Dreadnought (22 page)

Her
greatest problem with the suit was getting herself into the seat at the
Commander’s station. In order to have the consoles with their controls,
keyboards and monitors as close as possible, the station was enclosed. The seat
could only be reached using the pair of bars built into the overhead console;
it was a simple enough matter for a Starwolf to lift himself and his armor into
that seat, even under hard accelerations, but not for her. Once she was in, her
armor settled very comfortably into the seat, and the alternate set of straps
attached directly to the chestplate. She set her helmet in its own rack, close
at hand in case the hull lost pressure.

“Beginning
deceleration from starflight,” Valthyrra announced a short time later. “Six
minutes to sublight transition.” Changes of speed within starflight, although
actually far greater, were far less stressful than those below light speed. The
reason was simple enough; matter cannot be taken past the speed of light, but
the acceleration dampers let the ship cheat by never allowing its bulk anywhere
near that speed. Once the ship was moving through space faster than light, its
relationship with the universe was altered and changes of speed and direction
resulted in a greatly reduced energy of acceleration.

“Have
you been looking at the system map?” Gelrayen asked. Valthyrra brought her
camera pod around. “Let me put it up on the main viewscreen.”

She
cleared the current image and installed a map of the system ahead as it
appeared in her library, correcting the orbits of the seven planets by
mathematical interpretation and laying in her own approach path. Like most of
the systems in Union space, it was moderate in population, industry and
importance. But if the Dreadnought had taken it by surprise, the damage could
have been devastating.

“Captain
Tarrel, do you know this system?” Gelrayen asked, looking up at her.

She
found the button that released the pressure on the straps and leaned forward in
her seat to look down over the front of the console. “I’ve been here a few
times, but I really don’t know all that much about the system. I don’t recall
anything unusual. ” He turned to Valthyrra, who had the advantage of knowing
what every other ship had seen and filed. “Mining, both metals and hydrocarbon.
The debris in this system is very rich. And there in a very large gas giant,
which has two very large moons heated by gravitational stress, that have actual
seas of hydrocarbons. Most of the plastics and other hydrocarbon products for
the Rane Sector come out of the bulk processing plants in orbit here.”

Captain
Tarrel made a vile face; it helped to keep her from saying certain things out
loud. She remembered this system only too well now. Those orbiting bulk
processors turned raw hydrocarbons into the base material for the making not
only of regular plastics but hydrocarbon-based ceramics, many other synthetic
materials and a variety of solvents and combustion fuels, so that only the
finished products had to be shipped out of system. The Dreadnought would have
ripped apart more orbital hardware here than it would have found in any ten
normal systems, and the economy of the Rane Sector could well feel the effects
for a century to come.

“Captain
Tarrel, you seem to recall where you are now,” Valthyrra said, having witnessed
her reaction.

“I
do indeed,” she agreed. “You just don’t think about such places as being that
important until you realize what will happen when they’re gone.”

“It
could be even worse,” Valthyrra said. “My files indicate that two million
people lived in orbit here. That is the reason why Starwolf attacks have been
so selective here for centuries. ” “I doubt that any of them got to safety,”
Tarrel said, settling her armor back into the seat. “The facilities for rapid
evacuation just aren’t there. Station life is so completely free from hazard. ”
Valthyrra called their attention back to the viewscreen. “If that is the case,
then we must expect that major attacks took place on the second planet, the
only inhabited world in this system, and at the stations on the moons of the
fourth and fifth planet. This was a very slow-firing star in its early
development, allowing gas giants to form close in, where lighter gasses are
generally swept farther out by solar wind. Some two-thirds of the orbital
facilities were located around the fourth planet, which had larger moons and
warmer conditions as well as relative proximity to a belt of debris very rich
in rare elements.” “What about the inhabited planet?” Gelrayen asked.

“Very
little interstellar traffic was going in and out of there,” the ship explained.
“There was quite a lot of specialty manufacturing, but most of that went out to
the stations for shipment out of system. Most of the planet was colonized to
feed the stations. As large as stations can be, it is still much easier and
cheaper to farm planet-side.”

“And
what if it is still in system?” Gelrayen asked. “If you were the Dreadnought,
where would you be?”

“We
have discussed the subject once already,” Valthyrra answered. “As it happens,
that is more difficult to predict. Most of the system traffic and a large portion
of the orbital hardware was at the fourth planet. We must now assume that those
stations are gone and the personnel dead. A rescue mission is probably expected
to press on to the only place where there is still anyone alive, the second
planet.”

“Is
that what the Dreadnought will decide?” he asked.

She
made a curiously hopeless gesture with her camera pod. “I do not know what the
Dreadnought will think. That depends very much upon the level of sophistication
of its ability to plan, and we know now that we cannot predict that. If the
stations and all traffic in-system was destroyed, then it would probably look
to the inhabited planet. There would still be power sources there to draw its
attention, if not its fire.”

“Commander,”
Tarrel called to him. “Will you have any back-up on this? I know that a
Starwolf freighter has been here once before.”

“Yes,
another carrier arrived several hours ago and is standing by some distance
outside the system.”

“And
what about that freighter?” Tarrel asked. “Even if the Dreadnought has not
been—or no longer can—follow your transmissions, would the presence of a
Starwolf ship in this system encourage it to go into hiding in the hope of
ambushing another?”

“Yes,
that is a valid concern,” he agreed. “Until you brought that up, I had been
very certain that we would not find the Dreadnought here. Now I am given to
wonder.”

They
could speculate on that matter for a long time, but the moment came at last
when the Methryn had to take herself out of starflight. Guided by their discussion,
she dropped down from starflight well inside the system, using a minimum of
power to brake below threshold and then coasting at nearly light speed. The
carrier was running with her shields at stealth intensity and her normal
scanners were silent, containing any emissions that might have betrayed her
presence. She cautiously began a quick, very low-intensity sweep with her
impulse scanner.

