Storming Heaven (44 page)

“Thanks,” Brent said, firmly.  He smiled at her suddenly.  “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” Patti said, carefully.  “I may not answer, of course.  How may I be of service?”

Brent looked her in the eye,  “Who told you about the supernova bombs?”

Patti hesitated, threw a look at Tabitha, and then decided to answer honestly.  “The MassMind,” she said, finally.  “It decided that I should know about them so that the bombs could be deployed against the Killers.”

“Interesting,” Brent said.  His face showed no sign of the shock she was sure he was feeling.  The MassMind was not supposed to get involved in politics, although Patti was sure – just like human politicians – that it would be able to rationalise away any doubts or scruples it might have had.  “I always assumed that it was some bastard from the Technical Faction, upset that his wonderful invention wasn't being used.”

Patti smiled, remembering an old video entertainment featuring a mad scientist.  “You’re sure? You don’t want to put it through rigorous safety tests, demand that I tone down its strength and eventually deploy it in a year or two; long after the original reason for its creation has passed? Wow…Well. If you insist captain then it seems I have no choice but to unleash this glorious…err…necessary weapon of mass destruction.”

“Quite,” Brent agreed.  His face darkened.  “Tabitha, why did the MassMind share
that
particular titbit with anyone?”

“I don’t know,” Tabitha said.  “I used to be its representative to the War Council, but it hasn’t been telling me so much as it became more involved directly with the war itself, without working through me.  I don’t know what it was thinking.”

“But it has worked out for the best,” Patti pointed out, oddly disappointed by their reactions.  They could at least have been angry, even if anger wouldn’t have gotten them anywhere.  “The Killers have been hurt badly for the first time in centuries.  We’re on the verge of understanding their science.  We have gravity control now ourselves…and it’s only a matter of time before we crack the remainder of their technology.  Didn’t it all work out for the best?”

“We’ll see,” Brent said, finally.  He stood up and threw a snappy salute.  “I’ll be back soon, promise.”

His image flickered and vanished.  “I’d best be going too,” Tabitha said, without bothering with any niceties.  “We’ll pick up the question later.”

“Sure,” Patti said.  She had the odd feeling that the MassMind had manipulated her, without bothering to explain why.  The ‘how’ was obvious.  It was a collective of billions of human minds and understanding her mind would have been easy.  “If there is a later.”

***

It seemed impossible, but the mite was
intelligent
!

The newborn studied the alien creature with genuine fascination.  It had taken it only a few moments to construct a series of intelligence tests and it had been astonished by how quickly the mite had solved them.  The tests didn’t require rote learning or inherited memory and skills, but genuine thinking…and the mite had solved them all.  The newborn Killer had rapidly run out of intelligence tests – or, rather, tests that the mite could understand – and was devoting its considerable intellect to solving a more important question.  Was it actually possible to
communicate
with the mite?

It studied the mite with every sensor it could construct and deploy and concluded that the low-power radio transmissions were intended to serve as a form of communication.  It hadn’t realised at first, but it had been blinded by its own preconceptions.  A Killer would have used such transmissions to communicate with its internal cells, not an external person, yet the mite should have no need of such organs.  It was an ungainly solid creature and its body didn’t seem to require radio to keep itself together.  The newborn had wondered if the mite used the massive internal augmentation to keep itself intact in a gravity field, but that didn’t seem to make any sense.  A creature born on a rocky world would be used to a gravity field as a matter of course.  It constructed a radio transmitter and attempted to open communications.

The task was surprisingly easy.  Unknown to the Killer, the Spacers had spent years – assuming that they would be the ones to encounter the Ghosts or any other Hidden Race – preparing for contact with aliens and Rupert had brought the complete package with him when the Killer had kidnapped him.  The newborn studied the transmissions it received, calculated their meaning, and tested it.  The process was long and slow, but it was simple enough to understand what the mite was trying to tell the newborn.

It was happily engrossed in sharing concepts and trying to build a common language when the alert echoed through the communications network. 

The mites were attacking one of the core worlds!

Lightning
shuddered as it dropped out of Anderson Drive.

“We have arrived, sir,” David announced, unnecessarily.  “One Big Dumb Object dead ahead.”

“Show me,” Andrew snapped.  They had bare seconds before the Killers reacted to their presence.  “Put it on the main display.”

The sight shocked him silent.  The sphere was
immense
, huge beyond imagination; so large it seemed to effortlessly dwarf everything else in the system.  His imagination suggested towers and cities on the surface, but the towers would be the size of Earth and the cities would be larger than Jupiter.  The tiny icons representing Killer starships seemed microscopic compared to the sphere; the merest shape on the surface of the sphere dwarfed them.  It seemed to hold the entire fleet spellbound, daring them to try their worst.

Try me
, it seemed to shout to the heavens. 
You insignificant bugs.  Do you think that you can destroy my immensity?  Do you think that your puny weapons can inflict even a tiny amount of harm on me
?

