Wasp Hand Read online

  “My dad always said you can never have enough guns.”

  “He was a smart man,” said March, glancing at the displays. Vigil was calculating their jump to the Seventh Fleet, and it would take another forty-three seconds to correct for relativistic drift. There was no sign of any Eumenidae ships nearby, but…

  The dark energy detector trilled as it registered a surge of radiation, and four Wasp scoutships burst out of hyperspace a hundred kilometers from the station.

  “Shit,” said March.

  “The admiral was right,” said Adelaide. The scoutships turned and began driving at full speed towards the Tiger, and March sent the ship into an evasive spiral. “They must have the ability to communicate among themselves through hyperspace.”

  “Yeah,” said March. Another alarm rang through the flight cabin. The scoutships were accelerating, and they were painting the Tiger with targeting lasers. The Tiger had a better thrust to mass ratio than the scoutships and could accelerate faster. They only needed to evade enemy fire for a few moments…

  Another alarm rang out.

  “Missiles,” said Adelaide.

  The scoutships had launched missiles, three each. The Tiger might have been faster than the scoutships, but there was no way the ship could outpace the acceleration of the missiles.

  “Flak launchers,” said March, putting the Tiger into another twisting evasive pattern. Adelaide complied as the Tiger danced and swerved, and some of the missiles lost their lock, heading towards the flak. But the rest homed in on the Tiger, following March’s evasive pattern.

  The hyperdrive display flashed green.

  March yanked the power levers. A shudder went through the ship as the hyperdrive activated, and the Tiger left normal space behind and hurtled through its hyperspace tunnel.

  That meant the ship left the scoutships and the missiles behind.

  March let out a long breath and leaned back in the acceleration chair. Or he tried too, anyway – there hadn’t been time to put away his weapons before he sat down, and the grenade launcher and the plasma torch were digging into his back.

  “Let’s never do that again,” said Adelaide.

  “Yeah,” said March.

  She hesitated. “I’m…really glad you’re okay. When that Wasp tried to cut your head off, I thought…I thought that was it.”

  March grunted. “I’m glad I didn’t get my head cut off either.”

  “And then you kicked its ass,” said Adelaide. She grinned. “That’s what a girl really wants, you know. A man who can beat up a giant space bug.”

  “Good,” said March. He wasn’t sure what else to say to that. “But we’re not safe yet.”

  Not until they had gotten Stormreel and the quantum beacon to the Seventh Fleet.

  That sent a new wave of unease through March. The relics of the Great Elder Ones were dangerous. What the hell was Stormreel thinking to use one of them as a weapon?

  He looked at the hyperdrive display. It was eight minutes until they arrived at the Roncesvalles and its escorts.

  What was Stormreel planning?

  March supposed he would find out sooner than he might like.

  Chapter 6: The Royal Navy

  The door to the flight cabin slid open, and March stood up and turned around.

  Stormreel and Donaghy stepped through the door, Stormreel still holding the box containing the quantum beacon. Adelaide gave it a puzzled look but said nothing.

  “We’ve escaped?” said Stormreel.

  “For now,” said March. He pulled off the strap holding his rifle, the grenade launcher, and the plasma torch, setting them against the engineer’s console after making sure the safeties were on. “Another seven minutes and we’ll reach the Roncesvalles.”

  “Good,” said Stormreel. “Dr. Taren, your arrival was most timely.”

  “Yeah,” said Warner, who stood in the dorsal corridor with Jordan.

  “I don’t think we’ve met yet,” said Adelaide. “Officially, anyway. I’m Adelaide Taren.”

  “Uh, Samuel Warner,” said Warner. “And Jesus, Dr. Taren, but that was some good timing. I was sure we were dead. I would kiss you, but I just saw your boyfriend beat a giant space bug to death, so that seems stupid.”

  Adelaide laughed. “Thanks, I think.”

  “I didn’t beat it to death,” said March. “I pulled it off the console, and the rest of you shot it to death.”

