Supreme Ship Lord So-Ko-Liss blinked at me in his lizard fashion. The idea didn’t seem to trouble him. I wondered what had had him up in arms a few seconds ago.
“Afterward, she’ll reprogram you,” I added.
That made him agitated, shifting on the chair.
“Hmm,” I said, stroking my chin. “We’ll give you a totally new personality, a cheerful, helpful one. How does that sound?”
“N-n-no,” he stuttered.
“Then it’s time you talked, got honest with us. Who gave you your commission?”
“Do you know Shah Claath?” the Saurian asked.
I glanced at Ella as my heart rate sped up. That little bastard was behind this?
“This is important, Creed,” she said in a soft, dangerous voice.
Nodding, I took hold of myself. I took a deep breath, held it for a long moment, and slowly let it out. I did that a second time for good measure. I hadn’t realized how much the name Claath made me boil. Why had he wanted to wipe out humanity at this late date? It was time to find out.
“I’ve heard of Claath,” I said in a conversational tone. “Is he well?”
The lizard blinked at me again, maybe realizing he’d made a mistake.
“Did Claath order you to destroy the Earth?” I asked.
“I am on a sacred mission,” the Saurian said. “I am now foresworn. It is wrong of you to question me as you do. Allow me the dignity to die in battle.”
I stepped closer to him, and I could smell his dry lizard odor.
He slid back as if to get away from me, which I found strange for a creature who had just asked to die in battle. I think he saw his death in the wrath blazing in my eyes. The old boy struck me as a hypocrite. This Saurian wanted to die…just not right now, please.
Maybe he didn’t want to die as I ripped limb from torso. He wanted a quick clean death, one I most certainly would not give him.
“Creed,” Ella warned.
I nodded again without turning to her. “Dignity,” I said slowly. “That’s an interesting word. Don’t you agree, Supreme Ship Lord?”
“I have sworn an oath,” he said.
“I bet you have. I bet it was a grand occasion, eh? Thousands, maybe millions, of Saurians saw the honor Claath gave you. It must have felt nice.”
“I am the oldest.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. “That’s totally cool. If I’d known that…”
“Now you know,” he said.
“Yes. I do. Would you like a drink of water?”
“I would. My throat is very dry. I need some moisture for my skin as well. In my quarters you will find a cream—”
He stopped talking because I lunged at him with a knife, stopping a centimeter from his wobbly throat skin.
“If you’re thirsty, how about I cut you? You can suck your own blood. Would you like that, old guy?”
He sat straighter, more stiffly, and I thought I saw reproach in his eyes. “You are mocking me.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“I am the oldest,” he said. “I commanded the Death Ship. Shah Claath commissioned me. I have been given a great honor. You worked for the Corporation once. You should—”
I slapped him across the face. That shut him up pronto.
“Guess what, old son. I’m unimpressed by your age. You just tried to exterminate the human race. That makes me angry. That makes me very angry. Do you know what I do to aliens that make me angry?”
He shook his head.
“I figure out what they hate the most,” I said. “Then, I do that to them. Before I do anything to you, though, I’m going to change the basic set of your personality. I’m beginning to really dislike the one you have.”
“No…” he moaned. “That is evil. I am the oldest. I hold the old knowledge. I am the Saurian of Saurians. I had the greatest, noblest task of all.”
“Destroying the Earth?”
“Yes,” he said, “wiping out the nest of race killers. We know. I know. You are the bred ones. You are the terrible slayers. Abaddon has shown Shah Claath. If the galaxy is to know peace, humanity must die.”
“Abaddon hates the Jelk,” I told So-Ko-Liss.”
“The Dark One hates humans even more,” the Saurian said.
“Are you telling me the Jelk and Kargs have made an alliance?”
“It is so,” the Saurian said.
That was big. It was stunning. The two evil races had made a pact. They had started by trying to wipe out humanity. Why was that so important to them?
