The Lost Starship

by Vaughn Heppner

  He gave her the number in days.

  Gingerly, Dana touched the back of her head. She gave him a suspicious glance as he explained how she’d been knocked unconscious and into a coma.

  When he finished, she said, “I haven’t been in a coma. The signs are wrong. The truth is you drugged me.”

  “The robo-doctor gave you medicine,” Maddox said.

  “You know what I mean. By your decision, you put me under. I want to know why you did it.”

  “Here,” Maddox said, pushing the water forward.

  He could see in her eyes that she wanted to slap the glass away. Finally, she snatched the tumbler, spilling liquid. He wondered if she would fling it in his face. No. She sipped. Finally, she drank the glass dry. Then, she let the container slide from her fingers to bounce off the deck.

  “What’s the situation with the scout?” she asked. “The engine sounds different.”

  Ignoring the glass, he told her about their repairs, and how the Saint Petersburg was in the same star system with them.

  Her eyes darted from side to side thoughtfully. When her orbs came to a rest, she said, “Okay. The destroyer is hunting us. Isn’t that what you’re saying?”

  “It is,” Maddox agreed.

  “I could have helped with the repairs,” Dana said. “I can do more than Meta.”

  “I believe you. The thing is, Doctor, it’s easier to trust Meta than to trust you.”

  Her eyes widened until understanding fired in her pupils. “Oh, I see. You’re trying to win her over to your cause. With me out of the way, you could persuade her more easily. Yes. I understand now.”

  “And?” Maddox said.

  “What do you mean, ‘and?’”

  “Aren’t you going to tell me that my trickery won’t work?”

  “I don’t engage in useless comments,” Dana said. “Of course your skullduggery could work. It’s a common enough tactic, building camaraderie under extreme conditions. Meta hungers for friends. She’s a lonely person.”

  “You aren’t?”

  Dana smiled as a predator might. “If I thought about it, I might have time for loneliness. Your trouble, Captain, is that you ponder things too much. You’re much more transparent than you realize.”

  “Oh?”

  “How is it that your people chose you to try to beat the New Men?” she asked.

  Tension bubbled in his chest. “Could you explain your statement?” he asked.

  “I don’t have to. Your reaction tells me I struck a nerve. Let me tell you something about your operation. Your plan to gain the sentinel is futile. It won’t work.”

  “Doctor Ludendorff believed it could work,” Maddox said.

  Dana made a dismissive gesture. “Ludendorff is a hopeless romantic. Yes, the man is brilliant. I concede that much. Frankly, that’s part of his problem. His brilliance blinds him to what can and can’t be done. Most of his life, he’s been doing things everyone told him was impossible. Thus, when he finally came to an impossible situation—I’m talking about the alien star system—he was too puffed up to realize we all would have died if I hadn’t acted quickly enough getting us out of there.”

  “Why exactly is gaining the sentinel impossible?”

  “You’re a smart man, Captain. At least, you seem capable enough. It should be elementary to figure out the reason.”

  “Why don’t you tell me,” Maddox suggested.

  Dana looked at him as if he’d become simple-minded. “Ludendorff estimated the alien war to have taken place nearly six thousand years ago. Knowing the man, he’s probably right. Let me ask you something. Can you imagine how long ago that was? Oh, I understand that you think you can. You can’t, though, not really. The timeframe contains all of humanity’s recorded history, everything. The sentinel is impossibly old, yet it is still dangerous. Don’t you think others throughout the centuries tried to tame it as you’re hoping to do?”

  “I have no idea,” Maddox said. “By the articles I’ve read, the aliens vanished long ago. Maybe this is the first attempt since their disappearance.”

  “Even if you’re right, the sentinel would be too different for us to use. Its controls are likely based on incomprehensible alien realities, at least as we think of them.”

  “Wouldn’t rational minds think alike?” Maddox asked. “For instance, aliens must have used the same mathematics we have.”

  “Clearly, you’ve read Ludendorff’s notes,” Dana said. “He spoke as you do. No! I reject the concept out of hand. Different races from different worlds would think and act inconceivably different from us.”

