The Lost Starship

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Yes,” she said, looking up troubled. “What do I do, sir?”

  “Give it our code,” Maddox said. “Let’s find out if the Saint Petersburg had the authorization to change the Loki security systems.”

  “Begging your pardon, sir,” Valerie said, “but you might want to reconsider that. Even if we pass the security clearance, the beacon will alert Archangel. That’s standard operating procedure.”

  “I see,” Maddox said. That hadn’t been on the Lord High Admiral’s disc. Maybe Cook believed he would have already known such a thing. He hadn’t. Maybe a rules stickler had her uses.

  Valerie glanced at her board. “The beacon is demanding recognition clearance now, sir. It will alert Archangel any moment.”

  “Answer it,” Maddox snapped. “Give it our clearance. Then type in SSA-452-B75-Alpha afterward.”

  “What is that, sir?” she asked, as she tapped in the information required by the beacon.

  “I’d hoped to only have to use that last code on the orbitals,” Maddox said. “It’s a Star Watch Intelligence clearance, demanding a three day delay on procedures.”

  “You mean the beacon won’t alert the monitor for another seventy-two hours?” Valerie asked.

  “Exactly,” Maddox said.

  Lines appeared on the lieutenant’s forehead as she considered this. Then her head lifted sharply. “Seventy-two hours delay won’t be long enough, sir. I mean long enough for us to reach the prison planet, insert, lift with the personnel and leave the star system.”

  “Hmmm, yes,” Maddox said. “That could prove troublesome for us three days from now.”

  “What?” Keith said. “Am I hearing you right—Captain? We’re going in, but we’re not getting back out?”

  “Nonsense,” Maddox said. “We’ll think of something in three days.”

  Keith mulled that over, soon shrugging and returning to studying his instruments.

  “Begging your pardon, sir,” Valerie said. “But that would make this a suicide run. A three day delay isn’t long enough.”

  “What do you suggest we do, Lieutenant?” Maddox asked. “I’m more than open to suggestions.”

  “I’m not sure there is a way to do this,” she said. “We must turn back and rethink our plan.”

  “Negative, Lieutenant. We’re heading in.”

  “But sir—”

  “Lieutenant Noonan,” Maddox said. “I will go down onto Loki Prime and rescue my sergeant. I will then find Doctor Dana Rich and bring her back to Geronimo. Afterward, we are going to find the alien star system. Anything else is a defeat for Earth.”

  “We need a plan for getting out of the Loki System,” she said, “a chance for victory.”

  “Agreed,” he said.

  “You have a plan, sir?”

  “What do the regulations say about questioning the commander of his ship?” Maddox asked.

  Valerie opened her mouth and squirmed in her seat. Finally, she closed her mouth without another word.

  “For your conscience’s sake, Lieutenant, I prefer not to tell you what we’re going to do later.”

  She stared at him.

  If Maddox had to guess, she didn’t believe he had an idea. The lieutenant must think he was lying to her. Well, he did have a plan. It was risky at best. But at this point, he didn’t know what else to do. He’d worry about it when the time came.

  A half-hour later, there wasn’t any change to the SWS monitor many hundreds of millions kilometers away. If Archangel had begun accelerating for Loki Prime, it would have meant the beacon had reported them, but it hadn’t.

  “The beacon honored your secret code, sir,” Valerie said.

  Maddox stood. “You have first watch, Lieutenant. Ensign, I want you to get as much sleep as you can. It will be some time before we have to brake again.”

  “Sir?” asked Valerie. “Do you think the people in the Saint Petersburg know we’re here in the system, sir?”

  “Absolutely,” he said.

  “Our cover is blown, then?”

  “It was from the start,” Maddox said. “But we’re going to beat them anyway. And do you know why we will?”

  “Because we must, sir?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “Because we’re the best at what we do and we have the latest in stealth technology.”

  “I’ll drink to that!” Keith shouted.

  Maddox and Valerie both turned to stare at him.

  “Uh, a turn of phrase,” Keith said. “Maybe it was in poor taste. Sometimes my excitement gets the better of me. I just mean to agree with you, Captain. We’re the bloody best at what we do.”

