Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“You mean the beacon won’t alert the monitor for another seventy-two hours?” Valerie asked.

“Exactly,” Maddox said.

Lines appeared on the lieutenant’s forehead as she considered this. Then her head lifted sharply. “Seventy-two hours delay won’t be long enough, sir. I mean long enough for us to reach the prison planet, insert, lift with the personnel and leave the star system.”

“Hmmm, yes,” Maddox said. “That could prove troublesome for us three days from now.”

“What?” Keith said. “Am I hearing you right—Captain? We’re going in, but we’re not getting back out?”

“Nonsense,” Maddox said. “We’ll think of something in three days.”

Keith mulled that over, soon shrugging and returning to studying his instruments.

“Begging your pardon, sir,” Valerie said. “But that would make this a suicide run. A three day delay isn’t long enough.”

“What do you suggest we do, Lieutenant?” Maddox asked. “I’m more than open to suggestions.”

“I’m not sure there is a way to do this,” she said. “We must turn back and rethink our plan.”

“Negative, Lieutenant. We’re heading in.”

“But sir—”

“Lieutenant Noonan,” Maddox said. “I will go down onto Loki Prime and rescue my sergeant. I will then find Doctor Dana Rich and bring her back to Geronimo . Afterward, we are going to find the alien star system. Anything else is a defeat for Earth.”

“We need a plan for getting out of the Loki System,” she said, “a chance for victory.”

“Agreed,” he said.

“You have a plan, sir?”

“What do the regulations say about questioning the commander of his ship?” Maddox asked.

Valerie opened her mouth and squirmed in her seat. Finally, she closed her mouth without another word.

“For your conscience’s sake, Lieutenant, I prefer not to tell you what we’re going to do later.”

She stared at him.

If Maddox had to guess, she didn’t believe he had an idea. The lieutenant must think he was lying to her. Well, he did have a plan. It was risky at best. But at this point, he didn’t know what else to do. He’d worry about it when the time came.

A half-hour later, there wasn’t any change to the SWS monitor many hundreds of millions kilometers away. If Archangel had begun accelerating for Loki Prime, it would have meant the beacon had reported them, but it hadn’t.

“The beacon honored your secret code, sir,” Valerie said.

Maddox stood. “You have first watch, Lieutenant. Ensign, I want you to get as much sleep as you can. It will be some time before we have to brake again.”

“Sir?” asked Valerie. “Do you think the people in the Saint Petersburg know we’re here in the system, sir?”

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Our cover is blown, then?”

“It was from the start,” Maddox said. “But we’re going to beat them anyway. And do you know why we will?”

“Because we must, sir?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “Because we’re the best at what we do and we have the latest in stealth technology.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Keith shouted.

Maddox and Valerie both turned to stare at him.

“Uh, a turn of phrase,” Keith said. “Maybe it was in poor taste. Sometimes my excitement gets the better of me. I just mean to agree with you, Captain. We’re the bloody best at what we do.”

“Get some sleep, Ensign,” Maddox said. “You’re going to need it.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said, exiting the control room.

Maddox waited until he heard Ensign Maker’s hatch clang shut. Then he turned to Valerie. “You’re doing well, Lieutenant. I appreciate your steady nerves.”

She was silent for several seconds, finally saying, “I grew up in a tough neighborhood, sir. It takes a lot to rattle me. Uh, sir, I’ve been thinking. You don’t want to tell me your idea of dealing with the beacon because your plan is highly illegal, isn’t it?”

“Why, Lieutenant, what a suspicious mind you have.” With that, Maddox left the chamber. He still had a few modifications he needed to make to the flitter.

During the next forty-eight hours, they made two more course corrections, slowing their velocity each time. Thus, it took two days after the incident with the beacon for the scout to enter Loki Prime’s orbit. They had another twenty-four hours until the beacon reported their presence to the distant monitor. They were far behind schedule for clearing the Loki System.

Because the Saint Petersburg was so close, the fusion generator was presently offline. Geronimo used the cloaking device, a heavy drain on its batteries. As a nearly invisible object to Commonwealth scanners, they had avoided the destroyer as it continued to circle the planet from a far orbit.

Because of Maddox’s orders, the scout entered Low Loki Orbit as Saint Petersburg moved across the other side of the world. Even though there were only two ships close to Loki, it was difficult to spot a vessel doing its best to hide. Orbital space around the Earth-sized world was vast compared to a scout. It was one of the reasons they had a chance of pulling this off.

Maddox sat in the control room, watching Valerie monitor her instruments. He no longer wore his uniform but camouflage gear and cap.

“This place is crawling with detection satellites,” she said. “I don’t see why you think your flitter will make it down undetected, sir.”

“I trust the Lord High Admiral’s codes to see me through,” Maddox said.

She turned around, facing him. “That’s an awfully slender thread, sir.”

“Agreed,” he said. “In the event I fail to return, I want you to slip away. On all accounts, don’t let the Saint Petersburg capture you.”

“Sir, if you fail, I’m never going to make it out of the Loki System alive.”

“You have the cloaking device—”

“Begging your pardon, sir, but it won’t run much longer on the batteries. It will need fusion power.”

“Turn on the engine and keep the cloaking device running. Then sneak out the best you can. Once they detect the scout, flee at full speed. Get back to Earth. Tell the Lord High Admiral I failed. On no account can you let them capture you.”

“I’ll try, sir.”

“Do more than that. The New Men mustn’t learn about the sentinel. If I fail, tell the Lord High Admiral to come with a fleet. At that point, he’ll have to openly try for the alien vessel.”

“That would alert the New Men, sir. Out in the Beyond, they will intercept the Lord High Admiral’s fleet and destroy it.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Maddox said. “There’s a reason the New Men haven’t kept attacking since their conquest of Odin and Horace.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” She looked away, and she seemed embarrassed. “Uh, good luck, sir.”

“Why thank you, Lieutenant. I wish you the same.”

“Thank you, sir. I could use it.”

“Well, let’s get to work,” Maddox said. “We’re under the clock and time is ticking.”

“You’re flying us down,” Maddox said.

Keith climbed into the flitter, taking the controls. He wore similar camouflage gear as Maddox. On their belts, the two of them carried force blades and pistols that fired explosive pellets. Packs were in the flitter’s back area.

Maddox glanced behind. He’d torn out the rear seat, pulled off the back plate to the trunk and laid down foam. In a pinch, they could fit two people back there by having them lie down.

“We’ll be cutting communications in a minute,” Valerie said over the cargo bay intercom. “Do you remember the sequence to alert me that you’re coming back up?”