Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) (36 page)

Six yellow beams speared out.

The four ships shone brightly. Their golden hulls seemed to expand outward, as if pulled by a magnet. Then they came apart, opening ship interiors to a vacuum so cold it was beyond frigid. Death cold it was.

But that ship fragmentation did not last. Every piece of metal, Boolean seal-octopus, water, air, fusion reactor and electronics became a haze of disassociated particles as the strong nuclear force that held electrons, neutrons, protons, hadrons, fermions and quarks in close association vanished. The Higgs Field that relied on Higgs bosons to give every particle mass and the ability to attach to each other had vanished. No mass meant no gravity. At least within the embrace of the yellow beams.

Four white clouds occupied the space that had once been occupied by four Boolean spaceships.

“Destruction complete,” Hideyoshi said calmly.

So it was. “Max, set up a time-lock laser link to the grav-pull drives of the fleet. Let’s go visit that rebel moon. But keep us distant from the two fusion ships until we know whose side they are on.”

“Activating. Going to grav-pull.”

The front screen image of the world GikgikHok went hazy, then jagged as gravitational lensing distorted the reflected sunlight. The faces of his fellow captains also became hazy as the laser comlink lost coherence. He scanned his Tech panel for ship systems status. They were all green, including the new starboard laser pod that had been welded onto the sheared off section by engineers from
Bismarck
, with help from the ChikHo microgee engineers. With a shock he realized he was not thirsty. On stage he was. Leading his fleet and his people he was. But somehow, somewhen, his stage fright had disappeared.

“Exiting grav-pull,” Max said loudly.

The moon Nootok occupied the middle of the true-light image received by Nikola’s Schmidt scope. Looking to be the size of Venus, the moon was white-clouded, with a dense atmosphere. Brown land showed below the clouds, with green clusters showing near the equator. Giant ice caps cover the north and south poles. Three small seas too small to be called oceans separated four land continents. Two continents were centered on the warmer equator, while the other two were near the polar regions. City lights showed in fourteen spots across the four continents. Two conical fusion drive ships orbited above the eastern horizon. They were 200,000 klicks distant, according to Elaine’s Sensor scan at the right of the true-light image.

“Denise, put me on AV broadcast on the channel used by the city news report,” Jack said. “Rebels they may be, but everyone wants to hear the news from home. And be ready to transmit a side AV image of our recent destruction of the Boolean ships.”

“Done. Your words will be transmitted in the Bizzdaw language. Go ahead.”

He unlocked his restraint straps and stood up. He left Old Roy on the floor beside his seat. “Bizzdaw people of the moon Nootok, I am Jack Munroe, guide for the human biped people you see behind me. And for our fleet of 23 spaceships. We come from the world of Earth, which orbits the star Sol, at a distance of 40 light years.” He gestured to Denise to transmit the battle vidrecord. “Just now we fought and destroyed four ships of your Boolean occupiers. We understand some of you on this moon resist the Boolean occupation with force. As other Bizzdaw do on the continent of Green Forest on your home world of TiktikPok. We humans defeated carnivore predators who tried to conquer our system. We offer you help in your battle against the Booleans. Or we will leave your system if asked to do so. Please reply.”

“Jack,” called Elaine. “The fusion ships are moving to place themselves between us and the moon. But they are keeping to their orbital vector.”

“Damn,” grumbled Maureen from the holo beside his seat.

“Patience Combat Commander.” Jack wondered how long it would take for a Bizzdaw rebel or rebels to respond. “There are still 15 Boolean ships in this system. You will have your target practice.”

“Incoming AV signal! From a city on the equatorial continent,” called Denise. “Going up front.”

The image of the white-clouded moon moved to one side as the screen’s middle filled with the incoming AV broadcast.

Four Bizzdaw arthropods stood facing him. Two were taller than the other two. They stood inside a red-painted room with no windows. Their brown exoskeletons shone under a yellow light. The compound eyes of each praying mantis arthropod fixed on him. Chitin-toothed mouths opened. Words were spoken by one of them.