  “Ensign Jordan, Captain Donaghy,” said Stormreel. “I would take it as a favor if you would secure Captain March’s equipment in his armory.” He nodded at the rifle, the grenade launcher, and the plasma torch. “I need to have a brief word alone with him and Dr. Taren. Technician Warner, if you would wait outside.”

  “Come on, Ensign,” said Donaghy, taking the rifle, which was the lightest of the three. Jordan carried the launcher and the torch, and the three men stepped into the dorsal corridor, the door sliding shut behind them.

  March and Adelaide were alone with the Lord Admiral.

  “I take it,” said Adelaide, “that you’re about to tell us something unpleasant.”

  “Possibly,” said Stormreel, seating himself at the tactical station. “Did Captain March tell you what is in that box?” He tapped the container.

  “Not a word,” said Adelaide.

  “Good,” said Stormreel. “This box contains a piece of the technology of the Great Elder Ones, and we are going to use it to destroy the Eumenidae nestship.”

  Adelaide’s eyes went wide. “Is that a good idea?”

  “It’s not,” said March. “It’s not even remotely a good idea.”

  “In point of fact,” said Stormreel, “it will pose no danger to us. My plan is that it will prove a danger to the Eumenidae.”

  “One would hope so,” said Adelaide. She frowned at the admiral. “All right. I assume Jack already knows what’s in your beer cooler there. He’s been dealing with the relics of the Great Elder Ones for longer than I have. In fact, it’s probably something he encountered before. He knows all about it, which is why the two of you took off your earpieces and went to get it from the commander’s office alone. So why are you telling me about it?”

  “Because in another six minutes we’ll be arriving at the Roncesvalles,” said Stormreel, “and of the tens of thousands of men under my command in the Seventh Fleet, there are only four people who know about the relics of the Great Elder Ones. You, Captain March, myself, and one other.”

  “Okay,” said Adelaide. “So what’s the point?”

  March sighed. “What he means is that if only four people know about the weapon…he needs our help to use it.”

  “Yes,” said Stormreel.

  “Why us?” said March. “You have wings of starfighters and capital starships under your command. Why do you need the help of two Silent Order operatives with a blockade runner?”

  “Because as I am sure you are aware,” said Stormreel, “general knowledge of the relics of the Great Elder Ones cannot leak to the public at large. The information is simply too dangerous. You found, Dr. Taren, more quantum inducers on Xenostas. Suppose it became public knowledge that anyone could construct an untraceable mind-control device using a quantum inducer. Or suppose someone found a way to duplicate the effect. Consider the chaos that might result. And I have now observed you both under combat conditions. You are exactly what I require.”

  “We’re the stepping stones on your path to victory, is that it?” said Adelaide.

  “I would not put it that way, but yes,” said Stormreel. “You are the warriors I require.”

  “I’m an archaeologist, not a soldier,” said Adelaide.

  “I’m a covert operative,” said March.

  “I said warriors, not soldiers,” said Stormreel. “There are many kinds of wars and many different ways to fight them. Not all wars are fought by regimented men in uniforms. You have been a Beta Operative of the Silent Order for a long time. You exposed and discredited Lloyd Hoffman. What was that, I ask you, if not
warfare by a different method?” His dark eyes turned to March. “And you, Captain March, have spent every year since your escape from the Final Consciousness waging war, have you not? A war from the shadows, true, but still a war. No. You are both warriors, and you are what I require to gain victory.”

  March and Adelaide shared a look, and then he turned back to the admiral.

  “What do you want us to do?” said March.

  “Possibly nothing,” said Stormreel. “It may not be necessary. We shall have to see once we return to the Roncesvalles and her escorts. From there I can decide how to proceed. It is possible the Wasps decided to track our vector and send a force after us. If they do, they will realize that capital warships are waiting to attack them, and they will change their tactics. We will have to change ours as well.”

  “All right,” said March. “Censor told us to obey you, so I’ll go along with this. But those relics are dangerous, Admiral.”

  “I know,” said Stormreel. “But anything can be used as a weapon. Even a few words at the right time and the right place.” He looked at Adelaide. “Is that not so, Dr. Taren?”

