Space Sharks

“I think I got them all,” Haticat says.

“We should still set traps,” Nathaniel responds.

The pool-ship has just left a volcanic world where any atmosphere that might form is stripped away by frequent solar flares. Without volatiles to bond to, the surface is largely metal. Even there, life survives. Mouse-sized creatures consume the metal and combine it with whatever volatiles are still to be found. Unfortunately, Nathaniel’s ship is made of metal. The meltmice melted their way through the hull and consumed everything in their path. They killed many, but Fred and Doctor Bill set traps around the ship in case more show up. The last thing they need is one to melt through the hull while in space. They are off to the next star system three days away where more planets wait for them.

Nathaniel eats a PBJ cake with vanilla ice cream while Haticat gives him the full report. “We collected forty thousand terabytes of scanning data before being forced to evacuate by the meltmice. That should bring us in just enough Pengo credits to install that new laser array.”

“Mmpf guk,” Nathaniel responds.

“What?” Haticat asks.

Nathaniel swallows. “Sounds good.”

Suddenly, the relaxing hum of the engine stops and is replaced with an alarm. Nathaniel wipes his hands and mouth and runs to the engine room. Fred and Doctor Bill are already there, opening panels. “A meltmouse ran inside and melted through the casing of the reactor chamber,” Doctor Bill reports.

“I’ll get it,” Fred declares. He finds the hole and sticks an electric wand inside, thrashing it all around. “I think I got it.”

Nathaniel turns to Haticat behind him and says, “Well, you didn’t get them all. Now we’re not going anywhere until we get this hole plugged.”

“It’s possible it was attracted to the radiation. We’ve been using copper to bait the traps and the natural radiation might be what attracts it,” Doctor Bill suggests.

“Here it is,” Fred announces, dragging the stunned creature out.

“Teleport it outside,” Nathaniel orders.

“Yes, Captain,” Fred answers.

“I’ll start mixing some plug putty,” Haticat says. He leaves the engine gazebo and walks through the control station on the way to storage. Something on a screen catches his eye. “Nathaniel! Six spacecraft are heading straight for us!”

Nathaniel grumbles to himself. “With the luck I’m having, I don’t suppose there’s any chance they’re friendly.”

Haticat deepens the scans as the ships get closer. He turns to Nathaniel as he walks onto the control station. “Space sharks.” Space sharks are unmanned, predatory spacecraft that fly in packs. Essentially, they are shark-shaped robots with overlight drives that eat other spacecraft. They patrol the galaxy in search of damaged ships. They are not common; estimates suggest fewer than ten million in the entire galaxy. Most travelers never see one.

“Ugh!” Nathaniel says. “Get the particle beams ready.”

The space sharks get closer. They split up and circle the ship, scanning, probing its defenses and value. Finally, one pulls out of its circle and heads straight for it. Haticat fires the particle beams. The shark retreats. “No damage. It has a scattering field.”

“Of course. They’re testing our defenses. Now that they’ve identified our main weapons, they will see we only have six and will approach from one of the directions where only three can be used, but I’ll have a surprise for them,” Nathaniel says.

Sure enough, the six sharks form a straight line and approach the pool-ship in the middle of three particle accelerator turrets. Haticat fires. Nathaniel moves the force field out beyond the attackers and Haticat fires the rear three beams, reflecting them off the force field at the sharks. Each shark is hit by one of the beams. However, the sharks do not retreat as Nathaniel had planned. Instead, they cluster together, five of them shielding the sixth, and keep coming. At the last second, Nathaniel returns the force field to defend the hull. The sharks plow into it, jolting the ship. They are now too close to be hit by the beams.

“Cameras!” Nathaniel yells.

Doctor Bill switches on the surface cameras to watch what is happening, putting it onto the viewscreen. “They’re on the water-filled side.”

“Teleport a bomb,” Nathaniel says. Fred drops a bomb on the teleporter pad and hits send. It appears amidst the space sharks and explodes. They sustain some damage, but so does the force field. It is too close.

“Two of the sharks have decohered scattering fields. Another bomb should take them out,” Haticat says.

“Do it,” Nathaniel orders. Fred places another bomb on the pad.

“Wait!” Haticat yells. “The force field just shut off!”

“Why?” Nathaniel demands.

“I don’t know,” Haticat says.

“There’s a fault in the power supply. I’ll check it out,” Doctor Bill says.

The sharks outside now have nothing between them and the hull. They open their mouths wide, revealing their mouths full of teeth. Two have tiny saws for teeth. Two have mouths full of drills. Two have microlaser torches at the end of each tooth. They start cutting their way through. The hull is made mostly of bulk resistine alloy. It is tough, but not indestructible. They have maybe thirty minutes before breach.

“Supernovas,” Doctor Bill grumbles. “Fred, we have another meltmouse!” Fred catches the creature, stuns it, and places it in a trap.

“I have an idea!” Nathaniel says excitedly.

“What?” Haticat asks.

Nathaniel runs to his room and grabs his shield. He had bought it from nomadic traders at a flea market. He had hoped to use it in personal combat, but now he would use it in a space battle. The shield is taken to the teleporter pad where Haticat watches curiously. “We’ll put the… uh… flat thing where the… uh… stuff will… uh…” He repeatedly bounces one fist off his flattened hand.

“I don’t know what any of that means,” Haticat says.

Ignoring Haticat, Nathaniel teleports the shield into a position far enough from the ship that he can reflect particle beams off it and hit the attacking space sharks. It will eventually disintegrate, but hopefully they’ll be able to take out some of the sharks first. It works! Continuing pulses of protons and antiprotons disable two of the enemy ships. The other four keep digging, biting off strips of metal with their dental machinery. Then one of the beams stops. “We’ve lost power,” Haticat says, puzzled.

Then sparks and smoke shoot out of the accelerator box. Its lights flicker, then go out. A shiny bump appears on its surface and then runs down the side and onto one of the six accelerator tubes. “Ugh! Another meltmouse!” Nathaniel exclaims.

“Four of our beams are still working, but only two on the shark side,” Haticat reports.

“Keep the pressure on them,” Nathaniel says as he chases down the meltmouse, zaps it, and carries it back for Fred to place in the trap. “Wait,” Nathaniel says as he drops the critter into the trap. “How many living meltmice do we have captured?”

“Including this one, twelve,” Fred says.

Nathaniel looks up at the ceiling for a second, then back down. “Bring them all to me.”

Fred meets Nathaniel at the teleporter pad where he releases the vermin onto the pad one at a time, teleporting them inside the space sharks. Each shark receives two meltmice. At first, nothing changes. Five minutes later, the munching stops. All the sharks have stopped moving. “I’m reading intense internal damage,” Haticat reports.

“Okay, shut down the beams and get this place fixed as fast as possible,” Nathaniel says. They quickly repair the force field, particle beams, and engine, and speed away before any meltmice can jump the gap and reinfest.

“The hull is going to be very hard to fix,” Doctor Bill says.

“And expensive. We might not be able to afford the laser array after all,” Haticat says.

“That’s okay. We always think of something,” Nathaniel says.

SUPPORT