  “Then how do we defeat the New Men’s star cruisers?” Maddox asked.

  “Not my job,” Dana said.

  “We—meaning you as well—are presently hunted by a New Man.”

  “Correction, you’re hunted by a Star Watch destroyer. I’m beginning to suspect your entire story, Captain. I think you have a completely different agenda in mind, one you’re refusing to tell us.”

  “No,” Maddox said. “That doesn’t fly. You saw the New Men down on the planet. You witnessed them and you know they’re incredibly dangerous to us. They have several edges over regular humans, not least of which is that they know us but we know very little about them. Tell me, Doctor. What must I do to convince you to aid us?”

  “Nothing,” she said, “because I’m never going to help you in the way you want. It’s death to go back.”

  “At least show us how to get to the alien star system. I’ll drop you off before we reach it.”

  “Forget it,” she said. “Firstly, I don’t trust you. You drugged me, Captain. You lack a sense of decency. Secondly, if you want to go there, you have Ludendorff’s notes. Read them and use them.”

  Maddox stared into her eyes, feeling like a deer watching a wolf panting under a tree. “I believe the professor wrote in code,” he said.

  An eyebrow lifted. “So, you’re more intelligent than I’ve given you credit for. Yes, the professor was a maniac about security. He put everything he wrote into an inscrutable cipher.”

  “I’m sure you could crack it,” Maddox said.

  “That goes without saying. He was smart. I’m smarter.”

  Maddox pursed his lips. “I must say, Doctor. You’re a difficult person to like.”

  “All you mean is that I’m not doing what you want. As you can see, I’m too wise to fall for your ploys.”

  “Nevertheless, you are in the same predicament as us. You’re in the same craft. The New Men are hunting for us, meaning they’re also hunting for you. What will you do as they close in? You must come to your senses before they trap us, and you, for good.”

  “You forget,” Dana said. “I was on Loki Prime, more trapped than anywhere in the universe. Yet, I escaped.”

  Maddox could have pointed out that he was the one who had taken her off the planet. Instead, he shifted directions because he realized that an appeal to her better nature wasn’t going to work. Doctor Rich was proud. She was ambitious, and she obviously looked down on others. She was hyper-intelligent. That must have meant a childhood full of loneliness. Maddox knew something about that.

  He now snorted softly.

  She bristled.

  Seeing her reaction, he changed tactics. He would needle her, after all. “You didn’t escape from Loki Prime,” Maddox said. “I did that, taking you with me. Don’t you realize I won’t always be there to save your ugly hide from the New Men?”

  “Ha!” she said. “Nice try. I’m not as sensitive or as vain as you seem to think. Let me tell you something. You need me. I don’t need you.”

  “If I have to,” Maddox said, “I will decipher Ludendorff’s notes on my own and take us to the alien system.”

  “Once you’re there,” Dana asked, “how will you trick the sentinel into letting you board?”

  Maddox shrugged as if it would be child’s play.

  “You do know that you’re racing to your destruction,” she said.

 
“Possibly,” he said. “I’m also taking you with me.”

  “You’ll have to drop me off first.”

  “Under normal circumstances I’d be happy to oblige. I’m afraid with the destroyer on our tail that I cannot.”

  “That’s madness,” Dana said. “You’ve already admitted the scout is limping along. They have a fully functional machine. You will not shake them. The only rational choice is to return to a Star Watch shipyard and effect repairs.”

  “In this you are correct,” Maddox said. “I am irrational and will stubbornly attempt the mission no matter how poor the odds are of succeeding.”

  She squinted at him. “You’re bluffing.”

  “Did I try to bluff the New Man on Loki?”

  “No…” she said. “You shot him, but he still got away.”

  Maddox wanted to shout with frustration, pick up his chair and hurl it at her. What would it take to convince this stubborn genius?

