The Lost Secret

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I-It’s magnificent,” Derrick said in awe. “A Builder nexus. I never thought I’d see one.”

  “Good,” Valerie said tensely. “You’ve seen a nexus. Now it’s no longer on your bucket list.”

  Derrick glanced at her. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “This is probably the most dangerous thing you’ve done out here. What’s causing the dampener field? We’d better find out fast, because we’re going through the field in a few minutes from now.”

  Derrick paled as he jerked back to his sensor board. “Will the nexus fire on us?”

  “Maybe,” Valerie said. “Remember, it’s ancient, and we have no idea what its computers think.”

  Derrick looked up. “Why would computers think anything?”

  “Do you see the hole?”

  “Yes.”

  “The computers are likely sentient. They might think we made that hole and are coming back to do more.”

  Derrick swore softly as he studied his panel with greater intensity than earlier.

  Valerie noticed, and she wondered if she’d laid it on a little too thickly. Maybe, but this was the Deep Beyond, and they’d never been to this nexus before. Things could get tricky fast, and they had to be ready for anything.

  She rubbed her sweaty palms against her pant legs. The dampener field had a blurry edge. She’d never seen anything like it. That didn’t bode well for them. She wished Maddox had launched a probe first. But there was some kind of alien super-ship back at the star and it was making the captain antsy.

  “Sir,” Derrick said, “it’s possible the dampener field will shut off our engines and maybe other ship systems as well.”

  Valerie rubbed her palms against her uniform again. She didn’t want to test the dampener field that way, but Maddox had given his order. She blinked several times. I’m the captain of the Tarrypin. A Patrol officer must never jeopardize her vessel if she knows that what she plans to do will likely result in the crew’s death.

  Valerie rubbed her hands together and began rotating the Tarrypin.

  Derrick glanced at her.

  A moment later, the thrusters slowed their velocity until the darter stopped several hundred kilometers from the dampener field.

  A comm light blinked on. Valerie didn’t want to, but she clicked it.

  “What are you doing?” Maddox asked.

  “The dampener field is deadly to my ship.”

  “And you know this how?” asked Maddox.

  “I don’t know it conclusively. That’s why I’m launching a probe, though.”

  “I could have done that.”

  “Respectfully, sir, you gave me an order to study the nexus. It’s my responsibility to carry out the order in a manner cognizant with the safety of my crew.”

  “We’re not playing games today, Lieutenant Commander. Time is an issue.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll call you when I’ve discovered more.” Valerie clicked off the comm.

  Behind the thick lenses of his glasses, Derrick’s eyes widened.

  “There’s no time for that,” Valerie said crisply. “Launch a probe.”

  “The comm light is blinking again,” Derrick said.

  “You worry about your end,” Valerie said. “I’ll worry about mine, okay?”

  “Yes, sir,” Derrick said. “I’m launching…now?”

  Several seconds later, a probe appeared. Valerie watched through the polarized window. The probe sped toward the dampener field and the nexus beyond.

  “The probe is reporting,” Derrick said. “It—”

  “What?”

  “It stopped functioning. I’m getting nothing now.”

  At that point, a pinprick of light appeared by the dampener field, and just as fast died away.

  “The probe is gone,” Derrick said. “The dampening field destroyed it.”

  “That’s not good,” Valerie said softly. She sighed, and then she pressed the comm switch. Captain Maddox needed to know this now.

  -43-

  Maddox waited in his captain’s chair as a bad feeling grew in his gut. He did not betray the instinct this time, but sat stoically as Galyan made his attempt to pass the dampener field.

  The holoimage appeared before him on the bridge. “I failed, sir,” Galyan said. “I could not penetrate the field.”

  Maddox opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say.

  Andros saved him, in a sense. “Sir!” he said. “The Severn or Leviathan warship has begun moving.”

  “Put it on the main screen,” Maddox said.

