Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“You didn’t harm her, did you?” Maddox asked, worried he’d lost the doctor.

“Ah, that’s what I love about you, sir. You’re so solicitous about your enemies that you forget to ask how your boon companions are feeling.”

“Let us rectify that, Sergeant,” Maddox said. “How are you feeling?”

“Good, sir, very good indeed,” Riker said.

“Splendid. It does my heart good to know it. I have a few questions, though. Do you believe you can answer them quickly?”

“I do indeed, sir.”

“How did you, or we, the crew, discover which comet held the professor’s secret supply of spare engines and fuel?”

“Meta told us—that was her positive action I’ve been trying to tell you about. The guilt of shooting you loosened her tongue. She’s decided to pitch in with us all the way, after all. It seems she and the doctor had been communicating in secret for the past few weeks. Ain’t that interesting, sir.”

Maddox said nothing.

“At the moment, Doctor Rich is on the robo-doctor. I used the computer and found the formula to an old-style truth serum. It’s an underhanded way to do this, I know, and beneath us to—”

“What did you say?” Maddox asked, interrupting.

“Truth serum, sir,” Riker said. “I read up on the computer how to make the right formula.”

Maddox closed his eyes. He’d been a fool and overlooked an obvious solution. It galled him, but not as much as letting Meta knock him unconscious. He knew that becoming overconfident was a problem with him. This time, he’d paid for it with a headache and wounded pride. Thank God for a good man like Sergeant Riker to back him up.

With his eyes closed, Maddox said, “I congratulate on you on your cunning and forcefulness, Sergeant. You have single-handedly saved the expedition and possibly humanity as well.”

“Keep talking, sir. I like the sound of this.”

Even though it hurt his head, Maddox grinned. He opened his eyes once more and swung his legs off the cot. Dizziness threatened. He heaved up to his feet nonetheless.

“To work, Sergeant,” Maddox said.

“We’re already working, sir. I think you should rest a little longer.”

“No. Everyone must pitch in. We lost the luxury of time a while ago.”

As if to punctuate his thoughts, Ensign Maker looked into the room. “Captain, sir, you’d better come to the bridge. I mean the control room. According to Lieutenant Noonan, the destroyer has increased its acceleration above its safety limit maximum.”

Keith followed an unsteady Captain Maddox to the control room.

Upon entering, the captain stopped and stared. Keith climbed through the hatch after him. Meta sat in the captain’s usual spot. Maddox looked straight at her.

Lieutenant Noonan swiveled around. She didn’t bother with the captain, but gave Keith a meaningful glance. He nodded and headed for the pilot’s chair. Once he’d strapped in and assessed his board, Keith turned and found the captain still glaring at Meta.

Finally, the former Rouen Colony miner dropped her gaze. She gave her head a quick shake. It made her long hair cascade behind her.

“I don’t expect you to understand… sir,” Meta said in her pleasant voice.

Keith never got tired of studying her, the way she walked or listening to her talk. It defined logic that she’d captured him on Loki Prime, had manhandled him, in fact.

Would you call what she’d done woman handling me? Sure, a few bodybuilding women can bench press more than I can, but to just push me around so easily…

The crazy part was that he still recalled her grip, the way her breasts had mashed against his back while she’d forced him through the jungle. What would she be like in the sack?

“I lived on Loki Prime for four terrible years,” Meta quietly explained to Maddox. “Living there changes you. Well, maybe not you , but it did me. Dana… she saved me from some grim predators. I owed her, Captain.”

“I understand that part,” Maddox said.

“I shouldn’t have shot you.”

“No,” he said.

“To pay for my… action, I’ve decided to help you more directly,” Meta said.

“You decided this after Sergeant Riker shot the doctor?”

“I did,” Meta admitted. “I don’t expect you to trust me now.”

“You’re wise to realize that,” Maddox said.

Lieutenant Noonan cleared her throat.

Maddox tore his gaze from Meta. “What is it?” he asked the lieutenant.

Valerie pointed at her view-screen. “I think you ought to look at this, sir.”

In two strides, Maddox reached her station. He squinted as he examined her screen. “They’re moving fast.”

Keith craned his neck to get a look. The destroyer had accelerated from its Laumer-Point in the inner system, heading out here. Now, the Saint Petersburg’s exhaust had lengthened farther behind itself then any of them had ever seen before.

Why are they coming so fast all of a sudden? Keith wondered.

The Geronimo had traveled to the edge of the outer system, past the T dwarf and its many moons. They’d reached the system’s back comet cloud. There were a lot of them out here. An unstable Laumer-Point waited even farther out. According to the professor’s star chart, that tramline would take them into the alien star system.

“We’re over three billion kilometers from the Saint Petersburg ,” Valerie said. “Even at their velocity, it’s going to take the destroyer a couple of days to reach here.”

“I can see that,” Maddox said.

“I still don’t think we should use our fusion thruster,” Valerie said. “We’re cloaked, drifting at our present velocity. Before the Saint Petersburg entered the system, we braked with the fusion engine. We still need to slow down even more.”

“We can use the gravity generator,” the captain said.

Keith winced. He hated the way dumping gravity waves shook the ship. The Geronimo had taken far too much stress throughout the voyage. He was afraid they might shake something permanently loose. If they did, no one was coming to rescue them. This was deep into the Beyond. They were so on their own it wasn’t funny.

Rubbing his hands together, Keith knew fear and excited elation in the pit of his stomach. This was the reason for existence: doing the crazy thing. They’d been waiting for this moment for months of travel.

“We can hide from the Saint Petersburg ,” Valerie told Maddox. “Any of those comets would make an excellent spot. After landing, we shut down almost everything and become a dark object. Of course, it would be even better to land on the right comet.”

“Which one is that?” asked Maddox. “It could take years of searching to find Professor Ludendorff’s stash.”

“That’s where my apology comes in,” Meta said.

The captain straightened, regarding her. “You can tell us which one it is?”

“From hints Dana dropped,” Meta said. “Yes, I think I know which comet. I only have one request.”

Maddox said nothing.

“When all is said and done,” Meta told him, “you spare the doctor.”

Keith wondered what the captain was thinking. The man was proud, and Dana and Meta had beaten him. Slowly, Captain Maddox nodded.

Drawing a deep breath, Meta told the lieutenant the needed coordinates.

“Ensign Maker,” the captain said. “We will use the gravity generator to continue deceleration. Then, you will land the scout on the comet.”

“With our wounded generator,” Keith said, “that won’t be easy.”

“Are you capable of the task?” the captain asked.

“Oh, yes, Captain, sir,” Keith said, puffing out his chest. “It’s the reason I was born.”