Counterstrike (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3) (4 page)

The bridge of the
Ares
was practically silent as they drifted through the Alpha Centauri System. Since there was only one known jump point from Earth they had no choice but to pass through the system and look at the horrific aftermath of the attack on Haven through the sensors while flying along to the New Sierra jump point.

As per the final request from the Council of Nations that came in just prior to the
Ares
transitioning out of the Solar System, they launched a com drone with a message from Earth meant for general dissemination: Confederate ships were not welcome in the Solar System nor would they be given safe passage. Jackson was dismayed by the message, but he understood it. The Haven-Earth jump point was rarely used and there was legitimate concern that if more and more ships were using the warp lane between the two systems that the Phage might more easily detect the presence of a lightly defended human planet.

There was no real agreement on how the Phage were finding planets, but a popular theory was that well-used warp lanes were somehow detectable. It was possible that the passing ships in warp were somehow affecting space in a way that wasn’t detectible to humans, or it was possible the Phage were able to detect ships in warp with a degree of accuracy that allowed them to backtrack a flightpath. It was all fairly academic to Jackson. His job was to fight the Phage wherever they showed up, but now it seemed that he’d been given a chance to really settle the score. If Colonel Blake was being honest, and there was no reason to believe that he wasn’t, then it was possible to deliver a crushing blow to their enemy that they likely wouldn’t recover from. Either way, it was something they had to try. If the Battle of Nuovo Patria taught them anything it was that even a combined Terran fleet couldn't expect to stand toe to toe with the Phage and slug it out in a conventional fight.

“How long until we hit the New Sierra jump point?” Jackson asked.

“Fourteen hours, sir,” Specialist Accari said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Lieutenant Davis, when we make our closest pass to Haven I want a general announcement to render honors to starboard.” Jackson consulted his display to see where their flightpath would orient them in the system.

“I’ll handle it, Captain,” Davis said quietly. Jackson nodded and turned back to his display. He was in the middle of drafting a request to CENTCOM to get Davis officially promoted up to lieutenant commander in order to continue allowing her to serve as XO on the
Ares
. Her time in grade was a bit on the short side, but he figured her actions during the last battle should grease the wheels and get it through quickly even as scattered as CENTCOM was at the moment. It felt like an odd time to be concentrating on the mundane parts of command like getting his people promoted and recognized, but maybe it was better to try and shift back to some sort of normalcy given what the crew would likely be facing in the near future.

“Do you think the other numbered fleets will answer the admiral’s call, sir?” Davis asked after a few moments.

“I’m not really sure, Lieutenant,” Jackson admitted. “These are unprecedented times. I would hope that the commanders and crews of any Terran warship understand what’s at stake, but many of them were appointed as political favors so I wouldn’t want to make any bets as to where their loyalties actually lie.”

“I hope you’re wrong about that, Captain,” she said.

“As do I, Lieutenant,” Jackson nodded.

****

“Transition complete, position verified: we’re in the DeLonges System,” Accari said. “Plotting course for the New Sierra Shipyards.”

“Picking up a lot of com traffic in this system, Captain,” Lieutenant Keller said. “Forty-six separate transponders verified so far, with more coming in every minute.”

“That’s heartening,” Jackson said. “Go ahead and announce our arrival, Mr. Keller. OPS, find out where Ninth Squadron is down there and send the coordinates to Nav.”

“At once, sir,” Ensign Hayashi said. The young officer had settled into his role as first watch OPS Officer so well that Davis rarely had to offer any assistance, which in turn allowed her to concentrate more fully on learning the ins and outs of being second in command on a starship.

“Helm, take us down, ahead one-half once you get your updated course,” Jackson said.

“Ahead one-half, aye.”

“Sir, most of these ships are Fourth Fleet,” Keller said, still reading off the transponder codes as they were resolved.

“That makes sense,” Jackson said. “In the immediate aftermath New America likely recalled their forces to a strategic chokepoint in order to think over their next move. Let’s just keep this as simple as possible … has Admiral Marcum’s squadron of
Dreadnought
-class ships arrived yet?”

“Yes, sir,” Keller said.

