The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) Page 8

Riker still didn’t know if he’d done the right thing calling the brigadier’s office. He plucked a tall cup of coffee from a holder and took a sip. It was still too hot, but it tasted mighty fine. He needed a caffeine hit if he was going to drive the flitter without crashing.

  “I’m just checking in, sir,” Riker had told the major. That hadn’t been completely truthful.

  “Couldn’t you have waited until later this morning, Sergeant?”

  “It is morning, sir.”

  “Are you getting cheeky?” Stokes had asked.

  “No, sir. Thank you, sir. Couldn’t sleep, you know. I-I was troubled for the captain.”

  “Ah,” Stokes had said.

  The point was that Riker had lied to a superior officer. That was a foolish thing for an enlisted man to do, especially a sergeant of his long standing. But there were conflicts of interest here. Any reasonable person could see that.

  Riker took another sip. He liked his coffee hot with plenty of additives, sugar being his favorite. The captain had told him on more than one occasion the evil of continuous sugar consumption. It rotted the insides, aged a man, according to the captain.

  As he drove the flitter into Geneva, the sergeant snorted to himself. It was funny, really. He liked sugar and it rotted his insides, and he was the one who was going to live long enough for it to be a problem. The captain, on the other hand, lived too dangerously. The man might be a genius when it came to combat and intrigue, but the truth was that Maddox was too rash by half. Riker knew he was supposed to temper the captain’s worst excesses—

  Why did I lie to the major?

  Riker made a face. It wasn’t hard to understand. Captain Maddox was family. The sergeant had his two nieces in the Tau Ceti System but he hadn’t seen them for years. He expected they had kids by now. He should really go to Tau Ceti to see the young brats.

  “Don’t have the time,” Riker muttered. He suspected that when he did have time, he’d be dead.

  The nieces were his blood. He thought about them often, realizing why he did what he did in the service. It was old-fashioned duty, the need to protect. Old Sergeant Riker was a sheepdog, trying to protect his loved ones from the wolves out there.

  Riker tapped the controls, taking the flitter down into Geneva. The captain was supposed to be waiting on the roof of his apartment dwelling. The man had barely gotten home and now he wanted to dash off on some fool mission he just thought of. It was inconsiderate of the captain to call so late— or rather, so early. It was hardly three A.M., Geneva time.

  The sergeant exhaled through his nostrils before taking a long gulp of the sugary coffee. The jolt of caffeine would hit soon. He yearned for it, wanting the sleep gone from his eyes and sluggish mind.

  Riker would be true to his blood, giving his life for his nieces if that’s what duty called for. He didn’t have to see them for that to tug at his heartstrings.

  His Star Watch family, though, that was different. He believed in duty to country and unit. Even more, he believed in helping his military family.

  The voyages in Starship Victory had forged an unbreakable bond between Captain Maddox, Lieutenant Valerie Noonan, Second Lieutenant Keith Maker, Dr. Dana Rich, Meta, Galyan the AI and himself, Sergeant Treggason Riker. They were family in the best sense of the word, struggling against the universe as a team.

  Riker did not get teary-eyed over the concept. He was a military man who had fought with his family. He might present a dour face to most people. Others might think of him as a gruff old man, but the central focus of his ideals led him to view the crew of Victory as his family through thick and thin. If that was a cliché older than the hills of Earth, so be it. Riker never wanted to let the captain down, never wanted the man’s death on his hands because he hadn’t done his best.

  But damn it, sometimes the captain made things difficult because he raced here and sprinted there as he tried to solve impossible puzzles. Sometimes, one had to lie down and go to sleep like a normal person.

  Why did Maddox get into so many strange predicaments? It was enough to make a philosopher out of the sergeant.

  He crumpled the empty cup and shoved it into the dispenser. Then, he adjusted the controls one more time, bringing the flitter onto the roof where Captain Maddox paced.

  ***

  Riker peered at the captain in disbelief, having just heard his instructions.

