“Could the two have been survivors from the thruster-pack attackers?” Valerie asked.

  “Unlikely,” Maddox said, “but it’s the most reasonable answer so far.”

  “How could Batrun cause our starship to jump ten thousand light-years?” Valerie asked. “That’s something I’m just not understanding.”

  “I have no idea,” Maddox admitted. “Galyan,” he said, aiming his voice at a comm in the armrest. “Do you have any idea?”

  “Not yet, sir,” the AI said. “I deem it quite possible that any jump features he or Ludendorff made to cause the event were removed soon after our arrival here.”

  “Why Victory?” asked Valerie. “What makes this ship so unique?”

  “Plenty of things,” Maddox said. “What has me worried are the things Batrun told us earlier when were we still in Human Space. Did an Old One—a Yon-Soth—on the Forbidden Planet really send out mind waves that caused various groups to turn on Star Watch?”

  “I might be able to answer that,” Galyan said.

  “Shoot,” Maddox said.

  “The more truth a lie contains, usually the stronger or more believable the lie,” Galyan said. “I believe the doomed Yon-Soth modified the synthetics for the very reasons Batrun gave. The synthetics are clever and can likely run a united attack against the Commonwealth better than individuals could on a random basis, those motivated by the Yon-Soth’s mind waves.”

  “That’s convoluted,” Maddox said, “but it makes sense. I wonder why Batrun wanted to bring Leviathan warships to Human Space.”

  “Do you truly want me to answer that, sir?” Galyan asked. “Star Watch is powerful and has proven on many occasions to be a stubborn opponent. The Rull androids likely need or needed backup to succeed with the plan. There is one consolation to this theory. If Batrun believed the Rull androids needed allies, then likely the Jotuns are a bluff. Why otherwise go to such extreme and risky lengths to obtain Leviathan help?”

  “Good point,” Maddox said. “So what does all that imply about the hauler hiding inside Jupiter?”

  “That it either possesses Jotun technology or advanced technology that Lisa Meyers has attempted to pass off as Jotun science.”

  “Who is Lisa Meyers really?”

  “Unknown,” Galyan said. “Despite all my analyses, she is a mystery.”

  “We have to get home,” Maddox said. “We have to revive the professor so he can program the nexus—”

  “Sir,” Galyan said, interrupting. “If you recall, Dana and I have programmed a nexus hyper-spatial tube before.”

  “Dana’s not here.”

  “True,” Galyan said. “But with help, I can figure out and use the nexus controls.”

  “Can you find another nexus five thousand light-years from here?”

  “The answer will be in trying,” Galyan said.

  “Right,” Maddox said. “We have to get your holoimage processors fixed as fast as possible.”

  “Captain,” Valerie said. “I’ve picked up a strange reading. It’s coming from a probe. We launched earlier—”

  “Get on with it, Lieutenant,” Maddox said.

  Valerie nodded. “The reading is unlike anything I’ve seen before. It indicates a faint… Well, I’d almost call it a magnetic anomaly. But when I check this on thermal and visual scanners, I don’t detect anything.”

  “Are you reading that, Galyan?” Maddox asked.

  “Valerie is correct, sir,” Galyan said. “But instead of a magnetic anomaly, I would call this an antimagnetic disturbance.”

  “What?” Maddox said.

  “A polarity reversal—” Galyan said.

  “Never mind,” Maddox said. “How far away is this…anomaly?”

  “A little over twelve million kilometers from us, sir,” Valerie said. “It’s at the inner edge of the Asteroid Belt.”

  “Is Elge’s shuttle still in the star system?” Maddox asked.

  Valerie tapped her panel, checking. “Yes, sir,” she said.

  Maddox frowned thoughtfully. “Could the antimagnetic disturbance be the location of a Leviathan stealth ship?”

  “If it is,” Valerie said, “the cloaked vessel will see Elge’s vessel as plain as day.”

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said, “prepare to leave the debris cloud. Galyan, get the disrupter cannon ready.”

  “I doubt the disturbance is a stealth ship,” Galyan said. “The signature is all wrong for that.”

