“Our system boasts a couple of good-sized gas giants a hop, skip, and a tachyspace jump farther out from the sun. The largest is escorted by some satellites as big as the one we’re currently orbiting. Maybe confuse the Enemy’s long-range detectors, what? It puts out a good bit of active distorting energy.”
“You little creatures really are the soul of presumption.” The Drex paused. “I note the world you mention. Repositioning there could be potentially efficacious. Perhaps the opportunity will arise for you to again offer additional advice of a local military nature.”
The starfield outside pitched extravagantly. Iranaputra put a hand on Heath’s arm.
“Are you all right, my friend?”
The librarian was sweating profusely. “Listen, Vic, bluffing you and the others was one thing. I do think I may be getting in over my head here.”
Iranaputra smiled reassuringly. “Just go with who you wanted to be. It may help all of us keep our heads.”
Heath nodded and essayed a wan smile, using a handkerchief to mop at his brow and dry his monocle.
“Anything we can do to help?” Shimoda cupped his hands to his mouth as he shouted upward.
Hawkins grabbed his friend. “Hey, speak for yourself. I’m retired.”
The Drex glanced down at him. “What?”
“I asked if we could be of assistance. Are there any instruments we can monitor? Any station we can occupy?”
“The one who calls herself Ashili was true: you are endlessly entertaining. There is nothing you can do, though it is adorable of you to offer. The very notion amuses me and lightens my mind.” It looked back to the small holos which floated in the air before it. “You could sooner be companions to the Drex than to the Enemy. None can be friends to the Enemy.”
“You hate them so,” Iranaputra observed. “Are they truly so dreadful?”
“In attitude evil beyond your comprehension, in shape as different from me as I am from you, a thousand times more repulsive than you can imagine. They murder and destroy without thought, without meaning, without emotion. Destruction is their whole reason for being, which they render as slow and painful as possible.”
“Sounds rather revolting, what?” Heath murmured.
“Boy, that’s sure not us,” said Hawkins quickly. “We’re a peaceful folk.”
“As the recent presence of hundreds of warships in this system has so aptly demonstrated,” the Drex commented drily.
“Recent?” Ashili and Heath exchanged a look.
“Most, though not all, have departed. A few remain.”
“People were afraid.” Gelmann could only be silenced for so long. “The size of your ship intimidated them.”
“As my size intimidates you?”
“Well, actually, no. I admit you took me a little aback at first. Kind of like my Uncle Izzy used to when I was a little girl. But it’s okay now. I’m used to you. You can’t judge someone by their size, whether they’re twice or ten times as big as you. You shouldn’t mind my saying so already, but a person’s a person.”
“What a bizarre notion. You are a very strange species.” A tentacle dipped into a holo and stirred the celestial contents. “The Enemy comes.” Light streaked the vaulting walls, coruscated across the ceiling, illuminated portions of the floor. It was as if they stood inside a monstrous gemstone lit from outside by dozens of spotlights. They found themselves squinting or covering their eyes against intense bursts of brightness.
“A million years asleep,” the Drex proclaimed. Or maybe it was just murmuring aloud to itself and the translating instrumentation automatically picked it up. “The ship is finally coming alive.”
“This enemy,” Shimoda wondered, “has it ever visited this section of space before?”
“Not to my knowledge,” the Drex replied. “That was one reason why it was decided to conceal the ship on your world. All went as planned.”
“Except for perhaps something of a time-delay error in your reactivation?” Iranaputra suggested.
“You could say that.”
Sobran sat deep in thought in his command chair, trying not to imagine the possible fate of the Homeworld he and Hiroshigi and the others had abandoned in their haste to return to their own systems. His depressed reverie was interrupted by the anxious face of his chief communications officer.
“Report just in from far-flung commercial vessels and automatic stations, Admiral. The advance alien fleet is breaking up.”
Sobran frowned and sat straighter in his chair. “What do you mean, breaking up?”
“Dispersing. Going off in different directions. As best we can determine from the admittedly sparse information that’s come in so far, some are heading toward Keiretsu-controlled worlds, some toward the Victoria League, even some toward the federation. They’re fragmenting into smaller and smaller groups.”
Sobran’s expression tightened. “That means we have a chance to defeat them. The larger fleets can concentrate on defending their own systems, and when these creatures are defeated there, we can move on to help the lesser leagues. These creatures are committing tactical suicide.”
“Yes, sir. That seems to be the consensus. It’s the last thing you’d expect them to do.”
“Either they haven’t a clue what they’re doing,” Sobran cautioned, retrenching mentally, “or else they have reason to be confident of their strategy. What I don’t understand is why the abrupt interest in other worlds when the artifact which presumably drew them here remains in the Sol system? What could possibly have so radically diverted their attention?”
“If they truly constitute an advance force, sir,” said his second-in-command from nearby, “they may be dispersing to make sure there are no other artifacts in the vicinity. Or that there are. Remember, we still don’t know if they’re allies or enemies of the artifact.”
“Maybe. But they’ve apparently managed to detect the one near Jupiter at this distance. Why the sudden need to break formation to search? No, it doesn’t add up.”
A second-level analyst spoke up hesitantly. “I should say that they’ve been distracted by something more important to them.” Everyone, including the admiral, eyed her blankly.
XXI
The first contact occurred in the atmosphere above Daibatsume, an important manufacturing world of the Keiretsu. Two space-capable police craft rose to confront the half dozen approaching alien vessels. The officer in charge, one Captain Masa Suhkret, watched and waited nervously, relying on ground control for up-to-the-minute information. He was a municipal police officer, not a soldier, and the situation in which he presently found himself made him extremely uneasy. For lack of experience he held back, waiting for the aliens to make the first move. It turned out to be exactly the right thing to do.
