Storming Heaven (22 page)

There’s no choice
, he reminded himself.  If the weapon worked, there were hundreds of other possible targets that had
no
human presence within a hundred light years, apart from spies and scouting parties.  The Killers would have to cope with a whole new threat, somehow; perhaps they could be worn down, or convinced to seek a peace.  Or perhaps that was just wishful thinking.  The human race still knew almost nothing of how the Killers actually thought.

“We’re past the perimeter, sir,” David said, suddenly.  “The Anderson Drive is powering up and we can jump on your mark.”

Andrew tapped his chair’s console.  “Engineering, report,” he ordered.  “What is out current status?”

“We’re ready and hot, sir,” the Engineer said.  “All systems are good to go.”

Andrew smiled.  “Take us to the first waypoint,” he ordered.  “Jump!”

He felt his stomach clench as the starship jumped, a seemingly-endless rushing sensation that ended when the starship fell back into normal space at the edge of the target system.  The display filled up rapidly with new icons, but there were no traces of Killer starships, or other possible threats.  The
Observer
had fought and died bare light years from their location, yet there was no sign that anything had happened in the system, ever.  It was as dark and silent as the grave.

“Tactical report,” Andrew snapped.  “Are we in the clear?”

“I am picking up no trace of Killer starships on long-range sensors,” Lieutenant Gary Young confirmed.  “The gravimetric sensors report no large masses within engagement range.”

“Good,” Andrew said, looking ahead into the Killer star system.  He hadn’t realised, until now, just how easy it was for the Killers to hide in gas giants, if they were hiding at all.  They could have an entire civilisation down there below the clouds and humanity wouldn’t be able to detect them, even with the most advanced sensors they had developed.  It suggested a possible cause of the first war, as well; what if some race had mined a gas giant and accidentally killed Killers in the process?  Had that been what had started the war?  “Helm, take us in, slowly.”

He’d considered simply popping out of Anderson Drive above the gas giant, firing off the missile and then jumping over to the star, but that would have certainly have attracted attention from the Killers.  If the
Lightning
came in slowly, the starship would look more like a piece of space junk than anything else, even on gravimetric sensors.  The Killers could see through cloaking devices – that had been established at new Singapore – but they might not recognise the
Lightning
if she came in on a ballistic course.  They ignored pieces of space junk completely.  It wasn't as if it could threaten their magnificent starships.

“Aye, sir,” David said.  The starship started to fall inwards towards the gas giant.  At such a distance, the gravity pull was almost nothing, but their trajectory would look reasonable.  A human defence unit would have fired in any asteroid that came that close to an inhabited world, but what would the Killers do?  “We’re on our way.”

Hours passed slowly as Andrew waited on the bridge, watching the sensor records and examining the data on supernovas.  There would be a massive pulse of radiation that would be dangerous to any starship or settlement without proper shielding, enough to damage all of the planets within a hundred light years, perhaps more.  The mass destruction of stars would leave thousands of dead or damaged worlds surrounding the dead stars, but there would still be millions more for humanity to settle, if the Killers were defeated.  Andrew himself hadn’t dared to think about what he would do without the Killers, yet if he could chose, it wouldn’t be living on a planet.  The asteroids were much safer for humanity.

“Contact,” Gary said, suddenly.  “I have one Killer starship,
Iceberg
-class, rising out of the planet and heading away from us.”

“Show me,” Andrew ordered.  “Put it on the main screen.”

He felt a shiver running down his spine as the Killer starship slowly rose out of the atmosphere, showing no visible trace of struggle, or any difficulties at all.  Andrew could have taken the
Lightning
down into the planet’s atmosphere, but the
Lightning
was tiny, compared to the Killer starship.  He wondered, absently, where the Killer starship was going, and then he found himself hoping that it would remain in the system long enough to get caught by the blast.  Would their hulls stand up to a supernova?

“We are now entering weapons range,” Gary said.  “We can fire on your command.”

Andrew took a breath.  They were about to kill an entire planet.  The irony wasn’t lost on him.

“Fire.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lightning
shook as the missile was fired, racing down towards the planet below.

“Bring up the Anderson Drive,” Andrew ordered, tightly.  “Prepare to jump us out on my command…no, belay that.  I want us to be out of here if there is a major eruption.  Configure the AI to jump us out of here automatically.”

He watched as the tiny icon raced down towards the gas giant.  No one had been able to say just
when
the weapon would reach critical mass and detonate, or even if it would survive long enough to detonate.  The Killers might realise that there was a threat and launch countermeasures, or it might be destroyed by an unexpected natural threat.  No one knew
that
much about conditions inside a Killer gas giant, or even if they differed from other gas giants.  There was no way to know for sure.

“I’m picking up low-level RF transmissions, but nothing else,” Gary said, flatly.  “I’m not even sure if they’re artificial or natural transmissions.  There’s no way to tell if the Killers are on the alert, or if they’re just…natural.”

