Christopher Nuttall: Storming Heaven

“They may have required additional resources,” the AI suggested, finally. It would have been monitoring her physical condition and would have known that she was on the verge of going into shock. She relaxed slightly as her implants fed more calming drugs into her system. “Human theorists suggested, at one point, destroying Mercury in order to use the presence of Sol to assist in working the released ores. The Killers may have evolved a similar concept.”

Chiyo said nothing for a long moment, watching as the Killers continued their task. “We may even be on the verge of discovering another Killer shipyard,” the AI added, in hopes of raising the human’s enthusiasm. “The construction of Icebergs certainly requires considerable resources.”

“Maybe,” Chiyo said, slowly. “They could still have mined the asteroids for a hundred years and not run out of material to produce a thousand Icebergs .”

The next few hours passed slowly. The Killers were wrapping the entire system in beams of gravity, somehow using the star as a source of power. Beams of gravity reached out across the star system, catching the newly formed asteroids and pulling them in towards the star. The Killer starships broke off as the beams of gravity took over and headed towards their next target, the second rocky world. Chiyo watched as that world, too, was shattered, the raw material released pulled towards the star. The sheer scale of their power kept her focused. She couldn’t believe that anyone, even the Killers, would destroy an entire star system just for fun. There had to be a deeper purpose in mind.

“I am picking up additional power fluctuations from the star itself,” the AI said, as new icons appeared on the display. “They do not seem to confirm to any previously observed Killer activity.”

“They’re not planning to rip apart the star ,” Chiyo said, in flat denial. It seemed impossible… but with such command of gravity, it might just be possible. It would also mean certain death for her. Without the star’s gravity, her scout ship would be hurled away on the wrong course and she’d never locate the carrier again. She would have to risk a transmission, which might bring the Killers down on her. “They can’t…”

“Apparently not,” the AI agreed. “Power fluctuations are coming from an installation orbiting the star at ten thousand kilometres.”

“It should have melted,” Chiyo said. Ten thousand kilometres was nothing on a cosmic scale. If she took her scout ship so close to the star, it would be destroyed. “Show me; direct optical observation.”

The image appeared in the centre of her display, dimmed to protect her eyes. The star was a massive white globe; the installation, a massive hexagon seemingly floating just above the star, was a black shape. The AI put up a scale for her without even being asked; the hexagon was over a million kilometres across, huge beyond imagination. The Killers had built vast structures before, but this… Chiyo felt, not for the first time, the huge gulf between humanity and their tormentors and felt afraid. How could anyone hope to stand against power like that?

“What is that?” She asked, finally. “Are they trying to enclose the star?”

“Uncertain,” the AI replied, flatly. “I am unable to obtain accurate data at this distance. My current position is not suitable for active observation, but I believe that even if they mine the entire resources of the star system, they would be unable to enclose the star unless they mined material from the star itself. Their use of wormholes and gravity technology would suggest that they could accomplish that, but it would seem to be pointless. Even a partial enclosure of the star would give them access to considerable power.”

“Or they might mine other star systems as well,” Chiyo said, flatly. Unlike a warp bubble, there was no theoretical limit to the size of a wormhole. She could see the Killers opening up a wormhole in another star system, capturing an entire planet and launching it into their new system. It would be industrial engineering on a massive scale, but not beyond their technology. “Do we have any bases near this star system?”

“Unknown,” the AI replied, flatly. “My data banks do not contain information that might be tactically useful to the enemy.”

Chiyo nodded, ruefully. The Defence Force was outmatched enough without risking giving the enemy the locations of humanity’s remaining settlements in one disastrous mission. No list would ever be complete — the Community included hundreds of settlements that preferred to keep their location a secret from the rest of the human race, for various reasons — but a disaster could expose billions of humans to their fire. It was something she would have to report to higher authority when she returned to the carrier. If the Killers were mining entire star systems now… they might scoop up and destroy human colonies, quite by accident. They wouldn’t even know what they had done. Resistance would be, quite literally, futile.

There was a sudden pause. “I am picking up a second hexagon,” the AI added, sharply. “It just came into range. This one is smaller than the previous one, but definitely growing larger. They must be using nanotechnology to break down the asteroids and other debris as they are propelled into the hexagons and used as building material.”

“I’d love to get a look at their power field specifications,” Chiyo mused. Humanity had developed its own form of nanotechnology, but the Killers used it on a scale far beyond anything humanity could accomplish — again. Her body had thousands of the tiny machines running through her blood, fixing any damage and extending her life as far as they could, but there were very definite limits. She had never wanted to become a Spacer and give up her gender in exchange for effective immortality, but one day she would have to choose between that or entering the MassMind. “What about…”

The AI sounded an alarm before she could finish. “We were just scanned,” it said, flatly. Chiyo felt her body jolt to full wakefulness again as the implants did their work. “They just located us.”

“So much for the stealth field,” Chiyo said, grimly. “How much did they get?”

“Uncertain, but enough to locate us,” the AI said. “We are unable to take evasive manoeuvres without leaving a trail for them to follow.”

“Compress a full report into the transmitter and prepare to transmit,” Chiyo ordered, tartly. It was just possible that the Killers would ignore them — a tiny scout ship was hardly a threat — but there was no point in taking chances. If she had located an alien ship in her system, she would have wanted to ask them a few questions before letting them go — or destroying them. “Stand by…”

The scout ship rocked suddenly. Chiyo found herself caught in a field that seemed to tear at her entire body for a second, before the Structural Integrity Field compensated for the sudden change in environment. Red alarms flashed up in her virtual vision, warning of massive internal damage to her body; she fought down a wave of pain and struggled to focus. She couldn’t even talk and had to use her implants to transmit a command to the AI. Report .

“They have locked onto us with a gravity beam,” the AI said. It displayed an image of the ship’s course. They were plunging right down towards the sun. Chiyo realised — and almost laughed aloud — that the Killers hadn’t cared who they were or why they were in their star system; they’d just decided that the scout would make additional raw materials for their project. It was almost insulting, but quite typical of the Killers. “Twenty-two minutes to impact.”

“Transmit,” Chiyo ordered, knowing that she would be dead long before the nanites started disassembling her ship. The gravity waves were compressing her, trying to squash her flat. “Get the information out of here.”