Keith closed his eyes painfully. “Rogers, sir,” he whispered. “The crazy-man dive-bombed the satellite with the torchship. He took out their main laser array. I imagine they’re having an emergency up there right now. I doubt the entire satellite is going to blow, but they’re not going to beam anyone for a time.”
“Rogers crashed the torchship into the satellite?”
“That’s right.”
Maddox closed his eyes for a second. It sounded as if Rogers had killed himself in the process. That was a bitter loss, as Rogers belonged to Starship Victory.
Maddox wouldn’t allow Rogers to sacrifice himself in vain. They had to leave before the Spacers arrived. The tin can’s ability to maneuverer had been knocked down to folding, wherever that happened to be.
“Can you still pilot the fighter?” Maddox asked.
It took the lieutenant several breaths before he said, “It will be a piece of cake, sir. I could fly this baby dead. That means I’m in tiptop condition.”
Maddox nodded. Riker and Meta could help Keith into the fold-fighter. He needed to investigate and get the fold mechanism started.
When he looked inside the craft—Maddox’s eyes widened in astonishment. It was a junkyard in the fold-fighter. Smoke billowed from burned out instruments. How had the ace folded the tin can to exactly the correct spot on the sands? That was something of a miracle.
Gingerly, Maddox hoisted himself within. There were pieces lying everywhere. This thing should not be able to fold. Should he really risk his wife in his thing?
Maddox peered out of the hatch, seeing specks in the sky. Were those more interceptor missiles or air-cars?
It didn’t matter. They had to get out of here or risk being captured and having their minds reprogrammed.
“No choice,” Maddox muttered. He jumped out of the fighter and hurried to Keith.
“You’re going to have get up and fold us out of here,” the captain said. “I don’t understand how this fighter is even here.”
“Because I’m the best there is, sir.”
“Agreed,” Maddox said. “Can you remain conscious long enough to get us into orbit?”
“Don’t know about that, mate. I think I’ve lost too much blood. But Hell, let’s give it a go, right?”
“Right,” Maddox said, putting his hands under Keith. “Are you ready?”
“Aye, mate. Let’s get her done.”
Maddox hoisted the pilot to his feet. Keith felt hot, and the blood continued to seep past the shirt the pilot pressed against his chest.
“Come on, now,” Maddox said.
The two men climbed into the half-destroyed fold-fighter.
“Go the other way,” Keith said.
Maddox peered back through the hatch. Those were air-cars, and they were coming fast. It would be close. Then, he noticed a rent in the compartment. He could see the rust-colored sky through it, which meant this particular compartment would not block the vacuum of space.
As the captain helped Keith through a short corridor, Meta and Riker climbed within.
“Air-cars are coming,” Riker shouted.
“We know,” Maddox said. “Shut the hatch and follow us. We have to find sealed compartments.”
In seconds, Maddox helped Keith slide into the piloting chair. Keith was sweating heavily and panting.
“Are you sure you can fly us?” Maddox asked.
“Yeah,” the ace whispered.
Meta shut the hatch to seal this piloting compartment. Riker found a spot on the floor.
“Get set…” Keith whispered. The pilot flipped switches, and the engine started, sounding labored, violently shaking the craft.
Maddox squatted on the floor.
Keith swore at something.
Maddox looked up at a screen. Air-cars were almost here. So were two streaking missiles that barreled from behind the air-cars, catching up fast. Maddox twisted around to stare at Meta.
She looked starkly at the screen.
“Meta.”
She looked at him.
If he was going to say something, he lost the opportunity, as the suddenly roaring engine drowned out any possibility of speech. The fold-fighter shook even more violently than earlier. Smoke poured from somewhere, making Riker cough.
Keith let go of the bloody shirt, using two hands on the controls.
Maddox felt helpless, and he hated the feeling. The two missiles passed the air-cars, streaking down at them,
Abruptly, everything vanished. That seemed to last an eternity…until just as abruptly, stars appeared on the screen. In the distance was a rust-colored ball. It looked like the size of the Moon as seen from Earth.
