The Lost Tech Read online

  The warriors had shed their EVA gear, as the corridors down here had breathable air and heat. They were huge corridors, smooth and metallic, with lights embedded in the ceilings. The men had deposited the EVA equipment on an antigravity floater, with three warriors guarding it and bringing it up in the rear.

  The Merovingians had their fire-lances, hand-sized blasters and sonic grenades with three portable flamers for insurance. Rock and several other pilots used hand-scanners, testing the way ahead.

  “How much farther is the control room?” Dag asked Rock.

  The band had halted, nearly one hundred and fifty Merovingians in total.

  Rock rechecked his hand-scanner. “A little less than four kilometers,” he said.

  “Where is Surbus?” Dag wondered.

  “Maybe he’s gone,” Rock said.

  “If he used the Accelerator to take the Koniggratz into the Oort cloud, he would have needed a crew in the control room to open the way for him.”

  “We may have caught a break,” Rock said.

  Dag glanced back at his men; the Queen’s men, he amended. The terror of this place was less than before. With their scanners, the pilots had pinpointed several subsonic generators, and the warriors had blasted them. Also, the ill effects of the null region was supposed to be less down here.

  Dag grinned. They were close, and Surbus and the bulk of his men might be aboard the Koniggratz. That was good luck. If they could storm the control room—

  His heart beat faster.

  “For this, I was made,” Dag whispered. And yet, could Surbus have been so stupid as to leave the way open? Wouldn’t the Bosk realize the Queen would send them?

  Dag decided a little insurance was in order. “Tobias,” he called.

  The ex-Champion trotted to him.

  “Select nine men,” Dag said. “You will scout ahead of the party.”

  Tobias hesitated, and he moved his right hand onto the butt of his holstered blaster.

  “Is there a problem?” Dag asked softly.

  “No problem,” Tobias said angrily. “You’re hanging me out to dry by sending me out as a tripwire.”

  “No,” Dag said, putting a hand on the left side of Tobias’s neck. “I’m giving you the chance to play the hero. Do you not thrill at the opportunity?”

  “You will not be rid of me so easily,” Tobias said.

  Dag squeezed the man’s neck. “Tobias, don’t be stupid. I saved your life on the surface. I’ve saved your life from the beginning. You should recognize that. I won’t throw your life away now. Rather, I’m giving you a vital mission because you’re the best man for the job.”

  Tobias did not wince under Dag’s grip, but he breathed faster.

  “You used to treat me ill, remember?” Dag asked. “Yet, I have treated you well. Now, you can earn my praise. Act honorably and with courage. Can you do that?”

  “Salt in the wounds,” Tobias muttered.

  Dag tightened his grip. “Misplaced pride.”

  Tobias winced and gasped, “Mercy.”

  Dag released him. “Pick nine men. Tell me when you’re ready. This has all been too easy. I suspect a trap. You’ll save the company by your alertness, and maybe you’ll save your tarnished reputation.”

  Tobias seemed to master himself. He made a fist and thumped his breastplate with it. “I hear and obey, Champion. It shall be done.”

  Tobias turned away to select his nine.

  Five minutes later, the company began to move again. Tobias and his nine jogged ahead of the main group until they vanished in the tunnels ahead.

  At that point, Rock stopped short, staring at his hand-scanner in shock. He turned and stared at Dag.

  The Champion noticed, and worry blossomed in his heart.

  Rock bit his lower lip, hesitated and finally jogged to Dag. “Champion, you should see this.”

  “Halt!” Dag called.

  The company came to a stop, although Tobias still forged ahead somewhere.

  “Look at this,” Rock said, showing him the hand-scanner.

  Surbus grinned out of the tiny screen. It looked as if he sat on a chair on a ship’s bridge.

  Dag looked up sharply at Rock. “Surbus is on the Koniggratz.”

  “I heard that,” Surbus said. “Captain Maddox warned me you’d landed on the planet. I killed the captain. Now, I’m about to kill you. Are you the leader of the invaders?”

  “I’m the Champion Dag. If you’re aboard the Koniggratz, it means you’re not down here.”

