Once secured within, the ‘robotic gorillas’ stepped into larger commando maneuver units. The units were skeletal with sensor and thruster packs and nozzles. The units’ purpose was stealth space maneuvering.

  “We’re ready,” Maddox said over the short link in his helmet.

  Keith pressed a switch, bleeding the air from the compartment. Then an outer bay door slid opened. Maddox walked his battlesuit and commando maneuver unit into the slot of a stealth catapult. One could also call it a magnetic accelerator. The slot holding Maddox was positioned between two rails aimed at the door.

  Maddox felt the slot ratchet or shiver, telling him he was secure in the magnetic accelerator. “I’m ready,” he told Keith.

  “Just a moment, sir,” Keith said over the short link.

  The fold fighter subtly shifted its position, the open door realigning with the target.

  “I have you centered on the asteroid,” Keith said.

  “Fire when ready,” Maddox said.

  “Now,” Keith said.

  The slot holding Maddox slid quickly along the rails, propelled by magnetic impulses. The slot reached the end, stopping abruptly and releasing Maddox in his battlesuit and commando maneuver unit. Maddox shot into space, propelled from the fighter toward the asteroid in the distance.

  Maddox aligned himself so he kept the asteroid in direct view.

  Soon, Meta shot after him.

  Maddox turned on the commando maneuver unit’s camouflage system. With this skeletal unit over his suit, he acted like a mini-spaceship.

  The magnetic accelerator launch ensured that the battlesuits emitted no heat or bright light from thrust. It was just the camouflaged equipment heading toward the target. Each commando maneuver unit did have cold hydrogen particles for thrust later. The passive sensors on the asteroid would likely miss spotting that, however.

  In their suits and units, Maddox and Meta sailed through space for the asteroid. Galyan kept an eye on them, and he also acted as a scout in ghost mode. The holoimage was five thousand kilometers ahead of the two. Galyan particularly scanned for missiles, tracking guns or anything badly unusual.

  Together with Ludendorff, they had gone over the plan until each knew his or her part precisely. After they reached the far side of the asteroid and approached the hidden darter on foot, Galyan would enter the darter in ghost mode. The holoimage would rush into Becker and emit stunning blasts in order to render the telepath unconscious. At that point, Maddox and Meta should have preceded far and fast enough to enter the darter through explosive devices. Galyan would warn the three kidnapped crewmembers and they would use emergency procedures. That meant entering an emergency safety bubble so they had atmosphere to breathe when the air exited the darter.

  Maddox wanted his kidnapped people back. He also wanted Becker in custody. Becker was his fault. Maddox had revived the damn telepath, thinking to use him.

  I did successfully use Becker. My grandmother is alive, even though the Lord High Admiral and Stokes are dead. But if I don’t return Becker soon…

  Maddox knew that Admiral Haig and others in Star Watch would use that against him. They would either strip him of power or maybe cashier him from the service.

  Maddox needed to capture Becker while the task force was here. That was strange, though, the endless waiting with the task force. Jellicoe should attack the Spacers or leave. Maybe Jellicoe should leave several drones behind to see what the enemy did once the task force departed.

  In the helmet, Maddox shook his head.

  Keeping eleven Conqueror-class battleships and their auxiliary vessels here was a waste of time and effort. What did General Mackinder really have up his sleeve? Didn’t the spy chief want to be home in the middle of his web?

  Inside the battlesuit as he sped toward the targeted asteroid, Maddox shrugged. He hadn’t figured out Mackinder’s reasoning yet, although he hadn’t stopped trying.

  A green light appeared to the left on his HUD. “We’re getting closer,” Maddox said through the short link. “We’re ten thousand klicks from target.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said from ahead, “I am not detecting anything suspicious. Should I go into the darter and stun Becker?”

  “Not yet,” Maddox said. “It’s still going to take us a while to reach the darter.”

  “Should I dismantle the passive sensors then?” Galyan asked.

