The Lost Starship

-27-

The star patterns had changed drastically since Maddox had begun the mission on Earth over three months ago. In a straight line, they were well over three hundred light-years from the Solar System.

The scout had entered this system at high velocity and accelerated. Now, several days later, they approached the other end, decelerating for some time already.

The system possessed an A spectral class star. That made it a bluish-white furnace with a mean surface temperature of 8000 K. Three terrestrial planets made up the inner system, each about twice the size of Earth. The first two had molten surfaces like Mercury. The last resembled a giant dust-blown Mars.

The lone outer system planet—the one they approached—was unique, at least as seen during their travels. It was a brown dwarf with twenty-one times Jupiter’s mass, making it gargantuan. The dwarf was a substellar object, meaning that despite its size, it lacked the mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in its core. Instead, the planet fused deuterium in the center. This was a T spectral type dwarf and was magenta to the eye rather than brown.

The massive planet was over four billion kilometers from the star, the reason for the longer travel time. The dwarf had moons, the largest similar in size to Saturn’s Titan. The T dwarf also possessed highly elliptical orbiting comets, which thickened in the region near an unstable wormhole.

This system possessed two Laumer-Points: the one they’d entered near the third planet in the inner range and the one they approached out in the comet field.

“I’m still not picking anything up yet,” Valerie said. She sat at her station, engaging all the ship’s sensors. She had been targeting comets since exiting the Laumer-Point.

“It has to be out there,” Maddox said. “The doctor told me so.”

Valerie muttered under her breath. After days of fruitless searching, it seemed she’d reached her limit. She straightened and swiveled around.

“Ensign,” she said, “Could you give us a moment.”

Keith sat at the pilot controls. He glanced from her to Maddox. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Valerie asked him.

“Have you seen the menu choices lately?” Keith asked. “If I’d tried to serve that stuff in my bar, the patrons would have stoned me.”

“Ensign!” she said.

Keith sat back, and it seemed he was about to go into his Scottish routine.

“Go head,” Maddox told him. “Grab some chow. Give us a few minutes.”

“Aye-aye, Captain, sir,” Keith said. He marched out of the control room, banging the hatch louder than usual behind him.

The moment the hatch closed, Valerie said, “Permission to speak—”

“Yes, yes,” Maddox said, with a wave of his hand. She was obviously strained, and so was he. “Please tell me what’s troubling you.”

“Sir, meaning no disrespect… Is it possible Doctor Rich lied to you?”

“The thought has crossed my mind,” Maddox admitted.

“This may be her attempt—”

A beep sounded from her board, interrupting Valerie’s speech.

Maddox’s stomach tightened. He knew what the sound meant. For weeks, this had happened with increasing regularity.

“It’s Saint Petersburg,” Valerie said, studying her panel. As she spoke, the lieutenant engaged the cloaking device. A loud thrum told them all they needed to know about the device’s condition. “We can’t keep this up much longer, sir.”

Maddox silently agreed. If it could last for just another day… This was supposed to be the end of the line for them. One more jump would bring them to the sentinel-haunted star system. Doctor Rich had told him a song and dance about how to get into the alien system intact. Could it really be true?

“You do realize that we won’t be able to follow the doctor’s suggestion now,” Valerie said. “We can’t, not with the destroyer in the system.”

Slowly, Maddox stood and his features stiffened. The past weeks had eaten away at his reserve. The endless chase, the running away again— “Use the passive sensors only,” Maddox said. “Keep searching for the comet. Instruct Meta to babysit the cloaking device. We can’t let the destroyer see us this time, not a smidge or wattage of power to give away our location.”

“I’m not sure I can do that, sir. The Saint Petersburg’s crew has gotten better at their craft.”

“True. But you’ve also gotten better, Lieutenant. We’ve both become experts at this cat and mouse game.”

Valerie paused before asking, “Captain, why do you think Doctor Rich still refuses to help us one hundred percent?”

A hard smile pasted itself onto his face. “That’s a good question. I’m about to discover the answer.”

Like a tiger, Maddox stalked out of the control room. Keith lounged against a bulkhead. Jerking a thumb at the open hatch, Maddox said, “I’m done. You can go back.”

A possibly sarcastic reply died on Keith’s lips. He nodded before moving out of the captain’s way.

