The Lost Patrol

by Vaughn Heppner

  The major was an older, nondescript man with dark hair except for two patches of white on the sides. He was the Iron Lady’s chief confidante.

  “This is upsetting news,” the major said. “We were sure we’d eliminated every android. How could this have happened?”

  “It makes sense that a few escaped the dragnet,” Maddox said. “I wonder why it targeted me, though.”

  “Maybe the better question is how it knew where to find you.” Stokes glanced at him. “How did you know it was an android?”

  “It smoked a cigarette for one thing.”

  “I smoke cigarettes sometimes. That couldn’t have been the only giveaway.”

  Maddox shrugged. Did he sense a hint of insistence in the question? He wasn’t sure.

  “How did you destroy it?” Stokes asked.

  “I already told you,” Maddox said. “Starship Victory shot it.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Are you implying the starship used a beam from orbit?”

  “Precisely.”

  Stokes glanced at him again. “I would think a starship’s laser would have burned you at the same time.”

  “Hmm,” Maddox said.

  The major frowned. “Are you suggesting Victory has an antipersonnel laser that can target an individual from orbit?”

  Instead of answering, Maddox checked the android’s gun. It was a regular gunpowder revolver but of an extraordinary caliber. This one looked to be a .55 Magnum. It was a hand cannon, with three bullets remaining. He hadn’t thought to grab extra ammo from the android. That might have been an oversight on his part.

  “That’s a big gun,” Stokes said, glancing at it.

  “Indeed,” Maddox said, becoming thoughtful. The major was more talkative than normal. Usually, the man was sarcastic toward him. Today, Stokes was positively chatty.

  “How did you signal Victory to smoke the android?” Stokes asked.

  “I used Builder tech,” Maddox said, which wasn’t true. He was just curious as to the major’s reaction.

  Stokes looked at him sharply. Then he laughed. “You just made a joke.”

  “Did I?” Maddox asked.

  “Now, see here, Captain—”

  Maddox aimed the hand cannon at Stokes. “Take us down.”

  “What is this?” Stokes asked. “What are you doing? Put that down this instant.”

  Maddox did not repeat himself as he targeted Stokes’ mid-torso.

  “This is a poor joke,” Stokes said.

  “I will fire unless we begin to head down immediately.”

  “Why, man? What did I do to upset you?”

  Maddox remained silent, watching, waiting. He did not sub-vocalize to Galyan, as the major would hear that. The captain was surprised Galyan hadn’t spoken to him yet. That was the last giveaway that something was wrong. In some manner, Stokes had cut his communications with the starship.

  The air-car headed down. Stokes guided the vehicle as he frowned. “Do you care to give me a hint what this is about?” the major asked.

  “Call it a precaution.”

  Stokes glanced at him again, at the gun, and then lunged at Maddox.

  The captain had been expecting something like this. Under normal conditions, with a regular person, the major might have succeeded. Maddox had faster-than-normal reflexes, though. He pulled the trigger as Stokes grabbed his arms.

  The major had irresistible strength, more than a regular human should possess. The first shot went wild, striking the bubble dome and cracking it. The discharge was deafening, making the captain’s ears ring as he winced with pain.

  Maddox now gritted his teeth as he strove against the obvious android. There had been two Major Stokes androids, this one more like the man than the first one had been. What did the android-controllers want with him anyway?

  “Surrender,” the android said.

  “Do you wish to kill me?” Maddox panted.

  “No. I want to talk.”

  “Yes, I’ll talk.”

  They spoke as the major grappled and Maddox tried to align the hand cannon at the torso.

  “Release the gun,” the android said.

  “I can’t. You’re gripping me too hard for that.”

  “I will not fall for such an obvious tactic, Captain. Until you release the gun, I will continue to pin your arms.”

  “Look,” Maddox said. “We’re going to hit a mountain.”

  The android looked forward. Maddox knew there was nothing. They were still high in the air and there were no nearby mountains. As the android looked, though, Maddox tried a new maneuver, twisting the other way. The android’s split-second inattention allowed Maddox to aim the barrel at the thing’s torso.

