»I’d detect scanner impulses immediately and deflect them. Herimos is correct, detection by other space-faring civilizations is virtually impossible.«
Moments later, the ship accelerated and Equinox fell behind rapidly.
Herimos slumped in his seat. He smiled as he watched the planet fade.
Kuster~Laap looked at his terminal and didn’t say a word.
»Kuster~Laap, give up your silly behavior already and tell us something about the target sector.«
Kuster~Laap looked up and said sharply, »For your information, Maya Ivanova, our destination is located about ten lightyears away from the Dimensional Mirror. The entire space sector forms a zone with dimensional and temporal anomalies, which can cause unexpected phenomena. I cannot tell you exactly what awaits us there due to ongoing astro-physical changes.«
He returned his eyes to his holo display.
»That doesn’t sound too good,« Voit Masgur oracled.
Kuster~Laap breaking his stare, »You wanted it this way.«
We need to act fast
After four hours, Nautilus re-entered the standard universe with huge photon showers, caused by the tachyon wind, dragged along during re-entry.
Moments later, the ship was subjected to unexpected titanic forces, hitting it with strong shocks.
Screams sounded through the command central.
»I’m detecting a very strong space warping phenomena, caused by overlapping dimensional fields,« Nautilus announced.
Arkroid watched how his seat’s armrest, together with his hand, moved away from him while he remained seated. His left arm stretched like a rubber band.
›It’s space that’s stretching not my arm or the ship,‹ he thought alarmed. ›My senses are deceiving me. This is unbelievable!‹
»Attention! We have entered an unknown, molasses-like medium that has broken our flight. The gravitational forces can only be absorbed for another five seconds!«
Arkroid broke out in sweat. Seconds later, the entire crew was pushed with brute force into the seats. Although, protected by quickly established, personal compensation fields, everyone on board felt the G-forces the field wasn’t able to neutralize. Arkroid clenched his teeth and heard Pi moaning beside him.
Tranos tried to reach for his shield to activate a separate compensation field for Vasina, but wasn’t able to move.
»Forget it,« Arkroid hissed through his lips, gasping. »Nautilus will take care of us.«
›What are these? Ripple effects, penetrating the defense shield layers … ugh … they’re inside me … I think I’m going to throw up …,‹ he thought.
Suddenly the gravitational forces subsided. The ship’s inertia dampers had regained the upper hand. The individual shields deactivated.
Arkroid looked around, breathing heavily.
›That was close.‹
Maya Ivanova vomited on the floor with a hacking cough.
»What was that?«
Her excrements were absorbed and sanitized by the floor like magic.
Pi shook his head and groped his body for injuries.
Arkroid looked at his arms, they seemed normal. He asked around if everybody was okay. He was especially concerned about Paafnas who seemed to have endured this episode unscarred.
›Possibly because of his light bone structure.‹
»That was an extremely strong time-space effect. It seems that we exited right in the middle of it,« Herimos assumed.
Vasina straightened in her seat laboriously and rejected Tranos’ hand. Voit Masgur chuckled for a moment. She looked around irritated.
»Kuster~Laap had warned us about this dangerous sector,« she recalled. »Nevertheless, I want to know how we were subjected to these strong gravitational forces. I hope, the ship didn’t suffer any damages.«
»Thanks for asking,« Nautilus announced. »Our re-entry was rapidly slowed down due to unusual dense matter. This matter, which is enveloping the ship, brought us to a standstill within twenty seconds.«
»What matter could that be?« Herimos asked. He jumped from his seat. »Are we inside a dark matter cloud?«
»The unknown medium possesses a tough consistency. I cannot yet determine the aggregation conditions. I have tried to analyze it to no avail so far. My sensors operation is limited. It feels like entering a gas atmosphere of a giant planet at a very high speed.«
›Feels like …,‹ Arkroid repeated in his mind.
»I detect interferences and shifting of the spatial volume with my photo sensors. The unknown matter is moving.«
Arkroid turned toward Kuster~Laap.