  “Look at it this way,” said Maddox. “The destroyer isn’t going to give up. That means we’ll barely stay ahead of them. Whatever else I do, I’ll take the scout into the Beyond. Without your help, I’ll make mistakes deciphering the professor’s notes. That means a longer journey than otherwise. The longer this trip takes, the greater chance that I slip up and they catch us. That personally affects you, Doctor.”

  She lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. “At least I get to live longer this way—your proposed zigzag journey through the Beyond. Once we reach the alien system, our lives will be measured in hours, not decades.”

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Maddox said. “Let me assure you, Doctor, you won’t hijack my vessel.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “If it’s in my best interests,” Maddox said, “I can always give you the same drugs as before, put you back to sleep.”

  “True enough, you can,” she said, “but you won’t.”

  “If I don’t, you’ll be spending a lot of time alone locked in your quarters.”

  “We’ll see how well Meta does with that,” Dana said.

  Frustration seethed through Maddox. He realized she wasn’t going to budge now. That meant he’d have to start reading Ludendorff’s notes again. He couldn’t believe freeing Doctor Rich had actually hindered their mission instead of aiding it. The scout wouldn’t be in this poor condition if he hadn’t gone down to Loki Prime.

  “You know you’ll never decipher the professor’s notes,” she said. “You lack the brainpower. Thus, this mission is doomed to failure.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re aiding the New Men, Doctor.”

  “I’m not aiding them. I already told you once. I hate the Commonwealth of Planets and think even less of the Windsor League and the Wahhabi Caliphate. Let the New Men make a clean sweep of it. In time, I’m going to get a starship of my own. Then, I’m heading far, far away, Captain. So you see, your threat of heading even deeper into the Beyond is no threat at all, but a boon for my plans. By all means, take us far away from your precious Commonwealth and its oh so high and mighty Star Watch. Good riddance to them all.”

  Silently, Maddox admitted defeat. “Very well, you’ve convinced me. Let me help you to your new quarters.”

  “I can walk on my own,” she said. With that, she struggled off the robo-doctor and limped for the hatch.

  Maddox followed, knowing he’d have to keep a sharp eye on her, or despite his best efforts, she would hijack the vessel.

  -26-

  The deadly game of tag begun with the Saint Petersburg in Earth orbit and taken to the Loki System now entered its most frustrating phase for Captain Maddox.

  With its head start, the Geronimo slipped from the barren star system. For a day—twenty-three hours to be precise—it seemed they had finally shaken off the destroyer. Instead, as the scout neared the next Laumer-Point, the Saint Petersburg entered the same star system. After two hours of active sensor sweeps, the destroyer accelerated hard for the jump point the scout neared.

  “Since the mine-attack, our cloaking device no longer functions one hundred percent,” Valerie said. “They must be able to see us.”

  Maddox stood in the control room, staring at the lieutenant’s view-screen. The Saint Petersburg aimed at them like an arrow, if six hundred million kilometers away. He hated the New Man over there, and he hoped the commander’s ribs hurt where he’d shot him on Loki Prime.

  The scout’s engine worked after a fashion. The gravity generator shook the wounded scout too much when employed. The cloaking device—as the lieutenant suggested was still less than perfect.

  “Drop the cloak,” Maddox said.

  “What if the destroyer’s crew just guessed right?” Valerie asked. “If we appear now, that will let them know exactly what to look for next time.”

  Maddox didn’t think so, but it was possible the lieutenant was right. He put his hands behind his back, squeezing his fingers into fists. This was different than his normal spying mission. Given a situation like this on Earth, he would…

  Maddox shook his head. To win this time, he had to accept that his choices could produce defeat. He had to think, and he had to accept responsibility. If Valerie had a better idea than he did, he should use it. Captaining a starship, even a small one like the scout, was an art. It was conceivable he still had much to learn in this area.

  “Maintain the cloak,” he said.

  Now it was Keith’s turn. “If we remain cloaked, the destroyer is going to catch up,” the pilot said. “We have to move as fast as we can, and we don’t dare use the gravity generator until further repairs have strengthened the scout’s structures.”

