“All stop!” Maddox shouted.
Valerie gave him a blank look.
“We’re in the middle of the asteroid field,” Maddox said. “Our shield isn’t working yet. We have to halt our momentum or those meteors will pound the ship to pieces.”
Valerie began to manipulate her panel.
Another boulder slammed against Victory. The tortured groaning of metal combined with the bridge deck-plates trembling. Then, massive deceleration hit. Gravity dampeners howled with effort, lessening the actual effect on the vessel and crew. The starship shivered again. The engines strained, and yet another large rock clanged off the collapsium hull plates.
As the ill effects of heightened Jump Lag wore off, Valerie declared. “We’re at all stop, sir.”
Ludendorff sat in his chair, pale, trembling and sweaty. He produced a rag and wiped his face. Afterward, he studied the main screen. The professor stared for a time, finally turning angrily toward Maddox.
“I miscalculated the intensity of your spite,” Ludendorff said. “You struck me as more rational than this.”
“Beg pardon?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff stared at the captain, studying the man. “If you didn’t engineer this disaster, then—” The professor sat up. “Dana! This must be her doing.” Ludendorff raised the tablet, studying the figures. “She lied to us.”
“What’s he saying, sir?” Valerie asked softly.
Ludendorff must have heard her. The professor waved the tablet at the main screen. “We’re in the middle of the Xerxes System’s asteroid belt. Only this isn’t a natural field, but a construct of ancient design. The rocks are perilously close to each other. What we felt earlier must have a spatial-temporal side-shifting.”
“What does that mean?” Maddox asked.
“I think I know, sir,” Valerie said.
Maddox turned to the lieutenant.
“We must have jumped into the same space as a boulder,” Valerie said. “If we had materialized with the small asteroid, the two masses would have occupied the same spatial coordinates. That would have destroyed both masses. Instead of that happening, we slipped sideways as the professor suggested. That caused us trauma different from regular Jump Lag.”
“That is precisely what happened,” Ludendorff said. “For such a young person, you have a sound grasp on astrophysics, Lieutenant.”
“Our original destination was outside the asteroid field,” Maddox interjected. “We’re inside. What caused the starship to jump to the wrong coordinates?”
“Our coordinates come from Dana, gained after she questioned Meta. But Meta mustn’t have known, so Dana invented the coordinates to prevent me from taking Meta and questioning her myself. That would have brought a confrontation between us. Dana knows me well enough to understand you would have lost the fight. To save you, she practiced guile against me. I’d forgotten the woman’s deviousness. That is my fault.”
“Sir,” Valerie said. “I think you’d better look at this.”
Maddox glanced at the lieutenant before looking at the screen where she pointed. A thin silvery object slid toward Victory. According to the measurements on the screen, the UFO was the size of a Star Watch Titan-class missile.
“Scan it,” Maddox said.
“Belay that order,” Ludendorff snapped.
Valerie didn’t pause, but reached for her board to obey the captain’s order.
“Wait,” Maddox told her.
Valerie hesitated, looking up at the captain.
“Why shouldn’t we scan it?” Maddox asked the professor.
Ludendorff laughed. “It should be obvious. Our scan might trigger its offensive mechanisms.”
“Do you know what the weapon would be?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff turned his head to stare at the captain. “I have no idea.”
“You fear the object’s maker,” Maddox said.
“How astute of you, Captain. Yes, I believe whoever made the Nexus and the planet-killer also constructed the object presently inspecting us.”
“Is this weapon the reason the Xerxes System is a Bermuda Triangle of space?” Valerie asked.
“Let us call it one of the reasons,” Ludendorff said.
“The Builders made the object outside?” Maddox asked.
The professor shrugged.
“Do you not know, or are you simply not telling us?” Maddox asked.
“This time, I don’t know.”
“Why do I have the feeling you’re lying?”
“Because you’re naturally suspicious of human nature,” Ludendorff replied. “It’s one of your greatest survival mechanisms.”
A light on Valerie’s board blinked red. “Sir,” the lieutenant said. “The drone is scanning us.”
At almost the same moment, Victory’s electromagnetic shield came back online from Jump Lag. A hazy spheroid shape appeared around the starship. It disappeared a moment later, merged into the background.
“There’s an energy spike over there,” Valerie said, as she studied her panel. “Sir, I suggest we destroy the drone before it fires whatever it has.”
“I’m curious,” Ludendorff told Valerie. “What weapon would you suggest we use against it?”
“The strongest we have,” the lieutenant said. “The disruptor cannon.”
“Do you agree with your lieutenant?” Ludendorff asked.
“I do,” Maddox said.
“Galyan,” Ludendorff said. “Start warming up the disruptor cannon.”
The holoimage disappeared from the bridge.
“We’re taking a risk firing at the object,” Ludendorff told them. “But I think that will be a safer risk than letting it shoot us.”
“Why hasn’t it fired already?” Maddox asked.
“I believe it has to go through a matrix of options first. We’re likely in a race as to who fires first.”
“Can we do anything to trick it?” Maddox asked.
Ludendorff snapped his fingers. “Yes. I think we can.” The professor frowned. “But it’s too dangerous to attempt.”
“You mean lower our shield?”
“Remarkable, Captain. Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”
“Lower the shield,” Maddox told Valerie.
“Don’t do it,” Ludendorff said.
Valerie tapped her board anyway.
The professor reached for his flat device.
“I suggest you let us proceed,” Maddox said. “If the drone was created by the Builders, its weapon is likely going to be able to burn through our shield anyway. Thus, dropping our shield doesn’t harm us, but it may give us a little more time.”
“I disagree with your premise,” Ludendorff said. “The Adoks were amazing technicians. I doubt you realize the full power of Victory.”
“There, sir,” Valerie said, with a final tap. “The shield is down as ordered.”
“This is a gamble,” Maddox said. “The alien drone seems to be curious about us. We’ve now shown that we trust it. That might slow down its matrix of options.”
“Your philosophy is far too optimistic given the stakes involved,” Ludendorff said. “We must jump out of danger before it fires.” The professor opened his mouth.
Maddox believed Ludendorff was going to summon Galyan and order the AI to leave the Xerxes System. “Maybe the missile is like a dog,” Maddox said.
Ludendorff frowned. “Explain that.”
“If we run, the missile will chase us.”
“It can’t chase us if we transfer with the star drive.”
“If it believes we’re getting ready to run, it might shoot to make sure we can’t.”
Ludendorff squinted thoughtfully at the captain. “Did the Breed Masters fashion you to instinctively make the right choices?”
Maddox stiffened. The idea that the New Men had intentionally bred his mother to produce a certain kind of offspring offended his sensibilities. That Ludendorff knew something about their enemy’s breeding program—and had apparently done nothing to warn Star Watch about it—made Maddox distrust the professor even more than before.