“I’m done,” Mara said.

  “What are you going to do to me?” the talent asked. Her cool reserve had vanished as fear shined in her eyes.

  Maddox stepped up and pressed a hypogun against her neck. Air injected a knockout drug. Soon, the talent lay unconscious on the floor.

  “I’m going to help you,” Mara told Gricks.

  The centurion looked at her fearfully.

  “It’s okay,” Maddox said. “You’re going to feel better soon. We’re your friends, remember?”

  At last, Gricks nodded.

  Mara put her hands on Gricks’ head.

  He screamed and tried to hit her.

  Luckily, Dravek and Maddox had stood behind him. They each grabbed an arm, holding him fast. Gricks bellowed and struggled as tears streamed down his face.

  Mara used her psionic abilities to change his mind back to what it had been before. She returned his normal personality to the forefront.

  At last, Gricks sagged, breathing deeply. He nodded. “You can release me. I am myself again.”

  Experimentally, Maddox and Dravek let go.

  Gricks massaged his arms where they’d held him. Then he wiped the tears from his face and asked Mara, “What did you learn?”

  “We need to get out of here,” Mara said.

  Gricks didn’t pry further but nodded. He went to one of the wrestlers and knelt by him. What did he take?

  Maddox was about to ask. Before he got to it, Gricks stood, turned and walked fast to the talent lying unconscious on the floor. He raised a squat little gun, a chemical-fueled slug thrower. He fired three bullets into the telepath, killing her.

  Dravek was closest. He ripped the gun out of Gricks’ hands. “Why’d you do that?”

  “Why?” Gricks asked, his features a mask. “Because they did unspeakable things to me. Because she worked for the monster Culain. You have no idea what he’s really like. He’s much older than we suspected. Worse, he’s a true Honey Man, steeped in evil. I hate him.”

  “That’s understandable,” Maddox said crisply. “Mara, what did you learn from her? What’s Culain’s plan?”

  Mara told him.

  “Right,” Maddox said. “We need to make our move. Luckily Culain has given us the tools we need.”

  They left the weight room, first dragging the two security guards inside and injecting them with the knockout drug. Then they headed for engineering.

  Dravek used the squat black gun, lining the engineers against the back bulkhead.

  Maddox and Gricks found the special container placed there at the beginning of the voyage. They connected it and began injecting knockout gas through the venting system. They forced the engineers to breathe the gas.

  Maddox recalled the Okos, scavengers who’d tried to pirate an inert Victory the first time the starship had arrived in the Scutum-Centaurus Spiral Arm. The plan had almost worked for the Okos, too. In a way, it was fitting using a similar tactic while in this spiral arm.

  They had donned breathing masks and set to work to get everything ready for the next phase of the operation. It was almost time to see if they could achieve the near impossible.

  -78-

  The knockout gas worked to perfection. Every member of the ship, Syndicate, Culain’s men, any others, were unconscious in their rooms, on the bridge, engineering, wherever.

  They found Culain. That is to say, Gricks did. The others heard several shots from the next room.

  “Damn it,” Dravek said. “Gricks must have found another gun. We should have been more careful.”

  “It is a small matter,” Maddox said.

  Dravek stared at him. “What, you didn’t want to dirty your hands with the lowbrow tactic of killing your defenseless enemy? Thus, you allowed Gricks a gun to do it for you?”

  “Remember what we asked of Gricks,” Maddox said quietly. “Because of that, we owed it to him to make a decision as to how he would deal with it.”

  Dravek didn’t look convinced.

  Soon, Gricks showed up. Even behind his breathing mask, he looked worried. “I killed Culain.”

  “Do you feel better because you did it?” Dravek asked.

  Gricks cocked his head. “I do and I don’t. He deserved it. His evil can’t harm others now. What I did helps those in the North Pole of Gath, as he was a false legion tribune. Yet killing him doesn’t change what happened to me. I…I wonder if vengeance killing will change my personality.”

  “Most assuredly,” Mara said.

