“Who did they send?” Riker asked.
“I doubt that matters as much as whether they did send someone. That person knows the doomsday machine is coming. Yes, of course. The enemy has been burning up his espionage assets at a prodigious rate. If the Earth is going to end, none of that matters. So, the fact our enemy is using up his espionage assets—maybe ones gathered over thirty years—means he’s after something.”
“That makes sense, sir.”
Maddox tapped his thumbs against the controls. What would the enemy want? Why had the enemy gone to such lengths to stop him personally? The secret foe had used every trick to dump false data, and to gain access to impossible places, to—
Maddox tried the comm, getting harsh static. Had the thermonuclear blast fused the radio or just played havoc with the radio waves? He tried the comm again. The static sputtered, and then the comm quite altogether.
“Right,” Maddox said. “Hang on, Sergeant.” With a quick manipulation, the captain aimed the air-car upward.
“Where are we going, sir?”
“Upstairs, Sergeant, back to Victory.”
“Why there, sir?” Riker asked.
“I know what the enemy is trying to do.”
“Do you care to let me in on that, sir?”
“Yes,” Maddox said. “Here’s their plan…”
-35-
Meta pushed a portable-floater to the main hatch of Victory’s hangar bay. At the closed entrance, she grounded the floater as worry seethed through her.
Taking out her comm-unit, Meta called the bridge. “What’s happening now?” she asked.
“Nothing new other than confirming the worst,” Valerie said in a quiet voice. “A nuclear device definitely went off in Monte Carlo. I haven’t had word about Maddox or Riker yet.”
Meta bit her lower lip. Riker had left Victory on Maddox’s orders. The sergeant was going to Nerva Tower, which was in Monte Carlo. Could the nuclear explosion be a coincidence? She didn’t believe that for a minute. Maddox’s life was in terrible danger. In fact, he could be dead.
Squeezing her eyes closed, Meta shook her head. She couldn’t accept Maddox’s death. It wouldn’t happen like that.
How will it happen?
Until this moment, Maddox had seemed to lead a charmed life. That was pure deception, though. The captain lived dangerously. At times, Meta wondered if he sought such assignments because of the demon riding in his soul. The captain loathed his dual nature. The idea of being part of an experiment, a hybrid—
“The shuttle has landed and oxygen has returned,” Valerie said. “You can enter the hangar bay.”
Meta opened her eyes, staring at the comm-unit. “You’ll tell me the minute you hear something, good or bad, okay?”
“I’ll do that,” Valerie said.
“You promise?”
“Meta, this is me. I keep my word. I’ll tell you the minute I know something about the captain. I’m sure he’s all right.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Meta said. “You’re not sure.”
“Okay,” Valerie said, in a softer voice than before. “I’m worried just like you.”
Meta closed her eyes again. There it was. Just like her, Valerie must realize Maddox had died in the nuclear blast. He’d headed for Nerva Tower, and that had been where the heart of the explosion had occurred.
Meta opened her eyes as she slid the comm-unit into a pocket. Putting her hands on the floater, she activated it. The thing lifted off the floor. Meta opened the hatch, pushing the floater into the vast hangar bay.
A Star Watch hauler shuttle rested in the center of the chamber. It was bigger than the shuttle Maddox and Keith had left in. Those things were the workhorses of the fleet.
Meta frowned to herself. If Maddox was dead…what will I do now?
The captain had loved her…hadn’t he?
Don’t think of him as dead until you know for sure.
Meta nodded. Sometimes, she didn’t think the captain loved her enough. He liked her, certainly. The man loved to lay with her. But she didn’t feel as if Maddox needed her, couldn’t function without her. His work engaged him too heavily. He was always thinking about his mission, always plotting, planning…
He could be dead. You’re supposed to think well of the dead, not complain about them.
Maybe she was seeing Maddox as he really was for the first time. Kane had been like ice, but there had been a secret need in his eyes. The Rouen Colony man had pretended not to need her, to be impervious to her charms, but she could tell it had been otherwise.
