Storming Heaven (29 page)

“He’s dying,” Chris breathed, from beside her.  Paula understood what he meant.  The star was no longer fighting for its life, but was just collapsing into a black hole.  The reports from the sensor platforms confirmed that the gravity quakes were fading away as the black hole stabilised, drawing out the remaining death of the star into a sadistic orgy.  The remaining stellar matter flattened out into a funnel, pouring into the black hole, as if water was being let out of a bath.  “What about the planets?”

“They’re slightly destabilised in their orbits,” Paula said, after a moment.  The effect was still too small to be easy to predict, but the MassMind calculated that one of the planets would eventually fall into the black hole and the other would be tossed into interstellar space.  Perhaps it would be converted into a Community settlement as it drifted out of the galaxy, or maybe it would just remain a hazard to navigation.  It would be years before anyone had to take any substantial decision about it.  “If one of them falls into the black hole, it will release more gravity waves as it dies.”

The black hole was almost invisible now, even though it was easy to make out where it had to be, amid the glowing waste of the star.  It was tiny, yet it was so massive that its mere presence warped space and time.  She allowed her imagination to plot out the location of the event horizon, where nothing could escape, even light.  A million works of fiction discussed what might be waiting at the other side of a black hole – a new universe, or perhaps even a white hole in the original universe – but she knew that anyone who dived into that black hole would be crushed out of existence.  They hadn’t managed to link it to any other black holes yet, let alone the Killer communications network.

And the gravity waves would be racing out across the galaxy.  The closest known Killer system was over three thousand light years away, but they would be already aware of the black hole, if they cared.  There was no way to know for sure – despite her words, Paula wasn't as certain as she claimed that the Killers would come to investigate, even after the Cinder had burned one of their settlements out of existence.  The entire fleet could be standing by…for nothing.

She checked the chronometer and was surprised to find that hours had passed as the black hole came into existence.  It had felt like minutes, perhaps less.  Her eyes felt gritty and she summoned her nanites to wash them and relieve her tiredness.  She had just made history.

“Now all we have to do is take control of it,” she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.  “I’ll start configuring the gravity generators now and…”

An alarm sounded as new gravity waves flickered into existence, far too close for comfort.

“What’s that?”  Chris demanded.  “That’s the near-space alert system!”

“That’s the Killers, right on time,” Paula said.  She wanted to make a jaunty comment, but the words stuck in her throat as wormhole after wormhole shimmered into existence, disgorged a Killer starship, and then faded back into nothing.  “I’m reading…thirty-three Killer starships, advancing on a direct intercept course.”

“I see,” Chris said.  She didn’t know how he could remain so calm when she wanted to panic, or hit the warp drive and flee.  A single Killer starship was daunting enough, but an entire fleet…?  “I think they’re pissed.”

Paula gave him an icy look as the new icons advanced towards the starship.  They were pacing themselves, as if they were cats hunting a tiny and very isolated mouse.  Paula knew that the Defence Force had new weapons, perhaps even new tactics, but all of a sudden she had no confidence in them.  It wouldn’t be long before the Killers overran their position and blew her starship apart.

“No shit, Sherlock,” she said.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Captain, the Killers are here,” Gary reported, as alarms echoed through the starship.  “I’m picking up at least twenty-seven wormholes opening within the Shiva System…ah, where the Shiva System was.”

“Red alert,” Andrew ordered, sitting up in his command chair.  Part of him had never really believed that the insane scheme would actually work; the remainder had known that if it had worked, they would still be going up against the most powerful force in existence.  “All hands to battle stations.  Stand by to jump.”

“Anderson Drive online and ready to move us,” David said, from his position.  “How many ships did they send to dispute possession of the black hole with us?”

“I got at least twenty-seven wormholes, but there’s so much distortion in the surrounding region of space that there might be more; we can’t separate them out at this distance,” Gary said.  “I can’t even give you a reliable upper number.”

“Open a channel to the fleet,” Andrew ordered.  “All ships; this is Captain Ramage.  Follow us in on my mark and focus on the enemy starships; if the weapons work, hit them as hard as possible.  If not, try and pin them down long enough to evacuate the system and pull out.  Good luck.”

He closed the channel and looked over at David.  “Jump us in,” he ordered.  “Take us into the fire.”

A moment later, the starship rocked violently.  “Localised disruption of space-time,” David reported, instantly.  “It’s comparable to what the
Observer
encountered before it was destroyed.  The presence of so many Killer starships is screwing up the Anderson Drive.  It won’t be reliable here.”

