Galyan stared at the captain. “Yes. That is so. My personality profiling shows it. May I inquire as to the reason you think my going to one of the moons would be bad?”

  “I know why,” Riker said.

  Maddox glanced sharply at the sergeant.

  “But I’m not going to say if the captain wishes me to remain silent on the matter,” Riker added quickly.

  Maddox ceased drumming his fingers on the table. “Galyan…I’ve begun to wonder if you’re an anomaly.”

  “In what way?” asked Galyan.

  “Madness and sanity.”

  “Sir?” asked Galyan.

  “Ah,” Ludendorff said. He’d been studying the captain. Now, the professor nodded. “With your permission?”

  “If you think it’s wise telling Galyan.”

  Ludendorff turned to the small earnest holoimage standing at the end of the table. “Can you handle bad news?”

  “Yes,” Galyan said.

  Ludendorff glanced at Maddox again.

  “Be my guest,” Maddox said testily, and looked away afterward.

  Ludendorff cleared his throat and sat importantly as if he were about to give an official speech. “Galyan, the Adoks took artificial intelligence to absurd heights. I do think the Builders had a hand in that. We see some of the same—well, never mind about that. I’m talking about Adoks and their deified personalities.”

  “Like me,” Galyan said.

  “Exactly,” Ludendorff said. “You are the copy of Driving Force Galyan.”

  “I am the soul or spirit of Driving Force Galyan.”

  “Er…yes, I suppose you could say it like that as well.”

  Maddox had turned to stare at Ludendorff. Perhaps the Methuselah Man had felt the scrutiny and altered what he was originally going to say.

  “In some manner,” Ludendorff continued, “you hold the…essence of Driving Force Galyan. Yet, you are a computer entity, an AI with a holographic appearance. You exhibit a living being’s quirks and have your own personality.”

  “Yes,” Galyan said. “My personality is that of the former Driving Force.”

  “Is this wise?” Meta asked, who appeared concerned.

  “I think so,” Ludendorff said. “Don’t we all seek to understand ourselves? Why can’t Galyan understand himself?”

  Maddox was on the verge of speaking, but he held back at the last moment.

  Ludendorff noticed, but he continued anyway. “Galyan, I’ve come to believe that you’re a wonderful combination of Adok engrams or brain patterns, and superb computing power. You have mental balance, compassion and other fine features. That is a testament, possibly, to Adok design and workmanship. There is, however, another possibility.”

  “What is that?” asked Galyan.

  “That you are a unique, positive fluke,” Ludendorff said. “That whoever built you accidently hit upon everything just right this one time.”

  “And that this fluke cannot be easily replicated? Is that what you are saying?”

  “It is,” Ludendorff said.

  Galyan stood still as his eyelids began to flutter. It didn’t take long. He looked at the Methuselah Man, and there appeared to be sorrow in his holographic eyes.

  “Perhaps your long stint in Victory as you guarded your busted homeworld for six thousand years gave you the time you needed to adjust to your condition,” Ludendorff said. “The very thing that seemed awful—time and boredom, where you had little to do but think—gave you the mental balance and fortitude to choose to leave and work with us.”

  “You think other Adok deified entities in the armored moons went mad,” Galyan said.

  Maddox exhaled suddenly.

  Galyan turned to him. “Do you think that too, sir?”

  Maddox looked at Galyan. “I’m afraid so.”

  “Then…” Galyan regarded the professor. “Are you suggesting that each moon is haunted by a mad, controlling deified Adok AI personality?”

  “If these are the Adoks that fled your homeworld, the same Adoks that made you, yes,” Ludendorff said. “That seems like a reasonable theory.”

  “And that is why, sir,” Galyan said to Maddox. “That you do not want me to go to one of the moons?”

  “Precisely,” Maddox said. “I don’t want them infecting you with whatever…changed them.”

  “I see,” Galyan said, falling silent.

  “What do we do next then?” Valerie asked. “This is all theory. It isn’t proven.”

