“Planetary guns…?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff shook his head. “There are none in working order. As far as I can tell, there are only a few beam cannons that would take a week of repair before they could fire again.”
“Strand’s won then,” Maddox said.
“I’m surprised at you. Aren’t you the man who never says die? Aren’t you the one—?”
“What’s your point?” Maddox asked with irritation.
“There’s another way to defeat Strand.”
“Without planetary weapons?” asked Maddox.
“Yes, yes, certainly. Are you ready to travel?”
“What’s in the vaults?” Maddox asked. “Builder space weapons?”
“Do you think the Builders would leave something so powerful lying around?”
That seemed like a stupid question to Maddox. Why else had they come to the Junkyard Planet if not to pilfer Builder relics?
“If there’s no weapon…” Maddox said.
“What’s the use explaining?” Ludendorff turned to Meta. “I’m going down. The marines can carry me. If he’s so proud that no one can carry him, he can wait here with you.”
“No,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff stamped his foot. “You listen to me, young man—”
“Lieutenant,” Maddox said.
“Sir,” Sims said, stepping forward.
“You’re carrying me,” the captain said.
For a second, no one said anything.
“Yes, sir,” Sims said at last. “It will be a pleasure.”
Maddox wasn’t sure, but he thought he detected a note of humor in the lieutenant’s voice. He didn’t like this, but defeating Strand took precedence over his honor, as important as his honor was to him.
Closing his eyes so he wouldn’t see the indignity, Maddox felt the space marine pick him up off the floor.
“Listen closely to my instructions,” Ludendorff said from ahead. “At the rate Strand and his ships are braking, we’re not going to have much time to get this done.”
***
In the far distance behind them, the sounds of the Vendel war party reverberated against the walls. This wasn’t an illusion or an old memory, but real entities attempting to chase them down.
As the professor gave directions, Maddox noticed the Methuselah Man’s voice had become hoarse. Ludendorff coughed sickly at times as well. The toxins seemed to have gotten to him too.
After fifteen minutes of marching, they reached a bank of illuminated doors.
Sims deposited Maddox on the floor beside Ludendorff.
The Methuselah Man was slicked with sweat, and he shivered constantly.
“Are you well?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff shook his head, which made the Methuselah Man wince. “I feel sick. I haven’t been sick for a long, long time. I’d almost forgotten the sensation.”
“Are these the elevators to the deep core mine?” Meta asked.
“Eh?” Ludendorff asked her.
Meta repeated the question.
“Oh, no,” Ludendorff said. “This is merely a central node.” He pulled out his notes, scanning them in between coughing and shivering.
“We have to do something for him,” Meta told Maddox.
“I’m open to suggestions,” the captain said.
Ludendorff used a sleeve to blot his face. “The last one,” he said hoarsely. “I believe that’s the one we desire.”
“How far does the elevator go down?” Maddox asked.
“Several kilometers at least,” Ludendorff said. “I believe that will bring us to the deep vaults.”
“What kind of surprises should we expect? I recall that you said there were guardians of the deep.”
“The Raja spoke of guardians,” the professor said. “I believe he ran into resistance on his original journey, but not active guardians. He connected two events that lacked a true connection.” Ludendorff coughed before muttering, “Now, where are my tools?” He felt his pockets, finally coming up with a small case.
The professor opened the case, selected a few scalpel-like picks and went to work on a control panel. He wiped his forehead several times, wheezed, hacked and spit on the floor.
Maddox noticed the green color of the phlegm. The professor was sick. The captain didn’t feel one hundred percent either. He glanced at Keith. The ace seemed sleepy and puffy-eyed. Only Meta seemed like her normal self.
A click sounded. Ludendorff stepped back, and the elevator doors opened, revealing a room-sized elevator box.
The marines in their armor made it a tight fit, but everyone squeezed into the chamber.
“Ready?” the professor asked.
“Yes,” Maddox said.
