The Lost Starship

-37-

Captain Maddox reentered the bridge. The holoimage had vanished. With a shrug, Maddox went to his former station and studied the screen. The red giant looked bigger. That meant the ship continued to head toward it.

A crackle of sound caused Maddox to turn. The holoimage solidified into existence. It still looked hazy and indistinct although it maintained a humanoid shape. Maddox wondered what the aliens had looked like. Did they have tentacles or had they been manlike?

“I am disappointed with you, Captain,” the holoimage said.

Maddox kept his features even. He wondered if the AI measured his heart rate and other telltale signs. The captain had training in that area, having used biofeedback to keep himself calmer than others could do in these situations.

“I ran back here as fast as I could,” Maddox said.

“Do not try your subterfuge tactics on me. I have already implied that I know about your plan.”

“Could you be more specific?” Maddox asked.

“I don’t need to be.”

“I agree that this is your ship,” Maddox said. “We are guests here, beholden to you. We will follow whatever rules you decide to enforce.”

“You are quibbling,” the holoimage said. “Stop it at once.”

“If I have offended you, I am sorry.”

“Captain,” the holoimage warned.

Maddox decided to wait.

“You huddled together with your crewmembers,” the holoimage finally said. “You whispered so my sensors couldn’t pick up what you told your people. My probability factors indicate you plotted munity against me.”

“Ah,” Maddox said, acting as if he was relieved. “I realize now what happened. There’s been a terrible misunderstanding. I whispered because…”

“Yes. You did so why?”

“It’s rather embarrassing to tell you in particular,” Maddox said, hanging his head.

“This isn’t the time for your games, Captain. Speak to me at once. Admit that you’re plotting against me.”

“It’s not what you think. You see, I’ve had difficulty with my crew. At times, they’ve flouted my authority. This is my first stint in a warship as a captain. Surely, you recall my troubles with them. Your mind probe earlier should have picked that up.”

“Yes,” the holoimage admitted. “I do recall something of the sort.”

“What adds to my embarrassment is that you’re the greatest starship commander in history. You do realize that, don’t you?”

“I do indeed,” the holoimage said.

“You’re making this hard for me.” Maddox looked stricken as he blurted, “Don’t you realize I wish to look good in your presence? This is my final battle, my reason for existence. I can help humanity by doing as much damage to the antilife New Men as I can. That means my crew needs to excel. I don’t want them to embarrass me in front of you.”

The holoimage froze. When it moved again, it said, “You may not believe this, but I had not considered that.”

“Then let me tell you again,” Maddox said, “I feel awful if my whispering has offended you. Ever since learning who you are, I’ve strained to impress you.”

“Interesting,” the holoimage said. “Perhaps I’ve misjudged your species. You have more refinement than I believed you capable of having. You can recognize greatness in others. Even among my people, that was a rare quality.”

“Please, Commander, let my crew aid you in repairing the starship. We can help fix the neutron charger, any shield generator and star drive damage, and AI memory cores as you would like.”

“Memory cores?” the holoimage asked, sounding suspicious again. “Why there?”

“I’ve begun to suspect you might be missing some of your tactical programs.”

“How dare you say that?” the holoimage said. “What possibility makes you pronounce such a baseless thing?”

“Why, logical deduction proves this must be the case. You are the greatest starship commander in history. That is the first given. Yet the cruisers managed to inflict damage onto Victory. What’s even worse is that I suspect they hurt you more than you hurt them. The only conceivable reason for this is that your AI has fallen below its optimum operating levels.”

“I see,” the holoimage said. “Interesting. I cannot fault your reasoning. Yes, I should have swatted the cruisers out of existence. Originally, I concluded the lack of the disrupter ray or the gyro destabilizer was the cause for my failure to annihilate. Now, I sense it may be a less than optimal computing function. Hmm, I have detected a malfunction or two in my cognitive capacity, blockages in thought.”

Maddox waited quietly.

“What I don’t understand is why, at this point, we should repair the star drive,” the holoimage said. “That makes no sense. I am not going to attempt to flee the intruders.”

“On the contrary,” Maddox said. “I thought the reason why was obvious—as a military ploy.”

“You’re being evasive. I demand that you explain your meaning.”

“Certainly,” Maddox said. “The tactic seems elementary to me. I believe any Star Watch officer would realize how valuable the mini-jump was. We could use the red giant as a shield against the cruisers, only attacking when it’s to our advantage. Naturally, you would place a beacon or two at the star’s edges—in relation to your enemies. In that way, you could fix their precise location. At the right moment, using the jump, you move through or bypass the star to appear beside an enemy cruiser. As soon as possible, you energize the short-range neutron beam, smashing an enemy shield and destroying the vessel. Before the others can react, you jump away out of range back behind the shielding red giant.”

