The Lost Command (Lost Starship Series Book 2) Read online

  Dotted red lines moved away from the triangles, heading in the direction the star cruisers aimed. The lines speared across the system, finally reaching the known region of the Laumer-Point by a Jovian world.

  “They’re chasing Victory,” Keith said, “trying to reach the Laumer-Point before Galyan does.”

  “Show us our starship,” Maddox said.

  “Aye, aye, sir.” Keith manipulated his board.

  The ancient alien vessel appeared as a blue triangle. A dotted blue line moved from it toward the outer system Laumer-Point. According to the scale of Keith’s projection, the New Men had four times as far to go to reach the Laumer-Point as Galyan did.

  “The New Men must know about Victory’s star jump drive,” Dana said. “Why are they trying to do this? They can’t be that foolish.”

  “Maybe they know about the drive,” Maddox said.

  “Not maybe,” Dana argued. “They wouldn’t all be racing for the Laumer-Point unless Victory were important. That means they understand what they saw. Yet, if that’s true, they must know our starship can simply jump away at any time.”

  “Maybe they’re hoping the ancient vessel had a star drive malfunction,” Maddox said.

  Dana didn’t respond to that as she continued to crane her neck to look at the screen.

  “Time to use a fold,” Keith said.

  The ace reached up, opening a small compartment overhead. He took a hypo and pressed it against his right arm, injecting himself.

  “What did you just do?” Dana asked.

  “Gave myself a Baxter-Locke shot, love.”

  “I can see you gave yourself something.”

  “Then why did you ask?”

  Dana looked perturbed. “A shot of what?” she asked.

  “I just said. It’s called a Baxter-Locke shot. Helps against fold sickness.”

  “You mean Jump Lag,” she said.

  “I suppose it would work for that, too,” the ace admitted.

  “Well, give me a shot.”

  “Can’t do that, love. I don’t have many doses left. It’s hyper-expensive, don’t you know. It’s strictly a jumpfighter item.”

  “Do you hear him?” Dana asked Maddox.

  “It’s experimental,” Keith added. “We don’t know yet if the dosage has any long-term aftereffects.”

  “I don’t care about that,” Dana said. “I’m not sitting here and enduring Jump Lag if I don’t have to.”

  “You do have to,” Maddox told her.

  “What?” Dana asked.

  “He’s our ticket to doing this right,” Maddox said. “Whatever helps him fly this tin can will remain strictly for him for as long as it lasts.”

  “You’re only saying that because you can endure Jump Lag better than the rest of us,” Dana said. “If you weren’t half New Man—” the doctor realized her mistake too late, but closed her mouth just the same.

  Keith turned around, staring at Maddox. A second later, the pilot faced forward again.

  “I’m sorry,” Dana told Maddox. “I didn’t mean to say that. It just slipped out.”

  “You’re half New Man?” Keith asked over the headphones.

  “That’s a presumption,” Maddox said.

  “I didn’t know that,” Keith said, sounding worried.

  Maddox looked away and closed his eyes. He’d been dreading this moment ever since he learned about the possibility.

  “Tell him your story,” Dana said. To Keith, she said, “The captain doesn’t know what he is, but being part New Man is one of the possible options.”

  “What story?” Keith asked. “I’d like to know.”

  Maddox nodded, opening his eyes. He never should have told Dana, but what was done was done. He explained to Keith his origins, how his mother had escaped from the Beyond, with him in her womb.

  “I have some physical differences,” Maddox said. “I have a slightly higher core temperature. Alcohol doesn’t make me drunk.”

  Keith swore under his breath, adding, “So you can’t know the urge, can you?”

  Maddox chose to ignore the comment. “I have faster reflexes, and I’m stronger than average. Remember, though, Meta is denser and stronger than a normal person, and she has nothing to do with the New Men. Maybe my mother came from a similar world to the Rouen Colony.”

  “That’s a story, all right,” Keith said.

  The jumpfighter continued on its course.

