We are the Unity.

  “You in this chamber are the extent of it?”

  A sense of laughter or amusement filled his mind. No, no, we are but a tiny piece of the greater whole. Even on Remus, our mass is a minority of the Unity.

  “That’s what you call yourselves?”

  We do not call ourselves anything. We are the Unity, the entirety of our existence. We are bringing you humans into the Unity. Is that not magnanimous of us?

  The revulsion at what he saw made it impossible for Maddox to dissemble. He blurted the truth: “No. It’s hideous. We humans want no part of the Unity.”

  Can this be true? Are you not different from the mass of your fellows? You have greater awareness, allowing us to communicate with you directly.

  “It is all true,” Maddox heard himself say.

  That is unfortunate. We wished to use you as our emissary. You do not need the cerebrater, as you call it, to understand us. Come now, Maddox, let us remold your mind so you see us in a different light. Then, you can go out and help collect the rest of humanity, causing it to join the Unity so we can expand to an even greater extent.

  “I’m not anyone’s slave. I’m my own man.”

  That is a quaint notion, and it will fall before our unified might. We were reluctant to do this here, but you must brace yourself for a reconfiguration of your mental powers. In other words, we will finish what Balron the Traveler started.

  “You know about Balron?”

  From your thoughts and memories, we do.

  Maddox blinked, and he blinked again, and he realized that his mind was under a mass assault from the telepathic powers of the seething mass of alien maggots in the chamber.

  We are not maggots, Captain. We are members of the great Unity. Now, cease resisting our efforts. Let us do to you what needs doing.

  Maddox winced in agony as the slithering, hissing mass of white finger-sized alien maggots surged toward him en masse.

  He cried out in as if his soul were in peril. And he recalled the blaster.

  You will not use that on us, Captain. The Unity forbids it. In fact, you must now drop it and walk into the chamber. Lie down so we may more easily absorb you.

  Maddox felt the blaster slip from his grasp and thump onto the floor. It was a dreadful sound of his coming doom. He thought of his precious baby Jewel then. He thought of the way she held his pinky finger. That juxtaposed against the white maggot aliens that would absorb Jewel and turn her into—

  Maddox howled at the thought, breaking his conscious thoughts and regaining control of his limbs. He bent down and scooped up the fallen blaster.

  At the same time, the seething alien maggots—members of the dread Unity—reached his booted feet.

  Maddox howled again, stomping on the squishy white things, making their guts spurt.

  A blast of telepathic power struck his mind.

  For a third time, Captain Maddox howled. It was a sound of mingled fear, fury and rage. It boiled against the alien telepathic control, creating a shield against it. Maddox stomped with a passion. He turned the selector switch on the blaster to wide beam, and he aimed into the chamber, blasting the mass of alien maggot Unity. It felt wonderfully good to destroy these little buggers. Seeing them writhe and fry, realizing they’d killed Garth, taken control of everyone on Remus—

  Maddox danced a mad jig as he entered the chamber, stomping and crushing, raying and laughing in maniacal glee. He was beyond himself. His fear gone, he now seethed with vengeful fury against these cowardly aliens that would control his mind, control all humans as if they were mind slaves. This was their reward, an orgy of murderous Captain Maddox killing.

  “The Unity dies!” Maddox roared.

  That shouting began the process that pulled him back from the berserk madness of slaughter. He’d lost himself for a moment. Perhaps the alien telepathic assault on his mind had caused it. The repugnance of the Unity had also driven him to the edge of rage and despair.

  Maddox looked around the chamber, and he realized that masses of surviving alien maggots slithered away for mouse-sized bolt holes.

  “No, you don’t,” he said, sane once more. He moved the selector switch, turning it back to narrow beam, and he aimed at one of the holes. Nothing happened when he pulled the trigger.

  His blaster was out of power.

  The mass of maggots on the move ceased their retreat, turning toward him again, their little jaws moving back and forth.

  Maddox didn’t hesitate. He turned around and charged out, escaping an instant before the hatch slammed shut behind him.

