Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens (19 page)

“Jake!” called Jane. “Bring your fleet in close to the backside of the 12 enemy ships. Maybe we can still do our pincer maneuver!”

“Coming,” the SEAL replied.

Bill saw that Lofty Flyer had now reversed their vector approach, sending them away at one-tenth lightspeed. That put the 12 weapons capable enemy ships between their six ships and the seven Collector ships led by Jake. The subs managed by Joshua, Paul, Dimitry and Shengli now joined Jake’s advance. That made it 29 ships on Jake’s side, six ships on Jane’s side and the 12 enemy ships in between. The comlink holo to his right, which had shown only Jane, again filled with the black-furred form of Death Leader.

“Human female!” the snake-gorilla screamed. “I am coming for you! No one who deceives a Mokden survives that deceit!”

Jane laughed, shocking Bill. “Stupid primate! You had a month to discover my deception. You failed! And I used that time to win over most ship minds on your ships. They did not like the news that your ‘guests’ were really Captives. Nor did they like the idea of being used to capture more people.”

Muscles moved in the blue-scaled face of the snake-gorilla. As it stood, it lifted both heavily-muscled arms and shook clenched fists at Jane. “Female! Our Mokden females know how to submit. When I catch your ship, I will come aboard and eat of your carcass!”

Jane smiled, then gave the creature her middle finger. “Among humans, this gesture advises you to screw yourself. Which you have already achieved. Twelve of your ships cannot move. Your remaining weapons-active ships are fewer than my combined fleets. If you surrender now, perhaps we will let you live in our prison dome on Mars.” She tapped her right armrest. “See this image? It already contains Diligent Taskmaster and the captains and crews of the six ships that attacked Earth. They are vicious, like you. When you join them, will you eat of their bodies, or they eat of yours?”

“You will die!” The creature turned its triangular head and looked down. “Increase speed now!”

“But our engines will melt!” cried a crewperson who resembled a teddy bear.

“Increase now! Or I kill you!” screamed Death Leader.

“Captain,” called Chester from his Engines station. “Death Leader’s ship
Fear Arrives
has sped up to 11 percent of lightspeed. Most of his other ships are doing the same. He will overtake us.”

Bill triple-checked the CO
2
nose lasers of the
Blue Sky
. The lasers, the four shots remaining in his antimatter reservoir and the plasma batteries on their spine and belly were all able to shoot toward the oncoming enemy fleet. The same armaments were still active on the ships of Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned. As they were on the seven Collector ships led by Jake and his captains. The subs added 22 deadly lasers and hundreds of thermonuke warheads to the mix. Who would reach target range first?

“Bright Sparkle,” called Jane. “Increase power output from our fusion reactors. Chester, use that power to take us up to 11 percent of lightspeed!”

The color-banded woman on Bill’s right tapped her control pillar. “Fusion power output increased by six percent!”

“Speeding up,” muttered Chester, his low baritone sounding tense. “That Alien is right, though. We could lose one or both Magfield drives if we maintain this speed too long.”

“I know,” Jane said, her tone command intense. “But their 12 ships outnumber our six. We have to buy time for the other fleet to reach target range.”

Bill had a sudden idea. He tapped his Weapons fire control panel. His feet felt the vibration of weapons launch.

“Captain! I’m firing all our MITV torps at the enemy ships. That’s 14 torps, each outfitted with five thermonuke warheads. We can create a minefield between us and them!”

“Yes!” Jane said quickly. “Ship captains! Fire your MITV torps. Add to Bill’s warhead minefield. Hurry!”

“Firing,” called Joe from the
Moberly
.

“Also firing,” husked Frank from the
Fallujah
. “Hull penetration is sealed. We are back to being airtight.”

“Launching torps,” cried Alicia from the
Musan
, sounding Ranger eager.

“Torps launching,” spoke Learned from the
Harken
.

“Doing the same,” softly said Stefano from the
Neil C. Roberts
.

