-63-

  In a subterranean hangar bay on Remus, Sergeant Riker panted with exhaustion as he reached into his jacket and took out his bottle of pills. He unscrewed the lid and shook a white pill onto his palm. He’d already taken one earlier and should wait another six hours before he took another, but…

  Riker looked around. Maddox and Keith were checking parked fighters. They were big and crude, low-orbital craft, like something from a museum. The fighters seemed like giant rockets more than anything else. Surely, they’d belonged to the Remus AirSpace Service rather than being Unity craft brought down here.

  Riker turned around. Behind them were thirty unconscious or dead humans with cerebraters in their foreheads. Some had horrible knife wounds, still leaking blood or gore. Others had caved-in heads where Riker had used his bionic arm to smash them.

  Sure, his left arm and leg had bionic power. That didn’t mean the rest of him did. The fight had exhausted Riker. Just as bad, the stunner was out of a charge.

  Riker debated taking a third pill. With a wistful sigh, he decided against it. His heart might not be able to take the extra strain. This more anything else should show him it was time to quit the service.

  Or get in better shape, he supposed.

  Riker patted his protruding belly. It had been getting bigger no matter what kind of diet he tried. He’d eat less for a time, but then splurge and gain it all back with interest.

  “I need to exercise more,” Riker muttered. “No. I need to actually exercise period.”

  He started toward the others. They seemed to have chosen the biggest rocket-fighter in the place. It had a tiny cockpit up near the top and a horrendous amount of space in back for the rocket fuel.

  A premonition of danger struck Riker. Could his fat old body take the strain of a rocket ride up into the heavens? Maybe he’d better take that third pill after all.

  Riker stopped, and he pressed a hand over his heart. His old organ beat painfully, and it did it more, thudding with something extra, a bad extra.

  “Please don’t fail me, heart,” Riker said to himself.

  Would this be a good or bad way to leave the world? Riker shrugged. He didn’t want to leave just yet. He didn’t want to quit working for Star Watch, either. He liked his job. He liked working. He loved the people he worked with. And if he quit the service, what would happen to Maddox? The young cockerel would get himself into a mess and his guardian angel Riker wouldn’t be there to help.

  Is that what I am, the Captain’s guardian angel?

  Riker shook his head ruefully as he realized that was exactly how he saw himself. He’d never been married, unless one counted a common law wife he’d had for five years as a youngster. He’d had a few girlfriends afterward, but after his common law wife had left him—Riker scowled. He didn’t want to think about her. He didn’t want to think about the man he’d nearly beaten to death for cheating with his woman. That had been a row all right, decades ago now.

  “Why am I thinking all this?”

  Riker frowned. His leathery face was good at it. Did he think he was going to die today? Was he remembering old things because of that?

  If so, he was really proud of Captain Maddox. He was proud of what the lad, well, not a lad anymore. He was proud of Maddox, and maybe he thought of the captain as the nephew he’d never had.

  “Better stick around a while, you old fart,” Riker muttered. He could survive a blast off, and he could start exercising a bit more and get rid of the belly he’d been accumulating.

  This wasn’t going to be his last mission. No, sir. No way. He would get in prime shape and surprise them all.

  “Sergeant!” Maddox shouted. “Shake a leg, old man. We’re getting ready to leave.”

  Riker grinned, but he didn’t run. Let them get ready. Let the pill do its damn job for a change. Could that rocket of a fighter get them off the planet?

  Wheezing, Riker shuffled a little faster. I will get in better shape. This I vow. I can’t quit yet. In a few years, I’ll do it then.

  Riker smiled thinking that, heading toward the captain when a haze of thudding pain blossomed in his chest. He fought it. The pain worsened and he went blank, falling perhaps, but he didn’t know, as he remembered no more.

  -64-

  Captain Maddox turned to shout at Riker again to hurry up. He turned just in time to see the old sergeant faint dead away and crumple onto the deck.

  “Get it ready,” Maddox shouted at Keith.

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Figure out what you can, and do it fast. I’m getting Riker.”

