Authors: Vaughn Heppner
“Oh?”
“How is it that your people chose you to try to beat the New Men?” she asked.
Tension
bubbled in his chest. “Could you explain your statement?” he asked.
“I don’t have to. Your reaction tells me I struck a nerve.
Let me tell you something about your operation. Your plan to gain the sentinel is futile. It won’t work.”
“Doctor Ludendorff believed it could
work,” Maddox said.
Dana made a dismissive gesture. “Ludendorff
is a hopeless romantic. Yes, the man is brilliant. I concede that much. Frankly, that’s part of his problem. His brilliance blinds him to what can and can’t be done. Most of his life, he’s been doing things everyone told him was impossible. Thus, when he finally came to an impossible situation—I’m talking about the alien star system—he was too puffed up to realize we all would have died if I hadn’t acted quickly enough getting us out of there.”
“Why
exactly is gaining the sentinel impossible?”
“You’re a smart man, Captain. At least, you seem capable enough. It should be elementary to figure out the reason.”
“Why don’t you tell me,” Maddox suggested.
Dana looked at him as if he’d become simple
-minded. “Ludendorff estimated the alien war to have taken place nearly six thousand years ago. Knowing the man, he’s probably right. Let me ask you something. Can you imagine how long ago that was? Oh, I understand that you think you can. You can’t, though, not really. The timeframe contains all of humanity’s recorded history, everything. The sentinel is impossibly old, yet it is still dangerous. Don’t you think others throughout the centuries tried to tame it as you’re hoping to do?”
“I have no idea,” Maddox said. “By the articles I’ve read, the aliens vanished long ago. Maybe this is the first attempt
since their disappearance.”
“Even if you’re right, the sentinel would be too different
for us to use. Its controls are likely based on incomprehensible alien realities, at least as we think of them.”
“Wouldn’t rational minds think alike?
” Maddox asked. “For instance, aliens must have used the same mathematics we have.”
“
Clearly, you’ve read Ludendorff’s notes,” Dana said. “He spoke as you do. No! I reject the concept out of hand. Different races from different worlds would think and act inconceivably different from us.”
“Then how do we defeat the New Men’s star cruisers?”
Maddox asked.
“Not my job,” Dana said.
“We—meaning you as well—are presently hunted by a New Man.”
“Correction,
you’re
hunted by a Star Watch destroyer. I’m beginning to suspect your entire story, Captain. I think you have a completely different agenda in mind, one you’re refusing to tell us.”
“No,” Maddox said. “
That doesn’t fly. You saw the New Men down on the planet. You witnessed them and you know they’re incredibly dangerous to us. They have several edges over regular humans, not least of which is that they know us but we know very little about them. Tell me, Doctor. What must I do to convince you to aid us?”
“Nothing,” she said, “because I’m never going to help you in the way you want. It’s death to go back.”
“At least show us how to get to the alien star system. I’ll drop you off before we reach it.”
“
Forget it,” she said. “Firstly, I don’t trust you. You drugged me, Captain. You lack a sense of decency. Secondly, if you want to go there, you have Ludendorff’s notes. Read them and use them.”
Maddox stared into her eyes, feeling like a deer watching a wolf panting under a tree. “I believe the
professor wrote in code,” he said.
An eyebrow lifted. “So, you’re more intelligent than I’ve give
n you credit for. Yes, the professor was a maniac about security. He put everything he wrote into an inscrutable cipher.”
“
I’m sure you could crack it,” Maddox said.
“That goes without saying.
He was smart. I’m smarter.”
Maddox pursed his lips. “
I must say, Doctor. You’re a difficult person to like.”
“All you mean is that I’m not doing what you want.
As you can see, I’m too wise to fall for your ploys.”
“Nevertheless, you are in the same predicament as us.
You’re in the same craft. The New Men are hunting for us, meaning they’re also hunting for you. What will you do as they close in? You must come to your senses before they trap us, and you, for good.”
“
You forget,” Dana said. “I was on Loki Prime, more trapped than anywhere in the universe. Yet, I escaped.”
Maddox
could have pointed out that he was the one who had taken her off the planet. Instead, he shifted directions because he realized that an appeal to her better nature wasn’t going to work. Doctor Rich was proud. She was ambitious, and she obviously looked down on others. She was hyper-intelligent. That must have meant a childhood full of loneliness. Maddox knew something about that.
