The Lost Artifact

by Vaughn Heppner

  Galyan used a more powerful sensor, piecing the covering as he studied the antimatter-blasted pyramids. By the discoloration of the red granite rock, he could see the new blast damage. The pyramids had been in almost pristine condition before this. No longer.

  “It is good Professor Ludendorff is not here,” Galyan said to himself. “He would be furious at the archeological damage.”

  Keith piloted the shuttle down toward the excavation site.

  “Lieutenant,” Galyan said via comm.

  “I’m busy,” Keith said.

  “Do not attempt to directly land in the excavation site. The charged particle shield might interfere with your flight computer.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Keith asked.

  “Quite sure,” Galyan said.

  “I’ll radio the captain.”

  “You can speak to him directly?” Galyan asked.

  “Not at the moment. How did you know someone was jamming us?”

  “That is not the case,” Galyan said. “It is the charged particles interfering with the comm system.”

  “The captain messaged me earlier.”

  Galyan thought about that. “Did he use a laser link?”

  “You’re a smart guy, Galyan. That’s right. Now, look, I’m real busy. Is there anything else?”

  “Keep on the lookout for intruders. The captain’s missile-strike order implies an outer threat.”

  “Roger that,” Keith said. “Out.”

  Galyan continued to watch the progress on the scope. The shuttle landed beside the dig. Time passed, too much time in the holoimage’s estimation. Finally, space-marine suits climbed out of the excavation hole and hurried to the shuttle.

  This was the danger point.

  But nothing unpleasant happened. The two-ton suits boarded the shuttle and the shuttle lifted off, heading for Victory in its orbit upstairs.

  What happened to the enemy? Why are they letting the shuttle get away so easily?

  Galyan might have pondered longer. Instead, he sensed commotion on the bridge.

  In an instant, the holoimage disappeared from the viewing port and appeared on the bridge.

  “What has happened, Valerie?” Galyan asked.

  The lieutenant sat forward on the command chair. She had shiny eyes and a triumphant smile. She turned to him.

  “I’ve found it,” Valerie declared.

  “The missing space debris?” Galyan asked.

  “The robot, a Builder robot by the reports,” she said.

  On the main screen, Galyan saw the beamed image of what Probe 10-D had scanned. It showed an artillery-shell-shaped piece of metal hurtling toward a rogue moon. As he watched, the object shimmered, almost disappeared and then appeared whole again as the probe used a different sensor.

  “Is that image correct?” Galyan asked.

  “The robot is modulating its stealth mode,” Valerie said with appreciation in her voice. “It’s most impressive.”

  “Why does it not use all modes at the same time?” Galyan said. “It might have remained hidden that way.”

  “Best that I can reason it,” Valerie said, “is that it lacks the power to do so.”

  “That is one possibility.”

  Valerie’s smile lost some of its power. “What’s the other possibility?”

  “That it wants to be found, but not easily,” Galyan said.

  “Why would it want that?”

  “I believe that is the question Captain Maddox is going to ask.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I believe you’re right.”

  -46-

  Nearly two hours later, Maddox appeared on the bridge. He had gone through anti-radiation treatment, taken another nap—he’d been taking too many of them lately, but his body was still healing and demanded all the sleep he would give it. Now, Maddox listened to Valerie’s report concerning the robot.

  The starship was already accelerating toward the object. At its present velocity, the robot was still several days away from reaching the rogue moon.

  “Tell me more about that moon,” Maddox said.

  “It appears to have blown loose from Gideon II sometime in the past,” Valerie said. “The moon has an erratic orbit around the star and approaches the second planet far too closely at times. That was the first clue regarding its…loosening.”

  “What was the other clue?” Maddox asked.

  Valerie pointed at a warrant officer. He tapped his console. On the main screen, the dark moon appeared. It was a close-up that zoomed closer still, to reveal a batch of giant pyramids.

  “More of them,” Maddox said. “Galyan, did you analyze the blast area on Gideon II?”

