Storming Heaven

Chapter Twenty-Five

“And then they just vanished?”

Tabitha Cunningham would have refused to believe it, had it not been confirmed by multiple sources. The War Cabinet had gathered to watch — they expected — Sparta’s last stand against the Killers. Instead, the Killer starship had stared at the human settlements and then opened a wormhole, leaving the humans behind. It was utterly out of character for the Killers; they came, they saw and they destroyed. They never ran, they never fled from human defences… until now.

“Yes,” Brent said, shortly. The Admiral looked relieved. “They just left us alone.”

His voice tightened suddenly. “It’s been seventy-two hours since they departed Sparta and, in that time, there had been no new attacks. Their blitzkrieg against the Community seems to have been terminated.”

The President leaned forward. “Terminated how?” She demanded. “Were they scared of us, or were they merely terminating their offensive anyway, even before we blew up one of their stars?”

“And were they actually trying to communicate?” Father Sigmund put in. “If we actually managed to bring them to the negotiation table, shouldn’t we be trying to follow up on the contact?”

“We’re uncertain,” Brent admitted. His own voice hardened. “If they were attempting to communicate, their communications systems were completely different to ours; if there were an intelligent signal in their emissions, we were unable to detect or understand it. Their communications systems may be completely incompatible with our own. We would have been able to talk to the Ghosts, if any were still alive, but the Killers are another story. The bottom line is that we simply do not know.

“We also don’t know what they’re doing now,” he continued. “Before their offensive began, we had starships tracking over five hundred of their vessels, keeping us updated on their movements. Most of those ships either turned on their shadows and destroyed them, or opened wormholes and left their companions eating their dust. We are currently only tracking a handful of their craft and we don’t know where the remainder have gone. The only thing we can say with any certainty is that they’re not in any system we have under constant observation.”

“And so we have a pause in the storm,” Patti said. The President looked grimly relieved; Tabitha rather felt for her. She had been President herself during the early years following the destruction of Earth, but Patti had presided over the worst series of disasters in Community history. The only bright side was that they had proof that the Killers were not invincible after all. “I assume that you have issued orders to avoid further confrontation, if possible?”

“Perhaps,” Brent said. “It may not be our choice. The Killers generally decide if they want to open hostilities, or not. The only real weapon we have is the supernova bomb and… well, stockpiles are limited.”

Tabitha nodded, keeping her expression blank. The onrushing Killer offensive had neglected the argument in favour of keeping the weapon a secret while building up a massive stockpile and hitting every Killer star system at once, but the end results didn’t sit well with her. They had slaughtered an entire star system and God alone knew how many Killers, but they had no way of knowing just how badly they’d hurt the Killers. Had they taken out ten percent of their capability, one percent, point one percent… or what? If the Killers had infested every gas giant in the Milky Way, they wouldn’t even notice the loss.

“We may have new weapons,” Administrator Arun Prabhu said. The Technical Faction representative leaned forward, his dark features twisted with an unholy glee. “The studies of the Killer starship — and the damaged starship recovered at the Cinder — have finally allowed us new insights into Killer technology and how to counter it. We even know more about them, I believe, than any other race ever learned. “We may even be able to equalise the odds a little.”

Tabitha sat up, seeing the same expressions on the other War Council members, those who chose to show their expressions. “You have developed new weapons?”

“We have developed several new weapons,” Arun agreed. “With your permission, I will summon two of my faction to brief you.”

A flicker of light announced the arrival of one of the Technical Faction. Tabitha accessed the underlying stream of information from Intelligence and discovered that he was called Doctor Tony Jones, an expert in alien biology and one of the unsung heroes of the Eden Project, which had attempted to recreate plants and animals from Earth. Tabitha wasn’t too sure of how she felt about the project — it struck her as an exercise in futility — but she had to admit that it had had unusual results. If humanity ever moved back to a planet-bound existence, they might be accompanied by neo-dogs, cats, horses and every other kind of lost animal. Tabitha herself wouldn’t have gone back to a planet — although, as a personality in the MassMind, it wasn’t possible to reincorporate herself — but she knew that millions of humans felt differently.

Tony Jones himself affected a baseline human appearance, marred only by the third eye set within his forehead. Tabitha had never approved of the fashion for body modification — she hoped that it was merely the product of cosmetic surgery, rather than being sequenced into his genes — but the Community granted its people considerable freedom to warp themselves at will. He wore a simple white lab tunic and long blonde hair, streaming all the way down to his ass. That, too, was the dictates of current fashion. They changed so rapidly in the material world.

