Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens (21 page)

“Ship
Blue Sky
is now at 11,213 miles distance from the nearest enemy ship,” Lofty Flyer chittered. “Closure to within 10,000 miles is expected in nine minutes.”

His memory of Wind Swift kicked his brain. “Captain! Let’s launch our 24 collector pods now! And tell their Magfield engines to speed ahead of us at 14 or more percent of lightspeed. If a few blow up, or most of them croak, so what? We could use the survivors as ramming craft against the enemy!”

“Fine idea XO!” Jane said quickly from behind him. “But let’s make them more deadly. I want thermonuke warheads in each craft. How many spares do we have on the deck below?”

Bill checked his Weapons cutaway holo. It showed all weapons at Green Operational. It also showed the status of all ammo, whether it be nukes, antimatter loads or plasma reloads. “Twelve. They are stored in the MITV launcher room below us.”

In his comlink holo, his wife and captain grinned toothily. “Yes! Star Traveler, send hover bots to transport those warheads to the Collector Pods Chamber. Load them into 12 pods. Advise me when the pods are loaded.”

“Complying. Time to completion of task is three point nine eight one minutes,” the AI hummed.

“Wind Swift,” called Jane. “Launch 12 pods right now! Set their autopilots on track for the two closest enemy ships. Order the autopilots to increase Magfield engine speed to 14 percent of lightspeed. If they can go faster, move them faster!”

His peripheral vision saw the claw-hands of the kangaroo moving quickly atop her control pillar. “Twelve pods now launched. New operating rules input into their autopilots. Each has acquired the infrared signature of an enemy ship. They are moving to 11, 12, 13, now 14 percent of lightspeed. Captain! They are reaching 15 percent!”

Bill saw that. On his system graphic the tiny red dots of the pods were moving ahead of the
Blue Sky
. He tapped his fire control panel. “Wind Swift, I’ve sent you a random walk vector track program. Upload them to the pods! That will give them a chance at survival from enemy lasers.”

“Uploading evasion program,” barked his ally.

He hoped the pods would pre-empt any ramming by the six subs that were just 700 miles behind the
Blue Sky
. Jake and his six Collector ships, along with the ships captained by Stefano, Frank, Joe and Learned, were a touch closer at 500 miles behind the
Blue Sky
. His ship had had a vector angle advantage over the other ships and subs. Plus Jake’s fleet had been further away when everyone sped up to 13 percent of lightspeed.

“Task completed,” Star Traveler hummed. “One warhead loaded on each of the 12 remaining collector pods.”

“Launch them, Wind Swift!” Jane called urgently.

“Launching,” the kangaroo barked. “These pods are also moving at 13, 14 . . . now 15 percent of lightspeed!”

“Captain,” Bill called. “I’ve sent the random walk vector track program to these nuke-loaded pods. I’m also sending the program to our allies behind us.”

In his comlink holo, Jane brightened, then snapped her fingers. “All sub captains, launch your missiles now! Set them for warhead dispersal once your missiles pass the
Blue Sky
. They can’t go any faster than your 13 percent of lightspeed, but they can be a follow up distraction for the lasers on those enemy ships! Do it now!”

“Launching missiles,” called the voice of the captain for the
HMS Vengeance
. “My missiliers are transmitting the random walk program into the missile computers.”

“
La même choix per mois
,” called the French captain of the
FNS
Terrible
. “Our missiles are pursuing the enemy,” came his translated voice.

The captains of the four Trident subs who were part of the group of six ordered to attack by Hartman also confirmed they too were launching their Trident missiles, with Bill’s random walk evasion program uploaded to the missile nav computers. He watched the first group of 12 pods, which were ahead of the 48 empty pods launched by Stefano, Frank, Joe and Learned. Who were also loading nukes onto their remaining 12 pods. Jake and his six fellow Collector captains would be doing the same.

“Captain,” called Jake from the
Tangi Valley
. “We’re launching 12 empty pods at the enemy ships. Ours are also speeding up to 13, 14, now 15 percent of lightspeed!”

