“Good work, Ophir,” Maddox said. “Your rings were invaluable. They made all the difference to our winning down here.”

  “Yes,” Ophir said. “Mara and I have been the keys to this. Because of that, I claim first right of choice for whichever weapon I want.”

  Maddox dipped his head. “Such a right, I freely—”

  “You do not grant me anything,” Ophir said, interrupting. “I have claimed it as my right.”

  “Yes, and I recognize your claim as legitimate. You’ve indeed won it through your battle skill.”

  “My battle skills were greater than yours,” Ophir said.

  Maddox made a small gesture. His limbs and muscles couldn’t stand any more. He lay back down, breathing heavily. Even his lungs ached, or rather, the muscles that powered his lungs. Every breath brought another pang where a tentacle had snapped, lashed or tried to curl around him.

  “Which weapon do you choose?” Maddox asked while lying on the floor.

  “I don’t know. I must examine each carefully.”

  “We don’t have time for that.”

  Mara stared at Maddox. “Do you sense the evil below?”

  “I do,” Maddox said. “I fear it will awaken or its dreams rise closer to consciousness. I will not name it for that reason. We did earlier and that was a mistake. We’ve bearded its minions in their den. Now, as Ophir said, we must collect what we came for and leave as soon as possible.”

  “Do you know what you wish to choose?” Ophir asked.

  “Maybe,” Maddox said.

  “I want to know what that is.”

  Maddox snorted.

  “I want to know because I might choose it for myself. Of course, I might trade my choice if you give me what I desire.”

  Maddox said nothing. Ophir and his ruby rings and Mara with her talent had been instrumental in winning down here. That was worth remembering and honoring. However, now it was time to divide the treasure. This became a new game. Maddox was very aware that his men outnumbered Ophir’s men down here. Ophir had the personal force field, but his rings had become useless. Maddox didn’t want to descend to outlaw or brigand philosophy, yet this was the time to collect the rewards for all their hard effort. Could he let Ophir stand in the way of what he needed? The answer was clear. No.

  “What is he thinking?” Ophir asked Mara.

  “That you deserve what you’ve earned,” Mara said, even as she glanced at and away from Maddox.

  Maddox saw Dravek’s arm tighten around her waist, and he saw Mara’s arm tighten around Dravek’s waist.

  Once again, Maddox forced himself to a sitting position. He reached out and prodded Gricks. Gricks must have understood, as he handed the captain a canteen. Maddox unscrewed the cap and slaked his thirst. It should have revived him, but it didn’t.

  “Do you have any pain pills?” Maddox asked quietly.

  “Try these,” Gricks said, handing him a pair of pills.

  Maddox put the pills on his tongue and drank again, swallowing. He needed every advantage he could get. He had almost expended everything, but he knew this was the moment. He must make the right choice. To keep his honor intact, he also needed to let Ophir chose first.

  “What do you want down here?” Ophir asked.

  Maddox smiled. “Is that your choice, to know what I want?”

  “No. I want to know what you want. You owe that to me.”

  “Do I?” Maddox asked with an edge. “Do I owe that to you because your people cut the balls off of one of my men?”

  Dravek tried to signal Maddox.

  Maddox nodded. What was wrong with him? This wasn’t the time for that.

  Ophir had jumped back, clenching his fists, aiming the ruby rings at Maddox.

  Maddox sighed inwardly. He’d gone too far with the last comment. “Have a care, Ophir.” Maddox pointed at Hern, who stood to the side and the back of Ophir.

  Ophir saw Hern’s heavy assault gun aimed at him. Perhaps Ophir noticed the Primus’s hard stare: a man ready to kill.

  “Is this betrayal?” Ophir asked.

  “There’s no betrayal,” Maddox said smoothly. “Make your choice. I will make mine afterward and we’ll part in friendship. So, what do you want?”

  “Mara, come to me. I need your assistance in this.”

  “Gallant Ophir,” Mara said. “I haven’t made you these promises. I’ve decided to switch allegiances. I’m following Dravek from now on, not you.”

