The Lost Tech

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Just a minute please,” the woman said. She looked away. “I have Maddox on the line.” There were garbled words over there. The woman turned back to the screen. “Our captain is coming.”

  “Sure,” Maddox said.

  A second later, a huge man came into view. He had a big head, massive shoulders and a deep powerful chest.

  “Dagobert Dan?” asked Maddox in wonder.

  The huge man scowled. “I’m Dag the Champion. Dagobert Dan no longer exists.”

  Maddox noted a difference to the man. He no longer had a look of dull stupidity but the cunning of a clever fighter.

  “Are you Dagobert’s brother?” Maddox asked.

  “No! I’m he, only better, improved.”

  “Oh,” Maddox said. “Did Lisa Meyers modify you?”

  “Never mind about that,” Dag said with heat. “I have you targeted. I can destroy the ring anytime I want.”

  “Why would you want to?” asked Maddox. “It’s the only way out of the null region for any of us.”

  “Which is meaningless to me if I can’t leave,” Dag said.

  “Well…” Maddox said, starting to think fast. “We can make a deal. If you surrender to me—”

  “Balls!” thundered Dag. “You’re going to surrender to me.”

  “Ah… Did you happen to see the asteroid smash your planet?”

  “It wasn’t mine.”

  “Still, the asteroid went to the planet instead of Earth. Who do you think caused that?”

  “I know it was you,” Dag said.

  “You’re right, and you still have the gall to ask me to surrender. Don’t you realize that I control the situation here?”

  “Keep talking like that, and I’ll launch my antimatter missiles this second.”

  “That will condemn you to the null region,” Maddox said. “I can’t believe you want to stay here for the rest of your life. Surely, the nullity is eating at you—”

  “Shut up,” Dag snarled.

  “Look, Dag, you did well, all things considered, anyway. But your patron fled. I’m talking about Lisa Meyers. She’ll have been lucky to have escaped with her life. She won’t be coming back for you—if that’s why you’re full of bravado.”

  Dag swore at Maddox.

  “I get it. You’re angry. I would be too if my patron left me behind to die. Maybe I could pull some strings for you and your people. If you cooperate with Star Watch—”

  “Hold,” Dag said. “You’re suggesting that I turn traitor to the Queen?”

  “I’m suggesting that you save yourself and your crew from misery for however long you can last in the null region. I’m giving you an opportunity. Yes, you’ll have to tell us what you know about the…the Queen. Why should that matter? She abandoned you.”

  “I’m sworn to her service. All my people are sworn to her as well.”

  “Even after she left you high and dry?” asked Maddox.

  “You don’t know anything,” Dag shouted. “You—” He turned abruptly, obviously listening to someone. Dag turned back. “Pulling out another trick, eh, Maddox?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You tried to lull me. That’s not going to work. I’ve pinpointed your location on the ring. And guess what, I’m going to launch this antimatter missile and take you out. I win, Maddox.”

  “You lose,” Maddox said. “By doing that—”

  Meta screamed, the scream rebounding in the captain’s helmet and breaking his concentration.

  “Look!” Meta shouted. “Look at the screen. Is that the Hormagaunt?”

  Maddox looked up fast, turning to the huge screen. There was a black thing, a growing and speeding thing, and it was headed straight for the ring. Most odd of all, it towed Starship Victory behind it, having latched onto the double-oval vessel with its two tentacles. How the Hormagaunt propelled itself and Victory through the nullity, Maddox didn’t have the slightest idea.

  “I don’t know how you did this,” Dag said. “But I’m not going to take it. Launch the missile!” he shouted. “Launch it at the ring, at their location on it. Let’s watch Maddox die.”

  -73-

  The missile left the Koniggratz. The exhaust behind the antimatter missile grew as it picked up velocity, heading straight at the ring.

  “Professor!” Maddox shouted.

  “I’m working on it, my boy, but these controls are harder to operate than you can possibly imagine.”

  Maddox stared at the fast-approaching missile. Could Dag’s people have pinpointed his location through their conversation? It seemed more than possible. He’d fallen for one of the oldest tricks.

  I can’t believe this.

  BELIEVE IT.

  Maddox groaned, although the pain wasn’t as severe as earlier. Could that be because the Hormagaunt was closer to him in proximity? No, no, that didn’t matter. He had to—

  The missile is going to destroy the ring, he thought at the Hormagaunt.

  I DON’T THINK SO, AS I STILL NEED THE INERTIALESS ACCELERATOR FOR MYSELF.

  “Professor!” Maddox shouted. “Stop what you’re doing?”

  “What’s that, my boy? Don’t fire at the missile?”