Why didn’t I see this before?
Meta shook her head. Because the brute Kane had kidnapped her and hauled her halfway across the galaxy, that’s why. He had been a pig, always knocking her down. There hadn’t been any love in Kane, but lust, greedy desire to use her body.
I love Maddox, and he’s dead. He must be dead. No one survives a nuclear blast.
She would have to move on.
Meta sneered at herself. She was moving fast. Was it a survival mechanism? She had to protect her heart, right. She had been through so much in her life. Besides, Maddox had blown hot and cold with her. He—
The rear entry hatch lowered on the hauler-shuttle. The crew must want her to take the item back there for them. What a bunch of lazy shirkers.
Meta almost pulled out the comm-unit to ask Valerie if she’d learned anything more. What would Victory do now, what would Galyan do with Maddox dead? Would the Adok AI remain loyal to Star Watch, or had the alien computer been loyal to the person of Captain Maddox?
We’re going to need Galyan against the doomsday machine.
Meta glanced at the silver egg on the floater. Star Watch HQ had called up after the blast. They wanted the Builder egg in order to get ready for the doomsday machine. Maddox had spoken at length with Brigadier O’Hara and the Lord High Admiral. With Ludendorff’s help, Star Watch would use the egg to defeat the ancient planet-killer. At least Maddox’s last mission would have helped to save the Earth.
The former assassin peered at the object, shivering with dread. Inside the egg was a bionic Swarm creature. Was it anything like the horrible medical creature they had fought just before boarding Victory for the first time? That seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, Builder pyramids transferred her a hundred light-years in a jump, ancient drones used fusion beams just like the enemy’s star cruisers and—
Meta bit back a sob. She wasn’t going to cry yet. She didn’t even know whether Maddox was dead or not. He could have pulled off another of his miracle finishes. The microwave beam attack hadn’t killed him. Maddox had fired a missile at treacherous space marines in the Geneva Spaceport—
How many secret assaults could Maddox fight off? He must have died in Monte Carlo. How did one dodge a nuclear blast?
“I want to go home,” Meta whispered to herself. She was already sick of Earth with Maddox gone.
Embroiled in her thoughts, Meta pushed the floater up the ramp into the nearly empty cargo hold. She didn’t stop to call out. Instead, she kept walking.
Poor Maddox had played his last card. He had been good, one of the best. But in the end, he had fallen to the Methuselah People or one of the clever agents of the New Men. How was Star Watch supposed to beat a superior foe that had access to better tech?
Meta heard a whirring noise. She blinked and looked back. The ramp she’d walked up was closing.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m still in here.”
Meta looked around. The cargo hold was empty except for several big crates. The deck plate under her feet shivered. The engine had come online.
“Hey, can anyone hear me?” she shouted. “I’m still in here. You’re supposed to wait until I’m gone before you lift off.”
There was no answer.
“All right, enough of this,” Meta said to herself, scowling. She pulled out her comm-unit, using her thumb to press the ‘on’ switch. It didn’t matter because nothing happened.
Meta shook the comm-
unit. “Don’t tell me the battery is dead.” She adjusted a dial.
“Hello, Meta,” a deep-voiced man said.
Meta looked up, and her jaw dropped. This couldn’t be happening.
“Kane?” she asked.
The man wore a silver suit like a blasted New Man. He had the same bulk as before with his square head and gray hair. The man was massive. She knew the futility of fighting against him hand-to-hand.
“How are you here? You’re supposed to be—” Meta spun around, sprinting for the still closing ramp. If Kane was here, the enemy was pulling a fast one. She couldn’t believe this.
A stunner purred behind her. Meta felt the bolt slam against her back. It propelled her off her feet. She thudded onto the vibrating deck plates. From on the floor, Meta watched the ramp seal shut.
“This is a delightful surprise,” Kane said in his deep voice. “I had no idea you, personally, would bring the egg.”
