Free The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) by Vaughn Heppner

or the Builders, someone in any case, had made a switch with Ludendorff. A nearly comatose android looking like the professor had returned to Victory . Was there a connection to the Ludendorff android with the Esquire Noble one here in Shanghai?
    “Have the Spacers been compromised?” O’Hara asked.
    “That’s a serious allegation,” Maddox said, remembering with a grin that the Provost Officer had used the same term against him.
    “You find that amusing, do you?” O’Hara asked.
    “No, Ma’am,” Maddox said. “It’s dreadfully serious, if true.”
    “Whoever is using androids fooled us once already. Without the assassination at headquarters—we might never have learned the truth about Ludendorff.”
    An assassin among Lord High Admiral Cook’s guards had shattered the Ludendorff android’s head while in the custody of Star Watch. The act had saved the Commonwealth from giving high command to an android.
    “This could be a much greater problem than I realized,” Maddox said thoughtfully. “If an android is running the Spacer embassy…”
    O’Hara waited.
    “If the Builders, or whoever, have slipped an android into Spacer high command, why use that android to capture me? That’s too small of a prize, considering the risk.”
    “I can think of plenty of reasons why,” O’Hara said. “The most obvious is to make a switch. In fact…”
    Maddox felt his heart rate accelerate. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He already had trouble with many in Star Watch. Too many distrusted him because of his hybrid nature. One of his anchors through all this had been Mary O’Hara. In many ways, she had been like a mother to him. She defended him when everyone else was ready to burn him as an unnecessary risk. Now, the Spacers, or this Esquire Noble android had cast doubt on him in the Iron Lady’s eyes.
    “I suggest Star Watch give me a complete physical examination, Ma’am. If the Spacers have switched the real me with an android, I would like to know it.”
    Her features had become pinched. “I do not want to order this, Captain.”
    “I want you to, Ma’am. If our enemy can make us doubt each other, they’ll be halfway to victory. Without trust…”
    “You’re right, Captain. I want you to head to Geneva on the double.”
    “Headquarters doesn’t seem like the right place. If I’m comprised—”
    “Captain, I am not in the habit of having my officers argue with me. You will proceed here at once. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Ma’am.”
    “I need my best people, now more than ever. We’re finally on the offensive in ‘C’ Quadrant. That means we must be doubly on guard back here on Earth.”
    “I’m on my way,” Maddox said. “Is there anything else?”
    She hesitated before saying, “No. Until then, Captain.”
    “Ma’am,” he said, clicking off the comm-unit afterward.
    Riker glanced at him in a peculiar manner.
    “You have something to say?” Maddox asked.
    “Wouldn’t you know if you were an android, sir?”
    Maddox took his time answering. “I’m wondering if the Ludendorff android knew it was a fake. No. It’s possible I wouldn’t know.”
    “That isn’t reassuring, sir.”
    Maddox shook his head. “No, it isn’t.” He positively hated the idea of being a fake. Also, if he was an android, where was the real Captain Maddox? Was that why he’d felt so fuzzy before, because he wasn’t really himself?
    “Can’t you fly this thing any faster?” the captain demanded.
    Riker glanced at him uneasily before accelerating, leaving the glittering lights of Shanghai far behind.
     

-5-
     
    Captain Maddox sat stiffly on a hospital couch, stripped to his briefs. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. In fact, he almost seemed too lean until he moved. Then his muscles showed to startling effect.
    “Now I understand why the brigadier wonders if you’re a living machine,” the doctor said in a jocular tone. “I’ve never seen anyone in such a high state of