“You know I haven’t,” she said. “When do we get started?”
“Immediately,” he said. “Two enemy star cruisers have been chasing us. They might show up again.”
Worry entered Commander Guderian’s eyes. “Did I hear you correctly?”
“You did,” Maddox said. “Two New Men star cruisers are on our tail. Those ships are fast.”
“Then how have you kept ahead of them?”
“No more questions, Commander,” Maddox said. “If we can’t get this starship to Earth, we’ve never going to win the coming war with the New Men.”
Along the way, they picked up a second frigate, a destroyer and a missile cruiser. Two other SWS destroyers attempted to join them in the New Siberia System. With these additional vessels, Maddox had become increasingly nervous. He demanded the two new destroyer captains to recite their recognition codes. They did, but something struck Maddox wrong about them. He demanded that an armed boarding party on combat alert go to each destroyer to inspect the situation.
At that point, the two new destroyers’ weapons went hot.
At Maddox’s orders, the neutron beam annihilated the first destroyer. The missile cruiser rushed to put herself between the last destroyer and Victory. The new destroyer detonated, obliterating itself in a quantum blast, crushing the missile cruiser. Fortunately, Dana and Meta had gotten Victory’s deflector shield working a week ago. The quantum blast turned the screen black, threatening an immediate overload.
Commander Guderian came online. Shock gave her a bewildered look. “The destroyers committed mass suicide,” she whispered.
“The New Men have deeply infiltrated the Commonwealth and the Star Watch,” Maddox told her. “Now you know why I’m so careful all the time.”
“If I hadn’t witnessed this,” Guderian said, “I never would have believed such a thing possible.”
“Humanity is in a conflict like no other,” Maddox said.
“One thing keeps bothering me. How did the destroyer captains know about you?”
“That’s an excellent question,” Maddox said. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to jump again.”
“What do you mean jump?”
Maddox never explained it to Commander Guderian. He gave Valerie the nod, and the star drive took them three light years away, bringing them to a new tramline.
In the Tau Ceti System, Maddox came upon a battle group commanded by Admiral Fletcher. After the codes and identifications, the battleships took up escort duty. Each jump point took place under full combat conditions with a single caveat. A frigate went through first to warn any defenders on the other side. Afterward, high-grade thermonuclear drones went through, igniting in case any New Men were waiting by the Laumer-Point entrance on the other side.
A week later, they entered the Solar System. Four Star Watch battle groups took up station in the Oort Cloud, far away from any wormhole entrance. There, Maddox and the others finally left the alien starship.
A fast cruiser whisked them to Earth. The voyage was over. They had found the needed vessel and brought it home again. Now, the Star Watch experts planned to study it in detail, seeing if they could duplicate alien technology to the Commonwealth’s advantage.
-43-
Captain Maddox felt uncomfortable striding down the hall toward Brigadier O’Hara’s office. He was back in Geneva on Earth. It still seemed unreal. To have traveled so far and risked his life on an uncanny mission, and then to be home again in familiar surroundings— Have I changed? Have I lost something? Why do I feel different?
He couldn’t define it to himself. The hall seemed to press inward, crowding him. Maybe he had acquired Ensign Maker’s disease. The ace loved flying in space. The Scotsman didn’t seem alive unless he was gripping flight controls, attempting an impossible maneuver.
I had a deck under my feet. I commanded a starship. Is that what I want to do with the rest of my life?
Maybe he was simply feeling post-mission depression. It would leave him soon enough. He would fully decompress, rest, gain strength and soon be ready for his next assignment.
A nagging doubt lingered. Captain Maddox wondered if only a line command on a starship could scratch a new itch. The New Men gathered. Humanity had to stand together and defeat the menace, or they would succumb one by one as Odin, Horace and Parthia had fallen.
He reached the secretary’s desk. The man informed him the brigadier was waiting.
“Go ahead,” the secretary said.
Maddox opened the door. The Iron Lady was hunched over her synthi-wood desk, scribbling something.
“Please, sit,” she said, without looking up.
Maddox moved to a chair before her desk, settling himself. He’d done this many times before. Yet, now it felt different, almost surreal. He glanced at the glass case of model starships. The feeling of unreality bit again. The room seemed to shrink, along with Brigadier O’Hara.
He concentrated on her. Her gray hair remained perfectly in place. No doubt she used hairspray. Her veined hand scratched a stylus on a pad. Abruptly, she set down the stylus and looked up at him. Her eyes were bright and alive. They seemed to swell her stature. She no longer seemed small and cramped, but an energetic spider queen busy capturing traitorous flies and enemy agents.
“Captain Maddox,” she said. “You have returned. I congratulate you on a successful mission. Well done.”
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Maddox said. “But that seems horribly anticlimactic for an operation that might have possibly just saved humanity from the New Men.”
She stared at him before saying, “Your flair for the melodramatic hasn’t changed a bit, I see. Still, I suppose you have a point. I imagine you’ll want the Lord High Admiral to enter, bend on his knee, grasp your hand and weep his thanks.”
“That would be more in keeping with my exploit, yes, ma’am,” Maddox said, grinning.
Brigadier O’Hara pursed her lips. “I would be happy to oblige you, Captain. Unfortunately, my thoughts and those of the Lord High Admiral are too dark for such joy. We have the alien wreck you brought back. I’ve read the reports. It’s falling apart even as the experts study it.”
“Yet, the wreck, as you put it, is brimming with alien technologies,” Maddox said. “The improved deflector screen can withstand the New Men’s beams better than Star Watch shields can. Even better, the alien neutron beam can punch holes through the enemy’s deflectors. According to the AI, the starship possesses even more powerful weapon systems. The ancient vessel is a bonanza of technologies. It has a new star drive that bypasses tramlines.”
“We’re going to need every one of those weapons if we’re to stay ahead of the New Men,” O’Hara said.
Maddox grew more alert. “There’s bad news, I take it.”
“Yes, Captain. The New Men have been busy while you were away. This is strictly confidential. They have sent envoys to the Wahhabi Caliphate. Certain factions in the caliphate’s court want to ally with the New Men. Others counsel a wait and see attitude, if there should be open war. They’re considering neutrality.”
“Are they mad?” Maddox asked. “The New Men are simply using divide and rule tactics to try to pick us off one by one.”
“You are astute as always, Captain. The news is even worse, I’m afraid. Certain Commonwealth systems are also considering neutrality. Chief among them is Rigel’s Social Syndicate.”
“Don’t they understand their very lives are at stake?”
“This is an interesting point,” the brigadier said. “Do you have proof for such a statement?”
Maddox frowned. “I’m not sure I understand you.”