The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) (32 page)

“Once more the answer is elementary,” Galyan said. “It is to collect the star’s energy output. I have made a simple calculation. Given a Sol-like star, that is 384.6 yottawatts of power.”

“What?” Keith asked.

“It is 33 trillion times more power than 12 terawatts,” Galyan said.

“Oh, sure,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “Now, I understand perfectly.”

“Twelve terawatts was humanity’s power consumption in the year 1998,” Galyan said.

“The sphere is amazing,” Maddox said, dryly. “But we’ll consider its grandeur later. I’m more interested in the professor’s prerecorded message and the whereabouts of Hayes and his people.”

“Yes,” Valerie said. “I don’t trust Ludendorff, sir. I think that message was meant to lure us here so he could lure you yet again down onto the sphere.”

“Either that,” Keith said, “or he gave the message under duress.”

“I very much doubt that,” Valerie said.

“I don’t doubt the
possibility
of duress,” Maddox said. “But I find no evidence for it. The professor is cunning. He could have slipped hidden references into the recording for us if someone had forced him to make it. I did not hear any hidden warnings.”

“If you’re right,” Keith said, “I’d like to know why the professor went to such extreme lengths to lure us out here.”

“Agreed,” Maddox said. “Let us consider this. The request began on Earth with the Shanghai androids and then the holoimage. It would appear the professor desperately desires my presence in the Dyson sphere. The extent of his efforts seems proportionally exaggerated.”

“What?” Keith asked.

“Galyan,” Maddox said, crisply, ignoring the ace. “You will begin to search the outer spheroid surface. Concentrate on the equatorial region. If the professor desires me down there, he must have a particular entrance in mind.”

“You’re not really going to give yourself into his hands, are you?” Valerie asked.

“Not as of yet,” Maddox said. “I appreciate my freedom too much. There is another consideration, however. If he has been this persistent, I doubt he will stop now. The more he tries, the more he reveals. I still need a few more revelations before I make my move.”

“You’re matching wits against him,” Keith said. The ace grinned. “I like our chances, sir. This time, we’re going to beat him and take him back to Earth as a proper prisoner.”

Maddox nodded absently, continuing to study the Star Watch ships floating nearby.

“We’ll use the probe to explore each vessel,” Maddox said. “There is always the possibility the professor made a mistake somewhere. If so we must find it.”

“He said it was in our interest that you go to the sphere,” Galyan said.

“Ludendorff did indeed
say
that.”

“You are in agreement with the lieutenant?” Galyan asked. “You do not trust the professor?”

“No,” Maddox said, “not in the slightest.”

-36-

During the next few hours, Valerie guided the probe to each Star Watch vessel. She didn’t find any more clues. It would seem that Professor Ludendorff hadn’t made any mistakes.

By the time she was done, the sphere’s engines had stopped glowing and had retreated so the giant hatches closed.

Shortly thereafter, Captain Maddox reentered the bridge. He had taken a catnap.

“Nothing new to report,” Valerie said.

A comm beep sounded from her board just then. She glanced at Maddox before turning to it. A second later, she regarded the captain. “Sir, someone from the sphere is hailing us.”

“Put him or her on the main screen,” Maddox said.

“Yes, sir,” Valerie said, hesitantly tapping her board.

Maddox, Valerie, Keith and Galyan all turned toward the main screen. A smiling Ludendorff appeared. He sat in a room with windows. Behind him were giant ferns. Far beyond the ferns shined the system’s englobed star.

“Captain Maddox,” Ludendorff said, “how good to see you again.”

“Yes,” Maddox said. “Galyan,” he said under his breath. “Is that the real Ludendorff?”

“Analyzing,” the AI said.

“I’m sure you’re wondering about all the cloak and dagger,” Ludendorff said. “I can assure it is for a good reason, a splendid reason, in fact.”

“Excellent,” Maddox said. “If you would please enlighten us then…”

“Oh, my boy, not by transmission,” Ludendorff said. “You’ll need to come onto the Dyson sphere first as my recording suggested. It’s also best if you come alone.”

