His wife presently sat at the comm station on the bridge. Commander Valerie Noonan wasn’t going to be joining them on the run to Balder. She was away on a secret mission for the Patrol in the Beyond.

  “Are we all accounted for?” Maddox asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said, who had told him he had been studying the starship’s personnel list.

  “Lieutenant,” Maddox said to Keith.

  “Whenever you’re ready, sir, give me the word.”

  Maddox glanced around the bridge. It had been a rush job getting everyone here, meaning they were missing a few people. But the starship had enough to run the systems and provide him with a complement of Marines for any trouble down on Balder.

  Maddox sat forward, looking at Russia Sector on the main screen. “Tell them we’re ready, Meta.”

  “Yes, sir,” Meta said, who had the nexus people online.

  “Start the procedure,” Maddox told Keith.

  “Aye-aye, sir.”

  The starship turned away from its orbital position over Russia, heading for the giant pyramid in space between Earth and Luna. That was the Builder nexus, brought here from the Library Planet System over one thousand light-years from Earth.

  Maddox wasn’t sure that it was good idea to jump right into the Balder System. Almost everyone had been on leave. A few days working the ship would get everyone back into shape. A few days dealing with the Crowder reps—the passengers—might be wise as well. But the Lord High Admiral had told him to jump straight there.

  Maddox rubbed his chin. Once they reached the Balder System—

  “The nexus is ready for us,” Meta said, interrupting his thought.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said.

  “I’m on it, sir,” Keith said.

  As Victory left Earth orbit, heading for the nexus and building up velocity, the giant pyramid began to pulse with power. Soon, it created a hyper-spatial tube, one that would be connected to the Balder System two hundred and nine light-years away from Earth. The tube bypassed Laumer Points and FTL drives, everything.

  “Let’s do it,” Maddox said.

  Keith piloted the ancient starship from the helm, steering for a swirling white opening, the beginning of the tube.

  Maddox realized abruptly that the tiniest modicum of worry tugged at his intuitive sense. There was something not quite right going on, but he couldn’t pinpoint what that might be.

  Maddox reconsidered that even as he maintained an outer calm. As captain, people watched him. One of the keys to being a good captain was by maintaining calm so the crew remained calm.

  “We’ll be entering the tube in five seconds,” Keith said.

  There were other ships near the nexus, but no other ships headed for the opening. Star Watch Conqueror-class battleships were on standby. If any unauthorized ship suddenly surged toward the opening, the battleships would fire at it.

  “Three seconds to entry,” Keith said.

  “Steady as she goes,” Maddox said.

  Keith glanced back at him.

  Maddox realized he shouldn’t have said anything. Did the pilot realize he was nervous about something?

  “One second,” Keith said.

  Maddox remained silent this time.

  The mighty double-oval starship entered the hyper-spatial tube. In an instant of time, it slipped along the tube and popped out on the other side, hopefully in the Balder System two hundred and nine light-years from Earth.

  -9-

  As had happened countless times before, Maddox came out of the jump lag that occurred using these faster-than-light travel methods. He looked around the bridge, waiting. Nothing seemed out of order as the others were slumped at their stations, still in the grip of lag.

  Galyan stirred, his holoimage coming into sharper focus. “Is all well, sir?”

  “Seems to be,” Maddox said. “Where are we?”

  “The ship’s sensors are not yet operating.”

  Maddox didn’t say anything, but waited.

  “There,” Galyan said a little later. “The sensors have activated. By all indications, we are in the Balder System, sir.”

  “Get the main screen operable as soon as possible.”

  “That would be now. Take a look, sir.”

  As the main screen flickered to life Maddox saw a Laumer Point buoy, indicating a wormhole opening to a nearby star system. Three Star Watch Bismarck-class battleships guarded the way into the Laumer Point. They had orders to shoot and destroy any Crowder vessel attempting to use the wormhole to escape the Balder System.

