The Lost Artifact Read online

  “Excellent work, Captain,” the cube said. “I imagine you now desire the code that allows you into the post.”

  Maddox waited for it.

  “There is a small wrinkle to this I am not sure you will appreciate,” the cube said. “We are discussing Builder property. I cannot simply give up such high-level technology to relative primitives. You might run amok with such tech.”

  “The last part is correct,” Maddox said. “I am about to run amok.”

  “I understand your latent threat regarding me,” the cube said. “Surely, you knew I would want safeguards regarding the listening post.”

  Maddox did not reply.

  “Your silence is noted,” the cube said. “I…request that Yen Cho join your away team. The android will enter the code at the location. He will then lead you to the needed computing core, carrying the specified items back to me here.”

  “Why Yen Cho?” Maddox asked.

  “That should be obvious. He will treat the objects with the proper respect. He will ensure that none of you attempt to remove further items. I should warn you that if you attempt to remove any item without first entering a code, the comet will detonate, taking all of you with it.”

  “Anything else?” Maddox asked.

  “That is all. Do you agree to my terms?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said.

  “Such a quick agreement is unwarranted. Why the sudden change in attitude, Captain?”

  “My attitude toward you remains the same,” Maddox said. “It is simply my actions that have shifted.”

  “I understand. You are a being wise, Captain. Our time is even more limited than before.”

  “Maddox out,” the captain said, cutting the connection.

  “You took that remarkably well,” Galyan said.

  Maddox stood. “Two can play at that game, predicting a being’s actions.”

  “You predicted the cube would take such an action?” Galyan asked.

  Maddox gave a quick head-shake and smiled as he pointed at Keith. Then, he turned, heading for the exit.

  ***

  Valerie commanded as the starship approached the comet. Soon, Victory was 12,000 kilometers from it, decelerating in order to match velocity with the dirty ice-ball.

  Inside a shuttle in the hangar bay, Maddox watched as the outer hatch opened.

  “Ready for liftoff,” Keith said from the piloting chair.

  “Go,” Maddox told him.

  Keith manipulated his panel, the shuttle lifting from the deck and sliding toward the stars. Soon, they accelerated from the starship, heading toward the giant comet.

  Since the comet was in deep space, far from the star or any other source of heat, the comet had neither corona nor tail. Like Halley’s Comet, this one was peanut-shaped. It was 32 kilometers, by 15.6 and 17.1 kilometers. It had a rubble-pile structure, meaning that it wasn’t a monolith like the Moon or the Earth. Instead, it was composed of various pieces of rock, ice and other chunks of space debris that had coalesced under the influence of gravity. It had open areas and others where its elements had abutted but could easily move apart if enough force was thrust against them.

  The away team was small, Keith and Maddox and Yen Cho, who had spoken privately with the cube. The captain already wore combat armor. Keith had a regular spacesuit, as he would stay on the shuttle unless there was an emergency. The android wore a regular spacesuit even though he had requested a combat suit.

  “I am perplexed,” Yen Cho said, using his shortwave helmet communicator.

  “I know,” Maddox said. “You’re wondering why it’s going to just be you and me in the listening post.”

  “That is correct,” Yen Cho said. “You have kept me locked away all this time. Now, you and I shall be alone in the post. While wearing combat armor, do you believe yourself my superior?”

  “I’m not worried about it either way,” Maddox said.

  The android cocked his helmeted head. “I find that difficult to believe.”

  Maddox remained silent.

  “You have nothing to say to that?”

  “Why should I?” Maddox asked. “Believe what you wish.”

  “Do you not see the dichotomy between your various actions?” Yen Cho asked.

  “Can I tell him, sir?” Keith asked.

  “If you want,” Maddox said.

  “Hey, big shot,” Keith said, “the captain’s not worried because you’re carrying a bomb. If you get out of line, boom, you’re meat—or metal, in your case.”

  “Is this true?” Yen Cho asked Maddox.