  “Understood,” said Maddox. “Stay cloaked, but put the fusion thruster online.”

  “If we do that,” Valerie said, “they’ll certainly see us.”

  “Nevertheless, we will risk it,” Maddox said. “Ensign Maker is correct. They’re heading for us, even if they can’t see us. We must keep as far ahead of them as we can, staying out of missile and beam range.”

  Geronimo accelerated. Several hours later, the ship entered the Laumer-Point at speed. Without the destroyer in the new star system—at least for a time—Maddox ordered the lieutenant to let the cloak drop.

  During this time, Meta, Valerie, Keith and Sergeant Riker continued to effect repairs the best they could. Doctor Dana Rich stayed locked in her quarters. Meta constantly asked to see her. Maddox refused every request.

  The captain’s normal calm deserted him when he was alone in his quarters. He read Professor Ludendorff’s notes again and again, stalking back and forth in his chamber in frustration and then returning to his computer to retype the words, hoping to see something new. He tried old encryptions and finally ran the notes through the computer. Nothing made sense.

  “Deeper into the Beyond,” Maddox ordered. “The alien star system is out there, so that’s where we’ll head.”

  Always—sometimes just minutes before they jumped—the destroyer appeared in the star system, pinging its sensors off the cloaked scout.

  Maddox had Riker read the notes. The sergeant shrugged afterward. The old man had no ideas. Keith read the notes and laughed when asked if he saw a code embedded there. Valerie didn’t laugh, but she didn’t have any ideas, either. Meta pondered the words. She tried hard but came up with nothing.

  After the tenth jump, Maddox lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. They had just used a small Class 3 wormhole. The destroyer would have to work around, using larger jump points to reach this star system. If the scout proved fast enough, they could leave this system before the Saint Petersburg appeared to resume the chase.

  To Maddox’s amazement, they made the jump, a second one too—several days later—and the Saint Petersburg still hadn’t showed up.

  “We did it,” Valerie said in the control room. “We’ve shaken the hunter. Now, we can think about a space-dock and extended repairs.”

  There were grins all around. Then an alarm rang. Maddox, Keith and Valeri
e bent over their controls. The lieutenant found it first. She looked up, stricken.

  Maddox noticed her features. He sat up, asking, “You found the Saint Petersburg?”

  The lieutenant shook her head. “Worse,” she whispered, “it’s much, much worse.” She pointed at her view-screen. “I’m looking at a New Men star cruiser. I’d recognize that triangular shape anywhere. The same model annihilated von Gunther’s fleet. How it found us, I don’t know, but it’s here.”

  An icy sensation spread through Maddox’s chest. “I think I know what happened. They’ve widened the search, using more vessels. Maybe they’ve figured out what we’re after or they knew all along. They’re not about to let us reach the alien star system.”

  Instead of swearing, Captain Maddox drummed his fingers on the console. He stood and pointed at Valerie. “Map out an escape route—don’t worry where it takes us in relation to the Oikumene. Shoot us through five star systems in quick succession. Oh, and use as many Class 3 wormholes as possible, making sure each Laumer-Point is as near to the next one as possible.”

  “Excuse me, sir,” she said. “I’m not sure what you’re driving at.”

  “We’re going to try to shake all of them,” Maddox said. “Bam, bam, bam,” he said, clapping his hands each time. “We jump, jump, jump before they appear to get a fix on us. If they have several vessels chasing us, we have to shake them all off.”

  “How are they coordinating with each other in the various star systems?” Valerie asked.

  There wasn’t a hyper-communications system in existence as far as Maddox knew. Messages traveled as fast as starships could carry them and no faster.

  “I wish I knew,” Maddox said. “They’re being clever. That means we have to pull every rabbit out of the hat we can. Now get to work.”

  “Where are you going, sir?” the lieutenant asked.

  “I have a new argument to present to the doctor,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

  “Not this time,” Valerie said.

  Maddox was already headed for the hatch. He halted and glanced at her.

  “This time, we need something stronger,” Valerie said. “I’m going to pray.”