  Maddox appeared not to notice the scrutiny. Finally, the captain looked up. “Is there a problem, Sergeant?”

  “The Mid-Atlantic, sir, in the flitter?”

  “We’ve made the trip before.”

  “Yes…but Dr. Rich will be asleep when we reach there.”

  “No matter,” Maddox said.

  “Couldn’t you just call her, sir?”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “The place is restricted, I realize that. Do you have permission to enter—?”

  “Sergeant, you handle your end of the matter and I’ll handle mine.”

  Riker hesitated just a moment longer. “Yes, sir,” he said.

  The dome slid shut, the engine purred and the flitter lifted from the roof of the apartment building.

  “Wake me when we’re a hundred kilometers from the landing site,” the captain said.

  “You’re going to sleep, sir?”

  “Are you tired?”

  “I’m exhausted, sir. The trip from Shanghai took it out of me.”

  “I suggest you switch on the autopilot and take a catnap.”

  “I can’t do that, sir. I drank an express cup of Java.”

  “That’s a pity,” Maddox said, crossing his arms and leaning against his side. Almost immediately, the man fell into a rhythmic breathing pattern.

  He’s asleep, Riker realized with frustration. The sergeant thought about putting the flitter onto autopilot, but he didn’t trust the flight mechanism. Maybe in a bigger ship, it would be all right. For this little air-car, he preferred to keep at the controls.

  For a couple of hundred kilometers, Riker stared out of the canopy. Far beneath them, Europe slid past.

  As the air-car darted over the Atlantic, Riker yawned. Despite the shock of caffeine, he was dead tired. His eyelids had become heavy.

  Maddox continued to sleep.

  Riker put a comm-jack in his left ear and a sub-vocalizer onto his throat. Then, he turned on the comm, sending a signal to Victory. The ancient Adok starship was in Earth orbit. A tech crew was aboard the starship working under Lieutenant Noonan’s direction. She guarded the scientists prowling through the vessel, keeping Galyan company and calming him when the AI became mulish over something.

  “Hello,” Riker said so softly he couldn’t hear the words himself. He didn’t want to wake the captain.

  “Sergeant Riker,” Galyan said in his robotic voice. “It is good to hear from you.”

  “Likewise, I’m sure,” Riker said.

  “You are with Captain Maddox, I see.”

  “We’re heading to the Mid-Atlantic.”

  “I suspect you are going to visit the doctor. I should inform you that she is in a restricted area.”

  “That’s why I’m calling,” Riker said.

  “I do not possess clearance powers,” Galyan said.

  “I know,” Riker said. He also knew the alien AI had a fantastically powerful deductive probability analyzer. “I’m wondering why the captain plans to go there without preapproval.”

  “You should ask him.”

  “He might tell me to mind my own business,” Riker said.

  “Would that bother you?”

  “Not at all,” the sergeant muttered.

  “One moment, please,” Galyan said. “Ah. Is that a joke?”

  Riker felt himself redden.

  “One moment,” Galyan said. “Oh. I believe you just lied to me, Sergeant.”

  “Now, see here, Galyan. You have no right—”

  “It is possible that you just lied to yourself. Why does the captain’s possible censure trouble you?
”

  “Galyan.”

  “Am I intruding into areas I should not?” the robotic voice asked.

  Riker peered out of the canopy. He had a strange family, all right. Sometimes, he wondered if he would have been happier working with normal Intelligence people.

  “I will work on the clearance for you,” Galyan said.

  “I don’t want you to—”

  “It is my way of apologizing to you for intruding where I should have left things alone.”

  “I just thought of something,” Riker said. “You can track us, right?”

  “Of course,” Galyan said. “I have been doing so since I took your call.”

  “Were you tracking the captain during his time in Shanghai?”

  “Lieutenant Noonan said I must respect people’s privacy. Therefore, I was not.”

  “I agree with her,” Riker said. “But…there’s something odd going on. I want you to track the captain for the next few days.”

  “I am supposed to inform him of that first,” Galyan said.

  “Even if we’re trying to throw a surprise party for him?” Riker asked.

