“I do not understand.”

  “Hard-matter creatures own a void ship.”

  “Oh. Yes. That is strange.”

  “It is more than that,” Zeno said. “Consider. The humans could build a void-ship fleet and attack Enoy.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” Zeno said. “That is a danger, a possible deadly threat. Thus, we will refit the ship, energize and see if the humans do as they proposed. We shall naturally keep a sharp lookout for Cronus. I imagine he not only has to lick his wounds, but assuage his pride as well. We are safe for a time. And consider this as well. If we return home and show the Sisters the folly of this Zeta, then they will treat us respectfully and with accolades, and not as fools who remained prisoner for five thousand lonely years.”

  “Ah,” Kree said, “the ulterior motive finally appears. Thank you, Commander. I appreciate you sharing this with me.”

  “Let us feed,” Zeno said. “Then we shall refit what needs refitting. Afterward, we shall follow the Nathan Graham and see how deeply the treachery against Enoy runs.”

  -12-

  Within the reality field, time passed aboard the Nathan Graham. The medical teams made their rounds, injecting the crew with extra shots of DE-16-C.

  The Centurion ran the marines ragged, keeping them sharp for the coming insertion mission. At the same time, Senior Scientist Mathews ran test after test with his modified anti-AI virus.

  “So much depends on the virus working,” Jon told Gloria one night. They were lying in bed together, under the covers with the lights out.

  “The mission is a mad gamble,” Gloria said. “I’ve known it from the beginning. I had no idea then of things like Cronus or captive Sisters of Enoy. Jon, the universe is vaster and more varied than I’d ever imagined. How can we think to challenge all these evils?”

  He reached under the cover, stroking his wife’s belly. She had such smooth skin. He loved touching her. He loved lying naked under the covers with her. He loved other things, too, being with her like this intimately night after night. It was good to have someone wise like she was in order to hash out ideas. Clearly, they didn’t always agree. He’d read somewhere about the ancient Germans that had fought against the Roman Empire. Those Germans had thought a husband a fool who didn’t listen to his wife’s advice. That didn’t mean the man had to always accept it, but he should listen to her and ponder her words. She was a gift, and a wise man used his gift from God, or in the ancient Teutonic world, the gods.

  “We can’t surrender to them,” Jon finally said.

  “You can’t.”

  “You can’t either. We have to fight. It’s the nature of being alive. If we lose, we’re extinct.”

  “Not necessarily,” she said.

  “I know, run away to fight again another day. It’s a good proverb where applicable. But sometimes your back is to the wall. Do you surrender or do you fight? I prefer to die with a gun in my hand, blazing away as I battle the enemy. Let them know you were there. Hurt them if nothing else.”

  “I thought this was about survival,” she said.

  “It is. It very much is. But one has to acquire the warrior spirit. As a man thinks, so he is. I think of myself as a warrior. If an enemy attacks what I love, trying to destroy it, I’m drawing my gun and doing my damnest to destroy the enemy first. That includes the Cronuses of the void and Main 54 in the red dwarf system.”

  “We’re heading there to rescue Sacerdotes, remember, not fight to the death.”

  “Right,” Jon said. “It was a figure of speech.”

  “I shouldn’t have asked you about this now. I want to get to sleep.”

  “I know what can help us sleep,” he said, stroking her smooth belly again.

  Gloria snuggled against him. “Tell me you love me.”

  “I love you,” he said, rolling toward her, and he began kissing her face while caressing her hip. And for a time, they knew each other, man and wife.

  Later, they both slept soundly, content in the marriage bed as the Nathan Graham hurtled through the terrible void.

  ***

  The next ship-day, the chief medical officer informed Jon that Lugo had regained consciousness. He wanted to speak to the Supreme Commander.

  Jon told the doctor via com that he would be there soon. Then he went looking for Bast. He found the Sacerdote in his quarters. When Bast opened the hatch, his face was sweaty.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?” asked Jon.

  “No, come in, come in,” Bast said.