  “Get some sleep, Ensign,” Maddox said. “You’re going to need it.”

  “Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said, exiting the control room.

  Maddox waited until he heard Ensign Maker’s hatch clang shut. Then he turned to Valerie. “You’re doing well, Lieutenant. I appreciate your steady nerves.”

  She was silent for several seconds, finally saying, “I grew up in a tough neighborhood, sir. It takes a lot to rattle me. Uh, sir, I’ve been thinking. You don’t want to tell me your idea of dealing with the beacon because your plan is highly illegal, isn’t it?”

  “Why, Lieutenant, what a suspicious mind you have.” With that, Maddox left the chamber. He still had a few modifications he needed to make to the flitter.

  ***

  During the next forty-eight hours, they made two more course corrections, slowing their velocity each time. Thus, it took two days after the incident with the beacon for the scout to enter Loki Prime’s orbit. They had another twenty-four hours until the beacon reported their presence to the distant monitor. They were far behind schedule for clearing the Loki System.

  Because the Saint Petersburg was so close, the fusion generator was presently offline. Geronimo used the cloaking device, a heavy drain on its batteries. As a nearly invisible object to Commonwealth scanners, they had avoided the destroyer as it continued to circle the planet from a far orbit.

  Because of Maddox’s orders, the scout entered Low Loki Orbit as Saint Petersburg moved across the other side of the world. Even though there were only two ships close to Loki, it was difficult to spot a vessel doing its best to hide. Orbital space around the Earth-sized world was vast compared to a scout. It was one of the reasons they had a chance of pulling this off.

  Maddox sat in the control room, watching Valerie monitor her instruments. He no longer wore his uniform but camouflage gear and cap.

  “This place is crawling with detection satellites,” she said. “I don’t see why you think your flitter will make it down undetected, sir.”

  “I trust the Lord High Admiral’s codes to see me through,” Maddox said.

  She turned around, facing him. “That’s an awfully slender thread, sir.”

  “Agreed,” he said. “In the event I fail to return, I want you to slip away. On all accounts, don’t let the Saint Petersburg capture you.”

  “Sir, if you fail, I’m never going to make it out of the Loki System alive.”

  “You have the cloaking device—”

  “Begging your pardon, sir, but it won’t run much longer on the batteries. It will need fusion power.”

  “Turn on the engine and keep the cloaking device running. Then sneak out the best you can. Once they detect the scout, flee at full speed. Get back to Earth. Tell the Lord High Admiral I failed. On no account can you let them capture you.”

  “I’ll try, sir.”

  “Do more than that. The New Men mustn’t learn about the sentinel. If I fail, tell the Lord High Admiral to come with a fleet. At that point, he’ll have to openly try for the alien vessel.”

  “That would alert the New Men, sir. Out in the Beyond, they will intercept the Lord High Admiral’s fleet and destroy it.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Maddox said. “There’s a reason the New Men haven’t kept attacking since their conquest of Odin and Horace.”

  “I suppose that makes sense.” She
looked away, and she seemed embarrassed. “Uh, good luck, sir.”

  “Why thank you, Lieutenant. I wish you the same.”

  “Thank you, sir. I could use it.”

  “Well, let’s get to work,” Maddox said. “We’re under the clock and time is ticking.”

  -15-

  “You’re flying us down,” Maddox said.

  Keith climbed into the flitter, taking the controls. He wore similar camouflage gear as Maddox. On their belts, the two of them carried force blades and pistols that fired explosive pellets. Packs were in the flitter’s back area.

  Maddox glanced behind. He’d torn out the rear seat, pulled off the back plate to the trunk and laid down foam. In a pinch, they could fit two people back there by having them lie down.

  “We’ll be cutting communications in a minute,” Valerie said over the cargo bay intercom. “Do you remember the sequence to alert me that you’re coming back up?”

  Keith glanced at Maddox.

  “Go ahead,” the captain told him.

  “We hear you, love, and we remember the procedure. Keep a tight hold of the barn. We’ll be coming back sooner than you realize.”