“That is a brilliant strategy,” the holoimage said.

“You are most kind to say so,” Maddox said. “It shows true magnanimity on your part. I wonder if that’s a portion of your greatness, to shower praise where it’s due. Of course, I hasten to add that I realize you would have thought of the ploy before I did if your AI core had been operating at peak efficiency.”

“Yes, yes,” the holoimage said. “That goes without saying. I would have thought of it. That means my cores must be damaged.”

Maddox waited.

“I think I will have your Doctor Rich look over my computing core. It is… wrong that I am below peak… what was the word?”

“Efficiency,” Maddox said.

“Yes, that,” the holoimage said.

“Consider it done,” Maddox said. “I will inform the doctor via a screen.”

“Yes, good,” the holoimage said. “Now, as to the other matters, here is what we shall do afterward…”

Time passed as the robot and crew repaired what damage they could. Finally, hours later, the holoimage reappeared on the bridge.

“An enemy sensor has located us,” the AI said.

Maddox noticed the holoimage was sharper than ever. It was shorter than he was, with thicker shoulders and thin dangling arms. It wore what looked like a jumpsuit with red tags on the chest, perhaps to symbolize his rank. The holoimage had thick, silvery matted hair and extremely deep-set eyes. The alien was far more humanoid than he’d realized. Why did the control panels have tentacle slots then?

“What are the star cruisers doing exactly?” Maddox asked.

“Heading closer to the red giant,” the holoimage said.

“It’s as I feared. Per Lomax and his brethren are clever. After replaying what happened earlier, they must realize you have an intra-system jump capability. Perhaps they have anticipated our next tactic. I think you must attack this instant before they refine their strategies.”

The holoimage studied him. Maddox could tell because of the greater clarity. The AI must be able to see or sense through the image’s eyes.

“Yes, I understand your reasoning,” the holoimage said. “With my re-linked cores operating together, I have—well, never mind about that. Prepare for jump.”

Through his screen, Maddox informed the others they were about to attack.

A minute later, a terrible whine began from somewhere deep in the ship. The vertigo returned. Maddox felt all the same sensations as last time.

I’m heading back into combat. This is it. Do or die against the New Men.

The quietness of jump felt strange. Then, light and colors flowed into him as before. Sounds and smells overburdened his senses. Maddox slumped onto the deck, panting as drool spilled from his mouth. Then he realized the engines thrummed and the deck vibrated horribly.

“Error, error,” the holoimage said. “We have committed an error.”

“What’s wrong?” Maddox shouted, dragging himself to a sitting position.

“They were ready for us,” the holoimage said. “You were right in believing they anticipated the tactic. We have committed an error. Their rays are burning through the shield. There, one beam has burst through.”

Maddox staggered to the screen as the starship shook. An enemy beam chewed against Victory’s cherry-red hull armor.

“Fire into their guts!” shouted Maddox. “Use the neutron beam. Destroy one of them, at least. Let them know they’ve been in a fight.”

As the starship shook, its purple beam struck an enemy shield. It might have been Maddox’s imagination, but the shimmering held longer than last time. The enemy’s deflector became red as neutron energy blasted against it. Far too slowly, the shield became brown, the color spreading outward. Then, the central area turned black. Finally, the purple neutron beam punched through the shield, smashed hull armor and tore into the star cruiser.

“Breach!” the holoimage shouted.

At first, Maddox thought the AI meant against the enemy.

“Victory has a hull breach,” the holoimage said. “The New Men are destroying my beautiful ship. If only I had my old weapons systems. Then they would have known. Then they—”

On Maddox’s screen, a terrific explosion turned everything stark white. The captain threw his arms before his eyes. When he looked again, he saw expanding debris where an enemy star cruiser had been. Armor, laser fluids, flesh, decking, food concentrates, water, all kinds of material expanded in a mass. Some hit the next star cruiser’s shield, frying into energy, halted from moving farther.

“Hit!” shouted Maddox. “You hit and destroyed one of them. The fight’s not over yet.”

At that precise moment, in a different part of the starship, Lieutenant Noonan caught Doctor Rich’s wink.

The two of them were in a critical AI nexus area. Bulkhead plates lay strewn on the deck. Earlier, Dana had used her implements to attach loosened cables and alien radiant connectives. The AI had shown the doctor specialty tools to work on the parts. Not only listening to the explanations—through Maddox doing the interpreting—the doctor had studied the machine with her critical, professional eye. A so-called “encryption” pad lay in plain sight. The AI had instructed Maddox, who had told the doctor how to use it. Dana had whispered earlier to Valerie that the pad was the central override board to the entire AI system.