  A half minute later, Keith said, “Well, you’re still one of us, sir. That’s how I see it. Even if you have their bastard blood—I don’t mean it like that, sir. It’s just…they’re nuking worlds, practicing genocide. The New Men are evil, is what I think.”

  “I agree with you,” Maddox said. “But we can chitchat about this later. Now, it’s time to start moving in. The star cruisers are chasing Victory. We have to make our first move.”

  “Aye,” Keith said, “that’s true. So I want you to hang on. It’s about to get crazy.”

  The ace adjusted his controls. The engine whined with greater power. The noise became worse than before, climbing higher and higher, penetrating their protective headphones. Dana opened her mouth. Maddox tried the same thing, and he found it helped a little. Then the noise began to beat against his skull.

  In that moment, the entire craft shuddered. Maddox’s teeth rattled, and it felt as if they plunged down a yawning hole. They fell faster and faster. Above the blast of engine power, Maddox could have sworn he heard Dana scream in agony.

  The universe blurred before Maddox. The screen became a smear. A second later, the stars reappeared on the screen. Maddox’s gut twisted. He clamped his teeth together, refusing to vomit. By slow degrees, the feeling of sickness departed. The engine no longer whined with its former intensity and the noise no longer beat into his skull. He had a headache, though, and his mouth tasted dry.

  “We did it,” Keith said. “It wasn’t bad, was it?”

  Maddox didn’t answer. Neither did Dana.

  “It takes some getting used to,” Keith said. He checked his instruments. “We’re a quarter of the way closer.”

  “We have to do that three more times?” Dana asked.

  “Don’t worry, love. You’ll recover faster than you can believe.”

  Maddox wasn’t so sure about that. It seemed worse in a jumpfighter. Maybe the cramped space had something to do with it. Maybe being closer to the fold/jump source did it. Whatever the case, he understood the need for the Baxter-Locke shot. A jumpfighter pilot couldn’t keep taking that and do his job.

  The hours passed, and the data coming from the star cruisers was newer because they were sustainably closer than before. Now, however, it took longer to receive telemetry data from Victory as it raced away from them.

  Dana shifted for what must have been the one hundredth time. She looked up, saying, “Do you mind if we switch places for a bit? I need to stretch my legs.”

  “Oh,” Maddox said. “Yes, of course.” He got up, twisting around her, sitting on the floor beside his seat. He brought up his knees, hunching into an uncomfortable position.

  Maddox was the captain, and the crew’s well-being was his responsibility. That meant he didn’t always take the best accommodations. This idea didn’t come naturally to Maddox. He was used to having the best. The mission was first, though. Maybe he should stay down here a while to give Dana a more thorough break.

  Finally, Keith said, “It’s time.”

  “Go,” Maddox said.

  The ace didn’t reach up for another hypo. The first shot must still be percolating through him. Keith tapped controls and the engine began revving with power.

  Maddox bent his head, resting his forehead against his knees. He closed his eyes and endured, hating every second of this.

  ***

  The jumpfighter with its precious, three-person cargo made successive leaps toward Wolf Prime, using its fold power. As the tin can did so, the star cruisers rapidly built up velocity, gaining on Victory.

&nbs
p; “This is incredible,” Maddox said later, sitting in his seat once again.

  They had been in the jumpfighter for a day and a half already. Dana slept in the cubicle, with her feet sticking out.

  “A star cruiser is like your X72 Peregrine,” Keith said.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Maddox said. “The Peregrine is all engines, though. It doesn’t have armaments or a shield, or an armored hull, for that matter.”

  “No wonder the New Men are destroying our fleets,” Keith said. “They outfight and outrun all our ships, and they outthink us, too. Sir, do you believe the Commonwealth really has a long-term chance against the New Men?”

  “Of course,” Maddox said.

  “Hear me out, sir. I’ve had a long time to think about this the past month.”

  Maddox understood. He’d had a lot of time to think alone while on Victory’s bridge. They must have all been doing some serious thinking lately.

  “The New Men are better than us,” Keith said. “That’s clear. Suppose by some miracle we win the war because we drive them out of the Commonwealth. What’s to stop them from renewing the war in another ten years?”

