The Lost Starship

-39-

Two days later on the bridge, Lieutenant Noonan sat back in frustration. She had spent the last forty-eight hours trying to figure out how to use some of the instrument panels in order to scan the nearest star systems.

Captain Maddox used a thin metal rod to press tentacle-slot controls. He had become more cautious since accidentally locking them in here and draining the atmosphere a day ago. At the last moment, he’d figured out how to reverse what he’d done.

“Sir,” Valerie said.

Maddox looked up. His features had become even gaunter than usual, with the beginning of circles around his eyes.

“We have to be realistic,” Valerie said. “I’m not going to figure out these instruments before our food runs out. Sure, we can keep going as we starve, but I don’t think we’ll use our wits very well by that point.”

“Defeatism isn’t going to solve the problem,” he said in an irritated voice.

“I’m not admitting defeat,” Valerie told him. “I’m saying we’re going about this the wrong way.”

“I’d be delighted to hear your suggestion for a more productive avenue.”

“You’re not going to like it,” she said.

“That doesn’t matter. If it works, at this point, that’s all that counts.”

“I agree with you there,” Valerie said. “In my opinion, we have to reactivate the AI. It can communicate with you and it can make the ship do what it wants. Given our limited window of opportunity, I don’t see any other way than semi-reactivating the AI and using it like a rider uses the reins on a horse.”

Maddox frowned. “You want to give control of the vessel back to the AI?” he asked.

“First, we have to dumb it down,” Valerie said. “Or, we have to change its coding so it listens to our orders instead of thinking it can make the commands.”

Maddox snorted. “That would be immeasurably more difficult than learning how to use the ship’s sensors ourselves.”

“Maybe you’re right if you mean for someone like me,” Valerie said, “but not for Doctor Rich. She could figure out how to do what I’m suggesting”

“That’s preposterous,” Maddox said.

“I have to disagree with you, sir. There’s something uncanny about Dana. She has a sixth sense about these things. As you’ve said before, she’s a genius.”

Maddox flipped his thin control rod into the air, catching it. “Do you trust her?” he asked suddenly.

“Dana? Of course, I trust her. She doesn’t want to die any more than you do.”

“That’s not what I mean. Can we trust her to stick with the team, with following my orders? What’s your gut feeling?”

“I don’t know,” Valerie admitted. “That’s a good question. She has issues. That’s for sure.”

“Has she said anything to you about her past?” Maddox asked.

“No,” Valerie said. “If you want to know that you should ask Meta.”

“I think not,” Maddox said.

“Even if we can’t fully trust Dana, we should still try it my way,” Valerie said. “The present way… isn’t going to work for us.”

Maddox put his hands behind his back and began to pace. He was quiet for a time. Finally, he said, “We have the starship. We just don’t know how to run it. Soon, we’re out of food. Even if we can jump, we’re going to need a margin for error, food to last for a time. Yes, you’re right, Lieutenant. We must shake the dice one more time. You must talk with Meta and sound her out about Dana. I’ll go see the doctor and find out what she thinks about reactivating the AI.”

Captain Maddox spoke with Doctor Rich. They wandered through the mammoth engine area. Fortunately, the star cruisers’ rays hadn’t touched the antimatter cylinders.

The broken combat robots and skeletal pincer-creatures no longer littered the deck here. Keith and Riker had cleared them away a day ago.

Dana nodded as Maddox explained the situation to her. “I’ve come to a similar conclusion,” she said. “We have to open the stopper just enough to let the genie’s intellect come out but not its power.”

“Do you think it can be done?”

“Oh, certainly it can,” Dana said. “That isn’t the question.”

“What is?”

“Whether or not I can do it,” she said. “Then, we must broach the heart of the matter of what’s really troubling you.”

“I didn’t know there was something else,” Maddox said.

Dana smiled. Her teeth seemed so much whiter than any of theirs because her skin was darker. “Now, you’re lying to me. It’s something I notice you do easily and do quite well, I might add.”

“I wouldn’t call it lying, specifically,” he said.

“I realize you wouldn’t,” Dana said. “You’re in Star Watch Intelligence. In the end, you’re a spymaster more than you’re a starship captain. Disinformation—lying—is your stock in trade.”

“Why the sudden flattery?” Maddox asked, dryly.

Dana nodded. “I suppose it’s my turn to make a confession. I understand you’d like to know whether I’m trustworthy or not for the long haul back home.”

Maddox wondered if Valerie had already talked to Meta about this, and if the Rouen Colony miner had come to the doctor.

“How much do you know about my past?” Dana asked.

