The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) (12 page)

“You can wonder all you like,” Ludendorff said. “But think deeply on this. I presently run the starship. You wouldn’t even possess
Victory
without my knowledge, and you wouldn’t have a working disruptor cannon. Because of my actions, you were able to save Fletcher’s fleet. And without me, no one will stop the planet-killer.”

“I quite agree, of course,” Maddox said. “Therefore, you don’t need to coerce us. Let us attempt to work together in harmony once again. There’s no need for us to bicker with each other.”

Ludendorff considered the captain for a long moment before nodding in agreement.

“Dana and Meta are still webbed,” Maddox finally pointed out.

“Oh, you’re right,” Ludendorff said. “I was just waiting for you to tell me what the two of you talked about in the shuttle. No doubt you want to do that as a gesture of good will.”

“I would be delighted to tell you,” Maddox said. “As soon as you release Galyan from your compulsion, I shall do so.”

Ludendorff spread his hands. “I see that we’re back where we began. Neither of us sufficiently trusts the other to work together unconditionally. Since I hold the upper hand, I shall continue to wield it.”

“As you wish,” Maddox said.

Ludendorff tapped his right foot several times. “Seriously, Captain, you’re not going to tell me what the two of you plotted?”

“I already did tell you,” Maddox said. “We spoke about you.”

“Very well,” Ludendorff said, as he patted the long-barreled gun tucked at the top of his pants. “I shall keep this then. And I will take Meta with me.”

Maddox’s heart rate increased, although he said pleasantly, “Beg pardon?”

“Meta has memories I need to access for the next stage of operations,” the professor said. “Therefore, I will need to take her with me.”

“There’s no need for that,” Maddox said. “Ask her what you want to know. She’s right here.”

“I’m afraid I can’t risk any duplicity on her part. I shall have to take her.”

Maddox shook his head. “I suppose I should let you know then that my cooperation ends if you take her.”

“Hmmm,” Ludendorff said. “This presents a problem.”

“Why don’t you tell me what memories you’re seeking,” Maddox said. “Dana can question Meta for you.”

“I don’t trust either woman.”

“That’s a futile position,” Maddox said. “You were correct earlier in saying we need each other. Thus, we should strive to cooperate, not find ways to antagonize each other. The stakes are too high for anything else.”

Ludendorff glanced at the two women before regarding Maddox once more. “Yes. That will suffice for now. Later, I may not be able to agree to your stipulation.”

“So far, we’ve been taking one step at a time. Why don’t we continue to operate on that policy?”

“Agreed,” Ludendorff said.

“What memories do you require?” Maddox asked.

“I want to know in precise detail what Kane did when he entered the targeted star system with Meta.”

“I find it interesting you still won’t tell us which system you mean,” Maddox said. “It’s obvious our destination is dangerous. Therefore, given our heading, I’m sure you’re referring to the Xerxes 14C System—the Bermuda Triangle of space.”

Ludendorff was quiet for a time. “I’ve misjudged you, Captain. Yes, this is a surprising development. You should realize I’ve been studying you for a time. Until now, you haven’t exhibited an in-depth knowledge of space. Why let your guard down now and show me you know as much as a regular starship captain should?”

“Call it a gesture of goodwill,” Maddox said. “I’m tired of this pretense.”

“I see,” Ludendorff said. “Yes. We’re heading for the Xerxes System. It will be dangerous, as you’ve suggested. You’ve made this gesture of goodwill. Thus, I will do the same. The doctor may question Meta. If the answers are sufficient, I will let it go at that. If not…I will do my own questioning.”

“The latter would be a bad idea on your part,” Maddox said in a friendly tone.

“Threatening me in any way is the worst idea of all,” Ludendorff said. “I hold the upper hand. Until I relent, I will continue to hold it. You should be grateful, because without my help, you will never defeat the doomsday machine. And if the planet-killer continues its mission, humanity as you know it dies.”

“I think it’s good that we’ve made our positions clear,” Maddox said. “If you could release my two crewmembers, we will continue to prepare for the Xerxes System.”

“One last thing, Captain,” Ludendorff said.

Maddox nodded.

“Meta has one day in which to remember the needed facts. After that, I will probe her.”

“Is your equipment the same as what the teacher used on her in the New Men’s star cruiser?”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“That isn’t an answer,” Maddox pointed out.

