The Lost Artifact Read online

  The sound struck his eardrums again. The sound didn’t come from the girder-like monstrosity, but from a huge machine near Yen Cho. The android stood at his controls, his metal fingers blurring over them.

  As deck-lifters began rising in the air, wobbling as if some magnetic power held them, Maddox raised his combat rifle. He shoved the stock against his right shoulder. He stood still, concentrating on Yen Cho.

  The girder-like proto-Builder raised his firing arm. The beam-port apparatus in his palm began to glow with power.

  Maddox squeezed the trigger. The heavy rifle bucked once, twice, three times in quick succession. The next second, the captain jumped backward, and rolled as decking blew apart where he’d just been.

  At the same time, the three big-grain bullets sped at Yen Cho. The android continued to manipulate the panel. The first bullet hissed past his head, missing by less than a millimeter.

  The specific sound caused the android to shift and look up. Was it luck? Maybe. Or maybe it was the di far part of Maddox that came through for him. Whatever the cause, the captain’s second bullet caught Yen Cho directly against the braincase. The bullet plowed through pseudo-skin and struck the titanium casing that held the android’s cybertronic brain. The third bullet followed the path of the second with uncanny precision. It struck the same area, already softened by the kinetic energy of the first bullet. The second bullet badly dented the brain casing, deforming it enough to cause massive shock to the cybertronic brain.

  The noise from the machine rose in pitch. Yen Cho staggered backward and fell back onto the decking. He lay there, staring up, frozen.

  His auto-systems kicked, hit a snag, tried to kick on again and began a deep reboot. That was going to take a considerably long time, effectively taking Yen Cho out of the fight.

  While that happened, the noise rose even more. That seemed to cause the wobbling lifters to shoot up against the ceiling, hammering hard and sticking there as if glued.

  The girder-like proto-Builder shook its strange head. It did not seem to like the noise. Instead of destroying Maddox, it aimed at the machine and blasted it with its thorium cannon.

  The noise stopped, and the lifters came down, crashing against the deck.

  The proto-Builder looked around. It likely could not see Maddox, who had slithered to a new position.

  “Captain Maddox,” the thing said in a booming voice. “Cease this uselessness. It is a farce, and you cannot possibly stop me.”

  From where he lay hidden, Maddox panted, trying to regain his bearings.

  The Builder-creature turned to its left. Three large metal men stood there. Each was half again as tall as Maddox. They gleamed metallically and possessed red-glowing eyes. They seemed alien and deadly, like mechanical dark angels.

  The three new androids began to run with heavy clanking steps toward Maddox’s last known position.

  At that point, a little floor bot drove into sight. It parked in their path and raised its antenna. There was a blue spark from the tip of the antenna. Perhaps it beamed something at the androids.

  That must have been the case, because the leading metallic-gleaming android stiffened, lost the precision of its sprint and clanged onto the floor with its torso leading the way.

  “No!” the proto-Builder boomed. “There will be no more trickery from you, Galyan. It is time for you to cease existing.”

  The proto-Builder held up its second arm and beamed a software virus through the floor-bot connection.

  -55-

  The essence of Galyan—the combination of the ancient engrams from a living Adok married with the advanced software presently running in the old Ludendorff computer—underwent a swift virus assault.

  Fortunately for the diminished Galyan, he had anticipated such an assault. He also remembered the swiftness of a Builder attack and the impossible nature of stopping such an attack once it started. The only defense was to deflect it by not being in the way.

  As the virus attack occurred, Galyan made one of his most daring decisions in his long and lonely life. Maybe the transfer of his being into the old Ludendorff computer had shown him the way. Besides, the successful attack program against the steel android had shown him a judo-like trick, a Maddox ploy to confound his enemies.

  As the Builder virus began destroying the Ludendorff computer software, Galyan beamed his ancient engrams along with the key components of his software in a compressed data gulp. He beamed them through the electrical linkage, which could take massive loads, and aimed it through the floor bot in the hangar bay.

