The Lost Intelligence (Lost Starship Series Book 12)

by Vaughn Heppner

  He thought he’d been dreaming. No, it hadn’t been a dream. The mass-mind Erills entity had used the knowledge about Becker, Larick and the ancient thing that called itself Nostradamus—

  Maddox dragged himself to a sitting position. The mass Erills mind had used the data about Becker to confuse him enough to extricate itself from his id sword-arm.

  Maddox groaned. He was deathly weary. He hadn’t gained extra soul energy this time. It had been a nearly even trade of energy to keep the mass mind from smothering him to death.

  “Hello?” Maddox called.

  There was no response. He couldn’t sense the Erills anywhere. Were they staying far away from him, or had he slain all of them? Did the reason for the silence matter? Maybe not. Maddox pushed and strained until he was swaying upright. It was pitch-dark in here just as it had been for Becker in the Jarnevon cavern.

  Inside the surface-suit helmet, Maddox blinked. Was that accurate information? If so—why had he learned about Josef Becker? He never recalled having met the man. How had the Erills learned about Becker and why had they thought he’d care?

  This was a new mystery. He planned on getting to the bottom of it. First, he had to leave Estar. He would never willingly land on the surface again. If anything, the City of Pyramids needed nuking.

  He paused. Sargon had gloated earlier. The Erill had suggested he knew why Nostradamus had sent Victory to the Erill System. That implied several things. Nostradamus had control, or some control, of Fletcher. That was bad. It also implied Nostradamus knew about the Erills. How was that possible? Why would that cause Nostradamus to want to send him, Maddox, here?

  Was there a deeper connection between the Erills and Nostradamus? If so, what was it?

  Maddox shook his head. He had to get out of here. Using his flashlight, he began to stumble along the primeval corridors, climbing down stairs and hoping he remembered the right way back.

  He used a HUD control and checked his air tanks. He had another twenty-three minutes of air left. It was time to hightail it out of here.

  Maddox moved faster, sweating, aching and remembering his promise to Meta. This was the weirdest planet he’d ever visited. He loathed the Erills. He never wanted to deal with a spiritual entity again. Flesh and blood foes were much easier to comprehend. Dimension Gates, Chrono Viewers, Temporal Distortions—what else did the primordial pyramids control?

  At last, Maddox stumbled out of the great pyramid. The sun was sinking into the horizon. It would be night soon. Just how long had he been lying in the huge pyramid?

  He continued trudging across sand, noticing that the wind had died down. When he eventually turned the seventh corner and saw his darter waiting for him—Maddox broke into a stumbling run. He had two and a half minutes of air left. If the Erills should attack now—

  “I’ll blow up the darter,” he said aloud.

  Maddox ran stumbling, panting heavily as he climbed the steps and entered the pressure chamber. He waited for the air to pressurize, then opened the hatch and stumbled into the darter while ripping off his helmet.

  He inhaled the wonderfully pure air and turned in a complete circle. He didn’t see any glowing balls in here with him.

  Soon, Maddox sat in the pilot’s seat and began activating controls. Several minutes later, the darter lifted off.

  “So that’s it?” he asked.

  No Erill thoughts spoke in his mind.

  He took the Reynard higher, climbing as fast as he could. The City of Pyramids dwindled and the atmosphere thinned until he was in space.

  “Captain?” Valerie said from the comm board.

  Maddox laughed with glee. Human words had never sounded so good. “I’m coming home,” he said.

  He looked back before he made the star-drive jump. The Erills had let him go. The id sword-arm had been part of it. There was something else, though. Something he wasn’t seeing. It felt like he’d won hugely, but…

  Nostradamus was playing a subtle game, an ancient one, perhaps. Maddox had won, but he felt as if he’d moved some pieces for the hidden Nostradamus. The alien had used him somehow.

  It galled Maddox that he couldn’t figure out how. Maybe the thing could predict with uncanny accuracy. Did that mean he should just give up? Maddox shook his head. He was going to find and destroy Nostradamus, even if that’s what the thing wanted him to do.

