The Lost Tech

by Vaughn Heppner

Maddox shuffled around the single block, putting it between them. He held his knife low, wondering how good of a knife-fighter Dag was. Strength wasn’t as critical as speed in this sort of combat, although strength still counted.

  The edge and point of the blade, many cuts to make the other bleed out: that was one of the ways to win a knife-fight.

  Dag tested his blade with his thumb. He jerked the thumb away, a spot of blood on the flesh. “Hey, Maddox, knives are for chickens. Let’s toss ours and fight this hand-to-hand.”

  “You go first,” Maddox said. “Toss your blade away.”

  Dag grinned, showing his big teeth. He held his blade against his right thigh and began to advance at a walk. “In a way, this is perfect. I’m the Champion. I was made for this. I’ll hand the Queen victory on a silver platter, with your head on it. She told me to collect your head.”

  Maddox began breathing faster. He forced himself to slow down, although he took several long breaths to get the air deep into his lungs. Then he started doing deep-knee bends. He realized that he hadn’t warmed up. He needed to be more limber for this.

  “Are you trying to confuse me?” Dag asked.

  Maddox straightened, and he debated trusting everything to single knife throw. As soon as he thought of the idea, he discarded it. Dag would be expecting something like that.

  “You finished with your calisthenics?” Dag asked.

  At that point, Maddox pivoted on his left foot, and he ran, heading into the maze of blocks and block towers.

  “You stinking coward,” Dag shouted. “I can’t believe this. You think I’m going to chase you?”

  Maddox wasn’t sure, but he also knew that he needed to warm up. He’d been wearing a photon suit for too long. He wanted to sweat, to warm up his muscles. If Dag wouldn’t chase him…maybe that would be all for the better.

  “This is your last chance to have some dignity,” Dag shouted. “Come back and face me.”

  Maddox did not, as he jogged around the blocks, wanting to sweat and warm up for the fight of his life.

  -75-

  As Maddox sprinted, jogged and then shadowboxed, he began to get an idea of how he might be able to do this. He would have to get lucky, and it would be better to get lucky at the start of the fight than toward the end. It would save him a critical amount of wear and tear if he could.

  In a knife fight, one could win the bout and still end up crippled for life or even bleed out and die.

  He quit shadowboxing and knife-thrusting and concentrated on finding Dag again. He was sweating, and it felt good. He was ready and limber. He listened intently and avoided moving near any blocks or block towers. Finally, he realized he needed to use a different method. He went to the outer wall and began to move at a quick walking pace. The wall protected one side so he only had to look in the other direction. He rubbernecked like mad, making sure to look everywhere so that Dag couldn’t sneak up on him or launch an attack from ambush.

  Finally, he stopped short, seeing Dag sitting cross-legged on the floor. It might have been the same place as before.

  Dag saw him and waved. Then the Merovingian made a production of yawning, using a hand to cover his mouth.

  Maddox began walking toward the seated monster man.

  “Have you come to fight or flap your yap?” Dag shouted.

  “To kill you,” Maddox shouted back.

  “Ah.” Dag climbed to his feet, and he picked up the knife on the floor.

  At that moment, Maddox had another inspiration. Dag was huge, with massive if flexible muscles. What if he avoided the man for the next two or three days? Might Dag grow wearier from hunger?

  No. Maddox rejected the idea. He had a fast metabolism. He would grow weary faster than Dag without sustenance. Even this sweating might have been a bad idea if he was trying to outlast Dag. Sweat equaled water. Maddox had yet to see a ready supply in this chamber.

  “You’ve been running,” Dag said.

  Maddox began psyching himself up to face the Merovingian. A multitude of things could go wrong. Too much sweat could drip down to his feet and cause him to slip. A muscle tear, a lucky blow from Dag—

  Maddox exhaled, trying to expel the negative thoughts. He was good, maybe Star Watch’s best at this sort of thing. He would simply have to win by outfighting the big man.

  “You know how this fight is going to end?” Dag asked.

  Maddox did not answer. He was trying to enter the zone. He slashed his knife back and forth, closing the distance at a steady walk.

  “I’m going to grab your head and squeeze,” Dag said. “I’m going to squeeze so hard your skull will grind together and then apart, and your brains will leak out of your head.”

