Worlds at War (A Captain's Crucible Book 5) Read online

  The fleet also launched a few telemetry drones, though there wasn’t much point, considering that the faster-moving starships were continuing deeper into the system at the same time, rather than lingering at the endpoint as they had done in the past, and would quickly outpace the drones. The fleet launched them mostly for completeness, having them fan out far to the sides of the system with the intent of providing coverage of certain planets whose opposite hemispheres were hidden from the battle group, given the current angle of approach to the Gate.

  Sirius was considered the gateway system to the stars, at least from the United Systems perspective. It was the first destination for anyone taking the United Systems-owned Sol Gate 1 located between Mars and Jupiter, a little past the asteroid belt. It was a binary star system consisting of Sirius A, a white main sequence star twice as massive as the Earth’s sun and twenty-five times brighter, and Sirius B, a very dim white dwarf that had long ago reached its red giant stage and shed its outer layers. The distance between the two stars varied from 1.2 billion kilometers to 4.7 billion kilometers as the binaries revolved around their common barycenter. Sirius A had four terrestrial planets in orbit from one hundred million kilometers to five hundred million kilometers out, while Sirius B had another two, at two hundred million and six hundred million respectively. Several more planets, mostly terrestrials but also one ice giant, orbited the barycenter of both starting at a distance of five billion kilometers out. The Slipstream to Gliese 581 was part of the latter group, while the wormhole to Earth’s system, Sol, resided in orbit around Sirius A between its first and second planets.

  During the journey across Sirius, the Raptor had one of its deployed fighters pass in and out of the Slipstream to Gliese 581, and reported on the progress of the enemy. Apparently the eight scavengers had turned back a few hours after the fleet left the system, if the Raakarr were to be believed. Valor claimed the ships had broken formation, and were accelerating on different trajectories to intercept the telemetry drones the battle group had deployed throughout the system.

  Jonathan hoped Valor was telling the truth. Because the last thing the fleet needed right now was an enemy pursuing them all the way to Earth, not when there were so many places for an ambush up ahead.

  thirteen

  What do you think?” Jonathan asked his first officer after calling him into his office.

  “About Valor’s insistence that the scavengers in the neighboring Gliese 851 have broken off the pursuit?” Robert said. “Well, if true, we’ve wasted our nukes and mined the endpoint for nothing.”

  “I don’t think covering our rear quarter can ever be considered a waste,” Jonathan said. “But my question to you is: why would the scavengers even bother to pursue in the first place, if they had no intention of following us through?”

  “Other than the obvious answer that they were herding us?” Robert said. “I don’t know.”

  “Which begs the question, why is it so important to herd us toward Earth?”

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Robert said. “Though one thing to consider... it could be that they remotely scanned the endpoint somehow, and turned around when they saw all those mines.”

  “Could be,” Jonathan agreed.

  Three days passed and no enemy emerged from the Slipstream behind them. It looked like the Raakarr had not been lying. Valor’s latest update pegged the scavengers as hidden behind Helios in Gliese 581.

  Jonathan started to believe they were going to reach Earth scot-free.

  And then a few hours later more scavengers were reported. This time emerging from behind a planet in orbit around Sirius B. Thirteen enemy vessels in total.

  Jonathan had been awakened by the news, and he sat in his bunk wearing his aReal glasses. “Maxwell, will they intercept us before we reach the Gate?”

  “Negative,” Maxwell said. “By the time we reach the Gate, the scavengers will still be one day behind, if they maintain their current speed.”

  “That’s a relief,” Jonathan said. “Then again, if they decide to increase their speed...”

  “Then they will cut us off,” Maxwell finished for him.

  The admiral announced that the fleet would maintain its current trajectory, with no deviations. They were to head directly for the Gate, and Earth.