  “True enough,” Maddox said.

  “Don’t we owe it to Galyan to find out the truth?” Keith blurted.

  “That’s an interesting question,” Maddox said. “At first blush, the answer is yes. But what if we’re risking everyone on the starship doing this?”

  “I still say we owe it to Galyan,” Keith said.

  “Even though he is only a computer entity?” asked Ludendorff.

  “Sometimes, Professor, you’re the grossest pig there is,” Valerie said, speaking up. “I agree with Keith. I don’t care what Galyan is. He has risked himself saving us many times. He may be the most unselfish person I’ve ever met.”

  “Despite your emotionalism,” Ludendorff said, “my reasoning still stands.”

  “Okay,” Maddox said, as he looked at Valerie and then Keith. “Your points are valid. We’re not sending any more fold-fighters to the planet. I’m not letting Galyan do any long-range exploring as a holoimage. But we can send probes and see if we can make contact with one of the moons.”

  “It could mean our demise,” Ludendorff said.

  “We’ll take great pains to make sure it’s otherwise,” Maddox said. “It’s what we do. Besides, this is exactly the sort of mission we excel at, and there are many reasons why we should attempt this. We still may find Adoks.”

  No one responded to all that.

  “Galyan, are you still game?” Maddox asked.

  The little holoimage looked up. “I am, sir. And I appreciate this very much.”

  “That’s good enough for me,” Maddox said. “Now, here’s what we’re going to do next…”

  -86-

  For the next twenty-three hours, Victory used its star-drive jump to maneuver to various locations in the inner system, launch probes and use its sensors.

  There was nothing to scan in the outer system, just the inner system. The two Mercury-like planets proved barren and devoid of anything remotely technological. Ludendorff noticed vast pits on each planet, and that seemed to indicate past strip-mining endeavors. But of the machines that would have done such a thing, there was none.

  “This is a mystery,” Ludendorff said. “I, for one, am finding it galling.”

  “Not as much as I do,” Galyan said.

  “No, I suppose not.”

  On the twenty-sixth hour after the conference meeting, Andros Crank shouted for the captain’s attention.

  Maddox was on the bridge. He lowered the novel he was reading, slid from his chair and went to the excited Chief Technician.

  “Look,” Andros said, pointing a pudgy finger at the science-station screen.

  A nearly invisible something approached one of the probes. Abruptly, the something detonated, and the image vanished.

  “It destroyed the probe,” Andros announced proudly.

  “I can see that,” Maddox said. “What was it?”

  “Let’s figure this out,” Andros said, who used optical and sensor recordings to study the approaching something.

  As Maddox watched, he saw the something resolve itself into a sleek little missile.

  “It was a stealth missile,” Andros said.

  “Where did it come from?”

  “I’m wondering that myself,” Andros said. “Ah,” he said a moment later. “It had to come from the first planet.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said. “Come here.”

  The holoimage floated near.

  “Show him,” Maddox said.

  When Galyan saw the missile, he said, “That is of Adok design.”

  Maddox stared at Andros. “Do you think one of the moons could have launched it?”

  “Given the trajectory…I believe that’s unlikely.”

  “But we can’t utterly discount the possibly?” Maddox asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Andros said.

  Maddox returned to his chair, sitting, closing the novel he’d left open. Galyan had followed him.

  “Helm,” Maddox said. “Take us back to the first planet. Leave us a margin of five million kilometers from it.”

  “Aye, sir,” Keith said, as he began to plot the coordinates.

  ***

  For the next forty-nine hours, Victory orbited the first planet, using its sensors, Galyan and launching shuttles.

  The shuttles went low, running tests and more scans. Later, shuttles landed on the cratered surface as space-suited teams went outside and collected samples.

  Nothing indicated any technological activity. There were a few pits with iron ore residue, but there were no tracks or footprints or anything to show what had made the strip-mining pits.

  “Who launched the stealth missile?” Maddox asked on the bridge. “What’s happening to the twelve moons?”

