“They can’t be that stupid either,” Maddox said. “The agents have suborned thousands and managed to give the Commonwealth a false Prime Minister. That implies not only high intelligence but an excellent working knowledge of human behavior.”

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “We can’t let the Juggernauts get too close. Otherwise, they’ll use their tractor beams on us. I suggest we move while we can.”

  Maddox was nodding. “Well, Batrun, do you have another idea. Now is the time to tell me.”

  “I am thinking,” Batrun said. “Oh, this is a disaster, a total collapse of our plan. Captain, I do not know what to do.”

  -37-

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “I have an idea.”

  Maddox turned to his second in command.

  “We could use the Builder communication device and call the Lord High Admiral,” she said. “He could send reinforcements through the Laumer Point. Victory can dance around, occupying the Juggernauts until our battleships get into position. Then, we destroy them and whatever base they have. Surely, they’re mining the chthonian planet for supermetals. Star Watch can occupy it and sell the planet to one of the corporations for badly needed funds.”

  “All excellent ideas, Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “Well, Batrun, why don’t you like that?”

  “The androids will need the Juggernauts in the Beyond,” the synthetic said. “We cannot afford to start our open existence with a weak fleet. Otherwise, others will come and take what we build.”

  “Maybe,” Maddox said. “But that’s the future. What happened to the superior synthetic you sent them?”

  “It must have been Jotuns agents,” Batrun said. “Did you see the androids? They had de-skinned and de-robed. They…” The synthetic seemed dismayed.

  “Professor?” asked Maddox. “Any ideas?”

  “This is a convoluted situation,” the professor said. “The Old One has stirred our adversaries against us so they all converge at the same time. Rebellions, Commander Thrax possibly, hardliner New Men working in the shadows, Jovian aliens, Jovian agents, androids, synthetics—perhaps it’s time to do what you do best, Captain. Start killing your enemies. If you can kill enough of them fast enough one by one—” Ludendorff clapped his hands. “Problem solved.”

  “I need those Juggernauts,” Batrun insisted. “I need to convince the androids to emigrate with the rest of us. If they do, they are no longer Commonwealth enemies. The professor is correct. Humanity has many enemies converging against them, Captain. Each time you attack one group, you will undoubtedly take losses, perhaps heavy losses. Star Watch cannot afford so many losses. You are already starting out weaker than before you headed to the Sagittarius Arm nexuses. That would suggest the needed strategy. Turn some of your enemies into allies or into neutrals, at least, so you can concentrate against the main threat.”

  “The Jotuns?” asked Maddox.

  “That is my belief,” Batrun said.

  “Except that we haven’t seen any Jotun vessels,” Maddox said. “You haven’t seen any Jotun vessels. We do see these Juggernauts, though.”

  “What about the hauler with its new technology?” Batrun asked.

  Maddox nodded. “It’s the one point that makes me think Jotuns are real. Still…synthetics, Yen Cho models and the Rull androids have appeared in force. Sanders engineered Hampton’s election, and Sanders attempted to force the Lord High Admiral to start a war with the Emperor of the New Men. This is looking more and more like an android game as you attempt to sidetrack us with supposed Jotuns.”

  “Captain…” Batrun said.

  “Has all this been an elaborate setup for the Rull to capture Victory?” Maddox asked.

  “Are we really back to that?” Batrun asked.

  “Perhaps I could assist, sir,” Galyan said. “I could go as a holoimage and see what is transpiring inside the Juggernauts.”

  Everyone one the bridge looked at the holoimage.

  “Victory would have to be closer for you to do that,” Valerie said. “And I don’t like that idea, sir. The closer we are to the Juggernauts, the less distance they have to travel to trap us with their tractor beams.”

  “Yes, that is a problem,” Maddox admitted.

  “Sir,” Andros said from his science board. “I’m detecting a power spike on the B3 Juggernaut.”

  “What kind of power spike?”

