The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3)

by Vaughn Heppner

  “That’s it?”

  “If my guess is correct,” Maddox said, “it should be enough.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand, sir.”

  “Galyan must be monitoring everything around him,” Maddox said. “With his greater intelligence, I expect he’s gotten more curious about things.”

  “He has machine intelligence,” the sergeant pointed out. “I imagine that’s quite different from human intelligence.”

  “Perhaps,” Maddox said. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  As the air-car zoomed upward under its initial velocity, the captain continued to turn the engine on and off. The last atmospheric blue faded away. The stars shined around them. Soon, the Earth’s curvature took his breath away. It was beautiful up here. What had the sergeant said? It made a man feel small. Why should that be? What was there inherent in the human soul that felt insignificance at such grand beauty?

  The minutes ticked away, five, ten and finally fifteen.

  “It’s not working,” Riker declared.

  “Then what is that out there?” Maddox asked, pointing at a bright spot in the starry distance.

  “I don’t see anything, sir.”

  “It’s growing.”

  Riker glanced at him. “You’re imagining it.”

  “I hope you’re wrong.”

  Another five minutes proved Maddox right. Both of them could tell the outsized shape of Starship Victory. Galyan must be coming to get them.

  “Sir, I don’t mean any disrespect saying this. But what you just did was a cockamamie piece of lunacy. We should both be doomed, waiting to fall to Earth like a shooting star. Sometimes, you push your luck too far.”

  “It had nothing to do with luck,” Maddox said, “but heightened reasoning. I correctly estimated Galyan’s intelligence and his curiosity. I played the probabilities and—”

  “Got lucky as can be, sir,” Riker said. “If you can’t see that…well, then you aren’t as smart as you like to believe yourself to be.”

  “That will be all, Sergeant.”

  “Yes, sir,” Riker said.

  The two then waited in silence as the starship approached the drifting air-car.

  ***

  Maddox stood on Victory’s bridge, speaking to Brigadier O’Hara in Geneva.

  The captain had already learned the worst from a crestfallen Valerie. In order to function—they’ve kidnapped Meta—he concentrated on what he had to do to defeat them. He put his emotions in cold storage and icily decided what step to take first.

  “Ma’am, I have bad news,” the captain said. His face felt numb, but he ignored that. A volcano of force bubbled beneath his calm exterior. “The enemy has acquired the Builder egg, I’m afraid.”

  The brigadier blinked at him in shock. She sat at her desk in her office. Her eyes seemed like bright gems in a ghostly face. Maddox had never seen her like this before. Her shoulders sagged as she stared at him.

  “They came in a Star Watch shuttle with orders from the Lord High Admiral’s office,” Maddox said. “It was all quite correct, I assure you.”

  How…how can this be?” the brigadier asked. “They’re baffling us at every turn.” She scowled. “How is it you’re up in the starship and not in Geneva?”

  Maddox explained what had happened and how he correctly guessed that the enemy would go for the egg.

  “You should have raced straight here, Captain. I could have radioed Victory. We might have stopped their latest ploy if you’d done so.”

  Maddox hesitated for just a moment. “Recriminations aren’t going to help us now.” He shifted his stance, as a shadow seemed to pass across his face. “They kidnapped Meta, poor girl. She brought them the egg.” For just a moment, Maddox lost focus. An animal in his heart snarled silently. Outwardly, he kept it chained. “It seems the shuttle vanished around the other side of the planet before I could board and warn my crew about the situation.”

  O’Hara stared at him a little longer before saying, “I don’t know what to do. I’m baffled. What are our options?”

  “Ma’am, I believe we’re operating against a New Man. They’ve sent their best person to Earth. He moves with bewildering speed. Because they grabbed the egg, it seems obvious they’re going to try to board the planet-killer.”

  “To what purpose?” the brigadier asked.

  “Why, to own the doomsday machine,” Maddox said.

  “Yes…” the brigadier said, staring at her hands. She looked up. “Do you think it’s possible this…New Man can succeed?”

  “If anyone can, he will. Yes, I believe it’s possible.”

