»What is this?« Lai Pi moaned aloud. »It’s like being in a vice!«
»It’ll kill us!« Vasina screamed, horrified. She waved her weapon around with her free hand like a maniac.
»Damnit, watch out! You’ll kill us all!« Arkroid yelled, his voice choked and full of panic. He was running out of air. One of the tentacles had spun around his chest, compacting his lungs.
As the first bones cracked, Arkroid yelled for help.
»40028! Free us from this thing, fast! We can’t hold out anymore!« Then darkness enveloped Arkroid and he lost consciousness. Vasina and Pi were hanging lifeless in those tentacles. They didn’t feel it when the tentacles relaxed, and an invisible force transported them out of the danger zone.
Moments of suspicion
When his eyes opened Arkroid saw tentacles, touching his face. Panic flowed back, and he tried to dodge them, beating at them with his hands until the tentacles quickly retracted.
»Arkroid! It’s me. Calm down, please!«
Arkroid squinted into the bright light above him and sighed deeply. It was Scorge who was attending to him.
»Okay, okay, I get it,« Arkroid hissed. His entire body was in pain.
»You were lucky! What were you doing so close to the Klamshbar? Have you people lost your minds?«
»Klamshbar?« asked Lai Pi, coughing.
»Klamshbar!« replied Scorge. »This Trillanian mating robot was not designed for humanoid beings!«
Arkroid swallowed hard.
»Mating robot?«
»Trillanian males flee from their much bigger females during the mating season, so the amphibious beings designed a robot – the Klamshbar – whose purpose is to press the male against the female until several different secretions have mixed!«
»That’s all we need to know, Scorge!« Arkroid sighed in pain. »We understand!«
»I don’t think that the robot would have been able to obtain the same result with you by just pressing you together. I think the Klamshbar’s program was … hmm … inadequate. It applied excessive pressure.«
»Ahem,« Lai Pi coughed mutedly. »Obviously!«
»One of your bones protecting your breathing bags was broken in several places. I repaired the damage and in a couple of hours you’ll be feeling like new,« Scorge announced.
»I think you should check your universal translator for inaccuracies,« Arkroid whispered.
»Thank 40028 for pulling you out of the Klamshbar’s effective range. He alerted me immediately about your conditions. I hope you’ll heed the warning signal next time around. I purposely adjusted the acoustic signal to your hearing range. You must have heard it!« Scorge scolded.
»Well, now as you mention it,« Lai Pi grinned.
Arkroid signaled 40028, who was hovering a couple of meters away from the two men.
»Scorge is right. Thanks for your help, 40028. Wait … where’s Vasina?«
»Uh, don’t mention it, Toiber Arkroid, you’re welcome. Vasina is waiting in your cabin, she’s just fine. She didn’t want to wait around for your awakening, after we told her about the Klamshbar.«
»Nice!« commented Lai Pi sarcastically, rubbing his sore arms. »That’s our thanks for trying to rescue her.«
»How are you making out on your search, Scorge?« Arkroid changed the subject.
»Do you really expect to find 40028’s home-world in this sector? I still don’t understand why he’s not actively supporting your search. It’s his interest, isn’t it?«
»It’s like with you humanoids, sometimes 40028 can’t jump over his shadow. His home-world’s position is one of the greatest secrets of his people. There might be a subroutine that prohibits him from revealing this secret to others, even if he wanted to.«
»What have you learned so far?« Arkroid asked in muted tones.
»The system with the two dwarfs is not a real secret – a couple of moon-sized planetoids, an asteroid belt, dust, rubble and comet fragments … the two dwarfed suns are too weak to sustain life on the many trabants.«
»Well, the Techno-Clerics might not need an atmosphere,« Arkroid thought aloud.
»Could they have moved their home inside one of those planetoids? Have you thought of that?«
Arkroid registered with a sidelong glance that 40028’s color had changed. His aura seemed to pulsate slightly.
What might that mean? Arkroid wondered.
»Humans!« Scorge screeched. »How do you say on Earth … you can bet your ass that I’ve scanned this entire sector!