“Scan the sphere for power emissions that might suggest the location of any defence weapons,” Andrew said.  His voice felt hushed in his own ears.  The sphere seemed to overwhelm any plans they might have developed, as if the plans no longer mattered, compared to the sheer glory of the sphere.  The Killers might have built it, yet even a human could admire the sheer…
scope
of their achievement, the sheer
immensity
of what they’d produced.  They’d wrapped a shell around a sun, a shell far further from the parent star than Earth had been from Sol, and made it look like nothing. Any defensive weapons on the surface would be so tiny as to be almost unnoticeable.  “I want you to coordinate with the other starships in the fleet; try and build up a picture of the exterior of the sphere.”

The scale was all wrong, he realised, as the human fleet massed.  They’d jumped in from various points, aiming to surround the sphere, yet it was futile.  If they hadn’t had quantum entanglement communications, it would have taken hours to send signals between the different attack wings, using primitive radiation.  The sphere didn’t seem to be emitting much of anything, apart from the low-level RF transmissions that seemed to be a stable of anything involving the Killers.  It just sat in the darkness, against the blazing light of the Galactic Core, mocking the humans with its sheer intensity.  It was just…too large for a human mind to grasp.

“The Killer starships are powering up their weapons, sir,” Gary said.  Andrew, who had been staring at what looked like an access point that would have been the size of several Jupiter-sized planets put together, was almost grateful for the interruption.  The Dyson Sphere cast a spell right across the proceedings.  “I think they’re preparing to engage us.”

“No shit,” David muttered.  “I’m getting wormhole emissions from several different coordinates.  They’re also bringing in reinforcements.”

Andrew muttered a curse under his breath as seventeen new wormholes materialised, disgorging Killer starship after Killer starship.  They’d misjudged the Killers again, he realised, as the wormholes remained open; the Killers kept most of their starships inside the Dyson Spheres and used wormholes to allow them to jump in and out of the interior as necessary.  They didn’t need an access port or an airlock, merely a wormhole generator and the power to run it.  They had both of them inside the sphere.

“Contact the attack wing,” Andrew ordered, curtly.  It was simple enough to designate targets for a swarm attack…and this time, no one had to commit suicide to take out a Killer starship.  “Tell them to lock their weapons on target and prepare to follow us in.”

He looked back up at the sphere.  It seemed absurd that anything as puny as their weapons would make an impact on the vast construction, but the Killer starships had seemed to have the same problem…and they’d learned how to destroy them.  The sphere only needed to be cracked so that they could break in and send the star supernova – he would have liked to see the Killers survive that, if they could.  Brent had been right at the briefing.  It didn’t really matter what happened when the star went supernova.  The Killers would lose, at the very least, their source of power.

“The attack wing is responding,” Gary replied, calmly.  “They’re standing by.  The Admiral has told us all
good luck and good hunting
.”

“Understood,” Andrew said.  He gripped the handles of his command chair, as if it would provide some safety if something went badly wrong, and smiled.  “Helm, take us in towards the target ship.”

The Killer starship seemed to zoom closer at terrifying speeds as the starships closed in on it.  Andrew linked his mind into the AI and used it to designate targets; not just for the
Lightning
, but for the other starships in the attack wing.  The Admiral had designated five more attack wings to stand by and follow his wing into action; the Killer starship would be overwhelmed and rendered harmless before it could tear his wing apart, let alone the fleet.  He found himself smiling as the Killer starship seemed to flinch.  Now, whatever the outcome of the war, the Killers would lose their complacency now and forever.

“Entering firing range now,” Gary reported.  “The Killer starship is opening fire.”

Bright streaks of white light shot past them, striking and destroying two of the attack wing.  “Return fire,” Andrew snapped, as new explosions marked the death of his comrades.  Ironically, not knowing them provided him a shield against his guilt; he’d been the one leading them into battle, making him the one who’d gotten them killed.  “And continue firing until we are out of range.”

A thousand implosion bolts lanced out of the attacking starships and plastered the Killer’s hull, which seemed to shatter as the starships swarmed around their target, firing blast after blast into the Killer ship.  The white streaks of light faded and died as chunk after chunk of armour was blasted off, leaving the Killer inside completely exposed – and helpless.  Andrew laughed aloud as Gary switched to energy torpedoes and particle beams, digging deep gorges into the heart of the Killer ship.  Strange energies flickered over the enemy ship’s remaining hull as it struggled to survive, diverting power to its internal force field in a desperate attempt to retain its structural integrity.

“I’m picking up gravity twists,” Gary barked, suddenly.  “They’re trying to crush us!”

“Evasive action,” Andrew snapped, sharply.  “Don’t let them get a lock on us!”

The starship seemed to shudder under the strain, and then they were free, rocketing away from their victim at several times the speed of light.  Andrew looked back at the Killer starship and almost felt sorry for it – almost.  It was a lion being torn apart by hyenas, he realised; great bursts of plasma were flaring off the hull, sending streaks of light dancing through space.  The Killer starship was dead, yet it didn’t seem to know it.  There was little point in prolonging the agony.