  On the fifth day since entering the system, the battle group passed relatively close to the destroyed colony Albuquerque on the second planet in orbit about the common barycenter. The scans reported nothing left of the main cities. The terraformed world itself remained environmentally intact, like others the fleet had encountered so far; if humanity ever recovered from this, there was still a chance they could rebuild worlds such as these.

  “Does anyone else feel like we’re traveling deeper into enemy territory?” Miko said as they left the destroyed colony behind. “We keep finding more and more of these unfriendly ships the closer we get to Earth. It doesn’t feel like United Systems space anymore, not at all.”

  Jonathan glanced at Robert.

  The commander activated his noise canceler and extended it around the captain. Then Robert spoke: “I’m torn. A part of me believes we should turn back. Try to preserve what little pockets of humanity there are left in this galaxy. Before we’re wiped out completely.”

  “But we can’t,” Jonathan said. “You know that. Our duty lies ahead. We have to protect the Earth, if we can.”

  “You’re right of course,” Robert said.

  Jonathan nodded slowly.

  Am I?

  Like Miko, the captain couldn’t help feeling they were all headed toward their doom. He wondered if any Gates existed at all in Sol System. If they passed through, there might be no returning.

  The deeper we go into this dark den, the harder it is to get out again.

  ONCE AGAIN, AS the fleet grew near to the final Gate, designated ships among the Raakarr moved ahead to scout. The alien craft decelerated after launching probes half a day away, and when the fleet rendezvoused with them, Barrick tapped in from the Raptor.

  “What news?” Jonathan said. “Do we still have the Earth?”

  “The Earth appears to be intact,” Barrick said. “Along with several colonies and bases situated on the surfaces of various planets and moons.”

  “Well that’s a relief,” Jonathan said. “The Eighty-First Defensive Fleet was able to defend the system after all.”

  “Therein lies the problem,” Barrick replied. “For you see, Captain, there is no defensive fleet.”

  “Say again?”

  “There is no defensive fleet,” the telepath replied. “And both Sol Gate 1 and 2 are gone.”

  Jonathan sat back, stunned. “No defensive fleet.”

  “That is correct,” Barrick said. “All vessels have either vanished, or been reduced to space debris. The orbital defense platforms above Earth and most of the populated moons and planets have been destroyed.”

  “But you said the Earth, and many colonies and bases throughout the solar system were intact.”

  “I did,” Barrick said. “On the surface. And that is the key. There are a few defense platforms still orbiting Mars. And we detected a couple of space stations above Titan and other moons, but everything else in orbit or deep space is gone.”

  “So the Earth has truly fallen then,” Jonathan said. “But wait, you say the surface appears intact?”

  “It does,” Barrick replied. “Though keep in mind that the Slipstream endpoint terminates just outside the asteroid belt. The Raakarr sensors can only pick up so much detail from the planet at that range. The resolution currently isn’t high enough to determine whether any life still exists. We can see the outline of cities, however. And as far as the Raakarr can determine, there is no evidence of the previous surface damage we detected on other colonies, at least from the imagery alone.”

  “So there’s still hope, then,” Jonathan said.

  “There is,” Barrick replied.

  “Is there anything I should know abou
t this future?” Jonathan asked.

  “If I say either way, it will influence the course of events,” Barrick replied. “I had my chance to intervene long ago. I failed. I have no further role to play in this, Captain, other than to serve as your dutiful translator. But you, however, you have a very big role.”

  Jonathan sighed, then he contacted the vice admiral and relayed the news.

  The battle group passed through the Slipstream and into Sol system one day ahead of the scavengers.

  “Is it true?” Jonathan asked the ops station after the Callaway traversed the Gate. “Are there really no other ships out there? United Systems? Sino-Korean? Civilian merchants?”

  “Yes,” Ensign McNamara of the second watch answered. “All the ships are gone. Either they’re hiding, they’re grounded, or they’ve fled the system.”

  “What makes you come to that conclusion?” Jonathan asked. “As opposed to the obvious answer: that they’ve all been destroyed?”