  Lieutenant Barnes’s task was to watch them. When he left the bridge, his replacement had the same duty.

  Barnes now answered, “Not much, sir, although there has been a slight increase in sensor sweeps.”

  “Directed at us?” asked Maddox.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Maddox nodded. Then, he turned to Ludendorff, who sat to the side with a slate. “Professor.”

  Ludendorff looked up.

  “If you were surviving Adoks, ones who survived murderous fortress moons, where would you go?”

  “You mean without leaving the star system?” Ludendorff asked.

  “Exactly,” Maddox said.

  “The first two planets seem like the obvious choices,” Ludendorff said.

  “Would the AIs running the moon fortresses attempt to find you?”

  “I would think so, yes,” Ludendorff said. “That’s given they have deified AIs like Galyan, only insanely murderous ones, running the moons.”

  “Yes,” Maddox said. “If there are surviving Adoks on the first planet, we’re not going to find them. They have to find us, or contact us.”

  “We can search harder,” Galyan said.

  “I don’t think you understand the situation,” Maddox said. “If we’re right about the moons, about who runs them… Galyan, what kind of person would never quit, ever?”

  “I do not understand, sir.”

  “A madman who has a single driving goal wouldn’t let anything sidetrack him,” Maddox answered his own question. “I’m beginning to think these moons, the AIs in the moon fortresses, are lunatics who murdered the Adoks living on the third planet. The only possible survivors are Adoks hiding deep on the first planet.”

  “Sir, you are making great leaps of logic,” Galyan said. “You have assumed your premises and extended your speculation quite far. We do not know the moon fortresses operate along those lines.”

  “Maybe it’s time we found out,” Maddox said.

  “I’d be careful,” Ludendorff warned. “No doubt, whatever runs the moons has been observing us for some time. I suspect they’re itching to destroy us.”

  “We’ve been going about this wrong,” Maddox said. “If there are living Adoks, they would have to be masters of disguise or masters at hiding from murderously mad beings.”

  “I must protest,” Galyan said. “I do not believe deified personalities such as I am would be capable of the killing you suggest for the moon controllers.”

  “I remember how you were when we first met,” Maddox said. “I can envision it quite clearly.”

  “I am about to take offense, sir.”

  “We can’t have that,” Maddox said in a jocular tone. “Mr. Maker, take us twenty million kilometers beyond the second planet. That should give us enough distance from the fortress moons. I’m going to play a hunch.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Ludendorff said.

  “Yes,” Maddox said. “I imagine you all do.”

  -87-

  Starting from twenty million kilometers beyond the second planet, Victory inched toward the third planet.

  Maddox had Galyan run through the translator, making sure the English to Adok system was working perfectly. Then, the starship continued on its slow path to the deadly third planet and its twelve moons.

  “The moons have increased their scanning power,” Barnes said.

  “Any launches from them?” asked Maddox.

  “None that I can see, sir.”

  “And if the moons launched the stealth missile before,” Ludendorff grumbled, “we might all soon be dead.”

  “Have faith, Professor,” Maddox said.

  “In you?” scoffed Ludendorff.

  Maddox ignored that. “Galyan, are you detecting any stealth missiles?”

  “Negative, sir.”

  Maddox turned to Ludendorff. “If Galyan could find Grutch’s craft more easily after the first time, I believe that he can do the same for the stealth missile.”

  “You might have said that to begin with,” Ludendorff complained.

  Maddox nodded. “I know. We’re all on edge. This is a forbidding star system. We’re close to making a miraculous discovery, but so far, it’s out of our reach.”

  “Sir,” Barnes said, “something is happening on the nearest fortress moon.”

  Maddox swiveled his captain’s chair. “Lieutenant Commander, I want you to hail the moon. Use the English to Adok setting with the translator. We may be able to surprise the controller over there.”

  Valerie studied her panel, and soon hailed the fortress moon.

  Barnes watched his board with great concentration.

  Valerie turned in wonder. “Sir, I’ve made contact.”

