Storming Heaven

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lightning shook as the missile was fired, racing down towards the planet below.

“Bring up the Anderson Drive,” Andrew ordered, tightly. “Prepare to jump us out on my command… no, belay that. I want us to be out of here if there is a major eruption. Configure the AI to jump us out of here automatically.”

He watched as the tiny icon raced down towards the gas giant. No one had been able to say just when the weapon would reach critical mass and detonate, or even if it would survive long enough to detonate. The Killers might realise that there was a threat and launch countermeasures, or it might be destroyed by an unexpected natural threat. No one knew that much about conditions inside a Killer gas giant, or even if they differed from other gas giants. There was no way to know for sure.

“I’m picking up low-level RF transmissions, but nothing else,” Gary said, flatly. “I’m not even sure if they’re artificial or natural transmissions. There’s no way to tell if the Killers are on the alert, or if they’re just… natural.”

“Record them anyway,” Andrew ordered. A gas giant was a failed star, to all intents and purposes, and a natural radio source. No one had realised that the Killers inhabited the gas giants because they had always assumed that the radio sources were natural. It suggested that it would be difficult to tell the difference between a, inhabited gas giant and an uninhabited one, unless there was some other way to detect their presence. The Killers could have build cities to rival the greatest cities on Old Earth under the clouds and no one would be any the wiser. “Where’s our weapon?”

“Entering the atmosphere now,” Gary reported. “I’m picking up increased distortions within the atmosphere, but again, it might be natural.”

“I doubt it,” Andrew said. A flare of light, larger than the surface area of Old Earth, flared down amid the gaseous atmosphere. A moment later, another followed it, and another, sending the passive sensors quivering in alarm. Down below, the gas giant was being ripped apart. “Keep watching…”

“Sir, the Killer starship has halted its course,” Gary said, suddenly. “I think it’s noticed that something is badly wrong.”

Another flare of light lit up the entire gas giant. “I think it’s too late,” Andrew said. The radiation flare from the gas giant was constantly increasing. He wouldn’t have wanted to risk taking even a heavily shielded starship any closer, not now that the gas giant was tearing itself apart. “Stand by to get us out of here.”

“New contacts,” Gary snapped, sharply. “I have at least seven Killer starships trying to rise out of the atmosphere, three of unknown design… my God.”

Andrew followed his gaze. Four of the Killer starships were the same traditional design, exactly like the starship that had bombarded Earth into a radioactive nightmare. The remaining three were even larger, massive irregular structures that seemed too large to exist, let alone fly under their own power. The gravimetric sensors were going crazy; the massive ships seemed somehow to bending gravity around them, pushing them away from the planet. The flares of light seemed to reach up towards one of the ships, there was a massive explosion, and the ship vanished.

Andrew didn’t cheer. There was something sobering about watching the Killer cities — he was sure that that was what they were — fighting for life. They weren’t warships, or even vital systems, but civilian habitations, lacking the powerful defences of the Killer starships. The growing waves of destruction would wipe them out before they could escape, even with the help of their escorts — if twenty-kilometre long warships could be termed escorts. He watched in silence as more and more cities broke atmosphere, only to be destroyed by teeming surges of energy. The Killers, for once, were on the run.

“Power surge,” Gary snapped. “I recommend…”

The drive cut in. An instant later, they were halfway across the star system.

Deep within the gas giant, the weapon finally released the energy it had gained from splitting billions upon billions of atoms, rendering the atmosphere of the gas giant into fuel for its own destruction. It had sucked in the atoms, split them and released half of the energy, which had started a fission effect racing through the entire gas giant at the speed of light. The early surges in energy hadn’t even touched the inner core of the massive planet; now, the fission effect was becoming supercharged. Seconds after the weapon finally lost cohesion and vaporised, the gas giant burned like a new-born star.

A tidal wave of radiation and energy burned through the upper atmosphere and vaporised the remaining Killer installations and free-floating entities. The ships and cities struggling to escape before the planet exploded didn’t stand a chance. The fires reached out for them, enveloped them, and consumed them. The handful of ships that had reached safe ground were still roasted and damaged, leaving some of them to fall back down towards the burning planet. Others, further away, opened wormholes and slipped out of the system completely, fleeing to safer ground, while a handful waited to see if they could salvage anything from the disaster. It was too late to save any of their remaining comrades. The entire planet had been killed.

“Report,” Andrew snapped. “What happened?”

“The planet blew,” Gary reported. “The sensors read the massive gravity flux and jumped us out before the first waves could reach us. I doubt that we could have survived even at our distance from the planet.”

“Show me,” Andrew ordered. An image appeared in front of them; a new star burning within the system. The planet’s orbiting moons, suddenly washed in a tidal wave of heat, would be melting, perhaps even being pushed out of orbit by the gravity waves echoing out from the dying planet. The rings were already breaking down into vapour as the planet died. They wouldn’t be able to tolerate the heat. “And the Killers?”

