“I’ll bite, sir. Why did they kill him?”
Maddox stared at the corpse. Methodically, he considered the situation. Victory had used the star drive, jumping into an empty system. The vessel had appeared beside a spatial anomaly, an ionic front magnetic storm. After the jump, the starship’s shield had been down. It took precious time before the deflector mechanisms could come back online. The electromagnetic shield might not have withstood the strands of magnetic force anyway. As it was, the interfering magnetics and strand-attacks had damaged the starship and rendered most interior systems inoperative. During that time, Per Lomax had escaped from the holding cell and someone had launched the starship’s remaining jumpfighter. On top of all that, a faint, gigantic spaceship had moved through the magnetic storm.
Was Victory’s jump appearance near the magnetic storm a coincidence? Was the faint ship in the spatial anomaly—it’s being there at the instant it was—another coincidence?
Maddox seriously doubted that. So who had plotted the starship’s course to the magnetic storm?
Before Maddox could begin the analysis, Riker shouted, bringing up his stunner. A click sounded from the weapon. A blot of force ejected from the barrel. The bolt passed though the hologram of Driving Force Galyan. The AI image stood before them, having just appeared.
“Don’t do that!” Riker shouted. The alien holoimage had a humanoid shape, but with ropy arms and extremely deep-set, dark eyes.
Galyan examined his torso before staring at the sergeant. “Why did you just shoot me?”
“I thought you were someone else,” Riker said in a calmer voice.
“Who did you think I was?” Galyan asked.
“Never mind about that,” Maddox said. “It’s clear you’re functioning again.”
“I have run a self-diagnostic, Captain,” Galyan said. “I am presently operating at seventy-eight percent capacity. Therefore, I am not running at normal efficiency.”
“That will have to suffice for now.” Maddox glanced to the right, studying the corridor and then turned and inspected the corridor to the left.
“Is there a problem?” Galyan asked.
“Look down at my feet,” Maddox said.
“Do you refer to the dead slarn trapper?”
“That’s right. Who killed him?”
“I do not know,” Galyan said.
“You didn’t catch it on the video system?”
“Negative,” Galyan said. “The storm rendered the cameras inoperative during the scope of what appears to be a heinous crime.”
“Is the intercom system working now?” Maddox asked.
“No. It has not yet recovered from the storm damage.”
“How did you know we were here?” Maddox asked.
“The cameras are operational again,” Galyan said. “They simply weren’t during the timespan wherein this man perished.”
Was that another coincidence? Maddox doubted it. “Do you recall the ship’s roster?” he asked.
“Of course,” Galyan said.
“Check the ship, and tell me who’s missing.”
Galyan’s eyelids fluttered for just a moment. “I have completed the scan, Captain. Per Lomax is missing.”
Riker laughed with relief.
Maddox wasn’t as easily satisfied. “Did you scan every centimeter of the ship, every possible hiding location?”
“I scanned every place where my cameras can see,” Galyan said.
“Are there places you can’t see?” Maddox asked.
“There are,” Galyan said, “but your assumption is faulty. The jumpfighter left Victory. Logic dictates its pilot is no longer with us. Per Lomax is the only missing person. Therefore, he piloted the jumpfighter. That means he is not is hiding on the ship in a location I cannot see.”
Maddox examined the corpse, Riker and finally Galyan. Afterward, he looked up the corridor and down it.
“You can relax, sir,” Riker said.
Maddox regarded Galyan. “Where could someone hide so you couldn’t spot him?”
“You mean visibly through my cameras?”
“What else could I—oh,” Maddox said. “You can travel to places your cameras can’t see.”
“That is correct,” Galyan said, “but I fail to understand what you are implying.”
“Maybe Per Lomax set the jumpfighter on autopilot,” Maddox told the AI. “Maybe the New Man wanted us to think he had left the starship so we wouldn’t look for him anymore.”
“I deem that sequence as highly unlikely,” Galyan said.
Maddox pinched his lower lip in thought. If he were Per Lomax hiding from Galyan, where would he be? Even more to the point, how could the New Man take control of Victory while remaining hidden?
-3-
“I want you to go to every place on Victory your cameras can’t see,” Maddox told Galyan. “I want to know with one hundred percent certainty if Per Lomax is or is not aboard the starship. Can you do that?”
“It will take time,” Galyan said.
“Then the sooner you begin the sooner I’ll have my answer.”
“Logical,” Galyan said. “Good bye, Captain, Sergeant Riker.” The holoimage disappeared.
“Do you really think the New Man had time to set the jumpfighter onto autopilot?” Riker said. “That’s a lot of deep thinking and activity that needs doing in a short amount of time.”
Maddox was staring at the corpse again. The sergeant had a reasonable question, but Maddox didn’t know enough about jumpfighters to answer him. He would have to ask Second Lieutenant Keith Maker about that.
“Consider what we’re seeing,” Maddox told Riker, “a dead slarn hunter who took a savage blow to the face. The blow might have snapped the neck. In order for it to have done so, the punch would have to have been devastating. It would take an extraordinarily strong person to achieve such a hit. That would also imply expert-class combat technique. Strength alone couldn’t break the neck with a punch.”
“Someone with a crank bat could have possibly done it with normal strength,” Riker said, “or with some other suitable implement like a steel bar.”
“I didn’t attack and kill Sten Gorgon,” Maddox said. “You have a bionic arm and are trained in close combat of an extremely dirty variety. But your loyalty to Star Watch is impeccable. Thus, you didn’t kill the man, either.”
“That leaves two people who could have murdered Gorgon like this,” Riker said. “The obvious person is Per Lomax.”
“If the New Man did it, why was Gorgon carrying the shock collar?”
“Because Per Lomax put it there,” Riker said. “What could be easier to explain?”
“Let me see if I understand your reasoning,” Maddox said. “During the magnetic storm, Per Lomax slipped from the holding cell and unlocked the shock collar, which he then carried with him. He surprised Gorgon and lashed out viciously, snapping the man’s neck with a blow, killing the trapper. Per Lomax knew his time was limited—that the AI and ship-monitoring systems were only temporarily down. The New Man paused long enough, however, to unbutton the dead man’s shirt, tucked the shock collar there, buttoned the shirt closed and even stuffed the ends of the shirt under the trousers. Is that what you’re suggesting?”
“I suppose not.” Riker eyed the captain. “But if I didn’t do it, you didn’t do it and neither did Per Lomax… There is one other possibility. Meta.”
“Yes. I’ve already been considering that.”
“If you’ll allow me to speak, sir,” Riker said.
“Go ahead.”
“I wish I could put this delicately, but Meta was with Kane for quite some time.”
For just a moment, Maddox’s features tightened.
Kane had been a spy for the New Men sent to Earth. The spy had kidnapped Meta from New York City and taken her into space. Using an ancient device known as the Nexus, Kane had jumped to Wolf Prime ahead of them. There, in planetary orbit, Kane had taken Meta to Per Lomax aboard one of the enemy star cruisers. Per Lomax had sent Meta to someone the New Men referred to as “the teacher”. The teacher had modified her mind in some manner. It was why the professor no longer trusted Meta.