The Lost (The Maauro Chronicles Book 3)

by Edward McKeown

  “Not so great news,” Dusko answered, “and this place is beginning to look better to me.”

  “You want to take up fishing, be my guest,” I replied.

  “That was very obliging of the Veru,” Olivia said, raising an eyebrow.

  “We proposed a deal where they gave us what we wanted and Maauro didn’t drown the whole colony world by reversing their terraforming.”

  “Oh,” she said, then looked at Maauro. “Would she really have…never mind. I might be happier not knowing for certain.”

  “Please make final launch prep and strap in,” Maauro said. “I will be taking us up in twenty minutes.

  They both nodded and moved off. I settled into the second seat with a sigh. Maauro took the pilot’s chair. “The ship’s AI and I have been working the checklist in preparation. We are in countdown mode now.”

  Olivia and Dusko returned at T minus five minutes and strapped in, as usual, we would ride up together. Maauro communicated with Launch and Space Control which tersely told us we could do anything we wanted so long as we left.

  We lifted with the smooth power of our impellers. I felt a knot of tension loosen in my chest even as I was pressed back in my seat. True relief waited for me where the blue of the sky turned to the starry black of space. Launch was our most vulnerable point and while the old Veru has seemed a sensible person, not everyone involved had behaved so nicely. I checked scan, for all that I knew Maauro was watching. I noted with approval that only one object was near us, Sinner II right where we had parked it in orbit.

  A thought struck me. “What if they—”

  “Sabotaged the Sinner?” Maauro finished. “I programmed it to avoid any vessel approaching it and to signal me if anything did.”

  “You sneaked up on it.”

  “My programming is superior to what it had and I doubt anyone else will leap on it from deep space as I did. Nonetheless, I will check it out before I replace it on the grapples.”

  Maauro did that while I set up a course out of system. As usual, I scrounged speed from rotational orbits of the planet and moon, gaining velocity for the trip to the outer system. We’d grab more speed from the medium-sized gas giant en route. I observed the ISM auxiliary hanging in orbit with its cutters and small patrol vessels, but it studiously ignored us.

  The ship’s AI chimed for my attention. “Message received and secured in security buffer.”

  “I have it,” Maauro said, from outside where she was finishing securing the green and gold fighter. “It is clear of viruses. I am routing it to your nav board and sending back the digital message relieving them of any responsibility for what happens to us. It appears Arzarafel is as good as his word. We have all the flight data on Bexlaw’s escape from the system.”

  Maauro entered the airlock and since she wore no suit was almost immediately in the bridge with me. I still found it disconcerting that she could walk in from deep space with no more transition than a moment or two to warm up to a reasonable temperature. She nodded at Olivia and Dusko who had come in with some drinks.

  “You seem to have formed a network with this Arzarafel,” Maauro said.

  “One only of mutual convenience,” I said. “I have no doubt that he is one of Aporek’s senior advisors. From him I get the impression that, much as Aporek wants to increase Voit-Veru power at the cost of humans and their allies, he is not interested in an out and out rebellion or civil war, at least not now.”

  “It would not be in his interest,” she agreed. “Humans are the most effective mass-fighters the Confederacy has. Aporek’s plan should be to avoid armed conflict while he builds alliances and saps the power of his enemies.”

  “Spoken like a chess player,” Olivia said, as she handed me a drink and fell into a chair, draping one leg over it. “Politics is much more a game of poker, with an occasional demented player who doesn’t know how to bet and ends up trying to throw the table over. Sometimes you don’t even know who is sitting at the table.”

  “That’s what happened here,” Dusko added.

  I smiled at Maauro as she sat next to me, taking one of her sweet concoctions off the tray. “Yes, the cat got out of the bag and Arzarafel wanted our help getting it back in before things got totally out of control.”

  “What cat?” Maauro said. “Ah, a metaphor. What a silly way of trading clarity of expression for colorful confusion.”

