The Battlestar Glory Ch. 05

(This is not a sexy story. It is a space war thriller.)

(This is not a sexy story. It is a space war thriller.)

Chapter 5: The War Admiral And His Dog

Chapter 5: The War Admiral And His Dog

"Two full fleets, destroyed!" Queen Zsst raged. "How can one small human fleet without reinforcements or resupply cause so much damage?"

"It is because of that pest, War Admiral Norman North," said Admiral Stay. Stay was one of Zsst's most brilliant admirals. She spoke simply and to the point.

Norman North. Queen Zsst knew the name well. She used her higher brain functions to calm herself, and considered for a moment. North's fleet was already well outside their space; further resources would be a waste of effort. It was time to cut their losses.

Another one of her aides, Admiral Zsss, suggested as much, "We have wasted enough time and effort on this pitiful enemy," said Zsss. "Let us turn to-"

"No," said a voice.

The hooded figure of Baracki entered the room. "You must continue to pursue them."

"Why?" said Zsss. "They are far from our space now, and, according to reports, heading even farther out. It would take them months simply to return to regions under our control. We waste vital resources sending fleets in piecemeal to attack them. If they ever returned, we could concentrate all our forces for one mass assault. Right now we have sent several smaller fleets to search them out. As they head farther and farther from us, they could be anywhere in a larger and larger region of space and we have to send more and more fleets after them. We currently have two fleets seeking them out; we'd have to send another two to have any reasonable chance of finding them within a year. And while our fleets represent only a fraction of our strength, they only attack with their full force."

"They must be destroyed," Baracki hissed.

"Why?" Zsss persisted. "They are no threat to us! You have helped us, Baracki, and we are grateful for your help. But we have no further need of it!"

Baracki looked at Zsss, and Zsss started to shake. Then there was a cracking sound, and another, and another. One by one Zsss's bones were being broken. Crack, crack, crack! Zsss's body mass started to decrease as it fell into a heap onto the ground. Crack, crack, crack! Zsst's aides were sickened as they watched but were powerless, or too afraid, to interfere. Finally, when the body was no more than a bag of mush on the ground, Baracki turned to the others.

"Is there anyone else who rejects my help?"

No one spoke.

"Good," said Baracki, flicking a pink forked tongue. He turned to Queen Zsst. "The human fleet must be destroyed because they are a threat. Not today, or tomorrow, or next week or next year, but someday they may return and be a threat. Potential threats must be eliminated."

"We already have two fleets looking for them," said Queen Zsst. "We have increased ship production to maximum, but do not yet have the resources to send multiple large fleets while maintaining an adequate force over our occupied zones."

"So you're saying that there's nothing more you can do now?" said Baracki, giving Zsst a dangerous look.

"Wait!" said Admiral Stay, stepping forward. "While we build up our fleet, there may be other options."

"Good," said Baracki. He turned to Stay, with a dangerous look in his eyes. "Impress me with your creativity."

********

From the log of War Admiral Norman North, one year after Vitalics:

Things have been very quiet of late. It's been six months since our encounter with the last Insect fleet. I am newly confident that we are far enough away from their region of space to avoid further attack. And yet there may be other hostile alien forces out there we'll have to face, so we must stay in a constant state of battle readiness.

We're already running low on supplies. We're almost out of the anti-aging serum, which means that, in 20 or 30 years, when the vaccines wear out, we will all start aging again. I've talked with the medical staff about synthesizing a serum onboard, but we simply don't have the technical equipment or the raw materials to do so.

More immediate is our need for fuel, food, and parts. We have successfully converted our engines to run on hydrogen, which we skim from compatible stars and gas giants we come across. The fuel burns more quickly, and causes more breakdowns in our engines, but at least we are confident of having all the energy we need for the time being.

Food is a bigger problem. The ships' farms are barely producing enough to sustain our needs. I've authorized turning empty cargo sections of the Glory into farms, using soil we scooped off of hospitable planets, and we're growing more food, but we still face shortages.

We're worse off when it comes to spare parts. As parts wear out, we find that we have nothing to replace them with. Already several fighters have been cannibalized to provide parts for others. Our least replaceable parts are munitions--once we run out of missiles, there's no way to manufacture more of those. Thank goodness we haven't had to go into battle for several months.

