“Oblivion?” the alien asked. “You are mistaken. Such a vicious act as you suggest will cause you to go to the netherworld for eternity. You will suffer unwanted agonies forever and ever.”

  “By avenging my people?” asked Maddox. “I think not. I shall gain great rewards in the afterlife by drinking the blood of my enemies here and now.”

  “We are not enemies.”

  “You slew my crew,” Maddox said.

  “What nonsense is this that you spout,” the alien said in his awkward English. “We are…gatherers. If not for us, the space lanes would clutter with derelict vessels. We are helpful and law-abiding—”

  Maddox laughed harshly.

  “What did you say?” the alien asked. “I did not understand your last outcry.”

  The others standing in front of the cycler block had shivered in what seemed like dread at the captain’s laugh.

  “If they move back again,” Maddox said. He’d detected a slight backward movement on their part—very subtle, to be sure, “I will detonate without further notice.”

  The hostage alien chittered rapidly.

  Those farther away abruptly sat down.

  “Is that better?” the alien asked.

  “Marginally,” Maddox said. He realized he held the leader. The aliens seemed quite survival oriented, slippery liars and obvious scavengers. For all that, they were dangerous. The Okos were a hair’s breadth from completing their capture of Victory. The trick would be in turning the tables on them. Was this the entirety of their scavenging crew?

  He doubted it, but likely, this was at least a sizeable portion of the crew. Maybe he should just start shooting. Yet, he’d shot the leader, and he seemed almost unaffected by it.

  “I shot you earlier,” Maddox said.

  “I know. I need medical attention.”

  “Why aren’t you dead?”

  The alien said nothing.

  “Answer me,” Maddox said.

  “You sought to kill me?” the alien asked.

  “I shot you where the human heart should be.”

  “That is criminal,” the alien said. “We merely—”

  “Enough,” Maddox said. “I’ve had enough.” The alien’s suit had probably injected him with painkillers and stimulants. “Tell your people to take off their spacesuits.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  Maddox made an ugly sound.

  “You don’t understand,” the alien said. “They will obey me…only up to a point. By taking off their spacesuits, they will be making themselves too vulnerable to you. They might run then instead of obeying me.”

  “Head-shots should kill them,” Maddox said. “Yes. I have more than enough rounds to kill all of them and you and your partner. That seems safest.”

  “No,” the alien said. “We, too, carry bombs on our person. If you shoot us, the bombs will detonate.”

  “You’re a liar,” Maddox said.

  “I’m outraged,” the alien said. “The Okos are many things, but we are paragons of righteous virtue and would never consider—”

  “Silence,” Maddox said, and there was real hostility in his voice. “It’s all one to me if we die. I’m weary of this. I’ve lost my friends—”

  “Sir, sir,” the alien said. “Your friends are…what is the word? Oh. They are unconscious. We used gas before boarding your derelict vessel—”

  “Listen to me,” Maddox said, once more pushing the helmet with the barrel of the gun. “Revive my crew immediately. We will bargain afterward.”

  “Seriously?” the alien asked. “That would put me at a grave disadvantage—”

  “That’s better than dying here and now, isn’t it?”

  The alien paused. Perhaps it was thinking. “You are a savage race. I’m glad I took the precaution of hooking your language files to my translator. I would not believe what I’m hearing if I didn’t realize the Okos have the best translator—”

  “That’s it,” Maddox said, sensing a ploy taking shape. Maybe it was time for harsher actions. He aimed his gun past the alien’s helmet so he could see him pointing at the suited alien lying near on the deck plates.

  “What are you doing?” the alien asked.

  “Halting your treachery,” Maddox said. “I’m going to kill him before he can—”

  The alien chittered once more. The one lying on the deck plates pushed something from his suited body. Then the alien sat up, opened his visor and faced Maddox.

  “Is that better?” the first alien asked.

  “Tell him to revive the woman on the floor. He must do it immediately.”