“Is that Usan III?” Maddox asked.
There was no whine from the fighter. No engine noise at all. It was silent in here, although the smell of smoke was worse now.
“Keith?” Maddox asked.
The pilot had fallen unconscious, his head lolling to the side.
Maddox glanced back at Meta and Riker. Both of them stared back at him wide-eyed.
“We have some separation from the Spacers at least,” Maddox said. “You two work on Keith. I’m going to see if I can contact Victory.”
“What if Spacers show up in their saucer ships?” Riker asked.
“Let’s do what we can,” the captain said. “We’ll worry about the worst when it happens. Until then, we keep on trying as hard as we can.”
-19-
The fold-fighter continued to drift alone through space, about nine hundred thousand kilometers from Usan III.
No matter what they did, Riker and Maddox could not get the engine started. They used battery power to cycle air through the small compartment. Maddox had used an extinguisher to put out the fire that had kept pouring smoke. It didn’t smell quite so electrical in here anymore.
So far, no one had needed to use the john, which was good. They did not have access to it.
They didn’t even have a vacuum suit so they could explore other parts of the fighter. They were stuck in the tiny piloting compartment, with Meta working to keep Keith breathing.
Maddox had sent a message to Victory, which they could not see on the fighter’s sensors. Victory was hiding behind the gas giant, but was supposed to have sensors orbiting on the star-side of the planet to pick up such messages. They could see rust-colored Usan III clearly enough, but hadn’t used active sensors to study the damaged defensive satellite or the other spacecraft in orbit around the terrestrial world.
Maddox wanted to remain hidden out here for as long as possible.
As the captain waited, he made some calculations. Usan III was 7.1 light-minutes from the star. Usan VI, where Starship Victory hid, was 79.5 light-minutes from the star. That was almost the same distance that Saturn was from the Sun.
That meant the fold-fighter was approximately 72.4 light-minutes from the starship. He had sent the message an hour and a half ago, a little over 92 minutes.
Maddox had no idea yet if anyone on Victory had received the generalized-beamed message. Once the starship received the message, it would take 72.4 minutes for a return message to reach the fold-fighter.
It would take Victory quite a bit longer to travel here the conventional way. The vessel did have a star-drive jump, which could make shorter, intra-system hops if necessary.
So far, Victory hadn’t appeared. That told Maddox Lieutenant Noonan had not received the message.
“Maybe we could signal one of the haulers,” Riker suggested. “They could send a shuttle to rescue us.”
“We certainly could do that,” Maddox said. “My guess, though, is that the Spacers already have hidden vessels orbiting Usan III. Thus, if we hail the haulers…”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Riker said. “But being captured is better than dying from asphyxiation.”
“Possibly,” Maddox said.
Riker grunted, turning to stare at a bulkhead, maybe so he didn’t have to look at the captain.
More time
passed until Meta, Keith and Riker slept. The ace moaned occasionally. Meta made faces in her sleep, and twice, she cried out.
Maddox considered waking her, but finally decided against it. A bit later, he climbed into the pilot’s chair and studied the screen.
The fighter used a simple teleoptic sensor—a passive device—to monitor the planet. Half an hour later, Maddox thought he detected movement. He tapped the board, using a zoom quality. Yes. The Nerva Corp Hauler, Sulla 7, was leaving orbit. It seemed to be accelerating, advancing to a hard burn, making it much more visible.
The hard burn indicated the hauler was in a hurry.
Maddox rubbed his chin. Might the Spacers have used Nerva Corp shuttles, rushing cargo up to the hauler, leaving with a load of crystals?
That seemed possible.
Just how big was the Spacer operation here?
If the Spacers were using the hauler, that would indicate that it was a smaller operation than he had first thought. If the Spacers had a fleet of cloaked ships, they wouldn’t need to rush a hauler full of crystals anywhere. That they did rush the hauler indicated they lacked a fleet, maybe lacked any cloaked saucer ships in the system at all.
