The Lost Artifact

by Vaughn Heppner

  “It has a space drive, as we’re witnessing it decelerating. The drive is slight, though, although the robot did use the Laumer Point.”

  “If it can use Laumer Points, it’s using a star drive,” Valerie said. “It simply crosses each system much slower than we can do.”

  “Maybe as a Builder construct, it doesn’t value time the same way we do,” Maddox said.

  Galyan spoke up. “I do not accept that, sir. I have lived a long time, and I still value each second.”

  Maddox smiled at Galyan. “You’re unique, no doubt about that.”

  “Thank you, Captain. That is kind of you to say.”

  “You’re right in thanking him, Galyan,” Valerie said. “I’d record what the captain just said and enjoy it while you can.”

  Maddox refrained from glancing at the lieutenant, although he detected several bridge personnel giving Valerie a look. He would ignore the remark. Besides, maybe he wasn’t a fount of kind words.

  He crossed his legs as he regarded the Builder construct out there. What had the robot been doing? Heading for the rogue moon…

  “Lieutenant,” he said, “plot the robot’s former trajectory. Was it heading for the pyramids?”

  Valerie tapped her board, studying the results. “It was,” she said.

  “But not the planet’s pyramids…” Maddox said to himself. He wondered about that, considering once again if he’d overreacted regarding the energy leakage. Had he jumped to a false conclusion, or was Yen Cho trying to upset his confidence? Clearly, the pyramids were important to androids. Just as clearly, the robot seemed important to Yen Cho and the other androids.

  What could the robot do that was so important?

  “We will arrive at the robot in twenty-seven minutes,” Valerie said.

  Maddox nodded. He had twenty-seven minutes to figure out the best way to deal with it.

  “Should I attempt communication?” Valerie asked.

  “No…” Maddox said. “Let’s see if it tries to hail us.”

  The minutes passed as Victory moved toward the robot. The thing had stopped dead in space. It had stopped about four hundred thousand kilometers from the rogue moon.

  “Is there anything new regarding the moon?” Maddox asked.

  “It’s quiet,” Valerie said. “I no longer detect any energy leakage.”

  Maddox frowned. Could this be a subtle trap? Could massive beam cannons be waiting to power up? Yet, if that was the case, they should have detected some form of energy.

  “Helm,” Maddox said. “Be ready for an emergency star-drive jump.”

  “Roger that,” Keith said.

  The minutes continued to pass.

  “Begin deceleration,” Maddox said.

  Keith manipulated this panel, and Victory began decelerating.

  “Still nothing from the robot,” Valerie said. “If it’s scared of us, it’s not showing it.”

  “Do robots have emotions?” Maddox asked.

  “I detected what could be bio-matter earlier,” Valerie said. “That part could have emotions.”

  “Interesting,” Maddox said. “Yes. Good point.”

  The lieutenant looked up with raised eyebrows, nodding a moment later.

  The remaining minutes seemed to move in slow motion. Nothing changed on the rogue moon. Nothing was happening that Victory could determine on Gideon II.

  That caused a prickle of sensation in Maddox’s neck. If androids were among the pyramids on Gideon II, they should have done something by now. Could Yen Cho be right about no androids being hidden in the Gideon System? The idea troubled him.

  “No,” Maddox whispered to himself. He wasn’t going to let anything chip away at his self-confidence. He was—

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “The robot is hailing us.”

  Maddox sat forward. Now maybe he could get some answers to all these questions.

  -48-

  Starship Victory came to a dead stop before a guardian Builder robot, if that was what it was. They were both four hundred thousand kilometers from the giant pyramids on the rogue moon.

  The situation felt surreal to Maddox as he regarded the construct on the main screen.

  “You will identify yourself,” the robot said in a robotic manner, using regular Commonwealth English.

  “I am a Star Watch captain,” Maddox replied.

  “Yours is a Commonwealth vessel?” the robot asked.

