The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) (36 page)

“Builders acted as judge and jury. We killed by the trillions. That stained our souls so fast, so very fast. I do not know why I was immune the longest. Perhaps I was the boldest, always considered the best warrior and strategist among us. I remained here while everyone else departed in despair and shame.”

Still, Maddox waited.

“I used to believe it was the curse of the Nameless Ones upon us. Now, I see that the sin was in our hubris. We believed we could decide which species was good and which was bad. Can you conceive of such gross arrogance?”

“Easily,” Maddox said.

“We had ranged through the stars—” The Builder fell abruptly silent. “What did you say?”

“I can easily imagine such arrogance because it sounds quite logical,” Maddox said, “even practical to me. I would gladly decide what species is good and bad in relation to my own.”

“But…but that is monstrous.”

“Perhaps if you gave me a concrete example I could understand better and see the error of my thinking.”

“I’m unsure if you’re exalted enough to understand.”

“Ah,” Maddox said. “You are wise and I am a dullard, is that it?”

“You are a clever talker,” the Builder said. “You seek to turn my own words against me. Perhaps I shall tell you. Maybe you’ve earned it. Your brilliance helped destroy a thing we Builders had been unable to do. It wasn’t for a lack of ability but desire. It all seems to come down to desire, doesn’t it?”

Maddox waited, unsure what lid he’d torn off.

“We used the tool left behind by the Nameless Ones. I designed the control unit that would allow us to wield the genocidal machine. It happened six thousand years ago after the sacrificial Adok defense. We watched the Swarm annihilate a race. It was horrible. Some of us spoke boldly, saying we should have interfered directly. Why had we held back from war? We had stopped the Nameless Ones. Why couldn’t we use our might to stop the scourge of the Swarm?”

“You wielded the Destroyer against them?” Maddox asked.

“In star system after star system,” the Builder said, sadly. “We brought the Destroyer to bear, annihilating nest after nest. We burned the Swarm from a thousand worlds, creating a dead zone between what you now call Human Space and the Beyond versus regions closer to your galaxy’s center. We gave your species ample room. If we had not, the Swarm would have reached Earth in time. Your species would have died under the Swarm occupation.”

“Thank you,” Maddox said.

“Your words are teeth, biting with sarcasm.”

“You are in error, Builder. I mean ‘thank you’ with all my heart. If you had not acted, I would never have been born.”

“Yes, yes, I realize that. But who were we, Captain, to play Creator like that?”

“Are you asking me to feel bad about existing?”

“No…no, that would be illogical. You fail to grasp—”

A loud, waterfall sound washed against Maddox. Once more, he clapped his hands over his ears.

“Captain,” the Builder said.

Maddox slowly removed his hands.

“I did not mean to let you hear that. My pain and guilt is deep. You have no idea. How could you? You are young and short-lived. You strive during the entirety of your meaningless existence.”

“You will excuse me if I disagree with you about its meaninglessness,” Maddox said.

“We annihilated trillions of Swarm creatures, pushing their boundaries back a thousand light-years. We wanted to give others a chance to flourish. We—”

“Builder,” Maddox said.

“Why do you interrupt me? I am baring my soul to you.”

“You said you drove the Swarm boundaries back—a thousand light-years?”

“That is correct.”

“You mean there is a giant Swarm Empire out there somewhere?”

“Oh, yes. It encompasses nearly a tenth of our galaxy.”

A cold feeling settled on Maddox. This was grim news. Then he realized something else. “If the Swarm is so prevalent, why are you so sad about slaying a few in the past?”

“Because I slaughtered
life
,” the Builder said. “Don’t you understand by now? I thought you were quick-witted. Successful life is what matters, not merely life that has a similar image as us.”

“What do you mean by successful life?”

“Yes, that is the crux of the matter,” the Builder said. “It is the equation I’ve finally solved. Five hundred years ago, I could bear no more. But I hesitated taking the final step. So I tried another way, hoping that time might heal my wounds. I shut down the majority of my systems. I hibernated, letting my experiment mature. Moving the Destroyer from what you call the Xerxes System sounded an alarm so I awoke. What I found on the Dyson sphere—see, I know your term for it.”

Maddox nodded.

“I discovered a nearly complete Swarm conquest of the entire sphere,” the Builder said. “I had placed a small Swarm colony here before heading for slumber. I also put humans on the sphere. They are nearly dead, a small colony of scientists and soldiers using ancient Adok technology to hold the onrushing Swarms at bay. I give the humans two more years at most. Then, they will succumb to the Swarm hordes. Then, the Swarm will have conquered the Dyson sphere.”

