The Lost Star Gate (Lost Starship Series Book 9) Read online

  Dana looked up angrily at the screen. “Can’t you listen to him, Captain?” she shouted. “He gave up so much to give us our chance. You mustn’t hound him like this.”

  In a flash, Maddox realized how Ludendorff would play this day for the rest of his long Methuselah Man life. Ludendorff would talk about his great sacrifice to save mankind. He would go on and on about lost knowledge. Well, that didn’t matter either way. Let the professor tell his stories. How did that hurt him? Each man had to live with himself. And maybe Ludendorff had made, for him, the ultimate sacrifice.

  “Captain,” Valerie said from her station.

  Maddox tore his gaze from the side-screen and concentrated on the fifty-plus Swarm scouts out there. He had another painful decision to make.

  Swarm scouts were small vessels, maybe five times the size of a Star Watch tin can. Fifty of them were a few too many to take out just that like. This group had strayed from the main armada farther than some but not as far as others.

  “I don’t know,” Maddox whispered to himself.

  “Captain,” Galyan asked, floating nearer the command chair.

  Maddox gave the holoimage a suspicious glance. A person that far away shouldn’t have heard him mutter. The alien AI seemed to pay far too much attention to his every utterance.

  “Maybe I could help, sir,” Galyan said. “Before my deification, I was considered a tactical genius. That is how I became the Driving Force for the Adok Home Fleet.”

  “No doubt,” Maddox said absently. He already knew all that.

  “Do you suggest I am fabricating, sir?” Galyan asked.

  “What?” Maddox asked. “No. Of course not.”

  The little holoimage glanced at the main screen. He didn’t need to do that in order to see the Swarm scouts. Galyan was linked to the starship’s sensors and always “saw.”

  “A direct attack, sir,” Galyan suggested. “Ram the starship down their collective, scouting throats and obliterate them.”

  “That’s your tactical-genius advice?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes. A direct blow is often the best blow.”

  “But they’ll send a message back to the fleet before I obliterate them,” Maddox said. “That will let the main fleet know our exact position.”

  The captain stared at Galyan with something approaching astonishment. A second later, Maddox slapped his armrest with his left hand. “Thank you, Driving Force. You’ve given me an idea.”

  “I did?” Galyan said. “Ah. I did. Shall I order Keith to begin acceleration?”

  “No,” Maddox said. “Instead, here’s what I want you to do.”

  -82-

  At different intervals, four big drones launched from Victory. The drones did not accelerate normally, but used stealthy maneuvers, dumping gravity waves to change heading and quietly increase speed.

  “Anything?” Maddox asked Valerie.

  “Not that I can tell, sir,” she said, while studying her board.

  Maddox and Valerie referred to the Swarm scouts. None of the enemy vessels seemed to have detected the starship or the four drones yet. The nebula’s thick gases and cloud debris still hid them.

  “Captain,” Ludendorff said from the side-screen. “I suggest you get a move-on. I have come to believe that the nexus is only partly in our universe. That means it will take us longer to reach it.”

  Maddox frowned at the professor. “No… I don’t think so.”

  “You doubt my analysis?” Ludendorff asked, obviously surprised.

  “I know what being partially in the universe is like,” the captain said. “That is a tactic of the Nameless Ones. It has never, to my knowledge, been a Builder tactic.”

  “Are you suggesting your knowledge of the Builders is superior to mine?”

  “Not at all, Professor,” the captain said smoothly.

  “I may have dumped massive amounts of Builder knowledge from my mind…but that doesn’t mean I know any less than I did before my encounter with the nexus computer-core.”

  “I’m sure that’s true,” Maddox said.

  “Don’t you dare,” Ludendorff said. “I won’t accept anyone talking down to me, and certainly not from you, you young pup.”

  Maddox stared at the Methuselah Man until a slow smile slid onto the captain’s face. “Welcome back, Professor. You survived your ordeal with vast extended knowledge driving you insane to return to us as the same pain in the ass you’ve always been.”

