“Will we intercept the other transport?” Galyan asked.

  “When the time is ripe,” Maddox said. “First, we must take care of the star cruisers. And take care of Artaxerxes Par,” Maddox added, with anger in his voice.

  The Solar Sovereign picked up velocity as it headed for the Laumer Point. Soon, the buoys Galyan had found went quiet.

  With increasing velocity, Victory followed the super-hauler. Maddox wanted to be close to the Solar Sovereign when it went through the Laumer Point.

  “Sir,” Meta said, “Keith and the battleship captains have received the message. As soon as we give the signal—”

  “No signal,” Maddox said, interrupting. “Instruct Keith to watch us. He will make the decision when to use the star drive jump for the Nerth System. It is good for him to have a few command decisions to make.”

  “Yes, sir,” Meta said.

  Time passed as the Solar Sovereign neared the new Laumer Point and as Victory followed, closing the distance between them.

  Maddox drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair. Would Artaxerxes Par hope to capture Victory and bring Captain Maddox and the starship to the Empire? Would Artaxerxes be greedy, or would he become scared and run away? Maddox shook his head. He didn’t think Artaxerxes could afford to run, not with the Solar Sovereign and its prize of young maidens the Emperor was so eager to acquire.

  Maddox thought back to his conversation with Stokes. What did his grandmother do in Intelligence? He touched the computer chip of dossiers in his pocket. It told of those who wished to replace the Lord High Admiral. Maddox hadn’t examined the chip yet. He should either put it in a safe or give it to Galyan for scanning when the time came.

  How long would Cook continue to hold the reins of power? Maddox thought of other things, such as Captain Becker, who had once helped Admiral Fletcher become the Lord High Admiral. They’d put Becker on ice with his telepathic abilities. Becker waited in stasis for whenever Star Watch might need him. Would those jockeying for power use one like Becker? Or would it be an honest attempt by regular people? What man could stay in power forever? They weren’t Methuselah Men or New Men. They were ordinary humans holding a vast Commonwealth of Planets, taking on all comers and surviving so far.

  An alarm rang.

  Maddox’s head jerked up.

  “Sir,” Andros said, “I’m detecting a star cruiser in the distance. The debris and dust are making it hard to determine if there are more.”

  Maddox made a fist. Could Artaxerxes be trying to ambush Victory now? Was the New Man jumping the gun and trying to do this in visual sight of those on Cestus IV?

  “The star cruiser is gone, sir,” Andros said.

  Maddox stroked his chin. Might Artaxerxes be getting nervous and have sent a star cruiser to confirm the beacon report? If so, Victory was making the archduke nervous. If Artaxerxes were wise, he would send some star cruisers onto the other side of Cestus IV to check. But how close would Artaxerxes dare to bring the star cruisers to the planet? Could Artaxerxes conceive the idea that Star Watch might be setting a trap for him?

  This was a tricky game of cat and mouse. Why had Golden Ural fallen silent? Maddox had tried to contact his uncle on the Library Planet, but no one picked up.

  “Sir,” Andros said, “the Solar Sovereign is increasing velocity, heading at speed for the Laumer Point.”

  “Increase our velocity,” Maddox said. “We want to go in at almost the same time as the super-hauler. We’ll use the giant ship as a shield for the few moments that it’s needed on the other side.”

  The minutes ticked down until finally, the Solar Sovereign entered the Laumer Point and disappeared. Fifty-eight seconds later, Victory did the same.

  -18-

  Victory exited the Laumer Point near the Nerth System. The crew’s injections protected them against Jump Lag. Soon, the ship screens and sensors were up, and so was Galyan. Five thousand kilometers ahead was the Solar Sovereign. Several million kilometers beyond was the brown dwarf star and its few asteroids.

  “Sir,” Andros Crank reported, “I see star cruisers heading toward us.”

  Maddox rubbed his fingertips together, watching the star cruisers on the main screen. There was much less dust and debris here.

  “Sir, the Solar Sovereign is hailing us,” Meta said. “It’s the New Man captain.”