  “Normally, I would order you to stop him. But if he fails to board the doomsday machine, it will annihilate the Earth.”

  “I request that you send me Keith Maker in a jumpfighter. Then, I will take care of the situation.”

  “Just you by yourself, Captain?” O’Hara asked. “You can succeed where all of Star Watch has failed?”

  “No,” Maddox said, “not just by myself. I’ll have my team with me. Galyan is sharper than ever. He is busy scouring the starship, fixing all the inoperative systems.”

  “Do you mean the alien AI?”

  “Yes.”

  “It is an ‘it,’ not a ‘he,’” the brigadier said.

  “Driving Force Galyan disagrees with you, Ma’am.”

  The brigadier looked as if she wanted to argue. Finally, her shoulders deflated a little more “I’ll have to ask the admiral about this.”

  “We don’t have time, Ma’am.”

  “You see the doomsday machine?”

  “If the enemy has snatched the egg, it must be because the planet-killer is near. I should leave Earth orbit immediately. The enemy has to reach the doomsday machine in order to implement his goal. Perhaps I can stop him before he does that.”

  O’Hara studied Maddox. Did she see the ramrod stiffness in his stance, the glint in his eyes that spoke of steely determination?

  “This is a disaster, Captain. The enemy truly is better, smarter and quicker than we regular mortals are. You, your alien ship and crew are going to have to deliver us from death. The Home Fleet will fight, but if you’re right about what happened to the Wahhabi Fleet in New Arabia—God help humanity.”

  “I think He is,” Maddox said, softly. “We have a fighting chance with this ship.”

  “What is your plan?” O’Hara asked. “You lack the egg. You lack a key such as the one Ludendorff gave Per Lomax. I don’t see that you can board the doomsday machine. Even if you could, how could you succeed where Per Lomax failed?”

  “Do you really want me to divulge my plan?” Maddox asked. “It’s quite possible enemy ears are listening to our conversation.”

  O’Hara searched his face and smiled sadly. “This is why you went into the Beyond, searching for the impossible. This is why I took a gamble with you from the beginning. No, Captain, do not tell me your plan. As to your request, I will send your ace with the required fighter. Godspeed, Captain. Defeat our foe. We’ll do everything we can to help you. Brigadier O’Hara out.”

  Maddox faced Valerie. The lieutenant continued to scowl at her board. She’d been sullen ever since she told him the terrible news.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Maddox told her for the tenth time. He wasn’t sure if he was saying it to convince her or to convince himself.

  Valerie looked up. “Then whose fault was it, sir?” she asked in a bitter voice.

  “It was all of ours.”

  The lieutenant shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t accept that line of bull crap, Captain.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Valerie said. “I mean to say that I don’t accept your line of reasoning. I made the decision to send Meta to get the egg. I was in charge. I gave the enemy what they came for. It was my fault and no one else’s. Worse, I let them kidnap Meta. I am sick inside. I’m so sorry, sir.”

  Maddox focused on the lieutenant. Her wellbeing was his respo
nsibility. Valerie was part of his crew. They were going to need everyone in top form soon. They were going up against the enemy’s A team. The lieutenant was badly in need of encouragement. But Valerie Noonan wasn’t just anyone. She was the welfare kid who had fought against the elitists and won. The captain believed he knew the right angle to take with her.

  Taking his own sorrow in hand, Maddox concentrated on the next step with Valerie.

  “I see,” he said. “You’re going to wallow in your defeat, are you?”

  Valerie sat up with her features stiffening.

  “You lost me my woman, Lieutenant. I do not appreciate then this defeatist manner. If you cannot remain at your post because you want to sulk, tell me now so I can find someone who can do her duty.”

  Valerie’s face turned red.

  “I want people who fight through to the bitter end. I don’t want quitters, Lieutenant. Which are you, I’d like to know now?”

  Lieutenant Noonan’s eyes burned with outrage even as tears glistened in them.