The professor touched a control. The doors closed, and they began to go down. All at once, the elevator shook, and the box began to drop at speed.
-67-
Marines shouted in alarm as Maddox shouted for them to settle down.
“Listen,” the captain said. “If we were free-falling, we’d all be lifting off the floor. We’re not.”
“What’s going on, sir?” the scout corporal asked.
“Exactly what the professor said would happen. We’re going down several kilometers. Therefore, the elevator travels fast. I imagine some kind of gravity dampener is in place.”
“Are you saying this is how the elevator is supposed to work?” the scout asked.
Maddox glanced at the professor.
Ludendorff had been rubbing his eyes. He now raised his head. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. “Is something wrong, my boy?”
“This is how it’s supposed to go,” Maddox told the scout. To Meta, Maddox said softly, “Feel his head.”
She put a hand on Ludendorff’s forehead. The professor closed his eyes, seeming to find comfort in the contact. “It’s blazing hot,” Meta said.
“You have a fever,” Maddox told the professor.
As Meta took her hand away, Ludendorff shrugged. “I’ll be fine. I have to be fine. If I’m not fine…” He fell silent as he rubbed his eyes again.
The company quieted as the elevator plunged deeper underground.
Soon, Maddox heard a faceplate whirr. He glanced up at Sims staring down at him.
“I could give the professor a stim shot,” the lieutenant whispered.
Maddox studied the shivering Methuselah Man. Ludendorff had the answers if any of them did. They needed the professor at his peak, not like this.
“Give me the hypo,” Maddox said quietly.
“I have a spare medikit on my back,” Sims said, turning.
Maddox found it, took out a hypo and sidled near the professor.
Ludendorff stared at him with bloodshot eyes. “The toxins have finally taken hold,” the professor explained. “I suppose I don’t have your metabolism or immunities. I imagine Meta’s body is more like yours than like mine. Her immune system has begun to fight off the toxins. The pilot, though, looks horrible.”
Maddox had been listening to Keith cough hoarsely for some time and silently agreed with the professor’s assessment.
“You have a stim shot for me,” Ludendorff said, looking at the hypo. “I heard you two talking. The lieutenant is correct. The stim will take a toll on me. Yet I don’t see another solution. Do you, my boy?”
“No, Professor.”
“Give me the shot,” Ludendorff said, as he rolled up a sleeve.
Maddox pressed the hypo against the arm, listening to it hiss as it injected him.
Soon thereafter, the elevator slowed and came to a stop. The doors opened and they entered a large lit chamber with lots of seeming chrome and mirrors. Everything was shiny and clean and seemed hyper-technological.
The space marines were nervous and pointed their shredders everywhere. Maddox gripped his long-barreled pistol.
“There,” Ludendorff said in a hoarse voice. He shivered as he walked to a panel. The Methuselah Man began to tap experimentally.
�
��Is this familiar to you?” Maddox asked the professor.
Ludendorff did not answer. He tapped, paused and tapped a little more.
Maddox studied the screen Ludendorff worked. Data flashed in a blur. The professor must be speed-reading again.
With both hands on the panel, Ludendorff panted as he read. He coughed, tapped, read and straightened. With his right wrist, he wiped his runny nose. He hawked his throat and spit several times. He hunched more over the screen, but now it seemed to be more from interest than from weakness. As the Methuselah Man read, he seemed to gather strength. His cough lessened, and he even laughed once.
The stim was working, but at what cost to the professor’s future health?
“Lots of hatches around us,” Sims said to Maddox.
The captain walked around the area as Ludendorff continued to read. There was not a speck of dust anywhere. The place was sparkling. With a start, Maddox realized it reminded him of the interior Dyson sphere.
“Captain,” the professor shouted.
Maddox strode to him.
The professor’s eyes looked just as red, but he had a renewed vitality. It seemed so at odds with his appearance that Maddox was almost sorry he had given the Methuselah Man the stim shot.
