Maddox watched in amazement, his wrists throbbing. What was Ludendorff thinking?
The professor pulled something else out of a vacc-pouch. A second later, what might have been a Builder tractor beam caught him, guiding Ludendorff down into the open launch tube.
All the while, the shuttle lifted, taking Maddox farther away from the professor.
-15-
Second Lieutenant Keith Maker piloted Victory. Valerie and Dana were asleep. The old sergeant was the only other person on the bridge with Keith. Galyan had departed to warm up the disruptor cannon.
“Did you see that, mate?” Keith asked Riker. “The professor went AWOL on them so he could zip into the asteroid.”
Riker stared at the main screen with Keith. It showed a close up of the shuttle and Builder asteroid base. In the farther distance was a bright speck: the coming drone. A thousand rocks floated between the shuttle and drone.
“Why would Ludendorff do that?” Keith asked.
Riker shook his head, clearly having no idea.
“Something’s not right,” Keith said. “But I can fix it.” He manipulated his board, increasing the starship’s velocity.
A warning beep came from another panel. Keith glanced there. “You want to see what that is, mate?”
Riker sat down at the sensor board. “It’s another drone,” the sergeant said in a gravelly voice.
“That’s just great,” Keith said. “Where is it?”
The sergeant read the coordinates off his panel.
“Ah,” Keith said, adjusting his board. Another bright speck appeared forty degrees away from the first one.
“Victory,” Meta said over the comm-line.
“Victory here,” Keith answered.
“Where is the drone? Our sensors haven’t picked it up yet.”
“There are two drones heading your way, love.”
Another beep sounded from Riker’s board.
Keith glanced at the man. The sergeant nodded, holding up three fingers.
“Correction,” Keith said. “Make that three drones heading for your shuttle.”
“Three?” Meta asked. “Are you sure?”
“Wouldn’t have said it otherwise,” Keith told her.
“Can you take them out?”
“You know I can. It will be a cinch with the disruptor cannon.”
Riker waved frantically for Keith’s attention.
“Yes?” Keith asked the sergeant.
“There’s a problem,” Riker growled. “Villars has broken out of confinement. I don’t know how he’s done it, but the man is in the main control room for the disruptor cannon.”
“Why does that matter to us?” Keith asked.
“Because Villars has convinced Galyan to power down the weapon,” Riker said.
Keith thought for a second. “Do you think you can dig Villars out of the control chamber?”
“I’d say it’s thirty-seventy on doing that,” Riker said.
“A seventy percent chance is good,” Keith said.
“Not when that’s my chance of failure,” Riker said.
“Oh,” Keith said. He thought a moment before leaning forward, opening channels again with the shuttle. “Meta, it looks like we have a problem.”
***
Maddox strode into the shuttle’s control room in time to hear Keith explain the situation. The captain was still stunned by Ludendorff’s action. The shuttle no longer circled the asteroid, but headed for Victory. The professor should be safe in the asteroid for as long as his air lasted. The same couldn’t be said for them in this little craft.
Maddox sat down at the piloting controls. “Patch me through to Villars,” he said into the comm.
“Yes, sir,” Keith said. “There. He can hear you, Captain.”
“Villars,” Maddox said.
“Hey, boy,” the slarn hunter said through the comm. “You got yourself a situation, have you?”
“We all have a situation,” Maddox said. “Three Builder drones are heading for us.”
“I heard that. My, my, my, but it seems you want the disruptor cannon online, is that it?”
“The professor is trapped in an asteroid.”
“Treachery, eh, boy?” Villars asked. “You picked a bad time for it.”
“The professor went mad,” Maddox said. “He left us voluntarily.”
“That’s the stupidest lie you could have told me, boy.”
Maddox stared at the comm. How had Villars gotten out of his quarters? Did the slarn hunter have secret access to Galyan?
“I’ll tell you what,” Villars said. “You give me your woman, and I’ll let you use the cannon.”
“Do you want the professor to die?” Maddox asked.
“That ain’t going to happen any time soon, trust me.”
“Is Ludendorff magic, then?”
“Maybe that’s right,” Villars said. “One thing you got to remember, he’s five times the man you are.”
“Keith,” Maddox said.
“Here, sir,” Keith said.
“Take the psycho offline,” Maddox said.
“Done, sir,” Keith said.
“Okay,” Maddox said. “We’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way with the neutron cannon. You said three drones are coming?”
“Yes, sir,” Keith said. “They’re each building up velocity.”
“You take them out while we come home to the barn.”
“I’ll do exactly that, sir,” Keith said.
“I know you will,” Maddox said, hoping the ace hadn’t lost his touch.
***
Victory increased velocity as the shuttle picked up speed, heading for the starship. The three drones grew from specks to lozenge shapes.
“If I had the disruptor cannon, I could start firing already,” Keith said. “The neutron beam is a short-range weapon.”
“If mice were men,” Riker said.
The ace glanced at the old man. “What’s that mean?”
“Use what you have instead of wishing for the moon.”
“Aye,” Keith said. “That’s a fair statement. Now, I need to concentrate. Moving this mammoth through these asteroids is going to take some concentration.”
The next ten minutes proved interesting, and showed yet again that Keith Maker was the best pilot among them. He made the massive ship seem like a responsive strikefighter. During that time, he slowed enough and matched velocities to allow the shuttle through the hangar bay doors. Then, he approached Ludendorff’s asteroid.
By that time, the drones had grown large. These three were considerably bigger than the first one. Their sensors locked onto the starship. Red rays stabbed out of their nosecones, concentrating on the same section of Victory’s electromagnetic shield.
“This reminds me of the captain’s time against the three star cruisers out in the Beyond,” Keith told Riker. “He used the star drive to give himself a little magic back then.”
Keith’s nimble fingers played across his board. He brought up a star cruiser’s dimensions and compared it to one of the new Builder drones. The two proportions were identical.
“Sons of thunder,” Keith muttered. “That’s got to mean something.” He scratched his left cheek. Soon, he slapped the intercom on. “Say, mate, you got a death wish?”
“Speak to me, little man,” Villars said.
“We’re facing three star cruisers—”
“Don’t lie to me,” Villars snarled. “These are Builder drones.”
“I just checked the data banks,” Keith said. “These Builder drones are a match for star cruisers.”
“I’ll be damned,” Villars said. “I guess the professor was right about that, too.”
“He sure was,” Keith said. “That means if you want to live, you should warm up the disruptor cannon for all our sakes.”
Villars chuckled nastily. “Three drones can’t take down Victory.”
“I don’t understand why you want to make this a close run thing.”