Storming Heaven

Chapter Two

“At that point, the signal terminates,” Admiral Brent Roeder said, as the final images of the doomed scout faded and died. “We do not know for sure what happened to Lieutenant Takahashi, but we believe that she was killed in the line of duty, along with her AI. We do not believe that there is any point in a fast-recon mission to attempt to locate any traces of her vessel.”

“You intend to abandon her?” Father Sigmund asked, coldly. “I believe that you could get a starship in and out of the system before the devils could respond.”

“If we jumped a starship into the system, either in a warp bubble or though the Anderson Drive, we will certainly attract their attention,” Brent said, with forced calm. “They will act at once against the starship and the crew will be lucky to escape. The telemetry from the scout suggests, quite strongly, that the craft was broken up and used for raw materials, along with the pilot. I will not waste additional resources attempting to rescue a dead woman.”

“There’s little point in arguing,” President Patti Lydon said, as calmly as she could. It had been a long day even before the War Council had been summoned by the Admiral. “I believe that the Admiral still holds the confidence of his peers and they do not appear to have condemned the decision. I assume that the Lieutenant knew the risks?”

“Yes, Madam President,” Brent confirmed. “Those of us in the Defence Force all know the risks. We live with them every day. We face them every time we scout out a potential Killer star system or shadow a Killer starship. We lose hundreds of people each year to the Killers, or simple accidents in space; we all know the risks.”

Patti nodded tiredly. There were times when she wished that the Community was a more formal structure, but the truth was that humanity could not afford any such structure, not now. The members of the War Council couldn’t share the same asteroid settlement, or even visit each other socially, merely because of the risk of a Killer attack leaving humanity leaderless. There were thousands of asteroid settlements, billions of humans in hiding across the stars, but without the Community, any hope of united action would be gone.

“And another one of God’s Children dies,” Father Sigmund intoned. “How many more must die, Admiral?”

“We have been unable to communicate with the Killers,” Brent pointed out, tightly. His words came in sharp choppy sentences. “We cannot offer to surrender. They want us all dead. We can either try to fight — or hide, hoping that we will not be discovered. As the events last year proved, even the asteroid settlements are not safe.”

“The settlers of High Singapore brought their fate on themselves,” Rupert said. The massive Spacer’s electronic eyes seemed to flicker towards the Admiral, before turning to Father Sigmund. “They were careless and were detectable when a Killer starship entered their system. Other settlements do not make the same mistake.”

Patti scowled. She remembered the images High Singapore — a settlement of several hundred asteroids, comprising over twenty million humans — had sent, in the last moments before the Killers wiped them out. The massive Iceberg-class starship had appeared in the system, tracked them down, and systematically blasted every asteroid, while the Defence Force struggled to hold them off long enough for some humans to escape. Only ten thousand humans had escaped the brutal and utterly ruthless attack… and over a hundred Defence Force starships had died in the battle. The Killers had barely slowed to swat the gnats before destroying the asteroids.

“May God keep them,” Father Sigmund said, and for once there was general agreement. “May he take them into his heaven as righteous souls.”

Humanity had once had hundreds of different religions, but the destruction of Earth had wiped out almost all of that rich tapestry. There had been a handful of religion-based asteroid settlements, but over time, almost all of them had merged into the Deists, an overarching religious community. They had borrowed elements from all human religions, but they spent so much time arguing about the actual way of God that they were barely a political power in their own right. Patti had long since decided that that was for the best. The last thing humanity needed was a religious civil war.

“The more worrying implication of all this is what might be happening to other star systems touched by the Killers,” Tabitha Cunningham said. “Are they going to be dissembling other star systems — and, if so, why?”

Patti studied Tabitha carefully as she posed her question. At one thousand and forty years old, Tabitha was probably the oldest person — personality — in existence. When she’d been human, she’d watched helplessly as the Killers destroyed Earth, before setting out on an asteroid generation ship to try to escape the solar system, only to discover that she’d been beaten to the new system by a warp drive starship. It had been a surprisingly friendly meeting and Tabitha, now on the brink of death by old age, had accepted the offer to be transcribed into the MassMind. She now represented the MassMind on the War Council. Patti had learned to value her insights, but she was from a very different age. She had never accepted that humanity had to hide indefinitely.

“They appear to be building a Dyson Sphere or a variant on the theme,” Rupert grated. The cyborg studied Tabitha thoughtfully. The Spacers grafted artificial implants onto their bodies, giving up their gender and much else to live and work in space without any form of protection. They also looked obscene; their flesh and blood mangled by implanted machines and augments. The Spacers claimed to be immortal, and it was true that they only died through accidents, but most humans considered it a high price to pay. Only those who feared that the MassMind wasn’t true immortality wanted to join the Spacers. “That would grant them access to even more stupendous sources of power.”

