Naxos frowned. “The idea is absurd on the face of it. I’m surprised you’re giving the lie any credence.”

  “I’ll tell you why. The Eye dampened nuclear blasts. It saved us from radiation poisoning. It did say I’d have to fix the trader components damaged by the gamma and x-rays that reached us, though.”

  Naxos looked away.

  “Did the Eye lie to us?” Maddox asked.

  Naxos faced Maddox. “The Eye of Helion is a sentient crystal. It is a focus for our considerable mental powers.”

  “Who’s in charge, you or it?”

  “I am,” Naxos said.

  “Those two are really your brothers?”

  “Just as Dravek is your brother.”

  “You’re all clones of each other?”

  Naxos nodded with a sudden jerk of his head.

  “Is your entire race composed of clones?” Maddox asked.

  “No.”

  “What you are?”

  Naxos sighed. “Captain, the Eye is given to exaggeration. It likes to inflate its own importance. It particularly does so when we’re unconscious. I’m afraid we had to grant it excess power a while ago, as we felt ourselves falling into…you could call it a necessary slumber.”

  “You had to sleep?”

  “The sleep was coming upon us. Our mental powers demand it.”

  “Are you human?”

  “What do you mean by the question?”

  “Are you Homo sapiens like me?”

  “Certainly not like you.” Naxos sounded amused.

  “What does that mean?”

  “You’re not Homo sapiens, although that is your root stock.”

  Maddox squinted at Naxos, nodding after a moment. “Are you human in the sense of a New Man or a regular human on Earth being human?”

  “Don’t be absurd.”

  “Were the Gnostics human?”

  “Yes,” Naxos said.

  “You three are aliens then?”

  “In comparison to you: yes.”

  “Are you shape changers?” Maddox asked.

  “You see us how we prefer to be seen.”

  “Did the Entity see you that way?”

  “I believe so.”

  “Do you or the Eye have the power to transfer our ship fifty million kilometers?”

  “Under the right circumstances we can.”

  “The Eye caused our ship to teleport?” Maddox asked.

  “It wasn’t teleportation as such,” Naxos said. “Furthermore, the Eye likely drained itself doing that.”

  “It also dampened several nuclear mines from exploding until we were out of range.”

  “No doubt,” Naxos said. “The Eye likes to brag and show off when it has the chance. It was clearly trying to impress you. I’m afraid it drained us and itself of essence in doing that. You are on your own for a time, Captain.”

  “Should we continue to head for Gath?”

  “That seems wisest for the present.” Naxos yawned. “Captain, I will retrieve the crystal. Then, I will have to go to sleep. The others will continue doing so. The Eye should remain dormant during that time and thus won’t practice any more deception.”

  Naxos stared at Maddox. “Ah. You need to sleep as well. We’re still in grave danger. You should restore your bearings for the next leg of events.”

  “What?”

  “Let me see,” Naxos said, with one finger touching his forehead. “Oh. You’ll need energy and discretion for the next round of decisions.”

  “We’re not done with the Entity or Leviathan yet?” Maddox asked.

  “I find that doubtful, not unless they kill each other off. That seems highly improbable, however.” Naxos yawed again, longer than before. “If you’ll excuse me, Captain?”

  Naxos stood and walked stiffly out of the cabin.

  Maddox turned and headed out as well. That was peculiar, but it was refreshing. The Eye of Helion had been lying about a great many things. For instance, Naxos and the other two were real. The captain’s sense of rightness or normality had thereby been stabilized.

  Soon, Maddox reached an unused cot in an empty cabin and collapsed upon it, falling into a deep sleep.

  -27-

  The days passed in monotony as the trader vessel headed for the terrestrial planet Gath across the star system. The gas giant was far behind. Even so, at this velocity, it would take months to reach Gath.

  During the first two weeks, Maddox slept off the grinding headache. He also vomited, lost weight and had awful dreams.

