Maddox became more thoughtful.

  If Becker could mold himself into a physical giant, perhaps he could perfect the process and turn himself handsome as well. Beautiful women already obeyed his dictates because they had to.

  Maddox nodded.

  Becker was an interesting study, but he was alone, possibly uncertain behind all that bravado. Maddox grunted. He couldn’t worry about that. Events were coalescing, finally, after the weird beginnings.

  “Captain Maddox, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, Galyan, I hear you. Where have you been?”

  “Becker has been using telekinetic bolts to destroy my boosters. We’ve placed another one in position. Can you see me?”

  Maddox looked up. There was Galyan in holographic form gliding beside him.

  “Listen,” Maddox said. “There are assault ships of Leviathan heading into the Paran System. They might already be here. You need to bring Keith and the fold fighter near the asteroid so Meta and I can get back to Victory as fast as possible.”

  “What about the darter and the crewmembers Becker kidnapped?” Galyan asked.

  “They’re not our priority at the moment.”

  “Shall I check on Becker?”

  “No,” Maddox said. “I’ve made a deal and I plan to live up to it.”

  “Sir?” Galyan said.

  “Something good yet remains in Becker. I—it could be an intuitive sense I felt as we fought.”

  “You were in the darter, sir?” Galyan said.

  “I was,” Maddox said. “Becker… I’ll explain later. Now do what I ordered.”

  “I will, sir. I will be gone for just a moment.”

  Maddox and Meta continued to glide across the stony surface of the asteroid.

  “Keith will be here in a second,” Galyan said, reappearing beside Maddox.

  “Good,” Maddox said. “Meta, are you ready?”

  “For what?” Meta asked.

  “To leap for the fold fighter,” Maddox said, as if she should have known.

  A few seconds later, the fold fighter appeared several kilometers above the surface.

  “Aim for it,” Maddox said.

  He gathered exoskeleton power and leaped. Meta leapt after him. The two sailed through the void. Keith expertly maneuvered the fold fighter, catching them, as it were, with the open hatch and a steel mesh net. The steel mesh was so they wouldn’t smash through the fighter with their velocity and wreck everything.

  In moments, both Maddox and Meta were in the tin can, the hatch shut, and Keith folding directly into a hangar bay on Victory.

  Maddox wanted to get onto the bridge as fast as possible. He also needed to alert General Mackinder and Admiral Jellicoe as fast as he could. The task force had to retreat before being annihilated by an overwhelming assault fleet.

  -49-

  Maddox sprinted down the corridors from the hangar bay, and he reached the bridge on Victory. He dropped with a thud into the captain’s chair.

  “Patch me through to Admiral Jellicoe.”

  As Maddox waited for the comm officer to reach Jellicoe, he caught his breath. Maddox wouldn’t normally have been winded from such a sprint, but Becker’s hammer blows, both mental and physical, had weakened his recuperative powers for the moment.

  Maddox rubbed his forehead. His head ached. Would a pill help, or might it be the wrong thing to take? He asked for some water. Soon, an ensign gave him a cup. He gulped the water down.

  “Where’s Admiral Jellicoe? Why isn’t he on the screen yet?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” the comm officer said. “I’ve tried all the channels.”

  Maddox refrained from shouting, “Try harder.” His overt emotions surprised him. Perhaps that, too, was a result of his fight with Becker. Maddox breathed deeply once, twice, three times, and the calming effect showed on his face and then his shoulders.

  “Sir,” the comm officer said, “I have Admiral Jellicoe. I can put him on the main screen if you like.”

  Maddox indicated with a hand gesture for her to do so.

  On the main screen, bluff Jellicoe turned around to face Maddox. “What is so urgent?”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, “I’ve just received information that a Leviathan assault fleet is about to enter the Paran System.”

  It took Jellicoe a moment. “You mean this star system?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “A Leviathan assault fleet, you’re saying?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How many ships is that?”

  “I don’t know,” Maddox said, “but I suggest the task force leaves immediately.”

  “Leave? We need to smash the assault vessels as they come out of jump.”