  “Do you believe it’s true?” the captain asked.

  “What bearing does that have on the situation?”

  “If you believe it,” Maddox said, “it should modify your behavior. If you don’t, it won’t.”

  “And if I chose not to believe it?” Yen Cho asked.

  “That would depend on your actions,” Maddox said.

  Yen Cho was silent for a time. “When were you going to tell me about the bomb?”

  “I don’t know that I would have told you.”

  “That is unethical.”

  “Perhaps now you have greater understanding of how we humans feel about androids when they pull their unethical maneuvers against us.”

  Once more, Yen Cho fell silent, until he said, “Are you attempting to teach me a lesson, Captain?”

  “I’m attempting to save all of us from Strand’s arrogance. You do your part, and you may survive in one piece. If you can derive a lesson from that…that’s fine with me.”

  For a time, the conversation ceased as the three watched the approaching comet. Soon, a red light blinked on Keith’s board.

  “Something over there is curious about us,” the ace said.

  “If you will permit me, Captain?” Yen Cho asked.

  Servomotors whined as Maddox indicated the shuttle’s comm panel.

  The suited android rose, approached the board and studied it, finally tapping in a sequence.

  A green light appeared on Keith’s board. “It’s no longer targeting us,” the ace said. “Looks like we’re free to continue.”

  “Yes,” Yen Cho said. “We have passed the first layer of defense.”

  “How many more are there?” Keith asked.

  “Two.”

  As the red light blinked again, Yen Cho tapped in other coded sequences. Soon, the shuttle orbited the comet from a short distance. Keith spied a metal area squeezed between several icy regions.

  “The listening post moved the ices that had shielded it from direct view,” Yen Cho said. “It is unlikely you would have spotted the post on your own.”

  Keith applied thrust, and they eased toward the metal area. The comet no longer looked peanut-shaped; they were close enough now that it filled the port window.

  “Stop here,” Maddox said.

  Keith applied thrust until the shuttle came to a dead stop in relation to the comet.

  “I do not understand,” Yen Cho said. “We must land on the comet if we are to collect the needed equipment.”

  “There’s been a slight change in plans,” Maddox said. “You and I are going the rest of the way on an assault sled.”

  “But… As you wish,” Yen Cho finished.

  Maddox’s servomotors whined as the captain stood. “Let’s get to it.”

  -31-

  Yen Cho piloted the assault sled toward the comet. Maddox sat in back.

  The assault sled was like a giant space snowmobile with room for three combat-suited marines. It had a shield in front and a thruster in the rear. White hydrogen particles expelled from the nozzle, inching them to the metal area in the rubble pile.

  “Is anything alive in the listening post?” Maddox asked via shortwave.

  “I highly doubt it.”

  “Have you ever been in one of these before?”

  “Never,” Yen Cho said.

  “Did you even know they existed?”

  “I did not.”

  “Do y
ou think the Builder cube is telling us the truth?” Maddox asked.

  “I am curious, Captain. Does the act of flying together like this near a Builder outpost bond two humans?”

  “I suppose it might.”

  “Do you find yourself bonding to me?” Yen Cho asked.

  “By asking the question you already have your answer.”

  “I take it you mean no. In that case, I do not understand your various queries. Why do you think I would give you a different answer out here than in a cell on Victory?”

  “Are you afraid of the Builder cube?” Maddox asked. “He once asked that I destroy you in front of him.”

  “Quite the contrary,” Yen Cho said. “I adore the cube. It is made in the image of one of my creators. I serve the cube to the best of my ability, as one day it may hatch into a new Builder.”

  “Do you think the Methuselah Men feel the same way about the Builders as you do?”

  “On no account,” Yen Cho said. “But the Methuselah Men were not made in the image of the creators. The Builders modified the Methuselah Men in order to have them perform specific functions. That is a vast difference.”

  “In that case,” Maddox said, “it seems to me that the Builders failed to properly modify the Methuselah Men.”

