“Are we all set?” Keith asked from the piloting chair.

  “Good work, Lieutenant,” Maddox said.

  “Just my job description, mate,” Keith bragged. “Pull the rabbit out of the hat when all else fails.”

  “So, it is true,” the android said. “I had thought my briefing false, as no one can be that full of himself.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Keith said. “But it isn’t being full of myself. I know what I can do, and I do it when the situation calls for it. By the way, you’re welcome.”

  Keith turned to Maddox. “Who is he, because I know he ain’t the sergeant?”

  “An android,” the captain said, as he clawed the blaster from his holster and aimed it at the Sergeant Riker lookalike.

  “Are we back to this?” the android asked.

  “A precaution,” Maddox said, “as your kind has fooled us one too many times.”

  The android nodded. “Do you desire to hear the rest of my information regarding the Jotuns?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said, “as soon as we’re back on Victory.” He turned to Keith. “How long will that be?”

  At that point, a fusion beam firing up from Earth struck the tin can, causing a klaxon to blare.

  “Heads up, people,” Keith said. “It looks like we’re not out of this yet.”

  -30-

  “Galyan,” Keith said into a comm, even as his fingers roved over the piloting board. At the same time, the fold-fighter maneuvered wildly.

  “I see it,” Galyan said over the comm. “It is a second battery. I will take it out…now.”

  Keith’s fingers kept moving as he stared intently at his board.

  Maddox had tucked the blaster away as he strapped himself in. The marine and android did likewise at different locations.

  “I’m done with this,” Keith said. “We need to get you home, sir.”

  “We need to find out who’s firing at a Star Watch fold-fighter,” Maddox said.

  “Galyan can do that,” Keith said. “Hang on, now. We’re—”

  Maddox blacked out so he didn’t hear the next words.

  ***

  When the captain came to again, he found himself lying on a bed in Medical with Meta staring down at him. There were tubes in his arms and his chest felt heavy.

  “What’s going on?” Maddox asked slowly, his mind befuddled.

  “You fainted on the fold-fighter,” Meta told him.

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “That isn’t what the doctor is saying,” his wife said.

  “Oh?”

  “It’s…” Meta gave him a worried stare.

  Instead of surging up, Maddox sagged back against the bed. He had an idea what had happened. Ever since he’d used a Ludendorff-made machine, used some of his life-essence to power it and attacked a spiritual-creature Ska, he had taken internal wounds. The wounds weren’t physical, but of a spiritual nature that affected his life force.

  Often at the oddest times, he suffered weakness when his normal vitality should have seen him through. He simply did not have the same firepower he used to have. It was maddening, and it was something that he refused to accept about himself.

  “You overdid it,” Meta was saying.

  Maddox sighed. He didn’t have time for weakness. He needed to find a workout regimen that would let him build back up to what he used to have. One hidden part of him wondered if there was such a regimen or if he had taken permanent damage that would be with him for the rest of his life.

  That was a daunting thought that he didn’t want to acknowledge.

  “If you’re worried about the android, Valerie had him placed in a secure cell in the brig.”

  “That’s something at least,” Maddox said.

  “The…ah, Lord High Admiral wants a word with you later.”

  “Cook is onboard?”

  Meta shook her head.

  “What’s going on, Meta? Hurry up and spit it out.”

  “The admiral wants a detailed explanation about Victory’s firing at Geneva Spaceport defensive batteries.”

  “What?” Maddox asked. That didn’t sound right.

  “Darling,” someone unseen said. “Can you hear me?”

  Confusion set in, and Maddox squeezed his eyes closed, squeezed them tighter and slowly opened them. The Meta who had asked the crazy question literally dissolved before his eyes. He saw another Meta looking down at him in worry.

  “What’s going on?” Maddox asked in a winded voice.

  “Darling,” Meta said, her beautiful features creased with worry. “You…you fainted on us. I think I should take you to Medical.”