  Valerie might have muttered something. It was indistinct over the intercom.

  “Ready, Captain?” Keith asked.

  Maddox nodded.

  With a flick of a switch, the pilot closed the canopy. Next, he unlocked the magnetic clamps holding them to the deck. The engine hummed into life and he turned on the interior vents. Lastly, the flitter gently lifted.

  Even though the Scotsman had never flown the flitter before, he already handled it better than Maddox could.

  He’s a natural at this. It’s no wonder the Tau Ceti mining chiefs allowed him to teach his brother to fly strikefighters.

  The seconds ticked by. Outside the flitter in the cargo bay, the atmosphere hissed away. It wouldn’t do for the outer door to open and have the departing atmosphere hurl them against the side of the opening. Soon, they floated in a vacuum.

  Finally, a crack appeared in a bulkhead. The sliver grew as the two halves slid apart. Maddox shifted in his seat in anticipation of the next few hours. Everything should work just fine. If it didn’t, at least he had an ace for a pilot. The bulkheads shuddered as the doors clanged as far apart as they could. Brilliant stars dotted the void outside.

  “Here we go, Captain,” Keith said.

  The flitter glided smoothly, exiting the cargo bay. Maddox twisted around. Loki Prime spread out below them. It was a mass of cloud cover, a fleecy wonderland with a rotten core.

  It would have been good to remain in contact with Lieutenant Noonan. Geronimo had better sensors than the tiny flitter. But too many detection devices scanned the area. Radio waves would give them away.

  Taking a deep breath, Maddox turned on the flitter’s computer. He entered the security code, and knew the machine would begin emitting it to the various sensors.

  “Repulse power,” Keith said, nudging them toward the distant clouds.

  Time slipped by as Loki Prime grew larger. It felt strange falling toward the seemingly expanding clouds.

  “It’s so serene out here,” Keith said.

  Maddox turned to him. “It is,” he replied.

  “Feels as if everything is right with the world,” Keith added.

  “It does, at that.”

  Keith turned suddenly, and he raised his healing hand, showing it to Maddox. “No hard feelings, Captain. You did what you had to.”

  “Glad you feel that way.”

  Keith returned to monitoring the controls. “At first, I wanted to pay you back. Then I got to thinking. You’re only doing your job, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t take any pleasure in it?”

  “Not a bit.”

  “Didn’t think so,” Keith said. “You don’t strike me as a crawly, Captain. You’re tough. I’m not saying you’re not. The way you handled my bartender with the enforcers sitting there—I knew then you would be a bad bloke to tangle with.”

  Maddox said nothing.

  “Going to be some tough customers down there, aren’t there?” Keith said.

  “There are.”

  “I notice you have a case in back, sir. Do you mind if I ask what you’re carrying?”

  “An arm,” Maddox said.

  Keith cast him a dubious look. Maddox didn’t elaborate.

  “Don’t want me to ask, eh?” Keith said.

  Maddox still didn’t reply.

  “I understand, sir. You’re in charge. Ah, did you feel that bump?”

  “I did,” Maddox said.

  “We’re in the top layer,” Keith said, tapping a control. “Shutting off repulse power and engaging the main engine and antigravity pods—now. Here we go. Let the party begin.”

  The machine hummed, shivering almost as if with delight. To Maddox, it was odd. The last time he’d rode in the flyer they had been on Earth. Now, he was thirty-six light years away on an alien planet, well, coming down on one. This hardly seemed like the right way to it.

  He thought about that. Down there was a jungle world in two ways at least, vast trees and terrible predators. He shook his head, putting that into his hindbrain. It was a time to concentrate on the essentials.

  Several minutes later, the clouds engulfed them in a world of dirty gray wool.

  “We’re heading almost straight down,” Keith said.

  Maddox liked the pilot’s confidence. He wondered about mountains, as in: were they about to crash down onto one? They didn’t dare turn on the radar to find out.

  “This stuff is thick,” Keith said.

  “I’ve seen thicker on Earth.”

  “Not this high in the atmosphere, you haven’t.”

