The Lost Artifact Read online

  Decision made as what to do next, Yen Cho stood, and he whirled around as someone hammered insistently outside the armored hatch.

  The noise badly affected the scientists and medical personnel crammed in the room. Almost to a person, they jerked in fear. A few pulled out small handguns, aiming the weapons at the armored hatch.

  “Put those away,” Yen Cho said. He did not want a bloodbath in here, one that might incapacitate him. He didn’t fear their small caliber weapons, but what the hammering marine might do in response to enemy gunfire.

  Unfortunately, no one paid his order any heed; he was not highly ranked on the former Chang pay scale.

  The hammering changed, becoming a heavy clanging that produced dents in the armored hatch. It must have become obvious then to the others what Yen Cho had already divined.

  “The knocker is wearing combat armor,” the android shouted.

  A few of the scientists and medical personnel turned to stare at him.

  “If you shoot at a combat suit,” Yen Cho said with remorseless logic, “the suited heavy will surely kill you out of hand in automatic response.”

  The people in this room were an unsavory lot, having committed horrid deeds on other humans in order to receive high pay. The Shanghai heavies were equally immoral. They were also brutal and savage when given their choice. If the suited heavies indulged their whims, they would use suit-contained cannon-fire to massacre everyone in here, including Yen Cho. The android hoped to forestall that.

  The hammering intensified once more, creating deeper dents in the hatch.

  “What should we do?” asked Doctor Lee.

  “What can you do?” Yen Cho asked. “Surrender is the wisest option. Perhaps these heavies want your technical expertise for something. That is our greatest hope.”

  Doctor Lee blinked several times as his gun hand and weapon shook. With an effort of will, Lee slid the small caliber pistol back into a hidden holster.

  The others began to do likewise.

  At that point, metallic fingers eased between the battered hatch and the doorjamb. With a whine of servos, a heavy combat suit tore the hatch from its moorings.

  The scientists and medical personnel cried out in fear. The fear had two sources, the heavies and possible poisoned gas. They cringed against the farthest wall. Yen Cho stood at the very back, although he did not cringe like the rest. He kept studying and analyzing.

  Three exoskeleton combat suits clanked into the chamber. Two of them aimed heavy 30-mm autocannons at the mass of scientists and medical personnel. The other combat suit’s faceplate whined as it descended. A Shanghai heavy peered out of the armored helmet. He was a cruel-faced soldier with a deep scar over his left eyebrow.

  “Which of you is Doctor Lee?” the heavy asked.

  Several of the cowering people turned to the copper-haired scientist.

  “You,” the heavy said. “Step forward.”

  Doctor Lee pushed past the others. Just like the time he’d chased Maddox, Lee wore a white lab coat. He did not cower, although he seemed tense. He also seemed calculating.

  “You are Doctor Lee?” the combat-suited heavy asked.

  The scientist nodded.

  The cruel-faced soldier did not smile, but became even more intense, more concentrated.

  “There is madness in the asteroid,” the heavy said. “The air is poisoned. Worse, a Star Watch battleship approaches the asteroid.”

  Lee said nothing.

  “We wish to escape,” the heavy said.

  Lee nodded.

  The heavy abruptly clanked forward until the combat suit loomed over the scientist.

  “You will take us to the hidden spaceship,” the heavy shouted. “If you do not take us there this instant—”

  “I will take you,” Lee said.

  The heavy quit shouting, and seemed to lose much of his hostility.

  “How many…soldiers are with you?” Doctor Lee asked.

  “Eleven, including me,” the heavy said.

  Lee turned around, studying the anxious scientists and medical personnel. He seemed to be counting their numbers. Maybe he was counting in order to see how many would get to leave the asteroid and start anew somewhere else with him.

  Yen Cho pushed through their number. “I am an engine tech,” he told the doctor.

  Lee squinted, and he shook his copper-haired head. “I do not know you.”

  Yen Cho understood. The doctor would not take him along. That was unfortunate. He had assumed one of the scientists knew the whereabouts of a special escape ship. Yen Cho’s problem was that he hadn’t known which one. Now, he did.

