“You can count on me, my boy. This is one fight I’m going to see to the finish, pulling the trigger myself.”
“Less talk, more do,” Maddox said.
They turned, heading back. Maddox kept looking and running a sensor sweep. They seemed to be staying ahead of the small army heading down the corridor after them.
They passed the glow-area, the heavy radiation—
“There,” Ludendorff said over a crackling comm unit. “It looks like an alcove. That must be where it is.”
The four went there, but it was burnt wall and nothing else.
“This has to be the place,” Ludendorff said.
Meta’s battlesuit stopped, and she began smashing the floor with a heavy boot. Her suited foot made a different noise at one spot on the floor.
Ludendorff was on his knees, searching—he pressed an area of stone. An area dilated open. There were stairs leading down.
“Bingo,” the professor said. Before anyone could stop him, he began descending.
The secret way started dilating shut. Meta was faster, stomping at it with her exoskeleton-added strength. She smashed it into smithereens. Afterward, she looked up at Maddox.
“Follow him,” Maddox said. “The small army is running after us now. I think the Liss controls them. This shows we’re on the right track, as the Liss monster must be getting worried. Go. Keep the Methuselah Man in your sights at all times.”
Meta raced down the stone steps. Riker followed, and this time Maddox brought up the rear. He would have liked to set a booby-trap for the others, but he was sure the four of them didn’t have the time. The clock was ticking, and they had to reach the Liss caverns now.
-16-
The steps went down farther than Maddox liked. Who had built them? Clearly, someone had hewn them out of Luna stone. It reminded him too much of the stairs Becker had descended years ago on Jarnevon, as shown by the Ur-Builder Viewer on Estar in the Erill System.
At last, they left the stone stairs to hustle through a cavern deep under the Moon’s surface. Maddox looked back. His sensors…he heard men and possibly women descending after them. There was atmosphere in these caverns, as his sensors felt the noise vibrations.
This time, he called Riker. They set up a pop-up mine. A hundred and ten meters later, they set up another one. If these were regular people, they would slow down and take more care. If Nostradamus drove them, more would die, whittling down the enemy force.
The four continued marching and Ludendorff continued leading. If the Methuselah Man knew something they didn’t…
Maddox became alert. Ludendorff was slowing down. He used the short-link. “Is everything all right, Professor?”
Ludendorff didn’t answer.
“Professor,” Maddox said. “Can you hear me?”
“You don’t have to shout,” Ludendorff complained.
Maddox cocked his head. The Methuselah Man sounded strained. “What’s wrong?”
“Not a damned thing,” Ludendorff panted. “Leave me alone.”
They marched, turning a corner.
“Sir,” Riker said. “Do you feel more resistance than usual?”
“I…I suppose I do,” Maddox said, only now becoming aware of it. “Do you know what’s happening?”
“My battlesuit servos are straining,” Riker said.
That caused Maddox to monitor his. This wasn’t good. His servos strained to move the two-ton battlesuit. That would indicate what, exactly?
“There’s extra gravitational pull in our locale,” Ludendorff complained. “Logically, that must mean we’re almost to the central cavern. Aha. It makes perfect sense, a heavy gravitational belt to protect its lair from intruders.”
Maddox thought about that. “As long as our servos don’t burn out, we’ll be okay.”
“Not true,” Ludendorff panted, “as the servos don’t do all the work. They’re part of the exoskeleton machine that amplifies the power of your muscles. That’s why you and your wife feel it less. That’s why Riker felt it sooner than you.”
The four battlesuits continued marching as their occupants struggled against the increased gravity.
“Confound it,” Ludendorff said. “I’m not going to let extra gravitational pull stop me from gaining satisfaction from the Liss. I must kill it, Captain. I must pull the trigger.”
“As long as it dies,” Maddox said. “That’s all that matters.”
“No!” Ludendorff shouted over the short-link. “I promised Dana I would kill the monster. I swore it. It was the critical condition for me leaving her as she was. You must understand what I’m saying.”