“No, it isn’t,” Ludendorff said. “I have no need to tell you the manner of my tools, and you have no lever to force me to show you. Thus, you will have to be content not knowing exactly how I will manage my trick.”

“Did you twist Lank Meyers’s mind?”

Ludendorff frowned. “I do not appreciate your bringing up such a bitter memory. My patience has a limit. It’s a bad idea to try to reach it.”

Throughout their conversation, Maddox had been gauging the professor’s reactions to everything. He studied the man while appearing to needle him. It was a deliberate process, with his Star Watch Intelligence-trained mind hard at work.

“Are you trying to tell me Lank Meyers willingly gave himself into the custody of the New Men?” Maddox asked.

The professor’s features tightened. “That is my final warning. Mention the incident again, and I will punish you.”

Maddox stared into the professor’s eyes. The captain believed he saw actual pain there. He had to push the professor, though. Maddox didn’t believe he could learn the truth any other way.

“I think you turned Lank Meyers into a kamikaze, the poor soul,” Maddox said.

“Enough!” Ludendorff said, sharply. He aimed the flat device at Maddox and pressed a stud.

The web field surrounded the captain. Then, shocks began to twist Maddox. His eyeballs bulged outward. He twitched as another round of volts struck him, but he endured them silently.

It was clear by this demonstration that the professor felt normal emotions and loss. Maddox felt that was vital information.

Ludendorff’s thumb lifted off the device. The shocks stopped. The professor’s eyes were red-rimmed and moist. Without a word, the man whirled around, taking his leave.

A few seconds later, the web field around Maddox, Meta and Dana disappeared.

“Why goad him like that?” Dana asked. “You went too far.”

Maddox said nothing, but he was more determined than ever to wrest control of
Victory
back from Ludendorff. This last incident gave Maddox an insight, which might give him the needed lever to achieve his goal.

-12-

Dana sat in a chair, examining the list of questions Ludendorff expected answered. The words were hard to read in the dim lighting of her chamber.

The professor was insufferable, an egotist of the first order. The man thought about himself front, center and back.

A brushing noise alerted her that Meta stirred on the couch beside her. Dana’s only true friend glanced up at her questioningly. Meta’s green eyes were glazed because of her hypnotic state.

“Don’t worry, dear,” Dana said, patting Meta on the shoulder. “You’re doing well.”

“I feel strange,” Meta said in a soft voice.

“No, no, don’t think about that for a moment,” Dana said. They had been at this for an hour already. Meta refused to open her mind to the time with Kane in the Xerxes System.

Had the teacher placed a block in Meta’s mind?

“Why…?” Meta used her tongue to moisten her lips. “Why can’t I remember what happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Dana said. “Now lie back, close your eyes and start counting to zero, beginning at one hundred.”

Meta lay back. She was strong with a tough mind, especially in dangerous situations. Dana knew she’d never have survived Loki Prime without Meta. She owed her friend, and she would never forget that.

At first, Meta’s romantic dalliance with Captain Maddox had bothered Dana. She had examined her thoughts on that many nights and finally determined that the relationship made her jealous. Dana hadn’t trusted Maddox’s intentions either. Over time, Dana’s thoughts on him had changed. The doctor also came to understand that Meta needed the captain’s calming influence. The man was like an oak tree, able to weather any storm. He was strong enough so Meta could take shelter in his protection.

There were deep hurts in Meta. Her coldblooded killing of others had twisted the dear girl, and her use of sex to obtain a tactical advantage had also caused her grave pain. Maybe some people could do those things without their conscience bothering them. Meta wasn’t one of them.

“Are you counting?” Dana asked.

“Eighty-three, eighty-two, eighty-one,” Meta said aloud.

“Think it, dear, don’t speak it.”

With her eyes closed, Meta nodded. Her lips twitched, but she didn’t make any more noise.

Dana glanced at the list in her hand. Insufferable Professor Ludendorff needed to know these specifics, did he? Damn his soul! Why was the man so arrogant? Why had he played it this way? He hadn’t acted like this on the expedition to the Adok System.

Oh, Josef Erich Fromm Ludendorff the III had been devious and secretive from the beginning. He had also been charming, with a beguiling and mysterious manner. And the love-making—Dana had never experienced anything like it. Literally, those times had taken her breath away after she’d stopped screaming in rapturous delight.

