The Lost Earth (Lost Starship Series Book 7) Read online

  “Give me another few seconds, sir,” the holoimage said.

  “Full power to the shields,” Maddox said.

  Galyan’s eyelids fluttered.

  The neutron beam flashed. As it did, the enemy warhead ignited in a fantastic explosion of nuclear power.

  Fortunately, the missile and its warhead were still quite a distance away. Perhaps it had a computer in the warhead, and the device had concluded that it would never get closer to the targeted offender.

  “Here comes the wave,” Valerie said.

  The blast, heat and radiation struck Victory’s shields. The blow slammed the entire shield, which may have saved the starship. If the blast had struck at a single concentrated point… The entire shield turned red. The glowing red color deepened to purple and headed toward a darker hue.

  “Do you see any more of those missiles?” Maddox asked Valerie.

  “I’m looking,” the lieutenant said in a strained voice.

  Maddox studied the shield outside the ship. He believed he could detect a slight brightening to the nearly black hue.

  “I see hundreds more missiles,” Valerie whispered.

  “Are they heading toward us?” Maddox asked.

  “Back up,” Ludendorff said. “Back up fast. I forgot about the ancient defenses. Strand was with me last time. We did something to stave them off.” The professor bowed his head. “If I could just remember…”

  “We’re going too fast to just back up,” Valerie said in a scathing tone.

  “I’m altering our trajectory,” Keith said from the piloting console.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “Have you pinpointed the missiles?”

  “I have, sir,” the AI said. “Look at the screen.”

  On the main screen appeared hundreds of symbols for the—

  “Are those floating missiles, as it were?” Maddox asked.

  “Affirmative,” Galyan said.

  Maddox swiveled his chair to face the Methuselah Man. “Are they mines?”

  Ludendorff looked up in astonishment. “Yes, that’s right. They are a type of mine.”

  “From an ancient war?” asked Maddox.

  “I believe so,” Ludendorff said. “I can’t quite remember all the details. I do know the mines were activated ten thousand years ago.”

  “Is ten thousand years a euphemism?” Galyan asked.

  “I suppose…” Ludendorff said as he rubbed his forehead.

  “I see more missiles,” Valerie said. “I count five turning toward us.”

  “Emergency jump,” Maddox said.

  The shield remained purple as they tried to shed the terrible energies caught in its electromagnetic force.

  Keith manipulated his piloting board faster and then seemed to be tapping the board in frustration.

  Lieutenant Keith Maker was a Scotsman, a sandy-haired individual with, normally, a mischievous grin. Valerie and he were still seeing each other, but they weren’t as open about it as Maddox and Meta or even Ludendorff and Dana.

  “Is something the matter?” Maddox asked Keith.

  “Yes, sir,” the pilot admitted. “The star drive isn’t responding.”

  “Galyan?” Maddox asked.

  “Checking,” Galyan said. “Keith is correct,” the holoimage said a moment later. “Something is dampening the star drive. We are unable to jump.”

  “We’d better do something fast,” Valerie said. “Those five missiles are accelerating. I don’t think the shields can take another explosion of that magnitude.”

  “Evasive maneuvers, Lieutenant,” Maddox told Keith. “Get us the hell out of here.”

  “If anyone can do it, sir,” Keith said. “It’s me.”

  -15-

  The next fifteen minutes proved harrowing. The neutron beam flashed into the void, destroying one of the new missiles.

  “Hold off firing,” Maddox told Galyan. “Their computers will likely reach the same conclusion as before. Get the disrupter cannon ready. We’re going to take them all down at once if we can.”

  As he spoke, Keith slowed Victory’s forward velocity. The starship applied massive thrust as the gravity dampeners strained, protecting the crew from excessive G forces.

  “Do you remember what Strand did before to contain those missiles?” Maddox asked the professor.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Maddox kept himself from saying more. The seconds ticked away. He wanted to know what kept the star drive from working, but he didn’t want to overload Galyan just now in order to find out.

  On the main screen, the four new missiles zeroed in on Victory. This place was a giant trap. How could Ludendorff have forgotten about the floating missile-mines?