  Maddox found that he was lying in the middle of a corridor on Victory. Sergeant Riker and two marines looked back at him. No. That wasn’t Riker. That was the android.

  “Let me help you up,” Meta was saying.

  “No,” Maddox said sharply.

  Meta had been reaching down, but now stopped.

  “I’ll do this myself,” Maddox said. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and slowly worked up to his feet. He swayed and felt dizzy, and side-shuffled until he leaned against a bulkhead.

  The android, marines and Meta were all studying him.

  “Tell me what happened,” he said to Meta. “All of it, from the beginning as I boarded Victory.”

  She told him the fold-fighter had appeared in a hangar bay. Keith had made the risky maneuver as Galyan destroyed the second fusion beam battery with the starship’s sniper ray.

  “Were the fusion cannon batteries around the Geneva Spaceport?” Maddox asked.

  “Oh no,” Meta said. “They were on hidden trucks. Galyan destroyed them both with the sniper ray. Once the ray touched the vehicles, they exploded. The android said they were rigged to explode so no one could trace them back to their alien handlers. Once we—”

  “That’s enough,” Maddox said. He stared at the Riker-looking android. “Why did I faint just now and why don’t I remember the rest of what happened on the fold-fighter?”

  “I have a suspicion why,” the android said. “But I—”

  “Sir,” the smaller marine said, interrupting. “I saw the android twitch earlier and touch a spot on his neck.”

  “There,” the android said, indicating the smaller marine. “He is the one. He is the latest android plant.”

  “When did you originally board Victory?” Maddox asked the smaller marine.

  Instead of answering, the marine drew his sidearm and might have burned down the Riker-looking android. Meta moved faster, kicking the drawn gun from the marine’s hand.

  The marine did not shout in surprise or pain, but launched himself at the Riker android.

  From the bulkhead where he’d been leaning, Maddox dove at the marine and attempted to tackle him. The marine shrugged off Maddox’s attack, so the captain thudded onto the floor.

  Meta charged next, and the marine threw her with a judo move. She slammed against a bulkhead and slid down onto the floor.

  That gave the Riker android time. He smashed a fist against the marine’s face. The impact was so terrific that it not only stopped the marine but caused him to catapult backward. He hit the floor and rolled over and over.

  Maddox scrambled off the floor, picked up the fallen blaster and beamed the marine as he surged back to his feet.

  Unsurprisingly, pseudo-skin peeled away from the marine’s head to reveal a metal braincase. The blaster beam burned through that, fusing android brain circuits. The mechanical thing jerked once, twice and spasmed as it crashed onto the floor.

  Before the Riker android could react, Maddox aimed the blaster at it.

  “That’s enough,” the captain said.

  “Meaning what?” the Riker android asked. “I just saved your life.”

  “Mine?” Maddox said. “Why did the fake marine attack you?”

  “Is it not obvious?” the android asked. “It belonged to the Jotun faction, as the aliens have turned it. Why else would an android attempt to sneak aboard Victory? All androids have long ago learned the futility of such an act. The Jotuns, however, must believe otherwise.”

  During the long-winded explanation, Maddox realized that Meta was groaning as she rolled from her stomach onto her back. He holstered the blaster and rushed to his wife. “Meta!’ he shouted, with an edge of panic in his voice.

  Her eyelids fluttered, and Meta groaned again as she sat up. There was a large bruise over her right eye, which had puffed shut.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Maddox looked up to see that the other marine had drawn his weapon and aimed it at the android.

  “He is human,” the Riker android said, regarding the last marine. “He is protecting you from me.”

  Maddox nodded. “Can you stand?” he asked his wife.

  “I think so,” she said.

  “Let’s get you to Medical then,” Maddox said. “And you,” he said, looking at the android. “It’s time to start unraveling this mess.”

  “Yes,” the android said. “That is why I am here.”

  Maddox stared at the Sergeant Riker lookalike. “By the way, what should I call you?”

