The Lost Starship by Vaughn Heppner Read Free Book Online Page B

fifties, ma’am.”
    “Which means you believe I’m in my sixties,” she said. “If you add several decades to that number, it would be right.”
    The answered surprised him. “You’ve taken the Methuselah Treatment?”
    “Just the initial procedure,” she said. “The Star Watch cannot afford more. Besides, there are serious drawbacks to those who become too old. I am nearing my retirement age. We have decided that ninety-five should be the cutoff point.”
    “I had no idea.”
    “Good. That means few others will have either.”
    “I also don’t understand why you would tell someone like me.”
    “I’m getting to that,” O’Hara said. “I’ve been around for some time. That’s my point. I’ve seen these reports gather.”
    “What reports?” Maddox asked.
    “The special ones that have made us uneasy for the last two decades,” she said. “At first, they appeared random. Then, they coalesced into a pattern. We couldn’t see the pattern at the time, mind you, just feel it tightening around us.”
    “Us,” Maddox said, “as in the Commonwealth of Planets?”
    “No. Us as in the Oikumene. I have spoken with the top Windsor League intelligence people, although I haven’t had those conversations with my Wahhabi or Spacer counterparts. We now believe these hidden maneuvers were the work of the New Men. It is my belief that they were laying their groundwork.”
    “For an invasion?” asked Maddox.
    “We don’t know that part yet, but it’s possible. Let me rephrase. After the lieutenant’s story, I’d say it’s likely.”
    “By ‘we,’ you mean Star Watch Intelligence?”
    “ No,” O’Hara said. “Several Windsor League officers, the highest ranks here and a few people above us.”
    “Clearly, the New Men have invaded the Oikumene,” Maddox said.
    “Are they invading? Are you sure?”
    “What do you call the conquest of Odin, Horace and Parthia?” Maddox asked.
    “It could be conquest. It could be extermination. It could be assimilation.”
    “What does the last part mean?”
    “Let me lay my cards on the table,” the brigadier said. “ After much research, we believe the New Men are the result of genetic experiments. Nearly one hundred and sixty years ago, some colony ships from the Thomas Moore Society headed for deep space. They were peopled with utopians, those certain they could perfect humanity. Now, we can’t be sure, but the majority of us in the know believe the Thomas Moore Society colonists were the genesis to the New Men. Among the utopians was a group who wrote that the easiest way to achieve their dream was to modify man. Could they have gained the ascendency out there in the Beyond? Did they practice simple genetic selection or experiment with gene-splicing? Did they use the scientific techniques we have to produce better tomatoes or hybrid wheat and transform people?”
    “I have no idea ,” Maddox said. “Why do the New Men have golden skin?”
    “Maybe as a mark of their superiority?” the brigadier said, “maybe because they settled a world with a hot star. I don’t know.”
    “What d id you mean when you said assimilation earlier?”
    “Taking the conquered people and selecting those with superior genes for breeding. That is one idea. There are others more repugnant.”
    “Such as?” Maddox asked.
    O’Hara fixed her gaze on him. “Maybe they place a fertilized gene-modified egg into a captive woman’s uterus. The captive becomes a breeder for the New Men, a brood mother, if you will.”
    Maddox’s eyes widened. “Do you think that’s what happened to my mother?”
    The brigadier shrugged.
    “How can you be so calm about this?” he asked.
    “Please, Captain, use your intellect. Even though you’re our youngest, you’re also our best operative. Lately, however, you have become far too emotional. I want my former star officer to reappear for duty.”
    Maddox and the brigadier stared at each other for a long moment. She looked away first.