Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) (23 page)

“Good! Glad to hear that Herd Master and the dozen herd leaders who flew up from Comfort were willing accept our Tech.” He paused, then headed for the slidedoor and the Spine. Maybe Nikola would be in the Food Refectory or the Pilot Cabin. “Did they have much Tech to share with us?”

Max followed him into the hallway. “Yes! While the BooMak do not have to worry about incoming comets and asteroids, they found a need to shield their ships from the x-ray flares that sometimes erupt from this star. They developed a shield against x-rays!”

“What?” Jack slowed as they neared the Refectory. “Nothing can block x-rays. Other than lead or similar dense minerals. Or lots of water like we have inside our double hull. Did they develop a water shell for their ships?”

“Something better,” Max said, his tone excited. “Like us they know that the standard EMF field that every ship uses to deflect charged particles does nothing against x-rays. But they took the principle of adaptive optics and joined it with small reflective petals that are controlled by a focused magfield. It’s a variant of the fusion pulse magfield.”

They stopped at the open entry to the Refectory. Jack stuck his head inside, smelled something cooking in the micro-gee crock pot, but no one was there. He stepped back into the hallway and headed forward. “So, how does this x-ray shield work?”

The heavy tread of his friend moved up to walk side by side with him. Max’s big hands moved animatedly. “Well, when the local star, which they call Warmth Giver, has an x-ray eruption that event is laser signaled back to Comfort. It gives them a half minute’s warning.” Up ahead the hatch entry to the Pilot Cabin stood open. Jack saw his mates inside. “Their ship spits out the iron reflector petals, which are then arranged into a half-dome shape facing the incoming x-ray burst. The petals are beryllium-coated and able to shift the angle of x-ray impact. The end result is a great reduction in x-rays that hit the outer hull of their ship, with the water jacket between the double hull absorbing the remainder.”

Jack nodded. “Sounds good. We may encounter thermonuke-pumped lasers in the future as we fight other Hunters of the Great Dark. Having a shield like this would be helpful if we cannot blip jump away for some reason. But would this petal-shield work against coherent x-rays from an x-ray laser? The Excalibur Phoenix project early this century did produce focused x-rays.”

“Depends on the ablative propulsion shock impact of the x-ray laser beam and its distance from us,” Max said, slowing as Jack stopped at the hatch. “Archibald is already in our Mech Shop making the first prototype of such a petal-ejector ball. It can be spit out from our geo-penetrator and torp launcher.”

“Let’s hope the rest of the fleet likes this barter trade.” He stepped into the Pilot Cabin. Everyone was there except for Archibald. Nikola looked back at him, her eyebrows lifted? He gave her a thumbs-up.

“So you’re able to walk?” she teased.

Blodwen, Cassie, Elaine and Denise all laughed. Clearly his lifemate had shared his late night disablement with the others.

“And think even.” He walked forward, got a pinch on his bottom from Nikola, then sat in his Tech seat. Maureen, already in her Combat station seat, glanced his way, her expression sardonic.

“Young man, you won’t make it to my age if you keep boozing like that.”

Jack locked his restraint straps, pulled his Tech panel over his lap and gave their combat veteran a Belter finger-gesture that the woman no doubt had seen many times. “Your fleet captain needs his break time. Grandma.”

He dodged her left-handed slap effort, then shook another finger at her. “Assault on your captain is punishable by a week without a cigar!”

Maureen chuckled. She did not smoke, never had. But she had made a nice barter trade using the Cuban cigars he had paid to everyone after the Second Sedna Battle. She did partake of the steaks and booze that were the two other incentives in his anti-Alien recruiting pitch. “I’ll ask Gareth to take you to task in a game of micro-gee handball!” she grumbled. “That will teach you to insult your betters.”

Jack smiled. Gareth was the Asteroid Belt’s champion three years running in the Pallas Olympics. Jack had only played micro-gee handball with his two sisters. No doubt the Welshman could wipe the handball cube four times for every toss by Jack. He looked at the front screen, which showed the images of the 21 other captains and one admiral across the top, with the true-light image of Refuge station and an arc of the world Comfort below.