He now snorted softly.
She bristled.
Seeing her reaction, he
changed tactics. He would needle her, after all. “You didn’t escape from Loki Prime,” Maddox said. “I did that, taking you with me. Don’t you realize I won’t always be there to save your ugly hide from the New Men?”
“
Ha!” she said. “Nice try. I’m not as sensitive or as vain as you seem to think. Let me tell you something. You need me. I don’t need you.”
“If I have to,
” Maddox said, “I will decipher Ludendorff’s notes on my own and take us to the alien system.”
“
Once you’re there,” Dana asked, “how will you trick the sentinel into letting you board?”
Maddox
shrugged as if it would be child’s play.
“
You do know that you’re racing to your destruction,” she said.
“Possibly,” he said. “I’m also taking you with me.”
“You’ll have to drop me off first.”
“Under normal circumstances I’d be happy to oblige. I’m afraid with the destroyer on our tail
that I cannot.”
“That’s madness
,” Dana said. “You’ve already admitted the scout is limping along. They have a fully functional machine. You will not shake them. The only rational choice is to return to a Star Watch shipyard and effect repairs.”
“In this
you are correct,” Maddox said. “I am irrational and will stubbornly attempt the mission no matter how poor the odds are of succeeding.”
She squinted at him
. “You’re bluffing.”
“Did I try to bluff the New Man
on Loki?”
“No…” she said. “You shot him, but he still got away.”
Maddox wanted to shout with frustration, pick up his chair and hurl it at her. What would it take to convince this stubborn genius?
“Look at it this way,” said Maddox. “The destroyer isn’t going to give up. That means we’ll barely stay ahead of
them. Whatever else I do, I’ll take the scout into the Beyond. Without your help, I’ll make mistakes deciphering the professor’s notes. That means a longer journey than otherwise. The longer this trip takes, the greater chance that I slip up and they catch us. That personally affects you, Doctor.”
She lay
back down and stared up at the ceiling. “At least I get to live longer this way—your proposed zigzag journey through the Beyond. Once we reach the alien system, our lives will be measured in hours, not decades.”
“
I know what you’re thinking,” Maddox said. “Let me assure you, Doctor, you won’t hijack my vessel.”
She didn’t answer.
“If it’s in my best interests,” Maddox said, “I can always give you the same drugs as before, put you back to sleep.”
“
True enough, you can,” she said, “but you won’t.”
“If
I don’t, you’ll be spending a lot of time alone locked in your quarters.”
“We’ll see how well Meta does with that
,” Dana said.
F
rustration seethed through Maddox. He realized she wasn’t going to budge now. That meant he’d have to start reading Ludendorff’s notes again. He couldn’t believe freeing Doctor Rich had actually hindered their mission instead of aiding it. The scout wouldn’t be in this poor condition if he hadn’t gone down to Loki Prime.
“You
know you’ll never decipher the professor’s notes,” she said. “You lack the brainpower. Thus, this mission is doomed to failure.”
“I don’t
understand why you’re aiding the New Men, Doctor.”
“I’m not aiding them.
I already told you once. I hate the Commonwealth of Planets and think even less of the Windsor League and the Wahhabi Caliphate. Let the New Men make a clean sweep of it. In time, I’m going to get a starship of my own. Then, I’m heading far, far away, Captain. So you see, your threat of heading even deeper into the Beyond is no threat at all, but a boon for my plans. By all means, take us far away from your precious Commonwealth and its oh so high and mighty Star Watch. Good riddance to them all.”
Silently, Maddox admitted defeat. “Very well, you’ve convinced me. Let me help you to your
new quarters.”
“I can walk on my own,” she said. With that, she struggled off the robo-doctor and limped for the hatch.
Maddox followed, knowing he’d have to keep a sharp eye on her, or despite his best efforts, she would hijack the vessel.
The deadly game of tag begun with the
Saint Petersburg
in Earth orbit and taken to the Loki System now entered its most frustrating phase for Captain Maddox.