  The Builder had used the bot linkage as a targeting mechanism, using a comm wave assault to send the main virus program. Now, Galyan used the bot at almost the same instant, helping to beam his data into the android laying on the deck. He poured the engrams and compressed software into the android’s cybertronic brain, erasing the android programming as he rewrote his own programming in its place.

  In Ludendorff’s old quarters, the computer he’d just left sizzled from overload and exploded, showering pieces everywhere.

  “Good-bye, pesky Galyan,” the proto-Builder said. “Now, you are next, Captain Maddox. You should have attacked the robot in space while you could. I wonder if you realize that I have done what no one else has been able to do yet. I weakened your self-confidence. I caused you to doubt yourself.

  “I learned about the Ska,” the Builder continued.

  Perhaps the Builder essence’s long confinement in the cube had made it verbose now that it had an opportunity to talk.

  “Oh, yes,” the proto-Builder said. “I learned through data channels that you had defeated the Ska in the Alpha Centauri System with an ancient Builder device. Of course, I knew what form that device must have taken. Professor Ludendorff had the data necessary to build such a device embedded in his mind. Since I knew the form of the unique weapon, I knew what you needed to do in order to power it. I realized that such a battle against a Ska would have deeply wounded your psyche. The Nameless Ones are horrible and their masters—the Ska—are even worse. Through your bad decisions, due to your mental weakening and my exploitation of that, I now have you at my mercy. I will squash you, Captain, you and your crew. With this vessel, I will resume the Builder Empire my ancestors left to you monkey-humans.

  “During my short time with the Strand clone, I came to realize that this part of the Orion Arm was a mess. You humans are a mess. I will soon reshape your race into something more orderly and seemly. I will complete what my ancestors lacked the courage to do. The Rull androids who have studied you humans will aid me. I have seen Yen Cho’s sacrifice. I will restore him fully. I may even grant him greater computing power and a greater android body. Perhaps I will set the Rull androids over the re-evolved humans I have in mind. Perhaps Yen Cho and his kind will teach the elevated monkey-protégés how to live like civilized races.

  “The time of the Methuselah Men is over. The time of the New Men is over. The time of chaotic humanity doing what it wants is over. I am here to bring order to the Orion Arm. Perhaps I will use elevated humanity to destroy the Swarm. I have not yet decided. If the Swarm proves too troublesome, perhaps I will create a new galactic order with them.

  “Now, where are you, Captain Maddox?”

  The two metallic-gleaming androids had been searching the hangar bay throughout the monolog, tossing fallen lifters out of the way, following the captain’s blood trail but failing to find the elusive Maddox.

  ***

  The captain panted from inside an overturned strikefighter. He’d climbed into the damaged fighter after leaving a trail of false leads for the giant androids. He’d been listening to the proto-Builder gloat. He had berated himself for missteps but had finally shaken it off.

  “I am Captain Maddox,” he whispered to himself.

  The proto-Builder over there was going to prove a worse menace than anything else had so far. He had to kill it now while it might still be possible.

  Maddox flipped switches, hesitated and threw
the last one. Even though the strikefighter lay on its side, it began warming up with an emergency start.

  The two androids stopped where they were amidst the heaped lifters, looked up and swiveled around. The proto-Builder did the same thing. Both groups stared at the starting strikefighter.

  “Fool,” the proto-Builder said. It raised its hand and launched a thorium bolt.

  The strikefighter blew apart, pieces of metal raining everywhere as they struck the decking.

  At the same time, the two oversized androids began to run toward the darting figure of Captain Maddox.

  Maddox looked back and saw a strange sight. The first big android, the one that had suddenly gone down, now quickly and almost sneakily climbed to its feet. The thing did not join in the chase. Instead, the android slipped behind some stacks as if hiding from the proto-Builder and the other two androids.

  What could that mean?

