Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

Maddox grunted. He didn’t care one bit about medical creatures from six thousand years ago. He wanted this starship, and he needed it now.

“Let’s get ready,” Maddox said.

“We’re going to attack the alien defenders head-on?” Sergeant Riker asked him.

“I don’t see what else we can do,” Maddox said. “We didn’t come all this way to wait in the shuttle. After we dock, we’re going to storm the sentinel.”

Through the window, they watched their ship enter a hangar bay. Other narrow shuttles waited down below on a lit deck. Then their craft descended. Soon, it made loud metallic sounds as vast cylinders of compressed air hissed outside the shuttle’s hull. The entire craft shuddered until magnetic locks attached to the vessel and the vibrations stopped.

“We’re in,” Maddox said.

As if on cue, their vacc-boots clanked down onto the deck. Each of them had been floating above the floor.

“We have gravity,” Keith said. “Is that good or bad, do you think?”

“Only one way to find out,” Maddox said. Although he wore a spacesuit, he readied an assault rifle he’d brought from the Geronimo . The others checked theirs. After everyone nodded, he led the group to the outer hatch. Dana had shown them where it was.

The pit of Maddox’s stomach twisted as nervous tension oozed through his arms and made his fingers burn. He glanced back one last time to see if everyone was ready.

“This is it,” Maddox said. “We’re Star Watch officers and personnel.”

“Not all of us,” Meta said.

“As of now, you are,” Maddox told her. “And I don’t mean an honorary member. The Lord High Admiral gave me the authority to draft whomever I wanted. Do you agree?”

Meta nodded, saying. “I do.”

“Then repeat after me,” Maddox said. He administered the oath, and she swore to uphold it.

“Doctor Rich?” Maddox asked.

“Forget about your rituals,” Dana said. “Let’s get on with this.”

“No,” Maddox said. “This isn’t only for you. It lets the rest of us know you’re with us.”

“I’m standing here, aren’t I?”

“You must also be with us in spirit,” Maddox said. “We must be a team or we’re never going to succeed. We have to be able to rely on each other.”

“This is military gibberish,” Dana said.

“We want you to belong with us, Doctor. Will you take the Star Watch oath? Will you fight with every fiber of your being to help us defeat the New Men?”

“Your ringing platitudes mean nothing to me,” Dana said stubbornly. “I am an island unto myself.”

“Wrong,” Maddox told her. “The others gave you their blood to keep you alive. You’re aiding us with your exceptional intellect.”

Dana glanced at the others. “Is this true? Do you want me to join your war party in spirit and in truth?”

“I do,” Meta said.

“And I,” Valerie said.

“Sure, love,” Keith said. “Let it be all for one and one for all.”

“The old musketeer slogan,” Dana said. “That is quaint. What about you, Sergeant Riker, you shot me with your stunner? Do you want me in the Star Watch?”

“An old dog like me in an alien starship on the edge of nowhere would like all the allies he can get,” Riker said. “I want you to join up, Doctor. We need you with us all the way.”

Maddox was surprised at Dana’s reaction. As the gruff sergeant spoke, the doctor turned away. She didn’t speak, but her helmet went up and down in a nod.

“Administer the oath,” Meta told Maddox.

Clearing his throat, Maddox did just that. In a quiet whisper, Doctor Dana Rich took the Star Watch vow, finally joining the team.

Only then did Captain Maddox approach the hatch. He unlocked it and swung it open into the alien hangar bay.

A few interior lights gleamed overhead. From here at least, the other shuttles appeared to be intact. He climbed down, stepping onto the alien sentinel. After a long journey, it was difficult to believe he had gotten this far. A grin split his features. A laugh bubbled.

Twisting around, he saw the hangar bay door they’d entered sliding shut, sealing them from the stars.

“Nothing,” Lieutenant Noonan said in a hoarse voice. “I don’t see any movement. Where are these defenders?”

“Fan out,” Maddox said. “Look everywhere. Lieutenant, do you have your motion detector out?”

“Like I said, sir, I don’t see a thing. I meant on my detector.”

Like mice in a deserted castle, the Star Watch team began to cross the hangar bay deck. They passed other shuttles. Nothing moved. No dust stirred. Scrawled across the floor in various places were alien numbers or words.

“I see a hatch, sir,” Riker said. “Do you suppose the defenders are waiting on the other side?”

Maddox hefted his repeater. What would ancient, alien space marines be like after six thousand years? “This is it, people. If we’re going to control the starship, we have to defeat them.”

His stomach twisted with anticipation. The closer they neared the hatch, the tighter his guts became. Turning, he pointed at each member in turn, showing each person where he wanted him or her to stand. Only then, did he take the final step toward the hatch. Finding his mouth bone dry, Maddox shifted his stance. He gripped his repeater one-armed and swung the hatch open with the other.

Valerie shouted, and she fired several rounds. His helmet muffled the noise of the sounds even as the bullets burned past Maddox into the giant corridor.

“Stop shooting!” Maddox shouted. “They’re dead. Look! They’re all long dead.”

He stared into a brightly lit wide curving corridor. The sight shocked him. Monstrous skeletons of nine-foot… The captain squinted. They were big pincer-creatures with steel-shod claws. Each skeleton gripped what appeared to be a hacked-apart fighting robot. Instead of humanlike arms, the robots had segmented metallic tentacles with grippers on the ends. Littered among the dead combatants were serrated blades, oddly shaped rifles, tubes, possibly grenades and…

“What is that?” Valerie asked. She’d moved up beside him by the hatch. Her gloved finger pointed at a crusty substance covering most of the corridor decking.

The lieutenant’s words coming out of Maddox’s headphones caused him to start. He took a sharp breath and stepped into the corridor. The bottom of his vacc-boots crunched upon the crusted substance, causing it to burst into powder.

The others followed him, observing similar reactions.

“Slime,” Sergeant Riker declared. “This brittle stuff must have been slime once. Did the skeleton things crawl like slugs?”

“Sick,” Valerie said, “sick and disgusting.”

Maddox studied the corridor, looking for clues about the battle that had taken place here. The bulkheads bore scotch marks and had holes in places. He accidentally kicked a tube, which rattled and bounced down the corridor, coming to rest against a skeleton’s skull. The struck bone disintegrated into dust, sending up a puff that slowly drifted onto the deck.

“Was this the defenders’ last stand?” Keith asked.

“I’m not interested in that,” Meta declared. “Where are the other defenders? The medical creature in the shuttle told us some still live or function.”

Maddox halted, and with greater intensity, he stared down the corridor. The littered deck went on as far as he could see. He told himself to think.

“If the starship’s defenders had survived the last battle,” he said, “wouldn’t they have cleaned up this mess?”

“That’s an interesting question,” Dana said. “Yes, I believe you’re correct. By this—” a sweep of a hand indicated the dead— “it shows us nothing alive or functioning remains on the starship.”