“Could you be more specific?”

“You know I went on an expedition with Professor Ludendorff. What do you know about me after that?”

“Simply that you were a clone thief,” Maddox said. He figured why let her know what he already knew from the Star Watch Intelligence files.

“Your vaunted Star Watch didn’t give you any more specifics than that?” she asked.

Of course, they had, but his instincts led him to hedge his bets. “Nothing more than that you once engaged in espionage against the Social Syndicate of the Rigel System. I also know you’re a computer expert.”

“Much more than a mere expert,” Dana said. “I excel with any form of electrical system or device.”

“I’ll willingly grant you that. According to your dossier, you were the heart of the attack against the ruling syndic. How and why you made these attacks—” Maddox shook his head. “You’re right. My brief concerning you was too light, with too many unanswered questions.”

“It’s as I suspected.” Dana compressed her lips together before asking, “What do you know about the Rigel Social Syndicate?”

“Very little,” Maddox admitted. “I know they’re part of the Commonwealth of Planets, if troublesome members.”

The Commonwealth was a loose, large union of sovereign systems with the Star Watch as its protective and space-enforcement arm. A few of the systems, such as the Rigel Social Syndicate, only gave nominal allegiance.

“The Social Syndicate controls several star systems,” Dana said. “Their navy keenly patrols its various tramlines. They also happen to quarrel incessantly with Brahma.”

Dana studied her hands before looking up. “I was born in Bombay, India on Earth, but at an early age I emigrated to Brahma. As the name indicates, former inhabitants of India colonized the Brahma System. Our planetary religion is an accelerated form of Hinduism. That’s unimportant to my story, as I’m an agnostic.” The doctor shrugged. “I believe something made all this—the universe, I mean—but I have no idea who or what combination of super-powered beings did it.”

“Fair enough,” Maddox said.

“The social contract, as preached by the syndic and his cronies, has little appeal to those of Brahma,” Dana said. “Our planet engages in high tech production and sales. We’re a single star system with perhaps three hundred million inhabitants. The Social Syndicate dwarfs us in territory and population. In these sorts of things, it doesn’t pay to be weak or small.”

“No,” Maddox said.

“Still,” Dana said, “we had a solid navy and fought with zeal. From time to time, however, syndicate raiders slipped into our system, kidnapping men and women for various rich people’s sex objects. Sometimes there were acts of technological piracy as well. It grew worse several years ago, and our hegemon—the name of our ruler—decided it was time for more vigorous defensive action. The Star Watch had failed to act decisively enough, no doubt wishing to keep the peace with the syndic. Instead of embroiling our systems in war and possibly bringing a Star Watch blockage on us and killing trade, we decided the Social Syndicate needed a civil war to split it apart.”

“Ah,” Maddox said, intrigued.

“The situation was something you might have excelled at,” Dana said. “It was a spymaster’s affair. How much do you know about the Social Syndicate philosophy?”

“Almost nothing,” Maddox admitted.

“The key facet to understand for my story is that there are two major branches of thought. The first is known as the Maxim school of thought while the second is the Limited. I won’t go into the philosophical differences between them. To an outsider they might not seem important. To many Social Syndicates, they are critical. The Rigel rulers and military are Maxim in belief. That being said, not all the Syndicate’s subjects adhere to those doctrines.”

“And…” Maddox said.

Dana grinned. “You wish me to get to the point. Very well, my task was to infiltrate certain clone centers. I was part of the team that planned to break into the most heavily guarded sanctuary in the Oikumene: that is, the syndic’s personnel clone garden, where his clones and those of his immediate cronies lived. Our idea was simple and elegant.

“I cracked the security codes, and we herded the poor clones into a waiting spaceship. With them, we fled to a secret center in the stars. The Brahman secret service wasn’t nice. They wanted to stop a war, after all. You can understand that, I’m sure.”

“Yes,” Maddox said.

“The clones underwent intensive retraining,” Dana said.

“Brainwashing, you mean,” Maddox said.

“I prefer my term. In any case, instead of the Maxim beliefs, the clones become Limited in outlook. After a certain length of time, the Brahman secret service released the first clones back onto Rigel.”

“I think I can guess the rest,” Maddox said. “The clones gathered a following and started a political rebellion.”

“That’s right,” Dana said. “It was the germ of a possible civil war. It didn’t get that far. But it gave the syndic’s people a headache they most certainly didn’t want.”

“So what happened next?”

“The hegemon sent representatives to the syndic and they signed a non-aggression treaty. The Rigel Navy would from now on help patrol the tramlines leading to our star system. That was the overt wording. The secret clause was very clear. The syndic would make certain that no more raiders kidnapped or pirated our people.”

