“I don’t have to. Your reaction tells me I struck a nerve. Let me tell you something about your operation. Your plan to gain the sentinel is futile. It won’t work.”
“Doctor Ludendorff believed it could work,” Maddox said.
Dana made a dismissive gesture. “Ludendorff is a hopeless romantic. Yes, the man is brilliant. I concede that much. Frankly, that’s part of his problem. His brilliance blinds him to what can and can’t be done. Most of his life, he’s been doing things everyone told him was impossible. Thus, when he finally came to an impossible situation—I’m talking about the alien star system—he was too puffed up to realize we all would have died if I hadn’t acted quickly enough getting us out of there.”
“Why exactly is gaining the sentinel impossible?”
“You’re a smart man, Captain. At least, you seem capable enough. It should be elementary to figure out the reason.”
“Why don’t you tell me,” Maddox suggested.
Dana looked at him as if he’d become simple-minded. “Ludendorff estimated the alien war to have taken place nearly six thousand years ago. Knowing the man, he’s probably right. Let me ask you something. Can you imagine how long ago that was? Oh, I understand that you think you can. You can’t, though, not really. The timeframe contains all of humanity’s recorded history, everything. The sentinel is impossibly old, yet it is still dangerous. Don’t you think others throughout the centuries tried to tame it as you’re hoping to do?”
“I have no idea,” Maddox said. “By the articles I’ve read, the aliens vanished long ago. Maybe this is the first attempt since their disappearance.”
“Even if you’re right, the sentinel would be too different for us to use. Its controls are likely based on incomprehensible alien realities, at least as we think of them.”
“Wouldn’t rational minds think alike?” Maddox asked. “For instance, aliens must have used the same mathematics we have.”
“Clearly, you’ve read Ludendorff’s notes,” Dana said. “He spoke as you do. No! I reject the concept out of hand. Different races from different worlds would think and act inconceivably different from us.”
“Then how do we defeat the New Men’s star cruisers?” Maddox asked.
“Not my job,” Dana said.
“We—meaning you as well—are presently hunted by a New Man.”
“Correction, you’re hunted by a Star Watch destroyer. I’m beginning to suspect your entire story, Captain. I think you have a completely different agenda in mind, one you’re refusing to tell us.”
“No,” Maddox said. “That doesn’t fly. You saw the New Men down on the planet. You witnessed them and you know they’re incredibly dangerous to us. They have several edges over regular humans, not least of which is that they know us but we know very little about them. Tell me, Doctor. What must I do to convince you to aid us?”
“Nothing,” she said, “because I’m never going to help you in the way you want. It’s death to go back.”
“At least show us how to get to the alien star system. I’ll drop you off before we reach it.”
“Forget it,” she said. “Firstly, I don’t trust you. You drugged me, Captain. You lack a sense of decency. Secondly, if you want to go there, you have Ludendorff’s notes. Read them and use them.”
Maddox stared into her eyes, feeling like a deer watching a wolf panting under a tree. “I believe the professor wrote in code,” he said.
An eyebrow lifted. “So, you’re more intelligent than I’ve given you credit for. Yes, the professor was a maniac about security. He put everything he wrote into an inscrutable cipher.”
“I’m sure you could crack it,” Maddox said.
“That goes without saying. He was smart. I’m smarter.”
Maddox pursed his lips. “I must say, Doctor. You’re a difficult person to like.”
“All you mean is that I’m not doing what you want. As you can see, I’m too wise to fall for your ploys.”
“Nevertheless, you are in the same predicament as us. You’re in the same craft. The New Men are hunting for us, meaning they’re also hunting for you. What will you do as they close in? You must come to your senses before they trap us, and you, for good.”
“You forget,” Dana said. “I was on Loki Prime, more trapped than anywhere in the universe. Yet, I escaped.”
Maddox could have pointed out that he was the one who had taken her off the planet. Instead, he shifted directions because he realized that an appeal to her better nature wasn’t going to work. Doctor Rich was proud. She was ambitious, and she obviously looked down on others. She was hyper-intelligent. That must have meant a childhood full of loneliness. Maddox knew something about that.
He now snorted softly.
She bristled.
Seeing her reaction, he changed tactics. He would needle her, after all. “You didn’t escape from Loki Prime,” Maddox said. “I did that, taking you with me. Don’t you realize I won’t always be there to save your ugly hide from the New Men?”
“Ha!” she said. “Nice try. I’m not as sensitive or as vain as you seem to think. Let me tell you something. You need me. I don’t need you.”
“If I have to,” Maddox said, “I will decipher Ludendorff’s notes on my own and take us to the alien system.”
“Once you’re there,” Dana asked, “how will you trick the sentinel into letting you board?”
Maddox shrugged as if it would be child’s play.
“You do know that you’re racing to your destruction,” she said.
“Possibly,” he said. “I’m also taking you with me.”
“You’ll have to drop me off first.”
“Under normal circumstances I’d be happy to oblige. I’m afraid with the destroyer on our tail that I cannot.”
“That’s madness,” Dana said. “You’ve already admitted the scout is limping along. They have a fully functional machine. You will not shake them. The only rational choice is to return to a Star Watch shipyard and effect repairs.”
“In this you are correct,” Maddox said. “I am irrational and will stubbornly attempt the mission no matter how poor the odds are of succeeding.”
She squinted at him. “You’re bluffing.”
“Did I try to bluff the New Man on Loki?”
“No…” she said. “You shot him, but he still got away.”
Maddox wanted to shout with frustration, pick up his chair and hurl it at her. What would it take to convince this stubborn genius?
“Look at it this way,” said Maddox. “The destroyer isn’t going to give up. That means we’ll barely stay ahead of them. Whatever else I do, I’ll take the scout into the Beyond. Without your help, I’ll make mistakes deciphering the professor’s notes. That means a longer journey than otherwise. The longer this trip takes, the greater chance that I slip up and they catch us. That personally affects you, Doctor.”
She lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. “At least I get to live longer this way—your proposed zigzag journey through the Beyond. Once we reach the alien system, our lives will be measured in hours, not decades.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Maddox said. “Let me assure you, Doctor, you won’t hijack my vessel.”
She didn’t answer.
“If it’s in my best interests,” Maddox said, “I can always give you the same drugs as before, put you back to sleep.”
“True enough, you can,” she said, “but you won’t.”
“If I don’t, you’ll be spending a lot of time alone locked in your quarters.”
“We’ll see how well Meta does with that,” Dana said.
Frustration seethed through Maddox. He realized she wasn’t going to budge now. That meant he’d have to start reading Ludendorff’s notes again. He couldn’t believe freeing Doctor Rich had actually hindered their mission instead of aiding it. The scout wouldn’t be in this poor condition if he hadn’t gone down to Loki Prime.