Conquest

-45-

The star known to Earthlings as Aldebaran was a red giant about sixty-five lightyears from our world. From the point of view of Earth it was in the Taurus constellation and lined up with the belt of Orion. The star was truly huge, its diameter being forty-four times that of our sun. There were a few crispy planets circling the ancient, monstrous star. Only the planet Helios was in a position to support life. It was a heavy-gravity planet with sunken seas and towering Worm cities that stood like termite mounds here and there on the hot surface.

Nothing shocking occurred as we flew through the ring. The only surprising thing was the behavior of the Worm ships. They were falling farther behind the Macros and veering off slightly—moving above the plane of the ecliptic for the Aldebaran system. I studied them, frowning.

“What are they up to?” Captain Miklos asked, becoming nervous. “Their ships are no longer in range of the Macros. They’ve broken off.”

“They probably decided to hit them again when we catch up. Maybe they finally realized we can’t go any faster than we are currently traveling. A bit of math will predict the intersect of this fleet and the Macros. Speaking of that, when will we catch them, helmsman?”

“Just short of the next ring, sir,” he said, working his computer.

“Excellent. I didn’t want to have to wait until we reached the next system to fight them. I’d like to see Eden again, but every jump we make is nerve-wracking at this speed.”

“It bothers me too, sir,” Captain Miklos said. “But I’m not used to spreading my atoms over lightyears via alien technology. You’ve done it a number of times. Is there some special danger I should be aware of?”

I chuckled. “Using a little imagination, the dangers are countless.”

“Sir?”

I took a deep breath. “Think about it, captain. What if the ring on the far side malfunctions, or simply isn’t there? Worse, we’ve see these rings switch on and off. There’s even some evidence to indicate they can be reset to go to a different destination. What if we came out in the atmosphere of a planet? The rings on Venus and the one on Helios both are inside the gaseous envelop of a world which connects to a point in space.”

Miklos stared at me. He shook his head. “We’d be smashed like ants, sir. At this speed, hitting an atmosphere would be like hitting a wall of granite.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Now you know why I’m nervous. I don’t expect a problem, but I can imagine plenty of them.”

Miklos sat back in his chair and looked disturbed. I shook my head. He shouldn’t have asked me.

Many hours passed. We were gaining on the Macros, but only slightly. To make matters worse, they seemed to be more capable of managing curving course changes. As the next ring wasn’t perfectly lined up with the entry point into the Aldebaran system, we had to turn our ships toward the next ring. Since we were already moving at high speed, we had to fight our own inertia. We would still catch up with the enemy before they escaped the Worm system, but it was going to be a close thing.

I didn’t like cutting things closely. I didn’t like the prospect of failing to catch them and having to fly into the unknown yet again at these speeds. We couldn’t afford to slow down, or they would lose us. We couldn’t veer off and miss the next ring either, as that would only leave us with the long process of braking, turning around and going back through it. The maneuver would take us a day or so at least, depending on how cautiously we moved. No, we were committed and I hated it. I much preferred to keep an enemy guessing. An enemy that knew what you were going to do many long hours ahead of time had plenty of opportunities to screw you over.

Marvin now flew between us and the Macros. He’d slid through the ring, but had managed to stay out of range of every gun in all three fleets. I could hardly blame him. Slowly, he was drifting closer to us. But he wasn’t going to let himself come into laser range. We’d plotted his flight path. At no point did it enter the globe on my screen that represented our possible range of fire.

As there was nothing better to do, I headed back into the troop pod and played games on rolled-up screens with the marines. Kwon and I had a drink or two—the man never entered battle without a body-warm flask of something on him. When I grew tired I headed back to the bridge to sleep in my command chair with Captain Miklos and his crew.

I noticed how the marines and flight crew didn’t really mix. I thought about urging them to sit down together, but decided against it. We were about to get into a death fight with more cruisers than we’d ever dealt with before. If these men didn’t want to cozy up with one another, that was their business.

I fell asleep for an entire shift in my chair. I probably couldn’t have done it without the help of Kwon’s rotgut. When I woke up, I saw Miklos’ face near mine. He was tapping on my visor.

My armored hand reached up and batted away his hand. I saw him wince in pain. When a battle-suited hand slapped you, it hurt.

“Sorry,” Captain Miklos said, withdrawing out of my face.

“Me too,” I said, groaning and stretching. “What’s up?”

“There’s an incoming message, sir.”

“From who?”

“The Worms. They are repeating a message over and over.”

