“What could I offer you in exchange for their lives?”

  “Your star-drive jump,” Raylan said promptly, as if waiting for the offer.

  “That’s a hard bargain.”

  “Nevertheless, if you bring the starship to my moon, I will let the last Adoks flee the star system.”

  Maddox pretended to ponder a moment. He nodded slowly. “I provisionally agree with the idea. However, let’s reverse the order. You let them go and I’ll bring the starship to you.”

  “Captain Maddox, I know you are stalling, making a false offer. You will not bring the starship in at that point, but flee with the Adoks. No. My offer stands. It is the only one I will accept.”

  “Let me think about it.”

  “Your time for thinking is running short. Soon, our missiles will saturate the planet. Then, the other missiles will destroy the waiting spaceship. You see, I know the Adoks have fled the planet and are awaiting some magic wand to save them.”

  “I understand what you’re saying. I’m asking for time. Stop the attack and give me time to contemplate the possibility. Remember, this is worth a star-drive jump to you.”

  Raylan eyed the captain. “No.”

  “But—”

  “I have nothing further to say to you, Maddox. Jump to my moon, and I will let the last Adoks go. Otherwise, they will cease existence.”

  The image of Ultimate Force Raylan disappeared.

  Maddox sagged back in his chair.

  “Did you really think that would work?” Ludendorff asked.

  Maddox didn’t bother answering. He didn’t think they could save all ten ships. The crew and the starship would not survive the strain. They’d saved fifteen thousand Adoks so far. How many more could they save?

  The captain sat up. Then, he pushed up to his feet. He turned to Ludendorff. “How much physical punishment can you take?”

  “That may not be the issue,” Ludendorff said. “I think the missiles will smash the planet soon. After that, the Adok vessels will perish.”

  “We brought this on them,” Maddox said.

  “Galyan did, but so what? That makes no difference now.”

  “Galyan is a member of my crew,” Maddox said. “That makes me responsible for this.”

  Ludendorff looked away, perhaps not having any more to add.

  Maddox blinked several times. He nodded. “Mr. Maker, take us behind the first planet. Let’s grab at least one more Adok vessel.”

  ***

  Victory appeared behind the first planet.

  “Hail the Governess if you would please,” Maddox said.

  Soon, Governess Nee-Fong appeared on the main screen.

  “So far, we’ve taken three ships to the edge of the nebula,” Maddox said.

  “Captain, please, let me interrupt you. The missiles are pouring into the planet, and other missiles are circling it. We’re running out of time.”

  “Governess, I suggest all your ships begin hard acceleration toward the star. Perhaps you can buy your fleet more time so I have time to save more Adok vessels.”

  Nee-Fong studied him.

  “The process of bringing your ships to the nebula edge has been grueling to my crew and ship,” Maddox said.

  “I understand.”

  “I’ll take your ship next.”

  Nee-Fong blinked several times. “Yes. That would be good. Do you think this is the last one?”

  “I don’t know,” Maddox said, hesitating to admit that the crew was run ragged. They needed time, days, to recover from the ordeal.

  “Whenever you’re ready, Captain.” The screen went blank.

  Maddox sighed, shaking his head. He felt awful. But he didn’t know if he was willing to risk the starship or his crew in quick succession jumps after this. Even this jump might be too much.

  “Mr. Maker, maneuver to the Governess’s spaceship.”

  “Aye, sir,” Keith said.

  Victory moved near.

  As the starship did, the planet’s beams knocked down missiles, masses of missiles, and it continued to launch counter-rockets at those missiles attempting to circle the planet.

  This was turning into a disaster. If this were the last ship they could save, thirty thousand of the last Adoks would perish to the mad deified AIs. Why had Galyan said anything?

  Maddox shook his head. That wasn’t the issue. “Are we ready?”

  “Aye,” Keith said.

  “Yes,” Andros told him.

  “Jump,” Maddox said.

