Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens (13 page)

“Signal off,” the black-furred giant snarled.

She sat back in her command seat, resting her chin on a fist. The enemy captain seemed to accept her for whom she pretended to be. Greed moved the giant snake-gorilla every bit as much as it moved her fellow humans. And other lifeforms living around other stars. Including the ship captains on the 26 ships that had accepted service with the Mokden creature. How much would that greed outweigh their fear once the Collector fleet arrived in Sol system and saw it faced other Collector ships and a deadly boomer sub fleet? Now that stage three would proceed using collector pods, could Star Traveler find a way to bring over to their side some or all of the 25 ship minds that knew their captains took Captives for sale into slavery? They had over an hour before they arrived at planet five. She would have a long talk with the
Blue Sky’s
AI. And Bill would soon leave to talk with his boarding crews. Those crews had heard everything she had heard. But still, it made a difference when your combat commander gave you a send-off to deadly battle. She wished him luck in that talk. Meanwhile, she must think over everything she had just learned about the enemy commander, the enemy fleet and the chances for capturing four of the 27 ships gathered in this system. Two of the 27 did not care they were used for slave-taking. Five had rebelled. They and the remaining 20 ships might be open to subversion. It was clear Earth would need every Collector ship it could muster in defense of Sol system. And the seven billion people now living on her home world.

CHAPTER NINE

Bill found a surprise when he walked into the Collector Pods Chamber. He was there for an in-person send-off for his four boarding teams. Those eleven people were gathered in four groups, all wearing tube suits, chest plates, backpacks and holding taser and laser tubes. The surprise were the four Alien crew members who stood between him and the boarding teams. Learned Escape, Time Marker, Long Walker and Builder of Joy faced him. Each of them wore tube suits, laser protective plates suited to their form, a carrybag and weapons. Learned Escape saluted him in the human military style. Bill returned the salute, his curiosity showing.

“Weapons Chief, we four volunteer to act as a fifth boarding team,” spoke the speaker/vidcam unit on the man’s left shoulder. Under the transparent tube suit, the man’s skin moved in stripes, bands and spots of color.

Amazing. While Learned resembled a Greek god or hero like Hercules, he was making it clear he wished to be a combat volunteer. Feeling a bit guilty, Bill recalled his earlier promise to the man to involve him in future special operations actions. Instead, he’d allowed his fixation on mind-liking with Star Traveler to distract him from his command duties. The gathering of the crew here showed Learned was also a diplomat. These four were not confronting him on the Command Bridge, where Bill would have been put on the spot before his wife and the other crew members. He nodded, then spoke over his helmet’s comlink.

“I appreciate the offer. But none of you have received—”

“We have the necessary training,” the color-banded man interrupted. “Over the last month we each have viewed the holo records of your takeover of this ship, the training of boarding teams you did, and also the holo records of the ships boarded by the Humans behind us,” Learned said. “We have practiced the small unit maneuvers favored by your military leaders. And your special operations people. You may recall my training as a marksman on my world. Which I suspect was why you invited me to join you in the ground attack against the Buyer compound on the Market world.” The man’s green eyes looked aside to the other three Alien volunteers. “You also invited Time Marker and Long Walker to join us in that assault. Builder of Joy operated the transport that gave us skyborne power. We have each been exposed to violence. Myself more than others, perhaps. And we have practiced the op force team attacks and defense that you taught your Human boarders. Is not the addition of a fifth Collector ship worth allowing us to act as a boarding team?”

Bill licked his lips. He would have pulled at his skimpy beard if he did not wear the clear helmet that came with each tube suit. He looked over this new team. Long Walker’s eight legs poked through the semi-living tube suit material, while his front leg-hands held a white taser tube and a red laser tube. Atop the tube suit were attached laser-resistant plates similar to the chest and back plates worn by his human teammates. A carrybag hung from his mid-section. No doubt it held ball demolition explosives, magnetic disruptor blocks and a nuke bar from the ship’s Weapons Chamber. The other ground-hugger, Time Marker, was similarly outfitted with back plates and a carrybag. The critter’s six neck tentacles protruded just below the clear helmet it wore. The tentacles held two taser and two laser tubes. The Slinkeroo’s yellow nimbus glow extended only a foot beyond the suit, suggesting the walking snake was at ease. Builder of Joy also wore a tube suit, protective plates and backpack identical to what Learned wore. The flying squirrel held a taser tube in his hands, with his laser tube poking out from his backpack. The eyes of all four were fixed on him.

