Toiber Arkroid awoke from his daze and looked around with irritation. On the lounge beside him lay Vasina. She had her eyes closed, her body still, unmoving. Arkroid looked away and glanced into Pi’s grinning face. Pi had also lain down but he couldn’t sleep either.
»What’s happening?« Arkroid asked.
»Did your wife ever tell you that you talk in your sleep?«
Pi pointed at the Techno-Cleric who was hovering in the middle of the room, about two meters above the floor.
»What is a bowling ball?« 40028 asked with a perfectly modulated voice via his universal translator.
Arkroid sighed and lay back on his lounge, staring at the ceiling.
»A sphere like you, actually a part of a game for us Humans. We throw the sphere, or ball, to try to knock down some wooden pins at the end of a long and narrow lane with gutters on each side. The objective is to clean up ten pins in one strike. It’s a popular leisure-time activity on Earth.«
»Leisure-time activity? What a strange concept. It sounds rather senseless to me,« 40028 admitted.
»There is a lot of stuff we Humans do which seems senseless, if you think of it,« Arkroid replied.
I asked for it, Arkroid thought, I should have known better!
»How long did I sleep?« he asked, still groggy.
»Not too long,« Pi answered.
»We have to make sure to get adequate sleep and rest. As exciting as this journey is, we’re still no machines, present company excluded,« he said, glancing at the Techno-Cleric.
»Thank you very much,« 40028 replied.
Somehow, his answer sounded sarcastic. Is that possible? Arkroid thought.
The transformer, as Scorge called the small translator device, was circling the highly polished sphere like a small satellite, transmitting gravitational waves, which in turn were then translated by Arkroid’s universal translator.
Criss-cross communication, Arkroid thought with a smile.
»Are we still within the dwarf system?« he asked.
»Yup, still here,« Pi answered quickly, smirking.
»How is Her Royal Highness doing? She doesn’t seem to have problems sleeping, does she?«
Lai Pi quickly glanced over to her.
»The princess must be dreaming about her prince, awakening her with a kiss,« he laughed.
»I may have my eyes closed, but my ears are working perfectly well!« she snapped at him, as she rose from the lounge.
»Incidentally, in my era, such remarks could get you sentenced to the Talkzit Mines, scraping the ore from the rock with your bare hands for a couple of years.«
»Yeah, that would’ve been a great experience!« hissed Pi.
»I’m detecting stress patterns in this room. Why is there always this tension between you people?« 40028 asked.
»Her Royal Highness still seems to have problems being in close proximity to commoners,« Arkroid sneered.
»I thought you said that you don’t belong to my people!« she fired back at him.
»Okay, okay,« Arkroid tried to defuse the situation. »We should relax a little, find neutral subjects. Sniping doesn’t get us anywhere. By the way, has anybody seen Scorge?«
»He’s in the control room, navigating the ship through this sector, and seeking my home-world,« 40028 answered, »I find it strange that the ship still needs to be manually operated despite its advanced technology.«
»Well, in reality, this pyramid ship is a primitive spacecraft. Even the harvesting machines on Atlantika were better designed,« Vasina remarked with a touch of arrogance.
Lai Pi and Arkroid just looked at each other and frowned.
»Can’t be that bad. It brought us here, right?« Arkroid shot back.
»It really did! We were riding the tachyon trail!« shouted Pi, excitedly.
Vasina appraised Lai Pi for a moment, laid back on her lounge and hissed, »Primitives!«
»You’ve met Progonauts in the past?« Arkroid inquired.
Vasina twitched as he asked the question. Arkroid must have struck a nerve in her.
»Yes, that was about 900,000 years ago. A group of refugees, which had just begun to settle on their new world.«
»Then … my people still exist!« Vasina said with evident relief.
The Techno-Cleric hovered closer, pulsing slightly. The green aura enveloping the robot became stronger.
»Why don’t you answer me?« Vasina asked in a muted voice.
»Maybe he’s transmitting a call again to his brothers?« Pi speculated.
