The Lost Planet (Lost Starship Series Book 6) Page 14

  “That is an excellent question,” Ludendorff said. He turned to Valerie, “Did you happen to capture any footage of the shooter?”

  The lieutenant shook her head. “Just that one glint,” she said. “It was a tech weapon. One bullet, or whatever he fired, took out the probe. The surface probes are built to absorb a lot of damage, as you saw when the Vendel attacked this one. So, for the shooter to take it out with one shot is impressive.”

  “The shooter also seems to destroy the professor’s theory,” Dana said. “If there is one shooter, there are probably more. If there are more, can they have survived if thousands, possibly millions of these zombie-creatures exist? There’s another problem. Why didn’t the biological toxins deform the shooters as well?”

  “There is a mystery here,” Ludendorff said. “That is your area of expertise, Captain. Do you have any thoughts as to the mystery?”

  “One thought,” Maddox said. “Where is the Hall of Mirrors? It’s time you told us, Professor.”

  “What about the mutated Vendels?” Ludendorff asked. “Don’t those bother you?”

  “They’re a nuisance,” Maddox admitted. “But we’ll overcome them, if we have to.”

  “With shock grenades?” Ludendorff asked in a mocking voice.

  “With disrupter beams, missiles and hell-burners,” Maddox said. “If we wipe out a large enough area, we can explore it at our leisure.”

  “Bloodthirsty but effective,” the professor said. “Spoken like a New Man, sir.”

  Lieutenant Sims stiffened, but he held his head steady, never glancing at the captain.

  Maddox refrained from drumming his fingers on the table. How did the last statement help the professor? What was the Methuselah Man’s game?

  The professor cleared his throat. “In preparation for the meeting, I went over my notes in some detail. I have begun to suspect that the Hall of Mirrors is underground. There’s also a good chance it is located in the Southern Pole Region.”

  “Just a moment,” Maddox said. He opened communications with the bridge, instructing them to take Victory over the South Pole region. After he was finished, the captain regarded Ludendorff.

  “You are eager to descend,” the professor said.

  Maddox said nothing.

  “Er…yes,” Ludendorff said. “May I?” he asked Valerie.

  She slid the holo-imager to him.

  Ludendorff slipped a data-stick into a slot, manipulated the imager and soon produced a new holoimage. They viewed vast domes and tall spires in a grand circular area many kilometers in diameter.

  “This was the anchor for a space cable,” the professor said. “The cable would have reached up into orbit, connected to an orbital station.”

  “You once saw this?” Meta asked.

  “Many centuries ago,” the professor said wistfully.

  “We’ll find the ruins,” Maddox said. “The Hall of Mirrors lies under that?”

  “I do not know for certain,” Ludendorff said. “So please do not be angry if it turns out otherwise. But yes, that is my belief.”

  Maddox nodded, envisioning the next step. “Are there any questions or observations regarding this?”

  There were many, and the discussion continued in earnest.

  Maddox listened with half an ear. He wondered what they were going to find underground. The cannibalistic Vendels seemed daunting. He hoped Lieutenant Sims was right regarding how easy it would be to deal with them.

  -26-

  Several hours later, Victory was in a stationary polar orbit. To Maddox’s surprise, finding the space-cable anchor proved harder than he’d expected.

  Three more probes went down. Only one returned. Through it, they viewed more beastly Vendels. The southern variety was even bigger and more aggressive than the earlier cannibals had been.

  Maddox and Meta went over the requirements of the landing party. They debated using nuclear weapons to clear the area first. The extent of the subterranean realm forced them to scrub the idea.

  “What if we cause massive cave-ins?” Meta asked. “Besides, the deep caverns will protect the Vendels from the blast and radiation. That leaves us with the professor’s dilemma. If tens of thousands of Vendels descend upon the landing party at once…”

  Maddox shook his head. “Such large manifestations of Vendels strike me as unlikely. The creatures are predators and scavengers. That implies low densities at any one point. In order to have high population densities like an army, one needs good logistics to bring in masses of food to keep everyone from starving in a few days.”

  “That’s a good point,” Meta said. “There is one other thing, though.”