  Maddox nodded. “I like that much better, Lieutenant. You’re angry. Good. Now you listen to me. One of the most dangerous men in the world tricked you. That man has run circles around Star Watch Intelligence. That man slipped an assassin into the highest levels of command. He even reached out to Pluto and ordered my arrest. We’re not dealing with a few uppity cadets at the Space Academy. We’re dealing with the most ruthless man alive. You’re frustrated for being beaten. Worse, he pulled your trousers down around your ankles, as it were.”

  Valerie looked away.

  Maddox stopped. It was time to let her reason it out for herself.

  Soon, the lieutenant shook her head. She squared her shoulders. Without facing him, Valerie said, “You’re right, sir. I was acting like a spoiled, rich-kid cadet just now. But I’m a Star Watch line officer. It’s time to fight.”

  “It’s time to outthink our enemy,” Maddox added.

  Valerie faced him with fire in her eyes. “That’s your task, sir. You think like the New Men much better than any of us can because you’re like them.”

  Maddox felt a stab of annoyance at her words.

  Valerie smiled grimly. “You have their blood, sir. You’re quicker and smarter—”

  “That’s quite enough, Lieutenant.”

  She stared him in the eyes. “I’m just saying, sir. You don’t like being the hybrid, the one who’s different from everyone else. But I’m glad you are different. I trust you with my life. We all do, sir. You have to accept who you are. Now, you have to use the New Man side of you, sir. You have to beat their A team by being ours.”

  Maddox looked away, thinking. Then he looked back at her. “I suppose I deserved that.”

  “Yes sir, you did. But then so did I.”

  “We’re two wounded tigers, Lieutenant. Maybe this is the mission where we finally get our licks in.”

  “I hope you’re right, sir.”

  Maddox said nothing more as he studied orbital space. The enemy had kidnapped Meta right out from under his nose. That enraged him, but he refused to let it color his thinking. For this, he would need his coolest concentration yet.

  Who had taken the egg? Was it a New Man? It had been breathtakingly bold. He both hated whoever had done it and admired him greatly.

  All I ask is that I get the chance to return him the favor.

  -37-

  Twenty-four hours later brought little change to the overall situation. The biggest difference was Victory’s location half a million kilometers from Earth.

  Luna Defense was off the port bow one hundred thousand kilometers away. Various Star Watch destroyers and frigates orbited Earth at the Moon’s distance from the planet. Their sensors searched everywhere for a sign of the shuttle that had stolen the egg. Every Cestus hauler, every merchant ship near Earth had been ordered to stop and await another round of space marine and SW Intelligence search parties. Unfortunately, it took time to board and search each vessel from top to bottom a second time.

  Downstairs on the planet, relief efforts were underway for the nuclear bomb victims who had survived the terrible tragedy.

  The battleships in the Outer System were accelerating as fast as they could for Earth. Every warship in the Solar System gathered into one hard nucleus. The Lord High Admiral had already taken a shuttle for his flagship.

  Maddox had told Star Watch Command about the New Arabia System. That didn’t mean humanity was going to let an alien doomsday machine destroy Earth without a titanic fight. The best scenario had Star Watch defeating the neutroium-hulled planet-killer. Even if they did that, though, how many Star Watch warships would drift as wrecks afterward?

  Admiral Fletcher’s Fifth Fleet was coming. Together with the Home Fleet that represented seventy percent of Star Watch’s warship strength. To beat the doomsday machine but lose half the Home Fleet would be a disaster for the continuing war against the New Men.

  Humanity had finally beaten the enemy in the battles of the Tannish and Markus Systems. If they lost too many warships now against the doomsday machine…the greater war might be lost before they got a chance to turn the tables on the arrogant enemy.

  “I cannot believe I haven’t found them yet,” Galyan said.

  Maddox sat in the command chair. How much longer did they have? When would the doomsday—

  “Captain,” Valerie said. “I’m picking up ionic magnetic signals.”

  The captain’s stomach clenched. This was too soon. Earth needed more time. “Where is the location?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  “Approximately three million kilometers beyond Mars’ orbital path,” the lieutenant said.

  Maddox peered up at the main screen.

