“Is he even alive anymore?” Valerie whispered.
The ace shook his head, shivering. That wasn’t his concern now. He had to destroy the Builder drone.
“Here goes,” Keith said, stabbing the control.
The purple neutron beam lanced from the starship, only to be halted by the drone’s shield. The same old contest began as the silver missile-shaped object continued to ray the disintegrating asteroid base.
“You can’t let the drone explode,” Valerie said.
Keith didn’t say a word. He already knew that. The professor might have survived the other nova-blasts. He wouldn’t survive another.
Soon, the starship’s antimatter cyclers howled, pumping the disruptor cannon with energy. Keith kept glancing at his board, waiting for the firing control to turn green.
“There’s an energy spike over there,” Valerie warned. “I think it’s getting ready to self-destruct.”
The ace’s teeth ground together, making an ugly noise. Then, the control turned green. The drone was still in his targeting array. Keith pressed the control. With a loud sound, the disruptor ray fired its globule of force.
The neutron beam had considerably weakened the drone’s shield. Maybe the alien AI over there knew that.
“It’s self destructing,” Valerie whispered.
Then an interesting sequence of events began. The neutron beam poured destructive force against the drone shield, turning it critical. The shield went down at the first touch of the disruptor glob. At the same moment, the drone ignited in a thermonuclear explosion. The disruptor energy “devoured” some of that annihilating force, weakening what should have been a killing explosion.
Valerie watched her instruments with absorbing interest. She had never seen or even read about something like this. The two forces partly cancelled each other out, like tons of dynamite used to quell a forest fire.
The remaining atomic energies billowed outward in a subdued blast. The collapsium armor shielded the crew from most of it.
Ludendorff’s asteroid didn’t fare as well. The rest of the planetoid broke apart, although the pieces didn’t all fly away. Instead, the asteroid became its own mini-field, the many pieces large and small drifting together in a churning circular mass.
As the disruptor cannon powered down, Keith sat back in his seat and swiveled around. “What do you think? Is the crazy professor still alive out there?”
Valerie sat hunched over her panel, her gaze glued to the instruments. Without looking up, she said, “That’s what I’m attempting to discover.”
***
Once more, Maddox found himself in the shuttle, creeping toward the smashed asteroid. This time, Keith piloted the craft. Meta remained aboard Victory with Riker watching the prisoner. Dana sat beside the captain, studying her panel as she searched for signs of life in the space debris.
From the starship, Galyan also tracked the rocks and radioactive dust. So far, no one had found any signs of life.
Ludendorff’s archeological partners were locked in their quarters aboard the starship. This time, the AI wouldn’t release them unless Maddox gave the order.
“I’m slowing down,” Keith said. Like Maddox and Dana, the ace wore a vacc-suit with helmet. It was a precaution against the heavy radiation outside.
The captain watched Keith work, amazed. He couldn’t believe the destruction out here. Why had the drones concentrated on the asteroid base? It didn’t make sense. They had certainly destroyed the asteroid.
Driblets of noise tapped against the hull outside, pebbles striking the shuttle as the ace tried to maneuver through the space junk.
“Ludendorff must be dead,” Keith said.
Maddox caught the ace’s eye and shook his head. Keith raised his eyebrows. Maddox twisted his head toward Dana.
The doctor sat hunched over her board with an intense look of concern on her features.
Keith gave the captain another questioning glance.
Maddox tried to give the pilot a look that said, “I’ll tell you later.”
That seemed to work. The ace resumed piloting without further comment.
“How long do you think we have?” Maddox asked Dana.
“Excuse me?” the doctor said in a lifeless voice.
“Will more drones come?”
“Why ask me?” Dana said. “I have no earthly idea.”
“It’s probably smart to go off what we’ve seen so far,” Keith said. “The drones must have a central computer headquarters somewhere in the asteroid belt. Valerie told me the star system is the Bermuda Triangle of space. Until now, though, no one has seen these drones.”
