“Reasonable,” Galyan said. “Yes, let us begin the attempt then.” The AI paused.
“What now?” Maddox asked.
“I do not have any meaningful last words for you, Captain. My probability processors tell me you will fail, which means you will die. I doubt I shall ever speak to you again, Captain. I should give you meaningful parting words. But I can think of nothing proper, as I still do not sufficiently understand human motivations.”
“I appreciate that, Galyan. Thank you for the thought. You’ve been a good friend.”
“What did I say, sir?” Galyan said. “It wasn’t meaningful.”
“You’re wrong. It was very meaningful. You gave it your best shot, which means more than the actual words you didn’t say.”
“That is not logical,” Galyan said.
Maddox gave the AI a wintery grin. “Let’s beat the enemy, my friend. We’ve done it before. Now, you and I and the rest of the crew are going to do it again.”
“You hope,” Galyan said.
“Yes. That I do. Captain Maddox out.” Before he could motion the pilot, Keith cut the connection.
“Better start building up greater velocity,” Maddox told the pilot.
“Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said, opening channels with Valerie.
Since the small jumpfighter didn’t have giant engines like the planet-killer or anything like the needed amount of fuel, Victory had been accelerating, using the tractor beam to pull the tiny fighter with it. Now, they were going to match the correct speed and heading of the doomsday machine. Soon now, Keith would engage the jump mechanism and try to put them beside the distant alien doomsday device at just the right location.
As the old saying went, the balloon was about to go up.
***
“I’ll have to do this in two jumps,” Keith said. “I can’t give you the pinpoint accuracy you’re asking for from this far out.”
“The enemy did it,” Maddox said.
“I’m good,” Keith said, “but I’m not that good.”
“How close do you plan to appear in front of the doomsday machine with the first jump?”
“The closer we can get, the better chance we have of arriving in its magic radius,” the ace said.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I’m thinking of appearing three hundred thousand kilometers before it the first jump. The second jump will put us in the magic zone.”
Maddox considered that. “Three hundred thousand kilometers from it will put us in the machine’s proximity zone. The planet-killer will be sure to fire at us.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, sir. The doomsday machine has its giant orifice. Will it warm up the killing ray to swat a tiny jumpfighter like us?”
“I have no idea. Maybe it has secondary weapons.”
“With a three hundred thousand kilometer range,” Keith said. “No, I don’t think so.”
“We lack sufficient data to know for sure,” Maddox said.
“For a fact, we do lack data, sir. But we made it onto Starship Victory the first time without enough information.”
Maddox didn’t say anything to that. Keith was wrong, though. Ludendorff had collected the needed data for them. “Yes,” the captain said. “Do it your way.”
Maddox believed in trusting each person to do his or her specialty. Keith was the master pilot. If he suggested this was the best way to do it, then they would do it the ace’s way.
Keith passed out hypos with the Baxter-Locke shots. Injecting that into him left Maddox feeling ill. Five minutes later, the ace said it was go time.
Maddox gripped the arms of his padded chair. He noticed that Riker did likewise.
“Round one,” Keith said. “Victory, you can release the tractor beam.”
“One moment,” Galyan said. “The two-jump sequence is going to make matching my firing of the wave frequency beam that much trickier.”
“You’re the hyper-intelligent AI,” Maddox said. “You can’t let us down, Galyan. You promised to show us miracles with your Adok starship. This is your chance to shine.”
Galyan didn’t respond to that.
“The tractor beam is gone,” Keith said thirty seconds later. “Here we go.” He tapped the controls.
The grim sensations of jump slammed upon Maddox. Time lost meaning until he felt disoriented and sick, wanting to vomit. The Baxter-Locke shot seemed not to have taken effect for him this time.
Keith garbled something and repeated it a few moments later. Neither time made any sense.
“What?” Maddox finally managed to mutter.
“We’ve hit a glitch, sir,” Keith said. “My sequencer is off by several degrees. I wouldn’t have noticed, but we’re not exactly where I’d predict we’d be. I wanted a perfect jump, sir. This is definitely going to throw off Galyan’s timing.”
