Scorge suddenly stopped before a marked airlock door.
»You’ll find your accommodations behind this door. I’m going to the control room to make preparations for the flight to our first destination. I’ll determine the first leg of our expedition, as I still need to finish an important mission.«
Arkroid listened up.
»A mission? Where’re we going?«
»Not very far, only 11.8 lightyears – just a short trip,« Scorge murmured, displeased. »According to your catalogue, it’s an orange, type K5V star. Almost a midget, like your sun, slightly larger but colder. I’ve never been there and don’t know the system.«
Arkroid nodded.
»I think I know the one you mean. It’s probably Epsilon Indi, a star we’ve observed for some time.«
Scorge listened, then waggled his arms dismissively.
»We can look at the central star and its system later, but first I have to fly to a double star system with two brown dwarves. It revolves around Epsilon Indi at a distance of 1.523 astronomical units.«
Scorge intentionally used terrestrial units of measures to simplify communication.
Lai Pi was fascinated.
»That’s very interesting. What’s your mission there?«
Scorge’s tentacles vibrated.
»You figure it out, snake man. That’s all I have time to say right now.«
As Scorge disappeared into a corridor junction, Arkroid showed Lai Pi how to work the door’s opening mechanism.
The controls were placed according to the Shwakan’s ergonomic needs throughout the Yak K’uk’Mo’. Vasina and the two men would have to aid each other to open the airlock doors when they wanted to explore the ship.
Many thumb-sized contact surfaces had to be touched simultaneously to activate the locks. This was no problem for Scorge, but it was difficult, considering the limited number of Human digits and their limited reach. It took some time for Arkroid and Lai Pi to get the heavy door to swing to the side, revealing a brightly lit room. A cool breeze greeted them, and the humid air in the corridor condensed immediately. Scorge had provided as promised a room with normal terrestrial climate.
»I like this much better,« commented Arkroid, and ran his fingers through his sweaty hair.
Vasina stepped inside and explored the generously furnished cabin.
»Enough space for everybody,« she commented.
»Yeah, swell! I only hope the toilet doors aren’t like the airlocks, or two of us will always have to go together,« Lai Pi joked sarcastically.
Both men placed their equipment cases in a small closet and hung their heavy spacesuits on wall hooks. As on Arkroid’s first visit, Scorge had given each of them a decontamination chip.
»What do you think, how long will this trip take?« Lai Pi asked with a frown. »11.8 lightyears is a huge distance. I can’t believe I’m going on this trip!«
»It’ll only take a few hours. Scorge will probably engage the tachyon drive once we’re past Jupiter orbit to keep us out of the Globusters’ sight,« Vasina commented. The Progonaut queen sighed as she relaxed on one of the lounges.
»A few hours?« Arkroid asked dubiously. »Don’t you mean days?«
Vasina shook her head and lightly touched her golden shield.
»I often ask myself how Humanity could so easily forget their entire ancestral knowledge. Do you actually know how weak you’ve become? If the Dark Brotherhood’s gangs show up in the near future, you’re doomed.«
Vasina’s words were soft and without emotion. She didn’t want to frighten the two men, but she had to state the situation soberly. Arkroid became visibly defiant, face a scowl and body tensed.
»Really? We took down the Soulwalker and survived the Globuster attacks. I suspect even this sinister power you’re always talking about would have trouble with us!«
Vasina smiled.
»You have many of my people’s traits in you, Arkroid. You don’t give up easily. Our people were just as optimistic, as smug, but in the end, all their courage wasn’t enough. The enemy was smarter and stronger.«
Lai Pi, who had been searching for a shower stall in one of the adjacent rooms, returned, breathing heavily, and stood stiffly before Arkroid.
»Toiber, there’s something in the next room – check this out, please!«
»What did you find, Pi, a Shwakan toilet?«
He ceased joking when he saw the specialist’s serious expression.
