The Lost Artifact Read online

  “I’ll take my chances,” Maddox said.

  “I should warn you. You will not find anything useful there.”

  “Give me something better, then.”

  “I have nothing more to give,” Yen Cho said.

  “I doubt that.”

  “Ah. You fear me?”

  “Yen Cho…my patience has a limit.”

  “I know. Thus, here are the coordinates.” And he told Maddox.

  “I will have the guards bring you some games,” Maddox said, standing.

  “Computer games?” the android asked.

  “No computers, but some board games the crew plays now and again. It might help relieve your boredom.”

  “I am unfamiliar with the sensation, as I lack an emotions program.”

  “Still,” Maddox said. “It’s my way of showing you that things can improve if you cooperate.”

  “Noted,” the android said.

  With that, Maddox departed. It was time to head for the Lycon System.

  -10-

  The clone Strand spent a week and a half in a small but powerful spacecraft, zipping through seldom-used Laumer Points, hopping from one star system to another. By far, the greater amount of time was in traveling through the various systems, getting to the next jump-route entrance.

  He accessed information where he could. He came across a Spacer flotilla fleeing Human Space. Strand’s cloaking proved superior to the Spacer tech, and he managed to crack a computer from one of the older saucer-shaped vessels.

  The clone learned about the Swarm Invasion Fleet. He learned about the alien Destroyers, the Juggernauts and the alliance of the New Men with the Commonwealth of Planets. The most amazing data was the explosion of Alpha Centauri A that had wiped out most of the Swarm Fleet.

  “Impressive,” Strand said, sitting back in a chair aboard his spacecraft.

  How had Star Watch managed such an exploding-star trick? Could they duplicate the feat, or was it a one-of-a-kind maneuver?

  He realized that much had changed in the universe since his father—the original—had downloaded his memories into the alien machine that had passed it on to him. The clone needed to learn more about what had happened out here since the original had done the memory downloading.

  Strand debated revealing himself to the Spacers until a memory caused him to reject the idea. The Spacers hated Methuselah Men. Any data he might win in an exchange with them would soon be nullified as they attempted to murder him.

  Thus, Strand went his way, and the Spacer flotilla went its way deeper into the Beyond.

  The clone kept away from the Throne World of the New Men. He did not want anything to do with them yet. The New Men were too dangerous, too cunning and filled with ability for him to deal with them with anything less than his full capacity. Their amazing supremacy was all due to him—to his father, really.

  Strand shook his head and then clutched it with both hands. He was Strand. He needed to regard himself as the original.

  He sat at the controls and looked out at the stars. He was so far from home.

  Strand snorted to himself. Home? He regarded Earth as his home. Yet, as a clone, he had never set foot there. It didn’t matter. Everything in him screamed a billion remembrances from Earth.

  After some deep thought, Strand shrugged. He was unique. That meant such things were simply a part of his heritage. Acceptance was better than anguish.

  The journey continued as he headed toward Human Space. Soon, he began using regular-route Laumer Points. He passed a freighter and tapped into its computer net.

  The freighter soon used a different Laumer Route, leaving the system. Strand studied his stolen freighter-computer data for days. He began to analyze it in depth. Later, he began to have certain suspicions.

  Finally, he left the Beyond and entered Human Space. It time he reached the Indian world of Brahma, noted for its excellent educational facilities. Doctor Dana Rich had originated from here. She was Professor Ludendorff’s prized pupil and favorite lover.

  Strand landed, using a forged identity, and went to one of the better universities. He paid a fee and began using study computers. He absorbed data like a sponge. It was one of his greatest powers. He rented computer time, wrote an advanced program and fed the data through the computer program. Later, he studied the results.

  After two days, he departed the Brahma System with a new certainty. The longer he thought about the main result, the more it bothered him. He could not accept what the data had shown him.

  The Commonwealth of Planets—the regular humans—had done more to defeat the Swarm Invasion Fleet than the battlefleet of star cruisers from the Throne World of New Men.

  The program hinted at something even worse. The New Men had lost their great edge over the old-style humans, the edge that he, Strand, had given them many years ago. Yes, the New Men were still stronger, faster, smarter and more worthy of existence than the old-style humans, but they could no longer dominate the regular humans the way they used to. It would even appear that given enough time, the lower-order humans would defeat and possibly subjugate the greater and purer race of New Men.

  Strand understood that his unique greatness meant that probably only he recognized the danger to the New Men. The thing was he needed a more powerful predictor to be sure about this. But once he was one hundred percent certain…

  Strand rose from his seat and went to the bay window of his spacecraft. He stared at the stars. He had created the New Men. He had fashioned them into something greater than mere humanity. Ludendorff had helped him in the beginning. The professor had lost his courage over time. In fact, Ludendorff had argued that the New Men were too specialized. The fact that they couldn’t even conceive females was a fatal flaw, he said. The New Men were stronger in some ways than normal humans, but they were a brittle weapon according to Ludendorff.

  The professor had gone on to argue that even though the humans were weaker as individuals, they were better able to face a multitude of challenges across the ages.