“The New Men must have seen them,” Maddox said. “Likely, they captured one and learned how to construct the device that shoots the red beam.”
“Let me rephrase,” Keith said. “No one on our side has seen these drones and lived to tell about it. I’d sure like to know how the New Men got hold of their first drone.”
“Yes,” Maddox agreed. “It might explain many things.”
“Captain,” Galyan said over the comm.
“Maddox here.”
“I have discovered an anomaly in the debris,” Galyan said. “Would you like its coordinates?”
“Please,” Maddox said.
“I am downloading them into the shuttle’s computers,” Galyan said.
Dana worked her board. She read the information to Keith. The pilot moved deeper into the mess, easing them past large spinning boulders. He braked, went “up,” braked again, slid sideways and put on a burst of speed to get past a thousand-ton chunk as it sped at them.
Dana stared out of the blast window. “We’ll never make it out of here.”
“Don’t worry, love,” Keith said. “If I can get us in, I can get us out again.”
“What if the Builders left a bomb in the debris?” Dana asked.
“What if your legs fall off?” Keith asked.
The doctor’s head turned sharply. “What is that supposed to imply?”
“Quit worrying about everything,” Keith said.
Dana pursed her lips before resuming her vigil out the blast windows.
Twenty minutes later, Keith brought the shuttle to a slow stop. They were in the middle of the smashed mass of the asteroid. Everywhere Maddox looked sections of asteroid, boulders, rocks and gravelly debris circled the craft. He would never have thought to fly the shuttle through the spinning, moving junk. His estimation of Keith’s skills climbed another notch.
“There,” Dana said in a stark voice. “I see the professor. He’s…he’s in a cocoon.”
Maddox stood, moving to the windows. Keith adjusted the shuttle’s lights. The beams moved across rocks, gravel and then centered on a silky-colored object shaped like a man.
“What’s the cocoon’s composition?” the captain asked.
Dana studied her panel. “A synthetic fabric,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Where did he get it?” Maddox asked.
Dana turned her haunted eyes on him. “I have no idea, Captain. Why do you think I should know?”
Maddox raised an eyebrow.
“Because I studied with him many years,” she said in a softer voice. “This is incredible. I find I’m worried about him. Do you think that’s strange, Captain?”
“Not at all,” Maddox said. “I think it’s perfectly normal.”
Dana shook her head. “I should hate the professor, despise him and wish him ill.”
“Why?” Maddox asked. “It seems to me he did much to help you.”
“He trapped me, is what he did. He tried to bind me to him.”
“What I want to know,” Keith said, “is who’s going to go outside to get him?”
“I will,” Maddox said. “I’m the captain. He’s part of my crew.”
“Could be dangerous,” Keith said.
“Could be,” Maddox agreed. He headed for the hatch, wondering what the professor had found in the Builder asteroid
base.
***
Maddox settled into the thruster pack. He was outside the shuttle in a vacc-suit. It felt lonely out here and alien. Only a few stars shined through the mass of rocks and debris. He couldn’t see anything metallic that would indicate this had been a Builder drone base.
Clicking the last buckle shut, the captain turned on the thruster. He gripped a throttle control and squeezed particles of hydrogen spray from the nozzle. Gently, he moved forward out from under the shuttle.
“Nice and easy, Captain,” Keith said in his headphones.
Drifting slowing, making sure to keep his velocity low, Maddox approached the drifting cocoon. It looked considerably larger than a man, with something bulky sitting on its stomach. Had Ludendorff found his treasure? Was the professor alive? If so, why didn’t the shuttle’s sensors pick anything up? If Ludendorff was dead, who had cocooned him?
There were too many questions. Maddox wondered about another possibility. Every spacefarer feared an inside job, bringing something alien aboard a ship that would burst out aggressively and attack the crew.
“Better slow down,” Keith said in Maddox’s earphones.