Maddox’s gut seethed as the sickness hit him. He clamped his jaws so he wouldn’t vomit.
“I need to recalibrate the sequencer,” Keith said.
“Do it,” Maddox whispered.
“Are you all right, sir?”
“I’m fine,” Maddox wheezed. “Now fix the sequencer.”
The ace unstrapped, pushing past them as he floated weightless. He tore open a panel, using a magnetic tapper to try to fix the sequencer.
“What’s that light mean on the controls, sir?” Riker asked.
“What?” Maddox asked. He felt more horrible by the minute. With splotchy vision, the captain noticed a red light on the pilot’s board.
Keith swore at them. “Why didn’t someone tell me about that?” He shot past Maddox, floating to his seat, sinking into it and strapping in. His fingers fairly flew across his board.
Sudden acceleration slammed Maddox against his chair. The back of his helmeted head struck hard, making him groan. What was wrong with him?
Then something glowing hot erupted from the bulkhead, hissing past Maddox’s head and striking the opposite bulkhead. The lights in the craft began flashing on and off.
Maddox’s visor whirred shut and oxygen began to pump into his vacc-suit.
“The doomsday machine is using a rail-gun to fire at us,” Keith said. “Must be using proximity shells, grenades, as munitions. Looks like the machine got lucky with us. That was a pellet smashing through our systems. We can’t stay here, sir. I’m going to have to jump now.”
“Go for the hull,” Maddox said. “Get us into its safe zone.”
“The odds of doing that now—”
“Don’t argue,” Maddox said. “You have to trust your instincts, son. Just do it.”
“Do or die, sir, right you are. Hang on, mates. The death ride has just begun.”
The acceleration worsened, pushing Maddox deeper against his seat. Then the craft must have zipped to the left. The G forces shoved against the captain, making him want to vomit again.
“Three, two, one…zero,” Keith said.
Once more, the disorienting process caught Maddox off-guard. The world spun. Noises garbled in his ears. The next thing Maddox knew, Riker stood over him, clicking off the straps and yanking him to his feet.
“What’s wrong with you, sir?” Riker asked. “You have to snap out of it. We’re here. The damned pilot pulled off a miracle. Now, we have to hope the AI can do the same thing.”
-39-
Maddox stopped inside the tiny jumpfighter twice, dry heaving. He felt awful.
Someone gripped his elbow painfully. “What’s wrong, sir? Why are you acting so strangely?”
“Feel…sick,” Maddox whispered.
“How, sir?”
“My gut…want to vomit…feel achy.”
Seconds passed into an eternity of dull-eyed apathy. A new person in a vacc-suit floated before him.
“It’s me, mate, Keith. Did you feel this way after the Baxter-Locke shot?”
“Yes…” Maddox slurred. “Is that important?”
“It’s an Apollo reaction, they call it. Happens every seventh or eighth
shot. I should have warned you about it, I suppose. It’s one of the reasons they don’t hand the shots out like candy to everyone.”
“What do we do now?” Maddox whispered.
“You hope the effect wears off. There were a few people… Well, never mind about that. We have to get out, sir. We’re practically on the hull, but we’re drifting. Our window of opportunity is small. Galyan will be firing his unlocking beam soon. If we’re not at the hatch in time…”
“What’s the best remedy for the Apollo effect?” Maddox asked.
“Simple old mulishness, sir. Get mad. Sometimes that seems to burn out the nausea. Don’t know why, but that was the scuttlebutt I heard.”
Maddox tried to focus on his hatred against the New Men. They planned to select the winners and losers in the universe, who lived and who died. The odds were bad for everyone. One out of five chances of living in the New Order. No. That wasn’t going to get him angry. He had to make this personal.
The captain smiled bitterly. He should focus on Kane grabbing Meta. But the agent for the New Men was a cipher. Maddox wanted the head honcho. Oran Rva had come to Earth. The commander had tugged the webs of the enemy’s espionage net. Likely, Oran Rva had coordinated the various assassination attempts against him. Maddox had always wanted a face-to-face with one of the leaders, one of his mother’s killers.