  “Thought you were talking about Jaelle for a second,” Olivia said with a sly smile.

  I snorted. “They haven’t made the bag that can hold that kitty.”

  Maauro opened her mouth then shut it quickly. Whatever comment has occurred to her, she thought better of it,

  “Well at least we won’t be interfered with this side of jump,” Dusko said. “God knows what waits us on the other side, though.”

  “For now,” Maauro said, “what awaits Wrik is rest and a proper meal. We have two days until we reach jumpspace.”

  Chapter 14

  Two days later, having boosted up to the same speed as Bexlaw had, we closed in on the warp point. Unlike most, this one had no buoy or other markings. The Voit-Veru had not explored it, nor wanted to call attention to it. Again we four were on the bridge as Maauro and I set up the jump. Our instruments showed the roiling in space of the entry point. We were tight to the course we’d been given, but the cutter had trailed Bexlaw’s Isadora by a long distance and the last fine tuning of a jump, done when the pilot used his “feel” for the point, could not be recorded from outside the warp point.

  Olivia and Dusko were silent as Maauro and I examined the readings. “Damn it,” I said.

  “Yes,” Maauro replied, “two warp point entries almost side by side and within the margin for error of this course.”

  I placed my hand on the gravimetric sensor, through this device a starpilot “felt” space. Anyone could use it and the other scanners to control a jump, but most true pilots “felt” something through the instruments. It was a form of psi power not understood by science. In my mind’s eye, I could see a pair of “holes” in space, one at a shallower level to our course than the other. There was something in the roiling pattern of the lower one that told me this was a faster current or shorter jump.

  “My thought is to go for EP2,” I said. “The pattern says short fast jump to me.”

  “I defer to you,” Maauro said. “This is something I cannot sense.”

  “Stand by for transition,” I said, tweaking the angle. I watched the jump clock, and continued the tiny adjustments well within the math of the jump and now working by feel. Minutes rolled away. “Jump in ten seconds.”

  We came out of hyperspace and every sense I had screamed in revolt. I’d never felt the sensations, seen the colors, or the burnt smells that came with this space.

  “Jesus Christ,” Olivia said, gagging.

  “What’s burning?” Dusko said, his head twisting around as if he expected smoke to be billowing.

  For me it was the most intense as I still had my hand on the gravimetric control and I was fighting physical sickness. It felt as if space around us was screaming from being tortured. Conviction filled me instantly. “We have to get out of here.” I spun Stardust on her axis to bring her fusion torch to bear against our course. Before we could regain the warp point I had to kill our forward momentum. It would take minutes at this speed even with the engines on full.

  “Wrik, what is wrong?” Maauro demanded, anxiety in her face.

  “There’s something wrong with this space,” I said, “something deadly. I don’t know how I know, but I know.”

  “He’s right,” Olivia said. “I feel it too.”

  Dusko looked at her. “I don’t know. The jump was bad, unpleasant, something does feel wrong. But I don’t know what. I thought it was an electrical fire.”

  Maauro stared at my face, but made no move to stop me as I slammed th
e torch on full standard power. The AG field instantly adjusted, but I pressed its limits so that we began to feel the pressure as we braked.

  “I detect nothing in the immediate area. Space is empty,” Maauro said.

  I struggled for words to make sure I could convince her before she acted to stop me. “Maauro, you know a human pilot has a ‘feel’ for space, that we interpret the data through our senses on entry and exit in jump. This space, it feels like death.”

  “I feel nothing and detect nothing,” she stated.

  “There is something wrong,” Olivia insisted.

  I wasn’t sure where I drew that certainty from, but I knew if we didn’t get back to the jump point, we’d die here. I watched as our forward momentum slowed until we could finally overcome our inertia and start back to the jump point.

  I cast a sidewise look at Maauro. All she said was. “I am expanding my search but again all I can see is that this area of space is extraordinarily clean and—” She froze for a second. “Wrik, put the engine into emergency power, disregard the coolant alarms.”