  “Ready, Captain,” Galyan said.

  “Fire,” Maddox whispered.

  The disrupter cannon and neutron cannon worked in tandem. In less than thirty seconds, the four new missiles were smashed atoms.

  “Lieutenant…?” Maddox asked.

  “It takes time to stop our mass, sir,” Keith said.

  “The greater, thus hotter, thrust will surely activate other mines,” Ludendorff said, “as Victory will appear on their possibly sluggish sensors.”

  “Do you have a suggestion?” Maddox asked.

  Ludendorff shook his head. “It’s merely an observation.”

  Maddox had lurched forward in his chair. He didn’t like the idea of a ten thousand-year-old minefield doing-in Starship Victory. What could this planet possibly tell them about the entity in the null region? Ludendorff and his archaeology—the man loved the past. There was no denying that. Yet, why did he remember in fits and starts about this place? That seemed odd.

  “Sir,” Valerie said.

  Maddox nodded, expecting the worst.

  She pointed at the main screen.

  Seven ancient missiles had begun a hard burn for the starship. Behind those, thirteen others rotated so the nosecones faced Victory.

  “Professor,” Maddox said. “You’d better start remembering better.”

  Ludendorff stood stiffly with his head bowed and his arms crossed. He shook one of his hands as if using it to pry out an old memory. Suddenly, he looked up.

  Yes,” Ludendorff said. “That’s it. Lieutenant,” he told Valerie. “You must—” The Methuselah Man hurried to her station. “Would you vacate your chair?” he asked.

  Valerie hopped out.

  Ludendorff sat down in it. He stretched his fingers like a master pianist readying for a concert. He flexed them several times. Then he addressed the comm board, tapping, adjusting and moving markers.

  “What are you doing?” Valerie asked him.

  “Remembering an old sequence, a code,” Ludendorff said. “The Fishers were an aquatic species. You could think of them as Earth dolphins but with appendages, I suppose, like squids. They spoke in whistles and other high-pitches sounds like dolphins. I’m trying to key into the missiles, to tell them to abort.”

  “To blow themselves up?” asked Valerie.

  “Do not distract me,” Ludendorff warned her.

  Valerie stopped talking and stood tensely, watching the old master at work.

  Finally, Ludendorff sat back in the comm chair. He straightened a second later and swiveled around. “Stop firing at them at once. This won’t work otherwise.”

  “Stop firing,” Maddox told Galyan.

  The AI obeyed. The disruptor and neutron cannons ceased firing. The antimatter engine still labored, powering the shield to renewed strength.

  “Well?” Maddox asked.

  “It seems to be working,” Keith said from the piloting board. “The missiles are no longer accelerating at us. If we can keep it this way for another ten minutes, I can get Victory turned around.”

  Maddox glanced at Ludendorff.

  “I know, I know,” the professor said. “I did it again. I saved the ship and our lives. You are all quite welcome.”

  “Ah…” Maddox said.

  “Yes,” Ludendorff said, as if answerin
g a question. “I believe we should be able to proceed to the planet as planned.”

  Maddox considered speaking his mind. He did not like all those missile-mines waiting out there. It was more than possible that there were even more mines out there than they presently detected. Valerie hadn’t detected them until the last minute. That implied cloaking devices. Yet, if they backed away from the planet now, would they ever come back?

  “What exactly are you looking for?” the captain asked Ludendorff.

  “The Fisher oceans dried up long ago,” Ludendorff said. “The red giant scoured the other planets—”

  “What are you looking for?” Maddox repeated.

  Ludendorff blinked several times before nodding crisply. “I finally recalled an argument Strand and I had over the Fisher ruins. Strand suggested an electrical entity had plagued the Fishers near the end of their existence. He suggested those stories weren’t mere myths, but truths. I, on the other hand—”

  “Thank you,” Maddox said. “I understand.”

  Ludendorff scowled, although he held his peace. The professor did not like anyone interrupting him, nor ending his stories abruptly.