“What…?” she whispered. Vaguely, Meta was aware that Kane knelt beside her.
“When I saw you walking across the hangar bay floor, I asked the dominant if I could keep you. He shrugged, which means yes.”
“Kane,” she whispered. It was hard to think past the stun effect.
“The Earth is doomed,” Kane said. “Leaving with me gives you life. You have the genes of a Rouen Colony worker. We are the beginning process, Meta. For thirty years already, the Throne World has taken the weak clay of humanity and molded it into a superior form. I’ve just learned that soon, throughout Human Space, there will be more Rouen Colonies, turning out better people like you and me.”
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“I want you, Meta. I will have you. Oran Rva has consented to it.”
With seemingly rusted muscles, Meta turned her head. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out Kane’s square head.
“The commander of the invasion armada—”
“Is here in the shuttle,” Kane said. “You’ve brought the last component for a glorious task. If you had been an inferior, I couldn’t have kept you. Now, as my reward, I will keep you for my own. I have wanted to make love to you for some time.”
Meta made out his white teeth. The pig was grinning at her. Make love to her? She would stick a knife between his ribs.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he said.
Meta felt his hands touching her, groping, squeezing. “Kane,” she whispered. “What…”
“We have no more time,” he said, pushing her over onto her back. “This is our one chance—”
“Are you going to rape me while I’m stunned and immobile?”
“You’re so beautiful. I must—we won’t—you’re trying to confuse me.”
Meta heard a new note in Kane’s voice that hadn’t been there before. He didn’t sound as aloof as last time. How had the enemy agent gotten back to Earth before Victory? The answer was obvious. The New Men had sent him through the Nexus. Had repeated long-distance jumps worn him down?
“I am ice,” Kane said, as he squeezed her flesh.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He was silent, and his hands no longer roved over her body. His breathing became heavier.
Beneath her, Meta felt the shuttle lifting. This couldn’t be happening. Had Valerie opened the hangar bay doors already? How could the lieutenant do that without first checking in with her? Had the enemy tricked Valerie?
Yes. That must be it. Horrible Oran Rva was here in the Solar System and had tricked them into giving him the Builder egg—because the commander had pretended to be a Star Watch hauling team. This was a disaster. Now, Kane was kidnapping her all over again. Worse, he planned to rape her to fulfill his own base appetites.
“When I was a boy,” Kane rumbled. “The trainer took us out to Rollo Glacier.”
What was he talking about now?
“On the Rouen Colony?” Meta asked.
“Yes,” Kane said. “You know Rollo Glacier is as large as some continents. We trekked across it for days, enduring as the trainer hardened us into gang-leaders. We were the chosen, but first we had to show him we had the desire to survive. It was so cold, Meta. The iciness seeped up through the soles of my boots. The winds came, and still the trainer forced us to march. We had to endure. We had to prove we were tougher than the ice.”
Through a porthole, Meta saw the darkness of space. Was the shuttle outside the starship? She wanted to weep with frustration.
“Some of the lads sank down in exhaustion,” Kane said, absorbed with his stupid tale. “I hauled up my friend. The trainer struck me. ‘Let the weakling die,’ the trainer told me. I did not listen. The trainer beat me that day until finally I collapsed beside my friend.”
Meta tore her gaze from the porthole to stare at the fuzzy-imaged face before her.
“I remember seeing the trainer’s boot before my eyes,” Kane said. “I lay on the ice, shivering, freezing to death. He laughed at me. He asked if I, too, was a weakling like my dead friend. When I didn’t answer, the trainer knelt before me, staring me in the eye. ‘You have grit, Kane,’ he told me. ‘You dared to endure my wrath. Let me tell you the secret of life. Be the ice. Rid yourself of useless emotion. Let your cold freeze others into submission as you beat yourself into a superior being.’ I stared into his eyes, hating the man for what he had done to me and for letting my best friend die. Finally, he shrugged, climbing to his feet. He left with the rest of the lads.”
