The Lost Earth (Lost Starship Series Book 7)

by Vaughn Heppner

  Maddox nodded to the secretary, a pretty warrant officer, and entered the spacious inner office, closing the door behind him. This had to be the biggest office on Pluto. Here, space was at a premium. You couldn’t tell it by Cook’s vast ceiling and wide “elbow room.” Three different screens were on, showing various Earth scenes: the ocean, a pine forest and what had to be a Himalayan mountain.

  “Sit, sit,” Cook said, as he scribbled on a computer screen with a stylus.

  Maddox settled into a comfortable chair.

  Several seconds later, the Lord High Admiral looked up. He was a big, craggy man with thick white hair. He wore his signature white admiral’s uniform. He had thicker fingers than Admiral Fletcher. His facial skin looked more leathery than Maddox recalled from previous visits. The bags under his eyes looked baggier.

  Maddox didn’t envy the Lord High Admiral his position, nor the great weight of responsibility on those shoulders.

  Cook set down his stylus, flattened his big hands on the desktop and squared his shoulders. “Ah,” he said, perhaps seeing something on Maddox’s face. Cook leaned so far back in his chair it creaked in complaint.

  “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “Give me Lord Drakos,” Maddox said flatly.

  A half smile had grown on the Lord High Admiral’s face. Now, the smile vanished.

  “Surely, you haven’t come here to waste my time on something so frivolous,” Cook said in a grave voice.

  “There is nothing frivolous about the request, sir. I have a feeling—more than a feeling—that we could lose this war.”

  “I don’t like any of my officers saying that, least of all you, young man.”

  “Yet, that is a stark truth,” Maddox said. “The possibility of defeat exists. After watching the bugs swat our defenders from the latest Laumer Point—”

  “I’ve heard enough about that,” Cook said. “You have no idea how little people regard my station. I have taken heavy blame for the lack of more defenders at the Epsilon 5-Tau Ceti Laumer Point. The next time—”

  “Sir, I watched the Builder Scanner holo-recording several times already. It’s obvious the bugs did not know about the tactic of hurling nukes through a Laumer Point in order to clear the way. They know it now, though, because we did it to them.”

  Cook nodded abruptly. “Is there anything else?”

  “As I said, sir, I would like the head of Lord Drakos. I want to kill him as soon as I can.”

  “What’s the rush, if I may ask?”

  “If the bugs wipe us out, sir, I’ll never have had the opportunity to fulfil one of my chief promises.”

  “It won’t matter then,” Cook said. “You and Drakos will both be dead. We all will.”

  “It will matter to my mother, sir.”

  “Your mother?” asked Cook, looking astonished. “What does she have to do with this?”

  It seemed Maddox wouldn’t speak, as if his face walled up. He picked at his trousers, seemed to reconsider his attitude and said in a low voice, “I believe Drakos forced himself upon her, sir. I believe…” Maddox took a breath. “I believe he is my sire.”

  Cook stared at Maddox in obvious shock. Finally, the big man shook his head. “What do you base this on?”

  “Our resemblance, sir.”

  “Your resemblance? Captain Maddox, this is sheer frivolity. I wonder if the strain of command has finally gotten to you.”

  Maddox waited.

  “For one thing, we need the New Men and that cone of battle of theirs. We cannot afford to poison our rather tenuous relationship with them. Your killing Drakos would certainly do that. But there’s another issue here. You must make certain of this…lineage. Besides, despite his crimes against your mother—if he indeed is your father—you cannot kill him.”

  “Believe me, I can, sir.”

  Cook shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. Of course, if you put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, you are capable of killing him. It won’t do you any good, though, to slay your own father. That will create repercussions in you that you do not want to deal with.”

  “Respectfully, sir, I’m not worried about that.”

  Cook banged a fist on the desk. “Well, son, you’d better damn well give it some thought. I know that parents often do bad things to their kids. But hating them the rest of your life warps you. Bitterness is an awful thing. Bitterness will hollow out your soul. I’ve seen it happen many times. I urge you to give up this vendetta.”

