Kane said nothing more, although his glare became more baleful.
“Right,” Maddox said. “I’m not yet ready to kill you. I don’t know enough, but it’s time we moved on. Sergeant?”
“Here, sir,” Riker said.
“Hold the web-gun,” Maddox said. “I want to shackle him.”
Riker took the flat device, keeping it trained on Kane.
Maddox pulled out shackles. “Let’s do the legs first.”
Tucking the web-gun under an arm, Riker pressed a tab.
Kane’s feet rose minutely as he attempted to kick them, but the feet remained force-webbed. As the Rouen Colony man attempted to thrash his legs, Maddox shackled Kane’s wrists, securing them.
“You really do fall for the most elementary ploys,” the captain said. “Now stay still this time so we can get this done.”
Kane struggled, but it wasn’t fast or hard enough. Soon, the Rouen Colony agent lay on the deck, squirming in the shackles.
Maddox retrieved Ludendorff’s flat device from the sergeant. He was going to need it to trap Oran Rva. How lucky was it that Dana Rich had figured out how to use the professor’s high-tech gadgets?
“Oran Rva isn’t going to fall as easily as Kane did,” Riker said.
“I have no doubt you’re right,” Maddox said. “But we don’t have a choice. This is the moment, gentlemen. Are you ready?”
“I am,” Keith said.
Riker grunted his reply.
“Here we go,” Maddox said, leading the way to the control room.
-44-
Kane lay on the deck, staring up at the bizarre ceiling. He’d retreated into his mind for much of the trek through the freaky doomsday machine.
Part of him recognized what Oran Rva had done to him. The dominant had stolen much of his wits. That was wrong, just wrong. They had marched through horror, killing alien bio-robots. Kane hadn’t even been able to make love to Meta before the dash into this eerie planet-killer.
Would Oran Rva ever let him enjoy the fruits of his struggle? Kane had begun to suspect not. Instead, Oran Rva was like the trainer long ago on Rollo Glacier. Oran Rva thought to train him into a guard, a killer, an obedient slave of the dominants.
The one named Maddox had just sneered at Kane. That galvanized part of his persona. Maddox owned Meta, had used the beautiful woman. Kane resented that. Maddox was not better than Kane.
How can I regain my wits? How do I break the conditioning? The dominants have programmed me like a machine. That is a crime against my person.
“I am Kane,” he rumbled. “I am ice.”
Yes, the ice, Rollo Glacier, he remembered long ago as he’d lain on the ice. The trainer had beaten his best friend to death. Kane had watched. That had been an evil spectacle. Hatred had burned in him that day. The ice had numbed his skin and finally his heart. The words I am ice had thrummed in his skull. Kane had risen from the ice and endured. He had returned to the world of heat. He had eaten and rebuilt his strength. In time, he had slain the trainer.
No one hurts me and gets away with it. I am Kane. I am ice. These shackles…
As he lay on the deck in the alien doomsday machine, Kane turned his head, staring at the locks on his wrists. His lips twisted with a snarl. Was he a beast? Did others think to master him?
Yes, Oran Rva believes that he is better than Kane. No one is better than me. I will survive.
“Really?” Kane asked himself in mockery. “You’re too stupid to know what to do. You’re a lout, a fool and a dupe. Captain Maddox has beaten you, chained you to the floor and gone to the control room to claim Meta for his own.”
Kane shook his head. “Meta is mine, mine. No one will have her body but me.”
Kane began to thrash on the floor. He roared inside his helmet, struggling to free himself from the chains. Nothing helped. He was too weak to burst them as he desired.
Finally, Kane lay panting on the spongy deck.
“You have to think. You have to use your wits as you did once on Rollo Glacier. The dominant thinks he can keep you stupid. No. I will regain my mind, and I am going to do it now.”
Kane closed his eyes. He thought back to the room in the star cruiser. That is where the dominants had begun to program his mind.
As he lay in the doomsday machine, Kane groaned like a wounded beast. Then, he clamped his teeth together. He strove to think, to break the mind conditioning through force of will. He used hatred, stubbornness and finally sheer grit. By remembering what he had been like, he tried to lever himself back into that frame of mind.
Try as he might, though, Kane remained dull-witted.
I have to do something else, something new. What do I have that might work?
Kane struggled for a new concept. The old ways weren’t going to smash through the dominant technology and processes. To do that, he must, must, do what…?
Futility began to eat at him. This was impossible.
Kane sighed, thinking of Meta and the delightful curves of her body, the beauty of her features. He even liked her voice. It did something to him; stirred emotions he hadn’t realized existed.
It dawned on Kane then. Maybe there was a way out of the trap of the programming. If he did nothing, Meta would die. He would never see her again.
Why should I care?
Kane wrestled with the thought, finally concluding it didn’t matter why he should or shouldn’t care. He did. Was that friendship? He had gotten off the glacier for the sake of a friend. No. This was more than mere friendship. Could this be the thing called love?
Kane almost sneered at himself. Instead, he lay utterly still. Maybe that’s the key. Think what it means that Meta dies.
He did, concentrating on the subject. It bothered him deeply, stirred emotions Kane had no idea existed in him. Sure, love existed for others, but not for he who was ice.
Love is real.
Something strange settled on Kane’s features. He felt peace in his heart.
I will die having loved.
“No,” he said aloud. “I will break free because I must save the one I love.”
Gritting his teeth, Kane strove for mastery of his mind. He pushed, teased and began to see new possibilities. Finally, a gleam of the old Kane appeared in his eyes.
Once more, he studied the shackles on his wrists and ankles. Just maybe, he could escape from them, but not by brute force.
Oh…yes, he would have to do it like this…
-45-
Maddox peered around an entrance into a strange chamber. He had no doubt this must be the doomsday machine’s control room.
Along the walls appeared bursts of light in odd sequencing. In a circle were seven crystal spires with mechanisms whirling inside. Lines of energy thrashed from one pinnacle to the next. In the center was a large cube with swirling, hypnotic colors. An octagonal machine sat on top of the cube. Attached to the bulky part of the silvery machine was an inert centipede, the Swarm-Builder mobile virus carrier.
A vacc-suited person backed away from the cube, staring upward. Maddox noticed another suited person, one who hung from the cube by his fingers. Yes, that must be Oran Rva. The tall New Man released his hold. His feet struck the deck, the knees bent and the New Man toppled onto the spongy substance.
“This is it,” the captain told the others. “If I fail to hold him, fire at the taller one.”
Maddox walked into the room with Ludendorff’s flat device in his gloves. Oran Rva stood up. Something must have alerted the New Man of Maddox’s presence. The enemy turned.
Aiming the flat device at the man, Maddox manipulated the controls of the web-force. The New Man froze in place.
“Now,” Maddox told Keith. “Adjust the frequency so we can talk.” He heard static in his headphones as the ace switched their helmets’ setting.