Dax wasn’t sure, but it seemed that Venna might have rolled her eyes at the War Master’s vainglorious speech.

  All the while, the intense heavy lasers from the maulers struck the opposing shields. Those shields had turned brown already. Soon, they would be black and the battle would be halfway to an amazing victory for Leviathan.

  -54-

  Maddox was hunched forward on the captain’s chair, his right hand clenched into a fist.

  Victory was part of the task force’s cone of battle. The antimatter engines hummed at nearly full power, the deck vibrating from this. The ancient Adok starship added its disruptor cannon to the massed fire of the cone. That cone was under Admiral Jellicoe’s command, who gave orders every twenty to thirty seconds.

  Victory, like the battleships, was in the process of burning out its engines and cannon. This was a form of hotshot: creating a more powerful beam than ordinary. The process burned out components and other parts in order to fire hottest for a short time.

  Maddox silently agreed with Jellicoe’s idea. The task force was doomed. Therefore, they should take down as many enemy vessels as possible. They had to buy their side kills, or the enemy was going to end-run Star Watch.

  The second mauler exploded—the second enemy death.

  Keith shouted savagely from the helm.

  Maddox smiled coolly even though he was upset that he’d brought Jewel and Meta along this mission. His daughter and wife would die with the rest. Maddox shook his head. He did his job so his family could live. He was willing to sacrifice himself if he knew that helped protect them. The fact that he was taking them down with him —

  Maddox growled low in his throat. The thought embittered him.

  “They are almost there, sir,” Galyan said, not specifying what ‘they’ referred to.

  “Good job,” Maddox said in a hoarse voice.

  “If one must die, sir,” Galyan said. “Is it not best to die in the company of your friends?”

  Maddox found he couldn’t reply verbally. Thus, he nodded.

  “What is wrong, Captain?” Galyan asked.

  “Wrong?” asked Maddox, his eyes blazing. “My daughter is with us.”

  “Oh,” Galyan said. “I failed to recall that. I am sorry to have been so insensitive, sir.”

  “It’s not your fault, Galyan. It’s mine.”

  “It is too bad you cannot pull one of your magical rabbits out of your hat and save the day.”

  Maddox eyed the holoimage. “The battle isn’t over yet.”

  “That is true but next to irrelevant.”

  “How much longer?” asked Maddox.

  Galyan’s eyelids flickered. “Eighteen seconds, sir.”

  Maddox bared his teeth in a savage grin. In tense silence, he waited for the seconds to pass.

  Then, on the far side of the mauler fleet, massed antimatter missiles appeared near enemy vessels.

  Galyan had set up a holographic projection to hide what had been drifting antimatter missiles. Those missiles had been launched some time ago in anticipation of this. They had used a dense gas cloud to hide their main thrust to build up the needed velocity. Once the antimatter missiles left the cloud, they no longer spewed exhaust tails from thrust.

  Earlier, it had been Maddox’s idea. For once, Jellicoe hadn’t bucked him. In truth, it was a genius move about to bear fruit.

  Maddox stared at the main screen.

  On the far side of the enemy formation, the first wave of antimatter warheads detonated, blowing against mauler shields. The next wave followed, using thrust again.

  Enemy lasers destroyed fifty percent, then seventy-three percent, then—

  Antimatter warheads began to explode, one tearing a massive hole in iridium-Z hull plating.

  Others exploded from too far away or struck electromagnetic shields.

  “Can you tell what happened yet?” Maddox said in a terse voice.

  “Soon, sir,” Galyan said. “I need more data. The whiteouts are making that difficult.”

  The whiteouts were due to the antimatter explosions.

  “Damn,” Keith said from the helm.

  Maddox saw it. A battleship, the Sargon, exploded. The battle cone was disintegrating under the heavy laser assault. The next battleship, the Stonewall Jackson, blew up, blowing Conqueror-class mass and energy everywhere. This was a fatal drawback of such a close formation.

  “Three so far,” Galyan said.