  Maddox slowed his walk, with his heart pounding. Then he stopped, straightened and grinned at the huge man. He laughed.

  Dag laughed with him, and he began to walk at Maddox. “I guess you mean to face me. I’m glad. I’ve been thinking about what you said before. I want to get my crew out of the nullity as soon as possible, and I could use some R-and-R after all this hassle.”

  Maddox forced himself to relax the grip on his knife-handle. He didn’t want to wear out his forearm muscles. He switched hands and flexed those fingers.

  “Nervous, huh?” asked Dag. “I don’t blame you. You have no chance. In fact, if you kneel before me, I’ll make it a swift and nearly painless death. Let’s put everyone out of their misery as soon as possible, eh?”

  Forty meters separated them. Maddox felt his gut tighten. This may be the toughest opponent he’d ever faced, man to man.

  Dag leaned forward, and he hunched his shoulders, shouting, roaring at Maddox so spittle flew from his mouth. Dag did it again, bellowing so his face began to turn red. Then he shouted like a madman and charged the captain.

  Is he trying to go berserk?

  Dag charged, building up speed, his eyes bulging outward and the veins beginning to rise all over his body. He clutched his knife so the muscles on his forearm were starkly rigid.

  Maddox set himself in a knife-fighter’s crouch. He was light on his toes, ready to move whichever way he needed to. He judged the berserk warrior rushing him like a freight train on greased tracks.

  He’s not going to stab me. He’s going to knock me down.

  Dag roared, bum-rushed Maddox with a shoulder lowered and picked up speed at the last second. Maddox flung himself to the side, slashing, hoping to cut the big man and start the bleeding.

  Their blades clanged as Dag parried the slash, putting a notch on each knife. Maddox rolled on the floor out of the way. Dag rushed past. Maddox jumped to his feet and spun around. Dag slowed down, came to a stop and turned. He was panting heavily and grinning horribly.

  The big man didn’t give the captain any time to recover. He started marching at Maddox, his muscles bunched up as he loomed like death.

  “Your knife can’t protect you,” Dag said hoarsely. “Once I get my hands on you, it’s over. You got lucky just now.”

  Maddox felt heat flush through his body. Dag was too big, too strong and just too damn fast, nullifying the captain’s greatest asset.

  Dag roared once more, breaking into a sprint, charging the captain. Once more, Maddox set himself. He was light on his toes, and he knew what he had to do. It might not work, but he had a feeling that Dag had enormous reserves of strength and stamina and would outlast him any day.

  “Maddox!” thundered Dag. The Merovingian held his hands like a grappler, ready to rend and destroy, the knife almost incidental to his plans.

  Dag neared, and Maddox hoped he was doing the unexpected. He flung himself at Dag. He noticed a slight widening of Dag’s eyes, and Maddox thrust underhand, punching the seven-inch blade into the Merovingian’s gut. The two of them collided, and Maddox bounced off the charging freight train. He was thrown back, but not before Dag grabbed an ankle. Maddox yanked his foot, tearing it free just as Dag chopped, with the dagger barely missing his leg.

  Maddox fell onto the floor,
Dag stepped on a thigh with crushing weight, stumbled and tripped because of it and fell headfirst, sliding across tiles on his chest. Maddox scrambled up, and an agonizing twinge told him Dag had given him a charley horse in his thigh. Maddox hopped back.

  Dag groaned, turned and sat up, panting, glaring at Maddox. “You little bastard, you got lucky, damn you.” Dag climbed to his feet, with Maddox’s knife-handle protruding from his stomach. Naturally, that meant the seven-inch blade had gone in to the hilt.

  Maddox saw that, understood that meant he was disarmed, and turned and started hopping away.

  “That’s it?” Dag shouted. “That’s how you think you’re going to win? You want me to bleed out?”

  Maddox used his fingers to knead the charley horse of his right thigh. He needed his legs working. That was exactly the plan. It might not have been heroic in the classic sense, but a win was a win.

  Maddox sensed something, and he turned just in time to see Dag hurl his knife. It came straight and true, and so terribly fast. Maddox tried to dodge—the knife stuck him in the shoulder, making him grunt with pain.

