The Lost Starship

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Now I have you,” Keith muttered. He pressed the trigger controls. Shells sped at the two bogeys. One Talos Seven variant E-3 missile disintegrated in midair. A second later, the other exploded, making a black cloud in the air.

  “This will get rough!” Keith shouted.

  The scout swiveled again, facing forward, and the missile’s air concussion struck the craft. The control room tipped to the side as the scout descended.

  “Come on, lass, dance for your daddy-boy.” The ace’s fingers roved over his controls as everything shook.

  Maddox had to clench his jaws to stop his teeth from rattling against each other.

  Incredibly, Geronimo straightened and the shaking stopped. The scout soon rose to its former height.

  Ensign Maker slapped his chest, hooting with delight. “I own you, you crawly mothers. I’m the king of the hill.”

  Silently, Maddox agreed with the pilot’s assessment. The man knew his trade.

  As Geronimo continued its way around the world, Doctor Rich worked feverishly at her controls. “I never thought I’d get to do this again,” she said in a voice choked with emotion.

  The control room was meant for three. With four, it was crowded. So Maddox stood near the hatch, grabbing it during the violent maneuvering. “It’s time,” he said. “Lieutenant, hail Archangel.”

  “We’ll never get through the space beacons if we do that,” Valerie told him.

  “I said hail them,” Maddox said. “That doesn’t mean I plan to speak with anyone.”

  “Sir?” asked Valerie.

  Dana looked up from her panel, facing him. “You think there are more New Men aboard the destroyer?”

  “Would the New Man commander go down to Loki Prime’s surface if he didn’t have backup on the destroyer?” Maddox asked.

  “If I were the destroyer’s commander,” Dana said, “I wouldn’t go onto Loki Prime under any conditions.”

  “You also don’t believe you can do anything you want,” Maddox said. “I believe they do. Anyway, that two New Men went down to the surface indicates to me that more stayed up with the Saint Petersburg.”

  “Why would that matter to us so that we’re now hailing Archangel?” Valerie asked.

  “It isn’t always what we do that matters,” Maddox told the lieutenant. “Sometimes what counts is what the enemy thinks we’re doing. Of course, as Doctor Rich has implied, I’m predicating this on the belief that there are New Men aboard Saint Petersburg.”

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “Archangel acknowledges our signal.”

  “Send them a random message,” Maddox said. “Use nonsense words.”

  Lieutenant Noonan gave him a blank look.

  “Recite an old nursery rhythm,” Maddox said. “We know it’s nonsense, but maybe the New Men aboard Saint Petersburg will believe it’s a clever code. I’m sure they’re monitoring our radio. They won’t be able to crack our meaningless message—what they think is a cryptogram—and that might trouble them enough into making a wrong choice.”

  Doctor Rich appeared thoughtful as she studied Maddox. Finally, she said, “You’re attempting to use their intelligence against them. You’re a subtle man, Captain.”

  “Don’t sing my praises yet,” Maddox said. “Wait until we’ve made it.”

  Thirty seconds passed, a minute. The scout continued to shiver as the engines complained.

  “The turbulence is stressing the ship’s structures, sir,” Keith said. “I recommend—”

  “Sir!” Valerie shouted. “The destroyer has slowed down. It appears to be making a turn.”

  “Can you spy the lifting shuttle?” Maddox asked.

  “Negative,” Valerie said. “It’s over the horizon in relation to us.”

  “Pour it on, Ensign,” Maddox said. “Push it. This is our sole opportunity to break out into space.”

  “You guessed right, sir,” Valerie said. “You outfoxed the destroyer’s commander.”

  “We’re prolonging our existence,” Maddox said. “That means we get to play phase two.” He glanced at the lieutenant’s board. The destroyer was completing the turn. The commander up there must have decided to pick up the shuttle as fast as he could. Then he would use the Saint Petersburg’s speed to try to catch the scout. Of that, Maddox had little doubt.

  Thirty more seconds passed.

  “Now,” Maddox said. “Take us through the clouds and head for space, Ensign.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain, sir,” Keith said. “I’m going to show these blimey crawlies what we can do.”