  “It is.”

  “I detect falsehood in your reply,” the robot said. “Yours is an Adok warship built to resist a Swarm Invasion Fleet, circa 10,221 B.E.”

  “You did not ask me if this was a Commonwealth-constructed vessel,” Maddox pointed out. “The crew belongs to Star Watch, the guardian arm of the Commonwealth.”

  “Do you claim I that reached a false conclusion?”

  “I’m not making any claims just yet,” Maddox said. “You intrigue me. You’re different. You’re—”

  “Captain Maddox,” the robot said. “Let us drop this pretense. You know I was on Methuselah Man Strand’s ghost-ship. Your confederates destroyed the ghost-ship. Now, you have chased me down. I would like an explanation.”

  “I’m sure you would,” Maddox said. “I’d like to know why you ran for the Laumer Point back in the Tristano System.”

  “It was a matter of survival.”

  “Do you fear us?”

  “I do not fear your crew. I am wary of you, though, Captain Maddox. I have studied you extensively. You must have already divined that my computer system predicated your various actions. I gave the Methuselah Man—”

  “Let me stop you right there,” Maddox said, interrupting. “First, he wasn’t a Methuselah Man. Your Strand was a clone of the Methuselah Man.”

  “That is correct.”

  “By saying otherwise a few seconds ago, you were attempting to feed me false data.”

  “That is incorrect. I have been determining your mental condition. I see it has returned to normal. That will allow me to proceed on an optimal path with you.”

  “Because you can predict my actions?” Maddox asked.

  “Not with one hundred percent accuracy, but with something so close it hardly makes any difference.”

  “You knew I’d come after you into the Gideon System?”

  “That was self-evident.”

  “Did you know that I’d catch you?”

  The robot did not answer.

  “Before we continue,” Maddox said. “What would you like me to call you?”

  “I do not care.”

  “Should I just say…robot?”

  “If you want,” the robot said.

  “I don’t care for that. It’s too impersonal, and you’re unique, I’m told.”

  “Your data concerning me is accurate so far.”

  “You are a guardian robot of Builder construction?” Maddox asked.

  “Correct.”

  “Where are the Builders?”

  The robot did not answer.

  “What was the clone of Strand hoping to achieve?” Maddox asked.

  “That is immaterial to our business at hand.”

  “It’s very material. By the way, I’m going to call you Gideon.”

  The robot said nothing.

  “Gideon,” Maddox said. “Is it okay if I call you Gideon?”

  “Call me what you wish.”

  “Great. I’m glad to hear you cooperating with us, Gideon. I want to know what the clone desired.”

  “The destruction of the Commonwealth,” the robot said.

  “I see. And you two were going to make that happen?”

  “I understand your sarcasm, Captain. Perhaps an analogy is in order so you can comprehend the truth. We were going to be like a master jeweler, using precise blows to chip a rough diamond into a given shape. The Commonwealth is presently at a crisis point, mainly due to the defeated Swarm Invasion. Given carefully considered stresses, the clone hoped to weaken the Commonwealth sufficiently that the New Men would once
again invade with their star cruisers.”

  “Why would Strand wish this?”

  “The reason is obvious. Strand hates the idea that basic humanity has eclipsed his created New Men in combat power. He is going to attempt to change that to an outcome he approves of.”

  “And you were helping him do just that?”

  “For a time,” the robot said.

  “Do you also wish the Commonwealth to disintegrate?”

  “I have no wish either way on the matter.”

  “What do you care about?” asked Maddox.

  The robot said nothing.

  “Did you kill the Strand clone?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “To facilitate my escape from you,” the robot said.

  “You failed.”

  “I failed to escape from you, but that was not my desire.”

  “But you just said it was.”

  “That is incorrect. I said that I killed the clone so I could escape Victory in the Tristano System. That you have made it here and found me in the Gideon System means that I can proceed to the next phase. Captain Maddox, you are an adept human/New Man mix. You are often willing to incorporate new data that causes you to change course. I am willing to make a deal with you.”

