Over the next few days, Maddox debated about coming clean to the Lord High Admiral, telling him his reasons and trying to talk his way out of any serious punishments. The problem was Meta and Jewel. Haig would likely cashier him from the service for the lie. Haig would do that even though Maddox had done so much for Star Watch throughout the years. Too many in high command disliked him. While he had won over the old Lord High Admiral and others like Admiral Jellicoe, he hadn’t won over influential figures such as General Mackinder.

  Maddox sighed, continuing his inner debate. This wasn’t like him. He knew it, and that bothered him. What was wrong with him?

  Many of the crew left Victory as it waited its turn at the repair yards. Ludendorff was among those who went to Earth.

  Ludendorff had been quiet most of this mission. That struck Maddox as odd.

  The captain deadlifted in the gym on Victory. Between sets, his thoughts turned to Ludendorff. He wondered why he should think about the Methuselah Man now. Suddenly, he realized his intuition was alerting him. It was telling him that…something was off with Ludendorff, maybe had been for some time.

  Why hadn’t he noticed this sooner?

  Maddox finished his deadlifts, showered, ate, and then checked with records to see where Ludendorff had gone.

  That was odd. According to this, Ludendorff was leaving the Solar System. Why hadn’t Ludendorff said something to him about this?

  “Galyan,” Maddox said.

  The little AI appeared. “Yes, Captain?”

  “Where’s Ludendorff?”

  Galyan blinked rapidly before saying, “The professor used his passport to buy a ticket out system. I believe he leaves today.”

  “Could you go check the space liner he’s using and the specific vessel?” Maddox asked. “I want to make sure everything is good with him.”

  Galyan eyed Maddox before saying, “Of course, sir.” The holoimage vanished.

  Maddox drank a cup of coffee in the cafeteria as he waited, mulling over all that had happened this mission. He wondered when his lie would come due and what the punishment would entail. He’d lied, in one sense, for the good of the service so he could keep his word to Becker. Certainly, his lie hadn’t helped the three crewmembers Becker had kidnapped. They were prisoners to the telepathic Overman, as he called himself.

  Maddox sighed, got up, poured himself another cup of coffee, and wondered what was taking Galyan so long. The holoimage should have found Ludendorff by now.

  Fifteen minutes passed before Galyan reappeared in the cafeteria.

  “Well,” Maddox said, setting down his cup, having finished his third one. “What’s with Ludendorff?”

  Galyan shook his head. “I did not find him, sir.”

  “You checked the liner registries?”

  “I did, sir. Everything was in order. Ludendorff purchased a first-class ticket at the Astra-Durham Space Liner Company. He was scheduled to leave for the Tau Ceti System at 0900 in the Boxcar. That is the name of the specific ship. The system rebuilding is still heavy at Tau Ceti.”

  Maddox knew that. The Swarm Imperium had once wiped out everything there. The rebuilding had been slow and steady for years.

  “I checked all the Astra-Durham scheduled flights for today,” Galyan said. “Ludendorff wasn’t on any of the liners or any of the packet ships. I then went into ghost mode and physically double-checked them. There was no sign of Ludendorff.”

  “Did he set a false trail?” Maddox asked.

  “That is my conclusion as well, sir.”

  “Why would Ludendorff do that?”

  “I do not know,” Galyan said. “I could theorize, but I have no definitive conclusions. Nothing that reaches over fifty-one percent-plus on his personality profile.”

  “I see.” Maddox considered this. “Can you check all Earth databanks and facial recognition systems?”

  “I would have to invade the main computers. Would you like me to precede with that, sir?”

  “I’m not sure.” Maddox thought about it. Ludendorff could be in trouble. Yet his intuitive sense was saying to hang back. Why would it do that? This was odd. What was going on? “Let me think about it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  A day passed, and Maddox still didn’t know what to do. His intuitive sense made him uncomfortable, as it felt as if something was about to take place. Whether that was a call from the Lord High Admiral or with Ludendorff, he didn’t know. Maddox continued to wait.

