Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1) (23 page)

“Elaine, put up our fleet positions on the screen.”

“Yes, Captain,” she said, tapping her NavTrack computer panel.

An overhead plan view of this part of deep space showed now, with Sedna in the upper portion, while his seven ships showed below the planetoid as red dots. Their fleet position matched what he and Akemi had agreed on. The
Uhuru
held center position within a ring formed by the other six ships of the Belter fleet. The front half-arc was formed by three ships, while three other ships formed the rear arc. The fleet arrangement guaranteed they could detect and fire on any approaching ship or ships.

“Good.” He glanced over at his sister, who now wore a green jumpsuit over her bodystocking. “Tell me, and the other captains, about Sedna. Geo, spatial, ecological, the whole bit.”

Elaine gave him a half-smile, then gestured at the reddish-brown ball that occupied most of the front screen. “Comet 90377 Sedna was found in 2003. Its diameter is 1,041 kilometers. Its day is ten hours. Its surface temp is 38 Kelvin. Its gravity is twice that of Ceres, or six percent of Earth. Its surface composition is 7 percent carbon, 10 percent solid nitrogen, 26 percent methanol, 33 percent methane ice and 24 percent Triton-type tholins. Or hydrocarbon sludge. Tholins are organic molecules created by intense UV irradiation from Sol. On early planets, it is thought tholins may have been the first microbial food for heterotrophic microorganisms before autotrophy evolved. In short, tholins are thought to be the organic food for the earliest bacterial lifeforms on Earth. And elsewhere.” She paused as Max slapped his forehead, as if her biotalk gave him a headache. “Anyway, what we see here is likely to be a ‘crust’ overlying a liquid water ocean created by radioactive decay of the rocky inner core of this dwarf planet. The haze you can see at the planet’s horizon may be a nitrogen haze, since Sedna is near its closest approach to Sol, or perihelion.”

“When was it closest to Sol?” asked Captain Kasun of the
Leopard
.

“In 2076, when it was at 76 AU. It’s been outbound on a parabolic orbit since then. Sedna will only head back to Sol once it reaches an aphelion distance of 937 AU,” Elaine said. “Its year is 11,400 Earth years. More questions?”

“Yes,” called the
Orca’s
Akemi. “Does your scope detect any Alien spaceships in orbit or near Sedna?”

“Yes,” Elaine said grimly. “Appearing now on the side panel plan view of this space.” Jack blinked as 41 yellow dots showed up on the side screen. ““Filter spectrophotomery says most ships are made from a steel alloy. Fourier spectroscopy says some of the alloys are titanium-steel, while others are tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, rhenium and tantalum alloys. Some have ceramic or carborundum overlays. In short, the ship hulls are highly heat resistant and very hard.”

“Elaine,” Max called. “The Alien ships appear to be in two clusters. One cluster of twelve ships are clumped on Sedna’s far side at a hundred thousand klicks. The remaining 29 ships are orbiting Sedna at altitudes ranging from a hundred klicks out to three thousand. All are in an equatorial plane relative to Sedna.”

“Maybe Sedna is an Alien food mart like the ancient Walmart group?” joked Denise.

“Hardly,” Maureen said loudly from her holo. “Elaine, the outer clump of ships. Are they bigger than the inner clump? You know what I’m wondering.”

His sister tapped her Astro keyboard, then nodded slowly. “Yes, they are. From ten to twenty times the size of the lower orbit ships. Which range up to
Bismarck
in size and likely tonnage. You think those outer ships are the colony ships mentioned by the Gyklang captain?”

“I do,” Maureen said softly, looking at Jack from within her holo.

It was time. “Elaine, do you detect any laserfax, maser or EMF signals from Sedna?”

“None. And it would take eight minutes, nineteen seconds for a radio signal to travel one way to us. Perhaps we need to be closer before we are contacted?”

All very possible. “Time to find out. Fleet, make blip jump vector for an equatorial orbit above Sedna at, say, four thousand kilometers. We will stop on the Sol side of Sedna, at that altitude, in our current formation. Captain Akemi, your
Orca
is lead ship in our forward arc. Will you initiate the laser comlink timelock for grav-pull accel?”

