The scout had entered this system at high velocity and accelerated. Now, several days later, they approached the other end, decelerating for some time already.
The system possessed an A spectral class star. That made it a bluish-white furnace with a mean surface temperature of 8000 K. Three terrestrial planets made up the inner system, each about twice the size of Earth. The first two had molten surfaces like Mercury. The last resembled a giant dust-blown Mars.
The lone outer system planet—the one they approached—was unique, at least as seen during their travels. It was a brown dwarf with twenty-one times Jupiter’s mass, making it gargantuan. The dwarf was a substellar object, meaning that despite its size, it lacked the mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in its core. Instead, the planet fused deuterium in the center. This was a T spectral type dwarf and was magenta to the eye rather than brown.
The massive planet was over four billion kilometers from the star, the reason for the longer travel time. The dwarf had moons, the largest similar in size to Saturn’s Titan. The T dwarf also possessed highly elliptical orbiting comets, which thickened in the region near an unstable wormhole.
This system possessed two Laumer-Points: the one they’d entered near the third planet in the inner range and the one they approached out in the comet field.
“I’m still not picking anything up yet,” Valerie said. She sat at her station, engaging all the ship’s sensors. She had been targeting comets since exiting the Laumer-Point.
“It has to be out there,” Maddox said. “The doctor told me so.”
Valerie muttered under her breath. After days of fruitless searching, it seemed she’d reached her limit. She straightened and swiveled around.
“Ensign,” she said, “Could you give us a moment.”
Keith sat at the pilot controls. He glanced from her to Maddox. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Valerie asked him.
“Have you seen the menu choices lately?” Keith asked. “If I’d tried to serve that stuff in my bar, the patrons would have stoned me.”
“Ensign!” she said.
Keith sat back, and it seemed he was about to go into his Scottish routine.
“Go head,” Maddox told him. “Grab some chow. Give us a few minutes.”
“Aye-aye, Captain, sir,” Keith said. He marched out of the control room, banging the hatch louder than usual behind him.
The moment the hatch closed, Valerie said, “Permission to speak—”
“Yes, yes,” Maddox said, with a wave of his hand. She was obviously strained, and so was he. “Please tell me what’s troubling you.”
“Sir, meaning no disrespect… Is it possible Doctor Rich lied to you?”
“The thought has crossed my mind,” Maddox admitted.
“This may be her attempt—”
A beep sounded from her board, interrupting Valerie’s speech.
Maddox’s stomach tightened. He knew what the sound meant. For weeks, this had happened with increasing regularity.
“It’s Saint Petersburg,” Valerie said, studying her panel. As she spoke, the lieutenant engaged the cloaking device. A loud thrum told them all they needed to know about the device’s condition. “We can’t keep this up much longer, sir.”
Maddox silently agreed. If it could last for just another day… This was supposed to be the end of the line for them. One more jump would bring them to the sentinel-haunted star system. Doctor Rich had told him a song and dance about how to get into the alien system intact. Could it really be true?
“You do realize that we won’t be able to follow the doctor’s suggestion now,” Valerie said. “We can’t, not with the destroyer in the system.”
Slowly, Maddox stood and his features stiffened. The past weeks had eaten away at his reserve. The endless chase, the running away again— “Use the passive sensors only,” Maddox said. “Keep searching for the comet. Instruct Meta to babysit the cloaking device. We can’t let the destroyer see us this time, not a smidge or wattage of power to give away our location.”
“I’m not sure I can do that, sir. The Saint Petersburg’s crew has gotten better at their craft.”
“True. But you’ve also gotten better, Lieutenant. We’ve both become experts at this cat and mouse game.”
Valerie paused before asking, “Captain, why do you think Doctor Rich still refuses to help us one hundred percent?”
A hard smile pasted itself onto his face. “That’s a good question. I’m about to discover the answer.”
Like a tiger, Maddox stalked out of the control room. Keith lounged against a bulkhead. Jerking a thumb at the open hatch, Maddox said, “I’m done. You can go back.”
A possibly sarcastic reply died on Keith’s lips. He nodded before moving out of the captain’s way.
Maddox hardly noticed. He marched to the doctor’s hatch and swung it open. Letting it stay ajar, he climbed into her quarters.
The doctor was in the middle of doing push-ups and she mustn’t have heard him enter.
“You must decide,” Maddox told her.
Her head swiveled sharply toward him. A brief twitch of her face was the only indication she’d been surprised. The doctor jumped to her feet. Perspiration dotted her brown skin.
He opened his mouth. This was it. He wouldn’t accept anything less than total assistance.
Panting, she held up a hand. “I’ll save you time, Captain. Your sensors haven’t found the equipment because it’s buried too deep under the ice. Ludendorff was a tricky man, and he suffered from a persecution complex. It served him well on most occasions. Ah,” she added, after searching his face. “I take it the New Men are in the system with us.”
Maddox was too angry to reply verbally, nodding instead.
“You’re in something of a dilemma, then,” Dana said. “Therefore, I believe I’ll finally play my strongest card.”
“Meaning what?” he asked in a thick voice.
Dana’s gaze darted behind him.
Maddox could feel the threat to his rear. In a flash of understanding, it struck him what was about to happen. The strain of the monotonous weeks had taken their toll on his concentration. The voyage had been out of his comfort zone. It had told on him, making him reckless and causing him to miss otherwise obvious clues. It appeared as if Doctor Rich had finally outmaneuvered him.
With a twist of his neck, Maddox looked behind. Standing in the hatchway, Meta held a stunner aimed at his back. He expected to see a triumphant smile. Instead, worried concentration marred her beauty.
Meta motioned with the stunner. Maddox raised his hands.
“Oh, I like this, I really do,” Dana told him. “Yes, I find it rewarding to see a difficult task through to completion. Don’t you find that to be the case, Captain?”
He watched her gloat.
“What do you propose?” Maddox asked.
“A new arrangement,” Dana said. “You are hereby demoted to wretched piece of Star Watch scum. I am confining you to these quarters. I, on the other hand, am accepting a promotion to ship’s captain. What do you think?”
Maddox turned, putting his back to Doctor Rich to face Meta. “You know we’re in danger,” he told the Rouen Colony woman. “You’ve seen the New Men hunting us. Humanity desperately needs the sentinel.”
“Please,” Meta told him, “no more talking, Captain.”
Staring into her eyes, Maddox said, “I freed you from the prison planet.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Meta said. “You have to believe me.”
“Then don’t do it,” Maddox said. “Make the right decision.”
As her eyes tightened, Meta pressed the trigger.
The blast struck Maddox in the chest. He strove to remain conscious but felt himself falling… falling…