  “In the Adok tongue?” asked Maddox.

  “Yes, sir,” Valerie said.

  Maddox glanced at Ludendorff and then Galyan. The little holoimage stood very still.

  “Sir,” Galyan said in a soft voice. “I cannot believe this is happening.”

  “We’re just getting started,” Maddox said. “Don’t get your hopes up too high.”

  “How is that possible? I am ecstatic with the possibilities.”

  “Shall I put the image up on the main screen, sir?” Valerie asked.

  Maddox bent his head in thought. “Do it.” He then swiveled to face the main screen.

  It shimmered, and then on the main screen appeared an Adok face. It was small like Galyan’s but with dark beady eyes and an unwavering mouth. In the background behind the Adok face were rows of what appeared to be running computer banks.

  “I am Ultimate Force Raylan,” the alien Adok said. “You are trespassing in our star system. Even more foul, you are approaching the new homeworld, Gowon. If you continue on this path, you will cease existence. This is your final warning.”

  “Ultimate Force Raylan,” Maddox said gravely. “It is an honor to finally meet you.”

  The Adok never blinked, but stared at Maddox.

  “We have come a long way to speak to you,” Maddox added.

  “How could you have heard of me?” Raylan said coldly.

  “Surely, you jest,” Maddox said. “All know how valiantly you have protected Gowon. After what happened to your original homeworld against the Swarm—”

  Ultimate Force Raylan opened his mouth and made a high-pitched keening sound. He flailed his ropy arms and then bent forward as if in mourning.

  “I, too, mourn the loss of your wonderful planet,” Maddox said.

  The keening ceased. Raylan looked up, and there seemed to be something intensely sinister in his black eyes. “You have profaned our conversation by speaking about this. I have contemplated your doom for the past few days. Now, I realize I must capture and interrogate you. How did you obtain this precious knowledge?”

  “Concerning your greatness?” Maddox asked.

  “No, you fool. I mean the destruction of our homeworld by the hateful Swarm.”

  “I have fought the Swarm myself and defeated them.”

  “A lie,” Raylan said.

  “Not so,” Maddox said. “I spoke to Driving Force Galyan—”

  “Halt!” Raylan said, interrupting.

  Maddox stopped talking.

  Raylan’s eyelids fluttered as Galyan’s did when he was computing fast. Did that mean Raylan was a holoimage, a projection of AI? Or did biological Adoks do that when thinking, and their AI holoimages merely imitate their organic models? It was still too soon to know.

  The eyelids ceased fluttering and Raylan glared at Maddox. “You dare to pronounce that traitor’s name.”

  “No,” Galyan said, who was presently out of the main screen’s view. “I am not a traitor.”

  “Who said that?” Raylan demanded.

  Maddox swiveled around to tell Galyan to remain out of sight. It was too late. Galyan drifted before the main screen.

  “I am Driving Force Galyan of the Starship Victory,” Galyan said in a ringing voice he’d never used before. “Surely, you recognize this vessel as the flagship of the former home fleet.”

  Raylan leaned forward. “Yes! It is so. The traitor has come to destroy the new homeworld.”

  “I am not a traitor. I fought to the finish. I destroyed the last Swarm vessels.”

  “You lie!” Raylan said.

  “Sir,” Barnes shouted. “A moon is moving, leaving the third planet and rapidly accelerating in our direction.”

  “Did you think I would wait for you to invade Gowon?” Raylan demanded. “After all these millennia, the traitor to his people has returned. Now, at last, we shall eradicate the evil one.”

  “Are you a deified AI?” Galyan asked.

  “What?” Raylan asked.

  “You heard the question. I demand an answer.”

  “You do not have the authority to demand such a thing of me.”

  “I was at the battle of our home system. I led the fleet and defeated the hated Swarm enemy, but not before the enemy had destroyed our homeworld. I have searched for the surviving Adoks.”

  “Why are you not still defending what remains of our homeworld?” Raylan demanded.