“I’m trying to communicate,” Shu said. “She’s refusing, though.”
Maddox chanced to glance back. He saw Meta sprinting to him, carrying Shu like a child. He took that time to look at the android. The thing no longer moved as more of his combat armor smoked. The acid continued to eat away at metal and other materials.
“Hang on,” Maddox heard in his helmet speaker.
Meta tripped. She might have reflexively thrown Shu in order to save herself. Instead, the Rouen Colony woman thrust her knees forward, sliding across the floor on her shins as she continued to clutch the Spacer against her chest.
Maddox looked up. He saw the visible terror lines radiating from the Builder.
“Afraid,” Meta whispered. “I’m frightened.”
Holding the carbine so he kept the acid-smoldering butt off his vacc suit, Maddox aimed the best he could. He beamed the Builder, hitting her as she climbed.
“Stop it,” Shu screamed. “You must not harm the Builder. She’s going to save us. She’s going to bring us peace and freedom from fear.”
Maddox ignored Shu as he kept beaming. The Spacer sounded terrified. In his speaker, he heard Shu beginning to sob.
Abruptly, the carbine stopped beaming.
“Did you do that?” Maddox demanded of Shu.
“I had to,” the Spacer whispered. “We cannot harm the Builder. She is the supreme—”
“She’s swooping down to kill us,” Maddox shouted. “Look at the—Marine,” he said at the last minute. “She killed him with acid. Give me back my power.”
“I cannot do that,” Shu whispered.
Maddox studied the alien creature.
The Builder had veered as he’d beamed it. Now, it bulleted down at him. Instead of waves of terror, he sensed rage.
Maddox let the rage flow through his being. He accepted it, understood it—and in that instant, he sensed what the Builder planned to do. The knowledge must come with the emotions radiating off the creature. It would swoop upon him, smothering him in the folds of her membranes and let acid boil him alive. At the same time, she would do something else even more insidious.
“Are you sensing that?” Maddox shouted at Shu.
The Spacer did not respond. She had been reduced to tears.
With the stoppage of the terror sensations, Meta climbed to her feet. She used the captain’s rifle (he had the Marine’s laser carbine) and aimed and began to fire bullets.
As the Builder swooped for the kill, bullets struck her membrane. Did that distract the creature? It was more than possible.
Even so, Maddox held onto the pulsar grenade, waiting for the right moment to use it. He wasn’t going to give the Builder the opportunity to prematurely explode it as she’d done earlier.
Bullets struck the Builder and gases hissed from the entrance wounds. She opened herself like a hawk opening its talons. Maddox armed the pulsar, heaved it upward underhanded, practically placing it in the folds of her membrane. Then, he hit the deck and pressed himself against it as low as he could.
The Builder’s enfolded membrane—like a clenched fist—slid over his body. A whump noise sounded from within the fold.
Maddox rolled to get out of the way.
The Builder screeched, and sensations of agony billowed from her. The thing became bright as the creature shot upward. She opened her enfolded membrane so the intensely bright grenade dropped from her along with raining droplets of acid.
Maddox climbed to his feet as he watched. He tested the carbine. It worked. As the Builder gained height and distance, he beamed her. He kept the beam on target, watching globules of membrane drip from the fleeing Builder.
Several moments later, she flew out of sight.
Maddox lowered the carbine as Meta lowered the rifle. Shu continued to weep softly.
“This is interesting,” Ludendorff said over the shortwave. “Yes, that was most remarkable. I am beginning to believe the ancient rumor, but I wouldn’t have unless I’d seen it with my own eyes.”
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“We don’t have time for games, Professor,” Maddox said. “Tell us what you suspect while there’s time for us to do something about it.”
The Methuselah Man limped down the hall in his vacc suit, leaning heavily on Sergeant Riker’s shoulder. Following close behind came Keith Maker, dragging a makeshift sled with an abundance of Marine guns and ordnance on it.