  “They’re heading here through a hyper-spatial tube,” Maddox said.

  “What? Where is this exit?”

  “I’m not sure, somewhere in the star system.”

  “You don’t know,” Jellicoe said. “If you don’t know, how can you possibly know they’re coming? And can you know they’re approaching through a hyper-spatial tube?”

  “Like I said, sir—it’s secret intelligence. Or did I mention that?”

  “I see,” Jellicoe said. “I suppose you’re referring to your vaunted intuitive sense.”

  “No, sir. It was more direct.”

  “Well, spill it, man. I’m the commander of the task force, the expedition. I have a right to know how you know this.”

  That was a reasonable point. “I spoke with Becker, sir. He sensed the assault fleet coming.”

  “Becker,” Jellicoe said. “You know where that telepathic bastard is, do you? Did you launch an antimatter missile at him and take care of the problem?”

  “No, we made a deal.”

  Jellicoe raised his eyebrows, moved his jaw from side to side, and then glared balefully at Maddox. The first words he was going to speak—Jellicoe obviously hesitated as if he reconsidered.

  “Now, Captain,” Jellicoe said in a quieter tone, “do you think this is true information?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “You don’t think Becker told you this cockamamie tale to throw us off his scent?”

  “I absolutely do not, sir.”

  “And you have reason to believe Becker would tell us the truth?” Jellicoe asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Maddox said.

  Cunning entered the admiral’s eyes. “Do you stake your reputation in Star Watch on this?”

  “Admiral,” Maddox said, “I’ve given you the information. I certainly plan to take Victory elsewhere to survive the enemy’s onrush.”

  “No sir,” Jellicoe said, with his features hardening. He stood a moment later. “You will do no such thing. You are part of this task force. If you flee what you perceive as the face of the enemy, that will be abject cowardice.”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, “I suspect the assault fleet of Leviathan, the Seventh Assault Fleet, to be precise, may be too powerful for us to deal with alone out here.”

  “You’ve dealt with a Leviathan warship on your own in the past. We can do that with the task force.”

  “Possibly,” Maddox said.

  “What do you mean ‘possibly’?” Jellicoe said.

  Maddox rubbed his forehead. For some reason, he couldn’t remember the situation the admiral referred to. “Sir, that’s not germane—”

  “The hell it’s not,” Jellicoe shouted, interrupting. “You just informed me an assault fleet of Leviathan is coming, and you wish to hightail it as fast as you can. Is your survival that important to you, Captain? That you would dare to show cowardice in the face of the enemy?”

  It was funny, but Maddox felt his face redden as Jellicoe spoke to him this way. It could have been due to the mental and physical assaults earlier on the darter. The admiral was getting under his skin. That was not normal Maddox. He took a calming breath and forced himself to smile.

  “What do you find so amusing, Captain?”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, gesturing with his hand, “this is amusing. You and I are amusing. I suggest we work together. There are Spacers here, and now Leviathan is coming. I’m already heading toward your main concentration.”

  “I don’t have a main concentration at the moment,” Jellicoe said. “The ships are spread out.”

  “Then I suggest, sir, you get them together as fast as you can into a fighting formation. I suggest we move them as quickly as we can to the Barnard’s Star hyper-spatial tube opening.”

  Jellicoe shifted what seemed uncomfortably on his chair. “Now see here, Captain, I am in command.” There was a pause as Jellicoe turned the other way. He seemed to be listening intensely. Abruptly, Jellicoe turned and stared at Maddox. “You bastard. You half-breed traitor. Massive ships have come through, an incredible number of them. They’re already heading our way. Why didn’t you warn us sooner?”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, “may I suggest a precipitous withdrawal so we can reform in time at the Barnard’s Star System.”

  “No, no. I must gather the rest of the task force. Go to the Barnard’s Star tube area—that’s the right idea. Await the rest of the task force. We may have to fight to give the rest of the ships time to withdraw to Barnard’s Star.”

  It was obvious that Jellicoe was flabbergasted and maybe bewildered by the sudden appearance and size of the Leviathan assault fleet.

