The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) (13 page)

“Recharge and retargeting time,” I said, nodding. “Gravity weapons always take time to cycle and fire again.”

“The enemy is taking evasive action, Colonel,” Jasmine warned me.

I could see them now, splitting apart and dodging.

“It won’t save them, but it may buy them more time,” I said. “What I want to know is whether Marvin can destroy them all before they reach firing range on this fleet?”

Newcome and Jasmine worked on this. I was surprised that Newcome came up with a definitive answer first.

“Negative, Colonel. They will lose at least two thirds of their ships, but not all of them. They will come within range with…I’d say about a hundred and thirty vessels.”

I frowned. We only had thirty, even if one of them was a carrier.

“That’s not good enough,” I said. “Launch every missile we have. Put them out in pulses, but give them a dozen targets each. If one blows up, they should be programmed to automatically target the next one without too much overkill.”

Almost before I finished explaining what I wanted, I felt the ship shudder under me. I knew that our birds were flying. Every few seconds, the ship shuddered again.

Admiral Newcome gave me a crooked smile. “Not conserving your ammo today, eh sir?”

I smiled back. “This is our chance. They don’t even know what’s hitting them. If we can chew them up all at once, slamming them from every angle, we might pull this little fleet out of the system without losing a single ship.”

Newcome’s expression indicated he thought the odds of that were slim, but he did look a lot happier than he had ten minutes earlier. Hell, we all did.

“Unload the transports and form up the fighters into strike groups,” I ordered. “The marines and fighters will go in right after the missile strikes. Set up the timing on that, Jasmine. Don’t let our missiles blow up our attacking troops.”

“Working on it, sir.”

The next hour zoomed by. When you’re doing something effective in battle, and you think your odds of winning are pretty good, time flies. Their ships kept winking out, one at a time. When half of them had been destroyed, we were all smiles. Sure, it was still two hundred to thirty, but they were being annihilated at a horrific rate.

Jasmine caught my attention with a frown at that point, however. “Sir…I don’t understand it, but the rings are back online. They’ve stopped jamming them. We’re in connection with Star Force again.”

I hooted. “We must have gotten their jamming ship.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. They were all jamming. Every last one of them. But for some reason…”

She trailed off and put her hand to her headset. Her frown deepened.

“I’m getting a channel request,” she said. “They’re asking for you, sir.”

“What? The Macros are calling me begging to surrender? Request denied!”

I said these words with glee in my heart and a grin on my face. For years, the Macros had been slamming the phone down on my calls and pleas for mercy and diplomacy. It felt great to give them the finger for once. They were all going to burn this time.

But Jasmine was still frowning; she still had her hand cupped over her earpiece. She shook her pretty head.

“No sir,” she said. “It’s not the Macros calling us. It’s the Blues.”

I stared at her for a second, and my face fell. I turned my gaze back to the screens. Yes, we were winning. Yes, we were tearing apart the Macro ships like toys. And apparently, someone had heard about it, and didn’t like it. The Macros had called up their collective mommies begging for help against the big bad man.

The question was: what could the Blues do to stop me?

-13-

I opened the channel with the Blues reluctantly. My first instinct was to ignore them. I wanted to simply churn and burn on the Macro fleet, ripping apart every one of their mindless vessels without mercy or compunction.

But I still feared the Blues in the back of my mind. They’d launched a ship less than a year ago that had shown us new technology we’d been unable to beat. If it hadn’t been for Crow’s cyborgs, we would never have defeated
Phobos
. Now, I had to ask myself: What else did they have up their sleeves?

“Colonel Kyle Riggs,” said a ghostly voice after the channel was established. “Why am I not surprised that we have been forced to lower ourselves into conversing with your species yet again? Without fail, your savage life form has irritated…”

It was at about this point during the windbag’s speech that it occurred to me that the guardian ships I’d place in orbit over the Blue’s homeworld were now out of position. Instead of squatting just above the atmosphere, ready to bomb them if they did anything funny, Captain Grass had come to my rescue on his own initiative. That meant the Blues were back in the Eden system with nothing to keep them from launching an attack against our colony worlds, and it had probably prompted this noisy cloud to call me up to talk big.

Mind racing, I muted the Blue on the line and turned to Jasmine. “Order Captain Grass back into the Eden System,” I said.

“He won’t like retreating from a battle. You know them. They’re dying to charge right now. They can see us attacking, and it must be driving them mad.”

I glared. “I don’t care! This isn’t about glory and honor. Tell him the sneaky Blues are threatening his homeworld, and he’s out of position. Tell him anything, but get him back to his station!”