  “Engine and something else,” Andros said. “It almost seems like a—” The Chief Technician’s head snapped up as he swiveled around. “Sir, the Juggernaut is getting ready to fold, or something like a fold.”

  “What is it?” Maddox demanded of Batrun. “Do they have fold capacity?”

  “I-I don’t know,” Batrun said. “Perhaps the Jotun agents gave them such technology or maybe they stole it from Star Watch.”

  Maddox came to a decision. “Marines,” he said, “please escort Batrun off the bridge. Sir,” he said to Batrun, “where would you like to wait?”

  “On the bridge,” Batrun said.

  “Make another choice.”

  “I do not think you understand the gravity of the situation,” Batrun said.

  “I do, and I’m done discussing it with you.”

  “No,” Batrun said, stepping back as he raised a threatening hand.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said.

  The Adok holoimage floated from his spot on the deck and merged into the synthetic.

  “What are you doing?” Batrun asked in a loud voice. “Stop this—”

  At that moment, Galyan discharged a massive pulse. He had done so before, the ship using his holoimage as the focal point and sending the power through him.

  Batrun froze with one arm outstretched. His eyes froze, his position froze and he began to topple toward the floor.

  Maddox rushed near and caught the frozen synthetic. He was heavier than a man, but not twice as heavy. With a grunt, the captain lowered the frozen synthetic to the floor.

  Galyan had already floated out of Batrun. “Your idea worked, sir,” the holoimage said. “I had my doubts, but you were correct.”

  “Excellent work, Galyan,” Maddox said. “Gentlemen, carry Batrun to the stasis chamber. Professor, if you could oversee that, I’d appreciate it.”

  Ludendorff had been thinking, with his chin resting against his chest. He looked up, nodding. “Yes. This is probably for the best. You don’t trust much, do you, Captain?”

  “The old sayings are often the best,” Maddox replied. “Actions speak louder than words.”

  “Humph,” Ludendorff said.

  Marines grunted as they hoisted the frozen Batrun. As a team, they moved for the main hatch. The professor followed, fingering his chin.

  After they left and the hatch shut, Maddox turned to Galyan. “Keep an eye on the professor through the ship’s cameras.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  “But stay on the bridge for now,” Maddox said. “Valerie, launch…four, no, five antimatter missiles. Move them to four equidistant locations around Victory, say, ten thousand kilometers from the ship.”

  The captain moved to his chair, sitting down. “Andros, what is the J-B3 doing now?”

  “They’re all powering up, sir,” Andros said. “The first one is further along in the process, though.”

  Maddox nodded. “My guess is they’re going to try to bracket us and capture the ship with their tractor beams. But if their mechanism for folding is like ours, the androids are going to feel some lag. The Juggernauts will likely lag, too.”

  Valerie mumbled under her breath.

  “What was that, Lieutenant?” Maddox asked.

  “You hope,” she said, turning to face him. “Sir, when they appeared before, they did not look lagged to me. Maybe it’s time we used our star drive and put several light-years between them and—”

  “It’s gone!” Andros shouted. “The first Juggernaut is gone.”

  At that point, the twenty-kilometer warship appeared five thousand kilometers from Victory. As it did, the Juggernaut’s laser cannons began to fire.”

  -38-

  “Sir!” Andros shouted from his science station. “Those aren’t laser beams. Those are lights, regular lights.”

  Maddox slammed a fist against one of his armrests. “Trickery,” he said. “They do have lag, and this is their deception to try to cover for it. Galyan, is the disrupter cannon ready?”

  “Soon,” the holoimage said.

  “Now, now, I need it now,” Maddox said, without raising his voice but conveying the desperate need. “Lieutenant,” he told Valerie, “I need those antimatter missiles outside the ship.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, her fingers blurring across her board.

  Keith was at Helm, maneuvering Victory. The Juggernaut was to the side, moving in the opposite direction as the starship. They would soon pass each other by about three thousand kilometers.

  “What is their plan?” Galyan asked.

  “Valerie was right,” Maddox said. “They want to bracket us, and they have the balls to fold into near position.”

