Humanity in the Deep

“Report!” Patel ordered when he saw the Jefferson Davis disappear from the central tank.

Colonel Adrian Moisey pulled up the detailed radiation data and responded before the Trajectories Officer. “That was a neutron bomb. That thing has to be a missile carrier, and it could easily be carrying more than a dozen.”

“And we still have half a dozen rocks out there that have to be diverted.”

A transmission then started playing on the tank speakers.

“This is the Churchill. We see no way to stop both the rocks and what we can only take to be a nuke carrier you have incoming. We..., I have decided that we are going to divert the rocks. Sorry, we can’t do more.” The sound of defeat in Roger’s voice was palpable.

“Can they do that by themselves?” Patel asked the Trajectories Officer.

The young lieutenant typed on her keyboard and some lines appeared on the tank. Five ended up as cones that were close to the Erikson’s projected course, but never crossed it.

She said, “Yes, sir, they can, barely, if they can divert five, we should be in the clear. We shouldn’t need to do more than minor course adjustments to avoid any of the others.”

“Comms, tell the Churchill to take out those five then get back here at best possible speed.”

With more emotion in his voice than he liked, he said, “Tell them good job and that we will take out that carrier.”

One problem dealt with, but the larger one remained.

That was when he noticed that Commander Randal was next to him. He was assigned to the bridge, so must have thought that he was needed in the C&C.

Randal stared at the same radiation profile that Adrian was and said, “You’re right, it couldn’t have been anything but a neutron bomb. A large one at that.”

Knowing the answer but feeling like he had to ask, Patel said, “What kind of damage are we talking about? Could we ride one out in the shelters?”

“Some of us might survive if it was not too close. We would lose containment of the torch, and have to do a vent of the fusion reactor. Worse case, it could breach, which it would if one went off within a klick.”

So, no, then.

“Could a probe take it out?”

The colonel shook his head “I doubt it. It would see the probe coming and get out of the way. The only way I can think for it to be burning that hot is if it had one, or more probably two, of the generators from the Horizon. If that’s the case, they might be able to get to twenty G’s”

“Lasers?”

“If we cut thrust and gimbaled the ship over to give them a chance, maybe. It has some sort of reflective coating, but nothing that could stand up to our nav lasers. However, we would have to be within a light second to be able to aim. It’s jittering, using light speed delay against us. If the local’s are intelligent, they’ll launch the missiles before it reaches a light second. I doubt we could shoot down the missiles one by one that fast. I give even odds of getting them all at best,” Colonel Adrian Moisey finished.

Smith said, “And we would have to shut down the torch to even try.”

Very lowly, the captain said, “We saw one way to take it out. Can either the Runner—...”

Adrian interrupted the captain, “Commander, have you heard of the long EMP gun?”

“No...” Smith was sounding much curter than normal.

Colonel Adrian said. “The torch bubble is projected through a series of spinning superconductors that are rapidly charged and discharged, right? Could you use those systems to create a focused, linear radio pulse?”

Commander Smith’s eyes glazed over like they did any time he did large amounts of math in his head.

“Hell, no, but omnidirectional, probably yes. Captain, I need to get with engineering, if we do this, it would be a massive EMP. The locals use wholly electric computers, if we time it right, they will be so close that no amount of shielding would be enough. That carrier and anything it launches will be dead in space. But succeed or fail, it will leave us drifting.

---

“Accumulators at one hundred thirty nominal.”

“Rings and outer blocks are evacuated.”

Over shipwide, the captain said, “This is the captain, we are about to turn off the torch. If you have not done so, secure your E-mask.”

He called Commander Smith in engineering, “You may dump the torch when ready, Commander.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

The captain gripped the console in front of him as the gravity cut to nothing.

Looking at the tank, Patel saw the carrier had adjusted course and would be a light second away within ten minutes.

It took less than five for engineering to get the superconductors up to speed.

Adrian told engineering, “On my word only.”

He and Adrian watched as damage reports started showing up on the screens above the tank. They had to overcharge the accumulators, then dump all that power into the superconductors to create the EMP. That caused all kinds of problems. Every second was making things worse, nonetheless, they had to wait. If Adrian called it too early some of the missiles might survive. It would only take one to kill all of them.

At twenty light-seconds out, the carrier stopped accelerating, and suddenly there were more than a dozen smaller targets burning. Each were jittering.

Still Adrian held out, although his hands were gripping the console so tight, Patel would not have been surprised if he broke it.

At five light-seconds, Adrian practically yelled, “Detonate!”

“Aye, aye!”

Then, with a white flash, all the exterior sensors went out. All the screens read, “Connection lost.”

---

“Lidar and Radar read target as being in the green.”

Thomas called out, “Finally.”

The last asteroid was no longer a threat.

