Interstellar Incident: An Alicia Jones Novel 02 Read online

  It was a half hour later, that the ships all went to FTL, heading straight for Earth. At the USFS board’s request, I transmitted our little propaganda film and waited for the inevitable. I also noticed the back row, the Knomen, were quite a bit further back, maybe a ten second window instead of one like usual. I made a quick change to the plan to account for that.

  I felt… cold blooded as I watched the screen. I’d just ensured the Knomen would not escape, or at least that had been my intent. Was I bloodthirsty? The idea that they were hovering so far back said to me they would throw away the rest of the fleet and run with the tactical data. That pissed me off, since this entire battle was their idea.

  I felt Kristi’s hand on my shoulder, “You okay?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, I’ll just never like this part of the job, you know. But I’ll do it.”

  She squeezed my shoulder, “As long as we’re defending ourselves, from a real threat I mean, not like the Knomen do it, then we’ll be okay.”

  I nodded, wondering if I’d just lied, and if I’d feel satisfaction when the Knomen ships burned. I hoped not, but I recognized the feeling of righteous anger under my heart. The first battle I was in had changed me, I’d had to come to terms with losses of those I commanded. What would this one do to me? They were the attackers, the ones that would heartlessly send us back to the stone age, rather than simply be a good neighbor. I just didn’t know though, and I’d find out soon enough.

  I smiled an hour later, when both the Tressian and Leiran ships dropped out of the formation and turned around. At least that was a small bit of good news. The rest of them kept going, and I wished I was a fly on the wall to hear what the Knomen admiral thought of it. None of the other ships pulled out, but then none of the other worlds knew me like those two did, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise.

  We broke for a quick meal, they wouldn’t be here for another six hours, and there was no point in maintaining the readiness levels above yellow yet. We waited until they were a half hour away, then brought it up to condition red and got back to the bridge.

  I sent a message, “Approaching Knomen Empire fleet. You are trespassing in sovereign Earth space. We intend no harm toward our former allies, but if you continue this attack, we will destroy you. I say once again, according to Knomen law, what you are doing is illegal. This is the only warning you will receive, if you proceed we will destroy your ships.”

  They kept coming of course. But I felt better about it now. Almost as if the speech had been to salve my conscious, although that was only a side effect of its true purpose.

  The first battle I’d been in, in Leiran space, we’d closed to anti-mass energy weapons range before firing missiles, simply because it was more efficient that way. Missiles would do a lot more damage if the enemy’s fields were at all destabilized. Our new shields didn’t have that problem, but they didn’t know that, and we planned our ambush based on that operational data.

  We faced them with all the ships I listed earlier, but more specifically, if all added up from all the ship classes, shuttles, Shield missiles and emplacements, there were close to twenty-five thousand plasma cannons, and over six thousand missile launchers. The plasma cannons were much higher of course, because there was one on the front of each Shield missile.

  It was an overwhelming throw weight against seven hundred craft. So overwhelming we could afford to hold back our plasma cannons as a purely defensive platform. But despite all that, not one ship fired when the time came. I had no interest in fairness, or giving them a chance, or letting them even fire for that matter.

  Because a few seconds before they reached the attack range for the anti-mass weapons on the fleet of Knomen ships, our ambush plan took effect. A thousand gravity missiles came online, targeted a ship, and ripped a portion of its targets anti-mass field away as they passed each other.

  There was literally no time for them to react, and without their A.I.s knowing about or scanning for gravity missiles, not one of them was able to drop to sub light.

  I felt a surge of overwhelming relief, because all I really felt was disgust, and sadness, at the destruction. I was not glad that they were dead, I was horrified by the slaughter as six hundred and eighty-five ships disappeared in explosions of energy, as they were exposed to an Einsteinian universe at several times the speed of light, and were instantly transformed into energy.

  And it was horrifying. The first battle in the Leira system there had been hope despite it being a slaughter as well. Some of the ships had been knocked out of FTL, automatically stopping when hit by an anti-mass beam, and then the missiles had torn the target ship up. It was bad, so many had died in just a handful of seconds… yet there had been enough left after that destruction to rescue several beings. Today, there was nothing but the afterimage of hot white energy in my eyes.

  The ships, the people, they were simply all gone down to the last atom.

  I said over fleet channel in a soft but still commanding voice, “Recover the missiles and refuel.”

  We hadn’t even lost a missile in this opening gambit of the Knomen. Not one human was put in danger. I hoped that would be enough to encourage sub-light fights in the future, or they would continue to get slaughtered if they attacked again. But then that had been the main intent of the gravity missile when I conceived it, fight in normal space or die. I was pretty sure even the Knomen weren’t that stubbornly blind though, this trick wouldn’t work again, and next time some of us would die as well, I hoped that was a long time in coming.

  But I was also sure it wouldn’t be. This wouldn’t stop the Knomen, it would merely light a fire under them.

  I took a few minutes to write up an after action report, and tolerated the congratulations that came in from around me. I did feel good about the fact none of our soldiers died though, so… it was complicated in my head.

