Ludendorff glared at the watching holoimage. “The hell you say that to me. Do you think that will goad me into action?”

  “No, Professor,” Galyan said. “You will give up, as Captain Maddox is three times the man you are.”

  “Fool AI,” Ludendorff groaned, reaching behind and touching his wounded back. He groaned again, gritting his teeth at the pain. “I’m five times the man of that genetic freak of a captain. If it’s physical valor you want, watch this. But don’t expect me to save you next time I’m in your control chamber.”

  Ludendorff stood awkwardly, with one arm behind his back. Then, he lurched across the room, groaning as blood ran down his back and soaked his trousers.

  “Follow me, Professor.”

  And in that way, Galyan led a stumbling, lurching Ludendorff through the empty corridors of the Kit Carson as the klaxon continued to blare its warning of coming destruction.

  -43-

  Victory was far behind the Kit Carson in relation to the four Fusion battlewagons, which meant it was fractionally closer to the nearby although still hidden star system. Beyond the Patrol scout by sixty thousand and one hundred and forty thousand kilometers respectively were two antimatter missiles.

  The four diamond-shaped battlewagons spread out with ten thousand kilometers between each collapsium-armored warship as they headed for the Patrol scout one hundred and seventy thousand kilometers away.

  On Victory, Captain Maddox stood before the main screen. Meta had repeatedly attempted to hail the Fusion ships. Now, they were responding.

  On the main screen, Director Anora sat in her command chair, with the same security officer of earlier standing behind her.

  “Stand down immediately, Captain,” Director Anora said sternly. “Otherwise, I will destroy your vessels. I see the scout ship, you must realize. It is a scout ship, is it not?”

  Maddox turned to Meta. “Is the professor off the Kit Carson yet?”

  “I haven’t heard anything from Galyan,” Meta said.

  Maddox inhaled as he faced Director Anora. “You’re badly mistaken if you think your little tin cans can face Starship Victory. I have attempted to forestall an interstellar incident by running from you, as I didn’t want to destroy all four of your ships.”

  “Vanity will not help you now, sir,” Anora said. “Since I have deemed that you are not going to stand down—”

  Maddox made a chopping motion with his left hand as he glanced at the weapons officer.

  “What does that mean?” Director Anora said.

  Victory’s weapons officer was a muscled man with a crew cut, Lieutenant Leo Barnes. He pressed a switch, sending a signal to the farthest antimatter missile, presently encased in black ice the better to camouflage it from the Fusion sensors.

  The signal reached the shape-charged antimatter warhead, which detonated, sending the mass of its radiation and energy at the leftmost battlewagon, which was not the Josef Stalin.

  The warhead exploded farther than it should have from its target. Even so, the blast of heavy radiation and heat reached out, smashing against the collapsium armor, burning partway through even as the gamma radiation went deeper into the vessel.

  On the bridge of Victory, the main screen image of Director Anora became a blizzard, her voice and image disappearing.

  Maddox sat hard in his captain’s chair. “Is the professor off the Kit Carson yet?”

  “I have no idea,” Meta said.

  Maddox gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to lose the professor. He didn’t want to lose the Kit Carson if he didn’t have to, but people were more important than mere ships.

  The blizzard image of Director Anora returned to normal. She was staring at him.

  “That was unconscionable,” Anora shouted. “You attacked while we spoke about ways to resolve the issue.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Maddox said blandly.

  Anora stared at him. “Do you deny attacking us?”

  “I suggest you immediately cease any forward movement,” Maddox said.

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Barns said. “Three of the battlewagons are launching missiles.”

  “Director Anora,” Maddox said. “We are attempting to achieve a concord, and your ships have launched missiles. That is underhanded and devious.”

  “Have a care how you speak to me,” Anora said. “I am the representative of the Fusion of Planets. You will give me due respect or face dire consequences.”

  “Face you as a backstabber, you mean?” asked Maddox.