»No, my brothers don’t answer my calls. I mentioned that already. I didn’t want to worry Vasina, so I said nothing further. Her nagging questions are bad enough already.«
»Tell me what you think,« Vasina asked determinedly.
»Well, if you really want to know, but please don’t get upset. The truth can be painful sometimes.«
»Tell me!« she insisted.
Arkroid narrowed his eyes. He noticed that 40028 was trying to avoid a direct answer. The sphere clearly had Human traits.
»The Progonauts had to make an emergency landing. They were refugees on a hostile world. Their complexion was black, but their eyes were golden like yours.«
»Progonauts from the House of Nubia!« Vasina remarked excitedly.
»They must have known their situation was hopeless, but they tried to cope. Their new world was nowhere near ideal for them, but they had no other choice.«
Vasina was holding her breath.
»What are you trying to tell me, robot?« she slightly raised her voice.
Arkroid tried to calm her down.
»Vasina, it’s not 40028’s fault if the truth is hard. You asked for it. We have a saying: “Don’t shoot the messenger.”«
40028 hovered closer to Vasina. It seemed to Arkroid as if the robot displayed some sympathy for her.
»Their numbers were too small to survive … not enough people to maintain a healthy gene pool and to establish a new civilization. Even assuming that they were able to overcome the challenges of that barren world, they would be extinct by now.«
»No, they must have been rescued! I know it,« Vasina replied stubbornly.
»A slim possibility,« 40028 admitted, »their ship was almost totally destroyed … viewed realistically, who could have picked them up? Their new solar system was insignificant and located far away from the beaten tracks.«
»I don’t believe that!« Vasina said, enraged.
»Vasina, that’s all in the past. 40028 is talking about something that occurred many thousands of years ago … it’s all history, no matter how painful!« Arkroid intervened sternly. He realized how protective Vasina was in regards to her people. This was becoming a sensitive issue.
Maybe it was a mistake to bring her along on this expedition, Arkroid thought with a bad taste in his mouth.
»Where do you fit into the game plan? How is it that you know all this, but didn’t help them?« Vasina asked, her voice filled with emotion. »I thought your code of conduct according to the Cosmic Morality is so highly developed!«
»Why do you think that I didn’t want to help them? I even offered to contact the people of another solar system for them, and told them that their situation was untenable, projected their future inevitable demise, but they rejected it.«
»No! They did?« Vasina asked, with stunned look.
»I respected their wishes after long discussions and several attempts to change their minds,« 40028 said and moved away from Vasina’s lounge. »They were unwilling to disclose their new planet’s position, because they expected to be discovered and hunted down.«
Arkroid inhaled deeply.
»Did you ever re-visit them to find out how they fared?«
»My dear Arkroid, do you have the faintest idea of the vastness of the cosmos … about what is going on out there and how many civilizations have vanished or are being destroyed as we speak?« 40028 asked calmly in return.
»This actually leads me to another question,« La
i Pi announced, trying to steer the discussion in a different direction. »Don’t you ever need new batteries … fuel … whatever power source you use, after 900,000 years of traveling throughout the cosmos? That’s incredible!«
»Many intelligent lifeforms express their astonishment upon learning how old I am. From my viewpoint it is you, the organic beings, who are wasting life-energy and in such a way that you can only experience a mere fraction of time, unable to fully know the wonders of the universe.«
»Well, you can possibly see it that way,« Lai Pi answered and rolled on his side.
That was the end of the discussion for the time being. It became quiet in the room, leaving everyone alone with their own thoughts.
Excursions
»I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave our quarters before asking for Scorge’s permission, do you?« Vasina wanted to know.
»He didn’t really confine us to our quarters,« Arkroid replied reservedly. »I can’t just sit here doing nothing. I need to go for a walk. Who knows what interesting stuff there is for us to see. Vasina, you can wait here if you like and babysit 40028.«
Stubbornly, Vasina, stuck her chin out.