While sitting in the chamber aboard
Victory
, Dana frowned as she thought back to her early days with Ludendorff. Life had been difficult for her growing up on Brahma. The ancient Hindu caste system had been engrained into the planetary culture. In it, women didn’t hold important posts in society. That went to the high caste men, her father being one of them.

Raja Nehru, her father, had gone against Brahma custom by allowing her to go to university. There, Dana had excelled, gaining degree after degree with bewildering ease. It had been as if she was a rose grown in a dark corner, and finally, someone had thought to place her in the sunlight. She bloomed there, flourishing in the perfect culture. In time, though, her professors frowned upon her success. It was clear she was the brightest student in the entire university. Her father ordered her home. She refused, staying on as a teaching assistant. The boys—she had never been able to think of them as men—resented her instructions during the study halls. How dare a woman show them up with her incredible breadth of knowledge as she did?

Then, Professor Ludendorff arrived, teaching a fascinating course on alien technology. He was one of the few white men at Brahma Tech, and he hadn’t held to the same illusions as everyone else.

One by one, the other professors told Dana she could no longer assist them. Raja Nehru had used his influence to twist their arms. Finally, Professor Ludendorff was the only teacher who would employ her, paying her stipend out of his own resources. Dana survived on a pittance, refusing to quit. That would mean returning to the shadows where she would wither, killing her intellectual growth. So, for another six months she lived in a tiny garret and ate less and less so she could make ends meet.

“Are you on a diet?” Ludendorff asked her one day after class.

She shook her head.

That’s when he’d put a hand on her shoulder. Until that moment, the professor had been perfectly correct in all their interactions.

“My dear girl,” Ludendorff said. “I understand your situation. Come live with me. It’s the right thing to do.”

Dana looked up at him, shocked at the suggestion.

Ludendorff grinned and winked at her. “Yes, I mean to bed you, to love you as you’ve never known it could be. But I also mean to help you. You’re brilliant, Dana. You’re possibly the second brightest person I’ve ever met.”

“Who is the first?” she asked.

“Myself, of course,” he said with a laugh. “I constantly amaze myself with my intellect. It’s like being a star in the heavens.”

Dana blinked at him in wonder. She could never live with him. That would be scandalous.

Professor Ludendorff stepped closer, taking her in his arms. He held her, smiling, rubbing her back. Finally, his lips touched hers. It had been a feather-soft kiss, and it melted her.

Dana moved into his place a week later.

When her father discovered the scandal, he protested. At first, the university resisted Raja Nehru. Finally, they told Ludendorff he had to let Dana go home.

“I’ve learned what I’ve come here to find,” Ludendorff told Dana the next day. “I’m leaving Brahma tonight. You must join me.”

“What? No. I-I can’t do that to my family.”

“Of course you can. They’re good people. I know that. But they’re hidebound like ninety-nine percent of humanity. Come with me, Dana. I’m going to find the most incredible archeological find of the millennia.”

“What is that?” she asked.

A secretive look she came to know well darkened his features. Ludendorff shook his head. “I can’t tell you, not yet. But it will be an adventure, I promise you. I could use your intellect. No. I take that back. I positively
need
it.”

That had been the key. Dana joined him, leaving Brahma for the first time.

For six years, they searched for the hidden Adok System. Dana grew up a lot in that time. Ludendorff blew hot and cold. The man was unlike anyone she had ever met. There were hidden depths to him that he rarely showed. Slowly, she came to understand that Ludendorff only trusted one person: himself. He did not subscribe to common thinking or custom, but did everything his own way. Ludendorff always thought he was right. The man was arrogant beyond anything her father had shown, beyond anyone she’d met.

What made Ludendorff that way? Dana Rich worked as hard to discover that as to find the lost starship.

“You’re a Methuselah Man,” she told him one evening as they had watch together in their spaceship.

Ludendorff’s head jerked around. Those eyes that had shined with love on so many occasions became dark with suspicion. It frightened Dana. Would he kill her? Finally, Ludendorff smiled.

“It’s true,” he said. “Come. Let me show you what that means.”

The lovemaking in the past had paled in comparison to that night. The pleasure flowing through her had been too much for her to scream. It was as if he tried to forge new chains on her. How could he make her feel like this? It was remarkable and frightening.

