“Hornets! I know a lot about hornets!” the skipper of the last two Hornets said through a grin.
They adjourned to Kris’s day cabin.
39
“I know we’ve only begun our study of this new bunch of aliens,” Kris said, beginning her staff meeting. “But I’ve sworn that no more new heads get added to that trophy room under their pyramid. However, Alwa is my first responsibility.”
Kris made a face. “So what do we do about these felines down sun from us? We’ve got an eighth of Alwa’s defending frigates here, maybe more, depending on if the Smart Metal work is not going well.”
She paused to look at everyone around the table. She had their attention.
“What is the best course of action? Do we attack the aliens on the other side of this system? Should we make contact with the aliens down system and tell them who’s sharing their sun with them now? Could we give them some advanced technology that would let them do a better job of holding their own against any space-based attack?”
Kris paused, then added the final option. “Or do we do nothing? Mark this place on our charts for later contact and get back to Alwa. Do any of you see some other option that I missed?”
Again, Kris was met with a silent table.
I’m getting a bit tired of this silent treatment.
But then, they could remain silent and do nothing. She was the one who had to choose action over inaction.
A lot of people exchanged glances, but no one spoke for a long time. Finally, the looks between Jacques and Amanda sprouted words.
“The cat people, as some of us have taken to calling them. I think that’s better than furries,” Amanda said. “Anyway, they are firmly into their industrial age. Jet aircraft, early rockets, lots and lots of personal transportation. They do not yet have any of the computational power that will put them into the information age.” She glanced at Professor Labao to see if he would contradict her, but the administrator seemed happy with her words.
“However, that may be changing. The three biggest groups are making noises about a race to their moon. If they do that, they will have to develop better and smaller computers, and that could launch them into the information age and major changes to their economies. How that will turn out is anyone’s guess.”
Amanda eyed Kris as if deciding what to say next, then glanced at Jacques. He took over the story. “The problem Amanda and I are struggling with is the question of how well these people can learn to work together. We make a joke of ‘it’s like herding cats,’ but they are living that problem.”
“But they have a military, don’t they?” Kris asked. “A successful military requires discipline, working together, following orders.”
“Yes, Kris, but a lot of warlike people in human history have succeeded in war without giving up a lot of individual prerogatives. Not all warrior societies want every soldier walking in lockstep. Some pride themselves on the Berserker mentality or the Samurai spirit. You can march in step and still get all kinds of independent action.”
“Where did I first hear the virtue of ‘Improvise. Improvise. Damn it, improvise’?” Kris said.
“Precisely,” Jack said.
“Oh, Colonel Cortez, how I wish you were here,” Kris said.
“I feel his ghost at my elbow,” Jack said, “and he is laughing his head off.”
Kris paused a moment to see if she could hear the good colonel’s pleasant chuckle. Hearing nothing, she went on. “Okay, so my anthropologists and economists tell me that these felines are very independent but dangerous as hell,” Kris said. “I get the feeling that all this beating around the bush is intended to slowly work me away from putting any high technology in their paws. It would be worse than petting their fur the wrong way.”
“I wouldn’t agree with that imagery,” Jacques said, “but I sure wouldn’t want to artificially inject advanced technology into their civilization. The outcome could be ugly.”
“So, one of my options is off the table. That still leaves two. Do we risk this squadron in taking out the aliens across the system, or do we quietly leave and shut the door on this Pandora’s box? Maybe come back in a year or two and see what we find?”
“Kris,” said Nelly, “I don’t think the matter is in your hands anymore.”
“Why, Nelly?”
“Twenty-two alien warships just boosted out from the gas giant’s orbit.”
Kris allowed herself a deep breath. She would not panic. She’d fought and killed them before. She would do it again. Letting out her breath, she put on her war face as she glanced around the table. Jack and Penny were already back in battle harness. Masao looked inscrutable. The three boffins looked surprised.
Bet they didn’t see this one coming.
“Report on the aliens’ movement, Nelly,” Kris ordered.
To their right, a screen came to life. It showed the entire system from well above the sun.
“The aliens have begun a one-gee acceleration that will take them toward the sun and, assuming some modifications to accommodate the solar presence, I calculate it is very likely that they will swing around the sun and arrive at the fourth planet. Kris, they are launching an attack on the cat people.”
“Why would they do that now?” Jack asked.
“Nelly, has there been any evidence in the cat people’s radio transmissions that they are aware of the aliens?”
“No, Kris. There are no references to an alien attack in their news. Their fiction, as distributed in their media, has no genre for alien attack. I also find it hard to accept that they would be continuing their minor war if they were fighting for their existence with the aliens. No, this is the first attack by the aliens,” Nelly said, drawing a conclusion from what Kris would have considered incomplete data.
“But that still leaves the question, why now?” Jack repeated himself.
“Maybe they needed time to refuel,” Kris said. “Maybe they needed time to prepare. Or maybe they even had an argument as to what to do next. Nelly, is that all of their warships?”
“Two are remaining behind with the four large reactors.”
“So it’s seven heavy frigates and the Endeavor against twenty-two of their monsters,” Kris said. “Those are the best odds I’ve faced yet. Nelly, send to the squadron. ‘Prepare for battle. We get underway in two hours. Longknife sends.’”
“I guess I’ll be getting back to my Hornet sooner than I expected,” Captain Taussig said, standing up.
“Good luck and Godspeed,” Kris said.
“The same to us all,” Taussig replied.
Despite Kris’s early alert, they were still at anchor twelve hours later. There was no rush; even with the later start, they would reach the felines well ahead of the bug-eyed monsters that looked too much like humans.
They spent the extra time absorbing the Sisu into the Wasp and the Intrepid.
These two frigates had begun life with only five 18-inch guns. Now they sported ten 20-inchers. That made them better in a fight, but their power generation meant it took far too long to reload the lasers.
Over the next couple of hours, one of the reactors from the Sisu was swallowed by each of the other two ships. They wouldn’t be used for propulsion, but they could be used to recharge the lasers.
When the occupants of the brig discovered they were going into a fight, the engineers among them begged for a chance to run their own reactor to power the guns that might just save their lives.
While they might or might not have heard much about why they’d been detained in the Alwa System, they certainly had learned that the bug-eyed monsters did not take prisoners.