Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. (16 page)

Lee sat across
the conference table from the Admiral, and there were twenty-three others
sitting in.  Seventeen were there in the flesh, while six attended as holograms
that looked just like living people.

“Things don’t
simply disintegrate, Captain,” said Nguyen van Hung, feeling his own fatigue
seated behind his eyes.  “Not unless something shot eight million tons of
negative matter at them, in a perfect spread to take out the entire ship.”

“We don’t think
it was blown up,” continued the Chief of Staff.  “There wasn’t even the
residual radiation of her antimatter breaching contain and exploding.”

And if that
happened, from where she was in orbit, there would have been a lot of flattened
planet beneath her.

“And the
distortion in space before she disappeared?  We did get sensor readings of
that, didn’t we?”

“Yes, sir. 
Engineering and astrogation are studying them right now.  They look kind of
like the distortions of normal space being ripped open to another dimension. 
The only problem is that any holes we open up are just that, holes.  And we fly
through them.  But this seemed to encompass all the space around the ship.  And
it’s too close to two very large gravity wells, the planet’s, and the star the
world orbits.  We can’t open portals into hyper or subspace this close to that
much gravity.”

“So, if they
went into hyperspace,” said
Boudeuse’s
Chief Engineer, also on the com. 
“They should have dropped right out, either in one piece, or as scattered
debris.  And if they had somehow been transported outside of the gravity well,
beyond the barrier, they should have been able to translate down and contact
us.”

“Unless they had
been transported so far away any signal they sent hasn’t reached us yet,” said
Lee.  “Or they’re so far away, it’s going to take some time to get back to us.”

“Which would
mean we won’t be able to know what happened to them for quite some time,” said
the Admiral with a scowl.  “From days to weeks, or months?  And I’m missing
almost half of my combat power until she gets back, if she ever does.  For all
we know, that beam transported them into a star, or a black hole.”

“I would say
that from the graviton readings of the time it disappeared,” said the Engineer,
“she went into subspace.  That’s the most likely destination.  But that still
leaves the problem of why she didn’t come right back out, since she was still
deep into the gravity well.”

“Unless she was
transported beyond the gravity well,” said Lee, rubbing forehead.  “Or she was
translated to subspace by some method that ignores gravity wells.”

“Or she was
translated into some other dimension we know nothing about,” said the
Engineer.  “Possibly another Universe.  It’s theoretically possible.”

Nguyen shook his
head.  He couldn’t think of a worse fate.  From what he knew of the Other
Universes Project, most of them were inimical to life, and many of those that
weren’t still seemed devoid of it.  So, if they had been sent there, they were
either dead, or as good as when their life support ran out.

“Let’s assume they
went into subspace,” said Nguyen, preferring to not dwell on the other
possibilities.  “What keeps them from coming out of it.  Supposing that they
weren’t sent so far that it will take them considerable time to come back.”

“Well, they
aren’t going to drop back out by themselves,” said Lee, who had been an
engineer herself before transitioning to staff.  There were nodding heads
around the table, agreement to that fact.  Unlike hyperspace, which would throw
any normal matter out that wasn’t protected by a graviton field, which had to
be projected by the vessel at all times.  Subspace, on the other hand, took
energy to enter and leave, but nothing to stay.  A ship entering subspace could
stay there forever.  In fact, would stay there forever, unless they used energy
to open up another portal and leave.  But very few modern vessels had subspace
drives.  It was felt that since they would never enter subspace, since hyper
was a much more efficient highway to the stars, they would never need to leave,
and so a subspace drive was just extra mass that would take up the allowance
that could be used for something useful.  Like missiles.

“What’s the
chance they can build something to get back from subspace?” asked the Admiral. 
“Assuming that they are there.”

“If they
realized they are in subspace,” chimed in the Engineer, “they should be able to
cobble something together in a couple of weeks.”

“And we could do
the same?” asked Captain Albright.  “Maybe put together a subspace drive for
one our ships and go looking for them.”