“I’m not going to get angry,” Maddox whispered to himself. “I’m going to get even. I’m going to do this my way. For that, I refuse to let this nausea stop me.”
“What’s that you’re saying, sir?” Riker asked.
Maddox realized his radio link had been on the entire time. That was fine.
With the greater concentration came a realization that Riker and Maker had hooked him into a thruster-pack. Now, each of them floated to theirs.
“You have to go back with the jumpfighter,” Maddox radioed Keith.
“I’d love to do that, sir,” the ace said. “But the sequencer burned out the last jump. The fighter’s finished. I’m coming along, going to add my two credits to the fight.”
Maddox didn’t say a word. He concentrated, forcing his mind to burn through the drug-induced haze. He had made it to the doomsday machine, the outer hull, anyway. Had Per Lomax gotten this far? Was the New Man inside the planet-killer helping the others?
“Let’s go,” Keith shouted. “We’re drifting and will be out of range soon.”
“Here goes,” Riker said. “I hope you’re ready, sir.”
“Do it,” Maddox whispered.
The sergeant slapped a switch. The hatch blew away.
Maddox forced himself to shove off, drifting through the opening. Before him was a wall of pitted neutroium armor. Looking at it made his eyes water. Seen from this close, the hull seemed primordial. It made Victory seem new.
Maddox stared at the pitted surface. As he did, there stirred in him a feeling of… evil. It made him shudder. Here was something truly alien. If they went inside—
“We have over ten kilometers to go,” Keith radioed, the transmission scratchy-sounding.
The words startled Maddox out of his reverie.
“Ten klicks is near the limit of our hydrogen tanks,” Keith added.
“Lead the way,” Maddox muttered. “I’ll follow behind.”
“Sergeant,” Keith said, with a same ring of authority in his voice as when he piloted. “You bring up the rear. Make sure the captain keeps up.”
Several seconds passed before Riker said, “Yes, sir.”
White hydrogen spray spewed from the thruster-pack ahead of Maddox. That must be Keith. The pilot lurched forward as he went lower toward the gigantic, pitted hull.
“Get going, sir,” Riker radioed. “We can’t split up or we’ll never get back together soon enough.”
“Right,” Maddox said. He had the feeling of something old and vile watching him, waiting to devour him like a bloated spider. It lived inside the ancient machine, wanting him to enter the lair of evil.
“Get a grip,” the captain muttered. He squeezed the trigger and aimed the throttle down. In seconds, he zoomed toward the giant, pitted hull.
The fuzziness in his mind refused to go away, though. The sense of danger continued to radiate from the armor, making his fingers sweaty.
“You’re going down too sharply, sir,” Riker radioed. “Ease off.”
Maddox squeezed his eyes closed and opened them wide. What was wrong with him? As he licked his lips, he eased off the throttle. If he wasn’t careful, he’d slam against the hull.
Soon, his booted feet were less than ten meters from the hull. It felt as if he flew over something older than the stones of Earth. Maddox shook his head to rid himself of the feeling, but that just hurt his eyes. He looked up at the stars, but that made him dizzy. Once more, he peered past his feet at the neutroium. How many encounters had this ancient machine survived? How many times had its beam destroyed life on a planetary surface? What chance did he have against something so…immortal?
“No,” Maddox whispered. He refused to despair. They may be three specks flying over the neutroium monster, but they were going to defeat this thing. The three men from Earth would go inside and defeat whatever waited for them no matter how ancient and vile it was.
“Galyan should be firing his wave frequency about now,” Keith radioed. “But we’re still too far away from the hatch.”
The words helped focus the captain’s thoughts. “Can you…can you see it?”
“It’s a little over a kilometer from here,” Keith said. “We’re going to have to start braking.”
Some of the regular Maddox returned. Galyan and he had gone over the sequence of the commando raid in exquisite detail. He knew the timing of this.
