Prologue
The ship came out of subspace in a burst of scintillation.
It materialized; two oddly joined bulbous shapes, insect-like and unmistakably alien. One side of its forward section was blackened, pitted with gaping burn holes that exposed the skeletal frames beneath. It paused, hesitating, then glided forward. Its leaking shields flickered with dull blue-green discharges along the force lines as they tried to stabilize.
Sensor scans probed the wedge slice of a white world that glared under the blaze of a main sequence yellow star. Emission signatures from high-powered antimatter plasma fusion reactors were unmistakable, as were the readings of refined metals and composites.
Long range scans showed a small ship almost at the far edge of the system. Data flowed to the master nexus core deep within the stricken vessel as it evaluated its surroundings. It decided that the alien ship did not present an immediate threat. If the alien closed, it would be neutralized. Nothing would keep the master nexus from getting at the rich source of raw materials from the planet ahead, badly needed for the repair of its ship. Something like satisfaction seeped through its circuit matrix. Nevertheless, it issued a standard alert notice to its auxiliary units on the command level.
Near the vessel's starboard quarter hung a gray half-moon. The ship changed course slightly, its shields flaring weakly in intermittent surges.
* * * *
Ti Adi suppressed a yawn and blinked as the computer alert flashed on the repeater plate. The nav bubble above them was clear. The stars were brittle points of light on the darkened command deck.
"Unidentified craft emerging out of subspace, heading for an intercept on Devon 3-VL4's satellite," the computer announced. "Range, three point eight two billion talans. Contact in six hours, eighteen minutes, relative speed and status."
That was almost at the other side of the system, Ti Adi mused and pointed at the plate.
"I only got two hours to change of watch," he complained bitterly. "I don't want any complications. I just want to finish this watch without drama or excitement, everything nice and dull. This better not be some fool from Devon taking an unauthorized ride," he muttered darkly and turned to his Sargon watch officer. "You would think that those dirt hugging civilians on Devon would have the simple courtesy to notify us when one of them decided to take a joy ride? It's not such a big thing to ask, now is it?"
His watch officer smiled in sympathy. It seemed that half their time was spent shepherding would-be Scout Fleet drivers. It was a damned nuisance maintaining a patrol around these ecoforming systems to begin with. But the bulging brains at Sector relay thought different. With increased raider activity in the quadrant, command held a low view of some adventurous spirit practicing his flying skills around Devon.
"If that bucket is from Devon and he hasn't filed a flight plan, I'll ground the turd. I will!"
"I bet that you'd just love to run up behind one of those guys and let him have a stern shot, wouldn't you?" the watch officer remarked dryly, relishing the resulting image.
"Hardly worth the effort." Ti Adi snorted.
"It would make the others keep their distance."
"Yeah, but I'd be filling out forms for a year. Now, if we had ourselves a raider..."
"That's no raider," a voice quipped. "It's a Sargon passenger tramp. And it's lost."
Someone else groaned in mock sympathy.
"We build fine tramps, thank you," the watch officer offered primly. "Not like your Palean tubs."
"Do you have an ident?" Ti Adi demanded.
Tactical data flowed on the main plate, repeated on the navigation bubble above them.
"Still searching. Weird looking hummer, whatever it is."
"Any comms?" Ti Adi asked, glancing at the tactical plate. The watch officer shook his head.
"Nothing on standard bands. Getting some energy surges, though. Could be leaking shields." The control crew had become grim professionals.
"Leaking shields? An engagement?"
"It's likely. Those energy levels are way over any commercial specs."
"Big son of a bitch whatever it is," Ti Adi muttered and frowned. It did not look like any ship he had ever seen and he had seen some weird hulls. Take some of those Deklan liners. Better a survival blister than a Deklan deathtrap. It certainly didn't look like any joy orbiter from Devon either.
There goes my chance of an easy tour, he thought in disgust. And he only had eleven days to go. With accumulated leave, he and his friend Se Kinai, another M-3 driver, had been planning to take in some of the sights around the Orgomy Group. The systems there were still quiet enough not to have been completely spoiled by over-development. He especially wanted to go back to Tuleene. There was a world to soothe away any spaceman's ills--warms seas, blue skies, plenty of fishing, and the women were very friendly. This sighting meant reports, debriefings, red tape and official shits scrutinizing everything. It's not like they have been invaded or anything. Pits!
