“Agreed,” Maddox said. “Are there any other comments before we adjourn?”

  No one had anything else to say.

  “We’ll move near the terrestrial planets and search for clues,” Maddox said. “After that, I’ll see the Lord High Admiral when we return to the Solar System to use the Builder Nexus to reach the Library Planet.”

  “Good,” Meta said. “You won’t regret making peace with Haig.”

  Maddox hoped his wife was right.

  -29-

  With Maddox on the bridge, Victory executed a star-drive jump and appeared one hundred thousand kilometers from the third terrestrial planet orbiting the Barnard’s Star red dwarf.

  On the bridge, Andros and Galyan, along with Ludendorff from his science chamber, began to search for signs that would reveal how the Spacer ships had left the star system.

  Residue particles at their exit point were consistent with a recent opening of a hyper-spatial tube in the area. That was a critical discovery.

  “That’s it then?” Maddox said. “The Spacers created a hyper-spatial tube.”

  Galyan stood beside the command chair. “I deem that the highest possibility, some form of hyper-spatial tube. That doesn’t mean it must be the case.”

  “Don’t the facts indicate Builder technology?” Maddox asked.

  “I think the odds are high regarding that,” Galyan said.

  “Have you found any evidence of a nexus?” Maddox asked.

  “We have not found one, sir,” Andros said from his science station. The pudgy, Kai Kaus, Chief Technician had been listening closely to the conversation, surprising both Galyan and Maddox with his answer.

  Andros, Galyan and Ludendorff continued to study the sensors. Galyan also went out as a holoimage to “physically” examine areas on the third terrestrial planet and within its three moons.

  The sensor search continued for another two hours and thirty-seven minutes before anyone found anything. At that point, Galyan turned to Maddox in his captain’s chair.

  “I have found what we are looking for, sir.”

  “I’ve found it,” Andros said a second later.

  “I found it first,” Galyan said. “I have already informed the captain.”

  “It’s in a comet,” Andros said, ignoring Galyan.

  “A comet, you say?” Maddox asked Andros.

  “Yes, sir,” Andros said, “a comet near the last moon of the third planet.”

  “We have found Builder devices in comets before, sir,” Galyan said. “Thus, our find comports to previous Builder devices. However, I just told you I found it.”

  “Are you saying that you discovered it in the comet that Andros mentioned?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes, but I was going to tell you that,” Galyan said. “Surely I will be credited with having found this first.”

  “Of course, Galyan,” Meta said. She was working the comm station.

  Maddox swiveled around to stare at his wife, winking.

  “No,” Meta said, “you shouldn’t tease Galyan about this. He found it honestly. Let’s give Galyan the credit. Right, Andros?”

  Andros reddened under Meta’s level stare. “Yes, Meta,” he said. “Galyan found it first, even though I tried to claim it before him.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said from his chair. “You have found the comet. You have found the Builder artifact. Now tell me what it is”

  “I do not know precisely,” Galyan said. “I just know there were nexus-like emanations coming from it.”

  “Andros,” Maddox said, “do you know what it is?”

  Andros looked at Galyan, looked at Maddox, and looked at Galyan again. “I do. I made a deep probe into the comet.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said, “would you go and make a deeper probe, appearing inside the comet and taking a quick look around?”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said. He vanished.

  “Would you like further analysis of the site, sir?” Andros said.

  “Wait just a moment,” Maddox said.

  Soon, Galyan reappeared on the bridge. “There is a cavernous chamber in the comet. The machinery there is much smaller compared to what I have seen on the hyper-spatial tube generators in the pyramidal nexuses we have used. This site strikes me as a stealth nexus.”

  “I see,” Maddox said. “And that means what?”

  “The place is definitely of Builder design,” Galyan said. “This nexus has a one-way possibility, though. I saw no selector switches or other ways to include variations.”

  “Do you know the tube’s distance when created?” Maddox asked.

  “I am re-analyzing what I saw,” Galyan said. “From the evidence, the tube will project two hundred light years.”

  “Is that an exact distance?” Andros asked.

  “No, not exact,” Galyan said.

  “Do you have the exact measurement?” Andros asked.

  “Do you?” asked Galyan.

  “No,” Andros said. “I thought two hundred light years seemed too precise, though. That’s why I’m asking.”

  “I have it now,” Galyan said, whose eyelids stopped blinking. “The tube will project two hundred point zero eight light years from here, although I don’t know the composition of the target star system, though I suspect it is one.”

  “How long has this nexus-like device been in the comet in Barnard’s Star System?” Maddox asked.

  “I would estimate it at thousands of years,” Galyan said.

  Maddox frowned. “Do you think the Spacers have known about it all this time?”

  “I deem it likely the Spacers have known about it as at least as long as Star Watch has existed,” Galyan said.

  “That means the Spacers had a secret egress near Earth all this time,” Maddox said.

  “That would be so,” Galyan said.

  “I find that troublesome.”

  “I agree, sir,” Galyan said.

  “I need to tell the Lord High Admiral about this,” Maddox said.

  “Should we first go see where the tube exits?” Galyan asked.

  Maddox’s heart beat a little faster. He wanted to do that.

