Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Read online

  Elaine pointed at the front screen which showed the twenty ships of the two other fleets copying their vector by way of seventy kilometer-long drive flares. “Gareth and Hideyoshi are following us, per our signal.” She looked at Jack, her expression worried. “Brother, what’s the likelihood these new Aliens have a stealthed monitor probe hiding somewhere among Pluto’s five moons? The way Menoma had that stealth probe in orbit between Earth and the Moon? For talking to Earth by way of his FTL neutrino comlink.”

  Jack felt everyone in the cabin go tense. He had wondered the same thing but Minamoto had given him a reassuring answer. “Not likely, Elaine. Any such probe would have to arrive using gravity-pull ship drive. Which arrival emits a graviton pulse that Andrea, on Charon, can detect with our gravitomagnetic sensors. Andrea has not reported any such pulse since the arrival of the Alien fleet thirty hours ago.”

  “Good,” said his sister as she grabbed her stretch headband and put it on to keep her long brown curls out of her eyes. “So we do our scheming on the far side of Charon?”

  Jack grinned at his sister’s term for fleet battle coordination. Well, he could tease too. “Yes we do. Which will also be the time when you and Ignacio can scheme about your next date!”

  His sister’s rad-tanned face grew darker as she flushed. She shrugged her leotard-covered shoulders. “We at least have the social politeness to use encrypted comlinks! You and . . . you and Nikola just prance along the Spine hallway hand-in-hand like two teens out on their first date!”

  Loud chuckles sounded from Maureen, Denise, Nikola behind him and even from Max. Jack felt his face go warm. Was that a flush? No! He had never flushed in his life. Anyway, he and Nikola kept their romancing reserved for their habroom in the Rest Area section of the Uhuru. Course, one did have to pass by the Med Station and the Food Refectory parts of the ship when heading up to the Pilot Cabin. Distraction. He needed a distraction to move his crew’s minds off of his and Nikola’s love affair. “Max! Are the modulated neutrino comlinks on the other ships working perfectly? Their refitted grav-pull drives that we salvaged, did they hold up during our blip jump out here? And the ship rebuilds for the other six ships in our fleet. Are the railguns and neutral particle beam emitters we added working the way they should? And—”

  “Enough!” laughed Max, a laugh also joined by his entire crew including Nikola. “You and Nikola love each other. The way I loved Monique, before she died. No one here objects to love among the starways!”

  Love among the starways? Were he and Nikola the prime actors in a pirate vidcast among the ships of three fleets? No. Impossible. “I’m hungry. Anyone else here want to join me, and Nikola, in having a steak, a beer and a cigar?”

  More laughter filled the Pilot Cabin at Jack’s poor effort to use his prime recruiting tool as a distraction. Yes it had worked to bring in Belter volunteers to crew the ships of Gareth’s fleet and the six other ships of his personal fleet. But not so for this crew. Setting his Tech station panel on alert for gravitomagnetic pulses, Jack unbuckled his seat restraint straps, stood up and headed for the pressure hatch that opened on the Spine hallway of the Uhuru. Maybe they hadn’t packed enough elk steaks for barter trade with nice Aliens . . .

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  On the far side of Charon moon, Jack and his crew stared at the laser link images of every ship commander that filled the top of the Pilot Cabin’s front screen. The images made for four rows of seven images per row, while below them were split-screen images of local space side-by-side with the last stealth probe image from Sedna. The top row held the images of Minna, Ignacio, Akemi, Júlia, Aashman, Kasun and Hideyoshi Minamoto, while the second and third rows held the images of the captains for Hideyoshi’s four destroyers, five frigates and his heavy cruiser Bismarck. The third and fourth rows held Gareth’s image followed by his fleet captains, for twenty-seven images total. He had expected everyone to show up for this final fleet battle coordination. But a twenty-eighth image surprised him.

  “Archibald? What brings you into this battle talk?”

  The Brit’s rad-tanned face broke into a shy grin. “A new weapon! One that should help you, Admiral Minamoto and Captain Gareth in the attack on the HikHikSot fleet.”

