Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“Even if you’re right,” he said, “the New Men are closing in on us.”

“Then you must outfox them, Captain. That means you should leave me in peace while you do your job. Please, go. Your insistence wearies me.”

Nodding slowly, Maddox dared to asked, “What happened to you, Doctor? Why are you so bitter?”

“Do you jest?” she asked. “Isn’t it obvious that my bitterness, as you put it, is caused by the powers that spurned my efforts and dropped me onto Loki Prime?”

“One of those powers also rescued you.”

Her dark features hardened. “Go away, Captain Maddox. Your presence annoys me.”

Reluctantly, he stood. He wanted to know the right words to unlock her heart. It seemed frozen on some bitter memory, some slight she refused to forget. Seeking those words, his mouth moved and his right arm rose as he made a forlorn gesture. Finally, silently admitting defeat once more, Captain Maddox retreated from her quarters.

By a combination of luck and hard work, the Geronimo easily beat the star cruiser to the tramline. Pushing the scout to its limit, they made five jumps in quick succession. They hopped from system to system. On the third jump, they raced away from Nemesis System frigates. The ships demanded identification, launching missiles after the scout refused all requests. Using an unstable wormhole, Geronimo barely slipped away. It saved them from the missiles, and it seemed to lengthen their lead over their adversaries.

Meta and Valerie worked overtime on the struggling engine. Keith helped them, and Sergeant Riker spelled the other two in order to keep an eye on an unflagging Meta. The Rouen Colony woman kept the scout running more than any other two of them combined.

All too often, Maddox sat hunched in his quarters, rereading the professor’s notes over and over. Even when his eyelids drooped, he forced himself to read, to think, to read some more.

The captain shuddered and awoke with a yell. Sweat slicked his face, and his heart pounded. He could only remember pieces of the dream, but it horrified him—a woman on the run had carried him in her womb.

“Mother?” he whispered.

Maddox squeezed his eyes shut. He’d never known his real mother, or his father, for that matter. Who had they been? What kind of people exactly? Would they have been proud of what he was trying to do, or would they have laughed at him?

My father —

Maddox’s head snapped upright. His eyes shined. He grabbed the professor’s notes and began to read for what felt like the one hundred and first time. What if “sun” meant “comet” and “asteroid” meant “star system?” That would mean— He jumped to his feet and turned on the computer. With the notes in one hand, he tapped in the coordinates on the computer and finally deciphered Ludendorff’s record of his visit to the alien star system. An hour later, Maddox had a chart leading into the Beyond. The departure point would be the Nine Whiskey Star System.

He pulled up a star chart and found they were four jumps from there. Afterward, he slumped in his chair with his gaze blurred. Could this be it? Had he truly broken the code that would bring them to the most legendarily haunted region in space?

There’s only one way to find out . He downloaded the information, sending it to Valerie’s computer in the control room. Then he hurried there to tell them the good news.

The next three weeks left the crew exhausted as they worked overtime keeping the scout running. Geronimo had left the Oikumene far behind. They ranged deeper and deeper into unknown territory. The Saint Petersburg and the New Men star cruiser had both shown up again, but the Geronimo had managed to shake them off.

Maddox imagined the New Men spreading a net after each jump the scout made out of their sight. There were only so many routes to choose from. Each enemy starship must head for a different point. Then, the enemy used their sensors in each newly-entered star system to search for the Geronimo .

How are they coordinating the moves between ships in different star systems? That’s what baffled Maddox. The only method he knew was actually sending other ships as messengers. Whatever the New Men were doing, though, was working.

“Do you think they’re letting us run ahead of them on purpose,” Lieutenant Noonan asked one day.

“Maybe,” Maddox admitted.

They sat in the galley, Meta, Valerie and him eating freeze-dried pork chops. The favorite meals were vanishing from the menu selections. Soon, only the skipped meals would remain. After those vanished, there wouldn’t be anything left to eat but dried fruit and nuts.

Maddox cut his pork chop, popping a piece of meat into his mouth, chewing. It lacked salt. He picked up a shaker and added granules.

“That’s no good for you,” Meta said.

“You like your meat without salt?” Maddox asked.

“I’m not like you,” she said. “You eat for pleasure. I eat to sustain myself.”

Maddox indicated himself. “Do I look as if I eat for pleasure?”

Her gaze flickered over him. “I’ve wanted to ask you this for a while,” she said. “Why are you so thin?”

“Lean,” he said. “I’m not thin but lean.”

Meta bristled. “Are you saying I’m fat?”

After examining the full-figured woman in her rating uniform, Maddox shook his head. “Not fat at all,” he said. “I’d call you pleasing, easy on the eyes.”

Meta blushed at this uncharacteristic remark.

Lieutenant Noonan noticed and frowned at Maddox. “Captain, please, we’re eating.”

As if nothing had happened, he cut another slice of pork chop, chewing in silence.

“I want to get back to my point,” Valerie said. “If we’re leading the New Men to the alien star system, maybe we should turn back and try again later. If the enemy gains the sentinel, the New Men will become even more invincible than before.”

Maddox raised his head. He stood, took his plastic dish and paused long enough to tell Valerie, “That’s a brilliant idea, Lieutenant.”

“What did I say?”

“I’ll tell you later if it works.”

With that, Maddox hurried from the galley, gulping down the rest of his pork chop. He tossed the plastic into a disposal unit. After washing his hands, he stopped before Dana Rich’s hatch. Should he just barge right in?

Instead of doing so, he rapped his knuckles against metal. There had to be a better way to do this. This was a starship, for Heaven’s sake. Knocking on metal didn’t make much sense.

“Who is it?” Dana asked in a muffled voice.

“Captain Maddox,” he said.

After a short pause, she said, “Go away.”

He turned the wheel, opened the hatch and failed to spy the doctor.

“Do I have to gas your room?” he asked.

“No,” she said, from the wall beside the hatch. She moved toward her bed, becoming visible, tossing a lamp so it hit her sheets.

She’d been hidden from sight, ready to whack him over the head as he entered her quarters. Warily, Maddox stepped within.

Dana thumped down upon her bed. He pulled up a chair, sitting down.

“I’m weary of our arrangement,” she said. “I’m going stir crazy. In the name of decency, you must change the situation.”

“I have a proposal to make,” Maddox told her.

“I won’t join you in your mad venture. That hasn’t changed.”

“You know we’re nearing the alien star system right? I cracked the professor’s encryption some time ago.”

“So you say,” Dana told him. “When we’re there, you can let me know. Oh, how about this, just before we jump into said system, tell me.”