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

  THE SOLDIER SERIES:

  The X-Ship

  Escape Vector

  Final Odyssey

  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

  Visit VaughnHeppner.com for more information

  The Lost Nebula

  (Lost Starship Series 16)

  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.

  From The Popular Handbook to the Planets, 19th Edition:

  Balder: Fifth largest planet of the AF-19 Star System, third in orbital order.

  Planetary Constants:

  Diameter: 15,208 kilometers

  Mass: 1.23 of Earth

  Mean day: 22 hours, 16 minutes, 48.7 seconds.

  General Remarks: Balder is a hell world of rock, wind and sweltering heat, barely suitable for human inhabitation. There are pockets of agricultural land at the planet’s north and south poles. The nearly constant hurricanes are fewer in these regions than the rest of the planet, while the summer heat waves are best endured deep within the subterranean caverns.

  Some consider the first colony attempts as little more than prisoner dumps, reminiscent of the ancient British practice in Australia. The record shows, however, that the Crowder Refugees were the first to land en masse upon the inhospitable shores of Balder…

  From Star Watch Settlement Talks with the Crowder Representatives:

  On learning that the Crowder Refugees would remain indefinitely on the Planet Balder:

  CROWDER REP: I don’t understand. Why must we live apart? We’re human like the rest of you.

  STAR WATCH REP: Of course, you are. But for thousands of years, you’ve embraced an entirely different ethos than those in the Commonwealth. You need time to readjust so your people can integrate peacefully with us.

  CROWDER REP: Is this because of Captain Maddox’s report? Yes, I’d say. He tainted you against us. In fact, he has acted hostile to every Crowder refugee seeking a new beginning.

  STAR WATCH REP: Captain Maddox certainly filed a report on the exodus and you refugees. It was his responsibility to do so as honestly as he could. The captain was anything but hostile, however, speaking well of Crowder resourcefulness and courage—

  CROWDER REP: (interrupting) He called us pirates and killers. Don’t deny it. I know he did, as I read the report.

  STAR WATCH REP: What? The report was classified as top secret. I don’t understand how you could have possibly gained access to—(clears throat). Sir, this isn’t about Captain Maddox or his report. This is about integrating your people into the Commonwealth as peacefully and seamlessly as possible. For now, you must live apart. To allow the refugees to mix prematurely with those in the rest of society would create needless tension and heartache between our peoples.

  CROWDER REP: Damn Maddox and his incendiary report. He’ll pay for this.

  STAR WATCH REP: Sir, you must refrain from threatening the captain or doing anything whatsoever against him. Don’t you understand that thinking is precisely why your people need time to readjust to regular human norms?

  CROWDER REP: (Staring, and then smiling and nodding). Please forgive me. I meant nothing by the outburst. The captain and his family are perfectly safe from us. That is a promise I freely grant from the Crowder people, particularly for his selfless effort in helping us escape from the collapsing Crowder System.

  -1-

  On the outskirts of Carson City in Nevada Sector, Captain Maddox exited the back door of his ranch house. He wore a thick coat and woolen hat because it was cold outside, sixteen degrees Fahrenheit, in fact.

  He blew into his cupped hands as he neared the back fence with Milo, a Rottweiler Meta had purchased while he was away in the Crowder System some time ago.

  Milo whined, which was odd for the dog. Perhaps he heard coyotes slinking around in back and wanted the chance to run them down.

  “Take it easy, boy.” Maddox opened the back gate and hurried toward the barn, with the Rottweiler keeping pace beside him.

  The captain was doing Meta’s chore for her because she was getting Jewel ready for bed. Jewel was their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, a precocious child and Maddox’s little darling. He’d volunteered to feed and blanket the horses, as Jewel had wanted Meta to read more Call of the Wild to her, and that would take getting ready for bed longer than usual.

  Milo whined again, but he didn’t race off as he normally did. Instead, the big Rottweiler kept bumping up against his left leg.

  Maddox didn’t notice, as he was thinking about the latest offer from the Lord High Admiral: it was a desk job on Earth, but an important one. Meta had practically begged him to take it. Thus, Maddox was giving it more thought than he might otherwise.

  At the barn, Maddox separated two flakes of hay from a bale and took it to Star Bright, his wife’s favorite horse. After depositing the hay in the feeder, Maddox slid open a gate, picked up a horse-blanket and entered the stall as Star Bright began eating. He put the blanket on the horse, securing the buckles. Afterward, Maddox repeated the process for Apollo, Meta’s trail horse for riding the backcountry.

  Finished with the chore—both quarter horses had enough water—Maddox shut off the barn lights, closed the big sliding doors and headed for the house. That was when he noticed that Milo had remained beside him the entire time, once again bumping against his left leg.

  Maddox halted. So did Milo, who looked up and whined yet again.