“Send a direct message to the
Amsterdam
letting him know we’ve arrived in-system and will be forming up with the rest of the Ninth,” Jackson said. “OPS, try to see if our friends in the Vruahn ships have managed to make it here yet.”

“Aye, sir.”

It was another three hours before responses and direct messages began filtering in from the chaos of the inner system. Jackson had ordered the
Ares
into a leisurely descent down from the jump point near the edge of the system to let his OPS and Tactical officers gather as much intel as they could about the huge, haphazard formation that was buzzing about in orbit over New Sierra.

“Sir, we’re being given new orders,” Keller said as he tried to sift through the incoming com traffic. “Admiral Marcum is moving his squadron in orbit around the sixth planet and is ordering the Ninth to form up on him. The Vruahn squadron is already there.”

“Was there anything else in the message?” Jackson asked.

“No, sir.”

“Very good. Send the new rendezvous coordinates to Nav,” Jackson stood. “Helm, engage on new course when you get it. Ahead two-thirds.”

“Ahead two-thirds, aye.”

The long flight down the well from the outer system was filled with a seemingly never-ending list of administrative tasks that, inexplicably, CENTCOM was still able to generate despite having lost nearly three-quarters of its command and control apparatus with the loss of Jericho Station. By the time the enormous
Dreadnought
-class battleships were appearing at the periphery of the
Ares'
navigation radar’s detection range Jackson had managed to complete all his paperwork, submit the reports that the brass on New Sierra were squawking about, and even managed to sneak in six hours of uninterrupted sleep.

It didn’t take long once the
Ares
slipped into formation for Admiral Marcum to send word that he wanted Jackson to shuttle over to the
Amsterdam
for a classified briefing with Colonel Blake. Jackson had more or less been expecting this, so he had already turned the ship over to Lieutenant Davis and had Commander Juarez prep a shuttle and crew to ferry him over. With one last wary look at the tactical display that was showing all the Fourth Fleet firepower orbiting New Sierra, he walked off the bridge on his way to the hangar bay.

****

“Captain Wolfe, thank you for coming,” Admiral Marcum said as Jackson was escorted through a security checkpoint and into a secure briefing room. Jackson just nodded and quickly moved to the indicated seat. A quick look around showed that it would be a small group, but there was no shortage of clout. Senator Augustus Wellington was in attendance, as were Colonel Blake and Agent Pike. There were a handful of other flag officers that Jackson didn’t recognize by sight and a few more people in civilian clothes. At least this wasn’t likely to be more of the same. With a gathering like this Jackson assumed that they were there to begin finalizing their strategy.

“If everyone would take their seats, we’ll get started,” Marcum said. “We have a lot to do and, like always, we’re already far behind. We’re not going to do much rehashing, so for those who weren’t present during recent events I hope you’ve read the prepared briefs I transmitted.

“After we learned of Colonel Robert Blake and his crew’s extraordinary journey since leaving Earth hundreds of years ago we’ve been trying to find the best way to exploit the situation given our limited resources and current state of political upheaval. So without wasting any more time … Colonel Robert Blake, Commander of the
Carl Sagan
and an officer in one of Ancient Earth’s most powerful militaries.”

“Thank you, Admiral.” Blake stood and nodded to the room, seeming completely comfortable now that he was running the briefing. “As the admiral alluded to, since our return to human space and to Earth we’ve been working on a strategy that will allow us to defeat the alien species you’ve been calling the Phage. I would like to say that despite your horrific losses, you’ve done far better than most species when it comes to defending yourselves against them. The relentlessness and sheer numbers they can bring to bear more often than not overwhelm a species before they can mount any sort of defense.

“Your affinity for kinetic weapons has slowed them down and confused them somewhat, but that won’t last. These are not mindless beasts, and even though a comparison could be made between them and locusts, they are frighteningly intelligent and will have adapted the next time they come into human space.”

“Do you have any idea when that might be?” Wellington asked.

“I do not, Senator,” Blake shook his head. “It could be decades from now, or centuries, or they could already be moving across the Frontier en masse. Which leads me to the next unpleasant point: the Vruahn strike force that my crew and I pilot will not be able to stay in human space indefinitely. We’re tasked with providing emergency relief for species that seem about to be overrun by the Phage, but our orders and mandate are non-negotiable. Even if we decide to stay, the ships will leave without us.”