“This is the beginning attack?” I asked, wondering about my hypotheses.
“You would die first, as is fitting,” the Saurian said.
I shook my head. “You blew your shot, old son. You appeared too far away from Earth. You should have teleported closer.”
The Saurian hung his head. “I know, I know. My navigator miscalculated. It was a great sin. I shot him the instant I realized we had appeared in the Sol System off course. I should have shot myself then as well.” He looked up. “Will you spare me a pistol?”
“Oh, of course,” I said. “I’ll give it to you after we’re finished here.”
“Thank you,” he said, having no idea of my sarcasm. “Could we finish quickly then, please? My shame is becoming more than I can bear.”
“Creed,” Ella whispered.
I cast an irritated glance over my shoulder at her. We’d both taken off our helmets, but we still wore our bio-suits. Hers was glistening black like mine. It gave her a decidedly martial but still sexy appearance.
I stepped to her as she lowered her voice.
“There’s more going on here,” she whispered. “Do you mind if I ask him a few questions?”
“Go ahead,” I said.
Ella stepped up, nodding to him.
So-Ko-Liss regarded her uneasily.
“Abaddon hates us because we stopped him before,” Ella said. “Surely, you and Shah Claath realize Abaddon is only attacking us out of self-interest.”
The Saurian cocked his head as if trying to figure out what she was saying.
“Humans are the greatest fighters,” she said. “Kargs are antilife soldiers. For life to win here, everyone needs us.”
The Saurian glanced at me impatiently, as if I would hurry this up for him.
“Why would Claath help Abaddon against the Jelk?” Ella asked.
“You are wrong,” the Saurian said. “Claath and the Jelk are in alliance with Abaddon.”
“When did this happen?” Ella asked.
“I do not know the exact time and date.”
“The Kargs and Jelk were at war as little as a year ago.”
“That is true.”
“Now they are at peace?”
“That is self-evident given the alliance.”
“Surely, there are greater targets than Earth,” Ella said.
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Why wouldn’t the greatest Saurian lead the attack against the greatest object? Why would you be relegated to a lesser task?”
“The destruction of Earth was considered critical,” he said proudly. “I was given a noble task, a great task. Alas, I failed. My honor is gone. Please,” So-Ko-Liss said to me. “Give me a pistol so I can cleanse this offense with my blood.”
“What other places were targeted?” Ella asked.
“I was not privy to the planning meetings,” the Saurian said. “I do not know.”
“Then how could you know there were greater targets than Earth?” Ella asked.
The old lizard stared at her for a heartbeat, finally saying, “Rumors leaked through.”
“Give me an indication of some of the other targets,” Ella said.
“The Lokhar homeworld,” he said.
“And?”
“The Sirius System.”
“Any others that you heard about?” she asked.
“Only the Proxy System in the Centaur Nebula,” he said softly.
Ella nodded, stil
l staring at him. “Tell me, Supreme Ship Lord, would you really have crashed your vessel against the Earth?”
“Of course not,” he said. “My ship was too valuable for that.”
“What?” I said. “But you aimed for the Earth.”
“That was a deception,” he said. “The rocks would have been enough. Besides, I have a bio-terminator aboard. I would have unleashed it on the planet in passing.”
Hearing that, I wanted to crush his skull with my bare hands.
“Did you have another target in the Solar System?” Ella asked.
That made me listen more closely. I hadn’t thought of that.
So-Ko-Liss swayed. “You are tricking me.” He gave me a sad-eyed scrutiny. “You do not plan to give me a pistol, do you?”
“Not right away,” I said.
He made a keening sound, hugging himself. It was kind of pathetic.
“What other target could he have?” I asked Ella.
She stared at the ancient Saurian. “I don’t know for sure,” she said, “but I’m beginning to have an idea.”
“How about cluing me in,” I said.