  Maddox stared at Cook, stared longer, and abruptly nodded. “I have an idea that might take my mind off killing Lord Drakos.”

  “Yes?” Cook asked.

  “I ask permission to take the Destroyer out and attack the Swarm Fleet, sir.”

  Cook blinked several times. He leaned forward and clasped his hands together, resting them on the desk. The big man’s eyes had narrowed.

  “What are you talking about?” Cook finally asked.

  “I know about the strategy debates, sir. I know others have already pressed you with this idea.”

  “Then you must know about my objections to the plan.”

  “I do, and I believe you should reconsider. We can’t win this fight, sir, at the present exchange ratios, anyway. You know that. I know that. Likely, the bugs know that, too.”

  “That’s tommy rot,” Cook said. “We already took out twenty percent of their fleet at Tau Ceti. I’d say with the Destroyer and the Juggernauts in the Alpha Centauri System—”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Maddox said, interrupting. “Forgive me, but please listen. That won’t be enough. That’s the point. We have to risk the Destroyer out there in order to make the Alpha Centauri stand work. I suspect you already know that. I suspect the thought of losing the Destroyer out there makes you sick at night. We’re not going to win the battle of Alpha Centauri without the Destroyer. But if we don’t seriously whittle down their fleet beforehand…”

  “Okay,” Cook said. “I’m listening.”

  “The trick is the Destroyer’s unique jump drive. It first creates an ion storm—”

  “I know all about that,” Cook said heatedly. “Please do get to the point, Captain.”

  “The point is simple, sir. I command a crew aboard the Destroyer, jump to the Epsilon 5 System, fire up the giant beam and blast a great section of the enemy fleet. As soon as I’m done, the Destroyer jumps away. Once the crew is ready again, once the Builder Scanner has pinpointed the enemy again, I repeat the process. I continue repeating the process until the Destroyer drives the bugs mad with fury. But you already know all that. The strategists have suggested the same thing. This is an impossible situation. Believe me, I know all about those. This isn’t the time to play it safe. We have to take calculated wild risks.”

  “That is an oxymoron.”

  “Yes and no,” Maddox said. “You calculate and see where you have to take the wild risk in order to make the rest work.”

  Cook frowned. “The way you say that, Captain, makes it sound as if you’re talking about something else.”

  Maddox allowed himself to think about the Ska and Ludendorff. When there weren’t any answers…

  “We have to whittle down the enemy fleet,” Maddox said. “It’s so huge, we can’t do it all at once. The Destroyer is the perfect weapon system to use against them in Epsilon 5. We have to take the risk in order to save the Earth, maybe save humanity.”

  Cook looked away. “We might attempt a trial run… Let me ask you this. What if something goes wrong during one of the Epsilon 5 attacks?”

  “We’ll make sure it doesn’t, sir.”

  Cook laughed bleakly as he regarded Maddox. “I’ve read the accounts of every one of your missions, Captain. Many things went wrong in each one.”

  “True. We’ll fix the problems along the way. It’s what we always do.”

  Agonized indecision was stamped on Cook’s face.

  “We have to attack now, sir. If we wait too long, it will be too late.”

/>   “What gives you your confidence, Captain?”

  Maddox shrugged. “I study the situation and weigh the odds. Once I see that playing it safe will result in defeat, I look for outrageous answers. Once I find the best outrageous answer, I tackle it with gusto because nothing else makes sense.”

  “I understand your reasoning…” Cook bit his lower lip. He looked up suddenly. “Earlier—did you really expect I’d give you Lord Drakos?”

  “No.”

  “Was that to get me to think about this?”

  Maddox stared at the Lord High Admiral and slowly shook his head.

  “I suppose you should know, sir. Every time I think about Drakos with my mother…an animal grows in me. At those times, all I can think about is destroying him. It finally occurred to me, if we’re going to lose anyway, I might as well tackle the problem I can still fix. That gave me the…energy to speak to you about the Destroyer.”

  “I see,” Cook said. “If I agree to the Epsilon 5 Attack, will the situation with Drakos continue to be a problem?”