  That caused Maddox’s gut to tighten, which activated his normal senses and also engaged his new intuitive sense gained from Balron the Traveler two missions ago.

  Maddox scanned the dark yard. They had four acres altogether. Something was off. He could feel it now. It wasn’t coyotes. It wasn’t a bobcat sniffing around the chicken coup. It wasn’t a bear or a raccoon wandering around looking for scraps. It was—

  There was a whine, not from Milo, but of a laser powering up. It came from the oleander bushes near the edge of the property.

  Without conscious thought, Maddox broke into a sprint. He could move much faster than a normal man, these days matching what a New Man from the Throne Would could do. The action must have caught Milo by surprise. The Rottweiler yelped, following hard after the captain, struggling to catch up.

  From the large spread of oleander bushes, an intense bar of light streaked at Maddox, touching him. He dove out of the laser’s path as his bulky winter coat smoked. The laser ceased abruptly and Maddox scrambled to his feet. He didn’t weave, but sprinted hard, vaulting over the backyard fence, Milo doing the same beside him.

  The laser flashed again, searing more of the bulky winter coat, but not his flesh underneath.

  Maddox ran past a protecting corner of the house, and the laser stopped beaming.

  “Captain Maddox!” a deep-voiced man shouted. “You betrayed the Crowder Refugees. You should have known they would never let it go. This is your reward for screwing them. Say goodbye to your wife and daughter, and to your own miserable existence.”

  A whoosh sounded, and a fast-moving object left the oleander bushes, striking the side of the house, exploding violently. Wood, glass and insulation blew outward.

  Maddox didn’t wait to hear more. He raced for the back door as his heart hammered. They’d threatened his little baby girl and wife. He didn’t fear for himself, nor did he become enraged or hysterical. Instead, given the gravity of the situation, his mind leapt into a hyper-alert state. He must do everything in his power to save his wife and daughter. He must think. He—

  I need a weapon. It’s time to counterattack.

  No. It was time to find Meta and Jewel to make sure they were safe.

  Maddox charged into the house. “Meta!” he shouted. “We’re under attack!”

  “No shit, Sherlock,” a man said in the darkness.

  Maddox inhaled with shock. The voice—they’re already inside the house. He hadn’t fully engaged his senses after all. The surprise attack had caught him off guard. The house was dark. Lights had been on when he’d gone outside. His intuitive sense should have caused him to recognize that. Were Jewel and Meta all right? If these people had harmed—

  “This is how it’s going to be,” the hidden
man said in a gloating voice, interrupting the captain’s thoughts.

  The Rottweiler growled savagely.

  “What the—?” the man said, before he screamed in pain and thudded onto the floor.

  Maddox moved like a great jungle cat, vaulting over the island in the middle of the kitchen, landing beside a desperate man struggling against Milo. Something bright flashed—an edged blade.

  Maddox stomped on the man’s wrist so bone’s cracked. The knife clattered onto the floor. He knelt beside the man and hit him in the face once, twice—the man sagged.

  “Milo, release.”

  The superbly trained Rottweiler released the man.

  “Guard,” Maddox ordered.

  Milo growled and stood stiff-legged over the prone man.

  “You try to flee,” Maddox told the groaning man, “and the dog will kill you.”

  Maddox thereupon scooped a pistol off the floor where it had fallen when the man had first crumpled. He stepped away from Milo and the prone man. He had to find Meta and Jewel. He had to make sure they were safe. Should he threaten the man for info, or would that take too much precious time?

  Maddox heard something from the living room. His gut tightened, and the instincts of a predator kicked into high gear. He began creeping toward the sound, straining to hear more, enough so he’d know what to do.

  “Maddox,” a man called from the other room. “If I see you, I’m shooting your daughter. If you so much as—”

  There came a thud and a painful grunt. A shot rang out, and then another thud and that of a body collapsing onto the floor.

  Maddox burst into the dimly lit living room. A nightlight in a wall socket provided the only illumination.

  A big man in a leather jacket lay on the floor, a smoking pistol in his clenched grip. A gagged Meta stood above him, with a small block of ornamental metal in her hands. From behind her on the floor, a gagged Jewel watched in fascinated horror. Beside the little girl were the pieces of a broken zip tie.

  Meta must have burst her bonds when the man wasn’t looking, as he’d been making threats. She’d picked up the ornament from a nightstand and clubbed the intruder from behind.

  Maddox smiled grimly.

  Whoever had set up the hit against his family mustn’t have been fully briefed. Meta was a housewife, but she used to work for Star Watch, and before that, she’d been a contract killer. She’d also been genetically modified before birth, growing up on a 2G planet. Thus, she was much stronger and faster than she looked.

  Meta dropped the ornament, removed her gag and tore the gun from the man’s unconscious grip.