  “Batrun will do,” the android said.

  “Just Batrun?” asked Maddox.

  “That is acceptable.”

  Maddox squinted at the thing as a horrible feeling of déjà vu filled him. It was time to find out just what in the hell was happening this time around.

  “Do you have a different face?” the captain asked.

  “I do,” Batrun said.

  “Then, put it on as soon as you can, as I don’t want to get angry at Riker for the things you do.”

  -31-

  Meta went to Medical. The blaster-fried android went to Ludendorff’s science lab, and Batrun the android went to a holding cell.

  There, the android modified his features, so he no longer looked like Treggason Riker, but like a blunt-faced man in his forties.

  Maddox told the marine in charge of the brig to inform Batrun that it would be a few hours before the captain would talk to him. The marine called back to tell Maddox the android was anxious and wanted to speak to him immediately.

  Maddox wasn’t in a hurry just yet, and he wanted to get several things squared away before he spoke to the android.

  First, he found out that two semis had indeed held two fusion cannons. Star Watch Intelligence teams were already on the case, trying to establish where the vehicles and their advanced military weaponry had come from. So far, ubiquitous shell companies were the only answers. Well, there had also been android parts found at each destroyed semi.

  Second, Maddox called Stokes and told him about the Batrun android.

  “Destroy it,” Stokes said over the comm.

  “Maybe in time I will,” Maddox said.

  “Given the number of times androids have helped you versus the amount of times they have caused all of us harm, I’d say the odds are that Batrun will prove dangerous to your mission.”

  “I agree,” Maddox said. “Thus, I will proceed with caution.”

  Stokes frowned on the comm screen. “I don’t want to take this to the Lord High Admiral, but…” The lieutenant colonel squinted at Maddox. “I see. You’re on your starship. Therefore, you feel invincible and plan to do what you’re going to do. Besides, you don’t think I’ll call the admiral because you know something I don’t want the admiral to know, and you can use that as blackmail.”

  “I didn’t kill Drakos at the end of the last mission even though I could have,” Maddox said. “I didn’t kill him because I listened to orders. I don’t always do what I want to do just because I want to do it.”

  “Fine, fine,” Stokes said. “Very well, test the android.” The lieutenant colonel shook his head. “This one is giving me a headache. It’s a tangled web indeed. One of these days, I hope fate lobs us an easy one.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” Maddox said.

  Stokes signed off a moment later.

  Third, Maddox had lunch and did some thinking. Fourth, he headed to Medical to see how Meta was doing.

  “I wouldn’t call it a concussion,” the doctor told him. “But she took a heavy blow to the head.”

  Maddox spoke to his wife and told her to stay in Medical for more tests. He wanted to make sure she was fine.

  “I’m not going to break as easily as that,” she said.

  As she lay on the med-bed, Maddox stroked her head before taking his leave. He figured Ludendorff should have found something out by now.

  ***

  Like last time in the science lab, Ludendorff had spread out the fake marine android parts.

  “This,” the Methuselah Man said, using a thin pointer to indicate a thumbtack-shaped and sized device.

  “This what?” asked Maddox.

  “I believe this is what caused you to faint in the corridor and forget some of what happened aboard the fold-fighter. The android must have been attempting to—” Ludendorff stared at Maddox oddly, as he stopped talking.

  It took Maddox a second before he said, “Do you want to map my brain patterns and see if anything has changed?”

  “I believe it is imperative to do so.”

  Maddox considered that and finally nodded. “Let me call the sergeant first.”

  “For what reason?” asked Ludendorff, perplexed.

  “Insurance.”

  “Against me?” asked Ludendorff.

  Maddox just stared at the professor.

  Ludendorff scowled and finally muttered, “Do what you must. Your lack of trust in me doesn’t increase my faith in you.”