“Is there no way you can entreat the Vruahn on our behalf?” a woman with vice admiral stars on her uniform asked. “Possibly either for the ships themselves or the specs of—”

“They will not share their weaponry,” Blake apologized. “But to answer your question, Admiral, I have already asked. Multiple times, in fact, once we found out that humanity was in the crosshairs. For reasons that are entirely their own, they will not allow their ships or weapons to be transferred to any other species. It might be better if you looked at them as more than just machines. They’re coded specifically to their pilots and work almost symbiotically, but they have their own hardwired protocols and can be recalled by their owners in spite of any orders given by us.”

“I will admit to some confusion on that point,” Marcum admitted.

“The Vruahn are leaps and bounds ahead of you in technology, but they lack any will or instinct to fight,” Blake seemed to struggle with the explanation. “They can build machines with incredible destructive power, but when it comes to developing even the most rudimentary strategies for fighting a war they fall flat. They discovered that by enlisting the help of more aggressive species they can accomplish the goal of keeping the Phage at bay while still maintaining their pacifist natures. We were the first, but I know there have since been other species brought into the fold as the threat of the Phage in this part of the galaxy grows.”

“Just how large is the Phage threat?” Jackson asked. “Big picture.”

“They’re quickly becoming the largest power in this region of space,” Blake said. “Their lack of any apparent motivation other than to devour all life unlike their own makes it impossible to communicate or negotiate with them.”

Jackson saw an obvious flaw in the colonel’s statement but let it pass for the time being.

“So other than to scare the shit out of us and tell us that you might not be here the next time they attack, what is the point of this meeting?” Wellington asked.

“The Phage do have a fatal weakness,” Blake said. “Ironically, it’s this weakness that makes them so difficult to fight. Their ‘group minds’ are not independent structures that just pop up when enough of them get together. Everything they do, everything they are … it all leads back to one single entity that drives them.”

“So?” Wellington said belligerently. “How does that help us?”

“I know where it is,” Blake said, causing the room to erupt into half a dozen shouted conversations.

After the briefing devolved into a shouting match in which several of the attendees felt they could make their ideas more valid through sheer volume, Marcum angrily dismissed them all, holding Jackson and Blake back.

“Hell of a bomb you dropped there, Colonel,” Marcum said when the hatch slid shut. “You could have given me some sort of warning.”

“I was worried had I divulged that information too early it may have led to some rash decisions, especially when emotions were running high after the destruction of Haven,” Blake said. “I apologize. There are a few other things that you’ll need to be aware of before you decide how best to use the information I have.”

“Oh?”

“The core mind, for lack of a better term, will not be easy to get to,” Blake said. “It may actually be impossible if you were to just fire up the fleet you have sitting here and go tearing across space.”

“Is that why you’ve not made a move on it yourself?” Jackson asked.

“Not exactly,” Blake squirmed in his seat a bit. “The main reason we haven’t tried is because the Vruahn won’t allow it.”

“What?” Marcum shouted, slamming a palm down on the table.

“We don’t know for sure what eliminating the core mind would do,” Blake said. “But the Vruahn are concerned that the probability is high it would begin a cascade effect that would lead to the extinction of the Phage.”

“I’m still not seeing a fucking problem.” Marcum’s nostrils flared.

“You don’t, but they do,” Blake said firmly. “The Vruahn will not willingly exterminate an entire species, even one as brutal and destructive as the Phage.”

“What are they willing to do should the Phage become powerful enough to threaten their existence, or even just strong enough to nullify your efforts, Colonel?” Jackson asked.

“An interesting philosophical question, Captain, and one that ties into my next item,” Blake said. “They want to meet you.”

“They want to meet me specifically?” Jackson asked.

“Yes,” Blake said. “My liaison asked that I bring you to them for a face to face meeting. I reported back about the message the Alpha had transmitted to you and they are highly curious, if somewhat dubious, that after so many years the Phage decided to reach out to a species they’d marked for consumption.”