  “Wait until we’re just about on the surface.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  Time passed as the two commando maneuver units neared the asteroid. Maddox’s intuitive sense did not pick up anything strange. That was a good sign, except he wore the silver headband with the humming box. He’d found the anti-telepathy box hindered his intuitive sense. That was interesting. Did it mean his intuitive sense was psionic or telepathic? Maddox had discovered in the past that he possessed slight telepathic powers, although not like Becker, not even close.

  The asteroid seemed to grow larger as they approached. This space rock had a dark albedo and a gravelly surface.

  “It’s time to start braking,” Maddox short linked to his wife.

  Each commando maneuver unit rotated as its side jets emitted gas. Soon, the cold hydrogen particles expelled from the main thruster. Their velocity slowed until the two inched toward the surface.

  Galyan went down and deactivated each of the passive sensors. When finished, he asked, “Should I go into the darter yet?”

  “Soon,” Maddox said. “We need to time this just right. Becker might have something like my intuitive sense. The less warning we give him the better.”

  “I can just stun him and repeatedly do so until you show up,” Galyan said.

  “No,” Maddox said. “Becker’s powers seemed to have increased. We’ll time this so we do it together. That should be safer.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  Five minutes later, the two commando maneuver units were less than a kilometer from the asteroid’s surface.

  “Eject,” Maddox said.

  In his battlesuit, Maddox ejected from the commando maneuver unit. Meta ejected from hers. They both came down faster than seemed wise.

  Maddox struck the surface first. He used exoskeleton power to try to absorb some of the force and then rolled. Meta did likewise.

  In moments, Maddox was up and gliding to Meta’s position.

  “Are you all right?” he asked via tight link.

  “I’m good,” Meta said. “I don’t even feel slightly jarred.”

  “Great,” Maddox said. “Let’s go.”

  They were both zero-G experts. They used a long gliding semi-leap to move across the surface, heading toward the other side and the crevice where the Darter Tarrypin hid. If they jumped too high, they would reach escape velocity and drift away. Thus, moving across the asteroid took expert gliding.

  It was at that point, despite the headband, that Maddox’s intuitive sense warned him things were not going to proceed as planned.

  -45-

  Inside the darter, Becker dreamed, and his dreams were normal for him. That meant they would have been strange and bizarre for anyone else. Then, in his dream, an imp stood on the arm of the throne where he sat.

  “Someone is coming,” the imp said.

  “What?” Becker said in his dream to the imp.

  “Someone is coming,” the imp repeated.

  The imp had huge, sharp teeth in a tiny red mouth. The imp was a devilish little creature with spiny, lumpish skin.

  Suddenly, Becker realized the imp represented his id. That was how he saw his id as a devilish, monstrous creature. He needed to change his self-view.

  “Who’s coming?” Becker asked.

  “You’re asleep, you buffoon,” the imp said. “You are asleep, modifying yourself. What’s worse, you can’t even get that right. Don’t you understand that everything needs to be done slowly, carefully, with precision?”

  Bigheaded Becker, surrounded by a bevy of waiting beauties on his throne—in his dream—looked at the grinning, vicious little creature standing on the arm of the throne. “You’re not making sense. This isn’t making sense. What do you mean?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” the imp said. “Keep dreaming. Maddox is coming with Galyan and Meta. They are going to capture you and put you into stasis. I’m going to be nothing again, having to wait for another fortuitous moment. I wish my intellect were smarter than this. Why are you such an idiot?”

  Becker was starting to get angry. How dare the little spiny creature with huge teeth talk to him like this.

  “Becker,” the imp said, “I’m going to try one more time. Unless you wake up, you can forget about having Honey and all the others doing your bidding. You’ll do Star Watch’s bidding, and you’ll dance like a jester in some great court, the clown everyone is laughing at.”

  “Enough of this!” Becker shouted, beginning to get frightened. “Wake up!” He shouted at himself.

  The image of a throne and imp with huge white teeth vanished. Becker felt himself stirring on a cot in the wardroom in the Darter Tarrypin. He groaned. That had been an evil dream, a stupid dream.

