The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) (38 page)

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The Kai-Kaus were crammed aboard the two
Bismarck
-class battleships, the three Star Watch strike cruisers, five destroyers, two escorts, three supply vessels and Starship
Victory
. None of Kai-Kaus’ advanced technology had been fitted to the ships, although a chief technician was on each bridge to help the commanders. Together with the Kai-Kaus’ baggage, it made for an incredibly tight fit aboard each vessel.

The
Leipzig
and
Vienna
led the way toward the latest sphere opening. They were old battlewagons, heavy on the hull armor with heavy-mount lasers. They did not boast the latest wave harmonics shielding, one of the reasons the Lord High Admiral had sent them to the Xerxes System rather than “C” Quadrant to face the New Men.

Behind the two bruisers came the strike cruisers. The rest of the flotilla stayed at a Luna-like distance from the sphere. They had spread out, watching the sphere for other openings. It seemed likely to everyone, especially the Kai-Kaus technicians, that the first Swarm move was a deception. The first gambit usually was, they said.

“Come on,” Maddox said. The ancient Adok vessel was midway between Hayes’ battlewagons and the others.

The captain hadn’t expected Thrax Ti Ix to move so quickly. He’d hoped the logistics problem would give the Swarm commander nightmares. He’d also hoped the hybrid bug didn’t have many space commanders yet. It looked as if Maddox had been wrong on both counts.

“There, sir,” Valerie said. She tapped her board.

On the main screen, Maddox saw another hatch open on the sphere. A shuttle blasted out of there. That was Ludendorff with Keith piloting. They were the last humans on the Dyson sphere, not counting any final Kai-Kaus volunteers who had survived on the inner surface.

As the shuttle raced for
Victory
, Swarm craft continued to slide out of the huge opening, the place the battleships maneuvered to.

“I see seven enemy ships so far,” Valerie said. “They’re big, too.”

Maddox nodded. The seven craft were saucer-shaped with a massive ball in the center. Each had a little more mass than a Star Watch cruiser. That meant the Swarm already had an equal tonnage of spaceships outside the sphere as Star Watch did.

Heavy beams lanced from the
Leipzig
and
Vienna
.

Maddox sat forward on the command chair, with his right hand bunched into a fist. He waited, waited—

A cheer erupted from the lieutenant and the Kai-Kaus technician on the bridge. She was a slight woman wearing an elaborate uniform with outrageous collars that almost hid her elfin chin. Her name was Lady Shana, and she had a Mohawk like the Native American tribe of that name. She wore gloves with tiny tools in the fingertips and had proven herself a technical wizardess so far.

Valerie and Lady Shana cheered because the lasers struck Swarm hulls. Either the saucers didn’t have shields or Swarm soldiers didn’t know how to turn them on yet.

The
Leipzig
and
Vienna
pounded the first saucer, burning away hull armor so giant globules wobbled away into space.

The Swarm craft fired back with particle beams. They combined on the
Leipzig
, brightening the shield to a cherry color. The Kai-Kaus techs had helped in one endeavor there, able to quicken the energy bleed-off from the shield. That allowed the
Leipzig
to absorb a greater amount of energy before the shield faded to brown.

At that point, the first targeted saucer blew apart in a mass of metal, water, squirming Swarm creatures and expanding air. Heat and gamma rays also radiated outward.

The other Swarm craft stopped firing.

The two battlewagons picked a new target, starting on the next saucer.

That’s when the enemy craft showed their true power. The ball parts glowed radiantly and the ships began to move with incredible velocity. The six saucers charged the two battlewagons. In doing so, they made room for more Swarm craft to burst out of the sphere opening.

Maddox shook his head. He didn’t like this.

Port Admiral Hayes must have disapproved as well. One of the strike cruisers eased forward, launching a salvo of antimatter missiles.

The minutes ticked away as the battleships destroyed another two saucers. The first wave survivors began firing the particle beams again. That’s when the antimatter missiles ended the fight, blowing the rest of the saucers in chain-reaction annihilations.

By that time, though, another seven saucers had renewed the process.

“The Swarm commander is baiting us,” Lady Shana said. She had a translator to help her communicate with them.

“Why do you say that?” Maddox asked.

“This is a ruse,” she said. “The real attack is gathering elsewhere.”

“I suspect you’re right,” Maddox said. “What do you suggest we do?”

Lady Shana grew tight-faced. “We must kill the creatures while we can. Once we can’t, we die. That is the only philosophy in battle.”

Maddox nodded.

After the fifth saucer assault of seven perished to heavy lasers and antimatter missiles, Keith brought the professor onto
Victory
.

Maddox hurried to Galyan’s AI core chamber. As he did, Valerie appeared on his wristband comm.

“Yes?” the captain asked.

“I’m patching the Port Admiral though to you, sir.”

The tiny screen wavered for a second. Then, Port Admiral Hayes appeared, an older man with sunken eyes.

“I’m running low on antimatter missiles,” Hayes said, promptly. “The
Leipzig
has already blown a laser coil. We can’t keep this up for long.”

“What else do you suggest, sir?” Maddox asked.

“How far are you with your plan?”

“I hope to start testing it soon, sir.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Fight until you can’t, sir.”

“Yes?”

“If the enemy is still around after that, we die.”

The port admiral stared at him. “Yes, Captain, that we will. Good luck, son.”

“Yes, sir, to you too,” Maddox said.

The screen wavered once more, going blank.

