Escape 2: Fight the Aliens (22 page)

“Exact counting will be done,” Learned Escape said from his speaker/vidcam unit.

The comlink holo suddenly changed. Three new faces partly filled it, pushing Jane’s image to the right side. Bill smiled when he saw who the faces were.

“Captain Yamaguchi,” called Stefano from the
Seafloat
, his manner SEAL professional. “This ship has dispatched a transport to you. It carries the ten prisoners from our containment cells.”

“Same for us,” called Frank. The big barrel of a man frowned, his thick black eyebrows nearly coming together. “Glad to get rid of our ten. Removes the temptation to feed them to vacuum. Though it was fun to taser zap them again!”

“Good to hear your reports,” Jane said casually, her manner relaxed. Not having the Joint Chiefs of Staff watching a continuous video feed from their bridge had made them all feel more at ease. That attention had been switched to the three ships manned by Jake, Mack and Janice, and to Leonard’s sub. “While we are setting up the jail dome, you three do triple checks on all ship systems. Work with your AIs. Make sure all is ready for your first interstellar trip. Remember, while we four can talk among ourselves over the neutrino comlink during FTL, no ship can help another ship while in Alcubierre space-time modulus transit.”

Alicia nodded quickly, her sandy-brown ponytail swinging freely. She, like everyone on the four ships, was out of her vacsuit and looking happier for the escape from the Alien tube suit. “I’m doing that here on
Pointe
. Starry Lights, my ship AI, seems very happy to have a crew on board who are not slave-takers.”

Jane nodded slowly. “Alicia, you happy with your two new crew folks?”

The Ranger gave a thumbs-up gesture. “Very happy! Got a Marine and an Air Force PJ. Both gals. They are impressive. They pump heavier weights than I do!”

Jane grinned. “Glad to hear it. Frank? Your new crew working out?”

“Yup,” said the former Marine Gunnery Sergeant. “My two guys are both Rangers. Both with plenty of battle experience. They are learning the Engines and Life Support jobs.”

“Good.” His wife paused. “Stefano? How are your two new crew people? They coping with space?”

Bill’s sniper-trained buddy gave a casual wave. “Happy to have them. Got a Marine and an Air Force Special Tactics. Man and woman respectively. They can’t believe they get private rooms, like officers. They both brought along their spouses. As did Cassandra and Bob. All is ship shape here on
Seafloat
.”

“Good to hear that from you three. Your transports have arrived beside the
Blue Sky
.” She looked his way. “Bill? Time for you and Learned Escape to head out?”

“Yes,” he said, standing up and grabbing his backpack. He already wore his .45 in a cowboy-type holster. Laser and taser tubes stuck out of the backpack. While he had full confidence in his pilot, in the transport and in the constant monitoring of Star Traveler, he did not believe in taking chances. Leastwise, not accidental chances. He was fine with thought-out gambles. Like the bridge entry he’d done. “Heading for Mars,” he said, gathering up Learned with a gesture and heading for the bridge entry door.

♦   ♦   ♦

The soil of Mars really was rusty-red. Plus brown, with a little yellow here and there, most of it looking sandy smooth. He stood inside the jail dome in his own vacsuit, having been preceded by the vacsuit clad form of Diligent Taskmaster the giant cockroach. Scattered over the dirt floor of the dome were 29 Alien bodies lying where they’d been deposited after the hover bots finished removing vacsuits. The two transports from
Chapultepec
and
Seafloat
were returning to their ships. Learned Escape stood just outside the airlock of the jail dome, a white tube taser in his vacsuited arms. He clearly took seriously the job of being backup to Bill. Ahead, Diligent stopped walking and turned around. A six foot tall giant cockroach stood before him. The Alien’s body had three sections. There were a reddish-brown head, a dark brown thorax middle segment and a pale brown abdomen. Two spindly legs supported him. Two pairs of arms sprouted from the midbody and the shoulder. Circular spiracles pushed against the creature’s clear vacsuit as he exhaled, then the suit skin moved inward as he inhaled. Atop his head, two curving brown antennae leaned forward within his globular helmet. Two black eyes fixed on him.