  Maddox raised his eyebrows. “I’m listening,” he said.

  “I will join you aboard the starship,” the robot said. “I will help you find the next few Strand clones that are about to emerge from stasis.”

  “Do you believe that’s my present goal?”

  “Knowing you, I know it is,” the robot said.

  “I might have to kill those clones.”

  “That is up to you.”

  “What do you want in return?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “I want to observe you in action, Captain.”

  “Unless you give me a reason I can believe, I’m not going to allow you aboard my ship.”

  “Here is my reason. I, too, wish to stop the clones.”

  “That’s a good start. Why do you want to stop the clones, though? You just told me you don’t care if they cause the disintegration of the Commonwealth.”

  “If the next few clones emerge, they will cause several severe evolutionary steps to occur that will bring universal annihilation to this sector of the galaxy.”

  “I’d like to know how that’s going to happen.”

  “There is a high probability that one of the clones will contact the ships of the Nameless Ones.”

  Maddox sat up. “The Nameless Ones are near?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “How can the clone contact them, then?”

  “I am unsure,” the robot said. “However, I do know that one of the next clones will use Nameless Ones technology. That technology will surely overpower the clone and set in motion the events I have described.”

  “And you can help us stop that from happening?”

  “Yes,” the robot said.

  “Then why did you run away from us before?”

  The robot said nothing.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Maddox asked.

  The robot did not reply.

  “I want to think about this,” Maddox said.

  “That is fine,” the robot said, “as you will decide to do it. But do not take too long, Captain. Time is becoming critical.”

  -49-

  “It’s lying,” Valerie said. “I don’t trust it.”

  Maddox nodded as he studied the small object out there in space. He’d cut communications with it and now discussed the idea with members of the bridge crew.

  “Galyan, what are your thoughts?” Maddox asked.

  “The robot is dangerous,” the holoimage said. “But I would tend to agree with Yen Cho. The Builder construct will have knowledge. Do we need this knowledge to defeat more Strand clones? I do not know. Perhaps you should contact the Throne World and speak to the Emperor concerning Strand.”

  Maddox nodded. He didn’t like the idea, but he could see its utility.

  “I am curious,” Galyan said. “Which do you deem the greater menace, the Swarm Imperium or the Nameless Ones?”

  “The Swarm is out there,” Maddox said. “We’ve seen one of their battle fleets when they fought the Chitin. That Swarm Fleet would have dwarfed what we faced last year. It’s no secret that the Commonwealth, heck, all of Human Space with the New Men included, could not stop a real Swarm Invasion. We have also fought a Destroyer of the Nameless Ones. One Destroyer by itself destroyed the Wahhabi Caliphate. We needed the Destroyers last year against the Swarm. If a fleet of Destroyers with several Ska aboard hit the Commonwealth…”

  Maddox shook his head. He didn’t want to think about more Ska, although he said, “It’s too bad we couldn’t engineer a war between massed Destroyers and the Swarm Imperium.”

  “If the Destroyers came in great enough numbers,” Galyan said, “they would annihilate the Imperium.”

  “And then us,” Valerie added.

  “We cannot allow any clone of Strand to communicate with the Nameless Ones,” Galyan said.

  Maddox thrust out his booted feet, staring at them. He finally looked up. “We’re working off too many assumptions. We’re in the dark on too much of this.”

  “Which is another reason we need the knowledge of the Builder robot,” Galyan said.

  “I don’t trust it,” Valerie said.

  “None of us do,” Maddox said slowly. “And it hasn’t done much to gain our trust. It doesn’t seem to fear destruction. Could we destroy the robot if we wanted to?”

  “Easily,” Galyan said. “I have analyzed the robot’s alloys. Our disrupter cannon would vaporize it.”

