The Celaran Refuge (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 8), Page 3

  Telisa and Lee found Cilreth where she worked deeper in the ship. Cilreth showed Lee where she sat in her chair, hooked into the ship’s network with many artificial inputs.

  Telisa explained.

  “Terrans can route artificial signals into our nerves, replacing our natural senses. We can create artificial worlds for our minds to live in. Do Celarans also do this?”

  “As the light feeds the vines, we can make our own vines in our heads. They serve as tools to plan what to do before it is time to act.”

  “We train in our virtual worlds too. Terrans also like to play there.”

  “The green vines await us on a bright day and that is where we go to play. There is no reason to play in our heads.”

  “Really? In a virtual world you can do anything you want without consequences,” Telisa persisted.

  “Star overhead and open skies await, the Celarans do what they wish every day! We fly and we wonder and we build. Why do anything else?”

  So they are satisfied with their natural lives? No virtual entertainment for Celarans... that’s a huge difference between us.

  “Let me show you our gravity spinner,” Telisa said. “I suspect it must be very similar to those your ships use.”

  Chapter 3

  Magnus watched the jungle from the top of a support spike swathed in vines. On this planet, the giant tusk-like structures had a slightly greenish tinge to them, perhaps because of some impurity in the local source materials. Magnus recalled the PIT team knew these spikes were manufactured, but the Celaran homeworld probably had some natural equivalent. Below him, vines as thick as his torso wrapped around the spike and grew off in all directions.

  He stared to the east, ignoring the alien bugs and tiny flyers that crawled and glided around him.

  There.

  In the distance, metal glinted.

  Magnus dispatched an attendant to travel out toward the source of the reflection and extend the range of his link until he saw Space Force services show up. He broadcast his location through the attendant and waited. Ten minutes later, he saw a Space Force officer on his tactical. The man moved along the web of vines, struggling to reach Magnus’s perch. Magnus saw the officer directly as he ascended the last vine: a dark-skinned man in a military skinsuit. The green circle of the UNSF was on each of his shoulder sleeves. The man looked fit, though he moved uncertainly over the vines.

  The officer approached Magnus and stopped to give a salute.

  “Colonel Agrawal,” Magnus said.

  “Yessir!” Agrawal said, remaining at attention.

  Magnus stood, taken aback.

  What’s this? Oh, right. Our honorary ranks.

  “I’m ex-space force, Colonel, and I never outranked you,” Magnus said carefully, returning the salute.

  “Sir, I’m pleased to inform you that Ambassador Shiny has given the PIT team members very high rank in the Space Force,” Agrawal said. He still stood at attention.

  Magnus nodded.

  It’s just as Telisa said they treated her. I have power now. Strange.

  “You may relax, Colonel. I see you’ve brought your assault unit with you.”

  “Yes, sir. We’re here to help in any way possible. Admiral Sager thought it best we come planetside, given the possibility of more Destroyer attacks. We aren’t much help stuck in the Midway, but in this jungle, I think we could put up a hell of a fight.”

  Agrawal’s tone said more than that: We’ll kick some Destroyer ass.

  The raw elan reminded Magnus of his time in the Space Force. He felt a strange appreciation for Agrawal’s enthusiasm that made him want to smile.

  When I was a grunt, saying such things felt very different than being a commander and hearing it from a subordinate.

  “How many machines do you have? What types?”

  “Thirty-two Stork EXM-39s and sixty-four Hornet flight reconnaissance vehicles of various models. Shall I show you?”

  “I’d like that, yes,” Magnus said. He was not familiar with the weapons Agrawal mentioned—which did not surprise him given his long absence from the Force.

  Agrawal called some of his machines over. An eagle-sized flyer shot out from among the vine leaves beyond and slowed to a hover before them. It was a scout machine formed by the union of two round aerofan covers on either side of a missile-shaped fuselage.

  “This is a Hornet,” Agrawal said. “Its mission is scouting and spotting. The power ring is inside the structural member that holds those fans together. The central tube contains thirty droppable sensor modules and a laser countermeasure package.”