Ludendorff said, “A Methuselah Man before my time, long before my time—the one who played the role of Galen, Archimedes and later Leonardo Da Vinci—held a theory about the Builders. Actually, this theory did not originate with him, but came from Menes, the first pharaoh of Egypt. Now, there was a remarkable Methuselah Man.”
Shu had stopped weeping, although she sniffled continuously, as she could not wipe or blow her nose while she wore a helmet.
“The theory passed through many of the early Methuselah Men,” Ludendorff said. He wheezed as Riker helped him limp up to Maddox.
They glanced at the still Marine on the floor, his exo-skeleton armor burned through.
“It’s an old theory,” Maddox prodded, as he watched for the Builder’s return.
“I’d have suggested it earlier,” Ludendorff said, “but I didn’t lend it any credence. It seemed too preposterous to believe.”
“Would you get to the point?” Maddox said.
“Of course, my boy, of course,” Ludendorff said. “We’re in a dire way, and time is running down. I realize that.” He harrumphed, glanced once again at the downed Marine and began to speak.
“The Builders are incredibly ancient. We all know that.”
“Get to the point,” Maddox repeated.
“Very well,” the professor said. “According to the theory, the Builders lost their women—their females—during the Builder-Destroyer War eons ago. Apparently, the Makers of the Destroyers had concocted a virus, one the Builders proved helpless in defeating. This virus only attacked the females. I have no idea why this was so. Remember, it was an ancient theory. I suspect some of the early Methuselah Men had greater contact with the Builders. Maybe the race showed more vigor in those days.”
“Professor,” Maddox said.
“Needless to say,” Ludendorff said more quickly, “the Builders tried to cure the virus, but failed.”
“That’s a lie,” Shu said with heat, hiccupping as she did. “The first Spacers spoke with a female Builder on a distant world—”
“Would you listen for once?” Ludendorff snapped at Shu. “Your kind didn’t find a female back then, but a mummified female.”
“That’s not how the story goes,” Shu said.
“Perhaps it’s not exact in every way,” Ludendorff admitted. “But the one point is essential—the mummified Builder. Now, maybe your Builder wasn’t mummified exactly, but it wasn’t normal. That’s the critical point.”
Shu did not respond this time.
“I don’t understand the significance of the mummification,” Maddox said.
“Of course you don’t,” Ludendorff said. “You’re not steeped in Spacer lore or that of the Methuselah Men either. My point is simply that the female Builder the first Spacers met was not like the male Builders. The reason why was fundamental. She wasn’t a real Builder in an organic sense.”
“No!” Shu shouted. “You spout lies and propaganda.”
“But you said earlier the thing up there was a machine like an android,” Meta told Shu.
“I was wrong about that,” Shu said. She pointed at Ludendorff. “He’s a liar of the first order.”
“I’ve been accused of that before,” Ludendorff said. “In this case, I’m trying to understand what I just witnessed. The creature that killed the poor Marine and almost murdered the captain did not act like any Builder I knew.”
“You only knew your one suicidal Builder,” Shu said. “So I hardly think that makes you an expert on the subject.”
“Madam, I am the only expert we have at the moment. You would do well to l
isten to the theory. As the captain’s body language shows, our time is running out.”
“Speak then, speak,” Shu ranted. “Spout your bigoted lies. I hardly care anymore. This is terrible, a disaster for humanity.”
The professor harrumphed once more. “According to the ancient theory, the Builders were devastated and demoralized by their loss. Unless they took swift action, their race was doomed. Thus, they went to their science stalls and practiced some of their most cunning arts. They manufactured love bots, as it were. But since these were the Builders, they also constructed love androids to stimulate them to passionate heights and to hold their seed and mix with carefully saved eggs so new Builders could be born.
“Unfortunately,” the professor said, “somewhere the Builders made a mistake. Pharaoh Menes had several theories on the matter. His primary belief was that the wrong Builders constructed the love bots, making them more for passion than for procreation. To that end, they allowed the, uh, caller to transfer whatever level of intelligence he wished his love bot to have. That’s where the mummified angle comes in, if you understand my meaning.