“Learned, I accept your offer of a fifth boarding team,” Bill said, wondering what Jane thought as she overheard this discussion. “However, there are four of you here. Only three can fit into a collector pod.”

Learned nodded, his wavy black hair moving easily inside his helmet. “Builder of Joy offers to join the team led by . . . by Frank of the thick eyebrows. His team only consists of two Humans. Builder could be the third team member.”

Bill looked beyond the cluster of four crew members to where Frank stood, wearing tube suit, chest and back plates, a backpack and holding a taser tube, like all the humans in the chamber. “Well? You up for adding a third person to your team?”

The Marine gunnery sergeant looked to his left, to where Chris stood. Frank raised his eyebrows. “Chris?”

“Fine with me,” said the Ranger vet, who always acted casual about life. Field operations, tho, he took very seriously. “But does Builder know our hand signs?”

Frank looked to the brown-furred flying squirrel man. “
This is the hand sign for move left
,” he said in American Sign Language. “
Do you read me
?”

The pilot of
Tall Trees
moved left. He lifted both hands. His long fingers twisted quickly. “
I learned your combat movement signs long ago, before we went down to the Market world. And yes, your ASL hand signs are also known to me
.”

Frank grinned. “Welcome aboard,” he said, gesturing for the squirrel man to join him and Chris. Which Builder of Joy did.

Learned Escape lifted a black eyebrow. “That addresses your issue. Do we three also board a collector pod? When the time comes?”

Bill felt his gut churn. On Earth, no combat-trained human would ever come up with a last minute change to tactics the way Learned had just done. Still, the four of them were Aliens, even though they’d spent nearly a year with him and Jane aboard the
Blue Sky
. They knew human habits, human speech, English and even the ASL signs he and Jane had used during their takeover of the
Blue Sky
. And adding a fifth Collector ship to his and Jane’s direct control was a very welcome tactical change. Plus, these four knew all there was to know about Collector ship operations, command stations and how to relate to a new AI ship mind. It was his fault for overlooking them as a possible fifth team. They had been forced to operate in secret, rather than openly before him. He had to accept this sudden change was due to his own command error. Bill gave them a thumbs-up.

“Yes. Learned, you, Time Marker and Long Walker will board a fifth collector pod, when we launch pods. But what about your duty stations up on Command Bridge?”

The color-banded man’s skin swirled again, resembling a thousand rainbows rioting. The speaker/vidcam unit spoke. “Two of us are transport pilots. Which are not needed in Kepler 62. As for the stations held by my teammates, Wind Swift can handle the Collector Pods station, while your Chester has volunteered to man the Engines station. Satisfactory?”

Bill grinned. He couldn’t help it. It was clear this covert combat training effort had been going on for a long time. Without him hearing about it. If Learned could get Chester and Wind Swift to cover their stations, without word getting to him, that said this crew of Aliens were well-suited to a spec ops operation. Keeping one’s mouth shut about mission objectives was one of the first lessons he’d learned at Coronado.

“Very satisfactory.” He turned from the three volunteers in front of him to face the twelve who stood behind them. “Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe . . . and Learned, you are the team leaders for your boarding crews. We will launch you shortly after Captain Jane sets up agreements with five other ships to send our pods over to trade our Slinkeroo booze for their food stuffs.” He paused, thinking back to his and Jane’s plans for this stage of the infiltration. “Likely each pod will be met by a single Alien crew member. Who will be pushing a floater plate loaded with food stuffs. Do as you’ve done before. Taser the greeter. Then fast as you can, head out to the right side hallway, laser seal the Weapons door, then head for the Command Bridge, disabling any crew you meet on the way. That ship’s AI will be expecting you. Get its help in taking over the bridge and rendering its captain unconscious.” He looked over the people he’d come to love, people who made up a special family for him. His saloon buddies. Two spouses. Four Alien shipmates. Fifteen all told. He wanted them all to survive their boardings. “Remember, disable living crew with the tasers, use the lasers only to kill any repair robots or remote weapons blisters. The ship mind will block any effort by the ship captain to call for help. Make the most of your time.
Hoorah!
”

They all yelled “Hoorah” back at him, even the Alien boarders for whom Earth military protocol was something new to their life experience. He turned away, entered the airlock room, pointed his red cube door opener at the room’s inner door, then exited into the right side hallway. Bill turned right, heading for the Command Bridge. And the teasing he would no doubt get from his wife. A ship’s Executive Officer should know everything that happens on his ship, including covert schemes. Well, he could accept the ribbing in view of what it gained them. A fifth ship would now join them, a ship that would fight to keep Earth from becoming a radioactive cinder.