  I pushed the controls through the safety stops as we stopped and finally began to start back. The AG field again struggled and Stardust began to complain of the mistreatment with yellow and some red warning lights appearing on our boards.

  “What is it?” Olivia demanded.

  “You were correct about the feel of space being wrong. We have emerged near a dark-matter-fed Preon star.”

  “Gods,” Dusko said, turning ashen, “what’s its interval? How long do we have?”

  “What’s a Preon star?” Olivia said.

  “I do not yet have enough data to judge the interval between radiation blasts, but we will be indeed fortunate to regain the warp point before one swings our way.” Maauro turned to Olivia. “You know what a pulsar is?”

  “Of course,” Olivia snapped.

  “A Preon star is similar, denser than a neutron star, yet smaller than a white dwarf. They are the densest objects that exist outside of black holes. Even my Creators knew little about them, save that they are in part made of dark matter. They rotate. Not so quickly as a pulsar, or we’d be destroyed already. The rotation condenses gamma radiation into something like a pinwheel. We must have emerged between the arms of the pinwheel. The radiation is so intense it has destroyed or swept away everything in this system down to hydrogen atoms.”

  “We’re far out in the system,” Olivia began.

  Maauro shook her head. “Irrelevant with this level of power. I will see if I can detect the wave front approaching. As it is not as condensed as a pulsar, there should be some level of gradation.”

  “What good will that do us?” Olivia said.

  “None,” Maauro said, as if discussing the lunch menu. “We will not suffer if we cannot make it back. Even the leading edge of the radiation wave will vaporize the ship instantly.”

  “Well,” Olivia said, leaning back in her seat. “It’s been nice knowing you all.”

  “Not really,” Dusko said, crossing his arms.

  “Two minutes and five seconds to warp point entry,” I announced, my eyes locked on my gauges more of which glowed red.

  “Can you get any more speed out of her?” Dusko asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I may even have to cut back, there’s a stress alert on one of the fusion tubes.”

  The indicator flared and I vented some plasma, adding five seconds that I didn’t know we had, to the escape.

  “This is going to be rough even if we make it,” I said.

  “Understatement,” Dusko said, “a double-jump, no rest, no time for restoratives and I know who gets to clean the puke off everything.”

  “Radiation levels are increasing,” Maauro said, her voice soft and quiet.

  I looked at her. “Do we have time?”

  “I cannot tell, but lose no more time. It will be fatal.”

  Inspiration hit. “Maauro, fire the engines on the Daitan.”

  She didn’t debate, or point out that it would likely shear off from the grapples, possibly killing us. The bomber’s engine lit furiously. I countered the roll it induced by seat of the pants flying. “Maauro, can you compensate for the thrust vector it’s giving us?”

  “I am angling its engines now.”

  It wasn’t a lot but I had those five seconds back and more.

  “Warp point acquired,” I shouted. There would be no time for finesse. This was going to be brutal. “Jump in 10, 9, 8—”

  “Radiation spiking,” Maauro said.

  “5,4,3,2,1, Jump!”

  Chapter 15

  My eyes opened slowly and I wondered if I was dead. After a few seconds I thought I might prefer being dead, as it could not feel this bad. My eyes focused and I realized I was in my cabin. I stirred and groaned.

  “Wrik! You’re awake,” Maauro’s voice came. A second later her face swam into view above me. I didn’t dare turn my head. I heard her administer some shots and the room began to stabilize. She lifted me carefully into a sitting position and handed me a tall glass of restorative fluid. I was grateful for its lack of taste, as anything more would have made me vomit. We sat together for about twenty seconds while I gathered the energy to ask about our status.

  “I think I’d rather have been hit by the Preon star,” I managed.

  “I marvel that we were not,” she replied. “As best I can tell we were 1.783 seconds ahead of the front of the wave.”