“Every star system he named is home to a Forerunner artifact,” she said. “I don’t know about you, Creed, but I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
-10-
A week later, I approached Ceres in the Asteroid Belt. I had no intention of landing on the busy asteroid. I was heading for Holgotha, the Forerunner artifact.
N7 had dashed home, which was good for us and me. The android had been inside the artifact before. The blond-haired, choir-boy-looking android sat beside me in the speedster. He had begun as my enemy, a DI in the Jelk Corporation. N7 had been good at what he did, always winning himself upgrades. When I’d made my break for freedom with a T-missile against Claath, N7 had decided to throw in his lot in with ours. He’d won even more upgrades since then, and was the brightest among us.
Ella stayed with the moon-ship presently parked in a far Mars orbit. She and teams of scientists were crawling everywhere as they studied the incredible vessel. Others fixed what we and the T-missiles had destroyed capturing the ship.
Supreme Ship Lord So-Ko-Liss was dead. It hadn’t been by our design. I’d wanted to know more. So, I’d given Ella permission to put him under the Jelk machine. A mini-bomb went off inside him the first time she tried. Whoever had put the bomb there hadn’t wanted anyone prying secrets from him.
N7 had informed us of another moon-ship attack in the Beltran System. The transfer ship had feinted at the main planet, raining rocks onto the surface. Afterward, it had struck at the Forerunner object. The enemy vessel might have destroyed the ancient machine, but the artifact had transferred as moon rocks sailed toward it. Where it had transferred to, no one yet knew.
“The pattern is interesting, don’t you agree?” N7 asked me.
“Sure,” I said.
N7 glanced at me. “You have a right to be nervous. Holgotha is still processing his subroutines.”
N7 referred to something we’d learned several years ago. The Forerunner artifacts had certain First One programs. One of the most critical was to find evidence of the Creator. I’d asked Holgotha if he and the others had been trying to set up a universal apocalypse by bringing Abaddon and his Kargs into our galaxy, thinking an ongoing apocalypse might cause the Creator to show up. Holgotha had become curious at this, wondering if that could be true. He’d told me he would internally investigate his subroutines. When I’d asked him how long that would take, the artifact had told me, “Twenty to twenty-five years.”
That meant Holgotha was still analyzing his subroutines. His past reactions had shown us he didn’t like being disrupted during that time.
“Still,” N7 said, “I might point out that every time you’ve gone to see him, the artifact has been incredibly patient with you. That, too, is interesting. I wonder if I have failed to detect a pattern there.”
I was nervous, all right. The last time I’d been inside the artifact, I’d fought the Purple Tamika Emperor. The fight had been more touch and go than I cared to remember. The end had been ugly, too, with me stomping the emperor’s face with my boot… That had been the ugliest fight of my life. I didn’t care to rehash it now.
Theoretically, Holgotha was under my care first and humanity’s second. Long ago, the Starkiens had gained their evil reputation because the curious baboons had tried to take apart the artifact in their care. They’d inadvertently destroyed the object. The other Forerunner objects had known right away about that, and they’d known who the culprit was too. The artifacts told on the Starkiens. From that point forward, the rest of the Jade League members had treated the Starkiens as outcasts.
Now, that was interesting and ominous on several fronts. Firstly, clearly, the artifacts had a way to communicate with each other across hundreds and possibly thousands of light years. They could and did talk among themselves. No one else knew how to do something like that. We had to travel through jump gates by starship to send faster-than-light messages to one another. Secondly, the artifacts had gone so far as to make trouble for an artifact-destroying race such as the Starkiens. Thirdly, the reason why the Starkiens had destroyed an artifact didn’t matter. The destruction was the only thing that counted, not whether it had been an accident or not.
Three years ago, Holgotha had agreed to help the Star Vikings. He’d warned me, though. If he was destroyed while helping us, the other Forerunner objects would instantly become our enemies.
Like all the aliens I’d met so far, the ancient machines had a very high opinion concerning themselves. Had the First Ones programmed them like that, or had the machines gotten high and mighty over time?