  Gricks stared at the floor. Then he looked up. “So be it. They changed me first. I was just a regular legionnaire, but they changed me by castrating me. I’ll continue to see what other changes develop because of what I just did. Do you still want my help, Dravek?”

  “Yes,” Dravek said.

  “Don’t fret about what you did,” Hern said. They’d revived him from the gas and put a mask on his face. “What’s done is done. You’re a soldier, and in this instance, you brought retribution against the man who screwed over all our lost comrades. You did well, acting like a true centurion. We may make a primus of you yet.”

  Gricks stood a little taller.

  Shortly after that, they loaded up the main lifeboat with supplies and departed the now drifting trader vessel.

  The knockout gas would dissipate in the unconscious people’s systems after a time. They would wake up, likely with horrible headaches and dry mouths. That meant those in the lifeboat only had a short time to do this.

  Dravek sat in the piloting chair. The massive gas giant was monstrous behind them. The ice moon glittered before them. Maddox watched as Dravek piloted the lifeboat closer, resisting Thetis’ gravitational pull. They soon entered the ice moon’s orbital space and descended toward the surface.

  Were the parked spaceships still down there? Were they intact or all destroyed by assault vessel beams and missiles weeks ago?

  The sensor scope on the trader vessel’s bridge had shown parked vessels. Maddox didn’t believe the parked vessels were a ruse by a hidden Entity, but the possibility existed. Even if the ships were exactly as advertised, it didn’t mean they were operational. If the grounded spaceships were a bust, they’d need the lifeboat to return to the drifting trader vessel as quickly as possible.

  Given such an unwelcome situation—Maddox didn’t have a contingency plan in case the spaceships down here didn’t work. Could he just space all the excess people on the drifting trader vessel from Gath? No. That would be murder. Maybe he could land on the ice moon and put them in temporary internment buildings, calling the Gath spaceport and telling the off-worlders their people were stranded out here.

  He didn’t want to have to do that either.

  Dravek piloted the lifeboat, so the frozen surface spread out before them. Maddox felt a sense of deja vu. He spotted the Methane Sea and the radioactive ores clicked as the sensors detected them. Ah. He saw masses of machine-pressed and cubed fissionables neatly stacked and ready for transport. Over there was the row of spaceships. One of them was upright as an old-style ship from Earth that had landed on its fins.

  Which ship should he take?

  Their time to choose was short, as time was running out for them.

  Dravek maneuvered the lifeboat, so it flew low over the greater complex. Most of the domes, shacks and even anti-space launch systems were smashed wreckage. The Leviathan assault vessels must have done this. It didn’t look as if there would be anywhere to house extra people. It didn’t seem the Entity had survived in any capacity either.

  Dravek landed the lifeboat near the row of captured spaceships. They suited up and went through the airlock, inspecting each of the smallish trader vessels. Most were intact and loaded with fuel, ready to go.

  That was excellent news. Maddox wanted to leave the Gath Star System yesterday, meaning he wanted to leave as soon as he could.

  Because time was at such a premium, they didn’t return to the lifeboat but congregated outside the first trader ship, using the short comm in their spacesuits.

  “The ships all look good,” Dravek said. “Now what do we do?”

  “Unless you want that one,” Maddox said, pointing at the third ship, “I’ll take it. That one strikes me as the easiest for one man to control.”

  “You’re going alone?” Dravek asked, concerned. “What if you’re stranded somewhere and never make it home? Or worse, what if something goes wrong with the ship and you’re drifting in space for thirty years?”

  “What if my arms fall off?” Maddox said. “I’m taking my chances. What do you say?”

  “The ship is yours, Captain Maddox.” Dravek came to attention on the icy surface of the moon. With Thetis large in the sky, he saluted.

  The others stood straight, saluting as well.

  “Thanks,” Maddox said. “Now listen, I don’t know what your plans are. I certainly wish you the best. But you should know I may be returning someday, maybe even someday soon. Leviathan is moving against Star Watch.” Maddox’s speech petered out as he reconsidered. “Try to keep out of Leviathan’s way.”

  “Of course,” Dravek said. “I’m remaining in the Heydell Cloud. But why do you say you might be back?”

