For the first time, the bridge crew around me moved with urgency rather than surly discontent. There was nothing like a new deadly threat to get everyone back into line.
“I’ve found seventeen on Goa,” Jasmine said after a few minutes. “So far, there is no indication they’ve breached the ship’s hull. What are we going to do about them?”
“First, alert the rest of the fleet. Every ship should check its external hull for crawlers.”
Jasmine did as I asked, working her carefully designed screens like the expert she was. My next order wasn’t obeyed so quickly, however.
“Now, order the fleet to accelerate,” I said. “We’ll stay in formation, but I want every bit of speed we can get out of the group as a whole.”
She stared at me. “Why?”
“Two reasons,” I said. “First of all, the G-forces might dislodge some of these things we have on the hull. Secondly, we need to get into the battle as soon as possible.”
Up until that point, Captain Sarin had been braking, slowing the fleet’s approach to the conflict. This was a reversal of her plan to come in third and clean up. She looked angry and confused.
“Shouldn’t we at least take these things off our hull first? Maybe we could close formation and shoot them off one another with laser fire.”
“Not a bad idea, but we don’t have time. We need to get to the fight before the Nanos are all destroyed.”
“Getting them all destroyed was part of my plan,” she said. She took a deep breath, and I knew she was going to try to reason with me.
“Look, Kyle, if we wade in too early, we might be forced to fire on Nano ships. Those ships are owned by the Blues. They might take it as an act of war, meaning we’ve gotten into an expanded conflict. But if the enemy are all destroyed by the Macros, they can’t complain.”
I listened, but didn’t look at her. “Relay the order, then I’ll explain,” I said.
Sarin only hesitated a second, but that was all it took. Sandra stepped up behind her. Her stance was predatory, threatening. I could tell she want to do something bad to Jasmine. She’d been wanting that for a long time.
Jasmine glanced at her. “What are you going to do if I won’t obey? Kill me?”
“No,” Sandra said. “A single smashing blow to the head worked fine last time.”
The two women glared at each other. I tapped at my display, and showed everyone what I’d been working on. It really was a pleasure to work with Jasmine’s system. The woman had quite a mind for building battle system interfaces. I supposed she should, as she had more experience operating tactical displays than anyone else in Star Force.
Inside the sphere between us, three groups of lights gleamed. The Macros had the smallest number of ships. Displayed in red, each of their cruisers was represented by a wedge-shaped object. The Nano ships were yellow, and they were specks of light in comparison. Most of our ships were small and light green, except for the spoon-shaped light cruiser we flew in. I zoomed in on the Nano fleet. They’d moved close enough to be in laser range of the cruisers now, and were firing randomly at whatever ship they could reach.
“Have we got a counter for these guys going?”
Jasmine brought it up, and it displayed 167 in yellow numerals. We all stared.
“They had over three hundred ships,” one of the commanders said.
“Not anymore. We’ll be lucky if there are any left at all by the time we get into range. Check the cruiser numbers now.”
The red readout told the tale. There were still twenty-nine active cruiser. The Nanos were getting slaughtered.
“I don’t understand why they are so ineffective,” Jasmine said. “We’ve wargamed this out for days. They should not die like flies out there-”
“The trouble is,” I said, “Nano ships are not good at tactics. I’d hoped they would do better, but they aren’t up to it. They are explorers, and were never designed as a military force. Like a mob, they don’t fight well. The Macros have learned how to do it better, they are the soldiers. The Nanos need our help.”
“What about the things crawling over our hull? Are you just going to ignore them?”
“You have a few squads of marines aboard, don’t you?” I asked.
Jasmine nodded. Both she and Sandra were looking at me now, with big, worried eyes.
“You leave those crawling things to me,” I said.
“You’ll be exposed,” Sandra complained immediately. “We’re sailing into a battle, and the G-forces alone might tear you off the ship and send you into the exhaust.”
I shrugged. “If we lose our grip on the hull, my marines know how to use their repellers. We can escape. We might even be able to catch up.”
Captain Sarin nodded at last.
Sandra didn’t like the plan, but she nodded too. “I’ll go with you,” she said.
“No Sandra, I need you to keep an eye on things in here.”
Jasmine looked at me with an odd expression that took a moment to decipher. Was she feeling guilty, thoughtful, or insulted? I suspected it was a little of all three.
“You don’t have to leave us under guard, sir,” she said. “I apologize for trying to keep you off this bridge. It’s clear your strategic thinking was ahead of my own. I should not have-disagreed with your orders.”
I smiled. “I accept your apology, Captain. Let’s forget about it for now. I take some responsibility for the, uh, confusion. Crow and I really have to hammer out a command structure for campaigns on distant fronts. In part, you were a victim of our lack of organization. We’re still experiencing growing pains as a military outfit. I imagine many militaries of the past have gone through just such disagreements. In fact, I recall reading about a number of similar conflicts concerning who was in charge of whom back in the colonial era-”
“Sir?” a Commander asked. “I think the things on the hull are making their move. Whatever they are.”
I gestured urgently at him, and he transferred his screen to the sphere between us all. We all frowned at the image that coalesced inside. The things on the ship had clustered now at the rear of the ship. They were near the base of one of the three big engines. I saw a flaring light emission.
“Whatever they are, they are apparently no longer content with riding on the outer hull. They are burning their way in.”
“Maybe they don’t like our acceleration. They are barely moving around out there.”
I nodded. “Does anyone have a spare helmet? I’m going to need it.”
A midshipman led me toward the aft of the ship. Along the way, we passed the crumpled form of the Ensign I’d bashed on my way to the bridge.
“What happened to him?” the Midshipman asked. “Are those things inside now?”
“Nah,” I said. “I was in a bad mood when I first came aboard. He’ll sleep it off.”
The Midshipman gave me a wide-eyed stare, which I ignored. He led me to the troop pods and left me there. He vanished back down the passage quickly, glancing over his shoulder as if I might run him down and kill him.
I took a deep breath and touched the hatchway that led into the troop pods. It dissolved, revealing a number of surprised-looking marines. They were playing cards, and they all froze for a second when they saw me. The moment of shock passed and they all jumped to their feet.
I walked inside and began shouting orders. Within four minutes, I had a squad ready to head out the hatches. I wished Kwon was with me, but he was still aboard Miklos’ ship. They’d all been warned about the things that might be lurking on their hulls. I suspected Kwon was knocking heads and leading a team outside to investigate by now, just as I was.
I’d taken just long enough to change out my generator unit and snap on a fresh helmet. I was glad they had spare equipment. Goa was so big there was plenty of storage space for such extras.
I pulled down a fresh helmet, heard the click and hiss of it locking into place, and smiled. The smell was different-very plastic and clean. In a way, I kind of liked it. After a moment the HUD activated and flashed all green bars. I was good to go.
“Okay men, I’ll take point. Follow me out onto the hull then spread out. Keep your magnetics on full when you walk out there, as we will be experiencing several Gs of acceleration.”
