The first contacts that came up were the sun and the planets. Much smaller green and red beads appeared. The green ships were all clustered near Earth. The red beads were out past the orbit of Mars. Nothing moved, as this was a snapshot, not a live feed.
“What are those enemy contacts?” I demanded. “Macros?”
“Yes sir,” Kwon said. “Three cruisers. There is evidence of more of them, but they are drifting hulks.”
My eyes scanned the scene. We were coming into the middle of a battle. Had the Macros already hit Earth? How many millions had they killed this time?
I counted only seventeen ships around Earth, and they looked small. When I had left, Crow had been building fast and there had been at least thirty. We’d taken a beating too.
“I know where they are,” Major Sarin said suddenly, reaching out to touch the beads of reddish metal. “That’s the new asteroid mining facilities. We were just beginning to explore out there for easily accessed minerals. They must have found the mining expeditions and blown them up.”
I nodded. I knew the Macros were big on chewing metal out of asteroids. I’d seen the vast machines they used for the purpose up-close and personal. Knowing to some degree how Macros thought, I figured they must have clashed with Earth’s forces then retreated when they took a loss or two. The only reason they would retreat was the discovery of a higher priority target or to wait for reinforcements. I hoped it wasn’t the latter.
“Any signs of mines, Kwon?”
“No sir. Orders?”
“You are to get your ass back aboard this ship. Get in front of the launch bay, and prepare for a rough landing. We’ll scoop you up under heavy acceleration. Turn your dish into the braking position and try to match our speed so you don’t get smashed.”
“Yes Colonel, Kwon out.”
I nodded toward Major Welter, who waited anxiously at the helm like a concert pianist who was dying to play.
“Get us underway,” I said. “Take us through the ring.”
“Watch this,” Welter said. He reached out and tapped a single control-point. The ship smoothly accelerated forward. “I’ve been working on my hotkeys,” he explained proudly.
We headed into home space knowing we were outgunned three to one. No one complained, however. I was proud of them all.
“No one transmit anything,” I ordered. “All external transmissions are on blackout. No radio beyond suit-to-suit.”
Sandra relayed my order without hesitation. She was back on communications for the big homecoming. I was sorry it wasn’t going to be a happy one. I’d had fantasies of returning to our little bungalow on Andros Island. We’d had a lot of good times there. Now, I wasn’t sure we were going to make it home at all. We were so close, it almost hurt.
“Sandra,” I said, turning to her, “get Marvin’s butt up here, pronto.”
She smiled. “My pleasure,” she said, and she was gone in a blur.
Everyone else watched her move with alarm. All of us were fast and strong, but there was something unnatural about the way Sandra could move when she wanted to. I figured she could probably kill anyone on the ship if she surprised them. They just wouldn’t be able to react before they were dead. Knowing this filled me with a strange mixture of pride and concern.
Just as we caught the last of Kwon’s scouts and went through the ring, Sandra returned with Marvin. She had ripped loose the control wires that went down to his dish. Like exposed earthworms, the nanite wires writhed, seeking to reconnect. His cameras whipped around anxiously. I felt a moment of worry. She had obviously taken my order as an opportunity to rough-up the robot. That hadn’t been my intent. She was still blaming him for Ning’s demise. I still wasn’t convinced she was right about that. After all, the entire ship had blown up a few minutes later. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Ning could have simply been knocked out during the attack and fallen into the medical pod. The microbials would have mistaken her for raw materials. I had to admit, however, I hadn’t asked Marvin about it. Maybe I was just avoiding a good reason to unplug the roaming little robot.
“Marvin,” I said, gaining the attention of several cameras. “I need you to translate for me now. Sandra, put him down and let him reconnect his systems.”
With poor manners, Sandra dumped him onto the deck plates. Marvin clattered and rattled, sorting himself out. One of his cameras fell to the floor, the supporting arm having evidently lost power. The nanites struggled to chain-up and lift it again.
I frowned at Sandra. She ignored me and stalked back to her station. Major Sarin refused to look at either Sandra or I, perhaps fearing another attack. Gorski stared with his mouth open, wondering if it was a bad idea to say anything. Major Welter still tapped at his flight controls, so absorbed he didn’t even seem to have noticed the drama.
Marvin’s fourth camera was moving again. He used it to track Sandra closely. I didn’t blame him. He had never given me an acknowledgement, of course. I hadn’t demanded a response.
“Marvin, are you ready to translate? Talk to me.”
“No,” he said. “I believe I’ve suffered internal injuries. I’m rearranging some of my neural chains. Shutting down.”
“What?” I asked. “Dammit.”
He shut down, his cameras all clattering to the floor at once.
“Sandra, did you have to do that?” I hissed.
“He’s a murderer. Are you afraid of him?”
“No,” I said, “I’m worried he won’t cooperate if he knows he’s been abused.”
“Oh, he knows about that. Don’t worry.”
I sighed. Major Sarin was smirking at her computer. Gorski was shaking his head and Major Welter was still absorbed in his control system. At least one of them was doing their job. I again told myself I’d have to get Sandra off my bridge in the near future. This was getting very unprofessional. I recalled reading stories about long spaceflights, how discipline was predicted to break down over time as people would never get a respite and could not maintain tight order in their lives for such a long, unbroken period. We’d never been all that disciplined in the first place, so I supposed the process was happening faster in our military organization. I’d have to work on that. We needed a big book of regulations.
Marvin regained consciousness just as we crossed the border between Alpha Centauri and the Solar System. We came in at a relative crawl. I watched the readouts and the metallic-relief situation table with great interest. There were the three cruisers, still in the same spot. I couldn’t tell if they were firing on something, or waiting, or what.
“Hope you’re feeling better, Marvin,” Sandra said as he turned on again and stood himself up.
I flashed a glare at her, and she backed off with pursed lips. “Earth may be under attack. Let’s pull it together, people,” I said.
Sandra looked at me and took a deep breath. She seemed to know the comment was directed at her.
“No external emissions,” I said. “Not even active sensory equipment. I don’t want these Macros to know who we are. As far as they are concerned, we are their fourth cruiser, coming to complete the diamond. Let’s steer toward them, helmsman.”
Welter did everything but press his knees on the control panel. With a slight shudder, the ship began to turn and change course, still accelerating. I was impressed. After having taken a crack at that control system, I knew this thing was harder to steer than a broken shopping cart.