»I’m looking for energy signatures or radiation traces that might point to 40028’s home-world. A robot civilization like that must possess technology which generates stray emissions. I should be able to pick up some of those. So far, no success, though.«
»I think we’ll only find them if they want us to find them,« Lai Pi added. »Remember that 40028 told us that his people have reached a high level of social development. Let’s look at the problem from a different angle: why did they not answer 40028’s calls? Can you explain that, 40028?«
The Techno-Cleric slowly drifted over to Lai Pi.
»You’re getting warm, my friend. They don’t answer because they do not miss me! I am under the impression that my brothers consider the collective as being complete.«
Arkroid smiled and signaled Pi to continue.
Lai Pi pondered for a moment.
»You mentioned something about a memory gap?«
40028 pulsated faster.
»That’s correct. I cannot recall how I ended up on the stray planetoid from which Scorge rescued me.«
»Has a malfunction like that ever occurred before among your people?« Lai Pi asked uncertainly.
»We don’t function, Lai Pi, we live. Do Humans experience malfunctions?« 40028 sounded defensive.
»Well, sometimes we can lose our memory due to an illness or an accident.«
»That’s impossible in our case. We have perfected ourselves over many millions of years. Our bodies are subject to scheduled maintenance, but none of my brothers have ever lost their collective memories.«
»What was the last thing you remember before the blackout?« Lai Pi asked, excitement building in his voice. It seemed like they might be getting somewhere.
»It was a very rare but wonderful experience. I was traveling toward the star you call Sirius. Unexpectedly, I met one of my brothers in the void; he was also on a quest for knowledge. We exchanged what knowledge we had gathered, and then … I found myself inside the core of a dark planetoid.«
Lai Pi and Arkroid looked at each other.
»How did you travel? Were you onboard a ship?« Arkroid asked.
»No,« answered 40028, »we traverse the galactic lines of gravity between the stars. We do not need spaceships like you.«
Lai Pi rose slowly from his lounge. He felt a supportive gravitational push, which only the Techno-Cleric could have generated to help him get up. Astonished, he thanked 40028.
»Tell me, how often do these encounters in the void occur between members of your civilization? I imagine it would be really rare?«
»Never before had such an encounter occurred. The probability is so minute that it isn’t likely to happen again within this universal cycle.«
Lai Pi nodded slowly.
»Hmm … exactly what I thought. Isn’t it strange that you experienced your memory loss directly after such an unusual, almost impossible encounter?«
»What are you trying to say, my Human friend?«
40028 shifted positions more frequently, he seemed nervous.
»This other Techno-Cleric, did you know him?« Pi kept asking.
40028 hesitated for a fraction of a second. His answer was cautious, weighing every word.
»If you suspect my brother being responsible, then it would be … as you would say … ridiculous. No Techno-Cleric would ever harm another; we are not capable of it. It is against the moral code!«
»And that is all you have to say to that?«
Lai
Pi’s suspicions only grew stronger.
»Isn’t it possible that one of your brothers has left the path of the all-binding moral code, only to follow his personal interests? Maybe you detected that during your sudden encounter, and he took you out of the equation, erased parts of your memory so that he can go on existing unknown to anybody else.«
»Your logic is irregular and based on misconceptions about our culture,« 40028 answered muted. »The Cosmic Morality is not just a simple code, but the base program on which our existence is founded. We could not live without it! No Techno-Cleric can ignore these principles, our creators made sure of it.«
»Hmm … yuh … it was just a thought. Maybe you’ll find the answer to your problem in a million years,« Lai Pi joked, but he should have known 40028 would take that as a real possibility.
»Thank you, but I hope to find an answer earlier.«
Suddenly, Arkroid swung around toward Scorge. He drummed his fingertips on his lower lip.
»If … our friend doesn’t need a spaceship, then who and what brought him to that planetoid, and contained him there?«
Scorge’s tentacles vibrated slightly.
»I found him inside the planetoid, inside a big cavern, enclosed by heavy layers of brypan iron ore.«
Lai Pi looked startled.