  Maddox ripped the knife out. Blood spurted. He clenched the knife between his teeth as he reached up and clapped a hand over the wound. Losing blood could mean defeat and death if he lost consciousness.

  “Face me,” Dag shouted.

  Maddox used his other hand to take the knife from his mouth. “Goodbye, Dag. Catch me if you can.”

  “You’re going to run?”

  “I’m going to stay ahead of you until you fall unconscious. Then, I’m going to kill you.”

  “Fight!” Dag roared, the knife still sticking in his gut.

  Maddox shook his head and started hobbling away.

  Dag broke into a run. It wasn’t a sprint, but it was faster than Maddox was traveling. The captain forced himself to hop-hobble as he tried to get his Charlie Horse thigh to start working right again.

  For the next forty-five minutes, the two raced through the domed chamber, Maddox barely keeping ahead of Dag. The Merovingian began spitting blood, and he groaned the longer the race continued. Maddox bled, but not too much. It couldn’t be as bad as the bigger man’s belly wound through intestines and such. Surely, Dag was bleeding internally. The Merovingian had incredible resources, however, and the race went beyond the forty-five minutes. Finally, the two men were no longer running, but shuffling and staggering.

  “Maddox,” Dag said hoarsely. “That was a cheap shot. That wasn’t a fight.”

  Maddox kept hoofing it. He was tired mainly because of the charley horse and because he had lost some blood from the shoulder wound. Why wouldn’t that huge son-of-a-bitch fall down? He was starting to hate Dag, even as he admired the man’s iron will.

  “Turn around and face me, you coward,” Dag rasped.

  Maddox did not stop or turn around, but he did shake his head.

  “I’m going to kill you with your own knife!” Dag roared.

  Maddox glanced over his shoulder. He saw the monster man yank the knife from his belly. Blood jetted out. It was obscene. Then, Dag started up, going from a shuffle to a staggering run.

  Maddox began hopping and half-running faster.

  Dag roared as blood poured from his belly wound. It must have been the pent-up flood that had bled internally. Dag ran faster and began closing the distance.

  Maddox gritted his teeth, and he ran faster, too, trying to stay ahead of the Merovingian. He’d gotten his lucky break, and he’d gotten it early in the fight, but he’d been injured as well.

  Dag shouted.

  Maddox looked back.

  The big man slipped from the blood that had poured down his legs and under his feet. Dag struggle to get up, and then collapsed onto his face.

  Maddox halted, watching, wary for tricks.

  Dag struggled again, trying to rise. He managed to make it up to his knees. Blood seeped from the belly wound. Dag raised his mighty arms, a knife in one of the hands. “Maddox!” he shouted. “You cheated me.”

  Maddox just watched. This had to be the most unsatisfying of his victories. “An alien pitted us against each other. This fight wasn’t by my choice.”

  “Don’t blame him. You ran from me.”

  “Winning is everything.”

  Dag glared at the captain, until he slowly began to nod. “Yes, winning is everything. I hate you, Maddox. I spit at you.” Dag gathered saliva and spit a blood mixture onto the floor. “I curse you, Maddox. May you never know peace.”

  “You’re too late with that,” Maddox said. “I already don’t.”

  Dag swayed, with his features pale. “I would have beaten you in a boxing ring or in a fighting cage.”

  “This is real life,” Maddox said.

  “Yeah…” Dag said, and swayed more and then fainted, falling to the side.

  Maddox heaved a sigh. He didn’t want to kill the man, but this was for all the marbles—if the Hormagaunt would play by the rules and keep its word.

  I WILL.

  Maddox winced, and he sighed again. Then, he began shuffling toward Dag. Was the man faking? He doubted it. Dag was out, and now, Maddox was headed to him to kill Dag with a cut across the throat. It was dirty low-down fighting, but in this case, he couldn’t be sentimental. Victory meant the survival of the human race.

  -76-

  Nausea nearly overcame Maddox as he completed the harsh deed. As he raised the bloody knife, as he knelt beside the slain Dag, Maddox disappeared from the domed chamber—and reappeared on the bridge of Victory as he sat in the captain’s chair.

  Several people shouted in surprise, including Valerie standing beside the chair and Keith at helm.

