Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) (23 page)

“By the Creator, you’re a steely one,” Argon said.

Cyrus waited for the chief monitor to say more. The man didn’t. He watched the screens. Turning back to his, Cyrus got a better picture of what was happening to the alien vessel. The Teleship’s lasers were close to the surface of the alien warship, to the armored skin.

More enemy lasers punched through the chewed up P-Field and gel cloud. More beams turned asteroidal rock into slag, molten slurry, and then burned it completely away, drilling in deeply.

Klaxons began to wail in the Teleship.

“Do we have any missiles left out there?” Argon asked.

With the heel of his hand, Cyrus slapped his forehead. He could have been checking. He shifted to the number three screen and checked. Yes, three Prometheus missiles were left and almost in range of the nearing enemy.

“We have a breach in the third stasis area,” Argon said in a bitter voice. “The backup AI is taking damage.

“Come on,” Cyrus said. He felt so helpless. This was a matter of ranges, velocities, masses, and fusion power. Once you made the decisions, there wasn’t much more you could do. This wasn’t anything like a knife fight. This wasn’t like a first-person shooter game. This was long-range plans coming to fruition in seconds.

“We’re in!” Argon shouted.

Cyrus glanced at the number two screen. One of the secondary lasers had burned into the alien warship.

“Yeah!” Cyrus shouted, pumping a fist in the air. They’d broken through the enemy psi-shield.

Now, in space—as the aliens destroyed yet another Prometheus missile—the last two performed their functions. Rods poked out of the nose cones, pointing at the enemy warship. A thermonuclear explosion ignited on each missile. X-rays and gamma rays traveled faster than the annihilating heat. Those rays pumped the one-shot tubes, which concentrated them even as they were heated by the blast. The coherent X-rays and gamma rays beamed at the speed of light at the enemy vessel. Then the nuclear explosion destroyed the rods as the destruction obliterated all shreds of the Prometheus missiles.

The X-rays and gamma rays struck the alien vessel, solid rods of radiation. What it did to the living biological beings inside the ship showed a moment later. The mind shield collapsed, and all of
Discovery
’s lasers began to bore into the steel plating, burning through as the alien warship closed with the Teleship.

“We have a coil breach,” Argon informed him.

Cyrus heard muffled explosions from inside the Teleship, and the entire bridge module shook.
Am I about to die? Is Argon right? Is there a Creator? Will I meet Him?

On-screen, the enemy beams stopped. Cyrus watched in amazement. Secondary explosions racked
Discovery
, but it was much worse for the alien warship. Lasers bored through alien armor and ignited coils or other devices within the vessel. Explosions caused the alien warship to splinter and crack. Still
Discovery
’s beams pumped death and destruction into the enemy. Now fuel, water, stores, and even bodies ejected from the alien warship. Then a fusion fireball devoured the vessel.

As Cyrus stared in shock and disbelief at the screens, the bridge hatch opened. It brought the harsh sound of klaxons to Cyrus and he heard more internal explosions in the Teleship.

“Get out of my way!” Lieutenant Jones shouted.

Cyrus shoved off from the console, letting the man sit down.

Jones took his place, and the weapons officer’s fingers began to blur over the screens and controls.

“I’m taking the fusion cores offline and sealing them behind emergency bulkheads,” Jones said. “We’re hit, but I don’t think critically. We’re going to lose people. Don’t kid yourself there. Most of our lasers are overheating. Didn’t you think to cycle them?”

“I guess not,” Cyrus said.

Jones shook his head. “You had beginner’s luck. That’s all I can say. I’m amazed our ship didn’t blow.”

“The Creator aided us,” Argon said.

Jones threw him a glance. “Sure, whatever you say, Chief Monitor. We won. I guess that’s all that counts.” He glanced at Cyrus. “You did it, kid. You beat the freaking aliens. Good job.”

Cyrus wore a loopy smile. “We did it,” he told Argon. “We’re alive and the alien is gone.”

“Yes. We passed the first test. Now we have to see if we can repair the tele-chamber in time to leave this system before the second ship reaches us.”

8

Six hours after the alien warship’s destruction, Chief Monitor Argon called a meeting in the officer’s lounge. He recorded it as “
Discovery
Meeting #14.” The roster included Wexx, Cyrus, and Lieutenant Jones.

ARGON:
Premier Lang, I have solemn tidings. We have faced an alien warship today and survived the fight. Unfortunately, we took losses, particularly to the colonists in stasis. A quick survey shows an estimated seventeen thousand deaths, a little over one-third of the sleepers. We also sustained heavy damage to the secondary AI of the Kierkegaard class. In terms of our future survival, the bitterest blow was impairment to the tele-ring circling
Discovery
.

This impairment is critical, as I have sent several of the ablest techs outside the ship to effect repairs. This lessens the number of workers fixing the tele-chamber and lengthens our wait to shift out of danger.

An alien warship, larger than the first, accelerates toward us even now. Its estimated time of arrival—and I use the one million kilometer mark of our primary laser as the gauge—is three and a half days from now, or eighty-four hours.

Three alien warships of the larger type accelerate from AS 412 V, the fifth and outer planet of the system. Their estimated time of arrival is three weeks.

WEXX:
How long do you estimate the combined repairs to take?

ARGON:
That will depend on the damage to the tele-ring.

WEXX:
If the ring is beyond repair, what is your plan?

