The professor groaned, and he raised his left hand.

  “Professor?” Meta asked.

  “My head hurts,” the Methuselah Man complained. “It pounds so I can hardly think.”

  “We had to recalibrate your mind,” Meta said.

  “What?” Ludendorff complained. “Are you mad? I have the most unique mind in the universe. Tampering with it is a sin of the first order.”

  “You may be right,” Meta said, glancing at Maddox. The captain motioned her to keep talking. “But Dana’s life in on the line,” Meta said. “We had to do something.”

  “Do something how?” Ludendorff asked, with his eyes still screwed shut as if trying to stop even a vestige of light from reaching his optic nerves.

  Maddox surged forward as he motioned Meta out of the way.

  Reluctantly, she moved.

  “Professor,” Maddox said.

  “No, no,” Ludendorff said. “Is this your doing? This vile tampering must be your doing.”

  “You fell unconscious,” Maddox said.

  “That’s preposterous. I am not… We were in the conference chamber, weren’t we? Oh, no, what happened? Something terrible happened.”

  Maddox didn’t know how much to tell the man.

  “Fine,” Ludendorff said in a resigned tone. “Tell me what happened. Give me the worst.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “My head is aching, feeling as if it’s about to explode. For some reason, I can’t open my eyes or move my hands, arms or legs. Something is hindering me, and I must know what.”

  Maddox nodded to himself. If Ludendorff was going to fix himself, he had to know what the problem was. Therefore, as quickly and clinically as the captain could, he told the professor exactly what had happened.

  Ludendorff did not interrupt. He made no comment at all.

  Finally, Maddox asked, “Are you still awake, Professor?”

  “I am,” Ludendorff said in a dull voice. “I can’t believe this. I betrayed everyone?”

  “It’s not that bad,” Maddox said.

  “No?” Ludendorff asked. “I want no sugarcoating, my boy. I want it straight. But never mind, you told me what happened. Batrun tricked me. What I don’t understand, though, is how I’m awake at all. If Batrun shut me off—and I think I know how he did that. I hesitate to ask how you woke me.”

  “I took a risk,” Maddox admitted, and he explained just what he had done.

  “You truly tampered with my brain, my fabulous mind?” Ludendorff asked in horrified disbelief. “This is too much, sir.”

  Maddox almost agreed aloud, but he felt Ludendorff would sink into depression or even suicidal anger if he did that. Thus—

  “Was it too much?” Maddox asked in a dismissive tone. “I think the punishment rather fit the crime, don’t you?”

  Meta stared at the captain wide-eyed.

  “You’ve always hated me,” Ludendorff said. “You’ve always been jealous of my successes.”

  “I think the term you’re looking for is projection,” Maddox drawled. “As the truth is the other way around.”

  “How dare you say that at a time when I’m so utterly incapacitated?”

  “Professor,” Maddox said. “You have a decision to make. Are you going to wallow in despair because Dana left you or are you going to allow Batrun to subject you to his whims? Do you want to let him beat you? Do you want to admit his mind is more magnificent than yours?”

  Ludendorff’s lips thinned as his entire body became rigid.

  “I see,” Maddox said. “You do realize that Batrun was Strand’s invention—”

  “No,” Ludendorff whispered. “Your childish psychology isn’t going to work on me, sir. I am done with you. If I don’t have fully functioning facilities—”

  “I always knew you were weak,” Maddox said, talking over the professor. “Dana leaving you was the last straw. Yes. Her leaving must have destroyed your self-image, thereby shattering your fragile ego.”

  “You’re a fool,” Ludendorff hissed. “I have the power to let you all die, and you insult me? I have the greatest human mind in existence. I will do nothing for your sake, you half-breed.”

  “Come, Meta,” Maddox said. “I’ve grown weary of watching a quitter stew in his defeat.”

  “Can’t take what you dish out, eh?” Ludendorff mocked. “You insult a crippled man—”

  “Emotionally crippled only,” Maddox said.