  “I have my reasons. Look, if I do return, I plan to look you up. Maybe if it’s to your benefit, I’ll enlist you in the service of Star Watch and you can help mankind here and, in the Commonwealth, as we work together against Leviathan.”

  “I’ll keep that mind,” Dravek said.

  Maddox stepped forward, shaking gloved hands solemnly with Mara, Gricks, Hern and finally with Dravek.

  “My brother,” Maddox said, speaking on a private channel. “Thank you for all you’ve done. I never had a brother until I met you. Now, I hold you in the highest esteem. If ever you need my help, you need but ask.”

  For a moment, Dravek couldn’t speak. Then he slapped Maddox on the suited shoulder. “I’m patterned after you, but I’m my own man. I’ve taken Mara, as you suggested. Now I’m choosing the best ship. It has armament. I have a few people but plan to recruit more. I’ll collect enough here so I have goods to sell. Who knows what I’m going to do after that.”

  “In many ways, I envy you,” Maddox said. “You have a great future ahead of you. It will be exactly what you make out of it. I know my own driving ambition. You have your own driving ambition. I would very much like to see what you’ve done ten years from now, twenty.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement,” Dravek said.

  They shook hands again, and then both men hugged each other, slapping each other on the suited shoulders.

  “Goodbye, my brother.”

  “Goodbye, my brother.”

  Captain Maddox turned and headed for his chosen vessel. They headed for theirs.

  Soon, Maddox’s trader ship lifted off, heading into space. The thoughts and information placed by the Eye of Helion in his mind began to surface.

  Maddox knew which spatial anomaly he needed to reach first. Thus, inputting the data, the ship headed for deeper space.

  This had been a harsh adventure. The planet Gath was a dreadful place, made more dangerous by the Yon Soth asleep deep underground. If Star Watch ever used Gath as headquarters for an expeditionary force sent to the Heydell Cloud, they’d need to kill the Yon Soth first.

  Maddox shrugged. That was all in the future. Who knew what was going to happen. First, he had to get home and give Star Watch a warning of what was happening out here.

  “Meta,” he said, as the ship began to accelerate for the distant spatial anomaly. “Jewel, I’m coming home.”

  -79-

  Captain Maddox left the Gath Star System by plunging at precisely the right moment into an on-again, off-again spatial anomaly. He did so by using his intuitive sense and a little something extra in his mind that said go.

  It was the first of many long-distance jumps. This one took him twenty-seven light-years in a bound. He appeared in a combat-blasted star system. There was floating rubble everywhere. After a quick check, Maddox realized the rubble was spread out evenly throughout the former system. That was puzzling and odd.

  It took weeks of careful, precise maneuvering to reach the next spatial anomaly. That one propelled him one hundred and ten light-years in a bound.

  Thus started his hard, tiring, often mind-numbing task of piloting his ship through space. He ate and worked out alone. His dreams were usually horrific and horrible. He relived his time in the southern Highlands and facing regular Metamorphs or the two-brained. In other dreams, he felt the grim evil of the Yon Soth searching for him throughout the cosmos, knowing that at this moment he was defenseless against it.

  Other times, he dreamed of Meta, her beauty, having her almost in his arms. As he reached for her, Meta would dissipate, leaving him. In a different dream, he would hear Jewel calling him. He’d race down dark corridors, shouting, “Jewel, Jewel, I’m here.” He’d catch fleeting glimpses of her, and then she would disappear. He’d wake up angry, determined, wanting the trip to go faster.

  Another odd feature was that the knowledge of the locations and types of spatial anomalies given from the Eye of Helion as a gift in his mind dissipated a little after each successful jump. These were jumps made with precise timing. Without his intuitive sense and calm from the Way of the Pilgrim, and the mind map given by the Eye, this would have been impossible.

  The months ticked by until he reached a dread gulf that he thought he could never cross. He did find a way, but it cost him two months of waiting for a rare anomaly to appear.

  He raced after that, reaching to within one hundred and twenty-nine light years from the Omicron 9 System.