  “What fantastic logic, Champion,” Surbus said with a sneer. “I see Meyers choose a brilliant tactician.”

  “If you’re in space—”

  “You fool,” Surbus said. “I’ve already contacted the control-room team. You’ll never make it to them. Do you think I haven’t anticipated this moment a thousand times?”

  “So why bother talking to me?” Dag asked.

  “Let’s join forces, Champion. I need more men. Star Watch is ready to pay me trillions. They’re frightened of the Inertialess Accelerator, and for good reason. I’ve toyed with them. But any time I desire, I can take the null region into the Asteroid Belt and pound their planet into dust.”

  “Why tell me?”

  “You can’t be an idiot. This place consumes people, devouring them in short order. I have to come down because I can’t stay aboard the battleship. The only real safety is in the control room.”

  “Which I’m about to conquer,” Dag said.

  “Think a minute,” Surbus said. “Do you believe I would have dared to strike out on my own if I hadn’t discovered several amazing tech items? I know Lisa Meyers. She’s a relentless bitch. She’s angry with me and no doubt gave you gruesome orders concerning my demise.”

  “Forward!” Dag shouted, waving his arm forward.

  The company rose and continued to march.

  “You’re going to your doom, Champion,” Surbus said. “I know the tunnels. I’ve had months to get ready. Don’t think you caught me by surprise.”

  “But I do think that,” Dag said.

  “You’re forcing my hand.”

  “I’m loyal to the Queen.”

  “Then you’re a damned fool. She uses us. She hates men, real men. Throw your lot in with me, and I’ll make you second-in-command. I’m about to become the richest person in the universe.”

  “Meyers will hunt you down.”

  “I don’t think so. All Star Watch hates her, and they’ve found a way to get into the null region. Didn’t you hear me before? I slew Captain Maddox. He was prowling around the ring. No more, though. I took care of that.”

  “You don’t have any men left, do you?” Dag asked. “By men, I mean Merovingians. We’re the only ones that can survive in this planet for long.”

  On the tiny screen, Surbus turned to the side. He shook his head and then pleaded with his eyes at Dag. “Do we have a deal?”

  “Sure,” Dag said. “Surrender your ship, and bring yourself down here. The Queen would love to have a word with you.”

  “I tried, Champion. I really did. Now, though—” Surbus looked to the side once more, and he nodded to someone unseen.

  “Is that supposed to frighten me?” Dag asked.

  Surbus sneered at him, and the connection flickered off.

  Dag handed the scanner-comm back to Rock. Rock took it, and he looked troubled.

  “I’m not a liar,” Dag said. “I don’t try to trick my foes. I’m a warrior, a fighter, a—”

  Horrific screams rebounded down the corridor ahead. There was the sound of blaster fire, and then more blood-curdling screams.

  “Tobias,” Dag said. He turned around, but he saw that his warriors were already armed and set.

  The screams came again, sounds of awful pain.

  “Follow me!” Dag roared, and he started down the corridor toward the screams.

  -54-

  From out of the corridor ahead, a Merovingian sprinted with exaggerated strides. He did not carry a
lance, a blaster or even a sonic grenade. It would seem the enemy had torn the weapons from him, or he had pitched them aside so he could sprint like the wind. As he ran, the Merovingian tore the helmet from his head and threw it backward. It sailed, and something struck the helmet, batting it. The helmet sailed past the runner, and he moaned with dread. His eyes were wide, and spittle flew from his gaping maw. It was Tobias, and he ran alone.

  “Halt,” Dag shouted to the company. “Front row on one knee. Next row, be ready to fire.”

  Tobias ran, and five skeletal things raced after him. They did not wear clothes. They seemed inhuman, but the slits between their legs made them appear female. Their skin was translucent, their muscles practically nonexistent. Their deathlike faces showed no expressions. Their eyes were black dots, emotionless. These must have been some kind of zombie cyborg, enslaved creatures that ran faster than a pack of cheetahs.

  Tobias sobbed with effort, straining to reach the company.