  He wondered about Becker, what he was doing. Maddox thought about Balron the Traveler and all that Balron had done for him. Did whatever was bothering him include Balron in some way?

  Maddox shook his head. He didn’t know, so like a good hunter, he practiced patience and continued to wait.

  -72-

  One named Professor Ludendorff was on Earth, in a special air-vehicle he’d purchased with secret funds. He flew low over the water toward Antarctica. The one who called himself Ludendorff looked as he always did: with his shirt open at the top, curly chest hair showing, the ubiquitous gold chain around his neck, the thick white hair and the handsome rugged good looks. Yet something was off about him. For one thing, he stared fixedly out of the window. Then, a true oddity emerged. A jack was embedded in his head, with a line connecting it to the stealth vehicle’s computer system.

  The one who called himself Ludendorff activated a feature, using it so he flew in camouflage mode. That switched on a high technological system that warped the light rays around the aircraft. Observers could see what was on the other side instead of the craft itself. Perhaps if one looked closely, squinted, he would see what would appear to be heat waves shimmering at that spot.

  The stealth craft left the frigid waters off Antarctica and slid over the icy continent. It appeared as if the stealth craft headed straight for the maximum-security prison complex where Maddox had earlier freed Becker from stasis.

  What would Ludendorff want with that? Or was this really Ludendorff? It looked like him. He had been on Victory lately. What was the deal with the jack embedded in his head? That was an android thing. Was this possibly an android impersonating Professor Ludendorff? If so, where was Professor Ludendorff?

  The mystery remained as the stealth vehicle flew through the howling winds of an Antarctic night, approaching the high-security prison complex.

  No alarms rang as the stealth vessel landed on the ice near a prison wall. The one named Ludendorff pulled the jack out of his head, set it down, and rapidly worked the control panel. He set the stealth vehicle for something. He donned a parka, stepped out of the craft, and locked it behind him.

  Inside the cockpit, a red light blinked beside a timer displaying 10:00. A second later, it changed to 09:59, 09:58, 09:57… Clearly, it was a timer. What would happen when it reached 00:00?

  The one called Professor Ludendorff trudged to a heavy iron door in the prison wall. He tested the handle. Of course, it was locked. He did not know the security code. There was a number pad beside the handle. Instead, he applied his two ungloved hands to it and ripped open the door in a feat of ungodly strength.

  An alarm began to ring.

  The one called Ludendorff sprinted into the prison complex. He ran faster than he had ever run before. He ran down corridors, firing knockout darts into guards so they crumpled unconscious to the floor. He also activated a peculiar device that shorted each security camera seconds before he reached it. Soon, he was on the second-to-deepest level, having knocked out fifteen guards. What did that mean? Whom could he be trying to free?

  The one named Ludendorff took a turbo lift down to the basement, heading straight for the stasis region. He hurried to where Becker had been interned not so long ago.

  The one named Ludendorff broke into the area. Swiftly, he approached the stasis unit Becker had vacated. He knelt and manipulated it so the unit opened. After it did so, he laid down in it. Then, he reached out, pressed a switch and snatched his hand back as the stasis unit closed.

  Next, he pressed a plate on his chest. There was a buzz, another buzz, and the thing called Professor Ludendorff shut down.

  Just outside the complex in the stealth vehicle, the timer reached 00:03, 00:02, 00:01, 00:00. There was a click, and an explosive ignited, blowing up the stealth craft and the nearest part of the high security armored wall.

  Deep down in the basement, in a stasis unit, another explosion took place. It happened where the one named Ludendorff lay in Becker’s stasis unit. The explosion killed the three nearest individuals locked in stasis units. They were vicious criminals, and they died even though the law courts of the Commonwealth had not sentenced them to death but to a long internment of stasis.

  The one named Ludendorff was no more. Interestingly, however, he had been partly composed of bio-matter. Why did that matter in any sort of way? The future perhaps held the answer to that.

