The Lost Artifact

by Vaughn Heppner

  Was that the opening of the way? Maddox suspected so. Did that mean they were too late to stop the Destroyers?

  Maddox shook his head. He didn’t know that yet.

  The deck shifted under his feet. He noticed movement, and he sucked in his breath in astonishment.

  Yen Cho sat at Helm. The android did not run the panel as Keith might have. Instead, a spider-web of gleaming wires came out of Helm and were attached or sunken into the android’s head. Yen Cho did not move. Maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe thought acted as movement. It seemed more efficient, certainly. It also seemed inhuman.

  That was when Maddox realized he’d seen the large, dark, humanoid partly blocking out the main screen before. The thing rippled at the edges and seemed to have shining stars where the head should have been. It had the outline of a large humanoid head. The entire creature seemed cloaked in darkness, though.

  “Builder,” Maddox said in a rough voice.

  The thing standing in front of the captain’s chair seemed to turn and regard him.

  “You are strong, Captain,” the thing said softly.

  “Are you the Builder cube?” Maddox asked.

  “A cube no longer, Captain,” the thing said in the same soft voice. “I am a Builder again.”

  “Are you a holoimage?”

  “I am flesh and blood and powerful circuitry. I have been studying the problem and have not yet decided if I arrived in time to save our galaxy.”

  Glancing at the main screen, Maddox noticed that the starship was moving toward the incredible gate. It still had many millions of kilometers to go, because he could see the entire structure, well, the part on this side of Canopus at least.

  “Does the star power the gate?” Maddox asked.

  “Of course,” the Builder said. “Such a gate as this, transferring ships from one galaxy to another, takes tremendous wattage to run.”

  “What did you do to Yen Cho?”

  “The android is the bridge crew. He is taking us to the gate.”

  “Why don’t we jump there with the star drive?”

  “For the simplest of reasons, Captain, because we cannot. The gate has employed a dampener field against us.”

  “The inner part of the gate, the area between the white spokes, has turned green.”

  “I believe the being controlling the gate has linked with a different gate. The green you see is the opening of the way. Once the opening is complete, Destroyers will be able to transfer through.”

  “Can you tell where the other gate is located?”

  “Not yet.”

  Maddox glanced at the shadowy Builder. “Why are you allowing me to ask so many questions?”

  “You are aiding me, Captain. Your questions help focus my thoughts. It takes getting used to. My new body, I mean.”

  “How did you…manufacture a biological form?”

  At Helm, Yen Cho turned blind eyes toward the captain. It almost seemed as if the android wanted to answer that. Instead of doing so, Yen Cho faced the main screen again, blindly focusing on his primary task.

  “You might discover the answer if we survive long enough,” the Builder whispered. “At the moment, how I built the body is not germane to the issue at hand.”

  “What is the issue? What are you going to do?”

  “I am still deciding, Captain. You are quite the inquisitive monkey, aren’t you? Still, I cannot be too upset with you. Your hybrid nature has given you greater strength than the normal run of humans. I doubt any of them will wake anytime soon—”

  “What’s wrong?” Maddox said.

  The shadowy Builder had stiffened, almost as if in pain.

  “I should have realized,” the Builder said in an even softer voice than before. “There is a Ska loose in the gate.”

  Maddox stepped back. A Ska? Here? A ripple of fear, nay, of terror, tore through him. He hated the fear. He shook his head, attempting to master it.

  “I need the Builder weapon,” Maddox said.

  The Builder seemed to regard him. “I could build you the weapon you name. But if you used it again, you would surely die.”

  “We all die sometime,” Maddox said. “Besides, better one man perishes than an entire species.”

  “You shame me, Captain.”

  Maddox said nothing more. He felt sick at heart, and yet he felt a strange exhilaration. The last fight with a Ska had wounded him deeply. It had also made him hate the beings. They were evil. If he died fighting galactic evil—was there a better way to go? He did not think so.