  “She will feel nauseated if I do so,” the alien said.

  “Do it anyway,” Maddox said.

  The alien hesitated.

  “This is your last chance,” Maddox said.

  “Yes, yes,” the alien said, almost sounding bitter. “I understand now. Vire made a terrible mistake saying your vessel was adrift. If I live through this, I will enact a terrible revenge upon him for this injustice. I do not know what caused Vire to believe—”

  “Quit stalling,” Maddox said. “My patience has reached its end.”

  The alien chittered once more, and the second alien slid to Meta, examined her, looked once more at Maddox’s captive and lifted what looked like a gun.

  “If he harms her—”

  “It is a hypogun, I assure you,” the alien said.

  “Pray for your sake that you’re telling the truth,” Maddox said.

  At that point, the other alien put the nozzle of the weapon to Meta’s neck and pulled the trigger, causing her to jerk as a hiss sounded.

  -43-

  Meta woke up thirty seconds later and vomited. Before that, the second Oko had unobtrusively pulled a dart from her back. After vomiting the third time, Meta raised her head. Her eyes were horribly red-rimmed, and she looked exhausted.

  “Meta,” Maddox said.

  She blinked several times and wiped her mouth. Finally, she nodded, which made her wince.

  “My head throbs,” she whispered.

  “Get your knuckle-duster,” Maddox told her. “Then get up, honey. You have to get up. Now’s not the time to sit on your butt.”

  She gave him an angry look, and that also made her wince. After several heartbeats she said, “Okay. That helped just a little.”

  She gathered her wicked-looking knife off the floor—the second Oko slid away from her and back toward Maddox.

  “That’s far enough,” Maddox said.

  His captive Oko chittered at the second one. That one stopped.

  Maddox told Meta to collect the alien weapons and put them in a pile. It took her longer than ordinary to do, but finally they were in a pile.

  “Now,” Maddox said. “Stand behind the others over there. If any of them tries something foolish, kill them.”

  “Wait,” Maddox’s captive said. “I’ve done as you’ve asked. You should trust me. I’ve shown that I will cooperate.”

  “True,” Maddox said. “But I don’t even know your name. How can I trust you if I don’t know your name?”

  “I have fallen into the hands of a fanatic,” the Oko said. “Know then that I am Master Elge of the Recovery Vessel Gourvich. This is an authorized salvage, as I have paid heavy fees for the privilege of roaming Sector 73, Quadrant 2. If you desire, you can examine my credentials aboard the Gourvich. Naturally, you will have to come with me—”

  “Forgive me, Master Elge,” Maddox said.

  “What?”

  Maddox was thinking hard, trying to dredge up some memory of any of the things the Oko had just told him.

  “Who did you pay the fee to?” the captain asked.

  “That should be obvious,” Master Elge said, “an intermediary of the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan. They have established their right of rule through constant supremacy for the last three hundred years. Why, the last attempt of—”

  “Enough,” Maddox said. His head had just begun to throb.

  “Do you doubt me?” Elge asked.

  Maddox concentrated, forcing himself to remain alert and conscious, not necessarily in that order. He’d never heard of this Sovereign Hierarchy. He’d never heard of the squirrel-visaged Okos, either. He was beginning to suspect that Victory had jumped much farther than anyone could have anticipated.

  “What about the Swarm Imperium?” Maddox asked. “Have you ever heard of them?”

  “They are far from here,” Elge said.

  “You know who I mean when I say the Swarm?”

  “The insect empire,” Elge said. “Of course, I know. The Sovereign Hierarchy fought bloody battles against the Imperium that lasted over seventy years. The Hierarchy lost half their territory before beginning to detonate suns in the Imperium’s path. Finally, the Swarm fleets ceased attacking. That is common knowledge among spacefarers. How is it you claim ignorance of galactic history?”

  “What about the Nameless Ones?”

  “Who?”

  “They ravish worlds with fifty kilometer Destroyers,” Maddox said.