“And you conclude what from that?” Maddox asked.

“It is an obvious conclusion. You should see it clearly. But I understand, you are too species-conscious to understand the stark reality. The Swarm is more worthy to survive than humanity. It is that simple. They have passed the test.”

“What does that have to do with
Victory
and me?”

“I have collected thousands of starships in the past. I brought them through the sphere so they are drifting in the inner side of space at a Venus-like orbit from the star. Thrax Ti Ix will lead a new and improved Swarm upon the galaxy, to go to his brethren and give them what you call Laumer Drive technology.”

“Why would you do that?”

“As an offering for the trillions of deaths we Builders brought about in the past. It is the least I can do to help expedite my sins before the Creator.”

“The Swarm will annihilate humanity,” Maddox said.

“Why should that bother you? Humans are the inferior species. Life is what counts. The Swarm produces life in the greatest quantity. What other measure is there?”

“Bugs aren’t superior to humans.”

“Which would survive under the harshest conditions? You and I both know the so-called bugs would.”

Maddox floated in the stellar room stunned. The idea flummoxed him. The captain shook his head, forcing himself to think, to talk and to try to persuade the Builder to a different course of action.

“Is Thrax Ti Ix a normal Swarm creature?”

“Define normal,” the Builder said.

“Have you modified Thrax Ti Ix?”

“Of course,” the Builder said. “It is another one of my parting gifts. We Builders stymied their evolution once. I have now accelerated it.”

Maddox turned away, beginning to wonder if the Builder was sane.

Steeling himself, Maddox faced the darkness. He couldn’t let the dimensions of the problem stifle his thinking. He had to outwit the Builder. Yet, was such a thing even possible? Yes! He had to find its weaknesses, its vulnerabilities. It would seem that guilt before the Creator was the sore spot. He would attack it there until the thing grew weary of him and killed him or he succeeded. Maddox had to win not just his life, but also the life of all humanity. It was a goal worth every effort.

-44-

“This is very interesting,” Maddox said. “I admit that my thinking is limited. Floating in this chamber, however, and speaking with an exalted intelligence such as you has begun to broaden my scope.”

“I find that doubtful, although it is reasonable my presence should stimulate you.”

“Your words have washed over me like waves. I am drenched with new possibilities and new ways of seeing reality. Can you forgive me for my former outbursts against you?”

The Builder was silent for a time. Finally, it said, “I am seeking the Creator’s forgiveness. It would be surly of me to withhold forgiveness to one so far beneath me at the same time.”

“That part troubles me, your exalted nature, I mean.”

“How so?” the Builder asked.

“Your concepts outstrip my own.”

“That is true. Yet, I don’t see how it could it be otherwise.”

“No doubt, no doubt,” Maddox said. “For instance, I’m having a hard time understanding your modification of Thrax Ti Ix.”

“I thought you might, as the commander is a Swarm Captain Maddox.”

“What?”

“It is like you, a hybrid.”

“Oh.”

“The word ‘hybrid’ does not trouble you now?”

Maddox shook his head. “If the commander is like me, it’s no wonder we clashed.”

“No,” the Builder said. “That would have happened in any case. Swarm creatures stamp out all life that is non-Swarm. That Thrax did not do so immediately is a testament to his hybrid nature.”

“Interesting,” Maddox said. “By the way, isn’t it wrong to simply stamp out life?”

“Not for Swarm creatures,” the Builder said.

“It’s wrong for a Builder to stamp out life, but not for a Swarm creature?”

“That is correct,” the Builder said. “And that is so because the Swarm is the most successful life-form in our galaxy.”

“Oh,” Maddox said, as if deep in thought. “I think I understand. We know they’re the most successful because they kill everyone else.”

“That is one way to say it.”

“Interesting,” Maddox said. “I guess that would make the Nameless Ones the most successful life-form in the universe.”

“No! They were pure killers.”

“Just like the Swarm,” Maddox said.

“No, No,” the Builder said. “You do not understand. The Swarm kills, but they also construct world-sized hives. The Nameless Ones only destroyed, never built.”

“They built the Destroyers,” Maddox said.

“Yes, but that was the only thing they built. The Swarm makes hives on a thousand worlds. That is the essence of life, to build, to grow, to expand with life.”

“That would make you Builders the highest life form,” Maddox said.

“No. We lost our spirit. The Swarm does not have the same type of spirit. Thus, it lacks our weakness.”

Maddox closed his eyes. His head had begun to throb from all these conflicting concepts. He pushed the pain aside, though, concentrating on the moment.

