Chapter 588: Stock Car Race (1/2)
And then I saw, I saw a billion stars, and I remembered,
I remembered the cost that mankind, no, that humanity and its allies paid for peace,
I remembered the dandelion's seed blowing in the wind,
I remembered the fire of war
I remembered the number of times humanity was brought to bend but not to break,
I remembered that at each bending a breath was taken, and whit each of these breaths, dandelion seeds were cast away.
And then I ask thee, How many seeds found soil? how many germinated? how many grew? how many reach adulthood? how many cast new seeds?
And I ask thee, HOW MANY? for that is an answer that all the galaxies now must know, for only one of these seeds might have survived, but what if all did? how many civilizations of mad Terran are there, how many systems, how many? I fear the answers more than I fear Death.
Because know this, The Mad lemurs of Earth are coming. And the survival of this galaxy and of the universe depends on how many of these seeds failed. And I ask Thee, when did the mad primate fail?
Because for each unknown star I fear that earthlings, not Terran, not TDH, earthlings are hiding there biding their time, and now their time has come. The time of Madness has come
---------MADNESS FOLLOWS-----------
The Canticles of Fear, Chapter 8, Section 8, Soothsayer u/ThatKriegsGuard, 8568 PG, Hivehome Institute of Philosophy and Soothsaying'
Captain J'vetip leaned forward and watched the viewscreen nervously.
The entire bridge was hushed, everyone concentrating on their consoles or just not wanting to break the intent silence. Amber lights were the only illumination, the whole ship at Stage-2 Alert. The debris shields were up and at full strength, hull integrity shields were at maximum power, and the battlescreen projectors were powered up but not running the emitters yet. Passive targeting systems were running at a full 11% of the ship's computing power, the weapons of the battle cruiser were on standby. Boarding parties were suited up, armed, and ready on the transport pads or sitting inside of heavily armored shuttles. Security parties cruised the decks on a steady patrol, already clad in shipboard combat armor and carrying the heaviest weapons they could while not putting the hull at risk.
Well, except for one member of each squad, which was carrying a weapon that could engage a light armored vehicle. That weapon was on a reflex trigger slaved to a phasic energy trigger, slaved to a profile trigger.
Captain J'vetip knew that the gunner would only have a split second to keep half the squad alive. If the split second was wasted, the entire squad would be dead and the fight to keep the ship in the Captain's hands would be engaged.
The Symphonic Glory was moving steadily in-system at 0.62C, coming in from a high angle on the stellar plane, the equatorial angle chosen to keep the ship away from everything but the fourth planet of the stellar system. It had been under constant targeting scanning as well as scans from other scanning devices since they were in jumpspace three light years out from the system.
There was no chance on sneaking up on the system, but Captain J'vetip had used the entry trajectory strategy to avoid running directly into any ships along the normal lanes and the primary military defense lanes.
They were locked up well and good, but had yet to be hailed by even a VI.
”Anything on channels?” Captain J'vetip asked.
Second Communicator shook his head. ”Automated messages only. Entertainment stations are showing typical virtual intelligence generated programming lineups,” it said. ”I have secondary evidence that the Attack happened here too.”
”Send it to my screen,” J'vetip ordered.
The second screen on his right lit up and he frowned. The communicator had sent him a weather report. On it, a shapely human female in a skimpy outfit was pointing at a map of the southern half of one of the northern continents and talking about weather. He had just opened his mouth to ask the communicator what kind of evidence this contained when it went to a 'live on location' weather segment.
The CGI inserted VI weather being was standing in light clothing with a microphone, talking about how it was a hot and cloudy day, with winds rising in excess of 25 kph.
Behind him the city was sullenly burning. There were corpses behind him, all showing months of decay. Burnt out cars and buildings sat with mute testimony to the fierce fighting that had occurred. Ash was drifting down from the sky, the black ashfall of a long term polymers burn being whipped around the scene by the wind.
The VI weather being acted as if none of it was there.
J'vetip swiped the video off his screen.
”Make sure our IFF is transmitting on query only,” J'vetip said. ”We're not going stealth, but let us not make ourselves hugely obvious.”
”Roger, sir,” both Nav Two and Emissions Control Three said at the same time.
”We are still being scanned,” Electronic Warfare Three said. ”More point sources.”
”It is Fortress Tellestia, nobody fought their way through these defenses or any of the Tellestia Protectorate Union system defenses on any of the stellar systems,” Captain J'vetip mused. ”We will probably have to be extra wary nearest Tellestia, especially when we pull into orbit.”