With a start, Maddox realized his mind had drifted. That was foolish out here. Rotating his body, using a mirror to guide him, Maddox squeezed his throttle control. More white hydrogen mist sprayed from his nozzles, slowing his momentum.
Soon, the captain eased beside the cocooned body. He ran a hand across the surface. It was slick. Maddox brought out an adhesive pad and line, attaching it to the synthetic fabric. The pad lifted the moment Maddox took his hand away. He tried it again and got the same result.
“Trouble?” Keith radioed.
“The adhesive pad isn’t sticking to the cocoon,” Maddox radioed.
“You might have to push him in then,” Keith said.
“Or tie the line around his body,” Dana interjected.
“I think I’m going to do both just to be safe,” Maddox said.
The captain began the process. He pushed the cocooned body, causing it to drift toward the waiting shuttle. But for every action there was a reaction. The push caused Maddox to go the other way. He adjusted with the throttle-control, using hydrogen mist to stop him and go forward again. By slow degrees, the two traveled closer and closer to the shuttle.
“Maybe you want to speed the process, sir,” Keith radioed.
Maddox frowned. The ace had sounded too carefree just now, maybe even with a forced heartiness.
“Is there a problem?” the captain radioed.
“Oh, no, nothing at all, sir,” Keith said.
Maddox wasn’t fooled. There was a problem, but clearly, the others didn’t want to upset his concentration. Therefore, he decided not to worry about it.
Bit by bit, he brought the cocooned professor to the shuttle. Finally, Maddox used the thruster-pack to work onto Ludendorff’s other side. He slowed them to a halt, finding Dana outside the underbelly hatch.
She leaped to help, her tether playing out behind her as she floated closer.
His helmet lamp played over hers, showing nothing but a silver sheen. Together, they raised the cocoon, sliding the unconscious professor through the hatch and into the shuttle.
Soon, the two of them stood in the air-cycler with the cocoon. Oxygen hissed through. Then, cleansing agents sprayed over them, hot air and a final billowing mist. The hatch opened into the main shuttle. Maddox staggered through. He’d hooked the thruster-pack onto its rack already.
With a click, the captain twisted off his helmet, turning to Dana as she stepped through.
“What is it?” Maddox asked. “What’s the problem?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Dana said, as she removed her helmet. Her eyes were wide and staring. “The…” She squeezed her eyelids shut before opening them and saying slowly, “The New Men are in the Xerxes System with us.”
“What? How?”
Dana shook her head.
Maddox scowled. “How doesn’t matter at the moment, does it? They’re here. How many star cruisers?”
“Valerie’s counted four so far. She said they’re appearing near the Nexus.”
“Appearing? What does that mean? There isn’t a Laumer-Point by the Nexus.”
“I don’t know, Captain. Maybe they have a new star drive as we do with Victory. This is horrible.” The doctor stared at Ludendorff. “We have to get out of here. Can you help me move the professor?”
“Have the New Men spotted us?”
“Two star cruisers are heading here.”
Maddox’s eyes narrowed.
“Please, Captain, help me with the professor. I have to see if he’s still alive.”
-18-
Dana wanted to weep. She couldn’t believe this. She hadn’t cried for what seemed like ages now. How could the arrogant Ludendorff bring this out in her? Why had the man gone into the asteroid? What was so damned valuable to risk his life like this?
The captain moved his end of the body effortlessly. The man was impossibly strong. Dana huffed and puffed, straining as they set the cocooned body onto the shuttle’s medical cot.
Keith piloted them through the space debris, trying to get to Victory before the shuttle was in firing range of the star cruisers.
Can’t we get some luck for once, Dana wondered. Why is it one thing right after another? This really is a cursed star system.
Maddox stepped back, drawing his gun, standing like a murderous statue waiting to kill.
“What are you doing?” Dana asked.
“Getting ready,” the captain said in a determined voice.
“You’re going to shoot him?”