  “What’s your game? How did I help you here? Is there a connection between you and the Erills?”

  Maddox’s nostrils flared. He was leaving the temporal distorted star system, and he was getting his old team back together, which included Galyan, Dana Rich and Professor Ludendorff.

  At that point, the darter made the jump to the waiting starship.

  -18-

  A team of battlesuited Space Marines greeted Maddox as he exited the darter in Hangar Bay 1. Meta was with them, standing in the back in her regular uniform.

  “Captain Maddox?” she called.

  “It’s me,” Maddox said.

  “Do you remember telling me we should quarantine you after your return?” Meta shouted.

  “No.”

  Meta frowned, biting one of her nails. “Go ahead, Lieutenant. Escort the captain to the cell.”

  “Ah…you realize this is a futile gesture, don’t you?” asked Maddox.

  “Why’s that?” Meta asked.

  “If one of the Erill is in me, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

  “We can try.”

  Maddox nodded. “You can try. Go ahead then. I’m not resisting.”

  “Watch him carefully, Lieutenant,” Meta said. “If an Erill is in him, he’ll do anything.”

  The huge battlesuit helmet nodded, clanking to the captain, taking one of the puny little arms in an exoskeleton-powered glove.

  Maddox endured quietly enough. He kept wondering why he couldn’t remember giving the order. He reached the conclusion as the lieutenant shut the cell door behind him. He hadn’t given such an order.

  The cell had a steel cot with a thin pad and blanket, a steel toilet and that was it.

  Maddox lay down on the cot and stared up at the ceiling. Could the Erills have learned how to travel from Estar to Victory? If that were so, how many of the crew would the Erills have possessed? Probably all of them.

  Maddox shut his eyes, practiced the breathing and tried to project his thoughts. He couldn’t feel a thing. He breathed more deeply—a click told him someone had turned on the cell’s intercom system.

  “Maddox?” his wife asked.

  “Isn’t this going overboard?” he asked.

  “Not if you’re infected.”

  “The word is possessed. I’m not.”

  “What happened down there? You were out of communication most of the day.”

  “Are you recording this?”

  “Of course,” she said.

  Maddox accepted that and began to talk. Once he began, he couldn’t stop. He told her everything, including his suspicions. He talked about the hieroglyphics, the dream-story about Becker, about the Chrono Viewer and seeing where the Adok engineers had put the spare computer parts six thousand years ago.

  “Can you tell me the exact location of those parts?” Meta asked.

  Maddox told her. Afterward, he asked, “So, why the procedure? What happened while I was away that’s made you suddenly super-cautious?”

  Meta remained silent.

  Maddox waited.

  At last, Meta said, “We received several calls. One came through normal channels from the landed darter. You told us to send three tin cans to the second planet’s surface. You told Valerie you were hurt and needed help.”

  “The Erills must have done that.”

  “Valerie ran a voice scan. It was you, my love.”

  Maddox shook his head, perplexed. “I don’t remember doing… Oh. Sure. I wouldn’t remember if an Erill possessed me.”

  “The second message came from the Lord High Admiral via the Builder comm device. Valerie took it.”r />
  “She’s in charge once I leave the ship,” Maddox said.

  “Fletcher told us to come home. He said to head straight for Earth. If we had any ideas about picking up Ludendorff, we were supposed to nix them. Ludendorff is wanted for mass murder. He’s considered dangerous. We should shoot him on sight if we have the chance.”

  Maddox sat up. “Anything else?”

  “Why would Fletcher radio us that?” Meta asked.

  “How should I know?”

  “Just asking, Darling,” Meta said.

  “Anything else?”

  “The Emperor called with his Builder comm device. He asked if you wanted asylum.”

  “Asylum for me on the Throne World?” asked Maddox.

  “He didn’t say, but that was the implication.”

  Maddox stood and began to pace. “I’ll bite. What’s really going on?”

  “Valerie thought you would know.”

  “I don’t,” Maddox said. “My guess…there’s a link to Nostradamus and the Erills. I have no idea what kind of link. Maybe the Liss were related to the aliens who brought the Erills to our dimension.”