And then there's morale. Morale sharply improved during our last battle with the Insects, but has gradually waned since. I've tried to authorize limited shore leave on every uninhabited world we've encountered, but that's only been two planets in the space of six months. And the shore leave is on empty worlds, offering little more than walks among vegetation.

Captain Took has taken it upon himself to improve morale by launching a fleet-wide vid cast. Some of his features have been irreverent and "borderline subversive", in the words of Captain Dulin, although I secretly enjoyed a parody he did of Colonel Dey--Took got his clipped manner of speaking just right. Captain Dulin has asked me for permission to shut down Captain Took's broadcast on the grounds that satire isn't "military", but, quite frankly, we need more efforts like Took's, not less.

The only other news to report is that we're approaching a nebula. Nebulas can contain anything, including a hidden attack force, so I've ordered the Blue Luna to go ahead and check it out first, just to be safe.

********

Once upon a time, the War Admiral had had a dog. It was a small dog, a mutant type 34 Pomeranian named Ripper. This was centuries ago, during one of his breaks from the Navy. The War Admiral had been very attached to his dog, and kept a hologram of it at his desk. Whenever he was tense, or tired, he would activate the hologram, and look at his cute little dog.

********

********

"-I tell you, Obe, I'm convinced it's a conspiracy," said Took, piloting his fighter.

"Uh huh," said Obe, flying a few lengths behind him. They were entering the edge of the nebula, and the fogginess of it prevented them from seeing more than a few feet around them.

"A conspiracyto murder me," said Took, for emphasis.

"I mean, why else do they always send me out on these scouting missions?" Took asked. "They always send theBlue Lunaout in front, and always send me out in front of theBlue Luna."

"Don't forget me," said Obe. "And what about the Ken Pilot?" He glanced behind him, making sure the Ken Pilot's ship was still there.

"No, no one cares about you, you're incidental," said Took dismissively. "I'm convinced it's me they want to kill me."

"Who?"

"Captain Dulin. Commander Wren. Probably Colonel Dey too. He's been after me ever since I broadcast that imitation I did of him."

"Who can blame him?"

"I'm the only free press in the fleet, and they want to silence me," said Took.

"Have you ever thought there are ways of doing that short of killing you?"

"Sure, but they don't want it to LOOK like they're silencing me," said Took. "If they shut me down, it looks bad for them. But if I die in combat, or during a freak accident, it's not traceable to them... get my meaning?"

"Sure do," said Obe. "Hey, are your instruments reading what I'm reading?"

"Not very much," said Took. "My sensors can't penetrate very far in-"

"No, I mean the chemical analysis."

Took looked at the chem analysis. "Oxygen. Nitrogen. Helium--this stuff is breathable. What are the odds of that?"

"I'm picking up gravity too. Almost one quarter standard G."

"Gravity? This far out?"

"Look!"

Suddenly, through the clouds, they spotted what looked like a land mass. It looked almost like solidified clouds.

"You think we can breathe and walk on that thing?"

"In a nebula?"

"There's only one way to find out," said Took.

"Took, no, our instruments may be wrong!"

"I'll take shallow breaths." Took glanced at the air pressure, making sure it was roughly equivalent to the pressure inside his cockpit. He decelerated to a slow speed, and then halted his fighter entirely. Then he took a deep breath, and pressed the button to open his cockpit.

Exposing himself to outer space.

"Took! Took!"

Took let out a bit of the air he had been holding in, and took a small breath.

"Took!"

Took took another small breath. It smelled a bit salty, like fresh sea air. But it smelled fine.

"I'm still here," said Took.

"That was a crazy risk!"

"Not at all," said Took. "Now I can say I'm the first person to breath in outer space without a suit. Why don't we go and check out that land mass?"

"No," said Obe. "Enough with the wild risks. We don't even know if that really is a land mass. Let's get out of here and call a research team to do it properly."

"Oh... all right," said Took. He angled his ship back in line with Obe's and the Ken Pilot's. "Ready."

"Took? Aren't you forgetting something?" Obe asked.

"Oh. Oh, right," said Took, closing his cockpit. "You know, it's kind of nice flying with the wind on your face."