  Maddox studied her. “Do you mean Lieutenant Sims?”

  “I don’t know why High Command gave us a New Man-hating space marine commander.”

  “I do,” Maddox said. “One, Sims is a good soldier. Two, I still have enemies in Star Watch. It’s possible one of those saddled us with Sims as a joke.”

  “If someone hates you, they don’t give you a killer like Sims as a joke. It is in the hope that the space marine will kill you.”

  “Maybe,” Maddox said, with a shrug.

  “Don’t count on his training to slow him down.”

  “On the contrary,” Maddox said. “I’m counting on his dislike to give him extra stamina and thereby produce more effort. Sims can’t let me outperform him. His pride won’t allow it. Thus, he’ll work harder than anyone else to prove he’s better than me.”

  “Your plan has one flaw.”

  Maddox silently went over his reasoning. “I fail to see it.”

  “Sims doesn’t just dislike you,” Meta said. “He hates you. There’s a difference, one large enough to drive a battleship through.”

  Maddox was tired, and he didn’t want to discuss this anymore. He would take a power nap. Afterward, the landing party would board the shuttles.

  ***

  Ninety-five minutes later, the lead shuttle exited Victory’s hangar bay. Keith Maker piloted the craft, with Maddox beside him. Three other shuttles followed carrying the exoskeleton-armored marines.

  Maddox peered out the viewing port as the silver-colored world spread out below them. Meta was in the command cabin with him, along with the professor.

  “Don’t take anything for granted,” Maddox told Keith. “The shooters live down there as well as the Vendels. The shooters may still have large sophisticated weaponry.”

  “We haven’t detected anything like that,” Ludendorff said.

  “How did you manage to live this long?” Maddox asked the professor. “I doubt it was by taking stupid chances.”

  Having difficulty hiding his grin, Keith tapped his controls. “I’ve activated my radar and motion detectors. Nothing is going to take us by surprise, sir.”

  “Famous last words,” Meta grumbled.

  “Cheer up, love,” Keith told her. “It’s me flying. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Keith banked the shuttle and took them down toward the atmosphere. Behind them, Victory grew smaller as it serenely orbited Pandora II.

  Maddox recalled maneuvering over Loki Prime, before Meta came into his life. Pandora II wasn’t a jungle world. It was the opposite, a concrete and metal wreck. Yet, it seemed as if this place might be the more dangerous of the two.

  Keith moved fast, jinking and deploying camouflage fibers. Soon, the shuttle began to shake.

  “We’ve entered the atmosphere,” Keith announced.

  Maddox wondered again what they would find down there. They were a long way from home, a long way from help. The captain glanced at Keith. The pilot obviously loved his work. The Scotsman grinned as he made another maneuver. Then, he happened to glance at the captain and noticed him watching.

  “This is the life, eh, sir?”

  Maddox grinned faintly and nodded. He was surprised to realize he too was looking forward to this.

  Maddox relaxed as Keith dove faster, maneuvered more violently and made the shuttle
shake harder.

  “Is this truly necessary?” Ludendorff asked querulously.

  “Ab-so-lutely,” Keith said. “Safety and caution are the bywords today. Thus, I fly like a madman. If shooters are targeting us, it won’t be this shuttle they hit.”

  Ludendorff grumbled under his breath.

  The ace’s eyes gleamed, and his smile stretched across his face.

  Shortly, the comm crackled, and a following pilot asked, “What are you doing, Tango One? How do you expect us to keep up with you?”

  “No one can keep up with me,” Keith boasted over the comm.

  “Shows over,” Maddox said. “We’re a squadron, not a lone wolf. You will act accordingly.”

  Keith nodded a second later. “Aye-aye, mate, er, sir. I understand.”

  Meta and Maddox traded glances. Keith had said that just like a deflated little boy told it was time to come inside.

  The violence of their descent lessened. The shaking grew tolerable and Keith no longer bubbled with excitement.

  “Thanks, Tango One,” a pilot said over the comm. “I can match that.”

  It was Keith’s turn to mutter under his breath.

