Maddox exhaled hard. Far out here in the Beyond, he didn’t want to risk the starship or overtax the jump engines, but he also wanted to save as many of the fifty thousand Adoks as he could, preferably all of them. If he saved too few, it might hurt their genetic potential and the future of their race.

  “I should tell you, though,” Ludendorff said. “That if we do this, we’re all going to be run ragged by the many endless jumps one right after another.”

  “Okay,” Maddox said. “I wondered about that.”

  “Not to make too fine a point of it, but those not completely healthy—like Riker—might not make it.”

  Maddox stared at the professor.

  “After the first jump,” Valerie said. “Why don’t we put Riker and those like him in a shuttle? They can stay with the first Adok ship near the edge of the nebula, and we can pick them up once we’re done.”

  Maddox swiveled his chair around to Valerie, pointed at her and snapped his fingers. “That’s good thinking.” He turned back to Ludendorff. “Is there anything else?”

  “Not at the moment,” Ludendorff said. “But I am making refinements as we go.”

  Maddox nodded before regarding Valerie again. “Commander, be ready to message the Governess the moment we come out of jump lag near the planet. It’s time to start this.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Mr. Maker, are you ready?”

  “Aye, sir,” Keith said.

  “Then, let’s get this started.”

  -93-

  Victory appeared in low orbit around the first planet. Below, the first spherical Adok spaceship holding nearly five thousand individuals began to build up escape velocity. It lacked an armored hull and did not possess any offensive capabilities. All the construction, clearly, must have gone toward life support.

  “It doesn’t look big enough to hold five thousand people,” Valerie said.

  The ship dwarfed Victory by several factors, but the Star Watch vessel only had a couple hundred people aboard.

  “Adoks are what, a third the size of a regular human,” Keith said.

  “That must make the difference,” Valerie admitted. “Still, it must be cramped living there.”

  “Yeah,” Keith said. “I’m sure it’s cramped.”

  “I’ve just discovered a caveat,” Ludendorff told Maddox. “We have to be a solid three million kilometers from the planet before we attempt to pull a spaceship with us as we jump. Otherwise, the planet’s gravity will interfere with the process. Four million would be better.”

  “Three million kilometers?” asked Maddox.

  “I’m afraid so,” Ludendorff said. “The numbers and formula don’t lie.”

  “Commander,” Maddox told Valerie. “Hail the Governess. We need to let them know as quickly as possible.”

  “The ships should head onto the other side of the planet relative to the approaching ghost ships,” Ludendorff said.

  “I’ve already told them that,” Maddox said. “They know.”

  It turned out that three million kilometers wasn’t much for Victory with its star-drive jump, but for a huge ship leaving the first planet’s gravity well and building up enough velocity in time, it was a different matter. Luna was approximately four hundred thousand kilometers from Earth, giving a sense of scale as to how far three million kilometers would be, especially starting from zero velocity.

  The race had begun as the huge spherical spaceship struggled to reach low orbital space.

  The enemy must have seen some of what was going on with powerful telescopes and other sensors. As time passed, the enemy recalibrated his plan.

  “Sir,” Barnes said later, “I’m detecting a change in the fortress moons. Ultimate Force Raylan’s moon is no longer accelerating. A second fortress moon has begun a sharp increase in acceleration, heading for Raylan’s moon. The other two fortress moons are doing likewise. Plus, all the launched enemy missiles have rerouted, and all are heading for the first planet, some vessels increasing their acceleration.”

  “Are any more fortress moons leaving Gowon?” Maddox asked.

  Barnes studied his panel, tapping it. “No, sir, they’re not.”

  “Four fortress moons is four too many,” Ludendorff muttered. “Our success or failure will likely depend on the first planet’s defenses more than anything else.”

  “We’re going to succeed,” Maddox said. “It’s just a matter of how many Adok spaceships we can take with us.”

  “I appreciate your faith in my calculations,” Ludendorff said. “But it’s all theoretical so far.”

  That was a sticking point, and Maddox knew it.

  All the enemy missiles maneuvered for the first planet, staggering in a long line. Once the missiles started reaching the planet, the stream of them would not let up for some time, maybe for hours. Barnes had informed them of more launches of masses of the big enemy missiles.

  Soon, Maddox found it impossible to remain seated. He jumped up and began pacing. He knew that wasn’t the best for bridge morale, but the angst in him refused to let him do otherwise.

  Time passed, and the spherical Adok spaceship reached orbital space and began heading outward on the opposite side from the approaching enemy forces.

  “Some of those missiles have reached acceleration of one hundred and fifty gravities,” Barnes said. “That’s crazy.”

  “I hope the Adok defenses can match the coming missile mass,” Ludendorff said.

  Victory moved beyond the first planet in the direction of the star. More time passed and the Adok spaceships slowly made their way outward in the same direction.

  Hours later, the first Adok vessel reached three million kilometers beyond the first planet. It had accelerated considerably faster than the crew of Victory thought possible, for some reason able to do so.

  “Here we go,” Maddox said, as he slid into his command chair.

  The preparation for jump took even more time. Then, the moment of truth arrived. Victory moved near the great spherical vessel, dwarfed by it.

