“Do you think I killed Hampton?” Maddox asked.

  “I do not. But you are under suspicion, as you entered palace grounds with weapons. They have you on video running through the palace halls. They also have recorded you darting a marine.”

  “I suggest that you land marines at the Executive Palace—”

  “Impossible,” Stokes said, interrupting. “This is a CGMS problem.”

  “Then talk to the chief of the Marshal Service. Have him intern all the marines and all palace personnel. Scan their brains.”

  “Your advice is sound, Captain. The Marshal Service is already busy doing just that. Fortunately for Star Watch, you are not the only one who can think on your feet.”

  “Then you must know that I did not murder Hampton.”

  “There are procedures to follow, old boy,” Stokes said. “I know you enjoy breaking them. But this time, we shall follow protocol to the letter.”

  “I’m going to stop the hauler.”

  “Quite unnecessary,” Stokes said. “We have Star Watch destroyers intercepting the hauler. Doctor Meyers will return to testify before a court.”

  “Excuse me, Major. I’d like to verify that.”

  “Captain Maddox,” Stokes said in a didactic voice. “You will…” the major trailed off.

  “What happened?” Maddox asked.

  “This is unbelievable,” Stokes said.

  “Major—”

  “Captain,” Stokes said, interrupting. “I am watching a screen and have just witnessed the hauler folding like a fighter. It has vanished from Earth orbit and vanished from the destroyers closing in on it.”

  “That tears it,” Maddox said. “Victory is the best ship in the fleet to track a vessel like that. Surely, you can see that.”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Stokes said. “But it will take time for you to reach Victory. Lieutenant Noonan can take care of the details while we intern you.”

  At that moment, a fold-fighter appeared six meters above Maddox’s head. A belly hatch opened, and a rope-like ladder dropped down near him.

  “I can be on Victory in less than thirty seconds,” Maddox said.

  “That is a fanciful boast even for you,” Stokes said.

  “I’ll have a report on your desk concerning Professor Ludendorff’s findings on the Sanders android in several hours,” Maddox said. “It shows that aliens of an unknown nature have infiltrated Hampton’s staff. It’s possible they modified Hampton. They blew away his head, likely because that’s where the implants were.”

  “Captain Maddox, I’m ordering you to await the police. You are wanted for murder. We must clear this up in the proper manner. There are too many people saying that Star Watch does what it pleases. Do you understand me?”

  “I do, Major,” Maddox said.

  “Then you’ll be waiting there?”

  Maddox could hear sirens blaring in the distance as he reached for the rope ladder. “I’d like to misdirect you, Major, but I think you’d take that badly. Thus, I’m informing you that I shall surrender once I have Doctor Meyers in custody.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Stokes said. “That is a direct—”

  Maddox clicked off the comm and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. Then he clambered up the ladder with simian ease.

  Riker followed him.

  Soon, the rope zipped in and the belly-hatch shut. Seconds later, the fold-fighter folded away, presumably up to Starship Victory high in Earth orbit.

  -20-

  Maddox strode onto the bridge of Victory as Lieutenant Valerie Noonan exited the captain’s chair. She had athletic grace and long brunette hair.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, sir,” she said, her beautiful features screwed up with worry.

  “Captain Maddox,” the Lord High Admiral said from the main screen. “I second that feeling.”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, not expecting to see Cook, not wanting to see the old man right now. The captain took his chair, wondering if Valerie had been in on this ambush. Yes, of course she had.

  Maddox realized he had pushed her too hard. Each person had his or her own basic nature. Loyalty could stretch that nature, but there was always a breaking point. A good leader knew the amount of elasticity in each of his people. It would appear he had misjudged Lieutenant Noonan, a mistake on his part.

  Even as the captain realized these things, he looked up at Cook with bland features.

  “I’m not sure what to do with you, Maddox,” Cook said. The old admiral looked haggard. “I wish I inspired the kind of loyalty you do with your crew.”

  “The crew and I have been through a lot together, sir. We’re like a family.”

