“I’ll find out soon enough,” Maddox said.
-2-
Maddox sat in the command chair on the bridge. The regulars were all in place: Valerie, Andros Crank, Riker and Keith Maker at helm. Ludendorff was missing, but he wasn’t a regular. It had just seemed that way because he’d been on so many voyages.
“This is a long-range scan,” Valerie said.
Maddox studied the main screen. He couldn’t see much. The Tau Ceti System had more dust particles than most. Many of those particles had shifted around due to all the nuclear and antimatter explosions several years ago.
“Highlight the vessel, Galyan,” Maddox said.
A distant image appeared in a dust cloud half a system away. It had the shape of a rectangular box, a hauler presumably, a cargo-carrying merchant ship.
“It’s heading for a Laumer Point,” Maddox noted.
“The route will eventually lead to Earth,” Valerie said.
“Why can’t Stokes have someone intercept the hauler there?” asked Maddox.
No one gave an opinion, as that seemed rather obvious now.
Maddox drummed his right-hand fingers on his armrest. “We’ll use the star-drive jump and appear in the dust cloud. Let’s do it far enough away from them so they won’t notice even if they’re looking for something like that.”
“I suggest we appear behind the nearest planet relative to them,” Valerie said.
Maddox nodded. He was still mulling over what Valerie had told him a few minutes ago. It was a Class 3 hauler, registered on Earth as belonging to the Sulla Corporation, Ghent Division, Earl Set. The hauler’s name was the Lolis II. According to Valerie’s data, that meant it was a black ops Star Watch vessel working on an undercover Intelligence assignment.
Why would Stokes send them against such a ship? Was the Lolis II’s captain working against Star Watch? Clearly, someone in Intelligence was doing something Brigadier Stokes, the chief of Intelligence, didn’t like. It actually made more sense now why Victory was out here. Stokes hadn’t told them much, so he wouldn’t be on record. It would appear the brigadier was counting on Maddox to solve a troublesome puzzle for him. Or, Stokes was keeping his hands clean.
“Jump once you’re ready,” Maddox told Keith.
“I can jump now, if you want,” the small Scotsman said.
“No,” Maddox said. “Give it a minute.”
Maddox nodded after the minute passed. Victory jumped across half the system to appear in a thick particle cloud of dust behind a gas giant.
The bridge personnel began to stir, shaking off the effects of Jump Lag.
“Should I launch a probe, sir?” Valerie asked.
“Not yet,” Maddox said, who had been thinking all this time.
“But sir, the Lolis II will spot Victory the minute we come around the planet,” Valerie said.
Maddox turned his chair to stare at Valerie.
She gave him a tremulous smile. She still had her long brunette hair, an athletic figure and—there was something else. She had more confidence than in the past. Maybe sending her out on a mission where she was in charge over six months ago had been good for her. Maddox didn’t want to quash her new initiative, but he didn’t want her arguing with him all the time either.
He nodded to her to relieve the tension.
Valerie’s smile grew as she nodded back, turning to her station.
Maddox faced the main screen. The swirling gas giant took up most of it. “Galyan, I have an idea. I’ll send a shuttle around the gas giant and have you relay from it. You can use your distance holo-imaging and look around inside the Lolis II. See if you can spot something that would make Stokes nervous.”
“That sounds splendid, sir. Thank you.”
“This isn’t an outing,” Maddox said. “I want you to do this without anyone spotting you.”
Galyan bobbed his small alien head up and down.
“Lieutenant,” Maddox told Valerie. “Why don’t you take out the shuttle? We’ll string a few probes from you to us to help Galyan with the relaying.”
Valerie spun around, raising her eyebrows. Then she lurched to her feet. “Yes, sir,” she said.
“Should I pilot her shuttle?” Keith asked from helm.
“No,” Maddox said. Valerie and Keith had had another spat. He wanted her mind in the game. He knew Keith’s wouldn’t be.
