Far Space (44 page)

“Are we getting double readings from the quantum communications system, Comm?” Mitchell asked.

Comm was shaking her head, tears in her eyes. “No, sir, quantum’s working fine.”

“Eight more out of the Jovian Cluster…they’re closing on our position!” Growler shouted.

“Offensive Laser Systems are in range and engaging,” Weapons said.

From the tactical station, Growler called out a few seconds later, “One ship damaged by long range OLS shots!”

“It’s not enough,” Osprey breathed, pulling himself back into his chair.

Mitchell ignored his DO and said, “Full speed ahead, Nav.” He imagined the battle would be over soon enough for him and his ship against the vastly superior force. But he certainly was not going to go out lightly. “Osprey, hit them with everything we’ve got. They came a long way for a fight. Let’s not disappoint them.”

Reagan Space Corps Base / SOF Ops Cell

Europa

“What’s that?” Jennifer asked as soft alarms began going off around the SOC.

“Multiple readings in Earth and Jupiter Space,” Williams reported. “Looks like a second wave.”

Yates looked up at the main displays.

Jennifer watched as more and more red icons appeared. “Why are there so many?”

“Because they want to finish the job,” Yates said.

Jennifer found Ian’s ship again and locked her eyes on it. She breathed, “Get out of there, Ian.”

Yates moved beside Jennifer. He put an arm protectively around her shoulder and said, “I’m not sure anywhere is safe, Jennifer.”

Reaper 16

Jupiter Space

“Where are all these guys coming from?” Ghost said as he stared at the main display.

“That’s just not fair,” Ian said as he took in the swelling ranks of newly arriving ships.

“It’s like ten-to-one,” Ghost said.

“Can we get our weapons back on-line?” Ian asked “Nada,” Ghost said as he checked his control board. “Offensive lasers are broke hard – power distro system is fried.”

“Rail?”

“Now that I can probably fix,” Ghost said pulling up a schematic. “A little bypass here, clear the feed-line there, some TLC…”

“How long?”

“Half hour minimum,” Ghost said, blowing out a long breath.

“Crud,” Ian said, “The ship’ll tear itself apart by then.”

“They’re at Earth,” Ghost said as he studied his monitor.

On the tactical display, the handful of U.S. defenders left in Earth Space were forming up around the Enterprise. A group of British and European Space Agency ships had joined together and were striking an enemy formation
twice their size. A Chinese defense station in geostationary orbit got a single shot off before being destroyed while the big guns of the American station at the Earth-Moon L5 point managed to take out three ships before going silent under an onslaught of return fire. Jupiter space was faring little better as a group of twenty-four Soosuri ships was advancing toward Europa.

Ian clenched his fist and thought furiously. Both humanity’s home on Earth and his home on Jupiter’s moon, where his wife waited for him, were in danger and he was helpless to respond.

“You sure about the core?” Ian asked.

“Computer doesn’t lie…usually,” Ghost said thumping his control console for emphasis. “Our containment is fluctuating – that hit damaged our solid-state shield. The active magnetic fields are compensating, barely, but they’re running on back-up power. The batteries will be sucked dry before we could get any help.”

“So…yes,” Ian said.

“Reaper 16’s history. She just won’t admit it.”

“Then Reaper 16’s crew needs a plan.”

Reagan Space Corps Base / SOF Ops Cell

Europa

Jennifer turned to Yates. “What are we going to do?”

“What we always do,” Yates said, flexing his jaw muscles. “We fight.”

“So many,” Jennifer murmured. It was hard to distinguish all the new ships from the background stars in the electro-optical images. She gasped as one of the human ships exploded in a brilliant fireball. “Ian?”

“No,” Yates said, double-checking the read-outs.

“Our SOF posts were able to place a few mines,” Williams reported.

“Blow ‘em,” the General ordered.

Sixteen ships exploded on the displays of Jupiter and Earth Space.

Within the span of ten seconds, twelve green icons disappeared.

Williams swore under his breath. “They found some of the teams.”

Yates nodded. “Tell the rest of them to lay low unless they have a solid target of opportunity.”

“Got anything else up your sleeve?” Jennifer asked.

“Maybe.”

Jennifer nodded at the swirling battles overhead. “Will it be enough?”

“Let’s just say it couldn’t hurt at this point,” Yates said.

The base rocked as the attack was renewed.

Jennifer was thrown painfully against a console and hung on until the ground stopped shaking. “I’d be happy if your magic bag could at least take care of the ships trying to kill us.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Yates said, smiling at Jennifer. He turned to Williams and said, “Activate the Vampires.”

Special Forces Post 32

Earth Space

Staff Sergeant Howie Bealeman, Marine Reconnaissance, sat at the cramped control console of his C-8S. Bealeman shifted his bulk in the small space, trying for the thousandth time to get comfortable and failing. He considered his options. He had already successfully planted two mines on ships which had exited the wormhole he had been watching for the past two weeks.

He had the option of detonating the bombs himself, but was happy to let the Cell back on Europa pull the trigger. His one-man stealth ship did not offer nearly enough insight of the strategic picture throughout the rest of the solar system for him to make such a call. Bealeman also did not want to be the one to blow up an alien vessel which had just stopped by to say hello.

Watching where the last ship had exploded, Bealeman assumed the reports from the Cell and other posts were correct: humanity was under attack again and the leadership was fighting back with everything they had.

One of the tricks Yates and the Special Ops Force crew had worked out were the mines Bealeman and other SOF troops were set to deploy as soon as any ship left a wormhole. Launched from spring-loaded tubes, the mines were pushed toward the unsuspecting ships. When they were close enough, powerful magnets attached the device to the hulls. Once there, they could be detonated at will.