  “Do you mean destroyed maulers?” asked Maddox.

  “The antimatter missiles knocked out one, and the cone has destroyed two,” Galyan said. “That is three altogether.”

  Maddox laughed like a barbarian warlord, but with too much bitterness mixed in.

  Now, the fifth battleship exploded in the cone, completely shattering the front section. Eight battleships from the original eleven were no more. Escorts and destroyers blew up as heavy laser beams stabbed here and there.

  “Break off,” Jellicoe radioed Victory. “Make them hunt you down. Maybe one of us can get home and warn Star Watch about this.”

  The task force had destroyed a mere three maulers. Given the conditions, however, the one-sidedness of the battle, that was incredible.

  Keith had already taken Victory behind planetary rubble. Heavy enemy lasers obliterated planetary chunks. Mauler pressor beams caused other debris to leap aside, exposing two hiding escorts. Mauler lasers annihilated the puny vessels.

  Admiral Jellicoe had positioned the cone in such a way that a mass of asteroids, gas and rubble would assist the survivors to slip away amid the destruction of the front row battleships. Should Jellicoe have taken up station in the front rank?

  Some might think so. It had been foolish, in Maddox’s estimation, to remain in the Paran System for so long. They were paying the price for that.

  Maddox expected saucer ships to show up and join the hunt. So far, however, that hadn’t happened.

  A few faker battleship holoimages remained in various spots, generated by hidden boosters.

  Mauler lasers smashed through the holoimages. Mauler sensor operators found the boosters and swept them from existence.

  This was the last dying gasp of the task force. Jellicoe and Mackinder were in the fleeing Battleship Hernan Cortes.

  Maddox sat back in his captain’s chair, the tension of the slugfest leaving him drained of energy. Keith was hard at it, piloting Victory as if the huge starship was a nimble strikefighter flittering from one chunk of rubble to another.

  “Destroyed,” Galyan said.

  Maddox raised his head.

  Galyan turned to him. “The maulers destroyed another battleship. It’s just the Hernan Cortes and Victory now, with a smattering of auxiliary vessels.”

  Maddox swallowed in a constricted throat. Until today, he’d always found an answer. He had always found a method to slip out of death. These maulers, the numbers—

  Maddox sat up, his tongue running across his dry lips. Maybe it was time to bring his daughter onto the bridge. He would die with Jewel and Meta, hugging and kissing them as the last actions of his life. It had been a good run. He had done many of the things he’d set out to do…

  “This is odd,” Galyan said.

  An insane sense of hope surged in Maddox as he stared at Galyan. Then he realized his intuitive sense was trying to tell him something.

  “What’s odd?” asked Maddox.

  “The Darter Tarrypin is back in a hangar bay,” Galyan said.

  Maddox’s heart skipped a beat. “Say that again, Galyan.”

  “I do not need to, sir,” Galyan said. “Give me moment please.”

  Galyan disappeared.

  The holoimage did not reappear, however.

  “We’re doing it, mate,” Keith shouted from the helm. Despite the harrowing ordeal and the impending loss, it seemed as if the ace was having the time of his life. Did Keith love this sort of thing more than life?

  The intuitive sense grew in Maddox. If the darter was aboard Victory, that necessarily meant that Becker was aboard as well.

  You are right about that. The words blossomed in Maddox’s mind. This is a sticky situation. But I might have a way out of this for us.

  Maddox clicked an armrest comm switch. “Becker, speak to me. Are you aboard my starship?”

  Meta swiveled on her chair to regard Maddox. Tears welled in her eyes. “We should get Jewel.”

  “Wait,” Maddox said.

  On the main screen, two lasers flashed past them.

  “Oh,” Keith said. “The damn maulers have bracketed us. How did they do that? I must not have been looking closely enough.”

  “Becker,” Maddox said into the armrest comm. “Are you here?”

  Maddox’s heart was beating hard. The only chance to win free, to save his daughter, was through Becker.

  You have that right. Now, are you willing to make a deal for survival?