  Jon did, and the quarters were Spartan and hot, with over a hundred burning candles. Bast had chalked out a walkway on the floor, and he must have been practicing his Sacerdote ways, moving from one chalked-out square to another like a kung-fu artist.

  “Water?” asked Bast.

  Jon shook his head.

  Bast went to a table, which stood beside a sleeping mat. The green-skinned Sacerdote picked up a jug and chugged it dry. He smacked his lips afterward and toweled off his sweaty face.

  “It’s hard to stop drinking whiskey all at once,” Bast informed him. “I feel empty inside without it. Practicing The Way helps. Drinking myself silly with water feels like its cleaning out my insides. I have to piss all the time, though.”

  Jon laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t ever change, Bast.”

  “I should keep drinking whiskey and beer?”

  “No. That’s not what I meant. You’re unique.”

  “We each are,” Bast said. “I am me. You are you. And Lugo is Lugo.”

  “Profound.”

  “I know you meant that as a joke, but it is profound. There will never be another me in the universe. Nor will there ever be another Jon Hawkins. We must celebrate each individual.”

  “The philosopher is back, eh?”

  Bast nodded.

  “Good,” Jon said. “I want you to walk with me.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “To see Lugo, to question him. I want you with me. But first, I want you to fill me in on a few things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Let’s go,” Jon said. “I’ll tell you on the way.”

  -13-

  As they walked through various corridors, the Supreme Commander questioned Bast about Lugo, wanting his opinion on anything he wished to relate about the man.

  After some consideration and three turns, Bast said, “He’s lonely. That’s the sense radiating from him. I think the Kames fill a gap in him.”

  “The Kames keep him from being lonely?”

  Bast nodded. “He doesn’t have the Kames connection while in the void. I don’t know whether he’ll pick it up again once we enter the red dwarf system. Is there a distance limit to the Kames connection?”

  “That’s a good question. Hmm… I wonder if his loneliness is an emptiness? Did his mind, or a projection of his thoughts, wander the void in some way? Did he bring Cronus to us because he was looking for someone or something to fill the void of his loneliness?”

  “There had to be a reason. The Rule of Causality says as much. Your idea is as good as or better than many.”

  “What was Cronus?” Jon asked.

  “A demon.”

  “A literal biblical demon?”

  Bast shrugged. “An evil entity that delighted in bringing harm. An entity able to possess the mind of another.”

  “Do you think Cronus will try to hunt us down?”

  Bast shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Neither do I,” Jon said. “But I want a better handle on him. Knowing what he really is would help. Would the null-splitter threat work a second time?”

  “These are conjectures,” Bast said. “We know nothing about Cronus but his size and some of his power. I would suggest that fighting him in normal time and space would be easier than in the void. We belong to reality. The void is like swimming underwater to us.”

  “Only a thousand times worse,” Jon added.

  They walked in silence for a time.

  “Wouldn’t it be wiser to begin preparing for Main 54?” Bast asked.

  “After we talk to Lugo. We’re nearing the end of our journey. Cronus might be chasing us. If he is, I want to be ready for him. But yes, otherwise, you’re quite right. Main 54 is our objective.”

  Bast looked sharply at Jon.

  “Correction,” Jon said. “Getting the Sacerdotes out of Main 54 is our objective.”

  Bast smiled shyly, and his eyes took on a shiny look. “I never thought we would be on this mission. I never thought there was a real chance at this. Thank you, Jon. I will never forget that you kept your oath to me.”

  Jon nodded, and then he saw the flitter that would take them through the larger corridors to the medical facility.

  ***

  Lugo was sitting up in bed. He no longer wore any restraints. He looked exhausted, with dark, puffy circles around his eyes. He seemed listless and ragged, and his shoulders slumped.

  “I hope I didn’t hurt anyone before,” Lugo said in a hollow voice.

  Jon and Bast sat in regular chairs. Medical personnel moved in the background. It was a large chamber. A few machines monitored Lugo, but did so without any pads on his skin.

  “What did the doctor tell you?” asked Jon.

  “Nothing about that,” Lugo said. “Did I hurt anyone?”