  There was a terrible accident. A ship system failed, and noxious gases ejected. Maddox barely made it into a spacesuit in time to save his life. Alas, he slumped unconscious, stricken by the gases.

  The air inside his helmet and tanks would last for a little while. When that failed, he would die, no longer having to strive against the cruel universe.

  However, at that point a strange event took place. It was conceivable that Maddox had a guardian angel of sorts.

  There was a wink like a bright star or gem or crystal. That wink sent a faster-than-light message many light years.

  At the other end was an AI entity named Galyan, a defied AI of Adok design. He received the data, as he was the only one capable of receiving it.

  From that began a chain reaction of events as Galyan spoke to Valerie, who spoke to Maddox’s grandmother Mary O’Hara, who spoke to the Lord High Admiral, and he spoke again to Galyan.

  In a relatively short time from first receiving the message from deep space, Galyan appeared to Meta in her house near Carson City, Nevada Sector.

  “Meta,” Galyan said in the living room.

  Meta was a beautiful, blonde-haired, voluptuous woman who yet grieved for her lost husband. She sat in an easy chair watching a mindless sitcom.

  “Meta,” Galyan said again.

  Meta finally looked up, frowning. “What are you doing in my house? You’re not supposed to do this, Galyan.”

  “Quickly, Meta, you must retrieve Jewel from school. A shuttle is already being sent down for the two of you.”

  “Why? What has happened?”

  “Hurry, Meta. We think we have found the captain.”

  “No,” Meta said. “You mean Maddox, my husband?”

  “Hurry, Meta, please. I do not want him to have died because he did so much to try to bring me together with the living Adoks. This has all been my fault and now I must help him.”

  “Enough of this,” Meta said, as hope transformed her into a raving beauty indeed. “We must hurry.”

  She dashed to the air car outside. Maddox had bought it for her some time ago. She flew to the local elementary school, rushing into the classroom and picking up her daughter.

  “Do you have a pass?” the teacher asked.

  Meta ran out without saying a word. One person tried to interfere. He crashed onto his back as Meta ran over him as she clutched Jewel against her.

  Within the hour, with everyone aboard, Starship Victory used the Builder nexus, the one between Earth and its moon. The starship made a hyper-spatial jump to the Omicron 9 System. At the Omicron 9 Builder nexus, in conjunction with the Builder scanner in Pluto giving the precise coordinates, Victory used another hyper-spatial tube. The starship catapulted the one hundred and twenty-nine light-years, popping out of the tube. Galyan, Andros and Ludendorff scanned the star system, searching.

  “There it is,” Galyan said, “I see it. Do you see the little ship? Can Captain Maddox be aboard it?”

  Galyan disappeared before anyone could answer him. The little Adok holoimage reappeared on the bridge almost instantly. His eyes were huge and staring. “It is Captain Maddox. His air is almost gone. We must go to him. We must hurry.”

  Lieutenant Commander Valerie Noonan gave a smooth command.

  Victory used its star drive to make a short jump. Moments later, Keith was aboard a shuttle, leaving through a hangar bay hatch. Faster than anyone else could, Keith docked with the alien trader vessel. Then he, Professor Ludendorff and others in spacesuits rushed into the ship. They took Captain Maddox’s inert space-suited form. Keith added an emergency breathing pack to the suit.

  Maddox shuddered and shuddered again. He opened his eyes, seeing helmets with dark visors staring down at him. They looked so familiar, though. He remembered the time he’d woken up in a cryo unit on an alien spaceliner. Was he beginning this adventure all over again? Had he had an awful dream?

  “Captain, Captain Maddox,” Keith said, “Are you awake?”

  “Keith Maker?” Maddox said weakly. “Is that you?”

  They all cheered.

  Then Maddox saw Galyan watching. “Oh. I take it you found me.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said, “You are going to be home on Victory shortly. Your wife and daughter are there waiting for you.”

  “Oh,” Maddox said. He struggled to sit up.

  “No, no, you’re too weak,” Keith said. “We’re going to take you to the shuttle. Then we’re going to take you to your wife and daughter.”