The Lost Artifact

by Vaughn Heppner

  The hard radiation and comet pieces struck Victory’s electromagnetic shield. The shield turned red, brown, black—

  “More power to the shields,” Maddox said.

  “I’ve already started the process,” Andros said.

  The black turned darker black, darker…and began to lighten, just a little.

  The hard radiation and highly accelerated pieces struck the Shiloh’s shield. It held for a moment but went down. After that, the thick hull armor shredded away as more comet pieces pummeled the battleship.

  As Victory’s crew watched, the battleship ignited, blowing up in a blaze of nuclear fire.

  The seconds passed. Victory’s shield had already come back down to brown. They had survived the comet’s destruction.

  “Keith…” Valerie said softly, urgently.

  “Sir,” Helm said. “The fold-fighter has reappeared. Sir,” Sub-lieutenant Kenzie Jones said. “The tin can has appeared twenty million kilometers away. It’s well out of the blast zone.”

  “Keith,” Valerie said again, beaming with delight.

  Maddox nodded his approval. The ace had done it again.

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “We failed. The listening post is gone.”

  “Did we fail?” Maddox asked.

  “I don’t understand,” Valerie said.

  “We’ll wait a bit,” the captain said. “Then I’ll show you.”

  ***

  A day later, Maddox sent the search teams. But it was Galyan with his sensors who found the two floating things of high interest. The Builder items were far from the destroyed comet, having been flung away by the blast. Maddox had guessed right, though. The Builder material had proven impervious to the blasts that destroyed the shuttle, the comet and Shiloh.

  The other Builder items within the listening post were gone, though. Not even Builder items had been able to survive direct blasts of that magnitude.

  Two days after the post’s destruction, special teams stowed the radioactive Builder items in special containers aboard the starship.

  Valerie was at her station. Keith piloted the ship. Galyan stood near the captain’s chair. Meta did too, talking with Maddox.

  The captain held up a finger. “Just a minute,” he told his wife.

  Maddox clicked an armrest control and leaned down. “This is Captain Maddox speaking.” His voice rang out over the ship’s intercom system. “I want to report that our mission was a success. We have obtained what we came for. I wish to congratulate each of you on a job well done. I am proud of my crew, proud of the job you’ve done. Now…”

  Maddox looked around at his bridge crew. He winked at Valerie, saluted Keith, pointed a finger at Andros Crank and snapped his fingers at Galyan. Lastly, he stood, gave Meta a kiss and then leaned back down to the armrest comm.

  “Now,” Maddox said, “we’re going home for a well-deserved rest. Captain Maddox out.”

  The captain clicked the button, shutting off the intercom system. He sat back down, put his arms on the rests and said to Keith, “Get us ready to jump, Mr. Maker.”

  “Aye, aye, mate,” the ace said, as he began to plot the course for Earth.

  THE END

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