Maddox gave him the barest of headshakes. Then, he turned to Garth. “Thank you for your offer, but I prefer him to remain living for now. He has sentimental value for me.”

  “As you wish,” Garth said. “Provided he can keep up, he can remain living. Now, go. It is time…”

  He froze.

  Maddox glanced at Riker. The sergeant watched Garth carefully, the plodding mind no doubt coming to certain conclusions about the man and this place.

  Garth shuddered, blinked rapidly and then brought up his black stick. He frowned when he observed the others waiting for him.

  “Why did you not attack while I was indisposed?” Garth asked.

  “That isn’t our nature,” Maddox said smoothly.

  Garth stared at him. “No. That isn’t the answer. Can it be that you comprehend the situation?”

  “It can be,” Maddox said, deadpan.

  Garth scowled, and he motioned with the black metal stick. “Begin. Head that way.”

  Maddox, Riker and Keith headed into the opening Garth had used to reach them. He followed several paces behind, aiming the stick at them as if it were a weapon.

  The opening closed behind him, and the four of them continued to deeper into the subterranean depths.

  -56-

  They passed many open hatches where people in gray overalls and cerebraters half-sunken in their foreheads worked on machines assembly-line fashion. Some of the machines were huge, perhaps parts of a tank or a spaceship. Other parts were small as if components of computers or monitors.

  They passed a different area where humans stood in a line as if in an alien DMV.

  “Help us,” a disheveled woman cried. She wore a dingy dress and heels and had dirty legs.

  Maddox halted. Riker and Keith halted behind him.

  “What are you doing?” Garth asked. “You must proceed down the corridor.”

  “Please,” the woman sobbed from the other chamber, looking through the open hatch at Maddox. She stood at the head of a long line. “Don’t let them do this to me.”

  A big man stepped up and pushed her from behind. The woman staggered toward a different opening.

  Maddox stepped to the hatch and peered into the chamber. There were many sad-looking hopeless individuals in various long lines. Big men wearing gray overalls and boots and with cerebraters in their foreheads and batons in their hands watched the others.

  “What happens on the other side?” Maddox asked Garth.

  “That is not your concern,” Garth said. “Now, continue. We have stayed here long enough.”

  “Do they embed cerebraters into their foreheads in the other room?” Keith asked.

  “Cerebraters?” asked Garth.

  “You understood what it meant before.”

  Garth continued to stare at Keith.

  Keith pointed at Garth’s forehead. “What you’re wearing. What the aliens stuck in your forehead.”

  “Do you refer to the collective perhaps?” Garth asked, bemused.

  Maddox debated slipping into the chamber and rescuing the woman. The burly guards watched him. The captain noticed their hands, tightly gripping their batons. They all watched him now.

  “What’s the collective?” Keith was asking.

  “Belonging,” Garth said.

  Realizing he could do nothing for the woman, that it would result in a fight they’d lose, Maddox turned back to Garth. “Is it permanent?”

  “Do you mean becoming part of the collective?” asked Garth.

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “How could it be otherwise?”

  “The woman in there doesn’t want to join the collective.”

  “It is true that some people are foolish and ill informed,” Garth said. “They do not know what is good for them. Before, they were individual motes creating chaos. Now, they are part of the collective, achieving the greater unity and purpose.”

  “Whose purpose?” Maddox asked.

  “I do not understand the question.”

  “Are the people of Remus gaining from all this?” Maddox asked. “Or are the new owners using the people of Remus for their own alien benefit?”

  “Can you not comprehend?” asked Garth. “Humans are chaotic motes without purpose and meaning. There is no unity among mankind. We offer them the collective, the greater good.”

  “To help Remus’s new owners?” asked Maddox.

  “You do not understand,” Garth said with a sad shake of his head. “We grant the humans a chance to gain meaningful existence. We give them peace and understanding. They are no longer afraid, no longer useless and chaotic.”

  “What if the humans don’t want what you’re giving?”

  “It makes no difference what they want before. Afterward, they want it. They soon understand and are grateful for what we’ve done.”

  “Because the cerebrater forces them to obey you,” Maddox said.

  Garth smiled indulgently as if explaining to a child. “The cerebrater, as you call it, brings reason and unity. It allows their chaotic minds to merge into the mass of being. They become one with us. Surely, you wish to join us as well.”

  “Is that how you truly feel about this, Garth?” Maddox asked. “I frankly doubt it. I had your former memories. I know the kind of person you really are.”

  Garth shook his head. “You must not view me as the being I was, as an unreasoning individual. I was afraid then. I lacked meaning and unity. Those of the Fusion were going to conquer us and force us into their socialistic compromise.”

  “You understand the Fusion?”

  “We understand that the Fusion mimics our ways without using the correct means to achieve their desired aims. They attempt to coerce human minds into unity. But human minds are chaotic and undisciplined. Social Harmony only brings misery, except for the masters of the system. We provide a true collective where all benefit.”

  “Then why are those guards carrying batons?” Maddox asked.

  Garth chuckled. “Don’t you see? That proves our point. The humans, the individual motes, do not understand the greater good they are receiving. We force them out of our love for them.”