  “Put him on the main screen,” Maddox said.

  A lesser New Man appeared on the main screen with a slight golden hue to his skin, long features and an arrogant stare.

  “So you followed us through the Laumer Point, did you, Maddox? I assume you are Captain Maddox. Am I correct?”

  “You are, sir. Whom do I have the honor of addressing?”

  The New Man shook his head. “You’re not going to learn my name because it doesn’t matter. Do you see the star cruisers approaching?”

  “I do.”

  “You’re ours, Captain, unless you flee this instant. I’m to allow you that privilege.”

  A wintry grin appeared on Maddox’s face. “Perhaps I’ll destroy the Solar Sovereign with you in it before I go.”

  “You would dare to destroy a Trojan property that we hired and paid for? The others would sue in your courts.”

  “Sue? Give me a break. You’re merely playing for time. I understand the tactic well. I’m not going anywhere, however. I await the coming events and star cruisers with pleasure.”

  The New Man’s features tightened. “I’ve heard of your bold front. Very well, I will add you and your starship to my haul.”

  The New Man disappeared from the screen.

  “You gave away the game, sir,” Galyan said.

  “Not now, Galyan. I don’t need critiques at a time like this. I need instant obedience and alertness. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Sir,” Andros said. “The star cruisers are heating up their disruptor cannons.”

  “A little soon for that,” Maddox said quietly. “They’re still far out of disruptor range.”

  “Sir,” Meta said, “I’m receiving a long-range hail from an Archduke Artaxerxes Par.”

  “Put him on the main screen,” Maddox said.

  “A moment, sir.” Meta made some adjustments on her comm board before she pressed a switch and swiveled around toward the main screen.

  On the main screen appeared Archduke Artaxerxes Par. He was a lean, golden-skinned New Man, a dominant with scars on his face. He was acclaimed a clever tactician, who some believed was too bold for his own good.

  “You’re speechless, Captain,” Artaxerxes said. “Do you wonder that you have fallen so neatly into a trap designed to catch you?”

  “Designed to catch me?” Maddox said with a sneer. “You honor me.”

  “I do honor you. You will now drop your shields, disengage your main ship weaponry and await my men to board your ship.”

  “I think not,” Maddox said. “In fact, I’m inclined to use my neutron cannon to destroy the Solar Sovereign long before your star cruisers come into range.”

  “Really, Captain, don’t you know the holds are filled with Commonwealth women eager to mate with superior men?”

  “I know you’ve kidnapped a few.”

  “Not so,” Artaxerxes said. “Most have eagerly sought our service and accepted the joy of entering an Empire of superior men. Now, Captain, while you may, drop your shields.”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen. It is you who are going to drop your shields.”

  For a moment, Artaxerxes’ eyes bulged outward. Maddox had a reputation as a masterful trickster.

  “Why would I do something so foolish?” Artaxerxes asked.

  “Because I’m in the process of surrounding you, sir,” Maddox said. “You don’t think I’d follow the Solar Sovereign without a plan, do you?”

  Meta signaled Maddox with a thumb up. She was not praising him, but letting him know the Star Watch battleships were in position and out of Jump Lag.

  “What is this you say?” Artaxerxes sputtered.

  “You’re an arrogant fool, but a fool nonetheless,” Maddox said. “You’ve fallen neatly into my trap. Are you impressed with your little armada of seven star cruisers?” Maddox bowed and made a motion with his hand. “I suggest you use some of those sensors and scan the asteroids behind you, the ones you left.”

  On the screen, Artaxerxes swiveled and shouted an order. Moments later, he looked at Maddox, with a fading of his golden color.

  “Conqueror-class battleships, Captain?”

  “Yes, my dear Archduke. Ten battleships together with Victory.”

  “You will die before the battleships ever reach us,” Artaxerxes said.

  “I’m less concerned with that than knowing what you’ll tell the Emperor? Oh, I’m sorry, you won’t tell him anything, as you will be dead.”

  “First, we shall kill you and everyone aboard Victory.”

