The lost relic lost star.., p.1
The Lost Relic (Lost Starship Series Book 17), page 1
SF Books by Vaughn Heppner
THE A.I. SERIES:
A.I. Destroyer
The A.I. Gene
A.I. Assault
A.I. Battle Station
A.I. Battle Fleet
A.I. Void Ship
A.I. Rescue
A.I. Armada
LOST STARSHIP SERIES:
The Lost Starship
The Lost Command
The Lost Destroyer
The Lost Colony
The Lost Patrol
The Lost Planet
The Lost Earth
The Lost Artifact
The Lost Star Gate
The Lost Supernova
The Lost Swarm
The Lost Intelligence
The Lost Tech
The Lost Secret
The Lost Barrier
The Lost Nebula
The Lost Relic
Visit VaughnHeppner.com for more information
The Lost Relic
(Lost Starship Series 17)
by Vaughn Heppner
Illustration © Tom Edwards
TomEdwardsDesign.com
Copyright © 2022 by the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.
-1-
The Lord High Admiral was troubled as he sat at his desk deep inside Star Watch Headquarters, Geneva Sector. He was a large, old man with thick white hair and a seamed face. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he finished reading a secret report about Captain Maddox.
Admiral Cook slapped the report onto the desk as he sat back and grunted in consternation. The ideas and conclusions in the report…
Cook frowned as his lips thinned.
Abruptly, he sat forward. He didn’t care for this in the least. In fact—
He pressed an intercom button, speaking curtly to his secretary, demanding that the originator of this document report to him at once.
Afterward, Cook stepped to a window, staring at the base spread before him. He noticed a group of officers walking across the carefully manicured lawn, having ignored the sign to stay off the grass. Cook grunted and returned to his desk. He picked up the brief and read it again, more slowly this time.
Were these things true about Maddox?
Cook sighed, looking up at the ceiling. If he spoke to Mary O’Hara about this—no, she wouldn’t like it, either. He recalled Mary had scolded him not so long ago, demanding Maddox receive a promotion. He’d remained a captain all these years after everything he’d done for Star Watch. Hadn’t he saved the Commonwealth more than once? Surely, he should be more than a mere captain, running an advanced starship to be sure, but just a single starship. Instead, Mary had told him, Maddox should be an admiral commanding a fleet, at least.
Cook sympathized with Mary’s assessment. Yet, he knew that Maddox worked best as a starship captain or lone intelligence officer. It wasn’t that he doubted Maddox could succeed at the higher levels. It was that the man was uniquely suited for what he did.
Frowning, Cook stared at the report.
The intercom buzzed, startling him. He pressed the button.
“Vice Admiral Blum is here to see you, sir.”
“Blum?” the Lord High Admiral asked. “He wrote the report?”
“Just a minute, please.” A second later, she said, “No sir, but he stands by it. He says he’s digested the ramifications of what it means and has been waiting for a chance to talk to you about it. He says this seems like the time.”
Cook frowned, “I want to see the man who wrote the report.”
There was another pause. “Sir, the Vice Admiral is most insistent. He believes he’s best qualified to address the issues with you.”
Cook drummed his fingers on the desk. Vice Admiral Blum was a pain in the ass and a cheeky fellow full of himself. This proved it. Had Blum anything to do with prompting the writing of the report?
“Send him in.” Cook stared at the door, waiting. He had a large office with many mementos and pictures on the walls. One of them had Blum and him together at an award ceremony five years ago.
The door opened, and a slender man who’d undergone obvious regeneration therapy stepped into the room. The Vice Admiral was dark haired, possibly wore brown-tinted contacts, and had a splotchy complexion despite the regeneration.
“Sir,” Vice Admiral Blum said, clicking his heels together. “I appreciate you letting me see you about this.”
The heel clicking reminded Cook of certain officers during Fletcher’s tenure in command. Had Blum been one of the Humanity Manifesto true believers? Those people had hated Maddox because they’d hated the New Men. That might mean deep hostility against the captain here today.
Cook nodded, and with a large hand indicated a chair before the desk. “Please sit.” He touched the report with his other hand. “I’ve been reading this and processing the allegations directed against Captain Maddox.”
“I see,” Blum said, and his eyes gleamed as he sat down.
“In your own words, give me the essentials of what you’re trying to say. Oh, by the way, did you write the report?”
“No sir. But I stand behind it. I’ve also contacted the top officers in charge of Star Watch’s grand strategy. They’re all agreed on this.”
Cook didn’t believe the last part, not in the least. But he let it slide for now. “Tell me the essentials as you see it.”
Blum sat forward, his eyes alight as he wet his lips. “Sir…it is our belief that Maddox may no longer be fully human.”
Even though Cook had been waiting for it, he spat, “That’s absurd.”
“Please sir, if you’d allow me to finish my thought.”
Cook eyed Blum, nodding curtly.
“Sir, certainly Maddox looks human enough. However, would you concede that the New Men are not completely human?”
