Lord High Admiral Haig was now speaking to his task force commanders via an open channel. No one had hailed Victory to ask for clarifications or suggest possible tactics for dealing with the enemy that might appear at any moment. Star Watch was at a state of ultimate alert. Formations were moving into positions as picket ships roared past Venus, close to Mercury and the Sun. Others were speeding toward Mars and Jupiter.

  Warship sensors watched the entire area. Battleships launched buoys and probes, seeking any cloaked saucer ships.

  The Lord High Admiral and others surely understood the significance of only the Hernan Cortes and Victory returning from the Paran System. The new network of hidden hyper-spatial tubes was another problem. After this, scout ships would need to find and map all the hidden Builder nexuses. Given those nexus and hyper-spatial tubes, enemy assaults could come from all over the place.

  All the while, warships readied, missile systems on Earth ran through final checks, disruptor beam cannons and orbital satellites powered up.

  Victory was not part of any formation. Thus, the starship remained near the nexus by itself.

  “I wonder what we should do,” Galyan said.

  Maddox sat in the captain’s chair, unresponsive.

  “Is there a reason headquarters will not talk to you, sir? You are the most experienced in space battles and especially against Leviathan.”

  “Make that Valerie and me,” Maddox said.

  “Headquarters does not speak to Valerie either,” Galyan said.

  Maddox swiveled in the chair to face the holoimage. “It’s a new game in town. I was in with Cook. Now I’m out with Haig.”

  “That is sad,” Galyan said. “Why are they so foolish?”

  Maddox shrugged. “I rub people the wrong way. It’s as simple as that.”

  “That I can understand,” Galyan said. “You are too arrogant for most people.”

  Maddox stared at Galyan.

  “I should not have said arrogant,” Galyan said. “That was probably the wrong word.”

  “No,” Valerie said from a weapons board, “that was the right word.”

  Maddox looked at her.

  “Sorry, sir,” Valerie said with a shrug, “but I call it as I see it.”

  “As you should,” Maddox said a second later. “We’re not in battle, and that wasn’t spoken against any of my commands.”

  Valerie raised her eyebrows.

  Maddox flicked his fingers in her direction to show there were no hard feelings. Then he turned away. He waited like everyone else in Star Watch to see what would happen. Would the Seventh Assault Fleet show up? It seemed foolish at this point. Forty-seven maulers were frightening. They had butchered the best Star Watch had in Jellicoe’s task force. But Star Watch had destroyed three maulers in the process. Now the enemy was giving them time to prepare. It wasn’t so much time that Haig and the others had calmed down yet. The suddenness of this, the surprise, had unhinging many commanders and serviceman. Surprise could be a force multiplier in the enemy’s favor.

  Maddox considered that as he watched the main screen. Would Galyan or Andros see the enemy first? Or would some other ship sensors spot the maulers coming in?

  This time it was Andros.

  “Sir,” Andros said.

  “I see it,” Galyan paused and turned to Andros. “You saw it before me, although that does not make sense. I have the superior abilities.”

  “Do you?” Andros asked.

  “I suppose not in this instance,” Galyan said. “I will discover your secret and use it next time.”

  “Never mind that,” Maddox said. “What’s happening out there?”

  “Enemy maulers are coming through the Laumer Point from the Barnard’s Star System,” Andros said.

  Maddox nodded tightly. “What are our missile-ships doing? Are they firing antimatter torpedoes at them?”

  “No,” Galyan said. “There are no missile ships anywhere near the Barnard’s Star Laumer Point.”

  Maddox blinked with surprise. That was an incredibly stupid oversight. How could it have happened? “Strike one against Haig. The admiral should have already ordered that. Maybe this is too much for him.”

  “Has Admiral Haig never led ships into battle before this?” Galyan asked.

  “No,” Andros said. “I checked his bio earlier. He hasn’t.”

  “Ain’t that grand?” Maddox said.

  “I do not think so.” Galyan said. “Oh. That is sarcasm, is it not, sir?”

  “It is,” Maddox said.