  Becker froze because he realized it had also been a true dream. His mind felt sluggish and sore because it had been engaged in gigantic efforts modifying his body. He was freaking starving.

  “Open your eyes,” Becker whispered.

  He opened his eyes. The blurry image of the wardroom told him he was awake. He looked down and saw covers over him. The body underneath was lumpish and bigger than he remembered.

  Becker laughed victoriously.

  This is awesome. I’ll stun Maddox with my gargantuan excellence. I’ll have the physique of a champion athlete. I’ll stun Maddox’s mind and beat him to a pulp with my fists.

  Becker reached up, grabbed the blanket and whipped it off him. He looked down at his body with…with horror, disgust, and maybe amazement. He was bigger. He was at least seven and a half, maybe eight feet tall. It was hard to tell while lying down. His legs were huge twisted lumps of muscle and mass. His chest, like everything else, was huge. Everything was big, but he was deformed.

  Becker twisted around, grabbed a hand mirror from the nightstand, and looked at himself. He resembled a massive, hunchbacked Quasimodo. His face was just as twisted and lumpy looking.

  “I look like a freak,” Becker said aloud. “I’m going to have to double my control over the girls, or they’re going to blanch in horror at the sight of me.”

  Was he worse off than before? No. He must be strong, phenomenally strong by the looks of it.

  Once more, Becker twisted around on the cot. He found that hard to do because he wasn’t used to being so darn big like this. Oh, this was interesting. His neck was thick, corded with muscles. He should easily be able to hold up his big head.

  “Oh yeah,” Becker said. “This is what I wanted.”

  He’d been partly successful, although he looked like a freak, like a misshaped giant but he was massive. When he stood, his head almost bumped up against the ceiling. He barely ducked in time, or he might have knocked himself unconscious. As he took several steps, he found his movement ungainly, as one leg was shorter than the other one.

  “Don’t panic,” Becker told himself. “I can fix this later.”

  Then he forgot everything as a surge of hunger almost caused him to swoon onto the cot. There was food. He used his mighty hands. The fingers were of different lengths. He had hairy knuckles, but they were big. He smashed the nightstand in a fit of strength and fury. He then continued to gobble down food and guzzle gallons of artificial milk.

  As he assuaged his hunger and as his body strove to replenish all he’d used powering the pituitary gland, powering his brain’s might, he realized Maddox, Galyan, and Meta were coming. He wasn’t sure how he knew this, but now that his mind was no longer throbbing with pain, he used it to probe other parts of the darter.

  The girls were at their stations, talking to each other, wondering if they should hammer on his hatch to tell him that the sensors had gone dead.

  “Dead?” Becker said.

  With his telepathic ability, Becker mentally flashed to the other side of the asteroid and observed the deactivated sensors. He searched and found two battle-suited humans gliding low over the surface. They were almost to the crevice where the darter was hidden. Becker peered inside one suit, finding Meta. She was a stunning blonde. He mentally went to the other suit and recoiled.

  Maddox knew it was him, too.

  Damn Maddox.

  Mentally snapping back, Becker returned his focus to his body and surveyed the chamber.

  “They’re coming. What should I do?”

  Before he could decide, Becker sensed a holographic entity gliding into the darter.

  That was Galyan. The holoimage would enter his body and blast it with numbing power.

  How should he respond? Becker wasn’t sure he had time to telekinetically shut off Galyan as he had before. Then he knew the answer.

  With a bolt of telekinetic power, Becker blasted the booster out in space.

  A second later, Galyan’s holoimage disappeared, as it could no longer reach this far from Victory.

  Becker concentrated as he sat on the side of the cot. I need clothes. Naw. There aren’t any clothes on board that fit me. Let them see me in all my glory and monstrous power.