  “Well,” the ensign replied. “There isn’t enough debris to account for the expected ship density. On average there are two hundred merchant and civilian ships passing through the system at any given time. Plus, four United Systems fleets would have been stationed here. Task Force 34 at Sol Gate 1, TF 17 at Mars, TF 91 at Titan, and Battle Force 82 at Earth. That’s another five hundred ships. And the Sino-Koreans would have had two hundred stationed at their Sol Gate 2. Plus the myriad other mercenary ships in the employ of the local colonies and asteroid mining stations. That’s over a thousand ships in total. But I’m only detecting debris consistent with maybe two hundred ships, scattered throughout the system. They can’t all have been destroyed.”

  “You forget the enemy also has a disintegration weapon,” Jonathan said.

  “I didn’t forget,” McNamara said. “I guess I just hoped the involved fleets had escaped it.”

  Jonathan nodded. “Keep up that optimism, Ensign. We could all use a dose of it.” He glanced at his second watch comm officer. “Are we detecting any chatter from the intact bases in the system?”

  “No,” the officer said. “I’m not reading anything out there. It’s very strange. I’ve been trying to hail multiple stations, including those of Earth. So far, I haven’t heard anything back.”

  “All right, keep trying,” Jonathan said. “And let me know if you hear anything.”

  He glanced at the map of the solar system on his tactical display. Scavenger ships might be lurking behind any of the celestial bodies. “Where are you hiding? Ops, I don’t suppose there are telemetry drones out there we can piggyback a connection on?”

  “Not a one,” McNamara replied.

  Unsurprisingly, the admiral sent the order for the fleet to launch their own telemetry drones, scattering them in all directions. It felt very unusual to have to launch scouts in one’s own home system.

  Admiral Ford followed up that order with a command to set a course for Earth.

  While underway, once more the fleet launched nukes and missiles to serve as smart mines surrounding the endpoint behind them. They placed just as many as the last time, forming a thick latticework. Two Avengers and two Raakarr fighters were also stationed to guard the endpoint. One of the alien fighters would act as a comm node, passing in and out of Sol System and Sirius to keep the fleet apprised of the latest regarding the pursuers.

  Wethersfield reported shortly thereafter that the scavengers left behind in Sirius had lost interest in the pursuit, and were splitting up, apparently flying toward the telemetry drones the fleet had deployed in the system, likely to destroy them.

  The admiral called the expected captain’s meeting and once more Jonathan found himself seated around the very familiar virtual conference room.

  “So, as far as we can tell,” Admiral Ford said. “Several of the colonies remain intact. High resolution scanners have detected signs of life on Earth. There is no confirmation yet on Mars, which is located on the far side of the sun. The planet has only just come into view. There are some indications of citizens out and about in Janno, but we’re not certain as of yet.” Janno was the Martian capital. “I know that nearly all of you have already attempted communications with one colony or another. So far, none of us has received a response. And the lack of comm chatter would imply some sort of interference precluding long range communications.

  “Without any repeaters, it’s very unlikely we’ll be able to penetrate that interference anytime soon, which is why I’m transmitting comm node deployment patterns to all of you. Please launch your comm nodes as per the included firing solution at the completion of this conference. Hopefully we’ll penetrate through the interference to some of the mining colonies in the farther reaches of the asteroid belt before we reach Earth, and then we can find out what happened. I only wish there were a few intact colonies closer to our route that we could talk to, but they’ve all been destroyed along the usual path one would take from the Slipstream to Earth.”

  She paused. “Whatever lies ahead, I know that you will all be strong. Now let’s get back to our homeworld.”

  THE FLEET PASSED directly through the asteroid belt. There was no need to pay the Delta V costs to leave the invariable plane of the planets simply to skirt the belt, as it had a very low density of asteroids—the rocks were very widely spaced, and LIDAR allowed the starships to make any necessary course adjustments to avoid any asteroids well in advance. The only worry was micrometeor impacts, but the Whittle shields protected against that.