“But sir,” Keith said.
Maddox shot him a hard look.
Keith got the message, hanging his head, facing forward again.
Valerie had waited. Now, she headed for the exit.
“This is a black ops Intelligence vessel,” Maddox told Galyan. “It’s conceivable they have equipment to deal with a snoop like you.”
“I do not think so,” Galyan said.
Maddox repressed a grin. He didn’t think so, either. But it was good for an operative, even a holographic one, to be ready for the worst.
“Do you need to prepare?”
“I am ready,” Galyan said. “I do not really need a relay.” He cocked his head. “Did you send Valerie because—?”
“Galyan,” Maddox said.
“Sir?”
“Don’t question or analyze my orders.”
“Oh. No. I will not, sir. I am sorry.”
“And don’t apologize, either.”
“I will not, sir. I am…I am ready when you are.”
Maddox nodded. This should be no big deal, almost routine. But Stokes was cagey, and the set-up was all wrong. Intelligence should not work against Intelligence. If the brigadier was using Victory because the black ops ship out there was among the best… Maybe there was more going on here than he realized.
Well, if nothing else, this was good practice for Valerie and Galyan. Maddox himself would have liked to pilot the shuttle. But maybe it was past time that he gave Valerie more opportunities to practice independent command.
The captain squinted. What was the Lolis II trying to smuggle to Earth?
-3-
Galyan was a deified Adok AI. He had much of the personality of Driving Force Galyan, the last Adok space commander who had died six thousand years ago to Swarm invaders. Before passing on, his engrams had been infused into the ship’s artificial intelligence.
He deeply missed his wife. He had also learned to love his new family: Maddox and the others. They would die someday, and that made him sad. As he would continue to exist for…well, he did not know for how long.
Galyan had also deemed it wise to no longer dwell upon sad topics. He existed. He reasoned. Thus, he believed—and so, it appeared, did others—that he was alive. Life was an amazing gift, even as a computer intelligence. Thus, one should live, and living meant doing.
An Adok AI could do much in a shorter amount of time than most. Thus, Galyan craved new assignments and practically ached to get going already on the long-range mission. In that sense, and in odd ways, Galyan had emotions. It was not like human, biologically based emotions. But it was something more than cold, analytical logic.
“Galyan,” he heard the captain say from the bridge.
“Yes, sir.”
“Everything is in order. Check on Valerie, and then make your jump to the Lolis II.”
“At once, sir,” Galyan said.
He was, in many ways, the banks of computer equipment deep inside a secure area in Victory. The highly advanced computers were linked to a unique holographic imager. The imager projected him, and sometimes, the imager pumped various types of energy through him so he could affect the world around him physically.
The imager used a relay inside the shuttle Valerie had flown around the gas giant. He appeared as an Adok holoimage beside the beautiful lieutenant.
“Hello, Valerie.”
She shot up in her shuttle seat and whirled around. “Don’t do that, Galyan.”
“You are upset. Oh. I understand. I frightened you by just appearing. I am supposed to give you warning.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Is it worse because you are all alone in the shuttle?”
“Yes,” Valerie said sternly.
“You do not like being alone?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did Keith tell you to say that?”
“No. It is an honest—oh. Did you two have another spat?”
Valerie’s eyes narrowed even more. “Did Keith say that?”
“No, the captain did.”
Valerie blushed and turned away.
“I would apologize, but the captain told me not to.”
She whirled around on him again. “The captain told you not to apologize to me?”
Galyan shook his head. “I believe it was a general rule, a principle.”
“That’s because the captain hates apologizing to anyone. Normal people do that, you know?”
“Yes. That is why I try to apologize. I am different enough as it is.”
Valerie smiled and laughed. “I wish I could hug you, Galyan.”
“I would like that very much. It makes me sad to think I cannot receive hugs.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to make you sad. I wish…well, never mind. Are you ready to make the scan?”