With quick steps, he was at the door, and he looked carefully into the room. Lai Pi followed him cautiously and Vasina also arose. Her hand hovered menacingly near the grip of her short sword. Arkroid shook his head gently to warn Vasina against any hasty action. Then he entered the room and stood there, frozen in shock.
Directly before him, only a meter away, a silver sphere with a brilliantly polished surface hovered in the air. The object drifted gently up and down, reflecting almost all the light in the room. Arkroid’s astonished face was mirrored and distorted on the curved surface.
»This looks like one of Scorge’s robots that got lost in our quarters,« Arkroid said cautiously.
»A stray robot?« Lai Pi added, and looked at Vasina.
The sphere was perfect, the surface like polished chrome. No seams, no cracks, no irregularities, almost as if a homogenous metallic glob had been cast under zero gravity. A weak aura of green light surrounded the sphere in evidence of some unseen power that kept it floating in the air.
»A repair robot?« Lai Pi asked.
»Nonsense,« Vasina objected. »Have you ever seen anything so perfect? That’s no repair robot!«
The aura of the spherical object lost some of its intensity and all three noticed a sudden strange feeling of pressure in their stomachs.
»What’s that?« Vasina exclaimed excitedly. »Do you feel it too?«
»Perhaps a warning,« Arkroid suggested, and pulled both of them back. »We’ll call Scorge. He can tell us what this is.«
The Techno-Cleric
»My apologies! I didn’t know where he was hiding! I hope he didn’t scare you,« Scorge said placating. The Shwakan had appeared at once when Arkroid called.
»That’s a Techno-Cleric, but it’s not just a simple machine.«
The robot glided out of the adjacent room as soon as Scorge arrived and hovered before the astonished Lai Pi, who had to fight the urge to touch the sphere with his hands.
»What is it made of? The way the surface pulsates … it looks like its breathing! Isn’t it made of metal?«
Scorge gurgled in amusement.
»Don’t ask me! I rescued the Techno-Cleric from a dead moon after I detected a few anomalies and landed to investigate. I can’t tell you how it got there. I couldn’t work out a means of communication, since I didn’t know how they talk to each other. The Techno-Cleric amazed me, solving the problem by building a translator from scratch.«
Lai Pi was fascinated.
»A robot that has developed initiative? Its programmers must have been geniuses.«
Scorge slowly crawled toward Lai Pi, and his voice from the translator suddenly sounded urgent.
»It belongs to a civilization from an unknown region of the Milky Way. It’s older than Humanity, even older than the Shwakans! The Techno-Clerics follow a basic program which emphasizes advanced moral values. Not some ideological morality, but a cosmic code – the only true morality! I don’t think our friend’s self-awareness is simple programming – it’s obviously a highly advanced artificial intelligence developed over many generations. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that the Techno-Cleric’s development is far above ours, and even the Progonaut culture is very young in comparison.«
Lai Pi wasn’t one to show his emotions, but anyone who knew him realized that his mind was working overtime. He seemed to grasp the complete significance of the Shwakan’s statements.
Arkroid broke the silence.
»Wait a minute. You’re saying it has an artificial consciousness?«
»Artificial,
mechanical, biological, crystalline – what’s the difference?« Scorge answered philosophically. »It isn’t important if neural clusters are formed by connecting millions of nerve cells or logical circuits. The only thing that matters is what kind of spirit controls them.«
Vasina stepped closer to the Techno-Cleric and studied it with interest. »Is this, then, a type of supercomputer that is more advanced than organic beings like us?«
»You understand, Your Majesty,« Scorge confirmed, gurgling. »After all, we’re organic machines ourselves with all the advantages and disadvantages of a carbon-based metabolism. The Techno-Clerics represent the top of the evolutionary chain at a level that we can’t claim to have achieved yet.«
Arkroid became suspicious.
»Hmm … and despite his high development, he needs your help! Am I correct? He’s part of the mission you mentioned before we set out for the expedition.« Arkroid concluded.
Lai Pi and Vasina noted that Arkroid now referred to the Techno-Cleric as “he”.
