The Lost Secret

by Vaughn Heppner

  Satisfied for the moment, Maddox said, “Increase speed as soon as it’s safe.”

  “Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said. “By the way, what safety margins are you using as your measure?”

  “How densely packed are the bubbles out here?” Maddox asked.

  “Half as much as around the fourth planet,” Andros said. “It gets clearer the nearer we approach the star.”

  “Twice our present velocity then,” Maddox said.

  “It will take us days to reach the alien ship at that velocity, sir,” Keith said.

  Maddox slid forward, eying the giant vessel. “Can you safely do five times our present velocity?”

  “To what I view as safe or to what you view as safe?” asked Keith.

  “Yes.”

  Keith glanced back at Maddox, grinned a second later and said, “We can do it easily, and safely, sir.”

  “Then proceed,” Maddox said.

  “With pleasure,” Keith said, as he turned back to the helm panel.

  -40-

  Victory increased velocity as it headed toward the giant alien ship. Several hours passed.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I have been pondering—I would not call it a problem. I am not sure it is even a dilemma.”

  “Spit it out,” Maddox said.

  “Sir?”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Oh. ‘Spit it out’ is a figure of speech. I understand. My thought is this: we are attempting to reach the Library Planet as quickly as possible. That necessarily means using the nexus. We have not seen one yet, but according to Balron, it exists in the system. If the alien vessel ahead is a derelict, will you send an exploratory team to board it?”

  “Of course,” Maddox said. “I have to figure out if it’s from Leviathan or not.”

  “Such a team might consume time, sir,” Galyan said.

  “I know… I’ve been wondering about that myself.”

  “So far, there does not seem to be any indication that these Severn crewmembers still exist. Perhaps the ship is on automatic as I once—as Victory once was in the Adok System.”

  Maddox stood as he approached the main screen. It still showed the fuzzy giant vessel. They might not come this way again soon, and the decision to come might take longer with the Yon Soth hidden on the fourth planet, to say nothing about the space-warped bubbles. This could be a priceless opportunity, as Ludendorff would put it. Could the giant ship be “slumbering?” If that were so, maybe it would be better to leave it alone. Why start a fight if he didn’t need to? Besides, there was reason to believe they needed to reach the Library Planet sooner rather than later. Dealing with the giant vessel could be a time sink, a time trap. Had Balron baited the trap? Despite what the alien had said, the giant ship could be a trap ready to spring against them. Maybe Ludendorff had had the right of it before. Balron was like him, making up excuses or “facts” on the fly to match whatever he wanted someone to do. Whatever else happened, if the giant vessel was asleep, it was better to leave it that way for now.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said, “it’s time for a change. We’re going to circle the star, and we’re going to give the alien vessel as wide a berth as possible.”

  “Starting now, sir?” asked Keith.

  “Yes. Make the course correction.”

  “Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said, as he plotted the new course.

  “Chief Technician,” Maddox said. “Monitor the alien vessel closely. Tell me if something, anything activates the moment it does.”

  “Yes, sir,” Andros said.

  The starship turned onto its new heading, and nothing that anyone could tell happened elsewhere.

  “I have an idea,” Galyan said several minutes later. “We could launch modified probes with holo-imaging amplification devices. That would allow me to search inside the vessel and see if it is from Leviathan or not. Would it not be prudent to know as soon as possible?”

  Maddox rubbed his chin. It was a tempting offer. He would dearly like to know more about the alien vessel and if any of the Severn crewmembers—this had to a Severn vessel, right?—still existed. And it would be very wise to know if Leviathan had been sending battleships at Human Space. Yet, he didn’t want to wake up any “sleeping” problems and thereby complicate matters, not against a huge warship like that.

  “No,” Maddox said.

  “It would not be dangerous,” Galyan said.

  “No means no,” Maddox said.

  “I understand…and yet, I do not understand.”

  Maddox swiveled his chair to face the holoimage.