  Yen Cho had gained several interesting upgrades throughout the millennia. He did not have the same goal as many of the other Yen Cho-series androids. He was, in most cases, far less bloodthirsty than others of his kind. This, however, was an emergency. That changed his protocols.

  Yen Cho moved closer to Lee. As the android did so, he slumped his shoulders in a cringing manner while his features took on a pleading cast.

  “Please,” Yen Cho whispered. “I am a space tech.”

  “Go away,” Lee told him.

  Although Yen Cho dipped his head in submission, he knew his precise location in the room compared to the heavies in their combat suits. Yen Cho fell to his knees, as might a frightened human who had lost all hope. His shoulders shook as if he was weeping in abject fear. What he was really doing was hotshotting his special laser pistol. The heavy-duty pistol could now fire three intensely hot rays. That would burn out the pistol’s laser circuits and might possibly cause a deadly explosion afterward.

  “We must go,” the combat-suited heavy told Lee. “We are running out of time.”

  “Yes,” Doctor Lee said. “I understand. I am choosing the ship’s crew. You said there are eleven of you. That means eight of our group can fit into the escape ship. Now—”

  At that point, Yen Cho looked up and fired from his kneeling, hunched-over position. An intensely hot laser-beam burned against the armored faceplate of the most faraway-standing exoskeleton-powered armored suit.

  The hotshotting had worked. Because of the short range, the super-heated laser-beam penetrated the faceplate, spearing into the face of the heavy inside.

  Yen Cho shifted targets and fired his second beam. It, too, burned through the enemy faceplate. As the weapon did that, the first combat-suit clanged against the floor as the slain heavy inside fell down.

  The scientists and medical personnel, still crammed against the back wall, began to shout and scream in terror. Many pressed farther back as though they could get away from the conflict. A few braver souls began drawing their small hand-weapons.

  The combat-reflex from the last heavy was almost instantaneous. The two-ton suit opened fire with its arm-integral 30-mm. The autocannon chugged shells, mowing down the cringing crowd.

  At the same time, Yen Cho could no longer use his laser pistol, however. The hotshotting had only lasted for two shots, as the inner circuits had burned out.

  From his kneeling position, Yen Cho straightened, drew back his right arm and threw the overheating pistol. As the pistol flew through the air, smoke began chugging from it, the plastic melting into a blob of uselessness. That blob flew through the opened faceplate and struck the firing heavy in the face.

  The heavy howled in agony. He must have instinctively activated the faceplate. It now snapped shut, keeping the melted superhot pistol pressed against his face.

  The exoskeleton-powered suit began to dance in a macabre fashion. Yen Cho darted aside from its path, and he grabbed the back of Doctor Lee’s lab coat, barely yanking the man aside in time so the two-ton combat suit didn’t crush him.

  A second later, the combat suit banged against a wall, fell onto the floor and began to writhe back and forth. It was horrible and obscene as pitiful cries echoed inside the helmet.

  The doctor turned in Yen Cho’s grasp. He looked at the android’s right hand. Yen Cho grabbed the lab coat with the
left. Some of the pseudo-skin on the right-hand palm had burned away, revealing gleaming metal underneath.

  “What are you?” Lee whispered in horror.

  “You can obviously see what I am,” Yen Cho replied.

  “An android?” the doctor asked.

  While keeping hold of the doctor’s lab coat, Yen Cho examined the weeping scientists and medical personnel who had survived the autocannon onslaught. Less than a third lived, and many of those were badly wounded.

  “A moment,” Yen Cho said.

  The android released the doctor, hurried to the dead and hurting, and searched two of them. He came away with two handguns. One of those he shoved into Lee’s hands.

  The doctor stared at him, the question obvious in his eyes.

  “We’re going to your escape ship,” Yen Cho said. “We want to leave the dying asteroid before the starship arrives.”

  “Just the two of us?” Lee asked.

  “No.”

  Lee waited a moment longer, maybe waiting for Yen Cho to add something. Finally, Lee said, “I don’t understand.”

