The Lost Patrol

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Bring him onto the bridge,” Maddox said.

  The Marines did so.

  Maddox noticed Meta working on the small Spacer. “How is she?” Maddox asked.

  Meta looked up. “She’s hurt, but it appears she wore some kind of energy dampening cloth. Did she know the hidden intruder would fire an energy weapon? Is that why she did what she did.”

  Maddox stepped near Shu, kneeling by her. The small Spacer was unconscious.

  “You said you met her before, right?” Meta asked.

  “In the Lin Ru Hotel,” he said.

  “It must have been some night,” Meta said bitterly.

  Maddox looked up. “Shu tried to kill me in the Lin Ru.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Meta said. “Why did she just leap in front of the shot then? We all saw it. She deliberately did it.”

  Maddox had witnessed the action. Why would the Spacer do such a thing? “She believes I’m di-far,” he said.

  “How did she know the intruder had or was in the process of firing a shot?” Meta asked. “The man wore a stealth suit—if it’s a man. He was invisible to the rest of us.”

  That was a good question.

  “She couldn’t just have a feeling about it, could she?” Meta asked. “That’s impossible, right?”

  Maddox spun around, examining the person in the stealth suit. He stepped near and unsnapped the helmet seals. The person struggled to no avail. With a sharp tug, Maddox pulled off the helmet to reveal a golden-skinned New Man staring at him.

  “We should have figured,” Riker muttered.

  Maddox grabbed the New Man’s jaw in a vacc-suited grip. “Who are you?”

  The New Man’s stare hardened. He practically vibrated with hatred.

  That puzzled Maddox. He’d never felt this from a New Man before. As far as he knew, he’d never seen the man before, either.

  On inspiration, Maddox ran his gloved fingers across the man’s short pelt of hair. As the Marines held the New Man down on the floor, the captain knelt, examining the scalp. Yes. He saw hairline scars on the skull.

  “What are we going to do with him, sir?” Hank asked.

  Maddox straightened, glancing at Shu. She’d warned him about the danger of coming on the hauler and had taken the shot meant to kill him. She’d also worn some kind of dampener cloth. That seemed like another piece of Builder technology. The Marius III had truly turned out to be tainted. Shu had warned them. She had felt something here. Could it be that at the last moment she had sensed the New Man aiming at him. Did the feeling come from a supernatural source or did it come from something else?

  “Take the prisoner to your shuttle,” Maddox told Hank. “Then, take him to Victory.”

  Riker cleared his throat. “We’ll have to tell Star Watch about the New Man, sir.”

  Maddox nodded absently. “I want Shu in your shuttle as well,” he told Hank. “Take her and the New Man to Galyan’s special sickbay.”

  Maddox stepped away as the Marines obeyed his orders. He understood what the hairline scars indicated. Some time ago, he’d studied Admiral Fletcher’s reports about the New Man Pa Kur. Strand had operated on the New Man, leaving such scars.

  How had Shu known what she did? What did the Spacers truly believe about him? He was supposed to be di-far. He hadn’t asked to be that.

  “Sir,” Riker said, “the brigadier is calling. She’s demanding that you come down to Geneva right away.”

  “We’ll be there soon enough,” Maddox said.

  “Shouldn’t you tell the brigadier that, sir?” Riker asked.

  “No. There’s something I have to do first.”

  “What’s that?” Meta asked.

  “You can join me,” Maddox said. “I’m sure you’ll find this interesting.”

  -12-

  Having shed the vacc suit in the shuttle, Maddox stood in a special sickbay on Victory, one controlled by Galyan through his robots.

  Shu 15 presently lay in a clear tube. She might have regained consciousness by now, but at Maddox’s orders, Meta had given her an injection to keep her unconscious.

  A holoimage of the Adok Galyan appeared as a small humanoid with ropy arms and deep-set eyes. He had fine lines crisscrossing his face.

  Whatever you’re doing,” Meta said, “doesn’t seem right. You should ask Shu before engaging in any medical procedures upon her person.”