“Yes, my
shogun
,” the black-haired woman said as her top of the screen image looked to one side of her bridge. “Yamamoto, initiate gravity-pull drive on my count of five.
Ichi, ni, san, shi, go!
”

Light blurred on the front screen and out through the Pilot cabin’s side portholes. Star images bent, shifted, steadied, then repeated as multiple blip jumps became nearly continuous. Jack had never directly measured the time-distance speed of blip jumps. He just knew them to be very, very fast. Locally, they were instantaneous. For longer distances like this one AU jaunt, it would take ten minutes to arrive above Sedna, compared to the 41 minutes it would take at their normal twenty percent of lightspeed using their fusion pulse drive. Blip jump was close to lightspeed, but not there. He looked at Maureen’s holo.

“Combat Commander, prepare for immediate combat upon our arrival in orbit. While I do not expect to be fired upon, I wish our battle readiness to be clear to anyone watching our arrival!”

“As you command! One HF laser pod will aim groundward, with the other aimed outward. Our dual railguns are even now taking in barrel loads of ball bearings. I’ve got one thermonuke torp in the spysat ejector slot. And my neutral particle beam whiptail is now motion active, ready to strike in any direction!”

Jack nodded his appreciation, then looked back to Denise. “ComChief, please have our radio and AV set to receive Charon Standard Channel Four. But also be alert to any maser or laserfax emissions that may come our way.”

“Anything I can do, boss?” called Max.

Jack looked all the way back to Max’s Drive Engineer post. The gravity-pull drive armrest panel hovered above the man’s lap, while the Main Drive control module had lowered from the cabin ceiling. He grinned. “Keep doing what you’re doing. And move our fusion cylinder from Hot to Pinch Mode. Just in case we need to flare-melt any unwelcome visitors.”

“Will do.” Max rubbed at his clean-shaven, dark brown face. The dark skin was thanks to the rad-tan he and every other Belter citizen developed by the time of puberty. Including Jack. And Elaine. And Maureen. Only young Denise had facial skin pale enough to show her brown freckles.

Jack looked back at the front screen, the live light scope image gone thanks to the grav-pull distortion. But the side panel showed the ecliptic plan view of Sedna, the two clusters of Alien ships, and their fleet formation blipping close faster than he could tell. A yellow glow from his Tech panel told him seven minutes had passed since they began blip jumping.

“Crew, be ready for contact from Sedna upon arrival. I’m sure the Aliens have a standard Arrive and Identify protocol similar to that at the Deimos Yards and at the Unity’s Copernicus Moon base.” He paused, wondering what else he needed to anticipate. “Denise, make sure our outgoing AV signal focuses just on me. If I ask for one of you to give input, then widen the motion-eye to include the rest of the Pilot cabin.”

“Will do,” Denise said. But her tone made him look back. She was twisting one of her red braids.

“Problem? Issue? Speak up now!”

“Just my Animal Ethology stuff. We are going to arrive like a pack of wolves ready to jump on anything edible. Is that your intent?”

“Yes! Exactly. Why?”

She smiled a young woman look. “No problem. Just wanted to be sure our arrival mode was what you intended. Which is what I would have recommended if asked.”

“Oh.” The yellow glow had begun blinking. Normal space resumption was in one minute. “Why would you have recommended what I am now doing?”

Denise looked up at the front screen with its plan view of the Sedna area, then back to him. Her look was now somber. “Because if we intend to drive these Aliens out of Sol system, then we have to appear exactly like a pack of wolves ready to jump on anything edible!”

Jack turned back to face the front screen, not bothering to hide his smile.

The screen suddenly filled with Sedna, its scores of melt basins scattered across its methane ice crust as if it had a bad case of measles. Only this time the whole face was solid red, with the basins a darker red. At the top of the screen came the AV images of the other ship captains, while the side panel plan view showed their fleet formation in a slow orbit above Sedna. The nearest yellow Alien ship lay a thousand klicks below and three hundred klicks retrograde to their movement. The colony ships were out of view on the opposite side of Sedna. A purple light came on above the screen, alerting them to an incoming AV signal.

