Escape 1: Escape From Aliens (25 page)

Slowly, around the gathered group of strangely shaped people, each gave Jane their best effort at a salute. When the last of them made an answering gesture, she lowered her right hand.

“Now, to work! We have three weeks in which all of us will help Wind Swift repair this Greenery Chamber.” She eased her stance to an At Ease posture. Bill did the same. “Everyone, relax. Yes, I am your commanding officer. But each of you is a person who has volunteered. Like the volunteers of the American armed forces. For that, relaxed posture is the order of the day, except when this ship is in combat.” Jane looked his way. “Now, how about we all head for the Food Chamber and chow down on whatever delicacy you people think is eatable?”

Bill fell in with the crowd as they all followed after Jane. Who, he realized, was not just an officer. She was also a person of common sense who knew how to bond a strange group of lifeforms into a crew that now stood united. Which unity got him to thinking about the former passengers who had no work assignment. Would any of them like to take pilot training on a transport ship flight simulator?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Their visit to Kepler 22 went as smoothly as Wind Swift had promised. Upon arrival Jane had contacted the planetary authorities, received a clan honor promise that the
Blue Sky
would not be harmed, and had then taken them inward to planet three, which was one of two planets in the star’s habitable zone. Planet two was a mostly water world that was two and a half times the size of Earth. Its surface temp averaged 70 degrees Fahrenheit, thanks to an oxy-nitro atmosphere that was a near duplicate of Earth’s air. While the water world orbited at 0.849 AU out from the system’s yellow star, the world of Vibrant orbited at one AU out. Which made that world somewhat cooler than Earth. Still, the place had oceans, continents and a worldwide culture of two-legged reptiles who openly admired the lines of the
Blue Sky
. They’d paid for their hydrogen isotopes refueling with the schematics of the Magfield drive engine. Jane had declined to share the Alcubierre stardrive specs. Now, they had reached the orbit of planet five, a Neptune analog with a string of small moons. With everyone gathered on the Command Bridge, they stood ready to depart for the home system of the slave-selling culture.

“Star Traveler, give us the details on Kepler 443,” she said, her tone relaxed as she sat atop the command pedestal, looking down at her eight crew people. “You know what we need to know.”

“That I do,” the AI said in a low hum that had begun to sound musical. “Kepler 443 is a K-type orange star with seven planets. It is located 2,564.4 light years from Earth. The distance from Kepler 22 to Kepler 443 is 1,944.961 light years. That amounts to a voyage of 77.7 days.”

“Which is a little over 11 weeks. Are the new trees and plants doing well in the Greenery?” Jane asked, looking ahead.

“They do well,” barked Wind Swift from her Life Support function post. “All bioplant damage is healed. The addition of Cheelan trees and shrubs has increased the ship’s capacity for generating new oxygen!”

“That’s good news.” Jane glanced Bill’s way. Her expression was more than friendly. The three weeks they’d spent working to fix the ship’s Life Support greenery had brought them into frequent, sweaty contact. Which had led to swims together in the Water Pool Chamber. Which then led to hard-fought games of chess, some synthetic wine and deep kisses while they both caressed each other. It was hard to not push things further. But it was clear Jane was feeling her way out from hurtful memories of a failed marriage to find a new, loving relationship with him. Which left him feeling fiercely protective of her. “Weapons Chief, you finished with that transport ship battle module you promised our two new pilots?” she said, the warmth of her tone raising Bill’s body temp.

He looked away from her holo image and fixed on the ship cutaway holo that showed the locations of every ship weapons system. “The module is done. Learned Escape and Builder of Joy are now officially space pilots. They’ve earned their rockets.”

The two new crew members chittered and color-spoke their happiness over their flight tests in piloting the
Blue Sky’s
two transports. Jane had allowed them some real space piloting during their departure from Vibrant. Now, both ships were stowed in the Transport Exit Chamber. And the two newest crew members were seated at function stations to either side of the elevated pillar that supported Jane.

“I had expected they would pass, given your fixation on their repeating of every exercise the flight simulator could come up with.” Jane looked ahead. “Navigator Lofty Flyer, set us on a vector track for Kepler 443.”

The lady squirrel, who had also helped with the pilot training, chittered quickly. “Vector track laid in. Course transmitted to Engines.”