“What about the other clones you’d stolen and continued to retrain?”

“You have to ask?” Dana said. “You’re in Intelligence. You should know what we did.”

“The Star Watch doesn’t play quite so rough as those on Brahma,” Maddox said.

“About that, I don’t believe you for a moment,” Dana said. “Anyway, the other clones continue to live in seclusion. That’s in case the syndic changes his mind about us. They’re the Sword of Damocles permanently hanging over his head.”

Maddox knew the ancient Greek legend of Damocles. A man had complained to a king about how wonderful life was for the ruler because of the power he wielded. The king let his friend live like a monarch for a day. The only caveat was the man had a sword that dangled by a thread above his head. If the thread snapped… that would obviously end the good life. And that was the punch line of the tale, the Sword of Damocles. The king told the man he had power, but he always had to fear the assassin’s knife.

“You tell an interesting story,” Maddox said. “I fail to see, though, what it has to do with our current situation.”

“That’s because I’m not finished. Not so long ago, the Star Watch stopped a Brahman ship. The problem for me was despite the treaty between Brahma and Rigel, the syndic had declared me a criminal. And that’s how the Star Watch officers treated me. I happened to be on the vessel they stopped.”

“Wait a minute,” Maddox said. “I don’t understand. Didn’t you belong to the Brahman secret service?”

Dana shook her head. “I’ve never been much of a joiner. I’d worked as an independent contractor. The syndic’s people were ruthless. They saw the loophole and used it. The Brahman secret service had paid me well, but they didn’t use any back channels to help me with the Star Watch. So, I hate them as much as the Star Watch for what happened next.”

“What did happen?” Maddox asked.

Dana blinked several times before sighing. “It would have been worse if the Star Watch handed me over to the syndic. A clause in Star Watch rules didn’t permit them to give me to a judicial system that has the death penalty. That was something, I suppose. Instead, the oh-so noble Star Watch held a kangaroo court. Afterward, they dropped me onto Loki Prime, where they intended I rot forever.”

“Until they sent me to come and get you,” Maddox said.

“Because you needed my skills,” Dana said.

Maddox clasped his hands behind his back. He nodded solemnly. “I can understand your anger. You helped your people, and they turned their back on you. Yes, that is ingratitude of the worst sort. I wonder, though, have you ever thought about the clones?”

“What about them?”

“You set them up for failure. You must have realized they never had a chance. The syndic’s hitmen would eventually find them. They were ciphers in the game of nations.”

“Your point is what, exactly?” Dana asked.

“The very thing you hold against the Star Watch, you did to the clones.”

“You’re saying I’m not a nice person?”

“I’m not a nice person,” Maddox said. “You and I cut corners. But we get things done. That’s why the brigadier chose me and told me to get you.”

“Are you saying we’re no different than the New Men?”

“No,” Maddox said. “I’m not saying that at all. I suppose our end-goals are what matters.”

“The ends justify the means?” Dana asked.

“The New Men are attacking the Oikumene with all its various faults,” Maddox said. “We have peaceful worlds and those like the Social Syndicate with its illegal clones. None of that matters to the New Men. It would appear they plan to exterminate us or install a master-slave relationship of them over all of us. To protect your people, you played dirty with the Social Syndicate. The clones were caught in the middle. I’m not saying you did right by them, but it’s not as bad as what the New Men plan to do with us.”

“The clones originally lived to supply body-parts to the Social Syndicate leadership as they aged,” Dana said. “I helped give the clones something more.”

“That’s one way to look at it.” Maddox brightened. “Maybe that’s how you should think about the Star Watch.”

“They didn’t give me something more,” Dana said. ‘They stuck me on Loki Prime.”

“No. They gave you life instead of death. That’s what the syndic would have done to you. Then, the head of the Star Watch sent me to come and get you. I took you off Loki Prime. What I really want to know is if you’re going to remain on my side for the long haul.”

“Even if I tell you I am, will you trust me completely?”

“I think you already know the answer,” Maddox said. “I’m a spymaster before I’m a starship captain. Maybe if we hang together long enough, I’ll become more of a captain than a spymaster, and then I’ll trust you implicitly.”

Dana snorted. “Okay. Fair enough, Captain. Yes. I’m going to fulfill my oath, at least long enough for me to pull you out of your own Loki Prime. Then we’ll be even.”

“I’ll accept that,” Maddox said. “Let’s shake on it.”

Doctor Rich thrust out her right hand. They shook, and then they got to work on the AI system.