The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) (17 page)

“What’s that?” Maddox asked.

“There is a high probability that you have engaged in these actions in order to delay.”

“That can’t be true,” Maddox said.

“I assure you that my probability matrix has given this a high grade ratio.”

“I’m going to kill Villars.”

Galyan cocked his head. “Captain, it appears that you are delaying even now with these arguments. Why would you—” The holoimage looked up. “What is that noise?”

Another of the
clangs
had just reverberated down the corridor.

“What are you talking about?” Maddox asked.

The AI’s deep-set eyes fluttered rapidly. The head swiveled until Galyan gave Maddox an accusing stare. “Someone is attempting to break into my AI core chamber.”

“As soon as you leave,” Maddox said, “I’m going to enter the disruptor control room and kill Villars.”

“You say that in order to delay me.”

“What are your orders, Galyan?”

“I must leave to inspect the new threat. I must—”

“You must warn Villars first. Hurry, Galyan, go warn him because I’m going in.” Maddox turned the wheel again.

Once more, the AI disappeared.

***

Meta gripped the twisted hatch, wriggling her power-gloved fingers deeper into the opening. Once she had a solid hold, she pulled. The exo-skeleton servos whined. Metal shrieked. Slowly, the metal bent more and more. Finally, Meta ripped the hatch from its hinges, flinging the metal against the farther bulkhead.

“Go,” Dana said.

Meta stepped through the entrance into the AI core chamber. Banks of lights winked in profusion, the holy of holies to Driving Force Galyan, the deified Adok commander.

Gas billowed from vents into the chamber.

Meta ignored the growing green cloud. Her suit had independent air tanks. Behind her, Dana stepped through. The doctor had a rebreather and a skintight suit.

“What now?” Meta radioed.

“Shhh,” Dana whispered. “Let me think.”

As the doctor slowly rotated, scanning the chamber, the holoimage appeared in the thickening mist.

“You must leave at once,” Galyan said. “This is a proscribed area.”

Both women ignored him.

“This is your final warning,” Galyan said.

“We’re just trying to help you,” Meta said.

“This is an invasion of my privacy,” Galyan said.

“Go ask Maddox about what we’re doing,” Meta suggested.

“This takes precedence.”

Dana looked up. “I bet the captain is getting ready to charge Villars. Won’t the slarn hunter be surprised when he does?”

A look of anguish swept over Galyan’s holographic features. A second later, the holoimage disappeared.

“Can the AI do more than gas us?” Meta asked.

“Theoretically, Galyan could make the antimatter engines go critical.”

“Then you’d better hurry,” Meta said.

“Shhh,” Dana said. “Don’t rush me. I have to think this through so I do it right the first time. I doubt I’m going to have a second chance.”

***

Maddox spoke to the agitated AI. “This is a tactical dilemma,” the captain told Galyan.

“Yes. It bothers me. I wish to resolve it. Why can’t I make an optimum choice?”

“That’s an interesting question,” Maddox said.

“No, no, this is simply more of your delays. Won’t you help a friend in distress and give me the optimum solution to this problem?”

“I’m already doing that,” Maddox said.

“Explain yourself.”

“Ludendorff put a backdoor into your core. He has bewitched you.”

“I do not understand the last term,” Galyan said.

“It is an archaic expression,” Maddox said. “It refers to a spell.”

“The professor put an input node into the chamber, not an archaic spell of dubious reality.” The AI froze. A moment later, Galyan glared at Maddox. “I know what to do now.”

“Care to tell me what that is?”

“Villars is the professor’s proxy. I will request his aid.” With that, Galyan vanished once more.

***

“There,” Dana said, pointing. “That’s the professor’s handiwork.”

Through the billowing gas, Meta watched the doctor hurry to a fist-sized housing at shoulder level on the wall. Dana selected a small needle-sized instrument from her kit and a pair of electrical tweezers. Taking a deep breath, she raised the tools and began to work on the backdoor. A spark leapt from it, shocking the doctor. It caused Dana to stagger backward, dropping the tiny tools so they tinkled onto the deck plates.

“Now what do we do?” Meta asked. “Should I start smashing the AI’s data banks? If we destroy Galyan, the alien computer can’t hurt us anymore.”

“It may come to that,” Dana admitted. She shook her hands, flexing them, and scooped up the tools.

Galyan appeared. “If you do not back out of the chamber, I will make the engines go critical. I will destroy the starship.”