“I don’t think it was to me specifically,” Jackson argued, shuddering inwardly at the colonel’s casual term for what the Phage did to conquered planets. “It was just to the ‘leader.’”

“Our analysis indicates otherwise,” Blake shrugged. “Either way, I get the feeling any continued assistance from them hinges on this meeting with you.”

“Oh isn’t that just fucking great,” Marcum rolled his eyes. “The fate of the species yet again hinges on what one wildcard captain may or may not do. I have to say that I’m not entirely comfortable with you speaking for all of humanity, Wolfe.”

“And I would agree with you,” Jackson said. “But I get the impression we’re not being asked.”

“That’s correct,” Blake said. “You can refuse, of course, but the invitation is to you only. As I said … with the immediate threat gone I can’t guarantee that we’ll be allowed to remain in the area unless we terminate our agreement with the Vruahn. If that happens—if we leave our posts—and the Phage return … I think you get the picture.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Marcum said sourly. “Captain, make sure you leave the
Ares
in good order and then get your ass to Vruahn space and see what they want. Hopefully you come back with good news.”

****

“
Ares
departing!”

Jackson saluted the Marine stationed by the airlock hatchway before stepping through with some trepidation. The lead Vruahn ship had docked a few hours prior, but Colonel Blake had made no move to disembark onto the
Ares
as he waited for Jackson to get things in order so they could leave.

Blake had said they would be gone no longer than a week, but with no idea how fast his ship was capable of travelling he couldn’t even fathom a guess as to how far away from Terran space they would be going. Suffice it to say that, other than Blake and his crew, he would be going further than any other human in history. The fact he was taking such a trip when the end result was meeting another unknown alien race face to face made him reconsider how much he really trusted the man who claimed he was from twenty-first century Earth.

“Colonel?” he called out as he approached the end of the flexible gangway. As the word left his mouth the flat white material of the Vruahn ship rippled and irised open into a hatchway.

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” Blake’s voice called out from somewhere within the interior. "If you’ll step onboard we’ll get underway. We have a long way to go.”

“If you say so,” Jackson muttered as he stepped over the threshold and onto the alien ship.

The interior wasn’t what he had expected at all. In his mind he had envisioned exotic materials, indecipherable text on the walls, and strange, curving shapes. Instead, the ship looked oddly like something human engineers would design. There were even the requisite warning placards on the walls and hatchways cautioning people to duck or watch their steps.

“This was done entirely for our benefit, of course.” Blake appeared from around one of the corners ahead, seeming to read his mind. “The first ships they built for us mimicked many of the design cues from the
Carl Sagan
and we’ve never seen any reason to deviate from that, although I wouldn’t mind a bit more in the way of creature comforts here and there. Let me show you to your quarters and then we can shove off.”

“I see you’re becoming more comfortable with Fleet vernacular,” Jackson observed.

“Just trying to fit in,” Blake smiled. “To be honest, there are more similarities between your Fleet and our old Navy than there is with the Air Force.”

“I suppose it makes sense in a way,” Jackson said, following Blake until they came out of the narrow corridor and into a sprawling, wide passage that was at least as large as one of the main access tubes on the
Ares
. “And you’re the only person on this ship?”

“Correct,” Blake said. “This main corridor runs down the centerline of the entire ship. It’s more for moving components and machinery than for people. She can carry up to one hundred and fifty crew members comfortably, while the two cargo bays can be reconfigured to haul up to a thousand in a pinch.”

“That just raises more questions than it answers,” Jackson said. “I thought these ships were always designed just for you.”

“They were,” Blake confirmed. “The first generation ships were actually little bigger than your cargo shuttles, but when we discovered we were being redeployed to defend human planets we asked for this iteration to be built with a larger crew in mind.”

“Wait … each mission you deploy on you completely redesign your ships?” Jackson was utterly shocked.

“Have to,” Blake said, leading him off another side corridor. “The Phage adapt each of their sub groups to target a specific threat. That’s why we were so easily able to defeat that many Alphas at Nuovo Patria. While these ships
are
extremely powerful, the fact those Alphas were built to counter your specific types of armaments and strategies made them completely incapable of standing up to the heavy energy weapons we employ on these ships.”

