The Battlestar Glory Ch. 08 by wajawhiii

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

Chapter 8: Gifts and Traps

From the Log of War Admiral Norman North, 7 years after Vitalics:

As our supplies continue to dwindle, so does fleet morale. We've managed to be reasonably self-sustaining with our food and air supplies (although we've been on short rations at times too). Fuel or power hasn't been an acute problem, since we've mounted hydrogen collectors on several of the ships,. The problem is dedicated equipment--engineering components for the ships of the fleet, especially the Wildcats. It's gotten so bad that two full squadrons have been deactivated, as their ships have been cannibalized for spare parts to keep the other squadrons running. Needless to say, this hasn't done much for the morale of the Wildcat pilots.

And they're not the only ones. More and more, I hear voices of dissent, from those who have lost faith in our quest. They say we should stop our fruitless search for Monumental technology, and find a habitable planet to settle on. They ignore the fact that the Insects will hunt us wherever we go, preferring to believe that it's only the fleet they're after. This "homesteader" faction has been around for some time, but their voices have grown stronger, especially when we approach a habitable planet, as our scouts are doing now. I am concerned that sooner or later this split will become more than words and manifest itself in actions, or even mutiny. It might be easier to let those who want to settle to do just that.

But those who left the fleet would be signing their own death warrants. I won't allow that to happen because of my inaction. Not again.

"There, I picked it up on my scanner!" said Took, checking the readout on his 150-B.

"Where?" said Obe.

"Relaying the coordinates now," said Took. He pressed a button. "Got it?"

"Yeah," said Obe. "Let's check it out."

They angled down into the atmosphere.

"Isn't it nice that these monuments always seem to be on habitable worlds?" said Took. "Clear, fresh air, mountains, trees, fields...."

"Yeah, but that really stokes the homesteader movement," said Obe.

"Those guys are idiots," said Took dismissively. "I mean, it's nice to get some fresh air, but who wants to spend the rest of their lives being a farmer?"

"I'm getting a fix," said Obe. "It's in that forest, down there."

"In the forest?" Took looked down at the countryside.

"I don't see any good place to land," said Obe.

"What about there," said Took.

"Where?"

"Two o'clock."

"You couldn't land a microchip there," said Obe. "We'll have to let the marines make first contact on this one." Transports and shuttles, with their vertical landing ability, could land in tighter spaces than starfighters.

"They get all the fun!" said Took. He activated the fleet comm. "Glory, this is Took; how are you?"

*******

Another pair of fighters, led by Captain Ben Hunter of Wildcat-B and wingman Jane Tiegs, were simultaneously on long distance patrol in a completely different direction.

"It's just empty space out here," said Tiegs. "The nearest solar system is several light years away."

"We've still got to be on watch," said Hunter. "You never know what you'll find."

Hunter was entirely correct. Suddenly, a blip appeared on their scanners.

"Where did that come from?" said Tiegs, wondering why it didn't show up before.

"It's very small," said Hunter, flipping a switch. "It looks like it just came alive when we entered into its range. We're being scanned."

"It's too small even to be an enemy fighter," said Tiegs. "My scanner can't identify it. What is it, some sort of Insect spy probe?"

"If so, they've got a lock on our position," said Hunter. "Switching to weapons-" Suddenly, his comm signaled. "Wait a minute, I'm getting something on the comm-"

Just as suddenly, there was a small flash ahead, and the blip disappeared.

"What happened?" Tiegs asked.

"It self destructed," said Hunter. "But not before sending a message to us."

*******

"Expeditionary Force Alpha, you're cleared for launch," said Captain Dulin. He watched the holoscreen as first the transport carrying the marines and then the shuttle carrying the research scientists launched. Two Wildcats from Bay Two launched seconds later, to provide an escort to the planet.

"Another monument," said the War Admiral.

"I hope we get more out of it than the last one," said Wren ruefully. They had spent days studying the last one, the "Whistler Monument", to no avail; Stevenson's people couldn't even figure out why it whistled.

"Sir, we're getting a signal from Captain Hunter's patrol," said Lieutenant Shishman. With a nod from North he put it on speakers.

Ben Hunter relayed the story of the probe they had encountered. "it self destructed after relaying the message," said Hunter. "A set of coordinates, five light years distant in a neighboring solar system."