“You’re going to want to see this,” Ludendorff said. “I can hardly believe it myself.”
“Do you have a way to defeat the Juggernauts?” Maddox asked.
“Come,” Ludendorff said, grabbing Maddox by a sleeve. The professor pulled the captain to one of the hatches. Ludendorff tapped a sequence on the door, and it slid up.
Lights came on in the antechamber, and computer banks and other devices began turning on.
“Come,” the professor said. “We must investigate this.”
Maddox and Meta followed the professor. On an impulse, the captain turned and told Sims to post guards here. “I don’t want anyone else in here with us.”
“Yes, sir,” Sims said.
“What’s wrong?” Meta asked a moment later.
“I’m not sure,” Maddox said. “Call it a hunch. The professor seems obsessed all of a sudden. Something has excited his curiosity more than usual.”
Ludendorff laughed ahead of them, and the sound seemed maniacal.
Meta gave Maddox a significant glance before nodding in agreement.
The two of them came up behind the professor. He spun around, staring at them with feverish eyes.
“Do you know what I’ve uncovered?” Ludendorff asked. Before either could answer, the professor began to manipulate a board.
Soon, an entire section of wall rose to reveal a vast chamber with hundreds, possibly thousands of naked people in upright glass cylinders.
Ludendorff stared at Maddox and then at Meta. “Androids,” the professor declared. “These are androids. These must be the prize for the Rull Juggernauts.”
Maddox cocked his head. “Why would the Rull want frozen androids?”
Ludendorff laughed as he rubbed his hands together. The professor seemed beside himself with glee. “Come. Let me show you something.”
The professor hurried. Maddox and Meta followed. They moved into the vast chamber, passing the still androids. The replicas looked exceedingly human. Soon, they reached a new area. These had just as many glass cylinders, but they were empty.
Ludendorff stopped and held out his hand like an entertainer showing the audience his chief exhibit.
“What does this mean?” Maddox asked. “Are these reserved for us?”
“What?” Ludendorff asked. “No, that’s exactly wrong. These are empty because the androids are gone. But that’s not the half of it, my boy. Look closely. Put your nose almost to the glass.”
Maddox stepped closer to a cylinder, wary for tricks.
“Do you see it?” the professor asked.
Maddox shook his head.
“I thought you were an Intelligence officer,” Ludendorff said.
Maddox noticed something then. With his free hand, he felt nearly invisible Braille-like bumps on the glass.
“You found it,” Ludendorff said. “Good. Do you know what those bumps signify?”
“Why don’t you tell me,” Maddox said.
“Yen Cho.”
Maddox blinked several times before turning abruptly. “Do you mean the same Yen Cho who aided us last voyage against the Chitins?”
“One and the same,” Ludendorff said.
“Yen Cho came from this glass cylinder?”
Ludendorff laughed as he ran his fingers through his hair. “No, no, no, no, no, it’s much more radical than that. I have stumbled—we have stumbled onto a great secret. I would not have known except we came here. I wonder if our Yen Cho wanted us to know this.”
“What are you talking about?” Meta asked.
“These,” Ludendorff said, indicating the empty cylinders. “These are all Yen Cho model androids. They belong to the Rising Sun faction of Builders.”
“You’d better start from the beginning,” Maddox said. “Unless you’re hallucinating because of your fever.”
“Fever, ha-ha, I have a fever of delight,” Ludendorff said. “You have no idea what I’ve been reading. We’ve stumbled onto a warehouse. That’s what this planet is. The Vendels are a cover—at least I think they’re a cover. It’s difficult to decipher that particular idea. But—no matter.”
Meta glanced at Maddox. He was intent upon Ludendorff.
“Oh,” the professor said, “I’m going to have to rewrite or rethink my ideas about the Builders. This is incredible and bewildering. I wonder if Strand knows the true nature of this place.”
“Why not tell us?” Maddox said.