  Jack focused on the image of Gareth Davies, the older man who some suspected was a love partner of Maureen’s. The Welshman had arrived at 253 Mathilde upon their return from the Moon battle and thrown himself into organizing a second fleet of new volunteer Belter ships that had been refitted with ten of the gravity-pull ship drives scavenged by Ignacio. Archibald Wheeler was crew on Gareth’s ship. The stocky, broad-shouldered descendant of Wales now grinned broadly.

  “Gareth? You have a surprise for us?”

  “Most assuredly,” he said in Welsh-accented British English. “It seems there is a way to disable the gravity probes that Menoma used in the last battle to deflect laser beams. But let Archibald tell you, your crew and everyone else what he’s done here on the Dragon.”

  This was major news. Jack looked back quickly at Max, who had collaborated with Archibald on reverse-engineering the grav-pull drive salvaged from the Rizen hulk so he and Jack could use it on the old Uhuru.

  Max held up both hands in innocence mode. “Me? Knew nothing about this.”

  “Captain Jack,” called Archibald from the front screen, “this Higgs Disruptor device I’ve built using the Dragon’s neutral particle beam generator is not anything I discussed with Max. Just had some nifty ideas on how to disrupt the Higgs Field that uses Higgs bosons to provide gravity to everything in the universe.”

  A rustle among his crew told Jack they were as eager and hopeful as everyone else. “Go ahead Archibald. Tell us all what you’ve developed.”

  The middle-aged man whose shock of reddish-brown hair had always been unruly during the time Jack had known him on Charon Base now turned professor serious. “Well, you all learned in school about the detection of the first Higgs bosons early this century by the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. That detection proved the Standard Model theory of subatomic particles was correct. It also gave the first proof of a scalar field. As you may recall, the Higgs Field is what gives every particle in the universe some kind of mass and hence gravity.” The man paused as if to confirm he held the attention of twenty-seven ship captains and their crews. “Well, it occurred to me that the gravity probes used by Menoma had to emit a stronger than usual Higgs Field in order to cause a gravity tide deflection of our laser beams. And of anything else material that approached the controlling HikHikSot ship. So, I figured out how to collapse that field.”

  “What!” cried Max from his Drive station. “You mean you can kill gravity?”

  Archibald looked shocked. “No! Uh, well, just locally. Don’t worry, the universe will still stay stuck together!”

  Jack had done his best to avoid the high energy physics classes while studying to be a anthropologist on Vesta. He’d done the same later on while studying Technology under Matthias Binder at Charon. But he knew enough from what the man had said to understand the implications. “Excellent Archibald! What’s the range of your Higgs Disruptor beam? And does this mean the Dragon has no neutral particle beam weaponry?”

  Archibald looked briefly disappointed by Jack’s interruption, then answered. “Uh, the range is short, maybe a thousand kilometers. Due to the fermions I used to—”

  “Good enough,” Jack interrupted. “The Dragon, did you kill its neutral particle beam emitter?”

  The man ran a hand through his shock of wild hair. “Had to! I couldn’t create a 125 giga-electron volt beam without using the accelerator that is part of that weapon. But it gives us—”

  “The means to disable the gravity probes,” interrupted Hideyoshi as their former Unity naval admiral took charge of what was intended to be a fleet battle coordination conference. “Well done, Professor Wheeler. We are indebted to you for your device. Fellow captains, we all agreed on using a globular Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation upon our arrival at Se
dna, so as to disrupt any neutral particle beams fired at us by HikHikSot ships. How does Professor Wheeler’s new weapon affect this plan?”

  “Kamikazi is needed,” said Akemi Hagiwara of the Orca, her voice soft. The woman, who’d been a fierce warrior during the Gathering Hall battle in the Sedna base of Menoma, fixed her gaze on Jack. “My shogun, while most fleet ships should remain part of the Pinwheel formation, effective use of this new weapon requires a ship to precede the Dragon in order to draw out the gravity probes. My crew and I volunteer to be that ship. Even if we do not survive the gravitational tide produced by the Alien gravity devices, the Dragon can use its railgun and hydrogen-fluorine lasers to kill the enemy ship. Once its Higgs Disruptor has killed these gravity probes.”