“What did you do?” Meta asked. She didn’t understand why he was telling her all this, but she found herself wanting to know more, to understand more about the New Men’s mysterious agent.
Kane inhaled deeply. “I lay on the ice, absorbing its power. It grew in me that day. It entered my soul and filled me with the resolve to live. I would endure until I had the opportunity to kill the trainer because he had beaten me for helping my friend. I became the ice, and I climbed to my feet. That night, I staggered into camp. The trainer let me eat hot food, even though I was late. That was weakness on his part. Five years later, I showed him the foolishness of weakness by beating him to death with my fists.”
A little more of Kane’s blocky features came into focus. Meta shivered at the hard stare in his eyes.
“I am ice,” Kane said. “I will destroy those who hurt me.” He turned his head, staring at the hatch that led to the corridor that must lead to the shuttle’s flight compartment.
“Where are we going?” Meta asked.
Kane focused on her, and he glanced at the hand on her shoulder. Slowly, he removed the hand. “You are mine, Meta.”
She said nothing, but a plan began to form in her mind.
“This time you will stay with me.” Kane stared into her eyes. Finally, he held out a hand.
Meta forced herself to move until her fingers touched his. Kane hauled her to her feet.
“Come,” he said. “Let us see Oran Rva. He will wish to examine you, perhaps test your fitness for the mission.”
One more time, Meta glanced at the porthole. It showed Starship Victory outside. Behind it was the Earth. Both the vessel and the planet grew smaller. Where was the New Man taking the shuttle?
-36-
Maddox pushed the air-car higher into the atmosphere. The blue had begun to fade away into darkness.
Riker stared out of the bubble canopy. “Makes a man feel insignificant. Can’t say that I like this in the slightest.”
The captain hardly heard the sergeant’s words. He focused on the task. The enemy kept one or even two steps ahead of them. It seemed clear they would try for the Builder egg. The nuclear blast in Monte Carlo had been a diversion. Now would be the perfect moment to stage—what would the enemy do? It seemed to him they would try what they had in the past.
Per Lomax had led a boarding team against Victory. With Star Watch codes, how many troopers would the enemy use to try to grab the starship?
“This is going to be hard without any communication,” Riker said. “
Where is the starship in orbit exactly?”
“One thing at a time, Sergeant,” Maddox said.
Riker turned to him in wonder. “Don’t tell me you don’t know, sir.”
“Try the radio again,” Maddox suggested.
Riker stared at him another second. Then, the sergeant tried the radio. It was still dead. “That’s no good, sir.”
“Try your communicator.”
“Don’t have one on me, sir.”
“I have one,” Maddox said. He pulled it out and tried it. Nothing happened. “Hmm. That’s not good, as you say.”
“We have to go back down, sir,” Riker said.
“I don’t think so.”
“Begging your pardon—”
“Kindly shut up, Sergeant, and let me think.”
Riker nodded. “That’s it, sir. Take it out on me, why don’t you? I’m just the hapless enlisted man—”
“Sergeant,” Maddox warned.
Riker fell silent, once more staring out of the bubble canopy.
“I have an idea,” Maddox said in a bit. “It presupposes greater intelligence on Galyan’s part. I have to believe the AI is busy monitoring everything. That’s what the hyper-intelligent do.”
Riker kept quiet, fixedly staring at the now appearing stars.
“Yes, I understand, Sergeant. I’m a difficult taskmaster.” Maddox began to fiddle with the controls. He shut the engine on and off in exact sequences.
The fuel gage showed the air-car had just enough to get back to Earth if they started down now. Maddox had no intension of doing that, though. If the enemy had made his move for the egg, the doomsday machine was likely going to show up soon. The enemy must be able to track the planet-killer—if they truly possessed long-distance communicators.
“We need communication,” the captain said. “I want Keith to bring up a jumpfighter.”
Riker glanced at him. “Can I ask what you’re doing, sir?”
“It’s a simple enough expedient. I’m turning the engine on and off in Morse code sequences.”
The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) Page 31