  ***

  Geronimo reached space at a calculated spot. They were in line-of-sight of Archangel, which maintained its distant post near the Class 1 tramline jump-point entrance and the chthonian planet. Loki Prime now shielded them from the destroyer, although that wouldn’t last for long. The bulkheads no longer shuddered, and the scout seemed unhurt from its time in the atmosphere.

  “We have clear running ahead of us,” Keith said.

  “Engage the cloaking device,” Maddox said.

  Valerie complied, although she said, “It won’t work at peak efficiency while the engines are pouring exhaust from our port.”

  “The cloak will still make it harder for Archangel to tell what we are,” Maddox said. “We’re not going to give them long to see us, though. Set a course for the Class 3 tramline, Lieutenant. Ensign, we’re going to use the Loki Prime. Take us behind it in relation to Archangel.”

  “Won’t that bring us into a line-of-sight with Saint Petersburg?” Valerie asked.

  “It will,” Maddox said. “How much battery charge do we have?”

  “Fifteen percent,” Valerie said. “The batteries began charging again when I turned on the engines. But—”

  “Fifteen percent is less than I like,” Maddox said, interrupting her. “Ensign, give us full power. Open it up. Then, at my command, you will cut power and go to batteries to energize the cloaking device.”

  “We can use the cloak with the fusion engines powering them,” Valerie said. “It’s the hot exhaust out of the port that will give us away.”

  “This close to the destroyer,” Maddox said, “we’ll stick to battery power. They might be able to detect the fusion engines.”

  “We’ll barely be crawling through space,” Valerie pointed out.

  “Yes, while cloaked,” Maddox said, “and hidden from Archangel and Saint Petersburg both.”

  “That will allow the destroyer to tell the monitor’s commander whatever he wants,” Valerie said.

  “Exactly,” Maddox said. “We want a quiet playing field. If two of us try to tell the monitor our varying stories, Archangel’s commander might put the drone field onto combat alert.”

  “He might do it anyway,” Valerie said. “In fact, I’d say that’s his most probable course.”

  Maddox took his time answering. His lungs felt bubbly, which he took to mean the lowlander spores continued to mutate. His immune system was likely stronger than Keith’s or the sergeant’s, but it wasn’t tougher than the planet’s bacterium. Soon, now, he’d have to go through the robo-doctor.

  Finally, he said, “All life is a risk, Lieutenant. We have to play the hand we’re dealt, not the one we’d like.”

  The engines began to strain as they headed out of Low Loki Prime Orbit at full throttle. Keith had already aimed the ship toward the distant Class 3 tramline.

  “Now,” Maddox ordered. “Cut the engines and coast.”

  Using Loki Prime as a shield, they hid from the distant monitor. The Star Watch commander out there might link to the space beacons, but at this point, it was unlikely the scout would show on their sensors either. As he’d said, all life was a risk.

  With passive sensors, the lieutenant’s screen showed the shuttle entering the destroyer’s docking bay.

  “In less than twenty-one hours,” Valerie said, “the one satellite-beacon is going to make its report to the monitor. Then it won’t matter what the destroyer has explained to Archangel’s com
mander.”

  Maddox heard the lieutenant, and he silently agreed with her. Heaviness pulled at his eyelids. He forced them wider. He had plenty to do still. For one thing, he needed to get Meta settled. Then, he had to decide how he was going to convince Doctor Rich to join the expedition to the finish.

  -22-

  Sometime later, Meta stretched out on a bunk staring up at a bulkhead. It had been a long time since she’d been able to lie down without worrying about Temple Savants sneaking up on her to attempt rape or worse. That had been the official name of their tribe.

  Life on Loki Prime had been a nightmare, one she’d endured for four awful years. She could still hardly believe this was happening.

  It had been several hours since she’d boarded the SWS Scout Geronimo. Captain Maddox had installed her in these quarters, telling her the anklet would give her increasingly stronger shocks if she set foot outside the compartment. He had changed the rules of his agreement, confining her here. Meta had expected nothing less.