******

When they cleared the nebula, they made their report to Captain Harkness of theBlue Luna. When they suggested he send in a scientific team, he grunted. "Let's check with command."

Much to Took's disappointment, it turned out that they were ordered to wait for theGloryand the rest of the fleet to catch up. The War Admiral decided he wanted some of his best scientists on theGloryto check it out, and so they would have to wait.

"I knew I should have landed there when I had the chance," said Took. "Now I won't be able to be the first to report this breaking story!"

"Iday, I didn't bring the camera anyway," said Obe.

"Then it's your negligence," said Took. "You should always bring it with you."

"In my cockpit?"

"A journalist must always be prepared," said Took.

*******

The following day theGlorycaught up with them. Captain Harkness ordered additional patrols of the nebula, just to make sure there was nothing in there waiting for them. The nebula was so large they could only explore a small part of it; but they did discover several more of what looked like land masses, and Took only narrowly avoided crashing into one of them that was obscured by nebula fog.

******

When the technical team from theGloryarrived they found that the land masses were solid enough for them to land on, and they landed on one of them, accompanied by a squad of marines, as well as Took and Obe.

The first thing that Took noticed was howcrunchythe ground was, the way their feet seemed to sink a few inches into the ground, like it was snow. They were wearing protective suits, just to be on the safe side, but they soon opened up their faceplates.

It looked like an exotic winterland, with snow sculptures formed in exotic shapes around them. But when Took tried to touch one of them, his hand almost went through it. "Hey, what is this?"

One of the scientists checked his scanners. "The substances on this planetoid exist in various mixtures of solid, gas, and liquid form. We're just lucky we were able to land our ships on a part that was more or less solid."

"Hm," said Took, picking up part of the "snow", or whatever it was, bunching it into a ball, and throwing it at Obe. The ball dissipated before it reached him, and Obe, looking in another direction, didn't even notice he had been attacked.

"Well, that was no fun," Took grumbled.

The scientists seemed to be having more fun as they examined the semi-gaseous material the small planetoid was constructed of.

"Great," said Took. "They're playing with the snow and we're standing around doing nothing."

"You volunteered us for this duty, remember?" said Obe. "Something about a photo essay?"

"You're right," said Took. "Even this hunk of snow qualifies as news on a slow day. Got your camera, Obe?" Obe held up the camera.

"Good. Get a view of the ridge line and the sky behind me. Ready? Let's roll."

Obe nodded, and Took immediately went into showman mode. "This is Command Captain Idaho J. Took on the front lines of exploration, here on the snow planetoid."

A swirling mist seemed to gather in the distance behind Took. Obe saw it through his lens. "Uh, Obe."

"Shh! We're taping this," said Took. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Around me we have the wondrous semi-gaseous planetoid that brave scouts from theBlue Luna, namely myself and Lieutenant Obe-" At this point the swirling gas cloud approached very quickly, as if it were deliberately moving towards them.

"Took!"

"What?" said Took, dropping his persona. "You know if you keep interrupting, you're the one who's going to have to edit out-"

"Behind you!" Obe pointed.

The swirling cloud was almost on the scientists, who suddenly just noticed it themselves. The cloud moved quickly over several of the scientists, and they started screaming.

Took and Obe drew their weapons and started towards the scientists at a run. "Quick! Back to the ship!"

Some of the scientists started running for the transport, while others stopped to help their screaming companions, but they started screaming too, clutching their own bodies, even through their protective suits. The marine detail started firing into the cloud, but didn't seem to have any noticeable effect--except that the cloud moved over to them, leaving the scientists, for the moment.

"Quick!" said Took, dragging one of the injured scientists, as Obe directed the other scientists to help the rest of the wounded back to the transport. Took ignored the screams behind him as he pulled the wounded scientist as rapidly as possible. They had just reached the transport when the screams abruptly stopped. Still not looking back, Took entered the transport, whose doors were already open.

"Hurry, hurry!" said Took, waving the others in. The swirling cloud had finished doing whatever it was doing, and was heading towards them quickly.

"Hurry!" cried Took, watching the cloud close in on Obe, who was half carrying the last straggler.

In retrospect, it was an interesting math problem. Can Obe, moving at a fraction of the speed of a gas cloud, cover a fraction of the distance to the transport before the much faster gas cloud, which had a longer distance to go, could?