  “I have a theory,” Maddox said. “If I’m right, we can begin to understand the Spacers better.

  “I take it you’re talking about Shu’s intuition.”

  “I do not accept the kind of intuition she’s suggested.”

  “I didn’t either at first,” Meta said. “But after seeing what she did on the hauler…”

  “You’re thinking emotionally. Galyan, I want you to scan her for unusual substances.”

  “Scanning…” Galyan said.

  A white light in a tight circular band moved across the clear tube. It stopped a moment midway up Shu’s torso. Then, it resumed, slowing again by her skull.

  “I have completed the scan,” Galyan said. “The body contains two small devices, one in the lower abdominal region and another in the forward skull. It appears both run off the body’s electrical discharges.”

  “What are the devices?” Maddox asked.

  “Unknown,” Galyan said.

  “It appears Shu didn’t know those things through intuition,” Meta said in a bewildered tone. “I don’t understand. How did you know?”

  “I didn’t,” Maddox said. “I merely wondered about the various possibilities, wishing to test each in turn. Galyan, how difficult would it be to extract the devices?”

  “Not difficult at all,” Galyan said.

  “I mean with a minimum of cutting,” the captain said.

  “My analyzer suggests you really mean without any cutting at all.”

  “Would that be possible?” Maddox asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Can you fully analyze the devices without extracting them?”

  “Not with one hundred percent efficiency,” Galyan said.

  Maddox crossed his arms, frowning down at Shu. “You will analyze the devices to the best of your ability without extracting them. If you believe Shu is a danger to us while awake, you will keep her sedated until I return.”

  “I understand.”

  “Excellent,” Maddox said. “I believe it is time to examine the New Man. After we’re finished with him, you can complete your examination of Shu.”

  “Captain,” Galyan said. “I have received a message from the brigadier. She told me to tell you that she expects you in the Lord High Admiral’s office in twenty minutes.”

  “Hmmm…” Maddox said. “Tell her you are still hunting for me.”

  “She knows I am in direct contact with you and has demanded for several minutes now for me to put you through.”

  “No,” Maddox said. “First, we shall examine the New Man.”

  ***

  The golden-skinned New Man was unconscious in an upright tube similar to Shu’s. Metal straps held him in place, while restraints kept his head upright. The New Man had steely muscles and a black pelt for hair. He was several centimeters taller than the captain and seemed to be twenty years older at least.

  “Shall I scan him?” Galyan asked.

  Maddox nodded. He was alone with the AI. Meta had remained in the other chamber with Shu.

  The band of light began at the New Man’s feet and slowly worked upward until it passed his scalp.

  “I noticed the light never slowed this time,” Maddox said.

  “There is only one anomaly in the New Man,” Galyan said. “A fine mesh lies over his cortex. Several fibers reach deeper into his brain mass. Just like the equipment in the female, it is powered by bodily electrical impulses.”

  “Do you have any idea what the mesh does?”

  “My analyzer gives it a ninety-seven percent probability of being a control unit.”

  “
Is it similar to what Admiral Fletcher’s doctors found in Pa Kur?”

  “It is almost identical with a three percent difference.”

  “What would you attribute the difference to?”

  “An older variant,” Galyan answered.

  “This one is older?”

  “Correct.”

  “I suspect the Methuselah Man Strand inserted the mesh.”

  “I agree,” Galyan said.

  “Therefore, Strand ordered the New Man to kill me.”

  “That is logical.”

  Maddox tapped his chin. “When you say all three devices are powered by bodily electrical impulses, do you mean to say that all three are alike in design?”

  “Yes.”

  Maddox blinked several times. “Would you say each is Builder tech?”

  “I give that an eighty-four percent probability.”

  Once more, Maddox tapped his chin as he stared at the unconscious New Man. “Could you extract the mesh without killing the subject?”

  “Unknown.”

  “I want you to try.”

  “What if I fail?” Galyan asked.