»He wants to return to his people, that’s all. I’m happy to grant his wish, in trade for the valuable advice he gave me during his time onboard my ship. Once he’s back home, I’ll keep my promise to you.«
»Scorge, we certainly have no objections. I’m a bit embarrassed. It would be fascinating to learn something about his people,« Arkroid answered.
»Same here,« Vasina added. Her deep eyes gleamed with interest.
»Well then, let’s go!« Scorge announced happily. »For your information: we just crossed the Saturn orbit and the Yak K’uk’Mo’ is about to switch to tachyon drive.«
Again, Arkroid felt a strange sensation in his stomach and mentioned it to the others.
»Interesting! You Humans seem to feel the Techno-Cleric’s communication method. At least, you can feel when he’s speaking to you. Unfortunately, we Shwakans can’t.«
»Communication method?« Lai Pi whispered, fascinated. »Does this pinching feeling in my gut indicate he’s trying to contact us?«
»What do you think, Pi?« Arkroid asked.
Vasina answered instead of Lai Pi.
»Well, ultrasound could have a similar effect on our bodies, but that can’t be involved or Scorge’s universal translator would’ve detected it. I believe there’s only one possible explanation …«
»… modulated gravity waves!« Lai Pi completed her sentence and smiled at Vasina.
»Yes,« she confirmed.
Suddenly, a small object, barely larger than a Human palm, hovered before Vasina’s surprised eyes and began to circle around the Techno-Clerics spherical body like a satellite.
At the same time, Arkroid’s universal translator came to life.
»I am happy to meet you, Humans! Scorge has already mentioned you in our conversations. I am 40028. I have respect for your efforts at regenerating your planet’s ecosphere. You are following the correct path.«
Arkroid was the first to recover from his surprise.
»40028, is that your designation or name?«
»It’s my name,« the voice said softly.
Arkroid held his breath, then he answered quietly.
»Please, excuse me, my name is Toiber Arkroid. This is Vasina, a Progonaut and at my right is Lai Pi, who comes from Earth, as I do.«
»Earth … a wonderful name for a planet. The word simultaneously designates the ground on which organic life predominantly developed and is also a synonym for fertility and growth. Do you have any idea how many planets in this galaxy alone bear the same name?«
»Why did you hide in our cabin?« Vasina asked suspiciously, ignoring the Techno-Cleric’s question.
The perfectly modulated voice answered promptly.
»I was eagerly awaiting your arrival – I was curious.«
The sphere seemed to pulsate slightly, enlarge and then shrink again.
»You’re not a Human, Vasina, and I recognize a certain aura like one I have previously encountered.«
Vasina suddenly blushed.
»You’ve met my people? When and where was that?«
»I remember everything from my past. I first encountered your people about 900,000 years ago. It occurred in a different sector of the galaxy. They were confused and lost but not without hope.«
»900,000 years ago?« Vasina whispered, stunned. »That was one hundred thousand years after the destruction of most of the Progonauts’ home-worlds!«
»Destruction and war are abominable and must be outlawed. It’s painful for me to hear that your people had to endure such tribulation, but be assured you’re not the only ones.«
»How old are you?« Lai Pi asked frankly and his question was willingly answered.
»Measured in your units of time and temporal divisions, I’m 14,378,402 years old. I inherited my basic programming from my father, 40021, and all my personal experiences were added to his.«
Lai Pi paled and looked at Arkroid for help. He was beginning to understand how far the Techno-Clerics were advanced.
»I’d like you to return to your lounges now. I don’t know how Humans will react to a short flight on the tachyon trail,« Scorge advised.
»40028, will you come with me to the control room?«
After a short, but very friendly farewell, the Techno-Cleric and Scorge left the room. Two men pondering over the situation, and Vasina totally confused, remained behind in the cabin.
Flight on the Tachyon Trail
»I don’t like that we have no idea what’s happening,« Lai Pi whispered. He had made himself comfortable on one of the lounges. »Where are we exactly? How fast are we flying? When does the tachyon flight begin? That Shwakan could have given us a heads up!«
Arkroid smiled. Lai Pi was accustomed to being in control. It was a new experience for him to travel as a mere passenger.
