Free Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1) by T. Jackson King Page B

reactor. Plus it will show this Swarm that we could have clawed down one of the mini-ships, but chose not to.” A thought occurred to Jack, the image of what might happen after they won. “Don’t use the neutral particle beamer—we’ll save that for Big Mother, if needed.”
    “Big Mother? Oh, the launching ship.” Denise grinned at him. “Yes! We claw the air, move fast and deadly, and we don’t back off from them.” She looked up at the Weapons display screen. “This may work.”
    Behind them, Max worked to integrate pulse power feed with their crude weapons systems. “Jack, this ship wasn’t designed for bouncing around in orbit. We’re holding together, but every time we use the gravity-pull, it really stresses the Uhuru’s framework. We need to resolve this soon.”
    “Agreed.” Jack watched as green laser pulses shot out from the Uhuru , passing alongside six of the mini-ships as they swirled and bounced in space. Two more barrages happened in less than three minutes. Would it work? Above them the Big Mother ship, on which the mini-ships had nested, now blipped down to within a hundred klicks. On screen, the darting shapes of the Swarm blipped up vertically to meet Big Mother.
    “We won!” cried Denise, clapping her hands excitedly.
    “Not bad for an anthropologist,” Max said tiredly. “Can we leave now? I’m tired of fighting Aliens. And I’m ready for that cigar and steak.”
    Jack felt his heart thud as the Swarm re-connected with the mother ship and the reconstituted teardrop blipped out of orbit, heading away from QB1. “No, we can’t leave yet. Why did they leave? Why didn’t they fire on us? And how should we behave now?”
    Behind him, Max slapped his armrest. “You know, they really are behaving like a pack of hyenas. We defended, then scared them off from this hunting range and they’re now retreating back to home territory.”
    “Or maybe we set off a prey-switching behavior?” Denise murmured uncertainly. “Some predators will switch to another species of prey in their hunting niche, as a way of keeping their food species in balance.”
    “Crap!” Jack said loudly. “We aren’t their food prey. This isn’t their hunting range. It’s ours!” He gritted his teeth, then realized what they had to do before the Swarm mother ship vanished from their radar tracking. “We go after them, back to wherever their home territory is. Then we drive them out of the Kuiper Belt. Follow them, Max.”
    “Main Drive thrusting,” said the Engineer. “But Jack, we won. Isn’t this a violation of the Rules of Engagement that Destanu talked about?”
    Jack felt thrust-weight as a flare of plasma bright as the Sun kicked their backs. Max’s concern was reasonable, but this confrontation had ended too quickly. “Maybe it is a violation. Or maybe threat and menacing posture don’t come under the Engagement Rules. But we have to do more than just bluff the Swarm. We have to chase them out of their home base, maybe even destroy it.”
    Denise reached over and touched his bare wrist, drawing his attention away from a fixed stare at the Swarm ship. “Jack. Why do we need to know where their home base is? The Kuiper Belt is big. There’s enough room in it for us and for them. Isn’t there?”
    He sighed. The Unity’s wishful thinking dogma had finally surfaced in their Ethologist. “No, Denise, there isn’t enough room. We’re lions, like the Rizen, not just scavengers or bold hunters, like this group.” On screen, the Swarm ship blipped again, this time on an outbound course. “There!” He tapped NavTrack to copy the Swarm vector and load it into their own navigation ephemeris. “They’re headed for someplace on the far side of Pluto’s orbit. Probably one of the larger Kuiper comets.”
    Denise had been watching the NavTrack screen. “I think they’re heading for 1993 FW. Or comet ‘Karla’—the Soviet spy nemesis of Smiley.” She exhaled tiredly. “Jack, you’re taking