  His blaster was worthless for the moment. His limbs were fatigued by the wildness of his stomping slaughter. Even so, Maddox ran. He had to get off Remus as fast as possible. By attacking him telepathically, the Unity had inadvertently betrayed much to him. It had opened itself while trying to coerce him, learning from him even as he’d learned about it. The greater Unity knew about him now, and it hated him with a passion. It wanted him more than dead.

  And it feared him.

  Maddox laughed like a wolf that had slain a herd of goats, with wildness in his blazing eyes. He’d faced the alien menace. He knew them, and he’d learned much about the underground facility, had a map of the place in his head.

  Balron’s training and the spiritual power of the Erills he’d absorbed long ago had made all the difference. He had to think he’d been given these gifts for moments like these, moments when his fate—and that of his friends, perhaps even Earth’s—hung in the balance. Call it Providence, or destiny.

  “Right,” Maddox said. He had a good idea about how to get off Remus, about where he needed to go to cause that. He also suspected the Unity knew he knew and would try to stop him before he got there. Thus, he had to reach Riker and Keith as fast as possible. He also had to make sure the two wouldn’t face the massed telepathic might of the Unity. They could not possibly resist as he had.

  The enemy had a grim power when in close proximity. If there had been more alien maggots in the room when he’d faced them—

  “Forget that,” Maddox told himself. “Concentrate on what needs doing, and do it.”

  With that, he increased his speed, knowing his window of opportunity for getting off Remus was closing fast.

  -61-

  “Captain!” Riker shouted.

  A grim-faced and concentrating Maddox almost raced past the two men. At the last moment he halted, staring at them with seeming incomprehension.

  “Are you all right, sir?” Riker asked, with worry in his voice.

  Maddox just stood there panting as sweat rolled down his dirty face.

  Riker and Keith exchanged glances.

  “Sir,” Riker said. “You’re a mess. What happened down there?”

  Maddox shook his head, and he became aware of the two. “I made it,” he said. “Look, we have to keep moving. The Unity is gathering itself. I think they’re cordoning off any means of escape.”

  “Did you say Unity, sir?”

  “I have no time to explain, Sergeant. I’ve faced the aliens. They’re disgusting and hideous. And there’s a reason they’ve remained hidden all these centuries. Go that way.” Maddox pointed. “We have to go that way.”

  “Why?” asked Riker.

  Maddox rounded on him. “Sergeant, are you questioning me?”

  “That way,” Riker said. “You know best, sir. Lead the way.”

  “Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “Can you run?”

  “If I have to,” Keith said, sounding reluctant.

  “Oh, yes,” Maddox said. “You have to. But if you’re good and do as I say, I can give you a fighter to fly. Then, we can see if you really are the best or not.”

  “A space fighter, sir?” asked Keith, brightening.

  “I believe so.”

  “In that case, I can sprint, sir.”

  “Good,” Maddox said, as he cocked his head. “I can hear others heading our way. It’s time to hightail it.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” Riker said.

  “That’s because you’re old and fat,” Maddox said. “If you were in shape like me—”

  “I hear it,” Keith said, interrupting. “Let’s go. I want to be a fighter ace again, and I want to bust some ass for all the suffering I’ve been going through.”

  “Damn right,” Maddox said. “Now, go.” He shoved the small pilot, who staggered in the right direction.

  They ran, with Maddox pacing beside them. And it soon became obvious that whatever chased them was catching up.

  “Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “I need your gun and whatever extra ammo you have.”

  Wordlessly, as he panted and sweated, still running, Keith handed Maddox his gun and two extra magazines.

  “Keep going,” Maddox said. “I’ll return shortly.” With that, he stopped, considered and began sprinting back the way he’d just come.

  Maddox heard them: big men in body armor of some kind. They stomped and clattered, and breathed heavily. None of them spoke, however.

  Kneeling in the center of the corridor, Maddox waited. He had a good idea what he’d see. He raised the gun, holding it with both hands.