“No,” Maddox said. “If we begin braking from this far out, we won’t make it in.”
“You’re right,” Keith said a second later. “Okay then, mates. Follow me. Our only chance is to shoot like a bullet through the hatch before it closes.”
The pilot pulled away from the ancient hull.
Maddox tilted his throttle and added thrust. He was feeling better, with his head clearing. The aura of evil faded, but not enough that he grinned at this former foolishness. There was something alien in the worst sense about this machine. But it wouldn’t get the better of him.
The seconds ticked away, with the thruster-packs spewing their remaining fuel. The three specks had picked up speed.
“I see it!” Keith shouted, the words blaring in Maddox’s headphones. “The hatch is still open. I don’t know how much longer it’s going to stay that way.”
Even though the hatch seemed like the maw of a deadly beast, Maddox shouted, “Full throttle! We have to get on board.” He squeezed the trigger, focusing as he aimed at the tiny entrance.
Keith laughed recklessly, sounding as if he enjoyed the moment.
Surprisingly, Maddox zipped passed the ace as the captain shot at full throttle for the opening. None of them was going to have time to slow down. They had to beat the clock or remain out here until the fleet made its attack run.
Maddox concentrated. For a second, he felt sibilant laughter in his mind. Come to me, yes, come into my lair. The captain’s lips hardened, and his eyes become like flint. He was coming all right. The way into the doomsday machine was before him. Galyan had successfully copied the wave frequency. The Adok starship had done its job. Now, it was time for the three of them to do theirs.
“We’re almost there, sir,” Riker shouted.
Coolly, telling himself he wanted to meet the ancient evil, Maddox began to undo the buckles of the thruster-pack. Seconds later, he pushed off the pack. Then, he folded himself into a cannonball as if launching off a diving board.
“I’m squeezing myself into a fetal position,” Maddox radioed. “If I hit too hard, I’m hoping this will keep me from breaking any bones.”
“Good idea,” Keith said. “I’m doing the same thing. Be careful you don’t push your pack off too hard, Serge
ant. You don’t want to spoil your aim.”
That was the last comment. Then, Maddox shot through the hatch and into the corridor. He struck a bulkhead, ricocheted and struck another. He tightened his muscles as he kept himself like a cannonball, enduring blow after blow.
“The door’s closing,” Riker radioed. “I’m still outside.”
Maddox slammed against another bulkhead. It jarred his head so stars blossomed before him. That loosened his cannonball position. Then he struck even harder, feeling as if a sledgehammer banged his chest. Air gushed away as he faded into semi-conscious. Had he stopped? A final bone-jarring hit put him out cold inside the ancient doomsday machine.
***
Maddox’s eyelids fluttered. With a groan, he attempted to sit up. Vertigo struck. He sagged back onto the deck, panting, his head pounding with gongs.
“Hello,” he whispered a minute later. The words reverberated inside his helmet. There was no answer. Did his helmet radio work? Or had his caroming descent down the corridor broken it?
The captain gathered his resolve. Slowly, he brought a hand to his helmet. At least his arm worked. He tried the other one. It was sore but functional.
Maddox unglued his eyes. A dim diffused glow let him see the ceiling. Weird, polygonal shapes fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. There were several colors. The pieces did not seem metallic but like hardened or lacquered growths or the secretions of alien bees. Yes, the polygonal shapes felt as if once they had been soft and later hardened into their present state.
Maddox felt revulsion, which gave him greater energy. He wanted to get out of here. Trying to bolt upright, dizziness stole his vision. His muscles relaxed as if a boxer had hit him on the chin.
As he lay there, he felt a thrum, a vibration. Then, eerie noises like whales make deep in the ocean managed to leak past his helmet.
What was that?
It came to Maddox the ship itself must be making the noise. The ancient death machine groaned as its systems pumped, cycled and did whatever else they must do to keep the vessel running.
I have a mission. The planet-killer is heading for Earth to kill all life there. If I don’t stop it…who will?
The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) Page 34