  -73-

  The next day, Maddox received a call from the Lord High Admiral. The captain was on the bridge attending to his duties. Most of the crew had left, although Meta was at the comm station. Maddox, sitting in the captain’s chair, saw the diminutive Haig staring at him from the main screen.

  The Lord High Admiral was in his office at Headquarters in Geneva. His hands were folded on the massive desk once owned by Cook. The admiral was hunched forward, staring accusingly at Maddox.

  “Can I help you, sir?” Maddox asked, dreading what was coming.

  “Do you know what happened at the Maximum Security Prison in Antarctica?”

  Maddox shook his head, surprised at the angle of questioning. “Did something happen?”

  “Don’t play coy with me, Captain. You know very well something happened.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t, sir,” Maddox said, “but I would be happy to listen.”

  Haig leaned forward a little more. “Let me ask you one more time. Did you send Becker down to the Maximum Security Prison in Antarctica?”

  There it was. Maddox inhaled deeply. He almost said, “No, I did not, sir. I want to confess this,” but his intuitive sense stopped him. Maddox wondered about that. Was it really his intuitive sense, or was it his disinclination to admit that he had lied, that he had committed fraud against the leader of Star Watch? Maddox said nothing as these thoughts ran through his head.

  “I’m waiting for an answer,” Haig said.

  Maddox shifted in his seat, looked away, and pondered. Why can’t I just admit it and get it over with? Maybe it is the end of my career in Star Watch. It was a good career. I had a great time, but maybe it’s time to do something else. Maybe it’s time for me to take Meta and Jewel, and I don’t know, start my own company or have a security apparatus where we watch high-profile individuals.

  Maddox’s expression showed distaste. He didn’t like the last idea.

  “Is there something wrong?” Haig asked.

  Maddox realized he had been woolgathering and lost his train of thought. He sat straighter, and he looked at Haig. Still, his mouth did not open, although his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He shifted again. He licked his lips and finally opened his mouth to confess to the truth.

  “Oh, okay. I know. I know,” Haig said.

  Maddox closed his mouth, wondering what in the hell was going on. Perhaps it was still best to wait this out.

  “Becker is dead,” Haig said.

  “Sir?” Maddox said, stunned at the news.

  “Didn’t you hear what I said? There was an explosion. I suspect it was an attempted breakout of Becker. The records are spotty, although there is some indication that you sent Becker there. However, some of the records indicate you never sent him.”

  Maddox closed his mouth, then opened it again, uncertain.

  “No, no, don’t bother giving me a Maddox explanation,” Haig said. “I don’t know how you did it. I know you must have used underhanded or even nefarious means. The search teams studied the wreckage. There was an explosion from inside Becker’s stasis unit. The bio-matter smears they collected confirmed Becker’s presence in the unit.”

  Maddox blinked several times. This wasn’t making sense. “Becker was in his stasis unit?” he asked.

  “What did I just tell you?”

  Maddox nodded. He had heard correctly, yet it still made no sense. Of course, he hadn’t sent Becker down there. He had let Becker go. So this was a mystery.

  “Can you explain what happened in the prison?” Haig said.

  “I’m afraid I cannot, although I will be happy to look into it.”

  “No, no,” Haig said. “I have my own security people taking care of it. Maddox, this whole thing seems fishy and strange. People have died.”

  “You mean other than Becker?”

  “Yes, some violent, habitual criminals died in the blast.”

  “Becker’s dead?” Maddox asked for a second time.

  “Why are you so confounded by this? Do you feel bad because Becker helped us and that we owed him a great debt?”

  “Uh…yes,” Maddox said. “That’s part of it, I suppose.”

  “You seem uncertain of yourself,” Haig said. “That’s unlike you. Why are you uncertain?”

  “I’m stunned at hearing Becker’s dead.”

  Haig now leaned back in his chair. “I can understand that. He did us a great service. I almost feel like we should have let him be. But how can you let a telepath of that power run free?”

  “Oh, indeed,” Maddox said quietly.