As Maddox pondered that, an image wavered halfway between the drifting fold-fighter and the planet. The wavering increased until a saucer-shaped ship appeared. It had dropped its cloaking.
Maddox frowned. The vessel picked up speed, as it headed toward the drifting fighter. The Spacer ship had obviously spotted them. A light flashed on the comm board, confirming that.
With a resigned sigh, Maddox tapped the screen. It shimmered until a Spacer woman appeared on the flat device.
“Captain Maddox,” the woman said.
It looked like the spaceport’s SAM site operator. She’d left the planet, then. Did that mean all the Spacers were leaving Usan III?
“That was cleverly done,” the woman said, “escaping with your nearly useless fold-fighter. I congratulate you on being a worthy adversary.”
She didn’t talk like a mere operator, but someone important and possibly powerful.
“Are you Mako 21?” Maddox guessed.
“I am indeed,” she said with a smirk.
Maddox forced his features to remain placid. He’d only slain one of the dangerous Spacers. There had been his chief mistake.
“I, of course, know how you know who I am. You spoke to my adjutant in the tower. Never fear, she has paid the penalty for her garrulous tongue.”
“A real provost marshal went to the underground cell with his guards?” Maddox asked.
“Of course.”
“Are you in charge of the Usan Operation?”
Instead of answering, Mako 21 said, “You are quite the slippery individual, Captain. Your title of di-far is well deserved. However, you have failed in the essential task.”
“Which is?”
Her smirk became enigmatic. “I suspect that you will find out too late, Captain. I have a rendezvous to make. Otherwise, I would take you captive. Thus, I bid you—”
“Wait,” Maddox said.
On the tiny comm screen, her head tilted. “Yes?” she asked.
“Did you kill the Strand clone?”
“Did I do so personally?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“Did you Spacers kill the clone?”
“That is an interesting question,” she said, using a forefinger to tap her chin. “No, we did not kill the Strand abomination, although he died because we Spacers decreed we should not suffer a Methuselah Man of any stripe to live.”
“You put a bounty out on him?”
Mako turned her head, presumably checking something off screen. She seemed satisfied with the thing and regarded Maddox again. “I bid you good-bye for now, Captain. Next time we meet, you will not be so fortunate.”
Maddox thought fast. “Your words are in reference to the new Visionary? She’s seen me in a future timeline?”
The Spacer had seemed ready to shut off the connection. With the new question, she re-regarded him. Her smile became strained. “If I thought it would do any good, I would warn you, Captain. You are a clever individual, after all. I believe you are capable of true learning. Unfortunately for you, your New Man heritage betrays you at every turn.”
“Meaning what?” he asked.
“I understand. You’re begging me for instruction. Yes. I will give it to you, even though I am wasting my breath.” Mako 21 straightened and spoke in a deeper voice. “Beware of the Methuselah Man. He will attempt to lead you down a false path. If you take the path and succeed…you will bring fire and destruction upon humanity such as you cannot conceive.”
“You forget your briefing regarding me,” Maddox said. “I was in the Alpha Centauri System when the “A” star expanded to red star status. I have seen fire and destruction as I doubt you have ever seen.”
“Ah. I see that my words sting. That is good, for the only words that ever truly sting are those spoken in truth.”
Maddox scoffed. “You can’t really expect me to believe that your new Visionary sees into the future.”
“I do not expect it because you are too narrow-minded. Still, I’ll ask this. Why do you think we returned to Usan III?”
“For the crystals,” Maddox said.
“That is only partially correct.”
“Are you going to say that you Spacers came here because of me?”
“There was a chance that we could have adjusted your…” Mako 21 stopped talking as she shook her head. “No. We tried—we tried,” she said, sounding sad.
Maddox would have asked more, but before he could, Starship Victory slid into view, no doubt coming out of a star-drive jump. The vast and alien vessel came between the fold-fighter and the saucer ship.
“Finally,” Mako 21 breathed, “it has begun.” Her image abruptly vanished from the fold-fighter’s comm screen.