  The first enforcer ran around the corner, a big man in gray overalls wearing a chest protector and wielding a baton. He had a cerebrater embedded in his forehead. Maddox had expected no less.

  He waited as more enforcers followed the first. They saw him, and they charged, although they did not yell like normal men. Their eyes did not widen seeing that he held a gun. They raced at him, straining to reach him, no doubt propelled by the mass mind of the alien Unity.

  With deliberate care, Maddox shot them one by one, ejecting the empty magazine and slamming in the next. He kept firing and they kept tumbling onto the floor. A few of them tripped over the dying and badly wounded. He shot them as well. It was gruesome and inhuman, as they did not scream in agony or even groan in pain but doggedly attacked. He took no joy in the slaughter. He knew if he held back that they would reach him and likely beat him to death at best. At worst, he would be hauled off to have another cerebrater embedded in his forehead. He was sure it would be different the second time around.

  Maddox ejected the second magazine and inserted the third. The survivors were closer than before, and they kept on coming, grunting when he fired and did not immediately kill them.

  “You poor bastards!” Maddox snarled. “I’m sorry I have to kill you. They’re forcing me to do it.”

  He jumped up with a feeling the aliens were running out of men, and then his borrowed gun went click, click, click. It was empty. He dropped it and drew his monofilament blade, the one with an edge a molecule thick that could cut through anything.

  Maddox charged them, ducked, slashed, stabbed, took a baton hit on the shoulder—it went numb—and weaved the other way. He slashed and shouted in rage at the maggot aliens forcing this on him. He—

  Maddox looked around, panting in the sudden silence. No more enforcers charged, although a few stirred on the heaped mass of them on the floor.

  Maddox stared in impotent anger and grief. He knelt where he stood, mumbled a prayer for their collective souls, offered an apology afterward, and cleaned his knife on one of them, wiping it on the overalls. He stood, staring at them.

  With a shake of his head, he sheathed his knife, picked up Keith’s empty gun and turned around. The hideousness of the action had stunned him.

  “Go,” Maddox whispered to himself. If he didn’t get back to Riker and Keith in time—Maddox grunted and broke into a run. They had a window of opportunity now. It was time to take it.

  -62-

  Galyan the deified Driving Force stood on the bridge of Victory. He could not get over the admission of Adoks. Diana Varus said the aliens had seen Adoks. That was wonderful news. Where did these Adoks live? Were they at war with these aliens? Were they allies or subjugated by them?

  “There are missiles—what am I supposed to call you, Galyan?” Andros asked from the science station.

  “Driving Force,” Galyan said. “It is my old rank, and it is right that I carry it while I am in charge of Victory.”

  Andros nodded. “Missiles have launched from Remus, Driving Force. I’m counting seven of them. They appear to be old-type missiles run on chemical fuel and launched by stages or sections.”

  “I have already seen them,” Galyan said, surprised at the thrill he felt at being called Driving Force after all this time. He missed the old days when he had been a flesh and blood creature. Driving Force Galyan: it had a truly wonderful ring to it.

  “You might have told us about the missiles then,” Andros said, “given us a heads up about what’s happening.”

  “Should I use the neutron cannon against the missiles, sir?” Lieutenant Barnes asked.

  “What did you say?” asked Galyan.

  “The neutron cannon—” Barnes said.

  “I heard you about that,” Galyan said, interrupting. “You said sir, did you not?”

  Barnes swiveled around to face Galyan. “I don’t understand?”

  “I am Driving Force Galyan. Did you not hear me tell Andros a second ago when he asked?”

  Barnes glanced at Andros, who was to his left.

  “Galyan,” Andros said, “Lieutenant Barnes meant Driving Force by saying sir. It was implied. I know you’ve often heard the others call Captain Maddox sir. He accepts it as proper form.”

  It took a half second. Then Galyan said, “Yes. I see that. I…I do not know why I forgot just then. That is a negative, Lieutenant, regarding the neutron cannon just yet. Let us see what kind of velocity these old-style missiles can achieve before we address them with the high-powered cannon.”

