“Enough of that for now.” Arrius lurched to his feet. “It’s time to get ready, time to ready our fleet.”

  “Should I stay in here?” Valerie asked.

  Arrius faced her, letting his eyes rove over her body.

  Valerie blushed, looking down. He obviously liked her. Why hadn’t he ever made a move? Did he think that he was too old for her?

  “You will stand behind my chair during the battle,” Arrius said. “I might have a question or two that only you can answer.”

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie whispered.

  He stepped near, using his thick fingers to lift her chin.

  Would he kiss her? Did she want him to?

  “Valerie,” he said. Then, he turned to the hatch, heading for the bridge.

  ***

  Valerie watched the main screen. It showed the gas giant Vulcan with its beautiful ring. Remus had two Fusion cruisers with collapsium armor. Those were the only real warships in the AirSpace Fleet. The rest could add their firepower and missiles, but would be easy targets for the battlewagons’ lasers.

  Arrius had two cruisers, seven Remus monitors, which were like Fusion destroyers, and several hundred drones. He was counting on the drones to do the heavy work.

  “Three minutes until the enemy vessels pass the planetary horizon, sir,” the weapons officer said.

  Arrius leaned forward with a fist on his knee. “We win or lose fighting,” he told the bridge crew. “We will never surrender. Either we run our world our way or we’re dead. Is everyone with me?”

  A few officers said, “Yes, sir.”

  “No!” Arrius said, shooting to his feet. “Are you with me?” he shouted.

  “Yes, sir,” the officers shouted.

  Arrius turned, his gaze including Valerie. “Are you with me?” he roared.

  “Yes, sir!” Valerie shouted along with everyone else.

  Arrius plopped back into his command chair. “Good,” he said, “because this one could get bloody.” One minute later, Arrius said, “Accelerate fifty of the drones.”

  Officers manipulated their boards.

  On the main screen, fifty dots of light appeared against the background as fifty drones lengthened the exhaust pouring from them.

  One minute after that, the first Fusion battlewagon passed Vulcan’s horizon in relation to the fleet. The first drone reached the hull, igniting its thermonuclear warhead. Others did likewise.

  “Target those locations on the battlewagon’s hull,” Arrius said in a firm voice.

  The AirSpace vessels engaged, firing military-grade lasers at the damaged hull. More drones hit the enemy hull. More drones accelerated for the second battlewagon now appearing from behind Vulcan.

  The stricken Fusion warship shuddered. Lasers burned through the collapsium armor, chewing through one bulkhead after another. Air ignited inside the ship. Food processers collapsed. A torpedo armory blew up, adding to the damage as one deck after another turned into an inferno. The first reactor core quit. The second ignited. The ship shuddered worse than before. Then, a titanic explosion rocked the battlewagon. Incredibly, decks separated and bulkheads melted. The ship flew apart as water vapor, air and mangled bodies blew into space.

  “It’s dead!” an officer shouted.

  Valerie found herself shouting, pumping her fist in the air along with everyone else. They could do it. They could destroy the best Fusion ships provided everything went perfectly. Now, could they kill the second battlewagon and buy their world more time?

  On the screen, heavy lasers burst forth from the remaining battlewagon, striking Remus monitors. One exploded into a fireball, disappearing. The second one did likewise after two minutes of laser raking.

  “Hit it with the drones!” Arrius shouted.

  The battlewagon’s point-defense systems were knocking down drones. As it did so, the last Fusion warship accelerated away.

  “It’s killing our fleet,” an officer shouted.

  Another Remus monitor died to those horrible lasers.

  Then, a drone reached the enemy hull, detonating its warhead.

  “Aim our lasers at that spot,” Arrius said in a hoarse voice.

  “Sir,” the comm officer said. “The Fusion commander wants a word with you.”

  “Put him on the screen,” Arrius said.

  “It’s a woman, sir.”

  “Well, put her on.”

  A second later, a scowling woman in a red uniform pointed a finger at Arrius. “Your treachery will gain you a terrible reward. You have betrayed our trust.”

