“It is safe to surmise that the leadership of the New Men agreed to the expedient.”
“Then why suggest Per Lomax would turn it off for you?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff frowned. “You must realize every group of humans has factions struggling against each other. It’s in the nature of humanity to quarrel. Not even the New Men have been able to breed that out of their genetic heritage. That means some among the New Men are against the planet-killer. They realize the danger in unleashing it.”
“If you’re right, that suggests you understand the inner workings of the New Men.”
“I’ve had a few years to figure it out,” the professor said.
“Then why haven’t you shared the knowledge with Star Watch?”
“I am,” the professor said, “with you right now.”
“No,” Maddox said. “There are too many flaws in your argument. The lieutenant and I saw the planet-killer several days ago. New Arabia is over one hundred and fifty light-years away. The doomsday device couldn’t get to New Arabia in that time. It would take weeks of travel at best. There’s another problem. Even if the machine could get there that fast, how could you receive a message from one hundred and fifty light-years?”
“Don’t equate ignorance with brilliance, my boy.”
“What does that mean?” Maddox asked.
“Quite simply,” the professor said, “that you lack knowledge to speak coherently on the subject.”
From where Maddox stood, he noticed the slightest movement as the hatch began to open. He remembered calling Riker. Was that the sergeant over there?
Ludendorff paused as he became more alert. Did the professor sense the sergeant’s approach?
“I questioned Per Lomax once,” Maddox said in a bland voice, trying to draw the professor’s attention without alerting him. “He said the New Men didn’t want to destroy all human life, just the dross. This doomsday machine doesn’t seem as if it will distinguish between good and bad human stock.”
“It most certainly won’t,” Ludendorff said.
“That means the New Men didn’t turn it on.”
“Are you truly that daft?” the professor asked.
Maddox only half heard the question. Riker appeared by the open hatch. He gripped his stunner. The sergeant’s good eye widened with surprise. Riker aimed and fired an energy bolt. The globule sped true, sizzling an inch from Ludendorff’s skin, stopped by something, an invisible force field perhaps.
“Ah-ha!” Ludendorff cried, jumping off the command chair, turning to Riker.
“Run!” Maddox shouted.
Riker didn’t run, but fired again. It had the same useless effect as the first shot.
Then the sergeant was toppling onto the deck plates, frozen in the same kind of web field that had caught Maddox.
Ludendorff turned, giving the captain a quizzical study.
Maddox waited. Regaining control of Victory was going to be harder than he’d imagined.
“Let me suggest some possibilities to you,” the professor said, no doubt deciding to ignore the interruption. “The personal force field protecting me and the web I can project onto others are science of a high order. Let me posit the possibility that these items were made by the Builders.”
“Who are they?” Maddox asked.
“The ones who constructed the Nexus and modified the planet-killer,” Ludendorff said.
“Yet another ancient race?” Maddox asked.
“The triad that is the Swarm, Adoks and Builders,” the professor said. “Now, let us banish your objections, shall we? You spoke of traveling vast distances in a short amount of time as being impossible. Yet the silver pyramid allowed Kane and Meta to travel over one hundred light-years in a single jump. The same race that built the pyramid had access to the planet-killer. In other words, the doomsday machine has an incredible propulsion system.”
“Which accounts for the ion storm?” Maddox asked.
“Precisely,” Ludendorff said.
“Then how are we supposed to stop this doomsday machine? With Victory’s disruptor cannon?”
“No. The planet-killer has neutroium armor. The disruptor cannon will not breach its hull.”
Maddox felt his skin go cold. Neutroium? That was incredible.
“I’ve seen the machine,” the captain said. “I can believe that part. I’ve also seen the ion storm and the strange opening the planet-killer dropped into, which could be its traveling mechanism. What I don’t understand is how you know what happened in the New Arabia System.”
Ludendorff sighed, adjusting the flat device. A wavering light shot out of it, beaming a holoimage before Maddox. The image showed the New Arabia System. The captain recognized the planets.
Maddox glanced at the professor.
“I’m magnifying,” Ludendorff said.
Maddox watched the battle between the doomsday machine and the Wahhabi Home Fleet. Later, he observed the giant beam punching holes into Al Salam’s surface, drilling down to the molten core. Afterward, the captain observed billowing iron lava flowing over the red sands of Al Salam, destroying everything. The doomsday machine performed a similar horror to Riyadh, annihilating all life on the industrial planet.
Finally, Ludendorff switched off the holoimage.
Maddox grew thoughtful. “Are you expecting me to believe that’s actual footage of a real attack?”
“Footage, as you put it, that happened two days ago,” Ludendorff said.
“The giant ship jumped to New Arabia?”
“Not directly from the system where we saw it, but yes,” Ludendorff said. “Permit me to explain how I know this. The New Men possess a handful of interstellar communication artifacts. One of the relics was aboard a star cruiser in the New Arabia System that witnessed the destruction I just showed you. I happen to have one of these incredible devices myself and received the images a day ago.”
“This communication device is aboard Victory?” Maddox asked.
“Don’t bother looking for it, Captain. You won’t find it. As to why I know: there are a few New Men with opposing philosophical views to their leadership. Now and again, I have spoken with the right thinkers. It was how I knew about the planet-killer’s awakening, its trajectory so Victory could intercept it and later, about its frightful carnage in the New Arabia System.”
Maddox was appalled. Could these things be true? “Is there any chance Per Lomax made it aboard the planet-killer?”
“He would have turned off the machine if he had.”
Maddox smiled grimly. “Maybe you thought to use him, but Per Lomax used you. He made it onto the machine and didn’t turn it off. We first captured Per Lomax because he led a boarding party against Victory. It’s clear the New Men desire their own alien super-ship. By freeing my prisoner, you may have inadvertently given them one.”
The professor turned away. “An honest man would admit the possibility of what you just said.” He made a waving gesture. “I’m getting too old for these games.”
“What are you suggesting I do about any of this?” Maddox asked. “How is Victory supposed to stop a fifty-kilometer doomsday machine covered with neutroium?”
Ludendorff eyed him. “I’ve been pondering the problem. It was one of the reasons I accepted the confinement to quarters: to think without interruption. The answer makes me uneasy.”
“I’m assuming you’re uneasy because you don’t like to take unnecessary risks,” Maddox said. “That’s why you used Per Lomax instead of trying to board the planet-killer yourself. And that’s why you want me: to do your risky work for you.”
“I’d hoped the key would work for Per Lomax,” the professor said pensively. “It was a long shot, maybe longer than I let the New Man know. That’s history now. I suppose one method of stopping the planet-killer would be to gather the biggest armada in human history. But we would need the New Men’s help, and they’re not about to give it. By the time the majority of the New Men realize how dangerous the planet-killer really is, most of humanity will already be dead. No, we have to do something ourselves.”