  Soon, the metallic sheen down below changed as the rust spots and rust belts separated from the brighter areas. The Pandora star shined strongly, providing illumination. It was early morning on the southern polar region of the planet. They’d agreed that that should be the best time to explore, while the Vendels were still waking up for the day.

  “There’s nothing tracking us so far,” Keith said, as he checked his panel.

  Maddox peered out of the viewing port. He saw endless towers, block buildings, airstrips, what might have been malls, skyscrapers—the vastness of the one-world city spread out in all its misery. Why would the un-tampered Vendels have done such a thing? How had they fed their billions of inhabitants? The city had gone subterranean for a considerable depth. Maybe they’d had underground agriculture or vast synthesizing plants. Why had the Builder androids moved openly here? Had the intense urbanization had something to do with it?

  Maddox glanced sidelong at the professor. Ludendorff seemed to have kept much more information hidden than he’d ever revealed. Yet, the Methuselah Man was the source for just about everything they did know out here. Why did he hold back so much? Wouldn’t Star Watch work more efficiently if Ludendorff opened up?

  It was possible the old dog couldn’t change his habits. Ludendorff had operated like this for so long, it was all he knew. Maybe he just liked to keep something up his sleeve…

  Maddox rubbed his chin. What were Ludendorff’s ultimate goals? What did the Methuselah Man hope to achieve with his existence? Were there hidden Builder motivations buried deep in Ludendorff’s subconscious? Maybe not even Ludendorff knew all those answers.

  “There,” the professor said. “That’s the area. You should land somewhere over there.”

  Keith tilted the shuttle, and they dropped almost straight down toward huge round domes, skyscrapers and a dark mass of an indistinguishable something. At this rate, they would hit the surface in seconds.

  The professor grabbed his armrests, shouting in surprise. “Are you insane?”

  “Missile,” Keith said crisply, as he tapped his board. “Coming fast. I’m activating our autocannons.”

  Maddox studied the tiny combat screen. He saw a cruise missile zooming several meters over the tops of towers and between the spaces of vast block buildings. The cruise missile must have used afterburners, because it leapt faster. As it did so, the missile zoomed upward at them, leaving the buildings behind.

  “Right you are,” Keith said, talking to himself. He pressed tabs. The shuttlecraft shuddered. A second later, antimissiles rocketed toward the incoming missile. At the same time, the autocannons barked.

  “If it’s a nuclear—” Ludendorff said.

  “Hang tight, sisters and brothers,” Keith shouted, interrupting. “We’re going to do this…now.”

  The cruise missile must have had a proximity fuse. The warhead ignited a millisecond before the first antimissile would have slammed into it. A nonnuclear but lethal detonation created a massive fireball.

  Ludendorff shouted in alarm. The shuttlecraft swerved violently, curving away from the powerful explosion. Afterburners kicked in, and they moved like a bat out of hell. It was not good enough to get them out of danger, though.

  The blast-wave reached them.

  Like a surfer on a tsunami wave, the shuttlecraft tumbled headlong. At the same time, intense heat baked the craft as the armored shell began to glow with the rising temperature. The air-conditioners hummed. Even so, everyone in the cabin sweated horribly as smoke rose from various panels.

  Maddox knew Keith was shouting because he saw the ace’s mouth moving. He did not hear a thing, though. A cyclone howl made that impossible. The captain could not understand how they’d survived the explosion so far. This must be the limit at which the shuttle could survive the near detonation. Perhaps only Keith’s fantastic reflexes and decision-making were giving them this fighting chance.

  The violent shaking lessened, although it was still rattling them.

  “I see another missile,” Keith shouted. His voice was barely loud enough to compete against the lessening howl.

  Even as the ace pointed out the new cruise missile, Maddox saw a beam reach down from the heavens. The beam struck the cruise missile, destroying it before the warhead could add to their misery.

  Two more cruise missiles appeared. Starship Victory beamed each one from orbit.

  “Ha-ha,” Keith laughed. “That will show—”

  A new threat appeared in the guise of a red beam, cutting his speech short. The red beam focused on the second shuttle, which was much higher and to their left. The beam hit the armored hull, burned through—

  The second shuttle exploded.