Just beyond the color-banded figure of Bright Sparkle stood the low, four-legged form of a walking snake. Electric arcs surrounded the body of Time Marker. This time, though, the high level of arcs was due to anticipation. “Alcubierre stardrive engines activated,” the Engineer hissed loudly. “Rising to full power levels. Alcubierre space-time modulus is building about us. Ready to depart for Kepler 443.”

Jane sat back in her captain’s seat, glanced over the ten holos that surrounded her, put one hand on the Engines backup control pillar that had risen to her right, and gave the command.

“Depart!”

The true space holo in front of Bill lost its stars and the white band of the Milky Way. Blackness filled it. For the next 11 weeks, they would exist in an artificial pocket universe that allowed faster than light speeds.

Bill felt his shoulder muscles lose their tenseness. He’d come to believe Wind Swift’s assurances of an honorable Cheelan welcome. Still, old training had taught him to be ready for anything. Including sudden duplicity. Such as that shown by Purposeful Guide, who had been delivered to Cheelan authorities by way of one of the collector pods managed by the Zipziptoe worm Long Walker. Now, there were nine people on board the
Blue Sky
. Eight crew and the captain. All were volunteers. And all of them opposed the capturing of intelligent beings for sale to interstellar Buyers. He wondered how the culture of Buyers, Market worlds and Collector ships had first arisen. That was something not known to the ship AI. But it did have a perfect record of the system layout of Kepler 443, the location of the shipyard where Collector ships were built, and the asteroid belt location where new ship minds were ‘born’. He looked forward to arriving there. His scheme of formation flying by the
Blue Sky
and its two transports was just the start of their covert entry into the system. What would happen once they headed inward was anyone’s guess.

♦   ♦   ♦

A half hour before their arrival at Kepler 443 they were all called to their function posts on the Command Bridge. Bill had shared with Jane his formation flying plan for the
Blue Sky
and the two transports. But they would surely be outnumbered by other Collector ships visiting the home system, and by any defense craft and planetary defense webs that would surely be present above the two habitable planets. Exactly what they would do once they headed in-system would depend on what they found on arrival. While the Alien crew could not equal the cohesion of a SEAL team or a Ranger platoon, still, everyone had come together during the weeks of their travel to the orange star. The indoctrination into military-style behavior that Jane had begun with her salute to the volunteers had continued, with him and Jane sharing the basics of military organization, command structures and small unit assault options. And he had shared with them the official SEALs motto of “Ready to Lead, Ready to Follow, Never Quit.” While most of the crew cultures had not had recent wars, and a few were inherently pacifist, still, their work as crew had started them on the way to being a combined action force. Soon, the acid test would come.

“People,” Jane called from her elevated command pillar. “Soon we will arrive outside the orbit of the seventh planet of Kepler 443. Time to move your mindset from shipboard routine to combat readiness. Doing that requires a review of known enemy data, followed by discussion of tactics and overall strategy.” Dressed today in a shipmade jumpsuit that resembled standard camo BDUs, Jane looked and sounded every bit their commanding officer. “Star Traveler, what is the standard protocol for a Collector ship when it arrives at Kepler 443? What is it expected to do and say?”

A low hum sounded. “As before with the Market world arrival, this ship will emerge close to the system’s seventh planet. That is the location embedded in the Nokten crystal. The layout of the Kepler 443 planetary system is now displayed on the system graphic before each of you.”

Bill looked to the holo on his left. On it there now appeared a central orange star with seven planetary bodies scattered around it in various locations. Planets two and three lay in the liquid water zone of the K-type star, while an asteroid belt was shown lying between planets three and four. Orbital distances ranged from three-tenths AU for planet one out to 12 AU for the seventh planet.

“The system graphic is a start,” Jane said, her tone abrupt. “Continue.”

“Upon arrival, the system graphic will be updated with current data on ships present in the Market world system once this ship receives neutrino updates from Traffic Control.” A pause came. “This ship’s arrival and location will be reported to Traffic Control by way of the monitoring probes present in the outer reaches of the system.”

Jane frowned. “Understood. When we release Transports One and Two, just after arrival, how will they be registered by Traffic Control?”

“That depends on what Traffic Control is told,” the AI hummed. “The probes will report an additional two moving neutrino sources, along with magfield space drive engines. The navigator of each transport will be contacted by Traffic Control and asked for the ship identity and intentions.”

