The Lost Artifact

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Just get us airborne,” Maddox said. “I’ll do the rest.”

  The engine whined as the coaster began to vibrate.

  “We have plenty of fuel,” Finlay said.

  “But we’re not airborne yet,” Maddox said.

  She shot him an accusatory glance, tapped the controls and the flitter began sliding along the hangar bay deck.

  “That make you happy?” Finlay asked. “I tried to lift us too soon.”

  “Don’t give me excuses,” Maddox said coldly. “Just do your job.”

  Her jaw muscles bulged as she ground her teeth together. Her fingers seemed stiffer as she punched controls. The small coaster lifted off the deck.

  “Turn us,” Maddox said. “Aim us at the gunmen.”

  Finlay licked her lips and did as the captain ordered.

  Maddox’s fingers blurred across the controls. From the underbelly of the coaster, a cannon chugged 20-mm shells at the Shanghai gunmen.

  “What are you doing?” Finlay cried. “You’ll damage some of those ships. That’s going to get a lot of people seriously pissed off at me.”

  Maddox ignored her as he continued to rain heavy shells at the hidden locations. Some of the gunmen broke, racing for the exit. Maddox targeted them—

  The coaster swung about as it headed for the main closed hangar bay door.

  “Don’t do that again,” Maddox said. “I was killing them.”

  “I’m the pilot.”

  Maddox stared at her.

  Finlay hunched her head. “Okay, okay,” she said. “Don’t be a grouch about everything. Now, how do we get that hangar bay door open again? It’s shut. In case you forgot.”

  Maddox flipped a switch, turning on the comm. He tapped the selector for long-range communication. “Bring in the space marines,” he said. “If the bay doors remain closed, blow them open. I repeat, blow the main bay doors open unless the authorities cooperate.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Finlay shouted.

  Maddox did not answer. He was too busy staring at the hangar bay door.

  “Why are we racing for the door like this if space marines are ready to storm Smade’s Asteroid?” Finlay asked.

  Someone else must have thought the same thing. The comm crackled as the screen blinked.

  Maddox pressed a switch. The screen activated. A bearded man with gray eyes regarded him. The man wore a tower uniform.

  “Who are you?” the operator asked.

  “Open the outer bay door,” Maddox said. “If you don’t, I’m not responsible for the people on Smade’s Asteroid.”

  The operator seemed queasy but stubborn. “I heard your message. I think I was supposed to hear it. Our scanners don’t pick up anything out there. You know what I’m saying? There are no space marines waiting to enter.”

  “Suit yourself,” Maddox said, seemingly indifferent to the situation. He turned to Finlay. “Start blowing up spaceships. I have orders not to let anyone escape.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” the bearded operator said from the screen. “If you don’t want anyone to escape, I should keep the hangar bay door shut.”

  “Get off this frequency,” Maddox told the operator. “I’m expecting a call any second.”

  “Come on, get real,” the operator said, looking more worried. “My scanners would have shown stealth ships by now if they were out there.”

  Maddox scowled as he gave his full attention to the tower operator. “I know what you’re thinking, that this is a Star Watch operation. But you’re wrong. I’m with the Dominants.”

  “What?” the man said, obviously perplexed.

  “The Dominants, the New Men,” Maddox said dryly.

  The operator stared at Maddox, and the man’s eyes widened with horror. Maybe he noticed that Maddox looked like a New Man.

  “W-W-Why are the New Men here?” the operator stammered.

  “Can’t you guess?” Maddox asked in a sneering manner.

  The operator glanced elsewhere, stared as if listening to someone and finally regarded Maddox again. “I don’t see anything out there,” he whispered.

  “I know,” Maddox said with a smirk. “You’re not supposed to.”

  The operator wiped a sleeve across his sweaty brow. “You’ll put in a good word for me?” the operator whispered.

  “I have already memorized your face and speech patterns,” Maddox said.

  The operator whispered something under his breath and began to tap controls.

  “The hangar bay door is opening,” Finlay shouted.

