Conquest

-3-

Twenty minutes after I’d sent Barrera out to round people up, I had a small tense group in my office. Major Sarin, Sandra, Kwon and Barrera himself were all there. The only important player that was still missing was Crow. He was probably at the officer’s club, scheming over a pint.

The big desk was clean now, but not yet functional. I tasked Major Sarin with resetting the software and removing all the passwords.

“I want this thing in public, multi-user mode,” I said. “We need to have an operational center and this is going to be it.”

“Give me a few minutes, sir,” Sarin said. She bent over the table, working with both hands intently. She had a virtual keyboard out on the screen and tapped at it. Occasionally, a speaker I couldn’t see beeped or bonked.

“Kwon, give me the device,” I said, extending my hand.

Everyone looked up at that, eyes widening in alarm. Kwon’s right arm swung up. In his gloved fist he held one spike of a strange, star-shaped object. It looked like an old-fashioned caltrops, a set of spikes welded together that presented a sharp point aiming upward no matter how you threw it down. They’d used them to stop cavalry charges in the old days. But the spikes on this caltrop were over a foot long and at the center was a brainbox, attached to a micro-nuclear explosive charge.

Every eye in the place tracked the mine as Kwon handed it over to me. Even Major Sarin stopped tapping at the computer. I lifted the weapon and shook it experimentally.

“You know, if you threw one of these things at a man,” I said, “the spikes might well kill him. It wouldn’t even have to explode.”

Major Sarin opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“What is it, Major?”

“That thing isn’t armed, is it?”

“Sure it is. But it’s not activated. You have to press this button right here.” I demonstrated, letting my thumb hover over a blue oval stud on one of the spikes.

I smiled as they all watched nervously. I wasn’t sure if I should feel insulted or not. “Stop worrying,” I told them. “If it goes off, you won’t feel a thing.”

“Are we starting the meeting yet, sir?” Major Barrera asked. “I should close the doors.”

I shook my head. “I’m waiting for Crow. Go get him.”

Major Barrera turned around, but before he reached the door, I called him back. “On second thought, I need you here. Kwon, take a team of marines in gear and collect the Admiral, will you. Tell him we have an emergency. The Macros are back.”

That last line got everyone to look at me rather than the mine in my fist.

“That’s right,” I said, “and that leads us to this bizarre object. This is the only thing we’ve got defending our borders right now.”

“Colonel,” Major Sarin said. “I think I’ve got the screen working now. At least, we can display Star Force data coming from the probes and ships.”

The screen finally flickered into life. We all stared at a map of our solar system. A dozen green contacts popped up like stars. Tiny, illegible print followed each contact like a tail as they crept over the screen. Most of the contacts were around Earth. A few hugged the Moon, while two more sat on station near each of the rings that connected our star system to the rest of the universe.

“I assume these green contacts are our ships?”

“Yes, sir,” Major Sarin confirmed. “And the large blue structures are the rings.”

The rings were gigantic circular monoliths, miles in diameter. They were built of unknown solid materials. We suspected they were somehow sculpted from collapsed matter—stardust. Two of them had been discovered in our home system. One was embedded in the surface of Venus while the other was at the center of a maelstrom of comets out in the Oort cloud. Flying a ship through either of these rings transported the vessel to another star system. As far as we could determine, the travel time between these star systems was zero.

We didn’t know who had built the rings, but we did know how to use them. That’s how the story went with most of Earth’s alien-adopted technology. We could use these devices, but had little idea how they actually functioned. I’d often thought we were like a pack of cavemen with Winchester rifles riding around on water-scooters. We had no clue what we were doing, but we were dangerous and having a lot of fun.

I switched the mine from my right hand to my left. I thought I heard someone gasp as I performed the maneuver, but I wasn’t sure who it was. I ignored them and tapped on the blue circle representing the Venus ring on the glass surface of the big computer. As I’d hoped, the image expanded to fill the tabletop.

Much smaller contacts, these were yellow in color, sprang into existence. There were hundreds of them.

“Mines,” I said. “Just like this one. We’ve been deploying them at both rings to stop enemy intrusions. Now, according to reports, they are deactivating themselves out near the Venus Ring.”

Crow finally made an appearance. Kwon was right behind him, towering over his shoulder. Crow looked red-faced and bleary-eyed. I knew even before I caught a whiff of his breath he’d been drinking all morning.

“Admiral,” I said, “we’re facing an emergency. Looks like the Macros are invading our system again.”

Crow glared at me. “Can’t even leave it alone for a few months, can you Riggs?”

I waved him up to the computer table. “What’s this then?” he muttered. “The resolution is all wrong.”

“Fix it for me,” I said, struggling not to lose my temper.