Bill’s system graphic holo showed his 12 pods racing ahead of them. Twelve more loaded with nukes were not far behind. Those two clusters were followed by the 48 pods from their fleet group. Another group of 48 pods from Jake’s fleet now showed as tiny red dots on the graphic. That made for 120 highly mobile collector pods bearing down on the three enemy ships. They would soon be followed by another nuke-loaded group of 108 pods. Then the ICBM missiles would appear, barely pulling ahead of the two fleets. The warheads from the four Trident subs would amount to 1,152 warheads, plus a few hundred more from the Brit and French subs. He realized the pod and missile attacks would come in waves versus a single group of hundreds. He checked the fancy iWatch that Jane had got him on their return to Earth.
Yes!
Time for the second group of nuke-loaded pods to launch from Stefano’s and Jake’s ships. Which now happened. Two groups of 48 and 84 pods now became a fifth and sixth wave after the four waves of unarmed pods. Inside, in his sneaky SEAL heart, he realized there was no way the lasers on three Collector ships could kill several hundred collector pods running up their tails!

“XO, looks like your pod attack idea, plus our missile warhead loads, are going to give the enemy fits!” Jane said sharply, sounding happier than he’d heard in some while.

“Pods are within 8,000 miles of the enemy ships,” Bill called back, watching the tiny dots on his system graphic. Bright green streaks and yellow flares on his true space holo drew his attention. “Crap. All three enemy ships are firing tail lasers at the approaching pods. Ten down, twelve, first wave is gone.” He focused on the second wave of nuke-loaded pods. “Nine more hit. Twelve gone.” He saw something that gave him hope. “But half of the 48 in the third wave are still alive! They are jinking, warping and hiccupping their way on my random walk program! Fifteen are alive and at 3,000 miles. Approaching 1,200 miles distance.” A green light blinked on his fire control panel. “Captain! We are less than 10,000 miles from the enemy! I’m firing lasers!”

“Other ships,” Jane called. “Fire when in target range!”

Bill tapped his lasers, sending two green streaks toward the nearest enemy Collector ship. He was aiming for its engine section rather than the small laser emitter nodes. The conical engine section of a Collector ship was still hard to hit. The enemy was now moving to random walk jinking as someone alerted the captains to the fact they were within attack range from the
Blue Sky
and her four ship allies. Soon, Jake and his six ship allies would be in range to fire their lasers. Shortly after that would come the six boomer subs, each outfitted with a laser scavenged from a transport ship.

A green flare showed in his true space holo. On his system graphic holo, one of the two enemy ships lagging behind Death Leader’s ship now jerked, then its random walk movement ended. Or rather slowed. Had one of its Magfield engines died from his lasers?

“Captain!” Bill yelled. “One enemy ship is slowing to five percent of lightspeed. They’ve lost a Magfield engine.”

“Great! Now let’s see—”

In space, death happens very quickly.

The red dots of three pods converged on the wounded enemy ship, hitting with enough inertial force to vaporize the fantastic flexmetal skin of the ship. The plasma balls created by those three impacts traveled on into the ship’s thousand foot long body. Yellow-white light flared on his true space holo.

“Jane!” Bill called. “Enemy ship is gone! Its antimatter reservoir was beached by a pod impact!”

“Interesting,” Star Traveler hummed from the ceiling. “Its ship mind put out a cry for help just before it . . . evaporated.”

“My ships are firing on the enemy,” called Stefano.

“Ours also,” called Jake.

Bill touched his fire control panel, adding his lasers to the mix. Green streaks from 24 lasers crossed the 8,714 miles separating the
Blue Sky
from the Death Leader and his ship ally. Green flares showed on his true space panel. He glanced at his system graphic.

“Captain!” he called. “Both ships were hit but are still maintaining 12 percent of lightspeed. Uh, damn! The two are speeding up to 13 percent of lightspeed. They are matching our Collector ship speed. But they are not pulling away from us. And here comes the fourth wave of empty pods. I’m firing our lasers.”

Everyone else added their laser fire. The six subs also fired since they were not far behind Jake’s seven ships. In fact, the subs were pulling ahead. Had they gone to 14 percent of lightspeed?

Dozens of yellow flares filled his true space holo. Bill checked his graphic holo. The news was depressing.

“Captain, the two enemy ships have flipped nose-to-tail and are now firing their antimatter projectors at the oncoming pods,” Bill reported. “They killed 43 pods in the fourth wave. Their lasers are taking out those pods beyond 4,000 miles. But our nuke-loaded fifth wave is jinking like an ice skater trying not to fall!” He paused, counting yellow flares. “Fourteen of the fifth wave of pods are dead from laser strikes.” Green flares showed now. “But our third group of lasers are taking a toll! Hits on Death Leader’s ship and the enemy ship behind it.”

Death visited again.