  “I’m familiar with the concept,” Cook said. “The point, young man, is that you have the proverbial luck of the Devil.”

  “Sir?”

  “Don’t interrupt me,” Cook said, as some of his former demeanor returned. “There’s been a breakthrough in the case—I’m referring to Prime Minister Hampton’s murder. Chief Marshal Eric Enders has conclusively determined that you did not nor could not have killed the Prime Minister.”

  Maddox sagged back in his chair and some of the terrible tension in his gut uncoiled.

  “They’ve begun interrogating Executive Palace marines,” Cook said. “There is definitely something wrong with each of their brain patterns. What’s more, there is an old surveillance system in place at the palace. A former administration had it installed during a bad period. That’s unimportant, I suppose. The thing is that the new administration must have never heard about it, or not have had time yet to insert the system into the newer one their team installed.”

  Maddox kept silent, listening intently.

  “Chief Marshal Enders remembered the old surveillance system and decided to check it. It shows Doctor Meyers shooting the Prime Minister. She definitely murdered Hampton.”

  “She made a mistake,” Maddox said.

  “So it appears. Do you have any idea why she did that?”

  “Made the mistake regarding the old surveillance system?”

  “No. Why would she shoot Hampton?”

  “I imagine because she believed that he had been compromised, the plot uncovered or about to be uncovered.”

  Cook frowned, nodding slowly. “You were right about something else, I’m afraid. There’s been a change in my brain pattern. It’s slight, but it’s there.”

  “Sanders?” asked Maddox.

  “This puts me in a terrible dilemma. If we’re keeping O’Hara out because she’s been mentally compromised—”

  “Sir,” Maddox interrupted. “You can’t step down now.”

  “But if I’ve been mentally compromised, if my people dismiss my orders to do what they want without repercussions—”

  “Prime Minister Hampton is dead, sir,” Maddox said, interrupting, knowing very well that Cook referred to him. “We’ve just lost the head of the Commonwealth. We can’t lose the head of Star Watch as well at the same time. Word is going to leak out about Hampton trusting an android. The Commonwealth does not need two hard blows concerning its top leadership. People need to have faith in the system. If they lose that faith, the entire system can crumble.”

  “You have a point,” Cook conceded. “It’s what Major Stokes has been telling me.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I hate to interrupt your conversation.”

  Maddox scowled at the holoimage.

  “What is it?” Cook asked. “What is the AI trying to tell you?”

  “Well?” Maddox asked Galyan. “What is it?”

  “I have detected the folding hauler,” Galyan said.

  “I heard that,” Cook said. “Where is it?”

  “Midway through the Asteroid Belt, Admiral,” Galyan said. “It is still heading on a direct course for Jupiter.”

  “Captain,” Cook said. “Follow that hauler. Stop it and capture Doctor Meyers. If you can, find out what type of alien she serves. But bring her back so Star Watch can interrogate her.”

  “I will, Admiral,” Maddox said.

  “We’ll finish this conversation later,” Cook said. “I want her, son. You go get her.”

  Maddox nodded, intending to do exactly that.

  -21-

  Victory went into high alert as Galyan studied the sensor data in detail.

  The supposed hauler had used a fold mechanism, a mini-star drive jump. The enemy vessel had gone between two points in space in an instant. The ancient starship’s sensors had needed time to spot the hauler, however, as light traveled at a constant speed of 300,000 kilometers per second.

  On average, the Earth was one AU from the Sun, or 150 million kilometers. The enemy hauler was approximately halfway in the Asteroid Belt, which was between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. In this case, the hauler was a little more than 250 million kilometers away from Victory’s present position.

  Given the distance, it took light 14 minutes to travel between the hauler and Victory. As Galyan used the starship’s teleoptics, he was seeing what the hauler had been doing 14 minutes ago.

  Contrary to common stereotypes, the Asteroid Belt was relatively empty of stellar objects. The total mass of the asteroids in the belt was approximately 4% the Moon’s mass. Half the belt was contained in the four largest asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea.