»What kind of phenomenon are we dealing with, Kuster~Laap, you issued the coordinates! One thing is clear we didn’t come out inside an ordinary gas or dust cloud.«
The Genorantan Prophet looked to his left then to his right, communicating with Nood and Naad via their nanobots. It took a couple of seconds until he answered, »Nautilus has better means to analyze this phenomenon than us. The space sector was considered safe and stable. The unexpected phenomenon shows us that this sector has changed in the meantime,« he paused, »We suspect that it is the result of overlapping realities. If two dimensions overlap, as it has occurred several times in the past inside this spiral arm, then obtuse events can take place. To answer your question directly: no, we do not know what this unknown matter is. An inhabited solar system is located not far from here. The Traumonans live on the second planet, orbiting a white-yellow sun. I fear for their safety.«
Kuster~Laap looked at Arkroid.
»Nautilus, this is Herimos speaking. Can you make this medium visible for us on the holos, by also coloring the directions and speeds of the lines of force?«
Nautilus produced a separate spherical hologram for everyone to see inside the command central.
»Hmm … what kind of channel is this?« Pi inquired and pointed with an electronic marker at a tunnel-like object, which closed behind the ship. »Is this a channel we created by forcing ourselves into this medium at the speed of light? It’s almost like a conventional projectile, penetrating through water or a gel.«
»You’re correct, Pi. According to our deceleration data and the unleashed energy, I can determine the density and streaming characteristics of this unknown medium, it is in a state between liquid and solid. We’re located some distance away from its outer edges. I’ve tried to engage a reverse thrust, but the medium counteracts it immediately.«
Herimos studied the holo. Suddenly, he stood from his seat.
»Is it possible to change the time sequence of the display? Hmm … let’s say, speed it up by a factor of twenty or even faster.«
The holo swirled faster. Structures became visible. Streamers, eddy currents and bubbles intermixed on the display, forming new surrealistic structures.
»I know this,« Pi said . »I’ve seen this before.«
Arkroid’s glances switched back and forth between Herimos and the holo. Herimos eyes widened, his mouth hung open.
»I could be wrong, but these movements remind me of convection streams within high temperature gases.«
»I cannot detect any thermal activities, this medium acts like hot gas. Several, different layers suggest temperature flows. They continually mix and flow into each other, changing their energy levels in the process. This observation runs contrary to known physical laws.«
»We gotta get outta here!« Herimos suggested strongly. »Arkroid, command your ship to jump!«
Arkroid searched Herimos’ face.
»Why are you so excited? There’s no imminent danger for the ship. We should take the time to study this phenomenon. Tell us what you’re thinking, Herimos.«
Herimos shook his head vigorously.
»No time. We need to act fast. I think, we’re stuck inside a star!«
I hate to say it
The Techno-Ferry shook and vibrated as it escaped into tachyon flow. Nautilus had reacted immediately to Herimos’ warning and executed an emergency jump without Arkroid’s orders.
>
›Invulnerable … my ass,‹ Arkroid pondered. ›Nautilus is a far advanced, technical marvel but it can be destroyed.‹
»There’re physical limitations for me, however, I know these limitations very well. Our mission is not in danger,« Nautilus announced for everybody to hear.
Arkroid shuddered and blushed; he had forgotten that Nautilus was able to read his mind like an open book. Moments later, the ship materialized outside the danger zone – this time in free space.
»We have reached free space with a controlled tachyon jump. My sensors and scanner are beginning to function normally again. Herimos was correct. This star, however, is semi-materialized and of an unknown structure. The immediate vicinity around the star shows temporal anomalies and disturbed natural constants.«
»Disturbed natural constants?« Pi asked. »What does that mean?«
The crew watched the holos on which only small sections of this strange stellar object was visible.
»Wow, it really is a star,« Pi remarked wide-eyed. »A strange one but still a star. The protuberances are reaching far out into space without any heat emissions. Did you want to kill us Kuster~Laap!«
Before Kuster~Laap was able to answer, Vasina jumped from her seat and said, »It’s not Kuster~Laap’s fault. You won’t find this star in any catalogue. This sun does not belong to our galaxy … let me rephrase that: it’s not part of our space-time continuum!«
Pi looked around insecurely.