  “Witch and whore,” Ophir shouted, “how dare you turn traitor at this hour? Don’t you realize what will happen to you once we reach home?”

  “Will you reach home, Gallant Ophir?” Mara asked in a silky voice.

  Ophir unclenched his fists and dropped his hands beside him. He nodded once, twice. “I see. I accept your resignation. Grandma was right about you and them. Still, I can choose anything I wish?”

  “Of course,” Maddox said. “You have first right of choice. I don’t gainsay it.” Unless you choose what I want, Maddox thought to himself.

  Ophir went to various items, studying them. He finally came to a large tank-like vehicle with steep angles and a large turret and cannon. It lacked treads or wheels but had what looked like anti-gravity repellers on the bottom. It must have been a heavy grav tank.

  “I want this,” Ophir said, pointing at the grav tank. “I’ll rise to the surface in it and return to the Highlands with it. I’ll take my men with me.”

  “That strikes me as a good choice,” Maddox said. “Now, I need to make mine.”

  “You don’t want the grav tank?” Ophir asked.

  “I might have picked it, but you had first choice.” Maddox struggled to his feet, swaying and looking around at the museum of weapons. Which was the right choice? Then he noticed one of the shuttles. It had familiar lines, or ones he’d seen before, recently, too. This was interesting. It was time to see if his instincts were correct.

  -66-

  Maddox slid his booted feet across the floor because his legs were too tired to lift them.

  “Dravek, if you could help me.”

  Dravek and Mara got up, holding hands, advancing to Maddox.

  “Let me lean on you,” Maddox said.

  Dravek put his free arm around Maddox’s waist and Maddox put an arm over Dravek’s shoulders. He began to shuffle with Dravek’s help toward one of the shuttles.

  The selected shuttle had lines that reminded him of the Moray. He believed the shuttle had a connection to Naxos’ Triad. The unconscious thought that had bubbled in his dream was that the Triad, which had used the Moray, wanted something in the ancient weapon site. What would the Triad seek in such a dangerous place? Why had they sought it so relentlessly? An idea had flickered in his thoughts. Now he needed to test it.

  “There’s something familiar about that shuttle,” Dravek said.

  “Oh?” Maddox asked.

  Dravek looked at him. “What’s more, you know it, too.”

  Maddox shrugged.

  “What are you hiding?”

  “Not so loud.” Maddox looked across the clone’s torso. “Mara, are you truly Dravek’s companion?”

  She looked up into Dravek’s face. “If he will have me.”

  “You know I will and do.” Dravek became thoughtful. “Maddox foresaw us together. Maybe he has an instinct for these things.”

  “I think he has an instinct for many things,” Mara said quietly. “And I think if any man approaches the captain in his abilities, it must be you.”

  “You mean because I’m his clone?” Dravek asked with an edge.

  “You’re missing my meaning,” Mara said. “You’re your own person. That’s obvious to anyone who is with you two for any amount of time. But you have his DNA, some of his memories—”

  Maddox looked at her sharply.

  “I’ve seen that in your minds,” Mara said. “I didn’t read your minds to see that, but it’s visible to a telepath like me.”

  Maddox’s features closed as he nodded.

  “You also have his capabilities,” Mara continued. “Maybe you have some of his mindset.”

  Dravek frowned at her.

  Mara squeezed his hand. “You’re you, and it’s you I want. I have seen something in him, though. Maddox is devoted to his wife and daughter. I want a man to be devoted to me like that. Since you’re like him in many ways, maybe you’re like him in that.”

  Maddox laughed, shaking his head.

  “What?” Dravek asked.

  “Nothing,” Maddox said. He recalled what Dravek had said earlier about romantic attachments. Now that Dravek had a woman like Mara, would he find his Meta in her? “I wish the two of you all the luck in the universe.”

  “All right, all right,” Dravek said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Mara, you’re a wonderful girl and I want to be with you. But let’s see what happens today and tomorrow and the next day after that before we get too excited about all this.”

  “Yes, Dravek,” Mara said.

