Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-13

“No, sir.”

“How close do you want to be, sir?”Geneva asked.

“Oh, seven hundred and fifty miles.That ought to get the attention of the jets. We should not wastetimeaccomplishing our mission. The sooner they come the sooner we canblast them out of the sky.”

“Yes, sir.”

Aminute later, the two silver jets came into view, flying out frombehind the sphere. One veered right and headed forNathanielGreeneand theother zoomed toward thePatton.

“Mr. Murdock, stand ready. Ms.Alesong, stand ready with him.”

“Yes, sir.”

The silver ship came at us as smoothlyas a swan gliding across the water. The configuration was roughlythesame I’d had seen on ships from a dozen different worlds. Nothingto distinguish the structure.

“Let’s move away, Ms. Alesong. Letthem chase us for a bit. But before we go, tell them hello, Mr.Murdock. An atomic hello,” I said.

“Yes, sir. But the ship is difficultto lock unto. It’s a type of defense I’ve never seen before. Wewill have to recalculate our scans. So the atomic will behit-or-miss,” Murdock said.

“That’s fine. This is not the killshot. That comes later,” I said.

“Yes, sir. Bombs are away.”

Twored streaks zoomed from thePattontoward the silvership. The alien vessel basically shrugged. No evasive action.

TheFederation told us the alien jets were probably manned by robots orArtificial Intelligence bots. AIs are not, as some believe,flawlessin action and planning. Just as humans can make mistakes, AIs canmake mistakes too. They can be as flawed as anyone else, but indifferent ways. I thought it was a big mistake not to take evasiveaction. Unless they had already scanned and calculated the power ofour atomic volleys and figured they wouldn’t do much damage. Butyou still evade. You don’t allow a ship to take any shots thatcould have been avoided. Nevertheless, the silver swan kept on astraight course toward thePatton,ignoring any evasive action.

“Keep us moving back, Ms. Alesong.They’ll probably think we’re retreating. Let them continue tothink that.”

An area of space exploded in red flameswhen the bombs hit the alien ship’s shields. For a moment crimsoncovered the vessel, then the colors dissipated in space. The vesselshook slightly , wavering left and right, then like a silver hounddog, yelped after us. Two blue lights zinged our way.

“What type of weapon are they using,Tek?”

“Some type of particle beam, sir.Nothing I’m familiar with.”

“Anything to worry about?”

“No, sir. We can take that and a lotmore.”

“Taking evasive action, sir.”

“Thank you, Ms. Alesong.”

AsthePattonswerved, the two blue beams flew by on the left.

“Send them another bomb, Mr. Murdock.Give them something to think about,” I said.

“Yes, sir.”

“That was stupid not to evade. It’spreferred military procedure to avoid weapons aimed at you.”

“Maybe it’s a new tactic, sir.”

I laughed. “Often new is not better.Listen up, Ms. Alesong.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Start scanning and scancontinuously. Aim the ship toward the tail of the sphere. When youget there, I want you to move like a sniper searching for the bestposition to fire. Move back and forth, getting intoposition.”

“Heading that way, sir.”

“Mr. Murdock, keep peppering thealiens with our weapons. Keep them on their toes.”

“They’re firing again, sir.”

“Same weapon?”

“Yes.”

“They must be optimistic. If thefirst blast missed, what makes them think a second one will hittheirtarget?”

“Hope springs eternal. So maybe theyhope we will stand still,” Geneva said.

“Hate to disappoint them, but we’regoing to keep moving.”

The blue beam weapons came our way butmissed us by a considerable number of miles. I couldn’t figure outwhat the opposing captain was doing. But I didn’t have to, becausein a few minutes the question would be moot.

Ilooked at the second screen. TheGreenewas trading fire with the second silver ship. They jockeyed backandforth for position. There’s no sound in space but fiery yellowlights shot from theGreene.The second swan shot back. No blue particle beams from it. Aquivering orange dart came from the silver swan. It exploded andsentblack flakes across the ship but did no damage.

“I am maneuvering, major, per yourorders. But may I ask why?”