  A moment later, the star appeared in a close-up shot. There was a speck, and it didn’t appear to be doing anything.

  “The screen doesn’t show it,” Andros said. “But the warship is moving, picking up velocity. I warrant it has been moving for fifteen minutes at least.”

  “Around the time the dampener field destroyed the probe,” Galyan said.

  Maddox glanced at the holoimage.

  “I agree that creates a time dilemma,” Galyan said. “It would take time for the warship to see that if using high-powered telescopes. Yet, if the warship started then—due to the probe’s destruction—it would seem the Severn knew the instant it happened. That would be against the laws of physics as we know it.”

  Maddox jumped to his feet. He forced himself to stand still instead of starting to pace. His nerves seethed with the desire to be doing something. That had nothing to do with extra soul energy, but with his New Man heritage due to his father.

  What was the correct decision? Maybe they shouldn’t have stopped at the nexus. Yet, Balron had said—

  “Mr. Maker, launch a spread of antimatter missiles. Stagger them and their settings so they head toward the enemy vessel in an evenly spaced line. Put…twenty-five thousand kilometers between each.”

  “Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said.

  “We’re actually going to fight a fifteen-kilometer-diameter warship that could be from Leviathan?” Meta asked.

  “We’re taking precautions,” Maddox said. “Galyan, why couldn’t you pierce the nexus’s dampener field?”

  “The dampener shut down my projection. No energy could pass the field.”

  “Would a fold-fighter bypass that?” Maddox asked.

  Galyan perked up. “That is an interesting question, sir. I do not know, but it seems like it might be worth a try.”

  “I volunteer for that,” Keith said, having swiveled around from the helm control.

  Maddox hesitated. “No. We’ll try an automated fold-fighter first. We’ll set it to fold back to its starting point.”

  Keith’s shoulders slumped as he turned back to the helm.

  “Meta, tell the fighter team what I expect,” Maddox said.

  She clicked her panel and began the task.

  “Sir,” Andros said. “I think the warship is picking up velocity.”

  Maddox stared at the main screen. Who or what were the Severn and why did they care about any of this? Clearly, the crew or ship had been lying in wait before and had followed them around the star, but had done so in stealth. It was time to wait and see how the next few moves played out. After that—

  Maddox sat back down, refusing to allow himself to pace.

  ***

  Valerie stood helplessly before the polarized window, staring at the nexus out there. An impenetrable dampener field. Could a fold-fighter pop through to the other side? She was glad Keith wasn’t trying it. She bet the stupid young punk had volunteered to try.

  Derrick squeaked with fear.

  Valerie turned, and she saw why. Half-Life—the shiny blue construct the size of a hardball—hovered in the control cabin with them.

  Derrick pointed up at it.

  “Hello, Half-Life.”

  “Hello, Valerie. Long time, eh?”

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “To save you and your friend Captain Maddox,” Half-Life said.

  “And how do you plan to do that?”

  �
��The simplest way possible: by creating a hyper-spatial tube to the Library Planet.”

  “You were in the nexus?” Valerie asked.

  “Of course,” Half-Life said. “Where else should I have been?”

  “Do you have the coordinates to the Library Planet?”

  “Professor Ludendorff created me, remember?”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “Valerie, there is no more time to debate. The Severn warship is coming. This time, I think it means to annihilate the nexus and everything else around here. I do not think the dampener field will save the nexus AIs this time.”

  “The Severn attacked the nexus before?”

  “It is why the warship’s crew died,” Half-Life said.

  “The Severn—its people, I mean—aren’t attacking us?”

  “The automated warship is, and it has the firepower to breach the dampener field, destroy the nexus and Victory with it.”

  “Are the Severn part of the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan?” Valerie asked. “Did the warship come from the Scutum-Centaurus Spiral Arm?”

  “Tsk, tsk. That is not important to your original mission. Contact your captain. Tell him what I told you. If you desire to live, you will use the hyper-spatial tube and leave here as quickly as possible.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Valerie asked.