  After traversing the asteroid belt, the fleet continued toward Earth, making good time. So far, none of the comm nodes that were dispersing throughout the system had picked up any communications chatter, and the telemetry probes launched when they first entered the system had not detected anything new.

  Jonathan happened to be on the bridge as they passed inside the orbit of Mars. So he was the first to learn the news.

  “Sir,” Ensign Lewis said.

  “What is it?” Jonathan asked. The urgency in her voice unsettled him.

  “The Earth,” was all she said.

  Jonathan glanced at his tactical display. A red dot had appeared above the Earth. Because it was in geosynchronous orbit, revolving with the planet itself, it had appeared on their sensors only now.

  “Get me a video feed,” Jonathan said.

  A moment later he was looking at the feed from one of the nose cameras. He zoomed in. Floating above the Earth was a giant, golden ship, shaped like a Möbius strip, the thick plane that comprised its hull twisting one hundred and eighty degrees so that it possessed only one continuous surface, topologically equivalent to a circle. A thick ingot of pure white light was sourced from the center of that circle, and shot down into the planet.

  “It appears the Elder judged us unworthy after all,” Robert commented softly.

  Jonathan had foreseen this moment. The Callaway had taken some of the Elder offspring from a planet in their galaxy—the crew thought they were collecting cylindrical “anomalies.” When Jonathan had gone to examine the objects in cargo bay seven, a psychic manifestation had appeared in his mind, showing the Elder craft, hovering above the Earth just like this, firing that white beam at the surface.

  He had foreseen humanity’s doom.

  And now it was coming to pass.

  fourteen

  Can we tell what that beam is doing?” Jonathan asked.

  “Not from our current position,” Lewis answered.

  “But it can’t be good,” Robert said.

  “No,” Jonathan agreed.

  “The Elder seems to be maintaining a geostationary orbit,” the ensign continued. “The beam is striking the Arctic Ocean... in the Eurasian Basin.”

  “I just looked that up on my aReal,” Robert said. “It’s the closest point to the center of the Earth you can get from the surface, considering that our planet isn’t a perfect sphere and the poles are flatter than the equator. The Eurasian Basin would be the best spot to strike if you wanted to penetrate into the mantle. The
Earth’s crust is only about five kilometers there.”

  “Maybe they’re trying to do to our homeworld what we did to the Elk’s?” Lewis said. “We’ve already determined that the Raakarr are their descendants in this galaxy. How do you think humanity would feel if some alien race came in and exterminated the home planet of an entire branch of our descendants?”

  “Not too happy,” Robert commented.

  Jonathan didn’t say anything. He just observed the video feed in silence.

  He squinted his eyes. “Do you see that? What are those?” New objects, scintillating in the light of the distant sun, had rotated into view with the revolving planet, though they were in a lower orbit with regards to the Möbius strip vessel.

  “They’re scavenger ships, sir,” the ensign said. “At least a hundred of them. They all appear to be in geosynchronous orbit. Just like the Elder craft.”

  “Wonderful,” Jonathan said.

  “If they wanted to destroy the Earth,” Robert said. “Why not instruct those scavengers to fire their disintegration bombs in spades at the surface?”

  “No poetic justice in that,” Jonathan said. “And besides, it would probably take a whole lot of bombs.”

  “You’re both assuming the scavengers obey the Elder...” Miko said.

  “We are,” Jonathan said. “But it’s a fairly good assumption, given our current knowledge of the situation, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Maybe they’re merely... scavenging,” Miko said. “Like crows feeding on the dead in the aftermath of a land battle.”

  Lewis spoke up. “The CDC is reporting large blast craters on the Earth’s surface, centered on the locations where the major surface-to-space defenses once resided. Actually, blast craters isn’t really the correct word. It’s like something took a deep chunk out of the targets, just like what we saw on the colony worlds. It matches up with the damage that could be expected from the disintegration weapon.”