  Maddox didn’t wait for Keith to ask anything else, but hustled to the old man. Watching Riker faint and fall—Maddox felt a stab of fright. This couldn’t be happening. Riker had been with him forever. They’d been working the same shift since—

  “You old fool,” Maddox muttered under his breath. Yet there was no bile in his voice. They were the frightened words a son might say watching his father fall, maybe having a heart attack.

  Maddox hadn’t always liked his real dad. In fact, he’d hated his father for a long time. He’d since learned differently. Now, Maddox was proud of his dad, fiercely proud. He still had some things to settle with his father’s old New Men enemies. That would come in time. But that wasn’t the point here. Riker—the sergeant hadn’t been his father figure. He’d been… Maddox didn’t know what Treggason Riker had been to him all this time. The old man had been more than a friend, more than a subordinate—he’d been Sergeant Riker, the most trustworthy of confederates he’d ever had.

  “Riker,” he said, reaching the old man lying on the deck, slowly breathing.

  “He’s breathing,” Maddox told himself. That was good: a good sign that the man was going to make it. He knelt, shaking a shoulder. “Riker, you okay?”

  The sergeant opened bleary eyes, staring up at him in hurt and surprise, as if he couldn’t figure out what had happened or maybe where he was.

  “What happened to you?” Maddox asked.

  Riker frowned, and his face seemed stiff. He tried to speak, but only moved his lips without making a sound. What was wrong with him? He stared up at Maddox, finally whispering, “I don’t feel so good.”

  “You must have gotten winded,” Maddox said, knowing he was fudging. Riker looked as if he’d had a heart attack or stroke. “Don’t worry about it, though. Let me help you up.”

  “You know,” Riker whispered, “I’m not so sure about that. Let me lie here for a while. I’ll get up when I’m ready.”

  “Sergeant, I want you to listen to me. Are you listening?”

  “If I have to,” Riker whispered, as he scowled. That moved the stiff part of his face. Maybe not a stroke after all, but definitely a heart attack.

  “I forbid you to die, old man.”

  Riker stared at Maddox, and understanding filled his eyes. Something bad had happened to him. Yet, despite that, the barest of smiles slid into place. “We’ve had some times, haven’t we, sir.”

  “Sergeant, I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”

  “I know. I feel so tired, just really tired. That last fight was a good one, though, wasn’t it?”

  “Damnit, old man. Why did you get so fat? Why did you—screw this.” Maddox reached down, grasped Riker by the lapels of his uniform and hoisted him up and onto his shoulder. “You’re heavier than Keith, a lot heavier.”

  “I don’t feel so good.”

  “Stay with me, Sergeant. I’m going to need your help in a minute.”

  “Just for a minute, though, eh, sir?”

  “Are you staying with me?”

  Riker shuddered, and he did not respond.

  Maddox grinded his back teeth in frustration and…there was something else that brought a pang to his chest. It felt so strange, and he couldn’t understand why moisture had gathered in his eyes.

  “If you die…” Maddox didn’t finish the phrase. He hurried to the chosen rocket fighter and climbed the ladder with Riker on his left shoulder. It was tough going, but he wasn’t going to fail now.

  By straining and performing a delicate balancing act, Maddox reached the tiny cockpit area. The hardest part was negotiating from the ladder to the cockpit. He jumped in the end, made it by slamming against a bulkhead and gently setting Riker onto a cushioned crash seat. He hooked the restraints onto Riker, saw that the old man still breathed, if very shallowly, and then put both palms on the sergeant’s chest.

  Maddox squeezed his eyes closed as hard as they could go. That pang squeezed his chest again, and more moisture leaked out of his eyes. “Holy God,” Maddox whispered. “Please heal my sergeant. I beg you, Lord, don’t let him die out here. Let him live a long life. I…I need him, Lord. I need this old man to live. Amen.”

  Maddox didn’t open his eyes right away. He kept his palms on Riker’s chest, feeling how the chest hardly rose. Finally, he looked upon the old man.

  “You’re going to make it, Sergeant. You’re not dying like this. You rest a bit. Keith and I have to get things ready. Then, you’re going to have to tough it out for a bit. But after that, the medical people will make you as good as new. Riker, do you hear me?”

