The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) Page 2

  “How…” Maddox moistened his mouth. “How did the trapper die?”

  “A broken neck, sir,” Riker said.

  “Twisted from behind?”

  “The broken nose and blood smeared on his face would indicate a savage punch or kick to the head, sir,” Riker said. “I’d imagine only three people on the starship could do that with just their fist.”

  “Per Lomax, Meta and me,” Maddox said.

  “Exactly, sir. I was heading to the holding cell to check on our New Man. Then, I heard someone coming. It turned out to be you, sir.”

  Maddox managed to frown. He hadn’t thought he’d made any noise. How had Riker heard him?

  Turning his sore neck, Maddox focused on the sergeant. “The holding cell is empty.”

  Riker turned pale. In two quick twitches, the sergeant glanced right and left, aiming the stunner in both directions.

  “You perceive the danger,” Maddox said. “Good. Now, help me stand.”

  With a trembling hand, Riker holstered the stunner. He crouched behind the captain, putting his hands under Maddox’s shoulders, lifting.

  Maddox felt as if he’d massively over-trained, with his muscles slow to respond. By minute degrees, the captain made it to his feet.

  Riker panted, saying, “Good thing I have a bionic arm, sir. You’re heavier than you look.”

  Maddox held out his left hand. It disgusted him that it trembled. He hated any sign of personal weakness. Lowering the offensive hand, he shuffled against a bulkhead and leaned against it, resting.

  “I’m surprised you’re able to stand at all, sir,” Riker said, taking out his stunner, eying both ends of the corridor. “Not too many people could do it so quickly after a stunner shot.”

  “Someone took the jumpfighter outside the ship,” Maddox said.

  “During this mess, sir?”

  “Yes.”

  Riker looked at him in surprise. “It must have been Per Lomax.”

  “He could have set the jumpfighter on auto to make it look like he did.”

  It took Riker a second to work through that. Maddox watched the changes on the sergeant’s face. Finally, the old features scowled.

  “He’s a clever bastard,” Riker muttered.

  “More than clever,” Maddox said. “Now, show me the dead man.”

  “Can you walk yet, sir?”

  “Give me an arm. I’ll lean on it.” Maddox hoped moving would help to shake off the stun.

  “What if we run into Per Lomax?” Riker asked.

  Right. Maddox couldn’t afford the stun weakness. Time was their enemy. He had to outmaneuver the New Man while the odds still favored them.

  The captain closed his eyes, gathering his will. Taking a deep breath, he opened them, straightened and managed a few staggering steps. Continuing to walk, he drew his long-barreled gun with a shaky hand.

  “Sergeant,” Maddox called. “Show me the dead man.”

  “Yes, sir,” Riker said, hurrying to catch up. He glanced at the captain, looked as if he wanted to say something and then decided against it.

  With the sergeant in the lead, the two operatives headed down the corridor.

  ***

  Ten minutes later, Maddox knelt beside the dead slarn trapper. The corpse had a thick, gray-streaked, gory beard. The nose was broken, flattened and smeared with drying blood. The angle of the head indicated a broken neck just as Riker had said.

  The corpse—his name had been Sten Gorgon—wore a homespun shirt and pants with heavy boots, Wolf Prime attire. Maddox didn’t know how long Sten had been with the professor.

  “Even with a crank bat,” Riker said, “it would be hard to break the neck like that.”

  Maddox checked one end of the corridor and then the other. He didn’t hear anyone coming. The sergeant was right about the crank bat.

  Inspecting the corpse one more time, Maddox set his gun on the floor and patted the torso through the shirt. He felt something near the belt.

  Maddox might have snatched his hand away and dove onto the floor to escape a booby trap blast, but he felt something slim tucked against the corpse’s belt. Unbuttoning the three lower buttons, Maddox extracted a metal collar.

  “Per Lomax’s shock collar,” Riker said, identifying the object.