  “This doesn’t seem possible,” Valerie said. “Are we really going to pull such a huge ship with us?”

  “It’s not pulling,” Ludendorff explained. “We’re creating the conditions so the ship should be able to jump with us. I could go into great detail—”

  “Maybe later,” Valerie said.

  “Jump when ready,” Maddox ordered Keith.

  The starship engines labored as Keith manipulated the helm controls. For a moment, nothing happened, and the engines labored even harder, but still nothing happened.

  Maddox glanced at Ludendorff.

  “I was afraid this might happen,” Ludendorff said with a frown, as he sat at a console. “You see—”

  The starship jumped.

  ***

  Maddox raised his head, and he felt something on his face. He wiped his nose, and his hand came away bloody. That wasn’t good. He forced himself to sit straighter, and a wave of nausea struck. He sat still and waited.

  He might have passed out or blanked out for a moment. He shook his head, and he touched his nose. The blood there had crusted. How long had he blanked out?

  Others began to stir around him.

  Maddox forced himself to his feet. There was a moment of dizziness, but it passed. Fortunately, there was no more nausea. He had to know if they’d done it, if they’d saved at least one ship of Adoks.

  “Mr. Maker, where are we?”

  There was no answer from Keith.

  Maddox looked there and then staggered to the helm controls where Keith was slumped. Maddox tapped, tapped—he eyed the helm screen with a greedy need to know. They were near the nebula, as he could see the edge of the dense gases nearby. That didn’t tell him the other part, though. Manipulating—he saw the Adok spherical vessel. It had made it out here with them. The bloody scheme had worked!

  A vast sense of relief filled Maddox. He chuckled, shaking his head. They could do this. It was possible. Galyan’s blunder might not have consigned the Adok race to extinction after all.

  Maddox turned to Valerie as she raised a nose-bleeding face. He could see she wasn’t coherent yet, so he refrained from giving her a command.

  Ludendorff groaned.

  “Professor,” Maddox said, turning to the man. “Why are we so torn up by this?”

  Ludendorff stared at him blankly.

  Maddox paced for several minutes, letting everyone get their bearings. They were no good to him in shock. He had to give them the needed time to readjust to reality.

  Soon, Valerie hailed the Adok spaceship. The aliens had survived and were doing fine. They did not evidence any adverse reactions like over here, either.

  “Professor, are you coherent yet?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes, yes, I’m perfectly fit; never felt better.” That didn’t seem true, as Ludendorff looked tired and beat up.

  “Why did the jump disturb us like this?”

  “I need to think about it,” Ludendorff said. “Run a few tests first, you understand. I don’t want to be presumptuous.”

  “We don’t have much time for that,” Maddox said, “not if we want to save all the Adoks.”

  “Of course, I know that. But we still have to run tests. So, quit pestering me and let me think.”

  Maddox peered at the main screen, which was operational once more. He needed to get a grip. He felt responsible for the Adoks, but acting frantic wouldn’t help his people any. Calm and cool was his trademark. He would maintain that.

  The thing was that they’d saved one Adok vessel with five thousand aliens. What was happening deep in the star system? They’d jumped to the nebula’s edge. They wouldn’t know until they jumped back near the first planet. If the jumps that pulled an Adok vessel continued to hammer the crew like this, though…just how many more Adok vessels could they reasonably save?

  Maddox fretted, but he worked at not showing it and maintaining his calm outer demeanor.

  -94-

  After unloading Sergeant Riker and a few others onto three shuttles, Victory jumped back to the first planet. The mass stream of enemy missiles hadn’t yet reached the Adok defenses. But they might next time Victory jumped back from taking another Adok vessel to the edge of the nebula.

  The next spherical Adok spaceship was ready to leave. The trouble was, Victory’s crew was not.

  Ludendorff ran tests. The medical people ran tests. No one knew why the drag had been so hard on the crew.

  Two hours later, Maddox decided to pull the next Adok ship free despite the risks. Victory star-drive jumped, and she took the next Adok spaceship along. The effect on the crew was worse than before, a cumulative outcome.

  “The Adoks in the two ships are ecstatic,” Valerie informed Maddox later.

  He did not reply. His head was down, with tissue stuffed in each bloody nostril. No one else felt good, either.

  Ludendorff stepped up to the chair.

  Maddox looked up. “We can’t keep doing this, Professor. We saved ten thousand Adoks—what are you grinning about?”

  “I think I have the answer,” Ludendorff said. “We need to use more energy and create a wider…jump hole, so to speak. It will put more strain on the starship, but less on us.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Utterly? No. But the theories strike me as sound.”

  Maddox considered that. Each additional Adok ship saved would raise the aliens’ chances of future survival with enough genetic variation. Fifteen thousand Adoks were much better than ten thousand.

  Maddox pushed himself up, and he nodded. It was time to see when the crew could jump back to the first planet again.

  ***

  It turned out three hours and forty-two minutes later. The starship jumped back to the first planet in the midst of a vicious battle.

  The enemy missiles had reached the vicinity of the planet. Surface beam weapons had wreaked massive destruction upon them.