  A cold chill ran down Jack’s back. While every ship and every crew person in their three fleets knew they all faced death when fighting Aliens, still, choosing intentional suicide was not the Belter way. “But Captain Akemi, the Dragon alone can activate such an Alien response by firing its lasers at the enemy ship. No need for us to lose . . . your skills and your battlemates.”

  “Use us!” yelled Ignacio, his black mustache quivering with his passion. “My cousins and I in the Badger, we know how to draw the attention of an enemy. Headlong attack is the way!”

  “No!” cried Elaine from her Pilot station, her face showing sudden fear that Ignacio, the man who’d brought her the hope of lifemate partnership, might die.

  “Enough!” Jack said loudly, startling Akemi, Ignacio and those captains who had earlier gone to battle with him. “Our first plan was to use the Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation to slag enemy ships as we shot through them at eighty percent of lightspeed, while using our lasers, railguns and neutral particle beams to penetrate hulls and drive modules. It had the value of a surprise attack and the likelihood most HikHikSot ships would not toss out gravity probes quickly enough to divert our beams and ball bearings. But Professor Wheeler’s new weapon gives us an extra option. Direct attack on Big Momma!”

  Hideyoshi gave Jack a restrained smile. “Creative. We split our forces on arrival, with most of us staying in a ball with our drive flares facing outward and our lasers firing between our ships to hit enemy ships. If we arrive as a rolling, twisting ball of fusion flames, the HikHikSot will not be able to gain a target lock on any ship. And any Alien ship on our vector will be vaporized by our drive flares, while those within ten thousand kilometers will die or be disabled by our neutral particle beams. Captain Jack, what is your plan for hitting the colony ship? Or Big Momma.”

  Jack tapped his Tech panel to bring up a Tactical Display holo filled with yellow vector traceries. Touching the panel controls quickly, he locked in his final changes. “Denise, transmit this modified battle plan to the rest of our ships.” He met Hideyoshi’s intense gaze. “Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, you will command the Pinwheel Plasma Torch ships during the fusion flame attack. Captain Gareth Davies, you will join me in a peel-off maneuver aimed at the colony ship. We will use grav-pull to kill our inertial speed so we arrive at full stop just 800 kilometers out from Big Momma. The time we take to slow down will give that ship’s crew enough time to eject gravity probes. Gareth, you kill those probes with your Higgs Disruptor. Combat Commander Maureen,” he said, looking to his right, “you will use our Battle Module to fire a neutral particle beam along the axis of Big Momma, while also hitting that ship with our HF lasers and several loads of ball bearings fired from our dual railguns.” He looked up at the captain images filling the front screen. “Captain Minna Kalevic Kekkonen, your ship Wolverine is the only other ship besides the Uhuru that is outfitted with our antineutron antimatter beam. Do not fire it! But join Gareth and me as we attack Big Momma. You will act as our rear-guard, protecting us from any HikHikSot ship that tries to blip jump onto our tail. Questions? Comments?”

  Hideyoshi nodded abruptly. “Understood. Accepted. What does our ship ball do after we pass through the clustered enemy ships?”

  “Reverse vector and come back at one percent of lightspeed, still in Pinwheel Plasma Torch formation,” Jack said. “Your chances of further hits on enemy ships will be low as the survivors will have ejected gravity probes to disrupt your lasers and ball bearings. But the Uhuru, the Dragon and the Wolverine will come in from the opposite side of the Alien formation and our beams will hit home!”

  Minna of the yellow braids gave him one of her rare smiles. “Captain, my ship and my crew are eager to serve as your rearguard. And to avenge the death of our Anneli. Lead on!”

  “Captain Jack,” called Kasun, “when do we use our thermonuke torps? Even if the torps are deflected away from enemy ships, their fusion balls will overload any sensors used by the HikHikSot.”

  Jack felt brief amazement at the Sri Lankan Buddhist’s blunt suggestion they use hydrogen bomb-laden thermonuke torps as a weapon of distraction against the Aliens. Who, his memory reminded him, planned to claim Sol system as part of their species’ Hunt territory. With the result that some humans would be surrendered to feed the carnivore hunger of these social predators, while Earth humans became a ‘subject people’ destined to be ruled forever by Aliens.

