STOWAWAY TO THE STARS

The briefing room was small and crowded, and noisy with typical pilot banter. This was the first time Larry had been involved with military spaceflight. How would they view a civilian in their ranks? As it happened, they had heard of his exploits on Zilon. Twice groups of younger pilots buttonholed Larry to hear the details of his experience.

Ket had dropped him off at the military spaceport earlier, promising to pick him up when he returned from the mission. Then at last he’d be able to take Karen home. Would that be the last time he ever saw her? He hoped not, but he couldn’t decide how she felt about him.

The commander brought the assembly to order, tearing Larry away from his thoughts.

“For this operation you will emerge from hyperspace about forty million kilometers sunward of the target planet. That should be beyond the range their viewscreens are likely to be monitoring. You will maintain radio silence and jam all radio communications with a sunburst simulation blanket. This will prevent any outlying stations detecting your fleet and giving early warning. Communication between your ships will be by locked laser beams. The main task force will comprise a navigation ship and fifteen planet-buster ships, which should give you sufficient spare capacity – we estimate that the minimum required number for this small planet is twelve. Each ship will additionally be equipped with a Heavy Cruiser complement of attack and defense missiles, terawatt laser arrays and laser defense chaff.”

He switched on a holographic image of the Trajian system and pointed to features on it. “Once the target is identified, the fleet will fly a course to intercept their planned track. That track is an exact line from the sun to the planet. In this way you’ll remain concealed during your approach in the gravity-wave blind spot directly into sun. This will require accurate navigation and one ship will be dedicated to handling that task. The rest of you will fly in tight formation six kilometers apart in line astern behind it.”

Another switch brought up figures alongside the image. “The fleet will use eighty per cent thrust for the first half of the flight, which will take over two and a half hours even at that rate of acceleration. It will take a further two and a half hours as you slow down in the second half. Only when you’re close to the satellite planet will you break formation. You will then form up into the necessary ring around the planet and deploy the planet-buster equipment aboard each ship.”

Larry had a rough idea about how the planet-buster system worked. The equipment on the ring of ships would set the gravity waves of the planet into resonance and within a minute or two the resonance would build up sufficiently to shatter the planet. That would be quite a spectacle.

“This last stage needs to be completed before sufficient defense forces can be mobilized to attack your fleet and disrupt the ring. This is why the stealth attack is so important.”

The commander moved on to Larry’s part in the attack.

“Larry, you’ll accompany the main task force in a scout ship. Your job will be to link up with the fleet at the beginning and make a definite identification of the correct planet to attack. Then your work is over.

“We’ve commandeered an IEP ship like yours to act as the scout for the trip. We don’t want you having to learn to handle a different ship in the middle of a crucial mission. It’s been fitted out with laser beam communications and a full military complement of attack and defense missiles as a precaution. I understand that you’re familiar with the use of attack missiles.”

“Oh yes.” They saved my life in the dog fight with the Ziloni ships when I was on Inferior.

As soon as the briefing ended the task fleet launched. Larry felt good to be at the controls of a ship again in less fraught circumstances than his recent flights. The planet-buster ships set off in quick succession, with the navigation ship first and Larry last. They flew in loose formation to the hyperspace boundary, then tightened up to their final positions. The fleet commander addressed the assembled force.

“Check your Jump setting. Jump in turn on my command. Kill all radios before the jump. This is my last radio broadcast. After the jump, re-form and establish laser beam links. Nav one, on my mark, three, two, one, jump.”

Larry watched the line of ships on his viewscreen disappear in quick succession. When the last of them disappeared he hit his own jump pad. He felt the familiar tearing sensation and saw the usual abrupt change in star patterns. The target planet, Inferior, was a faint point of light in the distance, while this far out the Trajian sun was also small. He could almost look at it with the naked eye.

Larry located the tail ship of the fleet on his viewscreen and targeted his laser communication beam on it, received their beam in return and was again in communication. At first the communication channel was hectic as the other ships finished checking in, but at last the traffic died down and he got his chance.

“This is IEP zero three nine checking in, beams linked with Buster zero foxtrot.”

He picked up an immediate broadcast from the fleet commander.

“This is Red one, formation is complete. IEP zero three nine, we’re relaying the navigation ship positional display to you. Can you confirm that we’re at the correct Lagrangian point?”

“IEP zero three nine. Stand by Red one, I’m checking it now.”

He checked over his relay screen, located the gas giant, both satellite planets and the other main planets of the solar system. He matched the positions against their configuration on his previous visit. Allowing for some relative movement of the inner planets, they tallied.

“This is IEP zero three nine. Affirm the target is correct, I repeat, the target is correct.”

“Red one, roger IEP zero three nine. That’s your work completed. Nav one, lead off. IEP zero three nine, breaking communication link with you. See you back at base.”

“Good luck guys. IEP zero three nine out.”

The fleet accelerated away and Larry watched them on his display. After all he’d been through to reach this point he would have loved to play a full part in this final stage of the game, but at least he could stay and watch for a while. He was in no hurry to be anywhere else. He played around with the zoom and scroll of his viewscreen for quite a while, watching the fleet take up track in line between the sun and Inferior and start accelerating on the long ride out toward the planet. Once they were established on course he zoomed in close on the fleet to watch their progress.

On their five-hour flight they would end up at around sixteen million kilometers an hour – well over one percent of the speed of light – before they switched to deceleration. He watched them moving more and more quickly. After a while he zoomed out again to look at their overall position. An ice-cold shiver ran down his back.

Well behind the fleet, and directly sunward of them, were four more traces. They had to be Ziloni defense ships but where the hell had they come from? The Ziloni must have posted watchers somewhere, possibly in the asteroid belt. Now they were tracking the fleet and they were using the fleet’s own tactic of hiding in the eye of the sun.