  “Valerie did not tell me of this party.”

  “Oh,” Riker said. “That’s right. I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

  “Why not? Have I done something to upset the captain?”

  Riker shook his head. Why couldn’t the AI make this easy? The Adok artificial intelligence asked too many questions.

  “Galyan, would you just do this for me? I’ll explain later.”

  “Yes, Sergeant, I will continue to track the captain. Would you like me to continue to track you, as well?”

  “Yes,” Riker said. He thought about the captain’s androids and the brigadier’s order to have Maddox examined to make sure he was still human. If the enemy had stuck at the captain, might he strike at a lowly sergeant too? If an android took his place, it would be an easy matter to capture the captain—well, an easier matter, at least.

  At that moment, the flitter’s engine simply cut out. It must have affected the batteries, too. The comm-unit quit. The air-car lost its motive flight with the loss of power. It plowed ahead a short distance due to momentum. Then, the flitter began to plummet toward the ocean.

  -8-

  Riker didn’t shout or frantically test switches. For a moment, he just stared at the dead board. There was no question, the flitter’s electronics had stopped working.

  The sergeant glanced outside. They were up a ways, so he had several seconds to get the machine working again. Methodically, he began the initiation procedure, which did nothing positive.

  For another second, Riker sat still, debating if he should wake the captain or not. Maddox slept soundly so far. That would change soon, as the atmosphere outside began to whistle past the dome.

  There was a soft jar, although nothing came on inside. The flitter’s nose lifted as the air-car continued its flight path but without any internal power. The dash was as dark as ever.

  The sergeant’s brow furrowed. How could the flitter be flying—oh, right, Galyan must be using a tractor beam from orbit. The AI could do more than simply pull a craft closer, but used the tractor beam to guide the flitter.

  Muttering under his breath, Riker pried open the panel. It took him fifteen minutes of sweaty, delicate work, but he found a strange little timer where one shouldn’t be. Hmmm, if he—

  “Don’t touch that,” Maddox said.

  The sergeant grunted, lurching back, surprised at the captain’s voice.

  Maddox glanced outside, at the dark dash and then at the sergeant. “You managed to contact Galyan, I take it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Riker muttered.

  Maddox frowned. “You must have contacted him before the event.”

  “Right again, sir.”

  Maddox nodded. He took a small penlight from a pocket, clicked it on and shined it on the tiny timer in the electronics.

  “Do you know what that is, sir?”

  “Another complexity,” the captain said. “Did you take the flitter to the shop after our Asia flight?”

  “That’s standard procedure, sir, especially after a cross-country jaunt from Shanghai to Geneva.”

  “Then we must presume someone hostile to Star Watch had access to the craft while in the garage. Meaning, this was an inside job. Ah, look at this.”

  Riker leaned forward, peering at the tiny device.

  “Did you see the dot on top?” Maddox asked.

  “I do, sir.”

  “That is the activation mechanism.”

  “It’s unlit, sir.”

  “The timer must have absorbed energy from the flitter’s electronics. It’s a kill-switch. The lack of energy also deactivated the timer.”

  “I’d gathered as much, sir.”

  “Does Galyan know our destination?”

  “He does, sir.”

  Maddox pursed his lips. “Give me the gist of what you told Galyan.”

  Riker did so.

  Maddox studied him afterward, making the sergeant uneasy. “From now on, Sergeant, you will inform me if you put any spy systems onto me, including Galyan.”

  “I’ll try my best, sir.”

  “That isn’t a reassuring answer.”

  “I suspect not, sir,” Riker said, who heartily disliked his secret orders. They explicitly said he could not reveal them to the captain.

  “What is it?” Maddox asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, sir,” Riker said.

  Maddox fixed those strange eyes on him and gave him a level stare.

  The sergeant could feel the captain’s mind spinning. The man had an uncanny ability to come up with answers.

  A hint of a frown appeared on the captain’s face. “I see,” Maddox said.