»This is an eerie sight.«
›A ghost star,‹ Arkroid declared to Nautilus. ›That nails it. We’re still inside the chromosphere of a strange sun, but don’t feel the heat.‹
»I’m receiving countless distress calls. The messages are garbled and difficult to understand they’re coming from all directions.«
Nautilus transferred the messages to the individual terminals. »There are many people in despair out there. The entire sector is in panic. Messages are being transmitted via automatic warning transmitters, emergency rescue buoys and other sources. The signals come from at least ten different solar systems in this sector, but also from farther away.«
The group sat in silence for at least a minute.
»It’s possible that the effects can be felt on several solar systems at the same time,« Herimos asked.
»Not just a couple of solar systems … the entire spiral arm is affected,« Kuster~Laap replied.
Suddenly, the command central switched to a reddish pink. Several holos activated beside each terminal, showing strange looking target echoes as if they were made of glass.
»I detect more objects,« Nautilus announced. »There’re twenty nine thousand objects out there and counting. These objects show similar anomalies as the ghost star but they’re much smaller.«
»What’re we dealing with, Nautilus?« Arkroid wanted to know.
»The objects are also semi-material, a space fleet of unknown origin. They follow the ghost star’s gravitational field and are subjected to the same temporal handicap. They’re hardly moving from our vintage point, but they’re moving … with the sun. The fleet’s course vector indicates that it is hiding close to the sun to avoid detection.«
»Looter ships!« Kuster~Laap said in a shrill voice. »These ships will materialize in our universe after the Great Tremor and scatter throughout our galaxy.«
Arkroid wiped a hand across his clammy forehead.
›Are these ships a threat to us?‹ he communicated with Nautilus.
›They probably can’t even detect us. Even if we would fly through the fleet, they might only see us as fast moving shadows, like a blip on the scanner screen. We are the ones from a different dimension, if we consider their point of view. This will be, however, a different game as soon as the parasite galaxy has fully penetrated our continuum and the temporal effects have equalized.‹
›When will that be? How much longer until the Great Tremor occurs?‹ Arkroid asked.
›I can’t make an accurate prediction. I think that Kuster~Laap is correct, it won’t take too much longer. This ghost star and the fleet are the heralds of the upcoming and final materialization.‹
»Well then,« Arkroid said aloud. »Kuster~Laap was right, provided that this ghost star before us is not a single event.«
»I detect anomalies within a radius of one hundred fifty lightyears,« Nautilus announced. »This spiral arm will plunge into chaos. Many solar systems are already affected.«
The group looked from one another wide eyed and mouths agape.
»We can find these phenomena all over Scutum-Crux. We are in the overlap zone,« Kuster~Laap declared.
Arkroid cleared his throat.
»Nautilus, what else can you tell us about this space sector? Did you locate the system, mentioned earlier by Kuster~Laap?«
»The sun Traumon is only two astronomical units away and contained in my catalogue. The star is very active. I detect strong outbreaks and explosions on its surface, also unpredictable contractions. The sun is shrinking at one moment only to expand the next one. This sun has become unstable. I can compensate the forces if the sun should turn into a nova. The planet Dryllion is about two million kilometers away from our location.«
Arkroid frowned. If the ghost star materialized at its current location, then the planet would spontaneously combust.
»I hate to say it, but let’s ignore the Looter fleet and leave the ghost star’s vicinity. Nautilus, set course for Dryllion. Maybe the Traumonans need our help. I also want to know how they’re dealing with this catastrophe.«
Kuster~Laap looked at Arkroid, ears twitching.
»Be careful, Arkroid. We are in the center of the catastrophe. You have no idea what awaits you there.«
»Only because you didn’t tell us all about it. I’ll deal with you later, right now, we’re on a life or death mission.«
This is a nightmare
An eerie silence fell over the command central. They hadn’t expected to see what was displayed on the main holo. Before the catastrophe had hit the planet Dryllion, it had been a paradise with large oceans, big continents, different climate zones and large forests.