Yellow-white light flared brightly in the middle of his true space holo.

“Rearmost enemy ship is now gone,” Bill said, his breath coming too fast and his heart beating like he was running a marathon. “Two empty pods hit its tail. Three nuke-loaded pods hit its mid-section. Whatever blew on the loaded pods just added to the antimatter blow-up.” He looked back to his wife, whose pale face was tight-clenched. Her command manner was almost gone as Jane watched the sudden reversal, then improvement of their battle fortunes.

“Good news. But Death Leader’s ship is pulling away from us,” she said, pointing at her system graphic holo. “And the bastard’s using his antimatter projector to sweep the space behind him. Our sixth wave of pods is gone.”

Bill jerked back to his own system graphic holo. What Jane had just said, he now saw. Death Leader’s ship was now slowly pulling away at 14 percent of lightspeed. Worse, three Collector ships in Jake’s fleet were falling behind. Rapidly. They must have lost—

“Oh no!” Jane cried.

His heart plummeted. The true space holo now held a new yellow-white plasma ball. He sighed.

“The
Pointe Du Hoc
is gone. With ship mind and crew.” He looked back to her.

Jane grimaced, then nodded. “All other Collector ships! Reduce your speed to one-tenth lightspeed now! That is my order. Protect our people on the
Seafloat
and the
Manila Bay
. Jake and Stefano, this includes you too!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jane’s heart hammered at the death of the Collector ship. The
Pointe Du Hoc
had been captained by a Ranger gal, Jesse Winthorp. Other Rangers and Delta Force folks had been her crew. Plus a Slinkeroo walking snake. With some spouses aboard. Now, they were all gone. Perhaps their engine meltdown had reached their isotope fuel tanks and somehow uncontrolled fusion had happened. Or maybe the rearmost fusion reactor had lost fusion containment. What mattered was the fact they were dead and gone. Only memories now survived. In addition, three other Collector ships were wounded, with only a single Magfield engine still working. Rather, the
Musan
had zero engines while the
Seafloat
and
Manila Bay
still had a single engine. As Star Traveler had warned, traveling at 13 percent of lightspeed had been too much for the Magfield engines on those ships. The loss of the
Pointe Du Hoc
and the engine loss on its two sister ships had convinced her to call a halt to the other ships’ mad gamble with odds and Alien tech. In her system graphic, most of her allied ships were slowing to the normal one-tenth lightspeed that was the approved rating for a Collector ship traveling normal space. Further back were the ten remaining Trident subs that had not joined Jake’s pell-mell dash. But not all her allies had slowed. The six boomer subs under orders from President Hartman continued at 13 percent of lightspeed. A speed they could make on a single Magfield engine only due to their smaller size and lower mass than a Collector ship. And one Collector ship was still close behind her ship.

“Stefano! I said
all
ships must slow to rated Magfield speed.”

In her comlink holo, the image appeared of Bill’s SEAL buddy. And fellow trout fisherman, she recalled from Bill’s late night sharings. His buff, tightly muscled frame did not move within the tube suit he wore as he sat in his command seat atop his own command pedestal. The man’s pale brown eyes fixed on her.

“Captain of the fleet, a SEAL does not leave another SEAL alone on the battlefield,” he said firmly. “Bill is that SEAL. You are my ally. Who now faces the enemy. You will not face that monster alone.” He waved to someone out of the image. “Bob, move us up to 14 percent of lightspeed.” He looked back to her. “The
USS Neil C. Roberts
, BBG-9, is now joining you. We have your back.”

Jane licked her lips. There were only three people on that ship. Stefano, Bob at Engines and Cassandra at Weapons. Their spouses were on other ships. Which meant three more humans, besides her and her people, now faced imminent death. As did the captains and crews of the six boomer ships. She nodded. “Your assistance is accepted,
Neil C. Roberts
.” Was there more to say? The man’s ship was out of pods. An idea hit her. “Captain Stefano, have your ship mind launch the three transport craft on your ship. Each is armed with a laser and a few nuke missiles. Cassandra can operate their weapons from her station.” The man’s eyebrows lifted. “Maybe the transports can hit 15 percent of lightspeed, like the pods. Or maybe not. But they can give you extra laser guns!”

The soft-spoken man showed a brief smile. “We obey, captain. A very good idea. And Cassandra likes the idea of adding three more laser platforms to our nose lasers. Which she is firing now on the enemy.”