“Can’t you see we’re trying to help you?” Meta shouted through the armor’s speakers.

Galyan’s holoimage shook its head.

“If you leave us to mess with the engines,” Meta said, “I’m going to start smashing everything in here. If you’re going to destroy us, I’m going to destroy you first.”

Galyan stood blinking at her. “That will be genocide, as I am the last Adok in the universe.”

“You’re just a ghost of an Adok,” Meta said. “Your race is already dead. So don’t try to lay that on me.”

Galyan began blinking more furiously than ever. Finally, he vanished.

“What’s it going to be?” Meta asked. “Do I go crazy in here and start smashing the computer core?”

“No,” Dana said. “I have to endure the shocks. It’s as simple as that.” With her features screwing up with determination behind the rebreather mask, the doctor approached the offensive protrusion.

***

On the bridge, Valerie examined her board with shock. “Keith, the engines are going critical.”

“What?” the ace asked. He checked his panel and found her allegation to be true. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Valerie said. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“See if you can stop it.”

“I am!” Valarie shouted. “Nothing is working.”

“We’d better call the captain,” Keith said, opening intra-ship communications.

***

“Galyan!” Maddox shouted. “I’m ready to make a deal.” He’d just received Keith’s message.

Seconds later, the holoimage appeared in the corridor. “I am making the engines go critical,” Galyan said.

“You’ll destroy yourself.”

“I realize this. I wish I could do something else, but Villars won’t budge.”

“He’s insane.”

“No. He is fully sane.”

“Talk to him. Tell him I’m ready to negotiate.”

“Is this another stalling tactic, Captain?”

“No. Listen. I’m about to instruct Meta. Are you listening to me?”

“I am,” Galyan said.

Maddox took out a comm-unit. “Meta, can you hear me?”

“Yes, Captain,” Meta said.

Maddox pressed a button so a red light would blink inside her helmet. “I want you to instruct Dana to desist working on the backdoor.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“There,” Maddox told Galyan. “Tell Villars what I did. See if he will agree to stop the self-destruct sequence.”

The holoimage hesitated. “First, I will have to slow the critical functions in order to give Villars time to reconsider. There, I’ve slowed down the anti-reaction mass. I will ask Villars if he is willing to negotiate at once, Captain, and thank you, sir.”

“Of course,” Maddox said, knowing that Dana still worked on Ludendorff’s secret mechanism.

***

Inside the space marine armor, Meta winced. She watched the doctor. Dana’s hair stood on end from the electrical discharges coming from Ludendorff’s unit. Even so, Dana continued to make minute adjustments.

Meta shivered with suppressed emotions. She wanted to smash the delicate AI walls and destroy the ancient computer. In another moment, that’s exactly what she was going to do.

Then Dana screamed. Her hands flew away from the unit as she staggered backward. “I can’t do it. I can’t open it. I don’t know what to do.”

Meta shouted with frustration. In two clanking strides, she stood beside the doctor.

“Meta, no!” Dana shouted.

She raised a power-gloved fist. When all else failed, it was time to smash. She swung her arm. The fist connected with the unit and obliterated it.

A surge of electricity played upon the AI walls. Smoke billowed. Sparks blew. Loud electrical noises increased in volume. Then, nozzles appeared on the ceiling and began to blow foam.

“Let’s get out of here,” Meta said. Delicately, she grabbed one of the doctor’s wrists. With a soft tug, she made Dana stumble after her.

The two stepped through the opening. Meta released the doctor and clanked to the hatch. Picking it up, she marched to the opening and shoved it against the entrance, sealing the AI core.

“Good-bye, Meta. Thanks for everything you’ve done.”

Tears brimmed in the assassin’s eyes. Had her temper just sealed their fates, bringing death and destruction to
Victory
and everyone aboard the starship?

***

Maddox watched the stern AI as it spoke to him.

“You must surrender immediately, Captain,” Galyan said. “Those are Villars terms. Further—”

The holoimage abruptly stopped speaking. Its image wavered, grew fuzzy, fuzzier and then became sharper than ever.

“What just happened?” the captain asked.

Galyan’s slit-lipped mouth opened. “Oh no,” the AI groaned. “I’ve set the ship on a self-destruct sequence. I can’t believe I did this. It is sacrilege to the memory of my race.”

“Can you halt the process?” Maddox asked.

“Just a moment,” Galyan said. He appeared to concentrate for several seconds. Finally, the AI looked up. “There. I’ve brought the antimatter cyclers back under control. Why did I cause that to happen?”

