The Lost Patrol (4 page)

-4-

Lieutenant Keith Maker—he’d been promoted from Second Lieutenant—whooped with delight as the new catapult system launched his jumpfighter into near-orbital space.

The small Scotsman was pressed against his cushioned seat, the Gs testing his stamina.

“You’re not making me go unconscious,” he said.

“Lieutenant,” Galyan said over the fighter’s intercom.

“I’m right here, mate, wide awake and ready.”

“We must accelerate the rescue attempt,” Galyan said.

“Eh? There’s a problem?”

“The captain has jumped out of the air-car.”

“Say again,” Keith said.

“The captain is plunging to the Earth. He has less than thirty seconds to impact.”

“Now, why he’d go and do something like that, eh?”

“The air-car exploded,” Galyan said.

“Oh. Okay. That makes sense. Give me the coordinates.”

“They are already in your flight computer.”

Keith tapped the main screen. “Right, I see it. This is going to be tricky. I need more time—”

“This is no time. You must fold now or the captain dies.”

“I know, I know. There’s no time when you’re falling to your death—unless an angel of mercy named Keith Maker is ready to rescue you. I hope you know jumpfighters aren’t normally used in atmosphere.”

“Please, Lieutenant, more action and less talk.”

“I always talk, mate. But you need not worry.”

The entire time he’d been talking, Keith had been tapping controls and readying his “tin can” for its incredible ability. It could fold space for short hops, moving from one location to another in the blink of an eye. It was a space fighter meant to be used in a vacuum. Under extremely limited conditions, it could function in atmosphere…as long as it didn’t remain there long or attempt to fly. It was not aerodynamic in the slightest.

“Hop in, hop out,” Keith said under his breath. Louder, he said, “I hope you’re recording this, Galyan. Trainers will want to show recruits for many years to come what I’m about to do.”

“The captain has twenty seconds left,” Galyan said.

“That’s a pity,” Keith replied. “It means I have no margin for error. I have to do it right the first time. Come on, Keith, this will be a piece of bloody cake, eh?”

He pressed a switch, and with a hum, the jumpfighter’s special mechanism activated. One second, the tin can was in near-orbital space less than ten kilometers from
Victory
. The next, the jumpfighter appeared in Earth’s lower atmosphere, barely above the deck of Normandy.

Keith blinked once, twice—“I see him,” he said. Maddox was on the screen, falling toward the jumpfighter.

“You are too close,” Galyan said. “He will impact too hard.”

“Wrong, boyo, I’m perfectly positioned.”

Keith’s fingers played over the controls. The jumpfighter shook badly in the dense air. Smoke poured out of one of the panels. A loud screeching noise told Keith he couldn’t stay here long.

On camera three, Keith watched Maddox. The captain fell toward the jumpfighter. The lieutenant had made a perfect fold. That didn’t happen often. He couldn’t just let Maddox hit the tin can, though.

The jumpfighter began to fall itself. Keith had to
catch
Maddox as softly as possible. Then—

The jumpfighter shuddered worse than before. A red alert began to blare in the cockpit.

“Bloody hell,” Keith said. With roving fingers, he checked the fighter’s systems.

The tin can shook horribly again. A warning klaxon told Keith he had a hull breach. What could cause—

“You are under attack,” Galyan said through a speaker.

“By whom?” Keith shouted.

“A craft has maneuvered above you,” Galyan said. “It is firing autocannon shells into your jumpfighter. Lieutenant, you must fold back into space or the attacking craft will destroy you”

“I’m not leaving without the captain,” Keith said.

“He is no longer your concern.”

“Wrong, mate. The man saved my life. I owe him everything. I don’t care what I have to do to get him—”

“The new craft is taking the captain,” Galyan said, interrupting.

“What?” Keith asked.

“The craft has grabbed the captain.”

“How did it do that?” Keith asked.

“My analyzer suggests with a gravity beam,” Galyan said.

“Star Watch doesn’t
have
gravity beams.”

“The situation has becoming increasingly perplexing,” Galyan said. “Lieutenant, you must fold and return to
Victory
. I have alerted Star Watch. Atmospheric fighters are on their way.”

“Great, just great,” Keith said. “I’m heading back upstairs. But if those blokes hurt the captain—”

“Those are my sentiments also,” Galyan said. “This is far from over.”

-5-

Maddox saw the jumpfighter materialize below him. It told him that Galyan had reacted swiftly after the android had cut his communications with
Victory
.

Still, using a tin can in the deepest atmosphere was risky. No doubt, Keith had piloted the craft. Even so, the percentages would have been against the lieutenant. That Keith—if it had been him—had almost pulled it off showed once again the young man’s extreme piloting skills.

Maddox felt himself rise as he headed toward a circular belly hatch in a large airship. A few seconds ago, as he’d dropped toward the jumpfighter, he’d become aware of a shadow. Then, autocannon shells had hammered the tin can. That’s when the gravity beam had caught him. Maddox was familiar with such a ray, as one had caught him on the Builder Dyson sphere over a year ago. Did that mean the airship, or the people who ran it, had access to Builder technology? That seemed likely. Did they control the androids? Maddox gave that a high percentage as well.