  “For now, you do not need to. You can trust in the knowledge that I am Grade ‘A’ strategist and tactician. You can also trust me to get you to your ship and to get us away from here undetected.”

  The doctor scanned the dead heavies, took stock of the dead and wounded scientists and medical personnel and, finally, regarded Yen Cho again.

  “There are other heavies in our path,” Lee said.

  “Good. We need some of them.”

  “I do not understand why we would need them.”

  “Come,” Yen Cho said. He grabbed one of the doctor’s sleeves. He was going to have to do this the hard way, as it was taking too long doing it through coaxing and explaining.

  At that point, Doctor Lee began to train his gun on Yen Cho. The android had been expecting that. He slapped the gun out of the doctor’s grasp. Then he picked up the struggling human and darted out of the hatch.

  He’d lied to the man. Yen Cho had no intention of escaping from the approaching starship. Quite the contrary, in fact.

  -27-

  There was gun- and autocannon fire in the halls and corridors. Lights flickered in places. In others, a red emergency glow gave the corridor an eerie feel.

  “Put me down,” Doctor Lee shouted. “You’ll get us killed with your carelessness.”

  Yen Cho did not respond. He had a plan. He had a mission. He needed the doctor’s knowledge. He did not have time to torture it out of Lee, either.

  Throughout the centuries, the androids had moved undercover through the human populations. Sometimes they did it to protect humanity from its stupidest impulses. Sometimes they did it to help the underground community of Builder-made androids. This was one of those times where both reasons motivated Yen Cho.

  Strand had set up a horrible situation. He had gone much too far this time. If Yen Cho and his brothers were right about Strand’s ultimate desire…

  Yen Cho skidded to a halt before his quarters in Chang’s underground dormitory. The fingers of his metallic-looking hand blurred over a control pad. The hatch slid open.

  Setting Doctor Lee onto his feet, Yen Cho unceremoniously pushed him within. Lee crashed against a chair, sprawling onto the floor. The doctor yelped in pain. He’d caught himself, so his face hadn’t smashed into the floor, but at least one bone in his left wrist had snapped from the force of his descent.

  Yen Cho ignored the mewling doctor for the moment. He rummaged in his locker, pulled out a pair of gloves and shoved his hands into them. Then he withdrew a medical kit. It seemed innocent enough, but it was not.

  He went to Doctor Lee, who lay on the floor, cradling his broken wrist. The man had turned white from the pain and was moaning to himself. The human had lost the arrogance he’d displayed earlier when he’d been deciding who would live by escaping in the spaceship, and who would die by remaining on the asteroid.

  Yen Cho extracted a hypo from his kit, checked the dosage and pressed the end against the doctor’s neck. The hypo hissed as the solution was pressure-injected into Lee.

  “My wrist still hurts,” Lee complained several seconds later.

  Yen Cho stood as he impassively regarded the man. Lee had been one of Chang’s most trusted scientists, most trusted among those who had not received a brain implant. The android believed that the unchecked pain from the doctor’s broken bone would help the solution achieve its desired result faster than otherwise. That was good, as time had become critical.

  “What’s happening to me?” Lee complained. “I’m feeling fainter, not better.”

  The android waited several seconds longer before going back to his locker. He grabbed a gym bag and stuffed it with items. When he returned to Lee, the man looked at him strangely.

  The android squatted before the hurting scientist. “I am Yen Cho. I am your friend and confidante.”

  “Yes,” the doctor said. “I realize this. Will you fix my wrist for me?”

  “I will, friend,” Yen Cho said, smiling. “First, tell me the location of the hidden spaceship.”

  The man began to babble all about the hidden ship. What’s more, he told Yen Cho about the hidden defenses, the needed codes and other factors in order to take the ship out of the asteroid’s secret exit.

  Yen Cho only had to hear it once. As an android, his cybertronic brain forgot nothing. At last, he decided he knew enough.

  He stood. It was good to know that the special serum worked. It had performed well on the test humans back in the Rigel System laboratories where the androids had tested the drug, but this was his first use in a real situation. The serum was not a long-lasting thing like brain implants. It worked almost as well in the short term, however.