“Good,” Jane said, turning away from the man who was their backup in case the
Blue Sky
lost both engines and became vulnerable to an attack from the
Fear Arrives
. Green laser streaks from Stefano’s ship joined those from Bill’s station. Three of the four beams missed. The fourth hit Death Leader’s ship a glancing blow. No loss of air or water or fuel showed on her sensors.
Damn!
She scanned her system graphic. Most of the last waves of nuke-armed pods were gone, thanks to Death Leader’s use of antimatter against them. Was that three, or four AM shots? The bastard would be out of AM reloads for the ten minutes it took his particle accelerator to create more antimatter. The monster did not know of Bill’s expansion of their capability to six shots from the standard four shots on the Alien-built Collectors. Three small red dots showed up next to Stefano’s ship. The transports had been launched. They moved now to 15 percent of lightspeed. Good. Her comlink holo filled with three captain images.

“Captain,” called Jake from the
Tangi Valley
. “I’m a SEAL also. I wish to join Stefano as backup.”

“Me too,” called Janice from the
Takur Ghar
. “A SEAL I am and a SEAL I will always be. Let us join you and Stefano.”

“And me also,” said Mack from the
Rolling Thunder
. “I too am a SEAL. Let me help cover your back.”

Jane felt touched and heartened by the three captains’ effort to come to her aid. But if she agreed to their demand, surely she would hear similar talk from their fellow spec ops folks with battle training in Marine, Air Force and Coast Guard special operations. In both fleets. “No. Your offer is much appreciated. But a single backup ship is all that is needed. Plus I have the six boomer subs adding in laser firepower. You two, and everyone else, stay at ten percent of lightspeed and help our wounded ships. And one of you needs to go after Alicia on the
Musan
. She has zero engines. Stop that ship’s momentum, or get her people and ship mind off it!”

“Understood,” Jake called. “I’ll go after the
Musan
.”

Mack grimaced. “Reducing speed to 10 percent.”

Janice, a fellow Japanese-American like herself, showed an upset expression. “Captain Jane, my duty to you goes beyond my SEAL status! You know—”

“I do know what you mean,” Jane said, giving the young woman a smile. “Your family will know of your fight to serve the honor of all
nihonjin
. You serve that honor now by following my orders. Pull back. Save your craft for future defense of Earth.”

“As you command.
Sayonara
.”

Jane turned away from the comlink holo and faced the holos in front of her. The true space holo showed black space and hundreds of white dot stars. In the distance showed the red ball of Mars. They were just past the Asteroid Belt. Earth now lay three AU ahead. Four hours or less. And the enemy was speeding away at 14 percent of lightspeed. Time to follow Stefano’s example and end this. Somehow.

“Chester, move us up to 15 percent of lightspeed. We and the subs and Stefano can—”

Two yellow plasma balls showed in the true space holo. They were off to the side of her ship, or lagging just a bit.

Bill slammed his fist on an armrest. “Damn! The
HMS Vengeance
and the
FNS
Terrible
just died! Their Magfield engines blew. Which had to have killed their reactors.”

She sighed. Her heart felt heavy. A total of 135 men onboard the Brit sub and 111 men on the French sub were now vapor spreading across cold vacuum.

“Captain Jane,” called Star Traveler. “This ship cannot sustain travel at 15 percent of light speed. My home is not a collector pod.”

“I know that! But—”

“Jane!” interrupted Bill. “I have an answer to further endangering the
Blue Sky
.” He stood up and walked toward her, his tube suit not hiding the tenseness of his face or the tightness of his shoulders. “I’m heading back to the
Talking Skin
. It can hit 15 percent lightspeed for a while. And it can jink as good as the pods. I’m taking demo balls with me plus a nuke bar.” He stopped below her seat and looked up at her. His hazel eyes met hers. “When I get to
Fear Arrives
, Star Traveler can remote open its hull to its Transport Access Chamber. Or I’ll use a demo ball to blow a hole into the fucking ship!” He turned away and headed for the hallway entry door. “I’ll put the nuke bar in its Engine space. Or close enough. Even with hallway pressure hatches closed against me, I will get there. I’ll try to get off using the transport. Or maybe one of its pods.”

“Bill! It’s not needed! Our lasers will take it down.”

“It
is
,” he said, his voice strong as he stood before the open door. She looked back. He gave a shrug. “Lower the speed of the
Blue Sky
and the
Neil C. Roberts
to 14 percent. That’s a risk anyway. More will blow this ship. Taking you, my friends and our loyal ship mind with it. Remember, I’ve done solo stuff before. And you or Chester can handle my Weapons station. We can only fire lasers right now. You guys keep up the laser fire while I jink and jiggle.”