“Indeed,” Administrator Arun Prabhu agreed. The Technical looked around the holographic simulation of the dying star system. “The current theory is that they might even be able to take control of the star altogether and collapse it into a black hole. It would give them another source of power.”

“I believe that we are slipping away from the point of this meeting,” Tabitha said. “Computer; return to general display.”

The image of the star system vanished, to be replaced by an image of the galaxy, seem from a view point high above the galactic core. It gave the illusion of god-like power to the War Council as they gazed down on the perfect image, spoiled only by the hundreds of tactical icons as they orbited the galaxy. The red icons marked known Killer star systems, or the locations of known Killer starships on their endless hunt for intelligent life to exterminate; the blue icons marked some of humanity’s settlements. Patti had grown up with such maps and knew how to read them; humanity was steadily being driven to the brink of extinction.

Tabitha’s image was one of her in her prime, commander of a spacecraft that had been the most advanced of its time — and pitiful compared to the Killer starship that had destroyed Earth. Patti found herself respecting Tabitha, even though she feared the woman’s icy determination to wreck revenge on the Killers, a desire shared by far too many humans. If there had been hope, Patti would have joined them, but there was none. Every engagement had ended badly for humanity.

“We need to face the facts,” Tabitha said. “We are still retreating from their advance, unable to escape unless we flee the galaxy entirely. We need to find a way to strike back at them.”

“We believe that we may have a way,” Brent said. Patti found herself staring at him, and then wondering if Brent and Tabitha had planned the meeting beforehand. “One of our main problems is that we have been unable to obtain any samples of their technology on more than a small scale. What we need — desperately — is one of their starships to analyse. We believe that we can obtain one.”

He sent a command into the room’s processor and it displayed an image of a Killer starship, a very familiar image. Patti felt her heart race as she took in the massive form, a starship far larger than anything humanity had ever built. The others were showing similar reactions. They all knew what those ships had done to humanity.

“This is Killer #453,” Brent said. “We do not, of course, know what the Killers call it, but we located this one over a year ago and tracked it as it moved from star system to star system. It appears to be comparatively isolated from the remainder of the Killer fleet and doesn’t seem to have any actual links with any known base. Of course, we can’t hack into their communications network, so we don’t know for sure, but all warfare is based on risk. The important thing is that this ship is isolated.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Father Sigmund said, after a long pause, “but only one engagement has ever been fought against more than one Killer starship. All of the engagements have been disasters. How many more people are you prepared to send to their deaths against this monster?”

“That’s not entirely accurate,” Brent said, firmly. “In their attack on High Singapore, and most of the other engagements, we had to stand and fight. We couldn’t break because the Killers would just have moved on to destroying the asteroids and slaughtering the civilians. That meant that we were permanently exposed to their fire and, when they came at us, they broke through. This battle will be fought in a location that is clear of civilians and our starships can jump in and out at will.”

He paused. “One thing we do know about their ships is that their targeting capability isn’t actually that good,” he added. “If our starships keep evading in random patterns, they will be unable to target them easily and we can pound away at them from relative safety. That will not, however, be the actual threat. The starships will distract the Killers while the Footsoldiers board the craft.”

There was a long pause. “You intend to board a Killer starship?”

“Yes, Father,” Brent said, firmly. “I intend to put an entire army into one of their ships and take control of it from the inside.”

“Impossible,” Patti said flatly. “You don’t know enough about the enemy ships to take control of one.”

“We have volunteers for the mission,” Brent countered, “and at least some understanding of their technology. Even if we cannot gain control, detonating an antimatter mine inside the craft would certainly wreck it and give us something we need desperately — a victory. If we could even get our hands on a real live Killer… we might even be able to learn how to talk to the bastards.”

“And even images of what the interior of the craft looks like would be helpful,” Arun added, from his position. “We believe that we are on the verge of unlocking some of their technology, or at least developing theories that account for how it works, but we need additional information to allow us to develop a defence.”

“That still leaves the risk of provoking them into coming after us,” Patti countered. “The Community is on the verge of falling apart anyway. We cannot take the risk of forcing them to drive after us and completing the task of wiping us out.”

“They’re intent on wiping us out anyway,” Tabitha pointed out, sharply. “I’ve been watching and listening through the MassMind. Over the last thousand years, the human race’s… determination to overcome everything in its path has been steadily broken by the Killers. The number of people who have just… given up is astonishingly high, worryingly high. Thousands are seeking refuge in fantasy inside the MassMind or other simulations; hundreds more are committing suicide or just giving up inside. They will locate and destroy every colony of ours, eventually. They even wiped out the pastoral worlds and God alone knows what attracted them there.”