  “There’re at least two more outside,” Maddox said.

  Meta looked up. She was a beautiful blonde-haired woman with a classic hourglass shape. With a cry, Meta whirled around and scooped Jewel up with her free arm, hugging the small girl to her as she removed the gag. “They surprised me. I was reading to Jewel, and they burst into the bedroom and surprised me.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s almost over.”

  “Mommy,” Jewel said.

  Another RPG round must have struck the house, for another explosion rocked it.

  Maddox’s eyes narrowed. He’d had enough of that. He wanted to kill these bastards, make sure his girls were safe.

  “You go that way,” he said, pointing at the front door. “Run to the neighbors. Tell Bob to grab his rifle.”

  “No,” Meta said. “I’m staying with you. Besides, there might be others than those firing rockets. Maybe there’s a whole squad of them outside.”

  Maddox stared at his wife. She wasn’t a mere crewmember he could simply order to do this or that. Crewmember. What was he thinking? He cursed under his breath.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Meta.

  “Plenty,” Maddox said. “But you’re right. There could be a squad outside. It’s time we do this right.”

  -2-

  Galyan, the small alien holoimage of an Adok, represented a mix of the computerized engrams of Driving Force Galyan—the last Adok Commander of the Homeworld Defense Fleet—and an ancient Adok AI program. The computers and machines that gave the holoimage “life” were in the armored center of Starship Victory.

  The starship was composed of two great ovals welded together. The vessel presently orbited Earth high above the North American continent. Most of the crew were on shore leave. A skeleton force maintained the vessel, together with Galyan.

  The holoimage was small, with a leathery face lines crisscrossing everywhere and had thin ropy arms. He floated, as he had no physical substance, but he also controlled any ship system he desired.

  Galyan had been contemplating an idea that had fixated his thoughts for some time now. Over six thousand years ago, a wandering Swarm fleet had invaded his star system, attacking the planet. The Adok home fleet had perished that day. During the battle, the Swarm had launched massive assaults, causing the planet to break apart into pieces.

  Starship Victory alone had survived, holding what the now-extinct Adoks would have called the deified Galyan.

  Perhaps some Adoks in some fashion had survived the genocide of the species, he was thinking. If that were true, it would mean the Adoks weren’t extinct, but thriving somewhere.

  The possibility of such a thing had taken hold of Galyan’s imagination. Thus, he wanted to search for any missing Adoks, starting at his old homeworld.

  Yet, his people had not invented any faster-than-light drive. Nor did Galyan recall any interstellar missions at sub-light speeds. Still, couldn’t Adoks have sent a mission outward before the Swarm invaded the system?

  It was a long shot. Despite that, Galyan wanted to search the star systems near his old homeworld and see if there was…something to indicate living Adoks somewhere.

  Until this time, Galyan had believed he was the last of his species. While he was not alive in the organic sense, he considered himself a living entity. He thought like an Adok. He acted like an Adok. He looked like an Adok.

  “I must search for my people,” he said softly.

  He floated through the empty bridge. Consoles blinked. The main screen showed Earth below and soft purring sounds told him the air circulation systems were working perfectly.

  There was a beep then, a call from someone down on the planet.

  “This is Driving Force Galyan of Starship Victory,” he said, activating and rerouting the comm system to him. “How can I help you?”

  “Galyan, this is Maddox,” the captain said in a strained voice.

  “Is something wrong, sir?”

  “My house and family are under attack.”

  “This instant?” asked Galyan.

  “Meta and I have subdued two enemy operatives inside. There are more outside—”

  “A moment, sir,” Galyan said, interrupting. “I am transferring down to your home.”

  The little Adok holoimage vanished from the bridge of Victory and—using a special projector—appeared beside Captain Maddox. As Galyan appeared, another detonation shook the outer house.

  “Oh dear,” Galyan said. “This is wrong.”

  A big black dog growled savagely and leapt at the Adok holoimage, harmlessly passing through him.

  “Milo, sit,” Maddox said in a stern voice.

  “Is that your animal?” asked Galyan.

  “Yes. Now listen. The last time I saw them, the outside operatives were hiding behind the main oleander bushes beside the street, beside Broadway.”

  “Do you wish for me to investigate and see if they are still there?”

  “That, and incapacitate the leader.”

  “What about any others?”

  “Take them down as well,” Maddox said.

  Meta made a noise.

  “Yes,’ Maddox said, as he glanced at his wife. “And see if there are more operatives outside. See if you can detect any surveillance devices watching the house.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  “Get going. I want to put a stop to this now.” Maddox pointed at his child. “Jewel is here.”

  Galyan used his combat-grade AI functions, studying a geographic computer layout of the house and property. He then vanished, going into ghost mode as he did so.