Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

The conditions down here were dreadful. The citizens of Loki Prime led awful lives. Yet he had to keep in mind that each of these inmates was a criminal of the lowest sort. Everything demanded speed. Therefore, he must take chances and he must practice ruthlessness.

“We should leave,” Keith said. “These insects are eating me alive.”

Maddox regarded the pilot. Keith wiped a gunk-stained palm on his pants.

A killer idea blossomed then. Maddox knew exactly how he would use the inmates’ cupidity against them. It wasn’t his first choice, but it might be his only one at this point. Failing on Loki Prime meant the New Men would win by default.

No. I’m not going to let that happen .

“Hurry, Ensign,” Maddox said. “Help me stow the sergeant in the flitter, in the back.”

“We’re leaving the planet?” Keith asked.

“Not yet,” Maddox said. “We’re departing this spot. We’re going higher up the mountain.”

Soon enough, Maddox felt relief as the flitter’s canopy slid shut. The flyer’s air-conditioner hummed, taking away the humid, rotten-smelling atmosphere.

“We should have brought breathers,” Maddox said.

“Our injections will see us through, right?” Keith asked.

Sergeant Riker groaned pitifully from the back.

Keith’s eyes widened, and he massaged his chest. “Bloody spores are in our lungs, eh, mate? They’re mutating. I can feel them.”

“He’s been here for days,” Maddox said. “We’ll go through a complete scrub once we’re back on Geronimo . We’ll be fine.”

“Do you really believe that, Captain?”

Before Maddox could answer, red blips appeared on the flitter’s screen in the dash. The captain’s brow furrowed as he examined them more closely.

Keith snapped off the answer, “Missiles,” he said. “They’re coming down fast.”

“We’ve been spotted?” Maddox asked.

Keith’s finger roved over the controls. “I don’t think so. There’s no radar lock-on. Are they heat-seeking missiles or radar directed?”

“Compared to the land around us, how much heat are we giving off?”

Ensign Maker had been lifting, bringing them above the trees. Now he lowered back among the giant branches in a hurry.

“It should be harder for the missiles to hit us if we’re almost on the ground.” Keith brayed a sharp laugh. “That’ll be the day, mate, they can knock me down so easily.”

Perplexed, realizing the odds for success had plunged even more drastically, Maddox wondered what had given them away.

“What’s your pleasure, Captain?”

Maddox glanced at the pilot, unsure what Keith meant.

“Where should we go, sir?”

“Head up the mountain,” Maddox said.

“Jolly good, sir.”

Maddox kept one eye on the screen and the other on the terrain. The flitter was small enough to weave among the branches of the giant trees. They glided through a gloomy world. Each insect cloud maintained its own flock of bat-things darting through them.

Soon, the trees became smaller, the branches closer together.

“I’m going to have to lift above the treetops, sir,” Keith said. “This is too dense.”

Maddox nodded, trying to keep a sense of futility at bay. What had he done wrong? Had the destroyer changed the security codes? That didn’t seem right. A Commonwealth penal service ship would have done that, not a Star Watch vessel.

Keith hovered over a tree, and he glanced at Maddox. “What’s it going to be, sir?”

“How far out are those missiles?”

“Two minutes from impact, Captain.”

“Let’s wait here a moment. We’ll use the trees for cover at the last minute.”

“Will the orbitals keep sending more if the first ones fail?”

That seemed likely. Maddox wondered if there was a way to simulate the flitter’s destruction. There was no time for that. Was there any possibility now of leaving Loki Prime?

The seconds ticked too slowly. Waiting for death was always hard.

“I’ll be prodded and poked, Bloke,” Keith said. “Look! The missiles aren’t heading for us.”

“What?” Maddox asked. “Are you certain?”

“I know how to read a fighter screen, sir.”

Maddox studied the small panel and didn’t know what the ace saw that he didn’t.

“Higher up the mountain, sir. That’s where the missiles are headed?”

“Why?” asked Maddox.

“I have no idea, Captain. Why do the orbitals launch missiles in the first place?”

Maddox wrestled with the concept. Riker kept coughing and moaning in back. The man sounded terrible.

The flitter lifted. Maddox stared at the pilot.

“Want to see what’s happening, sir,” Keith said. “That’s how you beat your enemy. Can’t just sit in the dark and hope for luck. You have to see his tactic in order to conjure up a counter.”

Enemy , Maddox said silently. We have to defeat our enemy . He snapped his fingers.

As he did, he saw a black object streak down. It headed for a place higher on the mountain. Keith had been right. Then the missile disappeared into the trees. A second later, light expanded, and a cloud billowed into view. A second missile streaked down. It too created light and debris, seemingly hitting the same spot.

“Those orbitals mean business,” Keith said with a low whistle.

“None of the missiles were directed at us,” Maddox said.

“If they were, it was piss poor targeting.”

“In answer to your question,” Maddox said. “The orbitals search for high tech, demolishing it. If we didn’t have our clearance, we’d already be dead.”

Keith engaged the flitter’s controls, sliding toward the missile strike.

“The conditions here are not favorable for creating high technology in the first place,” Maddox said. “Secondly, the strike came during our time on the planet. Is that a coincidence?”

“Wouldn’t bet the farm on it, Captain,” Keith said.

“Neither would I. In my line of work, there are few coincidences.”

“So let’s say the natives didn’t build a high-tech toy the orbital programs objected to,” Keith said. “What else would they launch at?”

A grim feeling spread across Maddox’s chest. The Saint Petersburg had come to Loki Prime. Back in Earth orbit, the destroyer had failed to beam down a Nerva drone fired at the scout. Immediately upon Keith’s destruction of the offending drone, the destroyer’s comm officer had demanded the Geronimo stay where it was. Maddox had refused, and the destroyer fired a laser at them. Now the same destroyer was at Loki Prime. Orbitals watching for high technology had just barraged the area he—Maddox—was heading to. Why did the missiles hit there? What was there they would attack?

“Doctor Dana Rich,” Maddox said.

“What’s that, sir?”

“The Saint Petersburg must have sent down a landing party to grab Dana Rich. Remember, in Glasgow a sniper fired at us?”

“I hadn’t run so fast for a long time,” Keith said. “I remember the crawly piece of slime, all right.”

“How did the sniper know ahead of time to be there in Glasgow?” Maddox asked. “Someone else must have the Lord High Admiral’s list. You were on the list. And Dana Rich is on it, and she’s partway up the mountain. That’s why the missiles slammed down there.”

“Do you think she’s dead?” Keith asked. “Do you think they’re trying to murder her, whoever they are?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Maddox said. “You see the smoke? That’s where we’re going—now.”

In retrospect, Maddox realized he should have reasoned things out a little more carefully. Maybe his need for speed blunted his judgment. Maybe the lowland spores attacking his immune system dulled his thinking. In any regard, he flew straight into an ambush.