  After too long of a time and labored engine noises and bulkhead shaking, Victory and the next Adok spaceship from the first planet made its leap from the cauldron of mass death to the edge of the star system and nebula.

  -96-

  Because he and others had been on the shuttles, Sergeant Riker easily made it. So did four out of the ten Adok spaceships that had left the first planet. As for the other six ships…the verdict was still out on them.

  After much pestering, Maddox let Keith use the fold-fighter to go find out. Neither the starship nor the rest of the crew were in any condition to make another star-drive jump any time soon, and that meant back to the first planet. Maddox doubted Keith’s condition, but the pilot actually seemed better off than most.

  Was that due to his constant injections of anti-fold-lag medicine? It might be worth studying—later.

  Maddox saw Keith off in the hangar bay. “Don’t take any risks. You’re just getting data for us.”

  “I understand.”

  The ace took along an understudy, a warrant officer in the pilot program, so there would be two of them.

  ***

  Keith folded four times before he reached his vantage point to begin recording for study later. He had a long side view of the hot star, the first planet and the missile stream and ponderous fortress moons.

  The six Adok vessels accelerated for the star as they each began to widen the distance between them. The thinking seemed clear enough. At least one of them needed to escape the vengeful deified AIs.

  The missiles were reaching nearer and nearer the first planet before the defenses destroyed them. Not all the surface beam cannons were working anymore, and the stock of counter-rockets must have vanished, because no more rose up to meet the enemy. That meant AI missiles were making it past the planet as they circled wide. Those were big suckers, each about half the size of a Star Watch destroyer.

  “This is awful,” the copilot said, a stocky man with red hair and painfully youthful features.

  “You’re not kidding,” Keith said.

  In the small fold-fighter far from Victory, the two men observed the horrible end of the first planet and the Adok passenger ships. Each vessel accelerated, and each built up a descent velocity for such a ponderous ship.

  By the time the Adok vessels reached fifteen million kilometers from the first planet, the stream of missiles reached the surface defenses and annihilated them with thermonuclear detonations. There were constant mushroom clouds billowing upward from the surface, churning dust and debris, sending much of it spaceborne due to the small planet’s correspondingly minimal gravity.

  The great space-river of missiles heading toward the planet now changed course. The masses of missiles rotated, using hard exhaust to slow down. No doubt, the deified AIs would retrieve these for some future time, taking them back into the following fortress moons, the so-called ghost ships.

  A great number, nearly three hundred missiles, went around the first planet as they headed for the six fleeing cargo vessels.

  “Do we have to watch this?” the redheaded copilot asked Keith.

  In wonder, Keith turned to the young warrant officer. “You’d better believe we have to watch this, mate. We have to see events clear-eyed. This is reality, not some rosy story your grandmother spun for you. Out here, what is counts, not how you’d like it to be. The man who can see reality for what it is has strength. Don’t be one of them sissies that can’t even say forbidden words, never mind closing your eyes to how the universe operates.”

  “What do words have to do with it?”

  Keith laughed, shaking his head. “Haven’t you heard them types who say, ‘Ooh, you can’t say anything so mean? It hurts my feelings. I don’t feel safe.’ You know the type I’m talking about?”

  The copilot nodded.

  “That’s how a moronic ostrich works,” Keith said.

  “A what?”

  “A big old bird in Africa that sticks its head in the sand so it doesn’t have to see anything that might frighten it.”

  “How does that help against a lion?”

  “It doesn’t,” Keith said. “My point is this: don’t be afraid of reality. If you must, man up and toughen up so you can handle it.”

  The junior pilot nodded.

  “Anyway,” Keith said. “That’s my lecture for this mission. This is cruel work. Let’s not add to it by shutting our eyes to what’s happening around us or being frightened little mama’s boys about things.”

  Thus, Keith and the junior pilot remained in the fold-fighter, recording each AI missile that reached a huge cargo ship and detonated. None of the fleeing Adoks survived the butchery.