  “We’re going to follow the hauler,” Maddox said. “Tell the crew to get ready for a combat jump.”

  He had no arguments from anyone. A klaxon wailed as Valerie alerted the crew for the coming star drive jump.

  Maddox settled in his command chair. This was a perplexing situation. In his estimation, the aliens or Meyers had definitely panicked. They might have been able to brazen it out, as they’d held Prime Minister Hampton. The key, he was sure, was that they hadn’t known what he’d learned from having Ludendorff study the android. Keeping the Sanders android had been the right move to force their hand.

  “We’re ready to jump, sir,” Valerie said.

  A that point, Keith rushed onto the bridge, heading for the helm controls.

  “Let’s come in close,” Maddox said. “I want to appear within ten thousand kilometers of the hauler.”

  “You doubt they have weapons?” Valerie asked.

  “None that can do us heavy damage,” Maddox replied. “Galyan, ready the neutron cannon. I doubt we’re going to need the disrupter cannon for this.”

  “Isn’t that premature, sir?” Valerie asked.

  Despite his dislike of having anyone question his orders, Maddox swiveled his command chair to regard her.

  “They have a fold mechanism,” Valerie said. “According to Galyan, they have advanced antigravity pods. They managed to insert a controlled human into our highest office.”

  “The last has nothing to do with military affairs.”

  “But it shows advanced thinking on their part,” Valerie said.

  “Noted,” Maddox said. “Helm, bring us in at twenty-five thousand kilometers. We’ll give ourselves a little more margin for error.”

  Valerie looked as if she wanted to say more, but she finally turned back to her board.

  Maddox faced the main screen.

  Keith had been tapping his board. “This will be an approximate distance, sir. I’m calculating their position at their speed fourteen minutes ago.”

  “I understand,” Maddox said.

  “Then, we’re jumping…now,” Keith said, as he manipulated his panel.

  Maddox gripped the edges of his armrests, tensed and felt that odd sensation of folding or jumping. He lost awareness due to mini-Jump Lag. And then his senses began working again. The captain inhaled deeply. He was usually the first to come out of Jump Lag. The others now did as they began to stir again.

  “Show me the hauler,” Maddox said. “Put it on the main screen.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “Where is the enemy hauler?”

  “Gone, sir,” Galyan said.

  “Do you mean it folded again?”

  “I don’t know,” Galyan said. “That would be the most probable—”

  “I got them,” Valerie said.

  Maddox swiveled around to her. “Where is it?”

  “In the Jupiter System,” Valerie said. “The hauler folded 379 million kilometers from its last location. It is now a little more than one million kilometers from the gas giant. That puts it at the same orbital distance from Jupiter as Ganymede.”

  “We have to follow them,” Maddox said.

  “We can’t jump just yet,” Valerie said.

  Maddox almost struck an armrest in frustration. He refrained as he stood. “Get me Star Watch Command, Jupiter,” he told Valerie.

  “It will be a delayed message,” Valerie said.

  Maddox nodded. “Tell them about the hauler. Tell them to intercept it at once. Keith, alert me the instant we’re ready to jump again.”

  “Aye, mate,” Keith said.

  Maddox frowned.

  “I mean, yes, sir,” Keith amended.

  Maddox rubbed his chin. The hauler appeared to have a limited jump or fold capacity. Otherwise, why not jump directly to Jupiter the first time? That the enemy ship was racing to Jupiter seemed odd. The Jupiter moons were heavily colonized. There were even cloud cities within the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. Star Watch had several destroyer-class vessels stationed there. The authorities at Jupiter might have already been hailing the fleeing hauler.

  Why race to Jupiter? Could the hauler have other allies waiting for them there? That seemed unlikely, and yet, so did suborning the Prime Minister.

  Time passed as Maddox fumed inwardly, waiting.

  “My message should have reached Star Watch Command, Jupiter by now,” Valerie said.