  At that point, an order reached Victory. It came from Admiral Jellicoe. Meta put his visage on the main screen.

  “You will join my cone,” Jellicoe said. “I requested it.”

  “Did you now?” Maddox said.

  Jellicoe stared through the main screen with all seriousness. “Because of you, the Hernan Cortes survived the Paran System. I may be many things, sir, but I am also grateful. I have begun to see that your reputation, the good parts, is deserved.”

  Maddox inclined his head, deciding this wasn’t the time to tell him about Becker. That time might come soon. He’d have to decide.

  I appreciate that, Becker said in his mind.

  Maddox didn’t reply. Instead, he ordered Keith to take Victory to Jellicoe’s ill-assorted cone of battle. The admiral had lost his task force and been given riffraff in its place. Victory and the Hernan Cortes would be the anchor units of this cone.

  The terrible clash between star fleets would no doubt start soon.

  -64-

  Maddox sat in his command chair, watching the main screen. The starship was part of Admiral Jellicoe’s new task force and cone of battle. The task force comprised the Hernan Cortes, Victory, and seven older Bismarck-class battleships. They were a secondary task force and cone. This meant they would not join the frontline attack.

  Other task forces headed out toward the enemy fleet. No missiles were launched at the giant vessels from Leviathan. No Star Watch warships sniped and ran away from them. Instead, the forty-seven maulers of the Seventh Assault Fleet had all the time they needed to shake off the jump lag.

  Soon the giant, thirteen-diameter maulers formed into five individual formations. There was a wall of ten, with three others like that. The last reserve formation contained six maulers.

  “One is missing,” Maddox said. “Didn’t we count forty-seven maulers coming through?”

  “Yes,” Galyan said.

  “Where’s the last one?”

  “I do not know,” Galyan said. “I do not see it anywhere.”

  “Becker,” Maddox said into his comm, “do you see it?”

  I do not sense it, Captain, Becker said in Maddox’s mind.

  “Please let me know if you do.”

  Yes, Captain, Becker said telepathically.

  As they spoke, the forty-six maulers of Leviathan advanced for Earth. At the same time, the Grand Fleet of Star Watch came out to do battle. The Grand Fleet possessed three hundred-plus ships. In tonnage, however, the advantage was decisively with Leviathan.

  If the other five assault fleets had joined the Seventh, Maddox shuddered. He could well imagine the devastation. The Grand Fleet would lose everything.

  The Grand Fleet had the advantage, given what had happened a little over an hour ago in the Paran System. But so many things could go wrong in a space battle like this, even when it was a matter of bringing up the tonnage, the firepower, shields and hulls directly against the enemy.

  The two mighty fleets converged upon each other. The Seventh Assault Fleet from Leviathan had crossed the gulf between the Scutum-Centaurus Spiral Arm and the Orion Spiral Arm. The forty-six maulers represented an invasion by an invading empire—

  For no good reason that Maddox could see.

  The minutes ticked by as the vessels from both sides closed upon the other. No masses of antimatter missiles flew. The mauler heavy-laser range and intensity would surely strike such missiles down before they got anywhere near enough. Could Star Watch sneak some antimatter missiles in during the battle?

  That seemed unlikely to Maddox. It probably seemed unlikely to the Lord High Admiral Haig. That was why no missiles had been launched.

  As the two forces surged at each other, Haig continued to issue instructions to the Grand Fleet.

  Meta at communications informed Maddox of that.

  In almost no time—or so it seemed—the bulk of the two formations converged, slowing as they reached extreme cannon range. Intense firepower flashed between the two fleets. The heavy lasers of the maulers struck shields, burning with intensity. At the same time, one battle cone after another directed their massed firepower into mauler after mauler.

  Admiral Jellicoe and his task force, including Victory, remained behind in reserve.

  Given the sizes of the fleets, one would think a fight like this would last hours, perhaps even half a day, or maybe a whole day. Instead, such was the intensity, mass of energy unleashed by antimatter engines and other generators that ships blew up one after the other, on both sides. This wasn’t a one-sided contest, where one fleet annihilated the other, but a bitter struggle.