  Maddox summoned Riker, having exactly zero sympathy for Ludendorff’s feelings in the matter. Shortly, Maddox climbed off a brain scanner. He exchanged glances with Riker. The sergeant minutely shook his head. There had been no observable foul play on the professor’s part.

  Ludendorff came back with a chart. “It’s like I thought. Your brain pattern has been altered, if only slightly. The android—likely the marine android—did it to you.”

  “You mean Batrun might have altered my brain earlier?”

  “Of course,” Ludendorff said. “I’m frankly surprised that a hyper-suspicious man like you didn’t already realize that.”

  Maddox said nothing.

  “I should dissect Batrun so we can be sure,” Ludendorff added.

  “Not just yet,” Maddox replied. “But you should scan him. See if he has this…device in him.”

  It was Ludendorff’s turn to say nothing.

  “Scan him and then report back to me,” Maddox said.

  Ludendorff’s nostrils flared, but he still said nothing.

  Deciding that was the best he was going to get, Maddox departed, taking Riker with him.

  ***

  Forty minutes later on the bridge, Maddox received a call from a plainly agitated Ludendorff in his science lab.

  “Your pet android is clear,” Ludendorff said over a comm screen. “He lacks the device.”

  “Did you detect other devices in him?”

  “No.”

  “Then what has you upset, Professor?”

  On the screen, Ludendorff looked away. “I… Your distrust in me earlier…”

  Maddox didn’t sigh but said straight-faced, “Professor, you’ve been a great help on many occasions. You have also been a great hindrance just as often.”

  “I know, I know. I have been wondering—” Ludendorff faced him. “Do you think this is why Dana left me?”

  Maddox waited.

  “Am I truly…untrustworthy?” the professor whispered.

  Maddox did not believe in kicking a man when he was down, not unless it was during a fight. Ludendorff would also resume his old ways soon enough and remember any unkind words.

  “I do not presume to know what a woman thinks in such a matter,” the captain said.

  “If you don’t know, who does?”

  Maddox shook his head.

  A second later, the screen clicked off.

  Maddox turned around, surprised to see Riker staring at the comm screen.

  “Trouble?” asked Maddox.

  “Do you buy that act?”

  “Now see here, Sergeant—”

  “The professor has to be the slipperiest man we know,” Riker said, interrupting, “and a convincing actor to boot.”

  “Perhaps, but I’m not interested in discussing the professor’s love life just now.”

  “I’m just saying, sir, if he’s playacting, why is he doing so?”

  “Hmm…” Maddox said, as he rubbed his chin. “He is a Methuselah Man. A long-lived man surely thinks differently than an ordinary man does.”

  The captain refrained from saying more. Ludendorff might be in mental anguish because of Dana’s departure. But he would remember Riker’s suspicion if a moment came where he had to trust Ludendorff. If the professor were acting a part, it would be for a specific reason.

  With a shake of his head, Maddox dismissed that from his thoughts, as it was time to talk to Batrun the android.

  -32-

  Once more, a sense of déjà vu filled the captain as he sat in a holding cell in the brig. Batrun the android, a supposed Yen Cho model, sat behind a table, regarding him.

  “You appear troubled,” Batrun said.

  “I’m recalling the last time I had a Yen Cho android in a holding cell aboard Victory.”

  “I am privy to a few Star Watch Intelligence reports,” Batrun said. “For instance, I know about the incident of which you speak. I will not transform as the other android did.”

  “How did you gain such Intelligence data?”

  Batrun shook his head. “That is not germane to the topic at hand.”

  “The hell it isn’t,” Maddox said.

  Frowning, the captain stopped speaking. It wasn’t like him to get angry during an interrogation. Did the outburst have something to do with his slightly altered brain patterns? Was it due to having less soul energy? Was that finally beginning to weigh on him too much, affecting his actions?

  Maddox settled himself, deciding he wouldn’t force the issue just yet. He would…maintain his calm and observe the android’s behavior. He would also catalog his own behavior as if he was another person he was trying to understand.