  “Yes,” Galyan said. “I found trace elements that suggest you were correct in your assumption.”

  “You found the remains of stealth androids?”

  “Not exactly,” Galyan said. “The antimatter blast was intense. It caused massive damage to the pyramids and obliterated your possible enemy. I did detect trace elements that could have been androids. The data is not conclusive, however. I would require a more detailed scan.”

  “You took a huge risk with the antimatter missile,” Valerie told the captain.

  Maddox shrugged. It had worked. That was enough for him. “What is the estimated time to our reaching the robot?” he asked Valerie.

  “Two hours and forty-three minutes,” she said.

  “That gives me enough time to talk to Yen Cho again,” Maddox said. “Has the robot made any attempt to contact us?”

  “None,” Valerie said.

  “Is the robot still using its stealth modes?”

  “No.”

  “The robot knows we know it’s there?”

  “It’s acting that way,” Valerie said.

  “Anything else on the moon?” asked Maddox.

  “There is…energy leakage. I don’t know what it is yet, but I have my suspicions.”

  “Show me this leakage,” Maddox said.

  Valerie indicated a control panel to the side. Maddox went there and studied it. The leakage could have come from anything; life-support, idle beam weaponry, waiting missiles… One thing bothered Maddox about the reading. It was the same as the marine had discovered while they were walking among the pyramids on Gideon II. Did that mean stealth androids waited on the rogue moon?

  Maddox doubted it. Yet…that might mean he’d been wrong about stealth androids on Gideon II.

  “What’s the robot’s distance to the rogue moon?” Maddox asked.

  “Half a million kilometers,” Valerie said.

  “The robot is moving slowly,” Maddox said.

  “That depends on your reference point,” she said.

  “Keep me posted on any new developments, even if I’m in the middle of interrogating the android.”

  Valerie nodded.

  With that, Maddox exited the bridge.

  ***

  This time, the captain took Meta with him instead of Riker. The sergeant was tired-out from the mission onto the surface. He had become ill from the radiation treatments and slept fitfully in sickbay. The marines weren’t quite as badly off, but they hadn’t shaken off the treatments as fast as Maddox had.

  Yen Cho was playing solitaire just like before. He looked up as the hatch opened. He noted Meta with a big gun pointed at him. He smiled at her.

  She did not smile back.

  “I see,” the android said. He put his cards down and sat back in his chair.

  This time, Maddox took only one chair. He sat normally. He realized he wasn’t feeling all that well. Maybe the anti-radiation treatment was starting to get to him, too. Maybe the aftereffects of the antimatter blast had something to do with it as well.

  “Surprised to see me?” Maddox asked.

  “I am,” Yen Cho admitted. “You visited less than twelve hours ago. I hadn’t expected you back—”

  “That isn’t what I meant,” Maddox said dryly, interrupting.

  “Then I am at a loss as to your mean
ing.”

  “Are you indeed?”

  “Please, Captain, let us forgo ‘twenty questions,’ as you said last time. What should surprise me about your visit?”

  Maddox smiled blandly. “I went down to the planet.”

  Yen Cho’s easy manner altered as the android put both hands on the table as if to steady himself. “I warned you not to go there.”

  “So it seemed.”

  Yen Cho cocked his head. He cocked it the other way. “I do not perceive your meaning.”

  “You baited him,” Meta said.

  Yen Cho blinked twice. “I see,” he said. “You believe that I think you are a child. That is quite amusing, Captain. But let me put you at ease. I consider you the wiliest opponent I have ever faced in my long existence.”

  “Whatever you really believe about me,” Maddox said, “you clearly think I’m conceited.”

  “But of course you are. Ask your woman if she thinks that. We all know you are conceited, Captain. What makes it interesting is that you are not a conceited ass like so many of your kind are.”

  “Watch your mouth,” Meta warned.

  “Did that upset you, dear lady? Do you hide the truth about your husband from yourself?”

