Extinction

bedroom and wait there, but I knew she wouldn’t do it, so I didn’t bother.

On the forward wall, the three red contacts had appeared. They were set in up in a perfect formation. You could have drawn a flawless right triangle between them. Each ship was big-huge. They were thirty times the size of my tiny vessel. As we approached, I knew their weapons systems would be tracking us.

“Socorro, light up military targets on Earth under the Macro ships. Show them as yellow contacts.”

A hundred moving beetles appeared like freckles on the wall.

“Turn them red, Socorro,” I said. “Now, remove moving targets. I only want to see stationary vehicles and buildings.”

The screen shifted. Fully two-thirds of the contacts vanished. Those that remained were mostly tiny squares representing radar installations, barracks, communications centers and the like.

“What are you doing, Kyle?” asked Sandra in a harsh stage-whisper.

I kept my eyes on the big board in front of me. “Socorro, have all ships accepted the group-link?”

“Yes.”

“Disable their resets,” I said. “I want the group-link locked until I countermand it.”

“Permissions set.”

I eyed the targets below us. We were over China now, decelerating. So far, the Macros had not changed their formation. They remained on course, drifting over Asia. They weren’t firing missiles at the moment. Perhaps they were determining a new, juicy target. Or maybe they were manufacturing fresh missiles as fast as they could. The fact they had not yet withdrawn or moved to a new part of the globe was ominous in any case. It indicated their mission here was not yet finished.

“Socorro, invert the fleet into firing position.”

Our ships all had their turrets on top of each vessel. In order to fire directly downward, we had to be upside-down. This wasn’t a problem for the crews, however, as we were all weightless anyway and concepts such as up and down were all just a matter of perspective in space.

“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Sandra asked me in a dead voice.

“Uh, you might want to go into the other room.”

“No.”

I drew in a breath, and ordered our ships to fire on the Chinese military. Big green beams stabbed down from space and burnt away trucks, tanks, planes and hangars. Bunkers were exploded to rubble. Missile launchers, abandoned in streets and deserts, melted to slag and I imagined flared into mini-mushroom clouds as their fuel ignited.

Systematically, I disarmed China’s conventional military.

— 33-

“Socorro, disable channel requests from Star Force,” I said, growing tired of denying beeping calls from every ship in the Fleet. “Open channel to the Macro command ship.”

“Channel request accepted.”

“Send them this: All Earth Rogue targets will be destroyed.”

“Incoming message: Yes.”

I thought about that one, rubbing my chin. What would get them to go away so I could stop firing?

“Request operational command for removal of rogue targets.”

There was a long wait on that one. I wondered if the Macros had ever faced a similar situation. Perhaps other races had never been so eager to destroy themselves at their whims.

“Socorro,” I said, noticing the firing had stopped. “Retarget larger installations that have not been completely destroyed. Fire on one every minute.”

“Acknowledged.”

The ship shuddered again as the turret moved and my ship’s beam cannon stabbed down at Earth, punching through the atmosphere. There were enough clouds and smoke now that they obscured the beam, but I was sure they were still effective.

“Incoming message: Rogue targets must be completely removed.”

“Agreed,” I said quickly.

“Incoming message: Operational command given to indigenous forces.”

With that, they moved on. Maintaining their triangular formation, they drifted slowly over Japan and out over the Pacific.

“Socorro,” I said quickly, “Retarget only empty, destroyed facilities in remote locations.”

“Retargeting complete.”

A dozen sites were still on our forward screen. I left them that way. In rotation, we would pointlessly pound buildings that we’d already destroyed. I suspected that from here on out, the loss of life would be minimal.

After a few more hours, the Macros had completed two, slow patrolling orbits over the globe. No one else fired on them. The earthers had at least learned that was a bad idea. We continued to sit over China, beaming dead horses tenaciously.

Without further communication, the Macros left orbit and headed back toward Venus. I kept up the pretense of bombarding China for many hours, until the Macros were out of sensor range and the bulk of our planet was between their retreating ships and the crippled nation.

By that time, Sandra had calmed down. She was horrified, naturally, but she didn’t seem to blame me any longer. She looked drained and tired. Gone was the easy smile and manner of the college coed I’d fallen in love with. I hoped she would bounce back one day soon. This war was taking a toll on everyone’s spirit.

“You had to do it, Kyle,” she said after she brought us a round of drinks. They were soft drinks, this time. I’d long since run out of beer and I hadn’t had time to restock during our brief pause at Andros.

“Thanks for understanding,” I said. “Socorro, open a broadcast channel to all Star Force ships.”

“Channel open,” said the ship.

“I’m sorry you all had to experience that engagement,” I said. “For many of you, it was the first time you’ve fought in this war. Keep in mind, we are still in a war. We have a treaty presently with the Macros, but it is more to our advantage than to theirs. We had to fire on Earth forces to maintain that treaty. We are not yet ready to fight them on even terms. From their point of view, the Chinese military went rogue. If we had attacked the Macros, even if we had destroyed them all, we would have surely doomed Earth and our entire species.”

I took a sip of soda. I looked over at Sandra. She gave me a flicker of a smile, the best she could do.

“Socorro, open all channels for requests,” I said. “Close ship-to-ship group-link.”

“Permissions set.”

Crow was the first one to call me. He was in a petulant mood. “You could have told me what you were about, mate,” he said.

“Be glad I didn’t,” I answered. “Do you really wish you had okayed that order?”

“You did the right thing-I think. But you should have told me. Crow out.”

I huffed and ordered my ship to return to Andros. We still needed a number of repairs. I didn’t even look to see if the others followed me. They could do as they pleased for now.

Sandra surprised me by climbing into my lap and putting her head on my chest. She didn’t say anything.

I didn’t want to blow it, so I just patted her awkwardly. I’d thought maybe she’d want to break up after this expedition, but instead she appeared to understand I’d made the best of a horrible situation.

Kerr called me next. “The Chinese want blood, Kyle,” he told me. “Fortunately, they no longer have anything to avenge their dead with. I know what you did took huge balls, and maybe it had to be done. But I wouldn’t open any fortune cookies for the next century if I were you.”

“Thanks for the advice,” I said.

“One more thing,” he said. “We’ve got a fix on the second ring-or at least the spot we suspect a second ring exists.”