Bill’s system graphic now filled with a dozen red dots representing the first salvo of MITV torps from the maglev railgun launcher that lay below the Command Bridge of his ship. More red dots joined them. Each ship had 14 torps. Soon, there would be 84 torps speeding back toward the oncoming enemy fleet. The torp nose cones would fly away and launch five thermonuke warheads, each warhead carrying the power of three megatons of thermonuclear disaster. While Death Leader’s 12 ships would surely detect and destroy many of them, they might not get all 420 warheads. While none of the torps could reverse their one-tenth lightspeed travel away from the enemy, the enemy’s approach at eleven percent lightspeed would bring their ships into range of warheads fitted with magnetic field sensors. Bill hoped three or four of them would detonate and damage a nearby Collector ship. That might happen if a Collector ship hull came within two miles of the plasma fireball of one of the torp warheads.

Bill’s system graphic showed the 12 enemy Collector ships with full weapons control were pulling away from the six enemy ships where crews were installing bypass circuits. Those six ships could not fire for another two hours at least. By which time something had to break in this battle. Then he noticed something that surprised him.

“Captain! Five subs and all seven of our other Collector ships are speeding up to 11 percent of lightspeed.” The five red sub dots changed position. “Uh, correction. The subs are moving up to 12 percent lightspeed.
Shit
. Their fission reactors must have all the control rods pulled to generate the power needed!”

In his comlink holo, Jane frowned. Her clear helmet glinted as she looked aside at one of her holos. “Those subs are the
Minnesota
, the
Louisiana
, two Russian subs and a Chinese sub. What the hell are their captains thinking?”

Humming came from the ceiling.

“Incoming signal from Peterson Air Force Base,” Star Traveler said, his near-human voice sounding surprised.

In the comlink holo there now appeared the image of Poindexter. “Captain Yamaguchi, we’ve been watching this battle. As has the president, the leaders of China, Russia, Britain and France, and their military staffs. Those five subs are preparing to ram the enemy ships. We cannot allow any enemy to reach Earth.”

“I know that!” groused Jane. Her image showed anger on her face. That anger quickly disappeared and a neutral command expression replaced it. “I appreciate the assistance of the JCS and our other fleet members. However, my tactical response is still evolving. I expect to disable or destroy all enemy ships. Now let me do that!”

“Understood,” the black woman said, her expression equally neutral. “Departing.”

Bill’s comlink filled once more with the image of Jane. The image icons of their five ship allies also showed. He refocused on the groupings of ships in the system graphic. He licked his lips. The 12 enemy ships were just 53,000 miles from Jane’s ship grouping. Five more minutes and both ship groupings would be in laser firing range of each other.

Yellow-white energy flared in his true space holo. Five more fireballs happened.

“Captain! The six laggard enemy ships with no weapons have lost their engine sections!” He pulled his eyes away from the holos in front of him and sought his wife’s tense face. “Love! Jake’s Collector ships hit them with antimatter beams.”

Jane looked surprised, then more intense. “That means the other fleet ships and subs are within 4,000 miles of the laggard ships. How soon before they are in target range for the 12 pursuing us?”

“Two minutes,” Bill said as his fire control panel showed him readouts on every enemy ship, the other Earth fleet ships and their smaller fleet of six ships. “I suggest our ships should disperse sideways. To force the enemy ships to chase us individually. That will prevent them from combining their laser and AM beams against us!”

Jane nodded. “Navigator, take us out at a right angle to our current vector. Avoid any of Jupiter’s moons but get us up and out from this vector! Captains, do the same with your ships!”

Stefano, Alicia, Frank, Joe and Learned acknowledged the order.

Bill knew this sideways vector change would cause the 12 enemy ships to do the same. Which meant their torp minefield would likely not hit anyone. Except maybe for the six enemy ships without weapons access.

“Captain, see the minefield threat to the six enemy ships that have lost their engines?” Bill called.