"An invitation?" said the War Admiral, his eyebrows raised.

"This could very well be an Insect trap," said Dulin.

"Very possibly," said the War Admiral. But he stood very still for a moment, as if weighing the alternatives. "Are there any signs of other ships in the area?"

"None sir; we're surrounded by empty space," said Hunter.

"Very well," said the War Admiral. "Do you know where the sensor device exploded?"

"Yes sir, we have the coordinates marked in. But there's nothing there now."

"Hmm," said North. "Stand by."

"Sir?"

"Remain at your current position," said the War Admiral, closing the comm. He turned to Dulin. "Captain, launch a recovery team in a shuttle."

"Yes sir," said Dulin. Then, looking confused, he said, "What are they going to recover?"

"Fragments from that self-destructing probe ship," said the War Admiral.

*******

While this effort was ongoing, the other task force was landing on the planet with the monument.

The marines were out of the transport even before the engines had cooled, forming a sweeping perimeter as they moved to secure the monument. They had only a short distance to go when they reached it, a tall black obelisk in a clearing by the trees.

"Area secure," said Lieutenant Kirby, the duty officer.

Several minutes later they could hear the whine of the shuttle dropping down and tucking in behind the transport. When the scientists landed, they found an escort of two marines waiting to take them to the monument. The War Admiral had ordered the scientists to be well protected.

Professor Stevenson and his colleagues slowly made the short walk to the monument. Their faces brightened when they saw it, and they immediately started scanning it with complex equipment.

Meanwhile, bits of the probe that had self-destructed had been recovered by a salvage team. A pilot from Wildcat "C" put them in an experiment box and handed them to one of theGlory's mechanical engineers, who started scanning the bits and pieces curiously.

After a few minutes he nodded and said, "Get me theGlory."

"Of human manufacture?" said the War Admiral, his eyebrows raised.

"Yes sir," said the holoimage of the officer on the shuttle. "There aren't enough pieces to tell me what it was supposed to do, but the bearing and type of the metal--it's pure Alliance, sir. Manufactured recently, too."

"Really? How recent?"

"Spectral dating suggests this is eight, maybe nine months old," said the officer. "If this device was sent here immediately after manufacture, it hasn't been here that long."

"Interesting," said the War Admiral. "A human-manufactured device deposited here only several months ago, in an area where we can confidently say that no human has ever been before."

"It must be part of a trap on the part of the Insects," said Dulin.

"Really, Captain? And why did they use a device of human manufacture?"

"They anticipated that we would analyze the remains," said Dulin. The War Admiral arched an eyebrow at him, frowning. Dulin felt uncomfortable. "What other possible explanation could there be?"

"The device was destroyed in an attempt to prevent us from learning of its origin," said the War Admiral. "If they had wanted us to know it was of human origin, they wouldn't have ordered it to destroy itself."

"I... I didn't consider that," said Dulin.

"Sir, no humans have ever been out this far," said Wren, coming to Dulin's defense.

"That we know of," said the War Admiral.

"Even if an explorer had been here, this device wasn't left by an errant adventurer."

"Agreed," said the War Admiral. "This was left specifically for us."

"But who, besides the Insects, knows we're out here?" said Wren.

"Who indeed?" said the War Admiral. He stood frowning a minute more, and then said, "I'll be in my office if I'm needed."

"Orders, sir?" said Dulin.

"Recall the shuttle," said the War Admiral.

"And the pilots?"

"Tell them to hold position," said the War Admiral.

"Sir?"

"Until further notice," said the War Admiral, as the door hissed behind him.

*******

The marines were spaced out in the woods, in a rough circle around the monument and the landing area. That meant that each marine was only barely within eyesight of the other marines in their cordon. But Lieutenant Kirby only had two squads of men available and had deployed them as best he could. He ordered each trooper to report in every ten minutes and personally inspected each guard station every hour. He wondered how long the scientists would be this time. He hoped it wouldn't be as long as the last time, when they were at the whistler monument. It had been very annoying, camping there for days, listening to that thing whistle idiotically.

One of the guards, a Corporal Qaye, stared into the forest around him. It seemed nice and peaceful. A soft wind blew in the distance, causing the leaves of the trees to rattle a bit. And then Qaye heard a twig snap.

He was instantly alert, looking into the direction of the sound. It was behind some bushes. But he could see nothing.