“I do,” Meta said. “Keep going, Professor. We’ll be through this soon.”
“Oh, how I wish I could believe that,” Ludendorff complained. “I always figure out how to do a thing, but the captain gets the pleasure of the kill. This time, I demand that pleasure for me. I must be able to tell Dana how I did it, how it felt to kill the monster that crippled her.”
“Take it easy, Professor,” Riker said.
“I will not take it easy. I did not come all this way to have a surly sergeant to tell me to take it easy. I have to do this. I swore I would.”
The professor’s raspy breath and complaints had become annoying to Maddox. He turned down volume in his helmet so he wouldn’t hear them as loudly.
Ludendorff’s battlesuit slowed more. Despite his bionic parts, Riker was obviously struggling. Meta made deliberate steps. Even Maddox found the going harder. His servos were making far too many stress noises as warning signals began to appear on his HUD. Would the Liss beat them through a tough gravitational belt? How many Gs pulled down on them anyway?
“Maybe you had a point earlier, Sergeant,” Maddox said. “Maybe we should have just pushed an antimatter bomb through the portal.”
“No, no, no,” Ludendorff wheezed. “Can’t you see, you oaf? The hidden lair is much deeper than I was able to detect. We reached the outer entrance. These corridors all ramp down. Oh. I’m so tired. My muscles ache. I’m afraid I’m going to pull one of them.”
“You’d better wait here, Professor,” Maddox said.
In his battlesuit, the Methuselah Man turned, raising his arm-cannon. “I’ll kill you before I let you go ahead of me. I have to be there for the kill. I’ve repeatedly told you that. Don’t you understand?”
“What do you want more,” Maddox asked, “kill the thing yourself or save humanity?”
“Both,” Ludendorff panted. “I want both. I want to be the hero this time. I’m tired of watching from the sidelines. I’ve earned this one.”
“Husband,” Meta said. “We must help him.”
Maddox stared at his wife’s battlesuit.
“The Professor’s right,” Meta said. “We must carry him if that’s what it comes down to.”
“To tickle his vanity?” Maddox asked.
“Please,” Meta said. “I don’t ask for much. But I do ask for this. Help me. Ludendorff often supplies the old knowledge. We’re younger, more fit. Let’s help him as he has so often helped us.”
“I just want to kill the Liss monster,” Maddox said. “I want to save humanity from it.”
“I know,” Meta said. “Let the professor share in your glory.”
“No, no,” Ludendorff wheezed. “I’m not sharing anything. I have to kill the monster. I should have foreseen this.”
Maddox clanked to the professor’s battlesuit. He was tired of the whining, and maybe this would help in the future—if any of them had a future. Meta had a point. Ludendorff carried grudges forever. This might help, and maybe the old codger had earned the right.
“Meta,” Maddox said. “Hurry up. We don’t have all day.”
She clanked onto the other side of the professor’s battlesuit, gripping the other arm.
“Heave,” Maddox said. “And keep trying, Professor. Your suit is too heavy for the two of us to carry it ourselves.”
Over the short-link, Ludendorff grunted.
“Good luck, Sergeant,” Maddox said.
“You, too, sir,” Riker said. “You do this and come and pick me up.”
“Right,” Maddox said.
Now began a grueling session for the three of them. Ludendorff was physically spent. He wheezed, sweated and worked his overtaxed old muscles. Meta and Maddox were stronger and younger, but they now carried much of the Methuselah Man’s burden. The three huge two-ton suits began to smoke as the servos began reaching their operational limits.
“I’m out of water,” Ludendorff said. “I should have stocked more. I’m so damnably parched. I can hardly swallow.”
“Should we leave you here?” asked Maddox.
“No,” Ludendorff pleaded. “I’m this far. Surely, the grav-belt must end soon. The central cavern can’t be that much farther.”
“Just how smart is this mass mind?” asked Meta. “Could it have foreseen this day?”
