The Lost Patrol

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I need to know exactly what they do,” Maddox said.

  Shu said nothing.

  Maddox tapped a finger on the table. “What did the Visionary do to me on the Spacer airship?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shu said.

  Maddox smiled briefly. A shark would have smiled more kindly. “I am going to have your devices removed from you, Surveyor First Class.”

  “That would be a sinister act,” Shu said. “I’m sorry, but I cannot conceive of you as an agent of evil.”

  “Conceive of me as you wish. Someone tampered with my mind. That was a heinous accomplishment. I have come to believe that either you or the Visionary were responsible. Galyan is reasonably certain that he can learn to control your devices. Once he does so, he will counteract your neural sabotage—”

  “Captain, please, these are reckless charges. I am your friend, probably the best one you’ve had in some time.”

  “Then tell me truthfully, Surveyor, did a Spacer tamper with my mind?”

  Shu peered at him through her goggles. “Who leapt before the New Men’s assassin aboard the hauler, taking the full blast of his gun’s discharge?”

  “You did that,” Maddox said.

  “You never even thanked me.”

  “Thank you,” Maddox said.

  “You’re quite welcome. I think that should be sufficient to prove my good intentions toward you. I could have died.”

  “Is that so?” Maddox asked drily.

  “You think the Spacers are in league with the New Men?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Please, Captain, that’s ridiculous. The Spacers loathe the New Men as creatures of Strand and Ludendorff. The New Men are abominations.”

  “That would make me an abomination, too,” Maddox said.

  “No! That’s not true. You’re di-far. You’re—”

  Maddox slapped the table, stopping her flow of words. “Did the Spacers tamper with my mind?”

  Shu hesitated, finally nodding.

  “The Visionary did so?”

  “No.”

  “You did it?” Maddox asked.

  “It was for your own good,” Shu said.

  Maddox exhaled. “Can you reverse the process?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “A moment, please,” Maddox said, standing. He motioned Riker out of the way and exited the cell. After closing the door, he summoned Galyan.

  The holoimage appeared before him.

  “I’m going to modify my former order,” Maddox said. “You will monitor the Builder devices in her as she adjusts my condition.”

  “You don’t want me to use a sonic blast?”

  “Not unless you feel she is attempting further harm,” Maddox said.

  “I understand.”

  Maddox expanded his chest. Knowingly letting another tamper with his mind… After this was over, he would make sure Shu could never do this to him again.

  Without another word, Maddox reentered the room, sitting back down across from Shu.

  “Can you use your Builder devices to fix my alteration?” he asked.

  Shu nodded.

  “If you practice further harm—”

  “Captain, the process was never intended to harm you.”

  “Lowering my mental acuity wasn’t a personal assault upon me?”

  “You view it as a New Man would,” Shu said. “I find that telling and chilling.”

  Maddox sliced a hand through the air. “You will undo your damage this instant.”

  Shu nodded, composing herself. Once she appeared ready, the Spacer took a deep breath. She held that pose for some time. Finally, she stirred, suddenly looking exhausted.

  “It is done,” she whispered.

  Maddox didn’t feel any different.

  “I had to alter you earlier,” Shu said. “You might understand why some day.”

  “What exactly did you do?”

  “It was a tiny neural blockage,” Shu said. “It’s very technical. But in any case, now that I’ve shown my good will by reversing—”

  “Captain,” Galyan said, appearing beside the table. “The Spacer has just practiced a deception upon you. She used her Builder devices, the one powering the other, but nothing happened in your cerebral cortex.”

  “That’s a lie,” Shu said.

  The holoimage regarded her with outrage. “I do not lie. I have stated fact.” Galyan turned to Maddox. “Sir, I no longer give it a seven percent probability that her interior device did anything to your brain. In fact—”

  “Just a minute,” Maddox said. He spun around on the chair. “Do you hear that?” he asked Riker.

  “My hearing isn’t what it used to be, sir,” the sergeant said.