“Did you put cybernetic interfaces in Thrax Ti Ix?” Maddox asked.

“Of course.”

“The commander is not fully Swarm then.”

“Incorrect, the commander is a superior Swarm, a hybrid creature.”

“The commander is superior because it is more like a Builder now?” Maddox asked.

The Builder did not respond.

“I am beginning to suspect that your vast age has clouded your thinking,” Maddox said.

“You may be right. I am unsure. Speaking with you has been a mistake. I yearn for certainty. It is the chief reason I desire an ending. Thrax Ti Ix begged me to forgo this conversation. The commander suggested…well, it doesn’t matter.”

“Did Thrax suggest the test in the glass cell?”

“It did indeed,” the Builder said.

Maddox clapped his hands.

The darkness recoiled from him. “Do not do that again. I detest the noise. What was that supposed to signify?”

“I believe the Creator just spoke to me,” Maddox said, thinking quickly.

“Why would the Creator speak to a hybrid like you when I am right here?”

“Why wouldn’t the Creator speak to me? In fact, I may be the obvious choice. Humanity yearns to live. Thus, in me, it asks you, ‘Why do you wish to annihilate us?’”

“I do not wish such a thing,” the Builder said.

“You are releasing the Swarm upon humanity, giving them warships they never made.”

“We destroyed many more warships of theirs six thousand years ago.”

“That was your error, not ours. You are causing us grief for your guilt.”

“I am making restitution for our savagery in the past,” the Builder said.

Maddox laughed scornfully. “That’s some restitution you have going. You murdered one group six thousand years ago and now are ensuring the mass murder of another by giving these Swarm an unfair advantage against us. Your sense of right and wrong is very odd indeed.”

“I must do this in order to pay for my wrongs,” the Builder said.

“Don’t you know that you can’t pay for them?”

“You cannot know such a thing.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Maddox said. “You can’t pay for your wrongs as a mass murderer by making sure another mass murder takes place. And to think that you’re doing this for life. It’s a joke on a vast scale, but a joke just the same.”

“I have grown weary of your bombastic statements. It is time—”

“Let us fight,” Maddox said.

“You desire to fight me?” the Builder asked in wonder.

“No,” Maddox said. “I desire to fight for survival. You want a test. I’ll give you a test. Release my crew, release the professor, the port admiral and his people, and the humans in the sphere, and let us duke it out with the Swarm in their new warships.”

“They will destroy you.”

“I accept that if they can do it. I’m here to tell you, though, that I’ll destroy them. In that way, I’ll prove myself a better champion for life than them.”

“By killing?” the Builder asked.

“I’m using the same measure you are, one that will doom humanity to extinction. The least you could do is not be a hypocrite about all this.”

“It would take time for Thrax Ti Ix to gather the Swarms to their warships.”

Maddox had wondered about that, hoping it was so. He said, “Survival of the fittest. Isn’t that your credo?”

“Hearing it from you makes the concept seem sordid.”

“I can tell you why that is if you want me to,” Maddox said.

“Please tell me,” the Builder said.

“I still have spirit. You’ve lost yours, which is why you wish to end your life. In fact—”

“Give me silence,” the Builder said in an ominous tone.

Maddox fell silent.

The two of them floated in the stellar chamber. The darkness drifted away from Maddox, with the blinking lights slowly moving along the Builder’s head area. After a span, the darkness moved closer again.

“I have decided,” the Builder said in a soft voice. “You have the right to life. You did not ask for help, but for the chance to fight for survival. I suspect the battle between you two will destroy the sphere. I will thus remain here and die in my guilt. It is a fitting end, the two champions of life battling over the remains of the Builders.”

“I do have one request,” Maddox said.

“You disappoint me. What is it?”

“I would like a hyper-spatial tube in order to return home to Human Space.”

“Let me ponder the request.”

Once more, the Builder drifted away. It returned sooner this time.

“I will agree. But I will also give Thrax Ti Ix a tube. I will give the commander the chance to bring its fleet and jump technology to the Swarm Empire in a single bound across space. Do you agree to this condition?”

“Yes,” Maddox said.

“It would have been better for you to deliberate such a thing. But you have made your choice. So be it. Now go, Captain. I have become weary of your presence. You have stolen what little peace I had attained. Now, I wish the end to come as soon as possible.”

Maddox might have said more, but he winked out of the Builder’s presence. He vanished from the stellar chamber, finding himself in a room with Ludendorff, Meta, Riker, Admiral Hayes and three small people wearing elaborate suits.

It was time to get ready for the final Builder test.