“No
contact on first sweep,” she announced to the bridge crew. “Scanner sweep did
indicate a great deal of debris, including some very large pieces, above the
fourth and fifth planets. There are also some two dozen intact and functional
ships in this system, mostly of Union military class. It seems that we are not
the first to arrive.”

“The
Dreadnought might still be hiding somewhere,” Gelrayen cautioned her. “Continue
your sweeps at a higher level.”

Valthyrra
Methryn needed only a few minutes more to feel very certain that the
Dreadnought was no longer in this system. Her own impulse scanners had detected
nothing, and she had registered no contact by an impulse beam from any other
ship. The Union fleet was involved in some indeterminate work in the wreckage
above the fourth planet, unaware even yet of Methryn’s presence. Since there
was no indication of danger, Valthyrra suggested that they have a brief word
with the Union forces before they continued their hunt for their enemy.

The
Methryn settled silently into orbit over the massive gas giant, after a brief
run back into starflight followed by a sharp braking maneuver that left Captain
Tarrel rather breathless in spite of the suit’s greater protection. Valthyrra
kept her shields at stealth intensity, wanting to see what the Union fleet was
doing before they knew that she was about. Old Starwolf habits that were not
even her own kept her cautious.

She
moved in very quietly behind the largest area of debris, where almost all of
the Union ships were engaged in, as far as she could tell, mapping and
cataloging the pieces of wreckage. It seemed like the silly, pointless sort of
thing that the Union would consider very important in a crisis. But that debris
was more interesting than she would have guessed, and it soon demanded her full
attention. In the past, the Dreadnought had been very thorough in making
certain that anything it destroyed was ripped to pieces, but some of these
sections of station and factory components were still very large. A few were
larger than herself and scores of sections were as large as any Union battleship
or bulk freighter, two or three hundred meters across. There was, however, no
question of survivors in that wreckage. Every section was tom and twisted, and
burnt black by tremendous discharges of power. The fact that there were no
bodies drifting in space was an ominous indication of what had happened to
anything organic caught in the storm of energy that had raged through these
stations.

“Another
change of tactic,” Valthyrra reported. “The Dreadnought was in a hurry. It
killed, but it did not take the time to obliterate.”

“It
might have been overwhelmed by the very volume,” Tarrel suggested. “It would
have taken hours to have eaten these stations bite by bite, the way it did the
first time we met. Just destroying the first completely would have given them
the time to evacuate all the other stations and get every ship out of system. ”
“When it attacked the Vardon, it seemed to lack any awareness of tactical
priorities,” Valthyrra reminded them. “Does it seem to you that this monster is
getting smarter?”

“Actually
smarter, as opposed to simply showing us more of its abilities?” Gelrayen
asked.

“Exactly,”
the ship agreed. “I am reminded of myself, sixty years ago when I was first
brought on line. I was dull, remote, and completely unaware of anything going
on around me except my programmed function. I was aware of myself, but I did
not even know what that meant. It was the need to be able to do the things
required of me that forced my development.”

Gelrayen
considered that for a brief moment. “Are you suggesting that the Dreadnought is
a child, or perhaps a weapon that had never been activated until it drifted
into the Union and the presence of ships and stations triggered an automated
response to attack? Then it actually would be becoming smarter as it learned
how to plan. ”

“That
might well be,” Valthyrra agreed. “Or perhaps it was simply shut down to
dormant levels for so long that it has needed time to remember how to think and
plan for itself. Very much would depend upon how old it actually is. Our
suspicion is that, it is ancient because we have no idea who built it, and that
it has been bounding around space for a very long time. It might also be very
new. I remind you that the Union does not explore outside its own territory,
and the Starwolves never have the time.”

They
watched the main viewscreen for a moment as the Methryn moved slowly through
the wreckage. Blackened and battered pieces of metal hundreds of meters across
drifted past, most of diem rolling in an oddly calm, stately manner from the
impetus of the force that had ripped them apart. Gelrayen walked over to stand
beside Kayendel at the helm station, then looked up at the camera pod.

“What
are your thoughts on the subject?” he asked.

“I
believe that it was a mistake not to seek the advice of the Aldessan of Valtrys
when this affair first began,” Valthyrra answered without hesitation. “They
might very well know who built this machine, and how to shut it down. But the
ships were not consulted.”

Captain
Tarrel smiled to herself, impressed with the censure that the ship was able to
convey in her words. Valthyrra Methryn was probably very correct in her belief
that development in a sentient machine corresponded to need. She was coming
along very smartly.

They
came upon the first Union ship suddenly, a small cruiser drifting alongside one
of the larger pieces of station wreckage. It had actually been facing away at
first, but it reversed itself very quickly in what certainly seemed to be a
very startled gesture. Tarrel was given to wonder if its very aggressive stance
was as obvious to the Starwolves as it was to her. She could understand the
alarm of the little ship’s captain, suddenly finding himself nose to nose with
the largest and most deadly ship that he had ever seen, and why he continued to
respond to what he perceived to be a threat.

“Valthyrra,
do you still have your shields at stealth intensity?” she demanded.

“Of
course. I consider that to be a correct response to a situation that is
possibly threatening, and I wondered what they were doing.

“I
would suppose that they’re probing the wreckage at close-range scan for
survivors,” Tarrel told her. “You forget that human instruments are nowhere
near accurate as your own. And you had better make contact with the Fleet
Commander before you do have a threatening situation you never intended on your
hands. That cruiser is about to fire at you.”

“The
Fleet Captain’s battleship is approaching now,” Valthyrra said. “In fact, I am
being surrounded by no less than two dozen ships.”