“On screen,” Andrew ordered, shortly.  They’d planned on the assumption that the Killers would deny them the use of the Anderson Drive, although it looked more as if it was an unexpected by-product of their own drive system, rather than a deliberate attempt to prevent escape.  “Gary; numbers update?  How many enemy ships are we facing?”

There was a long pause.  “I am reading thirty-three Killer starships, all
Iceberg-
class,” Gary said, finally.  The screen showed their locations; the massive starships were thundering towards the observation starship, ignoring the newcomers.  Seven hundred and twenty human starships had entered the battle zone, Andrew knew, and the Killers were ignoring them.  They might not have realised that there was a genuine threat.  “They’re quartering the zone.”

“Noted,” Andrew said.  He stared at the Killer starships,
hating
them with every fibre of his being.  These weren't civilians, or innocents caught in the line of fire, but monsters directly responsible for exterminating entire races.  “Designate one of the Killer starships as our target.”

“Designated,” Gary said.  One of the rearward Killer starship icons began to flash red, marking it as the fleet’s first target.  “I have channelled the targeting data to the remainder of the fleet.”

“Bring the implosion bolts online,” Andrew ordered.  “Load torpedo bays; charged weapons.”

“Weapons online, sir,” Gary said.  “We’re ready on your command.”

Andrew took a breath.  “Take us in,” he ordered.  “Fire as soon as you enter weapons range.”

The massive Killer starship expanded rapidly as the drive cut in and the
Lightning
, followed by the remaining fleet, raced towards it.  Its size was daunting, seemingly impossible; the Killers had built a ship without any sense of design, or at least a sense of design that humans might have appreciated.  It was a monstrously ugly iceberg hanging in space, alien as hell; it should have been beyond imagination. 
Lighting
and her sisters were just gnats compared to its immensity, yet even gnats could kill – Andrew preferred to think of them as poisonous spiders.  One spider might be killed, or hundreds, but the concentrated spider venom would kill their target.

Or maybe not
, he thought, ruefully.  Humans could engineer counters or immunities to any kind of poison. 
Maybe they’re just sure that we can hardly inflict serious damage on them
…

“Sir, I’m picking up power spikes,” Gary snapped.  “They’re charging weapons!”

“Evasive action,” Andrew snapped.  A moment later, a flash of white light narrowly missed the
Lightning
as it closed into weapons range.  “Helm; start random evasive manoeuvres, keep them guessing.”

“Aye, sir,” David said.  His voice tightened as he corkscrewed the starship in towards its target.  “I guess we really did rattle their cage, sir.”

“Apparently,” Andrew said.  Oddly, he found being fired upon almost reassuring.  The Killers were worried about them.  “Lock weapons on target and fire!”

The light dimmed as a stream of implosion bolts raced towards their targets.  Andrew found himself praying in the last few seconds before they hit, praying desperately that they would inflict some damage, even if it were comparatively minor.  Tiny explosions blossomed up on the Killer hull…and the entire starship twitched like a goosed human.  The hull material was broken and torn.

“We hurt them,” Gary exclaimed, as if he were unable to believe his eyes.  “We actually damaged the bastard!”

Andrew knew that sound didn’t travel through space, but he would have sworn that he heard the cheers echoing through the entire fleet.  “Continue firing,” he snapped, angrily, as the remaining fleet opened fire.  “Hit the bastard and keep firing until its blown away!”

The starship fired another round of implosion bolts into the Killer starship.  It seemed to stagger under their fire, and then returned fire itself from the undamaged sections of the hull.  The researchers studying the captured starship had theorised that the Killers used their hull material, which was already a powerful superconductor, to channel their weapons as they opened fire.  Andrew smiled as they saw confirmation of the theory; the Killer wasn't returning fire from the damaged sections of the hull.  It they wiped out all the hull material, he concluded, the starship would be effectively helpless…

Or they could fire right into the gaps in the hull.  “Take us in,” he ordered.  “Load antimatter torpedoes and fire them into the broken sections of the hull!”

“Aye, sir,” Gary said, as the starship came around for another attack run.  “Weapons locked on target…”

“Fire at will,” Andrew said.  Another streak of white light narrowly missed them.  Two other human starships weren't so lucky and disintegrated in flares of white light, obliterated down to their component atoms.  The fight might have become more even, but now it was just a battering match to discover which side could wipe out the other first.  “Result?”

“I’m not sure,” Gary said, slowly.  “We hit the bastard; I saw the missiles go inside the hull, but they didn’t detonate.  They should have blown the starship apart when they detonated inside the ship…”

Andrew scowled.  The implosion bolts might have been slicing into the hull material, but they weren’t inflicting more than tiny amounts of damage…on a starship over twenty kilometres long.  He’d hoped that the antimatter torpedoes would have proven a shortcut to destroying the ship, but instead…they hadn’t detonated.  Or, if they had detonated, somehow the blast had been dampened instead of ripping the starship apart.  How the hell had they done that?