  Dana’s head whipped up. “Captain—”

  “No!” Ludendorff said. His frozen features glared at Maddox. “No,” he said more softly, as his features lost some their granite quality. “No,” he said a third time. “Maybe I deserved that. The great loss of knowledge has been grating on me, Captain.”

  Maddox nodded.

  “You have no idea how I can—”

  “I’d like to indulge you,” Maddox said, interrupting. “But I have to run a small skirmish. If we can’t pull this off, we’ll have the entire armada on us too soon.”

  “Yes, quite right, quite right,” Ludendorff said. “Call me when you’re ready for further data on the hidden nexus.”

  With that, the side-screen flickered off.

  Galyan gave Maddox a meaningful glance. “I believe the correct phrase is that he is a touchy devil.”

  “That’s it,” Maddox said, standing, moving toward the main screen. Galyan floated beside him, also watching the screen.

  With his hands behind his back, Maddox observed the enemy scouts as the minutes ticked away. Far too slowly, the drones maneuvered into battle position. They had a ways to go because they needed to come from a direction completely different than Victory’s location. That was part of the point of the drone attack. He wanted to keep the starship’s location hidden from the enemy.

  “Oh-oh,” Valerie said. “The bugs are detecting that something’s out there.”

  Five of the Swarm scout-vessels detached from the rest, accelerating and turning toward the drones’ hidden position.

  “This is too soon,” Valerie said. “The drones—”

  “Turn the drones toward the bugs,” Maddox said.

  “But—yes, sir,” Valerie said. Her fingers flew over her panel. Afterward, she looked up. “We don’t have much choice anymore, do we, sir?”

  Maddox shook his head.

  Valerie studied her panel. “Three different scouts are decelerating. I think those three are going to head back to the fleet and tell them what’s happening.”

  Maddox nodded absently. He’d already divined that.

  More time passed. The three decelerating scouts now maneuvered as they began to turn more sharply, heading back toward the main fleet.

  “Now,” Maddox said. “Have the drones attack now.”

  The four drones accelerated with a hard burn. Even through the gases and debris clouds, they were now easily visible to the enemy.

  “The three messenger ships are accelerating, sir,” Valerie said. “One of them has engaged in long-range communication, presumably with the main fleet.”

  Maddox sighed quietly.

  “I understand your choice better now,” Galyan said. “Did you assume the scouts would see us too soon for our own good?”

  Maddox shrugged.

  Galyan became thoughtful. “Are you being modest in order to further highlight the professor’s vainglorious—?”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said, interrupting. “Give it a rest.”

  “A rest?” the holoimage asked.

  “Don’t ask so many questions,” Maddox said out of the side of his mouth.

  “Oh. Yes. I see. I am sorry—”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “Stop talking.”

  The holoimage blinked as if startled. Then, he fell silent.

  Maddox focused on the main screen as the drones roared at the remaining Swarm scouts.

  “Their weapon ports are beginning to heat up,” Valerie said.

  A soft smile twisted Maddox’s lips. It wasn’t going to be that
kind of fight. “Distance?” he asked.

  “They are in range of the rods, sir,” Valerie said.

  “Ignite the drones,” Maddox said. “Let’s see if this is going to work or not.”

  Each drone carried a heavy thermonuclear warhead near its cone. The drones were also staggered for just this reason and had begun to spread out. As Valerie’s signal reached them, tiny rods sprouted from each cone. A targeting computer aimed each rod. The next instant, the first thermonuclear warhead exploded. It sent gamma and x-ray radiation speeding ahead of the slower EMP and heat. The gamma and x-rays climbed each rod, focusing at a target, and sped at the speed of light at each distant objective just before the nuclear blast destroyed the rods. The nebula’s gases and debris made it a less than one hundred percent shot as some of the intervening substances weakened the radiation attacks.

  The warhead on the second drone now exploded, sending in advance another arrow mass of directed gamma and x-rays.

  The third and fourth warheads performed likewise.