  Dravek reported that the three passengers slept like those near death. The three lay so they formed a triangle on the cabin deck. The dull crystal sat in the middle of the triangle. It was cold to the touch.

  “One of the sleepers opened his eyes when I touched the crystal,” Dravek said. “His eyes were all black. It was unsettling. If you ask me, we should jettison the crystal into space. It’s bad luck for us.”

  “No,” Maddox said, his head aching as he lay in bed.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Maddox whispered.

  Dravek shrugged.

  “What about the engine and generators?” Maddox asked.

  “They need repair all right. I’m studying the problem.”

  Maddox closed his eyes, falling back to sleep.

  His head probably hurt because of direct communication with the Eye of Helion. The mental contact had taken a grim physical toll on him. He slept to regain something lost during the exchange.

  At the start of the third week, Maddox could finally hold down soup. Two days later, he started an exercise regimen to regain his strength.

  As the trader drifted across the star system, Dravek used the passive sensors to watch the six assault vessels of Leviathan. They had begun braking maneuvers as they neared the gas giant.

  According to Dravek, he could detect no other activity. That included any communication between the vessels and the Entity on the ice moon.

  At the beginning of the fourth week of travel, all that began to change. Maddox had returned to the control cabin. He could eat solid food and exercised harder than last week.

  The three aliens yet slept. The Eye of Helion remained dormant between them.

  Back at the gas giant, an intricate game of chess-like maneuvers and actions started. It began with massive nuclear explosions from no doubt pre-positioned nuclear devices. That was in the path of the oncoming assault vessels. Then beams flashed from concealed locations on a rock moon. Missiles streaked from the ice moon. Counter-missiles streaked from the approaching assault ships.

  One by one, the assault vessels of Leviathan succumbed to the Entity’s attacks. They had launched no counter assaults, although the surviving vessels continued their course for the ice moon.

  In the middle of the fourth week, Dravek reported communications between the assault vessels and the Entity. What they said to each other was unknown.

  Toward the end of the fourth week, a message reached the trader ship.

  Dravek studied the comm before looking up at Maddox. “I think it’s safe to hear. It comes from one of the assault vessels.”

  Maddox nodded his assent.

  Dravek switched on the comm screen. Upon it appeared a Soldier of Leviathan with the same harsh cybernetic visage they had seen while escaping the spaceliner.

  “I know you two,” the Soldier said. “The Entity confirmed that you are Dravek and Captain Maddox. You were prisoners of Leviathan a few months ago. Don’t think you will evade recapture because you escaped into the dreaded Heydell Cloud. You are as good as my prisoners again. However, I offer you this. If you surrender, it will go easier for you. Turn your ship around. I see it. I will even give you its present designation, so you know I speak the truth.”

  The Soldier did so.

  “If you do not comply with my offer within the next thirty-six hours, I will launch the first salvo of missiles. Once I have dealt with this renegade computer, the so-called Entity, I will bring you back to the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan. I await your obvious decision.”

  Maddox felt worse having watched that. He looked at Dravek.

  “They know where we are,” Dravek said. “They’re going to send missiles at us. The best thing to do is to head at maximum velocity for Gath and get onto the surface.”

  “We haven’t fixed the engine or generators, remember?”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” Dravek said.

  “Why should we flee to Gath? Why not use one of the Lamer Points to escape the star system altogether?”

  “I’ll tell you why not,” Dravek said, as if he’d been waiting for the question.

  He pressed several controls and pointed at a screen. It showed green dots in the star system. “These are all the Lamer Points in the system.”

  They were all behind the trader in relation of its present heading. No Laumer Points were near Gath.

  “You’re saying Leviathan blocks the passage out?” Maddox said.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “That’s the first part of your reasoning,” Maddox said. “How does reaching Gath help us evade capture from the Soldiers?”