  Yen Cho checked his supply of serum. It should be enough to win a crew of heavies and any needed techs. They wouldn’t last long, though. That was the kicker…

  Yen Cho shook his head. That was the side effect of the serum. It soon destroyed the subject’s brain, eating away at the neural connectives. The longest-surviving test subject had kept her sanity for fifteen days.

  That should be more than enough time for what Yen Cho had planned.

  “Friend,” Lee said from the floor. “Where are you going?”

  Yen Cho stood by the hatch. It looked as if he was about to leave.

  The android studied Lee. “Lie back,” he said. “I am going to get you help.”

  “You promise?”

  “Yes,” Yen Cho said.

  “Thank you. I’m starting to feel…funny.”

  “It will pass,” Yen Cho said.

  Doctor Lee lay back, with his injured wrist resting on his chest.

  Without further thought for Lee, Yen Cho exited his quarters. He heard more gunfire down the halls. He needed to move fast if he was going to recruit his heavies and techs in time to accomplish his goal.

  -28-

  Maddox lay on his bed in his quarters aboard Starship Victory. He’d been trembling from exhaustion for some time. Meta sat beside him, stroking his forehead.

  He loved Meta’s touch. At night, he liked to lie beside her as she read on her tablet, running her free hand over his back and buttocks. It was the most relaxing part of the day for him.

  Now, he didn’t feel relaxed. He felt like crap, and he had failed to take out the clone of Strand. He should have known better than to send two strikefighter pilots after the genius. What’s more, the clone possessed Builder equipment. He should have foreseen what had happened.

  Would Keith survive his injuries?

  A chime sounded.

  “Enter,” Maddox whispered.

  “Come in,” Meta said more loudly.

  The hatch to his quarters opened. A stocky marine stood there. The man stepped aside. Valerie entered his quarters. She saw him, hesitated, squared her shoulders and marched toward his bed. She stopped and stared down at him.

  “You are…no…longer confined to quarters,” Maddox whispered slo
wly.

  Valerie said nothing.

  Maddox glanced at Meta. Meta sighed and looked up at Valerie.

  “Keith is hurt,” Meta said.

  Valerie’s eyes widened with understanding and then fear. “What happened?” she asked.

  Meta told Valerie what they knew. Keith’s badly damaged tin can had appeared. A rescue shuttle had brought him in. Keith had burns all over his body. The ace had stayed coherent long enough to tell them that Hernandez and he had failed to take out the cloaked vessel. Keith was now in medical undergoing emergency treatment.

  Valerie glared at Maddox. “You sent Keith on another mission, even though he’d just been on a fold assignment?”

  “Do not question my decisions,” Maddox whispered, raising himself onto his elbows.

  “Please, husband,” Meta said, putting her hands on his chest. “Lay back. Rest.”

  Maddox collapsed back against the bed.

  “Valerie,” Meta pleaded.

  Valerie glanced at Meta, but it did nothing to soften her features.

  “That’s how you always do it,” Valerie told Maddox with an edge to her voice. “You do whatever you want. Now, Keith has sustained serious injuries. I can’t believe this. I would have never—”

  “Valerie,” Meta said, jumping up, shoving the lieutenant backward and interrupting her screed.

  Valerie stumbled and almost went down. She righted herself and glared at Meta.

  “You can’t push another Star Watch officer,” Valerie said. “That’s a serious offense.”

  Meta squeezed her hands into fists. No one was going to harm Maddox in any way. He was in a critical condition. If Valerie thought—

  “Listen,” Maddox said in a hoarse voice. “Listen to me, Lieutenant.”

  Both women stared at Maddox.

  He had sat up, and there was more energy in him than just a second ago.

  “I’m exhausted,” Maddox said. “I have to rest. I’m giving you orders, Lieutenant. You’re going to put me aboard a shuttle. Then, you’re going to use the star-drive and jump to the ghost-ship. I want you to use the main disrupter cannon. Annihilate the clone’s cloaked vessel. He must not get away. Once you’ve completed the mission, return and pick me up.”