“I have been directly involved with analysing the Killer remains found in the captured ship,” he began. A hologram appeared in front of him as he spoke. “The Killer entity — I am fairly sure that it was a single entity — was killed and badly disrupted in the boarding action, but enough remained for us to conduct a analysis. The Killers are very definitely a very different race to us, or any other known intelligence species. I believe that Doctor Handley’s theory that the Killers originated on a gas giant world is accurate…”

“That was proven by the attack on Cinder,” Brent put in, dryly. “We saw them fleeing the gas giant world.”

“Yes, Admiral,” Jones agreed. He cleared his throat and continued. “The Killer entity is perhaps the most complex form of life we have studied, yet at the same time it is remarkably simple, almost as simple as a human being. The Killer appeared to exist as a collection of discreet cells that were bonded together and merged with the technology onboard the vessel. Our current theory is that they would be capable of floating within the atmosphere of a gas giant — in their natural form, they would be balanced on the planet’s atmosphere, to use laymen’s terms — and somehow they managed to obtain access to space. We have various different computer models that suggest various different paths to high technology for them, but we have no idea — of course — which one they actually followed. What is fairly clear is that they would have far higher tolerances for radiation and gravity than humanity.

“Their separate cells appeared to perform different tasks, although we have not unravelled what each of the cells was originally intended to do,” he said. “We believe that the Killer intelligence is formed when enough of the cells come together to form a hive mind, suggesting that the Killers may both be individuals and part of an overall collective intelligence. Some of the cells show what we believe to be memory storage material — a RNA analogue, perhaps — but we have been unable to figure out how to read it out. It may be possible for a Killer mindset to exist within the MassMind — indeed; they may have blended their technology and biology far closer than humanity ever did, even the Spacers — and there is no real reason why they shouldn’t have one themselves. I have a hunch, however, that they won’t have invented one; they’re effectively immortal.”

Tabitha frowned. “They’re immortal?”

“We checked the age on some of the dead cells,” Jones confirmed. “The youngest was well over a million years old. I suspect that they actually repair or replenish themselves without the need for artificial aids; quite literally, they live on within their children, if children are the right term. They may reproduce by asexual division rather than a more human-style method.”

His voice darkened. “They may have other advantages over us,” he added. “They should be, in theory, considerably more intelligent than humans, perhaps even capable of low-level telepathy. I have a theory, however, that the Killer we killed had stagnated; it showed little reaction to the boarding party until it had been well and truly compromised. I doubt that a Defence Force starship would have just ignored a team of Footsoldiers breaking into the ship. My guess is that the Killer had never been boarded before and simply didn’t recognise the threat. I don’t think that the other Killers will make the same mistake.”

“And they’re on a crusade to wipe out all other forms of life,” Brent said. “I don’t suppose that you’ve unlocked that mystery?”

“No, Admiral,” Jones said. “I have been unable to do a direct memory read from the Killer cells, so I have no idea what drives their determination to destroy all other forms of life. I do think, however, that when they get an idea into their heads, it’s difficult for them to get rid of it. In that respect, they are very much like humans.”

“Which leads to another question,” Brent said. “How do we kill them?”

“Easily, if we could gain access to the Killer inside the ship,” Jones said. “They’re actually considerably more vulnerable than humans in their natural form. The trick is breaking through their technology, which is, I’m afraid, formidable.”

Arun chuckled as Jones faded out of existence. “The research program into the Killer biology is ongoing,” he said. “The technology, however…”

He made a grand gesture and Paula Handley materialised in the chamber. Tabitha smiled, remembering the young Technical who had accompanied the Footsoldiers into the Killer starship and struck the fatal blow that killed the Killer, capturing the ship. She looked tired — she’d probably had little sleep since being transferred to the Cinder, the star that had been blown up to harm the Killers — but surprisingly happy. Tabitha could only hope that that meant that she had good news.

“My researches confirmed one suspicion many of us had held about the Killer technology from the start,” Paula said, without preamble. “The Killers use gravity the way we use electricity; it powers their civilisation and provides the key to understanding their technology. They may not have warp drive, or the Anderson Drive, but they possess a technology fully equal or superior to our own. They simply never needed to discover other methods for themselves.”

She altered the display to show the captured Killer starship. “The core power source of this craft was a tiny black hole — and tiny is the appropriate word,” she continued, as the display opened out to reveal what the researchers had discovered. “The black hole was housed within the rear of the craft and kept under firm control by manipulation fields, preventing it from either expanding to consume the Killer starship or falling back into the quantum foam. I believe that the Killers created the black hole by applying their gravity technology to the fabric of space itself and, once they had an active black hole, transferred it to one of their ships. This may have been well over a thousand years ago. The Killer starship’s age has been confirmed as well over a million years. That one ship is older than all of human civilisation.

