humaniforms does
not
necessarily make them friendly. They could be dangerous and I
don't
want them to know we’re here. We will run quiet
and
alert."