  “Ah. You mean the Annihilators. They are an ancient legend. Some claim they are a fable. Do you claim to have witnessed Annihilator vessels?”

  “I make no such claim,” Maddox said. “Have you heard of the Commonwealth of Planets?”

  “No.”

  “New Men?”

  “What are they?” Elge asked.

  “What about Spacers?”

  “You speak strangely, which makes sense since you travel in an unknown type of spaceship. Perhaps you are not from this region of space. Have you tested a new far-ranging drive in your ship?”

  “Have you ever heard of Builders?”

  “Another legendary race,” Elge said. “Yes. I’ve heard of them. But they are long extinct.”

  Maddox felt a moment of comfort. Victory might have made an incredible leap in stellar distance, but not so far that there was at least some commonality with the Okos.

  “Captain,” Meta said.

  Maddox’s head snapped up. He realized that he’d almost dozed while holding a gun to Master Elge’s helmet. The Okos were almost comical in ways, but their actions were not. They had boarded his vessel, used gas to keep everyone out and had attempted to steal Batrun.

  Saying the synthetic’s name in his thoughts caused Maddox to recall the Juggernauts in the Alpha Centauri System. They had to get back to Human Space. The androids were gathering vicious warships right beside the Solar System. He remembered the android saying a Jotun fleet was approaching. Star Watch Command was unaware of what was happening. He had to warn Star Watch or the Rull and Jotuns might hit the Solar System with a massed armada.

  Right. It was time to get these Okos under control. He needed more of his crew, needed to capture the Gourvich and figure out a way to return home. That meant he had to figure out where here was first.

  “Master Elge, surely you’re injured.”

  “I have admitted so.”

  “I will allow you and your crew to depart as soon as I have regained control of my ship.”

  “Do you take me for a fool? You will kill all of us.”

  “Not if you do me a service.”

  “What service?” Elge asked.

  “First, I must revive my crew.”

  “Why won’t you kill us then?”

  “I do not want to offend the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan. Surely, if you have paid the salvage fees for this region, I would offend them by killing you and destroying your pirate ship.”

  “I am not a…yes, of course,” Elge amended. “You would offend Leviathan by killing us. I hadn’t realized you knew that.”

  “We are strangers here,” Maddox said, “and do not wish to offend the ruling authorities. I assume you are one of their representatives.”

  “That is so,” Elge said. “Now, release us—”

  “As the weaker party,” Maddox said, interrupting, “as the stranger, I cannot afford to trust as you can. Help me revive my crew and I will richly reward you. In that way, I hope you will put in a good word to the Leviathan for us.”

  Elge said nothing. Maybe he was thinking.

  Maddox was trying to appeal to the Oko’s greed. “I’m willing to pay anything reasonable,” he added.

  “The mechanical being?” asked Elge.

  “If I must,” Maddox said.

  Once again, Master Elge fell silent, soon saying, “Leviathan abhors deceit of any kind. Once a being’s word is given, that is law in this region.”

  “Thank you for telling me,” Maddox said.

  “If you swear that I can keep the mechanical being, I will agree to help you revive your crew.”

  “I will give him to you as payment,” Maddox said, “provided you refuse to take my other offers later.”

  “You swear to this?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “Then let us begin,” Master Elge said, “as I am eager to enter the healer.”

  -44-

  Maddox worried about the revivals, as that would seem to give the Okos the next best chance to surprise Meta and him through trickery.

  To that end, he devised a trick of his own to concentrate their thoughts on something else. When he collected gas masks from an engine-room locker, he also grabbed a pulse reader. He and Meta donned the masks to filter out the Oko-released gas. Maddox switched on the pulse reader so it flashed every few seconds and gave it to Meta, whispering instructions to her.

  The Okos stayed ahead while he kept his gun trained on them. Master Elge walked beside Meta and him.

  The Oko master kept glancing at the flashing pulse reader that Meta gingerly held in front of her. Finally, Elge could contain himself no longer. “What is that device?”