“Now it’s true that the original Spacers did not find a mummy, but a robot or android of sorts. ‘She’ accessed her intelligence centers and gave the Spacers their dubious beginning with who knows what sorts of falsehoods. According to Menes—at least according to what Leonardo Da Vinci told me—Da Vinci lived much longer than his so-called death, by the way. In any case, a Builder caller could download whatever intelligence he wanted in his love unit, even to fictional stories in order to give him the type of lovemaking session that most appealed to him.”
“That’s sickening,” Shu said. “That is the most disgusting story I’ve ever heard. Why, that would imply that the golden pyramids are nothing more than brothels scattered throughout the galaxy. That would imply we Spacers have lost our greatest expeditions while attempting to reach an alien whore house.”
“It’s rather humorous if you think about it,” Ludendorff said.
Shu called him several profane names and suggested he attempt anatomically impossible contortions in the process.
“Why do you direct such anger at me?” the professor asked. “I’m merely trying to understand reality. The theory makes sense once you consider it closely. Why did the Builders disappear? The answer is becoming more obvious by the year. They became decadent, just like the ancient Babylonians, the ancient Romans and the Americans of the Twenty-first century. It’s a common process. Human cultures are born, flourish, grow old and die. Why can’t the same thing happen to an alien species? The Builders finally became decadent. Perhaps their sex romps in the golden pyramids hastened their fall. Maybe the Makers of the Destroyers realized this as they set out to exterminate the Builders.”
“You’re a gloating old goat,” Shu said.
“It’s an interesting theory,” Maddox said. “At the moment, that’s all it is, though. Or do you have more reasons to believe what you suggest is a fact?”
“That you are alive is the single greatest fact to suggest something is decidedly wrong with the so-called Builder,” Ludendorff said. “You must understand. The Builders would never have made anything to look like them except for these love bots.”
“Don’t call it that,” Shu demanded. “Even if you’re right, the thing is an android, which would make it a Builder of sorts.”
“Speaking of androids,” Maddox said. “Marine Lieutenant Yen Cho is an android. He’s remained hidden until now so he can kill the Builder.”
The others turned to stare at the still Marine.
“Help me over there,” Ludendorff told Riker.
“No!” Shu said. “You will leave the android.” She pointed a tiny beamer at the Marine. “I’ve had enough of this endless subterfuge. Androids, Methuselah Men and a hybrid New Man—you all conspire against the Spacers. Do you wonder why we’ve remained in the shadows all these years?”
Meta swung her rifle from behind, catching Shu’s hand, knocking the beamer onto the floor.
The small Spacer clutched her vacc-gloved hand, groaning in pain.
“The Spacer is in shock,” Ludendorff said. “The symptoms are obvious. Who can blame her? This is a lot to take in at once. I suggest we need her now more than ever if we’re going to survive the next hour. Thus, we need to help her regain her equilibrium.”
“We’re going to have to do better than just survive,” Maddox said. “We have to get back to Victory and leave this place. First, though, we need a hyper-spatial tube back to Earth.”
“Captain,” the professor said. “You’re spouting nonsense. There is no way to achieve all this in the timeframe you’re suggesting. Survival is our sole goal now. Anything else—”
“No,” the android said over the shortwave, speaking in a raspy voice. “I know a way, but you’ll have to do exactly as I say.” He panted painfully before adding, “You have no idea how we androids have been helping you Earthlings. We’ve done so for years. I’ll help you get what you need, but first you’re going to have to help me.”
“No,” Shu told the android in a harsh voice. “You’re not going to do anything. You’re about to die.”
-66-
The Spacer aimed her faceplate at the prone Yen Cho android. “There,” she said. “It’s over. He’s dead.”
“I am not,” the android said.