  Arrius smiled in a mocking way.

  “Are you a cretin who fails to understand my words?” she asked.

  “I see a hypocrite speaking to me,” Arrius said. “You planned to destroy our way of life.”

  “It is a worthless way,” she said. “We offered you true justice.”

  “We don’t want it.”

  “You will learn the hard way then.”

  “No. That’s what is happening to you now. Stay out of our world. You’re not welcome here.”

  She might have replied, but the image went fuzzy and then disappeared.

  The comm officer looked up. “There are too many nuclear warheads detonating out there. Maybe later we can regain a connection.”

  “I’m not interested in later,” Arrius said. “We have to destroy them. We can’t let the battlewagon leave our system.”

  Valerie witnessed the fight. Arrius almost did it. The remaining drones chased the wounded, air-bleeding battlewagon. The cruisers fired their lasers for another ten minutes. Yet, they failed. The battlewagon survived the surprise attack and headed out-system.

  Two day later, it reached hyperdrive territory and vanished. Once the battlewagon reached New Trotsky…

  “We have a lot of work to do,” Arrius told Valerie. “How long until they send an invasion fleet? Or do you think we taught them to leave us alone?”

  “I don’t know, and no.”

  Arrius nodded moodily. “We have to turn our system into a minefield, and we have to find ourselves some allies. I just hope the Fusion gives us long enough to accomplish both.”

  -25-

  From The Early Years of Space Colonization, Vol. III, by Terrance Ferris the Historian

  The hidden colony project as conceived by Professor Ludendorff and Methuselah Man Strand—that eventually produced the New Men—was one of several such projects during the Second Great Expansion of Man.

  Another of the more interesting was the eleven-ship convoy that reached the Glenna Nebula ninety-five years before the Thomas Moore Society was even a gleam in Strand’s eye.

  The Glenna Nebula hid sixteen stars of various types, five of which held Earthlike planets and one of which was home to a sinister alien species. Several of the worst criminals of this questionable species made open contact with humanity when Starship Victory stumbled upon the Glenna Nebula. Until such time, none of the lost colonies within the nebula knew about the hideous alien race that was to prove such a burden to Star Watch.

  That, however, is not the present topic. The eleven-ship convoy reached the Glenna Nebula one hundred and ninety-nine years before Victory and Captain Maddox made their famous first contact as the lost worlds entered their final phase of inter-nebula war.

  Starship Victory exited the hyper-spatial tube created by the Builder nexus in Earth orbit. The double-oval vessel drifted for a time until the crew and ship systems came back online.

  At that point, the sensor operator and Galyan began to scan for signs of the Patrol Scout Kit Carson and the white dwarf star where it should be waiting. They did not find signs of either. Instead, they discovered the starship drifting beside a huge nebula.

  Maddox summoned Professor Ludendorff to the bridge. “Can you tell me what happened? Why we’re not in a white dwarf star system?”

  “I’m afraid not,” the professor said, as he studied the main screen.

  “We are not in the correct location,” Galyan said.

  “I know that,” Maddox said testily from his chair. He closed his mouth, refraining from saying more.

  “Galyan,” Ludendorff said. “Can you locate your home star system from here?”

  Galyan’s holographic eyelids blinked rapidly. “Alas, I cannot.”

  Maddox glanced at Ludendorff.

  “Didn’t you say the Kit Carson had gone to the Adok Home System?” Ludendorff asked Maddox.

  “Yes.”

  “How far is the Adok System from the nebula?” Ludendorff asked.

  Maddox glanced at Galyan.

  “Forty-eight light-years,” Galyan said.

  “Ah,” Ludendorff said. “Then, you should be able to easily find it.”

  “Yes,” Galyan said. “But I cannot.”

  “That must be because the Adok System is not in direct line of sight of us,” Ludendorff said.

  “What happened?” Maddox asked. “Where did the hyper-spatial tube put us?”

  “I seem to recall reading something ages ago about hyper-spatial tubes,” Ludendorff said. “I think it was during my training days as a Builder agent. In rare instances, there is something called a refraction effect.”