With both of his mines expended, Bealeman could either sit out the rest of the fight or try to help in some small way. He reread the last order from the Cell and was not sure he would be presented with any other targets. Bealeman glanced back to where the wormhole hung invisible to the naked eye. Only gravimetric readings told him its exact location. He’d been lucky to catch two ships coming out. He doubted a third wave would be on the way, which left only one option.

“I need to find me a solid target,” Bealeman said. There was no way he was going to sit things out while Earth was fighting for its survival within sight.

He tapped his control board and started after the other alien ships which had come through the same wormhole, now just bright dots from their engines as they thrusted for Earth hanging in space before him.

“Wait for me,” Bealeman said, “I may be out of mines, but what I do have is plenty of ammo for the rail gun.” He activated his engines and felt the reassuring pressure build as his velocity steadily increased.

USS Saratoga

Jupiter Space

“The Arrows are sprinting back for a pass,” Osprey reported.

“Call everything in Jupiter Space to our position,” Mitchell said as his ship rocked from missiles impacting the armor.

“We got six harassing Reagan,” Growler said. “The rest are coming our way.”

“They just got the Providence,” Osprey noted. “Not very sporting to pick on a civvie.”

Mitchell nodded. The Providence was a heavy transport which plied the Earth-Jupiter route. A civilian ship, it carried no weapons.

“Whoa,” Osprey said, “Take a look at that.”

Looking up, Mitchell saw the focus of the DO’s awe. The latest arrival was a huge Soosuri vessel easily five times the mass as the largest enemy ship they had encountered to date.

“Looks like we have a new primary target,” Mitchell breathed.

Human Near Space

Oort Cloud Translation Point

“The gathering is complete,” Reyan said.

Tra’laan nodded but said nothing.

“We must intervene,” Reyan added. He gestured at the holo-projection. “The Soosuri are pursuing a particularly aggressive attack against this species.”

“The humans need more time,” Tra’laan said.

“They cannot win this fight,” Reyan stated.

“Victory on the battlefield is not the lesson I mean to teach the humans, brother.”

Reaper 16

Jupiter Space

“They don’t have a chance,” Ghost muttered as the defenders in Earth Space were swept aside one-by-one.

“We have to do something,” Ian said. “Saratoga and Reagan are getting pummeled.”

“Yeah,” Ghost said. “We’ve been over this. No weapons and we’ve got about six minutes.”

Ian took control of the Reaper’s controls and pointed the bow back toward the flashes of the battle raging around Europa. “Then let’s take a few with us.”

“I hear you, sir, but I don’t know if we can make it back in time” Ghost said. He snapped his fingers. “Wait, I have an idea.”

“Make it a quick one,” Ian said.

“Take a look,” Ghost said, tilting his control board for Ian to see.

“EJ437? But that takes us…” Ian pulled up the catalog entry for the wormhole Ghost proposed to use.

“Mmhmm,” Ghost hummed.

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Thought you might like that,” Ghost said, not taking his eyes from the frantic programming he was performing on his control board. “EJ437 drops us within a few thousand klicks of one of the enemy concentrations approaching L5.”

“Can we make it?” Ian asked.

Ghost took the controls and initiated the wormhole drive accelerators. “We’re about to find out.”

Reagan Space Corps Base / SOF Ops Cell

Europa

“Williams, take Mrs. Langdon to the nearest shelter,” Yates said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jennifer said. “I’ve got to know what happens.”

Yates stared into Jennifer’s eyes for a moment before nodding.

“C4 has been hit,” Williams reported. “Life support systems have switched to back-ups.”

“What about...” Jennifer’s voice trailed off as she looked around.

“We’re self-contained in here,” Yates reassured her.

“Vampires on-line,” Williams reported.

“Set for max yield and let ‘em fly,” Yates said.

As Jennifer watched, thirty-six green icons popped to life.

Yates met Jennifer’s look and explained, “Unmanned drones with variable anti-matter warheads.”

They watched in silence as the Soo picked off one Vampire after another.

“Come on,” Williams urged.

The icon marked Vampire 26 closed with one of the Soosuri ships directly above Reagan.

“Four attacking ship destroyed,” Williams said. “Another is damaged…make that destroyed.”

“Looks like they got the rest of them,” Yates muttered. “We figured missiles would be the easiest for them to pick off, that’s why we didn’t use them before now.”

The room shook with renewed vigor, driving Jennifer to her knees.

“I think we made them mad,” Williams said.

Jennifer felt constant vibrations coursing through the floor. In between blasts she swore she could hear a wailing – like a thousand lost souls calling out through the darkness. She shuddered and pulled herself back to her feet.

“Whatever happens, we’ll be together soon, Ian,” Jennifer muttered.

Reaper 16

Jupiter Space

“We’re primed and I’ve set my verifications,” Ian said, tapping a final key. “Transition in one minute twenty-six seconds.”

Ghost leaned back. “Ready here. The sensors will search for the nearest Soosuri ships and give us the max kick in the pants.”

“AM field?” Ian asked.

“Containment should last through the wormhole,” Ghost said. “Auto-destruct is set to queue off the nav computer. This things it gonna blow as soon as we get a proximity alarm.”

“That close?” Ian asked. The proximity alarms were generally set to a few hundred meters.

“Yep.”

“An antimatter explosion at that range is going to be spectacular to see,” Ian said as he gazed out the viewport.

Jupiter was huge, occupying more than half of the view. Io, Jupiter’s orange-colored volcanic moon hung in the foreground.

“How’s that for a view,” Ian muttered. “What a show.”

“Too bad it’s our closing act,” Ghost said.

USS Saratoga

Jupiter Space

“A group of ships are peeling off,” Growler reported. “They’re heading for Sterling.”