Maya cautiously looked to the sides. The place or assembly yard was located directly in front of a gigantic igloo-like building, constructed of stone and boulders. The semi-sphere structure that had seemed like an architectural marvel looked crude and primitive from here. Small windows and openings had been broken out of the stonework to let light and air into the building. The stone blocks were crudely chiseled and poorly finished and arranged badly, with cracks and crevasses overgrown with exotic vines and flowers. The entire structure threatened to collapse any minute. Maya guessed the fortress to be two hundred meters in diameter. A large mountain, looking like an extinguished volcanic cone, towered behind the fortress. A fair-sized object near the top of the mountain reflected he light of the two suns. Maya squinted and tried to make out any details, but had to close her eyes against the blinding reflections. It seemed, however, that there were several buildings, with roofs and domes of a crystalline substance. Between the fortress and the mountain, was another object, one Maya only knew too well – the portal!
Maya’s pulse rate increased. The portal was surrounded by gnomes, heavily guarded! Still, it represented hope of escape. She wanted nothing more than to get away from this planet and return home.
A wall of thorns
»Four creatures arrived through the portal last night – four new mouths to feed. That means we need to make room for four,« Knockmerg announced in a loud, barking voice. He gave a gesture that Maya interpreted as a shrug. »Is it my fault that creatures arrive here unannounced all the time? Don’t they know that we only have limited space in our asylum?« Knockmerg uttered an evil, mocking laugh, then, »You know the rules! Four of you must go to make space for the new ones!«
Did I hear right? Maya thought in cold dread. He can’t mean …
Maya glanced to her side and looked into the huge, wet eyes of a large squirrel-like being. She was moved by the fear in its eyes, and her dread was realized.
Four innocent beings have to die to make room for us?
»This will however, be deferred till the end of your working day. You will be allowed to offer your work to our glorious Lord,« Knockmerg announced in a mock-serious voice.
What is all this? A detention camp? Maya thought, her anger getting the better of her.
Knockmerg turned around quickly as an angry scream tore from behind him. Another gnome charged into the yard, waving an axe-like weapon above his head.
»Knockmerg, your time is over! You’ve been clan ruler for long enough! Yield to Pmorck, the new Treugolan ruler!«
Treugolans! Maya repeated inwardly.
Her impression of their primitive social structure and low civil maturity was confirmed in this moment. Anybody could become the ruler as long as he could defeat or kill Knockmerg.
The challenger advanced with a battle cry, sweeping his axe at Knockmerg’s head. Knockmerg dodged and pulled out his own, heavier version of an axe. He blocked the blow with ease and laughed at Pmorck. Knockmerg looked like he was enjoying himself.
»Huh! The nest-wetters want to be at the top of the food chain?«
Maya saw that Knockmerg wasn’t in trouble, having an easy game with the challenger. He’d obviously lived through enough of these fights or duels. As the opponent’s axe grazed his arm, he grunted as if bored and struck down Pmorck with a deadly slash to his head. Blue blood gushed from the neck and head as the challenger fell limply and died in the sand. Disgusted, Maya turned her eyes away. Now she knew what to expect from Knockmerg. She had to find all of her team members quickly and escape from this world before it was too late.
The failed coup caused little stir among the gnomes. They seemed disinterested. Knockmerg didn’t even watch as the corpse was dragged away. He continued his ranting where he’d left off.
»You will all go back into the dunes today and sift the crystals from the sand. Each of you will come back with at least two pounds of crystals, or you won’t see the night fall!«
Maya’s hatred of Knockmerg redoubled at these words.
»As a bonus you’ll get an extra ration of water for today. Use it wisely – you’ll need it!«
A bonus! Maya thought, enraged. A bonus for what, celebration of his leadership?
Several Treugolans went through the rows of prisoners and tossed around leather-like bags, containing barely a liter of water each. Maya resisted drinking from her bag, still seething at Knockmerg’s words.