  It took me a few hours to set everything to go on without me for a couple of weeks, both up here in space, and down on the ground with my company. Well, two weeks or until the Knomen stuck their necks out again, and then Kristi and I left in the unarmed sports shuttle and went home. I packed three bikinis, some sarongs, a couple a pairs of jean shorts and light clingy t-shirts, and two club style dresses. I also took along the bustier, I couldn’t wear it with a bikini, but for the rest of the time off the beach I would have it.

  It was ironic, I hadn’t spent all that much time in my nice big house, and now I was going out the door again. We flew down to Aruba, to an all-inclusive resort. I was looking forward to relaxing after the last six weeks, and all the hard work I’d done. Everyone deserves time off right? About the only thing that would make it better was if Nathan could have come along, but I was sure to have fun with Kristi along, and quite possibly get in a little trouble...

  Chapter 15

  In my defense, I was a little tipsy when I said to Kristi, “Check this out.”

  We were lying on the beach, both of us soaking up some sun on the second day of our vacation. We’d also had a few drinks. I’d gotten a few strange looks, and even some angry ones from a few women, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I was an alien, or because of how good I looked in my purple bikini. It was a tossup.

  Anyway, I stretched out my hand going for mysterious as I sub-vocalized to Al, and my drink levitated up into the air and slowly moved to my hand.

  Kristi gasped, and I started to giggle.

  “What did you do, how did… was that an anti-mass field princess?”

  I shook my head and nobly ignored the title, “No, I realized a week ago that I was terribly underutilizing my gravity defense weapon. In fact, I’d been using it like a club when I had created a precision instrument. Think Lagrange point, not anti-gravity.”

  Kristi giggled, “Get mine. Drink I mean.”

  I floated her glass over to her hand, this time without the pantomiming.

  She said curiously with a small slur, “So you’re just surrounding it in a one G gravity field orientated upside down? That’
s kind of obvious in hindsight.”

  I nodded, “Exactly, it’s a little more complicated than that though, the main field cancels out the natural gravity from the planet… or at least equally opposes it. Then there are secondary small gravity fields to raise, lower, and move things horizontally. I created all kinds of commands for disarming someone, or even just holding them up in the air. I figured that’s safer than crushing them against something, less chance of hurting them badly by accident.”

  Kristi nodded, “Anything else, or just telekinesis mimicking?”

  “Umm,” I took a sip of my drink as my fuzzy mind caught up, “A shield of sorts. It’s not as good as the anti-mass EM bustier, but it will stop a punch, or move someone away from me. It will even slow and partially deflect a bullet, but it would still get through. But I can’t have it on all the time, it creates a half inch thick forty G field around my body like a bubble, so it’s an energy hog, and too dangerous to have on all the time anyway.”

  Kristi sighed, “I bet you could fly with it.”

  I snickered, “I probably could, but I’m not going to. I like to feel the ground under my feet, or at least the hull of a deck.”

  Kristi dared me like she was still five years old, “Chicken.”

  I of course, being mature and all, subvocalized a few words, and started to hover a few inches over my towel. A dare was a dare after all.

  I stuck my tongue out, “There, I flew, I mean, I…” my mouth wasn’t working right, I tried one more time perhaps a little too loudly, “I’m flying.”

  Kristi snickered and looked at me in mock amazement, proving once again she didn’t lose the ability to be a ditz, and then a woman about ten feet away screamed bloody murder.

  Oops.

  Which sent us both into giggles. Like I said, in my defense, I was a little… or perhaps I was more than a little tipsy. I settled back to the ground and tried to look innocent, as if all the people weren’t staring at me. Nope, no levitating alien here, move along folks.

  After a few moments of tense silence, Kristi stage whispered, “Can I have one of those?”

  I nodded and my voice automatically put on a conspiratorial edge, “Sure, I have a bunch in the car. I don’t like carrying them half charged, so I swap out a lot. You’re welcome to a few until we can fabricate some more.”

  Kristi asked, “How long do they last?”

  “Two weeks of constant use at five gravities. Obviously it varies, the field takes more energy the farther away it has to be generated, so five gravities at sixty feet takes about the same power as the close in shield at forty gravities. That would kill the power in about… five hours? Just using it to fly is a one G close in field so… it would last months.”

  Kristi asked, “Does the Army know about this? I bet the special forces would love jumping out of planes without a chute. You only sold them to M.P.s so far right? It would also kick butt for sweeping mine fields, or pressure sensitive IEDs, if you tripled the gravity in a small area, the mine would think it was stepped on.”

  That… was a good idea. I think. My fuzzy mind thought so anyway.

  “I’ll let the general know about it when we get back from vacation. Good ideas.”

  The people around us eventually calmed down, though I felt guilty when the screamer left the beach, and I sent my control program and options to Kristi’s A.I. Then I ordered Al to bring me one of the gravity generators. After all, he could generate a field around the ball itself and fly it over from the car.

  Kristi grinned like a kid with a new toy when it floated into her lap…

  We had a lot of fun on our vacation. We spent our days at the beach, drank too much, went dancing at night, and for the most part ignored our research, our business, and the fleet. Nothing lasts forever though, and our vacation was actually interrupted a week in. I was ordered to get back to my ship, but not told why, so we checked out of the resort and we said goodbye to the white sand, clear blue ocean, and the perfect weather of the island paradise.

