“Sir, if you fail, I’m never going to make it out of the Loki System alive.”
“You have the cloaking device—”
“Begging your pardon, sir, but it won’t run much longer on the batteries. It will need fusion power.”
“Turn on the engine and keep the cloaking device running. Then sneak out the best you can. Once they detect the scout, flee at full speed. Get back to Earth. Tell the Lord High Admiral I failed. On no account can you let them capture you.”
“I’ll try, sir.”
“Do more than that. The New Men mustn’t learn about the sentinel. If I fail, tell the Lord High Admiral to come with a fleet. At that point, he’ll have to openly try for the alien vessel.”
“That would alert the New Men, sir. Out in the Beyond, they will intercept the Lord High Admiral’s fleet and destroy it.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Maddox said. “There’s a reason the New Men haven’t kept attacking since their conquest of Odin and Horace.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” She looked away, and she seemed embarrassed. “Uh, good luck, sir.”
“Why thank you, Lieutenant. I wish you the same.”
“Thank you, sir. I could use it.”
“Well, let’s get to work,” Maddox said. “We’re under the clock and time is ticking.”
-15-
“You’re flying us down,” Maddox said.
Keith climbed into the flitter, taking the controls. He wore similar camouflage gear as Maddox. On their belts, the two of them carried force blades and pistols that fired explosive pellets. Packs were in the flitter’s back area.
Maddox glanced behind. He’d torn out the rear seat, pulled off the back plate to the trunk and laid down foam. In a pinch, they could fit two people back there by having them lie down.
“We’ll be cutting communications in a minute,” Valerie said over the cargo bay intercom. “Do you remember the sequence to alert me that you’re coming back up?”
Keith glanced at Maddox.
“Go ahead,” the captain told him.
“We hear you, love, and we remember the procedure. Keep a tight hold of the barn. We’ll be coming back sooner than you realize.”
Valerie might have muttered something. It was indistinct over the intercom.
“Ready, Captain?” Keith asked.
Maddox nodded.
With a flick of a switch, the pilot closed the canopy. Next, he unlocked the magnetic clamps holding them to the deck. The engine hummed into life and he turned on the interior vents. Lastly, the flitter gently lifted.
Even though the Scotsman had never flown the flitter before, he already handled it better than Maddox could.
He’s a natural at this. It’s no wonder the Tau Ceti mining chiefs allowed him to teach his brother to fly strikefighters.
The seconds ticked by. Outside the flitter in the cargo bay, the atmosphere hissed away. It wouldn’t do for the outer door to open and have the departing atmosphere hurl them against the side of the opening. Soon, they floated in a vacuum.
Finally, a crack appeared in a bulkhead. The sliver grew as the two halves slid apart. Maddox shifted in his seat in anticipation of the next few hours. Everything should work just fine. If it didn’t, at least he had an ace for a pilot. The bulkheads shuddered as the doors clanged as far apart as they could. Brilliant stars dotted the void outside.
“Here we go, Captain,” Keith said.
The flitter glided smoothly, exiting the cargo bay. Maddox twisted around. Loki Prime spread out below them. It was a mass of cloud cover, a fleecy wonderland with a rotten core.
It would have been good to remain in contact with Lieutenant Noonan. Geronimo had better sensors than the tiny flitter. But too many detection devices scanned the area. Radio waves would give them away.
Taking a deep breath, Maddox turned on the flitter’s computer. He entered the security code, and knew the machine would begin emitting it to the various sensors.
“Repulse power,” Keith said, nudging them toward the distant clouds.
Time slipped by as Loki Prime grew larger. It felt strange falling toward the seemingly expanding clouds.
“It’s so serene out here,” Keith said.
Maddox turned to him. “It is,” he replied.
“Feels as if everything is right with the world,” Keith added.
“It does, at that.”
Keith turned suddenly, and he raised his healing hand, showing it to Maddox. “No hard feelings, Captain. You did what you had to.”
“Glad you feel that way.”
Keith returned to monitoring the controls. “At first, I wanted to pay you back. Then I got to thinking. You’re only doing your job, right?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t take any pleasure in it?”
“Not a bit.”
“Didn’t think so,” Keith said. “You don’t strike me as a crawly, Captain. You’re tough. I’m not saying you’re not. The way you handled my bartender with the enforcers sitting there—I knew then you would be a bad bloke to tangle with.”
Maddox said nothing.
“Going to be some tough customers down there, aren’t there?” Keith said.
“There are.”
“I notice you have a case in back, sir. Do you mind if I ask what you’re carrying?”
“An arm,” Maddox said.
Keith cast him a dubious look. Maddox didn’t elaborate.
“Don’t want me to ask, eh?” Keith said.
Maddox still didn’t reply.
“I understand, sir. You’re in charge. Ah, did you feel that bump?”
“I did,” Maddox said.
“We’re in the top layer,” Keith said, tapping a control. “Shutting off repulse power and engaging the main engine and antigravity pods—now. Here we go. Let the party begin.”
The machine hummed, shivering almost as if with delight. To Maddox, it was odd. The last time he’d rode in the flyer they had been on Earth. Now, he was thirty-six light years away on an alien planet, well, coming down on one. This hardly seemed like the right way to it.
He thought about that. Down there was a jungle world in two ways at least, vast trees and terrible predators. He shook his head, putting that into his hindbrain. It was a time to concentrate on the essentials.
Several minutes later, the clouds engulfed them in a world of dirty gray wool.
“We’re heading almost straight down,” Keith said.
Maddox liked the pilot’s confidence. He wondered about mountains, as in: were they about to crash down onto one? They didn’t dare turn on the radar to find out.
“This stuff is thick,” Keith said.
“I’ve seen thicker on Earth.”
“Not this high in the atmosphere, you haven’t.”
Maddox digested that. He wondered how Sergeant Riker had felt plunging down through this substance. Riker wouldn’t have seen anything. The penal authorities used modified marine drop pods. The prisoner went down in a one-way capsule, blind to the sights. He or she was never coming back. Had anyone in authority been down onto the surface to report on the conditions there? The Lord High Admiral hadn’t given him anything concrete. That would seem to imply no. Maybe every convict died twenty-four hours after landing. With the present situation, that would be disastrous for Earth.
“The clouds are thinning out,” Keith said.
Maddox reexamined them. They looked just as thick as ever. What did the pilot notice that he didn’t?
Then, the flitter broke though the high cover, entering clear air. Above was the dense ceiling of clouds. Below them spread out a vast expanse of green. It went as far as he could see.
Keith whistled in admiration. “What is that, sir? From up here, I can’t tell if its grasslands or forests.”