A few of the bridge crew nodded. Even in far orbit the ship could still be reached by mat-trans system with powerful enough projectors.
The tension was still thick as the ship approached within two million miles of Tellestia Prime. The artificial ring around Tellestia Prime was only a few thousand miles away. Even at that distance the crew could see damage to the superstructure.
”Orbital defense systems are hot, we're taking active scanning,” EW-5 said quietly.
Jump Master Urtlerut slowly reached forward, a key held in his short stubby fingers, and unlocked a plastic cover. He looked at Captain J'vetip, who just nodded, and then slowly raised the plastic shield, exposing a bright red round button with DO NOT PRESS embossed in white runes.
”IFF beacon being queried,” EW-2 said.
Captain J'vetip just nodded.
”Handshake accepted,” EW-1 breathed a sigh of relief. ”They're dropping active scanning, but they're still obviously running passive.”
”Incoming communications request,” Com-5 said. ”Has the ID headers of Tellestia Prime Ring Security,” he looked up. ”No message, just the request.”
Captain J'vetip looked at the two midshipmen at the side of the bridge and nodded to them. Both swallowed and nodded back. The Captain looked at the two other midshipmen standing by a different wall. One paled, the other ruffled their feathers, but they both nodded.
”Accept the request,” Captain J'vetip said.
The screen flickered and rezzed for a moment then cleared.
The image brought exclamations of shock from the bridge crew.
In front of the Tellestia Prime wallpaper stood a human woman made entirely of code. Her eyes were wide, maddened, bloodshot with burning red code. Her uniform was tattered and torn, her mouth was open, drooling blood from behind sharp animalistic teeth.
She held the 'head' of a security VI in her hand, pressing it against the 2.5D viewscreen.
”LET ME IN!” she shrieked. She screamed again and jumped to the holotank in the middle of the bridge.
”SCRAM!” Captain J'vetip yelled.
Before he had even hit the second consonant all four of the Midshipmen brought down their axes on the thick cables they had been standing over. Sec-4 swung the vibroknife in his hand and severed the cord running to the holotank. Sparks showered out but the only linkages to the holotank were cut, isolating it completely.
The Digital Sentience threw herself against the wall of the tank, causing sparks to shoot out as she screamed.
”What happened here, Commodore?” Captain J'vetip barked out.
The Digital Sentience, her header made up of a jumble of over a dozen other VI and DS headers, screamed and threw herself against the edge of the hologram field, clawing at it with bloody fingers.
”What happened to your people?” Captain J'vetip asked.
”KILL YOU! EAT YOU! KILL AND SKIN YOU! EAT YOU!” the Digital Sentience screamed. ”LET ME OUT!” she shrieked, trying to rip at the air-gap barrier.
The Safety Cable Redundancy Axe Midshipmen chopped another section then kicked the severed length of cable away.
Captain J'vetip stood up, walking slowly to the tank. The entire time the DS raved and gibbered, threatening and screaming, clawing at the edge of the hologram as if she could tear her way free.
”I'm sorry,” Captain J'vetip said, staring at her maddened eyes as he leaned forward slightly and grabbed an exposed insulated superconductor cable.
She just screamed, her hands coming up to claw at her own face.
Captain J'vetip yanked the cable, disconnecting the portable zero-point reactor from the holotank.
She just vanished.
”Slag the RAM molycirc blocks,” Captain J'vetip said softly, turning away from the tank. ”She was beyond help.”
He sat down heavily as the ship slowly moved in orbit, five thousand miles from the 'ring' around the planet, scanning the artificial ring.
”It couldn't be helped, Captain,” Guns-2 said.
”I know, but it didn't make taking her life easier,” Captain J'vetip said softly.
”She would have torn the ship down around us and used it ram a planet or worse,” Guns-3 said.
”I know, but killing should never be as easy. It is a duty for us as it is for those Tellestians who have survived with their intellect attack this cowardly attack upon their people,” he said. He shook his head. ”Eight centuries of peace between the Galactic Dominion and the Tellestian Protectorate made us forget that it was they who stopped the Cyclic Reapers, made us forget that it was they who stopped the Cycloid Empire,” Captain J'vetip said.
The bridge was silent as the ship continued its orbit. Damage to the ring could be seen everywhere. In some places ships had crashed into the ring, in other places it had taken fire from attackers, some areas bore the unmistakable marks of internal detonations. There was even damage on the planetside of the ring, mute evidence that planetary defense batteries had fired on the ring.
”Captain, I've located the museum,” Scan-Three called out.
”Is it damaged?” Captain J'vetip asked.
”It doesn't look like it, Captain,” Scan-Three said.