  “I realize you do not like anyone questioning your orders—”

  “You didn’t question them,” Maddox said, interrupting. “You told me you didn’t understand. That’s a different thing.”

  “Oh.”

  “This is an odd star system; at least, there have been odd occurrences, too many for my liking. Half-Life, Balron, the Yon Soth and now the Severn, which could be a race belonging to S.H. Leviathan. If the Severn act like the rest of the things we’ve met so far, they will be tricky. Thus, I’m giving them a wide berth. If I can avoid more complications in order to reach the nexus faster…that’s what I’m doing.”

  “Now I do understand, and thank you for the explanation, sir.”

  Maddox nodded sharply before swiveling back to the main screen and eying the seemingly inert warship. He was tempted to launch a probe or even an antimatter missile. But he’d used too many missiles against the Yon Soth. Maybe they would need them in the Library Planet System. In the end, he decided to trust his instincts and go with the old adage to let sleeping dogs lie.

  ***

  With the increased velocity—that Maddox later ordered doubled—the Star Watch vessel zoomed for the star. At no point did the Severn ship show signs of activity or occupancy.

  The nearest terrestrial planet to the star was a molten furnace world, as it was a mere 32,000,000 kilometers away from the nuclear fireball. There was nothing strange about the planet, although Victory was 165,000,000 kilometers from it when it passed. In this part of the system, there were no warped-space bubbles. Had the star vacuumed them up with its gravity, or did the star’s greater gravity prohibit the distortions taking place?

  The science teams worked on the problem, but they didn’t come up with an answer; neither did Galyan or Ludendorff.

  At this point, Maddox become antsy, wanting to know if the nexus existed or not. It made sense that they hadn’t detected it—if the nexus was on the other side of the star.

  Finally, Victory reached the star—at the safe distance of 89,000,000 kilometers—and took time passing it. Nothing terrible happened. Soon, the starship left its parallel position with the star as they zoomed onto the other side.

  Sensors strained for sign of the nexus.

  “Well?” Maddox asked from his seat.

  “I see it,” Andros said. “It’s two hundred million kilometers away.”

  That was farther than the Earth was from the Sun. It would be at a location between Earth and Mars from the Sun.

  “Are there any warped-space bubbles?” asked Maddox.

  “A few,” Andros said.

  “Is the nexus producing them?”

  “I can’t tell,” Andros said, “but I don’t think so.”

  Maddox glanced at Galyan. “You’re quieter than normal. Is anything the matter?”

  “I do not know, sir,” Galyan said.

  “What’s troubling you?”

  “The nexus, sir. I detect damage to it.”

  Maddox made a fist. “How much damage?”

  “It is not fully intact, but I do not know to what extent it is damaged as there is a dampening field around it inhibiting my sensors.”

  “That’s just great,” Maddox muttered.

  “Sir?”

  “We’ll continue for the nexus,” Maddox said. “Keep monitoring it. I want to know everything we can. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to reach this nexus. It had better damn
well work for us.”

  No one spoke.

  Maddox leaned back in his chair, wondering what was going to go wrong next.

  ***

  On the other side of the star, the giant alien vessel with the iridium-Z hull armor began to activate. Lights showed as it slowly began to rotate, speeding up as it did so. Then, exhaust began expelling from massive thruster ports. The giant alien vessel started moving toward the star, toward an edge. As it continued to build velocity, it was obvious the giant spheroid planned to circle the star so it could get to the other side.

  -41-

  Victory began decelerating as it neared the nexus by 40,000,000 kilometers. The science teams, Andros and Galyan had all attempted to penetrate the dampening field with their sensors, but without success. Even visuals of the nexus showed a blurred image.

  “Cease deceleration,” Maddox said. “We’ll go in hard until almost on top of the nexus. If it seems useable, we’ll do massive deceleration. If it is unusable—” Maddox turned to Ludendorff. “How far was the next nexus again?”

  “Three hundred and sixty-eight light-years.”