“I think that
would be a waste of time,” said Lee, looking over at the holo of Albright, who
was actually on the bridge of her ship.  “The
Challenger
could do the
same, and we would just be tying up a ship for no reason.”

It would make
us feel better
, thought Nguyen, nodding his head.  He agreed with his Chief
of Staff, even though cutting loose
Clark
to go looking for them would
make him feel much better.  The test had been Captain Jackson’s idea, and he
had volunteered his own ship.  But Nguyen had signed off on it, which made the
ultimate responsibility his own.  And if the over three thousand people aboard
that ship did not come back, he would always blame himself.

“I don’t think
we need to probe that artifact again,” said Lt. Commander Higgs,
Boudeuse’s
Tactical
Officer, and therefore the ranking officer of that specialty for the entire
force.  “It’s obviously some kind of weapon system, and it takes exception to
being poked.”

“It’s not a
weapon system,” said Albright, shaking her head.

“Why do you say
that, ma’am?” asked Higgs.  “It seemed a pretty damned effective deterrent.”

“And it absorbed
enough energy to lay low one of the largest cities on this planet,” said
Albright, looking over at Higgs, then turning her attention back to the
Admiral.  “What kind of defensive systems allows a potential enemy that much
fire on the planet before it reacts?  And why the hell would it extend above
the atmosphere?”

“Then what do
you think it is, ma’am?” asked Higgs.

“Some kind of
defensive system,” she answered.

“But you just
said you didn’t think it was a weapon system,” said the Admiral.  “So where are
you going with this, Captain?”

“I don’t think
it’s a weapon,” she answered.  “It is a defense, but not against ships  And it
only responds when enough energy, a lot of energy, is pumped into it.  That
triggers the response, which used a lot more energy than we put into it”

“So, where is
the energy coming from?” asked Lee.

A holo sprung to
life over the table, showing one of the huge artifacts in orbit around the blue
giant star.

“You think it
comes from here?” exclaimed Lee.  “But, for what purpose?”

“That is the
question,” said Nguyen, taking a moment to stare at the enormous globe.  “That
is the question.”  He shook his head and looked around the table.  “But, since
we can’t do anything about the
Challenger,
except continue to scan for
her, this will also have to wait.  We have a bigger problem right now. 
Challenger
had almost thirty-five percent of our total personnel on board.  Which
leaves us that much more shorthanded.  So, what’s the good news, Colonel?”

“Only forty
Marines were aboard the battle cruiser at the time of its, ah, disappearance,”
said Colonel Margolis.  “So it hasn’t affected our ground combat capability all
that much, though we will miss the five shuttles and three sting ships that
happened to be aboard.”

“And that,
ladies and gentlemen, is good news,” said the Admiral.  “I suspect that this
incident is going to have serious repercussions for us on the surface of the
planet.  First off, the aliens will see this as a sign of our weakness in the
face of their, whatever.  The more religiously fanatical of the population will
see this as a sure sign that they should resist, and violently.  While the
leadership will want to strike while we are confused and disorganized.”

Looking at the
holo of the planet, he could pick out the hotspots where trouble was most
likely to erupt, and his installations on that planet, many of them near to
those hotspots.  “What we must do is prepare for the worst.  We are here to
save these people, but that does not preclude slapping some of the more
fanatical of them down.  And, hopefully, this will allow us to find out who is
giving the commands for these attacks.”

“I could tell
you that,” said Lt. Colonel Mary Isaiah.  “Just give us the order, and we’ll go
take them out.”

“We can’t just
arbitrarily take a member of one of their nation’s ruling bodies into custody
without proof,” said Susan Lee, looking over at the Marine officer.

“If it causes an
uprising, so what?” growled the Lt. Colonel.  “It will be just as bad if we go
after him and we have proof.  These people, and everyone knows who I’m talking
about, will go off just as hard if we arrest that son of a bitch with proof,
because they’re not going to believe it.  Or they simply won’t care, because in
their minds, whatever action he takes is justified.”