“No,” Cook said, “I most certainly would not.”
“But…” Blum sputtered, obviously flustered by the answer.
“Let me ask you a question,” Cook said. “Would you consider Cro-Magnon man to be human?”
Blum blinked twice. “Of course.”
“And Neanderthal man?”
“Yes.”
“And an earlier precursor than that?”
Blum frowned. “That’s an interesting question. I see you understand the thrust of my argument regarding Maddox. Like the New Men, he’s an evolutionary…development that has taken him beyond normal humanity. I and many others would argue—”
“No!” Cook said as he slapped the desk. “We went through all that under Fletcher. It almost tore Star Watch apart, or have you forgotten the Humanity Manifesto Doctrine?”
Was that a look of alarm on Blum’s face? If so, the Vice Admiral hid it immediately.
“Sir, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that Maddox’s unique experiences have transformed him into something different and the differences trouble others and me. His very actions show this to be true.”
Cook eyed Blum. “All right. Explain to me what makes Maddox something other than human.”
There didn’t appear to be any embarrassment to Blum as he cleared his throat. “Sir, we know that a Spacer Visionary once called him a di-far. That means he’s a unique individual that can take history from one track and lift it, setting it onto another track. In other words, his actions can change the course of human development. This, as we’ve seen from past events, Maddox has done many times.”
“You’re suggesting that a di-far is no longer human?”
“I’m not saying that. I am saying that his being a di-far is the first clue. The second is that Maddox is a product of selective breeding, the same breeding that gave us the New Men.
“Just a minute,” Cook said. “I happen to know that Maddox never received the prenatal injections that would have turned him into a New Man.”
“Are you listening to yourself? Maddox received everything but the final injections.”
“That’s a critical difference.”
“Perhaps,” Blum said. “However, the captain also ingested the spiritual energy of an Erill. Many of us believe that did more than any New-Man injections would have done during the fetus development. Essentially, the Erill spiritual energy has propelled Maddox onto a different evolutionary path from the rest of us.”
“He’s still human.”
“I’m not sure I can agree with that.” Blum raised a hand. “Please, sir, hear me out.”
After a moment, Cook nodded brusquely.
“Maddox—”
“Captain Maddox,” Cook said sternly.
“Very well, Captain Maddox received another…injection, shall we say, during his mission to the Library Planet. Balron the Traveler found him, training him in ways that gave the captain an inhuman way of thinking.”
“Balderdash! Because of Balron, the captain has sharpened intuitive senses, nothing more.”
“Exactly,” Blum said. “Combined with his genetic heritage, di-far ability, the Erill energy and then the…the new intuitive senses—these combined traits are an evolutionary step. Maddox—Captain Maddox is no longer a Homo sapiens
Cook’s chair squealed as the big man leaned back. He laughed sourly. “Captain Maddox is not normal, I grant you. But these changes have merely made him a better, a superior agent for Star Watch and the Intelligence Services.”
Blum met the Lord High Admiral’s stare. The Vice Admiral didn’t appear intimidated by the hoary old man of Star Watch. In fact, Blum’s eyes gleamed with something approaching fanaticism.
Blum again hid the zeal, and as he continued to meet the old man’s gaze, he spoke further: “You said something interesting. You used the word superior. Perhaps the captain no longer thinks of himself as fully human but as something superior, something new, something grander than the rest of us. He has often taken matters into his own hands. Perhaps he will continue in that vein and attempt to set himself up as an emperor in charge of his own political entity, one other than the Commonwealth. Perhaps if matters do not suit his liking he’ll go further than what he has ever done and he’ll—”
“Enough!” Cook said sharply. “I’ve read the nonsense in this brief. I wanted to see if you really believed it, and you clearly do. You’re also expecting me to believe that the members of the Grand Strategy Council believe this as well.”
Blum hesitated before saying, “Some do. Yes.”
Cook pursed his lips, choosing his next words with care. They’d been trying to reintegrate Humanity Manifesto officers from Fletcher’s time back into Star Watch. It had been a long and sometimes bitter process. He didn’t want to spoil that now. “I appreciate that you’d tell me this so forthrightly—”
“Sir,” Blum said, interrupting. “I realize you’re attached to Captain Maddox, and I admit he has helped us many times. All I’m asking is, when you have an individual who seems to be so superior to the rest of us, will he hold to the ideals that we hold to?”
“His actions have proven so.”
Blum nodded. “In one respect that’s true. But in another he has acted in a highhanded fashion time and again, a fashion that proves his arrogance toward the rest of us.”
“And you would have had Maddox act differently, and therefore the Commonwealth suffer catastrophic losses, instead? Merely to curb his so-called arrogance?”
Blum slumped back in his chair. The question seemed to have sapped his nervous energy, leaving him much older than he’d first appeared. It also made the regenerative therapy more evident. “Sir, I’m saying there’s a possibility we should consider. It’s time to process these facts and deal with them. We must stop accepting these incidents as something beyond our control, or even forethought.”