“Sir,” Newcome said, stepping up. “Let me do it. I’m experienced in the art of talking reluctant commanders into following orders.”

I glanced at him, and nodded. “Okay. Jasmine, stay on ops. Newcome, get into communication with those damned goats and send them back home.”

I unmuted the Blue. Unsurprisingly, he was still lecturing me about what a bastard I was.

“…and without provocation, your barbaric species has repeatedly assaulted our gaseous oceans, polluting them with—”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Let’s get on with it. Who are you, and why are you calling me now?”

“I am the being known as Mercy,” the Blue said.

I rolled my eyes. “Mercy, huh? Okay, ‘Mercy’. Have a little compassion and get to the point. I’m busy.”

“You have indeed been working industriously. We know all about your violations. You have stepped too far over the bounds this time, Colonel Riggs. Really, we did not think you were capable of—”

“Look,” I said, “I’m about to break this connection and put you on permanent hold. If you have something pertinent to say, this will be your last chance.”

“No, you are incorrect. It is
your
last chance, fleck of solid matter which plagues us. You have broken the edicts of the Ancients. They will not tolerate your transgressions. They will come, and they will eradicate you like the vermin you truly are.”

He finally had me frowning. I had to admit, he’d managed to worry me. I gnashed my teeth, wanting with all my heart to disconnect him. Hell, I wanted to order Captain Grass to carpet bomb their annoying world once and for all.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. All around me people were launching fighters, relaying orders and giving one another reports. This was a bubbling hive of activity, the heart of a command post in the midst of battle. I had to rise above all that excitement and try to figure out what Mercy was hinting at.

“I’m listening,” I said. “I’m grateful for this opportunity to hear your wisdom. Let us share a moment of peace in the middle of chaos. Tell me, merciful one, why you have lowered yourself to speaking with one so unworthy as I?”

“Your attitude has improved,” the Blue said. “I will reward you with clarity, for it is in my nature to be generous with unfortunates such as yourself. I’m speaking of the Ancients who created the transport network you call ‘the rings’. The Ancients have moved on, but they are ever vigilant. You have attempted to duplicate their work, which is an act of sacrilege they will never permit.”

“Are you talking about the gravity weapons? You built them first.”

“No, not at all. I’m referring to your creation of new rings. You have managed to connect two points that are light years apart, and that is forbidden.”

I was finally beginning to catch on.

“You detected our activity?” I asked.

“Obviously. I can’t believe it took you this long to comprehend the nature of a discussion in which you are personally involved. I was informed, before I made this merciful gesture, that you would not understand my attempt at communication. It was predicted that you would be argumentative even when facing the doom of your species. That you would—”

“Okay, yeah,” I said, becoming irritated all over again. “I’m a real asshole. I get that. Now, explain how these Ancients who made the rings are going to be a problem.”

“If we have detected your transgressions, they will have done the same. They will not tolerate a threat to their dominion.”

“What is their dominion? How many systems do they have?”

“Your question is almost without meaning.”

“How many systems are connected by rings of their making?”

“You have been told this before. Some two hundred known linked points exist. They are not all operational, however.”

“And why’s that? Why haven’t we seen these Ancients for so long? Where are they, and why aren’t they patrolling their territory? I mean, it would only take a year or so for one of my ships to traverse two hundred linked systems. Where have they all gone? Are they all dead? Or maybe fighting a war of their own?”

There was a moment of quiet after my question was translated and relayed to the Blues. I almost asked again when he suddenly replied.

“You ask questions for which we do not have an answer. But the beings we speak of are as far beyond our understanding as we are beyond yours. They are so advanced as to be gods. Do you know the mind of your gods? No, you do not, and neither do we. But we know enough to fear them wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.”

I turned my eyes back toward the screens to see how the battle was shaping up. It was looking pretty good. We still had seventy missiles of theirs inbound, but the missiles were traveling pretty slowly now in relation to my retreating fleet. I figured we could shoot them all down before they hit us.

My own forces were closing with the enemy. I had about a hundred fighters out there and at least a thousand marines. We would board their ships or stand-off and bomb them with tactical nukes. Those of the enemy cruisers that survived Marvin’s continuous fire, that is. They were dodging around, but it hadn’t spoiled my robot’s aim much. In fact, he was hitting them faster now. Maybe he’d gotten the hang of his system, or maybe it was warmed up. Every thirty seconds, another of their ships crumpled into a wad of metal and released a puff of gas and energy. Already, more than half of them were out of the fight. There were only about a hundred and seventy ships left.