  In the distance, Magnus saw an excited Celaran flying near one of the Hornets. The machine circled, trying to avoid the Celaran which seemed to be playfully chasing it.

  “I hope you have all our friendlies on a tight no-fire list,” Magnus said, eyeing the interaction.

  “We do, sir. In fact, the entire unit is not authorized to fire at all without our go-ahead. I figured we should make sure there would be no incidents.”

  “Good. I’ll send you our complete list of Celaran signatures and Destroyer ones, too, so we can be ready in case something happens soon.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Another, larger machine picked its way through the chaotic vines nearby. It walked into view and stopped. The machine looked like a four-legged spider. The legs emerged first upward from the pill-shaped body, then angled back down toward the ground at two joints on each leg. The compact body was smaller than a land car, which the legs held two meters above the surface. From his position high on the vine, Magnus saw a flat laser turret on the top. Two projectile barrels protruded slightly from the underside. Other than the projectile barrels, the machine did not seem to have any front or back, just four legs equidistant around the central turret.

  “This is a Stork,” Agrawal said. “It’s light and mobile, even in this forest. It’s got a serious power ring, feeding the primary weapon—this laser mount on the top—with a 360-degree field of fire. Up close, it relies on the secondary weapons: twin cannons, loaded with armor piercing rounds. The cannons are very deadly at close range, but the magazine capacity is limited to just ten rounds for each cannon. That’s still twenty kills, even against the most heavily armored targets.”

  Magnus furrowed his brows.

  “It looks like a spider... why are they called Storks?”

  Agrawal nodded. The machine behind him lifted upward on its legs. The double-jointed legs straightened and angled downwards until the spider stance turned into a tall four-legged tower, bringing the flat laser turret on top to an altitude of twenty meters above its perch. Now Magnus could see the name making more sense—it was because of the long legs.

  “The legs will typically deploy the turret just under cover. When a target is spotted by one of the Hornets, the weapon will pop out for less than a second to deliver a high-power laser strike, then drop back under cover. These machines were designed to operate in environments with a lot of clutter, like the cityscapes back home, or forests like this place.”

  “Weaknesses?”

  “Even a massive power ring like this one can only source three full-power shots before a five-minute recharge time for the fourth and subsequent shots. Armor is negligible, small arms protection only. Much less effective without the Hornets to spot for it.”

  Magnus felt envious. This war machine before him could likely wipe out his entire squadron of soldier-bots.

  “Two things come to mind,” Magnus said. “First of all, we need to integrate the information retrieved by our Vovokan attendants into your tactical maps. Trust me, these attendants are superior to the Hornets. With this integration, we’ll be better than doubling your spotting capacity and survivability.”

  “Yes, sir,” Agrawal said, eyeing the attendants orbiting Magnus.

  “Secondly, I have about fifty PIT robots here. They’re nothing compared to your unit, but we can use them as expendables. The robots I deployed can be our cannon fodder. They
can draw enemy fire and encourage the enemy to reveal themselves, then these Storks can finish them off.”

  “Yes, sir. Anything else, sir?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. Stand by,” Magnus said. He opened a private channel to Cilreth. “Cilreth, would you please send our battle sphere pals over to my location? I want to make sure the Midway’s machines have their signatures on a friendlies list.”

  “Sure thing.”

  “Thanks.”

  Magnus and Colonel Agrawal waited patiently. Agrawal looked all around, drinking in the planet. Was it a display of curiosity or dutiful observation of a potential battle site? Magnus wished he knew, to better understand the Colonel.

  After a few minutes, the machine towering over them became alarmed. Its turret moved to another facing, toward the Iridar.

  “Three car-sized silver spheres should be approaching,” Magnus said. “Put them on the friendlies list of all your machines, Colonel.”

  The massive spheres came floating through the vines toward Magnus and Colonel Agrawal. The Colonel’s eyes showed surprise. Magnus enjoyed it a bit more than he should have. He smiled.

