A Leap Across the Abyss

“I’m sorry, Lit-ta, did I hear you correctly? Did you say «appearance»? Maybe you meant that previously unknown stars were discovered?”

“That’s the thing. They did appear, there’s no doubt about it. They weren’t there before. Even 150 years ago, we couldn’t overlook a triple star system, even though it was made up of these little brown stars, right in front of us, in less than two dozen light years away. Naturally, this phenomenon aroused great interest among our ancestors, but at that time, flying this distance was still a difficult business, and while the expedition was being prepared, its purpose disappeared instantly and without a trace. However, it did not disappear completely – here is the trace. This asteroid is the only material evidence of the events of those years. It came from the direction of the vanished sub-brown dwarfs and was captured by the gravity of Iota Persei, becoming part of the outer belt of the system.”

“I take it this is only part of the story?” said I with a slight smile, “I’m sure you found there something worthy of attention.”

“Yes, we did,” confirmed Lit-ta, “but it’s better if you see it with your own eyes.”

* * *

“Once upon a time, something of value was clearly mined here, but what was it? ” The asteroid was pitted with tunnels that diverged in the most unexpected places and also ended suddenly in dead ends. Sometimes the rock had strange cavities, as if part of it had suddenly disappeared into nowhere, leaving behind a cavity of unpredictable shape and size.

“We’ve been through all the drifts, but we haven’t found any valuable minerals,” Lit-ta’s voice sounded in my helmet headphones. “Perhaps by the time of the catastrophe, the deposit of what was mined here had probably been exhausted and the asteroid was being used for other purposes. Come on, you haven’t seen the best part yet.”

Some of the tunnels in the surviving part of the asteroid were filled with equipment of unclear purpose, often embedded in walls. Only one thing was beyond doubt: the civilization that used these devices was developing along the path of technological progress.

“We didn’t touch anything here,” Litta continued her story, “It was obvious to us that we wouldn’t figure out the purpose of all this iron stuff anyway – it was too alien to us.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before, Lit-ta? Our scientists could do a lot to understand what happened here 120 years ago.”

“I wanted to do it, but there were so many more pressing matters. Do you remember when I invited you during my first visit to the Federation? I wanted to show you this place, but then you didn’t find the time, which was natural in that situation. Come on, the most interesting find still awaits us.”

The tunnel we were walking through made another turn and suddenly led us into a rather spacious room cut down in the rock. I changed the pace at which I’ve been going, there were machines in front of me whose purpose was beyond doubt.

I stood there silently and looked at dozens of combat robots, which remained stationary in neat rows along the walls of the cave. They looked sort of like insects. This impression was caused by joint limbs, which for every combat machine were between six and ten, and scaly segmented armor. The largest of them were equipped with cannons, the barrels of which jutted out of the front of their bodies in such a way that they started an involuntary association with mandibles of arthropods. Smaller machines were grouped around each big robot, apparently, they were supposed to act on the battlefield with it, doing reconnaissance and destroying minor targets, although I wouldn’t say that with full confidence.

In my long service to the planetary commandos, I have encountered various robots, or as they were called in my first world, walking tanks. This was the first time I saw such a design, but I was paying attention to all the little things and details that were saying a lot to the man who had often seen such creatures in battle. Latticed emitters of protective fields were only visible on the bodies of large machines. Missile launchers were mostly hidden inside the hulls, but the launchers of small robots partially protruded outward, forming a characteristic hump on its «back». In general, I suspected that in combat these machines would be stronger than our Bisons and Goannas, but they could hardly compete with the walking tanks I controlled in my last battle in the body of General Dean.

“And what is your impression of this?” Lit-ta interrupted a prolonged silence.

“It’s a very dangerous adversary. I think you’re lucky those sub-brown dwarfs disappeared as quickly as they came. If they would have stayed here, and something like this would have got out of them,” I made a gesture around the cave, “you and I wouldn’t be talking right now.”