  “No,” Maddox said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ludendorff said. “I can’t do it anyway.”

  “It’s for the best,” Maddox said.

  IS THIS HOW YOU WOULD KEEP YOUR WORD TO ME?

  The Koniggratz’s missile zoomed for the ring, heading, it seemed, straight at the huge main screen.

  “Oh, darling,” Meta said, as she bounded to her husband. “I love you. I dearly love you.”

  Maddox kept his eyes on the approaching missiles. “I love you too, Meta.”

  And then everything changed. There was a flash of white around the missile, and it was no longer racing at the ring, at those in the control chamber. The missile was gone, and it didn’t seem that it had exploded. It was gone, as if sent elsewhere.

  “What happened?” Ludendorff asked. “How did you do that?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Maddox said, and he felt disoriented, dizzy and his stomach heaved.

  Meta screamed—

  The scream abruptly cut off from Maddox’s helmet comm. The control chamber vanished as well. The disorientation became extreme. It felt as if a thousand ants bit his skin. The pain merged into one miserable sensation.

  Then, Maddox found himself before the Hormagaunt. There was inky blackness around them, although the alien face he’d seen before with the viciously long teeth peered at him with an obscene leer.

  Maddox realized he floated in space, with the tip of a monstrous tentacle wrapped around his photon suit. He had air tanks, so he could breathe, but—

  “How did I get here?” Maddox asked.

  I BROUGHT YOU, OF COURSE. IT WAS SIMPLE TELEPORTATION. HAVEN’T YOU MISERBLE CREATURES INVENTED IT YET?

  “Is that how you disposed of the antimatter missile?”

  I DID NOT DISPOSE OF IT, BUT TELEPORTED IT ELSEWHERE. I NEED THE RING IN ORDER TO LEAVE THE WRETCHED NULL REGION.

  “The heavy planet was the device that kept you a prisoner?”

  ELEMENTARY LOGIC, CAPTAIN MADDOX. THE HEAVY PLANET, AS YOU CALL IT, HAS BECOME INOPERATIVE CONCERNING ME. ONCE I ACTIVATE THE RING, I SHALL LEAVE.

  “And go where?” Maddox asked.

  THAT TOO IS ELEMENTARY LOGIC. I WILL APPEAR IN YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM. DO YOU KNOW, CAPTAIN, THAT AFTER ALL THIS TIME I AM VERY HUNGRY?

  “I want to talk to you about that,” Maddox said. “I helped free you.”

  “NONSENSE, I GAVE YOU THE DIRECTIVE OF REVERSING THE POLARITY. THAT SAVED YOUR PLANET EARTH. I HELD UP MY BARGAIN AND MORE. AT THE SAME TIME, I DESTROYED THE HATEFUL HEAVY METAL WORLD AND ITS FIELD. NOW, I AM ABOUT TO LEAVE THE NULL REGION.

  “Are you freeing my starship?”

  CERTAINLY, AS THAT WAS PART OF MY BARGAIN. YOUR CREW WILL BE UNHARMED. I CANNOT SAY THE SAME FOR YOUR EARTH, OR THE HUMANS SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYST
EM. I AM READY TO FEAST.

  “Why do I get the feeling that you’re saying these things to torment me?”

  AH…NOW WE COME TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. I KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HOPED TO ACHIEVE AGAINST ME. YOU HAVE TRIED TO HIDE THE THOUGHTS FROM ME: BUT I EASILY READ THEM IN YOUR OBSCENELY PRIMITIVE MIND.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking—”

  LYING TO ME IS FUTILE, CAPTAIN. YOU WOULD HAVE FREED ME—KEEPING YOUR WORD—AND THEN SENT ME DIRECTLY INTO YOUR GRAND FLEET. THEY WOULD HAVE FIRED THEIR ANTIMATTER MISSILES AND USED HEAVY DISRUPTOR CANNONS TO KILL ME.

  “You want to kill us, so that makes us even.”

  I NEED FOOD, FOOD. YET, I AGREE THAT YOU WOULD HAVE KEPT THE LETTER OF YOUR AGREEMENT, ALTHOUGH THE SPIRIT OF IT WAS ANOTHER THING.

  “Okay. I admit it. I was trying to trick you in order to save the human race. Kill me instead. Devour me, but please leave humanity alone.”