“This is not a scan,” Galyan said. “I beam my holographic presence there. I look around and listen. I can even detect odors.”
“Isn’t that like scanning?”
“This is not a scan. I go myself to see what is going on.”
“Oh,” Valerie said. “Oh,” she said again, her eyebrows arching, nodding afterward. “Happy hunting, then.”
“Thank you, Valerie. I appreciate that. I can stay with you a little longer if you are tired of being alone.”
“I’m a Star Watch officer. This is what I do.” Valerie checked one of her panels. “Maybe you should start now.”
Galyan’s eyelids flickered until he found the right verbiage. “Here goes nothing.” With that, he vanished.
He reappeared inside the Lolis II one million, four hundred and sixty-nine kilometers away from the shuttle.
Galyan looked around. He was in a corridor. He had automatically dimmed the strength of his holo-imaging. If he became invisible, his optic senses would not operate. Thus, he could only dim to ghost level, as the captain referred to it.
Galyan floated through corridors, searching for something incriminating. He went through bulkheads and locked hatches. He moved through the engine area and entered a coolant tank, coming out to spy two men playing cards.
Galyan stopped and used zoom vision. The men were in a control room, but each was bored, presumably. There was something odd about them. Each was thickly muscled and had luxuriously thick hair. They had heavy faces—Bosks. These two were Bosks. That surely meant they were from Jarnevon, the Bosk homeworld. Star Watch had sent a fleet to Jarnevon approximately two years ago. At that time, Ludendorff kidnapped the Iron Lady and gave her to the Draegars. The Bosk mind specialists had done a number on the professor, as well.
Did the Lolis II have anything to do with Bosks, Draegars or Jarnevon?
This called for further investigation. But Galyan would not question these two. They struck him as underlings, unimportant to the higher functions.
He sank into the deck, going down. He went through food processors, a gym, what must have been a bordello given the sexual activity in progress, and then entered a cargo hold.
Galyan halted because he’d reached a unique electromagnetic shield. Logically, the shield existed to keep people out. Thus, he should penetrate the shield because what lay behind it might be what he had come to find. If he could analyze the shield type—he could. If he could adjust the frequency of his holo-imaging—he could.
Galyan floated through the shield, a bulkhead and another until he reached a strange configuration of long, low equipment. He had never seen equipment like this. The outer substance was formed of bone or some sort of unique exoskeleton—
Alien words with an interrogative tone sounded in the chamber. Galyan cocked his head, but he did not understand the language. The alien words sounded again, more demanding this time.
“Try English,” Galyan suggested.
It took a second. “Who are you?” asked the long, low, slightly vibrating machine.
“More to the point,” Galyan replied, “who are you, and what are you doing inside a black ops, Star Watch Intelligence vessel?”
Strange motes of light flashed across a membrane screen in the odd machine. A port opened and light shined from it, the light moving from the top of Galyan to the bottom. Where the light touched him, the holoimage wavered.
“You are…holographic,” the machine said. “You have lines or cracks in your…Adok, Adok features. That would imply you are Galyan, the ancient AI entity.”
“Who are you?”
A second orifice dilated open in the low bone machine and a bony nozzle slid out, aiming at Galyan. A flash of exotic power poured against the holoimage.
“Stop,” Galyan said.
The machine did not stop, with the exotic power increasing, blanketing the holoimage and melding with it.
“Stop,” Galyan said in an ultra-slow voice.
The melding seemed to imbue the holoimage with dark swirling force, abruptly causing the image to shrink to a tiny point and then flash with an electronic sizzle. A dark wispy curl of smoke was all that remained of Galyan except for a faint electric odor.
***
One million, four hundred kilometers away, as the shuttle waited in stable orbit at the gas giant, Valerie monitored the holo-imaging relay. She blinked, because the screen showed a huge energy spike. She reached for her board.
“Valerie!”
