The Lost Patrol (26 page)

-44-

“I have an idea,” Ludendorff said. “But it will be risky, and it involves the Spacer.”

Maddox waited.

The professor cleared his throat. “The shuttle will pass
Victory
in several hours. We can have Shu wake Galyan. She’ll do it because she wants to survive just like the rest of us. Once she completes the task, we render her unconscious again. Galyan can destroy the mines and pick us up afterward.”

Maddox pondered the idea. “What if Shu gives Galyan new commands, as you tried to do in the past?”

Ludendorff gave the captain a long glance before he said, “Simple. If she does that we kill her, and we let her know that’s the outcome.”

“She seemed more than willing to die earlier,” Maddox said.

“Yes, that could be a problem. I could try to hypnotize her, although I imagine she’s immune to it. Still, isn’t it better to risk something than to do nothing?”

“Can’t we outrun the mines?” Keith asked.

“They’re nuclear powered devices,” Ludendorff said. “I imagine they will outlast us. No. We must defeat them now or it will be too late later.”

“Tell me more about the Spacers so I can make a reasoned decision,” Maddox said.

Ludendorff stared off into space for a moment before speaking.

“My knowledge about their origin is spotty at best,” the professor said slowly. “They’re clannish beyond belief, almost xenophobic. It’s forced me to resort to unsavory tactics to learn what I wished.”

He shrugged. “I’ve spoken with a few Spacers, adventurers who fell into my hands. I convinced them to relate ship lore, as they call it. First, I had to stop their suicide attempts. The first few Spacers succeeded in their endeavor. That only stoked my desire to know what they were so desperately trying to hide. The Spacers would have been wiser to feed me false data.”

Maddox cleared his throat, interrupting. He wished the professor would get to the point.

Ludendorff’s head whipped around as he scowled. “Do you want to hear this or not?”

“I most certainly do,” Maddox said.

“Then don’t interrupt and don’t try to hurry me. I have to get into the mood to tease the right memories from my cortex. Now, where was I?”

“That only stoked your desires,” Keith said.

Ludendorff scowled at the Scotsman.

Meta nudged Keith, shaking her head.

Ludendorff inhaled deeply before starting again. “The Spacer navigator I’d caught tried to commit suicide like the others. He was a clever lout. But I was ready this time. I’d already hooked him to a medical table. He would stay alive a long time if I so desired. You can be assured I’d seen to that.”

The Methuselah Man shuddered. Perhaps he was appalled at the lengths he’d gone to for knowledge.

“I tell you all this to give you some idea of how far the Spacers go to maintain their secrets. They are paranoid to an intense degree. Still, the navigator and I spoke for many days. He practiced deceit the best to his ability. Fortunately, my abilities were considerably greater than his. He tried to will himself to death. He even chewed off his tongue. I had to sew it back on and use my most delicate drugs on his mind. Finally, in a narcotic haze, he told me the oldest Spacer legend.

“A survey ship once took a long journey into the Beyond. It happened so long ago that humanity didn’t even call it the Beyond yet. The ship went farther out than you would believe, as the crew had grandiose ideas. Finally, they landed on an Earthlike world. To the crew’s amazement, this one had ancient stone temples and a mighty pyramid.

“According to the navigator, the pyramid was fashioned out of gold, a veritable mountain of riches. I won’t go into tedious detail. Eventually, the survey team found a way into the pyramid. Some died to lasers and other traps. In the depths of the structure, the survivors discovered inert androids along with a mummified Builder. I’d never heard of such a thing before. I believe…”

“Yes?” Maddox asked.

“I’ve come to believe they found a heretic Builder, if you will. The Builder I knew would have hated mummification. It would have been an abomination to him. My Builder would never have wanted interment on a planet, either. I’ve wondered if there was a civil war among the Builders ages ago. These religious Builders—”

“Wait a minute,” Maddox said. “I spoke to a Builder, your Builder, in fact. He was emphatically religious.”

“Yes, yes,” Ludendorff said. “I’m aware of that. Let me rephrase, then, to satisfy your delicate sensibilities. This unorthodox Builder had a different religion than the regular Builders, or what they may have considered heretical views.

“In any case,” Ludendorff said, “the navigator had conflicting views on a key point. I couldn’t decide if he meant to say the androids guarded the mummified Builder as jailors or as protectors against blasphemous acts. I tend toward the belief of jailors. But in that case, who mummified the dead Builder and why?”

The others waited silently as Ludendorff considered his question.

“The navigator became extremely agitated at that point, and I almost lost him then. He babbled about a war inside the golden pyramid. It would appear the androids activated and almost slaughtered the remaining team members. Before they could do it, though, the mummified Builder stirred. The last of the landing party prepared for their final stand at the edge of the Builder’s sarcophagus. The androids closed in, their eyes glowing with a hideous red color. The mummy sat up, spoke in its alien tongue and destroyed the remaining androids. That’s what makes me think the androids had acted as jailors. Again, one has to ask, who put the jailors there and who mummified the dead Builder? That’s another point. What was the dead Builder and how did it think and act if it was already dead?”

“Maybe someone had given it artificial intelligence,” Maddox said.

“Perhaps,” the professor said. “As you can imagine, the event had a profound effect upon the surviving crew. The mummified Builder resealed the pyramid. What happened in the dark all the years…?”

“Wait,” Meta said. “That’s all the navigator told you?”

Ludendorff stared through her.

“Professor,” Maddox said.

Ludendorff started as if he’d gone to sleep.

“Did the navigator die after telling you that?” Maddox asked.

“No…” Ludendorff said softly. “But…strange malfunctions began to occur to the medical bed. Three times, I almost lost the navigator. I can’t explain why that happened. Some might believe those were supernatural happenings. I do not subscribe to those beliefs. Maybe the navigator had hidden Builder devices. Yet, if that was true, why hadn’t he used them sooner?”