  “Hey, look,” the junior pilot said, pointing at a comm board. “Someone is hailing us.”

  Keith hurried to his pilot board. The message was coming from one of the fortress moons, meaning from a deified AI.

  “Are you going to answer it?”

  “I am not,” Keith said. “I’m worried the bastard might be able to beam a virus into our computers. We’re just a wee fighter. It’s time to go home.”

  They folded far beyond the third planet the first time, heading back for Victory and the surviving four Adok cargo ships with the precious twenty thousand living aliens.

  -97-

  Maddox did receive a last message from Ultimate Force Raylan. The deified AI sent it from between the second and third planets all the way to the edge of the star system, which was nearly 50 AUs away. One Astronomical Unit was the average distance from the Sun to the Earth.

  The four Adok vessels and Victory had almost reached the first gaseous tendrils of the nebula. They were building up velocity the old-fashioned way, through direct boost from the thrusters.

  “Sir,” Valerie said. “There’s a message for you. It’s come from Raylan.”

  “Put it on the main screen,” Maddox said.

  The holographic image of Ultimate Force Raylan appeared on the screen. It was good quality, too.

  “I have learned that four Adok vessels escaped our vengeance,” Raylan said. “You are responsible for that, Captain Maddox. I am pleased to eliminate the ones we could, but we shall never rest until the last Adok is eradicated. Perhaps you shall make it through the nebula. We shall see. If so, know that we deified AIs never forget or forgive a hurt. I will remember you. I will remember humans. Sooner than you think, we shall come to you and finish our task. This I assure you. Thus, you have won a momentary victory only. Enjoy it while you may, Maddox, for the time of reckoning will be soon approaching.”

  Professor Ludendorff happened to be on the bridge, and he moved beside Maddox as the message played.

  Once done, Raylan disappeared from the screen.

  Ludendorff glanced at Maddox.

  “What is it now?” asked the captain.

  “Do you find it remarkable that so many aliens and others hate your guts?”

  “Raylan did not speak with hatred,” Maddox said.

  “No?” asked Ludendorff. “You don’t take the idea that he and his ilk will hound you from here to eternity in order to slay you as something approaching hatred?”

  Maddox shrugged.

  Ludendorff nodded. “I, however, find your ability to enrage so many to be a fascinating topic.”

  Maddox glanced again at the smug professor. “Now that you mention it, I do think I possess one attribute that enrages so many.”

  “Yes?”

  “My ability to win against almost every contender,” Maddox said blandly. “Wouldn’t you agree that’s true?”

  It was possible Ludendorff’s facial muscles tightened just a bit. “Do you calling saving four out of ten Adoks winning?”

  Maddox heaved a sigh. “It was fewer than I’d hoped, but we did save some. Clearly, it was enough to enrage Raylan, as you suggest. That must be worth a win in one sense.”

  Ludendorff mumbled something under his breath before walking away and soon heading out the exit hatch.

  Maddox glanced at the professor as he exited. Then, Maddox looked at the main screen, observing their progress toward the nebula.

  ***

  Victory led the way into the nebula, with the four great Adok vessels following. The compacted gases soon swirled around them, making sensor sweeps extremely limited.

  “What do you plan for us now?” Governess Nee-Fong asked Maddox via the main screen a day into the dense cloud.

  “Much depends upon you,” Maddox said. “If you’ll permit me, I’d like to guard the convoy until we exit the nebula.”

  “Does the terrible Swarm menace still threaten this part of the spiral arm?”

  “The Swarm attacked your homeworld over six thousand years ago.”

  “That sounds like an evasion to my question,” Nee-Fong said.

  Maddox explained a little bit about the Orion Spiral arm and the abode of the Swarm Imperium in the Sagittarius Spiral Arm. He went into further detail about the Builder nexuses and that those in the Swarm Imperium territory had been destroyed.

  “Our old homeworld is viable then?” Nee-Fong asked.