“Ah,” Maddox said.

“Don’t you find the sphere amazing?” Ludendorff asked.

“I do,” Maddox said. “Before we speak further, I should let you know that I’m not entering the sphere.”

Ludendorff blinked several times as the smile slipped. Then, the smile appeared again in full force. “That’s a poor joke, Captain. Of course, you’re coming. You must. It…”

“Yes?” Maddox asked.

“It is required,” Ludendorff added.

“You are addressing an android,” Galyan said quietly. “It is a very good replica of the professor, but I finally concentrated on the pupils. From time to time, I can see through to the circuitry working back there.”

“Suppose I decline your offer?” Maddox asked the android.

“Surely, you’re curious about the sphere,” the Ludendorff android said.

“Quite curious,” Maddox said, “but not so much that I wish for my nonexistence.”

“I do not understand the relation.”

“It is elementary,” Maddox said. “By entering the sphere I could lose my life.”

“No, Captain, I can assure you that is not the case, at least not immediately.” The android’s grin widened. “I know that didn’t sound right. It was not a threat. I merely mean that all organisms die in time.”

“On the Dyson sphere,” Maddox said, “is that what you’re saying?”

The android blinked repeatedly. “I must insist you come. But since you have declined to come alone, now I ask that your entire crew join me. You will all love it in the Dyson sphere.”

“Quite possibly true,” Maddox said, diplomatically. “By the way, where are Port Admiral Hayes and his crews?”

“Oh,” the android said, “do not worry about them.”

“I am a Star Watch officer,” Maddox said. “It is my duty to worry about them. In fact, I am quite willing to take military action to free them. Perhaps it is time I turned
Victory’s
disruptor beam on the sphere.”

“Captain, are you seriously threatening me?”

“Who are you?” Maddox asked.

“Why, I am Ludendorff. That was a strange question.”

“That is a lie,” Maddox said. “You are not Ludendorff. You are an android made in his image.”

The construct blinked more than before.

“Worse,” Maddox said, “you’re an inferior android. Why is that?”

“Captain, please, this is such a glorious moment. I have long anticipated it. You must come down and let me see you in the flesh. I have read such wonderful reports about you. But I cannot fathom the reason for your continued successes against your superior enemies. Those successes are quite marvelous and unusual. I wish to know the reasons behind them.”

“I’m afraid—”

“Captain,” Galyan said. “Powerful tractor beams have locked onto the starship. We are being pulled toward a vast opening.”

“Magnify,” Maddox said.

The Ludendorff android disappeared from the screen. In its place appeared a huge hatch ponderously opening on the outer surface of the sphere.

“Can
Victory
fit through that hatch?” Maddox asked.

“Affirmative,” Galyan said.

“At the rate we’re being pulled, how long until we reach the…” Maddox waved a hand. “The Dyson hangar bay?”

Before Galyan could answer, Keith asked, “Do you want me to try to break free of the tractor beam, sir?”

“That will not work,” Galyan said. “The force of the contest will destroy the ship.”

“Let’s jump free then,” Keith said.

Maddox considered the idea.

“I’m afraid the decision has just been taken out of our hands,” Galyan said. “My special jump mechanisms have just gone offline. Something from the Dyson sphere is interfering with my systems.”

“Is it a Builder virus?” Maddox asked.

“Captain,” Galyan said. “I have detected an alien presence. It is attempting to take over my personality. The only way I can protect myself is to shut down completely. Do you swear to turn me back on when you’re able?”

“You know I do, Galyan,” Maddox said.

The holoimage glanced at each of them in turn. Then it appeared beside each of them, doing so in the blink of an eye. A ropy holo-arm reached out, attempting to touch each of them. Afterward, the holoimage wavered and disappeared.

The screen came back on, with the Ludendorff android smiling benignly.

“What just happened, Captain?” the android asked. “Why did the comm link separate?”

Maddox moved to the command chair, sitting down. “You’re bringing my starship into a hangar bay. That means you have what you want. Why continue with his charade then? Show us who you really are and tell us what you want with us.”

