The Lost Starship Read Online Free PDF

flagship broke apart, our three surviving battleships began to unlimber their heavy lasers. The strike cruisers launched drones. Many of the destroyers together with the missile boats began flanking maneuvers. The New Men had hurt us, but we still had far more ships than they did. What’s more, von Gunther’s charge had given us time to recover from Jump Lag so that operating systems began coming online enough to begin fighting.
    “I wanted to join the assault. The destruction of our ships enraged me. Yet, I had heard the admiral’s last orders. He had almost told us something critical. I believed that then, and I still do. Something crawled down my spine. It wasn’t fear of our destruction. It…”
    Her mouth moved silently before she said, “I think I sensed the historic pregnancy of the moment. As the others began firing, I reversed course and began an emergency evacuation for the Laumer-Point. As we entered the jump, I watched the rest of the fleet—”
    “You fled the battle,” Fletcher said, sounding surprised and outraged.
    “Yes, sir,” Noonan said, flinching. “You can say it like that if you wish. I prefer to say that I followed Admiral von Gunther’s last orders. I did more than simply retreat. I also shouted orders for everyone to evacuate ship.”
    Admiral Fletcher struck the table with his fist.
    Noonan took a step back as everyone stared at her with disbelief. Maybe it was too much. She lowered her gaze.
    “You may find this hard to believe,” she said.
    Like the others around him, Maddox leaned toward her, as her voice had grown softer.
    Noonan touched her chest. “In my heart, I felt the New Men would annihilate our battle group and come after us. What I had just seen—it terrified me. Their technology was far superior to ours. I felt a duty to return home and report that. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who obeyed Admiral von Gunther. One of the motherships along with a strike cruiser and four destroyers made it through. After they recovered from Jump Lag, the others began to race for the next Laumer-Point. It would take them a week of hard acceleration to reach it. As they began the journey, all hands aboard my escort ejected in the lifeboats. I’d left the ship on automated, setting it to follow the mothership.”
    “This is gross cowardice in the face of the enemy,” Admiral Fletcher declared.
    “No,” Noonan said, staring straight ahead. “I had a hunch. I believed the New Men would be coming. I took my lifeboat and raced behind a nearby asteroid. We barely made it. I began recording with passive sensors. This is what I discovered. Three enemy vessels of heavy cruiser size came through the jump point. It indicated to me that none of the enemy had sustained any damage from us. I learned something else, too. Their ships began functioning within thirty seconds of appearing in the new system.
    “ Jump Lag clearly didn’t distress them like it does us. Their sensors locked on the fleeing warships. The enemy beams fired within minutes of their arrival. It wasn’t a laser beam. My instrumentation was clear on that. The fleeing cruiser and destroyers turned around to fight. The mothership launched several squadrons of strikefighters and bombers. And that’s when things became weird.”
    Noonan bit her lower lip. “I heard several of our bombers hailing the New Men. Answering pulses returned from the enemy craft.”
    “ What’s this?” Fletcher asked. “You’re suggesting those bombers were in communication with the New Men?”
    “I suggest nothing, Admiral,” Noonan said. “I’m just reporting what I saw. I watched a squadron of bombers detach from the wave of strikefighters heading at the enemy vessels. That squadron moved away even as Commodore Franks on Mothership Constellation gave them orders to attack. I’m not sure, but I think Franks trained his lasers on the errant bombers.”
    “What do you mean, think ?” Fletcher asked, his features contorted with