“No, no,” Elge moaned. “My wives, my children—”

  “My men,” Maddox snarled. “Galyan—”

  At that moment, explosions rent the Gourvich as the Oko recovery vessel splintered into several sections. The fusion beams continued to ray into the spreading, tumbling mass. More explosions caused even greater destruction, and various ship parts hurled in all directions as those parts disintegrated under the nuclear fury of the ignited fusion engines.

  “Get ready,” Andros Crank said from his station.

  A few of the smaller pieces struck Victory’s shield, which held under the impact.

  At that point, the Gourvich as a ship was gone, other spinning and tumbling pieces testament to its former existence.

  “You destroyed it,” Maddox said, dismayed. It had happened so fast. Worse, he’d sentenced many of his space marines to death by sending them to the Gourvich. Rage began bubbling in him.

  Master Elge swayed back and forth, keening to himself at his terrible loss. “I told you, I told you,” he said.

  “Now, Captain Maddox,” the cyber said. “As an emissary from your region of space, you will lower your shield and take your weapons offline. As soon as you comply, I will send shuttles to your warship so Soldiers can confirm your status. After that, we shall discuss your fate.”

  The rage in Maddox made it hard to think.

  “You have two seconds to comply, Captain,” the cyber said. “If you do not—”

  “No,” Maddox said, struggling to contain his anger. “You’re right. We’re lowering our shield.”

  “Sir,” Valerie hissed.

  Maddox waved her silent. Then, blank-faced, he regarded the cyber. “How do I know you won’t fire once we lower our shield?”

  “I am a Soldier of Leviathan,” Mon Zabul said. “I now give you my word. I will not fire until we determine your status, and only then if there is need.”

  Maddox glanced back at Elge. The Oko was weeping and keening, still swaying back and forth.

  “We can’t drop our shields, sir,” Valerie said.

  “Thank you for your input, Lieutenant,” Maddox said icily.

  “Sir,” Valerie said, “Elge warned us against the Soldiers. They used stealth missiles against us, and we just witnessed an unprovoked assault against a defenseless vessel. Trusting these cybers now is madness.”

  “I hear bickering in your crew,” Mon Zabul said. “Do you run your alien vessel or not, Captain Maddox?”

  The captain stared at the cyber. “I run this ship.”

  “Then prove it, and lower your shield as instructed.”

  Maddox blinked in astonishment at such primitive psychology. “Before I lower my shield,” he said slowly, trying to speak normally, “I request that you power down your fusion cannons.”

  “Are you saying that you do not trust the word of a Leviathan Supreme Soldier?”

  “Trust but verify is an ancient proverb in my world,” Maddox said. “I am bound by custom in this.”

  “That is an insult to Leviathan, and I will not—”

  “Fire,” Maddox said softly to Galyan. “Fire both cannons at that bastard.”

  -51-

  The highly effective shield the cyber’s warship possessed surprised Maddox.

  The disrupter and neutron beams struck the enemy’s electromagnetic shield. The areas hit turned red and then brown, and then slowly darkened toward black. But they held.

  At the same time, returning fusion beams struck Victory’s shield. Each Leviathan warship had three such cannons. Six beams altogether struck the starship’s shield. However, the six beams did not all strike the same spot, but various locations on Victory’s shield.

  “Their attack pattern is odd,” Ludendorff said.

  “Agreed,” Andros said. “It implies we can collapse their shield through a saturation attack, as that’s what they’re attempting to do against us. Their shields are of a different nature from ours.”

  “Lieutenant Noonan,” Maddox said, “launch two antimatter missiles and four decoys with each. Target one group at each warship.”

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie said, as her fingers blurred over her panel.

  The fight continued, Victory hitting the forward-most warship and the two Leviathan vessels pouring fusion-beam rays into the shield. The three vessels matched each other in size, Victory having the approximate mass of the two battleships.