  BOOM!

  As Maddox’s ears rang painfully once again, the android slammed backward with a hole in its side. Black gunk poured out. Electrical discharges sparked farther within.

  BOOM!

  Maddox fired his last round into the wound. Once more, the force slammed the android back. Its eyelids fluttered as it pulled its arm back. Then it shot a fist into the control panel, smashing electrical and computer equipment.

  That caused an emergency procedure in the air-car. The dome ejected, tumbling away. Cold air almost ripped Maddox out of his seat. The android’s hand yanked out of the dash, holding sizzling wires.

  “The seats will no longer eject,” it said, staring at Maddox.

  “Why do this?” Maddox asked. “What are you attempting to achieve?”

  “It will delight my controller to know that you’re confused seconds before you die. Good-bye, Captain Maddox. This is your final mission.”

  Maddox slapped the control to his seat restraints. They popped off.

  “What are you doing?” the android asked.

  Maddox grabbed an emergency cord and leaped upward. He pulled a parachute bundle free. The air-car had many emergency redundancies. As the slipstream caught him, jerking the captain away from the forward-moving but slowing air-car, the android lunged at the rising chute-bundle. The dying android clawed at the straps, its fingers hooking one. That ripped the cord out of the captain’s hand.

  A second later, the android exploded. Perhaps it had been intending to do that all along, taking Maddox into oblivion with it.

  The cord jerking out of his grip caused the captain to tumble head-over-heels in the air. The burning air-car headed down, shedding debris along the way.

  “Galyan,” he sub-vocalized. “I hope you can hear me.”

  There was nothing but the rush of wind from the earpiece.

  Maddox pressed the skin-pad on his throat. “Come in, Galyan. Can you hear me? I repeat. Can you hear me?”

  There was no response from the Adok AI.

  Maddox looked down. The distant ground rushed up all too fast. He would hit soon. The terrible realization that he would soon cease to exist welled up through him.

  Maddox took a deep breath as his stomach tightened with fear. He hated the sensation. To combat it, he strove for rational thought. The fear intensified, however. This was an awful feeling.

  Maddox closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at the ground. That helped enough so he could think again.

  Was there a Creator as the Builder had believed? It was time to make his peace with Him. Maddox strove to formulate more thoughts.

  He opened his eyes instead, staring at the waiting ground, causing the fear to reassert its hold.

  -4-

  Lieutenant Keith Maker—he’d been promoted from Second Lieutenant—whooped with delight as the new catapult system launched his jumpfighter into near-orbital space.

  The small Scotsman was pressed against his cushioned seat, the Gs testing his stamina.

  “You’re not making me go unconscious,” he said.

  “Lieutenant,” Galyan said over the fighter’s intercom.

  “I’m right here, mate, wide awake and ready.”

  “We must accelerate the rescue attempt,” Galyan said.

  “Eh?
There’s a problem?”

  “The captain has jumped out of the air-car.”

  “Say again,” Keith said.

  “The captain is plunging to the Earth. He has less than thirty seconds to impact.”

  “Now, why he’d go and do something like that, eh?”

  “The air-car exploded,” Galyan said.

  “Oh. Okay. That makes sense. Give me the coordinates.”

  “They are already in your flight computer.”

  Keith tapped the main screen. “Right, I see it. This is going to be tricky. I need more time—”

  “This is no time. You must fold now or the captain dies.”

  “I know, I know. There’s no time when you’re falling to your death—unless an angel of mercy named Keith Maker is ready to rescue you. I hope you know jumpfighters aren’t normally used in atmosphere.”

  “Please, Lieutenant, more action and less talk.”

  “I always talk, mate. But you need not worry.”

  The entire time he’d been talking, Keith had been tapping controls and readying his “tin can” for its incredible ability. It could fold space for short hops, moving from one location to another in the blink of an eye. It was a space fighter meant to be used in a vacuum. Under extremely limited conditions, it could function in atmosphere…as long as it didn’t remain there long or attempt to fly. It was not aerodynamic in the slightest.