“We will follow
the rule of law, as much as possible,” said Nguyen, narrowing his eyes at the
Marine officer.  He left it unsaid that the law would be stretched to the
breaking point when it came to protecting his people.

“What about the
alien artifacts?” asked Commander Sekumbe, the Exec of
Clark,
also
attending by holo.  “Do we keep probing it?”

“I don’t think
that’s a good idea,” said Lee.  “It’s already bitten us once.  I don’t see any
reason to stick our hands back in the snake’s mouth.”

“But, what we
can learn,” said Sekumbe, his holographic head looking around the table.  “We
have never run into anything like this before.  It’s right up there with the
artifacts of the Ancients in Imperial territory.  And it works.”

“It works,
alright,” said Lee.  “It works just fine, and probably to spec.  And we don’t
know what it did to one of our ships.  I really don’t think we should continue
to prod a hornet’s nest with our stick after they’ve already stung us.”

“For now, the
artifacts are off limits, until we get some dedicated researchers in here,”
ordered the Admiral. 
And we’ll let those damned civilian scientists, with
their total lack of common sense, poke their noses into it.  But I will lose no
more of my own people.

“There’s a
broadcast from the planet, sir,” came the call from the Com Officer of the
ship.  “You might want to see it.”

“Put it on.”

The holo of the
planet changed, replaced by a pair of Klassekian talking heads.  The header
identified it as a news program from Honish, and several of the participants of
the conference cringed at that news.

“And on this
day, the hand of God reached out and punished the unbelievers from the stars,”
said the first of the talking heads.  Both were males, from a society in which
males were dominant, and females secondary citizens.  “The infidels tested the
resolve of Hrrottha on this day, and he utterly obliterated one of their larger
spaceships.  Comments, Mrrassra?”

“We all know
that our weapons cannot even touch the ships of the humans,” said the indicated
male.  “They came to us in their arrogance, masters of the stars, or so it
seemed.  And now they have seen the power of our God, the true God.  Whose
plans they sought to interfere with.

“And the
unbelieving infidels of Tsarzor, and the other mistaken have been helping them
to go against the will of God.  But soon Hrrottha shall visit his judgment upon
the world, and, while believers will go to his heaven, the infidel will go to
hell.  Take heed, worshippers of false Gods, your time is coming.”

“And what of the
humans?” asked the first male, who must have filled the role of the reporter,
while the second seemed to be some kind of holy man.

How can
anyone believe this crap
, thought Nguyen, frowning.  He was an atheist
himself, and really couldn’t see how any rational being could believe the
claptrap of religion.  Still, those people who followed a faith in the Empire
were at least rational enough to see the Universe as it was.  Fanaticism had
died out among the human race for the most part, while some of these people,
the Honish branch of Klassekians, acted like the blood thirsty Lasharans.

“I don’t even
know if they have souls,” said the Klassekian.  “They are not spoken of in our
scriptures.  I think they may be no more than clever beasts.”

The officers in
the conference room glared at the holo for some more minutes as the two
Honishers continue to compare the humans, who were millennia more advanced, to
clever animals because they didn’t have souls, because they didn’t accept the
God of the Honish.

“Kill it,”
ordered the Admiral, turning away from the holo.  “Well.  We at least know how
those people feel about us.”

“And they’re
going to pay for it when they’re killed off by
Big Bastard
,” said Lee. 
“I really don’t care all that much about the adults, but the children.”

“The adults
aren’t to blame either,” said Mandy Albright, a deep frown on her face.  “They
were raised in the religion after all.  Brainwashed from youth to believe their
creed of hate.”

“That doesn’t
mean we can take our fingers off the trigger when we have to stop them from
stopping us,” said Colonel Margolis.

“No, it
doesn’t,” said Nguyen.  “I feel sorry for them, and their insistence that we
don’t save them.  But we have to concentrate on those who want to be saved. 
There are more of those than we can save, anyway, and we can’t let these others
stop us from saving all we can.” 
And if that means killing a million Honish
to stop them from keeping us from saving a thousand of the others, that’s what
we do.  After all, even the ones we kill only have another year to live anyway.