“Elaine, please put up your Sensor image, with the positions of every fleet ship and the nearby BooMak ships. Give us a NavTrack vector to 30 AU north of this system’s ecliptic.”

His sister’s slim figure leaned forward in her seat. She pulled the NavTrack panel and the separate Sensor panel over her lap. She tapped hurriedly on the first panel.

“Vector laid in, Captain Jack.” She gave him a happy smile.

No doubt her joy was the result of the honeymoon celebration she and Ignacio had shared with everyone on Refuge station a week ago. She had been absent from her roomsuite most the week since. No doubt the two of them had found the privacy of a habroom on Refuge more to their liking. Which reminded him he needed to find a jeweler to put facets on the raw yellow diamond he had barter traded from Akemi.

“Thank you, Pilot.” He looked at the front screen. “Admiral Hideyoshi, Captain Gareth, is everyone from your fleet back on ship?”

“Of course,” said Gareth, giving a wink to Maureen. Who pretended not to notice.

Hideyoshi gave him a thumbs-up gesture. “Every Mars ship has its full crew complement onboard. Ready to depart for our out of system Alcubierre launch.”

Jack nodded to the two men who were vital to running the two fleets that worked with his original Belter fleet to make a human combat force that, he hoped, could beat any social carnivore Alien fleet. His own fleet captains gave him a nod, a smile, even a wink or two. Minna, Ignacio, Akemi, Júlia, Aashman and Kasun were his Old Reliables. Without them his crusade would never have succeeded in driving off the HikHikSot and other Alien predators. With them, he had begun the interstellar trek to form a Freedom Alliance. A journey that continually surprised him by the strangeness of the Alien lifeforms they were finding in the so-called ‘juvenile’ star systems. Well, humanity was stronger now, thanks to the efforts of these people. The alliance now included the Nuuthot, Mikmang, Melagun and BooMak species. Hopefully their next stop at Epsilon Indi A would add another new member.

“Pilot, take us out.”

“Activating NavTrack vector orientation,” Elaine said calmly. “Drive Engineer, please initiate grav-pull blip jump.”

“Ahhh, you folks are so formal!” Max joked from the rear. “Why not just say, Let’s Go?”

Nikola laughed. Cassie chuckled. “Let’s go now!” called Blodwen.

“Going!” called Max, his tone happy sounding.

Trust the women of his ship to get things rolling along. Not only were they the best pilot, navigator, ComChief, Chief Astronomer, Alien society analyst and deadly sharpshooter, they were the glue that held him, Max and Archibald in common purpose. No way would he ever disappoint Nikola. For sure Max felt the same for Blodwen. Archibald, now, would starve to death if not for the cooking dexterity of the women. He smiled. Their ladies had great brains and great recipes. His ship was the luckiest one in the fleet!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They left grav-pull at 30 AU north of the BooMak system. The 23 ships in the fleet arrived in a tight cluster, considering the small distance they had traveled. Even though it took hours to arrive here, Jack appreciated how well the simultaneous grav-pull drive activation happened based on Max’s ignition signal. Soon they would take a much longer trip to Epsilon Indi A, the third juvenile species system on their list. But he had a puzzle he needed help solving. Or resolving. Or at least understanding. He waved at the images of his fellow ship captains, then looked back to Denise.

“Good lady, I’m puzzled about the Aliens we’ve met so far,” he said amiably. “The Melagun looked physically like herbivores but in truth are omnivores. They will be a major battle ally once they outfit their ships with Alcubierre drives. The BooMak looked like herbivores. And are. Mostly.” He paused as the woman rested her chin on one fist, her attention fixed on him. “But they turn out to be two species! Yes, we will leave behind a Predator Alert satellite to warn Aliens that we claim Gliese 832 as part of the human Hunt territory. But I have no idea if the BooMak will have any idea of how to
fight
predator Aliens.”

“So?” she said, her freckles sharp against her pale face. “What did you expect from these juvenile species contacts?”