  A hard smile twisted onto Maddox’s face. A surge of energy gave him enough strength to reach a new group of parked strikefighters, momentarily shielding him from the proto-Builder. He glanced back, grunting softly. Others might have screamed in terror at what he saw. The two weird clanking androids were almost upon him. Maddox didn’t know what else to do, so he turned as he sprinted anew and let himself fall onto his back.

  He slid along the floor, facing the two androids. He held the heavy combat rifle and started blasting the one in the face. The slugs dented the face, took out its optics—eyes—but finally the rifle clicked empty. Worse, Maddox came to a stop. The android with the shot-up face misjudged his position and kicked Maddox in the side hard enough to knock out the captain’s breath.

  However, the android tripped over the fallen captain. Because the thing was still running, the android flew airborne. It hit the deck with a clang and went screeching across it.

  The last android stopped, looked down at Maddox and reached for him. The captain moved like greased death. He swept the monofilament knife between them, the fantastic blade slicing through both metal wrists, cutting off the android’s hands, which fell onto Maddox.

  The oversized android drew back, raising its arms and staring at the stumps. That was long enough for Maddox to leap to his feet, take a ragged, gasping breath as his lungs starting working again, and cut the android in the side with the monofilament knife.

  The android attacked, jabbing with its metallic wrist-stumps, trying to hammer Maddox in the face or against his body. The captain dodged and ducked until his cut thigh pumped with bright red blood and his clothes were wet with sweat. As he gave the greatest athletic performance of his life, Maddox continued to cut the android, a single monofilament slice at a time.

  Finally, the android halted, swayed back and forth as sparks erupted from various deep slashes, and crashed to the deck in an unmoving heap.

  The other android had climbed to its feet and tried to blindly follow the fight. Maddox ducked its latest swipe and circled behind it. With a brutal slash, he lopped off its head, and brought that android crashing down as well.

  At that point, Maddox dropped to his knees, exhausted and gasping, the monofilament blade dropping from nerveless fingers so it clattered onto the deck. The captain was spent, his chest heaving. Slowly, he looked up.

  The girder-like proto-Builder loomed over him. The thing aimed its thorium palm-cannon a meter from his face.

  -56-

  The ancient AI software program of Galyan had entered an oversized metal man. The thing was an advanced Builder construct, greater than an android such as Yen Cho. There was room in the thing’s computer hardware for the Galyan identity, and enough speed to run what until now few computer systems had been powerful enough to achieve.

  Galyan had greater awareness in the super-android than he’d had in Ludendorff’s old computer. He had sat up as the android. He’d flexed his metal fingers and found sensation again as an android. It had awed him. After six thousand years… Well, he did not breathe again. But he did sense again in an advanced way that was far beyond what he had been able to do inside Victory. This was a marvel.

  Galyan might have spent a considerable time enjoying the new sensation, but he had seen the other two androids chasing Captain Maddox.

  It was much different seeing this from this perspective. It might not have seemed that it should be so different. Sensing data as a holoimage was much different than sensing it from inside the housing of an advanced Builder robot.

  Likely, in the entire galaxy, no race had created such lifelike androids. Not that this gleaming android seemed lifelike. The humanlike pseudo-skin and other advances would come later. Right now, the outer hull and inner computing had been put into place.

  In any case, Galyan had come to a swift conclusion as he’d hidden from the others on the hangar bay deck. Maddox was soon going to die. The proto-Builder, following the captain and the androids at a more leisurely pace, would ensure the human’s demise. What’s more, the proto-Builder would likely ask more from the ancient starship, more in the way of parts and advanced computing systems. That would mean that Galyan could never be whole again. The Adok computer system had been built for him, was him. Once the proto-Builder tore that down to give itself greater life and power—

  This was the moment to stop such desecration, to stop the destruction of the last living memory of the Adok Race.

  Galyan leaped up and sprinted on metallic feet to the nearest strikefighter. This one lay on its side. It had a crumpled hull. Galyan would need to effect hours of repair to get it flying again. But that wasn’t why he’d run here.