  “We’re heading for the planet,” Maddox told Keith. “If the professor can keep those missiles at bay, we might as well see what we came for.”

  The others merely stared at him.

  “Steady as she goes,” Maddox said in a level voice.

  Reluctantly, Keith turned back to the piloting board. “Aye, aye, Captain. We’re heading for an insertion orbit.”

  -16-

  Four hours later, the starship moved in low orbit around a desert world. According to sensor scans, harsh winds blew across a barren planet. There were several low mountain ranges, but nothing grand or majestic like Mount Olympus on Mars or even the Himalayan Range on Earth.

  “According to our original findings,” Ludendorff said, “the Fishers used to live in a vast ocean world with tens of thousands of low reefs. A few of the areas were dry land, and those were veritable garden spots.”

  Maddox thought of Kauai, wondering if it had been anything like that.

  “The star turned into a red giant,” Ludendorff said. “In its enlarged state, it devoured the other planets and boiled away the once mighty oceans. The vast majority of the Fisher ruins were also burned away.”

  “What about the civilization, the people?” Maddox asked.

  “Oh,” Ludendorff said, shaking his head. “The Fishers passed away like the Adoks.”

  “The Swarm hit here?”

  “No, no,” Ludendorff said. “Haven’t I made myself clear? The Destroyers struck here, the Nameless Ones.”

  “I thought Destroyers ravaged a planet?”

  “They did.”

  “Why is the planet still here then?” Maddox asked.

  “That’s a good question. I don’t know.”

  “What?” the captain asked. “I thought you were the great archeologist.”

  “I am,” Ludendorff said.

  “Maybe the Fishers drove away the Destroyers?”

  “What part of ‘I don’t know’ don’t you understand?” the professor asked.

  Maddox grew thoughtful. “I’m curious. Why do you think the Fishers knew anything about the entity in the null region?”

  Ludendorff blinked several times as a blank look entered his eyes. “Yes!” he said decisively, as if the lights had suddenly turned on again in his mind. “Strand had a theory about that. I’d quite forgotten it. Strand believed the Fishers spoke to the Nameless Ones. He believed the two sides came to an accord.”

  “Are you feeling well, Professor?” Maddox asked.

  “Quite well,” Ludendorff said. “Why do you ask?”

  “You don’t seem yourself.”

  “Nonsense, my boy,” Ludendorff said, slapping his chest.

  “You keep…blanking out.”

  “Dredging up old memories,” Ludendorff said. “Don’t let the process scare you.”

  “It’s as if someone is feeding you these memories.”

  “What?” Ludendorff asked. “That’s preposterous. Firstly, who could do such a thing?”

  That’s what Maddox was asking himself. He’d never seen Ludendorff act like this. It was strange and unsettling.

  “I’m utterly fine,” Ludendorff said. “You try being as old as me and remembering everything. Then, you won’t think it odd that a man has to conjure up old thoughts before he can relate them.”

  Could that be the answer? Maddox wondered. It was possible. His instincts said otherwise, though.

  “Are you interested in the Fishers or not?” asked the professor.

  “How could the Fishers have made a deal with the Nameless Ones?” Maddox asked. “I thought they annihilated everyone they met.”

  “I’d always believed that myself,” Ludendorff said. “Strand had a different idea. In areas of archeology, I seldom listened to his heresies, though. However, suppose the Nameless Ones worshiped electrical creatures like the entity now stuck in the null region? If we could think of them as supernatural creatures, surely simpler aliens like the Nameless Ones could be more easily fooled.”

  “I’m not following your logic,” Maddox said.

  “That doesn’t surprise me. My advanced thoughts—”

  “Please, Professor,” Valerie said, cutting in. “Spare us your grandiose self-praise. There are too many missile-mines waiting out there to kill us for you to engage in long monologs.”

  Ludendorff crossed his arms. “Strand suggested the Fishers adopted the Nameless One’s gods. In this case, that might be the entities in question. Strand suggested this had never happened before. In doing this, the Fishers escaped extinction.”

  “These Fishers are all dead now,” Valerie said.