  “The synthetics tampered with my mind!” Ludendorff raved. “My mind, my glorious mind that sees deeper and farther than any in Human Space. I am the ultimate Methuselah Man, and the damned androids and now an unthinking half-breed have altered the patterns to destroy what they cannot achieve or truly understand.”

  Maddox said nothing. Had he gone too far this time? But what else could he have done?

  Ludendorff panted on the couch while his faced was screwed up with grief and pain. Tears leaked from his closed eyes and his lower lip trembled.

  “Dana, Dana,” he whispered. “How could you leave me?”

  Meta moved beside Maddox, taking one of his arms. There were tears in her eyes as she watched the professor.

  Ludendorff’s lips firmed as he visibly fought for self-control. “I am Ludendorff,” he whispered. “I am mankind’s protector. I was given a solemn charge, and I will not wilt now.” He scowled. “No half-breed will best me. No half-breed will destroy my mind.”

  Maddox was getting tired of the term half-breed. He was ready to try the ancient way of reviving a man, by slapping him repeatedly across the face.

  “Are you there, Captain?” Ludendorff called out.

  Maddox did not answer.

  Meta jerked his left arm, the one she held.

  “I’m here,” Maddox said.

  “You brought about this sorry state with your abominable tampering. Now, I will instruct you as you use the neural-shifter once again. You’re going to repair the damage. If you fail, we all die, as no one else will be able to create a hyper-spatial tube.”

  Maddox almost told the professor that Galyan could do it in a pinch. Instead, he remained silent.

  “Are you ready to fix what you broke?” Ludendorff demanded.

  “Start talking,” Maddox said.

  “First, you and Meta must lay me on the lab table. Then, I’m going to give you exact instructions. If you cannot follow in every point just as I say…you will be responsible for ending our lives.”

  Maddox said nothing.

  “Captain, are you ready?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said testily.

  “Then we’d better begin before I lose consciousness a second time.”

  -59-

  The process was grueling and time-consuming. Finally, however, Ludendorff said that should do it. He almost immediately fell asleep.

  Maddox had medical people wheel the professor back to the med station so they could monitor him there.

  “You took a risk in the lab,” Meta told him after the others had left.

  Maddox shrugged.

  “And you didn’t need to say all those cruel things to him,” she added.

  “Maybe not,” Maddox said, “but it felt good saying them.”

  “Maddox!” Meta said.

  He inhaled. What was wrong with him? It didn’t bother him that he’d enjoyed pestering Ludendorff. It was the needlessness of it. He was supposed to be the Intelligence operative par excellence, and yet he’d been letting emotions govern his actions.

  Was it possible the mind tampering performed by the android impersonating a marine hadn’t been completely fixed?

  Maddox pondered the idea. In all his former dealings, winning, defeating his foes, trumped everything else. To luxuriate in needless emotions before achieving victory was a waste of effort. Afterward it smacked of boasting, which he detested.

  Maddox’s eyes narrowed. He would act his way and no other. Even if the neural-shifter damage hadn’t been completely repaired, he would be himself through force of will. Maybe Ludendorff and he were alike in that particular: “To thy own self be true.”

  The pettiness he’d been indulging in—

  Maddox closed his eyes. Did the soul weakening have something to do with this? He wasn’t as vigorous these days. No. That didn’t matter. He would rein in the emotionalism and concentrate with laser-fixity on his purpose.

  So, what was his purpose?

  Brigadier O’Hara was languishing somewhere, and he had done precious little to restore her to service. The Rull androids had found an amazing Supermetals Planet and were using it for some hidden purpose. Lisa Meyers also had much to answer for. What did the technology in her hauler represent? Finally, there were the Batrun-like synthetics attempting something nefarious.

  Should he take Batrun’s explanation about the synthetics at face value? No. That would be foolish.

  Opening his eyes, nodding goodbye to Meta, he whirled around and headed for the hatch. It was time to see Andros Crank. It wasn’t could they get away from here. It was we have to get away now, and I’m going to make it happen.