“Certainly. I hope our enemy thinkswe are maneuvering for a clear shot at the sphere and given ourevasions, I hope he will believe we’ve found one before we fire.The AIs on the alien ships don’t have to worry about their crew.That’s one plus for being an AI. I have to make one guess in thisbattle, which is that the only mission of the enemy ships is toprotect the sphere. They must, at all costs, protect the sphere. Sowe are going to fire the equator bombs. Thanks to Mr. Jones’modifications, the AIs won’t be able to scan the bombs to determinehow powerful they are. Which puts our artificial opponents in adilemma. They must protect the sphere but they can’t stop theweapon. They have to realize there is a chance the mysteriousweaponwe’re launching could destroy or at least damage the sphere. Sowhat do they do?”

Geneva thought for a moment thennodded. “Since the Artificial captain doesn’t care about himselfor his crew, he directs his ship into the path of the equatorbombs.That’s his only option.”

“I hope so. How’s the maneuveringcoming?”

She smiled. “Give me a minute and Iwill be in position. That opposing captain must be wondering whatweare doing.”

“In a minute we’ll show him. I’mguessing the second ship will also join his friend. Both of themhavethe same prime directive.”

“Ship firing again, sir. Differentweapon this time. Can’t tell what it is,” Tek said.

“Almost ready, sir,” Geneva said.

“Mr. Murdock, as soon as Ms. Alesonggives the word, fire the bombs.”

Theweapon from the enemy appeared to be a black pellet. It didn’t lookall that devastating, but looks can be deceiving. I braced myselfforimpact when the pellet exploded about two miles away from the ship.Aright of red fire spurted from it. The red surrounded the ship. Aring of fire circling thePatton.

“That’s odd,” I said. “Haven’tseen that before.”

“We’re in position. You can fire.”

Thetwo equator bombs shot out from the ship and headed directly at thesphere. A second pellet exploded and suddenly we had two red ringsaround thePatton.

“Tek, is that really fire?”

“No, something similar. Very similar.This fire can burn in space where there’s no oxygen.”

Outof the corner of my eye I saw the silver swan head for the sphere.But not before sending a third pellet our way. It planned tointercept the bombs. The second swan, now looking worse for flying,broke away from theGreeneand headed toward the sphere too.

“Evasive action,” I said.

“I am, sir. Whatever that fire is,it’s staying with us.”

The third pellet exploded and a thirdfiery ring surrounded the ship.

“Outside temperature is going uprapidly, sir. It’s now at five hundred degrees,” Tek said.

“Six hundred degrees, major.”

The two silver swans met at the sphere,then turned and sped toward the equator bombs. I hoped the power ofthe bombs would be enough to blow them out of the sky.

Thefiery web spit out another yellow threat. It flew over thePattonand connected with a second red-orange line.

“Seven hundred degrees, sir.”

“We still have a little time. Tek,can’t the ship stand up to 5,000 degrees?”

“Yes, but I don’t have fullconfidence it would withstand 4,999 degrees. Let’s don’t cut ittoo close.”

On the screen the equator bombs crashedinto the two silver jets. Bits and pieces of the jets spiraled intospace. When the smoke disappeared, there was no trace of the swans.The sphere, ignoring the chaos around it, flowed slowly toward itsnext destination.

“The sixth planet in the system. Headfor it, Ms. Alesong, as fast as possible.”

“The sixth planet?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Usually in our ships the crew isn’teven aware that the ship is moving. Akin to residents of Earth whoare not aware the planet is spinning its way around the sun. But Ifelt the ship swerve and roar ahead when Geneva steered it towardthesolar system’s planets.

“The sixth is an ice planet, sir. Notinhabitable.”

“Fine with me. I don’t plan onliving there. It is also a planet racked continuously with icestorms. What is surrounding us is not a fire, per se. But it hassomeproperties of the type of fire we’re used to. So let’s hope icecan put it out.”

“A thousand degrees, sir, andincreasing rapidly.”

“Don’t stop at any tourist spot,Ms. Alesong. Full speed ahead.”

Thetemperature on the outside hull topped 2,500 degrees when we brokethe atmosphere of the planet. Dark and ugly, with gray, heavyclouds.Winds more than two hundred miles per hour. But it looked good tome.As we dropped closer to the surface, huge ice packs hit the shipandexploded. The temperature on the planet was four hundred below. Thered lines flickered, as if weakening. About fifty lines nowcriss-crossed thePatton,like a spider web with an bug caught in the center. The linesflaredbrightly and cast off orange and yellow flames into the blacknessofspace. The ice flew fast and furious. A huge two-mile-wide aerialiceberg splattered against the red lines. It exploded and the firesdimmed a bit, then flared back but not as strong as before.