  “Your implications are clear,” Maddox said. “We have to find their homeworld or worlds and defeat them for good.”

  “Then what happens?” Keith asked.

  Maddox grew quiet.

  “Let me put it out in the open, sir. Suppose we defeat the New Men and stomp on their homeworld. We disarm them. Maybe we even say they can’t live on their homeworld anymore. So the New Men emigrate. They wait thirty years, slowly supplanting us everywhere, taking over place after place because they’re better than the rest of us at everything.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Maddox asked.

  “I’m not suggesting anything, sir. I’m saying we can’t compete against them on even terms. If regular humanity is going to survive, don’t we have to wipe out the New Men altogether?”

  “Are you talking about genocide?” Maddox asked.

  “It’s either that, sir, or we tell ‘em they can’t have children with each other. They can only marry regular humans. We dilute their superiority before they become our conquerors.”

  “You pose a hard question,” Maddox said.

  “Aye, I grant you that, sir. It’s obvious we’re not going to commit genocide, as that’s a horrible evil. But that brings me to a terrible conclusion. Are we in a war we can’t win?”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “But then you might be…” Keith didn’t finish his thought.

  Maddox did it for him. “Then I might be half New Man, is what you were going to say.”

  “I suppose it was. And look at you, sir. You’re better than the rest of us at everything.”

  “That isn’t true.”

  “Isn’t it?” Keith asked. “Is that an honest answer, sir?”

  “Ludendorff is a genius. I can’t do what he can.”

  “So our very best regular human can match you. That doesn’t mean much for the regular person.”

  “You pilot a jumpfighter better than I do. Doctor Rich—”

  “I shouldn’t have said anything, sir. I just keep remembering how you came into my bar in Glasgow over a year ago. You intimidated my people. Remember how I called you a tiger and my bone-breakers junkyard dogs?”

  “I remember,” Maddox said. Why had Dana gone and shot her mouth off?

  “I was closer to the truth than I realized, sir.”

  It was time to put an end to Maker’s line of reasoning. They had to work together, meaning his people had to trust him.

  “Second Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “If you hate me because of what I am, I can’t do anything about that. I didn’t have any say in my birth. I was born just as you were, only I never knew my mother or father. I made do in the world, just like you. I play the cards I’ve been dealt, just like you. We fight under the Star Watch banner together. I want freedom for everyone. What do you want?”

  “To get out of here and stretch my legs on a planet,” Keith said.

  “I’d agree to that.”

  “After that, I want to beat these New Men.”

  “Then don’t pick a fight with me or hold a grudge.” Maddox said. “We’re on the same side. Worry about what happens with the New Men after we win the war. Until that time, staying alive will probably engage all your resources and mine as well.”

  “Aye, that’s good advice. I hope you don’t hold my words against me, sir.”

  “You’re being honest, Mr. Maker. I like honest. It lets me know where I stand.”

  “I like honest too, sir.”

  Maddox was tired of the topic and tired of Keith’s hints. He hated this part of himself. He didn’t want to be half New Man. He didn’t want to be a genetic freak, created in a gene lab. But if that’s what he was…well, he would use it to defeat the enemy. First things first had always seemed like the best advice in the world.

  I’m sick of having all this time to think. I want to get down onto Wolf Prime and start doing. The ace is right about that.

  “It’s time to use another fold,” Keith said.

  “Then I’d better wake Dana,” Maddox said. “Just a minute.”

  ***

  Twelve hours later, the jumpfighter neared its destination of Wolf Prime. They only needed to use the fold one more time to get there.

  Far away in the outer system, the star cruisers closed in on the Laumer-Point. The ancient starship still increased velocity. The enemy vessels were braking. Soon, the star cruisers would be within beam range of Victory.

  “Why doesn’t Galyan use his star drive?” Dana asked. She was crouched in the aisle, staring up at the screen.

  “He’s cutting it close,” Maddox said.

  “That’s foolish,” Dana said.