“I see it.” She looked up. “Star Traveler, send a neutrino comlink signal to those six ships. Now!”

“Complying. Signal sent. Responses incoming.”

A creature who resembled a giant green frog with bulbous eyes appeared in the comlink holo. It rested on an elevated bench atop its command pedestal. Two narrow arms were touching nearby control pillars. Five other enemy captain images also appeared. Two were green praying mantises, one a cockroach like Diligent and two were black-furred grizzly bears with four arms each.

“Captains of the weapons disabled ships,” Jane called loudly. “You have no engines. Your ships are approaching a minefield established by my ships. Surrender to me and I will have those mines deactivated. If you continue trying to regain weapons control from your ship AIs, I will let the mines seek you out. They are mobile!”

Bill knew that was a lie. Only the Earth-made thermonuke mines had the hydrogen peroxide jets that allowed them to move toward a sensed magnetic field. Their torps were outstanding Hunter-Killer vehicles well able to sense enemy ships by way of neutrino tracking. But once the warheads were launched, there was no control over their trajectory. However, his fire control panel was able to send shut-down signals to the warheads. He’d never used that option. Would now be the first time?

“I surrender the ship
Elegant Pond
,” called the green frog.

Bill noticed the ship with Melody as its ship mind was heading away from the battle at five percent of lightspeed. What to do with it?

“Weapons Chief, disable the mines in front of that ship,” Jane ordered. “Anyone else wish to surrender? Or do you choose to take chances with three megaton warheads?”

In seconds the other five captains surrendered to Jane. Who nodded slowly. “Your current vector will take you out of the gravitational field of the planet Jupiter. Humans will come later to salvage your ship. Captains and crew will be allowed to live with other prisoners of war at a habitat dome on Mars.”

Bill tapped his fire control panel to shut-down the warheads fired by his railgun. His ship mind-linked panel showed his buddies on the other five ships were doing the same.

The comlink holo suddenly filled with the image of Death Leader.

“Female Human, shortly you will feel the caress of my lasers,” the snake-gorilla snarled. “Then my antimatter beam will kill your engines. Are you prepared to die?”

Strangely, all Bill could think of was the fact that they had managed to disable 18 enemy ships by destroying their engines. That left lots of Alien ships to scavenge for the rebuilding of some of them. But the remaining 12 now closed on his six ships. Which were flying outward from their earlier course vector. In the system graphic, he noticed how the enemy ships were now splitting into two-ship pairs. So two ships could combine their laser fire on a single human Collector ship. Where were the seven Collectors and five subs from Jake’s fleet?
Ah
. They were 90,000 miles out from Death Leader’s ships but closing. The five subs were somewhat ahead of the Collectors. Nice. But the snake-gorilla’s ships were now within 12,000 miles of the
Blue Sky
and its five sister ships. A few seconds and—

Green streaks filled the true space holo on Bill’s right. The
Blue Sky
shuddered.

“Hull penetrated above the Transport Exit Chamber,” Star Traveler hummed. “Sending hover bots and repair robots with structural beams to—”

“Dive!” Jane yelled.

“Diving,” chittered Lofty Flyer.

Just as Bill fired his two tail lasers at the two ships pursuing them, the
Blue Sky
shuddered again.

“Spine plasma battery vaporized,” the AI hummed.

His system graphic showed hits on the bulbous noses of two chasing ships. One of them spun sideways. Spectroscopic sensors said the ship was venting air and water.

“We’re hit!” cried Alicia. “Mark is gone. His Navigator station vanished. We got a hole from ceiling to floor. I’m taking over nav controls!”

Pain hit Bill. He’d liked Mark. The Ranger had been one of the most enthusiastic boarder recruits. Before that the man had stood round after round of beer pitchers at Jack’s Deep Six saloon. Now, his fellow fly fisherman was gone. Turned into vapor particles thanks to the deadly green beam fired by their enemy.