“That isn’t how it would operate,” Ludendorff said in a wheezing voice. “It would have parameters, odds and possibilities…” Ludendorff quit talking. Surely, he was using every ounce of his fabulous willpower to force himself to keep moving another step. Maybe his vision swam.
“Do you feel that?” Maddox said over the short-link.
“I do,” Meta said. “The gravity is lessening. And…I keep hearing whispering voices calling to me.”
“Don’t listen to them,” Ludendorff warned. “The headbands we wear are like the servos. They amplify your native mental strength. Perhaps now you should stay behind. The Liss mass-mind might well overpower your will even while you wear my anti-domination headband.”
“What do you think I should do, darling?” Meta asked.
“You’re staying with me,” Maddox said. “It’s killing time, and I want you where I can see you. Now, move on your own steam, Professor. If you want to be the hero, you’re going to have to do this yourself.”
So saying, Maddox released Ludendorff’s battlesuit. Then, he clanked for the next corner, realizing he was almost to the central cavern. He could hear a whispering voice trying to gain his attention. He wasn’t going to listen, though. He was going to kill.
-17-
In their battlesuits, Maddox and Meta walked together, their helmet lamps washing over an enlarging Luna cavern. Ludendorff followed, limping with his left battlesuit leg. He’d pulled one of his old muscles straining against the terrible gravity.
There was a whispering voice pecking for Maddox’s attention. It wanted him to listen, but he refused. The voice was becoming more urgent, however.
“Maddox,” his wife said. “Maybe we should talk to the Liss. It’s a unique creature. It could help us against Lisa Meyers and against other dangers waiting for humanity.”
Maddox heard something else in her voice, a different note. The Liss—the Prime Saa—must have broken through her amplified-headband-strengthened mind. Or it was in the process of doing so. Would the Liss force him to shoot his wife?
It might come to that.
Maddox halted. His wife halted, and Ludendorff struggled to limp near.
“Meta, the Liss is trying to gain control of our minds,” Maddox said.
“I know,” she said. “I want to resist. He makes an awful lot of sense, though.”
“Start powering down your suit,” Maddox told her.
“I-I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Meta said.
Maddox hesitated. He couldn’t shoot Meta. If the Liss monster controlled her— “Resist the alien. You can do this. You must.”
“I want to, my darling. But…”
Ludendorff limped closer yet. He was fiddling with his battlesuit. Maybe he wanted to inject himself with stims.
“Darling,” Meta said through the short-link. “I can’t let you destroy the Liss. It holds the key to our future. It—”
Ludendorff limped beside Meta, and with his right battlesuited arm, he slapped a beeping unit against her suit. It discharged immediately, overloading the main power pack. Meta’s battlesuit systems began shutting down, including her armory, but not her life support. The short-link shorted, cutting communications with her.
“I had to do it,” Ludendorff said. “If you must know, I’ve been saving that little pack to use on you. I only have one, though. So, I can no longer short your suit and do the rest myself.”
“Why would you have wanted to?” Maddox asked.
“So I do the killing. Now, though, that damned alien monster is speaking at me, trying to break down my will. It’s hammering, Maddox. I can feel my will slipping. You have to run and save the day again.”
Maddox peered down the dark cavern before turning and studying Ludendorff. The Liss mass-mind had mental powers and in retaliation might use them to cause Meta to kill herself. But if he brought Ludendorff along with him, the mass-mind might keep hammering at the Methuselah Man instead, seeing that as its best chance for survival.
“Professor, you keep fighting it, and you keep walking. You’re coming with me.”
Maddox went to Ludendorff and put one of the Methuselah Man’s battlesuited arms over his battlesuit shoulders. Then, Maddox put an arm around Ludendorff’s waist and started moving fast, bringing the professor with him.
You can’t win, Captain.
Maddox laughed like a maddened creature. “Come at me if you want. I can take anything you can dish out.”