“Don’t you remember?”

Galyan shook his head.

“Will you do as I request?” Maddox asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Galyan asked. “Don’t you remember that I agreed to serve under your leadership?”

Maddox grinned. It was time to remove Villars from play. “Listen, then. Here’s what I want you to do…”

-17-

“Are you ready?” Maddox asked Meta.

She stood beside him in the corridor, still wearing space marine armor, with a tangler in her hands.

“There,” Meta said through a speaker. “I activated the suit-trigger. Anytime you want, I can go.”

“Villars!” Maddox shouted. “I’m willing to surrender. Will you accept it?”

“I will,” the slarn hunter said through the closed hatch to the disruptor chamber. “But I want your woman, too. Do you understand?”

“I—”

“No more hesitation, Captain. Either you give me your woman, or I will destroy the starship. That means the death of humanity.”

“You’re a sadist,” Maddox shouted, putting heat into his words.

“Now, now, none of that, Captain. I might take it personally.”

“Don’t shoot,” Maddox said. “I’m coming in.”

“Of course not,” Villars said, with glee in his voice.

Maddox opened the hatch, careful to stay behind it. Heavy slarn rifle shots rang out. The slugs
whanged
off Meta’s armor.

She marched through the hatch. A second later, the tangler made a
popping
sound. Afterward, the slarn hunter cursed profusely.

“Destroy the starship, Galyan!” Villars shouted. “Blow it away.”

Maddox swung around the open hatch, stepping into the disruptor cannon chamber. The blocky trapper lay on the deck plates, tangled by the sticky threads.

“Should I kill him?” Meta asked. She stood beside Villars.

“Do what you want,” Villars told her. “We’re all dead anyway.”

“Why?” Maddox asked Villars. “Why destroy all of us?”

The slarn hunter gave a harsh laugh. “What do I care happens to the world once I’m dead?”

Maddox holstered his gun and wrung his hands. “If we’re all going to die, why not tell me this. How old is the professor anyway?”

“Older than you can imagine, punk.” Villars’s grin abruptly slid away. “Why do you want to know anyway? Why aren’t you trying to talk me out of…?” Villars’s words drifted away. He glanced at Galyan, who watched the proceeding. “Ah… you figured it out, didn’t you? Now you’re just trying to pump me for information. You’re a sly operator, punk.” The slarn hunter struggled to free himself of the tangle threads, but it proved impossible. Finally, the man lay still, panting.

“Should I stomp on his hands and break his bones?” Meta asked.

Maddox wondered if the professor was dead or alive. They might need Villars if Ludendorff had died.

“No,” the captain said. “Take Villars to the brig. I’m going to warm up the disruptor cannon. Galyan, I’ll need your help for that.”

“Yes, Captain,” the AI said.

“Don’t hurt the slarn hunter,” Maddox told Meta. “We have to take our time with him later.”

“Ah,” Meta said. “Yes, I understand.” In her power-armor, she scooped up the tangled slarn hunter, marching out of the chamber with him, carrying Villars as if he was an oversized baby.

“What do we do first?” Maddox asked Galyan.

“Leave it to me,” the AI said.

***

“The captain did it,” Valerie said on the bridge. “Galyan is powering up the disruptor cannon.”

“None too soon,” Keith said. “How’s our shield doing?”

“It won’t be up for some time yet,” Valerie said.

“Fine,” Keith said. “If I can keep the drone from exploding, it won’t matter anyway.”

“How can you do that?”

“It’s going to take combination neutron and disruptor beam fire. I give us a fifty percent chance of success.”

“Those are bad odds,” Valerie said.

Keith glanced at the sergeant. “Maybe, but they’re better than a thirty percent chance. How much longer until I have the disruptor cannon?”

Valerie checked her board. “Two minutes,” she said.

The ace grinned in a nasty manner. “That should be just about right. Are you ready?”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Watch and learn, little lady, and see how it’s done.”

Valerie grinned tightly. Long ago, his hyper-confidence had bothered her. Now she drew strength from it because everyone was relying on the man. If anyone could do this, it would be Keith.

The ace began maneuvering the starship, once more coming out from behind the asteroid. The sight shocked him and caused Valerie to gasp.

The last drone attacked Ludendorff’s asteroid. Massive chunks of rock drifted from the main mass. The red beam sliced off another piece as they watched. Somewhere in the floating jumble of debris was the professor.

“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.