  “We seriously outnumber you in ships and outweigh you in mass. I call upon your immediate surrender. If you do not—”

  “Sir,” Barnes said, interrupting. “The enemy missiles are accelerating hard, half of them for the Kit Carson and half for Victory.”

  Galyan appeared on the bridge. “The enemy’s laser emitters have target lock on the Kit Carson, sir.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “Is everyone off the Kit Carson?”

  “They are, sir,” Galyan said.

  “Get ready to employ the neutron cannon,” Maddox told Barnes. “Use it as point defense against the missiles.”

  “Sir,” Barnes said. “We have the—”

  “Belay that, mister,” Maddox said, swiveling around to stare at Lieutenant Barnes. “Do as I ordered.”

  “Yes, sir,” Barnes said, blushing.

  Maddox faced forward again.

  “I take it you are not surrendering,” Director Anora said from the main screen.

  “Don’t force me to engage the Fusion,” Maddox said. “You’ll lose if that happens.”

  “You’ve already attacked us,” Anora said.

  “This is on your head if you don’t detonate your missiles,” Maddox said.

  Anora sneered. “You have no idea what you’re asking.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I understand her meaning. The Fusion missiles appear readying to detonate. They are beam missiles, displaying aiming spikes.”

  “Mr. Barnes,” Maddox said, “if you please, begin firing at once.”

  A purple neutron beam reached out from Victory and stabbed at the lead missile headed for the starship. The missile exploded from the ray as the neutron beam retargeted and burned the next missile in line.

  The Fusion missiles headed for the Kit Carson also detonated, but in a different fashion. Each had projected rods seconds before detonation as Galyan had described. The nuclear explosions caused gamma and x-rays to travel up the rods and concentrate to beam at the Kit Carson, several of the beams striking the scout, smashing through its paltry hull armor. The slender vessel erupted with greater explosions, hull plating flying off and interior areas consumed by the explosions.

  The Kit Carson vanished, with particles and residue the only remains of the former Patrol vessel.

  “You forced that to happen,” Director Anora said sternly. “Are you ready to surrender yet?”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “The laser emitters are almost ready to fire. I do not think Victory’s hull will withstand them for long.”

  “Are you ready, helm?” asked Maddox.

  “Give the word, sir,” the pilot said.

  “I’ll ask only once more,” Director Anora said. “Are you ready to surrender?”

  “What if I say yes?” asked Maddox.

  Anora smiled nastily. “Then you must immediately power down.”

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Barnes said. “They are in range.’

  Maddox nodded. “Proceed, Mr. Barnes.”

  The muscled weapons officer depressed a switch. A signal went out, reaching the other black-ice hidden antimatter warhead. It detonated, sending a fury of radiation and energy at the same battlewagon as before.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “Should I activate the disrupter cannon?”

  “Negative,” Maddox said.

  As before, the main screen turned into a blizzard of sight and sound, Director Anora no longer visible upon it.

  Out in space, the stricken battlewagon took more heavy damage, this time a section of hull armor blowing inward. Water, air, people and other objects spewed out into the dense gases of the nebula. The entire craft shuddered, shuddered again—

  There was an explosion, but not from blown bulkheads or engines. Instead, this one seemed pre-planned, as the diamond-shaped battlewagon separated into four equal pieces, three of them seemingly whole. The last one crumpled under the previous damage and the new shocks from the separation explosions.

  “The disrupter beam could knock out those sections,” Galyan said.

  Maddox scowled. “Keep silent unless I ask for your opinion, Galyan. That is an order.”

  The holoimage stared at the captain and nodded.

  “The three undamaged battlewagons are still advancing, sir,” Lieutenant Barnes said. “In fact, they’re accelerating. I suspect they will begin to beam in less than thirty seconds.”

  “Take us out of here, Pilot,” Maddox said. “Jump in the direction of the nearby star system.”

  As the blizzard of noise and sight cleared away on the main screen, Victory entered its star-drive jump, leaving the area of battle and the Fusion battlewagons behind.

