“That can’t work forever,” Gorski said suddenly. “Um, sorry sir, but once we get close, any normal Macro would be able to transmit ship-to-ship directly.”
I nodded. “You’re right about that. Marvin, what is the typical range of a Macro unit’s built-in transmitter?”
“Under normal electromagnetic conditions, it should be one to one hundred miles.”
I huffed. “That’s quite a variable range.”
He began to explain, but I shushed him. “Okay, I don’t care. In space, a thousand miles is short range. We’ll have to make our move before we get that close, or we will sound like a ship full of ghosts to them.”
“When you say ‘make our move’, do you mean what I think you mean, Colonel?” Gorski asked.
“Hell yeah,” I said. “You didn’t think we were up here to cooperate with the enemy, did you Gorski?”
49
We were less than a hundred thousand miles out from the Macros when they all turned in unison and fired up their engines. I braced myself, gritting my teeth and expecting an attack, but it didn’t happen. Instead, they formed a familiar triangular formation and began accelerating away from us.
“Binary instructions incoming,” Marvin said. “Macro Command instructs the damaged ship to join their formation at the fourth position.”
“What is the target, Marvin?” I asked.
“Earth Command,” Marvin said. “That appears to be their classification for the human base on Andros Island.” He seemed unconcerned, unlike everyone else onboard. We were all sweating hard.
“It looks like they’ve decided they now have the strength to take on Crow’s fleet,” Major Gorski said. “As the fourth cruiser to arrive, we’ve tipped some kind of balance.”
I stared, knowing he was right. I considered turning around and exiting. That would stop the enemy from making their move, but if I did that, they would know we were not a normal Macro cruiser. They might come after us and turn hostile. Worse, they could simply wait for more of their ships to enter the system and make their move then. We’d be forced to fight at that point against a strengthened, wiser enemy.
“Keep flying,” I ordered. “We’ll do as they say. Try to look like a Macro, everyone.”
The entire crew had their battle suits on by this time. In a way, we did look like small, bipedal Macros. We were all bulky armor and indicator lights. We looked as much like robots as we did humans in these suits. I wondered briefly if being full of nanites and covered in exoskeletal armor made us hybrids, rather than pure biotics. I tried to push these thoughts away. There would be time for philosophical meanderings later.
“Major Welter, slow us down a bit so we won’t join them until we reach lunar orbit. At that point, I want to ease into their formation. We’ll be the rear point of the diamond. Take your time about it, however. Make it look natural”
“I’m already working on it, sir,” he said. “It’s hard to get precision out of these controls.”
“I know it is, I tried it myself,” I said. “If anyone can do it, you can. Weapons check, Gorski?”
“We have all our missiles loaded into the tubes now,” Gorski responded. “The Macro controls are simple for me, all I have to do is push these three contacts and swirl my finger here-and the tubes will open.”
I nodded. At least he was on top of things. I knew how hard it was to gain command of a Macro system, so I appreciated everyone’s efforts. Even better, he had managed to gain fire control of the big belly turret on the bottom of the cruiser while we crossed the Alpha Centauri system.
“At least we won’t be flying into this battle unarmed,” I said. “Give me an external screen. Let’s see how the nanites are doing with reshaping our cruiser’s damaged section.”
Major Sarin carefully manipulated her computer. My tablet was chained to her screen, and I watched as the external cameras swiveled downward. The hull still looked damaged, just as it was supposed to. I was impressed. The blown out area below the nose of the ship was still there, but it was not as deep now. The crater on the underside of the ship now had a false bottom. The surface of this crater was really a millimeter-thick shell of nanites, but to a casual observer from a distance, they reflected radar or optical imagery with the correct signature. We still looked damaged, but our launch bay behind the nanite shell was pressurized and disguised.
An even better surprise awaited the enemy behind that shell of nanites: several hundred marines all outfitted with our new exoskeletal armor and riding independent invasion dishes. I could order the false hull of nanites to dissolve and send them roaring out to battle in seconds. I didn’t relish taking on three ships, however. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that-but somehow I thought that it might.
“Looks good,” I said, finishing my inspection of the damaged section. “I’m almost glad you built all those constructive-class nanites without permission, Marvin. We put them to good use.”
My comment gained me the attention of a single camera eye for a moment, but Marvin didn’t reply. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if Marvin was being sour or aloof. I supposed it amounted to the same thing with him. Although I had to admit he’d been very useful lately. He had been cooperating with a level of attention that bordered on enthusiasm. I knew it was because he wanted the prize I’d offered. I still wasn’t sure I would give it to him, however. I didn’t really want Marvin to be an independent flying spacecraft with ideas of his own. He was creepy enough just roaming the ship.
I turned back to my screens, figuring I could deal with Marvin tomorrow-and that there wouldn’t be a tomorrow if the Macros had their way.
“Range?” I asked.
“We could fire our missiles right now,” Gorski said. “Figuring they have only eight ready each, our fresh batch of drones would-”
“Forget it,” I said. “Best case, our entire barrage would take out one of them. Then we would have two on us, and they know how to use their belly guns better than we do. Speaking of which, are we in cannon range yet?”
“Almost,” Gorski said. “We have about three minutes. We’ll need to brake more as we get closer to slide into that formation. They aren’t moving as fast as we are yet.”
“I know,” Major Welter said, “I’m on it.” He looked like he was playing twister again. I figured he hadn’t had time to build a hotkey for matching the speed of accelerating enemy ships yet. He had to do this complex maneuver manually. The ship shivered as he fired the lateral attitude jets, adjusting our speed and course minutely.
Sandra came in through the main hatch then. I frowned. I’d ordered her to put on her battle suit half an hour ago, along with the rest of the crew.
“Where’s your battle suit, Lieutenant?” I asked.
She flounced closer. “I don’t like it,” she said. “It cramps my style.”
“It will also keep you alive,” I said. “What’s wrong with the battle suit? We have enough of them to protect every crewmember now. I’m loving mine. I only hope I get a chance to show it off to Crow before I die or he does. His shocked stare will fill my heart with joy.”
Sandra shook her head. “You’ve got to trust me on this one, Colonel. I can’t move in that thing. I’d rather just wear a normal vacc suit.”
I stared at her in irritation. Everyone had a problem. My first impulse was to loudly demand she suit-up as ordered, but I hesitated. I reminded myself she was different than everyone else now. Her speed was a big factor in her effectiveness. Maybe the exoskeleton did slow her down. I decided to let it go.
“All right then, get your vacc suit on before you suffocate again.”
Sandra’s eyes flashed at me in annoyance. I could tell she didn’t like my pointing out that space exposure had killed her the second time around. Who liked being reminded of their own recent death? I turned back to my screens, deciding she could tough it out. I didn’t like her second-guessing my orders either, so I figured we were even.
“Are we in range now?” I asked.
“Yes sir. Just barely.”
I waited tensely. Everyone did. There was a fair chance the Macros had been bluffing us, just as we had