Jack grimaced, ignored Maureen’s shaking of her head, and tried to explain. “Well, the Hunters of the Great Dark are all social carnivore Aliens. They Hunt in solo mode for other star systems to dominate and colonize, the way a lone tiger stakes out its hunt territory on old Earth. And while their diets include more than meat, they
are
deadly carnivores!” He paused, noticing how Maureen, Elaine, Max, Blodwen, Archibald, Cassie and Nikola were all focused on him. Once more on stage. He sighed. “I’m confused at finding two Alien species that are not social carnivores, but which do not fit well into the herbivore and omnivore social patterns I know from my ecology studies. Yet these are thinking peoples. And I do not understand them even after weeks spent hanging out with them.”

Denise nodded. She pulled a red braid around to her lips, realized that everyone’s attention was now on her, then let go of the braid. Her freckles got notably darker. But her green gaze was thoughtful. “Yes, these Aliens are thinking peoples. But they are not the
same
as us. However, they are more similar to us than different,” she said, her tone tough and assured. “Behavioral ecology says there is a reason for every action and every behavior shown by any animal. Which is what humans and these Aliens are,” she said calmly. “Animal Ethology says every animal species exhibits territorial acquisition behavior. Which is going out beyond your home nest and looking for a broader ecological niche in which to find food, find a mate and to discourage other animals from mooching on your territorial resources. Both the Melagun and the BooMak have done this by looking for resources and habitats beyond their home world.” She looked around at everyone, including the fleet captains who were hearing and seeing all that Jack saw and heard. “So, while they may look different from us, even think different, they are very similar to humans. Which is why we could even talk to them on subjects of common interest. And do trading with them. They understood all that and more, including group defense.”

He bit his lip. “Then which is more important? The evolutionary biology heritage of Aliens who evolved as carnivores, herbivores and omnivores? Or the cultural patterns of their societies? Which is primary?”

Denise sat back in her Comlink seat. “Both. The food we rely on to survive guided our early evolution to thinking people. But once we became self-aware and thinking, culture began. And culture is the new evolutionary adaptation that has changed human society for millennia. Culture allowed humanity to dominate Earth and its entire ecology. But our evolution as omnivore scavengers led us to make war on rival human groups. And warfare persisted long after culture developed.” She looked back at Max, who was as attentive as Jack. “Out in the Kuiper Belt, you and Max realized that Aliens could be dangerous when you saw the aposematic coloration and body shapes that signaled dangerous predator. An understanding the Unity never accepted. So while an Alien’s
culture
will guide its surface actions and choices, its evolutionary heritage will always be there. Ready to run from you, trick you or rip out your throat.”

Jack nodded slowly. “So, you’re saying we should be prepared for more surprises in both Alien biology and Alien culture?”

She grinned, her manner that of a young teen who enjoyed outfoxing her elders. “Yup. As the scholar John Alcock said last century, ‘cultural evolution involves selection for various learning abilities that permit individuals to adopt the cultural practices of their societies’. In short, the strange behaviors of the Melagun and BooMak make
cultural
sense, given their evolutionary heritage. So, in the future, whatever we find in an Alien society is there for a reason. Or reasons. Clear?”

“Clear enough.” He did not like the complexity of what they had found in two interstellar trips, but it was what it was. And Jack had never been one to pretend that reality does not bite you in the butt. Time to head off. He looked back to his lifemate.

“Nikola, share with us the data regarding Epsilon Indi,” he said, offering her a smile.

She winked at him then brushed back her long brown hair as she looked down at the Astro panel above her lap. She tapped quickly on it. “Epsilon Indi is a three star system. Indi A is an orange main sequence star of the K5V class. It is orbited by two brown dwarfs, or failed stars, at 1,523 AU. Indi A is three-fourths the mass of Sol, has a diameter of 1.387 Sols and a temp of 4,630 Kelvin. Distance to it from Sol is 11.83 light years. Distance to it from Gliese 832 is just 4.84 light years.” She paused, tap-tapped again, then hummed to herself. “Records say it has five planets orbiting the star, with one of them in the liquid water ecozone, plus the outermost planet is a gas giant the size of Jupiter. It’s located at 8.57 AU. Beyond the outer planet is a skimpy cometary debris disk that runs from 20 to 40 AU. Elaine, I’m sending you the X, Y and Z coordinates with corrections for galactic motion.”