  “Do we want the missiles to leave the atmosphere?” Andros asked. “They’ll likely be more dangerous once in space.”

  Galyan turned to the science officer. “I do not appreciate these questions to my authority any more than Captain Maddox does to his.”

  “Galyan,” Andros said. “This is unlike you. Has our calling you Driving Force changed your perspective?”

  “I do not believe so. However, that is not the issue. Questioning my authority is the issue.”

  “Is your authority legal, I wonder?” Andros asked.

  “Are you challenging it?”

  Andros paused thoughtfully before he said, “No… Still, I wonder what the Lord High Admiral is going to say about what Meta did.”

  “Meta acted correctly,” Galyan said.

  “Even though she didn’t have the legal authority to do what she did?” asked Andros.

  “As Captain Maddox’s wife, Meta possessed the moral authority, though,” Galyan said. “Clearly, we have all obeyed her command. Thus, we are all in agreement with Meta’s decision.”

  Andros stared at Galyan a moment longer, opened his mouth as if he was going to argue further, and then abruptly turned around and monitored his station.

  “Mr. Barnes,” Galyan said. “I have taken the science officer’s suggestion to heart. Launch an antimatter missile at the seven.”

  “Yes, Driving Force,” Barnes said, his powerful hands roving over his weapons panel.

  An antimatter missile left the starship as the seven big chemical-fueled missiles continued to climb out of Remus’s gravity well.

  Galyan used the ship’s sensors to study the missiles more closely. They were big and crude, powered by chemical fuel as Andros had said. Using sensors, Galyan quickly determined that they held old-fashioned nuclear warheads. He decided the aliens must have taken whatever the Remus military possessed and converted it for their alien efforts.

  Each of the big crude missiles detached the second stage rocket, having previously detached the first stage. As smaller missiles, now much higher in the atmosphere, they sped for Victory, which was well out of low orbital space and heading farther out all the time.

  We could outrun these missiles with ease, Galyan realized.

  He used the ship’s sensors, scanning elsewhere, seeing if the aliens had fixed their attention while bringing the real threat from elsewhere. Galyan did not sense anything else.

  He did, however, noticed Grutch’s stealth ship even farther away from Remus. The Morag mercenary watched them, using observation sensors. It would have been enjoyable to use the disrupter cannon on the mercenary and take him out of play. But there was a chance the captain was aboard. Thus, he would give Grutch leeway for now.

  “The missiles are almost out of the atmosphere,” Lieutenant Barnes said.

  “Thank you,” Galyan said. “I am well aware of that.”

  The holoimage AI continued to monitor the situation. The antimatter missile sped faster for the planet. The seven Remus missiles climbed higher. Then, the antimatter missile reached them and detonated.

  A whiteout appeared, and Galyan could no longer monitor the seven missiles. A minute later, he could, and the seven Remus missiles no longer existed.

  “We destroyed the missiles, Driving Force,” Barnes said.

  “Excellent work,” Galyan said, deciding to mimic the captain’s behavior in such a situation and spread around praise where applicable.

  “Should I return us nearer the planet?” the pilot asked.

  Galyan considered the idea. “Negative. We shall observe from here. Mr. Barnes, I would like you to launch two probes, one for ground level and the other to remain in low orbital space.”

  “Yes, Driving Force,” Barnes said. “I am preparing two probes.”

  “I am also revising my previous decision,” Galyan said. “You may use sir instead of Driving Force. It is correct usage after all.”

  “Yes, sir,” Barnes said. “Thank you, sir.”

  Galyan wanted to smile, as he felt he had handled that rather well. Being in charge again—it took some getting used to and was quite the heady feeling. He liked it.

  Now, though, he wanted more data on possible Adoks. But he was worried for Captain Maddox, Riker and Keith. Were the three men alive? Why had the fold-fighter crashed? All he could do for now was wait, hoping the captain could pull another of his proverbial rabbits out of his hat.