The Lost Starship (30 page)

Captain Maddox watched from outside the scout as he stood on the comet. Ensign Maker maneuvered the
Geronimo
into the vast cavern he and Meta had carved out of the dirty ice-ball.

It had been
two days since the meeting in the wardroom. Since then, the crew had fixed the professor’s engines to the outer comet and positioned the fuel for consumption. Only once the scout was embedded within and the entrance frozen over would they pilot the comet to the unstable Laumer-Point.

Despite their best efforts, the destroyer must have detected something suspicious
. Before reaching the inner star system, the
Saint Petersburg
had braked hard. After the vessel came to a halt, it started accelerating for the outer, unstable Laumer-Point.

Valerie wondered why the destroyer hadn’t gone toward the inner system
at full acceleration to circle the star and whip back out here.

“They’re doing it faster this way,” Maddox had told her.

“Yes, but the fuel consumption is enormous the way they did it.”

“The obvious conclusion is that speed is more important to them than fuel. Perhaps the star cruiser
, when it shows up, gives the destroyer more fusion isotopes as needed.”

As he stood on the comet, Maddox recalled the conversation. If—

The comet shuddered beneath his vacc-boots. The captain staggered in slow motion. The gravity here was negligible. A moment later, Maddox’s earphones hissed.

“I’m down,” Keith said.
“We’re going to begin icing the landing gear to the comet.

Maddox jumped, floating to
ward the torch. It was time to begin sealing the cavern and the
Geronimo
inside it.

***

Everything was hooked to the control room panels. Maddox took his spot and watched Keith and Valerie take theirs.

“Once we start,” Valerie said. “They’ll know exactly where we are.”

Maddox understood. This was the final lap to the alien star system. The comet had to beat the destroyer to the Laumer-Point. Nothing else mattered.

“Ready?” Maddox asked Keith.

The ace nodded.

“Engage thrusters,” Maddox said. “Engage every one of them. We’re blasting full throttle until we’ve made it
, or we’re dead.”

Keith tapped his board.

Watching his screen, Maddox saw the engines glow orange. Each of them was frozen into the ice at the “back” of the comet. The orange color intensified. Then blue fusion exhaust burst out. The tails quickly grew. Soon, they stretched far behind the comet. The thrusters pushed the mass of ice, snow, rock and
Geronimo
core.

Soon, t
he stellar object broke out of its ancient orbit around the T dwarf. Very slowly, it began to head toward the unstable Laumer-Point. It didn’t have far to travel, a few hundred thousand kilometers. That was nothing compared to the destroyer’s three billion, four hundred thousand.

“We need more velocity,” Valerie said. “At this rate, the
destroyer will catch us.”

Maddox couldn’t contain himself. He stood and shook his arms
, willing the nervous tingling to stop. They were doing the impossible. After endless weeks upon weeks—
“Keep pouring it out,” he told Keith.

“Don’t worry about me, sir. I’m gunning the engines. The comet’s mass is too much, though. It may be ice, but there’s so bloody much of it that we’re not going to accelerate fast enough. Ah, I have an idea. We edge the
Geronimo
closer to the exit so its thrusters stick out of the back. We add our thrust to the other engines.”

“Not a bad idea
for gaining greater velocity,” Maddox said. “But if we do that, we’ll never survive the other side. The only way we’re going to exit the wormhole and live to finish our task is if the comet takes the brunt of the heat for us.”

“You really believe
it’s going to be that way, sir?” Keith asked.

“Oh, yes.”

***

The acceleration continued for another day. The professor’s engines held, and Keith managed to eke a bit more thrust from them. It gave them slightly more velocity, possibly changing the endgame
a day from now.

Compared to how far they
had to travel to reach this place, the last lap was gallingly short. The comet’s mass was both their bane and their approaching salvation.

Maddox paced inside his quarters. His stomach fluttered with anticipation. He had
three distinct fears. First, he dreaded the possibility of the
Saint Petersburg
catching them before they reached the unstable Laumer-Point. If the destroyer reached them too soon, the twin laser batteries could possibly dig through the ice-shield to bite into the
Geronimo
. Second, while buried under millions of tons of ice and snow, could the scout’s Laumer Drive open the wormhole entrance? Supposing it could, would the voyage down the unstable tramline annihilate them with random flux instability? Third, could they survive the red star on the other side?

That was the reason for the ice-shield. According to the professor, the
unstable tramline was the only way into or out-of the haunted star system. The extinct race must have possessed incredible deflector shields or maybe they used millions of tons of rock as protection. The alien system had a red giant for a star. Once, it must have been a regular G glass star like Sol. Now, it was an M class star.

The star had used up the hydrogen fuel in the core
, so the thermonuclear reactions had ceased there. That had begun a long process. From a 1-solar mass star, it had become a red giant with 1000 solar luminosities with a surface temperature about 3000 K and 100 solar radii. The Sun at this stage would engulf Mercury in its photosphere, or outer layer.

The red giant in the alien star system had grown over the only known Laumer-Point. That meant, once a starship exited the tramline, it would be in the star’s photosphere. If the
Geronimo
exited normally, the star would crisp it in seconds.

The plan called for the comet taking the
star’s blasts. At their speed—if the calculations were correct—they would only be in the photosphere for a brief amount of time. Still, even for many hundreds of thousands of kilometers beyond the star, they would need the comet to absorb the hellish heat and radiation.

