Earth Song: Twilight Serenade Read online

  “Your logic does not register.”

  “That’s because you are a machine.” It had no reply to that. “Can you administer a light pain killer… you know, down there?”

  “I am sorry, the medical intelligence does not understand this request.”

  “My vagina, damn it!”

  “Yes,” the machine intelligence responded, almost managing to sound abashed. “I will administer a level two anesthetic to your reproductive organs. If this is insufficient, communicate your distress and it will be increased.”

  “I want you to listen to this order and comply. I will be doing plenty of screaming in the next few minutes,” she said, then demonstrated as another contraction hit like a thunderbolt. “This is normal for human females, do you understand? It is normal! You will not knock me out or when I wake up I will disassemble this sick bay, find your electronic brain, and rip it to pieces with my bare, fucking, hands!”

  She was fully aware that as the pain built she sounded more and more shrill, and simply didn’t care. If this was all she had left of her husband, she would be awake to see him or her born if it was the last thing she did.

  “That is against my ethical programming.”

  “How does being dismembered by a pissed off mother align with your ethical programming?”

  “Your orders will be carried out.”

  Minu felt the cold prick of a needle and the pain slowly took a not overly large step away. She panted and gasped in relief and the bed extruded scanning arms that swept all over her body, spending an extra moment over her head, heart, and then swirling around her distended belly.

  “Your cervix is dilated five centimeters, and contractions are less than five minutes apart. Delivery should take place in approximately two hours.”

  “Is that all?” she asked as she felt the beginnings of another contraction. Worse, her hips hurt and she had to take a crap. “This labor thing sucks!”

  The first cruiser was torn apart by internal explosions as the second one dodged as best it could and spun desperately to bring fresh shields to bear. Unlike the Kaatan, its shield projectors couldn’t be aligned in almost any direction.

  The remainder of the enemy fleet – a huge dreadnought, two heavy cruisers, and four more destroyers – came into the threat bubble and started releasing waves of missiles. Lilith snorted in derision of their terrible tactics. They should have come in as a unified formation. The cruisers were shielding for the destroyers as they rained death toward her, the dreadnought hanging back. It was called the “Strong Screen” tactic.

  That tactic called for heavy fighter support on the flanks, but they’d foolishly spent their fighters early without any support. Lilith sent the Eseel out to either side where their relatively light weapons began to intercept the missile storm, blunting the heavy attack. Half of their number already neutralized, Lilith’s point defenses chewed almost all the remainder up. A total of two missiles hit her shields; one a glancing blow and the other a solid impact. The ship shuddered from the blow but she shunted the temporarily spent shields to a quadrant not in the threat bubble. The results of the attack was useless against her.

  “Is this the best you have?” Lilith growled.

  The Fiisk was catching up to Lilith after she’d slowed to begin the engagement. As it drew closer, it turned to provide more access to its heavier bombardment weapons and poured energy fire into the lead screening cruiser. Their mission to blunt the missile storm done, the two Eseel harassed the retreating cruiser and managed to inflict some damage until the dreadnought sent a wave of missiles after them. The two gunboats darted away, nearly as fast as the pursuing missiles which were themselves wiped away by the Kaatan’s point defenses.

  The harried cruiser was showing signs of weakening and the second one drew closer to aid it, and Lilith leaped at the opening. The Kaatan tore forward, past the two screening cruisers. The one cruiser that had just managed to retreat past the screening ships was dumping energy, most of its screens recycling. The Kaatan caught it completely unaware and nearly cut it in two.

  Lilith snarled in triumph as she pummeled the previously safe destroyers, making the survivors break formation and try to disengage, then with a snarl she came about and went for the prize. The dreadnought lay exposed like a welcome feast.

  “You must attempt to moderate your breathing,” the medical intelligence advised as a pair of probes with curved spoon-like endings penetrated her and began to spread Minu’s birth canal in ways she was certain it was not designed to be spread.

  “You breathe, damn you!” she barked and tried to climb backwards out of the bed. A restraining field came alive and she might as well have been glued to the couch. She cursed and swore at the machine, all the time knowing in the back of her mind that the last thing she needed to do was go raging around the medical bay with a baby hanging out of her crotch. She was suddenly struck with the thought that maybe the way Lilith was born wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

  “I do not breathe because I am not a living biological, but if you do not breathe your blood oxygen levels will drop to the point that you will lose consciousness, something that you have threatened me with bodily harm should it occur, so I would appreciate it if you would breathe more?”

  She almost chuckled at the machine’s fear for its own safety. The pain was intense, even with the medicine that had been administered. The temptation to hold her breath and push was almost unbearable. Despite it, she lay back, closed her eyes and breathed hard and deep. It actually helped a little. She felt little mechanical arms wiping sweat from her forehead.

  “Oh shit,” she moaned as another contraction took hold of her. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiiiit!” The ship shuddered from more weapons fire and she screamed.

  The Fiisk remained closer to the star system, several light seconds behind as the Kaatan tore into the T’Chillen dreadnought like a child into a birthday gift. After the first raking pass Lilith began to come around for the second one. Something tingled her senses. This is a dreadnought and this is the best it can do?