♦   ♦   ♦

Bill sat at his Weapons station as the
Blue Sky
arrived above the ice and rock surface of the fifth planet. The ship’s electro-optical scope gave them a detailed view of the cold world’s landscape. Giant white ice caps covered both poles, while a few blue lakes showed in its mountain-filled equator. The locals dome sat next to one of those lakes. Presumably there were fish in the lakes along with small ground critters running around. No settlements showed. Just the single dome, which emitted a lidar guide signal for incoming transports and pods. What mattered most lay above the poorly lighted world. Twenty-seven Collector ships hung in a globe-like cluster at a thousand miles above the world. Or so their ship sensors said, since each Collector ship was invisible to normal vision. Their ship’s AI put a small ship outline over each Collector ship that emitted neutrinos from its fusion reactors. That’s what he saw in the true space holo at the upper right of his station. The system graphic on his left showed what they’d seen earlier. No new Collector ships had arrived in the hour and a quarter they’d spent traversing an AU to get here. The comlink holo on his right held Jane’s image. She wore her Air Force blue jumpsuit under her tube suit. He looked beyond that holo. The other stations were occupied by Bright Sparkle, Chester at Engines, Wind Swift at Life Support where extra holos showed her readouts from Collector Pods, and Lofty Flyer at Navigation. Five of them plus Jane were the only souls on the Command Bridge. Jane peered at her own true space holo.

“Star Traveler, put a green dash beside the five ships whose AIs rebelled against their captains,” she said, moving them to the start of stage three.

“Complying. Five ships annotated.”

Bill saw five ship outlines gain a green dash. They were scattered about the globular cluster of the enemy fleet. One was close to them. The other four lay here and there in the cluster. A sixth ship had a red dash next to it. That was Death Leader’s ship. It lay at the exact center of the ship ball.

“Ship mind, contact the captain of the closest rebel ship,” Jane said firmly, her posture and manner once more command focused. “Project my Linglo image along with the Linglo ship’s Captives history. Show only me. Display the Alien captain image on all comlink holos, but allow speech only from my station.”

“Contacting. Translation initiated. Response incoming,” the AI hummed.

Bill’s comlink holo now held two images. Jane’s on the right side. And a green praying mantis Alien on the left side. The giant insect perched on an elevated bar in the middle of a Command Bridge identical to their own. The creature’s two black compound eyes fixed on her.

“New captain, why do you bother me?” it rasped harshly.

“Food supplies are needed,” said the black vulture image of Jane. “We are told trade by collector pods is the usual here. Will you accept intoxicating beverages from three Captives worlds in exchange?”

Clear eyelids swept down over the mantis captain’s eyes. It lifted its upper griparm pair. The thorax arm pair tapped on a control pillar in front of it. “You are Captain Sharp Beak of the ship
Strikes Deep
,” it said. “My people know me as Deep Appetite, captain of the
Green Branch
. We have extra organic foods. Do you wish plant, meat or both?”

Jane stretched out both arms, causing the vulture image to spread its black wings. “Both! Do you have live prey? We Linglo prefer hunting our meal.”

“So I have heard,” the mantis rasped. “We do not have live prey on this ship. Send a pod down to the dome on the world below. Locals from planet four hunt live prey for sale to such as us. They accept
solidars
. I prefer intoxicating beverages. Yours are strong?”

“Very strong!” Jane yelled, adding a ferocious tone to her speech. In the comlink holo, the translated words of the vulture sounded sharp. “I offer three bottles of beverage for each carton of meat and plant remains. Frozen of course. Accepted?”

“Accepted,” the green-skinned captain rasped. The stick-like fingers of one mid-body arm touched its control pillar. “A crew person is gathering five cartons. It will meet your pod in our Collector Pods Chamber. Agreed?”

“Agreed. Do not cheat me! I will be watching by way of the pod’s monitor eye.”

“Fool!” rasped the mantis captain. “My pods are the same as yours. Send your pod with 15 bottles. My crew will deposit five cartons in exchange. Do you have death games for trade?”