“Captain, it’s working. The outsidetemperature had spiked to 2,700 degrees, but it’s now receding.Slowly but receding.”

ThePattonrocked as the ice pummeled it. The bright fire dimmed more. The redin the lines changed to a burgundy. I guessed that was a good sign;when the color turned darker I thought it was even a bettersign.

“Below 1,550 degrees and dropping,major,” Tek said.

“Bring us up a bit, Ms. Alesong. Idon’t want to stay here. Just want to visit for a few minutes. Tek,tell me if the temperature goes up again or keeps headingdown.”

“Right now it’s still going down,major.”

“Good. We have any other problem oris everything all clear?”

“A few minor things, but nothingserious, sir.”

“I like hearing that.”

Geneva edged the ship up. When we brokethrough the atmosphere, the outer rim was hot enough to fry an eggon, but not much more. Gotta love those engineers and builders.Theytake pride in excellence and we have owed our lives to them on morethan one occasion.

“Breaking free of the planet’sgravity, sir.”

“Head back to the sphere but atcruising speed, Ms. Alesong. It will give us time to double-checkeverything on the ship.” I flicked my communicator. “In thirtyminutes, I’d like to see all department heads in my office withyour reports.”

Geneva turned the ship and started backtoward the sphere.

“Tek, one question. Could somethinglike that spider web of fire had been the weapon that killedeverything on the three planets? Surround a planet with fire, closethe circle and incinerate everything? Nothing is left.”

“Possibly. But even with thatdevastating a fire I think more remains and debris would have beenleft. We don’t know how long it’s been since the attack. Thequestion needs more study and evidence before we come to aconclusion.”

“Just wondering.”

TheGreenecame into view and hailed us. I took it and said hello.

“You had me worried, Logan. AlthoughI thought you might be taking off for the sixth planet. Glad itworked out,” said Captain Markey.

“So am I. I thought the sixth planetwas just a cold, dead hunk of rock. Turned out it was very useful.But I hope there won’t be a need for a return visit.”

Markey came on the screen. His face isas craggy as the Rocky Mountains and his eyes as blue as Arcticice.Off duty, he’s a very amiable guy, but you’d never know it whenhe’s in uniform.

“I have good news for you, Logan. Wehad a chance to do some scanning on the object before the attack.Thesphere isn’t invisible to our scans this close up. My peoplebelieve there is an entrance located near the front of the sphere.Wecan use the cosmic tunnel to get over. We have to do a bit of fancyscientific footwork to press the right buttons. But when you do, aportal slides open and we can walk in.”

“That is good news. We just have tomake sure it isn’t a trap.”

“The scientists tell me too thatthere are five chambers. Vast. Have no idea what’s in them. And itappears, although my people are not definitive on this, that thelastchamber may be what we’d call the bridge, the command center. Butto get there we have to go through the first four chambers.”

“Gosh, I wonder if we’ll see anywelcoming committee.”

“Let’s don’t plan on that. Ourexperience tells us that the aliens who built the thing and areprotecting it are not very friendly.”

“How true,” I said.

Chapter 8

Atthe conference table, I looked at the officers. Most of them weresmiling. So was I. Our first battle with the sphere had gone ourway.If we kept that streak going…

“Ladies,gentlemen, do we know any more about the sphere now than we didwhenwe started this mission?”

“Onlya few more facts, major, but some important facts,” Tek said. “Thesphere itself remains as mysterious as ever. It’s like a lumberinggiant. It just rolls along, nothing seems to bother it. At itscurrent velocity it would enter the nearest habitable solar systeminabout two years.”

“Whichgives us a little time,” I said.

“Yesand no. It could speed up. We shouldn’t assume it will keep thisvelocity forever. But we do see an entrance to the sphere. A smallportal, which looks roughly like a door, that we can open. We use atunnel of air to get over, then close it again. We easily match thespeed of the sphere so we shouldn’t have any problem, at least intraveling over there. What we find when we get there is anothermatter.”

Inodded. Tek could have gone into a lengthy, say twenty minutes orso,explanation of the‘tunnelof air’,which is obviously a layman’s explanation. We fly alongside thesphere, at precisely the same speed, and extend our tunnel. It’snot really of air. The material is almost as solid as the sphere’sexterior. But it works. That’s all that matters.

“Weare guiding alongside the sphere now,” Geneva said. “Give theword and we can attach the tunnel.”