  “I volunteer to check it out,” Valerie said. “This is precisely why you have the darter along, sir.”

  Maddox was reluctant to give Valerie dibs on this, and maybe that showed.

  “Sir,” Valerie said, “you’ve shouldered me aside too many times lately. This one is mine. I request permission to scout out the hyper-spatial tube.”

  “It might be a one-way trip,” Maddox said.

  “No matter,” Valerie said. “Galyan said it’s only two hundred light years long. I can deal with that if stranded out there. I am a Patrol officer, and I haven’t had a truly engaging independent command for some time.”

  Maddox nodded. “This is your mission, Lieutenant Commander. Galyan, do we know how to activate it?”

  “We can watch the video and see what the Spacers did,” Galyan said.

  “On second thought,” Maddox said, “I don’t think we should do that. It risks projecting Valerie and her crew to where the Spacers are.”

  “That does seems likely,” Galyan said.

  “Commander—” Maddox said as he turned back to Valerie.

  “Sir,” Galyan said, interrupting. “I should point out that Valerie’s darter has stealth capabilities. That is the ideal craft, unless Victory itself should go. We may have to battle an entire Spacer nation fleet, though, if we do that.”

  “That’s not a good idea.” Maddox regarded Valerie. “Lieutenant Commander, I’m not sending you on such a risky mission.”

  “Respectfully, sir,” Valerie said, “It is more imperative than ever that I go. This is critical to the security of Star Watch and the Commonwealth. The Lord High Admiral and Brigadier Stokes were assassinated. Your grandmother—”

  “Yes, yes,” Maddox said, interrupting her. “You’ve made your point. You’ll go. It is imperative we know where the tube reaches. But first, Galyan, do we know how to activate the thing?”

  “A team will have to enter the comet,” Galyan said.

  “Go yourself and search it more,” Maddox said. “If you can’t figure it out, I’ll send a team. Commander, get your people ready for a Patrol mission.”

  “Sir,” Keith said, “I volunteer to go with Valerie.”

  “No,” Maddox said. “You’re staying here.”

  “But sir—” Keith said.

  Maddox raised a hand. “No arguments, Lieutenant. You’re our main pilot and are staying on Victory. We’re far from out of this yet.”

  “Yes, sir,” Keith said, sounding crestfallen.

  “You do know that this is a dangerous mission,” Maddox told Valerie.

  “There’s no need to explain your decision, sir,” Valerie said. “I totally agree with you. I want Keith where it’s safe.”

  Keith blushed at her glance.

  “Ready your crew for an extended Patrol mission,” Maddox told Valerie. “Tell me if you need anything extra. Galyan, thoroughly check the comet until we know exactly how this works. Until then, we will wait and continue to gather data.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said, disappearing.

  Maddox looked at Andros, and Andros turned to his science board and continued his sensor search.

  -30-

  Deep inside Victory, in a cargo area, was a stasis unit. Within the stasis unit, Becker slept soundly. This wasn’t the same type of stasis he had experienced in Antarctica for ten years, during which the machine had frozen all his functions. This was akin to a hibernation state, a lighter sleep. It primarily kept him unconscious so he couldn’t create havoc with his telepathy.

  As Becker lay in this inert state, he dreamed, seeing strange geometric designs. Interwoven with the designs were ideas and memories.

  In one of the dream memories, Becker crawled once more through the fateful cavern on Jarnevon. Later, he saw Liss cybers crawling over each other like giant robotic centipedes. Among them were the Prime Saa and others. At the aliens’ command, Becker mentally dominated Commodore James K. Fletcher, forcing him out of retirement to become the Lord High Admiral of Star Watch.

  He had been Captain Becker back then. In his dreams, Becker relived many experiences, including his horrific castration. He also remembered the fun times he’d had with the women he’d enjoyed to his heart’s delight.

  He wanted to do that again.

  In his dream, Becker eventually reached a rare state that only the most expert dreamers did, those with ancient Tibetan skills. He controlled his dreams and began to use his conscious mind in them. That meant his subconscious and conscious minds merged as his intellect increased. He understood much that had been hidden to him before this.

  In this merged dream state, Becker examined the files he’d extracted from the alien rat-like creature that had resided in a corner of his brain. He’d literally destroyed some of his brain cells in order to evict the alien thing. He studied captured files regarding the handling of women, this from perhaps the greatest player on Earth. In his dreams, Becker received an education indeed.

  In the old days, he had been a clown when it came to dealing with women. They had mocked and used him on so many occasions. But this player, this alpha male, oh, Becker was astounded by these revelations. There was another factor to this. In the dream state, his pride did not get in the way of the lessons as it might have otherwise.

  “I will do things so differently this time,” Becker said in his sleep. “This is priceless information. I have been a fool, a dupe, and a buffoon. I will be better than Maddox. I will be better than Professor Ludendorff. I must get to the Library Planet and resume where I left off ten years ago.”

  Becker started to think.

  “I won’t need my dominating power to bend women’s minds. I’ll use my dominating power for other things.”

  This was grand, awesome, and unique.