Maddox hardly noticed. He marched to the doctor’s hatch and swung it open. Letting it stay ajar, he climbed into her quarters.

The doctor was in the middle of doing push-ups and she mustn’t have heard him enter.

“You must decide,” Maddox told her.

Her head swiveled sharply toward him. A brief twitch of her face was the only indication she’d been surprised. The doctor jumped to her feet. Perspiration dotted her brown skin.

He opened his mouth. This was it. He wouldn’t accept anything less than total assistance.

Panting, she held up a hand. “I’ll save you time, Captain. Your sensors haven’t found the equipment because it’s buried too deep under the ice. Ludendorff was a tricky man, and he suffered from a persecution complex. It served him well on most occasions. Ah,” she added, after searching his face. “I take it the New Men are in the system with us.”

Maddox was too angry to reply verbally, nodding instead.

“You’re in something of a dilemma, then,” Dana said. “Therefore, I believe I’ll finally play my strongest card.”

“Meaning what?” he asked in a thick voice.

Dana’s gaze darted behind him.

Maddox could feel the threat to his rear. In a flash of understanding, it struck him what was about to happen. The strain of the monotonous weeks had taken their toll on his concentration. The voyage had been out of his comfort zone. It had told on him, making him reckless and causing him to miss otherwise obvious clues. It appeared as if Doctor Rich had finally outmaneuvered him.

With a twist of his neck, Maddox looked behind. Standing in the hatchway, Meta held a stunner aimed at his back. He expected to see a triumphant smile. Instead, worried concentration marred her beauty.

Meta motioned with the stunner. Maddox raised his hands.

“Oh, I like this, I really do,” Dana told him. “Yes, I find it rewarding to see a difficult task through to completion. Don’t you find that to be the case, Captain?”

He watched her gloat.

“What do you propose?” Maddox asked.

“A new arrangement,” Dana said. “You are hereby demoted to wretched piece of Star Watch scum. I am confining you to these quarters. I, on the other hand, am accepting a promotion to ship’s captain. What do you think?”

Maddox turned, putting his back to Doctor Rich to face Meta. “You know we’re in danger,” he told the Rouen Colony woman. “You’ve seen the New Men hunting us. Humanity desperately needs the sentinel.”

“Please,” Meta told him, “no more talking, Captain.”

Staring into her eyes, Maddox said, “I freed you from the prison planet.”

“I don’t want to do this,” Meta said. “You have to believe me.”

“Then don’t do it,” Maddox said. “Make the right decision.”

As her eyes tightened, Meta pressed the trigger.

The blast struck Maddox in the chest. He strove to remain conscious but felt himself falling… falling…

I’ve just lost control of my ship.

Maddox groaned. His head was pounding. The taste of sand made his mouth incredibly dry. He unglued his eyes, and he realized someone had been shaking him and calling his name.

“Sir, I wish you’d wake up.”

“Riker?” whispered Maddox, with his eyes still closed.

“Ah, that’s good, sir. He’s coming around,” Riker called. “You were out for some time, sir.”

Maddox forced himself to open his eyes. Blurriness made his stomach heave, and he almost threw up.

“Easy, sir, take it easy.”

“Did Dana and Meta put you in here with me?”

“Ha-ha!” Riker laughed. “Not an old hound like me, sir. Not on your life. I think I know what happened. You’re not used to grubbing it, sir. But me, you see, I’m a sergeant. Someone is always telling me to do this or do that. It’s hardened me to privation, it has.”

Maddox rubbed his forehead. “Where’s Doctor Rich? Where’s the scout?”

“I’ll start with the last question first, sir,” Riker said. “The scout has moved beyond the T dwarf and is headed for the thickest clot of the comet field. The lieutenant doesn’t believe anyone over there on the destroyer has seen us yet. I believe Meta is examining the vacc-suits and powerdrill. Once we land, she plans to go outside and dig for Professor Ludendorff’s hidden engines and atomic fuel.”

That didn’t sound right. Meta the traitor was still running free in his ship? “What are you talking about?” Maddox whispered.

“Well, sir,” Riker said. “As I was trying to tell you, I’m an old space hound. I also happen to be a very suspicious man. I’ve been watching. This one old eye sees pretty good, sir.”