  She was committed to the second run, dodging intermittent return fire from the hulking ship. It was rolling, trying frantically to bring fresh shields to bear when dozens of new targets began appearing.

  “A quantum gateway has been generated,” the Fiisk CI announced.

  For the first time in combat, Lilith was taken completely off guard. “What is a quantum gateway?!”

  “The quantum gateway was a tactic employed by the enemy near the end of the Great War. It factored into our defeat in most engagements. The enemy learned how to make a gateway, similar in ways to our tactical jumps, and transport vast fleet elements seemingly wherever they wished. The home worlds were lost to a series of raids using this technology, and the war was considered unwinnable.”

  The tactical displays flashed as ship after ship popped out of nowhere and were added to the threat bubble until twenty-seven more ships were bearing down on them. Four dreadnoughts, six cruisers, two carriers, and fifteen destroyers. Even after the ships passed through, the gateway also remained open.

  She didn’t need the computers help to know the tactical assessment. The quantum gateway had appeared only one light second away. There was only two destroyers and two cruisers behind her, but the dreadnought was now beginning to pour fire at her, no longer playing easy. It was a well laid trap, and she was cut off from retreat.

  “If I am to die, it shall not be an easy death,” she said and spent flights of missiles with wanton abandon carving open the shields of the dreadnought. Laid bare, she combined her main A-Paws and ravaged the dreadnought before coming about and leaping towards the new enemies.

  The fleet was just forming as the last of the destroyers appeared through the quantum gateway. The carriers started to disgorge fighters, and Lilith set upon them. The last thing the huge combined fleet of Tanam and T’Chillen ships expected was for the sole Kaatan ship of the line to attack. Lilith launched all twenty of her remaining Sub-C
kinetic impactors, ten to each carrier. The enemy ships tried to raise shields and one even managed to stop two of the missiles. It wasn’t enough. Both carriers were ripped to pieces and turned into spinning balls of energetic fire. A trio of T’Chillen escort destroyers were caught in the conflagration and perished as well.

  The Kaatan was hit a dozen times from the main energy batteries of the new dreadnoughts and cruisers as Lilith bit her lip and desperately dodged. “If I can just figure out which one is the command ship,” she thought hard and analyzed their patterns. The Kaatan danced on a knife edge of oblivion as the enemy fleet poured fire at her.

  The ship shuddered and lurched as Minu snarled and bore down from the last contraction. The medical intelligence said she was dilated to fifteen centimeters and almost ready to deliver. She’d been terrified for a few minutes as the pain made it impossible to feel the baby move any more until the medical intelligence reassured her. “The baby is doing fine. But you are showing extreme signs of fatigue.”

  “I haven’t… been sleeping… well,” she panted out after the contraction stopped. “I can sleep… later.”

  “If you were to just allow me to—”

  “I said no, and I mean no!”

  “Very well.”

  Less than a minute later she almost hovered off the table in agony and regretted her decision. The next contraction felt like her uterus was going to explode and throw out a geyser of lava.

  The ship rocked, hard this time, and the lights in the medical bay flickered just as the contraction rose to a crescendo. In the part of her mind not drenched in endorphins and awash in pain, little was of concern except the contraction that never seemed to end. The part of her mind that was still conscious wondered if she would give birth, only to die with her new baby.

  The carriers were no longer a concern, but the volume of fire from the other ships was… considerable. Unable to easily withdraw, Lilith continued doing what had worked so far. She did the unthinkable and dove into the midst of the still organizing multi-species fleet and began to sew mayhem.

  She raked A-Paws fire down the length of a cruiser, its shields flashing brilliant white and failing almost instantly from the intense fire. She rolled away as the cruiser began to explode and threaded right down the center of a destroyer formation.

  The T’Chillen destroyers panicked as the predatory Kaatan flashed between them, firing close-in weapons as it raced through. None of them noticed that she was slowing as she passed, almost allowing them time to bring weapons to bear. As the destroyers began to engage her, she surged ahead once more. Some shots hit the darting ship of the line, many more missed. As the destroyers unleashed a hail of missiles, Lilith flashed her ECM systems and sent the missiles careening out of control. Dozens of them hit their fellow ships. Already weakened from the Kaatan’s passing fire, fratricide claimed more destroyers.

  She’d destroyed many ships and damaged many more, yet the enemy was so numerous and she was only one with the support of the Fiisk. If she couldn’t somehow disengage, the outcome was guaranteed.

  A shipkiller caught her a glancing blow, one of a dozen launched by the destroyers she’d just savaged. As she struggled to realign her quickly diminishing reserve of shields a stray close-in defense particle beam fired from an all but dead cruiser penetrated the hole. Lilith cried out in pain as the beam drilled a hole through her left lower flank armor and penetrated two decks inboard before exploding a secondary weapons EPC bank.

  Automated systems struggled to keep power levels normal as she was forced to use more and more of her dwindling reserves just to keep shields operational. As her offensive fire slowed, fell to a trickle, and then stopped entirely the enemy realized they were succeeding and redoubled their efforts.