ARGON:
We will make our peace with the Creator and self-destruct the Teleship. We cannot allow the aliens to capture our shift technology, as that might imperil humanity’s continued existence.

WEXX:
Your solution strikes me as too radical. We should first attempt communication with the aliens and see if we can come to an agreement or understanding.

ARGON:
Each time the aliens have communicated with us, they attempted mind control of everyone. No. We will not communicate with the enemy. It is too dangerous because of the possible harm to the solar system.

WEXX:
Maybe it’s time to wake Jasper. According to Cyrus, they’ve already communicated with him.

ARGON:
There are two possibilities. Either the aliens tricked him or he was in collusion with them. If they beguiled Jasper, we do not know to what extent. In neither case is waking him likely to bring advantage. I submit that it is too dangerous to wake our telepath for the obvious reason that we have few to no
controls over him. Clearly, the inhibitors no longer work on Jasper or Cyrus.

CYRUS:
You’re right, of course. They never should have been put in us in the first place.

ARGON:
You saw how Jasper manipulated the crew. We need the controls for our own safety.

WEXX:
I’m more concerned right now about this self-destruct idea. Chief Monitor, I understand and appreciate your patriotism. You are a true servant of the state. With that said, I am in no hurry to self-destruct the ship or myself. We have defeated the aliens twice. In my opinion, they should finally be willing to listen to reason. Perhaps they wish to make peace with us.

ARGON:
You’re not being rational. They have displayed nothing but aggression. Their actions show that they view us as an alien infestation that they must capture or annihilate. Our weakness will not cause them to turn into pacifists but finally allow them to achieve their goal.

WEXX:
Self-destruction is rational?

ARGON:
If we have the greater goal of protecting our home system, yes.

WEXX:
I’m as patriotic as the next person. That doesn’t mean I’m willing to kill myself for a concept. Your conclusion that they’ll attack Sol with Teleships is nothing but a supposition.

ARGON:
The aliens have shown themselves as hostile. It is a reasonable conclusion to think they’ll want to eradicate our home system. It is at least a probability. Given that, we cannot gamble with humanity’s future. That means there is nothing to indicate that we will improve our situation by contacting them.

WEXX:
They must believe we’re invaders. To use your own phraseology: given that, they’re merely trying to
protect their system. Imagine Sol fifty years ago. How would we have reacted if a strange ship simply appeared in our system? I submit we would act as they’ve been doing.

ARGON:
I find your analysis difficult to accept for several reasons. The most critical is that they have psi-masters and were in contact with Special Jasper for some time. That would imply they knew our intentions and still decided on hostility.

WEXX:
Exactly! The aliens discovered that we had a ship full of colonists and intended to take over their system. That sounds like a full-blown invasion to me. How can we expect them to have done anything differently than they did?

ARGON:
We journeyed here because we believed the system was empty. This was never an invasion as you suggest and these psi-masters would have seen as much.

WEXX:
You’re shooting in the dark with your suppositions. What surprises me is that you have the ability to discover exactly what the psi-masters learned, yet you do not want to find out. We could wake Jasper and ask him. That’s better than simply destroying our own ship and lives. Yes, waking Jasper is a risk, but surely, we can figure out a way to do it safely. I’m beginning to wonder if you have a secret death wish.

JONES:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but if this is a voting committee, I’m with the Doctor. Let’s wake our most powerful Special and see if we can out psi the aliens.

ARGON:
This is not a voting committee.

JONES:
So who’s in charge? You? While I appreciate all you’ve done, Chief Monitor, I’d like to know when you legally acquired this status.

ARGON:
I am the chief representative for Premier Lang. Do you dispute that?

JONES:
I’m not arguing with the NKV. I’ve said all I need to and I stand by it.

ARGON:
What do you believe, Cyrus? Since the others have given their opinion, I would like to hear yours.

CYRUS:
I don’t want to self-destruct. I’m in agreement with Dr. Wexx there. But there is a time to stand and die fighting if you have to.

WEXX:
What advanced course of study taught you this wisdom?

CYRUS:
Street wisdom. Okay, I’m not as educated as the rest of you. But I’ve been doing a lot of reading since joining Psi Force, a lot of reading of military history of the old world. What about the ancient Spartans in their fight against Persia? Sometimes you have to make a stand for your side and die if that’s what is called for. As I said, I don’t want to self-destruct. We don’t know if the techs will fix the tele-ring and tele-chamber in time. If they do, we can shift out of here and the problem is solved.

ARGON:
Your solution is obvious and we’re attempting it. The question is what we should do if we cannot shift out of danger. Now, in a moment of quiet contemplation, we should make the critical decision.

CYRUS:
In that case, I’m with Dr. Wexx. We should wake Jasper and see what he knows. Like me, Jasper wanted freedom. I believe the aliens tricked him. Let him see what happened once we reached the system and I bet he would bend his psi-talents to getting us the heck out of here.

ARGON:
There is merit in your reasoning.

WEXX:
Chief Monitor, Premier Lang believes in the separation of authority on such ventures as this. You have taken full command of the Teleship. That is clearly against Premier Lang’s desires. Will you continue to flaunt his rules?

ARGON:
You are a sophist, Doctor, a lawyer. I have read you my emergency powers given me by Premier Lang.

WEXX:
For the moment, the emergency is over. I think Premier Lang would want us to go back to the formal structure of authority.