  “They’re retargeting their fusion cannons,” Valerie said. “I don’t think they like our missiles.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “I want you to concentrate on finding enemy stealth missiles. The Soldiers seem to prefer deceptive tactics. They must have launched more of them from somewhere.”

  “I am scanning, sir,” Galyan said.

  “There goes one of the decoys,” Valerie said.

  A flash appeared on the main screen.

  “And another,” she said.

  “Your board is signaling you,” a tech told Valerie. She tapped a panel to her left.

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “The cyber is hailing us.”

  Another flash appeared on the main screen, a fusion beam destroying yet another decoy.

  “Put him back on,” Maddox said, “but give me a split-screen.”

  One half of the split-screen was the Leviathan cyber, while the other half showed the continuing battle.

  “You have a good shield,” Mon Zabul said. “What is that yellow beam?”

  “Do you surrender?” Maddox asked.

  The cyber’s plastic eyes seemed to glow hot. “A Soldier of Leviathan never surrenders. It is an insult you should ask such a thing.”

  “I’m a traveler to this region. I don’t know your mores, remember?”

  “Master Elge is on your bridge. That infers you knew all about us. Saying otherwise suggests that you are a liar.”

  A huge explosion and partial whiteout showed that the cybers had destroyed an antimatter missile.

  The nearness of the explosion disrupted communications, as a blizzard appeared on the main screen, causing Mon Zabul to disappear. The fusion beams from the second warship stopped hitting Victory’s shield as the whiteout temporarily disordered the rays.

  As that happened, the disrupter and neutron beams darkened Mon Zabul’s shield. It was seconds from collapsing.

  The cyber reappeared on one-half of the screen.

  “Let us negotiate,” Mon Zabul said. “What would you give as tribute for us to cease firing?”

  Maddox stared at the cyber in disbelief.

  “You must hurry,” Mon Zabul said. “The time for negotiating is nearing its end. If you destroy my ship, you will have declared war against the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan. We will never cease hunting you in that case.”

  “Nice bluff,” Ludendorff muttered. “He’s a lot like you, Captain.”

  Maddox turned to the professor. “What if he’s not bluffing, though? Do we want to start an eternal war with Leviathan?”

  “Bah,” Ludendorff said. “Finish him. He’s a tyrant. Look how he destroyed the Gourvich. Your men died on it, Captain.”

  “I will warn you for the last time,” Mon Zabul said. “I am offering you a way out. Give me the secret to your yellow beam and I shall allow you to leave the Caval System.”

  “On one condition,” Maddox said. “We want to see the Builder nexus. We want to go inside it.”

  The cyber become motionless. “Did Master Elge tell you about the ancient pyramid? He must have done so. I will log a report and we shall annihilate all the Okos everywhere for his sacrilege.”

  “Are you insane?” Maddox said.

  “The Soldiers of Leviathan are the symbol of pure sanity,” Mon Zabul said. “Even now, we are recording the battle. We shall learn from it. Nevertheless, the Okos will cease as a species. They have earned their fate.”

  “You won’t let us onto the nexus?” Maddox asked.

  “Your repeated insults demand a jihad against your society,” Mon Zabul said. “The Builders are sacrosanct. They are the gift-givers, the creators of Leviathan. How dare you speak such filth to me? It must be your odd nature that has corrupted your mind. We are the Soldiers of Leviathan, the most perfect union of machine and flesh the universe has witnessed. We serve the memory of the Builders and await their return.”

  “Batrun!” Ludendorff said. “Maybe that’s how we can use him.”

  Baffled, Maddox stared at the professor.

  “Let Batrun pass himself off as a Builder. We can deal with the Soldiers—”

  It was too late for such deceptions. The cyber’s shield finally collapsed, having lasted longer than expected. The neutron and disrupter beams struck a point against the iridium-Z hull armor. The substance began to melt as the two beams relentlessly bored inward.

  “You are vile creatures,” Mon Zabul declared. “It is my great honor to have discovered such miscreants as you. I will not have died in vain, but have shown Leviathan the scum that exists elsewhere. Yes, you desire to profane our sacred nexuses. Know that your end is assured.”