  Maddox blinked several times as the animal desire welled up in him. Talking about Drakos fed the beast, as it were. That was unlike him, he knew. Usually, he could keep his composure better than anyone. For just a moment, he wondered if this “animal” had anything to do with the approaching Ska.

  “I’m waiting,” Cook said in a heavy voice.

  Maddox hated the idea of another entity controlling or influencing like this. If this was the Ska interfering with his emotions—he would squash the feeling.

  “Drakos won’t be a problem, Admiral.”

  Cook didn’t appear to like the late assurance, although finally he nodded, effectively ending the meeting.

  -8-

  Captain Maddox’s skin crawled with revulsion as Keith piloted the shuttle toward the main Destroyer hangar bay.

  The ancient Destroyer was teardrop-shaped, a colossal vessel fifty kilometers long with an outer shell of neutroium armor. As the shuttle drifted toward the hangar opening, Maddox felt an ancient pulse of evil in his chest. The hull was not of one smooth piece. It was pitted from thousands of lifetimes of operational usage.

  The Nameless Ones had served the Ska, destroying one species after another in a long war against other life. Long ago, the Builders had defended this area of the Orion Arm from them. Some of these ancient relics still survived in the new world of lesser races battling for survival against each other. Could humanity have survived among such technological giants in the past ages?

  There was something Maddox didn’t like to admit even to himself. Is the ancient vessel haunted from its long existence as a killer of things, a genocidal machine? The Kai-Kaus had reported more mentally fatigued workers than on any other project. It seemed they felt the lingering evil, too.

  Maddox took a deep breath to calm his nerves. The Lord High Admiral had given him permission to attack the Swarm mass in the Epsilon 5 System. It was time to whittle down the incredible enemy numbers. If and when the Ska showed up, and if it showed up with another Destroyer—

  “Are you well, sir?” Keith asked, glancing at him.

  The words brought Maddox back to reality. He glanced at Keith, finding it impossible to say more than, “Yes.”

  “If you don’t mind me saying so, sir, you seem a bit faint.”

  Maddox said nothing, although a frown touched his lips.

  Maybe that was enough of an answer. Keith concentrated on the controls, easing the shuttle past the hangar bay opening and into the belly of the ancient beast.

  ***

  The sense of evil was worse as Maddox strode through the ancient corridors. The deeper he moved into the huge vessel, the greater the sensation grew. Finally, it seemed like an ancient heart pumped the vileness at him. Maddox struggled not to break into a sprint.

  This was preposterous.

  A hatch slid open and Maddox practically stumbled onto the bridge. As the hatch shut, he felt a small sense of relief.

  He looked around.

  The Kai-Kaus had added new bulkheads and installed regular Star Watch panels. It gave a feeling of normalcy. Yes. The bridge was like an island amid an evil ship of annihilation, one with moaning ghosts kept at bay by these thin walls.

  Shaking his head to rid himself of the ghostly imagery, Maddox sat in the command chair. Unfortunately, Galyan wouldn’t be with him this time. He was on his own here. The Adok AI was running Victory with a skeleton crew. Ludendorff and Dana were aboard Victory, as the two tried to solve the puzzle of the Ska.

  “We’re ready when you are, sir,” Valerie said.

  Maddox accepted the lieutenant at her word, and began to run through a variety of tests…

  ***

  Later, Maddox looked around with something approaching satisfaction. The ship was ready enough to fight. He realized they could spend months refining the giant vessel. What it could do now, though, was jump through the ion-storm-created portal and deploy its massive beam afterward. The two actions were all that really mattered.

  “We will attack in two hours,” Maddox said. “Thus, I want each of you to take a cat-nap. Then, we’re going to surprise the Swarm and hammer them if we’re able.”

  ***

  The two hours passed fitfully for Maddox as he stared at the ceiling of his quarters. He began to wonder if he could fall asleep on this vessel. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt the vile vibrations in his soul. He didn’t know how else to explain it.

