“Why the stare-down?” Meta asked.
“Procedure,” he said.
“I don’t understand.”
“Time has compressed my energy toward a single goal,” he said. “Now, Doctor Rich attempts to create a tech spell against the approaching monster. My presence hindered her, so she asked me to leave. I now find myself with a surfeit of time on my hands.”
“How about you use regular words,” she said.
“I like what I see,” he said.
She frowned, and hooked the tool onto her belt. With a swift unlatching, she removed the belt and set it on a panel.
“Don’t you know it’s impolite to stare?” she asked.
“So stop looking at me,” he told her.
“I mean you staring at me.”
“Ah,” he said.
She cracked her knuckles. “Lieutenant Noonan has told me that in the Star Watch it’s wrong for a senior officer to use his rank to his advantage.”
“Then what use is rank?” Maddox asked.
“Do you know something? On the planet—I mean Loki Prime. You beat me because I’d been infected with a million spores and germs. It weakened me. Now, I’m stronger and quicker.”
“I see.”
“If we sparred again, you would lose.”
Maddox glanced at the ceiling. The past few months have moved with startling speed. He’d been so busy with the prize that he’d forgotten about life, his in particular. He finally admitted it to himself. He liked Meta. It was more than her beauty. She was different from regular people. He felt an affinity for her, and he liked her bluntness.
He looked at her again, letting his eyes lock with hers.
Her head swayed a fraction, and she frowned. Perhaps not even realizing she did it, she buttoned her coveralls all the way closed. The top two had been undone.
“Would you like to freshen up?” he asked.
“What for?” she said.
“To look more presentable,” he said.
“How dare you say that?”
“Ah.”
Her chin lifted. “You’re a conceited ass, Captain. You think far too much of yourself.”
“In that case, you should be pleased. I’m thinking of you right now,” and he took a step closer.
“It’s time we retested our sparing skills,” Meta told him.
“You’re right,” Maddox said. “I’ve been contemplating a new hold. I call it, ‘a hug.’”
Meta rushed him and threw a right cross at his chin. Maddox caught her fist with his hand. If she had been a woman from a 1 G world, he could have twisted her arm into a submission hold. With Meta that proved impossible. Using her considerable strength, she shoved the hand, and he staggered back, forced to relinquish his grip.
“You’re quick as a snake,” Meta said, “and you’re stronger than you look. Why is that?”
“Lack of cigarettes,” Maddox said. “And I train daily. Now, it’s my turn to ask something. Why do you have a hair-trigger temper?”
“That’s your fault. I don’t care for your cockiness, the way you come in here and start—”
Maddox moved then, and he was fast. He darted close, touched her chin with his fingers and brushed his lips against hers. Anticipating her reaction, he shifted his head, sidestepping away from a delayed swing.
From the distance of several steps, he grinned at her. “You’re tasteful,” he said.
She touched her lips as she stared at the floor. Finally, she looked up. “Don’t ever try that again.”
He said nothing.
“If you do try,” she said, “you won’t like what happens.”
Like an old-style courtier, Maddox made a flourish with his hand and bowed at the waist. Straightening, he said, “Good day, Meta. Please, carry on.”
Afterward, he headed for the hatch. He expected her to call out. It didn’t happen. Instead, before he could duck his head and exit into the corridor, he heard her bang a tool against a bulkhead. He grinned to himself.
Maddox had wanted to do that for some time. With the sentinel coming, the odds of them getting out alive were no good. He might as well enjoy what could be his last moments of life.
Twenty hours later, Maddox inclined his head to Doctor Rich. Everyone met in the wardroom. Valerie had whispered to him earlier that Dana had worked herself to exhaustion at the computer.
The doctor sat at the other end of the table. She had dark circles under her eyes, and the flesh on her face seemed to sag. Maddox knew she’d taken another massive dosage of stimulants. According to Valerie, the doctor had admitted to her that she—Dana—knew a special mixture to goad her mind to furious outbursts of activity. Clearly, the witch’s brew of chemicals cost the owner.
Maddox looked around the table. Meta wouldn’t meet his gaze. The Rouen Colony woman had her arms crossed before her breasts. She seemed intent on letting everyone know that she was ignoring the captain. Maddox found himself more intrigued with her than ever.
Let the chase begin.
No. He didn’t have time to indulge now. That would be for later when they won.
Keith Maker grinned. Sergeant Riker kept kneading his one good eye. The old man had just woken up. Valerie sat straight, seeming the perfect Star Watch officer in her crisp uniform.
The others wore their uniforms, but they didn’t keep them as sharp as Lieutenant Noonan did hers. Maddox decided his uniform could use pressing. These past weeks, he’d become too lax about dress codes.
Doctor Rich cleared her throat, giving him a meaningful glance.
“Doctor,” Maddox said. “You’ve been hard at work. Would you like to discuss your findings with us?”
“Thank you, Captain Maddox,” Dana said. “You are correct. These past hours, I have reanalyzed the alien sentinel. During our voyage into the Beyond over the last three months I have been replaying in my mind many of the arguments I had with Professor Ludendorff. He was a frightfully intelligent person, with stunning insights. Without him, our original expedition would never have reached this strange system. We spent weeks studying various wrecks. We also analyzed rubble, searching for technical or civilizational clues, anything to help us understand the sentinel. Near the end of our stay, the professor believed he had found the ticket.”
Dana shook her head. “I rebelled at the professor’s idea. It seemed like a suicide mission. Convincing several key crewmembers, we took over the professor’s ship and escaped the star system. Eventually, he regained control. As I said, Ludendorff was the opposite of the absent-minded professor. He was brilliant with theoretical ideas and their practical application. I should have foreseen that and marooned him somewhere. Eventually, that’s what he did to me.”
Doctor Rich sighed. “In any case, I have probed the approaching sentinel. I wish I could tell you I’ve discovered something new and amazing. That is not the case. I am down to trying the professor’s plan, as I can think of no other way to gaining entrance onto the sentinel. At this point, I don’t see any other way of surviving the killing machine.”
“What is this method?” Maddox asked.
“It will sound ridiculous, I’m sure. It still sounds that way to me. Yet I would rather take a risk attempting to survive than wait idly for death to claim us. Thus, it is either the professor’s plan or nothing.”
“What’s his idea, love?” Keith asked.
Doctor Rich gave the pilot a cold glance. Afterward, she cleared her throat and regarded Maddox. “Part of me wishes to hate you, Captain. If you hadn’t come down to Loki Prime, none of this would be happening to me. But you did come, and I am off that Godforsaken world with its horrible spores. Now, Death comes for us. And I am propelled to try Ludendorff’s crazy scheme. I’m sure that somewhere the professor senses this and smiles.”