“I’m uncertain,” Gary admitted. “There’s so much disruption, even to gravimetric sensors, that it’s hard to tell if any of them survived, or if they escaped. They could open up hundreds of wormholes and we couldn’t be sure of picking them up, not now.”

Andrew nodded. Once, years ago, he had read a semi-serious article suggesting that humans would learn to ignite gas giants to provide their moons with a star. Jupiter’s moons could be made habitable with a little effort and hard work, provided that they got a new source of heat. The early days of the Space Age had been full of all kinds of fantastic schemes, which couldn’t be used even now, for fear of attracting the Killers. Now, if the new star remained stable, perhaps one of those schemes could be put into practice.

“I’m not sure that the new star is remotely stable,” Gary said, when Andrew commented on his thoughts. “The fission effect is burning up its mass at an astonishing rate. If it doesn’t stabilise soon, it’ll burn itself out and probably turn into a dead star, or something along the same lines.”

“With a lot of dead Killers,” Andrew said, slowly. The destruction had proved beyond all doubt that the Killers had infested that planet, and perhaps the other gas giants in the system. It was time to complete the mission. It was tempting to declare an end to the mission and leave the star alone, but they were committed now. “Send an update along the secure channel to the Admiral, and then take us in towards the star.”

“Aye, sir,” David said. The starship tilted slightly and raced towards the system primary. The gravity waves emitting from the gas giant hadn’t had any effect on the local star, although Andrew hadn’t expected that they would. Nothing short of a supernova bomb or a black hole would affect the primary; even a Killer starship would vaporise if it dived right into the star. There were all kinds of schemes for using warp fields to survive within the star’s atmosphere, but Andrew doubted that they would work in the long run. A single power failure and the entire complex would vaporise. No one would even know what had happened…

“We have a contact,” Gary snapped. “I have one Killer starship on a direct intercept course.”

“Evasive action,” Andrew ordered, watching the new icon gaining on them rapidly. It looked… angry. There had never been a sense of any emotion from the Killers before, but now… he suspected that the Killers had simply never been hurt so badly before. “David, confirm; how long until we reach the best firing position?”

“Seven minutes,” David reported. “We can be there instantly with the Anderson Drive.”

“Perhaps not,” Gary said. “The gravity waves from the dying planet are making it much harder to calculate jumps. The Killer starship will be in firing range… ah.”

The Killer starship fired a single burst of white fire. It raced towards the Lightning at two hundred times the speed of light and barely missed as David took evasive action.

“Now, it seems,” Gary said, with gallows humour. “It seems that we underestimated the range on their weapons.”

Andrew had a more pertinent question. “How the hell do they project that energy faster than light?”

“Unknown,” Gary said, “but I think they’re mad. I’ve got two more Killer starships on intercept vectors.”

“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew ordered, as the Killer starships drew closer. They seemed to have no problems pacing the Lightning, even threatening overrun her, but they seemed to be almost… fearful, as if they didn’t want to get too close. It was the only thing that saved the starship from certain destruction. If the Killers had closed to point-blank range, they could have picked her off or even rammed her with ease. “Gary?”

“Two minutes to best firing range,” Gary said. He paused. “Sir, the Killers might intercept the missile.”

“True,” Andrew agreed. He’d planned to flee the moment the missile was launched — no one in their right mind would want to be close to a supernova — but Gary was right. They would have to run cover for the missile, even at the risk of their lives. “Load torpedo bays, charge weapons.”

“Weapons online, sir,” Gary said. He didn’t question the order aloud, but Andrew knew that he was questioning the wisdom of that decision. Their weapons wouldn’t even scratch the Killer hull. “Targets locked.”

“Fire a full spread of noisemakers just before you fire the supernova bomb,” Andrew ordered. “Stand by…”

The star grew larger in the display, a ball of nuclear fire beaming out light and life to the entire star system. Without the Killers, perhaps it would have shone on an empire of humanity. Instead, Andrew had come to slay it for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The Killer starships were holding their course, keeping their distance…

“Fire,” Andrew ordered.

“Noisemakers away,” Gary confirmed. “Supernova bomb armed, primed… and away.”

“Take us back towards them,” Andrew snapped. “Helm, take us right down their fucking throats.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” David said. The Lightning heeled rapidly and turned around to face the Killers. A moment later, David triggered the warp drive and the starship raced towards the massive ships. “One minute to close approach.”

“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew snapped. “Gary, open fire with warp missiles. Make them think we’re trying to take them out with a Cochrane Twist.”

The starship shuddered as it unleashed another spread of missiles. Andrew watched as the missiles closed the distance within seconds, the Killers still firing their mysterious weapons… and then they locked onto the missiles instead. The warp missiles, coming in on a predictable trajectory, were picked off one by one before they could reach their targets.