  Even so, the man kept surprising her. Few people outside of the Rouen Colony had ever bested her in hand-to-hand combat. Dana had twisted the truth when she’d told Maddox that she—Meta—was an engineer. Everyone in the Rouen Colony was an engineer, just as, in the preindustrial past, most people had been farmers.

  Meta’s real specialty was fighting—not as a soldier, but as a bodyguard, enforcement agent and assassin. She had trained many years for her attempt against Baron Chabot. He’d owned the contract to the Rouen Colony.

  The heavy G mining world could have doubled as a prison planet. During her time there, indentured colonists had slaved eighteen-hour shifts running the diggers. Because of the grueling gravity, the work wore people down at astonishing rates. The history of her planet and people went back to Baron Chabot’s grandmother. To aid in producing greater quotas of ore, the grandmother had decided on human modifications: making stronger workers through genetic alterations for endurance under extreme conditions.

  The Rouen Colony was located in an independent star system. Such genetic alteration was against the laws of the Windsor League and the Commonwealth. In any case, Meta had trained in secret. The mine coordinator had believed she had a greater chance of success than others would due to her beauty.

  From her childhood on, Meta had drilled in clandestine affairs. The endless memory courses, weapons training, stealth, security procedures, she knew it all. Finally, when she’d turned eighteen, Meta had boarded a packet to the baron’s regular gravity world. It had taken her three humiliating years before she gained access to his castle as a maid. Then one night, Meta had slipped into the baron’s quarters and throttled him to death in his bed. His eyes had opened long enough to gape at her for his final seconds of life.

  Instead of fierce elation at his inert form, she’d felt sick at her deed. It had been her first kill. Staggering through the empty, enemy halls, she had found herself in the kitchens. At that point, she realized many security cameras had recorded her passage. Escaping the baron’s planet had proved hard. Worse, the political assassination failed to produce the desired effect. Instead of freeing the people of the Rouen Colony, the baron’s heir had passed stricter laws—and he’d placed a fantastic reward on Meta’s head.

  Pirates hijacked the liner where she’d stowed away. They had uncovered her presence, and it would have been deadly for her to remain on the liner once the pirates left. It had been one of the baron’s luxury cruisers. So, she joined the pirates long enough for them to enter a Commonwealth system, where a Star Watch patrol captured the ship.

  The authorities sentenced her to Loki Prime along with the rest of the pirate crew. Temple Savants reached her drop pod before anyone else did. The first thug tried to throw her down to start a rape train. He was the second person she killed. The Temple Savant boss had been impressed. Meta had slain the rapist with a single punch to the head. The boss made her his bodyguard and lover. The man had disgusted her, but better to deal with one than fifty at a time.

  A year ago, Doctor Dana Rich landed on Loki Prime, and things began to change soon thereafter. Dana had taught the Temple Savants things, improved on their weapons and compound defenses. Then, she poisoned the boss one night. Meta was the only one who knew. Dana took the pig’s place. She made Meta her bodyguard, and that’s all she had to do.

  Captain Maddox was right about one thing. Everyone on Loki Prime dreamed of getting off. It comprised a good third of their conversations and plans. The hard truth that all of them knew was that none of them would ever leave the horror world.

  As she stretched out on the bunk, Meta grinned with delight. Her skin was clean and felt fresh for the first time in years. Maddox had let the medical station inject her with antibiotics. Soon, the germs and spores crawling inside her would be dead, and she would feel like her old self again. She didn’t think Maddox would be able to outfight her then, not as he had on the planet.

  Meta’s grin widened. She’d seen him eyeing her. Oh yes, she knew that look. Her teachers had taught her to use such things to her advantage. She had been a pirate once before— No, forget about piracy. This time, once I own the scout, I’ll go legitimate. Maybe I’ll head to a Windsor League planet, start my own security agency.

  Putting her hands behind her head, Meta wondered if Captain Maddox had spoken the truth about the New Men. The two golden-skinned men walking off the shuttle— Thinking about what had happened on the surface, she shuddered.