Crow twisted his lips and muttered about wallies and diggers—Aussie slang for idiots and foot-soldiers. To Crow, they were one and the same. He did tap up a dialog box on the big screen, however, and input a general unlock code. The system had essentially been in safe mode up until that moment. The screen shuddered then clicked as it turned itself off and on again. Very quickly, the system blazed into life.

I was immediately impressed. I’d never seen such a fast, responsive, gigantic computer before. “How much did this thing cost us?” I asked. “No, on second thought, don’t tell me.”

“Are we sure it’s the Macros, Kyle?” Crow asked.

The screen had returned to its previous settings and now displayed the Venus situation in greater detail. Before I could respond, a tiny white spot grew and vanished on the screen.

“There,” Major Sarin said. “I saw that one wink out. Something took that mine offline.”

“Was it destroyed, or did it malfunction?” Crow asked.

“We aren’t sure of anything,” I told him. “But who else would it be, other than the Macros? The Worms and all the other races we’ve encountered are on the other side of our system, reachable via the Oort Cloud ring. The big Macro fleet, when it came calling the last time, came through the Venus ring.”

Crow nodded. “I remember. We all almost shat our collective pants.” He rubbed his face and eyes, as if trying to wake up.

“Get the Admiral some coffee. Black and strong,” I ordered.

Major Barrera relayed my command to the staffers outside.

Crow flicked his eyes to me. I could tell he was happy to hear me use his rank. I figured it was the least I could do. Star Force couldn’t afford more internal struggles now.

“Kwon,” I said, “I need you to oversee the new building defenses. We’re canceling all leaves, everything. We’re canceling sleep too, for the foreseeable future. And close the door on the way out.”

Kwon nodded and thumped away. He left behind five of us in my office. In case there was going to be any shouting or crying, I didn’t want the staffers outside to spread it all around the base—or the world.

“What do you want me to do, Colonel Riggs?” Crow asked. “Fly my fleet into the teeth of those machines? If that’s it, I’ll give you two guesses as to my answer.”

I didn’t reply immediately, as I was uncertain what I wanted him to do. I scratched my cheek. I hadn’t shaved since leaving for the beach. Several days of stubble rasped against the fingertips of my glove.

“If the Macros are about to come through in strength,” I said, “they could destroy our small space-borne force. Fleet just isn’t strong enough yet to do more than harass the Macro battle fleet.”

“Right you are,” Crow said. “Hold back and keep building, I say.”

“On the other hand, we might be able to ambush them if they come through piecemeal. I’d hate to lose that opportunity by holding back now. If some of our mines survive this attack and score hits on their ships, we could finish off the damaged vessels.”

“Look,” Crow said, “that sounds good, but it isn’t going to happen. They obviously know about our mines. They are sweeping them out of the way somehow. They aren’t going to come through until they know the way is clear.”

I nodded. “Okay, order your two ships stationed at Venus to move in closer. I want video of these lost mines.”

Crow looked thoughtful. “Don’t like losing two fighters. We have so few. They don’t even have any mines left in their holds, you know. They are waiting for rotation back to Earth. I’ll send out two new ships to relieve them immediately, with a hold full of fresh mines.”

I shook my head. “We have to know what they are doing, Crow. Can’t you see that?”

Everyone looked at him. He wore a stubborn look on his face. Barrera handed him a mug of coffee, and he sipped at it, not responding. I began to wish I’d waited to kick him out of his office a few days longer. We didn’t need this squabble between the commanders doing us strategic harm.

Crow stared at the screen and sipped more coffee.

“Well?” I asked.

“I’m thinking.”

I took a deep, slow breath. We were both hotheads. Crow gave me time to think about a lot of things, while he drank his coffee. I thought about apologizing. I thought about shooting him on the spot. I thought about unilaterally ordering the ships to press in at Venus—but I wasn’t sure they would do it. Fleet was loyal to Crow. He’d always done his best to hold onto that trump card.

“Look,” I growled at last, when I couldn’t take it any longer, “I’ll give you back this office and fix your ugly orange carpet.”

Crow looked at me smugly. There was a hint of triumph in his eyes that made me want to punch him.

“Very generous of you. But I never liked this orange shade myself. Looked good in the catalog, you understand—I’ve been thinking avocado green, for next time. You yanks like that color, don’t you?”

“We love it,” I said through gritted teeth.

“All right then, Star Force will build me a new building, with a new office and a new avocado-green carpet. All of which will be billed to the Marine side of the budget. Agreed?”

My desire to punch him had expanded. Now, I wanted to kill him. I think Sandra and Barrera did too.

I nodded slowly. I held out my hand to shake. Crow took it warily and we shook.

“But Crow,” I said as he relayed the orders to his ships. “Don’t ever hold my world hostage over something petty again.”

“Wouldn’t think of it, mate.”

He grinned.