  “The Liss?” Meta asked.

  “That’s the name for the giant and extinct centipede aliens on Jarnevon, the Bosk Homeworld,” Maddox said.

  “You haven’t mentioned the Liss until now.”

  Maddox cocked his head. He couldn’t remember learning the name from the Becker dream. “That’s weird. Yet, I know the centipede aliens were called the Liss,” Maddox said. “I don’t know how I know, but I do. The name is as clear as a bell.”

  “Could you have learned more from Sargon than you’ve been able to articulate?”

  That didn’t sound like his wife’s way of talking. The question sounded like something— “Is the professor on board?” asked Maddox.

  There was silence until a click sounded. “As a matter of fact, my boy, I’m here. How did you know?”

  “Professor Ludendorff. Is Meta with you?”

  “Yes, yes, are you worried?”

  Maddox closed his eyes. How had Ludendorff come to join the starship now? He didn’t trust that in the slightest. “Why am I in quarantine, Professor?”

  “I’m afraid there’re a few facts you don’t know, my boy. We’re going to restore Galyan. If that works…and if you pass the tests, then you can have your starship back.”

  “You’re running it?”

  “Good Heavens, no,” Ludendorff said. “The others simply realize I’m the Methuselah Man with the answers. It’s amazing how attentive frightened people are.”

  “Is Dana with you?”

  There was no answer.

  “Professor?” asked Maddox.

  “Patience, my boy, patience. Lieutenant Noonan has a few tasks to perform. I’m going to the bridge to assist her. Leave it to me. I’m going to do what you should have done over two years ago.”

  The intercom clicked off.

  “Professor?” Maddox said.

  There was no answer, not even from Meta. Just what in the hell was the Methuselah Man up to this time?

  -19-

  Valerie eyed Professor Ludendorff as the Methuselah Man studied the second planet from the main screen. She was sitting in the captain’s chair, worried that she was making a terrible mistake.

  Ludendorff looked like a fit, tanned, handsome old man with thick white hair, a partly open shirt and a gold chain around his throat. He held himself with complete confidence and was possibly the smartest man in Human Space.

  Valerie distrusted Ludendorff, particularly after the voyage in the Reynard with him as they’d been searching for Commander Thrax’s Swarm colony world. She’d knocked Ludendorff unconscious and stuffed him in a stasis tube. He’d planned to put Keith and her in stasis tubes and have lookalike androids take their place so he could accomplish one of his nefarious goals. The professor was prone to fits of incredible selfishness and possessed sinister cunning that allowed him to achieve almost any outlandish plan. Despite that, he’d also helped Victory many times in the past.

  The professor had arrived several hours ago in the Outer Erill System, the lone person in a deep-space hauler. He’d contacted the starship and warned Valerie to make sure no one went to the second planet. When she’d informed him that Maddox had already gone down, the professor had become frantic.

  “Bring him back immediately,” Ludendorff had said. “This is imperative.”

  Valerie had sent Keith to pick Ludendorff up in a tin can. The professor wouldn’t have been able to cross the lurker missile belt in the deep-space hauler. The time storm on the planet had horrified the Methuselah Man, although as usual, he’d refused to say explicitly why. After the storm ceased and Maddox radioed in, the professor had warned them in the direst terms about the death of the galaxy if the captain were Erill-possessed.

  He’d suggested the quarantine, and he’d suggested the latest plan. Valerie could understand his thinking, given he was right about the Erill danger. She actually agreed with him this time.

  “I’m one thousand percent right, my dear,” Ludendorff had said earlier. “After our little differences last voyage, I understand why you might have your doubts. I’ve forgiven you for what you did to me last voyage. I’ve done so in the interest of continued existence for all of us. Know, Lieutenant, that the Erills are the deadliest threat to existence there is. The captain has been toying with galactic annihilation. It’s purest madness.”

  Now, the Methuselah Man stood like a statue, staring at the second planet on the main screen.