  Maddox spoke into the armrest. “Tell me your deal, Becker. If I die, you die. If we live, you live.”

  Just a second, this takes priority.

  Galyan now reappeared on the bridge. “Sir, Becker and his crew are on the ship. He is doing mental things, as far as I can determine.”

  “You’re sure of this?” Maddox said.

  “Yes,” Galyan said.

  “I’m leaving,” Meta said. “I must get Jewel.”

  Maddox glanced at his wife.

  Meta stood and hurried off the bridge. No one tried to stop her, including Maddox.

  A different comm officer took Meta’s place. “Sir,” she said. “The Behemoth is hailing us.”

  “What?” asked Maddox.

  “The mauler flagship,” she said.

  “Oh,” Maddox said. Was this an opportunity? He believed so. “Put the enemy commander on the main screen.”

  -55-

  Maddox peered at War Master Vane on the main screen, the cyber having just introduced himself. Vane was a lean, robotic-looking individual with spots of flesh showing on his face. In other words, he wasn’t completely metallic. Vane wore a gaudy black uniform with epaulettes but with a severe military hat and a sunburst symbol in the center of it.

  For once, Maddox could see others on the main screen. They stood behind the War Master. One of them was a Spacer adept with black-tinted goggles. The other—

  “Venna,” Maddox said, startled. That couldn’t be good.

  The one that looked like Venna—her head snapped up. She wore a familiar ruby necklace but looked worn and old compared to the Venna Maddox remembered.

  “Why is a Spacer spy on your flagship?” Maddox asked.

  As Maddox spoke with the cyber commander, Galyan, Ludendorff but especially Keith worked hard to keep the starship hidden from direct-line-of-fire with a mauler. Keith had launched two boosters to route this call, hoping to keep the cybers from getting a directional fix on the starship. It was working so far, but probably wouldn’t for long.

  War Master Vane looked around, seemingly perplexed by the captain’s question. “I see no Spacers here.”

  “They’re right behind you,” Maddox said.

  Vane looked directly behind him and turned as if with astonishment back to Maddox. “Are you referring to the representatives of Great Leviathan?”

  Maddox’s eyes narrowed. How could Vane call them…? “Are the representatives cybers?”

  “What else?” Vane said.

  Venna spoke too softly for Maddox to understand what she said.

  Vane nodded without turning back to her.

  At the same time, the two stepped out of camera view.

  What was going on over there? Maddox knew something was. That Venna and the Spacer adept were on the Behemoth’s command bridge with Vane, standing on the dais but seen as cybers … Had they practiced hypnotism on the War Master? Or was it something more sinister? Given the past events…it must be the latter.

  “Why has Leviathan attacked a Star Watch task force?” Maddox asked. “Is there a state of war between the Commonwealth and Leviathan?”

  “Has my annihilating attack left any doubt in your mind?” Vane said arrogantly. “Yes, there is a state of war until you’re completely overwhelmed.”

  “You won this battle,” Maddox said.

  “We shall win all of them,” Vane said.

  “I suspect you’re right.” Maddox pretended to consider before nodding sharply. “May I surrender?”

  The War Master evidenced surprise. “By all means, stop running and await our arrival.”

  “What guarantees can you give us if I do this?”

  Vane frowned. “I do not understand the question.”

  “Will you grant us our lives?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You guarantee this?”

  “I have said yes. What more do you seek?”

  “What about our ship and freedom?” Maddox asked.

  “Don’t spew nonsense,” Vane said angrily. “You must submit to Leviathan. That is what it means to surrender. You must become one with the Empire. Your ships are as good as scrapped, but I will spare your lives.”

  “But why scrap the ships?” Maddox said. “Our technology proved superior to yours. Won’t you want to study our ships and technology?”

  “You spout nonsense,” Vane said. “Our technology produced mammoth warships. Yours gave you the puny vessels that lost the battle. How can you say then that yours was superior?”

  “Sir,” Galyan whispered from behind the captain’s chair. “I suggest comm silence for the next minute.”