  “Husband,” Meta said, “would you allow me to have the android put in a mechanical press? I’ll take off both of his arms. If that doesn’t tame his tongue, we’ll remove his legs as well.”

  Yen Cho nodded. “One barbarian mated to another. You make a perfect couple, Captain. I congratulate you on your choice of mate.”

  “I went down to the planet,” Maddox said crisply. “I landed with several marines and walked among the pyramids. I discovered the lack of sand on the ground due to the charged particle shield surrounding the excavation site. While poking around, I also discovered stealth androids attempting a kidnapping.”

  “I know nothing about that.”

  “I eliminated the androids but was unable to capture any.”

  “Let me apologize for any combat losses, Captain.”

  “No need,” Maddox said, “as there were none.”

  “None? I cannot believe that. You said hidden androids attacked you.”

  “Before they could launch their assault, my team dug into a pyramid and found a deep hole. I ordered an antimatter strike into the dig. The blast killed the stealth androids.”

  “What?” Yen Cho said. “You used an antimatter device against the pyramids? You are indeed a barbarian, Captain. You destroy what you cannot understand.”

  Maddox turned to Meta. “I suspect androids built the pyramids. If not…the androids use them for something. That means I’m going to destroy the pyramids on the rogue moon.”

  Yen Cho rose to his feet.

  Meta’s heavy gun tracked him as she became tense.

  “Are you tired of living?” asked Maddox.

  Slowly, Yen Cho resumed his seat and shook his head. “You are correct in one assumption, but quite wrong in the other. Androids did not build the pyramids.”

  “Who then?”

  “Who else?” Yen Cho said. “The Builders.”

  “The pyramids…are artifacts?”

  Yen Cho looked away before regarding Maddox again. “They are not technologically powerful artifacts but they are powerful symbols…to us.”

  “To androids in general or to your particular android faction?”

  “To all of us,” Yen Cho said. “We are the constructs. The Gideon System has meaning for androids. You have desecrated one of our holy sites.”

  “No,” Maddox said. “You’re not alive in a real sense. You’re machines.”

  “I assure you that we are quite alive,” Yen Cho said. “We are different from you, but we are living. Do humans have souls, Captain? I can’t see them. I can’t smell them. How, then, can you prove the existence of souls?”

  “Easily,” Maddox said. “Humans have written holy books or holy words, the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud and others. In their time, people considered the books holy, set apart. They pertain to God, or the gods in some cases, which pertain to souls. Why do humans have this yearning to seek spiritual meaning? The answer is easy. It scratches an itch in the human psyche, in the human soul. That leads me to the opposite conclusion for you. Have androids ever written holy books?”

  “I am not aware of any,” Yen Cho said.

  “Of course you aren’t,” Maddox said, “because mechanical men lack souls. You lack our human itch to fill a spiritual void in each of us.”

  “We do have our holy sites, though.”

  “I have my doubts regarding that,” Maddox said. “I am tempted to believe the pyramids have an actual function for you androids. What function do the pyramids provide for you?”

  “They mark the beginning of our creators,” Yen Cho said.

  Maddox blanched. “Gideon II is the original homeworld of the Builders?”

  “As to that, I cannot say,” Yen Cho replied. “That is because I do not know. The Builders first devised us human-shaped androids on Gideon II. That I do know.”

  “Are you telling me there are workshops under the pyramids?”

  “If I say more,” Yen Cho said. “I will have to kill you.”

  Maddox glanced at Meta before regarding the android. He thought about Yen Cho’s revelation. He thought about the pyramids, the charged particle shield over the excavation site. He considered the supposed Builder guardian robot using the Laumer Point to reach this star system. As Maddox considered these things, he drummed his fingers on his right knee.

  “We found the guardian robot,” he told Yen Cho.

  “And?”

  “No more,” Maddox said. He stood and nodded to Meta.