“Our scientists came to the same conclusion,” Lit-ta agreed with me, “but despite their best efforts, there is still no explanation for what happened.”

“Have these specimens been standing here since they were discovered without any activity?”

“When we found this place, it was hopelessly dead. No energy, no living things, not even the corpses of the owners of these machines – nothing. There is a far-fetched hypothesis that our world was somehow not suited to those who had come here in such an unusual way, but that’s just a vague assumption, which, by the way, doesn’t explain the origin of that split-in-half asteroid.”

“What do you think those who built these robots looked like, Lit-ta?”

“We’ve been wondering the same thing. As you know, we’re pretty good at everything with natural and artificial evolution of living things, but the conclusions of our bioengineers have been mixed. They were definitely not lizards, toads, humans, or quargs. So we have the paradoxical view that these machines had evolved on their own for some time, without the help of their creators, as unbelievable as this may sound. By the way, we gave them a name, and I’m curious if our perception matches yours. What would you call the civilization that created these robots?”

I thought for a few seconds, but I finally decided that the first association that came to my head was the best thing to designate what I saw.

“This is Swarm, a swarm of insects who built war machines in their own image. I have no basis for this opinion – it’s just a first impression that I’m used to trust.”

“Perhaps Igor, humans and lizards are not as different as they seem at first glance,” Lit-ta spoke thoughtfully, “We gave them the name «Hive».”

Chapter 3

Yoon Gao and Mbia arrived seven hours later. Earlier their journey would have taken several days, but mass production of transport rings revolutionized the Federation’s logistics. General of the Army Barrington jokingly complained that I had robbed him of his job with my invention, but it was clear that in fact the permanent head of the rear services was pleased with the changes that had taken place.

“André, have you forgotten your last landing on Groombridge-2?” I asked the Colonel with a grin.

We had tea in my office on board Dragon’s Tail and I was telling the scouts why I pulled them out of the Solar System.

“Who could forget it with this,” Mbia absentmindedly moved his hand, hit by a shell fragment during the operation to rescue President Tobolsky from an underground shelter. The arm recovered long ago and did not cause the Colonel any discomfort, but the memory of the injury remained.

“Would you like to do that again?”

“Eh… Is that a question?”

“Well, for now, yes.”

“Then it depends on what needs to be repeated. If this is about covert landing on the planet and reconnaissance, you know I’m all for it. But if you need to attack an enemy company reinforced with combat robots with a bare ass again, pardon me, with small arms in your hands, do it without me if you can.”

“Yes, I remember that. That time your raid didn’t go very well, even though you did a brilliant job,” I agreed with the Colonel, “but in this case, I hope it won’t be necessary to fight, and not even to save anyone, except for a few million quargs now on the planets of Groombridge.”

“My ship won’t have so many quargs,” Yoon Gao raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.

“Something else will save them, and that is what I want to deliver to the planets with your help, Yoon. You and André know that we’ve been shooting a little bit here, and as a result, the orbital defense of Groombridge-2 has lost its fighting power. The new non-lethal ammunition was used well, but it turned out it didn’t do us much good. Apparently, the toads have made changes in the mental block given to the quargs, and now they can’t surrender to us. In fact, they couldn’t surrender to the lizards before, because the quargs knew very well that the reptiles could remove the block, but now that, along with the cruiser captured near Kappa Ceti, we have got the equipment to remove the blocks, the situation seems to have changed, and the toads updated the conditions for activating the death-order.”

“It makes perfect sense for them,” the Chinaman shrugged his shoulders, “what I don’t understand is, why didn’t they do it right away? Why allow the possibility of any negotiations with the enemy or surrender in the previous version of the block?”