Kuster~Laap moaned as he saw the first pictures. His low frequency wailing was bone cutting.
Both ZyClonians were whining as if in great pain. They were suffering with Kuster~Laap.
Paled, Maya Ivanova watched the holo. Pi instinctively straightened in his seat as he saw the pictures from this tortured world. Herimos’ face lost control.
Paafnas, by nature a very sensitive character, slumped into his seat, covering his eyes with his hands. The planet before them had nothing left that could compare it to its earlier paradise-like appearance.
The formerly green and fertile continents appeared gray and dirty-brown. The continental contours were no longer distinguishable from the ocean floors. A wide ring of debris orbited the planet.
»Nautilus, report please!«
The ship didn’t answer straightaway. Arkroid slammed his fists on the console, but it took over thirty seconds until Nautilus replied, »A horrible catastrophe occurred about three or four days ago. I’m still collecting the data, it is overwhelming. The entire surface has been destroyed. The debris ring consists of large amounts of water-ice crystals. The atmosphere has almost completely vanished into space. There’re only minute traces of oxygen and nitrogen left. The planetary axis has shifted. This shift must have occurred due to breaks in the planetary crust, setting free tremendous tectonic forces …«
»… wait. What happened to the oceans?« Arkroid interrupted. »There must have been oceans? Look at the continental ridges.«
»What appears at fist as a planetary dust and crystal ring, is in fact the former oceans. There’s no doubt, Toiber. I compared the amount of water crystals in the ring with the expected amount of water on the planet … all the water was drawn into space, crystallized, and formed this ring.«
Nautilus zoomed in on the ring of billions of ice particles of different sizes, some as large as huge icebergs.
Sunlight glittered off the pieces of debris.
»The ring does not only consist of frozen water, but of rocks and other debris which can only come from the planet’s surface. Metal, building fragments, soil, spaceship wrecks and of course organic matter,« Nautilus continued.
»Define organic matter, Nautilus,« Pi inquired, watching his holo.
Nautilus sighed before it replied, »I am devastated about the deaths of so many life-forms. They’re all orbiting around the dead planet, together with the ice and debris.«
Arkroid was breathing hard. His mouth was dry and his mind rejected the holo images before his eyes.
»What does this mean?« Maya asked.
»The ring contains the former inhabitants of this world, including the fauna and flora as well as intelligent beings like the Traumonans and maybe others.«
Vasina looked away from the holo when Nautilus zoomed in further. The beings displayed on the main holo were horribly disfigured due to the sudden decompression when the atmosphere dispersed into space.
»What happened here? We need to understand.«
Arkroid looked perplexed.
›I need to understand! Is this the future for Earth? Is this the true face of the predicted catastrophe, Kuster~Laap was warning us about?‹ Arkroid addressed Nautilus.
»It hurts me to present the data,« Nautilus announced. »I am sorry.«
Herimos panted through his open mouth, his yellow teeth glinted.
»What I see is shocking and absurd at the same time. I see it with my own eyes, but can’t believe it. An unknown force devastated the planet’s surface and then threw it all into space?«
»This is pure insanity,« Tranos said. »There’s no such force.«
»Unfortunately, these forces exist as part of the dimensional overlapping zones and temporal distortions,« Kuster~Laap replied. He had regained his composure. »We’ve observed these types of ghost stars within this sector and what they can cause.«
»You have an explanation?« Pi asked.
The blue-skinned extra-terrestrial folded his hands, looking at the floor. His ears moving, he said, »As long as the parasite galaxy hasn’t fully emerged and equalized the temporal conditions, we will see extreme situations and phenomena. Natural constants become invalid, some laws of physics will be turned up-side-down. We registered that normal matter transformed into anti-matter, destroying planets in a flash. You, yourselves, witnessed these temporal effects. The semi-material celestial body, close to this world, comes from a different continuum, having created an enormous shock wave, which destroyed this planet.«
NEBULAR Collection 5 - Panic in the Galaxy: Episodes 22 - 26 Page 3
