Dana worked her board. She read the information to Keith. The pilot moved deeper into the mess, easing them past large spinning boulders. He braked, went “up,” braked again, slid sideways and put on a burst of speed to get past a thousand-ton chunk as it sped at them.
Dana stared out of the blast window. “We’ll never make it out of here.”
“Don’t worry, love,” Keith said. “If I can get us in, I can get us out again.”
“What if the Builders left a bomb in the debris?” Dana asked.
“What if your legs fall off?” Keith asked.
The doctor’s head turned sharply. “What is that supposed to imply?”
“Quit worrying about everything,” Keith said.
Dana pursed her lips before resuming her vigil out the blast windows.
Twenty minutes later, Keith brought the shuttle to a slow stop. They were in the middle of the smashed mass of the asteroid. Everywhere Maddox looked sections of asteroid, boulders, rocks and gravelly debris circled the craft. He would never have thought to fly the shuttle through the spinning, moving junk. His estimation of Keith’s skills climbed another notch.
“There,” Dana said in a stark voice. “I see the professor. He’s…he’s in a cocoon.”
Maddox stood, moving to the windows. Keith adjusted the shuttle’s lights. The beams moved across rocks, gravel and then centered on a silky-colored object shaped like a man.
“What’s the cocoon’s composition?” the captain asked.
Dana studied her panel. “A synthetic fabric,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Where did he get it?” Maddox asked.
Dana turned her haunted eyes on him. “I have no idea, Captain. Why do you think I should know?”
Maddox raised an eyebrow.
“Because I studied with him many years,” she said in a softer voice. “This is incredible. I find I’m worried about him. Do you think that’s strange, Captain?”
“Not at all,” Maddox said. “I think it’s perfectly normal.”
Dana shook her head. “I should hate the professor, despise him and wish him ill.”
“Why?” Maddox asked. “It seems to me he did much to help you.”
“He trapped me, is what he did. He tried to bind me to him.”
“What I want to know,” Keith said, “is who’s going to go outside to get him?”
“I will,” Maddox said. “I’m the captain. He’s part of my crew.”
“Could be dangerous,” Keith said.
“Could be,” Maddox agreed. He headed for the hatch, wondering what the professor had found in the Builder asteroid base.
***
Maddox settled into the thruster pack. He was outside the shuttle in a vacc-suit. It felt lonely out here and alien. Only a few stars shined through the mass of rocks and debris. He couldn’t see anything metallic that would indicate this had been a Builder drone base.
Clicking the last buckle shut, the captain turned on the thruster. He gripped a throttle control and squeezed particles of hydrogen spray from the nozzle. Gently, he moved forward out from under the shuttle.
“Nice and easy, Captain,” Keith said in his headphones.
Drifting slowing, making sure to keep his velocity low, Maddox approached the drifting cocoon. It looked considerably larger than a man, with something bulky sitting on its stomach. Had Ludendorff found his treasure? Was the professor alive? If so, why didn’t the shuttle’s sensors pick anything up? If Ludendorff was dead, who had cocooned him?
There were too many questions. Maddox wondered about another possibility. Every spacefarer feared an inside job, bringing something alien aboard a ship that would burst out aggressively and attack the crew.
“Better slow down,” Keith said in Maddox’s earphones.
With a start, Maddox realized his mind had drifted. That was foolish out here. Rotating his body, using a mirror to guide him, Maddox squeezed his throttle control. More white hydrogen mist sprayed from his nozzles, slowing his momentum.
Soon, the captain eased beside the cocooned body. He ran a hand across the surface. It was slick. Maddox brought out an adhesive pad and line, attaching it to the synthetic fabric. The pad lifted the moment Maddox took his hand away. He tried it again and got the same result.
“Trouble?” Keith radioed.
“The adhesive pad isn’t sticking to the cocoon,” Maddox radioed.
“You might have to push him in then,” Keith said.
“Or tie the line around his body,” Dana interjected.
“I think I’m going to do both just to be safe,” Maddox said.
The captain began the process. He pushed the cocooned body, causing it to drift toward the waiting shuttle. But for every action there was a reaction. The push caused Maddox to go the other way. He adjusted with the throttle-control, using hydrogen mist to stop him and go forward again. By slow degrees, the two traveled closer and closer to the shuttle.
“Maybe you want to speed the process, sir,” Keith radioed.
Maddox frowned. The ace had sounded too carefree just now, maybe even with a forced heartiness.
“Is there a problem?” the captain radioed.
“Oh, no, nothing at all, sir,” Keith said.
Maddox wasn’t fooled. There was a problem, but clearly, the others didn’t want to upset his concentration. Therefore, he decided not to worry about it.
Bit by bit, he brought the cocooned professor to the shuttle. Finally, Maddox used the thruster-pack to work onto Ludendorff’s other side. He slowed them to a halt, finding Dana outside the underbelly hatch.
She leaped to help, her tether playing out behind her as she floated closer.
His helmet lamp played over hers, showing nothing but a silver sheen. Together, they raised the cocoon, sliding the unconscious professor through the hatch and into the shuttle.
Soon, the two of them stood in the air-cycler with the cocoon. Oxygen hissed through. Then, cleansing agents sprayed over them, hot air and a final billowing mist. The hatch opened into the main shuttle. Maddox staggered through. He’d hooked the thruster-pack onto its rack already.
With a click, the captain twisted off his helmet, turning to Dana as she stepped through.
“What is it?” Maddox asked. “What’s the problem?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Dana said, as she removed her helmet. Her eyes were wide and staring. “The…” She squeezed her eyelids shut before opening them and saying slowly, “The New Men are in the Xerxes System with us.”
“What? How?”
Dana shook her head.
Maddox scowled. “How doesn’t matter at the moment, does it? They’re here. How many star cruisers?”
“Valerie’s counted four so far. She said they’re appearing near the Nexus.”
“Appearing? What does that mean? There isn’t a Laumer-Point by the Nexus.”
“I don’t know, Captain. Maybe they have a new star drive as we do with Victory. This is horrible.” The doctor stared at Ludendorff. “We have to get out of here. Can you help me move the professor?”
“Have the New Men spotted us?”
“Two star cruisers are heading here.”
Maddox’s eyes narrowed.
“Please, Captain, help me with the professor. I have to see if he’s still alive.”
-18-
Dana wanted to weep. She couldn’t believe this. She hadn’t cried for what seemed like ages now. How could the arrogant Ludendorff bring this out in her? Why had the man gone into the asteroid? What was so damned valuable to risk his life like this?
The captain moved his end of the body effortlessly. The man was impossibly strong. Dana huffed and puffed, straining as they set the cocooned body onto the shuttle’s medical cot.
Keith piloted them through the space debris, trying to get to Victory before the shuttle was in firing range of the star cruisers.
Can’t we get some luck for once, Dana wondered. Why is it one thing right after another? This really is a cursed star system.