She whirled around, as that sounded like a frightened Galyan. Instead of seeing him, she saw black smoke pouring from the relay housing. Then something inside it exploded.
Valerie screamed in surprising, ducking a second before the explosion sent pieces flying everywhere.
Fortunately, she was unhurt.
As she rushed to the burst housing and saw the destroyed relay inside—what did that mean for Galyan and why had she heard him yell in fright?
-4-
The reports flooded to Maddox on the bridge. Galyan was not responding. Valerie had called in. The shuttle relay had exploded.
“Andros,” Maddox said. “Check on the main AI system downstairs.”
“What about the safeguards against AI tampering?” Andros asked with a frown. He was a Kai-Kaus Chief Technician, a short, stout, longhaired fellow: a genius compared to anyone else concerning tech problems—except maybe for Ludendorff.
Maddox crooked a finger at Andros. The stout man rose, hurrying to him. Maddox leaned forward and gripped one of the fleshy arms, whispering a special code.
“That will allow you access,” Maddox added.
“I’ll undoubtedly need help with this.”
“Take whoever you need. But get me a diagnostic, and fast,” Maddox said, shoving the chief technician toward the bridge exit.
“Yes, sir,” Andros said, staggering, turning and hurrying away.
Maddox swiveled his command chair. “Tell Valerie we’re retrieving the shuttle as we come around the planet.”
The lean comm officer who had taken her place at the station began relaying the message.
Maddox turned back to the main screen. What had happened to Galyan? What could have happened in the Lolis II to affect an AI holographic imager relay? At first blush, it would seem the enemy had reversed a process Galyan’s equipment had used in order to send destructive energy through the holoimage.
Maddox clicked an armrest control and prepped a Space Marine boarding party. He told Lieutenant Dain to wait by the attack shuttles in Hangar Bay 2.
Then Maddox studied the image on the screen. The Lolis II was a black ops Intelligence vessel. The supposed hauler might have special clearance, might have secret orders or maybe even a highly ranked Star Watch officer aboard. Yet…the vessel was smuggling contraband, at least according to Brigadier Stokes, and Stokes shou
ld know.
Assuming Stokes was telling the truth.
Maddox stood as the starship gained velocity, with Keith piloting. The captain put his hands behind his back. He needed to know what had happened to Galyan.
“Helm,” Maddox said. “Slow us down. Let the shuttle come to us on our side of the planet.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Keith said, manipulating his board.
Maybe just charging out there was the wrong way. Let the captain of the Lolis II sweat it out. If this were a smuggling mission, maybe it would be better if the black ops commander worried about Victory’s next move.
Maddox refrained from pacing, much as the need to do so surged through him. Instead, he took the moment to practice his breathing. He hadn’t been using the Way of the Pilgrim for quite some time. Maybe he should keep it up. He quieted himself and began the breathing ritual.
As he did, Victory slowed, Valerie’s shuttle picked up velocity as it headed around the gas giant to them.
“Sir,” the comm officer said, a warrant officer fresh out of the Academy. He was Doug Pinter from Indiana in the old United States. He still had pimples on his face. “The Lolis II is hailing Lieutenant Noonan.”
Maddox turned around, waiting for more data.
“The lieutenant isn’t responding to their hail.” Pinter looked up. “Sir, the Lolis II is threating to open fire on the shuttle if the lieutenant fails to answer.”
“The hauler has weapons?” Maddox asked, surprised.
Pinter tapped his panel. “Yes, sir, I’m registering weapons.”
“The hauler is like a Bosk Q-ship?”
“I don’t know what a Q-ship is, sir, but the hauler has target lock-on.”
“Are the probes still in position?” Maddox asked.
“They are,” Pinter said.
“Hail the hauler through one of them. Use a priority one channel.”
Pinter manipulated his board fast. He’d been one of the best in his class.
Maddox faced the main screen.
The Lost Intelligence (Lost Starship Series Book 12) Page 2