“I see,” Jackson said. He let the conversation drop as he was led into a small suite that would have looked completely natural on a Terran starship from two hundred years ago. The casual comments from the colonel were new information and might be important when it came to how they were to move forward in allying with them. What troubled him was that he couldn’t tell if these little gems were being deliberately withheld during the previous meetings.

“Go ahead and toss your pack here and then I’ll take you up to the flight deck,” Blake said from the hatchway. Jackson did just that and turned to continue following the colonel forward.

The bridge, or flight deck, was nowhere near as spacious as what he had on the
Ares
. In fact, it was rather on the cramped side. There appeared to be two identical stations facing forward with an array of monitors and panels for each and two more seats behind those, offset slightly outboard, that seemed to be more specialized in function.

“Sorry for the lack of space,” Blake said as he slid into the left seat and motioned Jackson to take the right. “Since I’m usually a one-man-band I never bothered to try and make the flight deck as expansive as the bridges of your starships. To be honest, the ship does most of the work so this is more of a glorified monitoring station with a few rough inputs from me along the way.”

“So is this ship … sentient?”

“Not exactly,” Blake said as he began activating his control panels. “Stand by to detach. No, the AI aboard is extremely intuitive and has been working with me for a long, long time, but it isn’t really a freethinking being. Not in the sense that you’re talking about anyway.”

“How do you communicate with it?” Jackson asked.

“Drifting away from the
Ares
now. We’ll engage the main engine when we have more separation,” Blake said. “You can either use these input panes that you’ll see throughout the ship, or you can simply speak to it.”

“How will it know I’m addressing it? Does it have a name?” Jackson asked.

“Not really,” Blake said. “I just call it ‘Computer.’ Strange since it’s my only companion sometimes for months on end. Anyway … Computer, go ahead and introduce yourself.”

“Hello, Senior Captain Jackson Wolfe,” a disembodied, decidedly female voice spoke to him. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I have been analyzing all the data from your previous engagements and look forward to speaking to you about them at length.”

“Is that right?” Jackson asked

“Yes, Captain,” the ship answered him.

“We’re now clear of the formation,” Blake said. “Building power now for our first hop.”

“Hop?” Jackson was fascinated. He’d felt no sensation whatsoever, not even the subtle change in lighting or hiss from the air vents, that the ship had been accelerating.

“The Vruahn ships don’t try to play games by distorting spacetime like your warp drives,” Blake explained. “They circumvent it completely and fold space so that we’ll just pop out at a different point, the distance being dependent on the power we apply to the drive.”

“How much power is available?”

“The correct way to ask that question is how much power can this ship handle?” Blake smiled. “Power generation happens on planets scattered throughout Vruahn space and is transmitted to this ship through manipulation of quantum vacuum states. I can barely understand the computer’s stripped-down explanation of this, so don’t ask me any details on how it works. Apparently the entire Vruahn power system is based on this.”

“That would have a lot of advantages.” Jackson was awed. “But it also seems to inject a lot of vulnerability depending on how centralized the power generators are.”

“I couldn’t even hazard a guess,” Blake shrugged. “My contact with the Vruahn doesn’t include conversations about any of their vulnerabilities.”

Jackson said nothing, but he was beginning to form a picture of the relationship his living ancestors shared with this enigmatic alien species, and it wasn’t a pleasant picture. He understood the Vruahn not wanting to divulge too much to a comparatively primitive and violent species, but that wasn’t what he was seeing so far. Rather than question Colonel Blake about it he decided to wait and get his answers directly from the source.

“You may as well go and try to get some rest, Captain,” Blake said after a moment. “We’re not permitted to hop directly into Vruahn-controlled space and the negotiation process can be a bit lengthy, even for one of their own ships. We won’t get there for at least another day.”

“Very well,” Jackson said. “I could use a bit of sleep. I’m assuming the computer can tell me where the mess deck is?”

“Confirmed, Captain,” the computer answered.

“Then I’m all set,” Jackson stood up. “You know where to find me if you need me.”

“Sweet dreams, Captain,” Blake said.

“Not likely,” Jackson muttered once he was off the flight deck.