»I’m coming with you!«
»Okay then. That settles that!«
Arkroid signaled Lai Pi and they both opened the door to the corridor outside their climatized room. As the heavy airlock door slid noisily to the side, moist warm air entered the room. Arkroid’s clothes became damp almost instantly, and even Lai Pi, used to warm climates on Earth, broke out in a sweat. 40028 followed them closely without invitation.
»Are you sure you want to come with us? It would be a shame if you suffered a short circuit in this damp environment,« Lai Pi grinned.
»What makes you say that, Lai Pi? There is absolutely no danger of that happening to me. You should know that already,« 40028 replied in a friendly, almost bantering, tone. »My body will shield me from environmental extremes. You are the ones who should watch out for yourselves. I’m detecting a mixture of pheromones and other trace-elements, coming from your armpits. What is that about?«
»In other words: we stink?« Arkroid laughed and winked at Vasina. It was clear from the disapproving look on her face that such humor went over her head.
»I can only confirm 40028’s findings,« she remarked guardedly.
Both men just shrugged and slowly began their excursion.
»Do you feel the increased gravity too? Scorge didn’t just adjust the climate for us inside our room but also the gravity. The normal gravity onboard the Yax K'uk'Mo' is definitely higher in other sections of the ship.«
»Exactly 35% higher than on your home-planet, Arkroid,« 40028 added.
»Why is the illumination turned so low?« Vasina asked, still irritated.
Arkroid smiled.
»Scorge explained to me that there are large forests of tall mushrooms on his home-world. The Shwakans live underneath the protecting mushroom heads. That explains the climate and diffuse lighting conditions onboard his ship. We do exactly the same on our ships, right? Let’s stop whining and act like civilized visitors. Don’t forget, we were the ones who asked for this trip!« Arkroid explained a little more roughly than he’d intended, but to him there was no reason for discussion. They had to adapt to Scorge’s environment – period!
They slowly followed the snake-like winding corridor, observing their surroundings attentively. On their arrival they hadn’t had much time to take a closer look at the ship’s interior. Only now did they notice many of the glyphs and symbols on the walls and the ceilings. Like the floor, the walls and ceiling weren’t smooth, but rather rough, covered with strange looking patterns. The corridors were not uniformly wide or high, and had unevenly spaced changing ceiling heights.
»This is an interesting design,« Lai Pi remarked.
Wart-like growths protruded from the ceilings at irregular intervals, releasing a fine mist of water. Arkroid realized this when he was standing underneath one of the protrusions and found himself enveloped by fine mist.
»Looks like some sort of pressurized sprinkler heads or diffusers, possibly part of a climate control system,« Arkroid said, trying to find a logical explanation, while he pointed at the slot-like openings releasing the mist into the corridor.
Lai Pi pointed a small analyzer at the walls and ceiling.
»Unknown material, metal-grid construction, containing a high proportion of organic components.«
Vasina observed Lai Pi’s attempts with a mocking smirk.
»This looks interesting, what do you think?«
Lai Pi stopped before an arch-like door. The locking mechanism possessed more than the usual contact pads, glowing in a red hue.
»I don’t know,« Arkroid replied uncertainly, »the red color could be a warning. We shouldn’t open this door.«
»You’re assuming that the Shwakans use similar warning and danger colors to us?« Lai Pi asked. »I find that hard to believe.«
»We wouldn’t be able to open that airlock anyway, even with Vasina’s help. There are seven contact pads too many,« Arkroid announced.
Pi and Arkroid twitched as the airlock gate suddenly opened with a grinding sound. Only Vasina wasn’t impressed.
»Open Sesame,« Pi swallowed hard and cautiously looked into the room.
»I think 40028 has helped us a bit, am I right?«
»I simply created a couple of gravitation fingers, as required to open that airlock,« 40028 explained.
»Well, since we’re here,« Arkroid invited the group with a hand movement and entered the room.
»Did Scorge tell you to follow us, 40028?« Arkroid asked the robot.
»He asked me to keep an eye on you,« the robot answered promptly.