  Maddox wondered if she’d already used her telepathic ability to study his thoughts. Probably, as he knew women and Mara would want such reassurances.

  Maddox focused on the shuttle as they neared it. He slid his arm off Dravek’s shoulders.

  Dravek released Mara’s hand and Maddox’s waist, and he went to the shuttle hatch. He inspected it without touching anything. He looked back at Maddox.

  Maddox had drawn the heavy pistol. “Be careful.”

  “What could happen?” Dravek asked.

  Maddox looked at Mara.

  “I…don’t sense anything suspicious,” she said.

  “Is there a switch or something?” Maddox asked.

  Dravek stepped closer, pointing at one.

  Maddox raised the pistol at the hatch, not having moved closer.

  “Oh,” Dravek said. “Are you suggesting I open the hatch?”

  “I’m ready to fire.”

  Dravek snorted to himself and slapped the switch.

  There was a whine, a squeal, and then the hatch slid up slowly as if in pain.

  Dravek had already skipped back out of the way.

  When the hatch ceased moving and nothing happened, Maddox shuffled forward, peering into the darkness of the shuttle. It took effort, but he raised a foot, setting it on the shuttle’s threshold. With a grunt, he hoisted himself, stumbling farther within.

  Dravek followed close behind, clicking on a flashlight, shining the light ahead of Maddox.

  Maddox smelled musty dead air. His nape hairs rose. The shuttle felt…haunted, as if spirits would rise and attack for daring to disturb this coffin.

  “You must leave the shuttle at once,” Mara said from the open hatch, from on the floor outside the shuttle. “This is dangerous. Neither of you should have entered.”

  “Wrong,” Maddox said. “We very much should have entered. The doom you’re sensing is the reason why.”

  “What do you know?” Mara asked. “I cannot read your thoughts. Is the doom why you choose this shuttle?”

  “I’m not used to people questioning me about my actions,” Maddox said sharply. “Yet.” He glanced back at Mara. “In this case, I’ll make an exception. I know something useful is here. What makes it useful also makes it deadly.”

  “You’re hedging,” Mara said.

  “That’s enough of that,” Maddox said. “Dravek, stay close.”

  “Wait a sec.” Dravek’s voice had a catch in it. “Mara has a point. This place…feels like a crypt with a vampire or other undead creature. What if it wakes up and pounces on us, sucking our blood?”

  “That’s why we’re on our guard.” Maddox took another step into the shuttle.

  Dravek kept shining his flashlight. He unslung the submachine gun he was carrying and held it with his trigger finger ready.

  Maddox and Dravek moved throughout the shuttle, the flashlight shining everywhere. The sense of great age, wrongness and doom pervaded throughout, but there were areas where it was colder or less prevalent.

  The sense grew stronger as they approached a sealed hatch.

  “My heart’s hammering,” Dravek whispered.

  “This is the place all right.” With his fingertips, Maddox rubbed sweat out of his eyes.

  They looked around the hatch—

  “I see it.” Dravek shined the light on the switch.

  Maddox pressed it. Nothing happened. The hatches had worked elsewhere in the shuttle, often whining with complaint. Here, there was no power at all. The hatch was dead.

  Maddox cocked his head as he stood before the sealed entrance. Finally, he holstered his gun and pulled out the monofilament blade. He touched the metal of the hatch, prepared to leap back if needed.

  There was no response.

  Maddox pushed the edge of the blade against the hatch. The monofilament edge slid in easily, cutting.

  There were hurried footsteps from behind. “Dravek, where are you?” Mara shouted.

  “Over here,” Dravek said.

  In a second, she rushed to Dravek, grabbing his torso, putting her face against his chest.

  “Easy now,” Dravek said, raising his arms, keeping the light on the hatch and his submachine gun ready to fire.

  Maddox continued cutting, slicing a section out of the hatch. He used his boot and pushed against it. The section of metal fell inward, crashing upon the deck of the hidden cabin.

  A presence of death billowed out.

  Mara gasped, releasing Dravek and staggering until she thumped against the far bulkhead. “I can’t go any farther,” she said breathlessly. “I’ll wait here, Dravek. But please, I beg you, don’t go.”