“I don’t want anything from your crew,” the android said. “It’s you alone who interests me, Captain.”

“Why?”

“You will find out soon enough once you reach my main chamber. I’m sure it will interest you. Even more, you will enlighten me. I am looking forward to the encounter.”

“Star Watch needs me,” Maddox said, “and it needs
Victory
.”

“Yes, both statements are true.”

“Therefore, it is a crime to do this to us.”

“No,” the android said, as if speaking to a child. “Star Watch cannot win in the end. They are overmatched. Thus, I am showing you a kindness. Perhaps it is kind to let them perish faster. I hate to see creatures suffer unnecessarily. With
Victory
helping Star Watch, it will only prolong the agony.”

Maddox’s thoughts moved at lightning speed. They had been for some time. “Are you a Builder?” he asked.

The android smiled cryptically. “Come to my chamber, Captain. I will explain everything there. Until then, you will have to wait for your answers.”

“Where is Professor Ludendorff?” Maddox asked.

“I am he.”

“Ludendorff has always been an android?”

The android blinked, blinked some more and finally stared in a frozen manner.

“You broke him, sir,” Keith said. “You asked him one too many questions.”

“No…” Maddox said, studying the unmoving android. “This is a deception, although I can’t fathom a reason for it.”

For a time, no one spoke.

Valerie kept working her controls. She spun around with anxiety in her eyes. “What are we going to do, sir? We can’t—we can’t go down there. We have to do something to break free.”

“Yes,” Maddox said. “Something is exactly what I plan to do.”

-37-

“Sir,” Valerie said. “You have to let us come.”

“No,” Maddox said. “That’s what the thing wants. Meta, Riker and I will move fast.”

“Keith and I can’t keep up with the sergeant?” Valerie asked.

“I want you to guard the ship,” Maddox said. “That is an order. I plan to find a way to free
Victory
from this insane confinement. Once we do, I want the ship ready to race away.”

“Galyan couldn’t find a way, sir,” Valerie said. “And he’s ten times smarter than any of us. How are you, on foot, going to do better?”

Maddox recognized her fear. Separating was difficult and waiting was always hard. As captain, he had to bolster his crew’s morale.

“Lieutenant, perhaps you don’t remember the story about a young woman caught in a dire situation. She grew up with nothing in the worst Welfare Island on the North American continent. Instead of admitting defeat, she fought every day of her life, scratching her way to a coveted spot in the Space Academy. I doubt she knew the answer at the beginning of her struggle, but she tried just the same.”

Valerie looked away, soon saying, “I hate when you do that, sir.”

“Noted,” he said.

She nodded. “Do you have any idea how long you’ll be away?”

“No idea,” Maddox said, “although I plan to return within three days.”

The lieutenant regarded him, nodding once more. “Supposing you don’t show up in three days, how long do you want us to stay aboard the ship?”

“A month,” Maddox said.

“You could all be dead by that time.”

“We are Star Watch officers,” Maddox said. “We each have our duties. You are primarily a ship officer. Meta and Riker are hand-to-hand specialists. According to what we saw in the last transmission, there is plant life here. This could be like Loki Prime.”

“Okay,” Valerie said. “But after a month, Keith and I are going to rescue you, sir.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Good luck, sir.”

“Thank you.”

Impulsively, Valerie stepped forward and hugged him. Maddox stiffened, finally patting her on the back. She hugged Meta and Riker afterward. Keith stepped forward, shaking the captain’s hand.

“Good luck, sir,” Keith said.

“To you as well,” Maddox told him, refusing to believe this might be the last time he saw either officer. Somehow, he was going to free his ship and people.

After Keith hugged Meta and shook Riker’s hand, Maddox led the way toward the hangar bay’s outer hatch.

Valerie and Keith retreated into the ship proper.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, sir,” Riker said.

Maddox did too, having prepared the best he could. He, like Meta and Riker, wore an EVA suit with a breather and recyclers. The sphere had air. The recyclers purified it for their use. He also shouldered a Khislack .370 rifle, kept a gun with a suppressor in a holster and carried food, water, survival equipment and extra ammo in a backpack. The helmets used short speakers, so they wouldn’t give anything away to eavesdroppers when they communicated with each other.