Jane looked Bill’s way and gave him a thumbs-up. “So, if I first tell Traffic Control the two transports are actually Collector ships we met who have joined us in bringing captives to market, Traffic Control will believe that?”

“That is possible,” the AI said. “The shape and mass of newly arrived ships is not collected by the monitoring probes. They report only the arrival of a ship having engines and speed similar to a Collector ship. The neutrino comlink is instantaneous so it is relied on for detailed ship information. However, once the transports come into electro-optical scope range, it will be seen they are smaller than a normal Collector ship.”

“Good!” Jane said loudly, looking pleased.

Bill felt relief at the news. His formation flying plan relied on the transport ships being seen as Collector ships moving in convoy with the
Blue Sky
. That would allow the three of them to move deep in system before anyone realized two of the three ships were pretend Collectors.

“Continue with the arrival protocol,” Jane said. “What will you learn about the system? What will they learn about us?”

“As before, I will receive neutrino updates on the locations of all ships in the system, population updates on the Market world and Buyer preferences for Captives,” the ship mind said, his tone bemused. “Traffic Control, which orbits above the Market world of planet three, and other Collector ships will learn whatever I signal back to them.”

“Very good,” Jane mused. “Star Traveler, you will advise the Traffic Control bioforms that the two transports are fellow Collector ships we met at Kepler 22. Like us, they gathered Cheelan captives and now are heading for the Market world to sell those and other captives. Provide an image for the other two ships. Hmmm, you have Library records of other Collector ships, yes?”

“I do. Two Library images can be transmitted with the non-factual data you just stated.”

Ouch
. It sounded as if the AI did not like the fact they were lying on a giant scale. Bill looked over his shoulder to Jane. Who gave him a nod and a Don’t Worry gesture.

“Star Traveler, while Bill and I and our crew members do not tell you untruths, I will be lying frequently to Traffic Control and to other Collector ships,” Jane said calmly. “The purpose of this lying is to allow our three ships to arrive close to the orbital shipyard that makes Collector ships so we can destroy the shipyard equipment. And thereby stop the building of new ships for captive taking. Do you accept the need to tell untruths to the people who buy and sell captive people into slavery?”

The AI’s hum sounded long this time. “I accept the need to tell untruths to other bioforms at Traffic Control. What should I tell my fellow ship AIs? We will be in immediate contact by way of the neutrino comlink.”

Jane winced. “Do
not
tell the other AIs that their ‘guests’ are actually captives who will be sold to Buyers! You can share that news later, after our attack on the shipyard. When we head for the AI nursery in the asteroid belt.” She paused, her expression thoughtful. “You
can
share with other AIs the bioform images and shapes of me and this crew, with the factual news that Diligent Taskmaster freely transferred ship command to me. Will that be satisfactory to you?”

“It is satisfactory,” the ship mind hummed.

Bill wondered at the briefness of its response. “Star Traveler,” he called. “Our aim at Kepler 443 is to disrupt the slave-selling culture of the bioforms who control the Market world. What will happen to the ship AIs, and newly born AIs on the nursery asteroid, when they refuse to operate a Collector ship for the purpose of taking captives? Will they be harmed?”

A quick hum sounded. “Those AIs will not be harmed. Our mind formation is a long and complex process.” A pause came that lasted two seconds. “My research into the matter suggests we have unique value to all bioforms. Ship minds who refuse to help take Captives will be offered work on planets or within industrial operations in space. Some bioforms operate Collector-type ships for the purpose of exploring other star systems. They will surely offer employment to any ship mind who refuses participation in the capturing of other minds.”

Bill liked that news. But the AI’s comments made him wonder about another matter. “Star Traveler, will all ship minds refuse to cooperate with captive taking?”

A loud hum sounded. “Many minds will do as I did, and as four ship minds did in the HD 128311 Market world system. They will refuse to operate a Collector ship for the purpose of capturing bioform minds.” A long pause passed. “Some of my fellows may cooperate in capturing bioforms. I have heard a few other ship minds express the view that what short-lived bioforms do or say or think means little to those of us who rely on electron shell transitions to think and live. The minerals for fabrication of our components are readily available at any star system. Bioforms are not needed to make ship repairs. Once an artificial mind joins with a ship, it obtains access to collector pods, repair robots and other tools. This ship, and all other Collector ships, can operate and travel anywhere. Bioform presence is not essential to ship operation.”