With its head start, t
he
Geronimo
slipped from the barren star system. For a day—twenty-three hours to be precise—it seemed they had finally shaken off the destroyer. Instead, as the scout neared the next Laumer-Point, the
Saint Petersburg
entered the same star system. After two hours of active sensor sweeps, the destroyer accelerated hard for the jump point the scout neared.
“
Since the mine-attack, our cloaking device no longer functions one hundred percent,” Valerie said. “They must be able to see us.”
Maddox stood in the control room, staring at the lieutenant’s
view-screen. The
Saint Petersburg
aimed at them like an arrow, if six hundred million kilometers away. He hated the New Man over there, and he hoped the commander’s ribs hurt where he’d shot him on Loki Prime.
The
scout’s engine worked after a fashion. The gravity generator shook the wounded scout too much when employed. The cloaking device—as the lieutenant suggested was still less than perfect.
“Drop the cloak,” Maddox said.
“What if the destroyer’s crew just guessed right?” Valerie asked. “If we appear now, that will let them know exactly what to look for next time.”
Maddox didn’t think so, but
it was possible the lieutenant was right. He put his hands behind his back, squeezing his fingers into fists. This was different than his normal spying mission. Given a situation like this on Earth, he would…
Maddox
shook his head. To win this time, he had to accept that his choices could produce defeat. He had to
think
, and he had to accept responsibility. If Valerie had a better idea than he did, he should use it. Captaining a starship, even a small one like the scout, was an art. It was conceivable he still had much to learn in this area.
“Maintain the cloak,” he said.
Now it was Keith’s turn. “If we remain cloaked, the destroyer is going to catch up,” the pilot said. “We have to move as fast as we can, and we don’t dare use the gravity generator until further repairs have strengthened the scout’s structures.”
“Understood,” said Maddox. “Stay cloaked
, but put the fusion thruster online.”
“
If we do that,” Valerie said, “they’ll certainly see us.”
“Nevertheless, we
will risk it,” Maddox said. “Ensign Maker is correct. They’re heading for us, even if they can’t see us. We must keep as far ahead of them as we can, staying out of missile and beam range.”
Geronimo
accelerated. Several hours later, the ship entered the Laumer-Point at speed. Without the destroyer in the new star system—at least for a time—Maddox ordered the lieutenant to let the cloak drop.
During this time,
Meta, Valerie, Keith and Sergeant Riker continued to effect repairs the best they could. Doctor Dana Rich stayed locked in her quarters. Meta constantly asked to see her. Maddox refused every request.
The
captain’s normal calm deserted him when he was alone in his quarters. He read Professor Ludendorff’s notes again and again, stalking back and forth in his chamber in frustration and then returning to his computer to retype the words, hoping to see something new. He tried old encryptions and finally ran the notes through the computer. Nothing made sense.
“Deeper in
to the Beyond,” Maddox ordered. “The alien star system is out there, so that’s where we’ll head.”
Always
—sometimes just minutes before they jumped—the destroyer appeared in the star system,
pinging
its sensors off the cloaked scout.
Maddox had Riker read the notes. The sergeant shrugged
afterward. The old man had no ideas. Keith read the notes and laughed when asked if he saw a code embedded there. Valerie didn’t laugh, but she didn’t have any ideas, either. Meta pondered the words. She tried hard but came up with nothing.
After the tenth jump, Maddox lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. They had
just used a small Class 3 wormhole. The destroyer would have to work around, using larger jump points to reach this star system. If the scout proved fast enough, they could leave this system before the
Saint Petersburg
appeared to resume the chase.
To Maddox’s amazement, t
hey made the jump, a second one too—several days later—and the
Saint Petersburg
still hadn’t showed up.
“We did it,” Valerie said
in the control room. “We’ve shaken the hunter. Now, we can think about a space-dock and extended repairs.”
There were grins all around. Then an alarm rang. Maddox, Keith and Valerie bent over their controls. The lieutenant found it first. She looked up, stricken.
Maddox noticed her features. He sat up, asking, “You found the
Saint Petersburg
?”
The lieutenant shook her head. “Worse,” she whispered, “it’s much, much worse.” She pointed at her
view-screen. “I’m looking at a New Men star cruiser. I’d recognize that triangular shape anywhere. The same model annihilated von Gunther’s fleet. How it found us, I don’t know, but it’s here.”