  The beams of light did not strike Victory but flashed in various directions. Clearly, generating flashlight power was less difficult than generating killing laser power. Thus, flashlight power would be less affected by lag than the latter.

  “The weak light does not seem like a wise deception,” Galyan said.

  “Their lag probably isn’t going to last long if they can already beam light,” Maddox said. “Get the disrupter online, and the neutron cannon, too.”

  “The neutron cannon is ready to fire,” Galyan said.

  “Then fire, fire,” Maddox said. “Burn through the hull if you can.”

  “I doubt the neutron cannon will succeed in time,” Galyan said.

  On the main screen, the purple neutron beam speared from Victory and crossed the short stellar distance. J-B3 did not have a shield up yet. The fold lag was likely disturbing the androids and their warship. That meant the neutron beam directly struck the iridium-Z hull plating. The neutron beam focused on the same location, and the iridium-Z hull turned red hot there and slowly began to melt. On ordinary hulls, the beam would have already punched through.

  At that point, a blue nimbus snapped on around J-B3. The neutron beam no longer reached the hull, but stopped short as it turned the shield there red and slowly to a brown color.

  “Their shield did not come on at full strength,” Andros said.

  Maddox nodded, and turned to Galyan. “Where is my disrupter cannon?”

  “Soon,” Galyan said.

  A loud thrum told everyone that the starship’s engine was supplying the disrupter cannon with build-up energy.

  Maddox squeezed the fingers of his right fist, willing the disrupter cannon to fire before it was too late.

  “Sir,” Andros said, “another Juggernaut is folding.”

  “Damnit,” Maddox whispered, as he struck his command-chair armrest again. “We don’t have enough time.”

  “The first antimatter missile has launched,” Valerie said. She swiveled around. “We don’t want to be too close when one of the warheads goes off.”

  “Thank you for the warning, Lieutenant,” Maddox said without turning around.

  Valerie’s cheeks turned red. She knew that Maddox said that as a reprimand. Why wouldn’t he listen to her? Victory wasn’t going to defeat three Juggernauts that could fold beside them. The android warships had too much mass. And using antimatter missiles this close to Victory—

  “There!” Andros shouted. “The second Juggernaut is nine thousand kilometers out.”

  “I can you hear just fine, Chief Technician,” Maddox said. “I would appreciate a little more calm.”

  It was Andros’ turn to blush. “Yes, sir,” he said in a calmer and quieter voice.

  “Keith,” Maddox said forceful, “I want you to lay in a star drive jump. Put us one million kilometers beyond that chthonian planet.”

  “Aye, aye, mate—sir,” Keith said, as his fingers tapped on his panel.

  “Now,” Galyan said. “You have the disrupter.”

  “Target the second Juggernaut with both cannons,” Maddox said.

  “Done,” Galyan said.

  The purple neutron beam and the yellow disrupter beam both speared out from Victory and struck the hull of the newest appearing Juggernaut.

  “J-B3’s laser cannons are heating up,” Andros said. “They’re getting ready to fire.”

  “What about their tractor beams?” Maddox asked. “I’m more interested in that.”

  Andros tapped his board. “Those are powering up too, sir. I’d estimate thirty seconds at most before the tractor beams start grappling us.”

  “Ah,” Maddox said. He sat forward, intently studying the twin beams burning through the iridium-Z hull armor of the second Juggernaut. If he had enough time to do this…

  “The third and last Juggernaut is powering up for a fold,” Andros said. “I believe it will be on the third side of a triangle, with us in the center.”

  “Agreed,” Maddox said. He was beginning to feel cramped. Each of the Juggernauts was almost twenty times the size of Victory.

  “I estimate a burn through in forty seconds,” Galyan said.

  Maddox bared his teeth. The iridium-Z armor was good, too good.

  “Are you plotted for a star-drive jump, Mr. Maker?” the captain asked.

  “Soon,” the pilot said.