  More time passed. Finally, “We should be receiving a reply soon,” Valerie said.

  Galyan had recorded the hauler racing toward the gas giant. So far, no Star Watch destroyers had attempted to intercept it. Of course, the data was a little less than 14 minutes old.

  Maddox tapped a fist on the right armrest of his chair. Jupiter was the fifth planet from the Sun. The gas giant possessed two and a half times the mass of the rest of the Solar System’s planets combined, while it was one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. It had 79 moons. The largest, Ganymede, was greater in diameter than the planet Mercury. Jupiter was a gas giant, primarily composed of hydrogen but with a quarter being helium. It lacked a well-defined solid surface at its core. A surrounding layer of liquid metallic hydrogen rested above that core. The rest of the planet was composed of dense gases.

  There was nothing in Jupiter for the hauler. The wiser course for them would have been to head into empty space. Meyers risked capture going into the Jupiter Planetary Region.

  What didn’t he understand about this? Meyers was acting in a reasonable manner. He simply did not understand her reasoning.

  “We’re ready, sir,” Keith said.

  “Bring us in close this time,” Maddox said. “I mean right on top of them. One thousand kilometers ought to do it.”

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “Regulations state that we aren’t supposed to appear closer than two thousand kilometers.”

  “Fine,” Maddox said. “Make it two thousand. Are you ready, Mr. Maker?”

  Keith manipulated his board. “Aye,” he said.

  “Go,” Maddox said.

  Keith tapped his panel, and they jumped…

  -22-

  Valerie’s quoting of regulations might well have saved the starship as it appeared near Jupiter.

  Two Star Watch destroyers—tube-shaped craft—maneuvered into firing position on the fleeing hauler. Unknown to Maddox and his crew, the commander of the two-ship flotilla had given the final warning. The hauler did not acknowledge it.

  Beams flashed from the destroyers, reaching out to the hauler.

  In size and mass, the destroyers were like foxes chasing a bull. Even so, this hauler was smaller than the huge ones that crossed between the stars for the Nerva Corporation. This hauler had two and a half times the mass of a Bismarck-class battleship but was almost completely round like a giant ball.

  Nerva Corp haulers were typically longer, more akin to giant cigar-shaped vessels. This hauler’s engine exhaust was also much cooler than normal, and that didn’t make sense.

  In any case, Victory appeared as the destroyers fired at the enemy vessel. If the starship had appeared one thousand kilometers from the hauler, it might have been in the line of fire. As it was, the starship was well out of the way.

  The bridge crew shrugged off the mini-Jump Lag in time to witness an incredible spectacle. A shimmering black spheroid hardened into sight around the hauler as the twin beams from the destroyers neared it. One of the beams rebounded off the black spheroid, heading back exactly the way it had come. That happened fast enough that the ray struck the destroyer that had fired it.

  The beam caused the destroyer’s own electromagnetic shield to discolor. Fortunately, the captain in charge of the ship had the presence of mind to cease firing. He didn’t quite do it fast enough, however, as the hot beam burst through the destroyer’s weak shield. The ray struck the firing cannon, and in this instance, caused a quick chain-reaction.

  The cannon exploded, and that caused hot liquid and other heated substances to blow back into the destroyer. The hull around the cannon also blew outward and some of the ship’s air ejected. Several tumbling people flew into space with the air, dying almost instantly. Another explosion shook the destroyer as more debris blew outward from the hull rupture.

  “Do you see that?” Valerie exclaimed from her station.

  The other destroyer—the Recluse—had ceased firing.

  “A suddenly appearing reflective black spheroid in lieu of a shield,” Ludendorff said. “We’re witnessing obvious alien technology.”

  Maddox swiveled his chair to see the professor standing near the main hatch, studying the images on the screen.

  Ludendorff exchanged glances with Maddox. “This confirms our worst suspicion,” the professor said.

  The stricken destroyer no longer expelled debris and people into space. It was crippled, but it did not seem as if it would ignite, killing everyone onboard.