“Looks like our boys are going to miss this fight!” I said proudly. “I thought Marvin needed a helping hand, but now I’m beginning to think there will be nothing left by the time our fighters reach the enemy.”

“Your statements are nonsensical,” Mercy complained in my ear. I grimaced. I’d forgotten about him for a moment.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was speaking in code. What do you want again?”

“Most of my people, who are listening to this conversation now, do so solely for the purpose of gloating. They understand you have doomed yourself, and they are joyful. That is not my way. No matter how unworthy your form of existence, I feel compelled to offer you solace.”

I snorted. “Solace? What kind of peace can you offer me?”

“It is known to us that, in his final moments, you shared matter with Tolerance. That was a thoughtful gesture for a barbarian. Our scholars are somewhat at a loss to explain it. Perhaps our civilized natures have infected the purity of your naturally feral state, instilling you with refinement. In any case, I wish to personally offer the same courtesy to you.”

I frowned. “Let me get this straight,” I said. “You’re offering me the opportunity to come into your atmosphere, meet up with you, and, uh—trade matter?”

“Exactly. It is a burdensome thing, and I will forever be stigmatized among my own people for having allowed it. But I am the one called Mercy, and I would stay true to my principles even under these circumstances.”

The Blues were a strange people even by the galactic standards for strangeness set by all the aliens I’d encountered so far. These beings existed largely in a gaseous state, and when they met up with one another, they often traded some of their personal matter. To a solid creature such as myself, this seemed odd at the very least, like keeping a lock of hair from everyone I’d ever met. But they didn’t only keep this exchange, the puff of gas exchanged became part of them. They believed they were immortal as long as some piece of their molecular matter was still functioning in another of their species.

Knowing this, I understood that the Blue was offering me something significant in his culture. But I wasn’t keen on the idea. I’d traded spit with Blues twice before, and I hadn’t enjoyed the experience in the least.

“Why are you offering us this now?” I asked him. “Why do you think it’s a merciful act to share matter with me?”

“Is that not obvious? I’m fairly certain it must be abundantly clear by now. I truly don’t understand how you can have advanced so far—”

“Right, okay,” I said. “I’m a big dummy. Now, just tell me why you want to do this?”

“Because you are doomed, Colonel Kyle Riggs. Your existence cannot continue. You have violated the will of the Ancients, such as none has dared to do for a billion years. You and all your people will be destroyed when they come back.”

For the first time, the Blue had my full attention. I turned away from the screens, the cheering crowds, and cupped my hands over the mouthpiece. “You say they’re coming back? These Ancients? When?”

“That is known only by them.”

“Well, how long has it been since you’ve seen them? How long in standard Earth years?”

There was a moment of quiet, then the answer came at last. “The stillness of space was last visited upon all our species over a hundred thousand years ago.”

“A hundred thousand…?” I asked?  Then I smiled. “Ha! I’ve got news for you, Mercy. That’s a long, long time for a human. I’ll be dead and gone long before they come back. But what was that you said about the stillness of space? I didn’t get that.”

“The reference was to the cold they bring with them: the chill of the stars, the cooling of the planets. All life suffers when the Ancients glide through our systems.”

I was frowning again thinking about that.

“Okay, Mercy,” I said. “I’ve got to go. I have a battle to win. But I want to thank you for this call, the warning and your very personal offer of solace. I know that means a lot to your species.”

“You appreciate my offer?”

“I do indeed,” I lied. “I might even take you up on it someday.”

“I am surprised. I was told you would not understand my generosity and would reject it. You are a strange being, Colonel Kyle Riggs.”

“I’ve been told that before,” I assured him and closed the channel.

Around me, my staffers were cheering. The enemy was down to thirty ships, and our fighters and marines had finally reached them. We were tearing them apart.

But I stared at the screens, troubled.

“What is it, Colonel?” Jasmine asked me. “What did the Blues have to say?”

“They wanted to give me the last rites,” I said.

“What?”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. But Jasmine, do you happen to remember when Earth’s last glacial period began? You know, when the ice covered most of our world?”

“You mean when it ended?” she asked, frowning.

“No. I want to know when it started.”

She brought up a screen and did a search online. I could have done that, but I let her.

“Just over a hundred thousand years ago,” she said. “Why do you ask, Colonel?”

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “No reason. Carry on.”

A few minutes later, the last of the enemy ships blew up. While everyone else on the ship cheered and whooped, I remained quiet and brooding.

What if I had pissed off these Ancients—some sort of sinister super-aliens we’d never encountered? What if I’d unwittingly stirred up a new shitstorm, the like of which hadn’t been seen in a hundred millennia?

Well,
I told myself,
it wouldn’t be the first time.