  Maddox reacted at once, grabbing a microphone. “Abort the mission,” he said. “Get upstairs to Victory.”

  “Sir—” a pilot said over the comm.

  “That’s an order,” Maddox said. “Don’t let that beam destroy any more of my shuttles. Jink out of the area and head up. Go!”

  At the same time, an explosion aboard their own shuttle made the craft flip end-over-end.

  “Hang on!” Keith shouted. “I think somebody wants to find out just how good of a pilot I am.”

  The next few seconds were touch and go as the shuttle flipped, twisted and headed down at the onrushing buildings.

  Keith wasn’t laughing any more. He was tightlipped and his hands were white-knuckled. His eyes had a fiery quality that almost made them blaze.

  The captain could feel the intensity, the will to win in Keith, and he heartily approved. In fact, his estimation of the ace grew.

  The shuttle straightened out, which seemed like a miracle. Yet, even as Keith achieved the impossible, the shuttle’s underbelly scraped against a girder sticking up like an angry middle finger from a broken tower. A terrible grinding, ripping sound accompanied a new kind of shudder in the craft.

  “That’s not going to help,” Keith said.

  The shuttle’s underbelly slammed against the highest rounded part of a dome. They wobbled and shuddered worse than before, and Keith gambled. He used the afterburners one more time.

  They leapt up just enough to miss the next building. A secondary explosion inside the shuttle left them with just one engine, and that one knocked wildly.

  “We’re not going home in this thing,” Keith said. “But we might land in one piece. Say your prayers, boys and girls, because I’m a-needing them.”

  Help us, Creator, Maddox thought.

  The captain saw Meta’s lips move. The Methuselah Man did nothing of the kind, sitting rigidly with his eyes focused outside on the immediate city.

  The next few seconds seemed even more impossible than the preceding ones. Keith tilted the shuttle so the wings wouldn’t smash against two looming buildings. Instead, they zipped sideways through the
space between the buildings, straightening out on the other side.

  “I don’t see anywhere to land,” Keith said.

  Maddox thought that an understatement. It was a maze of metal junk down there. A few white things moved—scavenging Vendels.

  Deliberately, the captain turned to Keith. “No one can land this thing in one piece. It’s impossible.”

  Keith stared back at him, and the pilot grew pale.

  Maddox wondered if he’d overdone it. Maybe even the ace had his limits in terms of flying challenges.

  A ragged laugh bubbled out of Keith’s throat. “No confidence in me, eh, mate? You’ll see, then, won’t you?”

  Keith used his one knocking engine. He brought them down, and he used junk heaps to help bleed some of their momentum. Like a skipping stone, he smashed down repeatedly. The craft shuddered at each hit. Underbelly and armored metal shredded away. They almost flipped again—sweat dripped from Keith’s face. But he brought the shuttle down onto a compacted area, grinding, sliding, screeching…until the shuttle came to an unbelievable halt.

  Fires crackled in the back of the shuttle. Minor explosions told them they didn’t have much time to get out. Yet, each of them breathed. Each of them was intact. None of them had any broken bones, although they all had bruises.

  “I bit my tongue,” the professor complained.

  No one answered.

  Maddox unlatched his restraints. He stood, and almost fell because his legs were so wobbly. It took an effort of will to reach Meta. He unhooked her and helped her to her feet.

  “We’re alive,” she whispered.

  “You’re the best there is, mate,” Maddox told Keith.

  The ace didn’t answer. He was too busy staring out of the viewing port.

  Maddox turned to see what had the ace’s attention. Twenty or more Vendels bounded like hairless chimpanzees. They were coming straight for them across the junkyard heap.

  -27-

  Maddox reacted as if he’d practiced for a lifetime just for this day. Maybe, in a manner of speaking, he had.

  First, he grabbed a rebreather, fitting the mask over his face. He activated it so it would purify the air before he breathed it. Second, he opened a weapons locker and grabbed a Khislack .370, a heavy assault rifle. He also grabbed an ammo belt with many magazines, buckling it around his waist. Finally, as he strode for the hatch, he slapped a magazine into place and chambered a bullet.