His gaze fell on Ellertson, who shook his head. “Apart from the Spacer and a handful of others, the researchers were generally wearing civilian-grade life-support gear, not military-grade systems. They have roughly four days before they run out of atmosphere, assuming that the systems are still in working order. The Killers drained power, however, from every starship on the hull, so they may have done the same to the researchers. If that is the case, sir, they’re dead — particularly the Spacer. He could not survive without power in his systems.”
“Maybe not,” Paula said, thoughtfully. “I believe that their power-draining system was really part of their hull; they were diverting power from every non-essential system to the drives, weapons and wormhole generator. The induction field might not have been calibrated to register the presence of outside starships clinging on like limpets to the hull.”
“And, in any case, it made a hell of a weapon,” Ellertson added. “The scientists didn’t stand a chance.”
“It is possible that it was the presence of the Spacer who triggered the whole incident,” Paula added. Brent stared at her in surprise. The Killers never paid attention to individual humans. “The Spacers are humans and technology in fusion; the Killer starships are a perfect fusion between Killer biological cells and their spacecraft. They may have been fascinated — rather like us watching some of the creatures under the icy moon of Jupiter developing tools — and snatched the Spacer for further study.”
“Perhaps,” Chiyo99 agreed. “They did snatch me, after all.”
Brent sat back in his chair and pulled up a chart. A handful of wrecked Killer starships had been captured in various states and all had been moved to different locations. The most useful one, captured at Shiva, was largely intact, apart from the damage inflicted by the implosion bolts and subsequent pounding. The Killer was dead, it seemed, yet was that actually true?
He outlined his fears slowly. “There are, as you know, other sites examining Killer technology,” he said. “Are we going to face the same problem again, perhaps more than once? The researchers have enough problems without worrying if their subject is going to come to life and suddenly start to kill them.”
“Maybe,” Paula said. She frowned, his face becoming distracted as she scanned the reports from the other sites. “I believe that the ship captured at Shiva has lost power completely, or at least that’s what the reports say, but I cannot advise you to ignore the possible danger. I would suggest that you ordered the researchers to probe the starship’s neural net and try and determine if power is still trickling through parts of the system.”
“You could also advise them to take antimatter bombs along with them,” Ellertson added. “They would need time to generate an absorbing field to prevent the bomb from detonating…”
“They don’t prevent the bomb from detonating,” Paula said, pedantically. “They absorb the power before it can do any damage.”
“Then why don’t they just absorb everything we throw at them?” Ellertson asked. “It makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Paula countered. “They couldn’t absorb everything or they’d cripple themselves and render the hull useless. They probably have a power threshold; anything beyond a certain level gets drained into the power reserves, or just dropped into a black hole.”
She turned to face Brent. “I can give you no other advice,” she said, shortly. “If you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
Brent smiled, rather dryly. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll give you a call if I need further advice or assistance.”
Her hologram blinked out of existence. “Captain Ellertson,” Brent said, “you are to complete the rescue and recovery missions, and then prepare to wrap up the Star’s End operation completely. There’s no point in keeping the station in existence now the Killers know about it — or they will when our lost child returns home — and there’s nothing there worth fighting for. Let them devastate empty asteroids if they must.”
“Yes, sir,” Ellertson said.
“Good,” Brent said. “Once your task is complete, report to Admiral Hawser. There will be other missions for your attack wing to perform. Dismissed.”
Brent’s image vanished as well, leaving Brent staring at Chiyo99. “Do you believe that the Spacer did cause the ship to come alive?”
“I did not believe it the first time,” Chiyo99 pointed out. “I have heard nothing to change my opinion. Have you considered the other matter?”
Brent winced, rubbing his eyes and wishing for sleep. It had been hours before someone had compared the list of Community settlements to Killer colonies and realised that one of the Killer settlements was within the Solar System, deep within Saturn’s gaseous atmosphere. There might be smaller settlements on Jupiter, Uranus or even Neptune, although no one was quite sure why the Killers chose some gas giants and ignored others. The best anyone had been able to suggest was that perhaps they didn’t like the weather. Jupiter did have one of the largest storm formations in the galaxy — the Great Red Spot.
It reminded him of how different life had to be for the Killers, even before Chiyo99 had confirmed many of their suspicions. The Killers might have settled Saturn before humanity learned to make fire — it would be too much a coincidence if it was their homeworld, although no one had been able to turn up a likely candidate and it was possible that even the Killers no longer knew — and, in their timeless world, had simply never sent starships to the system before they destroyed Earth. Humanity might well have missed a starship arriving in the system until telescopes were invented; hell, Galileo and his contemporaries might have seen a Killer starship, and then merely misidentified it. Humanity might even have missed them until they were establishing settlements on Saturn’s moons and started thinking about mining Jupiter and Saturn for fuel. It wasn’t that long, not on a galactic scale.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. The last thing he wanted to do was destroy the Sol System. Earth might be a wreck, but it was humanity’s own homeworld and special to the entire race. One day, it might even be possible to terraform it and return to the planet. “I think that that’s something that will have to be discussed by the War Council.”
He turned away from her, thinking hard. They could use another fission weapon on Saturn, but that would devastate the moons and the rings, part of humanity’s heritage. It was more important to think about the millions of humans who still lived in the Sol System, the humans who would resent being ordered out, or watching as their star system was devastated. Yet, he knew, if the war continued, they would have to destroy entire star systems in order to save them… and if they couldn’t evacuate the population first, they would die in fire.
Who needs the Killers? He thought, grimly. We can slaughter ourselves in job lots without any help from the bastards.
“Sir?” Chiyo99 asked. “What are you…?”
The sound of the alarm cut her off. “Admiral, we have four wormholes opening within fifty thousand kilometres,” Captain Waianae’s voice said. “You have to see this.”
Brent grabbed his jacket and raced to the command centre, leaving Chiyo99 behind. She would have to join the other Defence Force personalities in preparing to abandon the asteroid, or take her chances by remaining in the asteroid’s processors, where she might die if the Killers turned their weapons on Sparta. Brent had been preparing for their return after they buzzed Sparta weeks ago — it felt like years — but now that he was confronted by their return, he felt cold. Sparta was armed to the teeth, yet the Killers were terrifyingly powerful. The battle might not end well.