He waited again, and heard another snapping sound, as if something was slowly walking towards him.

"Post eight," he said into his comm. "I hear something in the bushes. I'm going to check it out."

*******

"You sent for me, sir?" said the Ken Pilot.

"Come in, Daniel," said the War Admiral. "We have a situation I need a volunteer for."

The War Admiral explained about the mysterious signal, and the reference to the new set of spatial coordinates. "My command crew believe it's almost certainly a trap, set by the Insects."

"A logical conclusion," said the Ken Pilot. And then, "But you don't believe it."

"Let's just say I'm not sure what to believe," said the War Admiral. "The Insects have set traps for us before, but rarely anything this subtle. I think the odds are that it is a trap. But it could also be something else."

"What else could it be?"

"That's what I want you to find out," said the War Admiral. "I want you to go to the set of coordinates given to us by that probe."

"With what kind of support?"

"None," said the War Admiral, figuring that if anyone could survive a trap, it would be the Ken Pilot. "Unless you want support-"

"No," said the Ken Pilot, "They'll just slow me down."

*******

"Incredible," said Professor Stevenson, murmuring with the other scientists as they looked at an indicator on their scanning device. The bulk of the black obelisk loomed above them.

"What, Professor?" said Lieutenant Kirby.

"This monument is six months old," said Stevenson.

"What?"

"It's made of simple titanium," said Stevenson. "It's a fraud."

"Just a moment," said Kirby, listening to one of his marines report something. "Qaye, come in."

There was silence on the other end.

"Corporal Qaye, report," said Kirby.

"Qaye here," came his voice. "False alarm. It was just a small animal."

"Very well," said Kirby. He turned to Stevenson. "I think we'd better get out of here."

"I quite agree," said Stevenson, shivering as he looked at the forest around him. Suddenly, it didn't look so tranquil.

Kirby switched to his command circuit. "Platoon, we're clearing out!"

*******

The thing that spoke with Corporal Qaye's voice looked down at the mangled and bloody body of the marine. The thing turned the body over, studying the face and uniform. Its features, vaguely humanoid, shimmered, and then became an identical copy of Qaye's. The thing grabbed Qaye's equipment, and then started back for the shuttle.

*******

"The team from the planet is returning," said Captain Dulin, turning away from the image of the Ken Pilot's starfighter, streaking away from theGlory.

"So soon?" the War Admiral said.

"Sir, the monument is a fake," said Dulin. "Stevenson reported that the monument was build several months ago, much like the pieces of the sensor we recovered."

"What?" said the War Admiral. He got on the line and spoke to Stevenson himself for several minutes. When he closed the comm, he shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Sir?"

"If the Insects are trying to lure us somewhere else, what was the purpose of the monument?" said the War Admiral. "On the one hand, we have a monument luring us here, and on the other hand, we have a relayed message telling us to go several light years in another direction."

"They could have placed the monument to bring us here, and the sensor device to send us to the final ambush zone," said Dulin.

"No," said the War Admiral. "They already had us here. Why do they want us to go somewhere else?"

"Sir, I think we should recall the Ken Pilot," said Dulin.

The War Admiral made no answer, just walking slowly to his office.

"Sir?"

The War Admiral disappeared into his office.

"I've never seen him quite like this," said Dulin, turning to Wren.

"Puzzled, you mean?" said Wren.

*******

The Ken Pilot's battered W-5 reached the position where Ben Hunter and Jan Tiegs were holding position.

"Where are you going?" said Hunter.

"I'm going to the coordinates you were sent," said the Ken Pilot.

Hunter and Tiegs, parallel to each other, exchanged glances. "Alone?"

"Yes. The War Admiral says you're relieved," said the Ken Pilot.

Hunter watched the Ken Pilot fly past him. "We can't let you go in alone."

"No," agreed the Ken Pilot. "Only the War Admiral can do that."

"We'll remain here on point, in case you need cover for a quick retreat."

"Fine," said the Ken Pilot. "Just don't get in the way or expect me to save you."

*******

The transport and the shuttle docked with theGlory. The troopers casually filed out of the transport, and the scientists disembarked from the shuttle. An officer was waiting at the exit hatch, to escort Professor Stevenson to the War Admiral.