  “Captain Kasun Guardiya of the Leopard, thank you for reminding me of the need for utter ruthlessness in this battle,” he said softly, then looked back at young Denise, their former stowaway who had brought her Animal Ethology knowledge with her during the battles of the first Alien invasion. “As my ComChief and Animal Ethologist warned us months ago, these Aliens are here as part of their territorial acquisition drive. And the only way we can make these social carnivore predators retreat from Sol system is to make the cost of gaining system control more expensive than the future resources they expect to gain by taking us over.”

  “Damn right!” muttered Maureen, standing up from her Combat station seat. “I’m heading back to the Battle Module. It won’t take us that long to arrive at Sedna under grav-pull drive.”

  Jack nodded his respect to their most senior battle veteran, then faced Hideyoshi, Gareth, Akemi, Ignacio, Kasun and the other captains who had listened rather than talked. “My allies, my fellow ship captains, there can be no retreat from this battle. Either we kill all or most of these Aliens, or we die in the attempt. And I for one prefer to live to enjoy my stash of booze!”

  The laughter that sounded from his fellow captains, including even Archibald, told Jack it was time to launch into battle. “Captain Kasun, you and the other ship captains will launch half your thermonuke torps on your return vector once you are within five thousand kilometers of the enemy. Explode them once they are a hundred klicks from your ships. Your drive flares will disrupt most rad emission effects that come your way. Then, Admiral Minamoto, every ship of your combined fleets will fire on the surviving HikHikSot ships as we approach from the opposite side.”

  “Agreed” “Excellent” and similar voices of approval came to Jack from the images of his fellow captains. He offered a final directive.

  “Minna’s ship and mine will use our antimatter beams against any ship within range. We accept no surrenders. However, if the colony ship goes to Alcubierre drive shell mode, I will allow it leave our system. Wounded. And in fear of the apex predators of Earth!”

  Ignoring the shouts of agreement, he looked to Hideyoshi. “Admiral Minamoto, send out the laser time-lock for grav-pull ignition by all ships!”

  “As you command!” said his Mars fleet admiral, a full smile filling his clean-shaven face.

  Together as a unit, the Uhuru and twenty-six other ships filled with volunteer fighters headed off for their surprise attack on the ships of the second Alien invasion of Sol system.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Surprise goes both ways, Jack realized two seconds after his ball of ships left grav-pull acceleration and arrived above Sedna with a shudder of his ship’s hull. Simultaneous with every ship’s Main Drive going to fusion pulse ignition, with seventy kilometer-long drive flares shooting outward, came the true-light image of the HikHikSo
t fleet in orbit above the reddish-brown snows of Sedna. Or rather the fleet remnants, since the lightspeed images gathered by their Schmidt refractor telescope showed the Alien fleet had split into two groups. One group still orbited above the former site of Menoma’s base, but a second group had moved to envelope Big Momma. Jack counted fifteen ships in orbit and six around the colony ship.

  “Shit!” said Max as he monitored the fusion pulse emitted by the Compact Fusion Reactor that forced deuterium and helium-3 into an unnatural embrace.

  “Fuck!” yelled Maureen from the holo that had popped up above his Tech panel. “Jack! What do we do?”

  Moving at eighty percent of the speed of light made for little time to think since his flaming ball of spaceships would shortly pass through the orbital cluster. They had arrived at one-tenth AU out from Sedna in order to allow the HikHikSot ships less than a minute to detect their gravitomagnetic pulse and then decide on combat action. Arriving that close to Sedna meant his ship Uhuru, Gareth’s ship Dragon and Minna’s Wolverine had just ten seconds in which to switch on their grav-pull drives for a lateral swing out to rendezvous with Big Momma. Which now had a protective cluster of warships.

  “Stay with the battle plan!” Jack told Maureen and the other twenty-six ships by way of their laser comlink. A second shudder of his ship’s hull told him Max had reactivated the grav-pull drive to push them sideways toward the colony ship. A blurring of the scope image told him the gravitational lensing that always accompanied grav-pull use was now in effect. “But we three ships will flip nose to tail! Aim our drive flares at that colony ship and its guardians. Do it!”