  Lilith tried to see if she could hurry the bots that were tasked with reloading the launchers. With power so dangerously low, it was all she had offensively remaining in her arsenal. They worked on fixed controls, moving ammunition carefully and methodically. Just one missile detonation within the armored hull…

  “I will maneuver to enter the main threat bubble.” It was the Combat Intelligence of the Fiisk which was still more than a light second back, closer to the maelstrom of Dervish. “With my additional firepower—”

  “My fate will be forestalled by another minute or two,” Lilith finished for it. “You will prepare to withdraw down into the star’s effect area. This will provide considerable protection as any enemy ships will be already weakened and much easier targets.”

  “You will be destroyed.”

  “I will enact a very high price for my death,” Lilith assured the computer. She was about to plot a surely suicidal attack on the pair of T’Chillen dreadnoughts when the Combat Intelligence spoke up again.

  “Stand by.”

  I can’t for more than a few seconds, Lilith thought, barely managing to avoid some direct and devastating fire from the aforementioned dreadnoughts.

  “New signals arriving.”

  “The quantum gates again?”

  “No,” the other program said, “this is a tactical drive.”

  “What?” she gasped and spun her sensors to the bearing the other ship’s program told her to look. There was indeed a tactical drive distortion forming. And a moment later a ship emerged.

  A ship she’d seen once before slid through the tactical jump portal. A nearly kilometer long central hub holding a dozen oversized Kaatan. As she watched in fascination the battle seemed to almost pause while the enemy also considered this new arrival. The ship was identical to the one that had appeared months before.

  Once it had glided its long bulk completely clear of the gateway, the dozen riders all smoothly detached and as one created a wedge formation, and rocketed into the midst of the now completely disorganized enemy host.

  “I don’t know who they are,” Lilith said to her other ship CI, “but they’re on our side.”

  “They have engaged the T’Chillen and Mok-Tok forces.”

  Now with breathing space, Lilith split her concentration between damage control, maneuvering, and observation of the new arrivals. She continued to add to the previous evaluations of the jump rider. Tactical information was streaming on them including design elements and armament. Each was at least twice the size of the Kaatan, with a flatter, almost wing-like, look to its ball section. But for all that size, it appeared more lightly armed and with weaponry arrayed mostly forward. It did, however, sport considerably more powerful shielding.

  “Why so large if not to hold more firepower?” she wondered as the wedge of twelve super-Kaatans literally obliterated first one, then another T’Chillen dreadnought. A trio of cruisers combined their fire to stagger one of the new arrivals only for them to respond as one, spinning and shifting their formation to move the imperiled member to the center where it was no longer under fire.

  “They’re movements are mathematically perfect,” the Fiisk CI noted.

  “Perhaps they are all AI, like yourself.”

  “Their management suggests each of the oversized Kaatan may actually have a CI.”

  Lilith had no comment to that.

  Even with their surprise and losses inflicted, the new arrivals were still outnumbered and outgunned. The enemy fleet finally overcame the shock and began to work as a unit, trying to winnow down their adversaries. Again and again the tight precise formation shifted and maneuvered. They were unwilling to lose even one of their number, and that limited their tactics.

  Then, right on schedule, the Ibeen that was due appeared at the extreme range of Lilith’s sensors. A pair of T’Chillen destroyers broke off to engage the new enemy. The approaching transport was completely unaware it was stumbling into the biggest fleet battle the galaxy had seen in hundreds of thousands of years.

  Her systems stabilized, overloaded shields dumping energy into space, and magazines nearly reloaded, Lilith hovered in indecision. The Fiisk was holding back, almost at the edge of Dervish’s area of effect, mostly safe. But if s
he moved to protect the Ibeen, it would be vulnerable to the swarming battle fleet, even with this mysterious assistance they’d received.

  Then she received a text transmission in English. “Go and help the transport.” And without further thought, she swung around and fell on the two destroyers with a flurry of shipkillers.

  Minu gasped and tried to keep from losing consciousness as the contraction finally ended. It had seemed to go on and on forever. Every muscle in her lower body contracting with one purpose, to expel the little intruder who’d over stayed its welcome.

  She passed fecal matter more than once, something that distressed her more than a little but her robot attendants not at all. “This is normal,” they informed her.

  “You appear to have dilated sufficiently,” the MI told her, “the baby has begun to move downward. It is almost over.”

  The pair of destroyers tried to fight, and they died. Lilith swept then aside with contemptible ease and moved to intercept the Ibeen, warning its Beezer crew of what was happening. She didn’t tell them to flee, that would be even more dangerous. Instead she had it fall into a defensive position a little more than a light minute outside the threat bubble. Now prepared, its nominal defenses would protect it for a short period of time, and Lilith was freed back up to rejoin the fight.

  Another cruiser and a destroyer had fallen victims to the strange battle riders as Lilith evaluated the situation. However the new ships were now almost completely defensive. Their armaments were completely energy based, and with shields badly depleted they were unable to spare the energy to attack.

  The dreadnought which Lilith had originally bypassed to attack the newer arrivals was pouring fire into the battle riders, reeling them and finally inflicted some real damage, when it suddenly jerked, stopped firing, and exploded spectacularly.