  “The New Men will die out in time,” Ludendorff had told Strand. “Like mammalian cockroaches, the common humans will last across the ages.”

  On the spacecraft, Strand clasped his hands behind his back and shook his head. “I reject such thinking,” he told the stars. “My creation of the New Men is greater than any combination of humanity. And I am going to make sure that remains true.”

  While stating his truth, a grim smile stole over the clone’s face. The inkling he’d had in the alien structure in the neutron star system began to harden into a cause.

  The Commonwealth had just been ravaged by war. The mass death in the Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri Systems would have created severe stresses. It would seem that fear of another Swarm invasion might also severely stress the Commonwealth.

  Strand raised his right hand and slowly made a fist. He must continue to strike at the core of the Commonwealth until it shattered. He did not know yet how he would do that. He needed greater computing power—

  His eyes alit with a fierce glow. He knew what he must do.

  Strand licked his lips. It would be incredibly dangerous. It would be a grave risk to him and possibly to the human race. Yet, he needed monstrous computing power to analyze and predict the future.

  Many of his old secret stations and bases were gone. He would have to use the terrible standby, the one he had told himself for many centuries that he should destroy. But he had never destroyed it because of the possibility of a time like this.

  With grim purpose etching across his youthful features, Strand whirled around, stalking to his piloting seat. He was going to change course, head back out into the Beyond and…

  His fingers blurred across the controls. He was going to take the greatest risk of his long career. The anticipation of it curdled his guts and made him grin with delight.

  This was living, attempting something great in order to ensure that his creation outlived everything else.

  -11-


  Victory cruised on battle alert as it entered the so-called Lycon System, undoubtedly named by the New Men.

  Maddox would have liked to make the journey in record time. He hadn’t, because he had paused in the middle of the voyage to give his crew a rest. Too many people had come down with headaches, and some of them had soon started vomiting in spite of interventions by medical.

  The extended jumps had finally taken their toll. The starship was already seriously shorthanded after the murderous suffocation by the Builder cube. Thus, Maddox could not afford so many under-par crewmembers.

  For three days, they had waited in a nearby star system. Now, they moved through velocity alone in the Lycon System.

  Valerie scanned with passive sensors. Galyan searched for cloaked vessels. There were no visible ships present. The underground base on the oversized moon of the third gas giant did not radiate any energy signatures they could find.

  “That isn’t necessarily telling,” Maddox said on the bridge. “Strand always meant to keep the base hidden. I’m wondering if this is a trap.”

  Valerie looked up from her scanning instruments. “You think the original Strand could have devised something to happen here after the clone-release base detonated?”

  “Possibly,” Maddox said.

  Valerie seemed to think about that before she redoubled her scanning efforts. “This is interesting,” she said later. “I’m picking up a curious reading, a concentration of metals on the targeted moon.”

  Maddox was instantly out of the command chair and by her station. He looked over her shoulder as she continued scanning.

  “Captain,” Valerie said. “This looks like debris from a possible demolition of an underground complex.”

  He read it the same way, but wondered if that was to lure them closer. He knew a person could become too paranoid. With Strand, it was hard to know the right balance.

  “We’ll continue toward the moon at our present velocity for another few hours,” he said. “Keep scanning. Keep on your toes. The more we want something, the less likely we’re going to get it easily.”

  Galyan looked up. “That is superstitious,” the holoimage said.

  “Perhaps,” Maddox said. “Yet, I have found it to be true.”

  ***

  The ancient Adok starship cruised on its built-up velocity for another fifteen hours. No one found any sign of enemy ships, any energy leakage or other signs of active use of the star system.

  Maddox finally ordered outright acceleration for the third gas giant. He could have gotten there faster through star-drive jumping. At this point, however, he wanted to build up his crew’s reserves again. They had been through a wringer of jumps. What if a real emergency happened and he had an exhausted crew?

  A day passed and then another. Victory began to decelerate as the starship approached the gas giant.

  “The Lycon System is deserted,” Galyan announced as they slid into the moon’s orbit.

  “I’m inclined to agree,” Maddox said. “If Strand had a base down there, somebody, likely the New Men, already demolished it.”

  “Will they have removed all useful evidence?” Valerie asked.

  “We have to go down and check,” Maddox said. “But we’re going to remain cautious. We’ll use a probe like before.”

  “I second that, Captain,” Valerie said.

  “Your favorable opinion is noted, Lieutenant.”

  “I hope I didn’t overstep myself in saying that, sir.”

  Maddox did not answer.

  By her station, Valerie blushed. Just when Maddox started seeming like a normal person, he pulled something like that. She had to learn to keep her mouth shut around him. One never knew what the captain was going to do next.

  ***

  The probe showed what Maddox suspected, a demolished underground base. No new detonations occurred while the probe nosed around. There were no waiting lasers, sonic blasts or high radiation pockets.

  “The base is empty,” Galyan reported. Using an advanced technique, he had gone down as a holoimage and looked around.

  The others were in the conference chamber, listening to his report.