Roger set a new course when the instruments read a massive EM pulse from the Erikson.

He really hoped he made the right call when he went after the rocks.

---

The EMP had worked. The carrier and all its launches had become so much trash.

But that did not mean they were home free.

“Sir, I have between ten and twenty bogies, each burning at one G heading for us. About two hours away.”

What they and the computer tagged as asteroids really looked to be ships. They had seriously underestimated the local’s determination to take the Erikson.

Patel looked in the tank, “Any idea’s, Colonel?”

“Too large for missiles... Damn, I would bet my last beer those are piercers,” Adrian said as he motioned to one of screens and zoomed in on one of the closest blips.

They were having to rely on the sensors of the two scout boats, both of which had been ordered to fall back to them.

“They’re going to board us, making their own airlocks by ramming us.”

“Can we doing another EMP Commander?”

Smith quickly replied, “No, sir, we burned out too many superconductors and probably fried the accumulators. They were never made to be used for that.”

Adrian used a smaller screen to look at their positions and do some math. “With the torch and nav lasers down, we’re going to have to repel them.”

He paused a moment then with his wrist flipped over said, “With your permission?”

Patel nodded.

Adrian hit his wristcomp and said, “Emergency shipwide.

“This is Colonel Moisey. We are going to be boarded in a matter of hours. I want all minor hatches closed. All blocks will be on independent life support as of fifteen minutes from now. The Runner and the Williams are going to try and shoot the boarding ships down before they arrive, but they will not be able to get them all.” Truth was, they would be lucky to get any if Patel was right.

“Everyone have your E-masks ready within fifteen minutes. We may have to evacuate sections of the ship of air.

“Marines, you have ten minutes to get your kit and report to your stations.

“Good luck, sir.” He saluted Patel and left.

---

They were all waiting by the cars, like they had been for days.

Looking around, Kat could see the almost one hundred people, about a third of everyone. The rest of the waiting locals were in a similar building across the street.

She knew what their world was like, but still, to leave everything behind was something she didn’t think she could do. She had considered going to school off the Erikson for a build, but she couldn’t imagine leaving it forever.

Kat saw a handful of teenagers, but otherwise, the children were gone. They all looked scared, but were putting on a brave face. Much like everyone else. They hoped the Erikson could help them before they became sociopaths. She got the idea that at least some of them were the children of the teachers, but that it was not considered proper to talk about them like that unless they never ‘grew up’. The rest of the kids had been sold to other groups who raised kids. The teachers attempted to get the kids to the best places they could in the time they had, even if they would have to be raised by sociopaths.

Leaving was going to be dangerous. She could easily die, but all she could think of was Roger. She was going to see him again.

Councilor Powell. That would take getting used to.

He was going to hold her again.

She saw a bit of smoke in the distance, everything was eerily silent.

She heard several translated versions of, “They’re coming!!” before the translator stopped trying.

She quickly put on her goggles and gloves before she rushed into the other room. It had a tarp for a wall.

Several people rushed out to pull the tarps down then rushed back to the cars.

All the cars filled fast. Kat was in the front seat of the first car, in case they needed a point of contact with the Hermes.

She doubted they would, but the locals insisted.

“Clear one.”

“Clear two.”

“Clear three.”

“Clear four.”

“Clear five.”

With all five sets of cars ready, Ardon called out, “Go, go, go!!!”

They tore out onto the street. It was a straight shot of about half a kilometer to the Hermes. It was hovering on its sonic tractors thirty meters above the road with the lower cargo bay door open.

When they got closer, they were met by the other half of the locals. She made sure they went between sonic pulses, as shown by the new and rather large holes in the road. They all rushed as fast as they could onto the sonic lifting platform. Kat caught a glimpse of collapsed buildings and torn up roadway behind the Hermes as she ran. They were empty-handed as instructed. Except for Bruce who had one of the alien artifacts.

Oddly, the Hermes was half-covered in black foam that was sloughing off. It hovered above them like an angel, ready to take them away.

They managed to all either squeeze onto the platform, or onto the ladders welded to it.

They were then lifted into the air.

---

Kat could not help but think of the day she had first met Roger as she strapped herself into the acceleration chair. Like before the cargo bay was full of chairs welded to the deck, except this time, there were bars going all the way from one bulkhead to the other and up from the deck. It formed a grid that had chairs welded to them.

Looking to either side, she saw marines who were helping strap down locals and inject them with drugs. Often by force, they were in such a hurry.

“Incoming! twenty seconds to high G maneuvers!” came over the intercom. It was then repeated in the local language. At least, she assumed that’s what it was since she had taken her translator off.

Kat was looking at the wristcomp which was showing the view from the rear camera.

They had used the sonics to slow down, pushing on buildings and the road all the way in.

The path of destruction was impressive. The road was torn up for as far as the camera could see. A few of the buildings were even pushed down flat.