  Maddox swiveled his seat and motioned to the comm officer.

  She muted the War Master.

  Maddox turned back to the main screen and shrugged, tapping one of his ears and shrugging again.

  “Keith,” Galyan said from behind the captain’s chair.

  “I’m on it, mate,” Keith said from the helm.

  Victory accelerated, diving into a thick gas cloud. Upon entrance to it, Keith launched another communications booster. Then he changed course and slowed the starship way down. Tense seconds passed. Keith then turned again and accelerated once more. The starship fled the gas cloud and darted behind thick chucks of planetary debris.

  “I suggest you do something unique,” Galyan told Maddox. “We cannot keep this up for long.”

  “I’m thinking,” Maddox said.

  “Sir,” the comm officer said. “The War Master is becoming impatient.”

  Maddox could see that. “Put him on again.”

  There was an audible click.

  “War Master,” Maddox said, shrugging with his hands held palm upward.

  “What was the meaning of that outrage?” Vane said.

  “Commander,” Maddox said with good humor, “you’re hunting us. I’m hiding. During the interim, we’re attempting to clarify the surrender terms.”

  “I’ve already given them. Surrender or die.”

  That was the old New Men formula. Did that mean anything? Maddox doubted it.

  “May I say, War Master, I’m enjoying our conversation so much that I hate to bring it to a close with my death or surrender. I’m not at all sure you’ll respect me if I surrender to you.”

  Vane showed his titanium teeth in a vicious smile. “Surrender, Maddox. That is your only alternative to a quick death. Know that the representatives from Leviathan are eager to speak to you in the flesh.”

  Maddox’s nostrils flared. Had Vane said that knowing it would get under his skin? The War Master didn’t strike him as that subtle. Maddox hated that he lacked an ace card or a trick up his sleeve. Why had Becker fallen silent before?

  I’m listening to your conversation is why, Becker said in his mind. I’m learning much from all this. For instance, the so-called Spacer spy is the key to this.

  “Can we escape from this trap?” Maddox whispered, hoping Becker could pick that up.

  Ah. It seemed so. I’m working on that, too, Becker said in his mind.

  Maddox’s nostrils flared again. The reason was that he hated counting on Becker for the trick. Still, the point was to use whatever worked. In this case, Becker was all they had left.

  “Why do you seem so preoccupied,” Vane said on the main screen. “Shall I call back later when your atoms are floating free in space?”

  “Sir,” Maddox said, “I appreciate that you’re eager. I’m mulling over my surrender terms. Knowing that the representatives of Leviathan desire me is quite flattering. May I speak to them before I commit to this?”

  Vane turned his head and asked over a shoulder. He frowned upon looking back at Maddox. “You may not speak to them, sir. You must—”

  “Can I ask why?” Maddox said, interrupting.

  Vane shifted his stance as his features hardened. His patience appeared to have ended. “Either surrender at once or die under my lasers. This is your last moment to choose.”

  “This is a terrible day for me,” Maddox said. “It is the worst in my life. Surely, in your great victory, you can afford me a little more generosity.”

  “It is clear that you are playing for time,” Vane said. “Worse, for you, I grow weary that one as mighty as me am dealing with a gnat like you.”

  “We all have our crosses to bear.”

  “I do not understand the reference.”

  Maddox shrugged. He didn’t care to explain it.

  Just a little longer, Becker told Maddox. I have a line on the witch. This is stunning.

  “What do you mean?” Maddox whispered.

  “I can’t hear that,” Vane said. “You must speak up.”

  “I wasn’t talking to—sorry,” Maddox said.

  Vane stepped closer to the camera eye, as his face seemed to grow. “This is my final offer, Captain Maddox. Surrender to me or you and your family will face destruction.”

  “How do you know my family is here?”

  “I know,” Vane said.

  Maddox cocked his head. Vane’s mannerisms had subtly shifted, and his voice held a different tone. Then, Maddox understood. “You’re not the War Master.”