  “Yes, that’s them. Vovokan battle spheres. You’re familiar with their capabilities?”

  “Yes. I’ve studied what they did during Ambassador Shiny’s takeover.”

  Magnus took note of Agrawal’s sore tone and nodded. “They can be an asset in a fight,” Magnus said. “Of course, they’re probably loyal to their creator first and foremost... but one fight at a time.”

  Agrawal looked at Magnus as if seeing him in a new light. “Yes, sir.”

  Magnus intended to let Agrawal select his defensive positions in the vine jungle. No doubt Agrawal had performed countless VR exercises and learned how to place his machines effectively. The only caveat would be that Agrawal needed to learn more about the Destroyers.

  We all do. I still know so very little about them, even after several encounters.

  “Deploy your forces to protect the colony. Keep in mind we don’t want to make the Celarans any easier to spot from orbit. The buildings are obscured by vines, and though the Celarans expose themselves by flying everywhere, the whole planet is populated by feral flyers that look very similar. Sort of their equivalent to hominids.”

  “Yes sir,” Agrawal said.

  “That’s it for now. Once you’ve loaded all the Celaran and Destroyer signatures, you can remove the blanket no-fire order and prepare to repel a Destroyer incursion.”

  Agrawal saluted and left to get the lay of the land. Of course his tactical would soon have all the details about the colony, but the officer clearly wanted to get a feel for the area with his own senses.

  The alien flyers swooped about as if in panic, or at the least, great excitement as more Storks entered the area. Magnus walked along a thick vine, headed toward the PIT house with a Stork following behind. He assumed the machine had been told to take a position near their Celaran dwelling.

  A Celaran drifted down toward him. Magnus came to a halt to see what it wanted. It opened a link channel.

  “When the vines are trampled, do the Terrans fly with us in the clear blue sky?”

  What? They can speak to us on our links now?

  Magnus hesitated. Then, he replied on the channel.

  “We fly with you in peace,” he tried. “These machines are to protect us all from the Destroyers.”

  “A spring day rises across the vines when we share our sap without fear of each other,” said the Celaran before bolting away into the sky.

  I hope I reassured it!

  Magnus opened a private channel to Telisa.

  “Telisa, a Celaran just spoke to me on my link!”

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” Telisa answered.

  “Is that Marcant’s accomplishment?”

  “Well, the Celarans were working on understanding our link communications while Marcant studied their visual language. Once they started talking to me with my chevron strip, they were able to dovetail in their analysis of our link traffic together with what we were saying in Celaran. I guess that’s when our efforts and the Celarans met head-on and merged into something spectacular.”

  “So Marcant came through, on our side at least,” Magnus said.

  “Yes. Cilreth was right, he’s valuable to the team. I’m glad we worked so hard on integrating him.”

  “There’s still the matter of Imanol...” Magnus said.

  “Cilreth has gathered all the information there is on the incident. I’ve been reviewing it.”

  “Okay. Well, I’ll focus my energies on integrating our setup with the machines from the Midway. Can you ask Lee to pass along a request? If the Celarans have robots tucked away that we haven’t seen, it would be good if the Storks or some attendants could see them to collect target sigs of all the friendlies. We don’t want to be shooting at Celaran hardware if all hell breaks loose here.”

  “Yes, I’ll definitely do that. Lee said the Destroyers already leveled another colony site on this planet. That’s when the Celarans built this hidden town in the jungle.”

  “Might be useful to learn about,” Magnus said. “We want to know what to expect.”

  “Yes. I’m sending a Celaran your way. I named him Deston. As far as I can tell, he’s a scientist that worked on military innovations for the colony. He’ll talk with you about Destroyer capabilities. Probably worth knowing.”

  “Okay. Will do,” Magnus said. “Why Deston?”

  “He’s going to tell us about Destroyers so I used a name to remind me... we could set up an automatic naming algorithm? As far as I can tell, Celarans don’t have differentiated sexes. Lee told me they inject the vines with... an equivalent of gametes, I guess, which can join from up to four individuals!”