  ***

  Andros and his tech-team had not yet reassembled Humpty-Dumpty, but they were building a holoimage processor that might work as well as the old one. Well, Andros told Maddox that he wasn’t sure how to send electrical surges through the processors so they would go through Galyan.

  “But Galyan should be able to project himself just as far as did before,” Andros said.

  The next day, Ludendorff had a blinding headache. Just as bad, the first test with the processors was a dismal failure.

  There was better news on the bridge. Valerie had launched and positioned several probes throughout the Asteroid Belt. She’d landed each on an asteroid facing outward, making it harder later for Leviathan personnel to spot them.

  The antimagnetic disturbance was gone. Presumably, the Strategist was no longer in the system. Master Elge had used a Laumer Point, meaning he’d also left.

  Eighteen hours later at a different jump point, three battleships dropped into the system. Five smaller vessels joined them. The flotilla lacked high velocity, but they accelerated, heading for the Asteroid Belt. It soon became clear that they aimed for the debris cloud with the nexus.

  “How long until they reach us?” Maddox asked.

  “That will depend,” Valerie said at her station. “If they continue to accelerate at the same rate, two days from now.”

  The next day—the enemy flotilla accelerated at the same steady rate—the Soldiers of Leviathan sent several message hails.

  Victory maintained comm silence throughout.

  “I can almost feel them wanting to launch missiles,” Valerie said. “But they don’t dare because they must fear destroying the nexus.”

  As he stood on the bridge, Maddox studied the enemy. Three battleships and five destroyers—eight enemy ships could defeat Victory. He had three options: wait, take a team into the nexus, or flee the Caval System to try to find another Builder pyramid elsewhere. That meant he had no choice, as the threat of the Rull androids, Lisa Meyers and Jotuns meant he had to get home now. It was time to take a team into the nexus and make things work.

  “You have the bridge,” Maddox said as he made his choice.

  Valerie acknowledged the order.

  Maddox headed for the hatch. It was time to make Ludendorff a proposal he couldn’t refuse.

  -60-

  The professor was still in Medical, physically exhausted with horribly red-rimmed eyes.

  “Oh, hello, my boy,” the professor said in an old man’s voice as he lay in bed. “Are you here to harangue me?”

  Maddox did not reply but crossed his arms as he looked down at the professor.

  “Are Leviathan warships in the system?” Ludendorff asked.

  “Eight of them,” Maddox said.

  “Very well,” Ludendorff said. He made to rise, visibly exerting himself, and collapsed, panting, as sweat bathed his face.

  “He’s in no condition to go anywhere,” Doctor Harris said, stepping from where she’d been watching in the shadows.

  “Do you agree with that, Professor?”

  “You’ll have to carry me, I’m afraid,” Ludendorff said. “Are you prepared to play the beast of burden?”

  For an answer, Maddox reached down and, using both hands, grabbed the front of Ludendorff’s hospital gown.

  “Now, see here, Captain,” Doctor Harris said. “I simply cannot allow this.”

  Maddox ignored her as he hoisted Ludendorff off the bed so the Methuselah Man grew paler. Maddox let go and stepped back. Ludendorff clutched the bed’s rail for balance and trembled as if with the flu.

  “Captain,” Harris said. “You can’t—”

  Galyan appeared. “Sir,” the holoimage said, cutting off the doctor. “I am back, ready for service. And as you can see, just as good as ever.”

  “You’re just in time, too,” Maddox said. “Professor, you’re relieved of duty.”

  Doctor Harris motioned to two orderlies, and they helped a trembling Ludendorff back into bed.

  “Are you ready to head into a nexus?” Maddox asked Galyan.

  “I will need help over there, sir,” Galyan said. “Several pairs of hands would be good. More would be better.”

  “How about two pairs of hands?” Maddox asked.

  “That should suffice.”

  “Meta and I will join you,” Maddox said. “Now, let’s go.”

  ***

  Keith piloted the shuttle, easing out of a hangar bay. Because of the extra debris inside the cloud, he moved slowly and carefully, bringing the shuttle to within two kilometers of the ancient silver structure.

