Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“Think about it,” he said. “You have some free time in here, I mean. Use it wisely.” With that, Maddox straightened and took his leave.

After the hatch shut, Meta stared at it. Finally, she lay back down. As the man said, she had some serious thinking to do.

Captain Maddox raised his head, realizing his chin had been resting on his chest. He must have fallen asleep as he sat in the pilot’s chair. Then, he recalled why he’d opened his eyes. Doctor Rich had spoken elatedly.

He swiveled around on his seat. Dana and he were the only ones in the control room. Why hadn’t she tried for his gun, seeing as he’d fallen asleep? There were two possibilities. The first, she didn’t think he really slept, or she feared he’d wake up before she could subdue him. The second, she had become so engrossed in her work that she hadn’t noticed him sleeping. He was more inclined toward the second view.

“What is it?” Maddox asked.

Dana didn’t respond. She sat at her station, her fingers flying over the controls. She chortled quietly, almost evilly, to herself.

Maddox stood, approaching her. Still, she didn’t notice him. He had no idea what the screen meant. Lines of code flashed before his eyes.

“Doctor!” he said.

Her shoulders stiffened. She looked up and then back at him.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“Exactly what you asked for,” she said. “I’m inside the satellite-beacon’s master menu. I’ve just shut down its comm-links.”

Maddox checked a chronometer. In twelve hours, the beacon would have informed the monitor. Dana had worked even faster than he’d expected.

“You did it then?” he asked.

She turned back to her panel and continued to tap.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m guessing you’re going to want the beacon to fire up some drones for us,” Dana said. “We need to knock out the destroyer, right?”

Maddox stepped to Lieutenant Noonan’s station. Valerie was getting some well-deserved rest. At speed, the destroyer was accelerating toward the system’s gas giant in its Jupiter-like orbit. That was nearly eight hundred thousand kilometers away. The Class 3 Laumer-Point was near the gas giant. No doubt, the destroyer raced there to block their exit from the star system.

There were three jump points in this star system: the Class 1 near the chthonian planet, the rock core orbiting closest to the sun. There was the Class 3 by the distant gas giant. And there was an unstable Laumer-Point situated between Loki Prime and the gas giant, about where the Solar System’s asteroid belt would be.

Unstable tramlines were dangerous to use. Sliding down an unstable wormhole was like running between giant, chomping teeth. The tramline could contort, crushing the starship in it. That happened one out of every three to five times, depending on the instability of the tramline. It made using such a route a game of Venusian Roulette.

When the Saint Petersburg first accelerated away from Loki Prime toward the outer system, Maddox had finally felt the situation was safe enough to turn the fusion engines back on. They hadn’t used the regular thrust, but turned on the gravity wave generator—and began recharging the batteries. Just as before, the gravity waves had shaken Geronimo for its short duration, but each time it had given them a little more velocity.

Ensign Maker had complained about the process. The pilot had been right, too. At this rate, it would take the scout weeks of drifting to reach the gas giant and the Class 3 entry point.

In the control room, Maddox grunted.

This time, Dana noticed. “What is it?” she asked.

Pointing at the lieutenant’s view screen, Maddox said, “ Archangel has just begun heavy acceleration away from its position near the chthonian planet.”

The massive round starship would take time to build a descent velocity. It was like watching an elephant starting to move, knowing it would trot and then lumber at speed.

Dana got up and checked the screen for herself. The starship had an immensely long exhaust tail, making it easy to spot. She traded glances with Maddox. “Why do you think the monitor is doing that?” she asked.

Maddox checked something on the lieutenant’s board. “Hmm, it’s like I thought. There’s been a lot of radio traffic between the destroyer and the monitor.”

“Do you think they’ve been talking about us?” Dana asked.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe Archangel is coming to help Saint Petersburg search for us,” Dana suggested.

“Seems unlikely they’d leave the Class 1 Laumer-Point unguarded,” Maddox said. “But let’s say it’s true. Why haven’t the one hundred satellite-beacons gone to high alert? If both the monitor and the destroyer are searching for us, that would be the best move.”

Maddox glanced at the screen. One hundred dark, automated satellite-beacons orbited between the chthonian planet and halfway to the gas giant. Maybe a thousand drones orbited in the same zone. The scout passed through a belt of sleeping missiles. At any time, one of them might activate and accelerate at them.

Dana laughed with what sounded like relief.

Maddox frowned at her.

“You’re right,” Dana said. “That’s what the monitor commander would do: put the space beacons onto high alert. Where is Archangel headed?”

Maddox fiddled with the board. “Given their present heading, it looks as if they’re chasing the Saint Petersburg . Seems crazy, though,” he said, “the huge monitor will never catch a sleek runner like the destroyer.”

Dana clapped her hands together. “The New Men on the destroyer must have overplayed their hand. They made the monitor commander suspicious.” She frowned. “That means my computer hacking went for nothing. I’ve been wasting time.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions. We don’t know what’s going on.”

“Now that I’m in the space beacon,” Dana said, “do you want me to—?”

Maddox’s instruments blared a warning.

“What is it?” Dana shouted.

With his guts twisting, Maddox told her, “ Archangel must have just sent a high pulse signal. Satellite-beacons are switching to combat alert.”

“So they are joining forces against us,” Dana said.

“I don’t think so.”

“But you just told me that’s what the monitor commander would do if they leagued together.”

“You’re right. I said that,” Maddox admitted. “But the beacons nearest Loki Prime should have gone onto combat alert then. That was our last known position, right? That’s not happening. Instead, the automated satellites nearest the Saint Petersburg are switching to a combat setting. Why just there, I wonder?”

“Oh. Yes. That is different.”

Maddox checked for further data before glancing at Doctor Rich. “The monitor’s commander must have upped the game. I bet he’s threatening the destroyer with annihilation from the drone-field.”

“That might be less of a threat than you think,” Dana said.

“Why? What haven’t you told me?”

Her dark eyes become hooded. She seemed to be weighing something in her mind. “I suppose you’ll find out sooner or later. The beacons and drones are over fifteen years out of date, at least. I suspect the computer programs are pretty ancient too.”

“Okay…” he said.

“Hacking into the beacon was child’s play. If I can do it, some genius New Man shouldn’t have any problem neutralizing the minefield.”

“Maybe,” Maddox said. “Old weapons can kill just like new ones. Besides, the fact that the monitor commander is heading for the destroyer shows me the New Men aren’t invincible. They can make mistakes. Remember, we beat them on Loki Prime.”