No one paid any attention to Corporal Qaye as he filed out with the rest of the marine detachment. When they reached the barracks, the very first thing he did was go to a public terminal and punch up a list of the officers in the chain of command.

"Are you certain?" said the War Admiral. "Perhaps it was simply a new monument created recently."

Stevenson looked disgusted. "The Monumental have been dead for hundreds of thousands of years."

"But suppose one of them were still alive," said the War Admiral.

"The date of manufacture is only one piece of the puzzle," said Stevenson. "This monument doesn't match the composition of any of the other monuments. It's simple titanium, something that we could have manufactured, or-"

"The Insects," said the War Admiral.

Stevenson nodded.

"Lieutenant, were there any incidents on the planet?" the War Admiral asked.

"None, sir," said Kirby. "The scientists were safely escorted to and from the ship."

"No contacts of any kind?"

Kirby thought about Qaye's non-contact with the local animal life. "Nothing of substance, sir."

"Substance?"

"One of my men encountered a small wild animal. The animal ran off without incident."

"Hm," said the War Admiral.

"If the Insects created this as a lure, then they know we're here," said Stevenson. "We should leave this system."

"Hm," said the War Admiral again.

"Sir?" said Dulin. "I agree."

"There's only one problem" said the War Admiral. "If this were a trap, the Insects would have sprung it by now."

*******

The Ken Pilot streaked into the solar system indicated by the coordinates, ready for anything. The system had no planets, only a bright type C star. It was as if whoever picked the coordinates choose a location where there would be no place to hide, no place to spring an ambush.

The Ken Pilot detected a blip on the sensors. Now that was interesting.

There was a very large cargo ship in the system. And, although the Ken Pilot didn't know the configuration, it was clearly a ship of human design.

The Ken Pilot briefly considered calling the War Admiral for instructions. But if it were a trap, and the Insects homed in on the signal, he would be giving away the fleet's location.

No, the safest thing to do was to take a roundabout way back, make sure he wasn't followed, and rendezvous with the other fighters, head back to theGloryand report his findings.

Without hesitation, the Ken Pilot accelerated towards the large cargo ship.

*******

"AA five on blue four," said Wren.

The War Admiral didn't move, but only continued to stare at the holographic puzzle. They were slowly assembling a three dimensional image bit by bit. Lately, that had been how they had been spending their off-duty time together.

"Sir?" she said, wondering if he had heard her.

"It won't work," said the War Admiral.

"Sir?" she said again.

"AA five fits too easily on blue four," said the War Admiral. He gestured to another piece of the puzzle. "We're not even ready for green five yet. I think it will fit into brown sector, when we get to that part of the puzzle." But he seemed distracted, even as he said it.

Wren walked over to the War Admiral. "You're not really thinking about the puzzle, are you?"

"It's the first time they've been able to confuse me, Stacy," said the War Admiral. "Usually, I can see in an instant what they're up to, but this time... I don't know, I just don't know."

"I still think it's a trap," said Wren.

"We've been in this solar system for nearly two days now, and there is still no sign of attack," said the War Admiral. "When is the trap going to be sprung? No," he said, shaking his head. "If it's a trap, it's a new kind of trap, one with a kind of danger that we won't recognize, not until it's too late."

*******

The Ken Pilot landed in the giant cargo ship's docking bay. His scanners had indicated no lifesigns, but he took nothing for granted. If it were a trap, most likely the ship would blow up the instant he landed.

And yet, he landed. Something, instinct, perhaps, told him that this wasn't a trap, or at least, not a conventional trap.

He landed, and got out of his fighter. The silence was deafening.

But the bay was well lighted. And packed with supplies.

The Ken Pilot walked over to one. Studying a box with a hand scanner, he flipped it open.

It didn't explode. The box contained a familiar looking mechanical part. A Wildcat engine motivator.

The Ken Pilot inspected a few more boxes. Then he went to the door separating the bay from the rest of the ship. After checking with his scanner, he operated the door.

The ship still didn't explode.

The rest of the ships were filled with containers. The Ken Pilot checked some of the others. They contained spare parts too.

He went back to his ship and prepared to begin the long trip home.

*******

The next morning the War Admiral sat back in his chair in the war room, looking expectantly at his senior officers. Captain Dulin had just finished delivering the shipwide status report, and now all eyes were on the Chief Engineer.

The Battlestar Glory Ch. 08

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