  Dravek looked at Maddox. “I’m not going in there. This one is wrong. Mara feels it and so do I.”

  “Give me your flashlight then,” Maddox said.

  Dravek swallowed and handed it over.

  Maddox took it, shining the light ahead of him, ducking through the opening in the hatch and entering the room.

  It didn’t surprise Maddox to see three anciently dried corpses. Each had thin, leathery limbs, a thin torso and curling tusks from its mouth. Each looked what Maddox would expect Naxos and his clones would if dead as long as these. No doubt, the three in here had also been a Triad.

  Maddox shined the light about the room and then he saw it at the foot of the bed. It was a dull-looking crystal but otherwise like what the Eye of Helion had looked like.

  Maddox approached warily until he reached it and after some effort crouched before it. His muscles protested and skin itched. First holstering the heavy pistol—he’d drawn it again—Maddox put his hands over the crystal. He did it as if he could feel heat or some other emanation rising from it. From the Eye before, he knew it could be dangerous to touch when the crystal didn’t glow.

  Was this crystal from the planet Helion? Logic dictated yes. A Triad had made it down here and died. The curling tusks in the corpses reminded him of the Metamorphs.

  Crouching here, holding his hands over the baseball-sized crystal, Maddox had some questions. Before this Triad had died, had they or the crystal before going inert, sealed this room? Why hadn’t the evil below taken the possibly inert Eye? Couldn’t the evil below use something like this?

  Maddox suspected the Eye of Helion aboard the Moray had agreed to teleport Dravek and him here so they could reach this shuttle. But if that were true, why had the Eye placed them in the Highlands before a landing legion?

  Maddox hadn’t figured that out yet.

  He looked at the crystal. He knew he was avoiding the issue of the moment. Dare he touch it? Maddox swallowed, gathered his courage and touched it with an index fingertip.

  The crystal shocked him. It wasn’t a heavy, explosive shock, but a mild one. Even so, it coursed through his entire body, and once it finished, Maddox collapsed back with a thump.

  “Are you okay in there?” Dravek shouted.

  Maddox worked a constricted throat.

  “Maddox?”

  “I’m fine,” Maddox said.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes,” he said with greater volume.

  Maddox rocked himself onto his side so his eyes faced the crystal. There was the tiniest glow in the center of it. The crystal was no longer inert. His touch seemed to have turned it on like an electrical device.

  Maddox forced himself to sit up and then crouched before it again, holding his hands over it as if to feel heat.

  “Listen,” Maddox said. “I think you’re an Eye of Helion. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I have spoken to a different Eye before. My friend outside killed the Triad that had put that Eye under its control. If you loved the dead Triad in here, then this is all for naught and I’ve guessed wrong. But if I’ve guessed right—that you hated your enslavement and wish to go back to Helion—I’ll help you achieve that if you’ll help me.”

  Maddox stopped talking. It seemed to him that the crystal glowed a little brighter than before.

  What he did next was likely foolish. He grabbed the crystal.

  A powerful shock surged through him.

  It might have killed him, Maddox wasn’t sure, but he threw the crystal from him. A second later, he thumped back against the floor.

  This time Dravek rushed into the room. He grabbed Maddox under his armpits and dragged him out into the corridor.

  Mara was there, concentrating deeply as she stared at the open hatch.

  “What are you trying to do, kill yourself? What’s in there?” Dravek looked hard at Maddox. “Is it one of the damn crystals of Helion?”

  “Maybe,” Maddox said from the floor.

  “What’s he talking about?” Mara asked.

  Maddox sat up. “What do you sense?”

  After a moment, Mara concentrated again. “There’s a power in the room. You turned it on. It’s angry, confused and hostile. I can’t read more. It doesn’t think like a flesh and blood creature.”

  “Can you defend us against it if it asserts itself against us?” Maddox asked.

  “I don’t know.” Mara looked up and gasped.

  While sitting, Maddox turned around.

  Floating out of the hatch was an Eye of Helion. It floated directly for Maddox.