The freighters, repair ship, and three courier ships headed for the first of the jumps that would take them back to Santa Maria. They carried The Word to the rest of humanity that a small squadron of their own was about to do battle against unknown but probably impossible odds in defense of a race of aliens they had yet to talk to.
The Hermes popped out of Jump Point Delta. She’d seen nothing of the aliens in the last system the Hornet had jumped from. That was a relief.
Now Kris settled into her battle station on the bridge of the Wasp at Weapons. She tightened her belt as the ship began its acceleration to fifty thousand kilometers per hour and aimed for the first jump. Three jumps would be fast and risky, leaping before they had any chance to look where they were going. The last one, if the maps were still accurate, would put them one small jump away from the final jump the hostile aliens would make before they descended on the bird people’s system.
From one jump away, Kris’s fleet could peek through and make sure the hostiles were not yet in the next system. If the aliens had beaten the humans there, Kris’s plan would have fallen apart before she even began it.
The team had invested quite a bit of time trying to figure out an alternative battle plan if that happened.
No one had come up with anything that sounded at all good.
With luck, they’d just get there before the hostiles did.
The first two jumps went fine. The third jump, the one into the system where they’d slow down and take a careful look through the next jump to see how things were, didn’t go so well.
“We’re through,” Sulwan announced from her post as navigator. Now her usual cutoffs and tank tops had been replaced with a blue ship jumper sporting a lieutenant’s two stripes.
“We’re where we want to be,” she quickly added, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Once again, they’d taken the risky jump and not had to pay the price for it.
“I’ve got activity in the system,” Chief Beni reported.
“What kind of activity?” Captain Drago demanded. He still sat in the captain’s chair even though his blue ship jumper also showed only two stripes.
“Give me a moment,” the chief snapped.
“I wish the professor was here,” he muttered under his breath.
“My children have been analyzing the video and audio take,” Nelly announced. “It uses the same strange encryption system as Taussig’s aliens. We are trying to translate them into pictures we can see, but this may take time.”
“The hostile emissions are coming from a stationary source,” the chief reported. “There are no hostile ships in the system. Just one reactor.”
“Where?” Captain Drago said.
“That small planet slightly sunward between us and our next jump point.”
Behind the Wasp, the rest of the fleet poured into the system. PatRon 10 was now augmented by the courier boat Hermes. Lieutenant Song had won her battle duty. Kris hoped she would survive her wishes. Admiral Krätz insisted that the Greenfeld squadron, by right of it being double the size of the other contingents, should lead the battleships. No one had argued with him.
Maybe being in the lead had encouraged him to go where the other admirals intended to go. He had followed Kris through three jumps.
Now he did not follow her toward the next jump.
“Hey, if our aliens have a small outpost here, maybe we can talk to them,” he announced with cheer that would have struck no one as sincere.
“We have a deadline to meet in the next system,” Kris pointed out.
“But you always said you really wish you could talk to them. Well, here’s a few of them. Let’s see if we can get them to talk to you.”
“I think the admiral is hoisting you on your own petard,” Captain Drago said.
“And I am very highly hoist,” Kris said. “Captain, if you will, set a course for that occupied planet. Chief Beni, tell me everything you know about it as soon as you know about it.”
“It’s not going to be easy, Your Highness. We don’t have all the resources of the boffins to call on.”
“Don’t I know,” Kris said. “Give me what you’ve got, Chief, and give it to me quick.”
37
The planet had an atmosphere, of sorts. The chief suspected you could almost breathe it. “It’s got oxygen and nitrogen, but there are all kinds of nasty things like sulfur and other irritants.”
“I don’t intend to breathe it,” Kris said.
“Right,” the chief said. “There’s some water, but it’s got a high acidic content. More likely than not, if you dip your little toe in it, you won’t have a toenail left. Maybe no toe.”
“I got the message, Chief. I’ll pick somewhere else for my honeymoon.”
“Fortunately, she has plenty of time to find someone to share it with.” It sounded like Jack, but it was on net, and Kris ignored it.
Sulwan turned to Kris. “Is there any chance that this could be one of those planets that they stripped of its air and water, then polluted?”
“Chief, can you spot any evidence of previous civilization on this rock?”
“Nothing that I can see, Kris, but if the air and water are this acidic, it might have eaten away at a lot of building materials.”
“So we’re left to guess. Nelly, get me the admirals,” Kris said.
“Do you have any plans for contact?” Kris asked Krätz.
“I thought you were the one with all the plans,” was his reply.
The Krätz Kris had grown to know and like on Chance was long gone.
“I think the solution to our problem is easy,” Admiral Kōta said. “We land an assault team and take some prisoners. How large can this outpost be?”
“If it were us down there,” Kris said, “my chief thinks there might be fifty. Probably no more than a hundred. But these people seem to need less personal space than we do. There could be ten times as many aliens down there. Maybe fifty times.”
“But they have no space weapons,” Krätz said. “Surely, seeing eight huge battleships over them will make them be reasonable. It’s not like that lonely little ship that chose to take on your Wasp. We are battleships.”
Commander Taussig of the Hornet cleared his throat. “Compared to the ships who gave chase to us, your battleships look kind of dinky.”
“They would be fools to test us,” the Greenfeld admiral rumbled.
“Whose assault team do we put down?” Kris said.
“Your Marines are the most combat experienced,” Krätz said.
“Against people who can shoot back,” sounded like Vicky’s voice.
Krätz turned purple. Everyone else seemed not to have heard it.
Kris went on. “Admiral Kōta, Admiral Channing, do you have Marine detachments aboard?”
“We do,” came from both of them.
“Would you care to share a drop landing and reconnaissance mission with my combat-experienced Marines.”
“It would be an honor,” said Admiral Kōta.
“Don’t mind if I do,” said Admiral Channing.
It would be nice to have the company, but Kris still felt like she was being railroaded into something that maybe wasn’t such a good idea. “Chief, I’d sure like to know more about that alien site.”
“So would I, Kris. It’s making a lot of noise on the electromagnetic spectrum, but I can’t make head nor tails out of it.”
“I believe you did say it was alien,” sounded like Abby on the net.
Kris ignored the comment. “I have no intention of dropping Marines into the middle of something we know nothing about. I need to get a good look at it before I approve a drop mission.”