“Record them anyway,” Andrew ordered.  A gas giant was a failed star, to all intents and purposes, and a natural radio source.  No one had realised that the Killers inhabited the gas giants because they had always assumed that the radio sources were natural.  It suggested that it would be difficult to tell the difference between a, inhabited gas giant and an uninhabited one, unless there was some other way to detect their presence.  The Killers could have build cities to rival the greatest cities on Old Earth under the clouds and no one would be any the wiser.  “Where’s our weapon?”

“Entering the atmosphere now,” Gary reported.  “I’m picking up increased distortions within the atmosphere, but again, it might be natural.”

“I doubt it,” Andrew said.  A flare of light, larger than the surface area of Old Earth, flared down amid the gaseous atmosphere.  A moment later, another followed it, and another, sending the passive sensors quivering in alarm.  Down below, the gas giant was being ripped apart.  “Keep watching…”

“Sir, the Killer starship has halted its course,” Gary said, suddenly.  “I think it’s noticed that something is badly wrong.”

Another flare of light lit up the entire gas giant.  “I think it’s too late,” Andrew said.  The radiation flare from the gas giant was constantly increasing.  He wouldn’t have wanted to risk taking even a heavily shielded starship any closer, not now that the gas giant was tearing itself apart.  “Stand by to get us out of here.”

“
New contacts
,” Gary snapped, sharply.  “I have at least seven Killer starships trying to rise out of the atmosphere, three of unknown design…
my God
.”

Andrew followed his gaze.  Four of the Killer starships were the same traditional design, exactly like the starship that had bombarded Earth into a radioactive nightmare.  The remaining three were even larger, massive irregular structures that seemed too large to exist, let alone fly under their own power.  The gravimetric sensors were going crazy; the massive ships seemed somehow to bending gravity around them, pushing them away from the planet.  The flares of light seemed to reach up towards one of the ships, there was a massive explosion, and the ship vanished.

Andrew didn’t cheer.  There was something sobering about watching the Killer cities – he was sure that that was what they were – fighting for life.  They weren't warships, or even vital systems, but civilian habitations, lacking the powerful defences of the Killer starships.  The growing waves of destruction would wipe them out before they could escape, even with the help of their escorts – if twenty-kilometre long warships could be termed escorts.  He watched in silence as more and more cities broke atmosphere, only to be destroyed by teeming surges of energy.  The Killers, for once, were on the run.

“Power surge,” Gary snapped.  “I recommend…”

The drive cut in.  An instant later, they were halfway across the star system.

***

Deep within the gas giant, the weapon finally released the energy it had gained from splitting billions upon billions of atoms, rendering the atmosphere of the gas giant into fuel for its own destruction.  It had sucked in the atoms, split them and released half of the energy, which had started a fission effect racing through the entire gas giant at the speed of light.  The early surges in energy hadn’t even touched the inner core of the massive planet; now, the fission effect was becoming supercharged.  Seconds after the weapon finally lost cohesion and vaporised, the gas giant burned like a new-born star.

A tidal wave of radiation and energy burned through the upper atmosphere and vaporised the remaining Killer installations and free-floating entities.  The ships and cities struggling to escape before the planet exploded didn’t stand a chance.  The fires reached out for them, enveloped them, and consumed them.  The handful of ships that had reached safe ground were still roasted and damaged, leaving some of them to fall back down towards the burning planet.  Others, further away, opened wormholes and slipped out of the system completely, fleeing to safer ground, while a handful waited to see if they could salvage anything from the disaster.  It was too late to save any of their remaining comrades.  The entire planet had been killed.

***

“Report,” Andrew snapped.  “What happened?”

“The planet blew,” Gary reported.  “The sensors read the massive gravity flux and jumped us out before the first waves could reach us.  I doubt that we could have survived even at our distance from the planet.”

“Show me,” Andrew ordered.  An image appeared in front of them; a new star burning within the system.  The planet’s orbiting moons, suddenly washed in a tidal wave of heat, would be melting, perhaps even being pushed out of orbit by the gravity waves echoing out from the dying planet.  The rings were already breaking down into vapour as the planet died.  They wouldn’t be able to tolerate the heat.  “And the Killers?”

“I’m uncertain,” Gary admitted.  “There’s so much disruption, even to gravimetric sensors, that it’s hard to tell if any of them survived, or if they escaped.  They could open up hundreds of wormholes and we couldn’t be sure of picking them up, not now.”

Andrew nodded.  Once, years ago, he had read a semi-serious article suggesting that humans would learn to ignite gas giants to provide their moons with a star.  Jupiter’s moons could be made habitable with a little effort and hard work, provided that they got a new source of heat.  The early days of the Space Age had been full of all kinds of fantastic schemes, which couldn’t be used even now, for fear of attracting the Killers.  Now, if the new star remained stable, perhaps one of those schemes could be put into practice.