»That’s a good one,« Lai Pi chuckled, »you don’t have eyes.«
»I knew it!« Vasina exploded hotly. »40028 is spying on us!«
»Certainly not, Vasina. Not all the rooms of this ship contain harmless goods,« 40028 replied. »Even Scorge doesn’t know how some of his goods function and what they could cause.«
»But he has no problem taking them aboard his ship, right?« Arkroid was perplexed, and that irritated him.
»The Shwakans are not only traders but also collectors. They have an irresistible urge to collect everything they can get their tentacles on, especially technology. Scorge salvaged artifacts from strange ships, drifting through space for thousands of years as well as technological remains of long extinct planetary civilizations. We should be very careful.«
Arkroid tried to see through the diffuse lighting and suddenly noticed a racing shadow at the edge of his eye. Were his eyes tricking him? The high shelves along the wall contained objects of different sizes and forms, partially stacked on top of each other. Strange looking, small snail house-like objects, cubes, blocks and organic seeming constructions, then items which doubtlessly were of technical nature. The Shwakan had collected a lot of stuff in this room.
»This is only one of many storage rooms on this ship. What’s Scorge going to do with all this crap?« Arkroid whispered.
»He sells the stuff at the best opportunity or he trades it for other stuff. Sometimes he uses it for repairs on his ship,« 40028 explained.
Again, Arkroid noticed a fast-moving shadow and quickly turned around.
»Something’s moving between the high shelves!« Arkroid shouted in surprise. »Did you see that too?«
40028 hovered closer.
»That could be smorgs. Scorge’s little helpers. They organize and log all the goods onboard, and they live inside these storage rooms.«
Vasina frowned.
»Scorge allows this pest, these rodents, onboard his ship?«
»Smorgs are semi-intelligent beings, not vermin, Vasina,« 40028 answered in mildly scolding tones. »Scorge has trained them just for this kind of work and integrated them as he does his other acquisitions.«
Arkroid saw the movements more often, but wasn’t able to get a good look at the smorgs. Th
ey reminded him of small rats or other creatures, making it difficult for him to hide his disgust.
»Well, let’s not disturb them,« he suggested. The creatures gave him the creeps.
In the meantime, Lai Pi had found a strange looking object. It resembled a two meter tall silver painted pinecone in a metal cage.
»Pi!« Arkroid shouted a warning.
However, Pi didn’t heed the warning and stepped closer to the object. About one meter separated Pi from the object when suddenly a chime sounded. Frightened, Lai Pi jumped back a couple of steps.
»What’s that supposed to mean?«
»Don’t step into an unsafe zone! That was a warning!« 40028 advised.
However, Vasina ignored 40028’s words and, ignoring the chime, went even closer toward the cone. Suddenly the object came to life. Scale-like surface plates opened, releasing gooey tentacles that uncoiled like lightning and captured Vasina, binding her. Vasina screamed as she was lifted from the ground. She fought against the tentacles but it was useless. She couldn’t free herself.
»Vasina!« Arkroid yelled, then both men ran over to help her. Vasina was just able to reach for her small dagger-like sword, pull it from its sheath, and lop off some tentacles with a few swift movements. It didn’t help; no sooner did she cut off a couple of tentacles than new ones grew to replace them.
Vasina was now covered with sticky bundles of tentacles, and breathing heavily. The grip of those tentacles must have been painful. When Arkroid and Pi tried to rescue her they were grabbed and spun up by other tentacles. In seconds both men were also tied up, lifted from the floor and forcefully thrown against Vasina. The former queen didn’t understand what was happening around her. She still tried to struggle against the hard-gripping tentacles, and to squirm away from Arkroid, whose closeness was overpowering.
Her face was red in anger and pain. Even Arkroid, his body tightly pressed against Vasina’s, could barely move a limb. The sticky tentacles caused red skin abrasions, tightening even further. Arkroid felt his arms and legs going numb.
NEBULAR Collection 2 - The Expedition: NEBULAR Episodes 6 - 11 Page 8