  The reserve maulers moved up to help the others. Admiral Haig gave the order. Jellicoe gave the order. His cone advanced to help those hit by the reinforcing maulers.

  Victory’s generators caused the deck plates to vibrate. The ship’s disruptor beam flashed, joining the firepower from the Bismarck-class battleships and the Hernan Cortes. The united beam knocked down a mauler shield and burned into its iridium-Z hull plate. That took time, but then the massed beam was through. Moments later, the mauler ignited in a blast of fury.

  Although Victory engaged the enemy, the starship experienced minimal stress. That was a welcome change.

  More orders came through as the battle began to turn decisively in Star Watch’s favor. Surely, everyone here had realized it would from the beginning.

  That was not due to greater tonnage, for Leviathan had more mass. That was not due to superior tactics, for none was in evidence today on either side. Instead, it was the disruptor beams, particularly those powered by the heavy-metal components of the Conqueror-class battleships. Those proved particularly effective.

  Had it just been the older Bismarck-class battleships, which had once been the bulk of Star Watch, then perhaps the Seventh Assault Fleet would have stood a chance.

  The heavy metals in the Conqueror-class battleships proved decisive.

  Even so, twenty-eight battleships blew up, with all hands killed. Forty-two destroyers vanished under hellish lasers. Picket ships exploded like popcorn in gross numbers. Even so, those of Leviathan were going down to bitter defeat.

  Only a short time ago, forty-seven maulers had exited the Laumer Point from the Barnard’s Star System. Now, there were twenty-two left. That meant the firepower of Star Watch converged in greater numbers, inflicting much greater damage than the heavy lasers could do to them.

  As had happened on many an ancient battlefield, the fight had been hot while the two contestants faced each other. But once one side lost its morale and turned away to flee, the other side butchered it with hardly a loss in return. That began to happen here in the Solar System.

  Many Star Watch vessels left their cones of battle and limped away. If they had faced a vigorous enemy ready to pounce, those ships would have been annihilated. Instead, the best of Star Watch converged on the ever-dwindling number of massive maulers.

  It was incredible that such a spectacular fleet, painstakingly built up over the years, would fall to such a sudden onrush of disruptor beams. At this point, antimatter missiles flew, churning up the remaining ships. It became carnage, pure and simple.

  Lord High Admiral Haig did not offer the maulers as chance to surrender. Nerves were too taut for that. Maybe that was because this was his first major battle. Haig surely wanted a decisive victory. He got it. For the next hour, the Grand Fleet annihilated the last of the Seventh Assault Fleet from Leviathan.

  Those maulers destroyed thirty-one battleships altogether, the coin of power in this instance. Those thirty-one, the majority Bismarck-class vessels, was a significant loss, especially when combined with the ten Conqueror-class battleships destroyed in the Paran System earlier.

  Then an alarm went off on Earth. The reason was a suddenly appearing mauler very near Earth.

  How had that happened, what special system or inhibitors had the cyborgs used to sneak so close?

  The giant mauler launched flocks of world burners at Earth.

  Counter missiles rose from Earth, intercepting the world burners, destroying them. This was a barrage assault, and a barrage defense.

  One of the Leviathan world burners snuck through the defenses and streaked down. Surface lasers burned against it, but not enough. The world burner hit Rio de Janeiro in Brazil Sector. A titanic antimatter blast rocked the city, killing tens of millions in a moment. A flare of sunlight appeared on the Earth.

  Seconds later, before it could launch more, the terrible mauler exploded under a hail of antimatter missiles.

  The explosion meant hard radiation pouring down to Earth, but the enemy mauler was gone.

  The Seventh Assault Fleet no longer existed. It had damaged the Grand Fleet and harmed the Earth, resulting in millions of civilian deaths. That was a stunning blow, and a slap in the face to the new Lord High Admiral. Otherwise, Haig had won a sterling victory.

