Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

Riker’s head lifted, but he didn’t turn around.

“Keith,” Maddox said. “Help him.”

The pilot shoved his pistol through his belt and walked in front of Riker. The sergeant shouted in surprise, pressing his prosthetic arm. It hummed, and from the shoulder, it raised threateningly as Riker remained seated. The other arm moved. Riker grabbed a cloth and put it before his mouth.

“Walk around him please,” Maddox told the women. “Keith. Back away. The sergeant doesn’t remember who you are.”

Dana and Meta complied until they walked before an even more astonished Sergeant Riker.

“Sit,” Maddox told them.

Meta and Dana did. Maddox didn’t think they would try anything now. They were too interested in getting off Loki Prime. Still, it paid to be cautious.

“Sergeant,” Maddox said in a commanding voice.

Riker’s head swayed. He kept his mouth covered, and the rag was red. The poor man’s real eye was horribly red-rimmed and glazed. He must be running a high fever.

“It’s Captain Maddox,” Maddox told him.

“I know who you are, sir,” Riker said in a wheezing voice.

“You found your arm, I see.”

“Yes, sir, and I got it working. Who are these, these—” He began hacking, sounding wretched. He had to bend over and finally wheezed air down.

“It’s no use for him,” Dana said. “You need to—” She sliced a finger across her throat. “The swamp spores are deadly. They can spread fast.”

“Ha-ha,” Riker laughed drunkenly, staring at her. “Cunning witch, aren’t you? Old Sergeant Riker isn’t going to lie down to death so easily as that, though. Captain Maddox may be overly ambitious, but the lad needs a steadying hand like mind. He gets carried away otherwise. No, I’m not quits just like that. So, you can stop scheming. The young captain will see through your cunning, you can count on that.”

“Never mind her, Sergeant,” Maddox said. “Who took the flitter? Why didn’t they shoot you?”

“Me?” Riker asked, sounding indignant. “Why not shoot me? Oh, no, sir,” he said. “I woke up, I did. I took my arm and crawled out of the flitter. I hid because I heard them coming. I saw him too.”

“Saw who?” Maddox asked.

“The golden-skinned killer, sir,” Riker said. “He had people hooked up like oxen. A woman was with him. She had an assault rifle. They forced the others to lift the flitter onto the wagon. It was a big old cart, sir. I couldn’t believe they lifted the flitter. It ain’t light, you know?”

“Strange,” Maddox said.

“Then I noticed their eyes, sir,” Riker said. “The ones hooked to the cart like oxen. They looked drugged. Some of them cried out as they lifted the flitter. I think some of their muscles tore, or shoulders popped out of their sockets. The others kept right on lifting your flyer onto the cart. I wondered if they had super-strength.”

“Or a New Man drug to give them such strength,” Maddox said. “Hysterical strength, I believe it’s called. I wonder if that’s part of their secret.”

“Sir?” Riker asked.

“Never mind,” Maddox said. “What else? Do you have anything else to report?”

“I do indeed, sir. Old Sergeant Riker has been paying attention to your sly ways. I thought to myself, ‘What would that young hothead do in a situation like mine?’ Then it came to me, sir. I knew exactly what to do, and I did it on the spot.”

“Do you care to tell me what that was?” Maddox asked.

Riker blinked his red eye, and he started coughing. Finally, after a twenty-second bout, he wheezed down air like a dying man.

“Sir,” the sergeant said, “before the others reached the flitter I called upstairs.”

“You used the flyer’s radio?” Maddox asked.

“I did, sir.”

Maddox went cold inside. Had Riker called the destroyer or the scout? “Who did you speak to?” he asked.

“Some pretty girl, sir. She sounded worried, though. She asked about you.”

“Do you recall her name?”

“She wouldn’t give it to me. Said something about the enemy able to hear over the radio, she did. And, sir, she’s coming down to get us. She said regulations demanded she ignore your original orders in order to rescue the landing party.”

Maddox had no doubt then. Lieutenant Noonan was going to bring the scout down into the prison planet’s atmosphere. Perhaps she was already on her way. If Riker had used the flitter’s radio, Valerie would likely home in on it. That meant she was flying down to the New Man, because he now had the flyer.

“How long ago did you send the message?” Maddox asked.

“It’s hard for me to tell, sir. Some time ago.”

Maddox’s eyes widened. “She could be here right now.” He took out his comm-unit.

“If your sergeant used the radio,” Dana said. “It’s possible the destroyer intercepted the signal.”

Maddox nodded. “Come in, Lieutenant Noonan. This is Captain Maddox. Do you hear me? Come in, Lieutenant.”

He feared jamming. If the enemy jammed, it would be clear the New Man understood that the scout descended. Maddox tried to fit the various pieces together, the Saint Petersburg , the New Man, the orbital missiles— Valerie must have used my security code on the orbitals if she’s taking the scout to the surface. It’s a good thing I gave it to her. Otherwise, the orbitals would shoot her down . A new thought struck and Maddox wanted to curse. The New Man has my flitter. Its computer has my security code embedded in it.

His comm-unit came alive. “Come in, Captain Maddox, this is Lieutenant Noonan speaking.”

Despite the burst of joy in his chest at hearing her voice, Maddox wondered if it was really her. What if the destroyer was homing in on his comm-signal? The heavy cloud cover meant the Saint Petersburg couldn’t beam him. Yet they could launch missiles just as easily as the orbitals had done.

“Captain?” she said. “Are you there?”

“Who led the raid into the Odin System?” he asked.

“Sir?”

“Don’t think,” Maddox told her. “Just tell me.”

“Do you mean Admiral von Gunther, sir?” she asked.

“Exactly,” Maddox said.

“I don’t see why that has any bearing—”

“Why shouldn’t I punch an officer whenever I desire to do so?”

“What?” Valerie asked.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t do that?”

“Do you mean regulation—?”

Relief washed through Maddox. Without a doubt, he spoke to the real Valerie Noonan.

“Home in on this comm-signal, Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “The enemy has captured the flitter, so you mustn’t use its coordinates. In fact, I want you to be ready to obliterate anything that isn’t me.”

“Sir?” she asked.

“How close are you to the surface?”

“Less than two minutes, sir,” she said.

Maddox glanced right and left to see if the scout could land here. Yes, this could work. He knew boarding Geronimo was far from victory, but it would be a good start to leaving the Loki System. Should he try to find the flitter afterward, destroying it to obliterate its onboard computer? Likely, they had no time for such ventures. The Saint Petersburg in orbit changed all the equations. How long would it take the enemy to try the flitter’s computer, to find the security clearance that would allow landing craft to ignore the orbital platforms? Given the New Man on their side—they probably already knew about the code.

Leaving the comm-unit on for Valerie, Maddox faced Dana Rich. “Listen to me, Doctor. We’re about to leave Loki Prime.”

“Meta goes with me,” Dana said.

Maddox’s gaze flickered to the cavewoman. With her superior strength, Meta could be a problem aboard ship. He wasn’t sure he could take that risk.