“According to the navigator, how long did the team stay in the golden pyramid?” Maddox asked.

“One hundred years more or less,” the professor said. “Finally, though, they won free or the mummified Builder released them. The Builder—if that’s what it really was—had done something to them. The dead creature no longer moved. But the people who fled the golden pyramid had become Spacers. They were the prophets of a new way of thinking. They repaired their one-hundred-year old ship, loading it with loot from the pyramid. That ship became the change vessel, the first
di-far
. It reached a manufacturing world, one colonized by Earthlings of Southeast Asian origin.

“Their teachings took root as they helped retool the factories. Soon, the people built orbital construction yards. That is where the majority of the Spacer vessels came from.”

“Professor,” Maddox said. “Were the people from the golden pyramid Methuselah Men?”

“I don’t think so.”

“How did they live so long then?”

“I don’t know,” Ludendorff said. “Perhaps they survived in some type of stasis field.”

Maddox opened his mouth to question him, but Ludendorff raised a hand to stop him. “It’s not important. The people built endless Spacer craft, taking to space in a vast exodus. The others—the original prophets—became the first Visionaries, the Seers and Surveyors. Finally, a plague began among those who would not leave the planet. Every last one of them died.”

“Was it a manufactured plague?” Maddox asked.

“I believe so. The navigator denied that, though. He said the Spacers were and are peaceful. They would have never slaughtered innocents like that.”

“What planet did that happen on?” Maddox asked.

“He didn’t say and I’ve never been able to find it.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I agree.”

Maddox rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you think the Spacer made up the legend?”

“I do not.”

“But to have colonized an entire, industrialized planet—”

“I believe these people left Earth before the Space Age,” Ludendorff said. “That’s why we don’t have a modern record of it.”

“That doesn’t make sense either,” Maddox said.

“The Builders came to Earth in ancient times. Why can’t other aliens have come, too? Maybe a few of those aliens took Earthlings. Maybe a few of those Earthlings escaped in a spaceship and began their own civilization. The Southeast Asian jungle civilization of Angkor Wat has many mysteries to it. Maybe aliens had something to do with it.”

“If you’re suggesting—”

“In any case,” Ludendorff said, interrupting. “The “lost” humans eventually rejoined us as the Spacers. They slipped in among us almost unnoticed. I checked the records. The first mention of Spacers is around eighty years ago. It was a chance encounter by a Chinese freighter. Several years later, the number of Spacer sightings increased tenfold. Might that have happened because the Spacers decided to mingle among us for safety?”

“Safety from what?” Maddox asked.

“Hunting androids possibly,” Ludendorff said.

“Let me stop you,” Maddox said. “Are you suggesting there are Builder androids out there acting on their own initiative?”

Ludendorff nodded.

“Then the androids on Earth weren’t necessarily from the Atlantic underwater base.”

“Oh, I think those were. I think the Builders have left android-filled caches all over the universe. Some of those bases still held or do hold androids. I think those androids are hostile to the mummified Builders.”

“You’re suggesting an ancient Builder war?” Maddox asked.

“A civil war,” Ludendorff said. “An ancient civil war fought long ago.”

Maddox thought about that. “What is Shu searching for?”

“I don’t know,” Ludendorff said. “But it wouldn’t surprise me if the mummified Builder in the golden pyramid had a long-term plan. What heretical group doesn’t long for revenge?”

“I thought Builders were peaceful.”

“Peaceful to a degree,” Ludendorff said. “The Spacers aren’t aggressive like the New Men or even the Commonwealth. They are passive in most ways. I’ve spoken with Spacers who claim they will outlive angry humanity. They will outlive the fighters to reign in an era of peace and love.”

“That strikes me as irrational,” Maddox said.

“Spacers pride themselves on matters of the mind,” Ludendorff said. “But back to your question. What does Shu seek? I suspect another golden pyramid perhaps with another mummified Builder. In other words, whatever the heretical Builder hoped to achieve with his captured humans, Shu is now engaged in doing just that.”

“Why did she pick this star system?” Keith asked. “It’s a junk heap of rocks and debris.”

“If I’m right about the Spacers,” Ludendorff said. “Shu’s data about this star system is very old, maybe a thousand years old or more.”

“There’s a flaw with that,” Keith said. “Shu didn’t seem upset by the star system’s destruction.”

Ludendorff shrugged.

Maddox studied the professor. “One thing bothers me with your story. If the Spacers are old as a race, how is it they have better Builder tech than you do?”

“That part is easy to explain,” Ludendorff said. “I think that within the last ten years they have stumbled upon a technologically advanced cache of Builder items. Remember, we don’t know the full extent of their travels. I’m convinced they know more about the Beyond than anyone, which would include Strand and me.”

“Doesn’t that mean Spacers would already be out here?” Maddox asked.

“I don’t think so. Otherwise, why did the Visionary go to such lengths as to recruit you? Why bother with such a risk if there was an easier way?”

Maddox nodded thoughtfully.

The professor checked his chronometer. “Time is wasting, Captain. We need a decision.”

“How can we control what Shu does to
Victory
?” the captain asked.

“We can’t precisely,” Ludendorff said. “We can only point out the dangers of a double-cross.”

“Why did she go so crazy earlier? She threatened to destroy the shuttle.”

“Maybe the journey through the fraying hyper-spatial tube affected her mind. It clearly fiddled with yours.”

Maddox stiffened.

“Or do you think you’d break her little finger if given another chance?” Ludendorff asked.

Maddox rubbed his chin. He’d acted harshly earlier. Could that really have been due to hyper-spatial stress?