  Maddox stood fast, causing the chair to fall back. In the same motion, he drew his long-barreled pistol.

  “I hear gunfire,” the captain said. “It’s coming from inside the detention area.”

  -23-

  Maddox burst through the cell door to the sound of gunfire down the hall. Riker followed close behind.

  “Make sure the door’s locked,” the captain said.

  Riker pushed until the heavy cell door clicked shut.

  The sound of gunfire had been consistent the entire time. A man roared in pain. More shots rang out. The yelling stopped abruptly.

  “What’s going on, sir?” Riker hissed.

  “My guess,” Maddox said, “is androids. Keep behind me, Sergeant.”

  “Sir,” Riker said, hurrying to keep up with Maddox. “I only have a stunner.”

  “Set it at max.”

  “It already is. I’m just saying. If they have combat armor—”

  “Aim for the head.”

  “Will a stun shot hurt an android?” Riker asked.

  “We will undoubtedly discover the truth soon enough.”

  They passed an open door into a rec room but continued down the hall. The sounds of gunfire had stopped. Boots struck the decking as people approached.

  Maddox knelt in the hall, raised his long-barreled gun—holding it with both hands—and fired as the first Marine came around the corner.

  The captain blew the Marine’s head apart. It wasn’t easy, as a hard alloy protected the brainpan. Maddox had special rounds, though, meant for maximum penetration.

  Maddox fired fast but deliberately. He wasn’t sure how many androids had fought their way into the detention center. He only had so many rounds in a magazine and had to make sure each counted.

  After the third android catapulted off its feet, blown backward by the shots, Maddox used his thumb to eject the spent magazine onto the floor. He slammed another into the handle.

  A fourth Marine rounded the corner. This one held an assault carbine with both hands, spraying bullets.

  Maddox had already fallen prone onto the floor. The same couldn’t be said for Riker. Two bullets struck the older sergeant. One ricocheted off his bionic arm. The other struck his chest, making him grunt painfully. Riker also fell, which likely saved him from further damage.

  The Marine continued to fire until his carbine clicked empty. The man, or android, didn’t attempt to reload. He raced at Maddox as the captain tried to align his gun from the floor. The Marine was already in the process of swinging the carbine, gripping it by the barrel. The stock connected with the long-barreled gun and swatted it out of the captain’s hands.

  The pistol struck the wall. Because of momentum, the carbine swung up like a bat. Maddox surged forward. The Marine tried to swing the carbine back down on the captain. Maddox connected first, tackling the Marine by the knees, hurling him off his feet.

  The Marine struck the deck hard. He seemed heavier than a man. Maddox was certain he fought an android. The thing would have tremendous strength if it were anything like the other androids he’d faced.

  The android’s knees lunged upward, striking the captain’s chest. Maddox didn’t fight it. He allowed the thing’s knees to catapult him ove
r its head. As Maddox landed, he tucked and rolled.

  “You had your chance,” the android said.

  Maddox stopped rolling, shooting to his feet and twisting around. The android had also twisted around, climbing up. The captain dove, but he didn’t dive at the android. Instead, Maddox lunged for his pistol that lay on the floor. The android kicked it, sending the pistol skidding away. Then, the android drew its foot back to kick again.

  “No,” Shu said. She stood by the open door to her cell, calmly observing the scene.

  The android spied her over its shoulder, and its demeanor changed. “You,” it said.

  “Don’t do it,” Shu told the android.

  The fake Marine tried to move at her, but it seemed confused. “What’s wrong with me?” he asked.

  Shu didn’t answer. She had become wan, with her lower lip trembling as if she exerted effort.

  Maddox wasn’t sure he understood, but he didn’t have to. He scrambled across the hall, reaching his gun. By the time he stood up and faced the android—it still stood in the same spot, frowning, appearing to try with all its might to move.

  Shu appeared to glance at Maddox. That broke the tableau. The android rushed her.