  -44-

  Victory did not jump in a single bound to the supposed star system, but three-quarters of the way there.

  As soon as the others started to come out of jump lag, Maddox headed for sickbay to speak to Valerie Noonan.

  He found her pacing as the specialists studied her reactions. Maddox went to her, stopping her and touching her right shoulder. “Welcome aboard, Commander. Glad to see you’re in once piece.”

  “Thanks,” she muttered.

  Maddox smiled.

  Valerie looked away, and a second later, she resumed pacing as she hugged herself.

  Maddox noticed that Ludendorff sat in a chair to the side, sipping what smelled like hot chicken-noodle soup.

  “You okay, Professor?”

  “Did Galyan tell you what happened?”

  “Tell me what?”

  Ludendorff grunted as he climbed to his feet, turning around and lifting his shirt to show white bandages pressed against his lower back.

  “How did that happen?” asked Maddox.

  Ludendorff began a long-winded story about helping Noonan—

  “The short version,” Maddox said, interrupting.

  Ludendorff scowled. “I nearly died saving her. Pulled that damned cerebrater from her forehead, and then it exploded. Pieces of bulkhead lodged in my back. I was damned lucky none of the splinters tore into my spine.”

  Maddox glanced at Valerie. She’d stopped pacing and turned to face them as Ludendorff spoke. Maddox now noticed her bumpy and misshapen forehead. Her hair had been in the way before.

  Valerie noticed that he noticed, for she pointed at her forehead. “Ludendorff and Nurse Stansky filled it with plasti-flesh. I’m waiting for the surgeons to put in something permanent.”

  Maddox raised his eyebrows before turning to Ludendorff. “Good work, Professor. That was quick thinking.”

  “Oh, do you really think so?” Ludendorff asked sarcastically. I—”

  “Doctor,” Maddox asked the chief medical officer, interrupting the beginning of what might have become a Ludendorff rant. “May I talk to the commander alone in the other room?”

  “For a few minutes, anyway,” the medical officer said.

  “Professor, can you come with us?” Maddox asked.

  “Oh, may I?” Ludendorff asked with the same sarcastic tone.

  Maddox ignored it as he beckoned to Valerie.

  They went into a nearby waiting room. Maddox indicated a chair. Valerie sat, brushing her hair so it hid her forehead. Maddox indicated a different chair.

  “I prefer standing,” Ludendorff said. “Sitting hurts my wounds.”

  Maddox nodded, although he regarded Valerie. “I’m glad to see you alive, Commander. Glad the cerebrater didn’t kill you.”

  “Likewise,” Valerie muttered.

  “One of them was in my forehead as well.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Valerie said, who glanced at his forehead. She frowned, perhaps noting that his forehead looked the same as ever.

  “My cerebrater gave me dream memories,” Maddox added. “Ones I perfectly remember.”

  Valerie’s eyebrows arched. “Mine did too. I was Diana Varus of House Varus, a clone in a clone-hating society. I worked closely with Titus Flavius Arrius of House Tarentum. In the end, he became the dictator of Remus, struggling to retain the planet’s freedom.”

  “Do you know from whom?” Maddox asked.

  “Of course,” Valerie said. “The Fusion sent a war fleet to Remus. Arrius fought hard and cunningly. It wasn’t enough against superior Fusion technology and numbers. The Fusion has swept the skies of spacecraft and now launches asteroids at the main planet, wearing down Remus’s surface defenses of rockets and laser silos. I…”

  Valerie fell silent, frowning.

  Ludendorff must have noticed her discomfort. “You’re agitated, but not from the space war, it seems.”

  “Drop it,” Valerie said, as she used her fingers to comb some of her long brunette hair over her forehead.

  “What about the dream disturbed you the most?” Ludendorff asked her.

  “What did I just tell you?” Valerie said, who looked at the floor instead of looking at him.

  “I saved your life, Valerie.”

  “It’s Lieutenant Commander to you, old man.”