“That black hole provided enough power to actually warp the fabric of space itself. Their wormholes were nothing more than them exerting enough pressure on space-time to form a link between two separate locations — we suspect that the power levels rise astronomically, if you’ll pardon the pun, the further away the destination — and this may explain why they have no known extra-galactic settlements. Their more normal FTL drive is actually considerably less mundane; in simple terms, they actually lock onto the fabric of space and use it to pull themselves along. The power requirements are actually considerably less than warp drive. Given enough time, we could design a similar system and outfit our own starships with it.”

Her voice rose in enthusiasm as she continued. “We haven’t solved all the mysteries — far from it — but we have made considerable progress. Their indestructible hull material is actually rather clever, because it’s nothing of the sort. Somehow, they use their power supplies to bind the molecules in their hull together, even against very heavy bombardment. We might as well have been throwing rocks. This explains the power surges the Defence Force recorded when they engaged various Killer craft — and why it was possible to delay the Killers. They had to shift power from their drive to keep the hull intact.”

She hesitated. “This allowed us to deduce what happened to the starship at Cinder,” she added. “The force of the supernova created an implosion pattern in parts of the hull. The result was that the remaining indestructible parts of the hull channelled the radiation right into the heart of the starship… and, well, the Killer in command of the ship was killed almost instantly. I believe that the safety systems on the ship pushed the black hole back into the quantum foam before it could expand and destroy the ship. The Killers may intend to return to the Cinder and salvage what they can.”

“A concern,” Brent agreed. “Can we use what we’ve learned to harm them?”

“Yes,” Arun said, flatly. “We have already started the development of new weapons.”

He nodded to Paula, who stepped forward and continued. “We have studied their hull material carefully and concluded that it should be possible to duplicate the effects of the supernova on a very small scale,” she said. “The implosion bolts — as we have termed them — will cause low-level damage to the hull, preventing it from retaining its integrity. The result should be a series of hull breeches — and, given that we can fire hundreds of implosion bolts at them, the Killers should find it disastrous. The interior of the craft is tough, no doubt about it, but it doesn’t include the hull’s ability to stand off incoming fire. A hail of implosion bolts should allow us to confront them on more even terms.

“However, we have been unable to either duplicate or defend against their main weapon,” she said, grimly. “Once the Killers realise that they can be hurt, they will certainly attempt to wipe out the attacking starships as quickly as possible — and that is very quickly indeed. It will be a battering match; you’ll have to degrade them while they try to drive you away. It won’t be much of an equaliser.”

“It’ll be enough,” Brent said, grimly. “All we need is a suitable target.”

“The old problem again,” Tabitha agreed. “Do we pick on an isolated Killer starship, hoping to overwhelm it by sheer weight of numbers, or do we aim an attack directly into one of the star systems they’re redeveloping? If the latter, we risk disaster, yet with the former, we risk the Killers learning about our weapons…”

“It’s no risk,” Paula put in. “The Killers have their own FTL communications network.”

Tabitha scowled at her. She didn’t like being interrupted. “Are you sure of that?”

“Yes,” Paula said. She gave Arun a sharp look, and then turned back to the War Council. “It has long been theorised, even before Old Earth died, that it was possible to create wormholes and instantaneous communication links by creating two black holes that were perfectly synchronised. The Killers can create black holes at will. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to use them to communicate.”

“There’s also indirect evidence,” Brent said. “The Killers reacted to the capture of one of their starships far faster than they could have if they lacked FTL capability.”

“Yes, Admiral,” Paula said, “and I believe that we can use that to our advantage.”

Tabitha smiled inwardly. Paula was presuming to dictate strategy to them?

“Go on,” Brent said, dryly. If he were offended, he didn’t show it. It was a surprising response, but perhaps it made sense. Standard military tactics were useless against the Killers, who brushed entire fleets of starships away as if they were flies. “How can we use their black hole network against them?”

“Simple,” Paula said. She shot Arun a second glance. “We create a black hole of our own and use it to hack into their communications network.”

Arun glared at her icily. “The Committee decided that any large-scale experiments with gravity generation would attract the Killers,” he said. Tabitha privately suspected that he was already writing out a disciplinary report in his head. Paula had crossed a line. “The ban on such experimentation was put in place for good reason.”

Tabitha kept her face blank, despite the tidal wave of laughter that threatened to burst out of her lips. Paula was hoping to manipulate the War Council into dropping the ban, a… cheeky attempt, and yet she might just be right. God knew the human race needed to do whatever was required to beat the Killers and end the fighting. If it was possible to link into the Killer network…

“And if it does attract the Killers?” Brent asked. “What then?”

Paula smiled. “You refit the Defence Force with the new weapons and have it sitting on top of the black hole,” she said. “If the Killers come to the system, they’ll run right into a trap.”

“And maybe the mice will manage to bell the cat,” Brent said, with a half smile. “I like it.”

He looked around at the other faces. “Shall we vote?”