  The spears of radiation struck one Swarm scout after another. Many of the small bug vessels crumbled like over-toasted bread in a monkey’s hands. Other vessels blew apart as some vital area of the ships’ interiors ignited.

  Valerie kept a keen watch on her board. “Thirty-three, thirty-four—forty destroyed so far, sir.”

  Maddox remained motionless, waiting for the end.

  The next few seconds saw the annihilation of the Swarm advance threat as forty-five of the enemy scouts died to the exploding drones. Three of the five survivors were already heading back to the main bug fleet.

  “What are we going to do about the rest?” Valerie asked.

  Maddox appeared not to hear the question.

  Galyan made a throat-clearing noise.

  Maddox’s head turned, and his body followed it, facing the lieutenant. “Leave the last bug scouts,” the captain said.

  “But—” Valerie said.

  “Our drone attack was the best we can do,” Maddox explained. “The drone attack came from a different heading. The last two scouts will go to investigate the drone debris. Launch another drone to meet those two, destroying them.”

  “The Swarm fleet is going to show up soon,” Valerie said.

  “You’re probably right,” Maddox said. “But maybe we bought ourselves a small margin as they head in the wrong direction. They’ll likely search in the heading from where the drones appeared. If I use Victory to try to destroy the three messenger vessels, the odds are the last scouts will be able to tell the main fleet about us. Then, the bugs will head in the right direction instead of veering in the wrong direction.”

  “I see what you mean,” Valerie said. “This was about delaying them, not necessarily stopping them.”

  Maddox nodded and said, “Bring up the professor again. It’s time to see how the nexus has been hiding from us.”

  -83-

  After the skirmish with the scouts, the ancient Adok starship maneuvered according to Ludendorff’s specifics. The professor followed Draegar 2’s formulas, and the bridge crew found nothing, nothing at all.

  Maddox slouched back in his chair, glancing at Valerie. She slowly shook her head.

  “The professor is wrong,” the lieutenant said. “The nexus isn’t there. This was a boondoggle.”

  “I don’t understand this,” Ludendorff said in the side-screen. “I followed Draegar 2’s instructions. The nexus has to be out there. It’s close. It simply must be.”

  “How could we have missed the nexus if it’s there?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes,” Ludendorff said, as he rubbed his left eye with an edge of a mitt. “If it’s there…ah, I think I know. Space is vast. Even here in the nebula, space is incredibly…big. How close did we come to the nexus during our latest search? Possibly as close as several hundred kilometers. In our normal terms, that’s right beside a thing. But that’s because our sensors can usually easily spot an object one hundred kilometers away. In our terms, we could have moved right past the nexus and not seen or sensed its presence.”

  “That is illogical,” said Andros Crank, who had moved to the command chair.

  “That’s nonsense,” Ludendorff said. “My logic is impeccable, as always.”

  “You’re not listening to me,” Andros said patiently. “The Swarm armada is in the nebula. That is a fact. They wouldn’t have come to the nebula unless they knew about the nexus. They can’t know about the nexus unless a Swarm ship has seen it before.”

  Through the side-screen, Ludendorff stared at the Kai-Kaus Chief Technician. “By George, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. The Swarm have been to or sighted the nexus before. Why are they having trouble finding it again then? They must know its general whereabouts…”

  The professor stopped talking as he hunched his head, obviously in deep contemplation.

  “Yes,” the Methuselah Man said shortly. “The nexus must have perfect camouflage—perfect stealth technology, in other words. Even so, we could know it’s there if we tried to fire a beam and the beam halted for an inexplicable reason, meaning the nexus blocked the shot.”

  “Or if we blasted an area with sand,” Andros said, “and the sand wall shifted strangely, revealing the hidden nexus.”

  “In that case, the very gases and dust of the nebula should reveal the nexus,” Ludendorff said. “The substances are already a wall of sand, so to speak.”

  “Perhaps that’s part of the stealth technology,” Andros said. “The nexus produces extra gases and dust, spewing it away from itself as it…ingests the gases and dust bumping up against it.”