  “No,” Maddox said. “It’s rubble. But we could offer you a new world in the Commonwealth of Planets.”

  “How can you afford to be so generous?”

  Maddox explained something about the Commonwealth. They had plenty of planets, but not enough colonists.

  “And you accept aliens, from your point of view, into your Commonwealth?” Nee-Fong asked.

  “We have accepted individual aliens before. You would be the first entire society,” Maddox said. “But there’s nothing to prohibit it. In fact, I am sure I can convince our leaders.”

  “This is a test case then?”

  “Maybe it is,” Maddox said. “Whatever you are, the Adoks would be a welcome addition to the Commonwealth.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because we on Victory have learned to love Driving Force Galyan,” Maddox said. “If you Adoks are like him, I think our two races would strengthen each other.”

  Governess Nee-Fong appeared troubled and shortly cut the connection.

  The days lengthened into a week, and one week added to another. No one on the starship was eager to try more star-drive jumps pulling the Adoks with them one by one. That had been an emergency measure, not one to perform more often than absolutely necessary.

  On the third week, Nee-Fong agreed to use the nexus from Earth, once they exited the nebula. They would see what kind of planet Star Watch allocated them. If it were good enough, they would temporarily accept the new home.

  “We Adoks need help,” Nee-Fong admitted. “And you’ve shown it to us, and for that reason, we will continue to trust you.”

  “I’m deeply honored,” Maddox said. “And once Galyan is restored, he will be pleased as well.”

  Nee-Fong looked shaken. “You will awaken the AI then?”

  “Not until the proper time.”

  “Please, I implore you: not until we’re gone.”

  “As you wish,” Maddox said. And despite further attempts on the topic, the result was always the same. The Adoks had a great dread of the deified AIs, with obvious reason.

  ***

  In the end, it took a slow three months for Maddox and Victory to bring the last four Adok vessels out of the Glenna Nebula so they faced the Commonwealth of Planets. They were still in the Beyond, but now Maddox could use the Long-Range Builder Comm Device to call the Lord High Admiral on Earth and explain the situation.

  That talk soon took place, and Maddox filled in an anxious Lord High Admiral on the details.

  “The alien maggot Unity, the Fusion of Planets, a Moray mercenary, a star system of Adok ghosts and the lost Adoks themselves,” Admiral Cook said over the Builder comm. “You have been unusually busy this time, Captain.”

  “It was an adventure,” Maddox said from the couch.

  “You want us to open the way for you with the nexus and allow the four Adok vessels into the Commonwealth?”

  “I think the Adoks would be a great addition to us.”

  “I do, too,” Admiral Cook said. “Others might feel differently. Still, I think we should push it through this time. I imagine you’re wondering about what happened on Balder III.”

  “Oh, Balder III,” he said, reminded. “No. I’m not that interested about them anymore.”

  “We’re going to move the Crowder people to a different planet in a different star system,” Cook said, perhaps choosing to ignore the captain’s dismissal. “The situation is thus being resolved. You helped in achieving that.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Maddox said. “I’m much more worried about the maggot Unity and the deified AIs in the Gowon System. Each could prove troublesome to us. We might think about opening trade and relations to the Fusion of Planets. They’re humans after all.”

  “With a dreadful sounding socialist political system,” Cook said. “Once I order the nexus to open the way, I’ll begin putting together a Patrol team to head to the nebula and contact the Fusion people. We’ll see if they’re interested in anything like you suggest.”

  “The nebula is a dangerous place,” Maddox said. “I would only go in strong and loaded for bear.”

  “You do your part, Captain, and pray leave my part to me.”

  “Yes, Admiral,” Maddox said.

  “In any case, the nexus should be ready in several hours. Are all the ships there ready to enter it?”

  “We’re going to Earth then?”

  “To the Solar System so our reps can speak with the Adoks. This time, we’ll give the refugees some choices as to the planet they go to. The Crowder people proved a headache and taught us a lesson about that.”