“Professor,” she said later, as they lay entwined on the bed.

“Hmm?” he asked.

“How can you do these things to me?”

“It’s called love, dear girl. You must understand that.”

“No. You did something else tonight.”

“That’s true,” he admitted.

“Why have you waited so long to show me this?”

Ludendorff smiled sadly, as he stroked her cheek. “Dana, dear Dana, I trust you now. That means you cannot leave me. No one can do to you as I have. You realize that, yes?”

She nodded mutely. It was true, she realized.

“We will have many nights together,” he said. “This isn’t even the highest state of lovemaking. There are loftier stages, incredible heights of passion we can reach. First, I must teach you how to control your body.”

“Dearest?” she asked.

Ludendorff chuckled. “In truth, Dana, I have already begun your training. You have no idea what I can show you. This is only the beginning.”

“Didn’t you trust me before?”

He frowned and looked away. Finally, he reached for her, and they made love one more time.

It should have been sheer ecstasy being with the professor. He was right about the world opening up for her. He did show her things and teach her new modes of thought. And the body control he taught her allowed them to reach greater heights of passion.

In the end, she betrayed him for more reasons than simple fear in the Adok System. The lost starship had been frightening, and Dana believed they would all die before boarding the vessel. But it had been more than that. Ludendorff had begun to seem like a devil to her, offering her insights and riches beyond her dreams. She dreaded the coming payment for these things. There was something in Ludendorff beyond her understanding, something that deeply frightened her. He wasn’t like other men. His depths were an abyss she didn’t want to plummet.

“Why are you like this?” she asked him the night before she betrayed him.

They had found the smashed Adok System and hid from the last Adok starship.

Once more, Ludendorff studied her with darkness in his gaze. She shivered in dread, and she knew then she had to act or perish.

“What are you planning to do, dear girl?”

Dana came to him, using her heightened sexual training. She gave him a delicious smile as she twisted provocatively in front of him. “A surprise, Herr Professor,” she told him.

He laughed. It was the last time she was able to make him do that.

On the couch in the dim chamber on Starship
Victory
, Meta moaned, jerking Dana out of her reverie.

The doctor let her memories fade. Ludendorff was Ludendorff. He kept his secrets deeply hidden from everyone. The captain said the professor played the long game, but Dana wondered if Maddox really knew the extent of Ludendorff’s game.

Do
I
know?

“No, no,” Meta whispered from the couch.

Dana forgot about Ludendorff as she studied Meta’s strained features. The dear girl was deep in a memory.

“What’s happening?” she asked gently.

“I’m not sure,” Meta said slowly. “There’s danger here.”

“How do you know?”

“Kane won’t take his eyes off the pilot board,” Meta said. “He has a grim concentration. It’s like someone watching a cave, waiting for a grizzly to come charging out at him.”

Meta frowned. “I’ve never seen Kane like this before. It frightens me.”

What just happened with Meta? Why is she remembering now?

“Kane is…”

“Yes?” Dana asked. “What is Kane doing?”

“I…I don’t know. I can’t see him anymore.”

“Did Kane leave the command module?” Dana asked.

“I don’t think so,” Meta said. “No. That’s not it. He simply faded from view.”

That was strange, Dana realized. “Do you think something is blocking your memory?” she asked.

Meta’s frown deepened. It was like someone trying to undo an especially troubling knot and finally becoming frustrated with it.

It’s time to switch Meta’s focus. I’m in deeper and closer to the right memories than ever before. I have to try to stay here.

“I’m going to ask you several questions,” Dana said in a clam voice. “I’d like you to answer them.”

“I-I’ll try.”

“Good, that’s good,” the doctor said in a soothing voice. She glanced at her list and read the first question.

Meta shook her head.

Dana read the second question.

“I-I don’t know,” Meta whispered.

Dana worked down the list, asking the questions one by one. Meta couldn’t answer any of them. Soon, the Rouen Colony woman began to weep softly.

“No, don’t do that,” Dana said. “This is not a problem.”

“I’m sorry I can’t remember. I want to help. I know you need this.”

Dana tapped her lower lip with a stylus. This was fascinating. Meta was in a unique hypnotic limbo. She shouldn’t have been able to say that she wanted to help like that. That showed too much awareness. Yet, it was clear Meta was still under hypnosis. This called for special handling.

“I want you to relax,” Dana said.