“Other Collector ships will finish what we began,” the Alien rasped over the vacsuit comlink.

Bill kept his taser tube pointed directly at the critter’s middle, which was hard shelled exoskeleton. He shook his head. “No they won’t. We have seven Collector ships now. We will build more. And tomorrow, when we reach the outer edge of our system’s magnetosphere, we will head for HD 128311. Our four ships will destroy the Traffic Control station, kill any Collector ships orbiting above the moon, then laser zap the Buyer compounds on the moon’s surface.” He paused, noticing how still lay all the bodies of the 29 other Aliens who were scattered across the bare soil inside the dome. “We will broadcast a video of your jail here, the condition of your allies, and warn that any Collector ship that comes to Earth will end up just like you. Think that will discourage your fellow Collectors?”

The arrogant crèche master curled his pencil-like fingers into four fists. “Mammal! All such as you deserve to be captured for service on mining asteroids.”

Bill gestured at four nearby Aliens. One resembled a green-skinned praying mantis. Beside it lay a six-legged sausage-like Alien with armor plate skin. Beyond those two was a two-legged vulture with black wings, a pair of chest-arms, a yellow beak and two red eyes. Closer to him and Diligent was a black-furred, four-armed critter who resembled a giant grizzly bear. “Those are your former crew. Captured once more. Do you think they will forgive you for putting them in this dry, barren landscape?” He pointed beyond the clear walls of the dome to the rocky central ridge that ran down the Ius Chasma, and the nearby debris slopes that flowed from the south side of the canyon.

The two antennae flared back. “I am their captain! They will do whatever I tell them.”

“Oh?” Bill said, hoping Jane was enjoying the sound and vid image being transmitted to orbit by his vacsuit’s tiny vidcam. “What about the five other captains who lost their ships, thanks to your crazy idea about teaching a lesson to us humans? I think ship captains who wake up here, with no spaceship in sight, will be unhappy with you.”

“Leave me!” Diligent rasped. “You are a mammal. All you humans are mammals. We arthropods of the Hard Shell species will become your masters. We have the time.”

Bill understood the Alien’s point. The Buyer, Market and Collector ship society had existed in this part of the Orion Arm for thousands of years. It would not fall over and disappear just because he and his shipmates had killed their Collector ship factory. New factories would be built. And any human who showed up on one of the 61 Market worlds was bound to be killed, or put into forced labor by a Buyer. So it had been for ages. So of course this giant cockroach thought the future would continue as in the past. He stepped back, heading for the airlock’s inner hatch.

“So do we humans have the time. And our history says we adapt to any danger, any predator, any change in climate or food,” he said, reaching back with his free hand to tap the Open function for the hatch. “Maybe humanity will become the masters of all 413 worlds with Buyers!”

The giant insect jumped toward him, covering half the distance in a single bound. Four arms were outstretched, with horn-tipped fingers reaching for his helmet. He tapped the end of the taser tube, sending a coherent red beam into the thorax of his first and most deadly enemy. Diligent’s black eyes lost their luster of awareness. The jump ended in a trembling, shaking fall to the dry soil of Mars. The Alien lay face down, his body and limbs shaking like twigs in a tornado. Keeping his taser aimed at the vacsuited creature, he walked up to Diligent, bent down and removed the vacsuit from the trembling body of the Alien insect. Standing up he put a boot toe under Diligent’s abdomen, and flipped him over onto his hard shell back. That position allowed the cockroach to breath air rather than dust through his front spiracle holes. As he had promised to Star Traveler and the other ship AIs, the former crews were still alive. So they would remain for whatever might be the rest of their natural lifespan. Holding the Alien’s vacsuit, he backpeddled to the open airlock hatch, glanced over his shoulder, saw Learned Escape inside the airlock and already heading to support him.

“Stay in the airlock,” he said over the comlink. “I’m not in any danger. And I liked that the bastard gave me an excuse to taser zap him one more time!”

“Ahhh,” the Megun said, his green eyes looking beyond Bill at the fallen form of Diligent. “Too bad. I too would have liked the chance for a final taser shot. Recall that the creature beyond took me captive in my home system. Being unable to color-speak, being non-aware until I awoke in that terrible cell, those were horrors no Megun had ever before felt!”