  The disrupter beam punched through the weakened point of iridium-Z armor and began ranging within the alien battleship.

  At that point, the antimatter missile arrived as the warhead ignited.

  As the first whiteout dissipated, a second expanded into existence. This one hid the awful damage and destruction to the first Leviathan battleship. Spinning pieces of hull armor flew through the whiteout, showing that the vessel must have exploded into separate parts.

  “War is declared,” Galyan said.

  “What?” asked Maddox.

  “Did you not hear him, sir? He said his destruction means—”

  “Enough,” Maddox said. “I heard him. I hope he was bluffing.”

  “I was analyzing Mon Zabul as he pontificated,” Galyan said. “I give it a mere nineteen percent probability that he was bluffing. Thus, we have more likely begun war against the Sovereign Hierarchy of Leviathan.”

  “I hope you’re wrong, Galyan.”

  “I do too, sir—even if that will lower my overall record as a prognosticator.”

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “The cyber in charge of the second warship is hailing us.”

  “Ignore him,” Maddox said, as his features hardened. He recalled his dead marines. “The cybers are insane. We’re destroying that ship, too, and then we’re going to hunt for a nexus so we can go home.”

  -52-

  They found a nexus in the fourth debris cloud. That was three days after the destruction of the alien battleships.

  The fourth debris cloud had more than just a nexus slowly spinning inside it. The cloud also possessed a base and thirteen Leviathan attack craft.

  The attack craft were twice the size of a tin can and carried a rail-gun on their long undercarriages. Each of them charged at Victory from behind chunks of debris. Despite their iridium-Z hull armor, each of them blew up spectacularly thanks to the disrupter cannon.

  The base held Soldiers. They departed the station en masse, each of them wearing a heavy thruster pack. Maddox did not negotiate or show mercy, but used the neutron cannon until no more space-suited Soldiers remained.

  After that, he fired an antimatter missile and destroyed the cyber base.

  “We should have landed and studied their facilities,” Ludendorff said later.

  “No,” Elge said in the same dispirited tone he’d used after the Gourvich’s destruction. “The Soldiers would have booby-trapped the base. Whoever you had sent would have died.”

  “Do you think there are more Soldiers hiding in the asteroid belt?” Maddox asked.

  “Of course,” Elge said. “They have declared jihad against you and us. The Okos are doomed.”

  Maddox pondered that, and finally made Elge an offer. “I’ll give you a portal-capable shuttle. It won’t travel too many light-years, but it might be enough for you to find other Okos.”

  “Why would you do this?” Elge asked.

  “So you can warn your people about the jihad.”

  “I can also warn them about you!”

  “You can,” Maddox said. “It’s the one point that causes me to wonder if I should just shoot you. In the end, I decided I’d want someone to warn my people. There is an old…law in our society. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you.’”

  Elge worked that over in his mind. “What a strange, quaint law. We believe that you should do unto others before they can do unto you.”

  “That’s how most beings think,” Maddox said. “The one who gave us the law was a great teacher.”

  “An Earthling?” asked Elge.

  “That’s what some people said he was.”

  “What do you think?”

  Maddox stared at the furry Oko. “I think he was God in the flesh.”

  “The Creator?” asked Elge.

  “You could call him that, too.”

  “And that is why you’re letting me go?”

  “Pretty much,” Maddox said. “Good luck, Master Elge. I’m truly sorry about your ship, your wives, friends and children. It was a terrible loss. Maybe if we Earthlings make it back out here someday, we can try to make it up to you.”

  “You are causing the jihad against us. It was your fault.”

  “Master Elge,” Maddox said. “In my estimation, the Soldiers of Leviathan are insane. Sooner or later, they were going to attack the Okos.”

  “I would rather it would have been later.”

  “Me, too,” Maddox said. “Go warn your people. And if you want my advice, the Okos should flee far from Leviathan.”