  “You have a valid point, Captain. However, I believe the failure was due to mankind’s inherently flawed nature. Not even the Builders could fix the warp in the human soul, although it was heroic of the Builders to try.”

  “That’s one way to look at it.”

  “What would you call the Builder attempt?”

  “Hubristic.”

  “Is that another way to say foolish?”

  Maddox did not answer.

  “This has been an interesting conversation, Captain.”

  Maddox tensed. Was this the moment the android would turn treacherous?

  “But I must concentrate,” Yen Cho added. “The last leg of the journey could prove difficult. According to what I am detecting, it has been a thousand years or more since anyone entered the outpost. Certain functions may have deteriorated. If that is so, the outpost may eliminate us out of hand.”

  “Then, earn your pay, Yen Cho.”

  The android did not respond. He was too busy manipulating his comm and braking at the same time.

  ***

  Thirteen minutes later, the assault sled passed through an opening that had dialed open in the wall of metal. The sled entered a large chamber of reflective metal. Yen Cho manipulated the controls. Their forward momentum ceased as the sled began to sink.

  Maddox felt a strange sense of deja vu. The place reminded him of the Dyson Sphere. He couldn’t pinpoint why. Maybe it was the clean Builder feeling and a sense of great age, and something else difficult to define. The difficult sense—his heart fluttered as pain spiked in his chest.

  The captain gritted his teeth as he recalled the Ska, and the terrible wounding in his soul as he’d battled it using a Builder-designed weapon.

  As the pain in his heart retreated, Maddox remembered his guilt in killing billions of people in the Alpha Centauri System. He did not like the feeling and wished it would go away.

  A jolt brought Maddox out of the memory. Yen Cho had grounded the sled, activating the magnetic locks.

  Maddox slid off the sled, activating the magnetics in his combat boots.

  Yen Cho pushed off the sled, floating toward a set of controls embedded in a reflective metal wall.

  Maddox used the shortwave. “Be sure to remain in my sight at all times.”

  “Or you will detonate the bomb?” Yen Cho asked.

  “Something like that.”

  “If you destroy me, Captain—”

  “Let’s not debate the issue,” Maddox said, interrupting. “You die if I can’t see you.”

  “Why are you angry with me?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Why are you angry, then?”

  “None of your business,” Maddox said.

  “I am unsure I wish to leave my fate in the hands of an unstable human.”

  “Do you have a choice?”

  “Oh, yes, Captain, I most certainly do.”

  Maddox nodded to himself. He’d figured as much. The android had landed by the controls against a wall. Yen Cho now reached behind and wrenched his gloved hand. He raised the gloved hand, showing Maddox the bomblet Meta had attached to his suit.

  The act should have detonated the bomb. That it hadn’t meant Yen Cho had done something to deactivate it.

  Maddox brought up his combat suit’s arm-cannon.

  “I am showing you this for a reason,” Yen Cho said.

  “What reason?”

  “I wish for you to learn a lesson, Captain.”

  Maddox almost fired, but he waited. Destroying the android might destroy their chances of stopping the phase-ship.

  “I am willingly helping you, helping Star Watch and humanity. I am not helping under duress. I am trying to teach you to trust me.”

  Maddox watched the android closely.

  “I will reattach the bomblet to my suit once we leave the listening post,” Yen Cho said. “I will not wear this inside the post, however, as that would be sacrilegious.”

  Maddox continued to watch and wait.

  “Are you ready, Captain?”

  “After you,” Maddox said.

  “Yes,” Yen Cho said, tapping the controls and causing a formerly invisible hatch to open.

  ***

  The two glided through gleaming metal corridors. There did not seem to be any guidepost. Even so, after a time, Yen Cho halted it and indicated one side of the corridor.

  Maddox halted farther back, watching and waiting.

  Yen Cho tapped the wall and a portion rose. The android floated in.