Meta and Riker were equally weighed down with suit, supplies and weapons.

The outer bay hatch began to rise, stopping after it was several meters off the deck. Outside was a vast, cavernous hall big enough so
Victory
could have sailed down it. Almost as surprising, lights shined down from the ceiling.

“This place is crazy,” Meta said.

“You stole my words,” the sergeant said.

“The starship was never built to rest in a one G environment,” Meta added.

Maddox kept his thoughts to himself. The tractor beams had guided the starship into the vast bay. Afterward, gigantic doors had closed. Later, cyclers had pumped an Earthlike atmosphere around the ancient Adok vessel. According to the sensors, one G pulled at the ship’s structure. They were in the Dyson sphere by several hundred meters. Did that mean they were trapped here forever? Why hadn’t the intelligence that ran the sphere pulled in the port admiral’s warships as well?

It was a mystery, one Maddox planned to solve.

Meta attached magnetic clamps to the deck and uncoiled a long rope ladder. She swung her legs over the edge and began to climb down.

“Do you even have a plan?” Riker asked the captain.

“I do,” Maddox said.

“Care to let the rest of us in on it, sir?”

“Not at all,” the captain said. “I plan to defeat the intelligence holding us prisoner.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“No. I envision it giving us reasons for its actions. I will also search for super-weapons to help us in the war against the New Men once we return to Human Space.”

Riker stared at the captain. “Oh, well,” he said weakly, “then by all means, let us begin. I can hardly wait. This is an adventure, is it, sir?”

“No, Sergeant, it is an Intelligence mission, one I aim to win.” With that, Maddox went to the ladder, beginning his descent from the starship onto the Dyson sphere.

***

From the floor, Maddox looked up at
Victory
, impressed as ever by the ship’s size. The only trouble here was that the sphere made it seem like a flea-carrying vessel.

“Do you notice that?” Meta asked, pointing at the nearest oval section of the ship.

Maddox did indeed. Most of the ancient vessel rested on magnetic holders. Two things impressed him about the holders: that they could carry the starship’s weight and that they seemed to have been designed for this very craft.

“What do the stanchions suggest to you?” Meta asked.

Maddox thought about it. “That whoever pulled us in knows our ship’s specifications.”

The three of them studied the starship and the giant clamps holding the underside of the vessel. The hum of the magnetics was audible from their spot on the hangar’s deck.

“I can’t get a grip on the size of this place,” Meta said. “It’s baffling to me. I don’t understand how anyone could build a sphere around a star, particularly one an AU in radius.”

“It is daunting,” Maddox admitted.

“How long do you think it took them to build it?”

Maddox finally detected the strain in her voice. It was one thing to talk about exploring the sphere, another to be out here at the beginning of the quest in this…vast structure.

He stepped closer, putting an arm around Meta’s shoulder. He squeezed her against him until she turned her helmet to look in his eyes.

“I hope to discover the answer soon,” Maddox said.

Riker cleared his throat. “Am I the only one, or did the rest of you think someone was going to be here to show us the way to Professor Ludendorff?”

“That did seem implied,” Maddox said, as he released Meta.

“How long are we going to wait for them to show up?” Riker asked.

Maddox shook his head. He wasn’t sure.

“Where would you propose we go if we just went on our own?” Meta asked the sergeant.

Riker pointed into the mammoth hall. “That a way seems wisest. It’s toward the inner surface. I’d like to see what a Dyson sphere looks like on the inside.”

“This…failure of an escort fits with the rest of the star system, at least what we’ve seen so far,” Maddox said. “A lone saucer-ship attacked us after we exited the hyper-spatial tube. Port Admiral Hayes’ flotilla drifted aimlessly near the outer sphere. There is no space traffic here, nothing to suggest a lively community. Instead, the system feels…maybe not deserted, but certainly empty.”

“And old,” Meta said, “as if this was built a long time ago.”

“That’s why no one is here to greet us?” Riker asked.