  “Hop in, hop out,” Keith said under his breath. Louder, he said, “I hope you’re recording this, Galyan. Trainers will want to show recruits for many years to come what I’m about to do.”

  “The captain has twenty seconds left,” Galyan said.

  “That’s a pity,” Keith replied. “It means I have no margin for error. I have to do it right the first time. Come on, Keith, this will be a piece of bloody cake, eh?”

  He pressed a switch, and with a hum, the jumpfighter’s special mechanism activated. One second, the tin can was in near-orbital space less than ten kilometers from Victory. The next, the jumpfighter appeared in Earth’s lower atmosphere, barely above the deck of Normandy.

  Keith blinked once, twice—“I see him,” he said. Maddox was on the screen, falling toward the jumpfighter.

  “You are too close,” Galyan said. “He will impact too hard.”

  “Wrong, boyo, I’m perfectly positioned.”

  Keith’s fingers played over the controls. The jumpfighter shook badly in the dense air. Smoke poured out of one of the panels. A loud screeching noise told Keith he couldn’t stay here long.

  On camera three, Keith watched Maddox. The captain fell toward the jumpfighter. The lieutenant had made a perfect fold. That didn’t happen often. He couldn’t just let Maddox hit the tin can, though.

  The jumpfighter began to fall itself. Keith had to catch Maddox as softly as possible. Then—

  The jumpfighter shuddered worse than before. A red alert began to blare in the cockpit.

  “Bloody hell,” Keith said. With roving fingers, he checked the fighter’s systems.

  The tin can shook horribly again. A warning klaxon told Keith he had a hull breach. What could cause—

  “You are under attack,” Galyan said through a speaker.

  “By whom?” Keith shouted.

  “A craft has maneuvered above you,” Galyan said. “It is firing autocannon shells into your jumpfighter. Lieutenant, you must fold back into space or the attacking craft will destroy you”

  “I’m not leaving without the captain,” Keith said.

  “He is no longer your concern.”

  “Wrong, mate. The man saved my life. I owe him everything. I don’t care what I have to do to get him—”

  “The new craft is taking the captain,” Galyan said, interrupting.

  “What?” Keith asked.

  “The craft has grabbed the captain.”

  “How did it do that?” Keith asked.

  “My analyzer suggests with a gravity beam,” Galyan said.

  “Star Watch doesn’t have gravity beams.”

  “The situation has becoming increasingly perplexing,” Galyan said. “Lieutenant, you must fold and return to Victory. I have alerted Star Watch. Atmospheric fighters are on their way.”

  “Great, just great,” Keith said. “I’m heading back upstairs. But if those blokes hurt the captain—”

  “Those are my sentiments also,” Galyan said. “This is far from over.”

  -5-

  Maddox saw the jumpfighter materialize below him. It told him that Galyan had reacted swiftly after the android had cut his communications with Victory.

  Still, using a tin can in the deepest atmosphere was risky. No doubt, Keith had piloted the craft. Even so, the percentages would have been against the lieutenant. That Keith—if it had been him—had almost pulled it off showed once again the young man’s extreme piloting skills.

  Maddox felt himself rise as he headed toward a circular belly hatch in a large airship. A few seconds ago, as he’d dropped toward the jumpfighter, he’d become aware of a shadow. Then, autocannon shells had hammered the tin can. That’s when the gravity beam had caught him. Maddox was familiar with such a ray, as one had caught him on the Builder Dyson sphere over a year ago. Did that mean the airship, or the people who ran it, had access to Builder technology? That seemed likely. Did they control the androids? Maddox gave that a high percentage as well.

  He slid up through the circular hatch and gently landed on his feet inside a large chamber. The opening he’d come up through slid shut.

