How are they coordinating the moves between ships in different star systems? That’s what baffled Maddox. The only method he knew was actually sending other ships as messengers. Whatever the New Men were doing, though, was working.
“Do you think they’re letting us run ahead of them on purpose,” Lieutenant Noonan asked one day.
“Maybe,” Maddox admitted.
They sat in the galley, Meta, Valerie and him eating freeze-dried pork chops. The favorite meals were vanishing from the menu selections. Soon, only the skipped meals would remain. After those vanished, there wouldn’t be anything left to eat but dried fruit and nuts.
Maddox cut his pork chop, popping a piece of meat into his mouth, chewing. It lacked salt. He picked up a shaker and added granules.
“That’s no good for you,” Meta said.
“You like your meat without salt?” Maddox asked.
“I’m not like you,” she said. “You eat for pleasure. I eat to sustain myself.”
Maddox indicated himself. “Do I look as if I eat for pleasure?”
Her gaze flickered over him. “I’ve wanted to ask you this for a while,” she said. “Why are you so thin?”
“Lean,” he said. “I’m not thin but lean.”
Meta bristled. “Are you saying I’m fat?”
After examining the full-figured woman in her rating uniform, Maddox shook his head. “Not fat at all,” he said. “I’d call you pleasing, easy on the eyes.”
Meta blushed at this uncharacteristic remark.
Lieutenant Noonan noticed and frowned at Maddox. “Captain, please, we’re eating.”
As if nothing had happened, he cut another slice of pork chop, chewing in silence.
“I want to get back to my point,” Valerie said. “If we’re leading the New Men to the alien star system, maybe we should turn back and try again later. If the enemy gains the sentinel, the New Men will become even more invincible than before.”
Maddox raised his head. He stood, took his plastic dish and paused long enough to tell Valerie, “That’s a brilliant idea, Lieutenant.”
“What did I say?”
“I’ll tell you later if it works.”
With that, Maddox hurried from the galley, gulping down the rest of his pork chop. He tossed the plastic into a disposal unit. After washing his hands, he stopped before Dana Rich’s hatch. Should he just barge right in?
Instead of doing so, he rapped his knuckles against metal. There had to be a better way to do this. This was a starship, for Heaven’s sake. Knocking on metal didn’t make much sense.
“Who is it?” Dana asked in a muffled voice.
“Captain Maddox,” he said.
After a short pause, she said, “Go away.”
He turned the wheel, opened the hatch and failed to spy the doctor.
“Do I have to gas your room?” he asked.
“No,” she said, from the wall beside the hatch. She moved toward her bed, becoming visible, tossing a lamp so it hit her sheets.
She’d been hidden from sight, ready to whack him over the head as he entered her quarters. Warily, Maddox stepped within.
Dana thumped down upon her bed. He pulled up a chair, sitting down.
“I’m weary of our arrangement,” she said. “I’m going stir crazy. In the name of decency, you must change the situation.”
“I have a proposal to make,” Maddox told her.
“I won’t join you in your mad venture. That hasn’t changed.”
“You know we’re nearing the alien star system right? I cracked the professor’s encryption some time ago.”
“So you say,” Dana told him. “When we’re there, you can let me know. Oh, how about this, just before we jump into said system, tell me.”
“Of course,” he said. “Look, this is…” He squinted at her. “Why did you ask me to tell you just before we get there?”
“No particular reason,” she said offhandedly.
“You’re—” He was going to say, “lying,” but decided on greater tact. “I’ll keep your request in mind,” he finished.
She nodded indifferently. “What’s your proposal then?”
“The New Men are following us. Whether they mean to capture the sentinel, I don’t know. Let us suppose you’re right: no one can board the alien vessel. Okay. We’ll use the sentinel to set up an ambush.”
“Meaning what?” she asked.
“We’ll lead the New Men to the alien starship. It’s automated, you say.”
“Correct,” agreed Dana.
“Fine,” he said. “We lead them there and it destroys the hunters for us.”
“How does that help us?” she asked.
“That should be easy to understand. They’re following us, and I don’t think they’ll quit until they have us. This stops them, and it gets rid of one or more of their elite star cruisers. Afterward, we’re free to return home. You get your pardon and I have the honor of destroying however many enemy cruisers the sentinel annihilates.”
Dana studied him, and finally, she laughed. “Nice try, Captain. I almost believed you.”
“Well, whether you believe me or not that’s my plan as of now. We’re almost to the second-to-last star system.”
Doctor Dana Rich expelled a lungful of air. “Are you serious?” she asked. “You’ve actually taken us that far into the Beyond?”
“Correct. Now, what do you want to tell me?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said.
Maddox sat perfectly still. Scout duty was hard work. The ship was too small and they’d rubbed elbows too long. Normal Patrol scout crews were carefully chosen for their abilities to get along and to handle the cramped quarters for extended periods. Maddox doubted any of them were constitutionally suited for the small craft. Thus, he forced himself to sit quietly as he studied the doctor anew, instead of jumping up and pacing.
He envisioned Dana Rich, as she’d been the first few days after she awoke. Since then, the woman had become tenser. More than that, she seemed frightened. But because of her pride, she tried to hide it.
“Fine,” he said abruptly, standing. “If you have nothing else to say—” He started for the hatch.
“Wait,” she whispered.
Maddox turned around.
Doctor Rich stared at her hands. She breathed heavily, causing her breasts to rise and fall rapidly. She was older than either Valerie or Meta, but she was beautiful in an exotic way.
She raised her head, and a tic twitched under her right eye. “You’re a monomaniac, Captain. I can’t believe you’ve brought us so far out into the Beyond. The dangers out there…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. This next jump, well, the one into the alien system, must be done exactly how I say. If you don’t do it like that, we’ll die.”
“Why is that?” Maddox asked.
“Does the scout have a deflector shield?”
“You know it doesn’t,” he said.
“Then the minute you exit the jump point into the alien star system, you and everyone else aboard the Geronimo dies.”
“Because the sentinel will attack us?” asked Maddox.
“Not at all,” Dana said. “The alien star system will do the killing.”
“Can you elaborate?”
Once more, the doctor stared at her hands and began to speak in a low voice. The reason shocked Maddox. Without the good doctor’s insight—if she were right—the alien system would indeed destroy the scout. The question had changed, then. Did they have enough time to get ready to enter the alien system the doctor’s way before the star cruiser or the destroyer found and annihilated them?
-27-
The star patterns had changed drastically since Maddox had begun the mission on Earth over three months ago. In a straight line, they were well over three hundred light-years from the Solar System.