“We can get aboard now, sir,” said someone.
For the first time since I’d stepped into the command center today, I grinned.
“Relay a stand-down order to everyone,” I barked. “Let’s not blow this because one jumpy pilot takes an early shot. Get Crow’s Fleet down on the ground again. Put the beam turrets back on standby and get the hovertanks that aren’t coming with us back into their garages.”
Everyone reacted with great energy. The loading process began in earnest.
It took even longer than I had imagined. We, as the command module, were one of the last bricks to be loaded aboard the Macro transport. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to communicate with the base once I was inside the massive ship, so I had the trundling worker-machines with their whipping black arms pick us up last.
During the intervening hours, several people contacted me with final well-wishes and instructions. Sandra had been putting them on hold while I pondered starting a new interplanetary war, but now that we were loading they became insistent. She relayed them to me on a private com-link channel one at a time. The first in line was Crow himself.
“I’m sorry to see you go, mate,” he said. “I honestly didn’t know if they would actually come and take you.”
“Keep building ships, Crow,” I said, “and keep training new pilots. I hope to see the skies dark with Star Force ships when I get back. After you have about two hundred of these light craft, start building—”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Crow. “I’ll have a nice row of destroyers waiting for you when you get back, I’d wager. No worries.”
Our destroyer class, long ago scripted, required ten times the mass, time and effort to build as the one-manned workhorses we’d been using up until now. They would not look much larger than our puffed-up little frigates, but would have ten times the firepower and double the effective range due to their larger beam-cannon mounts. A crew of six would operate them, mostly working as gunners to prioritize multiple targets.
“I’ve got plenty of worries,” I told Crow.
Crow chuckled harshly. “I can understand that. But she’ll be right. We’ll keep building troops and ships in your absence.”
“Wish me luck, at least.”
“Luck, mate. Crow out.”
I didn’t get to take the com-link from my ear. Sandra had Kerr on the line.
“Why General,” I said, “I didn’t know you cared.”
“Stay out of trouble out there, Riggs.”
I snorted. Then the snort turned into a full-blown gust of laughter. I looked at the screen, where a steady line of trundling robots hovered along in teams of two, carrying bricks full of equipment and humanity aboard the alien transport. In order to keep from flipping over, the hovering bases of the worker units had to tuck themselves underneath the bricks. Their long arms reached up to the carrying handles on top. Cable-like fingers gripped the handles and held the bricks aloft, swaying and creaking.
“Such a thought at such a moment. I’m in deep here, Kerr. I’m in so deep, I’m never going to dig myself out of this monumental pile of trouble. Not this time.”
“What I mean is, don’t bring it back home this time,” Kerr said.
My laughter stopped. “I get it. You are slapping me for China again. Listen, if France takes a shot at these ships as we leave orbit, I’m not going to be able to do anything about what happens afterward.”
“No offense meant, Riggs. But you do tend to get ideas. Try not to get any on this trip. And have a good time.”
“Sage advice, sir.”
I couldn’t press the disconnect button fast enough on that one. I had to ease up so I didn’t break it.
Next in line was Barrera. As the link clicked in my ear, I heard loud rumbling sounds outside the module. Metallic clattering and rasping came from the roof. The hands were wrapping themselves around the carrying handles of our module.
“Talk fast,” I said.
“Everything is in place, sir.”
The floor heaved up under me. Everyone in the command post reached for the cable loops on the walls. The robot arms rippled and lifted. For a moment or two, we swung in the air as the two worker units automatically sought a good balancing stance underneath us. I felt like a rat in a cage.
“Mind the store for me, Barrera. When I get back, I want to see a Star Force Fleet—and Star Force Marines.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” he said evenly.
We disconnected. I noted that he was the only one who’d never wished me well. I wondered if that was due to an overabundance of confidence in my abilities, or simply a character flaw. I suspected the latter. Barrera was all business.
-37-
We had some difficulty with the natural contour of the Macro ship’s hull. The transport ship’s ‘floor’ was curved, not flat. The entire ship reminded me of a giant jar with a top that opened in flaps. We had suspected such an internal structure having observed these ships on several occasions. We had magnetic clamps installed on every module. Each brick clung to the floor—which was made of a ferrous alloy. Tubes extended between the bricks interconnecting them. We’d planned for all of this ahead of time, as we couldn’t be sure the Macros would bother to pressurize the interior of their cargo hold while traveling. With the bricks interconnected like a miniature city, an individual could travel to any brick without having to exit into the hold itself. They would have to go through a lot of airlocks to do it, however. We’d designed every brick to maintain its own integrity. If a brick caught fire or lost pressure, the damage could not easily spread to the rest of the pile.
We were finally aboard and our command module was stacked atop the heaping pile of bricks. The modules were stacked three to five units high. The entire pile was ten modules wide and sixteen deep.
“What’s the first order of business, sir?” asked Major Robinson.
I thought about it. We had a very long list indeed. We’d been flexible in our planning for this stage of the operation. We hadn’t known how smoothly the loading process was going to go. We had tried to build the bricks to be compatible with the Macro ships, but until we tried it, we couldn’t be sure. Now I was sure, and it was time to move on to bigger things.
“I think we’re in good shape. I’m going to contact the Macros and try to get some information out of them.”
My command staff blinked at me. They looked apprehensive. I frowned, feeling a moment of irritation.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to upset them,” I said.
“Ah…” said Major Robinson, his mouth hung open for several seconds.
I could tell right away he was choosing his words, trying to say something annoying without annoying me. I knew he was going to fail at it.
“Just talk, Major,” I said.
“Sir, maybe we should wait until we are underway before we contact them. I’ve had a prior discussion—”
“With who?”
His eyes slid around to some of the command staff, who tapped at reports and screens, looking busy. “With others, sir,” he said. “Anyway, as your exec, I think we should wait until we are out of the system. We nearly had an incident before we even loaded the bricks—”