  “How did you get here?” Galyan asked. His holoimage was fuzzy and kept wavering like bad reception, but the Adok AI was there. “You are covered in blood, sir. Are you hurt?”

  Maddox looked around in a daze, seeing his bridge crew. What was that in his hand? A knife… He pitched the bloody blade from him so it clattered on the deck.

  “Sir,” Valerie said. She stared at him in shock. “You look exhausted. Are you all right?”

  “No,” Maddox said quietly.

  “Are you ill?” Valerie asked.

  “His shoulder has been cut,” Galyan said.

  Maddox frowned and shook his head. “Where are we?”

  “Before a giant silver ring,” Keith said from helm. “There was a battleship to the side. It’s gone now, and I don’t know where it went.”

  Maddox concentrated, finding it difficult. He’d been in the Ring Accelerator, had faced the Hormagaunt, had teleported to the domed chamber and was now here on his seat on the bridge of Victory. “Do you…?” He licked his lips. “Do you see or sense anything else?”

  “By my calculations,” Galyan said, “we are in the null region. I had expected the heavy planet to be near the silver ring, but that is not the case. Have we been asleep, sir?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “See, Valerie,” Galyan said. “I was right. There has been a passage of time.”

  “How did we get here?” Valerie asked Maddox.

  “The Hormagaunt,” Maddox said.

  “What does that mean?” asked Valerie.

  “Someone, anyone,” Maddox said, ignoring Valerie’s question. “I need a jacket.”

  Andros jumped up from his station, hurrying near as he shrugged off his jacket. “Here you go, sir.”

  Maddox nodded his thanks, throwing the too-small jacket over his shoulders. Then, he leaned back in his seat. He stared at the main screen, studying the giant silver ring.

  “Lieutenant,” he told Valerie, “hail the ring.”

  Valerie blinked several times before nodding, hurrying to her station. Before she arrived, the bridge entrance slid open, and Ludendorff and Meta walked in.

  Meta gave a gasp, and rushed to Maddox, touching him, removing the jacket and studying his cut shoulder.

  “The ring is turning red,” Keith said. “Is that good or bad?”
r />   “Good,” Ludendorff and Maddox said at the same time.

  “Sir?” asked Keith.

  “Head through the center of the ring,” Maddox said. “I suspect it will take us out of the null region and…into the Inner Asteroid Belt.”

  “We were in the Inner Oort cloud before this,” Keith said, as he manipulated his panel.

  Maddox nodded.

  “What do you want me to say to the ring operators?” Valerie asked.

  “Belay the order,” Maddox said. “Meta and Ludendorff are here. I thought they were still in the control chamber.”

  “This is all quite bewildering,” Galyan said. “Can you give us a quick rundown of events while we have been unconscious?”

  “Not right now,” Maddox said. “Meta, leave it. I’ll be okay.” He put the jacket back over his scabbed and blood-wet shoulder.

  “The inner portion of the ring is swirling,” Keith said.

  “That is what it should be doing, my boy,” Ludendorff told him.

  Keith nodded as he continued to fly Victory toward the giant silver ring.

  “How is the Accelerator operating without power from the heavy planet?” Meta asked.

  “The Hormagaunt,” Maddox said.

  “Did you talk to it again?” Meta asked.

  Maddox nodded.

  “Is it going to devour humanity?”

  Maddox pointed at his shoulder, and glanced at Meta.

  “Oh, darling,” she whispered. “What in the world happened to you? You look horrible, spent.”

  “I fought Dag. The Hormagaunt’s coin flip,” Maddox said.

  Meta frowned.

  “Humanity won the flip,” Maddox said. “The Hormagaunt is going elsewhere, to the center of the galaxy, if he’s going to keep his word.”

  I AM.

  Maddox winced, hunching his shoulders.

  “Did the Hormagaunt just speak to you?” Meta asked quietly.

  Maddox nodded. “We’re going to be okay. Humanity won another round. I think Meyers escaped, so there is that.”

  “Here we go,” Keith shouted from helm. “Hang on, everyone. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

  What did happen was that Victory went through the activated Inertialess Accelerator, leaving the null region and reappearing in normal space and time in the Inner Asteroid Belt of the Solar System.