  The sergeant did not answer, although he continued to breathe.

  Maddox shook his head in frustration. He felt something just then and searched inside the sergeant’s jacket, pulling out a small bottle of pills. He unscrewed the cap and shook out a pill. Staring at it—he opened Riker’s mouth and shoved the pill in. Then he leaned low.

  “Chew and swallow,” Maddox said sternly. “That’s an order.”

  Nothing happened.

  “I don’t want to repeat myself,” Maddox said in desperation.

  Although the eyes remained closed, the lips moved. The teeth crunched the pill and soon the old man swallowed slowly.

  Maddox hoped that helped. What more could he do? He shook his head, steeling himself against the worst. He loved this fat old man, but he had a responsibility to Jewel and Meta. He would look after Riker—

  “Damnit, Sergeant, I don’t need this grief right now. You pull through or you’re going to be sorry you didn’t.”

  Incredibly, Riker lips moved.

  Maddox put his right ear near the lips, listening.

  Riker mumbled more, but it was impossible to tell what he said, as the words were inaudible.

  “Just so you know, old man—” But Maddox couldn’t finish, because suddenly, he had the superstitious feeling that if he told Riker how he felt, the old man would up and die on him, satisfied. Instead, he had to string the sergeant along.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Maddox said. “Do you hear me?”

  Riker mumbled once more. Then, his head lolled to the side as he began to snore the slightest bit.

  Maddox sighed, figuring that would have to do for now, as he needed to help Keith get this fighter ready for flight.

  -65-

  Time moved too fast as Maddox and Keith worked feverishly to prepare the Remus atmospheric, rocket-propelled space-fighter for liftoff.

  “It will be like riding a bomb into space,” Keith said once.

  Maddox didn’t reply, but worked even harder.

  There were other fighters and equipment in the cavernous hangar bay. Maddox set a bomblet near the crowd of unconscious and dead men, which was near the entrance. He kept an eye on them in case any came around too soon and resumed their assault.

  When the first one stirred, Maddox debated the correct response—until a two-seater cycle roared into the hangar bay with a man riding it.

  Maddox’s thumb depressed a switch. That detonated the bomblet, which killed those lying there and the rider of the vehicle that had roared into the hangar bay. That gave them a few more minutes of uninterrupted work.

  “How much longer until we can leave this place?” Maddox shouted at Keith.

  “Unhook the fuel lines. Then, we’re good to go.”

  “Get up there,” Maddox said. “I’ll follow.” The captain used a hoist, moving from one fuel line to another, pulling them and capping the tank. He reached the floor when a telepathic thought struck him:

  Captain Maddox, your escape attempt is futile.

  Maddox jumped off the hoist and ran for the ladder, scrambling up it like a squirrel.

  We will never let you leave Remus.

  “Do you want to leave the planet?” Maddox shouted.

  Do not worry about us.

  “I’m not.”

  We will leave when we desire. For now, we are preparing it as a training facility. Still, none of that matters to you. If you attempt to leave, you shall die. If you remain on Remus, you will become our ambassador to Star Watch.

  “Do you really mean that?” Maddox asked, even as he climbed the ladder.

  We give our word as the Unity.

  “You know what?” Maddox said, as he reached the cockpit. “I’m going to accept your offer. It’s a good one and I don’t want to die.”

  Raising his eyebrows high, Keith stared at Maddox.

  The captain shook his head at Keith.

  How can we know that you’re sincere in this?

  “Because I said so,” Maddox said, even as he motioned for Keith to take off.

  We sense deceit in your words.

  “Are you sure that’s not projecting your guilt on your part for lying to me?”

  We are not lying, Captain. You will represent us to—wait. This is a game to you. You are attempting to trick us in order to buy yourself time to blast off.

  “I assure you that isn’t true,” Maddox said.

  “Who are you talking to?” Keith asked, flipping switch. The cockpit hatch was closing.

  “The Unity,” Maddox said. “Now, take off already. Don’t wait another second.”

