Maddox focused on the lieutenant. Her wellbeing was his responsibility. Valerie was part of his crew. They were going to need everyone in top form soon. They were going up against the enemy’s A team. The lieutenant was badly in need of encouragement. But Valerie Noonan wasn’t just anyone. She was the welfare kid who had fought against the elitists and won. The captain believed he knew the right angle to take with her.
Taking his own sorrow in hand, Maddox concentrated on the next step with Valerie.
“I see,” he said. “You’re going to wallow in your defeat, are you?”
Valerie sat up with her features stiffening.
“You lost me my woman, Lieutenant. I do not appreciate then this defeatist manner. If you cannot remain at your post because you want to sulk, tell me now so I can find someone who can do her duty.”
Valerie’s face turned red.
“I want people who fight through to the bitter end. I don’t want quitters, Lieutenant. Which are you, I’d like to know now?”
Lieutenant Noonan’s eyes burned with outrage even as tears glistened in them.
Maddox nodded. “I like that much better, Lieutenant. You’re angry. Good. Now you listen to me. One of the most dangerous men in the world tricked you. That man has run circles around Star Watch Intelligence. That man slipped an assassin into the highest levels of command. He even reached out to Pluto and ordered my arrest. We’re not dealing with a few uppity cadets at the Space Academy. We’re dealing with the most ruthless man alive. You’re frustrated for being beaten. Worse, he pulled your trousers down around your ankles, as it were.”
Valerie looked away.
Maddox stopped. It was time to let her reason it out for herself.
Soon, the lieutenant shook her head. She squared her shoulders. Without facing him, Valerie said, “You’re right, sir. I was acting like a spoiled, rich-kid cadet just now. But I’m a Star Watch line officer. It’s time to fight.”
“It’s time to outthink our enemy,” Maddox added.
Valerie faced him with fire in her eyes. “That’s your task, sir. You think like the New Men much better than any of us can because you’re like them.”
Maddox felt a stab of annoyance at her words.
Valerie smiled grimly. “You have their blood, sir. You’re quicker and smarter—”
“That’s quite enough, Lieutenant.”
She stared him in the eyes. “I’m just saying, sir. You don’t like being the hybrid, the one who’s different from everyone else. But I’m glad you are different. I trust you with my life. We all do, sir. You have to accept who you are. Now, you have to use the New Man side of you, sir. You have to beat their A team by being ours.”
Maddox looked away, thinking. Then he looked back at her. “I suppose I deserved that.”
“Yes sir, you did. But then so did I.”
“We’re two wounded tigers, Lieutenant. Maybe this is the mission where we finally get our licks in.”
“I hope you’re right, sir.”
Maddox said nothing more as he studied orbital space. The enemy had kidnapped Meta right out from under his nose. That enraged him, but he refused to let it color his thinking. For this, he would need his coolest concentration yet.
Who had taken the egg? Was it a New Man? It had been breathtakingly bold. He both hated whoever had done it and admired him greatly.
All I ask is that I get the chance to return him the favor.
-37-
Twenty-four hours later brought little change to the overall situation. The biggest difference was Victory’s location half a million kilometers from Earth.
Luna Defense was off the port bow one hundred thousand kilometers away. Various Star Watch destroyers and frigates orbited Earth at the Moon’s distance from the planet. Their sensors searched everywhere for a sign of the shuttle that had stolen the egg. Every Cestus hauler, every merchant ship near Earth had been ordered to stop and await another round of space marine and SW Intelligence search parties. Unfortunately, it took time to board and search each vessel from top to bottom a second time.
Downstairs on the planet, relief efforts were underway for the nuclear bomb victims who had survived the terrible tragedy.
The battleships in the Outer System were accelerating as fast as they could for Earth. Every warship in the Solar System gathered into one hard nucleus. The Lord High Admiral had already taken a shuttle for his flagship.
Maddox had told Star Watch Command about the New Arabia System. That didn’t mean humanity was going to let an alien doomsday machine destroy Earth without a titanic fight. The best scenario had Star Watch defeating the neutroium-hulled planet-killer. Even if they did that, though, how many Star Watch warships would drift as wrecks afterward?
Admiral Fletcher’s Fifth Fleet was coming. Together with the Home Fleet that represented seventy percent of Star Watch’s warship strength. To beat the doomsday machine but lose half the Home Fleet would be a disaster for the continuing war against the New Men.
Humanity had finally beaten the enemy in the battles of the Tannish and Markus Systems. If they lost too many warships now against the doomsday machine…the greater war might be lost before they got a chance to turn the tables on the arrogant enemy.
“I cannot believe I haven’t found them yet,” Galyan said.
Maddox sat in the command chair. How much longer did they have? When would the doomsday—
“Captain,” Valerie said. “I’m picking up ionic magnetic signals.”
The captain’s stomach clenched. This was too soon. Earth needed more time. “Where is the location?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Approximately three million kilometers beyond Mars’ orbital path,” the lieutenant said.
Maddox peered up at the main screen.
Valerie put a hand to her right ear. “Signals are coming in from Mars Command. They’re reporting a magnetic storm. Sir, I think the doomsday machine is already coming through.”
The lieutenant referred to the time delay from three million kilometers beyond Mars’ orbital path to Earth. Because of the speed of light—which affected both messages and sensor signals—the delay was only a matter of minutes, but it was still there.
The captain stood, staring at the main screen. He remembered Ludendorff’s holoimage video from the Wahhabi Caliphate capital system.
“It’s definitely getting bigger,” Valerie said, referring to the magnetic storm.
“There!” Galyan said. “I have spotted an anomaly.”
Maddox glanced at the holoimage. Galyan pointed at the screen that showed orbital Earth. On the screen, he produced a red circle around an object out there.
“What is that?” Maddox asked. It was a red-circled dot on the screen, showing something in Earth orbit.
“I am highlighting a jumpfighter,” Galyan said. “Ah, it is jumping.”
The dot on the screen winked out of sight.
“Where did the jumpfighter come from?” Maddox asked. “Can you trace that?”
Galyan stared at the screen. “There. The jumpfighter originated from that orbital ship.” Another red circle encompassed a different vessel. The holoimage’s eyelids fluttered. “That is Cestus Hauler five,” the AI said, “in near Earth orbit.”
“That’s the hauler’s official designation?” Maddox asked.
“No,” Galyan said. “That is the Star Watch search number.”
“I’ll inform headquarters of the Cestus hauler,” Valerie said.
“Head out for the magnetic storm,” Maddox told Galyan.
“Should I engage the star drive?” Galyan asked.
“Negative,” the captain said. “Strain every sensor you have. Watch the ion storm, and tell me everything of note that happens to the doomsday machine. Have you seen it yet, by the way?”
“Negative,” Galyan said. “I have—wait. I see the planet-killer now. I am giving you full magnification.”