“What’s on his chest?” the captain asked. “Is it deadly to us?”
Fear surged through Dana. She couldn’t lose the professor again. Turning against him in the Adok System all those years ago had been the hardest thing she had ever done. His reaction against her had left her embittered. She knew that now. If she had to make the decision over again, she would stay with the professor and accept whatever fate had in store for her.
Ludendorff didn’t seem devilish now. He was unlike anyone she knew. Even Maddox with his hybrid nature failed to rise to Ludendorff’s level.
Is this love? Do I need this impossible man?
“I wish you wouldn’t wait there like grim Death,” Dana told Maddox.
“Get on with it, Doctor.”
Dana knew the captain was right to be worried and take precautions. The man was simply doing his job. Still, it was difficult to accept.
But that didn’t matter now, did it? Dana opened a drawer and took out a laser scalpel. Her hands shook as she brought up the instrument. If Ludendorff was dead—
I’m a doctor. It’s time to be professional. I can cry for Ludendorff later.
The trembling left her hands. Her features hardened. With sure deftness, Dana clicked on the laser and began to cut the silky substance. She had been afraid the synthetic fabric would reflect the laser. It didn’t. That was one for their side.
The doctor slit open the substance, revealing a corpse-colored head and neck. The tiny laser light vanished from the tip of the scalpel. Dana froze, staring at an un-breathing Ludendorff.
“Is he alive?” the captain asked.
That tore Dana out of her shock. “Look at him. He’s dead.”
“Are you sure?” Maddox asked. “Maybe the professor realized what was happening earlier. I wonder if he took Hibernation-7. He has the rubbery look to his skin.”
Dana’s eyelids fluttered and hope surged in her heart. Hibernation-7 was a drastic drug used by Star Watch in space emergencies. If injected into a person before the heart stopped, it retarded cell death for three days. After that time, the metabolism would return to normal and the deterioration of the body would begin.
Dana pulled out a med-scanner, checking the professor’s life signs. Yes! The captain was right. Ludendorff had taken Hibernation-7. She gasped, smiling, relieved at the news.<
br />
She picked up the laser scalpel and continued to slice open the cocoon. It revealed a silver oblong object on the professor’s stomach. The sides of the thing were smooth. Using the end of the scalpel, she clicked it against the item.
“Metallic,” Maddox noted.
“With no visible means of opening,” Dana said.
“Do you think it’s a container?”
“Don’t you?” she asked.
“I have no idea.”
“Help me take it off him.”
The captain hesitated to give up his watch. Finally, though, he holstered the gun and helped her lift the object off Ludendorff.
It proved heavy, and it almost slipped out of her gasp. Together, the two of them set it to the side.
Dana went back to the death-colored professor and removed the rest of the strange material from him. It was like opening a body bag.
“I’ll begin the revival procedure,” she said.
“No,” Maddox said.
Dana looked up with anger in her eyes.
“He hijacked my starship,” Maddox said. “He endangered the entire crew.”
“The New Men are out there, Captain. He’ll know what to do better than anyone else.”
“For all I know, Ludendorff may help the New Men against us,” Maddox said. “The professor may have summoned them with his ancient comm-device. Or maybe the professor will attempt to regain control of Galyan. No. I’ve had quite enough of Ludendorff’s machinations for some time.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m not suggesting a thing,” Maddox said. “I’m making a decision. We will leave the professor in hibernation for the moment. Once aboard Victory, I’ll put him in deep-freeze. I’ll hand him over to Star Watch Intelligence once we get to Earth. The brigadier will know what to do with him.”
“We need his knowledge now.”
Maddox eyed her, with a cool smile hovering on his lips. “We’ll strap him in,” the captain said. “Then, we’ll both see how Keith is doing.”
“I’m going to stay here, if you don’t mind.”
“I most certainly do mind,” the captain said. “You’re coming with me to see Keith.”
The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) Page 16