  There was alien chuckling in Maddox’s mind. NO. IT WILL NOT BE SO EASY, CAPTAIN MADDOX. I FIND…MYSELF TROUBLED BY ALL THIS. I FEEL I OWE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO METHUSELAH WOMAN LISA MEYERS. HER PLAN TO ELIMINATE HUMANITY BROUGHT HER AND HER PEOPLE TO THE NULL REGION. THAT SET IN MOTION THE EVENTS THAT HAVE LED TO MY IMPENDING RELEASE. YET, WITHOUT YOU, I WOULD NOT HAVE GAINED RELEASE EITHER, AT LEAST, NOT SO SOON.

  “That’s right,” Maddox said. “I helped you and thus—”

  SILENCE, MADDOX, DON’T TRY ANY OF YOUR VERBAL TRICKS ON ME. I WILL NOT FALL FOR THEM. I AM THE HORMAGAUNT. I AM THE MASTER HERE, AND I LONG TO REENTER THE UNIVERSE. HOWEVER, I AM WARY. I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND THE ONE.

  Who’s that?”

  DID I NOT SAY TO KEEP SILENT?

  “Yes, I’m sorry.”

  NO, YOU ARE NOT. YOU ARE SCHEMING AS HARD AS YOU CAN. BUT IT WILL NOT HELP YOU. I HAVE DECIDED TO TOSS A COIN, AS IT WERE. I WILL LET CHANCE DECIDE YOUR FATE. LISA MEYERS HAS A CHAMPION, ONE NAMED DAG. YOU WILL BE HUMANITY’S CHAMPION. THE TWO OF YOU WILL FIGHT. IF YOU KILL DAG, I WILL LEAVE THIS PART OF THE GALAXY AND HEAD TO THE CENTER, TO FEAST ELSEWHERE. IF DAG KILLS YOU, I WILL DEVOUER THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PLANETS, AND MORE, ERRADICATING HUMANITY FOR LISA MEYERS.

  “You call that a coin toss?”

  I CALL THAT SYMMETRY AND A WORKING OF FATE THAT MIGHT STAVE OFF ANY FUTURE WRATH FROM THE ONE—IF I SHOULD STUMBLE UPON HIM DURING MY TRAVELS. I DOUBT YOU WILL WIN, THOUGH. DAG IS A GREATER FIGHTER THAN YOU ARE. BUT, TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE, I WILL GIVE EACH OF YOU A KNIFE. I DO NOT WISH YOU GOOD LUCK, MADDOX. I AM HUNGRY AND WISH TO BEGIN DEVOURING HUMANITY. I MERELY GIVE YOU THIS CHANCE BECAUSE…MAYBE YOU AND YOUR ILK DESERVE IT. I DON’T KNOW.

  “Where will we fight?”

  Before the Hormagaunt answered, Maddox vanished once more…

  -74-

  Maddox staggered as he appeared in a domed chamber. The Hormagaunt had fantastic powers, but he couldn’t use them flawlessly, it would seem. The captain had teleported a centimeter or so above—

  Maddox toed the floor. It was smooth like tile. He looked around, frowning. There were blocks randomly spread around the large chamber. Some of the blocks were stacked on top of each other. A man could climb a lone block and jump up to a higher stack of them. He could also weave between the blocks and block towers, as they formed a sort of maze on the floor.

  Maddox examined the dome. It was clear. He could see the great silver ring out there, and there, as a speck, must be the Koniggratz. Would the others be able to watch the spectacle? He had no idea.

  Maddox finally noticed that he hardly wore a thing. He had a pair of gym shorts and held a seven-inch blade, a combat knife. Otherwise, he was naked: no shoes, no pants, vest, nothing. That was too bad, as Maddox had already planned to take off a jacket and wrap it around his left hand as a sort of shield.

  He examined the knife. It was razor-sharp and looked as if it had been forged from tempered steel. The knife had a solid hilt that might block a knife-slash.

  Maddox looked around. He did not see Dag. According to Dag, he’d once been Dagobert Dan. That one, while berserk, had been unbeatable on Tortuga.

  Yet, I have to kill him.

  Maddox inhaled. The air was rich and breathable. Had the Hormagaunt made this place? Could it cause things to pop into existence? Could the Grand Fleet destroy it?

  There was a noise, a thud. Was that Dagobert Dan—Dag—landing in the battle chamber? Would the Hormagaunt have given Dag a speech and something to fight for?

  “Maddox,” a man shouted. “Where are you hiding?”

  At the mention of his name, Maddox took a knife-fighter’s crouch. What were the rules? The captain shook his head. He doubted there were any. If Dag wanted to yell out his whereabouts, that was up to the big man.

  Maddox moved softly like a jungle cat, heading for a block. The top came almost to Maddox’s shoulder. The thing was metal and heavy, unmovable. He put the blade between his teeth—there was only one sharp side—and climbed up the block as quietly as possible. From there, he listened. There was a scrape of flesh against tile that sounded as if it came from the other side of the block maze.