  Adelaide snorted. “Hoffman should have thought to keep the contents of his computer encrypted.”

  “Just so,” said Stormreel.

  March let out a long breath and glanced at the hyperdrive display. It was three minutes until they reached the Roncesvalles. He wanted to lie down and sleep. He wanted to take Adelaide in his arms and kiss her. He wanted to tell Stormreel that using the quantum beacon was idiotic.

  “We’re three minutes out,” said March. “You’d better stay up here. We’ll need your approval to get to the Roncesvalles. It would be helpful if your combat patrols didn’t shoot us down.”

  “Entirely,” said Stormreel in a dry voice.

  March sat back at the pilot’s station and started going through the weapons and shielding checklist. Everything was still reading as functional, at least for now. Given all the shooting he had done in the Vesper system, he would have to find the time to do proper diagnostics and maintenance on the weapons and shield systems. Next to him, Adelaide worked in silence, double-checking the fusion drive and the ion thrusters.

  “ETA thirty seconds,” announced Vigil.

  “All right,” said March. “Here we go.”

  He gripped the hyperdrive power levers and watched the countdown. The timer flashed at zero, and March yanked the levers. The Tiger shuddered out of hyperspace and back into normal space. They had arrived at interstellar space beyond the edge of the Vesper system, past the system’s Oort cloud and its Kuiper belt objects, and there shouldn’t have been anything out here beyond low-level background radiation. Or, rather, there should have been the nine capital ships of the Roncesvalles and her escorts, and the starships ought to have stood out against the empty backdrop of interstellar space like candles in a darkened room.

  Instead, the Tiger’s sensors lit up with radiation and radio chatter.

  They had arrived in the middle of a battle.

  “Proximity alert!” said Vigil. “Multiple inbound craft detected!”

  “Adelaide!” said March, throwing power to the fusion drive and the ion thrusters and sending the Tiger into an evasive pattern. “Shields and weapons. Get started on firing solutions!”

  Because the two nearest craft were Wasp starfighters.

  They were identical to the ones that had attacked the Tiger at the Vesper system. Beyond that March did not have time to take a good look at the sensors, but there was a great deal of radiation, and the dark energy sensors picked up multiple Eumenidae signatures.

  It seemed that the Wasps hadn’t waited to attack the Roncesvalles. March wondered how the devil the aliens had found the ships, and then put all other thoughts from his mind as he focused on the battle.

  The two Wasp interceptors turned to attack the Tiger, but March was ready for them, and they were surprised. Before the two fighters could take a proper attack vector, March lined up on the nearest one, selected one of Adelaide’s firing solutions, and squeezed the triggers. A volley from the plasma cannons weakened the fighter’s gravitic shielding, and the following round from the railgun tore the fighter in half.

  The second interceptor hurtled towards the Tiger, and March went into a new evasive pattern, dodging and dancing around the interceptor’s plasma bolts. Both the Tiger’s laser turrets locked onto the interceptor, pouring their beams into its gravitic shielding. When the Tiger came out of her evasive pattern, the interceptor’s defenses had been weakened enough that the volley from the plasma cannons tore through them and shredded the craft into organic debris.

  March did a quick radar and ladar scan, but it looked like there were no other ships in the immediate area.

  “We seem to have arrived in a battle,” said Stormreel, unruffled. March wondered how he had stayed calm for so long and then realized that less than a minute had passed since the Tiger had exited hyperspace.

  “Looks that way,” said March. “Let’s see what the sensors say.”

  Right away he saw the massive dark energy signature of capital starships about three-quarters of a million kilometers in front of the Tiger’s bow. There were nine – the largest would be the Roncesvalles. There were two signatures Vigil recognized as coming from Cataphract class heavy cruisers, like the doomed RCS Covenant that March had encountered at Tamlin’s World and two more that belonged to Longbow-class destroyers. Four smaller signatures surrounded the bigger ships, likely the corvettes that Stormreel had mentioned.