  Three battleships did not seem like anything near enough, however. If all the Crowder vessels used to ferry the refugees—hundreds of spaceships, some of them quite large and others military grade—rushed the Laumer Point together, they would swamp the three battleships. The older Star Watch warships would discourage a small group from attempting an escape, or physically stop a small group. For the blockage to work, though, the majority of the refugees would have to voluntarily agree to remain in the Balder System, or at least not attempt a mass escape.

  That meant Star Watch needed to convince the Crowder majority that staying on Balder III was a good idea. It was either that or Star Watch would have to seriously bolster the three-ship flotilla. There were a few other Star Watch vessels included with the battleships: two destroyers, a ship tender and a recreational vessel for the various crews’ relaxation on the extended mission. But even all combined, they would not halt a massed Crowder assault. At best, they were a deterrent and a tripwire.

  It might be good to remember that while here.

  Maddox stood, and the scene on the main screen shifted. It showed the G-class star, a little bigger and brighter than Sol. A second later, the star disappeared as Balder III came into focus. It was a terrestrial-sized planet, mostly brown and desert yellow with faint sprinklings of green and blue near the two poles.

  By all reports, Balder III was a hell world: hot and exceptionally windy. It had three small moons, one of them presently visible, a dark object that hardly reflected any light.

  Around Balder III in mostly low orbit was a huge fleet of disparate spaceships: the massive dreadnoughts and lesser Crowder naval vessels, haulers of varying sizes, transports, tugs, sloops, hundreds of private space-worthy craft and many not-so-space-worthy ships. This was the armada of vessels that had fled the doomed Crowder System with its exodus of several million survivors. Maddox had led the way that Ludendorff’s repairs had opened over two hundred thousand light-years away.

  By all the reports, one fourth to one third of the passengers had attempted to restart life on the desert planet below. The rest—what were they waiting for?

  Something else, Maddox realized: something better.

  “Sir,” Galyan said. “I am detecting an anomaly near the planet.”

  “Be more specific.”

  “I am detecting minute wave distortions six hundred and thirteen kilometers above the planetary surface. The distortions are one quarter the size of Victory in apparent size.”

  “There are hundreds of spaceships in low orbit out there, and you detected this wave distortion?”

  “I am aware of that. I have already noted twenty-seven vessels with dangerously low and degrading orbits.”

  “That many?” asked Maddox.

  “I imagine there are more on the other side of the planet.”

  “This wave distortion is something else?”

  “Of an entirely different category,” Galyan replied.

  “Do you think the distortion denotes a cloaked vessel?”

  “I have given that a ninety-four percent probability. No, make that ninety-six percent probability.”

  “Is it a Crowder cloaking device?”

  “I cannot say with complete assurance, but I highly doubt that.”

  “A cloaked vessel of alien origin then?” asked Maddox.

  “I think that probable.”

  “Pierce the cloak, if you can.”

  “I have been working on it as we speak, sir. Please grant me a little more time.”

  Maddox nodded. Could someone be waiting for them? Or was this a smuggling operation in real time? It hardly seemed likely someone would be waiting for Victory. The Lord High Admiral had just given him the assignment. Could spies in Star Watch work that fast to give an enemy enough time to put a cloaked vessel at Victory’s latest objective? That seemed preposterous on the face of it. This was likely a smuggling operation or something more nefarious. Whatever the case, he didn’t like or trust the wave distortion.

  “How far is the planet from us?” Maddox asked.

  “Fifteen million kilometers, sir,” Galyan said.

  Maddox grew thoughtful. In interstellar terms, the nexus people had put them right on top of Balder. That must have been on purpose. Of course, the Laumer Point was nearby, a mere sixteen million kilometers from Victory, thirty-one million from the planet. That was close as Laumer Points went.

  “Sir,” Galyan said, “I have pierced the cloak. As you surmised, it is a vessel.”

  “What kind of vessel? I want specifics.”

  Galyan’s eyelids fluttered. “The cloak is making further analysis difficult.”

  “Give me a ballpark guess.”