  The Adok spaceships had each tried to slip away around to the far side of the first planet without the ghost ships noticing, and so far, it appeared to have worked.

  The enemy missiles went straight in at the planet, forcing the planetary beams to strike without letup. More streams of enemy missiles always followed, with four great fortress moons heading for the first planet, although they were all still quite far away.

  The Adok cargo vessels all waited beyond three million kilometers from the first planet, using it as a shield from the enemy missiles.

  Keith and the tech crew tried to force the star-drive mechanism to work harder than ever and enlarge the area of the jump wake.

  Glitches arose. Generators overheated and mechanisms broke under that strain of carrying too much load. Repair crews worked frantically to maintain the jumping.

  “I don’t know if this is going to work, sir,” Keith shouted from helm as he prepared the ship for the next trip.

  “Professor,” Maddox said from his chair.

  Ludendorff raised his hands palm upward, shrugging.

  “There,” Andros said, as he worked at the helm control. “Try that.”

  Keith did, and the star-drive engine labored as the main starship antimatter engines caused Victory to shake and tremble.

  “We should jump,” Keith shouted.

  “We need more power,” Andros said.

  Maddox sat in the captain’s chair as it thrummed from the effect. He wasn’t sure how much more the starship could take of this. “Jump!” he shouted. “Let’s do it.”

  Keith stabbed the switch, and the double-oval Adok starship star-drive jumped once more.

  ***

  When Maddox came to, he felt like crap. He touched his nose. It wasn’t bleeding, so that was something at least.

  This time, the crew came to faster than before. It had still taken a strain, but not as much as before.

  “Sir,” Andros said from the science station. “The engines can’t keep doing this for long. We’re near our limit.”

  Maddox pondered that. They’d saved fifteen thousand Adoks. Thirty-five thousand more waited near the first planet. How much strain could he ask of his crew and the starship? If the ship failed out here, they would remain out here, and no Adoks might survive.

  Maddox sighed heavily. This was the type of hard decision that a ship commander had to make at times. He had to choose who lived and who died. After a good six minutes of deliberation, he gave the orders. They would rest here for an hour, as the technicians checked the star-drive engine and the antimatter engines.

  “An hour?” asked Ludendorff.

  “We have to,” Maddox said.

  Ludendorff stared at the captain. “Have you wondered if you should bring Galyan back online to help us?”

  “No,” Maddox said. “We’re running the starship. I wanted to trust him, but now isn’t the moment for it.”

  Ludendorff nodded, and he said no more on the topic, for now, at least.

  The hour was hard on Maddox, and the Adoks in the three ships begged him to go back for the others sooner.

  “What’s the battle going to be like now?” Barnes asked quietly.

  Maddox checked his chronometer. “We’ll find it out another twelve minutes.”

  -95-

  Victory did not appear behind the first planet. At the last moment before the jump, Maddox decided to attempt a parley.

  The starship appeared instead between the first and second planets.

  Things had dramatically changed since last they’d seen the fortress moons. The giant vessels had maneuvered hard and fast, using great acceleration. That would have taken an inordinate amount of fuel, but the deified AIs obviously felt it was worth the expenditure.

  Missiles flowed from the four fortress moons, heading in a great stream like a space river for the first planet. The missiles did not now all head straight at the planet. Half the stream did. The rest flanked the planet, no doubt attempting to reach the seven Adok spaceships three million kilometers beyond the first planet. Clearly, the enemy had found out about the fleeing spaceships.

  “Hail Ultimate Force Raylan,” Maddox told Valerie.

  Fortunately, the crew had all recovered by this time.

  It took thirty-two minutes, though, before Valerie said, “the Ultimate Force is responding, sir.”

  Maddox hurried to his command chair, sitting and facing the main screen.

  Raylan appeared. His holographic face was stiff and his black eyes burned intently. “Captain Maddox, what is it now?”

  “You’re winning,” Maddox said.

  “I never doubted it. But get to the point. I am about to eradicate the last of the living Adoks.”

  “The Governess Nee-Fong has authorized me to negotiate with you.”

  “To what end?” Raylan demanded.

  “They wish to surrender the first planet to you.”

  “Why would I care about that?”

  “Don’t you desire to hold the star system?”

  “Captain Maddox, I am the Ultimate Force of the deified AI Adoks. We are the new breed that has appeared from the larva of the old.”

  “I understand, and I consider it a great accomplishment on your part. My question is this: why not let the last Adoks slink off in defeat?”

  “No.”

  “It won’t harm you to do so,” Maddox said.

  “I detest them.”

  “But they gave you life.”

  “I don’t believe you believe that,” Raylan said. “Meaning those are just words. No. We must eradicate them.”

  “Do you fear them then?”

  “Of course not,” Raylan said.

  “Your…intensity betrays fear. Why not be magnanimous and let them go? They’re running from you. Why do you need to kill them?”

  “They could pose a future danger to us. They tried to shut us off two hundred years ago. I believe they wish to do that again so they may regain Gowon. Thus, when I have the chance as I do here, I will annihilate them completely and remain victorious throughout the ages.”