  “Meaning?” asked Maddox.

  “Sending us to the opposite location as if bounced from the correct to the new place,” Ludendorff said. “I suspect the operators in the nexus set us on the wrong side of the nebula.”

  “How large is the nebula?” Maddox asked.

  Ludendorff turned to Galyan. “Do you have any idea?”

  Once more, Galyan’s eyelids fluttered. “The nebula or cloud is approximately fifty light-years across by thirty.”

  “It’s huge, in other words,” Maddox said.

  “Yes,” Galyan said. “And if the rest of the nebula is any indication, it is extremely thick or dense.”

  “And we’re on the other side of it from Valerie?” asked Maddox.

  “It’s my theory for now,” Ludendorff said.

  “Recommendations?” asked Maddox.

  “That we begin to search for Valerie,” Galyan said.

  “No, no,” Ludendorff said. “The answer is perfectly obvious.” He regarded Maddox. “Call the Lord High Admiral and tell him the situation. We should return to Earth and attempt to go to our original destination.”

  “Yes,” Maddox said, standing. “That’s an excellent idea.”

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, Maddox stood in the chamber holding the Long-Range Builder Comm Device microphone. He’d just made a horrible discovery. The device did not connect him to the Lord High Admiral. It would not connect him with any other Builder Comm Device either.

  “Galyan,” Maddox called.

  The holoimage appeared in the room.

  “The comm is inoperable. Do you know why?”

  Galyan stared at the bulky main box. “I have no idea, sir. I cannot detect anything wrong with it.”

  “Go get Ludendorff. Tell him to hurry.”

  “At once, sir.” Galyan disappeared.

  ***

  Ludendorff dared to open the ancient Builder box and poke around inside. He did not do so for long. Eventually, the Methuselah Man closed the box.

  “Well?” asked Maddox.

  “I can’t tell a thing,” Ludendorff admitted. “It’s of Builder make. We don’t know how to make something like this, only how to use a working one.”

  “The Long-Range Comm is broken?”

  “Perhaps you didn’t understand what I meant by not knowing how to make it work. I have no idea if it’s broken or if something is causing interference.”

  Maddox blinked several times. Then, he looked at the Methuselah Man in wonder. “Could this be the outsider’s doing, the techno-wizard we theorized in the Balder System? Could he have tagged along with us and is now messing with our greater communication?”

  Ludendorff frowned thunderously. “That would imply the hidden outsider followed us from the Balder System to Earth and then out to here.”

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “That strikes me as highly unlikely,” Ludendorff said. “Could a cloaked vessel, even a supremely cloaked one, follow us through the hyper-spatial tube without reveling himself—at least to those on Earth?”

  “It does seem unlikely,” Maddox said.

  “But not impossible,” Galyan said. “I accept it as a working theory. It makes more sense than a sudden malfunction or the nebula causing the lack of function.”

  Ludendorff threw his hands into the air. “I’ve given you my take. I don’t know what else to say.”

  Maddox allowed himself a smile. “That may be worth it then.”

  “How do you mean?” asked Ludendorff.

  “Seeing you stymied.”

  Ludendorff shook his head. “We’re stranded far from Human Space. The Builder Device malfunctioning strikes me as terrifying, not a joking matter.”

  “All the more reason to joke, now and again.”

  “What are we going to do?” Galyan said. “Will we remain here waiting?”

  “No,” Maddox said. “I think—we’ll head through the nebula. Once we’re on the other side, on the Earth-facing side, maybe the device will begin to work again.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Ludendorff said.

  “Enough of this doom-gathering,” Maddox said. “We will act, and we’ll start looking for the Kit Carson while we’re at it.”

  -26-

  Victory entered the Glenna Nebula, the crew quickly discovering the extent and glooming powers of the dense stellar-cloud substance.

  Maddox discussed it with the others, and they continued to make limited star-drive jumps. The dense substance hid any stars from view, but with Maddox guiding them, the starship continued relentlessly through the cloud.