  As Maddox fired his rifle, as he dodged, ducked and weaved against a handless android, Galyan tore into the strikefighter. He dismantled part of the 30-mm cannon system. It was big. It was unwieldy and it was heavy.

  The now-Adok metal man cocked its gleaming head. What might Sergeant Riker say in a situation like this? The 30-mm cannon system was damn heavy.

  Yet, heavy as it was, Galyan’s new physical form had the strength to lift the main cannon. He had a belt chain of 30-mm shells. Taking one lurching, heavy step at a time, Galyan followed the proto-Builder as it watched the end of the battle between Maddox and the two androids.

  Now, the girder-shaped proto-Builder walked up and aimed its palm cannon in the captain’s face. It looked like the end for the greatest operative of Star Watch Intelligence.

  Galyan opened his metal mouth. After six thousand years, could he really talk again with his own body?

  “You!” Galyan shouted at full volume, which was horribly loud.

  It caused Captain Maddox on the floor to flinch. Then, the captain’s eyes grew huge. Did he recognize a familiar voice?

  The proto-Builder shuffled around. It was three and half times the size of a tall man and weighed many times more than that. While the proto-Builder’s legs and arms were primarily of girder-like construction, the main trunk and head had deck plates as skin casing. Galyan happened to know where the special cube was inside that frame. He had seen the cube, and witnessed it going from the artillery-shell-shaped robot to the infant Builder’s torso.

  Before the proto-Builder could fully face Galyan, the metal construct depressed the firing switch. The 30-mm strikefighter autocannon chugged its first shell. The kick from the shell caused Galyan to step back. The second shot caused him to step back twice, while the third made him stagger and caused the shell to blast at the ceiling.

  Finally, Galyan set himself, and he chugged one shell after another into the staggering proto-Builder. The thing tried to bring up its arm and palm cannon, but Galyan blasted the arm apart so it tore off and clunked onto the deck beside the proto-Builder.

  The belt-chain of shells kept feeding into the autocannon. The explosions from the striking shells took out pieces of proto-Builder. A force shield shimmered into existence. The shells overpowered it before the thing could solidify enough to stop them.

  Now, Galyan concentrated on the deck-plating torso cover. He blew away the layers and finally fired she
lls like a wild man. The explosions and blasts struck the amazing cube that was now visible, but the shells and blasts did not destroy the thing. The cube was made out of an indestructible substance. Perhaps some of the fully matured Builders of the past had worn such substance as skin.

  Galyan did not know. The guardian robot, the cube and Yen Cho had only been able to use the metals and materials at hand in Victory, not such a super-alloy.

  The cannon roared once more, and the cube blew out of the proto-Builder, tumbling across the hangar-bay decking.

  The great girder giant swayed where it stood, many parts of it blasted completely out of it. The thing swayed wider and wider, and suddenly, the remaining pieces, cables and parts seemed to become unglued, and the edifice of the proto-Builder came crashing down, junk raining everywhere.

  Galyan had done it. He had destroyed the new construct, although he had not yet destroyed the seed that had become the lifeforce of an infant Builder-creature.

  -57-

  Maddox watched, stunned, as the battle took place around him. He’d barely had enough wit to drag himself out of the way. From there, he had torn off his shirt and made a crude bandage to finally stop his thigh from bleeding.

  Why had the last supersized android turned against the proto-Builder? As the captain watched, he logically deduced what must have happened.

  The proto-Builder crashed to the deck, and a wondrous, pulsating cube dislodged and tumbled across the floor.

  At that, Maddox lurched to his feet. He was already beginning to stiffen, his muscles badly overworked. He got to his feet and began to hobble toward the pulsating cube.

  The gleaming super-android threw aside the unwieldy 30-mm autocannon. With a victorious stride, the heavy automaton strode toward the cube as well.

  Maddox hopped on his good leg, beating the android to it. He tried to scoop it off the floor but found it surprisingly heavy. It took both hands for him to lift it.