  “Two more antimatter missiles have launched,” Valerie said. “You haven’t given me their targets yet.

  Maddox swiveled around to face her. “The first two will target the third Juggernaut. It hasn’t appeared yet, but will likely appear seventy degrees galactic north of us…nine thousand kilometers away. Have the two missiles stagger and hit different areas of the ship.”

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie said, as she tapped her board.

  “Every other missile should head for the second Juggernaut. Maybe they can reach it before the shield comes online.”

  “And the first one, sir?” she asked. “J-B3?”

  “Ignore it,” Maddox said. “It will be the heaviest defended because it will have shrugged off all lag. We’ll kill or cripple the easy ones first and worry about the last one later.”

  Valerie nodded as she grimly punched in the targeting data.

  “There,” Andros said, his voice rising but not as loud as it had been before. “There’s the last Juggernaut, sir. It’s ten thousand kilometers from us in the predicted location.”

  “That’s an android for you,” Maddox said, “as logical and predictable as a computer.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “The first laser cannon is firing at us from J-B3.”

  A heavy laser reached out from the first Juggernaut and struck Victory’s shield. The wattage from the heavy laser was incredible.

  “The fourth missile is launched,” Valerie said.

  “Scrub the fifth launch,” Maddox said. “We won’t have time for it. Mr. Maker, initiate the star-drive jump now.”

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie said.

  “We’re not jumping, Mr. Maker,” Maddox said.

  “A tractor beam has grappled us,” Andros said. “It’s twice as powerful as I anticipated.”

  “Sheer us, Valerie,” Maddox said.

  “The fourth missile, sir…” she said.

  “Galyan—”

  “There, sir,” the holoimage said.

  The entire bridge shook.

  “The tractor-beam lock is weakening,” Andros said.

  “If they get another one on us,” Valerie said, “we’re dead.”

  “More power, Mr. Maker,” Maddox ordered.

  A grim-faced Keith tapped his piloting board.

  There was another lurch, and at that moment, Victory began to jump, using its special star drive. However, one of J-B3’s laser beams struck an antimatter missile. The warhead detonated prematurely—it was part of the failsafe.

  As Victory jumped, a fiery antimatter explosion blew outward in all directions. The starship shook once more—and that was the last thing that Captain Maddox—or anyone else, for that matter—remembered.

  -39-

  The man groaned as he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry, making it hard to see distinctly. For a moment, he had no idea where he was or even who he was. He just felt weary and—

  The ship…

  That was the first thought that pushed aside his sluggishness. The second was: Maddox! I’m Captain Maddox of Star Watch.

  With that, his mind began operating again. Maddox recalled the antimatter explosion as they began using the star-drive jump. He peered more intently with his blurry gaze until it came to him that he viewed things from on the floor. That would imply he’d fallen.

  Had the antimatter blast done something to the ship while it entered the star-drive jump?

  That seemed like an obvious conclusion. Maddox noted red light, emergency lighting. He attempted to move a limb and groaned. His muscles ached as if he had tried to hoist a thousand pounds off the floor earlier.

  Panting, Maddox rolled onto his back. He felt something wet on his face. With agonizing slowness, he brought up his right hand and wiped his nose. He stared at the hand.

  Blood. He had a bloody nose.

  Maddox fumbled with his suit jacket and produced a handkerchief. He wiped his lips and nose, mopping up what seemed like far too much blood.

  It wasn’t crusted blood. That meant not too much time had passed. The blood would have clotted if he’d been out longer.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said.

  That’s when the captain recognized the coppery taste of blood in his mouth.

  He rolled back onto his stomach, positioned his hands and pushed up. His arms shook from the exertion, but he managed to work his knees up until he was on his hands and knees.

  He spit blood out of his mouth for a time and felt unreasonably dizzy.

  “Galyan,” he said again.

  No one answered.

  He didn’t like that. He didn’t like the emergency lighting, either. Some phenomenon must have occurred as they made the jump. The antimatter explosion—