With its fantastic united domination power, the Prime Saa smashed against the captain’s puny mind. The vast massed will bore down with crushing force.
The headband around Maddox’s head became warm as the attached bulb pulsed and pulsed again. He might have succumbed. The massed Liss cybers had inconceivable mind weight. But the extra spiritual strength of the slain Erill fortified Maddox’s will. He would not obey the alien mass-mind. He might shatter and die, but he would never become its slave.
Maddox forced a laugh. “You call that trying? My grandmother could hit me harder than that.”
I sense your cunning, but it won’t work against me. The professor is weaker-willed than you.
“Professor,” Maddox said over the link. “The thing is calling you a puss. It’s bragging how it’s going to dominate you because it can’t dominate me.”
“Never,” the professor hissed.
“Remember Dana,” Maddox said. “The Liss sent the hitmen against you but they crippled your woman. Resist the mass-mind long enough and you can pay it back for that.”
“Yes,” the professor panted. “I want that. I want that more than anything else in the world. You will not dominate me!” he shouted. “I am Professor Ludendorff. I’m the avenging Methuselah Man!”
Like two men in a three-legged race, the Space Marine battlesuits charged around a corner and faced a massive cavern. The twin helmet beams washed upon an obscene sight.
Hundreds of long, low, off-white machines centipede-crawled over each other. The cybers exuded an oily substance and exchanged parts with each other. In such a manner, the Liss cybers generated the dominating force, a force that would eventually control a world. The creatures—part exoskeleton, part machine and part alien bio-matter—rose up like huge snakes. They turned to peer at Maddox and Ludendorff.
We can give you the galaxy.
Maddox pulled his right armored arm back from helping the professor. The professor’s left armored arm slid off the captain’s shoulders.
“Are you ready?” Maddox asked.
“I’ve always wanted to be in on the final kill,” Ludendorff said.
“On my count,” Maddox said.
“Yes,” the professor said.
I am one of a kind, the Prime Saa said. I am unique. Killing me deprives the galaxy of my vast knowledge. I know what is coming to haunt Human Space.
“One,” Maddox said.
You don’t know what you’re doing. I can tell you what Me
thuselah Woman Lisa Meyers’ next move against Star Watch will be.
“Two,” Maddox said.
This is an outrage against higher knowledge. I can explain in detail why I had Lord High Admiral Fletcher sent you to Estar, to the City of Pyramids.
“Three,” Maddox said.
Wait, wait, the Prime Saa said. I’ll tell you why I made Becker. He’s critical to my greater plans. If you only knew what he could do.
“What can he do?” Maddox asked.
The Prime Saa told them.
“Oh,” Maddox said. “That’s interesting. What do you think, Professor? Should we let the Liss cybers live now?”
Ludendorff’s helmet cocked as if he was thinking. “Nah,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Fools, the Prime Saa told them. I merely played for time. This will be my mightiest mind bolt yet.
Maddox and Ludendorff opened fire with their arm cannons. Heavy shells smashed into the nearest cyber machines, exploding, ripping those machines into pieces.
At the same time, domination power swept against the two minds.
Maddox snarled. Ludendorff groaned. But both battlesuits continued chugging out shells. The ordnance plowed through insect-exoskeleton machine-frames and blew up mass geysers of thick, grasshopper-like goop. Instinctively, Ludendorff went left from the first kills and Maddox went right. Their arm-cannons fired one shell after another as more explosions tore the Liss cyber machines into junk.
The mass-mind domination assault against the two men weakened, and then quit altogether. The remaining machine creatures from Jarnevon began crawling at the towering Space Marines.
“Direct grenade launches,” Maddox said through the short-link.
“Roger that,” Ludendorff said.
On both suits, launcher rails poked up and over each right armored shoulder. Grenades flew from the rails, landing among the crawling machine-creatures. Explosion upon explosion tore the mass into goop, exoskeleton and flying computer pieces.
The Lost Intelligence (Lost Starship Series Book 12) Page 33
