As he entered the chamber, Valerie said, “Archangel turned the satellite-beacons hot. Drones are coming alive out there. They’re easy to spot with their exhausts pouring behind them.”
Maddox shoveled the last bite into his mouth, tossing the plastic into a disposal unit. As he chewed, he sat down at his station.
“No!” Valerie said, watching her board. “I can’t believe this.”
“What’s happening?” Maddox asked.
“The destroyer—it has sent a message of its own to the space beacons near Archangel. It’s turned those drones against the monitor. Captain, it looks as if the New Men have hacked the system better than Dana could have done.”
Maddox went cold inside, and the tuna salad in his stomach felt as if it turned to lead. Here was another example of the enemy’s superiority.
They watched, and the minutes stretched into an hour, then three hours.
The various drones kept accelerating at their targets—it took time to move those distances. Space battles were long-term affairs. Many drones raced at Archangel, just as many sped at Saint Petersburg. Then drones began to detonate, even though they were far from their respective targets. Soon, everywhere throughout the Loki System, drone warheads bloomed into incandescent brilliance.
“What’s going on, love?” Keith asked Valerie.
“If I had to guess,” the lieutenant said, “both the monitor and the destroyer have sent self-destruct messages to the drones. They leveled the playing field. They also turned this place into a radioactive wasteland with EMP pulses everywhere.”
Maddox sat up. “That’s blinding sensors, yes?”
“Of course,” Valerie said. “It’s difficult to look through nuclear fireballs or the intense radiation they spew in all directions. It’s like throwing down a stellar blanket, at least until the radiation dies down.”
“Ensign,” Maddox said. “Get ready to engage the fusion thrusters.”
Valerie nodded sagely. “They’ve given us temporary cover,” she said. “For a little while at least, it will be hard to see much of anything. I like your idea, Captain.”
“Engage,” said Maddox.
Keith tapped the controls, and the Geronimo built up velocity.
Twenty-four hours later, the situation had drastically changed for the better for Geronimo.
“We’re getting out of here,” Maddox told Valerie and Keith.
He’d let Dana and Meta stew in their respective quarters. They called when they needed to use the facilities. Maddox always stood guard at those times. Sergeant Riker was still in medical. Dana had checked him three different times. Maddox had stood guard then, too.
“Like I told you,” Dana had said about Riker, “those Loki germs are tough. It was touch and go there for a while.”
“What?” Maddox asked. He hadn’t known that.
“I didn’t want to tell you. Figured you would think I’m gaming things. Anyway, your man is going to pull through. Leave him here another three days, though.”
As Maddox sat in the control room, he grinned as he thought about their situation.
Saint Petersburg moved like a comet for the unstable Laumer-Point. It looked as if the New Man wanted to gamble with a bad wormhole. That was fine with Maddox. Archangel headed for exactly the same point. Four heavy missiles lead the way, barreling at extreme velocity for the destroyer.
“Want to place bets if the destroyer makes it or not?” Keith asked.
“Oh,” Maddox said. “They’ll make it to the Laumer-Point. Whether they survive the jump or not is the question.”
“Those missiles say otherwise,” Keith told him.
“Seemingly,” Maddox said, “seemingly. I think the New Man will have an ace or two to pull out of his sleeve.”
Valerie looked up from her instrument panel. She’d been tapping it for some time. “I have news I don’t think you’re going to like.”
Maddox swiveled around to face her.
“The unstable Laumer-Point will bring the Saint Petersburg to Sigma Gamma Seven,” Valerie said.
Maddox shrugged. “Is that supposed to be significant?”
“I think so,” Valerie said. “That’s two jumps away from where our Class 3 tramline will bring us.”
“We’ll be gone from there before they show up,” Maddox said.
“Good,” she said.
Maddox sat back, thinking about that. Could the New Man over there know what Valerie had just told him about the various routes? Yes, of course, he did. Was the New Man trying to use the Saint Petersburg’s speed against the Geronimo? He would race the destroyer through jump routes, trying to work to the system they would enter from Loki. Hmm… The destroyer had beaten them to the Loki System.
“Speed,” Maddox muttered. “Ensign, we’re going to accelerate.”
“That could blow our cloak,” Valerie said. “The EMP pulses have long ago faded. We’d be in the open.”
“Look at the ranges between us and the two starships,” Maddox said, shaking his head. “Their beams can’t possibly reach us at these distances. We’re hundreds of millions kilometers too far. No missiles will have time to accelerate fast enough before we’re gone. If the destroyer is trying to catch us later by speeding to the other Laumer-Points, we need to use speed now and outdistance them.”
“I don’t like it,” Valerie said.
“I’m open to your reasons as to why not,” Maddox said.
Lieutenant Noonan looked uncomfortable. “Sir, the New Men outfought von Gunther’s battle group in the Pan System.”
“The destroyer lacks those advanced weapons.”
“I wasn’t finished, sir,” Valerie said. “They also outthought us. I’m wondering if the New Man is doing that here.”
“No,” Maddox said. “We outthought him.”
“Don’t you think he’s going to know our reaction to his using the unstable Laumer-Point?”
“He has to use that entry point,” Maddox said. “There’s no other way for him to escape the monitor.”
“Maybe he could outmaneuver the monitor and race to the Class 1 point near the chthonian planet near the star,” Keith said, chiming in.
“If that’s a wiser choice,” Maddox said, “he would already be doing it. No. This time, I think we’re granting them too much cunning. Ensign, head for our Laumer-Point at maximum acceleration. We want to leave the Loki System as fast as possible.”
Keith glanced at Valerie. Then he said, “Aye-aye, Captain, sir. I’m engaging thrusters—now.”
The Saint Petersburg must have laid invisible mines behind itself as it braked for the unstable Laumer-Point. As the heavy missiles neared, the mines began to detonate, revealing themselves and annihilating two of the monitor’s missiles. Saint Petersburg’s counter-rockets took care of the third missile, while the destroyer’s lasers demolished the last one.
“Those are new types of mines I haven’t seen before,” Valerie said. “I wonder if they’re a New Man invention.”
The Geronimo had accelerated for a time and now braked hard. They neared the Class 3 tramline. The other two spaceships were hundreds of millions of kilometers away.
“That’s a good question,” Maddox said. Suddenly, a queasy feeling bit into him. “Lieutenant, start searching this area for cloaked mines.”
“Sir?” Valerie asked.
“The Saint Petersburg spent some time here,” Maddox said. “I wondered about that before. Could they have been carefully placing such mines to catch us before we leave?”