  Wouldn’t that be…absurd, he supposed, if they had this grim vessel of war, but could only use it for short runs? He would inquire later if the Kai-Kaus had slept while working on the Destroyer. If none had, that would be telling.

  Finally, Maddox arose and strode purposefully to the bridge. He saw the others had already gathered there. This didn’t seem like the time to question if any of them had gotten any sleep. If the Destroyer was haunted by its past actions, this was a bad time to bring it up.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said. “Are you ready?”

  “That I am,” Keith said.

  Something about the way the ace said that more than implied he wanted to get this over with. A new thought intruded. Was it the mass killings that had tainted the vessel, or was it the Ska’s presence these many millennia?

  Maddox balled up these ideas and shoved them into a drawer in his mind, deciding he no longer had the mental energy to worry about such things. It was time to do his duty.

  “I’d like to see the latest intelligence from the Builder Scanner,” Maddox said.

  With a few manipulations, Valerie brought it up on the main screen.

  Maddox stood, studying the massed Swarm Fleet in the Epsilon 5 System. “Does their formation look different to anyone else?” he asked.

  “It does,” Valerie said shortly. “They seem more spread out. They didn’t travel like that before.”

  “When was the scan taken?” Maddox asked.

  Valerie checked her panel. “A day ago, sir.”

  “The Swarm have changed their dispositions since then.”

  “It would seem so, sir,” Valerie said.

  Maddox shook his head. This was an inauspicious beginning. Hopefully, the difference would not hurt the effectiveness of the coming attack.

  “Here,” he said, using a pointer. “I want you to bring the Destroyer here, Mr. Maker.”

  “Yes, sir,” Keith said, with less enthusiasm than normal.

  “If you have an objection or a better idea,” Maddox said. “I’d like to hear it.”

  Keith turned around in wonder. “Uh, no, sir. I’m fine with your placement.”

  Maddox nodded, realizing he’d miscalculated. More than ever, the crew did not want a wishy-washy captain. They wanted a decisive man of action. If the Destroyer was haunted, they needed someone to lean on in order to bolster their morale.

  “How long until you’re ready to jump?’ asked Maddox.

  “Fifteen minutes,” Keith said.

  “Make it ten,” Maddox sa
id. “Fifteen minutes in the middle of battle later will be too long. We’re going to get it right from the start.”

  “Yes, sir,” Keith said.

  The pilot worked with haste.

  Two minutes later, a vast ion field appeared around the Destroyer. Purple ionized bolts flashed everywhere. The ion storm grew in size and power until the huge vessel began to shake.

  Maddox refrained from asking if there were any problems. He let the pilot and the anxious Kai-Kaus on the bridge do their jobs. None of them turned to him to report problems. Thus, he would not pry it out of them.

  “Jump in two minutes,” Keith said, with only a hint of a tremor in his voice.

  Maddox checked a chronometer. “You’ve already taken three minutes more than I asked, Mr. Maker. I expect more speed next time.”

  “Yes, sir,” Keith said.

  “Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “Are you prepared?”

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie said.

  The next two minutes ticked slowly as the ion storm raged around the Destroyer.

  “We’re jumping,” Keith said. This time the tremor in his voice was more evident.

  Outside the ship, a giant opening appeared in the middle of the ion storm. The Destroyer slid into the opening, heading toward battle against the massed enemy.

  -9-

  An ion storm had appeared at the beginning jump point and now one did on the other end, as well. The new storm happened, as plotted, in the Epsilon 5 Star System. Seconds later, the massive Destroyer popped into the new ion storm.

  It took time for the storm to dissipate and time for the people inside the Destroyer to gather intelligence about the Swarm.

  “There,” Valerie said. “I finally have a visual, sir.”

  Maddox sat forward on his command chair. The vast Swarm Fleet spread out before him.

  Sixty thousand warships was an incredible number. Humanity had yet to produce a fleet of one thousand ships, never mind something sixty times as great. Yet, as mind numbing as 60,000 might be, it was dwarfed by the immensity of space. It made a difference that most of the Swarm warships accelerated. The acceleration created thrust, which made the ships a hundred times easier to see than otherwise.