  “I found a few sealed areas, places the demolition teams either overlooked or were not concerned enough to try to find.

  “Any indication about who destroyed the base?” Maddox asked.

  “I suspect the original Strand’s former prisoners,” Galyan said. “There is a random pattern to the destruction and more than a few corpses. I believe the inmates fought and killed some of their own. There are signs of quick takeoffs, people likely escaping in the few shuttles or hidden vessels kept at the base.”

  “Why wouldn’t the New Men have come here?” Maddox asked. “Darius surely knew about the base?”

  Darius had been a New Man under Strand’s mental control, one that Maddox had freed in the Sind System. Darius had taken the Methuselah Man to the Throne World for the captain.

  “Should we talk to Yen Cho again?” Andros asked.

  “Not yet,” Maddox said. “I want to go down to the base and look around.”

  “That will take time,” Valerie said.

  “That’s one of the tricks to intelligence work,” Maddox said. “One has to know when to take his time and look closely and when to let a thing go and rush to the next place. This is one of the times we need to comb the place for clues.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Valerie said. “This place is the only lead we have.”

  “Galyan,” Maddox said, “do you have anything to add?”

  “I wish Professor Ludendorff were here,” the Adok said. “He would know what to do.”

  “Ludendorff might also give us other problems to worry us,” Maddox said. “We must use our combined intellects to solve the puzzle ourselves. And solve it we will.”

  Maddox did not add the “or.” They all knew the clock was ticking. If this lead came up empty…time might defeat them before they could come up with another.

  -12-

  The days passed in endless sifting through the wreckage of the underground moon base. Maddox went down wearing two-ton combat armor. Andros went down in a science suit. Galyan searched. They found items and scanned them. There was a disrupter cannon component and several key pieces to what seemed like a new cloaking device. There was shield-generating equipment, a storage room full of mind nets to control New Men and a smashed computer. Galyan tested the few workable parts but found nothing interesting on them.

  Days passed as they dug deeper. Kidnapped Lore Fallows had been here. New Men had labored under extreme duress. Galyan found an intact room with bizarre equipment. Andros declared the equipment had likely been used to hypnotize unfortunate prisoners.

  Finally, six days after landing on the moon, Maddox admitted to himself that he was discouraged. Whoever had demolished the base had likely destroyed anything of use to their mission.

  He went upstairs to the ship and spoke to Yen Cho in his cell.

  “Where could the Nameless Ones technology be hidden?” the captain asked.

  “If I knew,” Yen Cho said, “I would tell you.”

  In the end, Maddox returned to the science chamber. Andros and Galyan had not been there lately. The other scientists were unable to give Maddox any good news regarding the cube.

  “Builder,” Maddox said.

  The screen connected to the cube showed the same ancient image of a shadowy Builder.

  Maddox waited.

  No voice was forthcoming.

  “If the Nameless Ones returned to Human Space,” Maddox said, “would that retard your future plans of rebirth as a Builder?”

  A brighter swirl of light appeared on the cube’s edges. The speaker in the screen activated.

  “The possibility exists,” the cube said, speaking at last.

  “In that case, logically, it would be in your self-interest to help us stop the Nameless Ones from returning here.”

  “Is that what you think?” the cube asked.
/>   “I would appreciate greater clarity as to your meaning,” Maddox said.

  “An ancient signal would not necessarily cause the Nameless Ones to return to this region of space anytime soon. Do you know anything regarding the habits of the Nameless Ones?”

  “Not enough to call myself an expert on their behavior,” Maddox said.

  “I have scanned my oldest data,” the cube said. “You have left me with very little else to do. Was that by design?”

  “You are correct,” Maddox said.

  “In this instance, I do not know if you are lying or telling the truth. You have a propensity to lie under stressful conditions, particularly to those you consider your adversaries. I deem myself in that category.”

  Maddox waited.

  “The Nameless Ones appear to lead a dreadful existence,” the cube said. “You are likely familiar with the reason why.”

  “The Ska,” Maddox said, flatly.

  “Indeed,” the cube said. “The Ska appears to lash them to endless mayhem. The evil entities appear to do this through creating heightened xenophobia in the Nameless Ones regarding all other species. Thus, the Nameless Ones desire to eliminate all other living organisms. We Builders suspect the Nameless Ones have an inflated view of their righteousness in this.”

  “That seems an odd way to say it,” Maddox said.

  “I do not say anything without meaning it exactly.”

  “You are precise,” Maddox said. “I, of course, expect no less from you.”

  “Due to my exalted Builder status?” asked the cube.

  “Yes.”

  “In this, I believe you. Your own hybrid nature makes you keenly aware of other beings’ superiority. That creates a conflict in you. Were you aware of this?”

  “I had a suspicion,” Maddox said.

  “Suspect no longer,” the cube said. “I have given you a truth concerning yourself.”

  “Can you lie?” Maddox asked.

  “Excuse me?” the cube asked.

  “Are you capable of stating a mistruth?”

  “Certainly, I am capable of it.”