  What does that mean? Are you speaking to us, Captain?

  “I realize the Unity is going to win in the end,” Maddox said. “That’s why I think your offer is genuine.”

  You are not gaining anything by these lies. We are learning about you even now, however.

  Keith was busy clicking more switches. The cockpit cover sealed with a hiss. There was a slight shaking to the cramped cabin as rockets began pre-ignition. “We’re ready, sir,” he told Maddox.

  “Sergeant,” Maddox said, “how are you feeling?”

  “Tired,” Riker whispered, with his eyes closed.

  “Hang in there, old man,” Maddox said, patting the sergeant on the arm.

  You are in a rocket fighter attempting to blast off. You are a deceiver, Captain Maddox.

  “Takes one to know one,” Maddox said.

  This is our final offer, Captain Maddox. Are you refusing it?

  “No. I’m telling you that I’m delighted to accept.”

  There might have been another mass-mind telepathic thought aimed at Maddox. He did not receive it, however. For at that moment, the rocket fighter ignited with fury, the entire long rocket fighter shaking dreadfully. None of them wore helmets or a flight suit. Each of them was strapped into the tiny cockpit with screens and controls around them. It was a crude craft compared to a Star Watch fighter, but it should get them into space.

  At that point, a huge hangar hatch above the ship opened. It must have still been dark outside, because none of them saw anything up there.

  All the while, the rocket fighter shook as a horrific roar blasted against them and the vessel slowly began to move higher, thunder deafening all other thoughts and sounds. The rocket fighter moved a little faster yet, and the roar was just a little less.

  Keith gave Maddox a thumb’s up.

  Maddox nodded, doing likewise to Keith and then glancing at Riker.

  The sergeant’s leathery face had turned stark white, but he was still breathing. And he clutched the armrests.

  Maddox took that as a good sign.

  The rocket fighter reached the opening, slipping through and climbing into the open air. It picked up speed and continued to spew reaction mass.

  Maddox’s heart raced even as he was pressed against the crash-seat. This was primitive space travel all right. But it was working, it was actually working. He thought to hear something in his mind, but it slipped away before he could understand it.

  Keith concentrated at the pilot’s seat, his hands pressed against the controls.

  Once more, Maddox looked over at Riker. The sergeant still breathed, but he looked whiter than ever and sweat slicked his face.

  Now they were beginning to move, climbing and gaining velocity the entire time. They still couldn’t talk in the cockpit, as the engine roar drowned out all other speech. Maddox leaned over, looking at a crude sensor screen. There were green blips there, two of them. Maddox motioned madly until Keith looked at him. Maddox pointed at the screen.

  Keith noticed it, staring longer than Maddox liked. The pilot looked back at him, shrugging.

  Maddox shouted at Keith.

  Keith shook his head and tapped his ears, indicating that he couldn’t hear.

  It was possible the Unity had fired missiles at the rocket fighter.

  Keith seemed to be searching his pilot board. Eventually, he tapped a switch, looked at a different screen and then turned to Maddox, laughing.

  The captain couldn’t hear the laughter, but he nodded. After that, he watched the primitive screen. Soon, the two green dots disappeared. Maddox grinned, for the first time thinking they might actually succeed.

  -66-

  Lieutenant Keith Maker shivered with glee as he piloted the rocket fighter through the smoggy early morning atmosphere of Remus.

  He shivered because the accelerating rocket roared upward toward orbital space, causing everything in the cramped cockpit to shake and shiver. Maddox and Riker were strapped into the other two available seats. Those two were superfluous to getting back to Victory again. This was all up to him, despite the fact that he didn’t understand a word on the control panels. He was working off instinct and his expert knowledge of fighter design and effect. So far, everything had done what he’d expected it to do.

  Keith had felt uncomfortable and out of his element before this. Running through subterranean corridors, firing at alien-controlled toadies and breathing crappy air—he hadn’t cared for any of that. That was a foot-fighter’s territory, a Marine’s type of combat. That wasn’t his style in the least. This, baby, this crude craft with its single gun, and with its rocket fuel and primitive radar, this was how he did it.