  “Ah, plenty of time,” I said.

  “We emerged back in the Voit-Veru System. I shut down the Daitan’s drive before it broke free and shut ours off so it could cool.”

  “If Bexlaw jumped in there, then he and everyone with him are dead,” I said. “Isadora was an old freighter. It could never have turned around fast enough. Stardust was built as a courier and we barely made it.”

  “True for New Hope as well,” Maauro said. “We know that they landed somewhere and met an alien species that we have not encountered. They clearly did not do so near the Preon star. So we must try the other warp point. Same approach .345187 up the z-axis.”

  I looked at her. “We’ve got to be low on fuel and we have damage. I pushed the engines past the stops. There was a spike in the fusion tube.”

  “The spike was a faulty sensor,” she said.

  “Crap, and I slowed down for it!”

  “There was nothing else to be done. I have inspected our tubes and all are sound, though it will move up the date of our next refit. The other repairs have been minor and I have been engaged with those in between nursing you three.”

  “How long were we out?”

  “You and Olivia, three days. Dusko is still out.”

  “Three days!”

  “It was not so bad,” she assured. “You have been intermittently aware and able to follow instructions for bathing and food, but none of you seemed to remember awakening each time. Only now are you oriented properly.”

  “In the meanwhile, I ordered spares and a full refuel sent out by tanker. It will put a noticeable crimp in Candace’s budget, but there is no help for that. We will leave as well provisioned as when we set out a few days ago.

  “Feel free to sleep on,” she said. “The situation is in hand and beyond the minor repairs there is nothing to do until the tanker arrives tomorrow.”

  I nodded as she rose off my bed.

  “Oh and of course, Dusko was wrong about who ended up cleaning up all the puke on the bridge,” Maauro added.

  Which, of course, was the wrong thing to say.

  The tanker appeared as promised, with some additional supplies strapped to its dull-orange carcass. It was as crude a device as could be imagined: a drive, a framework for hanging tanks and containers and a simple AI to get it there and back again. I didn’t trust the AI and did all the work of maneuvering alongside it. Maauro then saved
us hours by handling all the EVA work, refueling both Stardust and the Sinner II with enriched deuterium. I think she had some for herself as well.

  “Okay to detach,” I sent over the com.

  Maauro stepped back as the shielded lines withdrew from us back into the tanker. It started the long slow fall back toward the inner system where it would be picked up.

  “Ready for Take Two?” I said after Maauro returned to the bridge. Dusko and Olivia both nodded. I took a deep breath. Despite Maauro’s assurances, there was still a funny smell to the bridge, or maybe it was just in my nose.

  “This won’t get any easier hanging around here,” Dusko said. “Try not to discover anything else lethal and exotic on this jump.”

  “It it makes you feel any better,” I said, “we’ll name the Preon star after you. It’s the first one anyone has found.”

  “In the Confederacy,” Maauro said. “My makers knew of two, though this was not one of those.”

  “Thanks, I’ll pass,” Dusko replied, “couldn’t sell any real estate there anyway.”

  I set our course and repeated the steps that had nearly brought us disaster days before. This time the approach was shallower. The roiling mass, color-contrasted on my instruments for better visibility, now said mid-level jump to me. I slightly goosed the drive for a further shallowing. The colors and smells of hyperspace fell on me again and I ceased to exist…for a few seconds.

  The downshift wasn’t bad for a mid-jump. Nothing screamed strangeness at our emergence, but we quickly grabbed our restoratives and meds. No one wanted to chance another jump back out without them.

  “Scan is clear and normal in near space,” Maauro said. “Pushing scan out as far as I can, as fast as I can, but all remains nominal. An F5 Sol class star is ahead. I’ll have our location and time in transit shortly, but I am estimating four weeks out of space-time. That was a moderate current out. I doubt it will be any longer back.”

  “Planets?” Olivia asked.

  “Will take several hours study. May I recommend reducing speed to one-third?”