  Maddox laughed harshly. “I’ll happily die in order to kill a murderous bastard like you, one who helped kill my father!” Maddox shouted the last part. Was that a ruse? Or had Maddox lost control of his iron will?

  Artaxerxes recoiled at the shout and then leaned forward with a predatory smile. “You will die, Captain, and I will die. Are you so eager to pass from this life?”

  “If I can take you down with me I am,” Maddox said, seething.

  “I see,” Artaxerxes said, trying to appear blasé. “You say I slew your father? Is that what you are saying?”

  “That is exactly what I am saying. You and others like Trahey.”

  “That’s the Emperor to you,” Artaxerxes said.

  “I’ll call him whatever I damn well please,” Maddox snarled.

  Artaxerxes straightened. “The Emperor defeated you in a duel within the Library Planet, if I recall, and that ended the situation with your father.”

  Maddox breathed heavily. “That settled matters between the Emperor and me, but not between you and me. You will pay for the blood you spilled—my father’s blood!”

  “Your father Oran was a New Man. You, you are filth, a dreg, barely above a preman but far below a dominant like me.”

  “Do you think so, Artaxerxes? I’ll destroy you, and these women will never enter the Empire. They’ll never breed with your filth, and this will be the end of the Empire abducting our precious women.”

  On the screen, Artaxerxes stood. “Seven star cruisers against ten battleships and Victory. That is a worthy fight.”

  “I doubt it,” Maddox said. “We have far superior tonnage and weaponry.”

  “Yes,” Artaxerxes said. “You need tonnage and these…space weapons. Do you not long for a real battle, man to man, Captain Maddox?”

  “What are you saying?”

  It seemed then as if an idea entered Artaxerxes’ mind. “You faced the Emperor in a duel and lost.”

  “That makes no difference today,” Maddox said with a sneer.

  “I have a way out of our impasse, a way in which only one of us will die.”

  Maddox laughed. “I’m not going to die. Our shields have been strengthened. You may pour all your united beams at us, but we’ll withstand it as the battleships move up and knock you out one by one.”

  “Captain, as a New Man who slew your decadent father, your vile, cowardly father, who screamed and begged for mercy in the end…” Artaxerxes leered. “I stepped on his throat and stabbed him in the heart. That was what I did to a begging New Man.” Artaxerxes gathered saliva in his mouth and spat on the deck of his star cruiser. “I spit on your father’s memory.” Artaxerxes pointed at Maddox. “And I challenge you to a duel.”

  “What?” Maddox said.

  “A duel,” Artaxerxes said, “winner takes all.”

  “I’ll not risk my battleships.”

  “No, I’m not talking about the battleships or star cruisers, but about the Solar Sovereign. Both sides go away free. The winner of the duel takes the Solar Sovereign with him.”

  Maddox blinked with seeming astonishment.

  “Do you dare to match blades with me?” Artaxerxes said. “I am a greater fencer than Emperor Trahey himself.”

  Maddox didn’t believe that.

  “I see fear in your eyes, Captain. Is my suggestion too manly of a way for you?”

  “How would we do it?” Maddox asked thickly.

  “We would meet aboard the Solar Sovereign, you and I with our cadre of people.”

  “Your people are already aboard the Solar Sovereign.”

  “A handful only,” Artaxerxes said. “Bring along a few more if you must.”

  “You trust me?” Maddox asked.

  Artaxerxes seemed to weigh the question. “I do know this: you faced Emperor Trahey and are a man of your word. Swear an oath, Captain, that you will abide by the duel. I challenge you. This is a chance for you to live. As I do not really think you’re willing to die, not even to kill me.”

  Maddox smiled inwardly although his features never changed. He’d been seeking a duel all this time. He’d been going into the gym and facing fighting bots. He’d been practicing his fencing, employing all his skills and to remember everything he had been learning throughout the years. This is what he wanted. Artaxerxes Par had taken the bait.

  “I accept your challenge,” Maddox said.

  -19-

  As soon as Artaxerxes disappeared from the screen, Meta jumped up. “No! You cannot do this!”

  Maddox turned and looked at his wife. He did not reprimand her. He did not say a word. He merely continued to stare at her.