He passed through the open door. Which slid shut as he entered the hallway and turned right, heading for one of their two transports. She turned away, looked ahead, nodded at the faces of Chester, Bright Sparkle, Wind Swift and Lofty Flyer, then said the needed words. “Chester, cut us back to 14 percent of lightspeed. Stefano, you do the same.” She tapped a control pillar in front of a side holo. That holo now glowed with a repeat of Bill’s Ship Weapons station holo. She tapped the fire control panel that appeared on the pillar’s top. Their two nose lasers fired coherent green streaks at the snake-gorilla’s ship. The beams missed as the enemy jinked to one side. On her systems graphic holo she saw their ship, Stefano’s ship and the four remaining subs were now at 5,124 miles away from
Fear Arrives
. Ahead of them the thousand plus missile warheads now moved slowly toward the enemy ship, their solid fuel exhausted. Maybe the warheads would reach the enemy ship. Some of which had x-ray lasers on them. Likely not, with them limited to an inertial speed of 14 percent of light. A new red dot showed on her system graphic. It was Bill. In the transport. It now moved ahead of them at 15 percent of light. Slowly it moved, but it was gaining on the enemy ship. Which would happen first? Would Death Leader’s ship blow up from engine overload? Would Bill’s transport die? Would the four pursuing subs, now going like bats out of hell at 15 percent, blow up before they reached the bastard who threatened her world? She didn’t know. She just knew that if the other ships died, she would offload her crew onto the
Tall Trees
transport and take over sole control of the
Blue Sky
herself. She could do it using the mind-control helmet on the alternate command seat in the Engine chamber. If necessary, she would ram the fucking bastard herself!

♦   ♦   ♦

Bill jinked his transport to one side and then up into a partial spiral. Green laser fire from Death Leader streaked past where he’d been. The control panel of the transport showed its own system graphic flat image. The three transports launched by Stefano were close behind him and getting closer. The weapons screen on the panel before him showed his ship held four thermonuke-tipped missiles. Plus their nose laser, which was as powerful as the ones on the
Blue Sky
. He tapped the fire control sensor patch lying next to the weapons screen. A green streak shot out from the
Talking Skin
. It missed the
Fear Arrives
. But a laser beam from one of Stefano’s transports did hit the bastard. A brief spurt of air and water said there had been a penetration. He played with the nav hand-grip, causing his transport to jerk down, sideways, up, across and then sideways again. Two green laser beams streaked past his prior vector track. He was gaining on the bastard! It was just 4,015 miles away. Which meant he and the other transports would face antimatter shortly. He looked closely at the system graphic, then over at the electro-optical scope screen that showed nothing in the normal light spectrum. But the neutrino detector on the left side of his control panel did show the enemy’s neutrino emissions. Which were superimposed on an outline of the enemy’s long teardrop shape. When the three neutrino emission points, which came from the ship’s three fusion reactors, seemed to shorten, that meant Death Leader was changing his ship’s nose angle to lock onto Bill’s transport. The neutrino dots changed. He tapped his laser firing patch.

“Got you, you bastard!”

Sensors showed air, water and metallic debris erupting from the bulbous nose of the teardrop. Had he hit the antimatter projector’s port?

Bill jinked sideways. The system graphic screen showed the other three transports jinking and jigging in various vector angles. A black beam speared out toward them, according to what he could see in the electro-optical scope image that filled one screen on his control pane. No luck on the AM projector. Yellow-white light flared on the scope image. Which meant one of Stefano’s transports was now dead. He spoke, counting on his helmet comlink to instantly cross-link to his transport’s neutrino comlink.

“Jane! Try for the bastard’s antimatter projector. At the upper nose space.”

“Firing on him,” Jane said quickly. “That was his fourth AM shot. He’s out of antimatter for the next ten minutes. Think you can reach him before he reloads?”

Bill scanned the system graphic screen. It said he was 1,234 miles from the misbegotten fusion of a cobra and a gorilla. He pulled on the nav hand-grip, avoiding two new laser beams.

“Yes! Keep distracting him with yours and Stefano’s laser fire! And the subs’ laser fire. Uh, just before I get to his hull, blow the nuke warheads! That will create a sensor overload for his ship. It should help me with my closing and boarding.”