  Two short and slender men stepped forward. They wore blue uniforms that fit tight around the throat, dark goggles over their eyes, and they aimed stubby projacs at him. They were Spacers. The circular pectoral patches meant these two were provost sentries, Marines in Star Watch terms. They looked vaguely familiar. Yes, he’d fought these two sentries before in Shanghai.

  “Why am I here?” Maddox asked.

  Before the sentries could answer, a hatch opened and a woman stepped through. She also looked familiar.

  “Hello, Provost Marshal,” Maddox said.

  She was a head taller than the sentries. Like them, she wore dark-colored goggles over her eyes. Maddox had met her over a year ago in the Lin Ru Hotel in Shanghai, the Spacer embassy on Earth.

  Spacers did not claim any particular territory, but acted like space nomads. The majority of them were of Southeast Asian origin, particularly from Old Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Almost all the others had Polynesian ancestry.

  The last time Maddox had seen the woman in Shanghai, androids had kidnapped him. Spacers were said to have an abnormal hatred of androids and robots. Could that be an elaborate cover? In reality, did Spacers use androids and robots more than anyone else did? Why had the airship been ready to pick him up? They couldn’t have gotten to him so quickly otherwise. Clearly, the Spacers must have been monitoring the Stokes androids. Maddox might have died otherwise, as Keith could have failed.

  “I deactivated both of your creatures,” the captain said, referring to the Stokes androids.

  The Provost Marshal remained motionless, as if waiting for a signal.

  There was a second possibility here, Maddox realized. Were the Provost Marshal and her sentries also androids? What did Star Watch Intelligence really know about the Spacers anyway? They were among the most secretive of human societies.

  The Provost Marshal stepped forward as if stung, but the captain couldn’t see anything to have caused the reaction. She said, “We don’t have much time.”

  “Yes,” Maddox said smoothly. “I’d already assumed as much.”

  “Subterfuge won’t help you here, Captain. You were lucky against the androids. Do not presume on your luck with us.”

  “There was no luck involved,” he said. “I simply played the odds.”

  “No, Captain, you did not. I watched your stratospheric jump from the balloon. That was reckless and unneedful. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why anyone would do anything so….so risky.”

&
nbsp; “For thrills,” Maddox said.

  “That was a piece of frivolity,” she said, “a mindless action. Once, you defeated the alien Destroyer when it entered the Solar System. Why, then, did you mindlessly jump from space today?”

  “A moment,” Maddox said, stepping forward.

  The two sentries moved, blocking his way to the Provost Marshal.

  Maddox stopped, eying them and the aimed projacs. “What’s your name?” he asked the woman.

  She hesitated, finally saying, “Shu 15.”

  “That’s a pretty name,” he said.

  Her head twitched as she frowned. Maddox noticed that she had a small, kissable mouth.

  “Your ways will fail against me, Captain. The Visionary has alerted me as to your charms. I am immune to your flattery.”

  “That’s a pity,” Maddox said.

  “I—we—have come to warn you.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “This is a serious matter,” she said. “You must act with decorum, showing deference. If you don’t…there will be consequences. You will not like them, I assure you. The Law of Reciprocal Action will rebound upon you in a most grievous fashion.”

  “That sounds painful,” he said.

  “I have warned you. It is now on your own head. You do understand that, yes?”

  Maddox realized this was a ceremony. He had no idea who the Visionary might be, but it sounded religious. Spacer society was almost as mysterious to Star Watch Intelligence as the New Men.

  “I have been warned,” he said. “I will act accordingly.”

  “I dearly hope so, Captain. Despite your mindlessness, you are a hero. It would be a shame to see you destroy yourself because you’re too proud. That is the great fault of heroes—the sin that often brings them low. We want you to fly high as you expose the future to us.”

  Maddox nodded in lieu of speaking. This was becoming odder by the moment.

  “Follow me,” she said, turning, heading the way she had come.

  Maddox complied, the two provost sentries moving aside to let him pass and then falling into step behind him.

  They moved through a surprisingly large hall. What kind of airship was this? He couldn’t feel any motion. The gravity ray that had pulled him up—could the Spacers have superior gravity dampeners?