Suddenly, the prisoners began moving. Fine-meshed sifts and bags were distributed; Maya was assigned to work with a small group of prisoners. Moments later, they all set out for the dunes, passing by the portal, escorted by several Treugolans.
Maya looked around and noticed Fosset and Paafnas in her group of different alien species. She couldn’t see Sati or McCord in the crowds. A couple of hundred meters from the portal, the path made a bend to the left, leading toward a primitive gate. The gate opened onto a path through a thick, fifty meter tall hedge of lethal-looking thorns.
A wall of thorns, surrounding this miserable place! .
The Treugolans remained behind as the prisoners walked as if in a trance through the gate. Looking forward, Maya realized why.
Escape planning
While the other prisoners trudged toward the dunes, Maya Ivanova stopped for a moment and risked looking around. The dune desert before her seemed endless. The two hot suns sent their heat from on high. It wasn’t hard for Ivanova to imagine vividly what this day was going to be like for her and her group.
Suddenly, Paafnas was at her side – the only alien being besides the gnomes she could talk to – and she didn’t have much to say to them. The translation device saw to it that she couldn’t communicate with anybody who didn’t speak Treugolan.
Paafnas was pushing something into Maya’s hand.
It was a small bag. She looked inquiringly at Paafnas.
»What’s this?«
»Pour this powder into your water ration. It will kill any contaminants … algae, viruses and bacteria; they multiply fast in this climate. The guards give the powder to us sometimes, but I don’t need it; I’m immune.«
Maya smiled at Paafnas.
»That’s kind of you.«
She opened the primitive twist-cap and sniffed at the bag’s mouth. A musty, stinking odor made her twitch and pull a face.
»The water’s not drinkable!« she hissed angrily. »Do they want us to die of thirst?«
»They don’t give a damn what happens to us. As long as we work and achieve a quota, they let us live. Use the powder and wait a moment; it’ll work, trust me.«
Suddenly, Fosset appeared beside Maya, breathing heavily.
»Why are they chasing us into the desert? What do they want from us? And where are the others?«
»I haven’t seen McCord or Sati yet,« Maya replied gloomily. »They must be assigned to different workgroups. I hope they’re still alive. But … I’m glad you’re okay, considering the circumstances. Oh, and this is Paafnas.«
Fosset looked at Paafnas in uncomprehending irritation.
»He’s my cellmate. He may be able to help us; and don’t drink the water untreated – it’ll kill you!«
Paafnas looked at Fosset attentively, tilting his head slightly.
»It’s nothing personal. He doesn’t have much experience with alien lifeforms,« Maya told Paafnas.
Fosset’s face dropped.
»It talks?«
Maya reacted angrily.
»Pull yourself together, Fosset! Paafnas is a scientist and my friend!«
»Ahem … why are there no guards here?« Fosset stuttered, glancing at Paafnas suspiciously.
»Where are you going to run to, Fosset? Look around you. Out into the dunes?« Maya snapped at him, pointing at the desert. »Try it. You won’t get far with your bag of shitwater.«
»Take this powder and put it into the water bag to decontaminate the water.«
Paafnas gave Fosset another small bag with powder, while he licked his eyeballs again to keep them moi
st. Fosset stared at the sight.
»The dry air and the sand are poison for me,« Paafnas apologized.
»What is this powder? What’s in it?« Fosset wanted to know, but Paafnas ignored his questions.
»We have to hurry and begin our work in the dunes,« Paafnas pushed the man forward. »We need to sift two pounds of crystals out of the sand before evening.«
»That’s doable, ain’t it?« Fosset asked nervously.
»There’re only traces of it in the sand. You won’t find chunks bigger than flakes very often. There’s not much left this close to the fortress. Most of it’s been picked clean. We will be more successful further away from here, despite the risk of being eaten by the sandrunners.«
»Sandrunners?« Fosset asked, fear edging his voice.