  Becker proceeded to study other files, the ones that came from Ector, the planet that circled a pulsar in the Scutum-Centaurus Spiral Arm. These were deeper, more profound and secret things. They had to do with the mind: telepathy, telekinesis, and devouring energy through mental effort.

  Becker continued to dream but at a faster rate until he learned and studied at computer speeds. He ran through program after program, event after event. That began to alter his brain and brain patterns. He used knowledge gained from the shattered Phantasma Synth Crystals. The Aetharians had deeply studied the mind and mental effort. This was outrageous.

  Becker continued to modify himself and his thoughts. He started to understand that he was in hibernation stasis.

  “I am dreaming. I am thinking these things. My mind is literally changing. I am gaining power. I am gaining authority and ability.”

  He saw where he had made many mistakes in the past.

  “If I had done it this way, and if I had gone at it that way, I never would have gone into stasis. I could become a god. The humans around me, even the New Men, are paltry and inferior in their mental capabilities.”

  The Liss cybers had increased the density of his brain, as well as enlarging the size of it. That gave him such a vast field to work with.

  Becker modified part of his brain, tweaked a different part, and activated his enlarged pituitary gland. The secretions helped alter and change him even more as he slept in this hibernation stasis.

  “I am changing so much. They think they’re going to use me. Oh, no—absolutely not.”

  Becker saw how Maddox had used him this past week. He saw how Venna the Spy had used those poor men. In fact, there was a part in Becker, perhaps it came from the file—

  The outrage from the pudgy playboy who had taught him so much: “We must teach Venna a lesson.”

  Becker agreed. He had learned so much from the man that he accepted the idea and ran with it. Yes, Becker yearned to make Venna the Spy pay for having absorbed his life. Even more, he was going to make those pay who were behind Venna the Spy.

  Who were those others? There was a hint of Spacers. There was also a hint of Leviathan.

  “I want names,” the pudgy playboy sliver of personality said inside Becker.

  “I agree with you,” Becker said. “We want names, we want numbers, and we want to make them dance for us.”

  There was total agreement in all of him about that.

  As Becker started to understand his new power, his new abilities, his godlike senses, he began to move switches in the outer room. He changed the configuration of the stasis field over his inert body.

  Soon, Becker began to awaken. No one else knew he was doing that. No one else knew, surely, that he had altered his mind to such fantastic levels.

  Let Maddox wear that headband. Let them try to stop him. He had some surprises in store for all of them.

  Becker might pretend weakness for a little while longer, but when he struck, he was going to be the one giving the orders. He was the one who was going to be in charge. They were not going to be able to tell him what to do anymore. No one was going to tell him what to do. He was going to tell everyone else what to do.

  Thus, by stages, Becker awakened, brought out of hibernation stasis by his own mental energies. Here was the thing. This was going to be the freaking Age of Becker.

  -31-

  Becker climbed out of the stasis unit, stretched, yawned, and realized he was in terrible danger. He had tampered with the stasis unit in which they had placed him. What would they do next time in order to stop him?

  Maybe they would kill him.

  Becker nodded. That meant he couldn’t afford to lose. That meant he had to win this round no matter what.

  He believed himself the superior man, possibly with the powers of a fledgling god. Yet his good sense told him to rethink that, as he’d been dreaming. How could dreams have changed him so radically? And might he be believing a stupid dream that wasn’t really real?

  Becker clutched his huge head. His neck and shoulder muscles could barely support its weight. He searched until he found the neck brace, and carefully he put it on. He balanced his head to prevent it from swinging too far to the left, right, or back, which could cause him to lose his balance. Bumping or cracking his head hard could be the worst thing of all.

  After securing the brace, he lowered himself to sit against a bulkhead.

  Then he used his intellect, testing what he believed could be true. He soon found that his thoughts could move through the starship as if he physically did this. This was both astounding and incredibly useful.

  Next, he roved through the interior ship sensors, searching and studying. Ah. A camera eye watched him in here. With his mind, he traced the exact route and response—suddenly, a silent alarm rang. That meant… Armed Marines ran toward this chamber. Were they coming to capture or to kill him?

  Becker composed himself even as his heart hammered. He sought to use what he’d learned during his dreams. Could this work? It was time to try.

  He gathered a single thought and radiated it outward: Go to sleep. He thought this as powerfully as he could—his life might depend on it.

  With his roving sense, he watched the Marines. To his astonishment, they collapsed onto the deck, sliding as they began to snore. Each had fallen asleep.

  That had worked much better than he had anticipated. Could he be telepathically stronger than he realized?

  Becker mentally searched farther. The sleep command had radiated from him in all directions—up, down, and around. Everywhere he searched, people slept soundly.

  It didn’t take Becker long to discover that everyone aboard Victory was asleep. That included Ludendorff, Meta, and Maddox. Ludendorff and Maddox hadn’t been wearing their silver headband with the box. They had lacked all protection from him.

  Becker laughed with glee. Then he clenched his fists and shook them. “Now we see who has the true power on this starship. Now you will all begin to learn.”

  To make sure, he mentally roved further still. Oh no, he had forgotten the AI. He worked fast and shut down Galyan. He did that with telekinesis, using it to throw the correct switches in the armored AI chamber.