He slid up through the circular hatch and gently landed on his feet inside a large chamber. The opening he’d come up through slid shut.

Two short and slender men stepped forward. They wore blue uniforms that fit tight around the throat, dark goggles over their eyes, and they aimed stubby projacs at him. They were Spacers. The circular pectoral patches meant these two were provost sentries, Marines in Star Watch terms. They looked vaguely familiar. Yes, he’d fought these two sentries before in Shanghai.

“Why am I here?” Maddox asked.

Before the sentries could answer, a hatch opened and a woman stepped through. She also looked familiar.

“Hello, Provost Marshal,” Maddox said.

She was a head taller than the sentries. Like them, she wore dark-colored goggles over her eyes. Maddox had met her over a year ago in the Lin Ru Hotel in Shanghai, the Spacer embassy on Earth.

Spacers did not claim any particular territory, but acted like space nomads. The majority of them were of Southeast Asian origin, particularly from Old Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Almost all the others had Polynesian ancestry.

The last time Maddox had seen the woman in Shanghai, androids had kidnapped him. Spacers were said to have an abnormal hatred of androids and robots. Could that be an elaborate cover? In reality, did Spacers use androids and robots more than anyone else did? Why had the airship been ready to pick him up? They couldn’t have gotten to him so quickly otherwise. Clearly, the Spacers must have been monitoring the Stokes androids. Maddox might have died otherwise, as Keith could have failed.

“I deactivated both of your creatures,” the captain said, referring to the Stokes androids.

The Provost Marshal remained motionless, as if waiting for a signal.

There was a second possibility here, Maddox realized. Were the Provost Marshal and her sentries also androids? What did Star Watch Intelligence really know about the Spacers anyway? They were among the most secretive of human societies.

The Provost Marshal stepped forward as if stung, but the captain couldn’t see anything to have caused the reaction. She said, “We don’t have much time.”

“Yes,” Maddox said smoothly. “I’d already assumed as much.”

“Subterfuge won’t help you here, Captain. You were lucky against the androids. Do not presume on your luck with us.”

“There was no luck involved,” he said. “I simply played the odds.”

“No, Captain, you did not. I watched your stratospheric jump from the balloon. That was reckless and unneedful. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why anyone would do anything so….so risky.”

“For thrills,” Maddox said.

“That was a piece of frivolity,” she said, “a mindless action. Once, you defeated the alien Destroyer when it entered the Solar System. Why, then, did you mindlessly jump from space today?”

“A moment,” Maddox said, stepping forward.

The two sentries moved, blocking his way to the Provost Marshal.

Maddox stopped, eying them and the aimed projacs. “What’s your name?” he asked the woman.

She hesitated, finally saying, “Shu 15.”

“That’s a pretty name,” he said.

Her head twitched as she frowned. Maddox noticed that she had a small, kissable mouth.

“Your ways will fail against me, Captain. The Visionary has alerted me as to your charms. I am immune to your flattery.”

“That’s a pity,” Maddox said.

“I—we—have come to warn you.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“This is a serious matter,” she said. “You must act with decorum, showing deference. If you don’t…there will be consequences. You will not like them, I assure you. The Law of Reciprocal Action will rebound upon you in a most grievous fashion.”

“That sounds painful,” he said.

“I have warned you. It is now on your own head. You do understand that, yes?”

Maddox realized this was a ceremony. He had no idea who the Visionary might be, but it sounded religious. Spacer society was almost as mysterious to Star Watch Intelligence as the New Men.

“I have been warned,” he said. “I will act accordingly.”

“I dearly hope so, Captain. Despite your mindlessness, you are a hero. It would be a shame to see you destroy yourself because you’re too proud. That is the great fault of heroes—the sin that often brings them low. We want you to fly high as you expose the future to us.”

Maddox nodded in lieu of speaking. This was becoming odder by the moment.

“Follow me,” she said, turning, heading the way she had come.

Maddox complied, the two provost sentries moving aside to let him pass and then falling into step behind him.

They moved through a surprisingly large hall. What kind of airship was this? He couldn’t feel any motion. The gravity ray that had pulled him up—could the Spacers have superior gravity dampeners?

Shu halted before a hatch. She turned, stepped near Maddox and touched his left forearm. He towered over her.

“May the Spirit guide you, Captain. I shall say a litany for you, that you guard your tongue.”

“Thank you,” he said.

She stepped to the left, facing the hatch. It dilated open. “Go,” she whispered.

Maddox glanced at her, at her serious manner. He glanced at the sentries. They knelt, with their foreheads pressed against the deck.

“You must go now,” Shu said. “Time is precious.”

Maddox squared his shoulders and marched through the hatch into a small chamber. Behind him, the hatch closed and the chamber darkened.

Maddox tensed.