  Maddox raised his pistol. For an awful moment, he debated holding his fire. The android had almost reached Shu.

  Maddox began firing. He didn’t aim at the back of the android’s head. He pumped bullets into the android’s shoulders just below the neck. He wanted to incapacitate the thing, not kill it. He wanted one of these creatures alive for questioning.

  Just before reaching the Spacer, the android crumpled onto the floor. It twitched and smoked and then froze in its last position.

  -24-

  It was an hour after the android assault upon the detention center. Nine Star Watch Marines had died defending the facility. Four more of the pseudo-men had perished, making a total of six androids aboard Victory.

  The starship was on lockdown, with specially vetted Marine teams prowling the corridors.

  Riker was in emergency undergoing surgery. He wasn’t in critical condition, but he was seriously hurt.

  Maddox had returned to the detention cell with Shu 15. Meta stood against the door this time. She stood there as an assassin, armed to the teeth, ready to kill Shu or more androids if they were foolish enough to try this again.

  Galyan watched unseen.

  Shu sat at her spot, with her hands on the table. “Will the sergeant recover?” she asked.

  Maddox studied her but didn’t answer. He recalled Shu as the Provost Marshal in the Lin Ru Hotel in Shanghai. She had attempted to kill him back then with a ruthlessness he’d seldom seen elsewhere. That was the real Shu 15, of that he was certain. He felt foolish having believed the other Shu in Normandy, France and while aboard the Spacer airship.

  “Why shouldn’t we remove your Builder devices?” Maddox asked.

  “That would be a serious overreaction for one thing,” Shu said. “For another, you’re going to want me to have these modifications when the time comes.”

  “Would you care to be more precise?”

  “Not at this time,” Shu said.

  Maddox studied the Spacer. He let his mind rove concerning her. He was missing something. His mind had clouded, but it would appear the Spacer and her Builder devices had nothing to do with that. Otherwise, she would have righted her wrong when she’d had the opportunity. Galyan said she’d used her internal devices. What had she done then?

  “You called the androids with your devices,” Maddox said. “That’s why they attacked.”

  “On the contrary, I attempted to stop them from attacking.”

  “If you knew they were attacking, why didn’t you warn us?”

  “I didn’t realize they’d gotten so near. Otherwise, I would have done exactly that. I made a mistake. I’m sorry. It’s…” She squeezed her hands on the table as if burdened by her supposed lack of decision.

  “What are you?” Maddox asked.

  Shu looked up, shaking her head. “I don’t understand the question.”

  “Are you human?”

  “Captain, please, I’m more human than you are.”

  “Yet…” Maddox said. “You are Builder-modified.”

  “Several degrees removed Builder-modified,” Shu corrected.

  “By that, I take it to mean you’ve never met a Builder.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Thus, a Builder didn’t personally modify you. That’s what you mean by several degrees removed.”

  Shu nodded.

  “However…” Maddox tapped the table.

  Shu raised her eyebrows.

  “I’m not quite ready to make any specific conjectures about the Spacers. Sometime in the past, though, you, meaning Spacers, stumbled onto Builder technology. Perhaps you weren’t even Spacers yet when those people made the discovery. What you found in the Builder treasure trove turned your originators into the Spacers.”

  “You have quite an imagination, Captain.”

  Maddox leaned back. “I fail to understand your angle in all this. You appear to want my help.”

  “I do want it, just as you’re going to want mine. There is balance in that.”

  He nodded. “Yet you won’t enlighten me about anything. I am of two minds concerning you. The first desires to order the surgery.”

  “I can’t stop you,” Shu said.

  “The second is to order you into suspended animation.”

  “I’ll take the third option,” Shu said.

  “You’ll have to earn the third option.”

  Shu smiled faintly. “Shall I tell you why that isn’t so?”

  “Please,” Maddox said.

  “Your curiosity will prevent options one and two. That leaves option three.”