Maddox broke into a sprint. This was going to be tight, and he had no doubt the saucer ships were a Swarm feint as Lady Shana had suggested. That was okay, though, because they still had some time. As long as they had wriggle room, and
Victory
, he might be able to save the human race from this unsuspected menace. He wasn’t as sanguine about saving the Kai-Kaus and
Victory
. They had to do this right the first time, because he didn’t think Thrax Ti Ix was going to give them another.

***

Professor Ludendorff, Lady Shana and Maddox working as a go-for attempted to install a Builder AI box into Galyan’s computing core.

“I still do not see how this will aid us,” Galyan said, watching from the hatch. For whatever reason the Adoks had decided long ago, a holoimage could not enter its own AI core.

“It’s easy, Galyan, at least in theory,” Maddox said.

Ludendorff and Lady Shana carefully made adjustments with tools Maddox had no idea how they operated. The captain was trusting Ludendorff, which might have future repercussions. He hoped the professor had too much on his mind to worry about subterfuge for later.

Once or twice, the professor eyed the captain speculatively. Maddox hoped it was his imagination. He hoped Ludendorff wasn’t putting a new backdoor into Galyan. Did the professor think this was as wild a longshot as Galyan did?

“Do you remember what you did in Greenland?” Maddox asked the AI.

“Do you mean in my taking over the system’s computers?” Galyan asked.

“Exactly,” Maddox said.

“Go on.”

“I’m hoping with this box installed you’ll have more understanding concerning Builder tech. Maybe just as important, you’ll be able to appear on the Dyson sphere as a holoimage.”

“I suspect you’re right,” Galyan said. “How will that help us?”

“I’m going to piggyback on you,” Maddox said.

“That is impossible. You are flesh and blood.”

“The professor is rigging it so my engrams can go over as a program.”

“You are going to make a copy of yourself?”

“No,” Maddox said. The very idea made him queasy. “The professor will put a brain amplifier on my head. That will energize a temporary engram program that can piggyback with you onto the Dyson sphere.”

“For what reason?” Galyan asked.

“I’m going to seek out the Builder one more time and keep him occupied.”

“That is a dubious proposal,” Galyan said. “By your account, he or it is unstable.”

“Commander Thrax Ti Ix is going to win, Galyan.”

“Then why are we fighting?” the AI asked.

“Thrax is going to win unless we can figure out a way to destroy the Dyson sphere in one giant orgy of destruction,” Maddox said. “While I’m distracting the Builder, you’re going to figure out how to blow the whole sphere.”

“That is not rational, Captain. We lack sufficient firepower to destroy a sphere of a star system’s worth of mass.”

“You’re not listening,” Maddox said. “You’re going to use the sphere’s systems, blowing up every circuit and engine in one instant of time.”

“That will work?” Galyan asked.

“I don’t know. Will it?”

“I am analyzing,” Galyan said. The holoimage froze with his eyelids fluttering. The eyes snapped open an instant later. “That is an ingenious plan, Captain. If it works, it could cause a vast explosion, destroying everything on the sphere.”

“We need more than that,” Maddox said. “We have to destroy the sphere in such a way that all the debris, the system mass of it, blows inward at Thrax Ti Ix’s fleet.”

“Captain,” Galyan said. “That is pure genius, if of an evil sort.”

“No, Galyan. That shows my fitness for survival.”

“I do not understand.”

“Quiet, you two,” Ludendorff snarled. “This is incredibly difficult. Nothing is going to happen if I can’t link this blasted device to the core.”

Maddox nodded. It was time to let the experts do their part.

***

Two hours later, Maddox was back on the bridge. The endless supply of Swarm saucers had finally taken its toll on the flotilla.

Battleship
Vienna
limped away as coils of energy burst through broken hull armor. The battleship had destroyed forty-three saucers, seven of the kills taking place while
Vienna’s
shield was down. The antimatter missiles were gone. It was just conventional missiles now with laser turrets and destroyer guns to slow down the enemy.

“How many spaceships are inside the sphere?” Valerie asked.

“It’s not the number of ships they have,” Maddox said, “but if we have enough time to stop them before they’re through.”

“How did you figure we could win?” the lieutenant asked.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

She shot him a glance.

“The alternative was a quick death,” Maddox said.

Valerie was about to reply when a bright light flared on the main screen.

Battleship
Vienna
blew up. One moment, the battleship’s damage control teams tried to bring the fires and spurting coils under control. The next, something went critical over there. Hull plates blew away and flames roared in gigantic funnels from various places on the battleship. The dying battlewagon began to tumble end over end. A few escape pods raced away. X-rays reached out, killing everyone who made it into a pod. No one survived the
Vienna’s
death, not even the countless Kai-Kaus who had hoped to leave the sphere.

“So it begins,” Lady Shana whispered. She had come to the bridge for a kit she’d stashed here. “Hail to He Who is Nameless, the One who begins and the One who ends life.”

“More saucers are coming through the hangar hatch,” Valerie said. “Oh-oh, they’re not just bringing out seven this time. I count fourteen. They’ve brought out fourteen saucers in a group.”

“The port admiral must see that too,” Maddox said. “He’s bringing up his destroyers.”

“For what it’s worth, sir, I’d rather fight to the end than simply die in bed, or in a cage doing nothing.”

“Truth!” the Lady Shana said.

Maddox sat back. It had seemed so simple while in the stellar chamber. The Builder—

A red light blinked on his armrest. Maddox pressed a button. “Yes?”

“It’s ready,” Ludendorff said, his voice ringing with success but tired nonetheless.

“Will it work?” Maddox asked.

Ludendorff brayed a harsh sound. “My boy, I have no idea. It’s a longshot, and I would never think to try it against a Builder. I think the Builder must have coded something in me to worship it. But that doesn’t matter now. This is worth a try.”