  The little alien studied Maddox. “Will you give me the mechanical man as a bonus?”

  “Do you still want him?”

  Elge looked away. “No. I was going to trade him to Leviathan. Now…now it is too late. I will never willingly help Leviathan. Perhaps if you return someday, you will come in strength. Then, if the Okos still live, you can help us.”

  “If we ever return,” Maddox said. “That could be a big ‘if’.”

  “You are not like Leviathan, and you are not like the Okos. You are a strange mixture of guile and honesty, cunning and courage. I do not understand you, Captain Maddox.”

  “The computer aboard your shuttle contains data of the battle, including the unprovoked attack against the Gourvich.”

  “If the others believe me, I will be an outcast, for they will undoubtedly blame me for what has happened.”

  “Life happened, Master Elge. Life is often unpredictable and brutal. Save your people, if you can.”

  “Are you salvaging your conscience by giving me the shuttle? Is that what this is?”

  “Good luck, Master Elge. Go in peace and go with God. It’s the best I can give you now.”

  Shortly thereafter, Elge left in a Star Watch shuttle, one that had been carefully combed so there were no antimatter engine specs or other military software or hardware that the Soldiers could use if they captured the craft.

  Elge exited the debris cloud and headed for a distant Laumer Point.

  Meanwhile, Victory moved toward the Builder nexus…

  -53-

  The nexus—the Builder pyramid—was like all its kind in the Sagittarius and Orion Spiral Arms. Were all the Builders alike in their thinking and customs?

  Maddox held a conference meeting. It had been some time since he had. They had critical decisions to make before they attempted the great leap home.

  Besides the captain, there was Ludendorff, Galyan, Andros, Riker, Meta and Valerie. Keith was absent, as he was holding down the bridge.

  “Heading into a nexus has almost always proven dangerous,” Maddox began. “There have often been traps. The Soldiers of Leviathan guarded this nexus. It appears the Builders or Builder advocates—such as Scutum-Centaurus Methuselah Men—provided the Soldiers with some of their technology. That—”

  “Just a minute, Captain,” Ludendorff said, interrupting. “Builders didn’t grant the Swarm high technology.”

  “Is that true?” Valerie asked. “Didn’t the Builder in the Dyson Sphere give Commander Thrax high technology? That’s what allowed the Imperium to invade Human Space.”

  “I was there,” Ludendorff said. “Of course, the Builder did that. We’re not talking about the recent incident, though. For uncounted centuries, maybe longer than that, the Builders did not help the Swarm but actually worked against them.”

  “What’s your point?” Maddox asked.

  Ludendorff said, “The Builders did not aid humanity—”

  “They helped the Adoks against the Swarm,” Galyan said, interrupting. “If you will remember, I was there.”

  “Right,” Maddox said. “Maybe that’s what the Builders did here. Maybe Builders aided the Soldiers long ago—”

  “How is any of this germane to our problem?” Ludendorff asked. “We need to enter the nexus, set the coordinates for home—”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Valerie asked, cutting in. “We need to find another nexus midway between here and home. Can you do that?”

  “It would help if I had the Builder stone from last voyage,” Ludendorff said. “But yes, I can do it.”

  “Then we’ll use a hyper-spatial tube,” Valerie said, “reaching the next nexus. After that, we make another hyper-spatial jump to arrive home.”

  Maddox drummed his fingers on the conference table.

  “Is something wrong, sir?” Galyan asked.

  “It is. I keep thinking about the iridium-Z armor and fusion cannons. While I agree that the Leviathan scientists could have independently developed those items, it seems more likely that they were Builder-derived.”

  “Why does that matter, my boy?” Ludendorff asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Maddox admitted. “Something hidden is bouncing in my subconscious.”

  Galyan studied the captain as his holographic eyelids fluttered. “Ah,” the AI said. “I believe I know what is troubling you. I have studied your psychology in detail, sir. It is most fascinating, to say the least. I just ran an analysis of what could be—”