Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

Keith Maker glided low over the treetops, nearing the black smoke. Flames appeared ahead, licking skyward. Maddox checked his gun before holstering it. Leaning back, he saw that Sergeant Riker slept fitfully. Small spumes of red trickled from the sergeant’s nose. That wasn’t blood. It would have been better if it had been. What had Riker said, red rot? That was an apt name.

“For the love of Pete!” Keith shouted. “Will you look at that, matey. I mean Captain, sir.”

Maddox saw it, and worry erupted in spades. A Star Watch shuttle—correction, a smoking wreck of a shuttle—had been blown onto its side. The vehicle had gaping holes and crumpled areas. It would never lift off again. The dead were strewn around it, many of them missing limbs, some in Star Watch uniforms, some not.

Huts crackled with flames, and people crawled or dragged themselves in the outer area of the tree-blasted ground. Some looked up at them. A few of those shook their fists. One woman raised a flintlock. A puff of smoke a second later indicated she shot at them.

What the —

Maddox froze, unwilling to believe what he saw. One of the dead on the ground was unlike the others. In life, he would have been taller than the average human. That wasn’t what made Maddox’s gut twist. It was the color of the skin—golden. A New Man lay dead on the ground down there.

Questions flooded Maddox’s brain. How had the invader gotten here? The likeliest explanation was aboard a Saint Petersburg shuttle. If there was one invader, couldn’t that mean there were more? Did the New Men command the Star Watch destroyer? If so, how had they maneuvered that? Maddox wondered if they should land beside the New Man. He could take a sample, a slice of skin or clot up some blood on a rag. Later, he could test the DNA. Then, finally, he could learn if he was part New Man.

“Blimey!” Keith shouted. He banked away hard, turning from the burning village.

That threw Maddox against the flitter’s canopy. He heard heavy gunfire from below. The flitter shuttered. Something starred the bubble on the pilot’s side.

“What’s happening?” Maddox shouted, who couldn’t see because of his lousy angle.

“A woman’s firing at us,” Keith said. “I think she hit our underbelly.”

“Firing a musket?”

“A heavy repeater, mate! Now for the love of Saint Francis, shut your yapper, Captain, sir. I’m taking us down for a controlled crash, and I’m going to need all my concentration to do it.”

The flitter bucked like a wild horse. Maddox clung to his harness and managed to look back at Riker. The sergeant flew in disorder, banging his head, smashing his shins.

“This is it!” Keith shouted.

Maddox looked ahead again. A huge tree filled his view. They were going to crash head on. At the last second, Keith turned them sideways, dodging death as metal screeched. They must have shaved the underbelly of the flitter against tree bark. Clunking sounds emitted from the engine. Smoke poured from the panel.

“Come on, you filthy pimp,” Keith said. “Keep it going just a little longer. You won’t regret it, I promise.”

The pilot dodged another tree and slowed the flyer. Then branches blurred around them, striking the bubble canopy. The tough dome held, and finally, the Tau Ceti strikefighter-ace brought them down against a giant crackly bush.

Keith brayed with triumphant laughter, and he stabbed a button. The canopy slid open, letting in the planet’s jungle smells.

“I did it, sir. We’re down in one piece.”

Feelings of disaster pulsed through Maddox’s heart. Oh, they were down all right, on Loki Prime, the prison planet no one had ever escaped.

You’re still alive , Maddox told himself. The scout is up there. Let’s not quit until you’re coughing up your final bit of blood .

“Excellent work, Ensign,” Maddox said. “I’m doubling your salary.”

“You mean doubling my share of the prize money, sir.”

“That’s right. Now give me a hand. We have to move the sergeant.”

The smile drained from Keith’s round face. Realization of their predicament spread across his features.

“We just crash-landed on Loki Prime,” the ensign said. “There’s a woman with an automatic rifle down there. Do you think the people from the shuttle came to this place to arrest you?”

“No such luck, I’m afraid,” Maddox said. “Now help me with him.”

“Why?” Keith asked. “He’s probably better off where he is. We can’t dart around if he’s weighing us down.”

A harsh rebuke died on Maddox’s lips. The ace had a point. He could hear people coming.

“It’s time for a strategic retreat,” Maddox said. “Grab a pack and follow me.”

The two rummaged in back. Maddox avoided looking at the unconscious sergeant. It wasn’t fair leaving him like this, but Maker was right, the sergeant would be safer in the flitter.

“I’ll return,” Maddox whispered. Then he jumped out of the flitter and faded into the undergrowth. Keith followed hard on his heels.

Maddox halted and studied the terrain around him. The trees lacked the immense height of those in the lowlands. The ground felt firmer, drier. There were fewer insects and less strange funguses sprouting from the soil and tree trunks. He needed the flitter. Its radio could reach the Geronimo . That was his only way off Loki Prime now. He wanted to double-back, hide and see who came to his flyer. Instead, he started racing downhill again. He needed to sneak up on his hunters when they weren’t tracking him. He needed an edge.

“Wait a minute, will you?” Keith panted. “I can’t keep up with you.”

Maddox debated leaving the ace behind. Ruthlessness, remember? He couldn’t do it. Leaving the sergeant had been hard enough. That had been the logical move. Abandoning his crew—no, he wouldn’t do that. Without honor, winning didn’t matter.

Indicating a place behind a tree, he showed the pilot where to crouch. Since the man’s heavy breathing made listening difficult, Maddox moved several feet away. The intervening growth muted the noise.

Maddox bent his head, straining to hear what he could. Indistinct voices spoke in the distance. He needed to see who it was. Without intelligence, he couldn’t formulate a sound plan.

First slipping near Keith, he said, “I’m going to spy on the enemy.”

Keith looked up with wide eyes, and he almost shouted with surprise. Finally, the small pilot nodded. “You’re as silent as a cat, mate. I wish you wouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”

“Stay here,” Maddox said. “Recover your strength.”

“You’re leaving me alone?”

“I’m going to scout the area. I’ll be back.”

Keith drew his gun. “Okay, sir. I’ll wait.” He coughed as if to add to this statement. A new alarm entered the man’s eyes. “I got the bad spores, don’t I, sir?”

“We’ll leave this planet soon enough.”

“You promise that, Captain? I didn’t sign up to end my days in misery.”

“There isn’t a place in the galaxy that can hold me, Ensign. You can rely on that.”

“I’m going to keep you to your promise, Captain,”

Still sensing the fear in Ensign Maker, Maddox said, “You did a fantastic job bringing us down in one piece.”

“It’s what I do, sir.”

“Exactly my point,” Maddox said. “This is the sort of thing I do.”

A grin crept across Keith’s face. “Right. I’m okay, sir. I have this.” He indicated the gun.

“Keep quiet, though,” Maddox said. “Let me concentrate.”

The ace drew his knees up as he leaned back against the tree. Then he closed his eyes, and suppressed a second cough.