Dreadnaught

“If the warships also had significantly larger power cores for their size than comparable human warships.”

“We haven’t picked up indications of that,” Badaya said.

“Yes, we have,” Lomand said. “The force of the power core overloads that have destroyed the alien warships that we’ve encountered. Those could be explained by higher efficiency levels, or by larger cores using the same basic principles as ours.”

Smythe spoke carefully, trying not to publicly embarrass one of his officers. “We haven’t seen emission levels from the alien warships consistent with larger power cores, have we?”

“No, sir. But if the hulls are filled with water, that would act as an additional insulator against anything emitted by the power cores. The water would not only help protect the crews from the emissions but also prevent us from remotely detecting how large the power cores were.”

Captain Smythe had been talking to someone on Tanuki, and nodded. “I can confirm Commander Lomand’s calculations. The force of the core overloads we’ve seen could be explained by cores of a size larger than those we use but still within parameters able to fit within the alien hulls.”

“Water masses much more than atmosphere,” Tulev objected. “Would this not have a negative effect on their maneuverability?”

“If the hulls were big enough. The amount of water increases dramatically as the internal volume of the hull balloons in response to larger external dimensions.”

“No battleships,” Desjani commented. “That’s why they don’t have anything much bigger than a cruiser.”

Neeson was frowning as he studied something. “Even with the water insulation, having power cores that size in hulls that small wouldn’t be good for the crews over the long run.”

“Maybe they’re not as vulnerable to the emissions,” Smythe suggested, looking to the surgeon, who just shook his head to indicate an inability to answer that.

“More likely, they don’t care that much about the welfare of their crews,” Captain Vitali said.

Dr. Setin spoke with exaggerated diplomacy. “Clearly, the enigma race has a high level of willingness to sacrifice individuals for the good of the race as a whole. Admiral Geary asked my group to assess what we believe would happen if this fleet attempted to get close to some other installation, or a planet, to learn more about the enigma race. We have concluded that there is a high probability of mass destruction initiated by the enigma race to avoid leaving anything that will allow us to learn more.”

“What if they knew we already had this body?” Duellos asked. “Would that make them conclude there was no sense in committing mass suicide to prevent us learning more?”

“I don’t know. It depends on the nature of what drives their obsession with remaining hidden. If it is deeply engraven in their very nature, then knowing that we have learned what we have might cause them to react with even higher levels of violence. I’m basing that on what we know of human and animal psychology, but that’s all we have to go with.”

“They’re crazy,” Badaya said, drawing nods of agreement.

“They’re different,” Dr. Shwartz replied. “This obsession with remaining hidden could be very deeply ingrained in them, something they don’t question and can’t deviate from because it was written in their distant ancestry as they evolved. Try to imagine how humans would look to aliens, with our constant, overriding obsession with sex.”

General Carabali snorted derisively. “Humans are occasionally capable of going a short time without thinking about sex or letting it drive their actions. I’m speaking for the female of the species, of course.”

“I once went several seconds without thinking about sex,” Duellos retorted. “Though it did cause me to question my own masculinity. The fact is, though, that whatever drives the enigmas’ obsession with privacy, it’s something so powerful they are quite literally willing to die for it. And to kill to preserve it. No matter how much we may speculate on other aspects of the enigmas, there is now no doubt that much is true of them.”

“Speaking of motivations,” Jane Geary said, “does anyone have any idea why that particular alien tried to escape from the freighter?”

A long pause ensued, then Shwartz nodded toward Setin. “Perhaps this particular alien was crazy, by the standards of the enigma race, that is. He, she, it . . . didn’t want to die for the purpose of keeping us in the dark about their race.”

“A coward?” Badaya laughed. “Mind you, I’d say that particular alien had more common sense than the others, not wanting to die for that reason, but they’d call it a coward, wouldn’t they?”

“Doubtless,” Setin agreed.