The inner hatch closed before them, shutting off the view of the 30 Aliens who had invaded Sol system. He turned and patted Learned on his vacsuited right shoulder. “Sorry. Maybe you will have a chance to taser some live Collectors in the Market world system.”

“Perhaps,” his color-banded friend said as he turned and tapped the Open spot for the outer hatch. “I like better your plan for a covert entry into HD 128311! That is a very Megun-way to approach a deadly enemy.”

Bill liked the idea of sneaking into the Market world system. He liked ambush combat. He liked springing a deadly surprise. He especially liked seeing his enemy respond with confusion, incoherence and ineffectiveness. Now was the time to head for interstellar space and to begin the process of removing a threat to America and to humanity!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Three days later they arrived at the outer edge of the magnetosphere of system HD 128311. Bill and Chester and Sparkle and the holo images of their three ship captain allies looked avidly at the giant holo that filled the front of the Command Bridge. Jane had told Star Traveler to create a holo that showed everything they needed to know about the system. That was plenty.

An orange globe flamed brightly in the middle of the holo. Above it and below it were six white dots scattered about the star. Barely visible red spots moved in the holo. Jane sighed. “Star Traveler, change from a true space image to a graphic depiction of the system. Orient the system’s plane of ecliptic so it faces me, with the star at the center. Adjust planetary orbital distances so that the outermost part of the system is still visible. Put in the AU distances as you did on our first arrival here. This holo should display the planets, asteroids and ships known to be present in this system. Overlay the orbital distance at which water will be liquid on a planetary surface. Make that zone green.”

“Adjusting,” the AI said. “Does this depiction satisfy?”

“Nice!” Bill whispered. “That is really outstanding!”

“It is, isn’t it?” Jane murmured softly.

In front of them hung six planets of varying sizes, their orbits centered on the orange star at the center. Planets one and two lay close to the star and on its far side. A swath of green overlapped planets three and four, which lay on their side of the star. Between planets three and four, an asteroid belt showed as a scatter of orange dots. Planet five, a gas giant, lay just beyond the water zone at half way around the system. Planet six, a gas world similar to Uranus, looked lonely, lying five times further out from the star than the inner five planets. It was close enough to the
Blue Sky
to show as a blue disk. Between planets three and four there moved six red dots, coming and going between the two planets that lay within the liquid water zone. Worse, two purple dots showed next to the Market moon that orbited planet four.

The AI hummed low. “Like most star systems there is an outer belt of comets that orbit the star. Your Earth astronomers call it the Kuiper Belt.”

“Exactly so,” Jane said softly. “I recall you saying on our last visit that planets four and five were similar in size to our Saturn and Jupiter. How about the Market moon that orbits planet four. Any change in its condition?”

“No change in the Market moon condition,” the AI said patiently. “As before, the moon has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, expanses of liquid water and is listed as the Market world for this system. Two Collector ships now orbit above the Market moon. Its distance from this ship is 20 AU.”

Bill looked back over his shoulder. Jane was staring intently at the holo. “Star Traveler, you should have received neutrino updates from the Traffic Control station above that moon,” she said quickly. “Describe that data.”

“The updates have been received. The Market world contains 12,137 bioforms of various species. There are 412 Buyers present in that population,” the AI said calmly and patiently. “As for the Buyer system itself, at present there are 61 Market worlds and 842,257 Buyers resident at 413 stars. Collector ship totals are now 83, including the two below. And our presence has been detected by the monitor probes lying in the outer reaches of this system. Traffic Control will contact us shortly.”

“Understood,” Jane said quickly. “Are you in contact with the ship minds of those two Collector ships? If so, what is their reaction to the news their Captives are actually slaves to be sold to Buyers on this Market world?”

The AI hummed. “I am in contact with those two ship minds. Their reaction to my news is surprise and disquiet. They were not aware of the slave-taking behavior of their crew. Both reject such work. They . . . tell me they will refuse to allow their ship to be used for future Captive collecting.”

“Good!” Jane said. “Tell them of our plan to attack the Traffic Control station. Will they block any use of Collector ship weapons against us?”