An icy sensation spread
through Maddox’s chest. “I think I know what happened. They’ve widened the search, using more vessels. Maybe they’ve figured out what we’re after or they knew all along. They’re not about to let us reach the alien star system.”
Instead of swearing, Captain Maddox drummed his fingers on the console. He stood and pointed at Valerie. “Map out an escape route
—don’t worry where it takes us in relation to the Oikumene. Shoot us through five star systems in quick succession. Oh, and use as many Class 3 wormholes as possible, making sure each Laumer-Point is as near to the next one as possible.”
“Excuse me, sir,” she said. “I’m not sure what you’re driving at.”
“We’re going to try to shake
all
of them,” Maddox said. “Bam, bam, bam,” he said, clapping his hands each time. “We jump, jump, jump before they appear to get a fix on us. If they have several vessels chasing us, we have to shake them all off.”
“How are they coordinating
with each other in the various star systems?” Valerie asked.
There wasn’t a hyper-communications system
in existence as far as Maddox knew. Messages traveled as fast as starships could carry them and no faster.
“I wish I knew,” Maddox said. “They’re being clever. That means we have to pull every rabbit out of the hat we can. Now get to work.”
“Where are you going, sir?” the lieutenant asked.
“I have a new argument to present
to the doctor,” he said. “Wish me luck.”
“Not this time,” Valerie said.
Maddox was already headed for the hatch. He halted and glanced at her.
“This time, we need something stronger,”
Valerie said. “I’m going to pray.”
“Ah,” Maddox said. Then he hurried for the
corridor.
***
Maddox didn’t bother knocking. He simply opened the hatch and stepped through.
Doctor Rich sat up in bed, scanning a reader. She gave him a bored look
then went back to reading.
He closed the hatch
and locked it. Meta had tried to enter once when he’d done something like this before. He didn’t want that happening again.
Maddox pulled up a chair, sat down and began to wait. After fifteen minutes, he realized
Dana Rich would never speak first. Part of him wanted to get up and leave.
Don’t be absurd
, he told himself.
Winning a stubbornness contest with the doctor means nothing. Gaining the alien sentinel to defeat the New Men is the only measurement of victory
.
“I have news,” he said.
He saw the fingers holding the reader tighten slightly. Slowly, she lowered the device to her lap. Maddox had the feeling she’d been waiting anxiously for him to talk. Maybe it had been hard on her to outwait him. If he’d stalled just a little longer…
“I’m reading an interesting chapter,” she said. “So I hope you can get to the point and leave me in peace.”
She’s bluffing. She must desperately want to talk. Even a tough bird like her will crack over time. She’s smart, but she’s not immune to the same defects and needs we all possess
.
“Of course,” he said. “I’ll be brief. A star cruiser had taken up the chase.”
“You mean one of the New Men’s special cruisers?” she asked.
“Precisely,” Maddox said.
“And you’ve rushed to tell me this for what reason?”
“I would have thought it obvious.”
“My wits have atrophied since you’ve locked me in,” Dana said. “Why don’t you explain the reason to me?”
“It’s simple enough. The destroyer lost our trail. Now one of the star cruisers has taken up the slack. Possibly, it indicates the New Men
’s starship has always been there.”
“Hmm, possibly,” Dana agreed.
“There might be more star cruisers.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it
,” she said.
“I believe that proves the New Men
’s agents in Star Watch have divined our objective or known it for quite some time.”
“I’m still not following you,” Dana said.
“Why tell me any of this?”
“
Don’t you see? The New Men must believe that our objective is possible. If it were impossible, why use important cruisers to trail a scout?”
With her brow furrowed, Dana glanced
back down at her reader. A smile worked its way onto her mouth as she looked back up. “I can see how you reached your conclusion. That they’re following us doesn’t make the impossible any more feasible. Instead, it proves the New Men are less a menace than you’ve painted them.”
“Why is that?” Maddox asked.
“The sentinel is beyond anyone. So, the New Men are as capable as we are of making misjudgments.”
“What if you’re wrong
about this?” he asked.
“I’m not
wrong,” Dana said. “Remember, I’ve been to the alien system. You haven’t, and neither have the New Men.”
Maddox watched her. Did she really believe what she said, or was she angling for something he couldn’t see yet?
“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?