  The other Okos appeared to lean their helmeted heads back to hear the answer.

  Maddox had been waiting for the question, although he spoke nonchalantly. “It’s an activated grenade,” he said through his breathing mask. “If your men try any tricks, we will all die in the accompanying blast.”

  “No, no,” Elge said, as his slender fingers twitched. “I have given my word. You should deactivate it.”

  “I value your word—” Maddox said.

  “Apparently not,” Elge said, interrupting. “The grenade indicates a distrustful nature. That implies that you routinely practice duplicity. Why otherwise should you suspect that trait in others?”

  Maddox shook his head. “Compared to others, I have found myself the most trustful of men. Too often, however, others had taken advantage of my good nature. That has led me to a sad conclusion: an active threat often holds others to their given word.”

  “Your reasoning is convoluted and ugly. What is more, it is an insult to me personally and to the Okos as a race. I must demand that you deactivate the bomb.”

  Maddox matched the pompous way the Okos spoke. “Master Elge, you are in no position to demand. What’s more, your insistence leads me to believe that you harbor deceit. This troubles me and causes me to believe Meta must jeopardize all of us in order to convince you how profoundly and personally I take it if someone breaks their solemn word to me.”

  Elge’s fingers twitched spasmodically, and he seemed to whisper into a side comm, which no doubt connected to the other Okos’ helmets.

  “You speak like an Oko, Captain. We are sworn to help you, and so we shall do. But… I understand,” he said at last, glumly.

  Maddox had taken the measure of the Okos and believed he understood them. There wasn’t a more devious group of aliens around. He would act accordingly.

  Every few steps, an Oko looked back at Meta and her “grenade.” They seemed fearful of it, but Maddox wasn’t sure if they believed him or if they were merely acting scared, trying to lull him.

  Soon, it didn’t matter, as the Okos revived several space marines with hypogun shots in the neck. Each man repeatedly vomited before donning a gas mask and asking what was going on. Maddox told each one.

  Soon, he had as many revived and masked marines as Okos.

  At that point, Maddox steered the enlarged party to the brig.

  “I’m modifying the situation,” Maddox told Elge. “You will instruct your people to take off their spacesuits and helmets. They will enter that cell and await the outcome of your assistance.”

  “The gas—” Elge said.

  “Do you see that man there?” Maddox asked. He indicated a marine at a panel.

  “I do,” Elge said.

  “He has flushed your gas from the cell. Your people will be secure in there. You have my word.”

  “Surely they can keep their helmets so I can remain in communication with them.”

  “I’m afraid not,” Maddox said.

  “No, no, this is no good,” Elge said. “My people are nervous and frightened. Without my soothing, they are likely to become…unhinged. You do not understand.”

  “My marines will remain outside. I assure you that they will be watching your people carefully.”

  “I see,” Elge said, his nervous, slender fingers twitching. “I appreciate your concern, but I do not want you to trouble your marines—”

  “It’s no trouble at all,” Maddox said. “In fact, part of their duty is watching boarders. Normally, they would have shot and killed your people for what they did.”

  “Captain,” Elge said. “I’ve already explained the misunderstanding.”

  “The gas—”

  “No, no,” Elge said. “The gas was a normal precaution on our part. We are a friendly people and dislike conflict, attempting to avoid it at all costs.”

  “Excellent,” Maddox said, “as my marines revel in combat. I was worried your people might attempt to…to breach the cells. If they did, my marines would instinctively act aggressively and possibly kill them. But since your people are friendly and dislike conflict, they will no doubt restfully await your return, so my concerns are moot.”

  Elge, trapped by this logic, agreed and quietly spoke to his people before returning to Maddox.

  The hatches clanged shut, and the marines remained behind, sorting out the Oko spacesuits.

  Maddox and Master Elge continued down the corridors. Meta took a hypogun and kit of revival shots, heading elsewhere.