  The foremost zombie leapt, sailing like a great cat, and landed on Tobias’s back, bringing him down to slide across the floor. With skeletal fingers, she grasped his head and wrenched awfully, twisting it around and snapping his spine.

  The other four cyborg-zombies raced at the company.

  “Front rank, fire!” Dag roared.

  The fire-lances belched flames that arched and splashed, hitting nothing. The skeletal creatures had inhuman quickness, dodging the fire.

  “Blasters!” Dag roared, as he dug a blaster from his hip holster.

  The zombie creatures sprinted and leapt—sailing into the company of Merovingians.

  Dag targeted one and shot her in the chest. The blast tore flesh and synthetic material, exposing steel ribs. Then, she landed upon a Merovingian and slew the warrior as she had Tobias, wrenching his head half around, snapping bones.

  These were hardy, exceptionally strong warriors. But their human muscles were as nothing compared to the wires and steel that moved the skeletal limbs of the zombies at frenzied speed and strength.

  Dag stepped up to one who was busy killing a Merovingian, aimed at the back of her head and fired, fired until her skull smoldered and she began to flop like a fish out of water.

  The skeletal she-zombies slaughtered more Merovingians. But the warriors did not break. They fought back with teeth, with fists and knives if they could pull them out fast enough. Several jumped a lone zombie, slashing, kicking and thrusting with a lance.

  Dag killed another of them the same way he had the first, blasting it in the back of the head time and again.

  Finally, the last bizarre creature perished to the superior numbers and weapons of the Merovingians.

  Dag was appalled to discover that a sixth of his warriors was dead. It was inconceivable. Five skeletal she-zombies should not have been able to do that without weapons.

  Fortunately, Rock was among the living. He handed the scanner back to Dag.

  Dag gripped it, staring at a smug Surbus.

  “I tried to warn you,” Surbus said. “I have more of them, of course. I can unleash twenty next time.”

  Dag was already working out a method to kill twenty, if the she-zombies used the same tactics. It would mean using the portable flamers to create a wall of death. He shouldn’t have let the creatures get so close.

  “Are you listening to me, Champion?” Surbus asked. “This is a Hell World, a subterranean hall of horrors. We found those amazon things three weeks ago. I lost twenty-two men to the one we woke before we figured out how to use them. You can see that I don’t have enough to men to keep searching for more horrors, or prizes down here. But if you joined me…”

  “You said you’re leaving the null region,” Dag said.

  “I did, and I am. That doesn’t mean I’m not collecting a few things to guard my back for later.”

  “Did you use the zombies to keep your men in the control room?” Dag asked. “Were the things prowling outside the control room all this time?”

  Surbus scowled, but he wiped that away with his hand. “Don’t be absurd. The control room allows me to use the Inertialess Accelerator. I need trusted men there. But listen, Dag. That is your name, isn’t it?”

  “What do you want now?” Dag said.

  “I’m coming down,” Surbus said. “I have to leave the Koniggratz for now. Do we have a deal or not?”

  “Sure…” Dag heard himself say. “We have a deal.”

  “I’m going to send a man. You’ll have to leave all your weapons with him. If you don’t do that, I’ll unleash another wave of she-zombies. You’ll all die. Don’t try to screw with me, Dag, and you’ll do fine. Try to play Meyers’s little hero, and one of those creatures will rip out your throat.”

  “Send your man,” Dag said.

  Surbus eyed him, and the Bosk captain shook his head. “I tried. You have to admit I tried.”

  “What are you talking about? I’ve agreed to your terms.”

  “Meyers chose a blockhead, I see. You don’t know the first thing about lying. You haven’t asked for assurances. You haven’t protested about me having you rendered weaponless. You’re a fool, Dag, a big dumb brute of a fool.”

  “And you’re a dead man,” Dag said, his temper rising at being called dumb.

  “If you think—”

  With his thumb, Dag cut the connection.

  Rock stared at him. “We might have used some cunning to lure Surbus to us.”