Maddox pursed his lips, scanning the cavernous chamber. They were less than mice in a house, more like fleas traveling through a giant’s castle. The sheer volume of this hall weighed against his spirit.

It would be better to do something than wilt here at the edge of the Dyson sphere. Action was the cure. So thinking, Maddox slid the Khislack’s carrying strap over his EVA-suited shoulder. “Let’s get started then, shall we. I’ve decided I like your idea, Sergeant. It’s time to see the sphere’s interior surface.”

***

They walked for an hour with lights shining down on them the entire time. The vast hall was empty, devoid of machines or any living beings. They moved along the center in case something, anything, should use an unnoticed hatch to charge them. The longer they traveled, the more it felt as if unknown space gods had built the giant edifice.

Maddox stopped, looking back the way they had come. They had lost sight of
Victory
some time ago. He scanned all around. This place was like a cathedral built to worship size, hoping to diminish a being’s spirit by showing its insignificance.

“Why haven’t they tried to contact us by comm?” Riker asked.

Maddox shrugged.

“Maybe the better question is why they’ve refused our calls,” Meta said.

“I watched the playback of your conversation with the sphere’s android, sir,” Riker said. “The android seemed eager to speak with you face to face. This…absence seems suspicious.”

Maddox couldn’t see what to do differently, so he began walking again.

Time passed as they traveled. After a while, the monotony made the hall seem timeless, their efforts useless. Nothing ever changed.

“I’ve read about Dyson spheres before,” Meta said. “I always thought the outer layer would be rather thin. This layer strikes me as extremely thick.”

“Isn’t that relative?” Riker asked.

“To what?” Meta asked.

“That we’re tiny compared to the sphere,” the sergeant said. “I imagine an ant thinks my garden back home is enormous. We’re the ants here.”

Maddox slid the rifle’s strap from his shoulder.

Both Meta and Riker noticed. She drew a thick-barreled gun. Riker drew two regulation-sized pistols.

The captain aimed the rifle down the hall, pressing the stock against his shoulder as he peered through the scope.

“What is it, sir?” Riker whispered.

“I see a body,” Maddox said, as he continued to peer through the scope.

“Is it dead or alive?”

“I judge it dead,” Maddox said, “as the pieces are spread on the floor. What’s interesting is that I see wires, struts and resistors.”

“A dead android,” Meta whispered.

“Who destroyed it?” Riker wondered aloud.

“Exactly,” the captain said. “The reason no one met us could be lying out there.” With the scope, he scanned around the scattered pieces and then beyond. Abruptly, he lowered the rifle. “Let us proceed with caution, as it seems there are factions within the sphere willing to fight for their beliefs, one of which is non-communication with us.”

***

Ten minutes later, they neared the scattered pieces. There were wires, struts, rotators, resisters and clots of dark matter on the floor.

Meta knelt by the first dark clot. With a metal pin, she shoved into the substance. “It’s blood,” she said.

Riker took several steps forward, toeing something. “This is hair,” he said, pointing at it with a gun. “Whoever did this loves androids as much as we do.”

“If this was an old kill,” Meta said, “the blood would have crusted a long time ago. This happened recently.”

As before, Maddox slid the rifle off his shoulder, using the scope to scan ahead. He saw nothing else unusual.

“We keep going,” he said.

They left the destroyed android behind, possibly the one who had spoken to them only a short time ago.

Fifteen minutes later, a loud
clang
sounded from ahead. The floor quivered under their feet.

“That’s wonderful,” Riker said. Before he could say more, alien-sounding
squeals
caused the sergeant to snap his teeth together.

Meta frowned as she glanced at Maddox.

The captain gripped his rifle.

From ahead came more clangs and squeals and then a loud and long whooshing sound. The squeals became higher-pitched, filled with pain and rage.

“We should retreat back to the ship,” Riker said.

“Go ahead,” Maddox told him, as he began to stride toward the noise.

“Are you crazy, sir?” Riker shouted.

Maddox began to run toward the sounds as they intensified. He wanted to see what was going on around the bend.