“Why are you asking me about yourself?” she said.
“You’ve had the rare privilege of meeting the New Men and surviving to tell of it. Lieutenant Noonan did likewise, facing them as part of a Star Watch battle group. Three enemy cruisers annihilated the substantially larger Star Watch force.”
“Why should I care?” Meta asked.
“What if the New Man spoke truthfully down there?” Maddox said. “What if they think of regular humans as beasts? Not only that, but they have the firepower to take us down and then wipe us out as a species.”
“Why would they ‘wipe us out?’ What’s their gain in that?”
“Don’t know,” Maddox said. “I simply find it curious that once the New Men conquer a star system, no one hears anything from the captured planets again. What are the invaders doing to the population that they want to hide?”
“You think these New Men are exterminating the populations?” Meta asked.
“I think these highly dangerous invaders have far too many advantages over my tribe—the Star Watch. I think we need an equalizer, especially if my guesses about them are correct. Think about that for a minute. If I’m right about them, that could impact you personally much sooner than you’d like.”
“You’re trying to scare me,” Meta said. “Okay, I’m shaking. So, why don’t you get to your point?”
“You don’t scare easily, and that might be bad for you.”
“I don’t know how,” Meta said.
“Suppose you’re getting ready to drink a cup of poison,” Maddox said, “and someone tells you about it. All you do is shrug. You’re not afraid of poison. Well, after drinking the cup, you die. In that instance, it would have been wise to be frightened of the cup.”
“I already told you I was scared.”
“Here’s my point. We need your strength, Meta, your mechanical skills. I want you to join us of your own free will and convince Doctor Rich to do the same thing.”
“To find this ancient starship you talked about?” she asked.
“Exactly,” he said. “I’m not hiding my intentions.”
Really? Then down there on the planet why did you look at me the way you did? Yes, you are hiding some of your intentions, Captain.
“I haven’t convinced you,” he said. “Therefore, you should think about this: You owe me your life, Meta.”
She bristled.
“I took you off Loki Prime,” he said.
“As part of our deal,” she said. “You got off too.”
“It doesn’t matter why I did it. No one was ever going to free you from a lifetime of horror down there. I did. Me, gallant Captain Maddox. Now, you need to pay me back by helping this mission succeed.”
She scowled. Did he really only want her help getting the lost ship?
“Think about it,” he said. “You have some free time in here, I mean. Use it wisely.” With that, Maddox straightened and took his leave.
After the hatch shut, Meta stared at it. Finally, she lay back down. As the man said, she had some serious thinking to do.
-23-
Captain Maddox raised his head, realizing his chin had been resting on his chest. He must have fallen asleep as he sat in the pilot’s chair. Then, he recalled why he’d opened his eyes. Doctor Rich had spoken elatedly.
He swiveled around on his seat. Dana and he were the only ones in the control room. Why hadn’t she tried for his gun, seeing as he’d fallen asleep? There were two possibilities. The first, she didn’t think he really slept, or she feared he’d wake up before she could subdue him. The second, she had become so engrossed in her work that she hadn’t noticed him sleeping. He was more inclined toward the second view.
“What is it?” Maddox asked.
Dana didn’t respond. She sat at her station, her fingers flying over the controls. She chortled quietly, almost evilly, to herself.
Maddox stood, approaching her. Still, she didn’t notice him. He had no idea what the screen meant. Lines of code flashed before his eyes.
“Doctor!” he said.
Her shoulders stiffened. She looked up and then back at him.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Exactly what you asked for,” she said. “I’m inside the satellite-beacon’s master menu. I’ve just shut down its comm-links.”
Maddox checked a chronometer. In twelve hours, the beacon would have informed the monitor. Dana had worked even faster than he’d expected.
“You did it then?” he asked.
She turned back to her panel and continued to tap.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m guessing you’re going to want the beacon to fire up some drones for us,” Dana said. “We need to knock out the destroyer, right?”
Maddox stepped to Lieutenant Noonan’s station. Valerie was getting some well-deserved rest. At speed, the destroyer was accelerating toward the system’s gas giant in its Jupiter-like orbit. That was nearly eight hundred thousand kilometers away. The Class 3 Laumer-Point was near the gas giant. No doubt, the destroyer raced there to block their exit from the star system.
There were three jump points in this star system: the Class 1 near the chthonian planet, the rock core orbiting closest to the sun. There was the Class 3 by the distant gas giant. And there was an unstable Laumer-Point situated between Loki Prime and the gas giant, about where the Solar System’s asteroid belt would be.
Unstable tramlines were dangerous to use. Sliding down an unstable wormhole was like running between giant, chomping teeth. The tramline could contort, crushing the starship in it. That happened one out of every three to five times, depending on the instability of the tramline. It made using such a route a game of Venusian Roulette.
When the Saint Petersburg first accelerated away from Loki Prime toward the outer system, Maddox had finally felt the situation was safe enough to turn the fusion engines back on. They hadn’t used the regular thrust, but turned on the gravity wave generator—and began recharging the batteries. Just as before, the gravity waves had shaken Geronimo for its short duration, but each time it had given them a little more velocity.
Ensign Maker had complained about the process. The pilot had been right, too. At this rate, it would take the scout weeks of drifting to reach the gas giant and the Class 3 entry point.
In the control room, Maddox grunted.
This time, Dana noticed. “What is it?” she asked.
Pointing at the lieutenant’s view screen, Maddox said, “Archangel has just begun heavy acceleration away from its position near the chthonian planet.”
The massive round starship would take time to build a descent velocity. It was like watching an elephant starting to move, knowing it would trot and then lumber at speed.
Dana got up and checked the screen for herself. The starship had an immensely long exhaust tail, making it easy to spot. She traded glances with Maddox. “Why do you think the monitor is doing that?” she asked.
Maddox checked something on the lieutenant’s board. “Hmm, it’s like I thought. There’s been a lot of radio traffic between the destroyer and the monitor.”
“Do you think they’ve been talking about us?” Dana asked.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe Archangel is coming to help Saint Petersburg search for us,” Dana suggested.
“Seems unlikely they’d leave the Class 1 Laumer-Point unguarded,” Maddox said. “But let’s say it’s true. Why haven’t the one hundred satellite-beacons gone to high alert? If both the monitor and the destroyer are searching for us, that would be the best move.”