  “We go to ground on the planet. The Soldiers might land to try to find us. We hide for a couple of months. Once they stop searching, we go to the spaceport and buy passage on a ship and head to wherever.”

  “Why won’t the Soldiers simply nuke the spaceport and capture us anyway?”

  “I don’t know, Mr. Smart Guy. You tell me your plan. It seems to me that we’re in an impossible situation. At least I have a plan.”

  Maddox massaged his forehead, which began to throb once more. He found it harder to argue since dealing with the strange Eye of Helion.

  “There’s another reason we should go to Gath,” Dravek said.

  “I’m listening.”

  Dravek swiveled his seat. “I found data in the computer files about an ancient site on the surface holding powerful weaponry.”

  “Let’s see this data.”

  Dravek brought it up.

  Maddox read with interest, wondering if this was why the Eye of Helion had wanted to go to the planet. Did the Eye or the three have a way of dealing with Leviathan? Would this ancient weapon have other critical functions?

  “We need to fix the engine and generators,” Maddox said.

  “About that,” Dravek said. “I found this.”

  Maddox studied a schematic of the engine and generators and a list of several videos to teach them what to do.

  As the remaining Leviathan assault vessels battled against the Entity on the ice moon, Maddox and Dravek attempted repairs here. It was hard work, took thinking outside their areas of expertise and finally brought a modicum of success.

  During those days, the battle by the gas giant seemed to turn in Leviathan’s favor.

  “We need to head for Gath as fast as we can,” Maddox said. “As long as we’re free, we can do things. Who knows, there may be a better ship at the spaceport. Maybe we can buy passage on it like you suggested before. The other ship might be able to maneuver around the Leviathan vessels.”

  Dravek vastly increased velocity, which ate into their precious fuel supply.

  They watched on the sensors as the Entity destroyed another Leviathan warship. The assault vessel must have sacrificed itself, as its destruction allowed the last two assault vessels into range of the ice moon. They must have launched precision missiles, as pinpoint detonations took place on the ice moon. At the same time, missiles rose from the moon. The explosions enveloped the assault vessels. They disappeared from the sensor screen. Had the Entity destroyed them? It seemed possible.

  Two days later, Dravek discovered three missiles heading through the void, picking up velocity at an incredible rate, heading for their trader ship.

  “I don’t get it,” Dravek said. “How does it help Leviathan by obliterating us? I thought they wanted to capture us for their masters.”

  Maddox studied the missiles on the sensor screen. “We don’t know what’s in the missiles.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Maybe the missiles aren’t carrying warheads. Maybe they’re carrying Soldiers to capture us. Capturing us was their original plan, remember?”

  Dravek swore and began to work on the scanners. After ten hours of work, he said, “You’re right. I don’t detect any warheads on the missiles. But I do detect cybernetic life on two of them.”

  “I take no joy in being right,” Maddox said.

  Dravek kept using the far sensors. “What happened on the ice moon? Did those last missiles destroy the assault vessels?”

  “I think so. The Entity and Leviathan destroyed each other like Naxos suggested could happen.”

  Dravek looked up, grinning. “The Entity was a tricky son of a gun. He or it may have done us a good turn in the end.”

  “Here’s something else in our favor,” Maddox said. “If the missiles are meant to capture us, they’re going to have to slow down to match our velocity.”

  “Say, that’s right. Otherwise, the missiles will blow past us or destroy us as kinetic projectiles.”

  “It looks like we have a shot at reaching Gath.” Maddox looked up at the ceiling. “Thank you, God, for this chance. Amen.”

  Dravek gave him a funny look.

  Maddox didn’t worry about it. Instead, he began to make plans about how they could evade the Soldiers in the missiles.

  -28-

  A week passed as the free trader ship fled from the gas giant and headed toward the first terrestrial planet Gath. During that time, Dravek studied the ship’s data banks and attempted to hack the encrypted files. He discovered that the name of the free trader was Moray, and it was registered to the Yalung Bank on the planet Nimino. He couldn’t make out the name of the star system where Nimino resided, but it wasn’t this one.