Kat felt them swerve, turning around. Then they flipped to vertical and went weightless for a fraction of a second. They then were off at what felt like three G’s.

She had a feeling that any grid safety inspector would have a heart attack if he saw what they were having the poor Hermes do.

It took less than five minutes and they were above the atmosphere in free fall again.

She could see that there were some kind of flares or something still around where they came from.

One small reorientation and they were boosting again at three G’s or so.

The local’s world got smaller.

---

“Shoot center of mass, never advance without clearing what is behind you. Call in if you run into problems.

“This block should be clear of our people, but we lost video and thermal when the locals got here, so don’t count on it. Latest intel says they have printed helmets that can partly negate fog, so don’t count on fog, but do use it. Breach in five.

“Four.

“Three.

“Two.”

Adrian hit the detonator and he felt two others being hit a split second after his.

He and the rest of his squad entered just after the fog grenade he threw.

There were two locals on the other side of the room. One went down fast, the other got off a few shots before he started floating, supported only by his boots.

Looking behind him, Adrian saw one of his men floating, there was a subtle beep whenever he looked directly at him. His vitals and the hole in his chest showed he had taken a round to the heart.

“This is Adrian—, need emergency med evac at my coordinates, Sergeant Whitaker’s heart took a round. Engaging suit assist now, but he needs to be in a med bay ASAP.

“Reload and move out.”

“We...we...can’t just leave him.”

“Nothing we can do for him except clear this block and not jostle him. Now load your weapon and follow me.” With some effort, Adrian pushed him away from Whitaker and went to the next hatch.

When he was about to force it open, it opened suddenly and two locals started to shoot from behind a barricade inside.

---

They were sedating and tying up a handful of surrendering locals when over radio Adrian heard, “too many, sir, we need—”

It cut out.

“Relay, where was Lieutenant Smith?”

“He was guarding the emergency quarters, sir.”

Thinking quickly, Adrian said, “I want one squad from the nearest four platoon’s sent to back up emergency quarters defense.

“You have command of the platoon, Dresden; keep advancing and sweeping, and donotlet them get behind you.”

Adrian took his squad and they retreated back as fast as they could go.

---

They got out of the ring with only encountering a handful of locals; none of whom managed to do any damage to them.

The camera’s in front of them showed a dozen locals and only a few defenders left. Adrian looked back and forth and realized that he could not wait for the other squads.

“Open comm to everyone on this deck.

“This is the colonel, we are going to charge into the locals attacking you. Anyone who has a gun or any weapon that can get through their armor needs to use our distraction to help when you hear their fire let up.”

They crossed the last bend and started firing. They took some return fire but most of the locals were still pushing on the last few defenses.

The defenders were almost out of barricades and hatches to retreat through.

Adrian loudly said, “Follow me.” He started to rush at them firing wildly with his gun on full auto, trying to be threatening and hard to hit by quickly changing what surface he was running on.

He took a hit to his left arm, and ignored it as he and Stewart made it to the end. They were above the middle of the locals. Adrian jumped down from above them, flipping around to land on his feet. As one, they started to focused on him. He fired as he heard hatches open and saw the last defender run at them.

---

“...Mistake, you know he’s just going to go back out,” was the first thing Adrian heard as he woke up.

He felt numbness along his left arm and right leg that a medic had treated him.

“Sir, we need to get you to the med bay. You took two rounds; you’re good for now but they have to come out.”

He shook his head and stood up, “Can I function? Did I take anything to a major artery?”

“No, but you will be slower, and you could get yourself killed.”

Kyle Loke stood there with his helmet off and said, “Knew we should have kept you under, the rest of your squad is dead or on the way to a med bay. You can command from here.”

“I can, but I won’t. A commander should be on the front lines, I will not stay here. Is the route to the front clear?”

Kyle sighed and said, “Yes, last I heard, should I go with you?”

Adrian looked around and saw a one other squad, they had made it, if a little too late.

“Kyle, you’re the one who rushed them?”

“Seemed the right thing to do.”

“It was, you’re promoted to Captain and hereby in command off the defense of the civilians. This squad is now yours, and I will send more back here if I can,” He said loudly so the squad could hear him.

“Good luck, Captain,” He said as he put his helmet, arm and leg sections of his armor back on and left.

---

After a very long several hours, about half of his platoon had glazed expressions. They were functional if he kept them moving, but afterward, they would collapse.

Adrian pushed them on. It was almost done. He checked his map and saw that there were only a few compartments left that had locals in them.

“Follow me, and don’t fire if I’m in the way.”

He went forward without waiting for them to answer.

The compartment had a dozen locals with their hands up and their weapons floating distantly.

“Sir,” the relay officer said over his radio, “they have all surrendered, all remaining locals have surrendered.”