  Then, one day after the jump lag wore off, the crew discovered Captain Maddox out cold on the bridge deck. An ethereal alien beam from a tiny device outside the starship passed through the hull and targeted the captain’s forehead. Partly embedded in his forehead was a strange device. How it had gotten there, no one knew.

  None of the crew realized it, but the captain dreamed most strangely. He did not dream of his own life, but of that of another, from the planet of Remus.

  The dream or memories belonged to someone called Garth. In the vision, Maddox soon found himself inserted into Garth’s place, thinking of him as himself and hearing his own name in place of Garth’s.

  ***

  The sickly child did not look like the spark that lit the fuse to the horrible war. But as many have said in the past or learned to their sorrow, “Looks can be deceiving.”

  Not that he was the only cause—far from it. The grim conflict took several hot sparks landing in just the right combination to ignite. Yet, out of all the causes, the sickly child was the most interesting, ironic and heroic.

  The key to understanding him began in a back-alley slum on the insignificant planet of Remus. His name was Garth. No one remembered his birth, as the crone who had taken care of him his first five years of his life had already been dead for four.

  Maddox-Garth begged for scraps, coins when he was lucky and had endured many a kick or cuff from bigger, stronger beggars. Usually, they drove him from the choicest locations or stole what he had won. At night, the child shivered himself to sleep in a different hiding spot each time. Too often, a sly footfall or a hacking cough caused Maddox to jerk awake. Prowling drunkards did unspeakable things to those they could catch. So far, Maddox had kept out of their clutches, although he’d had several narrow escapes. He had the cunning of desperation and the fleetness of real terror. He also had continuous stomach cramps because night after night and often during the day, his belly muscles tightened as a knot of fear squeezed without mercy.

  The day of destiny was like countless others, although it began with a stroke of seemingly good luck. An older woman took pity on his deplorable condition—Maddox had cleverly wrapped his legs so he looked like a cripple, having discovered the ingenious deception a month ago. The stout woman dug in her purse, paused as her fingers touched several coins and finally pulled out the largest. She dropped a double-weight copper into his battered cup.

  Maddox tensed and tried to smile his thanks. He’d failed to lift his cup high and fast enough as she’d dropped the heavy coin. Thus, it had made an all too loud plinking sound.

  The lady walked away smiling, carrying her groceries a little easier because she’d done a good deed for the boy.

  As soon as she was out of sight, Maddox scrambled to his feet. He dropped the coin into his right palm, which he shoved into his one good pocket. But he was already too late as a shadow fell over him.

  “Hand it over, rat,” a scrawny man snarled, one who had watched the transaction with greedy eyes.

  Maddox twisted as dirty hands with cracked fingernails snaked toward his shoulders. In his initial rush, the boy outdistanced the wheezing drunk. Maddox sprinted behind the store, scrambled over a fence and ran into the monorail area.

  Unfortunately for the soon panting boy, he’d seriously miscalculated. Others had heard the coin drop into his cup. They were a pack, a gang perhaps, of teenaged youths with knives in their pockets. They followed Maddox from a distance, using similar tactics as hunting fang-beasts.

  The five made their move as Maddox rounded an old concrete corner. He looked up in surprise and then in fear, seeing a man-sized thug with crossed arms grinning down at him. Turning, Maddox found another bully blocking his line of retreat. In a moment, the five surrounded him, leering and laughing at his helplessness.

  Knowing he was defeated, Maddox bitterly dug out the copper and handed it over.

  The biggest youth, a hefty fellow outweighing him by three times, accepted the double-weight coin, pocketing it. Then, he punched Maddox in the face, catapulting the stunned boy into the arms of another laughing bully.

  Amidst the pain, fear struck Maddox, tightening his stomach into a knot so he quivered with terror. He pleaded with blood in his mouth. That was the wrong reaction for dealing with fang-beasts of any kind. They shoved and tripped him, and began to kick his writhing body as if practicing soccer shots. The terror and pain quickly mingled together. Maddox’s head throbbed. He moaned piteously and finally began to wonder why the next kick hadn’t already driven into his back.