replied. “Custodian, get your network of drones to start hunting for Deeper ships that are working alone. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. We don’t need our first field test to be on a battleship. Keep doing that until we’re ready to go out and try this thing, so we have some targets ready to go.”
“Understood.”
“Dash, I have one concern,” Elois said, giving Lomas a nervous glance as she did. Lomas narrowed her eyes, then nodded. Dash could tell there was a backstory to this, a confrontation between the two over something. He just waited.
“Suppose we deploy this virus,” Elois went on, “and it works as well as, or even better than we hope. It spreads, eventually infecting all Deeper tech everywhere. That—” She stopped, shaking her head. “I don’t know. That sounds like genocide to me.”
Dash nodded. “You’re right. It is. But we’re not the ones who started this. If we could talk to these Deepers, maybe try to reason with them, that would be one thing. But you guys have tried that, and so have we, and we’ve got nothing back from them.”
“Nothing at all,” Lomas said. “Just more attacks.”
“Believe me, Elois, I know what you’re feeling,” Dash went on. “We faced the same thing with the Golden. We were looking at wiping out a whole species, a sapient one, not just a sentient one, and doing it deliberately and methodically. What it came down to was that they were going to destroy us if we didn’t destroy them first.”
“And everyone has the right to defend themselves, even if it means killing the other guy to save your life,” Leira put in.
“I’d rather not destroy the Deepers,” Dash went on. “I’d rather talk to them, join forces with them, learn what they know about the universe and share the things we’ve learned. But they’ve shown absolutely no interest in doing anything but killing us. And I’m not prepared to let them go on killing us while we try to find a common path that includes them letting us live.”
“So it’s them or us,” Elois said.
Dash nodded. “Sounds harsh, I know, but that’s what it comes down to—they die, or we do. And, if that’s the choice, then there is no choice. Not for me. Not for humanity.”
Lomas gave a fierce nod but had nothing else to add.
Dash checked the status of the inoculator, which was what they’d come to call the glorified harpoon launcher mounted on the Archetype’s right arm. It showed green.
He turned his attention back to the Deeper ship, which was trailing a small, jagged moon in its orbit around a mottled gas giant, itself a satellite of a non-descript G-class star. There seemed to be an installation of some sort on the moon. Custodian had noted the regular arrival of a Deeper ship here, presumably for resupply or crew changes. Whatever the purpose, it was a regular Deeper route, and that meant the Realm could know where and when the enemy would be.
He checked the tactical display, ensuring everyone was where they were supposed to be. Leira in the Swift, and Jexin in the Polaris, flew in a tight wedge formation, flanking the Archetype. The two smaller mechs mounted sophisticated stealth tech. Sentinel and Tybalt had come up with a scheme to integrate the stealth effects of the two, using them to provide cover for Dash’s bigger, decidedly less-stealthy mech.
It was far from perfect, requiring a tight formation and low speeds. Dash wasn’t convinced it was the best approach and probably wouldn’t work against whole flotillas or fleets of ships, but the objective here was to test the virus, and that meant getting close enough to use the inoculator.
Dash confirmed that Conover’s Pulsar and Amy’s Talon were on-station around the vast curve of the gas giant, with the two squadrons of capital ships and escorts Benzel had brought along remaining outside the system, but ready to translate in. Then he turned his attention back to the Deeper ship, which still hadn’t detected them.
“As we get closer, guys, let’s tuck in behind this moon and keep it between us and the Deepers as long as we can. That should give us the shortest path to the target,” Dash said, using focused comm beams to link the three mechs, rather than omnidirectional broadcasts. They still had no idea if the Deepers even had anything like comm technology, but they didn’t want to take any chances.
The three mechs eased into the orbital trajectory of the moon, putting