  Maddox had immediately clicked off the comm at her first syllable lest she give away his scam.

  “Go,” Maddox told her. “Keep accelerating once you exit the hangar bay.”

  “What direction should we head?” Finlay asked.

  “In-system,” he said.

  “What about the waiting space marines?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry about them. Just do what I tell you.”

  Finlay stared at Maddox a moment longer. “There are no space marines waiting out there, are there?” she whispered. “You make everything up as you go along.”

  Maddox nodded. She had that right.

  “Oh, crap,” Finlay said, turning pale as the little space-coaster shot out of the hangar bay opening.

  -9-

  On Smade’s Asteroid, several minutes after the operator had opened the outer hangar bay door, his tower hatch opened and three massive black-clad Shanghai heavies entered. These three were subtly different from the other heavies, seeming smarter somehow, like big male lions instead of snorting bulls.

  “You’re not supposed to be in—” the operator said, abruptly silenced as one of the bruisers grabbed him by the throat, lifted him out of the seat and crushed his windpipe.

  The huge Shanghai heavy twisted the operator’s head for good measure, snapping the neck bones and tossing the puny man aside to expire on the floor.

  Only then did Strand the Clone enter the control chamber, looking like a stunted dwarf compared to the threesome. The clone’s eyes burned with passion as he studied the main screen. The stolen coaster zoomed away at what must have been full speed for the craft.

  Strand had followed Maddox’s performance throughout his time on Smade’s Asteroid. According to his calculation, the hybrid had had decreased in efficiency since the original Strand’s capture in the Sind System.

  That decrease was interesting and heartening.

  The clone pulled out a small tablet-type unit, punching highly advanced symbols into the logic processor. The unit was connected to a larger computing system on Strand’s ship.

  “Ah,” Strand said, as he observed the results. The tiny screen showed strange symbols that almost seemed like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Strand knew what the symbols meant, but no one else would have.

  “Give me that,” Strand said.

  The biggest of the three Shanghai bruisers held a control unit close to his massive chest. The man had a bullet-shaped head and hot beady eyes. He was Chang, a different kind of pirate lord with the deadliest crew on Smade’s Asteroid. Even so, like a second-rate cowed punk, Chang handed the unit to the wizened Strand.

  Strand inspected the device. Chang had been using units like this for two years already. The original Strand had taught Chang a few interesting tricks as well as modifying the space pirate to near-perfect obedience. The pirate lord did not realize that he now dealt with a different Strand, and that didn’t matter in the slightest.

  The clone flipped open the unit’s shield and pressed a red button. Nothing happened that anyone could see. He dropped the shield back into place and handed the unit back to Chang. After that, Strand turned and headed for the hatch.

  “Just a minute,” Chang managed to say.

  Strand raised an eyebrow that no one else saw. This was unexpected. How had Chang managed to resist his programming? Strand stopped, turning to study the huge man.

  Chang tried to match the burning gaze but failed. “That
’s it?” the pirate lord asked. “That’s all you wanted?”

  Strand assessed Chang’s inner struggle. It surprised him to realize that the pirate felt demeaned. If pushed too hard…Chang might conceivably test his powers. Strand wasn’t ready for that just yet.

  “What did you expect to happen?” the clone asked.

  “When you pressed that,” Chang said, “I thought the coaster would blow up.”

  Strand almost sighed at the stupidity of the thought. He had believed Chang was intelligent in a positive sense. But such inferior thinking as this…no. Why would he, Strand, have gone to all this trouble just to blow up Maddox’s ship? It made no sense. Besides, it didn’t follow Chang’s usual method of putting controlled officers back aboard a targeted starship.

  Instead of berating the pirate, Strand shook his head and started for the hatch again.

  “Wait,” Chang said.

  Strand paused. This time, he did not sense any challenge. Chang sounded confused.

  “Should I send strikers after Maddox?” the pirate asked.

  Strand became impatient, scowling at the bigger man. “Would you normally send strikers?”