»Brypan?«
»Brypan is an element. It can be penetrated by gravitons, but not by free neutrinos,« Scorge explained. »It’s very rare and found only where a heavy star has collapsed into a supernova. But that’s only the beginning. A radiation shower from a second component hardens or tempers the element, establishing a rigid framing structure around it. That kind of radiation only comes from an energy rich pulsar.«
Lai Pi was visibly impressed.
»Seems to me that our Periodic Table needs a few new entries.«
Arkroid didn’t pick up on Pi’s thread. He resumed, »Brypan would then be the perfect cloak, right? No electromagnetic emissions?«
»Not even tachyon emissions or higher dimensional energy, as far as I know – only gravitons. That’s how I was able to locate 40028. At first his signal looked like a gravitation field anomaly until I noticed that it was actually a strangely coded distress call,« Scorge replied in a tone that felt to Arkroid like a conspiratorial whisper.
Arkroid rubbed his chin and pondered.
»I don’t care how our friend sees it, I smell something fishy with this whole story! Where exactly did you find 40028?«
»Close to Zoscoor, a pulsar located in the center of the Cancer Nebula, as you call it.«
Arkroid and Lai Pi briefly looked at each other.
»That’s pretty far from where he met the second Techno-Cleric, right?«
40028’s and Scorge’s silence was an unspoken answer.
Look and find
Vasina was standing on one leg with her sword circling above her head, eyes closed and breathing flatly, as Arkroid, Lai Pi and 40028 entered the cabin.
»What the …?« Lai Pi started. Vasina didn’t move except to keep swinging her sword.
»Looks like meditation,« Arkroid remarked quietly.
Lai Pi approached her.
»You’re right, she is. I don’t get why with interstellar travel and faster-than-light propulsion; her people are still using swords. We know they have more advanced weapons!«
Vasina released the air from her lungs and switched to her other leg while still swinging the blade through the air. With an acrobatic somersault she sprang toward Lai Pi, stopping her blade just before Pi’s Adam’s apple.
»Only barbarians and cowards insult their opponents by using energy cannons instead of personal combat! It takes the right mindset, discipline, concentration, body control, and the correct techniques to make a good warrior,« Vasina hissed at Pi.
Lightning-fast, Lai Pi stepped to the side, grabbed Vasina’s wrist and whirled her about her center of gravity. With a surprised scream she landed on her ass.
»This discipline is called Kung Fu, an Asian martial arts derivative. My father taught me. Effective enough, even without weapons.«
Lai Pi offered her his hand to pick her up from the floor.
»You continue to surprise me, Lai Pi,« Vasina replied in a more agreeable tone, accepting his hand.
»Scorge has scanned the sector and identified an object that doesn’t seem to belong,« Arkroid interrupted.
»It’s a moon-sized planetoid with a diameter of 4,300 kilometers, orbiting Epsilon Indi Bb. The data does not show anything out of the ordinary, except that the mass seems to be a bit odd.«
Vasina swept a strand of hair out of her face and looked at Arkroid inquiringly. Arkroid chose that moment to notice how beautiful she was, but forced himself to turn his thoughts.
»What are we talking about?« she asked.
»Scorge has compared and calculated the average density of all the bodies in this system, but that one is significantly heavier … nor does it match the physical conditions of this system.«
»Maybe it has a heavy iron-nickel core?« Vasina speculated. »You can find those anywhere in the universe!«
Arkroid nodded but his look remained skeptical.
»Maybe, but it’s the only discrepancy in this system, so it’s our main suspect. We’re taking a closer look at Bachtar.«
»Bachtar?«
»So Scorge has baptized the moon,« Arkroid answered Vasina’s question. »He didn’t tell me what the name means. Yax K'uk'Mo' is already accelerating and on course.«
»If Bachtar is that small, it doesn’t have an atmosphere, it’d be barren, ice-cold and scattered with craters,« Lai Pi added. »Not the best place for a picnic.«
»A picnic?« Vasina asked, irritated whenever they used unfamiliar expressions around her.