  Two Wasp starships faced them.

  They were far smaller than the nestship but bigger and more heavily armed than the scoutships. Both were about the size of the Calaskaran heavy cruisers and radiated tremendous amounts of dark energy. The gravitic distortion around them was so severe that it took the visual sensors a few seconds to process the information and generate a clear image. They looked like a far larger version of the scoutships – thicker and bigger and more heavily armored, dotted with glowing red domes that likely served as weapon emplacements or shield generators.

  “This is a problem,” said Stormreel. “Those ships are between the Roncesvalles and us.”

  March nodded. “We must have stumbled into one of their outer patrols.”

  Adelaide frowned. “Will they send more fighters after us?”

  “I doubt it,” said March. “They appear to have their hands full at the moment.”

  “The destroyers are moving to engage the Wasp ship on the port side,” said Stormreel.

  “What about the starboard one?” said March. “The cruisers are hanging back to shield the Roncesvalles, and the corvettes are escorting the destroyers.”

  “Starfighters,” said Stormreel. “Captain Alacon will have launched a torpedo bomber squadron to destroy that cruiser, and likely sent out several squadrons of fighters to escort them.”

  “Then we hang back and wait until the battle is over,” said Adelaide.

  “No,” said Stormreel. “If we stay here, the Wasp capital ships could grow more starfighters to deal with us. For that matter, the Wasp scoutships in the Vesper system might communicate to the Wasp ships here, and the Eumenidae here would realize that we escaped their comrades at Vesper Station. That might make us a priority target. No, our only safety, for now, will be found with the Roncesvalles and her fighter squadrons.”

  “Then you want us to make for the fighters attacking that Wasp cruiser?” said March.

  “It seems like our best tactical option,” said Stormreel. “Your ship is better armed and armored than any of our fighters. With the assistance of our fighter squadrons, you’ll be far more effective than you will be alone, and we’ll have a better chance of reaching the Roncesvalles.”

  “Fine,” said March, turning the Tiger towards the Wasp starship on the starboard side. He fed power to the fusion drive, and a faint thrum went through the ship as the drive accelerated, the gravitics and the inertial absorbers straining to keep up. “You’ll need to talk
to them, though. I don’t want them to shoot us down.”

  “I quite agree,” said Stormreel. “I suspect they will call us sooner rather than later. You might as well turn the sensors to maximum. We’ll need the tactical data, and likely both the Wasps and our forces have figured out that we’re here.”

  “Yeah,” said March, and he fed additional power to the radar, ladar, gravitic sensors, and dark energy detectors. The radar and ladar beams stabbing into the void would broadcast the Tiger’s location to the Wasps and the Calaskaran ships, but likely both the enemy and the Navy had detected the dark energy surge that heralded the Tiger’s arrival.

  He studied the tactical display as new data flooded in. A squadron of torpedo bombers and three squadrons of heavy fighters were heading towards the Wasp capital ship. There was a great deal of organic wreckage drifting near the Roncesvalles and the two cruisers. March suspected the two Wasp starships had launched heavy fighters and bombers at the carrier, only for the cruisers’ point defenses to rip them apart. The destroyers and the corvettes moved to engage the second Wasp starship, but March was not concerned with that fight. The destroyers and the corvettes outgunned the Wasp cruiser, and March was sure they would win.

  He wasn’t so sure about the bomber squadron because a swarm of Wasp fighters was heading towards the bombers and their escorts. No heavy fighters or bombers, likely because they had all been destroyed by the Calaskaran cruisers. But there were a lot of interceptors, maybe enough to shoot down the bombers and drive off the Calaskaran heavy fighters.

  “Adelaide,” said March. “We’ll need targeting solutions for the interceptors. Keep the laser turrets set to point defense. If those interceptors shoot a bunch of missiles at us, we’ll need them.”

  “On it,” said Adelaide, hands flying over her controls.

  March checked their vector and ETA. It looked like they would be within firing range of the Wasp interceptors in another nine minutes, which would be just about the time the Calaskaran fighters moved to meet them.