Some of the scientists were screaming for him to close the door, close the door, and Took knew that if the gas cloud got in there that they would all be dead. But he also knew that if he closed the door before Obe got there, that Obe would be dead.

Took waited until the last possible moment, and that's just when Obe and his wounded companion staggered into the transport, with the gas cloud almost at their backs. He slammed the door control shut, and the outer airlock door quickly slid close almost in the face of the gas cloud.

They heard a thump from the other side of the door, and then there was silence. Took eyed the door cautiously. If that thing got inside....

Took went forward and assessed the wounded. Many of the scientists had burn marks over parts of their bodies, even parts that were protected by the suits. Took soon found out why, when he saw the corrosion on their spacesuits. The gas had literally cut through their suits to strike at them. If that could cut through the hull....

"We've got to get out of here," said one of the scientists, realizing the danger.

"What about the marines?" Obe said.

Took looked out the cockpit windows. "It looks like they didn't make it," he said, noticing their bodies, as well as one of the scientists.

"Lifesigns?" said Obe.

Took frowned, checked the sensor displays. "I can't tell, even at this close distance. There's some kind of interference."

"Do you think any of them could still be alive?" Obe asked.

"There's no way to be sure," said Took. "Unless we go out and look."

"No!" said the scientist who had spoken before.

"We can't leave without checking," said Took. "Besides, what about our Wildcat fighters?"

"What about them?" said the scientist.

"There are two perfectly good fighters out there."

"Leave them!"

"Wildcat 150-B's don't grow on trees," said Took patiently. "And we're a bit far from our resupply depot. Obe, where is this cloud now?"

"I don't see it on any of the visual scanners," said Obe.

"Anywhere?" said Took anxiously, checking the scanners himself. Nothing. It was either in hiding, or gone.

"We should contact the fleet and get further instructions," said Obe.

"A swell idea, but we'd have to take off out of the nebula to reach them," said Took. "And we might not even find this particular planetoid again. No, the senior officer in charge has to make a decision."

"And that would be...." Even now, Obe hadn't entirely lost his sense of humor.

"We have to consider what this thing is. If the gas cloud is an intelligent form of life, it may be waiting for us in ambush," said Took.

"A gas cloud is a form of life?"

"If, on the other hand, it is alive but non-sentient, it may act purely on instinctive. It may have simply wandered off," said Took. "And if it's a natural phenomenon, there's no reason to think it's hanging around."

"Cut the analysis. I say one of us goes out there and sees if any of the marines are still alive," said Obe.

"I always love the scientific method," sighed Took. "All right, I agree. You stay here."

"Hey? What? Why me?"

"Well, they're going to need someone to pilot this thing if I don't return," said Took. "Under no circumstances are you to open the airlock doors if something appears."

"Took... that's so... brave."

"Yeah," said Took, cocking his head. "Yeah, I guess it is."

******

Took cautiously peered out the airlock door as it cycled open. His blaster would be useless; his only weapon was speed. He tried to tell himself that they had been on the planetoid over an hour before the gas cloud had attacked them; perhaps it was long gone by now.

He walked cautiously towards the bodies of the marines, constantly looking around him, ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Every snow drift looked suspicious, a possible hiding place for the deadly gas cloud....

Took moved closer to the marines. None of them were moving. They all looked very dead. Was he risking his life for nothing?

And then one of them moaned, and moved slightly, and Took forgot about everything and rushed over to the body. One of them, at least, was alive.

"Got one, alive," said Took into his comm. "Anything on the horizon?"

"Nothing I can see," said Obe. "But hurry, that thing can move quickly."

Took checked the bodies quickly, constantly looking over his shoulder. It turned out that several of the marines were still alive. "Four of them!" he yelled. "I'm going to need some help here."

To their credit, three scientists rushed out of the ship to his location. They each quickly grabbed a body and slowly pulled them towards the ship. "We could do this a lot quicker if we had more help," said Took.

Four more scientists came out, looking very fearful, and helped carry the bodies quickly to the ship. Took didn't push their luck by insisting that they go back for the deceased. When they got back to the transport, Took said, "Careful! They're badly burned. Ready to make a dash for our ships, buddy?"