  Maddox closed his eyes. This was reminding him too much of the first time they’d used the Xerxes System nexus. No. This was worse, far worse. It was too bad the Xerxes nexus no longer existed. Was it just him, or did the newer aliens seem trickier and more powerful than the old ones?

  “Any sign of Half-Life,” Maddox asked an hour later.

  “Negative, sir,” Galyan said. “But he is tiny, less than a mite in interstellar terms. Perhaps he’s in the nexus or behind it, hiding.”

  Maddox drummed his fingers on an armrest. He didn’t feel any premonitions. Was Ludendorff right about his Erill-soul expansion idea being hogwash? Maybe everyone who had an out-of-body experience felt that way. Maybe it had been a lucky guess ordering the marines to show up and nothing more than that. Why did all the weirdly powered aliens choose pyramids to live in, near or under? What was the significance of that?

  Maddox sat up as his gut twisted. “Damnit,” he whispered.

  “Sir?” asked Galyan.

  “Nothing,” Maddox said.

  “I thought I heard you say something?”

  Maddox shook his head.

  Galyan eyed him for a moment and then spoke to Andros.

  Maddox inched his swivel chair around until his back was to Galyan. The holoimage had too keen of hearing. Maddox frowned, and his gut twisted again. He didn’t moan, although he felt like it. He…he sensed that something bad, catastrophically bad was about to happen.

  “What?” he whispered. What’s going to happen? If I feel this, I should be able to know more. He concentrated, but that didn’t help in the slightest. The feeling slipped away and his gut stopped seething.

  Maddox slid off the chair and stood. He turned around, studying the hatch. No. He didn’t think anything bad was coming from that direction. He faced the main screen, the blurred nexus. Incredibly, the wrongness did not come from there, either.

  “Sir?” asked Galyan. “You seem upset.”

  “Shut up,” Maddox said quietly. If the wrongness wasn’t coming from the hatch—from Ludendorff or some hidden stowaway—and if it wasn’t coming from the nexus, where was it coming from?

  The Yon Soth, Maddox told himself. It leaves the damned Yon Soth. He moved woodenly to Andros’s science station. Maddox was vaguely aware of the bridge crew falling silent and beginning to watch him.

  “What can I do for you, Captain?” Andros asked.

  Maddox noticed the Chief Technician facing him, watching too keenly. He shook his head. He wasn’t going to worry about Andros or the too-quiet bridge crew. He had to figure this out. He was figuring this out. He could feel that.

  Maddox put a hand on Andros’s shoulder and turned the pudgy Kai-Kaus back to his station. Maddox leaned over from behind. He was feeling… “Show me the fourth planet.”

  “Uh, sir?” asked Andros.

  “Aim your sensors at the fourth planet.”

  “The star is in the way of that, sir.”

  Maddox rubbed his forehead. This wasn’t about logic. This was about a gut feeling, a premonition. This was the expanded soul-energy idea in operation. “Aim your sensors at the fourth planet anyway.”

  “I’ll just be aiming them at the star.”

  “Do as I say, Chief Technician.”

  Andros silently obeyed, with the blazing star showing on his sensor screen.

  Maddox stared at the star. This was right. This was the right thing to do. Only… “What do you see?”

  “The star, sir,” Andros said, answering in a tone that implied he thought the captain was beginning to lose it.

  “Look, Science Officer. Really use your sensors to look.”

  “I can’t look through the star, sir, to see the fourth planet anyway.”

  “Look,” Maddox hissed, his fingers digging into Andros’s left shoulder.

  Andros winced and winced harder as he tapped his panel.

  “You’re hurting him,” Meta said. She stood directly behind her husband, having come from her station.

  Maddox did not glance back at his wife, although he eased pressure on Andros’s shoulder.

  “What am I supposed to find?” Andros asked.

  “Something off,” Maddox whispered, “something unusual.”

  Andros continued to manipulate, shaking his head. Then his head jerked forward.