  Valerie kept remembering last voyage, how he’d tricked them so easily while in the Reynard. Was she being foolish? The man had the glibbest of tongues. Why did they need to do this now? And what about the Lord High Admiral’s injunction to have nothing to do with him? She couldn’t see the professor as a mass murderer, though. That struck her as a fabrication. Still…

  “Professor,” Valerie said. “I’m frankly having second thoughts about this.”

  Ludendorff turned slowly until their eyes met. There was moisture in his blue ones. He seemed filled with sadness. “Do you think I’m enjoying this? I’m sick at heart, Lieutenant. I’m devastated. I’d hoped for a long time there was a way to avoid this. Now—you must send the missiles. The City of Pyramids is the lure that will insure someone, sometime will go down there. I imagine the Liss will make the attempt, this Nostradamus.” The Methuselah Man shook his head. “This is one of the most devious plots I’ve ever cracked.”

  “I have to ask the captain before I’ll agree to this.”

  “Don’t you see, you can’t ask him,” Ludendorff said. “The Erills may have fiddled with his mind just enough to have compromised it in this.”

  “But…”

  Ludendorff approached her, taking one of her hands in his. He had strong hands, especially for such an older man. He rubbed her hand, smiling at her and staring into her eyes.

  She saw compassion in his eyes and educated understanding. She also saw pain. He hadn’t brought Dana Rich with him. That’s why he’d gone to Brahma in the first place, to fix things between them.

  Valerie was vaguely aware of Keith frowning from helm in disapproval. Let him frown. This was none of his business.

  Ludendorff glanced back at Keith before resuming staring at her. “Young men are so foolish, aren’t they?”

  Valerie nodded.

  “He’ll grow in time,” Ludendorff assured her. “We all do. You’ve become a Star Watch stalwart. I can see why Maddox relies on you so heavily.”

  “You can’t flatter me into doing this. And while you may have forgiven me, I’m not sure I’ve forgiven you for what happened in the darter.”

  Ludendorff searched her eyes. “The longer we remain in this star system, the greater the danger. The rest of the universe is racing and plotting, my dear. Don’t think they’re unaware of the importance taking place here.”

  “Professor, I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you wish the antimat
ter missiles to fly, you’d better talk to the captain. I’m not going to launch them on my authority. This one is too big for me.”

  He searched her eyes a last time, squeezed her hand and then let go. “Yes, perhaps that would be for the best. Maybe the quarantine was a miscalculation.” He sighed. “It’s time I spoke to Meta.”

  -20-

  Maddox snored, which seldom happened these days. The ordeal of his trip to the City of Pyramids must have exhausted even his newfound energy. The snoring ceased as he heard a bolt move somewhere.

  Maddox opened his eyes and swung his legs off the steel cot, fully awake as the hatch opened. Meta walked in first, followed by Ludendorff.

  The captain ran a hand through his hair. He was hungry and could use a drink of water. How long had he been asleep?

  Meta carried a chair. So did Ludendorff. They both set their chairs down and sat in them.

  “You think I’m safe then?” asked Maddox.

  Ludendorff spread his hands while Meta watched him avidly, as if looking for signs.

  “What have you done this time, Professor?” Maddox asked.

  Meta’s shoulders sank as if with relief. She turned to Ludendorff and nodded.

  “Interesting,” Ludendorff said. “You put people at ease with your suspicions. Does that make you feel good? That you trust no one?”

  “I trust you to act like a scoundrel,” Maddox said.

  Ludendorff grinned, shaking his head.

  Maddox studied the Methuselah Man. He seemed different from the last time they’d been together. That had been before Ludendorff had headed off for Brahma and a grand make-up with Dana.

  “Is Dana along?” asked Maddox.

  The briefest touch of pain crossed the professor’s face. Then, he seemed as jolly as before.

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” Maddox said.

  Ludendorff made an airy gesture as if it didn’t matter.

  Meta wasn’t fooled either. She patted one of the professor’s knees. That caused Ludendorff to start with surprise. Then, he smiled shyly before sighing.