  Twisting it around, Maddox studied the thing. It was a nasty device meant to hold a dangerous but invaluable prisoner in check. In the orbit of Wolf Prime, Per Lomax had led a boarding party of New Men. The enemy had attempted to capture Victory. At heavy cost, Maddox’s team had killed all the invaders but for Per Lomax. Him, they had taken prisoner. It had been the first enemy prisoner—dead or alive—anyone had captured. Maddox had been taking the New Man home to Earth for the experts to question.

  If Per Lomax left his holding cell, the shock collar was supposed to have rendered him unconscious. The ion storm must have shorted the device. Would Per Lomax have known that ahead of time? Might it have been an educated guess or gamble on the New Man’s part?

  Maddox used both hands, pulling the collar apart. It had been open. A quick examination showed him someone must have opened the lock normally, not with a burst of strength tearing it apart. Could Per Lomax have had inside help?

  As preposterous as the idea seemed, Maddox was forced to consider it.

  “Who do you think killed the trapper, sir?” Riker asked.

  “Maybe that’s the wrong question,” Maddox said. “Why did the person kill Sten Gorgon?”

  “I’ll bite, sir. Why did they kill him?”

  Maddox stared at the corpse. Methodically, he considered the situation. Victory had used the star drive, jumping into an empty system. The vessel had appeared beside a spatial anomaly, an ionic front magnetic storm. After the jump, the starship’s shield had been down. It took precious time before the deflector mechanisms could come back online. The electromagnetic shield might not have withstood the strands of magnetic force anyway. As it was, the interfering magnetics and strand-attacks had damaged the starship and rendered most interior systems inoperative. During that time, Per Lomax had escaped from the holding cell and someone had launched the starship’s remaining jumpfighter. On top of all that, a faint, gigantic spaceship had moved through the magnetic storm.

  Was Victory’s jump appearance near the magnetic storm a coincidence? Was the faint ship in the spatial anomaly—it’s being there at the instant it was—another coincidence?

  Maddox seriously doubted that. So who had plotted the starship’s course to the magnetic storm?

  Before Maddox could begin the analysis, Riker shouted, bringing up his stunner. A click sounded from the weapon. A blot of force ejected from the barrel. The bolt passed though the hologram of Driving Force Galyan. The AI image stood before them, having just appeared.

  “Don’t do that!” Riker shouted. The alien holoimage had a humanoid shape, but with ropy arms and extremely deep-set, dark eyes.

  Galyan examined his torso before staring at the sergeant. “Why did you just shoot me?”

  “I thought you were someone else,” Riker said in a calmer voice.

  “Who did you think I was?” Galyan asked.

  “Never mind about that,” Maddox said. “It’s clear you’re functioning again.”

  “I have run a self-diagnostic, Captain,” Galyan said. “I am presently operating at seventy-eight percent capacity. Therefore, I am not running at normal efficiency.”

  “That will have to suffice for now.” Maddox glanced to the right, studying the corridor and then turned and inspected the corridor to the left.

  “Is there a problem?” Galyan asked.

  “Look down at my feet,” Maddox said.

  “Do you refer to the dead slarn trapper?”

  “That’s right. Who killed him?”

  “I do not know,” Galyan said.

  “You didn’t catch it on the video system?”

  “Negative,” Galyan said. “The storm rendered the cameras inoperative during the scope of what appears to be
a heinous crime.”

  “Is the intercom system working now?” Maddox asked.

  “No. It has not yet recovered from the storm damage.”

  “How did you know we were here?” Maddox asked.

  “The cameras are operational again,” Galyan said. “They simply weren’t during the timespan wherein this man perished.”

  Was that another coincidence? Maddox doubted it. “Do you recall the ship’s roster?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Galyan said.

  “Check the ship, and tell me who’s missing.”

  Galyan’s eyelids fluttered for just a moment. “I have completed the scan, Captain. Per Lomax is missing.”

  Riker laughed with relief.

  Maddox wasn’t as easily satisfied. “Did you scan every centimeter of the ship, every possible hiding location?”

  “I scanned every place where my cameras can see,” Galyan said.

  “Are there places you can’t see?” Maddox asked.