  “We have no idea how cybers boarded the starship,” Maddox said. “This anomaly is the only thing out of order. That means it’s the best answer we have so far concerning the two mystery cybers.”

  “Could the antimagnetic disturbance be a lure?” Galyan asked. “Are hidden cybers attempting to draw us away from the nexus?”

  “We’re about to find out,” Maddox said.

  -57-

  Victory burst out of the debris cloud with its shield keeping any sand or grit from striking the outer hull. The starship accelerated even faster as it built up velocity, heading for the antimagnetic anomaly.

  “The disrupter cannon is ready, sir,” Galyan said from a bridge speaker.

  “Target the anomaly,” Maddox said.

  “I cannot fathom this,” Galyan said. “The anomaly has moved, is moving. Why, it is building up velocity, heading away from us. The anomaly is presently out of disrupter range.”

  “It’s a stealth ship then,” Maddox said, as he leaned forward. “Leviathan appears to have degrees of stealth vessels. This one is better than the stealth missiles. I suggest this means we’re dealing with a higher-ranking officer of Leviathan.”

  “That does not necessarily have to be true,” Galyan said. “That is a human way of thinking, but Leviathan would not have to operate on similar thought patterns—”

  “Captain,” Valerie said, interrupting, “someone is hailing us.”

  “Is it coming from the anomaly?” Maddox asked.

  “It is,” Valerie said.

  “Most odd, most odd,” Galyan said from the bridge speaker.

  “Captain Maddox,” a scratchy voice said. “Are you receiving my signal?”

  “Put him on visual,” Maddox said.

  Valerie shook her head. “He’s blocking any visual signals, just giving us audio.”

  Maddox hesitated before saying, “This is Captain Maddox of Starship Victory. Unless I can see who I’m talking to, I will fire at you.”

  “That is a primitive response,” the scratchy voice said.

  “There you go,” Maddox said. “What a perfect deduction on your part, as I am a primitive.”

  “You delight in the slur?”

  “I positively revel in it,” Maddox replied.

  “Strange…” the scratchy voice said. “You are strange, primitive as you insist and of a bloodthirsty nature.”

  “No more than Leviathan,” Maddox said.

  The scratchy-voiced being chuckled. “You are attempting to prompt me, interesting, interesting. You are not so primitive after all, but full of guile. I assume you practiced such guile in thwarting Batrun. I had given that a low probability, especially as I had granted him reinforcements as he requested.”

  “Do you mean the two cybers I shot?” Maddox asked.

  “A poor reaction to the cybers, I assure you. You could have learned so much from them if you had kept them alive. Thank you, Captain, for destroying them. It saves me many sleepless nights.”

  “Who are you?” Maddox asked.

  “I could show you, but then I would have to kill you. Do you truly desire to know then?”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I have analyzed the voice patterns. The scratchy nature of his speech is a disguise. Valerie, if you would switch to the X3 bandwidth, I believe I can give you a visual.”

  Valerie tapped her comm panel.

  The main screen wavered, turned blizzard-like, wavered once more until a cyber with silver eye-sockets and black plastic orbs with red glowing centers peered at them.”

  “What’s your name, cyber?” Maddox asked.

  The thin-faced sentient did not frown or make any other facial gesture.

  “Impressive,” the alien said, as he checked something they couldn’t see, a sensor board perhaps. “I am not a cyber, however, not as you mean it. Mon Zabul was a lower-ranked Soldier. I am not a Soldier at all, but a Strategist. I have observed the proceedings and have found you humans clever and surprising resourceful. Batrun urged me to join the crusade against your kind. He promised new technology and a joint effort to build a grand union, perhaps hoping we would agree to elevate each other into near-Builder status.”

  “What does that even mean?” Maddox asked.

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I know,” Galyan said. “He is speaking about guided evolution, which is not evolution at all, but advanced…genetics is the wrong word. Eugenics might be more accurate, but he means something like what the Builder cube once attempted, but not so direct.”

  “Apotheosis might be an even better term,” the cyber said.

  “Galyan?” asked Maddox. “What’s that mean?”