  “What?” Maddox asked.

  Andros didn’t answer but manipulated faster as his breathing quickened.

  “Are you seeing something?” Meta asked.

  “I don’t believe this,” Andros said. He tapped his panel and tapped it again. “Do you see, sir?” he asked, as he eased his bulk to the right.

  Maddox put his hands on the panel as he leaned in. “A speck?” he asked.

  “A speck against the star, sir,” Andros said. “I couldn’t figure it out at first, as the solar radiation and heat are too intense. The thing is practically in the star’s corona. It isn’t, though, as that would be too hot even with a fantastic shield against the star’s plasma and even with iridium-Z hull armor. But the vessel is very near the corona. Fortunately, I was able to measure its size.”

  “Is it a spheroid fifteen kilometers in diameter?” Maddox asked.

  “The Severn warship, yes, that’s my guess, sir. How you knew it was there, though, is beyond me.”

  Meta gasped, staring at her husband. “How did you know?”

  Maddox swallowed, saying, “It was a gut feeling.”

  “Like with the marines?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Maddox said, staring into Meta’s worried eyes.

  She touched his right forearm and then turned back to her station.

  What’s happening to me? Will I stay this way? Maddox shook off the questions. He had a starship to run, people to protect. “Is the warship heading for us?” he asked Andros.

  “I don’t think so, but it would be hard to tell right now.”

  “Right,” Maddox said. “Keep watching it, Chief Technician. Tell me if and when it starts heading for us.”

  Andros looked up, staring at him. “Do you think it will?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said. “I’m certain of it, as I now believe it’s from the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan.”

  -42-

  Victory sped to within 753,000 kilometers of the pyramidal nexus when Galyan saw the problem.

  “There is a hole in the center. The hole goes completely through to the other side. The hole is half a kilometer in diameter. I do not know what caused the hole, but I do not believe it detonated from within, but went through like a bullet into a body, and then out the other side.”

  “Is the nexus still operative?” asked Maddox.

  “Unknown,” Galyan said. “The nexus does appear to be the power source for the dampener field. That indicates that some of it still works. Will it be able to power a hyper-spatial tube to the Library Planet over seventeen thousand kilomete
rs away? This I cannot tell.”

  Maddox sat in the captain’s chair as he pinched his lower lip. He did not have a gut feeling about the nexus, a premonition, nor did he logically know the correct decision. The Severn warship still waited in the star’s corona, or just beyond its corona. Was the warship waiting to pounce like a hawk on a mouse? Maddox believed so. Still, leaving the system would not be easy. If the nexus didn’t work, should he attempt to use the one three hundred and sixty-eight light-years away? He didn’t want to deal with the moronic Yon Soth again. That was for sure.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said, “initiate a hard deceleration. We’re going to inspect the nexus. Meta, inform Valerie she should launch once we’re finished with hard deceleration. I want her to nose up to the nexus and inspect everything she can from the darter.”

  “Beginning hard deceleration,” Keith said.

  Meta clicked her panel, speaking to Valerie.

  “Anything on the Leviathan warship?” Maddox asked Andros.

  “I’m watching, sir. It’s still waiting.”

  Maddox leaned forward. He’d made his decision. Like many decisions made in space, it would take time to see the results of his action. Thus, he jumped up. “I’ll be in the gym. Call me if a situation develops.”

  ***

  Victory came to a near stop before the pyramidal nexus, its velocity minimal as it began to orbit it from fifty thousand kilometers away.

  A hangar-bay door opened. Minutes later, the Darter Tarrypin eased out of the starship. Small side jets gave the darter slightly more speed. The Patrol craft rotated. Once the thrusters were no longer aimed at Victory, exhaust expelled from them, pushing the Tarrypin toward the nexus.

  Inside the darter’s control cabin, Valerie piloted, while Ensign Magee manned the sensors. First Mate Littlewood was in the gym doing pushups.