Could it be one of those Orieli Technic Union jobs out on some excursion cruise? It was possible. He wondered what the Orieli would be doing around the Palean Union and Devon 3-VL4 in particular. It was nothing but an ecoforming station. This was about as far as you could get and still be part of the Serrll Combine. Besides, the Orieli were supposed to come from somewhere above the Sargon Directorate.
Ti Adi hated it when things got complicated. He rubbed his chin and felt the rasp of stubble. He watched the computer-generated images of the strange vessel rotate in various dimensions, trying to make sense of the data. The two bulbous sections were almost 1,200 katalans long. The trailing section was a third larger than the leading pod, over seven hundred katalans in length.
Trajectory showed the alien coming from far above the general direction where the Orieli had their Line Tracking Net strung out. Could it be a Celi-Kran intruder? The thought chilled him. It didn't take him long to make his decision. He leaned over the color-reactive console set into the couch armrest and tapped a pad.
The comms plate glowed. After a long moment a face swam into view, eyes rimmed and still asleep. "This better the hell be good, Ti Adi, or I'll have your ass!" the owner of the face growled, looking rumpled and disoriented.
"Sorry, friend Tetlas," Ti Adi said brightly, relishing the confusion on the dour image of his commander. "We've picked up a visitor. Range, almost three billion talans."
"And you woke me?"
"The ship is alien. It could be an Orieli vessel, but it doesn't match any of the standard specs. Sensors show instability in what we read as a secondary shield grid. There are power surges in the primaries. Whatever it is, I'd say that it's seen action recently. Since we're not shooting up anybody that I know of, where did the thing get that kind of damage?"
Tetlas scowled. "Heading?"
"Devon's moon. I recommend we better get our act together snap quick."
"What in hell would an Orieli ship be doing way out here? It's crazy!" Tetlas growled in frustration. "They'd notify us first, wouldn't they? Well?" They were avoiding the obvious and they both knew it. Tetlas winced in disgust and fixed Ti Adi with a hard stare.
"Assume standard intercept course and go to initial alert. Just in case it is a Kran prowler. Notify Controller Aill-Massai at Devon Center and...you know what to do. I'll be up when I clamp my face on."
Ti Adi nodded and the plate faded. He started humming. It was a new tune, somewhat repetitive, but he couldn't get it out of his mind. He turned to his watch officer.
"Right, people, let's get it moving. Twenty-two seconds at one-twentieth boost. We'll coast in the rest of the way on secondary drive Comms..."
In the engineering spaces deep within the ship, almost directly above the phased array projector dome, the computer increased the level of energy management readiness. Stripped helium nuclei plasma powered the primary fusion chamber that fed the artificial antimatter convergence point and kept it from collapsing. The energy surge from particle annihilation was channeled through the containment field into separation wave-guides. Most of the generated power surge was directed into massive secondary bus nodes in the hull that formed tight lines of force
The primary shields enclosed the M-3 in a cocoon of energy that extended nine talans. The wave-guides allowed some of the energy to flow into a separate reaction chamber that flooded the single Koyami 9A generator. Coils fully powered up, the computer waited for the command to synchronize the firing pulses with the shield management system and the ship would be ready to engage.
After twenty-two seconds of boost from the main drive Valetta's distortion field depolarized and the M-3 dropped normal. Driving in at 6,960 talans per second, it did not take long for the ships to meet and for Ti Adi to confirm that the visitor was not an Orieli vessel. Tetlas emerged out of the cable-tube hatchway. With a glance at the tactical plate, he slipped into the command couch. On tactical the alien ship's lines were odd, hard and hostile. He tried swallowing, but his throat was suddenly dry.
"Range, two point four million talans," the computer announced quietly. "Effective firing solution in four point nine minutes at maximum secondary boost."
Ti Adi turned to the command console.
"Still no response from our comms, sir, and I cannot make out the crap they are sending out. It could be an interrogative." Ti Adi stared at Tetlas, both of them reaching the same conclusion. Tetlas looked at the faces around him, reading in them his own unease.
"Very well. Maintain neutral status and prepare to go to primary alert. Notify Devon of our intentions and open a channel to Sector TACOPSCOM relay. Make sure that both are getting our TLM. I got a bad feeling about that thing."
"Devon Center notified and channel open, sir," the watch officer said quietly. He was a little bit nervous, but not anxious--yet.
The comms plate cleared and a bored face stared through. Arrays of monitor plates and display stations filled the background. "First Scout Tatllaa, Sector Tactical Operations Command relay."