»Ten-legged arachnoids with dangerous stingers. They hunt you down to maintain their fluid level. They’re about two meters tall and very fast. They don’t come too close to the fortress though.«
»That doesn’t sound good at all,« Maya opined. »We have to find the others of our group and work out an escape plan. The only way out that I can see is through the portal.«
Paafnas seemed frozen for a moment.
»Knockmerg wasn’t lying when he said that nobody has ever managed to leave this world. All we can do is try to stay alive as long as possible.«
Maya dismissed Paafnas’ remarks with a slicing hand movement.
»We can’t accept that, Paafnas. We need to warn our people at home. This planet and this portal are a threat to our solar system.«
Paafnas trembled briefly.
»Your tachyon aura will have faded away in two or three days. After that you won’t be able to return to your system unless the Lord opens the portal for you.«
Maya decided that wasn’t an option. The mysterious ruler wasn’t about to do that.
The way beings who came through the tachyon portal were either killed or made slaves did not strike Maya as a good prospect for negotiations.
»Who is this mysterious ruler of theirs?« Maya inquired. »Another Treugolan?«
It was hard to read the alien’s face, but Paafnas seemed distinctly more nervous when she asked that.
»We have to go! We will run out of time!« he pushed.
Maya planted her feet and folded her arms. She had no intention of moving. Seeing this, Paafnas said, »No, he isn’t a Treugolan. The ruler of this world is master of the gnomes as well. He lives on top of the volcano. They say that he rarely descends; he doesn’t care about the prisoners. Our fate doesn’t concern him, unless it’s to his advantage to keep us alive.« He paused, then seeming to knot up his courage, added, »I overheard Knockmerg saying that the Lord is very interested in your species. He wants to check you out for himself. Whether that’s good or bad for you, I can’t say. «
Maya remembered Knockmerg’s words.
What does Knockshmock mean by that?
»Sometimes,« Paafnas continued, »our Lord appears at the tachyon portal and leaves the planet for an undisclosed location. He has a small spaceship that he flies through the portal. Nobody has seen him up close. Whenever he uses the portal we’re all herded back into the cells.«
Maya’s lips snarled.
»Don’t call him Lord. He’s not my lord.« Then, »You mentioned an aura. What did you mean?«
Paafnas looked around uncertainly.
»Your entire body, each and every cell, is charged with tachyon energy during transport through the portal. The portal controls can use that signature to calculate where you came from. The technology must have been developed to enable travelers to return quickly to their point of origin. In any emergency they could return instantly. The aura or tachyon signature fades away after a couple of days, though, making a return to the former transmitting portal impossible without outside manipulation.«
»How do you know all this?« Maya asked.
Paafnas slapped his head with his suction cup fingers.
»I’m a neuronal analyzer, remember? I learned all that from another prisoner who was a tachyon technician. The Treugolans killed him a little later.«
Maya let her eyes stray across the dunes.
»Then our course of action is obvious. We have to reach the portal as soon as possible. There’s no other choice. We need to destroy the Neptune portal to break the link to this world!«
Hope
Igor Petrow, the Blue Moon’s first officer and deputy commander, was outraged.
»What do you mean, pull back the Hawks? The words give up or abandonment are not in the mission statement, hear? Tell your pilots to stay put and check out the atmosphere! I’ll take care of the Princess. I’ve issued orders for the Blue Moon to intercept her!«
Major Henderson, the newly appointed Triton Hawks Leader, briefly looked down at his feet.
»Igor, I know how you feel about this. It was a tragic accident, but a rescue mission is not called for. Fosset’s and Maya’s fliers have disappeared into the gas planet. There’s no hope. They didn’t survive it. The Triton Hawks squadron pilots report that they penetrated too deeply into Neptune’s atmosphere. We tracked the crafts’ plasma-signatures – they are dead!«
Petrow clenched his teeth. The thought that Maya Ivanova was supposed to be dead was unacceptable. He broke the comm-link to Triton Base and contacted his Hawks through the satellite relays within Neptune’s shade.