“What?” Ludendorff asked. His eyes were shinier than ever. “Do you want to steal credit for this too, my boy? Wasn’t it enough that you grabbed Victory from under my nose? You used my notes, do you remember? You did what I failed to do. No, this one is mine. I will take all the credit for this glorious discovery.”
“I’m less concerned with credit than surviving the planet,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff seemed to mull that over. “Swear to me that you won’t take credit for my find,” the professor said.
“I swear to that,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff squinted at Maddox while muttering under his breath. “I’ll have to trust you, I suppose. We’ve worked together in the past. We’ve survived where others would have perished.”
“All true,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff heaved a great sigh. “The androids are a fraud, at least as explained to us in the past. Do you recall that some of the androids have claimed to have escaped Builder service?”
“Indeed,” Maddox said.
“That’s a lie. Oh, I suppose a handful might have escaped. The rest were plants, set in place as a diabolical scheme.”
“But—”
“Don’t interrupt me,” Ludendorff said peevishly. “Don’t you see that the Builders were never a monolithic group? They had factions and sects, each with their own ideas about life in the galaxy. The Builders left. We know that. But not all left at the same time. Thus, one of the worst Builder sects remained to the end, or near the end. They built and set up the androids, hoping to install a caretaker society to look after all the Builder handiwork.”
Maddox waited.
Ludendorff blotted his sweaty forehead with a sleeve. He seemed surprised that he was sweating so much and then shrugged.
“The Rull were one of the initial test groups,” Ludendorff said. “It was an ingenious disguise, but I know them now.”
“The Rull?” Meta asked.
“Yes, yes,” Ludendorff said testily. “The Rull were androids. They were never an independent species. They were never shape-shifters either. They simply built androids to slip into a culture. One of the Rull covers with this shape-shifting nonsense. As an Intelligence operative, I’m sure you realize how ingenious that was.”
“Remarkably clever,” Maddox said dryly. “So what happened to the
Rull? Why are there Rull relics everywhere?”
“Another Builder sect, don’t you see?”
“I’m afraid I don’t,” Maddox said.
“Haven’t I explained that already?”
Maddox shook his head.
“The Builder in the Dyson sphere did not approve of the Rull—the Android Nation. He—meaning the Dyson sphere Builder—manufactured a virus against them. He used a Swarm method, but turned it on the Rull. He almost wiped them out. But almost was not good enough.”
“But…” Maddox said. “If the androids on Earth knew about the Rull—”
“That’s where you’re dead wrong, my boy. Only a handful of the Earth or Commonwealth androids knew.”
“Did Yen Cho know?” Maddox asked.
“Which Yen Cho?” asked Ludendorff.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yen Cho isn’t a name for an individual android. Yen Cho is a model of android. There may have been a thousand or more Yen Cho androids scattered throughout the galaxy.”
“What do the Juggernauts have to do with this?” Meta asked.
“I can only speculate on that part,” Ludendorff said, as he blotted his forehead again. “I think a few androids know the great secret. In some ways, I think the androids have lost some of their former knowledge. Those few, however, wish to break into these vaults and release the remaining androids. I suspect they wish to rebuild the Rull Empire, revive it, if you will.”
“Does this have anything to do with the android box in the incinerator unit?” Maddox asked.
“That would be the best bet,” Ludendorff replied.
“While this is all fascinating,” the captain said. “How does this help us against the approaching Juggernauts?”
“That is an interesting question. The implications are dire for us as well.”
“How so?”
“From what I’ve read,” Ludendorff said, “the Juggernauts are AI-controlled. I believe Strand has an android passenger who knows the code to controlling the Juggernauts.”
“How would you know any of that?”
“Because Rose and I plotted together, of course,” Ludendorff said. “She’s the one who originally gave me the box you keep bringing up.”
“But you’re not in league with her or the androids?”
The Lost Planet (Lost Starship Series Book 6) Page 37