"First Scout, this is Devon 3-VL4 picket Valetta. We have an unidentified heavy asset closing on intercept with Devon's moon and I don't have a clue as to what it is. It doesn't look like an Orieli job, but it's too early to tell. I am of the opinion that it's a Celi-Kran intruder. Plot shows that it's carrying combat damage and we have a negative on all comms. It seems to be sending out something, but I can't make zip out of the stuff. You guys got anything out here that we should know about?"
Sofam Industries liked to conduct live fire runs with experimental ships in deserted parts of space. It was not unknown for Fleet units to run into such an exercise. From a major security flap, this could turn out to be nothing more than an exchange of terse messages between Sofam Industries and COMPALOPS--Commander Palean Operations.
Tetlas hoped that this was the case here.
The First Scout looked blank, then turned to speak rapidly with someone in the background. He faced Tetlas and shook his head.
"Your comms telemetry is coming through now Valetta, and it does look unusual. But this is a definite. No authorized vessels in your sector. Suggest you?"
"Yeah, I'll keep it in mind. In the meantime, I got a ship to conn," Tetlas said and cut contact. "Computer? Range profile."
"One hundred and ninety-four thousand talans," the computer responded evenly. "Target attempting to raise secondary shield grid. Have an interrogative on a possible target acquisition lock. Effective firing solution in twenty-eight seconds."
"Drop to quarter boost. Go to primary alert and prepare to take us out of here quick," Tetlas ordered as the bad feeling grew into a sense of inevitable certainty.
As Valetta increased its readiness status and extended its secondary shields, the alien's shield grid immediately flared and began to pulse from blue-green to orange. Ti Adi stared at the plate in disbelief and his face drained. Suddenly the idea of a dull and boring patrol had a lot going for it.
"Pits!" he swore and his head jerked to see the startled expression of his commanding officer. "He's powering up for an attack!" Ti Adi frantically punched in a new shield configuration to strengthen Valetta's forward array.
"Computer! Immediate transition!" Tetlas roared.
The Sofam designated M-3/11 medium interceptor had the speed of an M-4 cruiser, matching its mission profile as a scout. It was equipped with a single Koyami 9A phased array projector tucked into a dome beneath its belly. It was capable of penetrating a twelve-cetalan thick polymer hull constructs with almost continuous traversing bursts of up to seventy-two TeV at an effective range of 64,000 talans.
The alien ship was outside that envelope by more than two times.
A massive surge of high-energy flux, torn from a zero-point artificial singularity, flowed from the alien ship's power core and saturated the primary and secondary shield grids in a staggered cascade. The outer secondary shield peaked and sent a searing track of pale orange ionization toward the M-3.
The impact overloaded the shield's delicate torus geometry precursor distortion field the computer was attempting to form before Valetta could transit. The shields flared and pulsed wildly, then arced before dissolving in a spectacular discharge of flickering lightnings and backsurges.
Ti Adi felt the ship stagger and he heard the frames groan. He turned his head and looked at Tetlas. It was awfully silent on the command deck. He hadn't planned on going this way, but...
Valetta reared under another impact. The polymer hull glowed and began to melt as it vainly tried to absorb the energy flux. Inside, display plates flickered the panels burst under pressure that sent lethal fragments scything through the crew. Ti Adi watched in horror as Tetlas tried helplessly to pry a long sliver of polymer sandwich from a jagged gash in his face. Bright blood leaked between his fingers and caked his hands. The bulkhead beside him suddenly glowed and began to deform. Ti Adi threw up his hands and felt the heat scorch his hair. The air became hot and thick and his lungs burned. Blue sparks coiled and jumped across the consoles from the near-field effect. Someone screamed and he wondered if it was him.
The alien ship drew closer and the orange track stabbed again. It was weaker, but Valetta's shields were down and debris had begun to drift from the savaged ship. Deep within the M-3 safety circuits failed and the antimatter fusion torus flickered and dropped, shooting a power surge through the primary containment field. In a sudden flash of brilliance Valetta vanished within a sphere of expanding radiance. The plasma cloud cooled quickly into an orange ball that glowed briefly dull red then faded.
When the alien reached Devon 3-VL4's moon the ship went into a low orbit and glided slowly along the terminator. Then it stopped, its shields flickering erratically as it settled among the jagged cliffs. Devon glowed white above a torn horizon.
The master nexus integrated its sensor data. The short engagement with the small ship had drained badly needed power. With damage to its operations management system, energy reserves were approaching criticality. It issued commands and drone units became very busy.
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