  “True,” Ludendorff said. “All things die. Some of us sooner than others. Some, like me, seem to last forever.”

  Maddox, Valerie and Meta studied the planet on the main screen. It was a dry yellow color, a desolate desert world.

  “I propose we head down at once,” Ludendorff told Maddox. “As Valerie has suggested, I’m not sure how long my sequencing will keep the missiles at bay. Last time, we miscalculated and nearly got ourselves killed.”

  “How long do you think we have?” Maddox asked.

  “Several hours at the most,” the professor said.

  “At the least?”

  “An hour, maybe a little more.”

  Maddox inhaled deeply, standing afterward. “Lieutenant,” he told Keith. “You’ll be taking us down to the planet.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” Keith said, straightening from his piloting board.

  -17-

  Maddox wore a skin-suit with a rebreather helmet. Despite the oceans having boiled away into space, the planet had retained an atmosphere. He didn’t see how that could be, if Ludendorff had told them the truth about what had happened in the past. Did that mean Ludendorff had told a false story? Or did it mean the planet had regained an atmosphere? Maddox was inclined toward the simpler answer that Ludendorff was wrong at least in certain areas of his story.

  The shuttle had landed on a sandy beachhead that stretched out into a red-tinted horizon. Lieutenant Maker had remained inside the craft. Maddox and Ludendorff presently crunched across sand, heading deeper into a vast rocky cavern.

  The pitted volcanic rock was black, burned no doubt by the expanding red giant. Ludendorff was right about the oceans having disappeared. Boiling away was the likeliest explanation. What would it have been like as the oceans boiled away? The red giant must have burned hotter back then as it wasn’t that hot now. The professor and he would have roasted if that had been the case.

  Being on the dead Fisher world had transformed Ludendorff yet again. The Methuselah Man walked quickly as if excited. The old man pulled out a flashlight, beaming the ray in the lengthening cavern.

  “Look, look,” Ludendorff said excitedly over a comm. “I remembered correctly.”

  The skin-suited Meth
uselah Man ran across the sand, pulling away from Maddox, with his beam first playing before him and then washing across the black rock of the monstrous cavern.

  Maddox had never seen Ludendorff so giddy. How could someone get so excited over rock drawings and pottery shards, as it were? Maybe being old like Ludendorff meant watching people age and die time after time. Old relics might hold greater worth for a man in that instance.

  Maddox rounded a corner Ludendorff had already passed. He raised his flashlight—the captain stopped in shock and then awe. He swept his light over a wall of ancient structures. They had been chiseled, it seemed, from the very rock. There were tall columns, great stone porches, round stairs and many fluted entrances into places.

  “Professor,” he called over the suit comm.

  “Hurry, my boy,” the professor panted over the comm.

  Maddox looked around but couldn’t spot the man. Where had Ludendorff gone?

  “What is this place?” Maddox asked.

  “The ruins I told you about. It’s here just where Strand and I found them over two hundred years ago. We searched then—come, my boy. Do try to keep up.”

  Maddox broke into a run. What had the professor said earlier? The Fishers may have worshiped the same entity the Nameless Ones did. How could Ludendorff know any of that? Wouldn’t that imply he knew more about the Destroyers and the Nameless Ones than he’d said? Or did this have something to do with the sudden memories? What would cause Ludendorff to compartmentalize subjects like this?

  Maddox nodded to himself. The man always had a scheme. It would not be any different this voyage.

  “Captain,” Ludendorff called.

  Maddox unsnapped the cover of his outer holster. With a gloved hand, he drew a blaster. Would Ludendorff try something weird down here in the ruins of an ancient planet? It seemed like the perfect place for the professor’s kind of trickery.

  “Captain,” Ludendorff called over the comm.

  Maddox no longer accepted the professor’s vast enthusiasm. He almost called up to the ship. He slowed as he neared the strange monuments chiseled out of the black volcanic rock. These were symmetrical in a wave-like fashion. As the captain studied them, he could almost envision aquatic creatures hammering wet stonework.