  “There are,” Galyan said, “but your assumption is faulty. The jumpfighter left Victory. Logic dictates its pilot is no longer with us. Per Lomax is the only missing person. Therefore, he piloted the jumpfighter. That means he is not is hiding on the ship in a location I cannot see.”

  Maddox examined the corpse, Riker and finally Galyan. Afterward, he looked up the corridor and down it.

  “You can relax, sir,” Riker said.

  Maddox regarded Galyan. “Where could someone hide so you couldn’t spot him?”

  “You mean visibly through my cameras?”

  “What else could I—oh,” Maddox said. “You can travel to places your cameras can’t see.”

  “That is correct,” Galyan said, “but I fail to understand what you are implying.”

  “Maybe Per Lomax set the jumpfighter on autopilot,” Maddox told the AI. “Maybe the New Man wanted us to think he had left the starship so we wouldn’t look for him anymore.”

  “I deem that sequence as highly unlikely,” Galyan said.

  Maddox pinched his lower lip in thought. If he were Per Lomax hiding from Galyan, where would he be? Even more to the point, how could the New Man take control of Victory while remaining hidden?

  -3-

  “I want you to go to every place on Victory your cameras can’t see,” Maddox told Galyan. “I want to know with one hundred percent certainty if Per Lomax is or is not aboard the starship. Can you do that?”

  “It will take time,” Galyan said.

  “Then the sooner you begin the sooner I’ll have my answer.”

  “Logical,” Galyan said. “Good bye, Captain, Sergeant Riker.” The holoimage disappeared.

  “Do you really think the New Man had time to set the jumpfighter onto autopilot?” Riker said. “That’s a lot of deep thinking and activity that needs doing in a short amount of time.”

  Maddox was staring at the corpse again. The sergeant had a reasonable question, but Maddox didn’t know enough about jumpfighters to answer him. He would have to ask Second Lieutenant Keith Maker about that.

  “Consider what we’re seeing,” Maddox told Riker, “a dead slarn hunter who took a savage blow to the face. The blow might have snapped the neck. In order for it to have done so, the punch would have to have been devastating. It would take an extraordinarily strong person to achieve such a hit. That would also imply expert-class combat technique. Strength alone couldn’t break the neck with a punch.”

  “Someone with a crank bat could have possibly done it with normal strength,” Riker said, “or with some other suitable implement like a steel bar.”

  “I didn’t attack and kill Sten Gorgon,” Maddox said. “You have a bionic arm and are trained in close combat of an extremely dirty variety. But your loyalty to Star Watch is impeccable. Thus, you didn’t kill the man, either.”

  “That leaves two people who could have murdered Gorgon like this,” Riker said. “The obvious person is Per Lomax.”

  “If the New Man did it, why was Gorgon carrying the shock collar?”

  “Because Per Lomax put it there,” Riker said. “What could be easier to explain?”

  “Let me see if I understand your reasoning,” Maddox said. “During the magnetic storm, Per Lomax slipped from the holding cell and unlocked the shock collar, which he then carried with him. He surprised Gorgon and lashed out viciously, snapping the man’s neck with a blow, killing the trapper. Per Lomax knew his time was limited—that the AI and ship-monitoring systems were only temporarily down. The New Man paused long enough, however, to unbutton the dead man’s shirt, tucked the shock collar there, buttoned the shirt closed and even stuffed the ends of the shirt under the trousers. Is that what you’re suggesting?”

  “I suppose not.” Riker eyed the captain. “But if I didn’t do it, you didn’t do it and neither did Per Lomax… There is one other possibility. Meta.”

  “Yes. I’ve already been considering that.”

  “If you’ll allow me to speak, sir,” Riker said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “I wish I could put this delicately, but Meta was with Kane for quite some time.”

  For just a moment, Maddox’s features tightened.

  Kane had been a spy for the New Men sent to Earth. The spy had kidnapped Meta from New York City and taken her into space. Using an ancient device known as the Nexus, Kane had jumped to Wolf Prime ahead of them. There, in planetary orbit, Kane had taken Meta to Per Lomax aboard one of the enemy star cruisers. Per Lomax had sent Meta to someone the New Men referred to as “the teacher”. The teacher had modified her mind in some manner. It was why the professor no longer trusted Meta.