  “But they don’t want to lose their individuality.”

  “That is their chaotic nature barring them from true joy and love. The cerebrater merges their individuality into the whole, the collective, the mass. We are benign and loving, allowing the alien humans to enter into our peace.”

  “Then why hide in the shadows?” Maddox asked. “Why use trickery and deceit on others?”

  Garth chuckled, shaking his head. “You fail to understand. Chaotic creatures such as yourselves flail in misery your whole lives. You fight and kill, never achieving the bliss you seek. We provide it, doing so in the easiest and safest manner possible. We are nirvana in the flesh. We have studied you humans, and other aliens, and have finally decided to bring peace, joy and love to the universe. You will all submerge into the collective. Is that not grand?”

  “We have no choice in this?” Maddox asked.

  “None,” Garth said. “Now, we have stayed at the converging station long enough. Look. The woman is gone. Soon, she will belong to the collective. You and your friends must continue onward.”

  “You’re not planning to add us into the collective?”

  “In time, Captain,” Garth said. “First, you must—” Garth frowned and cocked his head. “Forward,” he said a moment later, motioning with the black stick. “I must show you more, and there is something you must do for us before you join the collective.”

  “Do this thing without a cerebrater?” asked Maddox.

  “That is so,” Garth said. “Must I summon the enforcers? Or will you continue to march as you did before?”

  Maddox glanced at a sullen Riker and frightened Keith before nodding. “Sure,” he said. “Show us more. I’d like to see it.”

  -57-

  Maddox made some hard calculations as they marched down the corridors. Keith was flagging again. The pilot needed medical attention and rest. Maddox shook his head. This was a hellish place. He hated it. They turned people into automatons, into alien-run zombies. Could he save them?

  Maddox sighed. He didn’t see how he could. Could he save Garth? That might be impossible. It was time to concentrate on saving Riker and Keith, on saving himself and getting back to Victory.

  These hidden aliens preferred to work in the shadows, to use proxies. They reminded him of the giant centipede Liss, half flesh and half mechanical. The Liss had infiltrated all the way to the top of Star Watch by using these underhanded methods.

  Maddox scowled. These aliens wouldn’t be able to do that with cerebrater-controlled humans. Why had the aliens seeded the nebula with the satellites that merged a cerebrater onto selected individuals? Wait, the satellites had always chosen the leader, first Valerie of the Kit Carson and himself of Victory.

  Maddox scowled more. Did the Fusion First Fleet wait to attack Remus, or had the leaders of the fleet converged into the collective? No. That didn’t seem possible. The leaders would be having dreams if they wore satellite-teleported cerebraters. Besides, why did some of the ships tow asteroids toward Remus? That struck Maddox as an aggressive, a hostile move against the aliens.

  Maddox rubbed his chin. He was in it all right. Riker and Keith were in it. How was he ever going to escape and reach Victory again?

  But…the aliens had made one oversight. He had his blaster; Keith had his gun and Riker his stunner.

  Could they fight the collective all the way back to the entrance? And if they reached the surface, how would that help them?

  One thing at a time, Maddox decided.

  As he pondered these things, they reached a larger area with many benches. Upon the benches sat forty-odd people. They all wore gray overalls with their hands on their knees and their faces forward, sitting with very straight backs. Each person wore a half-sunken cerebrater in his or her forehead. They all stared at a spot on the wall with a tiny nail or other device sticking out.

  “There,” Garth said. “Sit down, won’t you?”

  Keith, Riker and Maddox sat on an empty bench.

  None of the others glanced at them or showed any indication that they’d noticed the newcomers.

  “What’s wrong with them?” a nervous, white-faced Keith asked Garth.

  “Nothing is wrong,” Garth said.

  “Why don’t they speak?” Keith asked.

  “What would you have them say?”

  “Hello, for starters,” Keith said.

  “You are mistaken,” Garth said. “They are now part of the collective as I said earlier. They are absorbing reality. You might call it learning.”

  “Why are they doing it out here?” Keith asked.

  Garth smiled. “The corridors are not for your benefit. You just happened to come upon an access shaft.”

  “Do you mean your masters led us here?” Maddox asked.

  Garth fixed Maddox with a careful scrutiny. “That is an odd comment. Have I not said we are a collective? How can there be masters and servants when we all work for the same goal?”

  “You’re a slave to these aliens, Garth. That device in your head is fooling you. Would you like to be free again? I know how to draw the cerebrater from you.”

  Garth cocked his head, and he began to blink rapidly.

  Maddox rose.

  All those seated around him turned their heads to stare at him.

  “Don’t do it,” Riker said in a soft voice.

  Maddox noticed the others and his shoulders slumped.

  A moment later, Garth became aware again. He focused on Maddox. “Do not say that to him again. It serves no purpose. Now, you will come with me.”

  “Come on,” Maddox told Riker and Keith. “We’re leaving.”

  “No,” Garth said. “They are staying. Only you are leaving.”

  Maddox’s features tightened. He wouldn’t let the aliens split them up. Was it time to fight? It seemed hopeless to begin it way down here.

  “Follow me,” Garth said.

  “Sorry,” Maddox said. “You have that wrong. They’re staying with me.”