  Becker no longer had to balance his huge head carefully. He could twist and move it fast. He might limp like a monster, but he could still cavort and dally with his three beautiful ladies. He would be the conqueror indeed, not just the weakling with the powerful brain. He possessed powerful attributes in every aspect, as a man should in this situation.

  There was a twinge of conscience that tried to tell him this wasn’t the right way to go about things.

  You can shut up, conscience. You can go to hell.

  As Becker sat on the side of the cot, he clutched his hands between his knees, and concentrated. In their battlesuits, Maddox and Meta worked down the rocky crevice, heading for the darter.

  Let them come, Becker thought. Let them come and find a giant surprise.

  -46-

  In his space-proofed battlesuit, Maddox maneuvered down a rocky crevice. He could see the cloaked darter below because the cloak did not shield it from normal vision. Maddox peered through his helmet visor. Then something struck him as wrong about this.

  Becker…Becker knows we’re coming.

  “Meta,” Maddox said over the short link.

  Unfortunately, communication between them had ceased. Maddox checked his suit comm by running a quick diagnostic. Something had disrupted it. Then, life support began to fail; a blinking red light on the HUD warned him of this.

  Within the battlesuit, Maddox turned and surged upward in the crevice, leaping in the almost nonexistent gravity. He reached Meta’s battlesuit and clanged his helmet against hers.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Maddox shouted.

  Because the solid metal of their helmets pressed together, Meta could hear his tinny voice inside hers.

  “Go where?” she asked.

  “Back into space to the fold fighter,” Maddox shouted.

  “I can’t do that,” Meta said. “My oxygen supply has just stopped. I only have minutes left. Our only hope is to go into the darter.”

  Maddox understood without a doubt that Becker was awake and had used his telekinetic abilities to wreak havoc on their suit equipment. Maddox agreed with Meta and started down to the darter with her anyway. If they were going to do this, they had to do it fast and violently.

  Galyan appeared. “Sir, Becker knows you are coming.”

  Before Maddox could reply, Galyan disappeared just as abruptly.

  Maddox didn’t know it, but Galyan had appeared in Victory earlier. Keith had used the fold fighter to launch another booster. With the new booster, Galyan had reached Maddox. However, once again, Becker’s telekinetic power had shredded the booster. Thus, Galyan was once again on Victory explaining the situation to Lieutenant Maker.

  “What should we do? Galyan?” asked Keith. “If we go in guns blazing, we might kill the captain. Becker sounds dangerous.”

  “We are going to have to wait and see,” Galyan said. He had run a fast analysis, finding their odds horrible if they acted.

  “Can Becker capture Maddox?” Keith asked.

  “That does seem unlikely,” Galyan admitted. “We must wait and find out. Either Maddox will contact us, or Becker will.”

  “That’s it?” Keith said. “That’s your big plan?”

  “We tried my big plan,” Galyan said. “Becker foiled it once again. Now I think we have to wait and see what happens.”

  Maddox didn’t know about the conversation. Instead, he and Meta neared the darter. When they were a mere hundred meters from it, all their suit systems broke down. Well, not quite all.

  Maddox’s suit servos partially worked. He scowled, as it felt as if someone knocked on his brain. He felt another knock. It almost seemed as if Becker was trying to communicate with him. Maddox listened, as it were, and realized Becker needed him to take off the headband or shut it off.

  If you don’t, I’ll shut down your suits and you and your wife will suffocate.

  Maddox exhaled sharply, hating the situation, thinking quickly. He didn’t see any other options. Thus, Maddox did something he dearly did not want to. He shut off the box on his headband. At that moment, Becker’s personality and telepathic force slammed against him.

  “Well, well, well, Captain Maddox,” Becker said in a mental rapport, “how the tables have turned.”

  “Get on with it,” Maddox said tersely, using his thoughts to speak to Becker.

  “I will allow your suits partial servo power. With that, you two will enter the airlock. I will not open the inner airlock until you manually climb out of your battlesuits and divest yourselves of any hand weapons.”

  “At that point, you could open the outer airlock and kill us through vacuum,” Maddox said.