  “I must destroy the Ska before I can close the gate,” the Builder said softly. “Yet, the Ska might slay me.”

  “Let us destroy the gate,” Maddox said.

  “We cannot, as we presently lack the means.”

  “If we started a chain-reaction—”

  “How little you truly perceive,” the Builder whispered, interrupting the captain. “This gate—I am a pygmy before it. The Ska is a trifle before it and you are less than a gnat. Who built the gate? I long to know. I would give almost anything to study it for the rest of my existence. The Nameless Ones appear to have found the gates first. As long as they can use them…I cannot study this one in peace.”

  “If we jaw too long,” Maddox said, “we might not do anything at all.”

  “Monkeys always chatter when they’re excited,” the Builder said. “At the moment, we move with as much haste as possible.”

  “Is there a control room in the gate?”

  “Ah….you probe for the heart of the matter. Even as we speak, I search for the gate’s control chamber. But there is so much to search. I have not yet found the control room.”

  “Find the phase-ship and you’ll find the control room.”

  “You are clever, Captain, but I am a thousand times more so. I am already seeking for the phase-ship.”

  An alarm began to sound. The android at Helm jerked where he sat.

  Both the Builder and Maddox regarded Yen Cho. The android slowly raised an arm, pointing at the main screen.

  Had the android lost his ability to speak? Maddox wondered. Then the captain stopped wondering, as he saw a horrific sight. He saw wavering images on the other side of the green film that colored the entire inside ring between it and the sun and the white pillar spokes. Under the green film, it looked like a crowded fishpond with hundreds of swarming minnows. But instead of minnows, there were hundreds of Destroyers. Were the colossal vessels about to cross through the gate into the Canopus System?

  “I fear we are too late,” the Builder whispered. “The next invasion is about to begin.”

  -38-

  “No,” Maddox said. “It can’t end like this. Star Watch has fought too hard, faced too many terrible calamities for it to mean nothing.”

  “That is a quaint notion,” the Builder said. “Besides, Star Watch’s actions will not have meant nothing. Humanity struggled against the cosmos. In the end, the cosmos won. That was something, even if it only lasted for a little while.”

  “Yours is a chilling philosophy,” Maddox said. “Life has to mean more than that.”

  “No, Captain, there is no more than that.”

  Maddox studied the shadowy being. It seemed the Builder had lost confidence in victory even before the fight. They had to fight. Just as importantly, they had to fight to win. In order to do that, the Builder had to believe it was worth every effort.

  “A Builder in a Dyson Sphere once asked me if I believed in the Creator,” Maddox said. “I told him yes, and that pleased the Builder. Do you no longer believe in the Creator?”

  “No.”

  “When did you lose your faith?”

  “You are not here to query me, Captain.”

  “Are you even alive, or are you just a machine?”

  The Builder turned toward Maddox. “You will no longer question me. I am certainly alive. I have bio-matter. I am self-aware. Certainly, I live. Belief in the Creator is not a prerequisite for life.”

  “May
be it’s a prerequisite for life to have meaning,” Maddox said.

  “You are a clever beast, as I have said,” the Builder replied softly. “You did not question me. You listened to my command. But you are still on the offensive against me. Life can have any meaning you desire it to have.”

  “I take it that your particular meaning is the momentary struggle against the cosmos. Once you cease to exist, everything that had meaning for you ceases as well.”

  “Now, you have become enlightened,” the Builder said.

  “Ska are real,” Maddox said.

  “Of course, they are real. What is your point?”

  “Ska are not physical, not like we are.”

  “I am well aware of that, but I still possess weaponry that might defeat the one in the gate.”

  “If Ska are real, if the Creator is real, then there is more than just this life.”

  “You have no proof for your theorem,” the Builder said. “But I weary of your argument. Do you have a point to all this, or are you simply passing the time before your death?”

  “The Destroyers aren’t on our side of the gate yet,” Maddox said. “We must attack while we can.”