  “What do you remember?”

  “It was like a dream. You know, the kind of dream where you don’t have any control.”

  “I know,” Jon said. “What do you remember about the dream?”

  Lugo looked at his hands, turning them over and staring at his swollen knuckles. “I used to cage-fight. I also used to hurt people who didn’t pay up on time.”

  “I’ve done that,” Jon said.

  Lugo looked up. “You?”

  “Lived in New London on Titan. I ran with the lower-level gangs for many years. Later, I loan sharked as a bone buster.”

  “Huh?” Lugo said. “We have something in common then.”

  Jon nodded. “More than likely, we understand each other, too.”

  Lugo seemed to look at Jon in a new way. “You used those hard-case lessons, didn’t you? You’ve been treating the AIs like—like enemy gang members.”

  “More like vermin that need exterminating.”

  Lugo turned away, staring at the wall or maybe staring into his memories. “I like working for the Kames. I like being joined with good people, even if they’re aliens. I feel part of something bigger and better than I am.”

  “You’re part of the Confederation,” Jon said. “If the Confederation lives, the Kames live.”

  “Okay…”

  “We’re in this together, Lugo. You’re part of the Nathan Graham. I count on you to do your job. Not only that, if an alien entity takes control of your mind, I fight to win you back.”

  “And save your ship in the process,” Lugo said.

  “You’re part of the crew on this ship.”

  Lugo took a deep breath, facing Jon. “You want to make me feel like I belong here. I get it. I’m not stupid.”

  “No one ever accused you of that.”

  “You’re implying it the way you’re piling it on. What do you want to know, anyway?”

  Jon stared at Lugo Malagate, studying the man, trying to understand him. Lugo had been a bruiser all his life, using his knuckles to solve problems. Now, it turned out he had mental powers, weak compared to Seiners, but useful as a Kames rep.

  “While Cronus ran you, you hurt some people bad,” Jon said. “Ended up killing two.”

  “No,” Lugo whispered.

  “It was your body but Cronus’s mind. You’re not responsible for the injuries or the deaths. Cronus is.”

  Lugo nodded slowly, seeming to ingest the words, the idea, seeing how it tasted. He squinted at Jon. “You’re wondering what I learned from Cronus.”

  “Did you read that in my thoughts?”

  “I can sense your emotions. You’re genuine, but troubled about me. Bast is more compassionate, which is crazy, if you think about it.”

  “I don’t know,” Jon said. “Bast is another of those good aliens.”

  “We fought each other again, didn’t we?” Lugo asked Bast.

  The Sacerdote nodded.

  “You won again, huh?”

  Bast didn’t reply.

  “What is Cronus?” Jon asked softly.

  “Evil,” Lugo said. “I know I told you that before, but you didn’t really understand because you were looking for something else. I’m going to tell you a truth. Some people would say that Cronus isn’t evil he just has a different set of beliefs or morals from us. Well, let me tell you, Hawkins, that’s a bunch of shit. Cronus is evil any way you slice it. He’s different all right, and he’s as blackly evil as you can imagine. He likes inflicting pain—”

  Lugo shook his head and then lowered his face, putting it in his hands, shaking his head again. He sniffled, maybe stifled a sob and raised his head. His eyes were red-rimmed.

  “Do you have any idea what it’s like having an entity like that running your body and mind?”

  “I don’t,” Jon admitted.

  “It’s worse than rotten. It makes me wonder how bad I must be that Cronus flowed so smoothly into my mind.”

  “That is false logic,” Bast rumbled.

  “Oh, yeah?” Lugo challenged.

  “You are a trained Kames rep,” Bast said. “Your mind is conditioned to accept union or linkage with an alien entity. You want acceptance. You want to replace your loneliness with joining. It was surprising you were able to resist at all. I find your resistance impressive. It demonstrates the good in you.”

  Lugo stared at the Sacerdote with a hopeless expression on his face. Slowly, that look vanished and a slight expression of hope replaced it.