At that point, several more saucer ships appeared, uncloaking, it would seem, five in all. Each Spacer saucer-ship was the same distance from Victory as the others, about three hundred thousand kilometers away.
As Maddox watched, he witnessed an ultra-white beam spear out of each saucer ship. The five beams struck Victory, no doubt attempting to pierce the heavy armor of the Adok starship so they could purge it from existence.
-20-
Lieutenant Valerie Noonan sat in the captain’s chair aboard Victory. She had long brunette hair and astonishingly beautiful features behind her stern demeanor. In the captain’s absence, Valerie was the commanding officer. She was known as a by-the-book commander. But she had also learned to bend now and again when the situation warranted it.
Valerie had studied Maddox and learned from him, although she did not try to copy his style. What worked for him did not necessarily work for her. That had taken her quite some time to learn.
She feared for Keith Maker’s safety. That was part of the reason for her stern cast. They’d been having more intense arguments, and she wasn’t sure that Keith was the right man for her. But she worried about him just the same. The fool didn’t know when to throttle back. He thought he could fly any mission successfully no matter how stupid or dangerous it might be.
Given the situation, she also worried about Maddox, Meta and Riker, but not nearly as much as she worried about that hotheaded ace.
The ancient Adok starship that had thrust itself into the mix had two oval areas connected to each other. The vessel also had excellent heavy armor. Because the ship had just made a star-drive jump, the shields were down. That meant the five enemy beams struck the heavy armor, digging into the resistant substance as they attempted to achieve a burn-through.
Having just shaken off drug-smoothed Jump Lag, Valerie raised her head and balled her hands into fists on the chair’s armrests. “Andros,” she said in a stilted voice. “Where are my shields?”
She spoke to the short, stout older man who had thick fingers and unusually long gray hair. He was a Kai-Kaus Chief Technician. Maddox had saved the man an
d ten thousand other Kai-Kaus from a Builder Dyson Sphere a thousand light-years from Earth several years ago.
Andros, together with the AI Galyan’s help, had detected strange gravity waves that had indicated cloaked Spacer vessels nearing the fold-fighter.
The attack against Victory, as such, did not come as a surprise. Valerie and the others had suspected it would happen like this. She was trusting to the starship’s armor, and to Andros’s quick action, to raise the—
“Shields,” Valerie repeated, “I need those shields now.”
“Chief Technician,” said a holoimage of an Adok alien. The image possessed deep-set eyes in a strangely lined alien face. He was a deified alien AI, the last member of a lost race. “If you would engage the Bussard generator—”
“Of course,” Andros said, interrupting Galyan. The Kai-Kaus’s stubby fingers flew over a panel.
All the while, the five ultra-white beams continued to pound the starship. To make matters worse, missiles zoomed out of each saucer-shaped ship, racing toward the seemingly stunned Victory.
“I need those shields now,” Valerie repeated.
“There,” Andros said. “You should have them.”
As the Chief Technician stopped talking, a shimmering electromagnetic shield snapped into existence outside of Victory. The ultra-white beams no longer struck the five spots on the starship. They hit the invisible shield some distance from the armored skin. Those five areas immediately began to turn red because the shield could not bleed off the excess energy fast enough. If too much energy struck the shield too fast, it would collapse.
Valerie snarled silently to herself before saying in a calm voice, “I want the disrupter cannon and the neutron cannon online as soon as possible. We’re going to take out the Spacer ships one at a time.”
The Spacer saucer vessels were each smaller than Victory. Together, the five had more mass, but not by much. It was like five angry hyenas facing a male lion that had just woken up from sleep. In the past, the starship had taken on six saucer ships and come out victorious. That meant they should be able to defeat these five now.
“Valerie,” Galyan said. “We are in error concerning one particular. The Spacer missiles are not heading for us, but for the fold-fighter behind us. I believe the Spacers mean to destroy the fighter.”
The Lost Star Gate (Lost Starship Series Book 9) Page 10