  “Apotheosis is the elevation to divine status,” Galyan said. “Perhaps an example will help you understand. Let me see. Ah. In the Garden of Eden, the Serpent urged Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge so she could be like God. The Serpent offered her apotheosis, to become godlike.”

  “Batrun wanted to become a god?” asked Maddox.

  “In his frame of reference, like a Builder,” Galyan suggested.

  “That is accurate,” the cyber said. “I had sensed such unwarranted mania in Batrun. Nevertheless, I sent him two helpers, the military cybers you saw with him. I am frankly surprised you survived the encounter, Captain.”

  “Who are you again?” Maddox asked.

  “I am a Strategist of Leviathan. I have observed the proceedings. I have decided against Mon Zabul’s decree of genocide against the Okos. The scavengers serve a useful function. I note the shuttle and the Oko piloting it. I do not understand why you let Master Elge go, Captain.”

  “Is that why we’re talking?” Maddox guessed.

  “In fact, it is. I am curious. Why did you let him go?”

  “What can you…pay us in return for the knowledge?”

  “I will pay you in like coin, Captain, knowledge for knowledge. What do you wish to know?”

  “How did you slip the two cybers onto my ship?”

  “Through teleportation,” the cyber said. “Why did you let Master Elge depart?”

  “So he could warn his fellow Okos about the coming jihad.”

  “I was right,” the cyber said. “Yet, I could not conceive why you did this—given your previous actions.”

  “Did Batrun cause my starship to travel ten thousand light-years to reach here?”

  “I have no more time for you, Captain,” the cyber said. “I have my answer. You may leave. I imagine you shall want to use the nexus to create a hyper-spatial tube.”

  “You won’t interfere with us?” Maddox asked.

  “I am a Strategist, not a Soldier. However, you should leave while you can, Captain. Even now, reinforcements hurry to the Caval System. I warn you because it is not yet time for Leviathan to devour humanity. Batrun—it was an intriguing offer. But Leviathan has enough on its plate for now if Batrun and his Rull androids are too weak to destroy you on their own.”

  “Batrun controlled the Rull androids?”

  “You are clever and courageous in some areas, but almost hopelessly retarded in others,” the cyber said. “It is a wonder the human race has survived this long. Go, Captain, as your time to do so is almost gone.”

  Maddox clicked a switch, shutting off the comm and screen. He scowled, hesitating to give the order he desired to make.

  “Let’s fire,” Keith said. “Let’s finish the braggart.”

  “Should I fire, Captain?” Galyan asked from the bridge speaker.

  Was the Strategist telling the truth about the Okos, or was this yet another deceptive ploy.

  “I could run an analysis on his truthfulness,” Galyan said, perhaps guessing Maddox’s unease.

  “No!” Maddox said. “Mr. Maker, turn us around. Head back into the debris cloud.”

  “We’re not going to finish him?” Valerie asked. “Maybe he’s hoping to learn something about the nexus by watching us.”

  “If he can teleport cybers onto the starship…” Maddox said, shaking his head. “He could have easily figured out how to use the nexus.”

  “He could be bluffing about the teleportation,” Valerie said.

  “He could be,” Maddox agreed, “but it’s the only answer so far as to how the cybers managed to get aboard without our knowing.”

  “If he has teleportation—” Galyan said.

  “No more,” Maddox said. “If the cybers were human like us, they would all use teleportation. But as you pointed out earlier, Galyan, this is a different race, species, call it what you will. They run things differently than we would. That’s part of the nature of them being aliens. In any case, according to him, more Soldiers are coming. I want to be long gone before they get here.”

  -58-

  Victory returned to the debris cloud as Andros Crank and his technicians worked overtime to build a new holoimage processor.

  Meanwhile, medical personnel fussed over the unconscious Ludendorff. Nothing they had done so far had elicited any response from him.

  Hours ticked into a day. More Soldiers were coming, and Victory had been unable to make the nexus form a hyper-spatial tube. Their best minds were either gone or hidden in the computer.