  “No guesses are needed, sir. I am employing greater magnification while heightening the sensor—sir, it is saucer-shaped. I am analyzing—yes, it matches a type of Spacer ship that we have faced in the past.”

  “Size or mass of the vessel?” asked Maddox.

  “In mass…it is similar to a Star Watch destroyer-class vessel.”

  “As big as that,” Maddox said. “Are you detecting any target lock or energizing weapons directed at us?”

  “Negative, sir,” Galyan said. “My ballpark idea is that we have discovered an alien observation vessel.”

  “Ballpark guess,” Maddox said.

  “Yes, sir, thank you for the correction.”

  Maddox frowned. Could the cloaked ship be why his intuitive sense had gone off earlier? Why would Spacers be interested in the Crowder Refugees? Were the people in the ship Spacers, though? Might these supposed clues be there as red herrings, to put him on the wrong scent?

  Maybe that was reaching. If they were Spacers, they might have sent a scout ship to analyze the refugees. There had been a Builder structure in the Crowder System. There had been an actual Builder as well. Spacers were devoted to the Builders, practically worshiping the aliens. How would the Spacers have learned about all that, though? It would indicate spies in Star Watch. Or…Meyers in the Crowder System had used several Spacer employees. Had those employees had an opportunity to contact the greater Spacer Nation after arriving in the Commonwealth?

  Whatever the case, Maddox didn’t like the possible Spacer secrecy here in the Balder System, no, not one bit.

  Others of the bridge crew began to stir. Meta raised her hands and began touching controls on her panel. Andros Crank did likewise at his science station.

  “Mr. Maker,” Maddox said.

  “Sir,” Keith slurred, as he rubbed his face.

  “Begin heading for the planet.”

  “Aye, sir,” Keith said, as he cracked his knuckles and began to tap the helm controls.

  “Keep watching the cloaked vessel, Galyan. Tell me if they do anything at all or if they make contact with any of the Crowder vessels.”

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said.

  Maddox drummed his fingers on the armrest of his captain’s chair, wondering who was trying to screw with them this time, if indeed the saucer represented a danger to Victory or their greater mission, or if they had stumbled onto something else entirely.

  -10-

  An exotic, rather blob-like alien with four eyestalks and four tentacles stood—if one could say it that way—at the holographic controls of his hidden craft. His name was Grutch, and he used one of his eyestalks to watch a small screen. On the screen, the newly appeared double-oval starship headed for the planet Balder. The starship was interesting indeed. It wasn’t a strict Star Watch type of vessel, which he’d been expecting. No. It appeared to be—

  “Adok,” Grutch said into a recorder. “I will check the encyclopedia later. But I’m certain that is an Adok vessel of the Spectral class.”

  A tentacle tip tapped a holographic screen control. An eyestalk shifted as the orb or eye on the end of the stalk moved closer to the screen, swiveling as it studied the approaching starship.

  Correction: it was a human-modified Adok vessel. The correction—the modifications were of Star Watch norms. Thus, the humans in the starship were most likely of the Commonwealth variety. And that meant he’d been waiting for them to arrive, which meant his data about them was spot on.

  The blob or fleshly mass that was Grutch was taller than a typical human from this part of the Orion Spiral Arm. He was also several times bulkier, perhaps four times the mass of a human male, a male on the tubbier side. Grutch had discovered that these humans ate more than was good for them, and thus were thicker than a species male should be in his prime.

  To say fleshly mass regarding the alien was actually imprecise. In fact, Grutch was an amorphous mass of semi-solid pinkish-gray tissue, a gelatinous substance. His tentacles tended to a redder hue, while his much thinner eyestalks were positively black. His manner of locomotion was disgusting in the extreme—to a regular human, at least. His bottom flesh rippled, thus granting him the ability to move as if he rode small rollers. In a pinch, he could move at twice the speed of a sprinting male of the human species. In such a case, Grutch’s outer flesh tended to turn more pinkish than gray, signaling his great exertion.