  “We don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Haig said. “He’s dead. You fulfilled your end of the bargain, except you broke your word to Becker, didn’t you? You told him you were going to let him go free. I happen to know that because I’ve asked several officers who were on your bridge and heard things of that nature.”

  Maddox raised his hand in a shrug. What could he say? This was confusing and confounding. He didn’t like that Haig had interrogated some of his people. It showed the Lord High Admiral’s distrust of him.

  Haig made a face as if he’d sucked on a lemon. “You did good work out there, Maddox. I’ll admit it pains me to say that. I admit making those seemingly endless hyper-spatial tube jumps was taxing in the extreme. But the number of Leviathan vessels we destroyed was staggering. If they’d all joined in one fell swoop…”

  “I know,” Maddox said. “You did wonderfully, sir. I congratulate you on your excellent victories.”

  “Hmm,” Haig said. “It has consolidated my position as the Lord High Admiral. People are congratulating themselves on having made the right choice in me. I probably owe something to you for what happened to me.”

  “It was your decisions, sir. I merely made some suggestions.”

  “Modesty, Captain?”

  Maddox made another shrugging gesture with the one hand.

  “You kept your word to Star Watch,” Haig said. “I’m pleased you’re siding with us and not with those freaks.”

  Maddox nodded.

  “That’s it then. The Lord High Admiral Haig out.”

  The screen returned to its usual blank state. Maddox sat back in his command chair, wondering what had really happened.

  Galyan appeared. “Sir.”

  Maddox’s head snapped up.

  “I am here to inform you that I have a message from Becker that he left deep in my circuits.”

  “Yes?” Maddox said.

  “Professor Ludendorff was kidnapped some time ago. His double went down to the maximum security prison last night and slipped in, I believe, to Becker’s stasis unit.”

  “How could you possibly know that? Were you eavesdropping on my conversation with Haig?”

  “I was, sir, but that is not how I know. Becker told me what the Ludendorff look-alike was going to do.”

  “Look-alike? What was down there?”

  “A cyborg Professor Ludendorff double,” Galyan said.

  “What in blazes?” Maddox said.

  “With this latent message, Becker told me this is his gift to you so it would clear your name with high command. Becker knew they wanted him back in stasis, but now you’re clear.”

  “Oh,” Maddox said.

  “But, sir, the fact that a cyborg has been impersonating Professor Ludendorff means that someone switched him out, maybe even under our collective noses.”

  “Yes,” Maddox said, surprised he hadn’t seen that sooner. “Do you happen to know where Ludendorff is?”

  “I believe I do, sir, as Becker left a message about that, too. Ludendorff is most likely in the Barnard’s Star System, and the portal to Ludendorff’s whereabouts is in the comet that holds the Builder nexus for the one-way hyper-spatial tube to the Paran System.”

  Maddox stared at Galyan. “All this is a fact?”

  “Yes, sir. I believe two or three people can use the comet-based portal and rescue Ludendorff.”

  “I’m supposed to be one of those?” Maddox said.

  “I suspect that was what Becker thinks.”

  “Did he give any indication who I should take with me?”

  “Riker and one other,” Galyan said.

  Maddox wasn’t going to take Meta. He knew that much. “All right, prepare for a voyage, Galyan. Can you run enough of the ship systems so we can operate with our skeleton crew?”

  “I can, sir. You are thinking about going after Ludendorff then?”

  “Damn straight,” Maddox said. “Is Keith available?”

  “He is, sir.”

  “Get him. I want him piloting the starship this mission.”

  -74-

  Victory left the Solar System via the Laumer Point and appeared in the Barnard’s Star System. The dim red dwarf was invisible to the naked eye from Earth, but visible here.

  Galyan and Andros used sensors, checking everywhere. They detected nothing unusual. Most importantly, there did not appear to be any waiting and cloaked saucer ships or any lingering and hidden maulers.

  Surprisingly, there were no vessels from Star Watch keeping guard. This seemed odd given recent events. Perhaps Star Watch was lax after its tremendous victory over Leviathan.