“We are the Socitors,” said the tall Bizzdaw on the far right. “We oppose the Imperator because his clan accepts the rulership of the Boolean animals. Two of our ships orbit above us, providing protection to our people. Why do you contact us?”

Jack sighed. Now it began. “We humans oppose the galactic society of carnivore predators who rule subject peoples. We oppose the eating of subject peoples. We destroyed the Gyklang occupation of a star system not far from your star. See this imagery of our battle against the Gyklang.” He gestured to Denise to broadcast the vidrecord of their battles in the ChikHo system. “We are prepared to destroy every Boolean ship in your system. But we need your guidance as to which fusion drive ship belongs to your Socitor cause, and which to the Imperator. While you must replace this Imperator yourself, we are willing to return your system to Bizzdaw control. And perhaps to trade some of our technology for your fuels, water, food and other supplies we use in our star-to-star journeys.”

The four Bizzdaw moved into a cluster, talking softly among themselves. The tallest one faced Jack. “My clan calls me True Friend. If you destroy the Boolean inertia-free ships, we can lead our people on TiktikPok to throw off the Imperator’s clan. But our lives have taught us that nothing is free. There is always a price to pay. What is your price for driving out the Booleans?”

Jack wished his grandpa Ephraim could have been here now, to hear this ancient statement of social reality. “True Friend, we invite your people to join our Freedom Alliance. It is a grouping of people who say all people, whether omnivore, herbivore or carnivore, should be free to travel among the stars. So we work against the Hunters of the Great Dark, who claim only carnivore predators may travel star-to-star.” Jack saw the two smaller arthropod people making complex gestures with their upper and middle griparms. “Your females will not lose younglings newly hatched from your eggs to the hunger of the Boolean animals. Nor will any Bizzdaw be beaten by a Boolean. We plan to destroy the Boolean colony on Green Forest. Is this acceptable to you?”

“Yes!” buzzed a shorter Bizzdaw. “We Mothers have long sought freedom from this terrible practice of eating our younglings. Destroy the Boolean ships. Kill their colony. And all Bizzdaw everywhere in this system will join with you Humans in this Freedom Alliance!”

True Friend folded his upper griparms together, in a sign Jack took to be agreement with the female’s statement. “So how do we tell which spaceship is a Socitor ship and which an Imperator ship?”

The four Bizzdaw arthropods buzzed among themselves. The female stepped forward on her lower leg pair. “That is simple to do. Every Imperator ship is warmer than any Socitor ship.” She blinked black compound eyes. “We Socitors are used to living in colder environments. Which is why we founded the colony on this moon. It is too cold for the Imperator clan and those Bizzdaw who love the heat of our equatorial continent. Every Imperator ship will be twenty percent warmer than our ships, which you can see easily. Put your sensors on our ships and you will know which are Socitor and which are Imperator.”

“Easily done,” Elaine said. “The two ships below us are infrared radiating at an internal temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or 21 centigrade. The Imperator ships must be nearly 85 degrees inside. We can tell which is which long before we are in weapons range.”

“Thank you True Friend and Mother,” Jack said. “Please send word to your Socitor friends on TiktikPok and in orbit above Tootag of our efforts. Advise them to keep distant from our ship clan. They will be safe that way.”

“We will send the message,” True Friend said. “Return when you can. While you are soft-skinned like the Booleans, you have two arms like our upper arm pair, and legs with feet like our lower pair. You are dry land evolved. Our people will not confuse you with the Boolean water creatures.”

Jack smiled. Strange how evolution brought bioform changes that both separated people and also brought them together. “We will return. But now we leave to destroy the Boolean ships.”

The Socitor AV signal vanished, leaving the image of the moon to float in the front screen. Jack looked up at his allies. “Fleet, we will Alcubierre jump to the home world of these Bizzdaw. That way we can surprise the nine Boolean ships that now orbit above it. Let our Higgs Disruptor ships fire first!”