Four ships were no match for the heavily armed fleet. What did they think they could accomplish? They couldn’t send a warning, not with the communications blackout. Perhaps they were planning a suicide attack at the last minute. If they timed it right they could disrupt the ring, maybe long enough for a proper defense to be organized. It was vital for the ring to stay complete to generate the resonance in the gravity waves.

He fought down a rising sense of panic. What were his options? Radio contact was out with the blackout in force. He couldn’t bypass the stalkers and catch up with the fleet when they slowed down. He wouldn’t be in the eye of the sun and would almost certainly be detected by the Ziloni on Inferior.

His mind raced through various possibilities. Eventually he narrowed them down to two. They both involved an approach straight in from behind, going through the enemy formation.

He could sneak up behind slowly, launch a surprise attack from well in the rear, and then break off the approach line. If he worked the angles out correctly, he would come out of the eye of the sun for the fleet in front, while still hidden to the planet much further away. That was if he was successful.

The other alternative was to accelerate all the way. Once the fleet and the stalkers switched to deceleration he would start to catch them up. By the time he caught them he would have a huge relative velocity. He could launch an attack just before he overtook the stalkers. If he was going fast enough, the retaliation missiles that were bound to come would take a while to accelerate up to his speed. By then he should be through to the fleet.

Both plans sounded good if you said them quickly. They also both sounded a lot like suicide in reality. He decided he liked the second plan best – or rather, disliked it least.

There was also the option to do nothing. But Ket’s words kept coming back to haunt him: “the bad news is that if the strike fails, the doves on the Council want to negotiate, and I shudder to think how that will end up. So this strike has to succeed.” Doing nothing was not an option. He rammed the control stick forward.

He entered the coordinates for the hyperspace jump back to Central and deployed every guard missile he had. Next he targeted the four enemy ships, several million kilometers ahead, ready to launch all his attack missiles, spread between the four, when the time was right. In this initial phase he watched the enemy closely for signs that they might have detected him before he could reach the shelter of the sun, but they must have their concentration set on the fleet because they didn’t deviate from their course.

As he closed with the crucial track between sun and fleet, he slowed and veered toward the line. Lacking the accurate navigation of the nav ship, he lined up the stalkers, the fleet and the distant planet so they were all in line ahead. Then he pushed his stick most of the way forward and set eighty per cent thrust. He didn’t want to catch up too quickly because his plan depended on the highest possible relative velocity between him and the enemy.

The next two and a half hours were about the longest he could remember. His thoughts turned to his former partner, Annek. She had paid with her life at the start of this affair. If this mission failed, her death would have been for nothing, and they were so close to success. Pictures of Annek haunted him, her slim figure, her laugh, but over and over the image of how she had died.

In between were flashes of his recent activities. Karen kept intruding on his thoughts. He still couldn’t understand way she seemed so comfortable with him most of the time but occasionally had flashes of moodiness. He also recalled vivid images of her – blazing away with the laser rifle from behind a tree, gaily vaulting the barrier at Tanil field, and best of all, making love to her the night before the attack on the base. But the worst memory was the glimpse he’d caught of the contemptuous expression on her face as he groveled in front of the security officer.

His mood was bleak by the time he detected the fleet and the stalkers slowing in front of him. His gut told him that he wouldn’t get away with this. He felt like a prisoner standing on the scaffold waiting for the drop, except that he’d already been waiting for over two hours.

He pushed the stick to maximum thrust and concentrated on the task at hand as the ships ahead came back toward him. He double checked his guard missiles, still faithfully tagging behind, hyperspace setting correct, attack missiles still locked to their targets. He mustn’t fire them too soon or they would slow down and not arrive until well after him – their damned programming would make them slow down on the final approach.

When he had almost caught up the stalkers and they were rushing backward to meet him, he closed his eyes for a moment. Karen, I wish I could have known you longer and found out whether you could care for me a little. Annek, this is for you. I expect I’ll see you soon.

He opened his eyes and waited until he judged that the moment was right to punch the missile firing pad. Now it was done, at this speed there was no question of maneuvering, it was in the lap of the seven saints. All he could do was move his hand to hover over the hyperspace jump pad in case he got the chance to make the jump.

****

The stalkers were not in line astern like the attack fleet, but spread out side by side. As Larry closed, he was no longer shielded by the sun from the view of the ships on the outside of the formation. Like the alarm that had sounded in his own ship as he was leaving Earth several days earlier, sirens must have warned them of his approach. If he had got past, his speed would have outrun their missiles long enough to make it through to the fleet. But he saw their missiles launch just before he reached them. He watched in dismay as the missiles made an interception course to him.

It all happened so fast; his guard missiles did their best but one enemy missile almost got through. A guard barely managed to intercept and the collision was only about ten meters outside his canopy.

Attack missile and guard exploded, not in contact with the ship, but close – much too close. Inside each missile, ordinary matter imploded on the anti-matter core and the ultimate energy release took place.

In microseconds the anti-matter was converted into high energy radiation. The energy converter shells around each missile core absorbed the primary hail of ultra-high-energy gamma rays and moderated them to a maelstrom of elementary particles and a broad spectrum of radiation, from gammas right down to infra-red. In addition, some of it vaporized the remaining matter of the missiles to form a shock wave.

The short distance between the explosion and the ship saved the hull. The shock wave dissipated rapidly in the hard vacuum of space and the hull stayed intact. But the radiation was a different matter. It overwhelmed the automatic screens in the canopy and lanced through the cabin. Larry’s body was bathed in an intense dose of heat and radiation that roasted fabric and skin and burned deep into the flesh beneath.