Maddox paced in one direction, turned sharply and paced in the other. If even
one
of the three fears came true, the mission would fail. They would be dead, and humanity would never gain its balancing starship.

He snorted to himself. Even if they beat all
three worries, they still had to deal with the killer sentinel. They had to find a way aboard—and then they had to figure out how to make the ancient starship work for them.

Maddox shook his head.
If they passed all those tests, could they take the alien vessel out of the star system into the wide universe?

The
Geronimo
had almost reached the goal, yet the imponderables seemed to expand before him.

Although he hated to admit it, Maddox realized he’d just have to wait for the answer.

I’m unsuited for starship command. The need to do, to act, is too strong in me. The waiting game and dispassionately playing each move—I want to get this over with one way or another
.

***

Time crawled as the comet-vessel headed for the unstable Laumer-Point. The engines thrust, and hourly Maddox expected one of them to give out.

Behind them, the
Saint Petersburg
came at maximum drive, building greater velocity with each second. It launched two missiles, which accelerated even faster.

“Those are going to hit, sir,” Valerie told Maddox in the control chamber.

Maddox stared at her screen. They had expected the move. At his orders, they had previously dismantled the scout’s two cannons, freezing them and their autoloaders on the back of the comet.

“When the time comes,” Maddox said, “Ensign Maker will have to shoot down
the missiles.”

Valerie gave him an unreadable look.

More time passed. The destroyer rapidly closed the distance. The two missiles zoomed toward destiny.

Finally, Maddox ordered Keith to his station.

The ace flexed his fingers. “I have this,” he told them. “They’re coming so fast there’s no way they can maneuver out of the way of my shells.”

With the primitive targeting system they’d frozen into the comet, Ensign Maker
selected the lead missile. He began long-distance firing.

At thirty thousand kilometers
from the comet, he struck the hardened nosecone. It should have shredded the warhead, but the thing held together. At twenty-one thousand kilometers, Keith nailed it again. The missile and its warhead died.

“
I told you!” Keith shouted.

The last missile bored in. It had better ECM, and Keith failed to lock onto it.
The shells sped past it as the missile kept coming.

“Blimey cocker,” Keith hissed under his breath. “I ain’t missing this close.”

Before he could hit it, at nine thousand kilometers from target, the warhead ignited. The EMP blast and heat did its trick. All but one comet-frozen engine malfunctioned and kept spewing exhaust.

“
Shutdown the last engine,” Maddox said. “We don’t want to skew our entrance trajectory.”

The comet no longer accelerated, but drifted at its present velocity for the approaching Laumer-Point. Behind them, crossing the plane of the brown dwarf,
Saint Petersburg
made its last run. The destroyer traveled at high velocity. It would reach the Laumer-Point at almost the same instant as the comet.

“Sir,” Valerie said. “We’re being hailed.”

Maddox massaged his chest, taking his seat. He debated with himself for all of three seconds. Decision made, he clicked on the comm equipment, letting his features appear to the other side. What did it matter now?

His screen showed the inflexible face of a New Man. The eyes
were like swirling black ink, the skin like golden ivory. Gigantic haughtiness faced him.

“I know you,” Maddox said, thinking to recognize the face. He’d had a momentary glimpse on the prison planet’s surface and would never forget
the man.

Despite the words, t
he enemy’s masklike features never changed.

“I beat you on Loki Prime,” Maddox said. “I shot you to the ground and took your weapon. I’ve kept it as a memento
in my trophy case.”

“You have failed,” the New Man said.

The deep voice shocked Maddox. It was so utterly controlled and confident. He envied the New Man that.

The
other cocked his head and seemed to peer through the screen with greater interest. “I detect an anomaly. You are not like them.”

“What’s he mean?” Keith
whispered.

Lieutenant Noonan
shushed the pilot, tapping her index finger against her lips.

Maddox sat frozen
in his chair. He yearned for the New Man to elaborate. Was he a failed experiment? Had they used his mother as a breeder, putting their
exalted
seed into her womb?

Am I like them?
Maddox wondered.

“Surrender,” the New Man said. “There is no need for you to die.”

“Why would you care?” Maddox asked.

“You have information I would like to confirm.”

Maddox mulled that over. The New Man hadn’t said, “You have information I need.” Instead, the haughty New Man wished to
confirm
a thing.

“What’s your name?” Maddox asked.

The New Man frowned. “You young presumptuous pup of the Star Watch, you have insulted me for the last time.”

“What insult? I just asked you your name.”

The New Man stiffened before he said, “Know that your mission will die with you, Captain Maddox.”

Maddox’s eyes widened with surprise.

“We always know more about our targets than we need to understand. Thus, I know you and your inefficient crew.” The New Man leaned closer. The black eyes seemed to burn with passion. “You were always doomed to fail, Captain. It was inevitable. We have arrived to halt the madness of your species’ chaotic inconsistencies. You should surrender to us as gods coming in judgment. Homo Sapiens’ era of rutting and ugliness will finally cease.”

“
Are you saying you’re no longer human?” Maddox asked.

“
Your conceit is ill-reasoned,” the New Man said. “Homo Sapiens have risen little higher than the brute beasts around them. Perhaps you have something more personally compared to the common ruck of your Orion Arm herd. I would like to examine your DNA to discover what this difference is, but it is a small matter. We of the Race have arrived at genetic perfection. That makes us human. You and your ilk are something lower on the evolutionary scale.”