  “Wow. As far as naming them, I guess that’s a problem for a lazy day,” Magnus said. “I bet Jason will break out the gender neutral pronouns.”

  “Yeah, he likes to be precise. I’ll see you soon.”

  “See you.”

  Magnus continued along a huge vine toward the team dwelling. A Celaran suddenly swooped up to Magnus. The Terran forced himself to smile at the playful entrance.

  I try to stay alert but every time they flash in, I’m surprised.

  Startling an ally was considered dangerous in a time before smart weapons. Magnus knew of a phrase: ‘trigger happy’, which meant someone might shoot before verifying a target. However, it was no longer much of a concern. Even his old rifle accepted a friendlies list and a Celaran target sig was on it.

  “Each creature in the vines has a name, and mine is Deston.”

  “I’m Magnus, as you know,” Magnus said. “I’ll let the UNSF Colonel listen in on our conversation so he can learn from you too.”

  Agrawal might listen in live, or he might review the conversation later, but Magnus wanted the info in the hands of the person who was setting up the majority of their defenses.

  “Thanks for meeting incarnate,” Magnus continued after adding Agrawal. “You can tell us about the Destroyers? We don’t know much.”

  “The vines intertwine in many shapes, in the case of the Destroyers, they look like this,” Deston said.

  Magnus received a set of artificial images. He went off-retina to examine them. The images looked like design diagrams rather than photorealistic pictures. The first image was an incomplete blueprint of an enormous machine half the size of the Iridar. Its squashed-oval shape opened at the belly to release eight other smaller machines of the same shape. Each of those machines was the size of the Destroyers that Magnus had seen in the tunnels of Vovok: the size of a 10-man armored personnel carrier. That machine, in turn, opened to release eight drone-sized machines, once again of the same shape.

  Magnus shook his head.

  This is fragged-radix soup. Terrans count in tens, apparently Destroyers in eights, and Celarans in sixes. I don’t even want to think about what Vovokans like to count in. Could be anything from binary to base-40.

&nb
sp; “These drones are about the size of the one we encountered recently,” Magnus said.

  “Strong wind in a storm, the Destroyers bring chaotic wind and scream loudly. It is difficult to fly in the vicinity of these attackers.”

  Magnus reminded himself that given the weak translation they had so far, ‘scream loudly’ probably referred to the bright lights, since Celarans used light to communicate.

  “How far away will they be able to kill one of our big machines?” Agrawal asked on the channel.

  “Waiting for the sap to emerge... the largest one can kill over 100 kilometers if a smaller one tracks the target. The smaller they get, the lower their range. The insects on the vine only bite on the skin, and the smallest drones will only kill within direct vision, less than 100 meters above the canopy. A predator crawling under the vine, they attack below the canopy to avoid long distance spotting.”

  “Do they always announce themselves with the wind and the bright light?”

  “One cuts open the vine to study it in the light, and we suspect the wind is because aquatic creatures design craft strangely for the relatively thin atmosphere. They’re not used to it. The light is similar: it is used to increase the reflections for targeting.”

  Magnus had not thought about those who created the Destroyers in a while. He recalled their supposed aquatic origins. Deston was smart to explain their oddities with that in mind.

  “I can take these diagrams and make a rough signature,” Agrawal said. “We can refine it with data from Magnus’s encounters. Thank you for the information.”

  “There is one more thing,” Magnus said to Deston. “Would you allow our machines to see your machines so that we can teach them not to shoot at each other,” Magnus said. “Of course, I think it should be clear what is a Destroyer and what isn’t, given all the noise and the light, but I’d just like to be sure.”

  Deston flew in a vertical loop and stopped close to the Terran. Magnus suppressed an urge to reach for a weapon as the alien flew closer.

  Still not used to it...

  “More sap is in a thicker vine while most of our defenses are in the towers. If an enemy comes into the star system, the towers will retract to hide us. Should we be attacked on the ground, the towers will re-emerge.”