  “Please,” Meta said, “you won’t survive this time.”

  A predatory aura enveloped Maddox.

  “Oh please, darling. I know you think you can defeat him, but—”

  Meta rushed into Maddox’s arms and put her face against his chest, giving three quiet sobs. She looked up, wiping her eyes, gazing into his face.

  “I can do this,” Maddox said.

  “No! Think of Jewel.”

  “I must do this. Think of all the captive women. If the star cruisers open fire on Victory before the battleships arrive, Jewel might die.”

  “Artaxerxes won’t fight you. This is a trick. He fears you, my dearest.”

  “Either I have tricked him or he has tricked me. We’re about to find out.”

  Meta blinked. “You intended to duel him?”

  “What do you think I have been doing in the gym?”

  “Oh darling, I know you seek vengeance, but this time—”

  Maddox put a finger on her lips. “You’re here, and I love that you’re here. But you must let me act the part of a captain and act the part of a man.”

  Did Meta understand the hidden threat: that she might not be aboard on future missions if she put up too much of a display?

  Maddox straightened.

  “I’m going with you to the Solar Sovereign,” Meta said.

  “I understand that. I already have a list of those coming, with you among them. This is going to be a delicate situation at best.”

  Meta swallowed and nodded.

  Maddox turned and began to bark orders.

  Soon, in three shuttles, those headed for the Solar Sovereign accompanied the captain.

  All the while, Galyan watched from Victory. He had offered to enter Artaxerxes Par while the other was engaged in a duel and zap the New Man from the inside. That would give Maddox an opening.

  Maddox declined. “This must be pure. No poison, no secret ways, just skill against skill, blade against blade.”

  Three shuttles headed from the seven star cruisers to the super-hauler.

  The star cruisers had parked 10,000 kilometers from the stopped Solar Sovereign. Victory was parked on the other side, 10,000 kilometers from the Solar Sovereign. The ten Conqueror-class battlewagons would park 20,000 kilometers behind the star cruisers. They still increased velocity, though, heading from the asteroids of the brown dwarf star.

  All this was stipulated in the formal words of the Empire dueling language. The code of the duel was strong in the Empire of the New Men. Slurs and wounded honor were often met blade to blade. Many a New Man died after crossing swords or using pistols against each other.

  Emperor Trahey was acclaimed the greatest duelist in the Empire. Maddox had almost beaten him on the Library Planet many years ago, but almost hadn’t been good enough.

  Maddox had never received the injections a New Man did while in the womb, but Maddox had received the extra energy of an Erill, a spiritual entity. Maddox had his intuitive sense and the Way of the Pilgrim. Would those things make up the difference?

  Archduke Artaxerxes Par was recognized as a formidable duelist, though not as skilled as the Emperor. Could Maddox beat him? The captain had been training for this for years.

  The three Star Watch shuttles entered a Solar Sovereign hangar bay. Marines in battle armor came out with power weaponry. They marched and stood at the prescribed locations. In the distance in the hangar bay, a number of women watched.

  A squad of New Men wearing speed cords set up in an opposite spot from the marines. The speed cords granted them accelerated reflexes.

  From among the New Men emerged the tallest, Artaxerxes Par, an Archduke of the Empire. Taller than Maddox, his skin bore a rich golden hue. He advanced with a sword in hand, a long saber with a glittering blade. He wore tight black breeches and boots, and nothing else. He was skin, bone and muscles, a lean, tall beast indeed.

  Methuselah Man Ludendorff had walked out from the marines. He bowed and accepted the archduke’s saber, examining it. Soon, he returned it hilt first to the towering Artaxerxes Par.

  Maddox advanced across the deck with a similar blade, albeit a little shorter and not quite as flexible. He wasn’t as tall, but he had the whip-corded look, the lean demeanor of a predatory beast. He, too, wore tight black breaches and boots, and nothing else.

  In moments, the two faced each other in the center of the huge hangar bay. Ludendorff was near. He told Artaxerxes that he’d tested the captain’s blade and found it proper.