“They will block such weapon use,” the AI said, his tone sounding thoughtful. “I have conveyed our past history of encounters with hostile Collector ships. They wish to preserve the integrity of their ships. They will not openly oppose their ship captain, but will covertly block weapon use against us. They warn such efforts by them may be circumvented by ship crew.”

“I know that!” Jane said loudly, then sighed. “Thank you for your swift orientation of those two ship minds to their role, to our efforts to stop slave-taking and of the need for them to be covert in cooperating with us. We will fire only upon someone who fires on us.”

The AI hummed low, then spoke. “The two artificial minds of those ships understand the concept of self-defense. They will make every effort to prevent weapon fire on the
Blue Sky
.”

“Good to hear that,” Jane murmured.

The ship mind hummed again. “However, both minds warn that the Traffic Control station possesses lasers, thermonuclear MITV torpedoes and plasma batteries. They do not control those weapons.”

“Understood,” Jane said quickly as Bill watched his system graphic, which now replicated the giant holo with its system and ship display. “What is our estimated direct line transit time to the Market moon,” she said hurriedly.

“Approximately 30 hours, eleven minutes, 49 seconds and—”

“Close enough,” Jane interrupted the literal-minded AI. “Work with the ship minds of our three allied ships so they will transmit an image of their former captain, along with the prior ship name, whenever our friends are contacted by Traffic Control.”

“Working. Ship mind cooperation commenced. Ended. All four Human ships will now appear as being captained by the same bioforms who led these ships upon their departure for Earth,” the AI said quickly.

A click came over the comlink.

“Collector ship
Hard Shell
and Captain Diligent Taskmaster, this is Traffic Control,” spoke a voice that sounded harshly mechanical. “Your arrival is welcome. Do you have many Captives for our Buyers? And what happened to the other two Collector ships that left with you on your raid against the mammal world of Earth? We see only four of the six ships that left.”

In the comlink holo on Bill’s right, Jane sat upright, her hands gripping the armrests of her command seat. Even though she knew the old image of Diligent was being projected, with her words coming from the arthropod’s clacking mouth, still, she acted as if in public view. Which perhaps was a good practice for an Air Force officer who captained an Alien starship. He noticed the images of Alicia, Frank and Stefano were also in the holo as they listened to Jane’s response to the Alien speaker.

“Traffic Control, those two ships left with their Human Captives for the home system of Kepler 443,” Jane said calmly, her tone patient. “They wished to make an example of these mammals before the residents of the world that began our Buyer society.”

“Interesting. That is a long journey,” the voice said, moving from mechanical to BBC announcer mode as Diligent’s Earth programming kicked in. “Do you have many Human Captives on ship
Hard Shell
? And on ships
Black Fur
,
Green Skin
and
Riches Sought
?”

“We do,” Jane said, trying to sound eager at the idea of slaves for sale. “Among our four ships, we have 240 Human mammals! We stored them three to a containment cell due to the short time of our transit back here. We welcome the arrival of Buyers!”

“So unusual to have so many Captives for sale,” the Traffic Control operator said. “I will spread the news to our Buyer compounds. Once you arrive at our station, Buyer shuttles will surely visit your four ships.”

“We look forward to eager Buyers and to quality prices for these bipedal Captives,” Jane said. “While more vulnerable due to their soft outer skin, the Humans are physically pliable and adjustable. They are strong due to their home world’s high gravity. They can also access difficult to reach ravines and volcanic tunnels on asteroids with Nokten crystals.”

“I have seen holograms of these Humans,” the Traffic speaker said. “They do have many digits. And it appears they can survive when oxygen is low in their vacsuits. Buyers will like those qualities. I am known as Flight Wing, an arthropod like you, except my species can fly on our home world. Contact me when you arrive. Orbital vector parameters now being transmitted.”

“Parameters received,” Jane said quickly. “We will arrive within 30 hours. We will contact you personally on arrival. Your assistance with our advance marketing deserves . . . compensation.”

“Yes!” called Flight Wing eagerly. “Fuel credits for refueling at our planet five fuel station will be arranged for all four of your ships. I leave now to consult with the other ship captains.”