»Pi can explain that to you later,« Arkroid replied curtly. »I want to help Scorge and make a visit to the planetoid’s surface; do you want to come too?«
Vasina sheathed her sword and nodded briefly.
»I’m ready. What’s with 40028? He hasn’t said anything for a while.«
»He had no comment on what we’re about to do. I want to take him with us. Scorge is going to put us down directly on the planetoid. We won’t need the Morptukel.«
»Small favors,« Lai Pi laughed.
Arkroid turned to the Techno-Cleric, drifting silently near one wall.
»You want to tell us anything, 40028?«
The robot didn’t reply. Arkroid was beginning to suspect that its outer skin wasn’t metal, but some kind of stabilized energy. The sphere seemed to breathe. It expanded and retracted slightly.
»Looks are deceiving!« responded the translator. That seemed to be 40028’s only comment at this point.
»Well then, let’s get ready.«
Arkroid flipped a small silver button to Lai Pi.
»Take this and put it in your pocket. Gift from Scorge.«
»What’s that?« Lai Pi looked at it suspiciously, turning it to examine the little button from all sides.
Vasina sighed and rolled her eyes.
»Why do you people always have to remind me how far behind you are? That is a miniature body protection shield generator. Your rigid spacesuits have been obsolete for centuries.«
»On Earth, they’re back in fashion,« Lai Pi told her with an impious grin.
»Well, I’m grateful for these,« Arkroid admitted.
»… but a small token!« Scorge spoke from a materializing holo display. He was sitting on a bean bag-like cushion, looking magnanimous.
»Yax K'uk'Mo' will land in a couple of seconds. You can leave the ship and look around. I don’t quite understand what you’re looking for, though, since my scanners show nothing. Still, Arkroid, if you’re so eagerly looking forward to a walk on this barren planetoid, I won’t hold you back.«
»So, it was your idea, Arkroid,« Vasina sighed.
Arkroid displayed a sour grin.
»Did I forget to mention that?«
Bachtar
»A
small step for me but a huge leap for Humanity,« Arkroid whispered as he stepped onto the planetoid’s surface.
»What was that? What did you just say?« Vasina asked in irritation.
The protection fields not only isolated Arkroid from the vacuum and deadly cold around him, but enabled direct communication with the others. The link was so perfect it seemed as if they were talking normally to each other, in an atmosphere.
»I’m quoting the first terrestrial astronaut who set foot on Earth’s Moon, a long time ago. This isn’t the most pleasant place, but it is still the first planetary body Humans have stepped on outside their own solar system. I think the old quote fits the occasion.«
Vasina bent down and picked up a rock, twisting it between thumb and index finger. »Here … take a souvenir!« she mocked and tossed it at Arkroid. He caught it gracefully.
A small gap between the rock and her fingers showed that she was easily able to manipulate objects from within her shield.
»You don’t understand,« Arkroid replied sourly, glancing at his surroundings. The pyramid ship behind them seemed like a mountain of steel. They had left the ship via airlock a few minutes ago and were transported to their location by means of an unknown energy field. Directly in front of them lay a high plateau covered with craters. The surface appeared hard and rocky, different than the dust covered Moon surface. The landscape could more aptly be compared to the barren lands of the Antarctic. There was no low lying sun providing the illumination, though, but a brown dwarf, whose light was barely adequate to see by.
Crisp and clear black shadows, some of them really bizarre looking, appeared at areas away from direct sunlight. There was no stray light or fog due to the lack of an atmosphere. The planetoid’s small size made the curved horizon seem very close, almost touchable.
The sky showed the stellar ocean that was the Milky Way, familiar, yet slightly different than viewed from Earth. Some constellations were strangely parallax shifted. Arkroid had to keep telling himself that they were in Epsilon Indi.
»Are you dreaming, Arkroid?« Vasina interrupted his thoughts.
»Just enjoying the view,« he apologized and stepped outside the ship’s shadow.
NEBULAR Collection 2 - The Expedition: NEBULAR Episodes 6 - 11 Page 9
