Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“I didn’t want to tell you. Figured you would think I’m gaming things. Anyway, your man is going to pull through. Leave him here another three days, though.”

As Maddox sat in the control room, he grinned as he thought about their situation.

Saint Petersburg moved like a comet for the unstable Laumer-Point. It looked as if the New Man wanted to gamble with a bad wormhole. That was fine with Maddox. Archangel headed for exactly the same point. Four heavy missiles lead the way, barreling at extreme velocity for the destroyer.

“Want to place bets if the destroyer makes it or not?” Keith asked.

“Oh,” Maddox said. “They’ll make it to the Laumer-Point. Whether they survive the jump or not is the question.”

“Those missiles say otherwise,” Keith told him.

“Seemingly,” Maddox said, “seemingly. I think the New Man will have an ace or two to pull out of his sleeve.”

Valerie looked up from her instrument panel. She’d been tapping it for some time. “I have news I don’t think you’re going to like.”

Maddox swiveled around to face her.

“The unstable Laumer-Point will bring the Saint Petersburg to Sigma Gamma Seven,” Valerie said.

Maddox shrugged. “Is that supposed to be significant?”

“I think so,” Valerie said. “That’s two jumps away from where our Class 3 tramline will bring us.”

“We’ll be gone from there before they show up,” Maddox said.

“Good,” she said.

Maddox sat back, thinking about that. Could the New Man over there know what Valerie had just told him about the various routes? Yes, of course, he did. Was the New Man trying to use the Saint Petersburg’s speed against the Geronimo ? He would race the destroyer through jump routes, trying to work to the system they would enter from Loki. Hmm… The destroyer had beaten them to the Loki System.

“Speed,” Maddox muttered. “Ensign, we’re going to accelerate.”

“That could blow our cloak,” Valerie said. “The EMP pulses have long ago faded. We’d be in the open.”

“Look at the ranges between us and the two starships,” Maddox said, shaking his head. “Their beams can’t possibly reach us at these distances. We’re hundreds of millions kilometers too far. No missiles will have time to accelerate fast enough before we’re gone. If the destroyer is trying to catch us later by speeding to the other Laumer-Points, we need to use speed now and outdistance them.”

“I don’t like it,” Valerie said.

“I’m open to your reasons as to why not,” Maddox said.

Lieutenant Noonan looked uncomfortable. “Sir, the New Men outfought von Gunther’s battle group in the Pan System.”

“The destroyer lacks those advanced weapons.”

“I wasn’t finished, sir,” Valerie said. “They also outthought us. I’m wondering if the New Man is doing that here.”

“No,” Maddox said. “We outthought him.”

“Don’t you think he’s going to know our reaction to his using the unstable Laumer-Point?”

“He has to use that entry point,” Maddox said. “There’s no other way for him to escape the monitor.”

“Maybe he could outmaneuver the monitor and race to the Class 1 point near the chthonian planet near the star,” Keith said, chiming in.

“If that’s a wiser choice,” Maddox said, “he would already be doing it. No. This time, I think we’re granting them too much cunning. Ensign, head for our Laumer-Point at maximum acceleration. We want to leave the Loki System as fast as possible.”

Keith glanced at Valerie. Then he said, “Aye-aye, Captain, sir. I’m engaging thrusters—now.”

The Saint Petersburg must have laid invisible mines behind itself as it braked for the unstable Laumer-Point. As the heavy missiles neared, the mines began to detonate, revealing themselves and annihilating two of the monitor’s missiles. Saint Petersburg’s counter-rockets took care of the third missile, while the destroyer’s lasers demolished the last one.

“Those are new types of mines I haven’t seen before,” Valerie said. “I wonder if they’re a New Man invention.”

The Geronimo had accelerated for a time and now braked hard. They neared the Class 3 tramline. The other two spaceships were hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

“That’s a good question,” Maddox said. Suddenly, a queasy feeling bit into him. “Lieutenant, start searching this area for cloaked mines.”

“Sir?” Valerie asked.

“The Saint Petersburg spent some time here,” Maddox said. “I wondered about that before. Could they have been carefully placing such mines to catch us before we leave?”

For the next twenty minutes, Lieutenant Noonan searched diligently. Finally she announced, “I think we’re safe, sir.

It took another half hour until they reached the Laumer-Point.

Maddox opened inter-ship channels. “We did it. We’re about to leave the Loki System. Get ready to jump.”

Ensign Maker maneuvered the scout for the entry point. “Engaging the Laumer Drive,” he said.

A loud whine started, and the Laumer-Point became visible to their instruments. The scout headed for the wormhole.

At the same time, a hidden device flared with high acceleration. Had it detected the Laumer Drive? Had it waited until the last possible moment? Whatever the truth, the device rapidly closed with Geronimo .

“Sir,” Valerie said, “I’m detecting a fast approaching object.”

The object exploded with the same power as the mines that had destroyed several heavy missiles earlier.

The scout buckled as interior lights began to flash. Bulkheads groaned. Then the stricken SWS Scout Geronimo entered the Laumer-Point, barreling down the wormhole. It was anyone’s guess as to whether the ship would survive the stresses of jump to reach the exit point intact.

Lieutenant Noonan felt bone tired, worse than any exercise during her Space Academy days. For fifteen hours, she’d worked beside Meta as they attempted to repair damage to the engines in order to make them workable again.

It was worse outside the ship. Ensign Maker knew more about space welding than Maddox would any day. The two wore vacc-suits and magnetic boots, working feverishly.

The hidden mine had nearly destroyed the scout. Upon their exit from the Laumer-Point, the captain had made a fast decision, freeing Meta on a probationary basis. Would he have done the same for Doctor Rich?

Injured in the explosion, Dana was in medical, in a coma, the robo-doctor straining to keep her alive. The mine had changed many things. If they couldn’t repair the scout in time, the destroyer might show up and that would be the end of the mission and likely their lives.

None of them believed the unstable wormhole had destroyed the Saint Petersburg . They weren’t going to get away that easily.

“Hand me the drill,” Meta said.

Valerie plucked it off an emergency Velcro-pad. Not only were the engines offline, the antigravity pods refused to function.

The Geronimo was a mess. Even so, no one had asked the fundamental question. Did this scrub the mission? Captain Maddox would never agree to that. Valerie had begun to wonder if he was completely… sane wasn’t the right word. The man was logical and rational to a fault. Earlier, Meta had said something that drove Maddox. Perhaps that was a more accurate description.

Yes, Valerie thought , he is driven. He’s compelled to compete against these New Men. Is he wrong to do so? If we fail, what combination of Star Watch ships can defeat the enemy’s advanced cruisers?