Patti winced. Three hundred years ago, a group of settlers had concluded that the reason the Killers located human worlds so fast was because of the emission signatures caused by their technology, so they’d settled a handful of worlds with nothing beyond hand and water powered technology. It hadn’t been a pleasant life — no one had any experience living in a world without technology — and, a hundred years later, the Killers had arrived, bombarded the worlds into radioactive wastelands, and that put an end to that. Perhaps it was telepathy, as some humans had speculated at the time; there seemed to be no other explanation for how the Killers had located their prey.

“They are set on destroying us all,” Tabitha continued. “We don’t co-exist with them. We merely… wait until they turn their attention to destroying us. If we can take out that craft, or capture it, it will give the human race a boost, a boost we desperately need. If we can’t fight back, we might as well commit suicide now and save them the trouble of exterminating us.”

“We can’t do that,” Brent said. He smiled, thinly. “We’d never get everyone to agree to commit suicide.”

Patti looked down at the image of the galaxy. There were hundreds of known Killer star systems and thousands of known Killer starships. It seemed absurd to believe that the Community could wage war against such a foe and yet… they were right. The human race was in hiding, the Defence Force only capable of observing and monitoring the enemy… and it was tearing the Community apart. There were groups launching colony fleets to the nearest galaxies, using the Anderson Drive to cut the journey times down to a manageable level, but what would happen when the Killers reached those galaxies as well?

And humanity was alone. There were no allies out there, no aliens who might be friendly or would join humanity in war against the Killers. The Killers had wiped out thousands of races over the years, leaving humanity alone. It didn’t bode well for humanity’s future. The human race wasn’t the only race that had reached space before the Killers arrived, but no others had survived, unless they were in hiding. She would have liked to believe that some of them were hiding under the noses of the Killers, but the Killers would probably have ferreted them all out — eventually — and destroyed them. Humanity was just the last in a long line of defeated and exterminated races.

“Can we even break into the craft?” She asked, finally. “Can we board craft coated with invincible hull material?”

“We believe so,” Brent said, simply. “We have studied the craft carefully and believe that it might be possible to board it with Footsoldiers. There is an element of risk, as I said, but we believe that it can be minimised.”

“And if it is not, they all die,” Patti said.

Tabitha smiled. “Shall we move to a vote?”

Rupert, the Spacer, spoke first. “We support this risky endeavour,” he grated, slowly. “We will grant what support we can to the Footsoldiers.”

“We agree,” Arun added. His voice was distressingly eager. “We need insight into their technology and this is the only way we can obtain it. The risk is worthwhile.”

It isn’t you who will have to take the risk, Patti thought, but she knew that it wasn’t quite accurate. The Technical Faction would be intimately involved with examining the captured ship — if it were captured — and if the Killers arrived to recover their ship, they’d be caught in the firing line. She made a mental note to ensure that the starship was flown well away from any inhabited human settlement, just in case, before waiting for the next person to speak.

“I believe that this is futile,” Father Sigmund said, tightly. Patti wasn’t too surprised by his stance. The Deists believed the life was sacred and not to be risked, ever. Their beliefs would make very little difference if the Killers attacked, just as they had slaughtered most of humanity’s religious adherents on Earth. “I cannot in good conscience support this crazy plan.”

“I must agree with you for once,” Matriarch Jayne said. The Rockrat leader stared at Brent harshly. Her ancient face refused to budge. “This plan risks far too much for a very chancy reward. We cannot afford another High Singapore so soon.”

Patti smiled. The Rockrats had formed the basis of much of the Community — and one of their traditions was female leaders. After Earth had been destroyed, the women on the asteroid belts had suddenly become worth far more than their weight in gold and had been prevented from going outside sheltered accommodation. While the men struggled to build a new society, the women had quietly taken control of the asteroids and ended up running the original Community. They were generally more careful than men in their dealings with the Killers. They knew what was at stake.

“So does certain death,” Tabitha said. Her voice hardened slightly. “I cast my vote in favour of this plan.”

“As do I,” Brent said, unnecessarily.

“Four in favour, two opposed,” Patti said. She sighed, heavily. If she cast a vote now, it would be useless, whichever way she moved. Her constituents would not be too happy, but there was little choice. “I choose, therefore, to abstain from the vote. Admiral, you have your permission to proceed. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Brent said. He looked down at the image of the Killer starship for a long moment. Patti wondered if he was having doubts now about the wisdom of his plans. “We won’t fail you.”