  “You know,” Dravek told Maddox the next day in the command cabin, “we need to wake our passengers. We need to find out where they’re from and what their intentions are, specifically as regarding us. If everything remains the same, the missiles are going to reach us a solid day before we reach Gath. That doesn’t take into account that we have to slow down if we’re going to land on the planet. The problem is that decelerating doesn’t strike me as wise with the missiles heading so fast for us.”

  Maddox hardly seemed to be listening as he fiddled with the sensor controls.

  “That doesn’t interest you, huh?” asked Dravek.

  Maddox looked up. “No. I’m listening.”

  “Well? What do you think?”

  “We must decelerate to land on the planet. It’s our only hope of escaping the Soldiers.”

  “If you’re thinking of slicing and dicing the Soldiers with your monofilament blade once they board us, I have news for you. Through long hours of study, I’ve found that the third missile doesn’t carry cybers but something else.”

  “A nuclear-armed warhead?” asked Maddox.

  “I doubt it.”

  “What then?”

  “Before I answer that, tell me this. How did the Entity originally capture the Eye of Heilon, Naxos and the other two?”

  Maddox said nothing.

  “Naxos and his crystal have incredible power,” Dravek said. “I think you’ll agree with that.”

  Maddox still said nothing.

  “Anyway,” Dravek said. “Given their incredible powers, how did the Entity capture someone like that?”

  “That’s a good point. I hadn’t given it much thought.”

  Dravek shook his head. “That’s not good enough.”

  “What isn’t?”

  “From my memories—your memories—you aren’t acting like yourself. Is there a mental block in you? Did the crystal or Dravek the scientist put the block in you?”

  “Well…there was a connection earlier—” Maddox stopped himself.

  “Yes?” Dravek asked.

  Maddox shook his head.

  “No,” Dravek said. “You have to do better than that. I know you have capabilities I don’t have. And maybe you want to keep those secret from me. But that’s a bad idea in this situation. We need to pool our resources if we’re going to survive this.”

  Maddox eyed Dravek, saying, “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

  “You’re right. But now I’m going to lay my final card on the table.” Dravek swiveled his seat and manipulated a panel. On a screen appeared the distant red portal. Three assault vessels of Leviathan moved away from it.

  “When did this happen?” Maddox asked. These were new assault vessels.

  “Yesterday.”

  Maddox nodded. They must have dropped out of the portal yesterday then. “Do you think they’re coming for us?”

  “They must be. The Soldiers in the missiles surely have orders to capture us. Once they do, they need to bring us back. If the last assault vessels to reach the ice moon—from the original six—are gone, those three new ones will take their place. I know Leviathan wants you. I think they’d let me go if I could slip away…” Dravek paused and shrugged.

  Maddox stared at the screen, at the distant assault vessels. Given max acceleration, it would take the Leviathan warships several weeks to cross the star system unless they had a star drive or fold mechanism. They hadn’t shown that in the earlier assault vessels against the Entity.

  “How do we know the approaching missiles were launched from the previous assault vessels?” Maddox asked.

  “We don’t. We just assumed it.”

  “We may have been doing too much assuming lately.”

  “So…the Entity might have launched the missiles?” Dravek asked.

  Maddox snapped his fingers. “You said the third missile doesn’t contain cybers. Maybe it fires a stasis beam.”

  Dravek’s eyes lit up. “Just like the Entity used on us when we were on the Gnostic ship.”

  “Have you ever wondered how the Entity was able to capture Naxos and the others?”

  Dravek scowled. “What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you? Yes. I just asked you that, remember?”

  Maddox rubbed his chin. “The Entity must have used the stasis beam to knock out the Triad before, maybe even knock out the Eye of Helion before any of them could react. That is interesting. Who knows what the Triad or Eye can really do when they try their hardest.”