  Maddox digested that. He wondered how Sergeant Riker had felt plunging down through this substance. Riker wouldn’t have seen anything. The penal authorities used modified marine drop pods. The prisoner went down in a one-way capsule, blind to the sights. He or she was never coming back. Had anyone in authority been down onto the surface to report on the conditions there? The Lord High Admiral hadn’t given him anything concrete. That would seem to imply no. Maybe every convict died twenty-four hours after landing. With the present situation, that would be disastrous for Earth.

  “The clouds are thinning out,” Keith said.

  Maddox reexamined them. They looked just as thick as ever. What did the pilot notice that he didn’t?

  Then, the flitter broke though the high cover, entering clear air. Above was the dense ceiling of clouds. Below them spread out a vast expanse of green. It went as far as he could see.

  Keith whistled in admiration. “What is that, sir? From up here, I can’t tell if its grasslands or forests.”

  “Jungle,” Maddox said, “a jungle world.”

  Keith adjusted the flitter. Their nose aimed lower and they slid downward as if riding a giant slide. “The planet is Earth normal then, sir?”

  “Reasonably so,” Maddox said.

  “That’s doesn’t make sense. Why use an Earth-habitable planet for housing criminals? These types of worlds—breathable, I mean—are rare.”

  “You’re right on that score.”

  “So…what am I missing, sir?”

  Maddox had read early survey reports of the planet. Giant trees and nasty poisonous growths underneath their leaves with grim insect life meant this was a hell-world indeed. It lacked metals on the surface, and the plants, spores and funguses meant the only livable areas were in the mountainous regions, which were sparse. In time, colonists would likely settle here—once they filled up the better worlds. It would take less than planet-wide terraforming to ready Loki Prime for civilized life, but it would need vast chemical sprays and biological tampering on a continental scale. According to the reports, Loki fauna was incredibly tough. Tests showed it would demolish with ridiculous ease any non-native plant or bacterial life. That was the kicker. Loki Prime bacteria ate into human flesh as if they were pigs dev
ouring pizza.

  Maddox explained a little of this to Keith. Then a noise alerted them.

  “What’s that?” Keith asked.

  “The locator,” Maddox said. “We’re low enough to begin searching for Sergeant Riker.”

  Maddox had received information from Brigadier O’Hara concerning the general area of Riker’s drop. If he’d had to search the entire world for the man, Maddox likely would never leave the planet within the twenty-four hour limit. The captain didn’t want to think about the endgame, the beacon waiting up there to make its report to the monitor. It was going to be hard enough down here as it was.

  First things first, Maddox thought. Concentrate on today, on now. Tomorrow will bring enough troubles.

  He watched the locator—nothing. So why had it beeped? Maddox checked the drop pod’s coordinates and their position on the planet. This was the right place. The locator used a passive system with a limited range. How far could a man travel down there in three days? Riker hadn’t been on the surface that long, more like two and a half days. Maddox felt he should have spotted the sergeant on the locator by now.

  “Are we going to land?” Keith asked.

  “Not yet. We want to stay high in order to sweep as wide an area as possible.”

  “You don’t see him on that gizmo yet?” Keith asked.

  Maddox adjusted controls. The locator seemed to be working. “Head west,” he suggested.

  Keith turned the flitter, and they headed in a different direction, west. They traveled for fifteen minutes.

  “North,” Maddox said. “Go north.”

  Without a word, Keith turned north.

  Maddox watched the locator, willing it to show him Riker. The sergeant was a good man, if overly quarrelsome at times. The old man was resourceful. That’s what Maddox appreciated about him the most.

  He almost told the ensign to try east when a faint beep sounded.

  Keith glanced at the locator. “Is that him?”

  Maddox flexed his fingers. He’d been fearing that Riker was dead. Yet, the signal should be stronger. The bug inside the sergeant was powered by a person’s body heat.

  “Go lower,” Maddox said.

  Keith tapped controls, and the flitter began to sink.

  Until Maddox exhaled, he hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. The signal came in louder than before. Sergeant Riker was alive.