Frowning, I pulled up the symbol set on my computer. The first one was the grub-thing which I’d seen before. It meant buddy or hunting-partner. The next one was an image of something big and round. The last one was some kind of odd organ. If I had to guess, it might have been an eyeball. But that was only a guess.

“What the hell are these things?” I asked no one in particular. I needed a hot shower, my brain was slightly fuzzy.

“Barbarossa has no clue,” Miklos said.

“I thought these ships could speak Worm.”

“They know everything we’ve recorded from past transactions. But the last two of these symbols are new to us, and the ships.”

“How long until we reach the enemy line?” I asked.

“A little under two hours.”

I shook my head. “That’s cutting it close. You should have awakened me sooner.”

Miklos and the helmsman exchanged glances and shrugged. I heaved myself to a standing position and made irritated noises. I headed for the elimination chamber and struggled to get my helmet off. I gulped coffee and thought about a shower. There wasn’t really enough time.

“Barbarossa,” I shouted. “Forward that message to Marvin. Request a translation.”

“Message sent,” said the ship.

“Sirs?” the helmsman spoke up suddenly. “The Macros are changing formation.”

I stumbled out the elimination chamber and climbed back into my crash seat. I shook my head to clear it. “What the hell are they doing?”

No one answered. As we watched, the enemy fleet spread out, seemingly in every direction. Ships went, up, down and sideways. They were slowing, too.

“We have them!” I said. “They have decided not to dare another ring. They are going to turn and fight. We’ve run them up the proverbial tree, gentlemen.”

Miklos didn’t answer. He looked less convinced of victory and more worried than I was.

“Full deceleration,” the helmsman said. “Scattered pattern. Could they be running into something?”

I frowned at him, then addressed the ship. “Any answer from Marvin yet, Barbarossa?”

“Incoming now.”

I heard Marvin’s voice next. “Symbol translations vary. The first one indicates a hunting party or comradery.”

“I know that.”

“The second symbol is the image of their sun, the red giant known to humans as Aldebaran.”

“Okay, what does it mean?”

“It means many things. Life, heat, danger. It depends on context.”

“Wonderful. What about the last one?”

“That is an image of a Worm organ. Specifically, the optical organ located in the anterior portion of Worm physiology.”

“Huh,” I said, trying to puzzle that one out. Hunting-partner, sun, eyeball…. No wonder Barbarossa had no clue. “What does it all mean in this context, Marvin?”

“I could only guess.”

“Then guess!”

“Since we are close to combat, I would assume the sun means danger. I would also hazard that the eyeball means either watchfulness, or a forward perspective.”

I suddenly had it. “Are you telling me the Worms are saying, ‘Friends, danger ahead?’”

“Yes,” Marvin said. “That would summarize the concepts nicely.”

“Well,” Miklos said. “The enemy are directly ahead of us. And they are turning to fight now.”

“Yeah, but they sent this even before the Macros started turning around.”

“Colonel,” the helmsman said. “There’s something else. The Macros—one of them just blew up, sir.”

“Why?”

“Nuclear explosive, low-yield. They probably hit a mine.”

I stared at him for a long second, thinking.

“Mines,” I said. “The Worms put a mine field out here in the middle of open space, on the likely path between the two rings. That way, the enemy couldn’t just blow them up the way they’ve been doing with tightly placed fields right in front of the rings.”

“Two more explosions. One more Macro destroyed, another damaged.”

“New message incoming from the Worms, sir.”

Worried, I examined the new symbol-set on the screen. The first and second symbols were the same. The last one, however, was a full-sized worm warrior.

“Tell me what this is, Marvin.”

“Friend, danger, and the raging worm warrior,” Marvin mused. “In this case, I think they are marveling at our bravery. It is a compliment, sir.”

“Our bravery? Why the hell are the complimenting us now?”

Captain Miklos made a strangled sound, then turned to me with a white face. “We must be in it, sir. The minefield.”

I nodded. That had to be it. “Hit the brakes!” I shouted. “Turn us around for full thrust deceleration. Helmsman, give me numbers. How long until we are within effective range?”

“Less than ten minutes sir. They are ahead of us on the deceleration curve. In fact, we are going to plow right into them, even while braking at full power.”

I struggled with my helmet. I clanked back to the troop pods. The door melted away and a platoon of startled marines looked at me. No one was buttoned up, not even Kwon.

“This is it, marines!” I roared. “Suit-up tight, double-time. Check your gear and say your prayers. We’ve got about ten minutes to live.”