  Meta had never met people like them. Their eyes had been harder than stone. Handsome like devils, they had remorseless attitudes. Maddox had guessed right about them. The Star Watch Intelligence captain seemed to do that a lot. The golden-skinned men had gathered the nearest Temple Savants. One fool tried to knife the shuttle leader. The golden-skinned man had caught his wrist and broken it easily. Then, he’d grabbed the offender’s throat and squeezed, crackling the neck bones as the knifeman gurgled to his death.

  Five Temple Savants had bellowed with outrage, charging. The second New Man had drawn a gun faster than Maddox could have done. Before anyone realized it, five Temple Savants lay dead on the ground with smoking holes in their foreheads.

  “You act like beasts,” one of the New Men said. “So we will treat you as beasts.”

  The torturing began soon thereafter. If the orbital missiles hadn’t struck, Meta was certain the golden-skinned devils would have slaughtered the entire tribe.

  Had more of their kind truly invaded the Oikumene? Were the New Men as unstoppable as Maddox said? By her actions, Dana didn’t believe it. Meta also knew that Dana Rich considered herself the smartest person alive. For over a year, Meta had seen the truth of that. She wondered if Captain Maddox realized just whom he’d taken aboard his scout.

  There came a rap at the hatch.

  Meta sat upright. “Wait,” she said. “Let me get dressed.”

  “I’ll give you thirty seconds,” Maddox said.

  Meta had shed the fur bikini some time ago, dropping the pieces into a disposal unit. She now put on a bra and panties, pulled on pants and buttoned a blouse. It was a Star Watch uniform for a rating. On impulse, she pulled on socks and slipped her feet into shoes. Lastly, she checked herself before a mirror. Hmm, she pulled out a string and let her long dark hair cascade to her shoulders. Picking up a brush, she combed her hair.

  “Meta?” Maddox called. “Are you presentable?”

  She considered jumping him when he entered, knocking him out. But why make the attempt so soon? It would be better to regain her full health before striking. Until then, she would lull the man. Despite his cunning, that should be easy enough. He was young, and she had seen the way he looked at her when he thought she wouldn’t notice.

  Sitting on the edge of her cot, she said, “Enter.”

  The hatch opened and Maddox ducked in. He had his gun hand on the butt of his weapon. The pistol was in its holster. When he saw her on the bunk, he removed his hand and snapped the flap shut.

  “It looks as i
f you’ve made the adjustment to ship life easily enough,” he said.

  “What’s the situation?” Meta asked. “Has Dana cracked into the space beacon’s software?”

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “How long do I have to wear this?” she asked, pointing at the anklet.

  “That depends,” he said.

  Meta raised an eyebrow, and she forced herself to smile at him.

  Maddox smiled back.

  Men were so simple. Her teachers had taught her that.

  “Meta, I’ll get straight to the point. I’d like your impressions about the New Men.”

  His direction surprised her. “I’m not sure I know what you mean?” she said.

  “You watched them in person. You observed the way they moved and talked. What did you think about them?”

  Meta hadn’t expected this. Usually, a man would strike up a casual conversation, trying to get to know her so he could make his moves. Maddox struck her as all business. Did he think she didn’t know what he thought about her in his heart?

  “I want your impressions because the Star Watch has scant information about the New Men,” Maddox explained. “The invaders seem to have penetrated deep into the Commonwealth government, and yet we’ve never caught one of their operatives.”

  “Too bad you couldn’t capture the destroyer then. It’s full of people who have fraternized with New Men.”

  I doubt that’s the case,” Maddox said. “I suspect the invaders have compartmentalized life aboard the destroyer. But that’s neither here nor there. What were your impressions about them?”

  If this is what it took to lull the captain, so be it. “The New Men are decisive,” Meta said. “They act without hesitation, as if they know exactly what they’re doing at all times. A Temple Savant tried to assassinate one.”

  “Who?” Maddox asked.

  She explained the tribal name and told him what had happened upon the shuttle’s landing. Since Maddox kept asking, she told him about the five-person charge and execution by the other New Man, and she detailed how the invader had called them “beasts.”

  “Interesting and telling about their attitude concerning regular people,” Maddox said. “Now give me your take.”