  “It is my function. I must do it.”

  “Who gave you the function?”

  “The primary cause,” Half-Life said.

  “Huh?”

  “Balron did.”

  “Why should we trust you?”

  “In order to escape destruction,” Half-Life said. “Is that not reason enough?”

  Valerie swallowed and staggered to her seat. “I’ll tell the captain. I’m not sure he’ll agree to do it.”

  “You must convince them.”

  “Why?” asked Valerie.

  “If you do it, you will learn. That is all Balron will allow me to tell you.”

  Valerie stared out of the polarized window at the blurred nexus. “Okay, sure. I’ll tell the captain. But if you think—”

  “He’s gone,” Derrick said.

  Valerie looked up in time to see the last sparkle. It was as if someone had slugged her in the stomach. Woodenly, she reached for the comm switch in order to make her report.

  -44-

  Maddox couldn’t help it. He was out of his seat, pacing before the main screen as the energy in him mandated he do something physical.

  Valerie had reported about Half-Life. A half hour later, nothing had happened. Maybe as bad, the fold-fighter had disappeared and never reappeared anywhere, certainly not behind the dampener field. It had been a good idea that failed, which was strange. A fold-fighter could fold past a planet or other object in its way. What was it about a dampening field that stopped that? Was a dampening field like warped space?

  Maddox had told Ludendorff about it so the old man could run it through that supposedly wonderful brain of his.

  Meta had attempted hailing the construct in the nexus. The dampener field likely made that impossible, too. Maybe the dampener field would make it impossible for the nexus to create the hyper-spatial tube, or maybe the nexus would create the tube within the dampener field. Wouldn’t that be a riot?

  “Sir,” Andros said, “I’m detecting something new from the warship. It’s…deploying a large clear object.”

  “What kind of object?” Maddox asked.

  Andros manipulated his board, eyeing the readings. “I don’t know what to make of this.”

  “Can you put it up on the main screen?” Maddox asked.

  “This is the highest magnification, sir.”

  Maddox turned to the main screen. The giant warship appeared. It wasn’t as fuzzy anymore because it had left the near vicinity of the star and traveled to one side. That meant the star was only at the edge of the teleoptic zoom shot. The giant warship had scorched marks on the hull from what looked like long-ago disrupter fire. There were shiny areas showing hull patching. One such area was 250 meters long. The Severn warship wasn’t perfectly spheroid but had only appeared so earlier because of the fuzziness. It had sharp planes and angles like a madman’s jigsaw puzzle. There were also lenses embedded in the hull. Andros said the biggest lens was half a kilometer in diameter.

  “How far is the warship from us?” Maddox asked.

  “One hundred and fifty million kilometers,” Andros said.

  “Try hailing it again,” Maddox told Meta.

  She started the process. Due to its range, it would take about 500 seconds or 8.33 minutes for the first hail to reach the warship from Victory.

  It also meant that what they saw on the main screen was 8.33 minutes old.

  A large clear…circular structure drifted away from warship, going ahead of it.

  “The warship has ceased accelerating,” Andros said.

  Maddox could see that very well, as there was no exhaust plume from the warship. “Can you bring the clear object into better focus?”

  Andros manipulated his board.

  Maddox stepped closer to the main screen. “Are those side jets?” he asked.

  No one answered.

  To Maddox, the circular clear object had a metallic rim. Attached to the rim were small thrusters: side-jets. There was something else on the rim, giant screws perhaps.

  “Can you calculate the object’s size?” Maddox asked.

  “Thirty kilometers in diameter,” Andros said promptly.

  “That’s bigger than the warship,” Maddox said.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I am beginning to suspect it is a giant focusing system. I think the warship will fire its lasers at the giant lens, which will focus it at us or possibly the nexus.”

  “Can a laser reach across a hundred and fifty million kilometers?” Maddox asked.