  Maddox activated the boot magnetics again and clomped inside, peering around.

  The android faced what seemed like a giant computer, extending all around him. The suited Yen Cho turned in a slow circle. He glanced at Maddox and pointed at an area.

  Maddox hung back, as this seemed the moment of greatest peril.

  Yen Cho tapped the great computer. Shelves opened. The android reached in and wrestled up gleaming boxlike components.

  “I need help carrying them all,” Yen Cho said.

  “Lay out what you want me to carry.”

  Yen Cho removed two blocks, setting them aside. The android took two for himself. He pushed off with them, floating toward Maddox and the exit.

  The captain stepped aside. After the android passed him, Maddox shrugged. Keith would accept no excuses if he didn’t show up. If Yen Cho attempted to fly back to the shuttle by himself, the ace had orders to blow up the assault sled and the listening post.

  Maddox clomped over, picked up the two blocks and headed back for the exit. He envisioned it sealing before he could reach it. He didn’t trust or like this place. The Builders were too unpredictable and too used to screwing with whoever they wanted to.

  The latter part of the trip seemed anticlimactic. Yen Cho floated faster than Maddox could walk. He found the android on the sled, with the databanks piled into what would be the empty spot between them. As Maddox neared, he saw the bomb reattached to the android’s suit.

  Maddox wondered what Yen Cho had done out here while alone and waiting. Should he try to find out now? The captain decided against it. They had the items, whatever they really were. The Builder cube’s fate in Victory seemed to have been enough leverage to keep the android honest.

  Either that, Maddox told himself, or they’ve already outfoxed me.

  He did not like that feeling, but at this point, feelings didn’t matter half as much as getting the job done.

  -32-

  Eleven hours after hooking the four gleaming metal objects to the Builder cube, Galyan appeared behind Maddox.

  The captain wore flats on his feet and gym shorts, with nothing else on. He stood before a bar with an excessive amount of weight on the ends. The captain chalk
ed his hands, having not yet seen the holoimage. He handed the chalk to Meta, who put it in its small plastic container.

  Maddox placed his feet a little less than shoulder width apart on the floor, squatted low and grasped the bar with his chalky hands. He was a picture of quiet intensity, with hard eyes staring forward.

  By a quick computation, Galyan realized the bar and weights had to be nine hundred and ten pounds in total. It was excessive weight indeed, one the lean captain did not appear capable of lifting.

  With a grunt, Maddox heaved, straining, straightening his legs and torso in a smooth process of strength and coordination. The bar was iron but it partly curved under the load of weights at each end. Maddox continued straightening until he stood upright, the bar quivering against his upper thighs.

  With a well-practiced motion, he released the bar. It crashed onto the matting, bouncing as the captain stepped back.

  He breathed hard, grinning fiercely at the bar.

  “Good job,” Meta said, passing a towel to him.

  Maddox redirected his grin toward her. He noticed Galyan then, and the captain’s demeanor changed. “The cube?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Galyan said. “The cube believes it may have divined the beacon’s location.”

  “What else did the cube say?” Meta asked Galyan. “You look grim.”

  Maddox glanced at Meta and then the holoimage. “Is there more?” he asked.

  “Oh yes,” Galyan said. “The Builder cube believes it may have miscalculated about what the beacon or site does precisely.”

  “It’s not a beacon?” Maddox asked.

  “It seems as if it’s more like a hyper-spatial tube generator.”

  Maddox dropped the towel he’d used to wipe his face. Without donning a shirt, the captain sprinted out of the gym, heading for the science chamber.

  ***

  Maddox stood before the giant globe. Several of the female scientists at their stations kept glancing at him. Maddox ignored their scrutiny. He wasn’t so sure that Meta would once she entered the chamber.

  There was a difference. At the bottom of the globe were the four gleaming objects from the listening post. Bright laser lines connected the objects to the cube at the top of the globe. Even as Maddox watched, he saw streams of energy moving up and down the laser lines.