  “Screw that!” Dag said. “I’ll kill a thousand of those she-zombies. Now, listen, here’s how we’re going to do this…”

  -55-

  Maddox eased the shuttle out of the maze of tubes, pyramids and pieces of junk caused from the Koniggratz’s disruptor cannon. He had to concentrate, with Meta giving him sensor warnings of small pieces of debris floating in their way.

  “There,” Ludendorff said. The Methuselah Man worked a different sensor board, trying to find Koniggratz probes or waiting mines.

  Maddox checked his gun panel, which controlled a small cannon that could fire 30mm shells. He accepted a trace from Ludendorff and fired the gun, sending three shells…

  A mine exploded before the shells reached it.

  “There are more mines out there,” Ludendorff said.

  Inside his helmet, Maddox bared his teeth. Maybe the nullity affected the Koniggratz mines, making them more effective than usual. At Ludendorff’s direction, Maddox sent shells at four more. Each time, the mine exploded before the shell reached it.

  “They have to see those explosions back on the Koniggratz,” Ludendorff said. “Meta, what are they doing?”

  Meta glanced at Maddox.

  He nodded.

  For the next few minutes, Maddox strained to detect any debris in the shuttle’s flight path as he flew toward the giant ring without Meta’s help.

  “Nothing from the Koniggratz,” Meta said, as she studied her panel. “We’re in direct line-of-fire with the battleship, but we’re outside the disruptor cannon’s range. They haven’t launched any missiles yet.”

  “Maybe the ship personnel have departed the Koniggratz,” Ludendorff said. “That would align with your theory that they can’t stay in the nullity for long.”

  “The photon suits are our key advantage,” Maddox said for the umpteenth time.

  “I’m beginning to believe you, my boy. However, the nullity is draining our little shuttle. We definitely have a time limit ourselves unless we can repower.”

  “How long?” asked Maddox.

  “It’s still in the hours,” Ludendorff said. “I’m just saying. We can’t flit around out here for too much longer. Do we have to regain Victory before this is over? If so, that limits us even more”

  “We have to win first,” Maddox said. “That’s the priority.”

  “By win, you mean even if we die doing it?”

  “As a last option, yes,” Maddox said.

  “I suppose a man like you would think like that,” Ludendorff said. “Perhaps that is the fundamental diff
erence between you and me. You’re so shortsighted about events. I take the long view, knowing there is always a second chance, a tomorrow—if I stay alive, that is.”

  “How jolly good for you,” Maddox said. “Meta, start scanning ahead of the shuttle again. I think Surbus and crew have left the Koniggratz. Now’s the time for us to reach the ring, if we can.”

  “What’s your plan?” Ludendorff asked.

  Maddox turned to him. “In all these years, has it ever varied? We find a Builder artifact—pyramid or ring, it doesn’t matter—and we board it, seeing what we can see.”

  “Hmm…I was afraid you might say that.”

  “You’re not up for it?” asked Maddox.

  “I feel so damn tired, and I have a headache that won’t go away. Am I up for it? If I’m not, we’re going to lose.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Maddox said.

  The shuttle left the junkyard of shapes and debris as it approached the ring. In the distance were the carefully lined up spacecraft. Behind the junkyard was the planet, with the Koniggratz orbiting it.

  “How can the ring strip objects of their inertia?” Meta asked.

  “By some new principle, obviously,” Ludendorff said. “Yet, you strike to the heart of the matter, my dear. The ring is a prize, a wondrous technological marvel from the era of the Builders. It seems a great shame to destroy it.”

  “Could the ring allow the Hormagaunt to leave the null region?” Maddox said.

  “Theoretically, I don’t see why not,” Ludendorff said. “The Koniggratz comes and goes through the ring, why not a nightmare creature from the dawn of time?”

  Maddox glanced at the professor.

  “Yes, yes, if you think I’m playing on your sense of right and wrong, you’re correct,” Ludendorff said. “Will you really let the Hormagaunt run free in the Solar System?”

  “I plan to free it from the null region,” Maddox said.

  “Which is not a direct answer, my boy. Now, see here—”

  “Professor,” Maddox said sharply.