  Maddox turned to Andros. “Can you see the enemy ships?”

  “Sir,” Andros said, “I was going to tell you, I’ve spotted warships with thirteen diameter hulls. They’re heading fast toward the Barnard’s Star entrance area.”

  “Damn it,” Maddox said. He turned, and he would have said a parting word to Jellicoe, but the admiral had already cut the communications.

  Maddox swiveled around to peer again at Andros. This was bad. This was very bad.

  -50-

  It appeared to Senior Dax that there had been a change of plans. Venna and Mu had originally said they would not remain aboard the flagship of the Seventh Assault Fleet, the SHL Behemoth. However, they stayed, even as the saucer ship remained in the Behemoth’s hangar bay.

  Venna, Mu and Dax presently stood on the dais with War Master Vane. The War Master gave one command after another to his battalion of assistants on the gargantuan bridge. From the nerve center, orders went out to the fifty maulers of the Seventh Assault Fleet. The ships had exited the hyper-spatial tube from the Zakym System and maneuvered now in the debris-filled Paran System.

  The monstrous, thirteen-diameter warships cruised through the gases and debris fields, and past planetary rubble and asteroids. Pressor beams from the maulers shoved aside much of the extraneous mass, doing so brutally, efficiently, and perhaps even contemptuously.

  Dax swelled with pride at this example of Leviathan might. Even though he wished to escape—

  “There is no escape,” Mu whispered in his ear from behind.

  That told Dax Mu still read his thoughts.

  “Yes, I am still reading your thoughts,” she said.

  Dax sighed. Even though it seemed useless—

  “It is,” Mu said.

  Dax shook his head and began to concentrate on geometric properties, ideals, and algebraic equations. He computed them with his biological brain alone, using no computer enhancements that were his by right due to the additions throughout his years of service.

  Dax was only half-aware of the activities on the bridge, although he realized the mighty Seventh Assault Fleet didn’t wait for Spacer reinforcements. Perhaps that was Venna’s wish and instruction. Dax couldn’t remember, nor did he try to delve into it as he worked through one equation after another.

  “You will head directly to the Barnard’s Star entrance area,” Venna told Vane. “It is a hyper-spatial tube entrance.”

  “I’m aware of what it is,” Vane said curtly.

  Venna and Mu exchanged startled glances.

  Dax noticed and detected the worry there. Could the joy of combat, the joy of commanding the Seventh Assault Fleet as it headed for battle have overridden some of Venna or Mu’s commands?

  “I doubt it,” Mu said, “but that is something worth considering.”

  Dax noticed Mu whispering to Venna afterward. Venna concentrated, looking even more thoughtful than before. They whispered again. Dax wondered if Venna was suggesting to Mu that they take the War Master down into the ready room under the dais.

  Dax doubted that Vane would agree at this point.

  Vane continued to snap out orders and listen to incoming information about the enemy.

  “We have moved so fast that the Star Watch plebs have spread out in confusion,” Vane said in a grim voice that still contained a sense of joy. “This is marvelous. The puny Star Watch ships and their stupid officers should have been ready for us. I have surprised them with my strategic and tactical excellence. Great Leviathan was correct in ordering me to start the invasion. I will sweep aside these pathetic ships. They shall witness before their annihilation the martial glory and might of Leviathan.”

  “Sir,” a cyber officer said, interrupting the tirade, “the enemy ships are fleeing with haste to the hyper-spatial region.”

  “Let them run; see the good it will do them,” Vane sneered.

  “We can’t let the enemy ships reach the hyper-spatial tube to Barnard’s Star,” Venna said. “They’ll escape.”

  Vane turned to her as his cyber eyes burned with emotion. Something else seemed to sweep over the War Master.

  Dax noticed that Mu concentrated, with her fists clenched. Mu also peered fixedly at War Master Vane.

  “Yes, of course, Venna,” Vane said. “That is a good point, but,” he held up a cyber finger, “not to worry. As I have said before, I have a secret weapon. Those of Star Watch will find that they can run, but they cannot escape. Do you know what I mean, Great Venna?”