  “I would appreciate it if you got to the point,” Maddox told the sergeant.

  “Could Meta have…listened to a hidden compulsion to free Per Lomax from confinement?” Riker asked.

  “Yes,” Maddox said, exhaling. “The possibility exists.” He hated admitting this to himself or aloud.

  “Gorgon found out what she was doing and tried to stop her. Meta bashed him. In her panic, she hit Gorgon hard enough to snap his neck.”

  “Would she pause long enough to put the shock collar under the dead man’s shirt?” Maddox asked.

  “I think she might, sir. Meta used to be an assassin. She might have paused long enough to plant a distracting clue knowing that later you would find it.”

  The idea had a ring of plausibility. Meta had helped repair the ancient starship the first time. Could she have secretly caused the vessel to appear out of a star drive jump near the spatial anomaly?

  “Galyan,” Maddox called. “I have to ask you a question.”

  The holoimage reappeared before them.

  “I am working swiftly, Captain,” Galyan said. “I have already checked twenty-eight percent of the hidden locations. Obviously, I haven’t yet discovered Per Lomax or I would have informed you.”

  “Where’s Meta?” Maddox asked.

  “In her sleeping compartment,” Galyan said.

  “Is she alone?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Thank you,” Maddox said. “You may continue your search.”

  A second later, Galyan vanished again.

  Riker rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure I like having an ancient computer entity watching me while I’m in my room.”

  “It has its drawbacks,” Maddox admitted. “Now, unlimber your stunner, Sergeant, and remain alert. We will work under the assumption that Per Lomax is still aboard the starship.”

  “Yes, sir,” Riker said, in a resigned voice.

  “Sergeant,” Maddox said. “It’s quite possible Per Lomax had inside help. Whoever else was involved is obviously still on the ship.”

  “Unless this dead slarn trapper was Per Lomax’s inside help,” Riker said.

  Maddox froze before cocking an eyebrow at the sergeant.

  “What did I say?” Riker asked.

  “Something profound,” Maddox said. “Now, come along. Our enemy is moving swiftly to accomplish something. We
must move faster to stop him.”

  ***

  Maddox knocked on Meta’s outer hatch.

  “Who is it?” Meta called from the inside.

  “The captain.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “No, Sergeant Riker is here. He will remain outside to stand guard.”

  “Why would he have to stand guard?” Meta asked.

  “Will you open the hatch?”

  “Answer my question first,” she said.

  In the beginning, the muffling from the hatch made it difficult for Maddox to tell anything from Meta’s voice. Now, it was clear. She was nervous.

  “Per Lomax has escaped his holding cell,” Maddox said. “I also found Sten Gorgon. The slarn trapper is dead, with a broken neck.”

  A second later, an inner lock clicked and the hatch moved a bare centimeter. One of Meta’s eyes peered through the crack.

  “I’m tired,” she said. “Why don’t you come back later?”

  Maddox put a hand on the hatch and pushed. It moved another several centimeters before stopping. Meta used one of her arms to block the hatch from opening farther. She had been born on a two G world and was denser than a regular human. Meta also happened to be quite nude. She had a voluptuous figure with tantalizing breasts. Her long blonde hair was up, tied in a knot. Maddox enjoyed the view, but he didn’t let her charms distract him. Speckles of blood were smeared against her throat as if she had wiped it but failed to rub all the blood away.

  “Are you getting ready to take a shower?” Maddox asked.

  “Don’t you have any manners?” Meta asked angrily. “I’m naked. Your sergeant is staring me.”

  Maddox turned around to chastise Riker. The sergeant had his back to Meta. The closing hatch bumped Maddox forward. The lock clicked shut.

  Maddox realized Meta had used a diversion against him to get the door closed.

  “Meta,” he called.

  “I’m busy. Go away.”

  “You killed Sten Gorgon. It’s his blood I saw on your throat.”

  “Leave me alone!” she shouted.