  “Of course,” Chang said.

  “Then do so now.”

  “But…why did you let Maddox escape, then?”

  “The primate is curious about my motives, is he?”

  Chang flushed crimson, finally saying, “No one talks to me like that, not even you…sir.”

  This was amazing. The mouse roared at him. But Strand didn’t have time for such antics. The crew of Victory was a deadly enemy. He had to leave this place now while he could.

  “Don’t worry about your prestige among your men,” Strand said. “It is quite intact. And don’t worry about Star Watch, either. Everything will work out perfectly for you.”

  “What if my strikers reach the coaster?” Chang asked.

  “Believe me, they won’t.”

  The confusion showed again. “Should I try to intercept the coaster?” Chang asked.

  “Yes, yes, try. Try your best,” Strand said peevishly. “It won’t matter, though, as you won’t capture or destroy the coaster.”

  Chang studied the tracking screen. “I can destroy the coaster easily enough. I could probably order the Syndicate head to launch missiles right now.”

  “Then do so,” Strand said.

  Chang raised his eyebrows. “And if I destroy the coaster?”

  Strand massaged his forehead. He had fed the various possibilities into the advanced computer, and it had spit out the answer. He knew what would happen, to a ninety-nine percent probability. Chang was never going to destroy the coaster. If he did…Strand would have to reassess his entire strategy. Still, it was an interesting test. Therefore, he decided to goad Chang by shaking his head and leaving the tower control room.

  Chang watched him go, unaware of Strand’s control over him via inner compulsions. He did not like Strand. He did like the credits Strand paid him, though, and he had salivated at the advanced sensing gear that Strand had offered him as part of the latest deal.

  The space pirate chewed his lower lip. Why did Strand think destroying the coaster would prove so difficult?

  Chang shrugged. He wasn’t going to worry about that. He wasn’t going to call up the Syndicate head, either. He was going out there himself in a striker to collect Captain Maddox. If the Star Watch officer was worth so much to Strand, how much more would the fleet captain be worth to Chang’s hidden New Man contact?

  “Let’s go,” Chang told his guards. “We have work to do.”

  -10-

  Maddox sat in the passenger seat of the two-man coaster, pressed back because of the high-Gs of Finlay’s acceleration.

  She struggled because of the high Gs, fighting to remain conscious. The coaster lacked any gravity dampeners to make the acceleration easier to withstand.

  Because Maddox was part New Man, he could stand many more Gs than she could. He thus studied his monitor in relative comfort.

  Smade’s Asteroid dwindled on his private screen. So far, nothing had left the asteroid after him. Maddox had half-expected missiles to launch or maybe a beam weapon to fire. Two larger spaceships were in orbit around the asteroid. They had done nothing either.

  The star system seemed nondescript. It had a G-class star, three terrestrial planets in the inner system, an asteroid belt and four gas giants beyond. According to his monitor, there were four useable Laumer Points in the system.

  No new vessels appeared on his screen. He hadn’t expected any. Where was Starship Victory? He would guess behind one of the larger moons of the nearest gas giant. If the Star Watch vessel was out there, it hadn’t left any signature.

  Maddox turned toward Finlay. As he opened his mouth, a signal reached him. The signal had originated from the control device Strand had taken from Chang. The button Strand had pressed activated something in the chip implanted in the back of Maddox’s skull.

  The embedded chip buzzed—and Maddox slumped unconscious against the safety straps holding him in his seat.

  ***

  Maddox’s consciousness faded, burrowing deep into his unconscious mind. The captain dreamed strangely.

  It felt as if he zoomed down an incredibly long corridor. This might not have happened in the past. The process had something to do with his war against the Ska in the Alpha Centauri System a year ago.

  The Ska had been an ancient spirit-entity trapped on one of the Destroyers of the Nameless Ones. Those Destroyers had been in a null zone that had been separate from regular time and space. The Nameless Ones had been through this part of the Orion Arm many thousands of years ago. Maddox had freed several Destroyers from the null zone for use against the Swarm Fleet. He’d also inadvertently released the seemingly un-killable Ska.