  She kept her gun trained on the android as she knocked on the hatch with her other hand. It unlatched and opened. Two marines with heavy combat rifles stood there, aiming them at Yen Cho.

  “Captain,” Yen Cho said. “This is quite unfair. You cannot tell me about the robot and simply depart. While I agree that I might not have a soul, I have curiosity. I…would like to know what you plan to do next.”

  “Is there anything you care to tell me?” Maddox asked.

  “You mean pertaining to the robot?”

  Maddox did not answer.

  The android seemed undecided. “I doubt the robot itself is dangerous. It will have a great fund of knowledge, naturally. Or do you mean this supposed stealth-android assault? Captain, you are not going to like this. I doubt there was any such assault. You may have detected something, but it was not androids bent on kidnapping you.”

  “What did we detect, then?”

  “I cannot say.”

  “Cannot or won’t?”

  “Will not,” Yen Cho said. “The site is holy to androids. I cannot reveal why. I am…saddened by your wanton destruction. Perhaps you are more human than New Man. You destroy what you do not understand like a human would.”

  There was a tightening to Maddox’s eyes. He didn’t care for the remark. Could he have been wrong about an android stealth assault? Had his hunch been false? The possibility existed. Maybe he had overreacted because he was still jumpy due to the clone’s attempt to wire his mind.

  Through force of will, Maddox pushed that aside. The pyramids weren’t as important as the robot. What had Yen Cho said? The robot wasn’t dangerous?

  “Do you think the clone of Strand would agree with your assessment regarding the robot’s non-deadly nature?”

  “I doubt so,” Yen Cho said.

  “The robot has a task, doesn’t it?”

  “I…I do not know.”

  “Yen Cho,” Maddox said. “You have consistently lied to me. I believe little of what you have said. You seek the robot, clearly. I want to know why.”

  “I desire knowledge.”

  “That’s another lie,” Maddox said. “Tell me the real reason.”

  “And if I do not tell you the real reason, you will order those men to shoot me?”

  Maddox did not answer.
r />   “Captain…” the android said.

  “Speak while you can, Yen Cho. Your time is limited.”

  “I believe…” the android stopped talking. Finally, he shook his head. “I am unable to comply with your request, Captain.”

  Maddox scratched a cheek. There was something huge afoot. What did the robot mean to the androids? What did these pyramids mean to them? Why were the pyramids important, and had the robot come here for a specific purpose?

  Maddox could almost taste the importance of the star system. Had Strand erred in setting the robot free? By everything he’d learned, Maddox suspected the original Strand had possessed the robot and ghost-ship for a long time. Only now, though, was the robot awake again. How long had the robot been turned off?

  “Enough,” Maddox whispered. “Let’s go. Yen Cho, I was going to take you with me. Now, you can remain in the dark for a little longer.”

  With that, Maddox and Meta stepped out of the cell. The guards sealed the armored hatch, leaving Yen Cho inside.

  -47-

  Maddox sat in the captain’s chair, looking up as Valerie spoke.

  “Captain,” she said. “The robot is definitely decelerating. It’s no longer attempting to reach the moon.”

  Maddox had been reading a report. He now studied the main screen. Valerie had ordered twenty times magnification.

  That still wasn’t enough.

  “One hundred times magnification,” Maddox said.

  A moment later, the main screen shimmered. The artillery-shell-shaped robot leaped into view.

  “That’s a robot?” Keith asked from Helm.

  “Apparently,” Maddox said. “What are the sensors detecting?” he asked Valerie.

  “It has a tiny nuclear pile,” Valerie said. “I don’t understand how that works, as it’s incredibly small. I don’t detect any energy weaponry. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a latent weapon system. There is excessive computing and something else, something I don’t understand. Ludendorff might have understood. Maybe Yen Cho would as well.”

  “Explain,” Maddox said.

  “It might be bio-matter,” Valerie said. “It’s in the top part of the robot. Is that a robot, sir? Might it be a tiny space vessel?”