  Maddox shook his head. “If you fail to answer my most fundamental questions to my satisfaction, I will leave your fate in Meta’s hands.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Shu said.

  “Believe as you wish. I will begin the interrogation now. How was my mind clouded?”

  “You speak in the past tense,” Shu said. “Has your mind returned to normal?”

  Maddox drummed his fingers on the table, waiting.

  Shu also waited.

  “Let me instruct you in a truism,” Maddox said. “I will not knowingly allow a Trojan horse on my starship. Your Builder devices give you abilities. Those abilities continue to remain unknown. I suspect you called the androids to free yourself. That led to the deaths of six of my people.”

  “You know that’s false. I never called them. In fact, I saved your life from the last android as he was about to slay you. That was an observable fact, impossible for a realist like you to refute.”

  “I have also begun to believe that you’ve tampered with Galyan,” Maddox said. “I have had my fill of people tampering with the AI on my ship. I will not let another Builder-centric person do likewise.”

  “Captain, I have proven my good will—”

  Maddox’s chair scraped across the floor as he turned it around to face Meta. “Are you ready to pronounce your verdict?”

  “I am,” Meta said flatly.

  Maddox nodded to her.

  “Surgically remove the Builder items from the Spacer,” Meta said. “It’s the only way to be certain. Otherwise, someone could come along and thaw her out. Then, we’ll be right back where we started.”

  “I don’t believe you’re serious,” Shu said.

  “That is your prerogative,” Maddox told Shu. He stood. “I will talk to you again after the surgery.”

  He headed for Meta and the door.

  “I earned the two devices through exacting studies and labor across the years,” Shu said loudly. “It is a great honor to bear them. Would you strip me of that?”

  Maddox didn’t turn around to answer. Instead, he snapped his fingers as if to say, “I’ll do it like that.”

  Meta opened the door, going through. Maddox didn’t hesita
te as he followed her.

  “Wait!” Shu shouted.

  Maddox paused, although he didn’t turn around. His meaning was clear. This was Shu’s last chance.

  “I kissed you,” Shu whispered.

  Maddox’s jaw tightened. Did she appeal to his chivalry?

  “That’s when I applied the toxin,” Shu said. “It was on my lips. I transferred it to you.”

  Maddox turned, regarding the Spacer.

  “It was a slow-acting toxin,” Shu said. “It affected your thinking. It’s…part of the reason you accepted me. You might have also possibly missed a few things. Clearly, you didn’t miss enough of them. I told the Visionary we should give you a stronger dose. She thought the effect might be lasting if we did that. The Visionary refused to risk that because of religious convictions. She believes you’re di-far.”

  “You don’t?”

  “I’m beginning to,” Shu said.

  “That’s an untruth,” Maddox said.

  Shu gave the faintest of shrugs. “The Visionary is old-school. She believes in the legends. I think we make our own luck and call it the will of the gods. You appear uncommonly lucky, Captain.”

  “What do your devices do?”

  Shu licked her lips. “It’s difficult to listen to you blaspheme like that. Maybe I’m more old school than I realize. You shouldn’t ask such rude questions.”

  “Your androids killed some of my people.”

  Shu bristled. “They’re not my androids. They belong to Strand or Ludendorff.”

  “How do you know that to be true?”

  “It’s self-evident,” Shu said.

  Maddox smiled faintly.

  “I realize you don’t believe me.”

  Maddox held up a hand. “What do your—what should I call them?”

  “Adaptations,” Shu said.

  Maddox raised an eyebrow. Was he supposed to think of the Builder devices as evolutionary changes? That was absurd. The devices weren’t adaptations in the slightest.

  Shu waited without expression.

  “What can you do with your…adaptations?” Maddox finally said.

  “I mentally hindered the androids who captured you on “E” Deck. Normally, you couldn’t have deceived them the way you did.”

  “I see. Obviously, you know what the androids did. Do your adaptations allow you to see through bulkheads?”