“Keep firing,” he ordered, slowly.  If they had to rip the ship apart piece by piece, he’d do it.  He keyed the link to the Admiral, who was watching through the MassMind.  “Get on to the researchers and get them to figure out what happened to our antimatter devices.”

“Understood,” the Admiral said.  “Good shooting.”

“Sir,” Gary said, suddenly.  “The remaining Killer starships are turning to engage the fleet!”

“That’s the second time they’ve responded to us here,” Andrew said.  Twenty-two Killer starships bearing down on him, each one keen to rescue their friend and exterminate the human scum…he’d never felt happier.  They were hurting the Killers in a ship-to-ship action.  “Fleet orders; attack wings are to form up and engage each of the Killer craft.  Don’t give them time to adapt and react to the new reality; just hurt them, whatever it takes.”

“Aye, sir,” Gary said.  “Recommend that we continue attack pattern beta-seven.”

“Make it so,” Andrew said.  “Engage!”

***

“They’re hurting the bastards,” Chris said, in delight.  “Your weapons worked!”

“They weren’t just my weapons,” Paula pointed out, although she was somehow tempted to claim all the credit, at least in front of Chris.  “They’re also not inflicting enough damage.”

It was true.  The implosion bolts caused localised explosions on – no, within – the Killer hull material, blowing it into atoms and leaving the hull exposed.  It should have been a decisive weapon, but the Killers were compensating for the effects somehow, rendering it harder to hurt them. 
Their
weapons, on the other hand, were lethal; what they hit, they killed.

She pulled up the sensor readings and studied the energy fluxes covering the battle, trying to determine exactly what was happening.  It wasn't easy to distinguish any particular weapon from another – the Killer weapons emitting vast amounts of radiation when they were fired and more when they hit something – but the implosion bolts had their own signature.  It was easier to separate those out from the remainder of the firepower emission signatures, but there were no answers, until she picked up a tiny wave of gravity fluctuation from one of the wounded behemoths.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said, shaking her head in awe.  “They’re smothering the blasts and compressing them into tiny quantum black holes.”

Chris stared at her, bemused.  “So?”

“Do you have any idea,” Paula asked, “how much power it would take to do something like that?  How much capability to control one of the fundamental forces of the universe to do that without blowing up the entire ship?”

“I see,” Chris said.  “They don’t fight fair, do they?”

“No,” Paula agreed.  She frowned, studying the readings from her sensor drones.  Now she knew what she was looking for, it was easy to pick out the other fluctuations and see how the Killers were channelling the implacable fury of antimatter detonations into their portable black holes.  The human weapons were simply feeding the Killer power source.  In the long run, it might destabilise the black holes, unless the Killers could somehow dampen the effect down – which was theoretically possible – but it wouldn’t happen quickly enough to be immediately useful.  “I wonder…inform the fleet to engage with energy torpedoes and particle beams, rather than antimatter weapons.  They have to have a lower limit to how much they can absorb.”

She scowled as Chris headed off to inform the fleet.  It should be possible, she decided, to actually
duplicate
the Killer defence tactic and use it as a weapon, but it would take some time to figure out how to turn it into a practical weapon that could actually be deployed. The Killers themselves hadn’t bothered to deploy such a weapon, which suggested that it wasn't possible for them, or that they simply hadn’t seen the need to build it.  Either one was possible.

“They’re trying to henpeck them to death,” she muttered, as another flare of light marked the death of a human starship.  The Defence Force starships were pressing insanely close to the Killer ships, attempting to fire directly into the rents and gashes in their hull, but that made it easier for the Killers to target and destroy them.  Several Defence Force starships were attempting to destroy entire hull sections so they could shelter from the Killer weapons and fire directly into the hull without having to evade, but as the Killer fleet fell into formation, it became increasingly difficult to avoid their fire.  The only saving grace was that the Killers seemed reluctant to risk hitting each other now that their armour had been compromised. 

“Their weapons would probably mess the interiors of their own ships up good,” Chris agreed, when she mentioned that out loud.  “Or would their black holes merely absorb all the power?”

Paula shrugged as another Killer starship staggered under a wave of implosion bolts.  Somehow, they were using their entire hull surface as a weapon; they lacked weapon blisters or missile tubes.  Damaging entire kilometres of the hull didn’t seem to prevent them from returning fire, although it seemed to limit their field of fire slightly.  If the entire hull material could be removed…but it couldn’t be destroyed quickly; the implosion bolts only took out a few meters of hull material, at most.  The Killer starships were still deadly dangerous.