“A few hours before we met, two captive toads were brought here – the captain of the captured cruiser and the doctor. I questioned them both again. The captain doesn’t know much about the modus operandi of the block, but the doctor turned out to be more informed, which is no surprise. As it turned out, the number of conditions for the death-order to be triggered cannot be too high. Or, rather, it can be, but then there’s a sharp increase in the risk of mental illness in the block’s host, and this danger is higher the longer such «overloaded» block is in the quarg brain. This makes it impossible to impose such comprehensive conditions as, for example, death in violation of any order of the masters. The quarg’s brain simply can’t withstand this kind of setup. The toad doctor, of course, couldn’t have known exactly what changes were made to the block, but he suggested that the conditions for activation of the death-order had expanded significantly. This was a deliberate risk, given the emergency that followed the Kappa Ceti combat. Apparently, the toads’ leadership hopes to solve the problem relatively quickly and get everything back, or even substantially weaken the block for a while if they can get rid of us and the lizards.”

“And what will it take for us to thwart the enemy’s wicked designs?” Mbia was back in the conversation.

“I issued an ultimatum to the quargs almost eight hours ago. I gave them 48 hours to voluntarily evacuate from the system and promised not to attack the planets or touch their transport ships. The result so far is zero, the quargs are sitting on planets with no activity. Only a few light ships have left the system. We did not stop them from accelerating and jumping, but I think it had nothing to do with the evacuation.”

“In fact, it would be strange to expect otherwise,” Yoon Gao shrugged his shoulders. “They have a very strong Internal Security Service, which is staffed only by the quargs, who have voluntarily chosen to side with their masters. So without their permission, no transport leaves the system.”

“I think you’re right, Yoon, and all the more important is the task I’m about to entrust to you. I need you to secretly bring a captured little toad recon ship to the surface of the planet in your ship’s hangar. And then with its help, our task force will visit their largest city, or the place where their chief person responsable for the planet lives.”

The puzzled scouts went into silence for a while.

“But, Igor…” uttered Mbia, being a bit confused, “it’s not an army reconnaisance task, it’s a human intelligence mission, which, for obvious reasons, we don’t do and never did. We’d need to make direct contact… Yoon will take us to the planet, hiding behind a camouflage field, I mean, the Empire made sure and provided the necessary equipment for his department, but then what? Neither I nor my people are quargs. How do we get into their cities?”

“But you won’t get there, André. You will land, secure and camouflage the temporary base, put the special task force in the captured recon ship and send it to the city, and then, after they complete the task, meet them and arrange for evacuation.”

“Will the quargs come with us?” Yoon Gao has even lost his usual imperturbability for a moment.

“Not only quargs, Yoon. The task force will consist of three – two quargs and a toad.”

* * *

The recruitment of the toad doctor went surprisingly smoothly. Unlike the captain of the cruiser, who gave us the information we needed only through the use of chemical agents that loosened his tongue, the doctor told many things voluntarily. However, Tlet was not a coward; rather, he was an unscrupulous and cynical being who had nothing but contempt for the top leaders of his state. He enlisted in the fleet solely for financial gain and status, and he thought his choice was right, as long as his duties were limited to the hassle-free work of a medic on the ship, that was escorting transports in the deep rear of the quargs. However, the combined attack of humans and lizards on the Kappa Ceti system brought into Tlet’s measured life a not too pleasant variety in the form of space battle and captivity.

The medic blamed his captivity on the incompetent idiot who commanded the convoy. According to Tlet, there was no point in getting into a fight near Kappa Ceti, but Commander Shreen, who was nothing but an inflated bubble, decided that simply leaving and reporting to the Supreme Leader was not enough. He wished to capture or destroy the hyperportal which, unexpectedly for them, was possessed by humans, and which this underdeveloped civilization simply could not have. Well, OK, he made that decision, but then why did he separate the cruisers? If the commander had sent all three warships to attack, things might have been different, but no! How can you leave the transport with the priceless Shreen’s carcass on board without cover? And the fact that this transport would have no problem getting away from any slow human ship, is an insignificant detail.