“I’m sure that’s true, but would you please get to the point.”

“Sometimes, I even see quicker than a genius. That’s how I spotted the Tojo bodysuit back in France, remember?”

“Yes,” Maddox said wearily. “That was an excellent piece of deduction. Now would you kindly get to the bloody point, Sergeant?”

“Don’t go straining yourself, sir. You’re still weak from the stunner blast. I’m still finding it hard to believe Meta did that. Not that she got the drop on you, but that she actually pulled the trigger. I think we should punish her, but maybe a reward is more in keeping with her latest action.”

Maddox closed his eyes. His sergeant had gained a coup over him. The man wouldn’t go on like this otherwise. Riker liked to boast even as he pretended not to.

“Do you want to hear what happened, sir?” Riker asked.

“I’d be delighted.” Maddox opened his eyes again and found that the blurriness had departed. He lay in Dana’s abandoned room, on her cot.

“Well, sir, I peeked out of my quarters, and I saw Meta and Doctor Rich come out of hers. Meta looked crestfallen. The doctor strutted like a gambler pulling in a hard-won pot. In a beeline, she headed for the control room. Not to put too fine of a point on it, sir, I stepped out of my room. I stunned Meta first. It took a strong blast to bring the lady down. Then I aimed at Doctor Rich. Well, first I blasted the gun in her grip so it clattered onto the deck. She cradled her hand as if she wanted to scream with agony. She didn’t scream though, not her. No, sir, that woman can talk faster than you can run. She told me all sorts of gibberish, threatening and promising all in one breath. It made me smile inside.”

“I can imagine,” Maddox said. He noticed that Riker was smiling openly now.

“I didn’t get fancy. Well, the hand-stunning was a trick shot like you might have done. After that, no sir, no more fancy pants with a dame who had outsmarted Captain Maddox. I knew she was too dangerous for an old codger like me. So I just shot her with the stunner, and I did it again as she lay on the deck, in case she was faking.”

“You didn’t harm her, did you?” Maddox asked, worried he’d lost the doctor.

“Ah, that’s what I love about you, sir. You’re so solicitous about your enemies that you forget to ask how your boon companions are feeling.”

“Let us rectify that, Sergeant,” Maddox said. “How are you feeling?”

“Good, sir, very good indeed,” Riker said.

“Splendid. It does my heart good to know it. I have a few questions, though. Do you believe you can answer them quickly?”

“I do indeed, sir.”

“How did you, or we, the crew, discover which comet held the professor’s secret supply of spare engines and fuel?”

“Meta told us—that was her positive action I’ve been trying to tell you about. The guilt of shooting you loosened her tongue. She’s decided to pitch in with us all the way, after all. It seems she and the doctor had been communicating in secret for the past few weeks. Ain’t that interesting, sir.”

Maddox said nothing.

“At the moment, Doctor Rich is on the robo-doctor. I used the computer and found the formula to an old-style truth serum. It’s an underhanded way to do this, I know, and beneath us to—”

“What did you say?” Maddox asked, interrupting.

“Truth serum, sir,” Riker said. “I read up on the computer how to make the right formula.”

Maddox closed his eyes. He’d been a fool and overlooked an obvious solution. It galled him, but not as much as letting Meta knock him unconscious. He knew that becoming overconfident was a problem with him. This time, he’d paid for it with a headache and wounded pride. Thank God for a good man like Sergeant Riker to back him up.

With his eyes closed, Maddox said, “I congratulate on you on your cunning and forcefulness, Sergeant. You have single-handedly saved the expedition and possibly humanity as well.”

“Keep talking, sir. I like the sound of this.”

Even though it hurt his head, Maddox grinned. He opened his eyes once more and swung his legs off the cot. Dizziness threatened. He heaved up to his feet nonetheless.

“To work, Sergeant,” Maddox said.

“We’re already working, sir. I think you should rest a little longer.”

“No. Everyone must pitch in. We lost the luxury of time a while ago.”

As if to punctuate his thoughts, Ensign Maker looked into the room. “Captain, sir, you’d better come to the bridge. I mean the control room. According to Lieutenant Noonan, the destroyer has increased its acceleration above its safety limit maximum.”