“Contact ended,” Jane said. She waved at the holo images of her fellow captains. “People, play along. Tell this flying insect the same stuff you just heard me say. I think personal greed has now surfaced strongly on the Traffic Control station!”

The tightly muscled form of Stefano smiled briefly. His pale brown eyes looked from Jane to Bill, then back to Jane. “Will do. XO, on our way into this system, Cassandra and Bob will continue teaching our two new crew their ship stations.”

“The same on my ship,” Alicia said, her ponytail swinging as she looked to one side. “Mark and Howard are teaching my two new gals the ropes on Life Support and Engines. Mark is handling Ship Weapons while Howard is handling Navigation.”

Wide-shouldered Frank looked impatient. “Bill, what’s the battle plan? Shoot up the Traffic Control station once we get within 10,000 miles? And should we try to take over those two Collector ships?”

Jane looked to Bill, her expression amiable. She gestured to him to reply.

“Frank, as we discussed earlier, we arrive covertly,” Bill said. “We look and act like Collector ships with Captives to sell. I want to get the maximum number of Buyer shuttles up in orbit, with their launching compounds tracked back to where on the moon they came from, before—”

“Incoming call,” Stefano said hurriedly. His image stayed on the comlink holo but his words were soundless as Star Traveler blocked the Traffic Control flyer from hearing the conversations among the four Earth ships.

“Before we fire on the station,” Bill continued. “Actually, Stefano and I discussed this earlier, during the transit to Mars. You will like it. My scheme to zap the station is sneaky, a surprise and something this Flight Wing critter will never suspect. It’s an ambush that will be invisible until it happens.”

Jane lifted her eyebrows at his boasting. Frank grinned. The big man nodded quickly. “Good! You may be a SEAL froggie, but I’ve always enjoyed the combat stories you shared at Jack’s Deep Six. You never disappointed then. However, Chris wants payback for being tasered. So he’s at Weapons. And Joe wants some Alien toys to play with. Which is why he’s handling Navigation, so we can grab stuff. Like the other ships, my two guys are training our two new recruits.”

Alicia turned amber eyes on him. “Bill, what about the two Collector ships in orbit? Do we take them over? We could grab them using collector pods, the same way we got these ships.”

He and Jane had discussed this yesterday morning, during the transit from Sol to HD 128311. “Nope. We leave the Collectors alone so long as they do not fire on us. Better to frustrate their crews when they get to another star system and find out their AI will not launch collector pods to capture people. That will make its way onto the chatter circuit of the worlds where Buyers are present.”

The Ranger woman nodded. “Fine with me, I—wait, incoming call from Traffic Control. Later.”

Stefano waved at them from the holo, in a sign he was done with his chat. That left Frank. Who would no doubt have his turn shortly. He looked back over his shoulder.

“Captain, Jane, we should head in. I think greed has won out over suspicion.”

She frowned thoughtfully. “Agreed. And I’m glad we did not try the fake Collector ship scenario in order to appear as if all six ships had returned. I’m sure the station has upgraded their electro-optical scopes after we pulled that fake-out at Kepler 443.” She looked ahead. “Navigator, set a vector course using the parameters transmitted. Engines, full power to our Magfield drives. Fusion Power, maintain isotope fuel flow to the reactors. Collector Pods, be prepared to send out some of your pods upon our arrival.” Jane paused, then reached out to the ring of control pillars that circled her elevated command seat. She tapped on one. “Star Traveler, advise me if any of the local spaceships approach within a million miles of the Market moon.”

“Will advise,” the AI hummed briefly.

Bill turned his attention to his Weapons holo and its cross-section of the
Blue Sky
ship. He looked forward to his buddies’ reactions to his sneak attack scheme on the station. Jane had supported his idea when he’d discussed it with her, and Stefano had been eager to help. Equally vital, he hoped she would leave her command seat and get eight or ten hours of sleep. They both needed to be in top form when they arrived at the Market moon.

♦   ♦   ♦

When the
Blue Sky
,
Chapultepec Castle
,
Pointe Du Hoc
and
Seafloat
were within a hundred thousand miles of the Market moon, approaching at just ten miles a second, Jane acted.