  Valerie put a hand to her right ear. “Signals are coming in from Mars Command. They’re reporting a magnetic storm. Sir, I think the doomsday machine is already coming through.”

  The lieutenant referred to the time delay from three million kilometers beyond Mars’ orbital path to Earth. Because of the speed of light—which affected both messages and sensor signals—the delay was only a matter of minutes, but it was still there.

  The captain stood, staring at the main screen. He remembered Ludendorff’s holoimage video from the Wahhabi Caliphate capital system.

  “It’s definitely getting bigger,” Valerie said, referring to the magnetic storm.

  “There!” Galyan said. “I have spotted an anomaly.”

  Maddox glanced at the holoimage. Galyan pointed at the screen that showed orbital Earth. On the screen, he produced a red circle around an object out there.

  “What is that?” Maddox asked. It was a red-circled dot on the screen, showing something in Earth orbit.

  “I am highlighting a jumpfighter,” Galyan said. “Ah, it is jumping.”

  The dot on the screen winked out of sight.

  “Where did the jumpfighter come from?” Maddox asked. “Can you trace that?”

  Galyan stared at the screen. “There. The jumpfighter originated from that orbital ship.” Another red circle encompassed a different vessel. The holoimage’s eyelids fluttered. “That is Cestus Hauler five,” the AI said, “in near Earth orbit.”

  “That’s the hauler’s official designation?” Maddox asked.

  “No,” Galyan said. “That is the Star Watch search number.”

  “I’ll inform headquarters of the Cestus hauler,” Valerie said.

  “Head out for the magnetic storm,” Maddox told Galyan.

  “Should I engage the star drive?” Galyan asked.

  “Negative,” the captain said. “Strain every sensor you have. Watch the ion storm, and tell me everything of note that happens to the doomsday machine. Have you seen it yet, by the way?”

  “Negative,” Galyan said. “I have—wait. I see the planet-killer now. I am giving you full magnification.”

  A new image leapt into view on the screen. It was that of a magnetic storm out beyond Mars’ orbital path. The storm looked just like the one he’d seen wee
ks ago. Long strands of purple lighting flickered from it.

  “Do you notice the greater darkness within the storm?” Galyan asked.

  “I do,” Maddox said softly.

  Then it appeared—the giant, teardrop-shaped doomsday machine.

  “Do you see the jumpfighter?” Maddox asked.

  “How could I?” Galyan said. “The jumpfighter just left Earth orbit. I need more time to see what just happened out there.”

  Yes, of course. Maddox waited. They all did as the minutes passed away.

  “There,” the AI said. “I have spotted the jumpfighter. I will highlight it for you.”

  A red circle appeared, but Maddox couldn’t see any dot of a jumpfighter within the circle that was in the ion storm. The red circle touched the hull of the doomsday machine, though. That was cutting it mighty fine to appear practically on the planet-killer’s outer skin. Was there was a reason for making such a risky jump?

  “Are you sure the jumpfighter is there?” the captain asked.

  “Utterly certain,” Galyan said.

  “Do you find it odd the jumpfighter appeared so close to the machine’s hull?”

  “It does not seem odd at all,” Galyan said. “I suspect the jumpfighter appeared so near for a reason. The likeliest explanation is that it needed to appear close enough so it didn’t trigger the planet-killer’s defensive mechanisms.”

  “Right,” Maddox said. That made sense. The ancient destroyer must have an inner zone where it would annihilate anything that got so close. Then, there must be an even nearer area where it would assume something that close was friendly. But that would call for tight jump control to get within the safe zone. Who but a New Man could pilot like that over such a long distance?

  “What’s the enemy jumpfighter doing now?” Maddox asked.

  “I can give you a computer-generated approximation,” Galyan said. “But know that it will not be one hundred percent accurate. The ion storm is interfering with the clarity of my long-range scanners.”

  “Yes, do it,” Maddox said, without hesitation. “Show me a computer-generated graphic.”

  The stars and the magnetic storm disappeared from the screen. In its place was a realistic computer graphic of the giant vessel with its neutroium hull.