Our speedster was getting close to Holgotha. I’d already answered the first picket. Other guard satellites ringed the asteroid-sized object.
On a parenthetical note, Baba Gobo had sent a ship into the Solar System at my request for help against the moon-ship. The Starkien captain had beamed a question to Earth. The reply caused the Starkien ship to turn around and go back to Alpha Centauri. I’d altered the jump gate’s log, erasing the fact of the broken treaty. Soon, I’d have to go to Alpha Centauri and personally thank Baba Gobo for risking everything for us.
It was at that point a light bulb popped into brightness in my mind. I turned to N7.
“I just thought of something. Maybe you’ve already thought of it, but let me run it by you just the same.”
The android nodded.
“Somehow, Abaddon or the Jelk have gotten hold of several moon-sized ships.”
“That seems obvious,” N7 said.
“Let me finish. They have several of these incredible transfer ships. So far, only Forerunner artifacts have the ability to pop hundreds of light years in a sudden teleportation jump. Instead of massing these special moon-ships and hitting one system after another—that’s what I would have done with them.”
“You are not Abaddon,” N7 said.
I gave him a shrewd glance. “Do we know this was Abaddon’s plan?”
“No, but I would suggest it is.”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Before we get to that, here’s my point. They sent these transfer ships at star systems holding artifacts. In one at least, the moon-ship feinted at the home planet and then attacked the artifact, causing the artifact to leave for parts unknown.”
“Correct,” N7 said.
“It’s a good bet that’s what would have happened in the Solar System—after they rained rocks on our planet.”
“That seems logical.”
“Therefore, our enemy, Abaddon or the Jelk Corporation—”
“Or both,” N7 added.
“Whoever our enemy is, they want to strip us of Forerunner objects,” I said.
“That is my guess as well.”
“Why does our enemy desire this?”
“I have no idea. Do you?”
I faced forward, searching for a visual sign of the artifact. “I don’t know yet,” I said.
“But I know what I’m going to do to find the answer.”
***
The Forerunner artifact in our system was as large as an asteroid, as I’ve been saying. It had a donut shape. In the middle of the donut hole was a black hole. I’d always thought the black hole was critical to the transfer ability. So far, we hadn’t found any black hole on the moon-ship, nor had we found anything that simulated the actions of a black hole.
One thing the black hole on Holgotha did was make it difficult to walk on the inner ring of the artifact because it poured radiation there. The reason that was bad was because boxlike, squat houses in a small area were situated on the inner ring. No one had any idea who used to live in those homes. They were incredibly old, much older than So-Ko-Liss had been.
N7 and I knew the drill. We’d done it several times already in the past. I donned my bio-suit. N7 wore combat armor. Letting the speedster float several kilometers from Holgotha, I opened a hatch. Jumping out, I activated a small thruster, holding onto handlebars.
N7 had his own thruster. We flew to the artifact, gently landing a little later. Magnetizing the thrusters to the metal hull, we did the same to our boots. Then, we began to clank our way across the artifact.
The walk took time. Eventually, radiation began to strike our armor. I’d taken the healing bath after the moon strike. Even so, the radiation leaking onto me gave my mouth a metallic taste. I’d never gotten used to that.
In time, we reached the unimpressive box buildings. I went to my favorite. This was usually a long process of banging on the metal and trying to convince Holgotha to let us in. This time it was different. I went to knock, and my hand sank into the substance.
I turned to N7 and motioned him to follow me. Afterward, I waded through the substance. It was creepy, but this was the only way to reach Holgotha’s comm center. Finally, I oozed out of the wall into a speaking chamber.
“You may remove your helmet,” Holgotha said.
He spoke with a wall membrane. It vibrated like a larynx in a throat. The process gave the artifact a deep voice, and it was damn eerie. The light was diffused in here, but I could see easily enough.
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