  “Then we will be poorer in knowledge,” Maddox said. “You will begin the attempt once I leave Victory. Until you are finished with the surgery, you will accept no calls from anyone. Once you possess the mesh, you will secure it in a hidden place on the ship. Under no circumstances will you tell anyone where it is hidden, except for me.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Do not give up the New Man, either.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Once I leave Victory, instruct Riker that he is to return to the Marius III and find the hidden chamber. Have him take Meta with him. You will assist them in the search as best you can.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Any questions?” Maddox asked.

  “No, sir.”

  Maddox smiled coldly. “Then, I shall be on my way. I don’t want to keep the brigadier waiting.”

  Galyan blinked furiously.

  “That’s a joke,” Maddox explained.

  “I see. Yes. I understand. Thank you, Captain.”

  “Certainly,” Maddox said, as he strode to the hatch.

  -13-

  Maddox met Lord High Admiral Cook and Brigadier Mary O’Hara in Cook’s office in Geneva, Switzerland. The captain explained what had happened to him, including the Visionary’s statements, Shu 15’s apparent intuition, the strange tech inside her and the stealth-suited New Man he’d captured.

  “Incredible,” O’Hara said. She was a gray-haired woman with matronly features, and happened to be the chief of Star Watch Intelligence. Many referred to her as the Iron Lady.

  “You’ve been busy, Captain,” O’Hara said, “an android encounter, a Spacer meeting, and this New Man assassin. I forgive you for making me wait and drink too much coffee. This has become considerably more convoluted than I expected. I don’t know which I find more distressing: that some androids are still on the loose or that the New Men continue to send spies.”

  “I’m not sure the latter is correct in the manner you’re suggesting,” Maddox said. “The assassin had brain implants. That would imply Strand’s people, which are distinct from the regular New Men.”

  Admiral Cook folded his thick fingers together on his desk. He was a big old man with white hair, a white uniform and a craggy face.

  “The captain is correct in making a distinction between groups of New Men,” Cook said. “Wouldn’t you agree, Brigadier?”

  “I suppose…” O’Hara murmured.

  “We know the New Men have divisions among themselves just as we have among ourselves,” Cook said. “It’s one of the essential ingredients of humanity that Strand apparently wasn’t able to breed out of his mutations. But let’s set aside that subject, shall we? We have more important topics to discuss.”

  The Lord High Admiral regarded Maddox. “Before we delve into the reason for our meeting, I suspect you’d like to know the situation regarding the Spacers. We forced down the Visionary’s airship, and it is now under tight security. It was headed for space, if you can believe that. The Spacer ambassador has already protested vigorously. I told him the airship shot at a Star Watch jumpfighter, a serious offense. The ambassador brushed that aside, claiming the airship’s people thought the jumpfighter was part of the attack against you.”

  Cook cleared his throat. “If this Shu 15 carries Builder tech inside her…the implications seem dire. For decades, we’ve thought of the Spacers as innocent if peculiar traders. No one quite seems to know how the Spacers came to be, either. They’ve always been few in number compared to the Commonwealth, although we’ve never known their exact population. They’ve been pacifistic for the most part, although everyone knows they’ll tenaciously defend their ships.

  “The only time we see Spacers are during commercial transactions. Their ship societies are the most closed communities in Human Space. The Spacers could make extra credits carrying passengers from one star system to another. There is no known case of this happening.”

  The older man fiddled with a stylus. “We’ve tried to learn more about them. To that end—before the invasion of the New Men, mind you—we attempted to penetrate their ship societies on several occasions.”

  This was news to Maddox. His eyes shined with interest.

  The admiral shook his head. “Most attempts failed outright. The few times Intelligence smuggled an operative onto a Spacer vessel, Intelligence found the officer several months later, marooned on a lonely asteroid base or a wild planetoid. The operative never had any recollections of what had happened, either.”