Immediately, a glow began at his side. The captain faced it. An old woman sat on a dais in a throne-like chair. She wore goggles and had a white polar bear fur wrapped around herself. She had wrinkled features and white hair. It occurred to Maddox that he’d never seen hair on a Spacer before. They wore skullcaps, hiding any hair.

“Come closer,” she said in a hoarse voice.

Maddox did so.

“You are taller than I expected,” she said.

He inclined his head.

“Come, hurry,” she said. “You must kneel before me.”

Maddox took another step closer, crossing his arms, looking down upon the old woman.

“Are you too proud to kneel, Captain?”

“I suppose that’s one answer,” he said. “The other might be that my cultural upbringing prohibits me from kneeling to another person.”

“Pride,” she said, shaking her head.

“Slaves kneel, Ma’am, not free men.”

“Would you kneel to the Spirit?” she asked.

“That would depend.”

“On what?”

“If by ‘the Spirit’ you are referring to the Creator.”

Maddox had said a few words to Him before the gravity beam had halted his fall. The fear he’d felt had departed, but the taste of it had darkened his mood.

“I am referring to the Creator, yes,” the Visionary said.

“I would kneel to Him,” Maddox answered.

“Hmm, perhaps there is hope for you, Captain. Do you know why you are here?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

“You are
di-far
. We knew this after you defeated the alien Destroyer. Since then you have seen a Builder, returning to Earth with its children, the Kai-Kaus. They have brought technological gifts to the Commonwealth. Yes, you are
di-far
, perhaps the greatest of the human race.”

“I see,” Maddox said.             

“No. You do not see. I do, though. I am the Visionary. I can peer into the future when the conditions are right.”

“Like now?” he asked.

“This is the worst moment of all. Even as we speak, your people have launched interceptors that race here. We have but moments left together. Then, we must vanish from Earth.”

“You can do that?”

“We can do many things you Earthbound cannot fathom.”

“Why is this?”

“I do not have time to explain. Now, attend me. 
Di-far
has many meanings. The critical one concerning you is ‘knot of decision.’”

“That doesn’t help me to understand,” Maddox said.

“Sometimes a person arises who brings about great changes. It is a mistaken belief to think that this person causes the changes through his own strength. That is clearly not the case.”

“Of course not,” Maddox said.

“Captain, I believe the Provost Marshal spoke to you about decorum.”

“She did.”

“I am an old woman, frail and feeble to your eyes. You think it safe to mock me.”

“I assure you, Ma’am—”

“Quiet, Captain. Listen before you lose your life.”

“You’re threatening me?”

“No, no, you misunderstand. Your arrogance, your New Man nature blinds you to reality. You must learn to control it.”

“You stir dangerous waters, Ma’am,” Maddox said, as his features stiffened.

She shook her head. “You’re so young, so alive and full of yourself. You do not realize that the Spirit uses you.”

“Because I’m
di-far
?” he said.

“No, no, you’re
di-far
because the Spirit uses you as a change vessel. Many…
currents
flow through you. These currents are paths, choices or ways of acting. When they flow through you, Captain, you have the power to redirect them. Instead of going straight, you can take a new way.”

“Can you be a bit more specific?” he asked.

“A current flowed through you when you entered the alien Destroyer. The path of universal human destruction derailed. You shifted humanity onto a new path of possibility, one that is still playing out.”

“And this change didn’t happen because of my decisions or actions?”

“Of course you were the cause. It would be foolish to think otherwise. I’m trying to point out it wasn’t
your
strength that caused the path change. No mortal has that kind of power. The only logical answer is that someone gifted you the strength. Who is this mysterious benefactor? The answer is obvious: the Spirit gave you the power. He worked through you, making you
di-far
.”

“Let me see if I understand,” Maddox said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I’m a…station for the current. The Spirit used me as a switch, derailing humanity’s doom, putting us onto a different path.”

“Crudely stated, but accurate nonetheless.”

“If I’m not responsible for the change, why bother telling me any of this?”

“I have stung your pride, I see. If you wish to continue being
di-far
, you must learn humility. You must see what is actually taking place. Otherwise, conceit will end your usefulness. The Spirit will choose another.”

As she spoke, the deck shifted under Maddox’s feet. The old woman looked about in alarm.

“I take it our time is up,” Maddox said. “Star Watch interceptors are here, I presume, firing at us. What message do you have for the Lord High Admiral?”

“You must keep our conversation a secret.”

Maddox shook his head. “It’s your turn to be
di-far
, as the Spacers are going to have to make a choice. Are you with us or against us?”

“It is not that simple.”

The deck shuddered again. This time, Maddox was ready for it. He didn’t stagger as far as before.

“I think you Spacers stumbled upon Builder tech,” Maddox said. “Star Watch could use that. You must help us find the Swarm Imperium and the New Men’s Throne World.”

“You are not here to lecture me, young man. You have entered my sanctum so you may learn humility before your pride destroys you. Remember what I have told you.”

Maddox realized they spoke at cross-purposes. So be it. “If the Spacers don’t help Star Watch, you’ll go down once we’re gone.”

“Not so,” the Visionary said, sitting straighter. “We know avenues of which you have no conception.”