Horrible sounds now echoed in the starship. Explosions shook the nexus area and metal crumpled nearby that they couldn’t see.

The wink was Valerie’s prearranged signal to act. The Star Watch lieutenant unlimbered her heavy assault rifle. While wearing her vacc-suit, she leveled the weapon at the nearby robot. It was a squat rounded thing that moved on treads and possessed six mechanical tentacles. It stood a little taller than her and must have weighed three times as much.

“Here goes,” Valerie whispered to herself. She pulled the trigger. Bullets hosed from the assault rifle as the weapon bucked in her hands. The first few shots ricocheted off the robot. What kind of metal did it have, anyway?

Instead of worrying about that, the lieutenant focused on hitting the same surface area. Gritting her teeth, she kept firing.

Doctor Rich swiveled around, leaving what she’d been doing. Instead, she began typing on the encryption pad, her fingers blurring as she attempted to override the ancient computer.

The robot waved its many tentacles. The treads clanked, and the squat machine headed at Dana Rich. It looked as if the robot intended to ram the doctor against a bulkhead.

Inside her helmet, Valerie shouted, moving between the robot and Dana. Kneeling, Valerie ripped out the expended magazine and shoved in another. The robot loomed before her. She held the muzzle centimeters from its skin and let the rifle tremble in her hands. Bullets smashed through dented outer armor. They sparked inside the electrical guts. Yet still the robot’s treads carried it closer.

Then, Valerie released the rifle as she began to roar and rave. Pushing with her feet, she collided with the thing so hard her teeth jarred together with a click. She shoved as her vacc-boots kept moving, straining against the robot. Mechanical tentacles struck her helmet and whipped against her shoulders. Her cries changed to those of pain. A last convulsive effort gave her more strength. She toppled the robot and rolled free of it. With sweat dripping into her eyes, she scrambled to the assault rifle lying on the deck. She jammed in a new magazine. As the robot’s treads spun and the tentacles attempted to right itself, she shoved the muzzle through a torn area. Valerie pulled the trigger, pumping slugs into the undying robot. Finally, smoke billowed from the thing. Flames flickered, and the robot’s efforts weakened until it no longer mattered.

Exhausted, Lieutenant Noonan staggered away from the alien machine, crashing onto her butt as she panted. She didn’t know if they had won or lost, but she sure as heck felt as if she’d done her part.

On the starship’s bridge, the holoimage raged at Captain Maddox. “You traitor! You lied to me. Your people are attempting to gain control over my AI core. I will drop the deflector shield and let both enemy beams strike the ship into oblivion.”

“Wait!” Maddox said. “They aren’t supposed to be doing that. My crew is attacking you?”

“What?” the holoimage asked. “They’re doing this against your orders?”

“Of course,” Maddox said, trying to gain time for whatever the others were attempting. “I have too much respect for you to do anything other than serve you. Strengthen the deflector shield. Use everything you can against the New Men while I stop my team from hurting you.”

“No. It’s too late for all of us. Can’t you hear the interior destruction?”

Maddox heard something, all right, as explosions shook the starship.

At that moment, several things occurred at once. The holoimage faded away. As it did, vertigo struck Maddox again. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down, right or left. It felt as if he was frozen in time. Expectantly, he waited for colors to smash against him and normalcy to return. It felt as if they jumped again. The frozenness stretched longer and longer.

Finally, with great effort, Maddox turned his head. He realized that he no longer heard the enemy beams destroying interior ship’s systems and bulkheads.

Are we in hyperspace? Did Dana take over the starship’s AI and force it to jump? What’s going on?

Slowly, Maddox inhaled. As he blinked, he felt his eyelashes intertwine with each other. Time seemed to have slowed an immeasurable amount.

I have to see what’s wrong.

He began to turn around. It seemed to go on forever and ever. Finally, he rose from his seated position. Then, the riot of colors flooded his senses. A roaring sound invaded his hearing, and his nose seemed clogged with scents. He bellowed, and his descending foot slid out from under him. With a thump, he crashed against the deck, laying there panting in bewilderment.

What just happened? Are we still in battle?

He listened, but he didn’t hear anything telltale. Maddox closed his eyes, exhausted. I can’t just lay here. I have to see what happened.

Captain Maddox struggled to his feet. The screen showed him the void of space. He couldn’t see the red giant star or the enemy cruisers. No wrecks drifted outside and no planetary rubble showed what used to be worlds.

Did we just jump then, as I first suspected? How far did we go?

A laugh escaped his lips. Maddox was certain they were no longer in battle or in the alien star system. He pressed his lips together, containing the laughter. It was time to figure out if they had just won or lost.