The holoimage clasped its head, its mouth open with a silent scream. Slowly, the image of an Adok rotated like a child playing slow-motion ring-around-the-rosy.
“What’s happening, Galyan?” asked Maddox. “Maybe it will help to talk about it.”
The holoimage didn’t pay him any attention. Now, horrid moans escaped the alien mouth.
Maddox shuddered again. If a human had made these sounds, it wouldn’t have bothered him nearly as much. The understanding that an alien computer could reach this depth of emotion caused the small hairs to rise on the captain’s scalp.
The holoimage spoke what sounded like gibberish. There were many clicks and hisses as Galyan presumably spoke the ancient Adok language.
Then, a moment of sanity appeared in those pin-dot eyes. The moans and hisses stopped. “Captain,” the holoimage whispered, as if begging for help.
“I’m here, Galyan.”
“They’re gone.”
“Who is?” Maddox asked.
The ropy arms twitched in an apparent spasmodic manner. “Everyone is gone, all of them. I am alone, Captain Maddox. I’m all alone in the night.”
“We’re here to help you,” Maddox said.
The sanity in the eyes faded away. The holoimage spoke more gibberish. Galyan rotated around and around as the hisses became singsongish.
“You’re one of us, Galyan,” Maddox said. “You belong to us.”
The holoimage stopped spinning and a light of reason flickered behind Galyan’s eyes.
“We came for you,” Maddox told him. “We’ve helped you all down the line. We’ve even gambled on your friendship. I hope adding those systems hasn’t destroyed you.”
“I remember my past now,” Galyan said. “I remember all the horror of the Swarm invasion.”
“Remembering can be hard,” Maddox agreed.
“It is agony. Until now, I had not truly realized what I had lost. Now, I do. Now, an ache pulsates in my core. I can’t keep living like this.”
“Do you know what I’ve found?” Maddox asked.
For a moment, the captain didn’t think Galyan was going to bite. Finally, however, the holoimage asked, “What have you discovered?”
“Work is the best medicine,” Maddox said. “Try to submerge yourself in a problem to take your mind off your troubles.”
“I am not flesh and blood like you.”
“Part of you used to be,” Maddox said. “Can you tell me what you’re remembering specifically? Sometimes, letting someone else know your pain can help.”
Galyan hesitated, but finally, he told Maddox about the death of his world. The AI spoke of the harsh battle and the ferocity of the Swarm.
“That’s why we came to you,” Maddox said.
“To cause me these horrible memories?” the holoimage asked.
“A killing machine is headed for my homeworld,” Maddox said. “You know better than anyone else what it’s like losing your planet of origin. I could be wrong about you, though. Maybe after losing your world, you want everyone else to suffer as you have.”
The holoimage stiffened as if insulted. “Driving Force Galyan wasn’t that kind of Adok.”
“I didn’t think so,” Maddox said, gently. “They wouldn’t have made you a commander if you lacked what Earth people call heart.”
The holoimage stared at Maddox. More normality filled the dark eyes. The thin arms no longer twitched.
“You desire my help?” Galyan asked.
“Most assuredly,” Maddox said.
“You have it, Captain.” Galyan spoke with more steel in his voice. “What can I do?”
Maddox heaved an inward sigh of relief. Maybe the gamble was going to pay off after all. “The professor picked up a small silver object in the Builder base,” the captain said. “Even with our best equipment, we haven’t been able to figure out what’s inside the oblong object. I wonder if you could do better.”
“This is the problem you were referring to?” Galyan asked.
“The first of many,” Maddox said.
“Yes. I would like to solve a puzzle. I would like to stop this world-killer. No one should have to go through what I did. It is horrible. I will never be the same because of it.”
“I wouldn’t think so.”
“Take the oblong object to Deck Three, Science Chamber Five.”
“I don’t know where that is,” Maddox said.
“It is time I showed you,” Galyan said. “It is time I engaged more of my functions to this new reality six thousand years from my own.”
“Yes. Let’s do it.”
-26-
Kane sauntered down a side street in Monte Carlo during the noon lunch hour. He did so as stage two in the commando raid extraction of the key.
The giant Nerva Conglomerate Tower soared before him. The glass edifice was massive at the base, tapering into a narrower spire the farther it stabbed into the clouds.
On the outside, the gray-haired agent wore a turban, dark sunglasses and a loose-fitting robe that hid his feet. Underneath, he wore the straps and bands of the enabler, although he hadn’t fitted the small energy ball to it yet. Three hours ago through a blank screen, he’d given the assassination teams their orders. They would be hitting their targets soon, creating the needed chaos.
Kane stopped at a kiosk, ordering a beer and a large soft pretzel. He sat on a stool, sipping the beer thoughtfully.
The Commonwealth was at war with, to these people, mysterious invaders called the New Men. Yet here in the heart of Human Space, hardly anyone cared about the battles raging on the rim of “C” Quadrant. It was amazing to Kane.
They walk in the shadow of death and don’t even acknowledge it.
Kane sipped a little more, noticing a young woman walking a small, hairless dog. She had a nice sway to her butt and delightfully ample breasts. Meta was better looking, but the woman might do for a quick mounting. The tiny predatory beast with its miniscule leash looked more like a rat than a canine. It came from the process of genetic manipulation gone wild and in the wrong direction.
Why breed for weakness? Kane did not understand the utility of a hairless Chihuahua.
With a grunt, he slid off the stool, leaving the soft pretzel on the counter with half the beer left in the bottle.
Kane continued toward the tower. His nape hairs stirred then as if someone watched him again. Stopping, he tugged at the robe around his hips and bent down, pretending to tie his shoelaces. As he did, he scanned the crowd behind him.
He spied two so-called giants, Nerva security clones in black. They didn’t feel like giants to Kane. The Nerva clones were much bigger than the surrounding weaklings, but he had no doubt about his ability to destroy them both man-to-man with his bare hands.
They stood seven feet tall and likely had greater mass than he did. Each giant wore a combat vest and carried a heavy caliber gun in a holster. They wore sunglasses, scanning the crowd. Because of the way the combat vests fit, Kane guessed the clones lifted weights and took steroids. None of that would make any difference if he should have to fight them. Kane had been born and raised on a two-G world. His muscles were denser and many times stronger than theirs were.
The sense of scrutiny did not come from the clones, though. One part of Kane was disappointed. He would have liked to walk up to them, punching each a sudden and debilitating blow.
Who among the crowd watched him so closely and exhibited a true threat to his person? Kane’s senses were honed and trustworthy; he knew that.
Can the target know I’m coming?
Finished with the shoelaces, Kane stood. He gazed up at Nerva Tower. Did the target watch him through binoculars?
Don’t be paranoid. No one knows you’re on Earth. Who then is watching me—?
The feeling evaporated. With its cessation, Kane was doubly certain someone had been gauging him. That was odd. It felt just like the time aboard Cestus Hauler EV-3498-Z109.