  In the shuttle’s bay, Maddox and Meta climbed aboard a small space-sled. They wore exoskeleton-powered space-marine armor. Maddox sat in front, piloting, easing the sled from the shuttle.

  With irregular squirts of white hydrogen spray, Maddox guided the sled past fine particles of sand and pebbles. Occasionally, debris struck the combat armor, but nothing moved so fast that it breached the protective skin.

  “Feels like we’ve done this before,” Meta said through a short-link.

  Maddox studied the nearest silver side, which nearly encompassed his vision. How old was the structure, ten thousand years, twenty, more?

  “I wonder how often Builders used the hyper-spatial tubes,” Maddox said. “The Builders must have used the tubes as a highway, going from one location to the next. Do nexuses like this exist in other spiral arms and in the center of the galaxy?”

  “Maybe we’ll find out some day.”

  “You mean as explorers instead of soldiers?”

  “Not necessarily. I just wonder. We’ve become the quintessential Patrol ship, visiting three spiral arms so far, our own, the Sagittarius and now the Scutum-Centaurus. Are we destined to go the Galactic Core, too?”

  Maddox did not reply as he scanned the vast pyramidal side. “There,” he said, spotting the place that should open and allow them within.

  After a time, with side-jets, he turned the sled so they moved backward toward the nexus. He squirted hydrogen spray, slowing their velocity to almost nothing. Finally, while twisting around, he tossed a magnetic clamp attached by line. The clamp magnetized to the nexus. Maddox kicked a switch, a motor in the clamp reeling the sled closer until Maddox activated another magnetic clamp, anchoring them to the nexus.

  As they had done on other occasions, they climbed off the sled and clanked along the nexus hull until they reached the closed hatch. Soon, it opened into darkness. Maddox and Meta glanced at each other. All they saw was each other’s mirrored visor. He turned toward the hatch, de-magnetized his boots and jumped, activating his thruster pack, flying gently into the ancient structure. He turned on a powerful helmet lamp, the spotlight showing ancient smooth bulkheads within. Meta followed, also switching on a powerful beam.

  Soon, they flew through spacious and empty corridors.

  “Galyan,” Maddox said, using the comm. “If you can hear me—”

  “To your left, sir,” the holoimage said in Maddox’s helmet-phones.

  Maddox spotted the holoimage. Andros Crank and his team must have known their job after all. Galyan looked real, a little Adok floating beside him.

  “Does any of this make sense to you?” Maddox asked Galyan. “I mean where we are in the nexus.”

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I sense hostility. It is all around us and directed at us. I suggest you arm yourself.”

  Maddox used his chin, clicking a control. The space-marine armor had a rocket tube along each forearm. Each tube activated, blinking a red light on Maddox’s HUD visor. Meta did the same with her space-marine suit. Rocket shells were ready to fly and detonate.

  “I do not sense any creatures or robots,” Galyan said, as he looked around. “But the nexus itself—no, the computer core is radiating the hostility. I may not be able to insert myself and hack this core as I have done on other nexuses.”

  Maddox and Meta continued to use their thruster packs, propelling themselves slowly through a corridor. Galyan simply floated along as a projected holoimage. Abruptly, harsh lights snapped on, showing silver-smooth bulkheads. Then, a shadowy creature appeared before them. The thing was three times as big as a man. It was dark, with rippling wings and stars in outlined darkness for a head. In other words, it was shaped like a Builder.

  “Projection,” Galyan said. “What we are seeing is a projection like me.”

  Harsh static filled their ears. Then, alien gibberish sounded. It grew increasingly loud until it was painful. That meant air of some kind in here, not just vacuum.

  “Stop!” Meta shouted, using an outer speaker.

  “Do you understand me?” Maddox asked. “Galyan, use the translator.”

  “That is not necessary,” a strange voice said in the captain’s headphones. “I have found the range of your intellect, your language. This is interesting. I have not communicated for an eon.”

  “I’m Captain Maddox—”

  “Quiet,” said the giant holoimage of a Builder. “I must think, which means that I must decide.”