Every captain smiled or gave a sign of agreement. Hideyoshi nodded calmly. But his normally stiff manner had loosened. It seemed the Mars admiral liked the results of Jack’s human-to-Alien negotiations. “Fleet Captain Jack, the
Bismarck
and every ship of Mars are ready to attack!”

He waved acknowledgment, then looked back to Max. “Drive Engineer, put us all into Alcubierre. And take us to a spot above the north pole of the world TiktikPok. That will give us clear line-of-sight to the nine ships in orbit about that world.”

“Activating. Entering Alcubierre space-time manifold,” Max said, his manner engineer calm. “Exit in three minutes.”

Jack turned, sat in his Tech seat, locked his straps, pulled his Tech panel over his lap and activated the Tactical Display. He tapped on the Fire Control for the two laser pods of the
Uhuru
. While the Higgs ships should be able to kill every Boolean ship, there were also six fusion ships in orbit above the home world. Some or all of them were likely Imperator ships. Which might attack his fleet when they saw their Boolean masters being turned into clouds of white dust. He grinned at the holo of Maureen.

“Hey, grandma! You ready to pop some rivets on those Imperator ships?”

The woman scowled at him. “Watch your tongue, youngling! And leave the fighting to me. I’ve got a score to settle with these interstellar cannibals!”

Was that a sign his Belfast veteran wanted revenge for the damage to Gareth’s ship? No matter to him, so long as she fought.

“Bet you I can fire our lasers faster than you can activate your particle and antimatter beams!”

Anger filled her gray eyes. Briefly. Then she shook a gloved finger at him. “Nice try. Now learn from your elders!”

And learn he did.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The nine Boolean ships above TiktikPok died under the yellow beams of the Higgs Disruptor ships. Three Imperator ships blew apart upon the touch of neutral particle beams fired by Maureen, the
Bismarck
and the
Dragon
. The three Boolean ships in orbit above the outermost gas giant world of Tootag died nearly as quickly when the fleet Alcubierre jumped to that world. Two of the Boolean ships had begun to shimmer from activation of their grav-pull drives when they were enveloped in the caress of yellow Higgs Disruptor beams. It turned out that the two fusion drive ships near Tootag were Socitor ships. Which belatedly offered combat help. Help that Jack gave thanks for, then sent off three Higgs ships to take out the three Boolean ships standing watch at the outer edges of the system’s cometary disk. While those ships had received the gravitomagnetic alert of their arrival, they had not made any move out system or in system. Now the fleet hovered in distant orbit above TiktikPok, with that world’s large moon shining whitely nearby.

Hideyoshi had invited every ship captain to a celebration meal in the Admiral’s Mess of the
Bismarck
. Jack looked forward to joining his Belter captains for a meal that promised to be memorable. But the destroyer
General Douglas MacArthur
hailed him by laser comlink before he could lead his crew to the lander.

“I’m here. Who’s calling?”

The face of Amitar Gupta appeared on the front screen of the cabin. Behind him the footsteps of his people stopped as everyone turned to see the captain who had killed one of the last Boolean ships. The woman’s brown face showed relief at seeing him. Her black eyebrows lifted.

“Fleet Captain Jack! Thank goodness you are still there. I have a puzzle that needs your help solving.”

Puzzle? What could that be? The Bizzdaw system was clean of Boolean ships. The Boolean colony down planet had been vaporized by the careful application of Higgs beams against clusters of the seal-octopus predators. And the disgusting practice of eating intelligent arthropod people was as dead as the Boolean predators who had practiced interstellar cannibalism.

“What puzzle, Captain Amitar?”

She waved a hand to someone offscreen. “Here’s the AV imagery we got in our last attack. From a Boolean ship in the comet disk. When we arrived just out of strike range, the ship sent us this message. Just before we hit it with our Higgs beam.”