“I’m not sure that the new star is remotely stable,” Gary said, when Andrew commented on his thoughts.  “The fission effect is burning up its mass at an astonishing rate.  If it doesn’t stabilise soon, it’ll burn itself out and probably turn into a dead star, or something along the same lines.”

“With a lot of dead Killers,” Andrew said, slowly.  The destruction had proved beyond all doubt that the Killers had infested that planet, and perhaps the other gas giants in the system.  It was time to complete the mission.  It was tempting to declare an end to the mission and leave the star alone, but they were committed now.  “Send an update along the secure channel to the Admiral, and then take us in towards the star.”

“Aye, sir,” David said.  The starship tilted slightly and raced towards the system primary.  The gravity waves emitting from the gas giant hadn’t had any effect on the local star, although Andrew hadn’t expected that they would.  Nothing short of a supernova bomb or a black hole would affect the primary; even a Killer starship would vaporise if it dived right into the star.  There were all kinds of schemes for using warp fields to survive within the star’s atmosphere, but Andrew doubted that they would work in the long run.  A single power failure and the entire complex would vaporise.  No one would even know what had happened…

“We have a contact,” Gary snapped.  “I have one Killer starship on a direct intercept course.”

“Evasive action,” Andrew ordered, watching the new icon gaining on them rapidly.  It looked…angry.  There had never been a sense of any emotion from the Killers before, but now…he suspected that the Killers had simply never been hurt so badly before.  “David, confirm; how long until we reach the best firing position?”

“Seven minutes,” David reported.  “We can be there instantly with the Anderson Drive.”

“Perhaps not,” Gary said.  “The gravity waves from the dying planet are making it much harder to calculate jumps.  The Killer starship will be in firing range…ah.”

The Killer starship fired a single burst of white fire.  It raced towards the
Lightning
at two hundred times the speed of light and barely missed as David took evasive action. 

“Now, it seems,” Gary said, with gallows humour.  “It seems that we underestimated the range on their weapons.”

Andrew had a more pertinent question.  “How the hell do they project that energy faster than light?”

“Unknown,” Gary said, “but I think they’re mad.  I’ve got two more Killer starships on intercept vectors.”

“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew ordered, as the Killer starships drew closer.  They seemed to have no problems pacing the
Lightning
, even threatening overrun her, but they seemed to be almost…fearful, as if they didn’t want to get too close.  It was the only thing that saved the starship from certain destruction.  If the Killers had closed to point-blank range, they could have picked her off or even rammed her with ease.  “Gary?”

“Two minutes to best firing range,” Gary said.  He paused.  “Sir, the Killers might intercept the missile.”

“True,” Andrew agreed.  He’d planned to flee the moment the missile was launched – no one in their right mind would want to be close to a supernova – but Gary was right.  They would have to run cover for the missile, even at the risk of their lives.  “Load torpedo bays, charge weapons.”

“Weapons online, sir,” Gary said.  He didn’t question the order aloud, but Andrew knew that he was questioning the wisdom of that decision.  Their weapons wouldn’t even scratch the Killer hull.  “Targets locked.”

“Fire a full spread of noisemakers just before you fire the supernova bomb,” Andrew ordered.  “Stand by…”

The star grew larger in the display, a ball of nuclear fire beaming out light and life to the entire star system.  Without the Killers, perhaps it would have shone on an empire of humanity.  Instead, Andrew had come to slay it for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.  The Killer starships were holding their course, keeping their distance…

“Fire,” Andrew ordered.

“Noisemakers away,” Gary confirmed.  “Supernova bomb armed, primed…and away.”

“Take us back towards them,” Andrew snapped.  “Helm, take us right down their fucking throats.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” David said.  The
Lightning
heeled rapidly and turned around to face the Killers.  A moment later, David triggered the warp drive and the starship raced towards the massive ships.  “One minute to close approach.”

“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew snapped.  “Gary, open fire with warp missiles.  Make them think we’re trying to take them out with a Cochrane Twist.”

The starship shuddered as it unleashed another spread of missiles.  Andrew watched as the missiles closed the distance within seconds, the Killers still firing their mysterious weapons…and then they locked onto the missiles instead.  The warp missiles, coming in on a predictable trajectory, were picked off one by one before they could reach their targets.

“They’re reacting to us,” Andrew breathed.  No one was sure if a Cochrane Twist was even possible against Killer starships moving at FTL speeds, using their own FTL drive, but the
Killers
seemed to believe it was possible.  Who knew?  They might even have been right.  They presumably knew their drive better than the humans knew theirs.  “They’re reacting to us…”

The two starships closed rapidly and then they were past the Killer starship, racing out into interstellar space.  “Fire the remaining noisemakers,” Andrew ordered, tightly.  If they could delay the Killers long enough to keep them near the star, the supernova would shake their confidence forever.  “What’s happening to the star?”