  “This is interesting,” Maddox said, “especially the part about getting an operative aboard one of their ships. The Spacers have closed societies, as you’ve stated. A stranger of any kind would immediately stand out. How, then, did Intelligence get a man onto a—ah, I see. You must have used altered individuals,” he said to the brigadier. “That implies you kidnapped a Spacer and put an altered Intelligence operative in his place.”

  O’Hara didn’t respond.

  “You must have question the kidnapped Spacer as well,” Maddox said.

  O’Hara still said nothing.

  Her silent treatment daunted most people, but Maddox was unfazed by it.

  “Did the Spacers die under our questioning?” Maddox asked.

  There was a slight tightening to the brigadier’s facial skin, but nothing more.

  “I see,” Maddox said.

  “Don’t jump to unwarranted conclusions, Captain,” O’Hara said.

  If Maddox heard her, it didn’t show. “What I find interesting is that our Intelligence operative impersonating as a Spacer wasn’t slain in turn. That would be the correct procedure. You kill one of ours, and we’ll kill one of yours. Instead, the Spacers simply wiped out the operative’s memories of his time with them and marooned him in a place he would eventually leave. That shows considerable restraint and lends credence to the belief they don’t like to kill.”

  “This is all highly interesting to you two, I’m sure,” the Lord High Admiral said. “However, we have more important matters to discuss.” Cook paused before saying, “We decided to wait until you finished your Patrol Training, Captain. This time, we want you to have every advantage. This may be your most important mission yet.”

  “What’s happened?” Maddox asked.

  “It has taken us some time to come to the correct conclusion,” Cook said, “as the evidence was slim. Two months ago, in what appears as suicide, Simon Tarleton piloted his luxury yacht into Neptune’s upper atmosphere. That destroyed the vessel and everyone onboard. Unfortunately, one of those people was Chief Technician Lore Fallows, a Kai-Kaus.”

  Maddox had rescued the ten thousand Kai-Kaus from a Builder Dyson sphere last year. The sphere had been in a star system over a thousand light years away. These Kai-Kaus had brought their advanced Adok technology with them, including superior shielding and disruptor cannons. Star Watch
had been installing the additions onto their newest battleships, which had greatly increased Star Watch’s fleet power.

  “There was one strange aspect to the suicide. Let me show you.” The Lord High Admiral picked up a clicker, pressing a button.

  A holoimage of Neptune appeared above the desk. Cook clicked the device several more times until wavy patterns appeared against a small portion of Neptune.

  “We believe this is evidence of Strand’s cloaked star cruiser,” Cook said. “That implies Strand had a hand in the yacht’s destruction. Remember, Strand is taking an obscene personal risk doing this. The only reasonable explanation was that Strand’s people kidnapped Lore Fallows and destroyed the yacht to cover their tracks. The reason Strand wants the chief technician also seems clear. The Methuselah Man hopes to force Lore Fallows to show him how to construct advanced Adok battle technology. In other words, this must be the first step toward the New Men rearming with better weapons so they can renew their war against us.”

  Maddox stared at Cook, finally shaking his head. “There’s a fallacy in your line of reasoning, sir. Rearming with Adok disrupters and shields doesn’t necessarily indicate a desire to renew the war against us. The New Men could be rearming because they fear an attack by us or an attack by the Swarm against them.”

  “Everything we know about the New Men shows that they’re predators,” Cook said. “They thrive on their feelings of superiority. It must have galled them to retreat from the Thebes System last year, to retreat from what they considered as inferior beings. I believe they thirst to renew the conflict with us. Once armed with these Adok weapons, they won’t hesitate to stab us in the back, stealing even more women. You do remember they got away with millions of kidnapped women, don’t you?”

  Maddox’s mouth tightened briefly with resentment at that statement. It wasn’t something one could simply forget. However, he continued charging forward. “I see a problem with our attacking the New Men now. It does sound as if you’re planning to strike at the Throne World before the New Men can develop disrupter cannons. First, we would have to find the Throne World.” The captain’s eyebrows rose. “Is that my new assignment?”