  Riker swallowed uneasily. The captain couldn’t have logically figured out the secret orders, could he?

  Maddox turned away, tapping a finger against a knee. “I’m still on the list, am I?”

  “List, sir?” Riker asked.

  “Hmmm, you’ve been sworn to secrecy, I presume. Yet…the secret command troubles you. That’s small comfort. How am I supposed to…?”

  “Sir?” Riker asked.

  “Never mind,” Maddox said. “You shall carry on as ordered and I will do my duty to Star Watch as my conscience dictates.”

  Riker knew the lad as well as anyone did. While the sergeant didn’t have exalted brainpower like Ludendorff and Dana Rich, he was experienced in human nature. The secret order cut against Maddox, wounding him, although the captain would never admit it to anyone. He was a proud young officer. Maddox was also a loner by inclination and circumstance. His hybrid nature hadn’t done him any favors in this regard.

  “Are you with me, Sergeant?” Maddox asked softly.

  Riker knew what the captain was asking. “One hundred percent, sir,” he said.

  “Even if…” Maddox left the question unasked.

  “Yes, sir,” Riker said, “even if.”

  Maddox nodded curtly. He couldn’t show anyone how much the answer meant to him. “Then, let us proceed.” He regarded the kill-switch timer with a penlight in one hand and a small caliper in another. Delicately, the captain reached in and plucked the sabotage device out of the interior dash system.

  “Take this,” Maddox said, handing Riker the penlight.

  Riker shined the narrow beam on the spot.

  Maddox reached in and twisted several loose wires together.

  The flitter shuttered. The engine kicked on and lights reappeared on the dash.

  The captain tapped the comm-unit and made an adjustment. It crackled into life.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said.

  “I have analyzed the situation, Captain,” the robotic voice said. “You are a victim of sabotage.”

  “Thank you,’ Maddox said. “I have taken care of the situation. You may release us from your tractor beam.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “And Galyan,” Maddox sa
id.

  “Sir?”

  “Thank you for your quick action. It saved our lives. We’re indebted to you.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Galyan said. The AI paused before adding, “I am eager to renew our adventures. Earth orbit has become unbearably tedious. This episode tonight shows me I should be engaged in hot action, using my rarified abilities to defeat humanity’s enemies.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Maddox said.

  “That is the best thanks of all then,” Galyan said. “Do you wish me to begin analyzing possible suspects?”

  “I do,” Maddox said.

  “Wonderful. Thank you, sir. It will help relieve the tedium of listening to the scientists rhapsodize about my past. It is not what I have done which interests me, but what I’m going to do in the future.”

  “Uh, Galyan,” Riker asked. “Have you gained clearance for us yet?”

  “I was just about to tell you. Dr. Rich has surfaced and left for Geneva. She is on a supersonic flight. I would suggest this means Dana has found evidence of past alien intrusion on Earth. I would love to ingest her data. Do you think I could listen in to her briefing?”

  Riker sat back with a groan, massaging his eyes. He couldn’t believe this. Dana had left for Geneva? He could have been home asleep the whole time.

  “Turn us around, Sergeant,” Maddox said.

  “To Geneva, sir?” Riker asked.

  “Exactly.”

  The sergeant hesitated, waiting for the captain to tell him he was sorry for having interrupting the sergeant’s sleep time.

  Maddox did no such thing. Instead, the captain leaned his head back against the bubble canopy and closed his eyes, falling almost instantly asleep.

  Muttering to himself, Riker adjusted the flight path, heading back for Europe. He might even have turned on the autopilot and gone to sleep, but thinking about what Dana had uncovered kept him too edgy. Was Galyan right? Had the good doctor found real evidence of past aliens on humanity’s home planet? Had the Builders been here in ancient times? Riker wanted to get to Geneva and find out the news.

  -9-

  Dr. Dana Rich stared out of the jet’s window. It was bright morning in Western Europe, the sunlight bathing the beautiful Alps.

  She had just woken up from a light slumber, having made the trip from the Mid-Atlantic in a little over an hour.