  “Attack with Victory against the Destroyers? Are you mad, Captain?”

  “On no account,” Maddox said. “We must turn off the gate.”

  “Please tell me how. I am listening.”

  Maddox scowled at the main screen. “You must find and defeat the Ska, preferably killing it. I must go to the main control and turn the gate out of phase again, in essence, shutting it down.”

  “Where is the main control?”

  “You’re going to have guess,” Maddox said, “and I’m going to have to go there while you kill the Ska.”

  The Builder was silent for several seconds. “That is an interesting proposal. Yes. I could modify the fold-fighter so it could reach the gate. The dampener field is directed at Victory. If I used a nullifier…it might work with such a small vessel.

  “Captain Maddox, yours is a desperation plan. But you excel at those, do you not? I have always loathed the Ska. Even though this may mean my destruction…why not end my existence with an impossible challenge? You will need a companion—”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said.

  “That is absurd. The Adok… Ah, I perceive your meaning. Yes. That is a wise choice, Captain. Let it be so. Go to the hangar deck and prepare. I will be there shortly.”

  -39-

  The fold-fighter slid out of the hangar bay as Victory continued to accelerate toward the gigantic ring gate around Canopus.

  In a few moments, the starship had pulled away considerably from the tin can. As far as Maddox knew, Yen Cho was still wired into the Helm. It was possible the android was the only sentient being awake on the starship. Not even Galyan had regained consciousness.

  It was a tight fit inside the fold-fighter. A metallic construct sat in the piloting chair. In the thing’s cybertronic brain was a copy of the Adok AI Driving Force Galyan-enhanced engram program.

  Maddox felt vaguely uneasy about having the Builder copy Galyan. He knew the AI would not have approved of this if given a choice. But the Adok holoimage wasn’t getting a choice today, not with everything at stake.

  On impulse before leaving, Maddox had picked up an unconscious Keith Maker, carrying him along. The Builder had said they had little chance of survival. But if there was any chance at all, Maddox was going to take it and run with it. If anyone could get them home again, it would be a revived Mr. Maker.

  Maddox also had a two-ton combat suit along. And a regular spacesuit as backup. He didn’t know what the enemy was going to use against him—he didn’t know what the enemy looked like—so he’d tried to prepare for every eventuality.

  The last member of the crew was the Builder, still shrouded in his shadowy cloak of anonymity.

  “The gate is not yet fully in phase,” the Builder said, softly. “Such a process takes time, even though it may have seemed that all this has taken place instantly.”

  “Will it go out of phase at the same speed?” Maddox asked.

  “Do not get your hopes up, Captain. This is a…a kamikaze mission. We are suicide pilots.”

  “I’m not,” Maddox said.

  “Is that why you asked for Galyan instead of taking your wife?” the Builder asked.

  “My reasons are my own,” Maddox said, cryptically.

  “I applaud your attempt at dignity,” the Builder said. “Yet seeing an ape like you—oh, never mind. The time is at hand. I feel the restraining force of the dampener lessening. I have instructed Galyan where to fly. As we appear several hundred meters above the gate, I will leave the craft. I have an appointment with a Ska. The evil senses me and knows we’re coming.”

  “The Ska must be ancient.”

  “Oh, it is, Captain. It is. Now, quit talking. I must concentrate. This is tricky and will take precise calculations.”

  Maddox obeyed as he peered out of the tin can’s small screen. Out there was an ancient artifact. How long had it been out of phase? How many other gates like it dotted the Milky Way Galaxy? What had started the Nameless Ones on their rampage throughout the universe? It seemed like an insane goal, constantly moving and obliterating all life but theirs. It was a gigantic conceit. Maybe they shared the Builder’s belief that the universe held no meaning. But they had manufactured a meaning: kill everything, and kill without pause. It meant they would never finish the task. When one species died out, they hunted for the next and murdered it.

