“I scanned your brain, Captain. I am aware of the situation.”
“My point,” Maddox said, “is to lull them into a false sense of security. Then, once we engage in battle, your brilliant tactics might well dull their reaction times, giving us a greater margin for victory.”
The holoimage froze for several seconds before moving again. “That is well-reasoned. Yes. Go to your… left. Do you see the blinking screen there?”
“I do,” Maddox said.
“You will receive a visual link with the alien caller.”
Maddox didn’t have long to wait. The same being appeared as he’d seen earlier on Geronimo’s screen. The New Man had golden skin, inky eyes and masklike perfection.
“Captain Maddox,” the New Man said, “well, well, well.”
“Per Lomax?” asked Maddox.
The faintest of smiles appeared on the New Man’s lips. “That is correct.”
Irritated, Maddox said, “I use the name simply as a point of reference. Whatever meaning you supply to the name, I do not.”
“You are resourceful, Captain. I admit to surprise at seeing you in the relic.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Maddox noted the holoimage turning to him. He hoped the AI didn’t speak.
“Not only have you reached the alien vessel,” Per Lomax said, “but you have restarted the engines. Our scanners indicate energized weaponry. Do you mean to attempt to fight us?”
“Not if we can come to an understanding,” Maddox said.
“Ah,” the AI said softly behind him. “You plot deception. That is interesting. I had not expected such guile from a lowly life-form such as you.”
Maddox had become thoroughly tired of everyone thinking humans were idiots. Still, he held back a retort and concentrated on the situation. Winning the battle wasn’t half as important as getting Victory to Earth. The Star Watch needed this vessel for future engagements with the enemy.
“You wish to surrender?” Per Lomax asked.
“Surely, you can offer me more than that,” Maddox said. “I have a valuable commodity in this starship.”
“Do you truly think you can dupe me?” Per Lomax asked. “Your deceit fools no one but yourself. We will defeat the relic and possibly capture you. If you wish to forgo lengthy torture, surrender now.”
“Your negotiating strategy lacks subtlety,” Maddox said.
“Do you negotiate with ants? No. You spray them, eliminating the problem. I realize you will not surrender to me. Your previous action proves this. Therefore, we shall engage in battle.” Per Lomax glanced at something below him. “You have less than two hours of life remaining—unless you brake and flee away from us. Then you may have three hours left. Good-bye, Captain Maddox.”
“Wait!” he said.
The New Man stared at him.
The words stuck in Maddox’s throat. He wanted to ask the man if he was like them. Yet he felt Per Lomax would laugh at best. He also remembered that Dana and the others listened in on the open channel. The thought he was part New Man shamed him deeply.
“It is nothing,” Maddox said.
“You are a troubled creature,” Per Lomax said, “yet you a have a spark of genius in you. I speak compared to the common ruck of your kind. If you compare yourself to me, it is like a candle versus the sun. The hour of your extinction approaches. Prepare for non-existence.”
The screen went blank.
“He is an arrogant sentient,” the holoimage said.
“Yes,” Maddox said.
“He also happens to be correct.”
“Oh?”
“We will engage in battle in less than two of your hours.”
Victory increased velocity as it approached the three star cruisers. They fanned out so the edges of their shields brushed against each other. The red giant blazed behind the three vessels. The battle would take place within the inner system. Various ancient wrecks drifted between the enemy and Victory, debris from the long lost war.
Time passed as the vessels closed. None of the combatants launched drones or missiles.
Maddox sat in silent contemplation. This was a pregnant moment. He wished there was some way he could inform Brigadier O’Hara he’d made it. To have reached the impossible goal and never let her know… it galled Maddox. He also wanted to know who he was. If by some quirk he wasn’t part New Man, then what was he? Where would his mother have fled from in the Beyond?
Who is my father? A man should know.
“Do you feel anything?” Maddox asked.
The holoimage had remained perfectly still like a photograph. Now the fuzziness returned. Did that mean the AI’s intelligence animated it again, and it hadn’t before?
Maddox wasn’t sure why it would matter either way, but he couldn’t help himself. Until he died, he would struggle with every fiber, looking for any advantage he could. This was his moment in the universe, his time in the ring for humanity. To come this far and lose the engagement—no! Failure was out of the question, and yet, it was all too likely.
Three enemy ships had destroyed a strengthened Star Watch battle group lead by a veteran admiral. Who was he to think he could do better than von Gunther had?
“I’m Captain Maddox of the Star Watch,” he told himself.
“I know who you are,” the holoimage said.
Maddox smiled.
“Why are you speaking as you do with your lips twitching… oh, yes, yes, I remember now. Blood and flesh creatures such as you have synapse trouble. How do you say it? Nervous? You are nervous before the beginning of a battle. I almost envy you the feeling.”
“Almost?” asked Maddox.
“I have been deified, advanced to a higher plane of existence. I am no longer troubled by my former biology and physiology. Yet, in a sense, I miss those days of…”
You’ve trapped yourself in the soulless hell of a computer, Maddox thought. Yet that wasn’t logical, was it? If the personified AI didn’t have emotions, it couldn’t feel its loneliness.
“Nervous or not,” Maddox said, “I’m glad to enter combat with you.”
“Does that imply you think you’re going to help me?” the holoimage asked.
“Only in the sense of offering a suggestion or insight,” Maddox said. Could AI’s be touchy? This one seemed to be.
“It is too bad,” the holoimage said. “As you spoke, I assessed my weaponry. The disruptor no longer functions. With it, I could have swept these three vessels out of existence. I do not have use of the gyro destabilizer either.”
“What do you have?” Maddox asked.
“The neutron beam,” the holoimage said. “It is my most primitive weapon. Yet it did well enough against the Swarm. These New Men will not survive it, I’m sure.”
Maddox wondered about the ancient battle. “How many star systems did you control before the Swarm attacked?”
“This system,” the holoimage said.
“You hadn’t colonized other systems?”
“We had not yet used our newly discovered star drive. Victory was an experimental model, the first of its kind. Perhaps I should have attempted faster than light travel, but it doesn’t matter now.”
“By star drive,” Maddox asked, “you mean the wormhole, right?”
“Wormhole?” the holoimage asked.
“The one that begins in your star’s photosphere,” Maddox said.
“I have no idea what you’re babbling about now,” the holoimage said.
Maddox ingested the information. Could the alien not know about tramlines and Laumer-Points? It seemed inconceivable.
“Ah,” the captain said, “didn’t the Swarm burst out of the sun as these star cruisers just did?”