  “Physically, there’s nothing in Ludendorff’s brain that doesn’t belong there,” a doctor told Maddox. “As far as I can tell, no one inserted even so much as a microscopic device into his gray matter. I have no idea why we can’t rouse him.”

  Another day passed, and Soldiers of Leviathan would almost certainly be in the Caval System by, when, tomorrow? Or the next day, or the one after that?

  Maddox’s New Man nature made it impossible for him to wait patiently. He used the ship’s gym and deadlifted, squatted and did military presses. He punched a heavy bag until his hands ached. Of all the things, waiting for others to accomplish their task as the clock ticked to midnight was the worst.

  Finally, the captain couldn’t take it anymore. He had to try something to speed the process. He went to Medical and had several nurses wheel the restrained and unconscious professor to his science lab. The head doctor guided the others as they laid Ludendorff in his special brain scanner.

  The short woman—the chief medical officer—shook her head later while examining Ludendorff’s mind-pattern chart. “I don’t know what I’m looking for,” she admitted to Maddox.

  The captain examined the chart. He didn’t know either. But he wasn’t going to accept that as a definitive answer.

  “It’s time to roll the dice,” Maddox said.

  Doctor Harris looked up at him with frightened eyes.

  “We’ll use the neural-shifter,” Maddox told her. “Galyan can tell us how to hook it up. We’ll use it on Ludendorff once we’re ready.”

  “Who will use it?” Harris asked. “Certainly not me, as I have no idea what the neural-shifter does or how to do it.”

  “I’ll do it,” Maddox said.

  “Do what, though?” Harris asked. “We can’t just aim and fire.”

  “You’re wrong,” Maddox said. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do: aim it at his mind and shift neurons. Hopefully, that jars something loose and allows him to wake up.”

  “What if it causes permanent brain damage instead?”

  “We’re out of options,” Maddox said. “That’s what it means to roll the dice.”

  “He hates you enough as it is,” Meta said, who had watched and listened. “Don’t give him more reasons to hate you.”

  “No,” Maddox said. “He’s the reason we’re in this mess. Therefore, he can accept the risk. I hope for the best, naturally, but I don’t know what else to do.”

  Doctor Harris and Meta continued to try to dissuade Maddox, but he refused to listen.

  An hour later, as Ludendorff lay on a medical cot in the science lab, Maddox stood behind the controls of the makeshift neural machine. Wires and clamps were attached to a machine Ludendorff had built that held the small thumbtack-shaped device, which was aimed at the professor’s skull.

  As Maddox stood behind the controls, he hesitated, hardly knowing what anything did. Finally, he tapped a switch. There was a momentary hum, and Maddox swore he saw the thumbtack-sized device quiver. A second later, Ludendorff twitched on the table, and then nothing.

  “Dare we do more?” Meta asked, who watched anxiously from the side.

  Maddox dragged a sleeve across his damp forehead. He didn’t want to risk Ludendorff’s wonderful mind. Tampering with a Methuselah Man seemed like a crime. Sure, Ludendorff had screwed them more times than he could remember. The old man had also helped them just as often.

  “Let’s leave it as this,” Meta suggested.

  “No,” Maddox said. He tapped the control screen again.

  This time, there was no hum. The professor jerked worse than before, however, and he groaned dismally.

  Maddox stood indecisively at the controls. Maybe this was good. Another tap—

  Meta jumped to the table, tore off the restraining straps and dragged Ludendorff off, carrying him to a couch. She laid the Methuselah Man on the couch and knelt beside him, stroking his forehead.

  The professor groaned again.

  “Can you hear me?” Meta asked quietly.

  The Methuselah Man twitched but said nothing.

  “You’re on the starship,” Meta said. “We need you, Professor. We’re stranded, and we need your help to get away.”

  The professor made no more motion or noise.

  Meta looked up at Maddox. The captain scowled at the neural hookup. If only one of them know what to do.

  Inspiration shined on Meta’s face. She leaned near Ludendorff. “Listen to me, Professor. Dana is in trouble. You have to help her. The only way you can is by fighting up from unconsciousness and fixing the situation. Dana’s relying on you, as there is no one else than can help her.”