  Grutch was a Morag, a decidedly alien being, originally from the same region of the galaxy as a Yon Soth. Yon Soths or Old Ones had little truck with Morags, although they knew of the genus, despising them as a lion would a jackal.

  In truth, Morags did not have much in common with Yon Soths other than that both possessed tentacles. A Yon Soth was vastly larger, far longer-lived and with a greatly superior intellect.

  Morags were…devious, mercenary and mostly akin to Earth leopards in terms of social interaction with their own kind. Morags usually worked alone for his own intricate and mercenary motives. They were highly technical, proud artificers and greedy to a fault.

  Grutch was here on assignment, with much promised wealth if he performed as requested. His sponsor in this operation—Grutch would have jeered at anyone asking him for their identification. And if anyone inquisitive persisted in trying to obtain the information, he would begin an assassination campaign against them.

  From a human perspective, Grutch—and Morags in general—would be considered amoral moneygrubbers. Perhaps the closest parallel would be fictitious fantasy dwarves in the thrall of gold fever.

  Not that Grutch had lost his senses. They operated at high alert. His amorphous gelatin mass quivered with interest, his four tentacles and four eyestalks and eyes rigid with anticipation.

  The double-oval starship began braking maneuvers as it attempted to establish contact with the cloaked vessel in orbit around Balder.

  That showed impressive sensors and a quick propensity to act. The cloaked vessel was crowded in among many orbital spaceships. Grutch hadn’t expected his quarry to find the hidden vessel so soon upon arrival. Perhaps his sponsors had made the correct decision to employ one as talented as he was for the operation. Before this, Grutch had seen it as overkill on his sponsors’ part.

  Oh, look at this. The crew of the cloaked vessel—the commander opened channels with the Star Watch ship named Victory.

  Grutch discovered and verified the starship name because he had a link to the others. He quivered with rage, as he’d strictly forbidden the commander of the saucer-ship from answering any calls. He’d given the others their assignment and used hypnotic controls to pin their instructions unequivocally into place. The commander and crew should have kept comm silence.

  The tentacles lashed forth as Grutch activated various failsafe devices he’d hoped to keep inoperative for now. Then, he brought the comm linkage between the two onto special screens. He doubted the low-tech humans of Star Watch would be able to detect his eavesdropping. In any case, an alarm would vibrate if that happened, surely giving him enough time to flee.

  Grutch was not aboard the saucer-shaped cloaked vessel. He trailed it in his much-stealthier and smaller teardrop-shaped scouter, a tracking vessel of the highest order.

  This Captain Maddox had threatened the cloaked vessel with destruction if they did not open channels. That had been enough to override the hypnotic conditioning.

  Grutch tapped a different panel, logging the incident so he could study it later at his convenience. Then, he used two eyestalks, one on the screen that showed Captain Maddox and the other on the screen showing the commander of the saucer, Ran Doo.

  Grutch ran a quick analysis of the Star Watch human, a third eyestalk reading the evaluation. This was interesting. Maddox was an obvious hybrid, a genetic freak. He radiated calm and confidence and something else, well-hidden and subtle arrogance, and seemingly possessed killer instincts.

  The other—Grutch dismissed any interest in Commander Ran Doo. He knew the man well, having selected him from a batch of prisoners and expecting more proficiency from him than this.

  Ran Doo was on the small side as these Commonwealth human males went. Ran Doo squinted and blinked far too much, with his narrow features and stupid arrogance.

  “Who are you?” Maddox asked from Victory.

  “That is not your concern,” Commander Ran Doo answered from the cloaked vessel.

  “You’re not South-East Asian in origin,” Maddox said, “but I think you’re a Spacer just the same.”

  “Think as you wish,” Ran Doo said.

  “Why aren’t you wearing your customary, black-tinted goggles?”

  “I was ordered—” Ran Doo winced as he ceased speaking.

  Grutch knew why. The fool had run into a hypnotic command, but not before he’d said too much.