  “I don’t know,” Keith said. “It’s giving us more time before the star cruisers head back to us.”

  Dana’s features were pinched. “I feel like I should be thinking of something. It’s out there orbiting my consciousness, but I can’t bring the thought close enough to articulate. There’s something not right here. I can feel it.”

  “I’m switching views,” Keith said, tapping a control.

  The star cruisers disappeared as the screen showed Wolf Prime again. The planet was a white world full of ice and snow, with ninety-eight percent the Earth’s mass. A few miners down there dug for thorite, a strange substance with similar qualities to the weed found deep in New Australia’s oceans that was used to manufacture the Methuselah Treatment. The Methuselah People hadn’t truly begun exploiting thorite, though. Wolf Prime was a frontier world in more ways than one.

  The first mine had been sunk less than ten years ago. The conditions on the surface made it a hell world. Opening new mines was incredibly daunting. There was another group of pioneers on the surface, slarn trappers. The vicious slarns made it a precarious existence. The fur was the most luxurious in the Commonwealth, better than scientifically manufactured thermal clothes. On many worlds, slarn furs were the highest status symbols a person could wear. It took hardy trappers to go after the vicious snow beasts, men who liked a challenge and wanted riches in a relatively short time.

  Despite the trappers crisscrossing the icy planet and the newly opened mines, Wolf Prime only possessed a single spaceport with five known towns.

  As Maddox thought about it, controlling the miners should have been an easy proposition for the New Men. The trappers were another breed. They roved over the surface in their ice-haulers and lived in igloo-like constructions. Many trappers spent a year or more collecting furs before heading to the spaceport to sell.

  There was one other group, the smallest of all. Men and women funded from scientific communities had come to Wolf Prime as archeologists. The ice world had a reputation of holding the most alien artifacts in the Commonwealth. Most of those artifacts were etchings in deep underground caves. The second most plentiful were strange ceramic tools that made no sense to any
one as far as function.

  Back on Earth, Maddox had read up on everything he could about Wolf Prime in Star Watch Intelligence files. The snow world had a few communication satellites in orbit, but that was it. Wolf Prime didn’t have any defensive hardware. Instead, it had tough citizens trying to turn a credit at some of the hardest jobs out there.

  Wolf Prime also had some of the worst storms of any planet where humans lived in the open. Freak winds meant it was dangerous to use aircraft. Sometimes, it was too treacherous for shuttles or rockets to land. Most travel down there occurred the old-fashioned way, across the surface on foot or in a tracked vehicle.

  Why then would the New Men have orbited the world with five star cruisers? There was a reason. Could it have been simply to catch Victory? Maddox wondered about that.

  “Let’s get started,” Keith said.

  The ace’s words jolted Maddox out of his reverie. Keith took out another hypo and injected himself with a second Baxter-Locke shot.

  The small man flexed his right hand several times. “Repeated injections doesn’t feel so good,” he said.

  “We’re all crying for you,” Dana said.

  Keith chose to ignore the remark. Instead, something on his panel flashed red. “Let’s look at the Laumer-Point another time.”

  Wolf Prime disappeared from the screen. In its place was a bright dot. The computer had enhanced the jump point. Five red triangles headed for it. A big blue triangle was farther away from the Laumer-Point. Suddenly, the blue point flashed several times. Then, it disappeared.

  Keith laughed. “Looks like Galyan finally got nervous. Victory jumped out of danger.”

  Maddox heaved a sigh of relief. He’d been getting worried. One never knew what trick the New Men had up their collective sleeve.

  “Are you ready for our last fold?” Keith asked the others.

  Neither Maddox nor Dana answered.

  “Right,” Keith said. “Here we go.”

  Soon, the engine roared, and the process struck as it had too many times already this voyage.

  When Maddox’s vision returned, he saw Wolf Prime. The planet filled the screen. They were closer to it than the L5 Lagrange Point around Earth.

  “I don’t know how long we’re going to have down there,” Keith said. “It will depend on whether any star cruisers return.”