Extinction

She didn’t look happy. In fact, she looked pissed. “Do you want to know what I’m going to do if we get home and everyone I’ve ever met is dead, Kyle?”

“No.”

— 30-

The Socorro had underestimated the speed of the Macro ships-or maybe they’d accelerated harder after realizing we were going to get away. In any case, three of them were almost in weapons range when we got to the ring.

I braced myself as we slid through it and shot out the other side…. But nothing happened. There was no shimmer. No feeling like a California trembler had hit. Most importantly, no gray disk of Venus reappeared on my forward wall.

“Socorro, where are we?” I asked, hoping she hadn’t had time to update the forward screen. It was a faint hope.

“Unknown,” the ship said.

“Is that the same blue giant on the screen that was there a minute ago?”

“Yes.”

“They turned off the frigging ring,” said Sandra through gritted teeth. “I knew it.”

“Socorro, switch shielding to the rear wall. Bring the ship about one hundred eighty degrees, full deceleration on all engines-give us six Gs.”

Sandra gasped and her body lurched. We were unable to speak for a time as the ship turned and shivered. Silvery rivers of metal flowed over the ceiling and the floor, knocking secured furniture around. The ship was transferring mass from one wall of the bridge to another.

“What the hell…?” asked Sandra, unable to complete the sentence.

“Maybe we went through the wrong way,” I said, gasping.

“Put… stabilizers… next frigging… trip,” Sandra managed.

“Agreed,” I grunted back. I looked at her, she was bent almost in half by the sideways G forces. She was having a much harder time of it than I was with her jumpseat. It wasn’t supportive enough for this kind of force.

“Socorro,” I said. “Build a supportive wall behind Sandra’s jumpseat. Turn it so she is facing the same way I am and form a metal shell pilot’s seat that is a copy of mine.”

The ship did as it was told. In less than a minute, Sandra was sitting on a molded metal copy of my own chair.

“I was going to pass out,” she said.

“Yeah, I know. You would have already if it wasn’t for the nanites in your body, compensating.”

“Why didn’t you think of this sooner?”

“I thought you looked cute there hanging on the wall.”

She rolled her straining eyes in my direction and gave me a dark look. It was made even stranger by the forces that rippled her face and pulled back her long hair into a wavering stream behind her seat. “You left me there to keep me quiet, didn’t you?”

I smiled. “How’s curved steel for padding?”

“It sucks.”

We had to decelerate very hard indeed to counter the forward motion of our ship. When traveling through space at several hundred thousand miles an hour, you didn’t just turn around on a dime. Even applying twice the thrust we’d used coming from the planet to the ring, it would take us about half an hour to reverse and shoot back through.

“Socorro,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Estimate time back to the ring.”

“At current thrust: fifty-six minutes.”

“Time until the Macro ships are in weapons range?”

“Twenty-four minutes.”

“That’s it then. Reduce thrust to two Gs, Socorro,” I said.

“What the hell are you doing now?” demanded Sandra.

“We can’t escape,” I said. “We have to talk our way out of this. Acting like we are desperately running for it isn’t going to make them more trusting.”

“But what if the lead ships are unarmed and we are just waiting around for the other, armed ships to get to us?”

I shrugged. “Could be. But I doubt the whole business of flying through the ring the opposite way is going to work anyway.”

“You think they turned it off?”

“Probably.”

“If they kill us, we’ve had our last team-shower, Kyle,” she said.

“I’m thinking.”

And I did think. In my experience, the Macros were not sophisticates. They were aggressive when they sensed weakness and cautious when they sensed strength. The best strategy when dealing with them was therefore bold, brash action. Keeping that thought in mind, I soon came up with an angle to pursue.

“Socorro, open a channel to the nearest Macro ship. Use the root binary language scripted for Macro communications.”

“Channel requested… channel accepted.”

Silence. I’d expected some kind of warning or accusation, but nothing came from the Macro ships. Was that good or bad? I suspected it was neither. They were willing to listen, but they still approached doggedly. Would they fire when they got into range? I suspected they planned to.

“Socorro, relay what I say to the Macro ships unless I tell you to cut the channel.”

“Ready.”

“I am Kyle Riggs, Commander of your allied forces from Earth.”

No response. Perhaps, like the Nano ships, they hadn’t yet heard anything that required a response. These machines didn’t have the best diplomatic manners.

“I’m here to inform your Macro Command that our cargo will be ready for pickup on time in the Sol System,” I told them. “Acknowledge receipt of message.”

I heard some binary chirruping. I heaved a sigh. At least they were talking.

“Incoming Message: Transmission received,” said Socorro.

“Macro Command, we detect incoming Macro ships. What are their intentions?”

“Incoming Message: Forcible dismantlement.”

I glanced sidelong at Sandra. I shouldn’t have. She looked terrified and I found the look distracting. I’d forgotten she hadn’t been with me when I’d first dealt with the Macros. They could be-difficult.

“Negative, Macro Command. We are a friendly ship. We are a Macro-allied ship. Do not force us to destroy incoming allied vessels.”

There was a long pause. Possibly, the ships were discussing the matter. We were far enough out that it took several seconds for radio transmissions to be relayed between vessels. I wondered about their command structure.

“Cut transmissions, Socorro, but leave the channel open. Can you tell me which ship is transmitting the incoming messages? Light it up with a circle on the forward wall when transmissions are received.”

“Options set.”

“Now, reopen the transmissions,” I said.

The pause in the conversation went for nearly a minute. Sandra finally couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “They are going to blow us up, Kyle. Stop talking and start running or shooting!”

I put up the palm of my hand toward her, then pointed at the forward wall. One of the ships had a ring around it.