  “Part of me says to do just that,” Maddox said. “If we can easily destroy it, why doesn’t the robot fear we will try? I also keep thinking about Gideon II. I wonder…”

  The captain wondered again if he’d acted prematurely concerning unsubstantiated stealth androids. He no longer believed that was what had been down there with them. He had desecrated ancient pyramids for possibly no good reason.

  Could the robot have foreseen the order? Maddox wondered. Was that why it had escaped to this star system? Was that why it had attempted to remain hidden until this point? It hadn’t wanted to contact him until certain actions had manipulated his thinking.

  “Any other comments?” Maddox asked aloud.

  “Perhaps you should ask Yen Cho what he thinks about the robot’s proposal,” Galyan said.

  “No,” Maddox said. He motioned to Valerie. “Open channels with it.”

  Reluctantly, Valerie did so.

  “Gideon,” Maddox said.

  The robot said nothing.

  “Guardian,” Maddox said. “What assurances do I have that you will not harm anyone aboard Victory?”

  “You have my word,” the robot said.

  “What if I don’t trust your word? You killed the clone. Maybe you want to kill me, too.”

  “I do not.”

  “Captain,” Galyan said. “I feel I should…” The holoimage fell silent as he flickered like a bad picture and suddenly vanished from sight.

  “Captain,” Valerie said. “My sensor panel has shut down.”

  “Keith,” Maddox snapped. “Initiate an emergency jump.”

  The pilot tapped his board before turning around. “I can’t. My board is dead.”

  Maddox jumped up as he swore. Had the robot talked to them to buy time as it initiated a stealth computer attack?

  “My computer has gone crazy,” Andros said from his station. “Sir, I think the robot beamed a virus into our computers. It’s taken over.”

  Maddox pressed the comm switch on his chair, “Guardian, are you doing this?”

  There was no answer. The main screen went blank as more control panels around the bridge began to shut down.

  Maddox ran to the hatch, but it didn’t open. He pressed an emerg
ency switch, but that did no good.

  “Get over here,” he shouted at the others. “We’re going to force this hatch open. I have to know what that little bastard is doing to my ship.”

  -50-

  The Builder robot floated in space before the mammoth Adok starship. The cube in its storage cone had been transmitting to the huge spacecraft. The cube now communicated with its host.

  TAKEOVER COMPLETE, the cube told it.

  The robot engaged its space drive, slowly accelerating toward the great starship.

  This was precision computing and predicting indeed. Captain Maddox was a complex individual, but he was also malleable. He had fallen for the trick at the excavation site. That had seemingly caused a lapse in judgment in him. The antimatter strike wasn’t the lapse, just that he realized he’d made a mistake down there. That had caused him to take too long to come to the correct conclusion here, for himself and his crew.

  The Adok starship should prove to be the perfect spawning ground. This was a fantastic moment. The robot had waited many cycles of time for such a transformation. The cunning Methuselah Man Strand had caught and trapped the robot and the so-called ghost-ship long, long ago. Yet, not even Strand—the original or the clone—had truly understood the nature of the cloaked vessel or its unique “computing system.” The Strand clone had used the computing for such gross actions. The clone had deserved to die for such sacrilege. Now, though, this was a glorious day indeed.

  The robot used its space drive to accelerate toward the hangar-bay door. It would soon reach the starship. Then, it could begin. Then, the universe was going to witness a miracle.

  The robot wanted to accelerate faster, but that would mean it would have to decelerate sooner and use up too much energy. The cube was going to need its energy source at the beginning.

  Oh. This was interesting. There was an android aboard the ship. Could the android assist in the birth? The robot ran a quick analysis. After it was done, the robot sent a pulse to the starship and a quick message. Then, it concentrated on reaching the hangar bay while the humans struggled against a mostly shut down starship.

  ***

  Yen Cho sat in the dark of his lightless cell. Suddenly, the hatch opened, admitting light from the outer corridor. At the same time, the android cocked his head, receiving a message—