“They’re reacting to us,” Andrew breathed. No one was sure if a Cochrane Twist was even possible against Killer starships moving at FTL speeds, using their own FTL drive, but the Killers seemed to believe it was possible. Who knew? They might even have been right. They presumably knew their drive better than the humans knew theirs. “They’re reacting to us…”

The two starships closed rapidly and then they were past the Killer starship, racing out into interstellar space. “Fire the remaining noisemakers,” Andrew ordered, tightly. If they could delay the Killers long enough to keep them near the star, the supernova would shake their confidence forever. “What’s happening to the star?”

“I’m picking up massive gravity waves,” David reported, as the Killer starships turned slowly to continue the pursuit. They hadn’t realised that the star was about to explode. “I think she’s about to blow!”

“Get us out of here,” Andrew snapped. There was no more time to waste. “Now!”

Although Andrew and his crew were unaware of it, the second supernova bomb was actually based on early warp drive technology, which compressed space to allow FTL travel. Wrapped inside a warp bubble that provided protection against the heat and fury of the outraged star, the missile sank ever deeper into the photosphere, sucking in and compressing material as it fell. Instead of causing a rapid fission reaction, the missile was compressing more and more mass into the warp bubble, disrupting the star’s fusion reaction. The reaction rapidly destabilised and raced out of control. The missile eventually lost power and vaporised in the heat of the star, but it was too late. The supernova reaction was underway.

The first massive eruption occurred just minutes after the missile entered the star, but it was only the beginning. The star’s collapse was already well beyond salvation, or any form of cure. The rushing tide of matter, pulled down by the growing gravity well at the heart of the star, only fuelled the reaction. The explosion was only a matter of time. Seven minutes after the missile had struck home, the star exploded, pouring a wave of destructive energy out into the system.

Nothing near the star stood a chance. The two closest Killer starships were vaporised instantly, despite their hull protection. The third was lucky; caught by the blast, it was tossed across the system instead of being vaporised. The damage was more than enough to destroy the starship’s integrity. The planets near the star were roasted by the expanding blast wave, which vaporised asteroids, comets and any other space debris in the system. The gas giants were literally blown away. The Killer settlements inside the remaining gas giants were smashed beyond repair. The entire star system had been devastated.

Lightning shuddered as it came out of the jump and stabilised, ten light years away from the supernova.

“Report,” Andrew ordered, grimly. Red icons were flashing all over the ship status board, but as they watched, one by one the icons faded away as the ship’s AI directed repairs. “What happened?”

“The star is definitely gone,” Gary reported. He worked his console for a long moment. “The gravity shockwaves are already spilling out over hundreds of light years. Anyone with a gravimetric sensor will know that the star exploded, although they may not know the cause…”

“They will, sir,” David put in. “The star wasn’t of a type to go supernova. It would probably have collapsed into a white dwarf or expanded into a red giant, not a supernova. I suspect that the secret is very definitely out, sir.”

“I’ll mention it to the Admiral,” Andrew said, dryly. “And the Killers?”

“If they came after us, they lost us,” Gary said. Andrew smiled tiredly at the confidence in his voice. “There are no Killer starships within the limits of detectable space.”

“Transmit an update to the Admiral,” Andrew said, thinking hard. If the system had been washed by a supernova, there might be all kinds of damaged Killer technology they could salvage, given time. The cities inside the gas giants were probably beyond recovery, but the starships might have been damaged, yet still mostly intact. “And then… take us back into the system.”

“Aye, sir,” David said. The noise of the drive rapidly reached a crescendo. “Jumping now.”

The system looked very different from before the supernova had detonated. Andrew realised. There was a massive expanding cloud of gas racing out of the system and smaller concentrations racing away from the gas giants. The worlds, including one that might have been Earth-like with some modifications, were charred rubble. The asteroid belts and most of the moons were completely gone. The star itself looked as if it was dying, although most of the debris would probably eventually recombine into something. The blast hadn’t been powerful enough to completely destroy the star. The chunks of stellar matter might even be usable. The gas giant that had received the first device was a blackened ruin. It was unlikely that there was anything for the humans to salvage there.

“Contact,” Gary snapped, suddenly. Andrew felt himself jerking upright as the display rapidly updated. Nothing — nothing — mortal could have survived a supernova. Had the Killers somehow ridden the tidal waves and survived? “I have… one Killer starship, heading… sir, I think it’s drifting.”

“A trap,” David said, nervously. He’d been pushed to the limit. They all had. “They knew we’d return and waited for us.”

“Show me,” Andrew ordered. The image appeared in front of him. The Killer starship wasn’t waiting for them, or even repairing itself; it was tumbling helplessly through space, turning end over end constantly. He checked its course and realised that it was drifting towards interstellar space, unless it intersected one of the gas giants first. There were no power readings at all. Even the starship they’d captured had had low-level power readings, but whatever powered the stricken starship was completely lost. “Contact the Admiral and tell him that we have a damaged starship here for recovery and an entire star system to study.”

He chuckled, suddenly, as they raced towards the derelict. “Whatever else happens,” he said, “the Killers will never forget this day.”