  “That would be difficult to do perfectly,” Ludendorff said, “but it would be workable in theory. We simply lack the time and likely the energy to fire twenty thousand beams in twenty thousand directions during the next few hours.”

  “It would take damn fine concentrated observation to see the change of gaseous intake and outtake,” Andros said.

  The little holoimage cleared his throat. “I believe I have the necessary concentration,” Galyan said. “I could recalibrate my sensors—”

  “Yes!” Maddox said, interrupting. “Get on it, Galyan. How long will it take you to recalibrate?”

  The holoimage stood perfectly still as his eyelids fluttered faster than they ever had before. He opened his eyes a moment later.

  “The recalibration is done, Captain,” Galyan said. “When shall I begin scanning?”

  “Now, please,” Maddox said dryly.

  “Andros’s theoretical proposal isn’t necessarily how the nexus has remained hidden,” Ludendorff said. “It would be a cumbersome process at the best of times.”

  “Yet it fits all the available data,” Andros pointed out. “The bugs found the nexus once. They believe they can find it again and yet haven’t found it. There’s a reason for that.”

  “Possibly, possibly,” Ludendorff said. “However, I am of the opinion that—”

  “I found it,” Galyan said. “It is rather easy to spot once you know what to look for. That was well thought out, Chief Technician.”

  Andros kept his features even, although he stood taller and held his shoulders squarer.

  On the side-screen, Ludendorff gingerly crossed his arms and made a grumpy face.

  “Where is it?” Maddox said.

  “Look on the main screen, Captain,” Galyan said. “I have outlined the area in yellow.”

  Maddox turned to the screen. A yellow triangular outline of gas slowly moved leftward and downward on the main screen. It moved away from the Swarm armada in the distance.

  “You’re sure that’s the nexus?” Maddox asked.

  “Oh, yes,” Galyan said. “I have found the next Builder pyramid.”

  “Have you scanned the nexus for life-forms?” Ludendorff asked from the side-screen.

  “Yes,” Galyan said. “It is empty, likely on automated.”

  “Yet the nexus is moving,” Ludendorff said. “I don’t like that.”
<
br />   “Like it or not,” Maddox said, “we have to board the nexus and set the next coordinates.”

  “What coordinates?” Ludendorff asked. “Oh, yes, I understand. You want to get to the next nexus in the near-Swarm territory. That means another hyper-spatial tube so Victory can dash there. But someone will have to stay behind to blow up this nexus.”

  “Unless we can rig an automated explosive,” Maddox said.

  “No, Captain,” Ludendorff said. “Someone will have to remain behind. We can’t leave it to a machine that could break down. We’ve gone to tremendous effort to get here. We have to be sure we destroy it.”

  Maddox nodded. It was hard but accurate logic. “First we have to see if we can make a hyper-spatial tube. Are you up to a quick voyage to the nexus, Professor?”

  “No!” Dana said from his bedside. “He’s injured. He can’t go.”

  “Nonsense, my dear,” Ludendorff said from the bed. “Give me a few drugs, and I’ll be fit as a fiddle, as they used to say. Oh, and we’d better bring the Builder stone with us just in case.”

  “He can’t go,” Dana repeated stubbornly.

  “We’re all expendable,” Maddox told the doctor. “This is a matter of human survival. I’m not going to use second best when the best is available.”

  Through the side-screen, Dana glared at Maddox. “You’re heartless, Captain. You don’t care about anyone.”

  “Yes to the first and no to the second,” Maddox said calmly, as he stood.

  “Are you also expendable?” Dana asked sharply.

  “Of course,” Maddox said. Then he pointed at Valerie, telling her that she had the bridge. After that, he hurried for the exit.

  -84-

  Everyone knew the drill. That didn’t make it easy—this was like the pass rocketing downfield as the receiver sprinted toward the end zone during the last minutes of the championship game.

  Keith piloted the shuttle as it rose from a hangar-bay deck and headed toward the opening. Within a minute, the Star Watch vehicle left the mighty ship, gliding toward the wall of gases and clouds of debris.