  Later, he’d faced that Ska in the Alpha Centauri System. The fight against it had altered something in his mind. At this point, no one was aware of that, not even the captain.

  Maddox felt as if he raced through the corridor going faster and faster. The ride was enjoyable, as Maddox liked speed—the faster the better. Then, it seemed—in his dream state—as if he frowned. There was a noise outside the corridor. It was a harsh sound, a commanding one growing more insistent by the moment.

  “Hello?” Maddox asked in his dream.

  The rush down the vast corridor continued, but so did the harsh commands hammering against his mind.

  Maddox scowled. He did not like the words. He did not like the manner in which they were spoken. Who did this person think he was, trying to give him orders?

  “If you have something to say,” Maddox shouted, “say it to my face.”

  For a second, the harsh commands stopped. In their place, a superior sort of chuckling began.

  That infuriated Maddox, but it would not have shown on his features. It would have made him seem a little sterner, perhaps, his eyes a little more squinted, but that would have been it.

  In his dream state, Maddox concentrated. He realized that this was a memory. The commands had a hypnotic quality. They sought to…

  “Control me,” Maddox told himself.

  As the captain sped through his dream corridor—unconscious in the coaster—he realized that someone had strapped him down in a chair earlier. Doctors had rotated the chair. A saw buzzed, cutting his skin. There had been pressure as a doctor had implanted the device in the back of his head. It had not gone deep into his skull. The doctor sewed the cut.

  The chair had rotated again, and a small wheel in front of Maddox’s eyes had moved in a bewildering way. The pattern sought to numb his mind while a person spoke beside him.

  In his dream state, as Maddox still seemed to zoom down the endless corridor, he concentrated on the voice. He’d heard this person before. He knew the voice. It was the sound of—

  “Strand,” Maddox said.

  In the coaster, Finlay finally noticed that Maddox was unconscious when he mumbled in his sleep.

  The dream state
altered. Maddox no longer sensed anything. He heard no words. He saw no corridor. Instead, his consciousness departed his unconscious mind, and he went to sleep, no longer even dreaming.

  -11-

  Maddox had been correct about something. Starship Victory was behind the third moon of the most inward-system gas giant, a pink-colored Saturn-sized planet.

  The double oval-shaped warship had been behind the moon in relation to Smade’s Asteroid for a week. The crew had one more twenty-four hour period to go before they went in after the captain.

  Lieutenant Valerie Noonan sat in the captain’s chair on the bridge. During Maddox’s absence, she was the acting commander.

  Valerie had let her hair grow longer since last year. Unfortunately, she’d also let her waist get a tad bigger due to comfort eating during the terrible battle against the Imperial Swarm Invasion Fleet. The battle was over, but the comfort eating had continued.

  Keith had been glancing at her stomach more often lately. He hadn’t said anything, but she’d felt the pressure of his eyes hinting at his displeasure.

  Valerie sat in the command chair, staring at the main screen while thinking about chocolate cake. She hadn’t eaten any chocolate cake for a long time. She hadn’t eaten anything this morning, as she was in the midst of a new diet attempt.

  It wasn’t only Keith’s glances that had been bothering her. Valerie did not like the way her clothes fit too snuggly. Maybe it was more than that. She was starting to feel older. When studying her face before a mirror, she’d noticed the tiniest of wrinkles on her brow. That horrified her. She tried not to frown anymore, and not to smile too much, either. She worked at keeping her features even-keeled so no lines would develop.

  “Do you notice that coaster, Valerie?”

  The lieutenant looked up. The holoimage of Adok Galyan had addressed her. The holoimage had ropy arms and an alien face with many crisscrossing lines. Galyan didn’t have to worry about getting fat because holoimages didn’t eat.

  Valerie glanced at the main screen.

  While Victory was behind the moon, a sensor drone orbited the stellar body on the other side. The drone was linked to the starship by several other drones at different locations.