Cook’s head swayed. In that moment, he saw something that he’d failed to see earlier. Amazingly, it was Blum and the others behind him who distrusted Maddox that had opened his eyes.
The Lord High Admiral straightened, putting both hands on the desk. “Thank you, Admiral. You’ve given me much to consider, and yes, you’re correct. This is something to consider and deal with and I believe—thank you indeed, sir.”
Blum blinked with astonishment. “You’re thanking me?”
Cook stood.
Blum scrambled to his feet as Cook came around the desk.
The Lord High Admiral dwarfed Blum, and yet, the other had a firm handshake.
“Thank you for listening and considering this, sir,” Blum said.
“Of course,” Cook said. “I appreciate officers of initiative. You’ve shown yourself to be one. I shall not forget this.”
Blum grinned.
“You’re dismissed,” Cook said.
“Yes, sir.”
As the door closed behind the leaving Blum, Cook turned toward the window, walking to it and staring out again, looking down at some cadets crossing a field of grass, also ignoring the stay-off sign, following the example of their superiors.
The report about Maddox was interesting indeed. Perhaps Mary O’Hara had a point after all, and he had a point about keeping Maddox as captain. Now, however, with the Blum-given insight—Cook turned and glanced at the report. It was time to make a few changes around here.
-2-
A week later, Captain Maddox received a summons from the Lord High Admiral. Maddox was overseeing the refitting of Starship Victory, which orbited Earth, and thus was near Star Watch Headquarters.
That morning, Maddox and Galyan had been reviewing the latest intelligence reports regarding the Adok people. At the end of last mission, the few surviving Adoks immigrated to the Commonwealth of Planets. According to the reports, the Adoks adjusted well to life on their new planet. Galyan was happy about that, yet he was sad that the Adoks still wanted nothing to do with him.
Maddox was a tall, lean and muscular man with dark hair and intense eyes. He wore his uniform as he piloted a flitter onto the tarmac of the spaceport near Star Watch Headquarters. He took a shuttle bus to the complex of headquarters buildings, used the sidewalks instead of crossing the grass field and soon found himself walking down the hall toward the Lord High Admiral’s office.
Despite the routine work he’d been stuck with recently, or maybe because of it, Maddox had become uneasy. Yes, it was enjoyable going home to his wife and daughter on the weekends, and it was also satisfying taking care of maintenance aboard Victory. He even enjoyed reviewing personnel, going over their performance charts with them and giving them feedback.
But as gratifying as these things were, something about them seemed too much like standing still. His New-Man heritage and his inborn taste for variety made that difficult. He liked to be doing, being on a new mission—an adventure.
No…adventure wasn’t the word, was it? The word he was searching for was more like “quest” or “crusade.” Maddox didn’t truly feel alive unless he was tempting fate, unless he was out there striving against the universe, acting to make some important difference for good.
Maybe the Lord High Admiral had summoned him in order to send him off on another…quest.
Maddox soon spoke with the secretary, an older lady. She requested he sit, and then through the intercom informed the Lord High Admiral that he was here.
In moments, the door opened to reveal the big old man in his white uniform. “Come in, come in, Captain. It’s good to see you. Yes, come in, please.”
Maddox followed Cook into the large office, taking his customary location across from the desk, although remaining standing. To sit first struck Maddox as a sign of disrespect for the commanding officer of Star Watch—as well as a violation of standard military protocol.
The big old man moved more stiffly than usual. He maneuvered around the desk and plopped into his chair, smiling as if this were a celebration.
Maddox now sat, waiting expectantly.
Cook took his time until his mouth opened but no words came out. Eventually he said, “You’ve put me in a quandary, Captain. But this time it’s of a different nature. However, what I’ve decided should please your grandmother.”
“You have my attention, sir.”
Cook studied him a moment longer. “I’m sure you’re aware that there are those in Star Watch who are, uh, shall we say, uncomfortable with you.”
“If I recall correctly, the Humanity Manifesto spoke to that.”
Cook frowned. “I’m going to break protocol and let you know that there are members of the Star Watch Strategy Council who are troubled by several, let us call them, developments in your personal growth.”
“Sir?”
“I’m referring to the fact that you’re considered the di-far, according to the Visionary of the Spacers. Let us call that fact one. The second is the spiritual energy of an Erill that you ingested some years ago.”
Maddox shifted uncomfortably, not caring for this sort of talk.
He wasn’t surprised when Cook went on to speak about the intuitive sense that Balron the Traveler had granted him and when the old man spoke about the Way of the Pilgrim, and then his New-Man heritage.
Cook cleared his throat. “There are some who consider these differences make you… more than human. What do you say to that?”
“What do I say?” Maddox asked. “That it’s nonsense.”
“How so?”
“I’m as human as the next man. Cut me and I bleed.”
“And if I hack your arm, will it fall off?”