  “Those are not the instructions,” Garth said. “Now come with me.”

  Maddox did not move.

  “What is wrong?” Garth asked.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Maddox said. “I just want my friends to go with me. Surely, that can’t be a problem.”

  “I said those were not the instructions.”

  “Then, get some new instructions.”

  All the people with cerebraters in their foreheads rose ominously from the benches.

  “We can force you to obey,” Garth said.

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” Maddox said. “We mean you no harm.”

  “You three cannot possibly harm us,” Garth said.

  “Do you remember your time as a youth?” Maddox asked. “Do you remember when the gang of youths was going to take your copper coin the woman gave you?”

  Garth frowned.

  “Do you remember the old monk who died fighting for you?” Maddox asked.

  “No,” Garth whispered. “I…I don’t want to remember. I am…I am no longer my own. I wish—” He froze, and he cocked his head.

  All around them, the others cocked their heads.

  Maddox knew this was the moment to act, as he’d gone as far into the subterranean realm as he planned. It was time to leave. If they didn’t…the three of them would join the collective, likely for the rest of their lives. He would never see Meta and Jewel again. He would never be himself again. That simply wasn’t going to happen.

  “Gentlemen,” Maddox said with purpose.

  Riker and Keith glanced at him.

  Maddox dropped his right hand onto the butt of his holstered blaster. He was surprised Garth hadn’t tried to take it before this. It must have been a glitch in the alien programming. “At my signal,” Maddox said in a hoarse voice, “we do what we must in order to leave.”

  “We can’t kill them,” Keith said. “That would be murder.”

  “They’re as good as dead,” Maddox said. You heard Garth. The aliens have taken control of them. Do you want the aliens to take control of you?”

  “No,” Keith said in horror.

  “Then you must—”

  “Listen,” Garth said, speaking loudly, interrupting the captain.

  The others around them focused on Maddox.

  “You will come with me,” Garth told Maddox. “The other two will be converted into the collective. It is the way.”

  “Need any more convincing?” Maddox asked Keith.

  “No,” Keith said in a small voice.

  “There are a lot of them,” Riker said.

  “I know,” Maddox said. “It isn’t going to be pretty and it may not be easy.”

  “You will obey me this instant,” Garth told Maddox.

  It hurt to do so, but Maddox drew his blaster and fired at Garth, beaming the cerebrater in the man’s forehead. A second later, Garth crumpled to the floor as he began to thrash.

  “Back the way we came,” Maddox shouted, backpedaling that way as he faced the surging crowd. The captain continued to beam others.

  Now, Keith’s gun and Riker’s stunner added to the fray, dropping the zombie-like humans. It was gruesome and mind-numbing work. Riker must have found it easier, as his stunner only knocked them out, but did not kill them. Keith must have found it the hardest, as he only fired sporadically. Maddox beamed remorselessly, as he’d made his decision. Anything less than his best might mean his never coming home to Meta and Jewel.

  A few times, people reached them. Riker’s bionic strength proved invaluable. Maddox’s savagery helped too, as did the monofilament blade in his left hand.

  “We should run!” Keith shouted as he reloaded shells.

  “Kill them!” Maddox snarled. “It’s the only way for us to survive.”

  A few more minutes of mayhem concluded the fight, as the last of the benchwarmers crumpled to the floor, twitching and making gurgling sounds with ghastly blaster and bullet wounds in them.

  Keith vomited. Riker was shaking his head, muttering darkly.

  Maddox checked the charge on his blaster and waved the weapon back and forth to cool the firing tube. Then, he holstered his weapon. He looked upon Garth, saddened that he’d had to kill the youth.

  “I’ll avenge you,” Maddox said. “I’ll avenge you as if you were my brother.”

  Keith had stopped vomiting and wiped his mouth.

  “You two ready?” asked Maddox.

  “This is horrible,” Keith whispered.

  “Granted,” Maddox said. “Now, are you ready?”

  Keith nodded.

  “Then, follow me,” Maddox said. “Our only chance is to get back to the surface and hope Victory comes looking for us.”

  “Our odds are slim,” Riker said.

  “Yes,” Maddox said, “but we have odds because we’re still living and in control of our minds. So, enough jawing. Save your strength for running.”

  -58-

  Starship Victory approached Remus on the darkened side after using the star-drive jump to reach there from Vulcan. Valerie sat in the captain’s chair. Galyan was beside her. His eyelids fluttered. Valerie glanced at the holoimage.

  “Do you see the stealth ship?” she asked.

  Galyan stopped the eyelid fluttering to turn to her. “Of course, I see it. I am looking for the captain.”

  “Weapons,” Valerie said. “Warm up the disrupter cannon.”

  “I would wait to do that if I were you.”

  “We want to be ready,” Valerie said.

  “If the captain is aboard the Morag stealth ship, we dare not fire. If Grutch realizes our intent before we are ready, he might flee with the captain aboard.”

  Valerie frowned, nodding shortly. “Belay that order, Weapons.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Lieutenant Barnes said.

  “What do you suggest?” Valerie asked Galyan.

  “That we scan the planet for signs of the fold-fighter.”