  Still, a week was long enough to relax, I’d started to get bored during the last day and wanted to take a look through the black hole data. Something about that data was causing the back of my head to itch, but I didn’t know what it was yet. Either way, we went home and unpacked, once again using my house as a mere waystation, I got dressed in my body conforming pressure suit, and put on my admiral’s uniform. Kristi did the same, the suit part that is, but she got to wear jeans and a blouse, and the two of us headed back to the ship.

  I checked my messages and wished I hadn’t, I could barely believe how many had built up in just a week’s time. It would take a couple of days to go through them all, and only because I didn’t sleep more than three hours a night. But later, because I was surprised at who was waiting for me on the ship…

  Chapter 16

  When we stepped off the sports shuttle Nadia Avdonin was there, along with Sergei and Anthony, my vice admirals. Nadia had a half apologetic smile on her face.

  “Sorry to cut your vacation short, I know you deserved it, but something came up.”

  I returned her smile, “No problem, I was starting to get bored anyway, what can I do for you?”

  Nadia said in a low voice, “A Tressian and Leiran showed up yesterday, aboard a very interesting ship. I’m sure the Knomen are still monitoring our media, and open communications. We thought it would be prudent to meet them up here. I wanted you here since you’ll have to make happen whatever we decide, so you need to keep me honest. I think you know one of them, a woman named Nora. The Leiran is Senna, who is a cousin to Alnot. Kristi, you can accompany us, but hold any advice until we’re alone, okay?”

  Kristi nodded.

  I said dubiously, “I didn’t think Nora was very happy with me the last time we met.”

  Nadia looked surprised, “She seemed to speak highly of you, either way we shall see. They’re waiting for us in the conference room.”

  I nodded and asked with a questioning lilt, “Interesting ship? You can’t say that to a scientist and simply leave it at that. Unless you want to torture me that is.”

  Nadia snickered, “It’s completely invisible to sensors, although not optically. Still, in space that’s as good as invisible when you can detect where the probes are and the ship is as black as space.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  She just laughed, “You can ask them how they do it later.”

  “Yes ma’am, I’m ready when you are.”

  We followed her through the ship to the conference room. Nora and Senna stood when we entered. Senna bowed toward me and I returned it, and I exchanged nods with Nora. Maybe she’d just been angry at Knomen in general? She did look and feel pleased to see me, which was a pleasant surprise. Maybe it had something to do with destroying that fleet.

  Nadia sat down in the middle chair on the other side of the table, Kristi and I sat on either side of her. I still didn’t know what was going on, so I stayed silent.

  Nadia asked, “Can you explain again why you’re both here so we’re all on the same page?”

  Senna and Nora exchanged glances, and Senna answered the question, “Our planets are tired of the way we are treated by the Knomen Empire. Truthfully, I believe most of our civilizations felt that way. Yet, we put up with it, especially us being on the border, because to turn away from the Empire would mean being conquered by it, or by our Seltan neighbors, who in many ways are much worse than the Knomen Empire.

  “We… would like to ally with Earth, if you will support us. We saw the battle in your solar system, I’d never seen anything so… one sided before,” she added cautiously.

  Nadia asked, “Why do you think we’d be any better? We are, but…”

  Senna answered, “My sovereign has spent much time with Admiral Jones. He trusts her, and she spoke highly of Earth. This is… tentative, to see if we can get along or agree. If not, we part friends, yes?”

  Nadia smiled, “Yes. We believe greatly in self-determination. That means… an
y alliance would be limited to things such as mutual defense, free trade, and protecting the younger civilizations without FTL. We would do it together, no one of us in charge. We are just starting however, and are still building our own protections. What do you think about all that?”

  Nora’s eyes widened, “Just getting started?”

  Nadia shrugged, “We have about a third of our projected home and defense fleet. After that’s finished, we plan to build an exploration fleet, that will search out and guard planets away from our home world. Assuming they can be terraformed, and are unoccupied.”

  Senna nodded, “We are building big as well, what we need is someone to help if the Seltans attack us again in even greater numbers than last time, once we distance ourselves from the Empire, and we would do the same for you if you were threatened.”

  Nora grimaced, “The Leirans have an excuse to build, with the Seltans so close, and being on the border of Empire space. If Tressia started building to gain our autonomy, by all accounts we’re a rather safe isolated world away from the border, the emperor would come to suppress us quickly I think.”

  Nadia looked unsure what she should say to that, and when she looked at me I think I startled all of them by what I said.

  “So build your ships here or at Leira.”

  Nora gaped at me, and Nadia looked at me questioningly. I wondered I put my foot in my mouth.

  “I don’t know if Nadia or Alnot would agree. But if we are to become allies, and building ships in your home system would be noticed, build them here. Surely we can sell an asteroid or two for you to crank out a few hundred ships, then take all the ships home at the same time with skeleton crews. You’ll go from undefended to well defended in a matter of a couple of hours. They wouldn’t be able to stop it.”

  Nora narrowed her eyes and said, “But then you would have the specs on all our ships.”