»The Blue Moon will leave orbit around Triton and rendezvous with you shortly. In the event that the Princess leaves her position without my permission, you will shoot her down. No warning! Tell her crew to prepare for a boarding party. They will not leave before I know exactly what happened!«
Petrow interrupted the link before the Blue Moon Hawks’ squad leader could acknowledge his orders. He had transmitted an open and unencrypted message over the standard space traffic radio frequency to make certain they had received it onboard the Princess.
Petrow knew very well that the Hawks would not shoot at the civilian spaceship. There were no legal grounds for it. The threat alone could cause a lot of backlash for Petrow. He could be suspended from his post in the worst case. Like he cared about that right now! He wanted to know what had really happened, and he rejected the thought of abandoning his commander – even if he knew that Maya Ivanova didn’t have a chance in Hell.
The Blue Moon left Triton orbit ten minutes later on a heading toward the Princess.
The crew onboard the Princess had never considered leaving their position. Fosset’s instructions had been clear: Wait for my return!
Belinda Morgan had received Petrow’s radio message to the Hawks and forwarded it to her crew members. The astrophysicist assumed that an interrogation was the least they could expect. Biting her lip, she pondered for a moment if this was the time to open the safe where Fosset stowed his special instructions in the event of his death. She decided against it. She could not convince herself that the mission had failed.
There’s always hope, she thought while she observed the scanner displays, noting the Hawks’ positions.
A serious decision
Maya Ivanova sighed. The air was so hot that she thought she was breathing fire. The temperatures had increased dramatically since the two suns had reached their zeniths. This hadn’t taken long. The planetary rotation had to be considerably less than Earth’s. She estimated more than forty degrees centigrade in the shade – only there was no shade. Paafnas led Maya and Hugh Fosset to a dune that was off the beaten tracks, and had begun sifting the sand hastily. The two humans joined in, sifting the small crystal fragments from the sand, but their laborious method took time and yielded little. Maya had used up over half of her water ration in a short time. The water tasted musty despite the disinfectant. She felt disgusted, but forced herself to swallow the water, or she would never see the end of the day. Her face was sore with blisters from the sun and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Mechanically, as if in a trance, she sifted the sand for crystals, while her mind focused on finding a
way to escape this hellish planet.
Two suns! Where are we? What solar system is this? she thought feverishly. Where are Sati and McCord? How can we get out of this nightmare, away from the Treugolans?
Maya looked around irritated as a dark disk covered the suns for a few moments, lending some precious shade. Judging by Paafnas’ reaction, she realized that it wasn’t a blessing. She squinted into the sky and saw a flying disk, manned by Treugolans who were looking at her from above.
»Knockmerg!« she hissed to Fosset. »He’s observing us!«
Fosset ignored the Treugolan and kept sifting the sand.
»What does he want? Why is he doing that?« he whispered without looking at her.
Maya filled her sifter to the top and began shaking it.
»No idea. Maybe he’s just supervising. Maybe he likes to see us slaving in the heat. The Treugolans, and Knockmerg especially, seem to get their jollies torturing and controlling other beings.«
Moments later, the disk disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived.
»Don’t waste your time talking too much, Maya Ivanova. Evening comes soon and we’ll have to return to the fortress. If we haven’t filled our quota by then, we’ll have a bad time. Trust what I say,« Paafnas wined.
Paafnas was suffering a lot more under the suns than the two Humans. His skin had already turned white, probably a protective metabolic measure to counteract dehydration.
»What is this crystal dust sifting all about, Paafnas?« Maya asked while she constantly scanned the area.
Paafnas had to force himself to answer. He was almost paralyzed with fear.
»The Treugolans collect the dust and deliver it to the Lord’s residence, but I don’t know what it’s used for.«
Maya looked at the crystals inside her bag. They shimmered, reflecting all kinds of colors.
»We’ll never be able to make the quota. We have to make a decision, Fosset.«
Fosset quit his work and lay on his back.
»I know what you mean. We won’t last another two days like this.«
NEBULAR Collection 2 - The Expedition: NEBULAR Episodes 6 - 11 Page 18