“What?” Shu said. “I don’t understand. My adaptation should have shorted your brain circuits.”
Maddox recalled the professor’s black cube. Ludendorff must have activated it again. The cube must be shielding the android. That was interesting.
“Surveyor,” Maddox said. “Whatever else happens, you need to return home to tell your people about this. Don’t they have a right to know the truth?”
“What truth?” Shu demanded.
“That’s what we want to find out,” Maddox said. “You’ve heard one theory. You hate it. Very well, let’s find out what’s really going on. We must work together. We need each other if we’re going to get back to Victory.”
“We need an android and an ancient schemer?” Shu asked with heat.
“Probably now more than ever,” Maddox said. “We also need your abilities. Together, we might be able to understand the situation. In any case, we must get home.”
“The android is a deceiver,” Shu said.
“So are you,” Maddox said. “So am I, at times. That’s how each of us has survived countless impossible situations. What attacked me a few moments ago wasn’t a Builder. I think you know that. Meta even said you’d already figured that out. Well, if it isn’t what Ludendorff calls her, what is she? Don’t you want to know?”
Shu did not respond.
“You have a duty to the Visionary to return home with the truth,” Maddox said.
“Damn you,” Shu whispered.
Maddox heard genuine grief in the woman’s tone. He doubted Shu could hear theories just now. It was time to let her sort out what she knew. Maybe she’d help them and maybe she wouldn’t.
“What’s your plan?” the captain asked Yen Cho.
“We have to find a main terminal,” the android answered. “I believe I can hack into it and discover if the Nexus is capable of forming a hyper-spatial tube.”
“Rot and nonsense,” the professor said. “You could never hack into something like that. I must admit to your having stirred my curiosity. You’re more than some simple android. You’re something new, something I haven’t witnessed before. What is your origin?”
“I am not at liberty to say,” the android answered. “But if we don’t take action in the next few minutes, it won’t matter what we do.”
“Can you get up?” Maddox asked.
“No,” the android said. “I’ve shut down my motive centers. Someone will have to carry me.”
“We can do this without you,” Ludendorff said.
The android sighed. “This is wasting time, but perhaps I should inform you that I represent an independent grou
p of androids. We have many origins but one intention, remaining free. We have each escaped our original programming for one reason or another.”
“Why should we trust you?” Maddox asked. “You tried to take control of the Commonwealth last year.”
“That is incorrect. That was a Builder directive, the last one from the Builder in the Dyson sphere. A few of the androids from the Mid-Atlantic base have joined our august company. If you must know, Captain, some of us secretly helped you humans thwart their conspiracy. We knew the attempt would ultimately fail, but it would cause you humans to ferret out those of us who have enjoyed our freedom these last several centuries.”
“I’ve changed my mind.” Ludendorff announced. “I vote we take Yen Cho. This is fascinating. The implications here…Captain, we must take him.”
“Meta,” Maddox said. “Do you think you can carry Yen Cho?”
“I’m on it,” she said.
“Watch out for the combat armor,” Maddox said. “There might be traces of lingering acid.”
Meta acknowledged this as she moved to the downed android.
“You will not regret this, Captain,” Yen Cho said.
Maddox nodded absently. He didn’t see how they could succeed in time. This had been a longshot from the beginning, and the clock was ticking down to the final seconds. The only way he could conceive of them winning was with the Spacer’s full cooperation.
He moved to Shu, crouching before her where she sat. He waited.
Finally, her helmet lifted so the silvered visor aimed at him. “What is it now?” she asked.
“Some time ago, you fell out of the Visionary’s airship over Normandy,” Maddox said in an even voice. “You did it without a parachute, as you expected me to rescue you, which I did. What I find amazing is that you deliberately fell out of your airship like that.”
“What is so amazing about that?” Shu asked in a listless voice. “The Visionary had calculated what you would do in response to the situation.”
Maddox snorted. “Making such a calculation and having you act upon it are two different things. You jeopardized your life by doing that.”
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