  Maddox couldn’t say the world burner was a disaster, but it was a sobering moment of what could have happened.

  It was time to start licking wounds, and probably pointing fingers among the high command.

  It was at that point that Becker said into Maddox’s mind, I have it, Captain. I have it.

  -65-

  Becker was sitting in the darter inside one of Victory’s hangar bays while the battle between the Seventh Assault Fleet and the Grand Fleet had raged just a bit earlier.

  He had just finished a gargantuan meal, served by his three girls. Belching several times, Becker sent them away, as he wanted to be alone.

  The food and drink fueled his body but just as much his brain, a brain substantially bigger and denser than any human had possessed at any time in history.

  Relaxed to a degree, Becker closed his eyes and began to range through space with his telepathic power. He sensed the war raging between the adversaries. He sensed hundreds and thousands of men, women and cyborgs dying all around him. That soon increased to tens of thousands. The dying screams—

  Becker worked at it until he blocked that. Listening telepathically to the dying was harrowing and unpleasant. Too much of that, and he’d start to cry uncontrollably.

  Wiping tears from his eyes, Becker roved farther afield. This telepathic power wasn’t anything near omniscient. He had to concentrate and go to those locations with his mentality. It took effort, and the farther he roved from the darter—from his brain, really—the harder this became to do.

  Becker sought evidence of watchers, most likely Spacers. He didn’t seek cloaked saucer ships, but mind impulses. He had an intuitive sense that Spacers, maybe even Venna, watched the battle from a distance. This was the reason he hunted for them.

  Becker’s intuitive sense wasn’t as developed as Maddox’s. Becker found that interesting. He hadn’t studied the captain’s mind to figure out what did intuit things. He simply realized that that part of Maddox’s mentality had been highly refined.

  Not that Maddox was a telepath in any way. The captain simply had a few attributes that might be akin to telepathy that the alien named Balron seemed to have strengthened and trained. Maddox had then strengthened it even more by using it for years. Maddox, clearly, had a gift in his intuitive sense.

  Becker’s intuitive sense was cruder but also likely potentially stronger. It was likely that Becker would never develop that aspect of his abilities. He had too many other mentalist powers to work on, powers that would give him more bang per buck, as it were.

  As maulers exploded and battleships erupted, Becker ranged beyond them and sought mental signs. Finally, near the Asteroid Belt, he sensed a bevy of minds. Two of them were powerful, one through Builder modifications and the other through alien—

  Becker recoiled as he touched Venna’s alien possessor with his telepathy. It had an oily feel and reminded him of the rat-thing he’d slain in his own mind some time ago.

  “Bingo,” Becker whispered in the command chair on the darter.

  He lowered the gain of his mental search and slipped toward the cloaked saucer ship hiding in the Asteroid Belt. He stayed well away from the alien—

  He had almost referred to it as the rat-thing. No. This was a dragon-thing in comparison to what he’d slain in his mind. Becker didn’t want to fight the alien thing in Venna. He was too far from this body, and that would make him much weaker.

  If they had been in the same room, Becker might have attempted it. It was like a man lying on a table with his arms stretched out trying to lift heavy weights. The fulcrum or balance would be against him.

  Becker even avoided the Spacer adept. Instead, he sought the one known as—

  Dax, Becker said.

  Nine times nine is eighty-one. Six hundred thousand times twenty-nine is…

  I’m not Venna or Mu checking up on you, Becker said, finding those names in Dax’s mind. I’m Becker, a human, and I can see you’re afraid of the witch from Ector.

  What do you want with me?

  Becker roved around, found himself blocked in one direction and sensed Mu becoming interested. He lowered the gain of his telepathy even more. Now, it was as if he whispered in Dax’s mind.

  I can’t hear you, Dax said.

  Becker raised the gain just a smidgen. You help me and I’ll help you.

  How can you help me? Dax asked.

  What do you want or need?

  To kill Venna, Dax whispered between his mathematical equations.

  Becker would like that, too. He thought about it, considered the possibilities, and gave Dax a possible method to achieve it.