“Bring in one of the ramming ships,” he ordered.  The Killer starship couldn’t destroy the rammer, even if it had time to react…even if it saw the new threat in time.  Had their bombardment blinded it?  In their place, Andrew would have opened a wormhole and tried to escape, yet it was remaining stubbornly in the real universe.  Had they knocked out the wormhole generator?  “I want it destroyed before it can escape.”

A flicker of light marked the arrival of the first ramming ship, dropping out of Anderson Drive and racing down towards its target.  Its controllers, hundreds of light years away, steered it towards the rear of the craft, attempting to destabilise the black hole in the first few seconds of disaster.  The other starships saw the threat, turned and rocketed away, leaving the Killer starship alone for a few microseconds.  It had no time to even notice.  The rammer slammed home and the starship vanished in a blaze of white light.

“One Killer starship gone, sir,” Gary reported, his voice law and controlled.  “I have five more possible targets, all insufficiently engaged.”

“Order the attack wing to follow us in,” Andrew ordered, shaking his head.  The Killers didn’t have the numbers or firepower advantage any longer and they were being mobbed every time they showed themselves.  What did it matter if they swatted one or a hundred of the gnats surrounded them, if there were thousands more gnats ready and awaiting their chance to tear the enemy ship apart?  The humans had had advantages in numbers before, but they had never been decisive, until now.  The new weapons weren't dangerous in small doses, but with thousands of blows…

The Killers didn’t stand a chance.

“Wormhole opening, right on top of us,” Gary snapped.  “They’re coming through!”

“Evasive action,” Andrew barked.  There was barely any time to react.  They skimmed the hull of the Killer starship and barely avoided the burst of white light fired at them in passing.  Other starships weren't so lucky.  They slammed into the Killer starship hull and died, smashed to nothing against the impregnable hulls.  Andrew snapped orders, bringing the attack wing around to engage the new target as it opened fire, sweeping dozens of human starships out of existence.  “Take us in, now!”

“Gravity surges,” Gary said.  The humans had barely touched the newcomer.  “They’re leaping out again!”

The Killer starship vanished again, leaving behind nothing, but a backwash of gravity distortion.  The disruptions in local space-time were dangerous, damaging a dozen destroyers that were too close to the wormhole, but survivable.  The human starships could and did compensate for them, but it was a nasty new trick, if a dangerous one.  Other Killer starships were using the same tactic, ramming their undamaged hulls into human ships and relying on their hulls to save them from serious damage.  The starships that couldn’t adapt to the changing face of war – if the briefing had been accurate, that would be most of the Killers – would probably have been wiped out already.

They broke through into a moment of clear space and he looked down at the overall battle.  The Killers had lost no less than fifty-seven craft in less than ten minutes, although it had felt longer.  The fighting was raging all over the sphere’s exterior, yet the Killers were – for the first time – forced to fight on the defensive, and they were losing.  The handful of remaining Killer starships that
weren't
jumping around in their wormholes were being hammered to death even as he watched.  The Killers didn’t seem to be sending in new starships.  Perhaps they had finally run out of ships, or perhaps they had decided that they were losing too many ships for nothing.  Who knew…?

“Gravity surges,” Gary snapped, sharply.  A mighty hand seemed to pick up and shake the
Lightning
.  “They’re firing general blasts at us!”

“Who is?”  Andrew snapped.  No new Killer wormholes had opened near them, yet they were under attack.  Space itself was twisting around their position, trying to rip them to shreds.  “What are they doing to us?”

“They’re using the sphere itself,” Gary said, slowly.  The updates were streaming in from the MassMind, which was watching through their sensors.  The sphere was bending time and space around them, deploying its formidable power as a defensive force.  Andrew had to admire the sheer power the Killers were deploying, even as he loathed the way they used it; the sphere might succeed in destroying some of the ships, even though they were wrapped in warp bubbles.  “I think they’re channelling energy through the…ah, buildings and pushing it out at us.”

“And if they can tap an entire star, they can probably produce enough energy to swat us, eventually,” Andrew agreed.  The Admiral was coordinating the remaining part of the battle, but he had no doubt what he would order.  “David, take us down towards the sphere.  Prepare for a strafing run!”

The sphere was already dominating the horizon, even from light-minutes away.  Flying down towards its surface was like flying right at the surface of a planet, with the exact same result if they crashed into the ground.  No one was entirely sure what the Killers had used to construct their Dyson Sphere, but the smart money was on something not unlike their hull material, held together by power supplied by the star.  Bombarding it with conventional weapons might just be useless, yet even if it wasn't, it would be…tricky to inflict enough damage to matter.  The sphere could lose a surface area a hundred times the size of Jupiter without even noticing…

What do they have inside the sphere
?  Andrew asked himself, as they zoomed closer.  It was impossible to believe that they were not already within weapons range, yet they were still light-seconds away from the target. 
What do they have inside that will be exposed when we open fire
?