  The hag shook her head.

  “Then please observe and watch what happens,” Vane said.

  That aroused Dax’s interest so he faltered in his recitation of mathematical equations. He heard Mu laugh. Dax restarted once again, hiding—or trying to hide his thinking—behind the wall of mathematical formulas.

  At the same time, on several bridge screens, seven massive maulers came within heavy laser range of a Conqueror-class battleship. The enemy warship was accelerating away.

  “Fire,” Vane said. “Let them see the uselessness of resisting us or trying to escape.”

  Heavy lasers speared from the seven maulers and struck the electromagnetic shield of the Conqueror-class battleship. Dax did not know the battleship’s specific name. The seven hellish lasers struck, burning against the shield.

  “I’m astounded at this,” Vane said a second later. “The shield should have fallen, but it is only cherry red so far. Continue firing.”

  Dax shook his head, astounded as well. The Conqueror-class battleship was a marvel of technological ingenuity. How had Star Watch done that? The wattage from the heavy lasers, powered by incredibly huge engines, should have already collapsed the enemy shield. Instead, the shield only now began to turn brown and black in the center.

  “Soon,” Vane said, “soon the lasers will breach it.”

  A disruptor beam emitted from the battleship. It struck the lead mauler’s shield, hardly doing a thing yet.

  Then the lasers from the seven maulers burned through the electromagnetic shield and drilled into the heavy armored hull. The hull didn’t last long. The beams drilled into the guts of the fleeing vessel. A titanic explosion occurred, blowing half of the battleship apart. The rest drifted as junk.

  “A kill,” Vane said. “That was a glorious kill.”

  “How did they withstand your laser beams for so long?” Mu asked.

  “I don’t know,” Vane said as he looked at Mu. “It is a mystery, one that I’m not happy about. If we had met a hundred such ships, bah,” he said, “but we have not. Onward, onward,” he roared.

  It was interesting to Dax that a cyber War Master could be so emotional, for want of a better term. It seemed as if Vane exuded emotion. That struck Dax as odd, maybe even bizarre, and yet as he thought about it, maybe there was a function to it that. In battle, emotion might be more useful than strictly logical and coldly emotionless decisions.

  “That is an interesting thought,” Mu said. “I shall have to consider it.”

  Dax winced inwardly. Then he strove not to think about anything. He just observed. He was going to watch and that was it.

  “Good luck with that,” Mu whispered in his ear.

  Dax forced himself to maintain calm.

  All the while, the Seventh Assault Fleet bore remorselessly through the junk of the Paran System. The fifty maulers hunted for Star Watch vessels before said vessels reached the vicinity of the hyper-spatial tube entrance to the Barnard’s Star System.

  -51-

  Maddox was sickened watching a Conqueror-class battleship explode. He shook his head. Why hadn’t the captain used planetary rubble, asteroids, and debris to hide and maneuver his way to the hyper-spatial tube area? It didn’t make sense.

  Likely, that was a Patrol thought, to use every resource. Instead, Conqueror-class battleship captains were usually smash-’em kind of individuals. Was that due to bad training or arrogance that filtered down due to the heavy metal components that made their shields and disruptor cannons so powerful?

  Maddox shook his head. He didn’t know the answer.

  Andros had counted fifty enemy superships, fifty. The assembled tonnage was astonishing.

  Galyan had learned through intercepting communications between enemy ships that they were called maulers.

  That sounded right. The mighty assault vessels would maul the task force if Jellicoe were stupid enough to stay and fight. So far, no Spacer ships were in evidence.

  Why would they bother? Maddox thought. He wouldn’t if he had an ally such as that.

  Maddox wondered if the Spacers were surprised by the might of the assault fleet. How many assault fleets did Leviathan possess, or was this the full invasion force? If that were true, the inter-spiral-arm war would be a near-run thing. Maddox could envision defeating this fleet if all the conditions were right. Star Watch was going to need every battleship, every missile-ship, everything Star Watch had to face these mighty engines of destruction. Leviathan was a powerful empire. This fleet proved it.