  “Thanks, Bast. I appreciate that.” Lugo turned to Jon. “What is Cronus? I don’t know exactly. He wasn’t born in the void. I sensed that much from him. He came from…elsewhere. How he entered the void, I don’t know, either. He hungers in a strange and violent way. He…won’t let this go.”

  “You sense him now?” Jon said, leaning forward.

  “No…”

  Jon gave Lugo a searching look.

  “Not really,” Lugo said. “I feel something, maybe a lingering sensation from Cronus. He’s immensely powerful and ancient beyond conception for the likes of us. He’s vain and proud. I would imagine he hates you intensely.”

  “Tell him to get in line,” Jon muttered.

  “What is it about you,” Bast asked Jon, “that makes aliens dislike you so much?”

  “Because I love my side and will fight harder than anyone to save it,” Jon said.

  “Yes,” Bast said. “That is so. That is what I am attempting to emulate. I want to be like you, Jon Hawkins. I want to save the Sacerdotes the way you save humans.”

  Jon patted one of Bast’s knees. Then, he gave Lugo a frank look. “Would you be willing to consciously search the void for Cronus?”

  “Nope,” Lugo said. “There’s not a chance of that. I have a terrible feeling that I’m what drew Cronus to us in the first place. I won’t do that a second time. I will tell you the instant I sense him coming, though.”

  Jon stood. “That’s good news. I’m going to confine you to a cell for a time. I want to make sure you’re okay and that the crew is okay around you.”

  “Is there anything I can do for the people I hurt?”

  “Yes,” Jon said. “Tell me if you feel Cronus coming. And if he’s trying to take over your mind again, fight him harder and longer this time.”

  “How?”

  “I have no idea. That’s your department. But you’d better figure it out, and you’d better fight harder and longer than humanly possible.”

  “You’re blaming me for not trying hard enough?”

  “No. I’m encouraging you to fight even harder. This is a struggle, Lugo. It’s a fight to the finish. Find what makes you fight harder and harness that. As a man thinks, so he is.”

  Lugo frowned. “Okay…I’ll try.”

  “No try, as they say,” Jon told him. “But do. This is all about doing, right?”

  Lugo’s nostrils flared, but finally he nodded.

  “Bast, any questions?”

  “Not right now,” Bast said.

  “Lugo?” asked Jon.

  “No,” the Kames rep said.

  “All right then. Bast. It’s time to start getting ready for Main 54. We’re going to be at the targeted system soon.”

  “Good,” Bast said. “It’s what I’ve been waiting for.”

  -14-

  The giant alien known as Cronus moved through the void. He seethed with rage at the indignity of defeat against lesser, pathetically weaker beings. Not only that, but this Jon Hawkins had demanded the release of the rabid Sisters of Enoy, the dirty witches that had resisted him for many centuries indeed.

  The power employed against him—he hadn’t been ready for such a device and witchery. If he’d known ahead of time that the humans had and could deploy a plane-shifter…he would have utterly changed his line of operation.

  To humans while in the void, he looked like a giant planet with glowing fungus patches. He, too, deployed a field in this terrible realm. He had gleaned all that from Lugo Malagate’s mind. What a pathetic little worm the man had proven. It had been fun running through the tiny ship in possession of the man’s mind, smacking one person after another to the floor.

  Bast Banbeck. There was a name he wouldn’t soon forget. The Sacerdote would also know terror and remorse for his part in thwarting the great Cronus. He would make Bast suffer for a millennium, maybe two or three millennia.

  Using a unique form of propulsion, Cronus glided through the void, thinking dark and evil thoughts.

  Hawkins had hurt him with the null-splitter. That had been so dastardly, so underhanded and sneaky.

  Cronus hated sneaks. He hated those who thwarted his will in any way. He hated presumptuous little aliens who fought above their proper status.

  How could he avenge himself? How could he make them pay? That null-splitter was an ingenious device. But…that was Enoy technology. How had the Sisters of Enoy kept that from him for all this time? He thought he’d broken some of them, at least. Apparently, that had not been the case, or they had not been broken deeply enough that he could read every one of their alien thoughts.