  Maddox studied the stacked blocks, and he leapt, reaching an upper edge and scrambling up.

  “I heard that,” Dag shouted. “You trying something tricky, Maddox? It won’t help you. I’m going to stick you in the end. I’m going to win everything for my Queen.”

  “You idiot,” Maddox shouted. “If you win, the Hormagaunt kills all humanity. Is that what you want? It will devour you in the end.”

  A moment later, Dag appeared from between two block towers. The Merovingian did not look up, but peered ahead intently. The man was huge, a head taller than Maddox. He had powerful muscles piled upon muscles. When he moved, he did so like a dancer with silky grace. He would be incredibly dangerous, perhaps unbeatable under these present conditions.

  Maddox did not move, lest the slightest motion give him away.

  Dag stood utterly still, listening. Then, the Merovingian giant crept forward, searching and moving the knife from side to side. Dag opened his mouth and closed it. He stiffened and looked up at Maddox on the block tower.

  The captain reacted at once, jumping for a higher block tower, reaching the edge and scrambling up it. That put him well out of Dag’s long reach.

  Dag backed up into a more open area. “Captain Maddox,” he said. “Are you afraid of me?”

  Maddox squatted low, eying the huge monster of a man, who also wore gyms shorts and nothing else. Normally, he would have no qualms against facing anyone—well, anyone but for a New Man. Yet, Maddox knew that he was faster than before because of the Erill spiritual energy he’d absorbed. Still, Dag had to weigh almost twice as much as he did.

  “Did you talk to the Hormagaunt?” Maddox asked.

  “What do you care? You’re going to die.”

  “I want to know if I can trust it.”

  Dag put a finger against one of his nostrils and blew snot out of the other. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “I’m stuck in the null if the Hormagaunt won’t let us out. You weren’t going to let us out.”

  “I was, as my prisoners.”

  Dag laughed, and he waved his knife. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to gut Sergeant Riker. He was a lying traitor. But you can die in his stead. I’m going to slit open your stomach and pull out your intestines. Hell, I might loop them around your throat and choke you to death with them. How do you like that?”

  “Whiskey costs money,” Maddox answered.

  Dag frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “Talk is cheap.”

  “You’re right about that,” Dag said. “Come on down, unless you’re afraid to face me.”

  “That’s funny. I was thinking the opposite. Come up here and die, if you have the balls to try.”

  “No thanks. I’ll wait.”

  “Then it’s true. You aren’t an idiot. How did Meyers make you smarter?”

  “I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work. I’m going to wait u
ntil you come down. Then, I’m going to cut you to ribbons.”

  Maddox nodded a moment later. Dag was smarter than before. Maddox believed he was more surefooted than the big man. Basic physics likely mandated as much. If he could get Dag to climb…that would be the moment to launch an assault.

  Dag backed away and sat down cross-legged, putting his knife on the floor beside him. The Merovingian crossed his long, huge arms, watching Maddox. “Never figured you for a coward. Too bad you faced me on Tortuga. You might have more balls otherwise.”

  Maddox studied Dag, looking for a flaw. He knew Dag was fast, as fast as a New Man. He couldn’t spot any flaws. Maybe he would have to climb down and fight the best he could, hoping to steal a victory in whatever way possible.

  “Do you like the Queen?” Maddox asked.

  Dag just glared for an answer.

  “She’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

  “Screw you, Maddox. I can wait all day. While I’m in here, I’m out of the nullity.”

  “Your crew isn’t, though.”

  “No. They aren’t. But when I come back with your head, when we win everything because I’ve gutted you…they’ll forgive me for the delay.”

  “Okay, Dag. We’ll do this your way. I’ll come down if you back up more and sit down again.”

  “In order to giving you the opportunity to climb off your blocks?”

  Maddox nodded.

  “Sure. Let’s get this over with.” Dag climbed to his feet, eyed Maddox perched up on the block tower, and backed away, keeping Maddox in view the entire time. Finally, Dag sat against a wall, a part of the domed curvature of the place.

  Maddox exhaled. He didn’t like this. He stood and jumped to a lower block tower. He swayed, but caught his balance. He’d taken his eyes off Dag for a moment, but was glad to see the big man still sitting on his butt, with his arms folded across his massive chest.

  “Would have been funny if you slipped and fell,” Dag said.

  Maddox did not respond, but slid his butt to the edge, sticking out his long legs. He slid off the double block tower and landed with a thud.

  Now, Dag climbed to his feet. Forty meters separated them.