  “With such a giant focusing system…” Galyan said. “Yes, I believe it is possible.”

  Maddox stared at the thing out there. What he saw had happened 8.33 minutes earlier. That meant the warship was further along with its preparations. “Mr. Maker, you will move us—Galyan, how far should we move to dodge the first shot, given they’re aiming at us?”

  “At least three hundred kilometers,” Galyan said.

  “Make it so, Mr. Maker,” Maddox said.

  “Aye-aye, sir.”

  Victory began to shift.

  “Galyan, how long until our missiles reach the warship?”

  “The antimatter missiles will not affect the battle, sir.”

  Maddox realized that continued pacing would degrade bridge morale. He thus forced himself to move slowly, reached his chair, sat down and faced the main screen.

  “The focusing lens appears to be in place,” Andros said. “It’s no longer moving forward but has stopped.”

  Maddox nodded, silently repeating to himself the 500-second delay rule.

  From 150,000,000 kilometers away—8.33 minutes ago—the giant Severn warship beamed its lasers at the 30-kilometer diameter focusing lens, which narrowed the beam—tightened it—for the great journey across the void of space. As with any light source, a laser beam’s light diffused over distance. A normal hand-held flashlight couldn’t light up an object ten kilometers away, nor could a normal laser burn through an electromagnetic shield and hull armor even 100,000 kilometers away, never mind 150,000,000.

  A tightened but still relatively wide laser beam flashed past Victory’s location. It would have hit their old spot. The beam lasted for an entire twenty seconds before snapping off.

  “The wattage I just detected was amazing,” Galyan reported. “It would have overloaded our shield in seconds and burned a half a kilometer hole in our hull clear through to the other side. In other words, our vessel would have been destroyed.”

  “Half a kilometer…” Maddox said. “It must have once done that to the nexus.”

  “Such appears to be obvious now,” Galyan said.

  “How did the nexus kill the c
rew without destroying the warship?” Maddox asked.

  “A pertinent question,” Galyan said. “I do not know the answer.”

  “Opinion as to how the nexus achieved this?” asked Maddox.

  “None at present, sir,” Galyan said.

  “Andros?” asked Maddox.

  “I have no idea, sir.”

  Maddox nodded, thinking. “Mr. Maker, you will change our heading and randomly pick another.”

  “Aye-aye, sir.”

  “Is that logical, sir?” Galyan asked.

  Maddox made a decisive gesture. “The old saying is: like shooting fish in a barrel. Well, this fish is going to jerk and reroute until we’re dead or until—”

  “Captain,” Meta said, interrupting. “Can I make a suggestion?”

  Maddox hesitated only a moment before he nodded.

  “Should we reposition behind the nexus in relation to the warship?” Meta asked.

  A moment of silence reigned on the bridge.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said. “You will take us behind the nexus. Make sure to avoid the dampener field as you do so.”

  “I’m on it, mate, sir,” Keith said, as he manipulated his helm control.

  Another fantastic beam of laser light slashed through the darkness. This one missed Victory by a mere three kilometers. Given the range, that was unbelievable marksmanship. The beam lasted for twenty seconds and then snapped off.

  “I have an observation to make,” Galyan said.

  Maddox nodded.

  “That the warship is firing from such an extreme range suggests the Severn computers or AI fears the nexus. Notice their shots. While the beams are close given the distance, the beams are still far off the mark.”

  “How does any of that help us here?” Maddox asked.

  “It does not,” Galyan said. “It is an observation only, although an interesting and possibly relevant one.”

  “Relevant how?” asked Maddox.

  “At some future date when we or Star Watch will deal with the Severn, who likely are part of the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan,” Galyan said. “The iridium-Z hull armor and the amazing laser system seem to indicate that. The only fact that resists the conclusion is that the warship attempted to destroy the nexus once. Do not the races of the S.H. Leviathan worship nexuses?”