  “Fine,” Ludendorff said. “Have it your way. I saved your life and now bear a wound for my efforts. If you want to keep your precious secrets—”

  “Professor,” she warned, interrupting him.

  “Do as she says,” Maddox told Ludendorff. “Drop it.”

  Ludendorff stared at Maddox, finally scowling. “Who in the hell do you think you are to tell me to drop something? I’m hitching a ride on your ship at your request. I can leave at any moment.”

  “Professor,” Maddox said, “you’re wounded, you did well, but have the decency to realize that other people—”

  “Don’t bother,” Valerie told Maddox, interrupting as she looked up. “He’s too full of himself to care about anyone else but him.”

  Ludendorff glanced from Valerie to Maddox. “I don’t have to stand here and take these insults.”

  “Then leave,” Valerie said.

  “I will.” Ludendorff headed for the hatch, pausing there, perhaps waiting for one of them to ask him to stay. When neither did, Ludendorff muttered under his breath as he practically raced out, the hatch automatically shutting behind him.

  “He’s such a pain in the ass,” Valerie said.

  Maddox waited.

  “I know. He saved my life. He just gets under my skin.”

  “You’ve changed,” Maddox said.

  Valerie touched her bumpy forehead.

  “I don’t mean that,” Maddox said. “A little plastic surgery will take care of it.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I hope you’re right,” Valerie said, no longer looking up.

  “As I was saying,” Maddox continued. “You’ve changed. You’re more confident and assertive than you used to be. That must be from commanding the Kit Carson and from winning the battle at Omicron 9.”

  Valerie frowned at the floor. “Did I hear right that the Fusion people destroyed my scout?”

  “They did.”

  “Are we in a mess like it usually is when you show up?”

  “Depends on what you mean by mess,” Maddox said.

  Valerie looked up at him, searching his eyes. “You’ve changed, too. You seem more compassionate than you used to be.”

  Maddox shrugged. He didn’t care for such talk.

  “I think fatherhood suits you.”

  Maddox did not squirm because he held himself in check. The lieutenant commander was coming perilously near to crossing a line.

  Valerie might have sensed that. “When you wore a cerebrater, what kind of dreams did you have?”

  “I was Garth, a fighting monk.”

  “On Remus?” asked Valerie.

  “On Remus,” said Maddox. “I didn’t wear the cerebrater to the end, though. I…removed mine before the dreams ended.”

  “How did you remove it?” asked Valerie, as she glanced again at his smooth forehead.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Valerie shook her head. “You probably did it the Maddox way, through some lucky factor. Did you learn anything interesting as Garth?”

  Maddox almost said no, but the question sparked something in his mind. His head twitched, as it literally felt as if a shock went through his…memories, it would seem. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes.

  “Are you all right?” Valerie asked.

  Maddox looked up. “I’m…I’m fine.”

  “What just happened?”

  Maddox shook his head. He didn’t know.

  “I asked you about Garth,” Valerie said. “Did you learn anything interesting from his memories?”

  Maddox blinked rapidly, although no spark or shock buzzed him this time. It did seem there was something interesting about Garth that he’d missed before. He couldn’t remember what it was at the moment. Would he ever?

  “You’re quiet all of a sudden,” Valerie said.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  Valerie raised her eyebrows. “Captain Maddox apologizing to me? Now, I’ve heard everything. Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Never mind that,” Maddox said, with a wave of his left hand. “I learned nothing interesting about the Fusion from Garth’s memories. What about you with yours?”

  “Oh, I know a lot about the Fusion. I went to New Trotsky and saw the ruling Chairman. I—Captain, these are Earth colonists from long ago. If we’re strategizing here, it would probably be a good idea to bring the professor back in and get his thoughts on all this.”

  Maddox forced himself to forget about Garth and the shock in his mind. Long-time Earth colonists, Ludendorff—

  “A conference meeting might be a good idea,” he said. “You probably don’t know it, but there’s more going on here than just Remus and the Fusion. A Morag has been trailing us, attempting to kidnap me.”