»How does this faster-than-light flight work?« Arkroid asked Vasina. »Forgive me, but this is the first time for me.«
Lai Pi forced a smile on his face.
»That would also interest me. Are we going to be reduced to subatomic particles and travel instantaneously through the eighth dimension? Be nice if we’d been told more about this ahead of time.«
Vasina’s voice came in a low growl.
»It’s hard to believe that you are descendants of my people!«
»That’s not proven yet!« Arkroid refuted with a wink, earning a fiery glance from Vasina.
»Considering how long it has been in use, the tachyon drive is the most dependable method of faster-than-light travel. My people had perfected the technology.«
»Does that mean your ships were propelled by the same principle Scorge uses?« Lai Pi was impressed. »How does it work?«
»Every child on my home-world knew that, it was common knowledge.«
»Then do us kids a favor and let us in on it, don’t be so secretive,« Arkroid joked sarcastically.
He smiled but then became serious again, realizing that he could speak to Vasina only via the translation device. The universal translator was another piece of technology Humanity couldn’t imitate. The situation regarding the tachyon drive was even more complicated.
»It’s simple. You surround yourself with a tachyon energy field, the size of the ship, which lends the ship tachyonic characteristics. Tachyons move faster than the speed of light, using a higher dimensional energy layer – the tachyon trail. The energy needed to reach the tachyon trail depends on the initial start impulse. Simply put: if the initial start velocity is low, then a correspondingly higher amount of energy is required to enter the trail,« Vasina lectured in a bored tone, as if explaining something to morons.
»Hmm … then you can theoretically transfer to the tachyon trail from a standstill?« Lai Pi inquired.
»That’s not a good idea,« she replied seriously. »During the transfer, you tag along a sub-light vector that determines your destination. If you could generate the energy necessary to transfer from a standstill it would make your destination uncertain.«
»Alright then,
« Lai Pi remarked, »how do we know that we’ve entered the tachyon trail?«
»You don’t!« Vasina snapped. »Even in my time, traveling was comfortable and there were no side effects. There is no time warping, except during the acceleration phase in the sub-light range, but that’s negligible.«
»One last question,« Lai Pi swallowed hard, »What happens if the protective energy field collapses for whatever reason during the flight?«
Vasina turned her head and looked directly into Lai Pi’s eyes. With a wicked grin she said, »then we return to what you mentioned before.«
»What do you mean?«
»Traveling as part of an energy beam – unfortunately forever.«
The Epsilon Indi System
Scorge didn’t completely ignore his guests. About six hours into the flight he sent them a virtual display.
»We’ve almost reached our destination! We are approaching a brown dwarf system under disguise field at 98 percent sub-light. You might want to see it?«
Arkroid and Lai Pi jumped from their lounges and stared breathlessly at the two suns, still some distance away from the Yak K’uk’Mo’.
»We’ve arrived already?«
Both men had trouble comprehending the fact.
»Yes, at our first destination. 40028 asked me to fly to this double star system and contact his people. It’s very improbable that there is a planet here capable of supporting life as we organic beings know it.«
»Epsilon Indi Ba and Bb, that’s what we call the brown dwarves. They revolve around a central star which supposedly has planets,« Lai Pi answered hastily.
»Supposedly? Definitely!« gurgled the Shwakan. »I’ve located eight planets around Epsilon Indi but we’ll deal with them later. A system with many small planets and a significant asteroid ring is ahead of us. It revolves around both suns. Epsilon Indi Ba is next. A brown dwarf with a diameter of about seventy percent of your planet Jupiter. The surface temperature is approximately 1,700 degrees Kelvin.«
Scorge projected a large image of the brown dwarf, twinkling with a dark red glow, as they continued their approach. Epsilon Indi Bb, the second component of the double star system was visible as a bright red speck in the background.
NEBULAR Collection 2 - The Expedition: NEBULAR Episodes 6 - 11 Page 6