“Accept the signal Denise.”

“Accepting.”

The image of Sedna vanished. Replacing it was the bodyform of an Alien. Something like a cross between cheetah and a leopard looked out at them. Golden yellow eyes focused on them as its blunt snout moved.

“Human ship
Uhuru
, and allies, welcome to . . . you call it Sedna. We HikHikSot called it . . . Racetrack when first we came here,” the Alien said in a throaty-cough.

“Are you Menoma?” Jack interrupted.

The cat-being blinked quickly. “No! The . . . Manager leaves Arrival and Identify duties to me.” The HikHikSot alien peered closely at Jack. “You are alone on your ship?”

“No. My crew is present with me. Denise, expand the view.”

“Ah.” The Alien looked quickly at each of Jack’s crewmates, then back at him. “Our arrival customs are simple. Do not trouble the colony ships on the far side of Sedna. Do not attack any other ship in orbit above this ice ball. And do not land on the surface of Sedna with thermonuclear devices, such as the torpedo lying in your ejector device. Understood?”

Clearly there were stealthed sensor satellites sharing the orbit of his ships and likely those of the other twenty-nine Alien ships that also orbited Sedna. “Understood. Accepted. I wish to visit with your Manager and discuss items of possible trade with him or her. And perhaps with other species representatives.”

The Alien, who seemed built for speed and flexibility, crossed black-spotted arms over his narrow, tan-furred chest and gave Jack a look of . . . hunger. “Trade is something we HikHikSot specialize in. What do you bring to trade?”

“Frozen red meat of the elk and cow species of Earth. They are quadrupeds of large size who—”

“Understood,” interrupted the Alien. “We have long studied your television broadcasts including those that depict the wild animals of your world. And those animals raised for food. Continue.”

Jack grinned toothily. “We also have recordings of whale songs and parrot chatter, preserved octopi as trophies, blocks of iridium, interactive video battle games, Scotch and bourbon whisky, some red and white wines, some preserved animal skins, gems such as aquamarine, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline, peridot, alexandrite, diamonds, citrine and similar stones,” Jack said. “We also carry some spices unique to Earth.”

The Alien licked his stubby white canines with a pink tongue. “Any competitor will value the animal meats. Some enjoy Alien games of competition. Others value exotic items such as your animal skins. The wines and whisky are of no value here. Different biochemistries require different intoxicants. When you land, bring a cold box with the meats. Bring a sample of your gems. The games will likely appeal to many. As you may have guessed by now.”

Jack had been looking past the Alien greeter at the room it occupied. Beyond the beige color, curving walls and outline of what might be a pressure hatch, he detected nothing else. He raised one hand. “Greeter, when Humans first meet, we offer names preparatory to discussion. My name is Jack Munroe. Do you have a personal name to share?”

The golden yellow eyes of the cheetah-leopard Alien blinked quickly. Then held open. “Some competitors do the same as you Humans. My . . . function term includes your Greeter term. My personal identifier is Howler.”

Jack grinned again. “Good. We will use this ship’s Lander to visit the surface of Sedna. Howler, where is your entry point? To this meeting place we have heard about. And are the heat and air similar to our—”

“To that of your Earth? Yes,” said Howler. “At the Gathering Hall we maintain an oxy-nitro atmosphere similar to your composition and pressure. Temperature is kept at your 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The local gravity field is mild, as you already know from your orbital track. But we maintain what you call a one gee field in occupied locations. As for our entry point, it lies at Sedna’s equator, just where light-rise is now occurring. It emits a blinking ultraviolet signal. You cannot miss it.”

Jack thought this Arrival and Identify chat had been all too innocuous, coming as it did from an Alien lifeform who had secretly set up a base on one of Sol’s largest comets, and now played host to various Alien species who competed to claim Earth and Sol as part of their Hunt territory. “We never miss our aim. As the dead bodies and ships of your Rizen, Yiplak, Nasen, Gyklang and Lizard aliens testify.”

“Lizard?” Howler said with a purr that sounded puzzled. “Oh. You mean the competitor species Hackmot. Yes, we observed your encounter with them at a comet closer to your home star.”