  Could humanity survive the Nameless Ones forever? Could the sentient races of the universe band together and finally and ultimately destroy the Nameless Ones?

  The concepts were too gigantic for Maddox. He just wanted to survive the fight. He wanted to turn off the terrible, ancient gate. The Commonwealth of Planets had enough problems without worrying about Nameless Ones traveling in an instant from another galaxy.

  The universe suddenly seemed too vast for Maddox, and maybe too small, as well.

  “Concentrate,” the captain mouthed to himself.

  The Builder was sensing and guessing, using his probability factors to make the correct choice.

  “I have targeted the Ska,” the Builder said, gravely. “I will now guess as to the location… Yes. I have discovered a possibility. Captain, you are badly outclassed. We…we should turn back.”

  “No,” Maddox said.

  “This is futile. We cannot win.”

  “I thought you said we were kamikazes. Do kamikazes care if their fight is futile or not?”

  “We could flee far from here,” the Builder said. “We could leave the Canopus System. We could leave the Milky Way Galaxy. Why must we die on this day? It is the wrong choice for us.”

  “Are you saying I’m nobler than you are?” Maddox asked.

  “That is a ridiculous concept. You have a vested interest in the universe. I have myself, and no one else. If I die—I have no reason to lay down my life, for I have no other person to lay it down for.”

  “You’re a Builder. You helped pave the way for other races. Now, help to keep them alive.”

  “What does any of that mean to me now? I can live, or I can die today.”

  “Are you so weak that you fear a Ska?” Maddox asked, changing tack. “I defeated a Ska, and I lived to tell about it. Can I do more than a Builder?”

  “That is not germane—”

  “There you’re wrong,” Maddox said, coldly, interrupting. “Yes. Let us turn around, but first you must admit that I’m better than you are.”

  “You are treading on dangerous ground, Captain.”

  “Admit it, Builder. I can slay a Ska and live. You cannot, and you are—”

  “Enough!” the Builder said. “I…I merely tested your resolve, Captain. You have passed the test.”

  Maddox eyed the shadowy being. He did not believe that for a moment. But why not let the Builder keep his ideals concerning himself? The being might die in defense of the Milky Way
Galaxy. Surely, that was worth a little respect.

  “These creatures think they can destroy us,” Maddox said. “It’s time we taught them a lesson.”

  “I do not need bolstering, Captain. I am committed. I felt a sense of hesitation. Now, I am going to slay the Ska and teach you a bitter lesson after this is over.”

  Maddox nodded.

  “Look,” the Galyan construct said. “The gate is glowing.”

  “This is bad,” the Builder said. “I must advance our schedule. Captain, prepare yourself. We are about to fold.”

  The Galyan construct tapped a flight switch. The engine howled, and the tin can began to shake and rattle. Then, everything went black around Maddox.

  -40-

  The fold-fighter appeared 87 meters above the nearest surface of the gate. The Galyan construct piloted as they flashed over weird alien structures.

  Maddox vomited and his head pulsated with pain. This had to be the worst Jump Lag in his life. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get them to focus.

  He wondered about their tiny crew: a Builder—part biological and part machine—an android with an Adok-enhanced personality and a Star Watch officer with half New Men genes. There was Keith, too, but the ace was as unconscious as ever.

  “Must I repeat myself?” the Builder asked, softly.

  “What’s that?” Maddox asked.

  “This is the third time I have told you,” the Builder complained. “I must leave. From here, I will teleport to my destination in the gate.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Do not ask stupid questions, Captain. It only causes further delays. Galyan knows where you must go. Destroy the phase-ship if you find it. If you do not find and destroy the phase-ship and its crew, everything we do will have been in vain. If even one of their number survives, they can re-phase the gate back into our quantum universe and allow the Destroyers to attack our galaxy.”

  “Kill them all,” Maddox said. “I got it.”

  “I believe that is the one thing you do understand, as you are a born killer.”